I dunno … I wish Poker Road would learn to turn off their damn autoplay! I think it’s pretty good. I mean he’s no Atmosphere, but still …

And considering how confident Madsen is about his game headed (literally) into the WSOP, I think that might explain why a few pros who are also super sure they’re ready to take down some serious shizznit might be 0-fer so far. Everyone seems ready to play, and thinks they’re more ready than all the rest … and, well, that’s just old-school poker.

Jeff Madsen videos on Poker Road (via Wicked Chops on Facebook)

Two final tables are underway, with the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event down to their final 3 players. Ken “Teach” Aldridge is the current chip leader in a big hand that went down just after the dinner break. You can follow the streaming final table coverage on the Bluff Magazine website or at wsop.pkr.com. The $2,500 PLH/PLO event is down to their final 6 players. Cornel Cimpan, WPT LA Poker Classic winner in February, is the current chip leader, with Ben Grundy and Paul Parker the other notables left at the table.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is now in the money with about 100 players remaining. Phil Hellmuth added to his WSOP record with his 70th cash, and is still going strong as the players return to their dinner break soon. Jason Mercier, T.J. Cloutier, Tom McEvoy and Tom Franklin are some of the bracelet winners who are still in the field. When the players return, they’ll be playing beat the clock to get to a final table before the 3am deadline.

The $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is down to about 55 players remaining, with Soheil Shamseddin the leader, with Robert Mizrachi, Steve Sung, Huck Seed and Hasan Habib remaining as they’ll also attempt to get to the final table of eight by the 3am deadline.

The 12pm tournament today, $2,500 NL holdem drew a smaller than expected field of 1,088, some possibly took the day off before the $5,000 NL Holdem event tomorrow at noon. The usual rapid decimation of the field still took place, as less than 450 players returning when the 90-minute dinner break began. Alan Goehring appears to be the chip leader, with the winner taking just over $500,000 and 116 others pick up some cash.

The 5pm tournament, $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max, looks to have drawn a field of about 360. No clear leaders have been established, but check out www.worldseriesofpoker.com for updates from all six events this evening. Please.

Oops, Pauly goes out of town and the show turns to pot … can you say irony? Got a couple of episode posts out of order, so catch up with what you missed as we explore the differences between a “donkament” and a big buy-in “small field” event — with a touchy-feely cameo appearance by Tiffany Michelle and a passby from a Wicked Chops sub-entity. Meanwhile, in the $40k, it’s about old dogs vs. new dogs and online player backing pools greg raymer chris moneymaker paris hilton boobs naked.

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

Episode 11.12: Donkey Shows
2:01

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Episode 11.13: Big Game Jack
3:56

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During the WSOP and not, we always find good stuff at Wicked Chops … and we love how easy they and their pals at RawVegas.tv make it for us to steal re-tweet it:

Watch Scotty Being Scotty Premier Episode! on RawVegas.tv

Based on the premier episode of Scotty being Scotty, I think they might have a hit on their hands. (Watched the whole dang thing and will definitely watch the next one …) No?

Let’s get ready to rumble! It’s time for the next round in the battle of iMega vs. the State of Kentucky! Not only that, but this week we show video evidence of Governor Steve Beshear’s true motivations for banning online gambling in that state! Also, we have online gambling news from Intertops, Microsoft, and Denmark! What a show!

On Thursday, The Minnesota Department of Public Safety decided it was dropping its attempt to force ISPs to block several online gambling sites to Minnesota residents. The PPA press release can be found below.

UPDATE: Not so fast, my friend. Apparently, the Minnesota DPS hasn’t officially dropped its effort, but its expected to happen by early next week, stay tuned for further updates.

More…

Two players won a WSOP bracelet earlier this morning, but the vast majority of the discussion will be on Phil Ivey, who took down his 6th WSOP bracelet in Event #8 $2,500 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball. While he collected under $100,000 from this event, he surely picked up a few million in bracelet bets with his fellow poker players, recouping some of those millions he had lost last year when he made similar bracelet bet wagers. John Monnette was looking for his first WSOP title, and he did not go down quietly, as the pair were heads-up for over 3 hours. Both had each other on the ropes, but Monnette was able to double up twice to take a huge chip advantage, but Ivey battled back like he had a few million dollars riding on the result. Several pros were on the rail watching the action, more than a few hoping that the professional from San Diego, California would knock off Ivey. Unfortunately for them, Phil would double up himself to retake the chip lead, finally eliminating Monnette when his 7-6 low crushed them pocket 7′s of Monnette. You can follow all the action as it transpired last night over at Pokernews, where I also wrote the recap that will appear later this morning.

