Fantasy Poker Freaks: Check Out These Intriguing World Series Match-Ups
They’re Picked by Daniel Negreanu Himself
by Chad Holloway

Daniel Negreanu and his Full Contact Poker site have long been pioneers in the fantasy poker world. This year they decided to do things a little different than their traditional “pick-a-team” format; instead, participants will choose one side of a match-up by deciding who will make more money at this year’s World Series of Poker (the tiebreaker being a guess as to how much money Negreanu will cash for at the 2009 WSOP, excluding the Main Event). The top fifteen players will receive prizes with first-place receiving $1,000 credited to a PokerStars account and a six-month membership to PokerVT.
This year the FCP fantasy pool features 63 different match-ups, most conceived by “Kid Poker” himself. “You’ll notice that a lot of the match-ups are kind of funny or have a little history to them. I came up with most of the match-ups, my favourite being Vanessa Selbst vs. Dario Minieri. Think about that one for a second.”
The following is a list of the match-ups, along with some analysis.

Daniel Negreanu vs. Phil Hellmuth – Close match-up between two of the game’s best, but my bet is on Hellmuth, who will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of his World Championship win.

Joe Hachem vs. Greg Raymer – Raymer excels in the various non-hold’em games, but Hachem has found more success on the poker circuit with a World Poker Tour title. Look for Hachem to win this match.

Scotty Nguyen vs. Erick Lindgren – The “Prince or Poker” wants to win $4 million at this year’s Series, which most people claim is unrealistic. Look for the 2008 Player of the Year, Lindgren, to continue his success.

Jamie Gold vs. Chris Moneymaker – Two former champs who have not found much success since their big wins. Go for the Gold since he will likely play more events.

Phil Ivey vs. Allen Cunningham – Ivey has been slacking while Cunningham has been consistent; however, look for an extremely motivated Ivey to win this match.

John Juanda vs. Erik Seidel – Last year Juanda won his fourth bracelet at the WSOP Europe main event while Seidel won a WPT title. This match will be close with Juanda barely edging Seidel.

Chris Ferguson vs. Barry Greenstein – Both players will play a large number of events; however, Greenstein will likely be drawn to some cash games as well. For that reason, Ferguson ought to find more tournament success.

Gus Hansen vs. Doyle Brunson – Both players will be involved in the cash-game action, but Doyle has revealed in his blog that he is hungry for a bracelet. Look for the old-timer to show he still has it.

Mike Matusow vs. Ted Forrest – Two of the most successful players in the WSOP, Forrest’s mixed-game abilities will give him the better chance of winning more.

Freddie Bonyadi vs. Freddie Deeb – The world got to see Deeb when he took down the 2007 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. What they haven’t seen are the impressive abilities of Bonyadi. This’ll be a close match, but Bonyadi will tough it out.

Joe Sebok vs. Gavin Smith – Smith just had a big online win and will be entering the Series with boosted confidence, which will likely be enough to give him this match.

Ali Nejad vs. Mike Sexton – This is a battle between TV commentators, with the more experienced Sexton winning hands-down.

Phil Laak vs. Antonio Esfandiari – Although Esfandiari has had more tournament success up to this point; it wouldn’t be surprising to see Laak put his buddy to shame. What does Johnny Lodden think?

Jennifer Tilly vs. Evelyn Ng – Ng has been quiet as of late, while Tilly has shown tremendous improvement in the past year and will likely play more events. Look for the Academy Award winner to make some deep cashes.

Michael Mizrachi vs. David Williams – Where has the “Grinder” been? He hasn’t been heard from much lately, so if Williams bring his “A” game he will take this match.

Ivan Demidov vs. Peter Eastgate – A rematch between last year’s Main Event final two, this could go either way. Demidov was favoured last year, but Eastgate pulled the upset. This year Eastgate is the favoured one and Demidov will pull the upset.

Isaac Baron vs. Isaac Haxton – This will be online star Baron’s first year in the WSOP and the poker community is pretty excited. Look for him to make himself known to the rest of the world.

