An oddly timed official statement, released from PokerNews Mgmt:

PokerNews Official Statement
July 14, 2008
PokerNews Management
The last 48 hours have been a crucial and trying time for PokerNews.

On the outset of the World Series of Poker, we have been associated with an outstanding female poker player, who until a few hours ago, was the last woman standing in the original field of 6844 entrants in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Official PokerNews representative, Tiffany Michelle, was one of the chip leaders for the better end of her run in the Main Event and was poised for a brilliant Final Table appearance that would make her the second woman in history to achieve such a feat.

As a company that truly believes in this industry and in the importance of supporting aspiring poker players, PokerNews sponsored her Full Tilt Poker into several buy-in events at this year’s World Series including the Main Event, enabling Tiffany to showcase her irrefutable talent and flair on the felt. However, a few days into the Main Event, several media outlets published reports and images showing Tiffany donning an UltimateBet.net logo during her play at the ESPN feature table.

It was later confirmed that without any consultation with PokerNews, Tiffany went ahead and signed a sponsorship deal with Ultimate Bet. While we welcome such sponsorship deals between online gaming operators and players, as a company we could see no reason as to why we were left out of such negotiations, especially considering the relationships that PokerNews has with all such entities. Tiffany was bought into the event by PokerNews and had a signed player contract with PokerNews Ltd. We believe, that based on advice from her agent that the contract may have loopholes; she went and made a deal with an online gaming operator that completely contradicted the trust that we had put in her, both as an employee and as a sponsored player. As an organization we felt completely sabotaged by Tiffany, her agent and Ultimate Bet.

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It might not be obvious by the name California Jen, but I’m actually a native St. Louisan - born and raised. Having lived there most of my life, I still have family in the Gateway to the West and visit several times a year. (Hi, Mom!)

Who am I going to root for at the final table when no pros are left and I couldn’t tell one player from the next? The guy wearing the STL hat! How could a die-hard Cardinals fan not root for the guy with the red STL logo?

As Johnny mentioned, St. Louis is ready to saunter rally behind their hometown hero, at least they will when they find out about this little thing called the World Series of Poker and the $9 million at stake. Even though the final table has not been set, as 11 player still remain, Dennis is the massive chipleader with over 24 million chips (second place has under 15 million). The 53-year old trucking company worker is making a solid run at going to the November final table as the top dog, and I’m jumping on the bandwagon.

GO STL!

14 players left as they head to the dinner break, to return at 8:30). Average stack will be 9.77m as the players return at 80,000/160,000 with a 20,000 ante.

Eliminations:
15th - Owen Crowe
16th - Anthony Scherer
17th - Tiffany Michelle

Chip counts at the dinner break:

More…

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

Well, that sure didn’t last. Pokerati’s only just-like-family player in the main event has been eliminated.

After losing momentum throughout the day, Tiffany Michelle’s last hand and last stand went down as reported by PokerNews:

Dennis Phillips raised to 500,000 from UTG, Peter Eastgate called and Tiffany Michelle called from the big blind. The flop was . Michelle checked, Phillips bet 1,000,000, Eastgate called and Michelle sat, propped up on her knees for about a minute before annoucing, “All in.” She had about 3.8 million behind. Phillips folded and Eastgate called.

Eastgate

Michelle

Tiffany Michelle needed serious help. Her top pair needed running straight cards to beat Eastgate’s set of aces. The turn was the and Michelle was drawing dead. The river was the and Tiffany Michelle’s Main Event run came to an end. She exited the stage in 17th place to a standing ovation.

Nice run, chica! Sorry we won’t be seeing you at the final table…

17 players left, players return from break at the 60/120/20k level:

Chip leader - Joe Bishop - 16.3m
Tiffany Michelle - 4.42m

Eliminations:
18th Jason Reisenberg
19th Albert Kim
20th Brandon Cantu
21st Paul Snead
22nd Judet Toni Cristian
23rd Tim Loecke

5:10pm Update: Tiffany Michelle out in 17th place.

The table draw with two tables left:

More…

Supposedly our favorite Dallas homey still alive in the main event … his dad was the air traffic controller at DFW airport that figured out bad shit was going down on September 11th.

Go Dallas Poker / America!

