It’s that time of year again.
Only scant weeks away, the 2009 World Series of Poker is ready to begin its arduous seven week trek into mid-July. Top professionals and aspiring amateurs are set to descend upon the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino to vie for one (or more) of the fifty five bracelets that will be handed out. Of course, the most prestigious award will be the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event bracelet, which will once again be determined by the “November Nine.”
Who will have the best chance to take one of these coveted pieces of jewelry, however? A look back at the past year to eighteen months gives us several contenders to keep an eye on as the “Battle For The Bracelets” plays out in June and July.
1) Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – Over the past eighteen months, few would argue that the most successful player in the game would be the genial Frenchman. Since January 2008, “ElkY” has taken the poker world by storm, winning a European Poker Tour event (the PCA in January 2008), an EPT High Roller Tournament (this January at the PCA), a World Poker Tour championship (the Festa al Lago in October), a final table finish at the WPT Championship in April, the 2009 WPT Player of the Year award and a semi-final finish in the 2009 National Heads Up Poker Championship. The only thing missing from his resume is that ever-elusive WSOP bracelet.
Grospellier has had some success at the WSOP. In 2007, he finished ninth in a $2500 buy in No Limit event that was won by Francois Safieddine and last year he was able to cash in the Championship Event with his 370th place finish. While he may not need the bankroll boost that a WSOP title would bring (his lifetime earnings are over $5 million in live action alone), the bracelet that would come with the championship would seal him as one of the future ambassadors of the game.
2) Vanessa Rousso – If Grospellier has been on a tear over the past eighteen months, Rousso has almost been as hot over the past six months or so. In January Rousso barely missed the final table of the WPT stop in Biloxi, MS with her seventh place finish and continued to build momentum from thereon. March saw “Lady Maverick” battle her way through some of the biggest names in the game to finish as the runner-up to Huck Seed at the National Heads Up Poker Championships and, in April, Vanessa captured the EPT High Roller Tournament held during the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. In 2009 alone, she has banked over $1.25 million.
Rousso has never made a final table at the WSOP, although she does have a career-best eighth place finish in a shorthanded No Limit event in 2006. From her play over the last six months, it seems all is coming together for Vanessa and she has an excellent shot to capture a bracelet.
3) Phil Ivey – The perennial choice of ESPN’s Norm Chad to capture any event that he is playing in, Ivey has been on a bit of a downturn at the World Series in recent years. He captured his fifth bracelet in 2005 and was seemingly on track to bypass many legends of the game in the bracelet count. Since that time, however, the elusive sixth bracelet has been out of the grasp of Ivey and some of the newer talent in the game has seemingly rushed by him.
Phil has been concentrating on the H.O.R.S.E. events lately, with a sixth place finish at the WSOP Europe H.O.R.S.E. event and a twelfth place finish at the $50K H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the WSOP last year. This doesn’t mean, though, that he is leaving the NL ranks; the last two WPT events of this year have seen Ivey finish deep in the tournaments with 21st and 34th place finishes. With the multitude of $10K World Championship events – as well as the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em and $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournaments – on the schedule, it is tough to count Ivey out of contention in any of them with his bankroll. If he can pull himself away from the lucrative cash games and give a few days to one of these tournaments, he could be wearing that sixth bracelet.
4) Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen – These two players have been at the forefront of the crackdown on player behavior at the 2009 World Series. Hellmuth, with his berating of players during his deep run in the Championship Event, and Nguyen, who was less than gentlemanly during his drive to the $50K H.O.R.S.E. title last year, pushed a new conduct policy into effect and it should be interesting to see if it will have an effect on either player or on some of their peers.
Phil has stated that he is changing his attitude towards opponents yet again. If you have seen him during the broadcasts of the 2009 National Heads Up Poker Championship, it seems that he has dedicated himself to that plan. One thing that can’t be questioned is his desire to put some distance between him, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. With a twelfth bracelet victory, Hellmuth can get that breathing room and, if it is in a non-Hold’em tournament, would be the first time Hellmuth has won such a tournament.
Nguyen, who has repeatedly apologized for his antics during the H.O.R.S.E. event last year, is still one of the most dangerous players in the poker world, regardless of the game. A repeat championship in the $50K H.O.R.S.E. tournament would be a significant feather in the cap of the former World Champion.
