Calling The Clock: Hellmuth, Hawkins & Hall

Calling The Clock: Hellmuth, Hawkins & Hall

In this week’s calling the clock we learn why the poker community think it’s a bad idea for Tim Ferriss to interview Phil Hellmuth; Maurice Hawkins wins his 8th WSOPC gold ring, and someone gives Tom Hall a million bucks for losing a bit of weight.

 15-years ago Mike Sexton joined a new and untested poker TV show called the World Poker Tour (WPT) as the lead commentator and relinquished any chance of ever becoming a future champion of the very event he was promoting.

Calling The Clock: Hellmuth, Hawkins & HallIt must have been a tough spot for the self-professed degenerate gambler. But time moves on, things change, and Sexton eventually got his opportunity to step out from behind the WWE style commentary booth and take a few shots at the title – and boy did he made it count.

Mike Sexton defeated 648 entrants to take the $317,817 first prize at the WPT Main Event in Montreal. It was a modern day magical moment as he came back from a 10:1 chip deficit to beat Benny Chen in heads-up action.

Sexton wasn’t the only player picking up a WPT title this week. Niall Farrell exchanged wet and windy Scotland for the sunshine of Punta Cana and walked away with the $335,000 first prize after topping a 323 entrant field at WPT Caribbean. Farrell’s victory means he is a World Series of Poker (WSOP) victory away from a Triple Crown.

Record Breakers

There were a few records broken this week.

Maurice Hawkins became the first player to win three World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Events in a single calendar year after winning the $95,921 first prize in his backyard of West Palm Beach.

Hawkins has now won eight gold rings, one behind Alex Masek, and becomes the first player since Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson to earn $1m in WSOPC cashes.

And the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida set an attendance record for a live tournament on the premises. Event #1 $360 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack at the 2016 Rock n Roll Poker Open attracted 5,018 entrants, and Rafael Reis walked away with the $155,642 first prize.

Online Poker News

 Unibet has declared themselves as the ‘fastest growing online poker site’ in the business. The declaration arrived in a press release that landed in my inbox telling me that Unibet Poker 2.0 will open for business on Dec, 1.

To celebrate the upgrade, Unibet is launching their largest-ever promotion called ‘Around the World.’ The Stockholm-listed company is promising €250,000 in prizes including a 28-day around the world travel package for two taking in the Seven Wonders of the World.

PokerStars released dates and venues for the 2017 PokerStars Championships and Festivals. The Kings Casino in Rozvadov continued their ascent as one of the most sought after poker rooms in the world by booking a berth for an upcoming festival.

PokerStars will not be visiting Australia during 2017, and if the Australian parliament doesn’t develop a quick love for online poker they might not be allowing those who live Down Under onto their real money online site. Politicians have submitted a revision to the Interactive Gambling Act of 2011 that if passed will force PokerStars to block Australian users from the site, which is something the CFO said was a real possibility.

In other online poker news, Bet365 and Bwin are joining PokerStars in the newly regulated Bulgarian online poker market, and partypoker added Sam Trickett to their ever growing stable of brand ambassadors.

Tim Ferriss and Tom Hall

Tim Ferriss spends his spare time learning from some of the greatest minds in the world. The result of this perk means he is a smart man with a vast knowledge of a variety of different things.

This week, Ferriss took to Twitter to advise his 1.4m followers that he was interviewing Phil Hellmuth and welcomed possible questions. The poker community must have misunderstood his request because instead of sending questions they sent a series of tweets explaining why he shouldn’t interview the great man. I explain why I think they are all wrong right here.

When Tim Ferriss isn’t interviewing the world’s Titans, he is delving into a series of personal experiments that test him to the absolute limit of human endurance. In other news this week, Tom Hall was paid $1m to lose 23 kgs, and he was allowed to take as much time as he wants.

Time ladies & gentlemen, please.

Someone has just called the clock