Phil Ivey was at the Golden Nugget enjoying barbecue last night — at Howard Lederer’s World Series of BBQ — when he learned that Tom Dwan was making another serious run for a bracelet, in $10k PLO.

pic: Melissa Hayden

Durrrr in the headlights: Please, Melissa, I’m trying to eat …Who Tom Dwan what? How many chips? I need more sauce.

Play ended last night with 33 left and Durrrr the chip leader … by like a lot. (36 got paid.) Phil Hellmuth is 13th in chips, with 330k to Dwan’s 910k.

Here’s the event coverage Ivey and just about everyone will be sweating on Saturday: $10k Pot-Limit Omaha. Sigh. If only ESPN knew what Euros (and players in my 1/2 NL/PLO game at the Hard Rock) already do … that Omaha is hold’em, and thus can make for some great TV.

Others still alive include:

Jason Mercier
Devilfish
Ludovic Lacay (Benjo’s friend/French bad-ass)
Fabrice Soulier
Michael Binger
Daniel Alaeai
Tony Cousineau
Jason Lester (for viewers still insisting on familiar ’03-’04 faces)

Interestingly enough, the last man out for the night (winning $19.8k) was EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser … essentially the Matt Savage of Europe. Alexander Kravchenko, another pretty good-TV name, busted him.

But hey, this is PLO, so all sorts of card craziness can happen. Let’s reconvene when they get to the final table and see if indeed, poker geeks and uber-high-stakes prop-bettors everywhere will be clamoring about Dwan (and maybe Hellmuth) closing out the WSOP with a multimillion-dollar bang.

Seen at Bellagio, where mid-stakes games can always be quite the balancing act … Talk about Hollywooding it up for a raise!

pic: Dale Perryman

Check it out … pretty good interview by Gambling Compliance with Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) about the status of current online gambling-related legislation, what it took to change Harry Reid’s mind about supporting internet gambling, why she has concerns about the McDermott taxation bill, getting excited by early signs of a Las Vegas recovery, and why she and the whole city loves 69 (about 6:40 in) … but needs a little more to get the big money people coming.

She also lets it be known, without officially confirming nor denying anything, how this former Vegas cocktail waitress may have her sights on running for U.S. Senate in 2012.

Recapping Thursday night’s action, with the final bracelet event before the WSOP starting this afternoon:

Welch jams Eaton for 3k Triple Chance bracelet

After a lengthy heads-up match, Ryan Welch secured his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $3,000 No-Limit Holdem Triple Chance tournament, earning $559,371. Eaton earned $344,830 for his runner-up finish, Guillaume Darcourt finished 3rd for $223,459 and Will “The Thrill” Failla coming in 4th for $163,352. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are available at wsop.com.

Kenney leads 25k NL 6-max into money

Day two of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max finished with 18 players remaining with John Juanda being the unfortunate bubble boy. When play resumes at 3pm, Bryn Kenney will start the day as the chip leader with 2,425,000. Among the notables: Abe Mosseri (1,035,000), Daniel Negreanu (860,000), Isaac Haxton (835,000), Justin Bonomo (576,000) and Carlos Mortensen (484,000). Full chip counts and updates during the afternoon at wsop.com.

$1500 Limit Shootout Final Table

Day two of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout started with the disqualification of Yueqi “Rich” Zhu, for making a deal heads-up when he won his shootout table on Wednesday. Zhu explained to PokerNews he was feeling ill, and decided to make a deal with his opponent. After that was taken care of, the remaining 63 players at the eight shootout tables playing down to a winner. The final table will start at 3pm today with this lineup, each starting with 450,000 chips:

Jonathan Little
Terrence Chan
Mike Schneider
Joe McGowan
Ben Yu
Brian Tate
Brendan Taylor
Sijbrand Maal

Follow the updates for this event at PokerNews.

Dempsey leads day 1a of 1k NL

Day 1a of the final $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP drew 2,340 entrants Thursday afternoon to the Amazon and Pavillion rooms at the Rio. Play finished halfway through level 9 with 331 players to return Saturday afternoon. James “Flushy” Dempsey leads the day 1a field with 144,100 in chips. Among the notables returning: Shannon Shorr (45,000), Toto Leonidas (31,475), Jena Delk (23,175) and Liv Boeree (16,575). A full list of chip counts is available at PokerNews.

Paino leads 10k PLO Day 1

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha got underway Thursday afternoon with a field of 346 players taking the felt. After eight levels of play, 166 will return at 3pm, with the final 36 players making the money with the winner taking down $780,599. Antonio Paino leads the returning players with 240,000 in chips, with James Akenhead (181,100), Fabrice Soulier (151,200), Noah Boeken (114,400), Annette Obrestad (106,900), Tom Dwan (103,800) and Michael Binger (97,200) among the big names in the upper half of the leaderboard. The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com.

