What’s happening at the WSOP while waiting for the arrival of Phil Hellmuth and the UB Army at 2pm:

A little over half of the 1,928 that started play on Day 1c get to return on Wednesday to meet those who remained after five playing five levels on Sunday. Henning Granstad appears to be leader with about 228,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: David “Bakes” Baker, David Singer, Brad Booth, Evelyn Ng, Brian Townsend, Nenad Medic, and Jeff Madsen.

Today’s the final day for people to sign up for the Main Event, as registration closes at the end of Level 2, or at 2,700 entrants (whichever comes first). Over 2,000 have already signed up, and today’s attendance looks to be the highest for a Main Event in history (2,299 on day 1d in 2006 is the current record). At the moment, first place looks to take down about $9,000,000 when November rolls around, and about $850,000 would be given to each of the “November Nine”.

12:25 Update: Pauly is reporting almost 2,500 entered for today, pushing the total over 6,800 (2nd most in Main Event history). First place will pay over $9,600,000.

More updates during the day…

Pauly and I step into the Poker Kitchen to discuss Ante Up for Africa — essentially the We Are the World of poker tournaments — and in doing so chew on the difference between ’80s famine and Darfur genocide, life outside the WSOP bubble, the mindset of pros playing for a good cause with a tournament underlay, and a lack of charity signage in what’s supposed to be a charity WSOP VIP lounge.

Episode 21: Poker for Africa(feat. Otis)

About an hour ago, Tom Grunheid left the building. After a valiant effort and making it through the better part of the day, he moved his short stack and lost.

Evidently, Tom had a good time at his first WSOP event, and as he remains in town for the next few days, he plans to take down a smaller tournament (or two) at some other Vegas casinos. Best of luck!

It might seem at first glance that Full Tilt and PokerStars fought it out - in the monetary offerings sense - to get Scotty Nguyen to sign some sort of deal. Full Tilt got him for the $50K HORSE final table, and PokerStars got him for the rest of the WSOP, at the very minimum.

An inside source says that Full Tilt reportedly dropped him just after the HORSE win because of his sometimes rude (for lack of a better word) behavior during the final table. Because of the way he acted for a good portion of the play-down, Full Tilt decided they didn’t want him on the team. Soon after, PokerStars picked him up.

However, another source had a bit of an alternate take on it. This version of the story noted that PokerStars had a deal brewing with Scotty for the HORSE final table but dropped the ball and allowed Full Tilt to come in. Since the Full Tilt deal was a one-time table sponsorship, PokerStars was able to get back in with Scotty after HORSE.

It boils down to the fact that the online poker sponsorship business is a cut-throat industry. And it’s only going to get more interesting as the main event final table approaches…

Today’s attendance at day 1c of the Main Event was a vast improvement over the past two days, as 1,928 laid their money down to participate in the Main Event. Rumors are circulating that Sunday will have a complete sellout of 2,700 which would take them near the 7,000 figure that seemed improbable on Thursday. Among those whose dream is already over, such notables as: Huck Seed, Larry Flynt, Sean Buchanan, Gavin Griffin, Mimi Tran, Justin Bonomo, David Chiu, Bart Hanson, and Marco Traniello.

The leader at the dinner break appears to be Michael Martin, who is just under 100,000 in chips. More familiar names near the top: Jeff Madsen, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, TJ Cloutier, and the lovely and talented Liz Lieu, Clonie Gowen, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, and Isabelle Mercier. More updates can be found at the WSOP update site here.

The returning horde of about 1,500 will return shortly to play two more two-hour levels, with those survivors returning to play on Wednesday, July 9.

More updates during the evening…

Drove up to my secret shaded, multi-convenient parking spot today … and I noticed something burning:

Hmm, Jen said it was hot out here, and we know flammables blow up in the heat. But the funny part was the one Rio junior suit running over with a single fire extinguisher to put it out. Nice read, dude. Naturally, of course, the fire department would eventually be called and successfully put out the blaze before it turned the 2008 WSOP into a major newsworthy disaster:

Our horse of the day has about 14,500 chips. He looks very focussed — so much so that he seemed a little put off by some unprofessional media guy who went up to him in the middle of play and said, “Hi Tom, I’m Dan.”