Joining Phil Ivey at the bracelet ceremony today will be Travis Johnson who took down the $1,500 NL Holdem event a few hours ago taking over $666,000 in what appears to be his first tournament cash. Might as well make your first cash include a WSOP bracelet.

Two events that weren’t able to make their final table by the 3am deadline will both return at 1pm today to play down to a champion. The scheduled event for streaming on the Bluff Magazine website is the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event, which is down to their final 8, who’ll be seated as listed:

Table 154:
Seat 1: Carman Cavella 1,059,000
Seat 3: Charles Furey 1,169,000
Seat 4: Bryce Yockey 1,489,000
Seat 6: Bryn Kenney 656,000

Table 155:
Seat 2: Manny Minaya 339,000
Seat 3: Praz Bansi 630,000
Seat 5: Ken Aldridge 411,000
Seat 6: Peter Gould 780,000

Page 2 for more tournament activities today:
More…

Just talked to one of my dealer sources — a reliable one, with decades worth of experience, not the sort who just likes to bitch after blowing a night’s worth of tips playing video poker … and she tells me, “In the six years I have been dealing here [at the WSOP] this is by far the worst.” She says she knows the economy is bad, “but this year they stiff you all the time. More of them.”

The worst game for dealers is supposedly 7-card stud (no relation to previous post), where she is regularly making $2-$3 a down (a half-hour shift).

Her best down so far has been $57. “But that only happened once.”

The tables that provide the best, or at least most reliable tips: $2/$5 no-limit, and $5/$10 PLO. “But never the highest stakes [$25/$50] PLO. Those guys never tip.”

Freddie Ellis, en route to beating white man Eric Drache in the $10,000 7-card Stud World Championship.

At least thats where our dark-skinned brethren apparently like to win their bracelets – in 7CS. From official WSOP reports:

The following text appeared in yesterday’s final report (Event #6):

Freddie Ellis, the new champion, is African-American. He became the fifth African-American in WSOP history to win a gold bracelet — joining Walter Smiley, Carolyn Gardener, Phil Ivey, and David Williams. What is relevant about cultural heritage is that all of these champions won their WSOP gold bracelets in Seven-Card Stud events (Note: Ivey actually has five WSOP titles, but one came in Seven-Card Stud, another came in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split, and another came in a Mixed game with Seven-Card Stud). Smiley won the Seven-Card Stud title in 1976. Gardener won the Seven-Card Stud championship in 1982. Williams won his gold bracelet in Seven Card Stud in 2006.

The name of one additional player was omitted. PAUL DARDEN is another African-American former WSOP gold bracelet winner. Consistent with the point of the previous text, Mr. Darden won his gold bracelet in the $2,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship held in 2001.

We knew it was only a matter of time, right? TJ Cloutier reportedly had quite the emphatic conversation with Jeffrey Pollack while the two were watching Phil Ivey’s final table — about a recurring rule violation that may or may not be getting out of control. The issue: Twittering at the table.

TJ’s beef (as told to me secondhand) was that even when players are not in a hand, they are violating tournament rules when they are texting under the table, in their laps.

Here’s the rule in question:

87. Cell Phone Rule: All cell phones and other voice-enabled and “ringing” electronic devices must be silenced during Tournament play. A player who wants to use a cell phone to talk, text, or email must step away from their assigned table or be subject to penalty. Any player using a cellular phone while in a hand with no action pending (player has gone all-in) will receive a missed hand penalty to be assessed on the next hand. No cell phones or other electronic communication device can be placed on a poker table.

Hmm, I dunno. I think it’s subject to interpretation — and frankly, imho, these are the problems with rules written (or approved) by lawyers, as opposed to writer-players. But what really surprises me in the above-described situation is that @JeffreyPollack didn’t twitter about it.

