Although not as much of a melting pot as last year, the 2008 edition of the WSOP main event final table still looks to have a lot of international flavor. Of the 12 remaining players, four are from countries other than the United States. This includes two from Canada (Scott Montgomery and Darus Suharto), one from Denmark (Peter Eastgate) and one from Russia (Ivan Demidov).

Here’s what poster Tim McKernan had to say about the 53-year-old commercial account manager:

I’m pulling for him big time.

I played against him once…two weeks ago at Harrah’s. I had no idea who he was…as I rarely play “live” games in St. Louis. But, when I sat down, he was in seat 1, and I was in seat 9.

One of my friends came over and said, “Beware of that guy. He’s one of the best players out here.”

He got short-stacked early on some bad beat from some nitwit player…and I was able to take him out when I was fortunate enough to have a full house.

I noticed everybody took a sigh of relief when he went out.

Now I understand why.

It turns out he had won back to back tournaments out at Harrah’s.

You can’t do that on “luck.”

It’s always interesting when we reach the final stage before the end of the main event to see who will rise to the top. Of course, this game isn’t all skill, but in this spot real tournament experience is key. It makes you less likely to crack under pressure and more apt to make the moves (re-raise steals, tricky slowplays) that will allow you to chip up and become one of the November Nine. Considering how important experience is, I thought I’d look up the current final 15 players’ tournament records. Amazingly, four of the 15 do not have any cashes listed on PokerPages. A handful of others have modest numbers, while others (such as Scott Montgomery, a WPT final tablist this February) have relatively impressive stats. Here’s a rundown of the players left listed in order of current chip count with their tournament dollars earned listed to the side.

Player                  Chip Count         Tournament Dollars

Peter Eastgate            18.2 million             $76,084

Scott Montgomery      14.9 million             $406,585

Darus Suharto             14.1 million            $26,389

David Rheem               12.6 million            $634,657

Joe Bishop                   11.4 million            $0

Dennis Phillips            11.2 million            $0

Dean Hamrick               8.6 million            $149,474

Ylon Schwartz               7.4 million            $255,851

Nicholas Sliwinski        6.5 million            $0

Chris Klodnicki             6.5 million            $201,048

Ivan Demidov               6.4 million            $43,371

Kelly Kim                      6.3 million            $351,774

Gert Andersen              3.8 million            $0

Owen Crowe                 3.2 million            $197,021

Nearly driven mad from the land of poker, I had the opportunity on Sunday to get out of town. Since Hoyt Corkins busted out of the main event on Saturday he now had time to go for a hike.

I went to his house and we hopped in his jeep, fully equipped with four-wheel drive, roll bars and a winch with five-ton capacity that would surely get you out of a sticky situation. Starting too late to tackle Mt. Charleston, we instead headed to Red Rock Canyon to take the jeep trails into the Rainbow Wilderness area there.

It was no easy go up the rocky trails and I was surprised to see some drivers of Grand Cherokees try the climb. From the point in which we exited the main scenic drive through the canyon until we arrived at the trail to the North Peak probably took nearly an hour over the short, but rough terrain.

The hike was 1.3 miles from the jeep and I lugged a backpack full of bottled water and trail mix. As the young one of the duo I got to be the mule. Although the trail was labeled as difficult on the guide sign, we found the going fairly easy at first. Still those uphill trails can get an out of shape fellow winded pretty quickly so we took frequent breaks.

The view from the top was worth the hour hike to it. From the North Peak we could see all of Vegas below, as well as Lake Mead, which was probably 50 to 60 miles in the distance. I’ve done a lot of hiking in my day, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, but this was the best view from the top with the absence of trees blocking the panoramic view. We stopped for a while to check out the view, but departed when we saw rain clouds coming up on us.

“You don’t mess with those flash floods,” Hoyt said. “If it starts raining hard we’ll be stuck here for the night.”

I certainly perished that thought so we hustled back, although we had to take it easy in spots due to the loose shale along the trail. It started sprinkling on the way down with a cool breeze in our faces. It sure beat the heat of walking down the Strip.

We arrived safely back at the jeep and the rain had stopped. We headed back down. Probably the most enjoyable day I’ve had on this trip. Not to self: need to get out of the casinos more often…

My dream of $25,000 in blackjack tournament winnings were dashed this morning when I narrowly missed making the third round at the Golden Nugget. It was the last grasp for this degenerate to win his fortune before returning home to Tuscaloosa. I only managed to cash in one Venetian DSE tournament for a $400 profit; it was all downhill the rest of the way.