Friday’s tournament

Besides day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm, the 5pm tournament is the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem event. Last year, Keven Stammen won this event in a field of 1,088 for $506,878.

Recapping the action from Wednesday, with three WSOP bracelets awarded:

Busse “kickz” out Crowe to win 1k NL bracelet

Shawn “jordankickz” Busse got the better of Owen Crowe to win Event #47, $1,000 No-Limit Holdem, earning $485,791 along with the coveted WSOP gold bracelet. Crowe earned $300,494 for his runner-up finish. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report at wsop.com.

Chance wins out at 5k PLO

The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet goes to Chance Kornuth, earning $508,090 in defeating Kevin Boudreau heads-up. Boudreau earns $313,792 for finishing in 2nd, while Robert Mizrachi couldn’t join his brother Michael in winning a bracelet, finishing 8th at the final table. Full results and Dalla’s report at wsop.com.

Linn wins $1500 NL

Michael Linn ended up with all the chips in the final $1,500 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP, getting the better of Taylor Larkin in heads-up play to pocket $609,493 and the bracelet. Larkin has $378,905 to cushion the blow of finishing in second. Full results available at wsop.com.

Eaton leads 3k NL Triple Chance

Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton leads the final 12 players returning for the final day of the $3,000 No-Limit Holdem Triple Chance at 2:30pm to play down to a winner. Here’s how the field will be seated when play resumes, follow the updates over at PokerNews:

Table 306:
Seat 2: Will Failla 960,000
Seat 3: Frank Rusnak 1,041,000
Seat 4: Gregory Ronaldson 145,000
Seat 6: Bradley Craig 340,000
Seat 7: Tad Jurgens 292,000
Seat 8: Koen Debakker 259,000

Table 307:
Seat 2: Tommy Vedes 984,000
Seat 3: Guillaume Darcourt 613,000
Seat 4: Jon Eaton 1,678,000
Seat 5: Sergey Lebedev 917,000
Seat 6: Ryan Welch 932,000
Seat 7: Noel Scruggs 553,000

Day 2 of 25k 6-max

A field of 191 signed up for the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event, with just 69 returning when play resumes at 2:30pm. ESPN3 (where available) will start airing a feature table at that time. Only 18 players will make the money, with the winner earning $1,315,518. The current chip leader is Alexander Gruibem with 548,000, followed by Jason Somerville with 516,600. Other notables returning include: Daniel Negreanu (407,100), John Juanda (401,300), Nick Schulman (280,000), John Duthie (256,800), Freddy Deeb (234,400), Barry Greenstein (194,800), Ivan Demidov (169,200), Erick Lindgren (154,400) and Andrew Feldman (101,600). The full table draw is available here and follow the action at wsop.com.

1500 Limit Shootout makes the money

The $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout drew a field of 548, with the 64 winners of their table making the money, returning at 3pm to play down to the final 8. Among the winners yesterday: Chau Giang, Nam Le, Terrence Chan, Yevginey Timoshenko, Barry Shulman, Marcel Luske and Jonathan Little. The table draw for day 2 is now online, check out who’s sitting where here and follow the min-raising thrills over at wsop.com.

Thursday’s Tournaments

Today is the last day where two new bracelet events get underway, starting with day 1a of the final $1,000 No-Limit Holdem starting at 12pm with the usual crowd of thousands heading to the Rio. The 5pm tournament is the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, won last year by Matt Graham, winning nearly $700,000 in defeating a field of 295.

Don’t quite know the details, but it happened again. Apparently two men entered yesterday’s ladies event at the Venetian Deep Stack series. And at least one of them went relatively deep.

Here’s what I was able to glean from Facebook:

Annie LePage Bleeeehhhh… A freakin guy who crashed the ladies event and was totally rude to all of us at the table had to be the one busting me. I am sooo Mad!

Stacey Nutini yea well i was pretty pissed too busting in 16th and there was still one guy in…..i think they’re complete frickin morons to participate. and when you ask them why, their reason is always the biggest bullshit you’ve ever heard in your life.

The day before the Venetian ladies event, the Las Vegas Sun ran a story (with awesome art, btw) about the men who played in the WSOP ladies event. They’ve got a poll asking whether or not men should be allowed to play. Currently 40 percent say yes, and 59 percent say no.

OK, so it’s settled: the no’s have it … we can move on now, right? No?

Anyone got an over/under on how long before ladies events are eradicated completely? Because I sure can’t see — based on the above split alone — why this trend would eventually subside … not until the minority gets their way.