That’s our (Day 1C) guy!

UPDATE: He was down to about 12,000 chips when I first checked on him, but now, at 150/300 blinds, he’s got about 28k in chips.

The Planters nut-mobile has been parked near the convention center entrance at the Rio since Day 1A. I tried to keep from taking a picture of it, but I gave in to the temptation. It’s a yellow nut car, only slightly less embarrassing than the Oscar Meyer wiener-mobile, which is nowhere near the Rio by the way. (But wouldn’t it be great if Oscar Meyer wieners sponsored the WSOP? Oh, so many jokes…)

I’m sure the nut-mobile is energy-efficient. And who wouldn’t want to drive a big nut down the freeway? I wonder if Mr. Peanut actually drives it. He’s been wandering the Rio hallways, so I may try to ask him. “Excuse me, Mr. Peanut, do you drive the nut-mobile?” I hope he would give a funny answer; he’s such a nut.

During this year’s WSOP main event, there haven’t been too many interesting or ridiculous costumes, and those that have appeared have been ho-hum. But today, coincidentally located just in front of the press box in the Amazon Room, the following scene occurred just after the cards got in the air.

The fanboy is Garry Gates, director of tournament reporting for PokerNews, and the object of his affection is obviously Evelyn Ng. It all started with a Guitar Hero bet, which technically consisted of two bets. The bigger bet was $1000 to the charity of the winner’s choice, and the side bet involved Ng wearing a PokerNews patch on her shirt during the main event if she lost and Gates being Ng’s fanboy - in full costume - for one hour of the main event.

Gates lost the Guitar Hero challenge, all of the three games, though he claimed the third one was close (he scored 99% and Ng scored 100%). Since PokerNews sponsored Gates in the event, they paid $1K to a Canadian hospital for sick children. And Gates proceeded to the costume store to get the outfit. He then showed up here to feed grapes to her and fan her during the first half hour of Day 1C of the main event, though the fanning had to stop when WSOP tournament director Jack Effel decided it was too distracting to other players. Ng then graciously stopped the fanboy activities after that period of time so Gates could get back to work.

Pokerati reader Tom Grunheid won his seat to the 2008 WSOP main event and is representing a group of 28 friends here today.

He was here about 20 minutes early when the doors first opened with his carry-cooler full of snacks and other necessities. Included in there was his massive visor that earned him the nickname “SuperVisor.” He has yet to don the visor at the table, but he might just be waiting for the right moment.

After the first hand, Tom still had a full stack. Way to go! No big names at his table, which is probably the most desirable way to start his first WSOP event ever. We’re sitting behind our computers rooting for you, Tom!

You can follow along as he texts his updates to CSR throughout the day.

I meet up with Pauly in the Amazon Room, observing the end of Day 1A, where we speculate on on the over/under for the overall main event field size and the price of my watch. Otis then jumps in with tales of being forcibly removed from the tournament area by a mocking floorman amid fears of over-soiled chips and accusations of semi-murder at the tables.

Episode 20: Surviving Day 1A (feat. Otis)

The smallest opening day field (1,158) since the WSOP was first held at the Rio in 2005 started play shortly after noon yesterday. The attendance for days 1c and 1d look to be much more encouraging, with at least 3,000 expected to play over the next two days. They’re going to need another 800 to sign up over the next couple of days to match last year’s total, and it looks to be a close call if that actually happens.

The 636 who made it through day 1a are now combined with the 615 who made it through the end of play earlier this morning to play July 8th at 12 noon. Ben Sarnoff is the day 1b leader with 177,500 in chips. Notable names near the top of the leaderboard: Robert Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Marc Karam, Thor Hansen, Hal Lubarsky, Hoyt Corkins, Patrik Antonius, John Duthie, and Victoria Cohen. You can see the other chip counts at the WSOP site here (or wait until later for some sort of list by seat assigment/alphabetical order).