The most disappointing evening was when I dusted off $600 in 2-5 NL a few nights ago in the Rio poker room to a drunk Norwegian playing really stupid poker. The best game was that night at Binion’s with the drunk Brit in Omaha Hi-Lo. Great fun. Believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve left Vegas in the red from poker, but the luck was not with me on this trip.

Back to slopping the hogs (or hawgs, rather) for me. Well, there are still the FTOPS and the WCOOP coming up….

Rio — I ended up crashing in a suite here for the first couple of nights after running into a pal and being dead tired after flying all day. The rooms are very nice — no surprise there. The beds are comfy and it has all the amenities you need. There is an odd window between the shower in the bathroom and the bedroom area. A little lookie-see for the perverts I suppose. Grade: A

Golden Gate — Used a 2 for 1 coupon to stay here for a couple of days. This is the oldest casino in town, dating back to Vegas’ earliest history in 1906 and it shows. This places just smells old, or maybe that’s just the scent of the elderly clientele. The rooms are super tiny and quite bare bones. (I had always heard this, but just had to see for myself so I got the room.) There wasn’t even any soap and shampoo when I moved into my room and I had to ask for some. The bathroom fixtures appear to be at least 50 years old and the view through the window was of a fire escape. Grade: D-

Binion’s – This is my home away from home. Cheap and decent rooms. I stay here every year with my pal Ted, an old geezer from Oregon who spends six weeks in Vegas every summer for the WSOP. There’s nothing fancy about the place. The furniture is cheap and the beds are so-so, but the rooms are fairly spacious. The rooms with the king beds are much nicer than the doubles, but I am generally there with Ted and being married and heterosexual we are in the rooms with the doubles, so the Grade is C

Golden Nugget –Known as the class of Downtown, I have no reason to argue. It kicks the living shit out of any other place I’ve been down there. Marble sink tops and tiled floors with a vanity in the bedroom. Great mattresses, with tables, a desk, anything you might need. Plus, my wife absolutely loved the pool. They’ve done a good job of upgrading the property in recent years. My only complaint is the distance from our room in the South Tower to Fremont Street. It’s a Rio-esque hike. Grade: A-

Palace Station – I’d never been to any of the Station casinos, which are known as locals’ hangouts. I had another 2 for 1 deal so I tried it for two nights. Not a bad place. The bedroom is nice enough, although small. The bathroom has an old-style shower…one of those nozzles that are directly above your head and you stand directly underneath it. Plus, you get a free copy of the Review-Journal delivered to your front door every morning. Grade: B-

Wild Wild West — Another coupon deal that I decided to go with, especially since it’s close to the Rio. What can I say about this joint? It looks like a Howard Johnson that they built a casino in front of. The casino itself looks like the kind of place Cousin Eddie might have taken Clark Griswold in Vegas Vacation…a little Guess the Number perhaps? The rooms are at least a Howard Johnson quality so I can’t flunk this place. Grade: D

Four Queens – Found a great deal on Expedia when looking for a place to stay my last four nights in Vegas and couldn’t pass this up as it has nostalgic value. It was here that I stayed in 2005 during my one-month journey to Vegas for the WSOP right after leaving my job. I honestly didn’t think the place was that great at the time, but it was “home” for a month so I decided to come back. Glad I did. They’ve upgraded the furniture, the mattress is very comfy and the televisions are widescreen plasmas. The bathrooms still look 70ish. The rooms here are quite small, especially the bathrooms, but not nearly as tiny as the Golden Gate. Grade: B

Starting this week, the downtown casino has added a variety of tournaments to its schedule.

Here’s the list:

• Tuesday at 6 p.m. — Various games: Razz on 1st Tuesday, 2-7 Triple Draw on 2nd Tuesday, 5-Card Draw on 3rd Tuesday, Badugi on 4th Tuesday. Buy ins are $100 plus a $10 staff bonus buy for more chips
• Wednesdays at 8 p.m. — $125 Six-Handed NLHE with $10 bonus
• Fridays at 6 p.m. — $150 HORSE with $10 bonus
• Saturdays at 6 p.m. — $100 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo with $10 bonus
• Sundays at 6 p.m. — $150 Pot Limit Omaha w/ $10 bonus

How’s your Badugi skills Dan?