23 players left, returning to 50/100/10k level

Eliminations:
Aaron Gordon - 24th
Niklas Flisberg - 25th
Phi Nguyen - 26th
Michael Carroll 27th

Chip leader - Dennis Phillips - 14.4m
Tiffany Michelle - 5.1m (still sporting UB gear, athough Pauly says a deal with PokerStars had been made, then spurned)

Pokerati has no horses in the race, but in a remote way, we do. As a matter of fact, Pokerati is connected to all of the remaining 27 players in the 2008 WSOP main event. We like to call it Six Degrees of Pokerati.

Familiar with the Six Degrees of Separation? Or more importantly, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? There’s our logic in a nutshell. It’s not the most original concept in the world, but give us a break, will ya?

Since some players will be eliminated as the day progresses, we should at least throw out the top tier – those who come in at only one degree of separation from Pokerati. Drumroll…

Tiffany Michelle: Dan and I both know her. We have been to karaoke with her at Imperial Palace, I have been to dinner parties with her at Mariealena’s, and I have even seen her sing at several L.A. nightclubs. Most importantly, Dan and I are both MySpace friends with her, and we’ve shared close quarters on media row at the WSOP. We’re practically family.

Brandon Cantu: We share some of the same friends, like Joy, Tiffany, and Jeff Madsen, and we have ended up at some of the same social functions. Not only are we MySpace friends, but he came to my 2007 birthday party at PURE nightclub. He’s practically a brother to me.

Players in the main event who are two or three degrees of Pokerati coming soon…

No one’s got a better collection of WSOP factoids than Nolan Dalla (no offense, KevMath, you’re also a fact gathering machine) … and here are the WSOP media director’s notes about Day 6 (money, players, storylines, countries, stats, etc.) with potentially relevant info about the field moving forward:

[Hmm, maybe it is still the Year of the Pro, even though most of these pros are relatively unknown outside their home casinos?]

More…

Today’s the final day of play in the Amazon Room, as the 27 players remaining will play down to the November Nine, as those players scatter around the world an the vultures agents that represent them in an attempt to maximize the profile and sponsorship potential of a relatively unknown group of players looking to win just over $9m early in the morning of November 11th.

To see those final 27, head to page 2:
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This weekend wasn’t about life-changing money so much as it was about life-easing money for those who went super-deep (top 1 percent), but not deep-deep-deep in the main event: Margo Outhred reading David Sedaris’ latest (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) while awaiting important updates via text from her husband Alex. Though supposedly tournament poker is all about going for the win, there were points when he got short-stacked that she became very interested in the payout levels, and would rush back into the Amazon Room to let him know what they stood to gain if he could hold on for X spots longer.

63rd-55th place paid $115,800

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred finished in 54th(-46th) for $135,100 — a small but noticeable victory on his way out of the 2008 WSOP main event.

Oh shit, while contemplating the significance of Tiffany Michelle in a Matusow-less field, I almost completely overlooked Craig Marquis — an online player from Arlington (craigmarq) who Raj Kattamuri introduced to me just the other day. And lo and behold, he’s frickin’ second in chips! 11.5 million! Go craigmarq!

He says he doesn’t really play in Dallas underground games — just sticks to online — but he’s exactly the kinda player who I thought would do well this main event … a relative unknown who ain’t dancin’ at his first WSOP rodeo.

Big pre-emptive congrats, dude, and damn all you longtime Pokerati readers for not giving me the heads-up that a Dallas guy was still alive!!! thanks for giving us another person to cheer on as we work our way towards the November Nine.

I continue to work the hallways and set up executive-journo shop this time outside the payouts cage — where Pauly teaches me how to figure out who’s really backing whom … but not before we get distracted by a player sponsorship deal taking shape right before our very eyes, as a PartyPoker representative exchanges pleasantries with guys who clearly love the show Entourage agents from Poker Royalty. (Nothing would become of these pre-negotiations, however, as the lone remaining PartyPoker player would go from chip leader to out in 71st place in less than a day — falling just 62 spots short of the ever-valuable final table that various poker bizzers are jockeying for a piece of.)

Episode 27: Payouts and Payoffs

No, Hoyt, don’t do it! Hoyt Corkins sherpas Tuscaloosa Johnny to Red Rock Canyon for some fresh perspective and 2008 WSOP recovery.

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.

