Some updates from this afternoon’s activities, starting with a video on Brian Lemke’s bracelet victory in the $5,000 NL holdem event, dedicated to Justin Shronk:

Daily WSOP Bracelets: Brian Lemke from PokerListings.com

New Women’s World Champion

Lisa Hamilton made her first tournament a successful one, taking down the $1,000 Ladies NL Holdem World Championship for a final table that lasted less than four hours, collecting $195,390. Lori Bender was the runner-up good for $120,575.

The Spectacular Six in Omaha

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship is down to their final six players after the eliminations of Rich Zhu, Annie Duke and Tom Koral. Scott Clements is still the chip leader, with John Monnette, Daniel Alaei and Daniel Negreanu in hot pursuit.

Six-max Field Shrinking

Day 2 of the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-Max event is down to just 51 players as they’re playing to a final table tonight with Brian Meinders the current chip leader at 610,000. Other notables remaining include Rick Fuller (201,000), Brock Parker and Erick Lindgren (135,000 each), Bill Edler (118,000) and Howard Lederer (72,000).

Taking it to the Pot-Limit, One More Time

Yet another smaller field than last year began as 633 entrants started the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event (down from 713). 161 players will remain when they return from their dinner break shortly. Jeremiah Vinsant is the reported chip leader at 58,000. Other notables with chips include Joe Sebok (44,000), Blake Cahail (27,000) and Kevin Song (25,000).

HORSE-ing Around

The $3,000 HORSE event drew a field of about 400, final numbers will be released later this evening. Unfortunately, no one’s broken out yet in the first couple of levels, so check out www.worldseriesofpoker.com later this evening or tomorrow morning’s update for further details.

The Associated Press is at least paying attention to the developments reported here on Pokerati in what is sure to be a complex legal situation — one that already is bringing up not just legally questionable issues of non-brick-and-mortar gambling, but also money laundering. They also clear up some of the details about who got tagged and how:

Documents obtained by the AP show that a judge in the district issued a seizure warrant last week for an account at a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco, and that a federal prosecutor told a bank in Arizona to freeze an account.

In a letter dated Friday and faxed to Alliance Bank of Arizona, the prosecutor said that accounts held by payment processor Allied Systems Inc. are subject to seizure and forfeiture “because they constitute property involved in money laundering transactions and illegal gambling offenses.” The letter was signed by Arlo Devlin-Brown, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

In another letter faxed the same day, Devlin-Brown asks that the bank treat the funds “as legally seized” by the FBI, saying that the government has probable cause that the gambling payments of U.S. residents had been directed to offshore illegal Internet gambling businesses.

Meanwhile, the British press is reporting:

America might be about to loosen its gambling corsets

These two stories aren’t as mutually exclusive as they might seem. Often, when times are changing, old holdovers from a previous philosophical era will turn uber-aggressive with their means and methods trying to give their way one last shot, and at a minimum hoping to take a few folks down with them as their kind are pushed out.

That’s certainly plausible considering how emphatic bureaucrats in the DOJ have been about the illegality of online poker/gambling even when the people and courts have repeatedly disagreed.

With the players at the 9-player final table in the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship, one more elimination will move them to the feature table for streaming at www.bluffmagazine.com/live, or wsop.pkr.com for those outside the US.

Here’s how the players are seated, with four bracelet winners among the final 9:

Seat 1: Scott Clements – 1,445,000
Seat 2: Annie Duke – 225,000
Seat 3: Daniel Alaei – 540,000
Seat 4: Greg Jamison – 350,000
Seat 5: John Monnette – 940,000
Seat 6: Yueqi Zhu – 170,000
Seat 7: Tom Koral – 220,000
Seat 8: Ben Boyd – 855,000
Seat 9: Daniel Negreanu – 635,000

Update: Players now on dinner break, returning at around 5:15pm PT

Ah, once upon a time ret. Sen. Al D’Amato (R-NY) held real power … regardless, he’s still trying to wield his influence over federal actions in his home state, and the PPA statement around his statement says something about the seriousness of the payment processor account-freezing situation while confusing this quasi-legally savvy journo/not-a-lawyer on the difference between warrants and subpoenas:

PPA Statement on Southern District of NY Action Against Online Poker Players
Letter Sent to Assistant US Attorney Requesting Presence at Future Hearings

WASHINGTON, DC (June 9, 2009) – The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, today released the following statement by PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato on questionable actions taken by a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York to freeze payment processor accounts containing more than $30 million in poker players’ deposits and payouts.