Another 1,700+ souls descend on the Rio today to start their chance at WSOP glory shortly after 12, who knows what musical act/attraction will greet the nonplussed group.

More updates during the day…

Perhaps inspired by the amount of money police forces take in from poker raids, police in Port Arthur, Texas, raided an internet cafe that was allowing patrons to gamble online — the first bust of its kind in our nation’s history. In a way this would be awesome if it forced the UIGEA into court — but we know the routine … plea down to an irrelevant if not disappearable criminal charge … shut down the operation and make the purveyors sign over any confiscated cash.

All I can say is wow. Can’t believe I didn’t think of opening such a joint I guess you can’t really have multiaccounting problems with online slots Wonder if federal authorities realize the UIGEA caused this, and if Texas officials see the clear citizen demand to expand gambling options in the Lone Star State. Interestingly enough, police say the problem wasn’t internet gambling per se — they don’t have much problem with it done in private — but with the public nature of a business set up to help senior citizens circumvent the banking nuisances created by the UIGEA.

Tomatoes/Tomahtoes, really … because you can arguably say police simply saw it as an opportunity to claim moral righteousness while adding to its asset forfeiture stacks.

From the LVRJ (via HoldemRadio):

“Let me get back to you on it,” he said. “I haven’t thought about the issue.”

He did say he had concerns about Internet gaming originating in foreign countries. Of course, this happens because of U.S. policy and restrictions, but never mind.

McCain also spoke about oversight and making sure the kiddies don’t have access.

“I’ll call you back,” he added.

Poker pros, poker media, WSOP execs, agents, and interns convened a couple days ago at the Sapphire Club for the Bluff Magazine party — a delightfully rancorous fête celebrating the end of regular WSOP season and kicking off the main event playoffs … and of course, Tao of Pokerati was there. In this episode, Pauly gets a lapdance, I miss my days in the strip-club biz, and Otis tries to arrange a $1,000 beer pong game with Doyle Brunson. All in all, the poker field trip to the industry’s favorite Vegas titty bar leads to lower-midstakes ballin’ at its most pathetic finest.

Episode 19: Topless Beer Pong (feat. Otis)

The 4th of July holiday certainly put a damper on the size of day 1b, as a disappointing 1,158 showed up to play at noon today. Pauly notes that some country music singer did the Star Spangled Banner and some sort of flag ceremony was attempted that didn’t go as planned. The players are currently on their dinner break, with about 850 remaining. Among those whose dream is over: Kenny Tran, Ram Vaswani, Orel Hershiser, Jamie Gold, Greg Raymer, Tuan Le, Ted Forrest, Daniel Negreanu, among many others. The early chip leader appears to be Patrik Antonius, with Robert Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Vanessa Rousso, and 2007 ME final tablist Philip Hilm near the top of the leaderboard. Follow the progress when they return on the WSOP.com website here.

More updates as they warrant…

One site that didn’t even make it as a write-in contender, but I clearly have been enjoying since recently discovering it: Melted Felt.

Basically The Onion of Poker. Some recent hedlines:

Iran Introduces Hanging for Slowrollers
PPA Upbeat on Donations as HR 5767 Defeated
WSOP Chaos as Gus Hansen’s Ears Run Amok!

There’re certain truths to their fake poker news that makes the limeys behind Melted Felt, imho, worth the RSS-subscribe.

We’ve got a new poll up on the right — go ahead and start your ballot-stuffing as we try speculate wildly on who is most likely to win the WSOP main event. Should be fun, albeit different than our last one, which was actually useful.

