PocketFivers who tuned into the inaugural 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) on ESPN broadcast saw four of their own go toe-to-toe with some of the game’s best. The 2009 festivities, which are sponsored by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, kicked off with 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate unveiling his banner, which hung proudly in the Amazon Room during the 57 bracelet events. Then, a series of 40th anniversary highlights ran, a theme that will pervade this year’s coverage. In the end, Dani ansky451 Stern (pictured at right) finished tops among PocketFivers in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP, earning $548,000 for his fourth place showing.

Jack Link’s logos were everywhere, including the center of the green felts, on video monitors perched high above the ESPN featured table, and in a series of on-screen graphics. The mere mention of the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Pocket Cam ignited chants of “I love jerky” by ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad. Each player’s chip count was given along with the percentage of the total chips in play they owned, a feature that began last year. There were a whopping six 20-somethings at the final table, a surprise given the pricey $40,000 buy-in. 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer (pictured at left) was the final table’s oldest player, coming in at just 44.
PocketFiver Lex RaSZi Veldhuis (pictured at right) had a rowdy cheering section throughout the final table. Showing their support for Veldhuis were Bodog pro Evelyn Ng (his girlfriend), fellow PocketFiver Maridu Mayrinck, and Karina Jett. Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo had a rail that included his mother and stepfather. The young PocketFiver put up 7:1 odds that at least one of 43 poker players who reside in Las Vegas’ Panorama Towers would win a bracelet in 2009, a group that includes Bonomo, tournament runner-up Isaac Haxton, Ng, Velduis, David Williams, Barry barryg1 Greenstein, Joe JoeSebok Sebok, Antonio Esfandiari, and Phil Laak.

The addition of a Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand of the Day was also a noticeable difference from broadcasts of years past. The hand features the audience seeing the hole cards of one player, but a giant Jack Link’s logo obstructing the view of another player’s hand. Chad and fellow host Lon McEachern are not told what the cards are and speculate throughout the hand. It provides a unique opportunity for poker strategy to take center stage.

In the first Wild Card Hand on Tuesday night, Raymer was dealt 7-8 of hearts and raised to 250,000 under the gun. Haxton’s (pictured at left) cards were masked and, after asking for a count, he called to see a flop of 7-7-9. The action went check-check and the turn came a nine. Haxton check-called a 350,000 chip bet from Raymer and the two saw a river nine, putting a full house on the board. Haxton once again check-called a bet from Raymer and turned over A-Q for a chopped pot. After the hand, Chad proclaimed, “That was fun. We’ve found a whole new way for me to sound stupid.”

A 40th Annual WSOP Trivia game constituted the traditional vignette, “The Nuts.” Poker legend Doyle Brunson, David Plastik, and Adam Schoenfeld answered questions from three categories: Famous Firsts, Dynamic Duos, and Main Men. Despite one question asking for the name of Brunson’s dog, Schoenfeld emerged as the champion. The first of two one-hour long episodes ended with Bonomo being eliminated with pocket jacks by Haxton’s pocket aces. The PocketFiver finished in fifth place and earned $413,000.

The second episode featured Chad praising Stern by saying, “He looks like Dani Sten. He plays like Doyle Brunson.” Stern was featured in the second Wild Card Hand, calling a raise by Raymer holding A-9. The flop came A-3-4, causing Chad to quip, “That’s best case scenario for Dani.” Raymer bet out 500,000 and Stern called behind. The turn was another four, pairing the board, and the action went check-check. The river was an eight and Raymer led out for one million. Stern called only to see Raymer flip up 2-5 for the nut straight. A member of the live audience belted out, “Sunscreen, Greg, sunscreen,” leaving the 2004 Main Event Champion to respond, “I don’t know what that means.” Raymer ultimately fell in third place, setting up heads-up play between Lunkin (pictured at right) and Haxton.

My favorite part of the night was Chad yelling, “Take that, you Commies” after Haxton cracked Lunkin’s aces with K-10 to double up. I even wrote the ESPN commentator’s line down so I would remember to include it in this article. After a wild heads-up match in which the short-stack drew out to double-up several times, Lunkin emerged as the champion and pocketed $1.9 million. Here were the final results:

1. Vitaly Lunkin - $1,891,012
2. Isaac Haxton - $1,168,566
3. Greg Raymer - $774,927
4. Dani Stern - $548,315
5. Justin Bonomo - $413,166
6. Alec Torelli - $329,730
7. Lex Veldhuis - $277,940
8. Noah Schwartz - $246,834
9. Ted Forrest - $230,317

Next Tuesday, the WSOP Champions Invitational will take center stage. The two-hour recap kicks off at 8:00pm ET on ESPN.