The PPA also sent a letter to the Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York asking for an opportunity to be heard in any future warrant hearings. The letter is available at www.pokerplayersalliance.org.

More…

Oh my. Evidently, this “professional commentator” was not aware that the microphone was on nor that anyone was recording his ramblings. They were. And because of the risque nature of his comments, they’re now on YouTube. (UPDATE: Apparently, Nick Geber knew his words were being recorded but only in a mic-testing format. However, all recordings are picked up by overseas partners.)

You decide: funny, good-natured jabs at his employees or inappropriate, sexist remarks?

UPDATE: All traces of the video have been removed from YouTube.

The latest on Federal online poker funds crackdown and legally questionable anti-poker court actions …

Pokerstars has confirmed with its players that indeed, some payout funds have been frozen in American banks — but they’ve credited back affected monies with a 10 percent inconvenience bonus and an invitation to try again, Gambling911 reports.

If you wish to resubmit your cashout request, you can do so from our Cashier by selecting the check option (your new check will be issued on a different account and can be deposited as normal) or wire transfer (only available for amounts greater than [$2,500]).

But while Stars’ “take care of the player first” approach may be admirable, wiring money through a new financier may just be a temporary solution to eCheck problems affecting thousands of players — a little game of financial cat and mouse (+ good-will PR) while a bigger, costlier legal battle takes shape.

Under advisement from the DOJ agent, a federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District apparently got a magistrate to sign off on seizure orders last week for multiple American bank accounts connected to PokerStars payouts. The court also issued subpoenas (warrants?) for two individuals to appear before a grand jury on June 18.

More…

Before Pauly skipped town to go all hippy on the leeward side of the Appalachian Trail, he and I had a little chat about the press setup at the WSOP (with an unintentional guest appearance by TD Steve) in which he gives off a tell that he might be serious about blowing this joint … And then we have another chat about what goes into backing bloggers in bracelet events and the general strategy employed by guys like Tony G putting players into a donkament.

presented by:

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.15: Press Badgered
3:05

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Episode 11.16: Blogger Backing
4:14

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Recapping the Monday overnight at the World Series of Poker:

Brian Lemke Goes ShronkDaddy on 5k Final Table

Brian Lemke, cousin of the late Justin Shronk of PokerRoad and PokerNews, came back from a 4 to 1 chip deficit against Fabian Quoss to take down the $5,000 NL Holdem event for his first WSOP cash, final table, and bracelet, picking up $692,690 in the process. Quoss collected $427,911 for the 2nd place finish. An emotional Lemke dedicated the win to Shronk, saying “He was with me the whole time – the entire time. I know he brought that queen for me.” (The final hand had Lemke holding A-8 to Quoss’ A-Q, the board ran out 9-10-J-Q-x). “I miss him and that bracelet is dedicated to him, my family, my grandma, and his mom”.

All the Ladies at the Final Table, Say Yeahhhhh!

The $1,000 Ladies NL Holdem World Championship has their final table which will be seated as follows, with the final table streamed at 2pm on ESPN360:

Seat 1: Mari Lou Morelli 320,000
Seat 2: Lisa Parsons 427,000
Seat 3: Dawn Thomas 212,000
Seat 4: Lisa Hamilton 527,000
Seat 5: Lisa Santy 196,000
Seat 6: Angel Pedroza 522,000
Seat 7: Lori Bender 643,000
Seat 8: Kimberly Cunningham 140,000
Seat 9: Kim Rios 197,000

Omaha 8, 17 Looking to be Great

Meanwhile, the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship is down to its final 17 players, with John Monnette looking to get the bracelet that Phil Ivey had won from him in the $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball event last week. Monnette is the dominant chip leader (1,141,000) with Ben Boyd in 2nd place (663,000). Eight bracelet winners make up the other half of the field, topped by Scott Clements (477,000),
Daniel Alaei (297,000) and Ville Wahlbeck (231,000). The other bracelet winners: Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Toto Leonidas, Ted Lawson, and Alex Kravchenko. Play resumes this afternoon with the final table scheduled to air at around 2pm PT at www.bluffmagazine.com/live.