Just remember, whether you’re breaking a rule or not, you can follow all the peeps we’re following in the Pokerati Twitterverse here.

Imagine this … you’re heads-up against Phil Ivey for your first bracelet … up and down up and down … you start to believe you actually have a chance:

John Monnette, who banked $59,587 for finishing in 2nd place in the $2,500 2-7 NL-1d, can take pleasure in knowing that he won more money for his last win — “Big Poker October” — than Ivey did in this one.

Not counting sidebets, of course.

Check it out … Phil Ivey’s chair is pulling a Vinnie Vinh, going solo $10k WSOP Mixed Games World Championship:

While some fear what has happened to poker’s anointed one — is it drugs, gangsters … perhaps he was arrested for UIGEA violations? — our crack research team at Pokerati has discovered his true whereabouts … he was hiding in the Amazon room, playing heads-up for his 6th bracelet.

UPDATE: He won that.

Six bracelet events are working towards different conclusions this evening. The one that most people are following is the $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball final table, which is now heads-up between Phil Ivey and John Monette. Ivey stands to win about $100,000 in the tournament, plus $3,000,000 in bracelet bets. You can catch the action at wsop.pkr.com or bluffmagazine.com/live

The $1,500 NL Holdem event finally reached their final table this evening and the players went on a dinner break. That final table was supposed to be streamed, so apparently when the Lowball event ends, they’ll move whomever’s left in the Holdem event to this table. Here’s how that final table will begin:

Seat 1 – Steve Karp
Seat 2 – Brian McInnis
Seat 3 – Mark Salinaro
Seat 4 – James McClain
Seat 5 – Walter Wright
Seat 6 – Mike Ciotola
Seat 7 – Kam Low
Seat 8 – Travis Johnson
Seat 9 – Craig McConville

In the $1,500 NL 6-max event, 35 are currently remaining as they’ll play down to a 6-handed final table. Notables remaining include David Fox, David “Bakes” Baker, Manny Minaya, Peter Gould and Praz Bansi. The $2,500 Pot-Limit Holdem/Pot-Limit Omaha event finally reached the money after returning from dinner break. Greg Raymer and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi went out just short of the money. Amnon Filippi is the chip leader, with Hevad Khan, Surinder Sunar, Ben Grundy and Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier looking to be at the final table tomorrow afternoon.

A starting field of 1,646 entered the $2,000 NL Holdem event, and when the dinner break was over, just under 800 were returning, one of which will pick up nearly $570,000. The evening tournament, $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship drew a field of 194, and in the early hours, Vanessa Rousso is the current chip leader. Plenty of big names, including Scotty Nguyen, Ivan Demidov, Victor Ramdin and Barry Greenstein are in the top 10, with plenty of big names looking to take down the $492,000 top prize. For more updates during the evening, point your browser over to www.worldseriesofpoker.com often.

As you may or may not know, Dr. Pauly skipped town for a few days to go “see a band” (WTF?) … That left Benjo and me to report on the final table of the Champions Invitational: Tom McEvoy beats Dan Harrington and Robert Varkonyi to win himself a Corvette and, of course, the plausibly coveted Binion Cup … providing him sellable items should he ever need a little bankroll stimulus. And we hear about Phil Hellmuth’s oddly graceful 10:1 hands-shaken to hands-played ratio as he, like Pauly, makes an early but not-so-unexpected exit at the WSOP … temporarily derailing an Angry Frenchman’s plans to stage a potentially violent coup.

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

Episode 11.14: Early Exits
5:00

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Brought to you by Phish Coventry and psilocybin.

As the $1,500 NL event isn’t close to having a final table, the people at Bluff Media have decided to show the final table of the 2-7 NL Single Draw Lowball final table, featuring Phil Ivey at 2pm at the Bluff Magazine website.

The final table lineup is in my previous post, so no need to repeat that. ESPN once filmed a final table of this event when it was a $5,000 w/rebuys event back in 2004,when they’d film a variety of different events. If Ivey’s eliminated early, we’ll probably see why they’ve gone to the more familiar NL holdem/PLO.

Edit: wsop.pkr.com will work as well for those having trouble with the link at Bluff’s site. Also, there’s no commentary, just the table talk and the Tournament Director microphone.