More…

Supposedly the 2008 WSOP has been the “Year of the Pro”. Arguably so … but that puts a lot of pressure on Mike Matusow to make the final table. Otherwise, might we be looking at something in November that ain’t too different from a deep-stack donkament? Think about it … take a typical 1500 WSOP tourney and multiply by … yikes! 6.66 — ooh, there’s that number again! Evil-creepy!

But hey, numbers are numbers, and investigative math leads us to some pretty damning evidence:

$1,500 NLH x 1% of Satan = $10k main event.

Now factor in all the skulls seen in 2008 poker apparel … uh-huh, exactly. So it’s all on Matusow now, obviously, to be the Charlie Daniels of Poker.

Meanwhile, hallway rumors are that Poker Royalty is trying to negotiate a deal to represent the Antichrist as we get closer to the final table.

Finalist:

Best Mullet
Best Mullet-to-Chipstack Ratio

Though unspoken blogger code prevents me from telling you whether or not this is a picture of Iggy, I can tell you that this player was seen at Iggy’s table well into the main event money.

Recorded a couple days ago, as we were nearing the bubble … Benjo dropped by Tao of Pokerati studios to give his opinion on poker agents (they suck the blood out of the poker economy), France’s best WSOP hopes (they’re all gonna make the money), and how bad at poker Polacks are (can’t even win their own tourneys … zee eediotes).

Episode 26: Agents, Frenchies, and Polacks (feat. Benjo)

As noted in the previous post, Phil Hellmuth was able to have his penalty reversed. The penalty was initial imposed when he consistently berated an opponent during last night’s play, and he was supposed to sit out the first orbit of play today. Not anymore. The official statement on the special exception change was released by the World Series of Poker as follows:

This morning Phil Hellmuth met with Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director, Howard Greenbaum, Harrah’s Regional Vice President for Specialty Gaming, and Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP. Based on that meeting and an official review of the situation, it was decided that the penalty imposed on Mr. Hellmuth at the conclusion of play last night was excessive.

“Warnings and penalties are intended to correct inappropriate behavior and our rulings should be as fair as possible, given the circumstances,” said Pollack. “In this instance, the punishment did not fit the crime.”

“Phil has now been warned and put on notice in a way that he never has been,” Pollack added.

According to Dr. Pauly, Phil Hellmuth was not allowed to flaunt his massive UB logo for the television cameras while seated at the ESPN feature table. The powers-that-be put duct tape all over the big round UB symbol on the front of Hellmuth’s jersey. No special treatment for the Brat today.

Wonder if the duct tape, along with his one-orbit penalty for berating another player at the end of play last night, will affect his play today. He only had 721K coming into Day 6, and if he doesn’t keep himself from Phil-tilt, he could lose it all.

UPDATE: No penalty for Hellmuth. Evidently, it was overruled! According to PokerNews, WSOP Commissioner said, “The penalty has been overturned, and we will be issuing a formal statement shortly.”

Play ended on an explosive note last night as Phil Hellmuth’s antics earned him a 1 orbit penalty for his prolonged verbal attack on Cristian Dragomir on the last hand of play. 79 players return at 12 today to play down to the final 27, however long that takes. There’s still two women in the field (Tiffany Michelle 5th with 3,438,000 and Lisa Parsons 73rd with 581,000). The leader is Mark Ketteringham, with 5.8m in chips,Andrew Brokos in 2nd with about 4.08m, and Nikolay Losev in 3rd with 4.06m. Notable names remaining include David Benefield, Brandon Cantu, Kido Pham, David “Chino” Rheem, Mike Matusow, Hellmuth, Victor Ramdin, Matt Matros, Keith
“The Camel” Hawkins, Alex Outhred, and Thomas Keller. To see everyone’s situation in terms of chips and where they sit, head to page 2:

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photo: Wicked Chops Poker
EPT Powergirl Kara Scott proudly representing the “World’s Argest Oker Ite”.

It is no secret that poker tournaments filmed for television have made logos an important part of the game. Online poker websites and companies selling poker-related products are among the most lucrative deals to be had, as they are willing to pay players in front of the cameras to advertise for them. It works – players receive bonus compensation to allow a company rep to strategically place a Full Tilt or PokerStars or All In Energy Drink sticker on their shirts or hats.

Most television production companies involved with the big tournaments now lay out specific guidelines for the number of logos allowed, as well as the size and wording of them. For example, the World Poker Tour allows only one pre-approved logo per player, no bigger than 6 square inches and located on the shirt breast pocket.