Overheard today among two dealers leaving the Rio this afternoon.

“I saw a $25 chip on eBay for $41.”

“Really? I wonder what a $1,000 chip is worth.”

Obviously, my curiosity level was high so I logged on to eBay to see what I could find. A seller who said he had entered the $2,000 NLHE Event #48 was selling one green 25 value chip. With a day to go in the auction, the chip was going for $51 on Thursday afternoon.

What I found more interesting was that this guy, user vic1243, appears to be a major chip smuggler. In the listing he says he has sold a 25 and 100 chip as a set for $120, as well as three each of the 25, 100 and 500 chips for $60 a piece. So now I wonder how someone can make a profit by smuggling away 500 value chips and selling them for $60 each. Maybe if you make the final table and have wheelbarrows full of them then maybe it would be worth it, but I doubt it. Now getting $60 for a 25 chip is another matter.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Zelong Dong.

He started the day with 119,200 in chips and by PokerNews’ latest count is at 160K.

Longest name award likely goes to Constantinos Economopoulos from New York. I think he may be Greek.

Harrah’s is running a $1,500 + $70 mega satellite today for the WSOP Europe main event, and also announced the players can go ahead and pre-register here in Vegas at the WSOP cage if they plan to travel to London in September. The event runs Sept. 19-Oct. 2 and includes four events.

• It’s amusing to watch the guys run to and from the bathroom. It’s why I always try to refrain from drinking too many liquids during play. The halls are filled with men running either to the bathroom down the hallway toward the casino or out back to the pisser near the poker kitchen. I guess it pays not to miss too many hands. Speaking of hands, do you think they wash them? No way.
• Free gifts are always nice, but in the case of seat cushions they have gone down in quality. Main event players (and media event participants) got the green Everest Poker cushions to cush their tush, but these aren’t nearly as thick and comforting as the Milwaukee’s Best Light cushions they handed out in 2006.
• Play is moving briskly today. As I write this players are going on dinner break, although many who played today have already hit the door. This place was bursting at the seams with players in Amazon, Tropical, Brasilia, overflow tables near Buzio’s restaurant and the Rio poker room. Now they’re all in Amazon and there are even plenty of tables with cash games going in there. According to PokerNews, there are about 1,700 players left in the main event as of 7:15 p.m. PST.
• Ask Dan to post about garbage men and chip dumping. He had some interesting ideas on conspiracty theories…

The show happens at 9:15 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday between Las Vegas Club and Golden Gate.

Pardon me Jeffrey as I throw out some ideas. What do you think of these?

• A party/celebration honoring all living main event winners. Maybe give them some additional token (trophy, special bracelet, two-hour massage from Hilga)
• A “History of Poker” special tournament that would contain a rotation of historical WSOP games that haven’t been played recently (or in some cases decades). Possible choices inclued Five-Card Stud, Five-Card Draw, Ace-to-Five Lowball and Chinese Poker.
• Make the entry fee on all events a mere $40 in honor of the occasion!
• Whatever happened to that event you had pondered where only non-bracelet winners could enter? You could call it the Amateur Extravaganza.

Other thoughts, dear readers?

I had hoped to take out Jason “Spaceman” Kirk since he crippled me in the event last year, and was fortunate enough to not only draw his table but also the seat to his immediate left. However, we never tangled in a large pot. Instead, I doubled up early with A-A against the 10-10 of the guy who won the 30-minute massage at a drawing before the tournament began.

“I still get the massage, right?” he asked before putting his chips into the pot against my all-in bet. (The action was 150 from me, 350 from him and all in from me…25-50 blinds and 2,000 starting stacks)

Anthony Holden was moved to my table and I had to take a shot at busting him. I limped for 100 with 10-J and Seth Palansky, the Harrah’s PR guy, made it 200 to go. Holden called in the BB and I called. After a flop of 10-3-2 I checked to Palansky and he only bet 300. Holden pushed in for 650 and I had to take a shot at a good story so I pushed. Palansky called for his last chips. I was ahead on the flop — K-5 for Holden and 4-6 for Palansky, but the 5 on the turn gave SP a big pot.

I then got crippled when Ali Nejad was moved to the table and shortly pushed with A-6. I called with 10-10 and the ace hit the flop. I doubled through Palansky on a coin flip and was able to push a few people around on blind steals when the stakes went to 200-400 with a 50 ante before running into aces.

“We wanted to find a way to punch through pop culture more than we already had.”