$2,500 6-max Going All Out on Day 2

2pm today also brings the return of 135 players for Day 2 of the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event, of which 108 will make the money. Brett “threatnasty” Switzer is the chip leader (183,000), with Brock Parker in 6th place trying to pick up a second bracelet this WSOP (138,900). Among the notables: Howard Lederer (93,900), Shaun Deeb (80,100), Neil Channing (59,000), and Erick Lindgren (31,600).

Two for Tuesday and Projections

It’s a return to double duty for the WSOP, with the 12pm tournament the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by David Singer in a field of 713, collecting over $210,000. The 5pm tournament is $3,000 HORSE, which was won last year by Jens Voertmann taking home almost $300,000 in a field of 414.

The WSOP Staff Guide projections for today’s events: $1,500 PL Holdem – 713 (take the under, with around 685). $3,000 HORSE is projected at 435 (take the under as well, I’ll guess 403).

More stuff during the day so check back to Pokerati frequently.

While online poker forces and their internet freedom allies continue to fight a war of attrition in Kentucky, principals in Minnesota have not just called a cease-fire — the State halting efforts to force telecom companies to block citizen access to a random assortment of gambling-ish sites — but also the potential adversaries, who met face-to-face in St. Paul last week, seem to be forming a truce, looking for ways they can work together to regulate/tax online poker, etc. within Minnesota borders:

Minn. regulators drop bid to block online gambling [Associated Press via @ppapoker]

“We have not folded our hand,” said Andy Skoogman, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, where gambling regulators are housed. He said he expects new strategies for regulating Internet gambling to emerge.

“The action raised awareness of the broader issue about who is policing the Internet and protecting the consumer,” he said. “At this point, we don’t feel there is anybody. This is an issue that every state is going to face sooner rather than later.”

The PokerNews video crew has put together a pretty cool documentary about the history of the World Series … something that reminds you that this really is a special event — and that the 40th Anniversary isn’t just an arbitrary milestone:

For those who missed our debut special-for-the-WSOP Monday episode live, here’s the podcast … where The Poker Beat crew waxes poetic about Phil Ivey’s bracelet, Daniel Negreanu’s non-bracelet, non-Finnish national anthems, Ladies events, what makes an “online” player, and Joe Sebok’s lie detector prop bet over his knowledge of Beth Shak’s marital status or lack thereof. Also, Chops shows up to declare this World Series the “Year of the Brother” … or maybe it’s the Year of “tha Brothah” … but either way, leave it to the Entities to celebrate poker in all its multicultural greatness.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Caldwell, Michalski, Nemeth, Chops, Stapleton
6/08/09

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This episode, btw, marks my personal umpteenth appearance on The Poker Beat — making me the “last man standing” amongst hosts and panelists (Go free labor!) and the only guy to appear on every episode since the show’s inception. While that factoid may mark a certain pathos, I’d also like to point out that I am the only one — even with all those extra minutes — who has yet to be called out by the Insider for a factual misstatement.

That’s not to say I haven’t made any errors — made a big one about something really important a month ago, but I guess it just slipped by our wheezey, phlegmy ombudsman.

Some updates from Monday:

Lisandro Liquidates 7 Card Stud Field

The $1,500 7 Card Stud event saw Jeff Lisandro make quick work of the final table, taking home his 2nd bracelet along with $124,959 in winnings. Rodney Pardey was the final victim to Lisandro, taking home $77,230 for his 2nd place finish. Pardey’s nephew Eric Pardey was also at the final table finishing in 6th place. Nick Frangos (4th) and John Juanda (5th) were two of the more notable names at that final table.

