07 26th, 2010
“Now that I’m a part of the November Nine, I feel it’s my great opportunity,” he said. “I’m the first Italian that has even made the final table of the WSOP Main Event. It’s amazing.”
The 26-year-old of Cagliari, Sardinia, has already secured $811,823 but in November he will try to parlay his 16 million chips into $8.9 million.
In many ways Candio is the biggest darkhorse at the final table. Despite some success on the Italian Poker Tour, Candio has had very little experience playing poker in North America and there isn’t much information on his game.
Candio studied Greek and Latin in school and had plans to study law, just like his father who is a well-known lawyer in Sardinia.
Instead Candio decided to pursue the dream of poker and developed into a solid cash game player. Before making the final table of the Main Event, Candio played middle-stakes including 2/5, 5/10 and occasionally 10/20.
“Even though I’m a cash game player my dream was to make the final table of the WSOP Main Event,” he said.
A close friend of established Italian pro Max Pescatori, Candio actually met the “Italian Pirate” by knocking him out of a tournament Candio went on to win in San Remo for €140,000.
“At the time players were saying he made a bad play against me,” said Pescatori. “He’s just an aggressive player though. I defended his play.”
Candio had the dubious distinction of being on the winning side of the one of the biggest suckouts of the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
In the hand Candio cracked Joseph Cheong’s pocket aces with a paltry 7-5 in a bad beat that will almost certainly be shown on ESPN.
Candio mentioned he was going to have to elevate his game if he wants beat players like Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Joseph Cheong and Jonathan Duhamel.
“I want to study a lot for this final table,” he said. “I’m going to find a coach. I worked hard to get here.”
Although Italy has a strong stable of well-known pros, which includes Team members Dario Minieri, Luca Pagano and Pescatori, Candio has the chance to become the Italian Chris Moneymaker and he’s well aware of the fact.
“I want to [promote] poker in Italy,” he said. “Poker is a great thing. When you study and you work hard, you’ll make a score.”
Whatever happens, it’s obvious Candio is enjoying every minute of making the 2010 November Nine.
“It’s an incredible situation and I love it.”
The 2010 Main Event final table begins Nov. 6, with a winner crowned on Nov. 8.
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Poker and politics have been strange bedfellows during the middle of 2010. Earlier this week, stepped in front of a Congressional committee to testify about the benefits of regulation and licensing of the online gaming industry. Now, ’s has joined forces with the (PPA) at an important conference regarding internet freedom.
Late last week, Bloch was a featured panelist during the Netroots Nation 2010 Conference, which is currently being held in Las Vegas. The conference is a chance for people to gather and discuss current internet freedom issues that face the country. Bloch said in his opening statement, “Basically, if it is illegal to do in the real world, it should be illegal to do online. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case when it comes to gambling.” He then went on to point out the problems with the current state of the online gaming and the approach by the Federal Government.
“Gambling is legal, in some form or another, in 48 of the 50 states,” Bloch stated. “I’m a professional poker player and poker is legal in approximately 40 of the 50 states.” He then continued to point out how both the Federal and state governments – and their approach to the online gaming conundrum – are incorrect, saying, “Unfortunately, the Federal Government and some state governments have singled out gambling, and online gambling, for attack.”
Because the conference is focused on individual liberties, Bloch asked the question, “If you’re not a poker player, or an online poker player, why should you care about the issue?” His presentation was based on three basic issues: “First, it is an issue of basic freedom. If online poker is illegal while other forms of gambling are legal, why can’t the government decide what else shouldn’t be made illegal online? Second, the attempts by the government to block online gambling have implications and side effects on the internet as a whole. Third, if you are interested in internet freedom, you can learn a lot from poker’s abilities to organize and defend their basic rights.”
Bloch’s testimony on the panel included a story regarding playing an inexpensive online sit and go with a player who told him about how he could not travel because of a sight disability, but still wanted to partake in poker. They discussed another player they both knew, who was deaf, and how good it was to have something like online gaming to bring them together. As he concluded the story, Bloch made his most poignant statement: “Interactions like these are why protecting internet freedom is important, even when it is a freedom you might not take advantage of yourself or even understand.”
After the symposium concluded, Bloch issued a press release through the PPA where he reiterated many of the thoughts he spoke about during the seminar. “Americans enjoy the game of poker no matter their political stripes and can watch games on countless television channels,” Bloch said. “We need to make sure that both politicians and activists are aware of the ridiculous attempts to prohibit online poker. They are forgoing billions in tax revenue when our budgets are most in need, rejecting the opportunity to properly regulate online poker and ignoring their responsibility to protect children and other vulnerable members of our society.”
The PPA is a premier sponsor of Netroots Nation 2010 and has been advocating for the rights of poker players since prior to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act () in 2006. Numbering over one million members, the PPA and its leadership – Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, Executive Director John Pappas, and its State Directors – have been influential in lobbying Congress and stepping in to protect the rights of individual players who play poker.