Todd Brunson vs. Hoyt Corkins – Two Doylesroom pros going head-to-head. Corkins has the edge in hold’em while Brunson does in the mixed-game events. However, Brunson will be pulled away by cash games and that’ll give Corkins the better chance.

Kathy Liebert vs. Andy Bloch – Both are very solid, consistent players. Flipping a coin may be the best choice in choosing between these two.

Vivek Rajkumar vs. Ram Vaswani – Rajkumar has taken the poker world by storm this past year. The WSOPs is the next logical step for him.

Huck Seed vs. Layne Flack – Flack won a bracelet last year while Seed is coming off his NBC Heads-Up win. Look for the player with the most recent success to win this match.

David “Chino” Rheem vs. Eli Elezra – Hard to go against Elezra, but side games will certainly garner some of his attention. Plus, “Chino” introduced himself to the poker world in a big way last year and looks to continue his success.

Annie Duke vs. Anna Wroblewski – The Celebrity Apprentice runner-up will continue her 2009 success in the non-hold’em events.

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan vs. Patrik Antonius – Antonius is ahead in the “Durrrr Challenge,” no reason he won’t continue to roll in this match.

David Benyamine vs. Chau Giang – A battle between Big Game regulars, Giang will play more events and once again have another impressive set of cashes.

Jennifer Harman vs. Liz Lieu – Harman is the more versatile of the two, a fact that’ll earn her more money throughout the series.

Sam Grizzle vs. Eskimo Clark – Who will get staked in more events? Whoever does will likely earn the most.

Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Allen Cunningham and John Juanda vs. Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Huck Seed, and Erik Seidel – There are more bracelets with the older crew, a fact that doesn’t always translate into more money; however, in this case it probably will.

Lacey Jones, Tiffany Michelle, and Maria Ho vs. Jeff Madsen – Madsen will take the girls down. Hopefully he’ll treat them to a nice dinner afterward.

Adam Junglen vs. Jason Somerville – Both will be playing in their first Series and are primed to make a good run. Somerville made a deep run at the EPT Grand Final, and for that reason alone gets the edge here.

David Ulliott vs. Bruno Fitoussi – The Devilfish will devour the eccentric Frenchman in this European match-up.

Nam Le, Tuan Le, J.C. Tran and John Phan vs. Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Thor Hansen and Chris Bjorin – Team Vietnam against Team Scandinavia. Since you can’t be Team Switzerland and remain neutral, go with the relentless Team Vietnam for the win.

David Ulliott, Roland de Wolfe and Surindar Sunar vs. Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, and Alan Smurfit – England vs. Ireland? This is really a toss-up, but the English roster will make a bang at the Series this year after a couple off years.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier vs. Ilari “Zigmund” Sahamies and Jean-Robert Bellande – ElkY is on such a sick run that betting against him, even against two other top pros, would be foolhardy.

Lee Markholt vs. Lee Watkinson – Like actors Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton, these two players can be hard to distinguish. Markholt is the former bull rider while Watkinson final-tabled the Main Event in 2007. Look for Lee to win this match!

Phil Galfond vs. Adam Levy – A great match-up between two online pros – look for “OMGClayAiken” (Galfond) to follow-up last year’s bracelet with another impressive outing.

Vanessa Selbst vs. Dario Minieri – As Negreanu says, “This one is being dubbed ‘the battle of the sexes’ and I’m going to put my money on the guys team. K, that means Dario.”

Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Bertrand Grospellier, William Thorson, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Hevad Khan, Johnny Lodden, Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate vs. Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Allen Cunningham, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow and Patrik Antonius – Team PokerStars vs. Team Full Tilt is truly a match-up between the titans of the poker world. The Full Tilt roster has remained mostly the same over the years while PokerStars has recently added some big-name pros. Look for the newly created PokerStars roster to kick ass and take names at this year’s WSOP.


For more on these match-ups as well as the rest, check out the homepage at fullcontactpoker.com. Don’t forget to check back at the end of the WSOP to view the final results and see who will be named 2009 Fantasy Poker Champion!