2009 WSOP: Bodog Pros vs. Team Bodog 'Joes'

by Bodog Poker | Jul 8 2009

The Bodog Poker Room has sent two kinds of players to the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. Some are seasoned professionals who make their living playing poker, and the others are online players who managed to win their seat via an online satellite tournament. It's no secret anymore that there are some online players who can compete at any level against any competition, so let's take a look at how the Bodog Pros are stacking up against the Bodog Joes.

The pros have done well so far with the exception of Evelyn "Evybabee" Ng and David Williams. Ng went out during the second level on her first day after battling a head cold as well as the competition, and was too under the weather to bring her A-game into the Main Event. Williams almost made it through but was eliminated with only a short time remaining in his first day.

The other Team Bodog professionals are doing well and are in decent shape when they play their Day 2's. Jean Robert Bellande had a tough table on his Day 1 but ended up finishing the day with 51950 in chips to take into his Day 2. Bellande saw a lot of action along the way but managed to hit a couple of big hands that kept him in contention with an average-size chip stack.

Justin Bonomo is the Team Bodog professional who's doing the best so far. Bonomo played great on his Day 1 and managed to bag 103,425 chips for his Day 2 on Wednesday. He made most of his chips in the later part of Day 1-c and is poised to make some real noise when he sits down again. Bonomo seems to instill fear in some of his opponents and was handed chips from weak players for most of the day.

The amateur players have represented Bodog very well this week. Many are still alive, and a few have healthy chip counts gong into their Day 2. The biggest chip stack of the qualifiers belongs to David "DARKHELMET13" Lee, who will have a good-size stack of 53050 to play with on Day 2. Ryan 'rjules12' Julius is in good shape with 40700, while Jean-Yves "neophrak" Desmoort finished Day 1b in decent shape at 36375. Not far off that is Robert "rmobley65" Mobley, who has pretty much what he started with at 30775 in chips.

So, in comparison, the pros are probably doing better than the amateurs are at this point, but there's still a lot of poker to be played. A few other amateur players are still alive in the tournament, and they could easily have a big comeback and make an impact on the rest of the event. If you had to pick one player who should go the deepest it's easily Bonomo; his chip stack is well above the average, and his skill and experience are world-class. He'll be the one to watch in the following days, and you can follow his Twitter updates on Bodog's website.