Pollack added that if the move proves successful he would like to see it continued. No surprise there.

More notes:

• Pollack said he’d like to see the WSOP branch out beyond America and Europe to include incarnations of the tournament series in Asia and Latin America.
• He expects a similar configuration for the WSOP next year as was in place this year. There could be some events added, and as 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the WSOP Harrah’s brass is planning something special in recognition of the milestone.
• The annual Poker Hall of Fame inductions will take place on Nov. 10, the same day as the main event final table. Pollack would like to see some sort of shrine created even better than what is in place at Binion’s.
• DVDs of ESPN telecasts will be made available to any of the “November Nine” who do not live in a country where ESPN is not available so they won’t be at an unfair disadvantage.
• This year’s WSOP had more than 59,000 participants creating $180 million plus in prize pools. The winner of the main event will get more than $9 million of a $64 million prize pool.

 

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.
  

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.

It had already been a wild and fun night in a loose 3-6 Omaha Hi-Lo w/ full kill game at Binion’s and I was about to call it a night at 4 a.m. when this drunk Englishman stumbled to the table with a fist full of chips. I could tell right away this guy was going to be interesting, and likely to give away his stacks.

Unsurprisingly, he proceeded to give away some of his roll. After one guy took a nice pot, the Englishman said, “You American lump!” and started cackling.

“A lump? What’s a lump?” asked the guy incredously.

“What’s your name?” the Englishman asked.

“Dave. Who are you?”

“Peter. Peter the Great.”

At some point later someone used a slang term. I can’t recall it at the moment, but a riled up Peter the Great responded, “We gave you the English language and you desecrated it. You don’t speak the Queen’s English.”

Robert, a Binion’s regular, chimed in with, “Is that the English queen or a drag queen?”

Peter the Great pointed his finger at Robert. “You don’t insult the queen. That’s one thing you don’t do.”

“Is Prince Charles going to be the king or are they going to pass him over?” Robert asked.

To which Peter the Great quipped, “We should put a man of great intellect in the position…like George W. Bush, shall’nt we?” And then he cackled.

Later, after continued banter between the Americans and the Brit, Peter the Great remarked how England was the greatest country in the world and had given the world the greatest culture.

“Like the Titanic?” asked Dave.

Peter the Great cackled. “The Titanic was built in Ireland!”

“Wasn’t there a problem with the rivets?” Dave asked.

“They were probably American rivets,” Peter the Great replied.  

The stars of poker filled The Grand convention center at the Golden Nugget Tuesday night for a charity event hosted by Phil Ivey. The recommended $1,000 donation with $500 rebuys and add-ons went largely to benefit the Budding Ivey Foundation, an organization started by Ivey’s mother and named after his late grandfather Leonard “Bud” Simmons. The money raised from the event for the foundation is to be allocated to a few charities, including the Boys and Girls Club, Springs Preserve and Empowered 2 Excel, a local academy for the underprivileged that focuses on improving the quality of life for young people by concentrating on academic success, social-growth, character education and health.

“It’s good to be able to give back to Las Vegas,” Ivey said before the tournament kicked off. “I’d like to thank the fans and all the poker players who came. I appreciate all of you guys support. Enjoy yourself and have some fun.”

Among the couple of hundred of people milling in the convention center for the tournament was a who’s who list of poker players, including names like Negreanu, Matusow, Ferguson, Zolotow, Gowen, Lindgren, Laak, Tilley, Phan, Bloch and many more. Fans walked around fetching autographs while players took prop bets on the tournament. Matt Savage served as tournament director and emcee.

The cards and alcohol were flying. Someone tossed a drink at Matusow during the very hearty craps game that took place during breaks in the tournament. Players were carried into the room, which included a few blackjack tables along with the craps tables, on the shoulders of others before it was their turn to shoot. One unidentified man ran laps around the room after a particularly good roll.

“It’s time to start back with the tournament,” a floorman told me during on break, “but my boss doesn’t want to tell them to leave the craps table.”

Players also wandered back and forth to the annual Howard Lederer/Steve Zolotow barbecue next door in the Nugget’s pool area.

The event also included auctions for prizes that included signed and framed Full Tilt Poker jerseys of players like Erik Seidel and Jennifer Harman.

Following my all night session in O8 at Binion’s until 7:30 a.m. Tuesday I was too tired to stay for the end of the event. As soon as I find out who won I’ll give you the low down.