The World Series of Poker has taken a different approach, allowing multiple logos for any site or product, with a few exceptions like prohibiting dot.com gaming sites that accept U.S. customers. The specific rule about logos at the WSOP is as follows:

Tournament Rule #43:
Tournament participants may wear apparel with multiple logos, patches or promotional language. However, no individual logo, patch or block of promotional language is to be larger than 12 square inches. No single company name is to be represented more than once on any individual article of clothing. For players seated at a table taped for television or broadband video coverage, logos may not be added after the beginning of that day’s session of play.

As the 2008 WSOP hit the money, many players had sponsorship deals of some sort, and there was no shortage of logos in the tournament area. Full Tilt logos were well within the guidelines, while PokerStars pushed the envelope but somehow did not violate the rules. Other sites like UltimateBet played by the rules, except when it came to Phil Hellmuth’s jersey, the entire front of which is a UB symbol.

When I asked a WSOP official about the exception made for Hellmuth, he noted that the ESPN cameras never get the entire logo in the shots. He likened it to a player’s shirt that read “Illinois” across the front, and when I pointed out that Illinois isn’t selling itself like UB is, he said that it would simply be too arduous a task to ask everyone with a word or symbol on their shirt – like University of Michigan or Nike – to change clothes. Understandable, but is it too much to ask that an experienced pro like Hellmuth abide by the fairly clear-cut rules?

The WSOP official did mention that the logo rules will be revisited during the planning of the 2009 WSOP. Now, if someone would just tell Hellmuth…

Just outside the Amazon Room … seriously, this one makes little sense to me.  I suppose it’s a reminder that while you can take the World Series out of the trailer park, you can’t take the trailer park out of the World Series?

With 92 players remaining, Phil Hellmuth is in about dead-middle of the pack, with 1.28 million chips. He had climbed up from near the bottom of the pack some two hours earlier, where he had to fight off some major steam after some bad beats/21st century plays. On break, Hellmuth asked if he could stay in the Amazon Room just to pace, but tournament staff said sorry, they couldn’t make any special exceptions (even for him), which conceivably added to his steam factor … so he went outside into the hot Vegas sun (actually, it was a relatively cool, humid 94 degrees) and paced back and forth along a straight line for the full 20 minutes.

Jack Effel and Oliver Tse

(Apologies for the blur, but I had to kick into full-on Stalkerati mode and take these shots while running.)

On dinner break until 9:30pm with 92 players left. Tiffany Michelle at 3,000,000 and Lisa Parsons at 1,200,000 are the last two women standing. Players will play one more level after dinner break, like Jen notes below.

Top 5 Chip leaders:

Nikolay Losev - 3,500,000
Mark Ketteringham - 3,450,000
Jamal Kunbuz - 3,250,000
Aaron Gordon 3,200,000
James McManus 3,200,000

More on page 2:
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As the remaining 92 players head off to dinner, it was just decided by the tournament staff that they will play only one more level upon their return. That will allow everyone to get outta here around 11:30pm and be here with bells on at noon tomorrow.

Over/under on what the ending number will be tonight?

For some reason that’s really kinda hard to figure out, everyone likes Mike Matusow … maybe its because he encompasses the issues of every emotionally disturbed pre-adolescent boy any of us knew or were. So when you can be entertained by his downswings, how can you not celebrate his successes and root for more? After all, if this guy who clearly got in lots of trouble in elementary/Hebrew school can do it, why can’t we, right?

That’s just a guess, really, on my part. But Pauly tries to get down to the brass tacks of it all by talking with the Poker Shrink, who happens to be working on Mike’s autobiography with Amy Calistri. And in doing so, we learn not only about Mike’s strategy that brought him to Day 5 and what he’s looking to do moving forward, but also the Shrink tells us about Mike’s performance enhancing drug use — and the mutual benefits of Adderall, a drug that keeps certain people sane and happens to help them focus on the poker at hand.

Episode 25: Mike Madderall

A little leftover T-o-P audio, recorded late-night on Day 2B, as I throw the entire observant media for a loop by setting up shop outside the standard media home bases for the biggest Day 2 in the history of poker. People are baffled, and some want to know who’s winning … when all we really know is that about 200-an-hour aren’t. Special appearances by a tournament floor supervisor and some Euro-friends from PokerListings, PokerStars, etc. devolves into prop-betting over the gender and race of people emerging from a set of doors.