5k NL Holdem Five-Handed

The $5,000 NL Holdem final table will be returning from dinner break shortly with five players remaining. The chip leader is Fabian Quoss with over 3.4m in chips. Brian Lemke, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Mike Sowers and Ivan Demidov’s girlfriend Lika Gerasimova round out the quintet. The final table is airing on ESPN360 as well as wsop.pkr.com for those overseas who are still awake.

Ladies Workin’ It Out

The $1,000 Ladies NL World Championship is now under 50 players, with Lisa Hamilton the chip leader (245,000). Notables remaining include Day 1 chip leader Tamara Tibbles (190,000), JJ Liu (78,000), Lisa Parsons (46,300), and Karina Jett (45,000). Players will try to play down to their final table or the next few hours for a possible streamed final table.

Omaha 8 Field Splitting Apart

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship has 41 players remaining, as they also try to get to a final table tomorrow before the 3am deadline. Sam Khouiss is the current chip leader at 360,000. Notables remaining include Scott Clements (240,000), Ville Wahlbeck (190,000), Phil Ivey (165,000), Jean-Robert Bellande (150,000), Annie Duke (114,000) and Phil Hellmuth (105,000).

Monday’s 6-Maxed Out

The $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event drew a field of 1.068, a slight increase over last year, with 370 players remaining. The unofficial chip leader is Layne Flack with over 80,000 in chips.

Follow the action for the next few hours over at www.worldseriesofpoker.com

Pokerati player Jerry Randack is making a run at the Venetian HORSE final table today.

First off, some props to some Pokerati peeps scoring in the Venetian Deeps Stacks. Today, Team Pokerati player Jerry Randack made it to Day 2 in the $500+50 HORSE. We’re trying to follow him on twitter today, but, you know … some people don’t quite get how that works yet.

Also, big kudos to La Sengphet and Chui Kim from Dallas. La took part in a three-way chop in a $300+30 last week that paid her $24k. Chui followed that up the next day with a 4th place finish for $17k.

The Venetian tournaments are setting record numbers — with field sizes ranging from 500+ players to more than 800 in both $300 and $500 NLHs. Not sure yet on the HORSE event …

Meanwhile, the competing smaller buy-in skill-based tourneys across Las Vegas Blvd. at Caesar’s — the MegaStacks — are seeing very different results. According to one of our spies on the ground, answering the question of how it’s going over there:

Horrible. They canceled their $1k on Sunday because of lack of entrants. A player at Venetian said he went over their first, and they had 9 entries as of 11:30, one of whom was Jerry Yang. I saw Yang sit down in the Venetian tourney as a late entry at about 1:15.

NOTE: Bellagio has also affected the non-WSOP summer tourney landscape, re-upping their nightly tourney buy-in to $1,000.

A bunch of PPA state directors and politically involved pros are already booking their plans for after the WSOP — they’re headed to Washington DC for an aggressive play by the PPA supposedly dubbed National Poker Week.

Should be a most interesting gathering — different from previous pokery political collectives in that there are so many legal issues playing out in real ways right now (Kentucky, Minnesota, Pokerstarzistan, etc.) … and all this with a pretty important-looking nuts-and-bolts online banking regulation bill in play … with non-pokery representatives finally aware of the online poker murmurs, and public opinion clearly leaning in our favor.

More…

One of Pokerati’s media eavesdroppers got the real skinny on what went wrong with the Finnish national anthem yesterday. Indeed, Jeffrey Pollack and Seth Palansky acknowledged to each other that the anthem played to honor $10k Mixed World Champion Ville Wahlbeck was not that of his native Finland — it was Sweden’s.

(Oops.)

During the ceremony Wahlbeck leaned over to Pollack and said, “This is a nice song, but it’s not the Finnish National Anthem.”

“Roll with it,” Pollack replied.

Palansky said that he got the song off the internet, and it was labeled as “Track #37: Finnish National Anthem.”

LOL, when are WSOP officials going to learn not to trust what they find on the internet?

You can read Wahlbeck’s blog (in Finnish) here.

And now that he’s won a bracelet, have a listen to the youngster Scandi pro talk about how he’s ready to retire from poker … save for the World Series, WSOP-Europe, the EPT, and maybe some other tournaments: