There was a ridiculous turnout for the World Championship of Fantasty Football Main Event at the MGM this weekend.
On Friday night, Versus showed up to film a reality show around the competition, which included a celebrity league. Competing in the celeb league were poker players Dennis Phillips and Daniel Negreanu, Gary Payton, Montell Jordan (who actually seemed to know what he was doing), and Evander Hollyfield, who despite having something like 47 illegitimate kids, couldn’t stop trying to make it 48 by hitting on Taylor Makakoa in the above vid. Seriously, after like the 8th kid, don’t you eventually say to yourself, “Fuck it, ok, it doesn’t feel as good but I’m wearing a condom this time. Or at least sticking to anal…”?
ESPN’s second episode of Inside Deal is up, and it’s getting better already.
This week features poker agent wannabe Dennis Phillips, who talks about his mentoring role with the November NineTM, which apparently includes following them into the bathroom at the Rio on breaks and talking them into deals.
With Oliver Tse closing his agency doors, it looks like someone new is stepping in to fill the void.
We’ve been watching Dennis Phillips from media row hanging with Mike Carroll (remember him) and a few others as they carry on discussions with various players remaining in the Main Event.
Naturally, we were like, “What the fuck are those two doing together?”
Turns out Phillips is trying to broker some Poker Stars deals for players. Phillips has gone as far as following players into the bathroom and approaching them for deals. We even overheard him telling Jordan Smith that he wanted to take a picture with him, then tried to talk him out of a deal with another site and with Stars.
Multiple industry sources have said that he’s not just pushing players to Poker Stars as an advocate of the site, but that he is doing so to get a cut or percentage of the deal.
Listen, we’re all for people making an extra dollar, especially in The EconomyTM, but Phillips was the “regular guy” who wanted to stay “above the fray.” And by befriending and directing these people to only one site, he’s limiting the bargaining power those individuals have with other sites to get a better deal.
Looks like Phillips though is quickly making the transition from “poker ambassador” to “poker agent.” And if that’s the case, will we see “Salty” Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, or Phil Ivey brokering deals at next year’s WSOP?
Probably not.
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Dennis Phillips didn’t win the 2008 WSOP Main Event, but he carries himself as if he did.
Listen, we’re not ripping the guy for stepping up and filling the “poker ambassador” void left gaping open by Peter Eastgate, but he’s practically established himself as the Anna Kournakova of the game: he never won anything big but you’d never know from all the attention he gets. The big difference here, of course, is we weren’t Yahoo! image searching “Dennis Phillips up-skirt Wimbledon” when he was 16 years-old, but whatever.
Phillips and his white-shirt-St.-Louis-Cardinals-cap wearing minions (seen above) just busted right before break, going down in an impressive 45th place ($178,857). While we won’t fall victim to some so-called poker “media” hyperbole that this is one of the best ever WSOP Main Event performances, what he did was impressive as hell, and a final table Phillips run would’ve brought great press to the game.
With Phillips’ elimination, we’ve lost almost all of our “name” pros. Billy Kopp is still the chip leader. Phil Ivey is still fourth. Antonio Esfandiari and Leo Margets still remain.
Has anyone down there seen Dennis Phillips’ chip lead?
Somewhere, difficult to tell in this photo but in the stadium seating behind the final table, there are about 200 white-shirt-wearing, St. Louis Cardinals ball capped Dennis Phillips fans. Outside the Penn & Teller theater, there are probably 100 more.
All are there, of course, were brought there by Dennis Phillips.
So it kind of sucks for him that he’s gone from chip leader to near short-stack, dropping to around 4M in chips.
Phillips lost a monster pot to Ivan Demidov, and has continued to slip. The once vocal Phillips minions (who we spoke with many, all good, friendly people) have gone silent.
That party Phillips promised for all if he won looks highly improbable now.
Phillips in general looks shell-shocked and a little lost. Maybe he’s feeling the pressure of not having to disappoint so many supporters out there.
robertcarroll: Discussion with the @wickedchops guys about my wsop cinnobun bet. 4 full size buns in 25 minutes. /via @JoeUgly I'll go 15 minutes! Easy!
Joseph Reitman: Discussion with the @wickedchops guys about my wsop cinnobun bet. 4 full size buns in 25 minutes. I think I can but the debate continues.
Bill Maendele: @wickedchops Madsen Greenstein Doyle Ivey Annette E-Dog Daniel Raymer Moneymaker, Eric Baldwin, Dario M, Jason M, hellmuth, Brock Jeff L.
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