Episode 24: Kids in the Hall

Today is the day we watch the all-in-and-busts or all-in-and-double-ups while generally overlooking the pre-river play of players skillfully wielding medium-sized stacks to stay ahead of escalating blinds. It’s also the day that the 2008 189th through probably 28th or maybe 37th place WSOP main event finishers get crowned … so strike up the band(s)!

No more Team Pokerati members still alive … but we do have one Friend of Pokerati still with a fighting chance to make the bigger money — Raj Katamrsaddssldkasdi. He starts the day with 499,000 chips. (Avg. stack is 725k.) His table as Day 5 begins:

Seat 1: Mao Qiu – 1,200,000
Seat 2: Garth Paul – 647,000
Seat 3: Mark Owens – 577,000
Seat 4: Nicholas Sliwinski – 1,408,000
Seat 5: James McManus – 1,761,000
Seat 6: Stephen Kenna – 495,000
Seat 7: Alex Tinsley – 168,000
Seat 8: Raja Kattamuri – 499,000
Seat 9: Yde van Deutekom – 384,000

Others we’ll be paying attention to in the field include:

Phil Hellmuth — the last of the Big Three remaining, he’s impossible not to watch. 581,000

Mike Matusow — seriously, why is it that a guy who would be considered a total miscreant in just about every other profession is generally beloved in the poker world? I know I’d like to see him do well. 458,000

Tiffany Michelle — holy shit, like she can really play or something? Apparently more than just a texter. 909,000

Allen Cunningham — Dan Harrington’s long-lost child? (He’s on the same table as Tiffany.) 1,141,000

(Lost first post because of Rio internet. F!@$&! Abbreviated version here.)

The goal of Day 4 was to play five levels, though it the tournament staff noted that if the field dwindled from the starting number of 474 down to the 175-200 range, play may be stopped after four levels. So, Level 19 played until…189 players remained and a random announcement came that play ended for the day. Huh? With 38 minutes left in the level, they were done for the day.

While straight answers are hard to come by, it is widely accepted that ESPN makes decisions like that. Dr. Pauly speculated that the ESPN featured table was the next one to break, and instead of going through the hassle of moving players and setting up new ones on the stage - attaching microphones, making sure they understand the hole card cameras, etc. - it was easier to end play for the day and start over on Day 5. Voila! It was done.

Today, players are scheduled to play the 38 remaining minutes of Level 19, then the regularly scheduled five levels. Tournament director Jack Effel announced that although that is the plan, it will be reevaluated throughout the day as the field continues to dwindle.

It only took those 38 minutes to see the field shrink from the original 189 to 177. They’re going fast. Hope that fits into ESPN Standard Time.

Dave in Fairview writes in:

Dan … read on Pokerati about “the cheater” caught on tape. Has he been banned from Las Vegas - or, at least from the WSOP Tournament?

Dad, it’s not really cheating … it’s up to the player to protect their own cards. But it’s not gentlemanly. He’s attempting to do something he shouldn’t … and it’s a close call whether or not that constitutes cheating. But if a floor supervisor were to see it, they wouldn’t penalize the guy looking at the cards — they would simply warn the guy who is exposing his cards to be more careful.

After it was decided to play one more level after the dinner break, the tournament staff decided to suspend play with just over 38 minutes remaining in level 19. Two possibilities: Since play started an hour later on Friday, ending it at the same time as the other Main Event days would seem right. Also, there was 21 full tables of 9 players when play was suspended. so that there wasn’t a disadvantage to the other tables.

The leader at the end of day 4 is Jeremy Joseph with over 2.18m in chips, Nikolay Losev is 2nd with 2.11m in chips. 46 players start play today with over 1m in chips, among those players include Brandon Cantu, Shawn Sheikhan, Alex Outhred, Mark Vos, David Benefield, and Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham. Phil Hellmuth is the final remaining Main Event winner with 581,000 in chips.

Tiffany Michelle, Kara Scott, Minna Ritakorpi, Karen Manfrede, and Lisa Parsons, make up the remaining female players. To see how everyone will be seated today, head to page 2:
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About 215 players head towards their 90 minute dinner break, knowing that they’re only playing one more level when they return around 9:45pm. At that point, they should be under the magical 175 figure tournament director Jack Effel had mentioned when play could possibly be stopped early. Saturday is scheduled for another 5 two-hour levels, while on Sunday they play down to the final 27.