For the past week we’ve been unscientifically asking Pokerati readers which site — other than Pokerati, of course — was most essential to their understanding of the summertime poker fun that gives them so much jolly. You can see the complete results here. Nearly 200 of you went through the effort of actually clicking an extra button, and to that extent, amongst the geekiest most intelligent of poker geeks, the sites that matter most, in order of their finish:

Tao of Poker
Pauly’s whole purpose in life is to make me look bad, and hey, it seems to be a worthy pursuit. He wins this poll by a landslide.

Hold’em Radio
I’m scratching my head, too, as I haven’t really seen the folks based at Binion’s paying much attention to the WSOP, but hey, they apparently know how to motivate a portion of the “pirate” web community to outvote PokerRoad, so we’ll give them the props.

PokerNews
They paid a hefty price for the privilege of hiring bloggers to slave away write up hands and keep official chip counts, and it’s clearly worth something to people who care about big-tourney action.

More…

It’s still a little too early to say, obviously. But right now it’s a guy named Mark Garner. Brandon Adams is close behind. They get to play with the comfort of knowing that essentially, theoretically, they could not play another hand and make the money. I say that loosely because we all know how blinds and antes work … and neither of them have quite what will be an average stack when we do burst the money bubble. But in general, finishing Day 1 with nearly 10x your starting stack is a pretty good place to be.

Other players of note making it through to Day 2 include:

Click below to see the complete list (the same as the one in the previous post) sorted by stack size:

More…

A lot of people. 636 out of 1,297 to be exact. Did your poker beloved cut the WSOP Day 1 main event mustard? Click below to see an alphabetized list of everyone so far moving on — with their chip count and seat assignment going into Day 2:

More…

Erick Lindgren

When Event 53 came to an end with Matt Graham capturing the $1500 LHE Shootout bracelet on the morning of Thursday, July 3, the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race ended, as the main event doesn’t count for points. And out in front of the POY leader board was Erick Lindgren. He was ten points ahead of Barry Greenstein, and E-Dog’s five cashes (one of which was a bracelet) and $1,348,528 in winnings this summer added up to the win.

It was announced yesterday that Lindgren officially captured the title. Congratulations!

The entire list of players in contention for the 2008 WSOP POY race can be found here.

Yesterday afternoon, 1,197 people started with $10,000 and a dream, to win the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. By the time play ended after 1am this morning, only 643 get to return on July 8th for day 2a. Mark Garner was the day 1a chip leader with 194,900. Other notable names near the top: Brandon Adams, Kido Pham, Chau Giang, Tim West, Darren “Gigabet” Dicken, Hasan Habib and Ray Romano. You can find chip counts of all the survivors of day 1a here.

The talk among those in the poker media appears to be Harrah’s concern on the number of entrants who’ve registered so far for the Main Event. They may have finally crawled over the 5,000 figure this morning, but with talk of day 1d being “sold out”, and the “green box conspiracy”, it may be doubtful that they reach last year’s 6,358 figure. Today’s figure will be interesting because of the 4th of July holiday if they can match the 1,545 that played on day 1b last year. If not, expect the discussion will begin anew on whether the final table delay played a part in the decrease, and what measures that Caesars’ will undertake for the 2009 Series (ie. raising the buyin, moving it overseas, etc.).

One thing for certain, I think the players won’t be tortured with the vocal stylings of Wayne Newton with the UNLV marching band. Expect other Harrah’s properties entertainers to kick off the festivities for the other day 1’s.

12:10pm UPDATE: Pauly reports that as of 11:00am, just over 1,100 signed up for day 1b.

More updates during the day, stay tuned…

I’m seriously trying to stop it. In truth, I wouldn’t call it stalking… But every time I see the hot talented actor/producer/director in a field of poker players at a tournament, I just can’t help myself. But it is true that I haven’t exactly covered Ray Romano or Jason Alexander the same way… I suppose I might have a bias toward Mekhi.