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07 22nd, 2010
is the chip leader for the 2010 November Nine. The Quebec native entered Day 7 in 17th out of 27 places but was able to take a hot run on Day 8 to take a massive chip lead in the world’s biggest poker tournament. Previously in this , Duhamel took 15th in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament and made $37,000. His stack when play was suspended at the final table is at 65.98 million in chips.
In this interview moments after making the November Nine, Duhamel talks about the events that occurred between the last time we talked to him when play was down to 15 players. One of the focal points of the interview was what many people were calling the biggest hand of the Main Event between him and . On a board of T-9-7-Q, Affleck shoved all-in for his life and was called by Duhamel who had J-J and spiked an 8 on the river for the straight and the chip lead. Affleck was eliminated which came as a shock to many of the remaining players in the tournament.
Duhamel is the youngest player left in the field of nine players but has been playing online for a living for the last year and a half. He finished in 10th place in the EPT Prague event for his previous best live cash but says that he’s more of a cash game player than a tournament player. He has demonstrated that he’s not going to sit back and let his big chip stack coast him to a big cash, but that he will play his game and aggression to win it all.
He also cashed this year at the 2010 Caribbean Adventure Main Event for $17,000 and qualified into the Main Event through PokerStars.
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07 20th, 2010
The only problem is that he has to wait until November for it all to play out.
The 22-year-old poker pro from Boucherville, Quebec, played a strong game over eight days of the Main Event and had all the momentum going for him after abusing a grueling six-hour final table bubble on Saturday.
07 19th, 2010
Holding the shortest stack entering the final table of the 2010 () Main Event is . A popular instructor at Bluefire Poker, Senti has a stack of just 7.63 million, one-ninth of ’s November Nine-leading 65.98 million.
Making the was anything but a cinch for Senti, however. With 78 players remaining, Senti sat on just the 69th largest stack and faced a long uphill climb throughout Day 7. He told Poker News Daily in a video interview shortly after the final 27 were determined, “I’m feeling great. I ran amazing today. Things couldn’t have gone better. I walked into today with 970,000 and had like 20 big blinds and somehow I walked out with 13.5 million. I ran great and everything is going my way right now.”
Senti can be found perusing the online poker felts under the name “.” He’s largely a Heads-Up and Short-Handed expert, meaning as the WSOP Main Event final table continues to be truncated, Senti will feel more in his element. He gave us the inside scoop on his expertise: “The stakes have varied a lot over the years. For the most part, the ranges have been between $5/$10 and $50/$100 PLO and No Limit Hold’em Six-Max and Heads-Up.”
Senti became involved in poker in a way unlike many other of today’s pros did. Rather than be turned onto the game through “Rounders,” the , or ’s defeat of seven years ago, Senti’s arrival came as a result of a move to Minnesota. Bored in the evenings and not knowing many people in his new hometown, Senti turned to online poker. What happened next? “I ran really hot in the beginning, like everybody who goes pro does, and went from there.”
Down the stretch, Senti gave a much-needed double up to fuel his 10th place run. After Steven 3bet all-in with A-K of clubs, Senti reluctantly made the call and turned over K-10 offsuit. After the board ran out Q-5-8-A, Senti was rooting for a jack on the river to send Steven home and build his stack immensely. Instead of finding a hook, a six hit, doubling Steven to 5.64 million.
Interestingly, Senti delivered no knockout blows as the field dwindled from 27 players to nine, instead choosing to play mostly post-flop poker and use his short-handed and heads-up expertise to his advantage. However, on Day 7, Senti bumped Michael Skender in 31st place after coming out on the winning end of a race all-in pre-flop with a wired pair of nines. Skender held K-Q of diamonds and promptly flopped a lady to take a commanding lead in the hand. However, Senti hit lightning in a bottle on the river, when one of his two outs came through. Skender picked up $255,000.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Senti breaks out into song if he wins the 2010 WSOP Main Event, as he’s a singer for the band Minneapolis. He’ll need his tunes to survive the grueling 100-day break before the tournament resumes in November. On Twitter, “PBJaxx” detailed what his life had been like following his November Nine birth: “Just did like 20 interviews in 2 hours. I had no idea it was coming. All of it on 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours or so. This is crazy.” He then detailed that his sleeping woes were persisting, but he was leaving Las Vegas, for four months at least.
According to PokerTableRatings, Senti has been absent from the virtual felts since July 10th and could be seen in $3/$6 and $5/$10 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-Up and Six-Max games prior to that.
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07 19th, 2010
after taking a big race a losing Bill never really got back in to the game.
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07 19th, 2010
Jamie and the rail birds wooping and shouting with every card that comes.
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07 19th, 2010
With Jamie Burland now mostly just talking to the rail leaving Seber and Cibak to fight it out.
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07 18th, 2010
More Chips going to Tomas.
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07 18th, 2010
Seber and Tomas doing Battle with Jamie Burland watching in the wings.
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