When I saw Mr. Phifer at the Ante Up for Africa tournament yesterday and proceeded to take his picture, he had a certain look about him, one that said, Seriously? You again? or A call to Security might be in order here. So, when I was told that he was in the field today, I got control of myself and decided that I should leave him alone for the day. I already know he will be at a party I’m attending on Monday night, so I shouldn’t overdo it.

But lo and behold, he is sitting close to media row. Argh! Self-control is hard! But when I was made aware that he was doing quite well, I looked from afar and asked Dan to take a picture of his chip stack.

Take a look at that stack - it’s huge! Seriously, though, he had 55K going into the dinner break and seems to be playing a good game today while trying to stay under the radar. If it wasn’t for my well-intentioned and un-scary inability to stop following him around the poker tables his PokerStars patch, he might just go unnoticed.

UPDATE: Phifer has been eliminated from the tournament with less than an hour left in Day 1A.

Play started about 12:20 this afternoon for day 1a of the $10,000 NL Holdem Main Event, with the UNLV Marching Band and Wayne Newton kicking things off. I’m sure those who’ve chosen days 1b-1d are thankful that they didn’t have to experience that for their start as it will probably be a bit more low-key for them when play starts. It appears that the day 1a numbers will be around 1,297, which is very slightly above the day 1a figure from last year. The mysterious figure so far appears to be in the 4500-4900 range for now, as there are 468 spots currently showing for the prize pool (of course no $ figures as of yet) if you take a look at the picture on Pauly’s site.

Among those that won’t have to worry about making the November Nine: Raymond Rahme, Tuan Lam, Roy Winston, Tom “Durrr” Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Eli Elezra, Katja Thater, Phil Galfond, Bob and Maureen Feduniak, Chad Brown, Lyle Berman, Dan Harrington, Jason Alexander, and plenty of other names (known and unknown). The current chip leader going into the dinner break is David “Chino” Rheem, who is currently at 103,000 in chips. Other recognizable names: Blair Hinkle, Svetlana Gromenkova, Kido Pham, Noah Boeken, Anna Wroblewski, Mekhi Phifer, Maya Antonius and plenty of others. Follow the updates during the evening at the WSOP.com site here. Play starts again shortly, as they play two more 2-hour levels, then the survivors get to return on July 8 for day 2a.

More updates during the rest of the evening…

2008 HORSE Champion Scotty Nguyen is playing on the ESPN feature table … in a different uniform. The VietPrince of Poker was decked out in Full Tilt gear last week. This week it’s PokerStars …

He’s not an actual Team PokerStars member (yet) … but considering Star’s intense focus on the Asian market in the coming years, he’s gotta be on their short list for something, as we know Nguyen has already fully captured the Northern Oklahoma market.

Harrah’s, the WSOP, and just about everybody is being tight-lipped about how many folks are gonna be in the Big One ‘08. Presumably because no one knows. I’m still thinking 7k is a pretty good over-under. We have no totals for Day 1A itself yet, but that’s why we can presume the number that briefly flashed on a special computer screen and observed by Benjo is accurate for the total count as of now. 4,649 with three days of sign-up to go.

I know the talk is going to be centered on the Main Event for a while, but there’s another tournament circuit that is starting in a couple of weeks with some Pokerati talent behind it. The Continental Poker Championship has its debut at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort in Verona, NY later this month. The final table is scheduled to air locally (on Time Warner Sports in the Central New York area) in October, and maybe to a TV near you shortly after that. Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider and Eric Ulis, CPC founder/president will be providing the commentary. The plan is to have a Main Event and its own Circuit in various casinos around North America, with a schedule to be announced soon.

 

Concurrently with the start of the W-S-of-P Main Event we have the annual Poker Gaming & Lifestyle Expo, where vendors hawk their magazines, instructional services, card covers and testosterone boosters.

Speaking of a boost, at the Gamma what-you-ma-call-it testosterone booth, a guy was painting a topless girl in green paint. Before you fellows get too excited I think there was probably something covering her particularly private parts and I didn’t have my camera on me at the time of the artistic endeavor. So sorry, no photos.

Today, Doyle Brunson, Chris Moneymaker and Johnny Chan were among the former world champions signing autographs. I also saw the nearly invisible “Shadow” at the All-In energy drink booth. Jerry Yang and I met in Tunica back in January and we featured him in this month’s issue of Rounder Magazine. (Shameless other employer plug here: Come get your photos taken with the Rounder Girls at our booth! We also have free magazines and caps for sale!) Yang and I exchanged pleasantries. He begins his title defense on Sunday. I don’t care what people say about his playing abilities or his goofy nickname, he is a very nice guy and there are far too few like him in poker.

Among the other interesting booths:

• Skimply dressed girls funnelled beer and danced at the McFadden’s pad. The Rio bar’s booth also featured a beer pong table and free half glasses of Miller Lite
• 2.11 Poker is some sort of new site with a hold’em variation that includes only four board cards and is played as a high-low split with 7 qualifier. In other words, a WTF game…there is a website at www.211poker.com but I am not interested enough to visit it.
• Near the exit there’s a booth with plenty of local Vegas (what would my friend Tony P. call it? Oh yes, “talent”) talent hawking some new stylish poker clothing called KSino Style. Of course my roommate Ted stood there gawking until I dragged him to the exit.
  

The 2008 World Series of Poker main event - $10,000 World Championship No-Limit Hold’em - is underway!

Just a minute or so after noon, the players were allowed in the Amazon Room to find their seats. After a bit of confusion over table numbers and section colors, everyone was in place and the intros began.

Tournament Director Jack Effel said a few words, and Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack introduced Wayne Newton. Yes, the Wayne Newton! Maybe I’m old school (no jokes on my birthday, please!), but Wayne is a classic. And from my close-up view, despite the heavy make-up, his skin was flawless and he was full of energy and smiles. It didn’t hurt his look to be surrounded by about 10 dancers from the Jubilee show at Bally’s, either. There was also an appearance by the UNLV marching band, but to be honest, I was a little too mesmerized by Mr. Las Vegas to know what song they played.

After Wayne did the “Shuffle up and deal!” honors, the cards were in play.

Numbers? We certainly won’t have anything official until after the first break, but initial rumblings have the number at only 1400. The cap would have been 2700. E-gads. With that said, most players I know have signed up for Day 1C or 1D, so the numbers could definitely pick up as the days go by. But right now, the final number is anyone’s guess.

We’ll keep you updated as the day progresses and as I irritate myself by humming “Danke Schoen” over and over…

As I laid on my Binion’s bed watching the sunlight peek through the moth-eaten curtains this morning, I realized that the dream is over. No main event chance. No big payday likely forthcoming. I think I’ll be a much happier person tonight when my wife arrives and we move into much nicer quarters, but for now I’m pretty down. I’ve not cashed in a tournament on the trip athough I’ve finished in the top 25 percent of most of them (well, all, except the WSOP HORSE debacle).

It remains to be seen when I return home if I will go back to desk work or get enough poker writing work to stay away from the daily grind (I’m betting on the former), but whichever happens I will be ok with. As my wife likes to say, “The 9 to 5 isn’t that bad.” Of course she is right.

In poker there is such a fine line between success and failure. A single river card can make the difference between being broke and winning a million. I never get the right river cards.

It probably gets old to my friends, but this story is new here so I’ll share it quickly. I sat briefly with Leif Force during the 2006 Main Event. He hit a queen on the river to crack kings with his queens and stave off elimination. He went on to finish 11th. Less than an hour later I have kings and lose to aces. No king on the river, no $1.1 million like Force.

OK, enough crying. I’ve dried my tears on the crying towel and am sure I will face the rest of the trip with renewed resolve after a visit from my wife. There’s still some Venetian Deep Stack events to play, still some over at the Orleans Open. Maybe even a Bellagio Cup if I can win a satellite.

Maybe the river cards will be right.