The chip leader appears to be Jeremy Joseph, currently atr 2.8m in chips, 1m more than Brandon Cantu in 2nd. Today’s been a moving day for many pros (live and online), as Allen Cunningham, David “raptor” Benefield, APT winner David Saab, and Alex Outhred have moved into the top 10, More notable names left include Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Hoyt Corkins, Raja Kattamuri, Chip Jett, and Adam “roothlus” Levy. There’s less than 10 female players left (Alana Morin leads the ladies with 1m in chips), but two of them are more known for their work in front of the microphone, as Tiffany Michelle (Pokernews reporter) and Kara Scott (EPT hostess) survived the dinner break as well.

More updates later, as the Amazon room gets more deserted by the elimination…

Grumble grumble … things looked to be going so well for Pat Poels. for the past two days, his stacks hardly appeared to be changing, even though he was consistently staying just ahead of average. And he did this all while getting no cards. (Day 1 he got good cards, Day 2 and 3 not so much, which seemed to bode well for Day 4 and/or 5.)

Though I’m sure he’s not happy about it, he finished in a commendable 310th place, for $32,166.

Change 100 reports (via PokerNews):

25,000 Chips Introduced

“Hey, what are those green chips in your stack?” asked a surprised Maya Antonius. A small stack of forest green chips sat atop her tablemate’s stack of yellows and oranges.

He showed the chips to a curious Antonius– at the last color-up dark green 25,000-denomination checks were introduced into play.

Ms. Antonius looked a bit disappointed that she didn’t have any… yet.

The arrival of these chips have been highly anticipated — not just because they are big — but because of the color troubles last year with orange, off-orange, and pinkish-orange all on the table at the same time.

All the denominations higher than 5,000 have changed this year, and even the floor staff doesn’t now what they will be until they come out for color-up.

These shots were taken on Day 2, and they show the player sitting to Pat Poels’ left trying to sneak a peak at his hole cards. I told Pat about this, btw, and like Tommy Grand or Joey Greco, I showed him the surveillance footage of the disappointing truth.

“It’s better that you know,” I told him.

But Pat reassured me that it’s OK, his opponent didn’t see anything, because “I’m very good at looking at my cards,” he said with a straight face as if he were being totally serious about a practiced skill. “Just ask Robert, he’s told me before when trying to sweat me he can’t see my cards.”

Pat is currently on break in Day 4 of the main event — 450k in chips with 350 players remaining, one of whom is not the guy at right.

With a double-up on his first hand, and a favorable flop on his next push, we started to believe … alas, the World Series has ended for Whit, who repped Dallas, Texas, Pokerati, and average white guys with day jobs well.

Whit is now 2-for-2 when it comes to main event cashes. This year he’ll be bringing home 28,950 pre-tax American dollars to donk off in Oklahoma.

Net: +$18,950

Not bad for an extra-exciting summer trip to V-town.

Mean Gene’s official hand recount for PokerNews:

Whitney Blanton Eliminated

A few hands after doubling up against Adam Zinn, Whitney Blanton again moved all in and was called by Sarkis Akopyan. Blanton held to Akapyan’s and took the lead from Sarkis when the flop came . But the turn brought the , giving Akopyan the straight and leaving Whitney needing a king or queen for the full house. But the {4-Hearts} fell on the river and Blanton’s Main Event came to an end.

Was wondering why I couldn’t find proud Pokerati patch-wearer Whit Blanton … he’s on the feature table with an uber-tiny stack in a bad position against Jean-Robert Bellande and Phil Hellmuth. Whit starts the day with 50,500 chips, making him one of the shortest stacks to start on Day 4.

Jean-Robert ain’t too far behind with 124,500, and Hellmuth has 475,000. The chip leader at this table is Sarkis Akopyan with 858,000.

UPDATE: From Mean Gene, who is covering the ESPN table for PokerNews:

Jean-Robert Bellande Eliminated

And they’ll be showing this hand on TV, I think. Playing on the ESPN TV table Jean-Robert Bellande moved all in for his last 66,000 and was called by Sarkis Akopyan. Bellande’s led Akopyan’s and when the flop came it seemed certain that Bellande would double up.

The fell on the turn and Bellande slapped his hands together and said “Yes”, perhaps thinking that he had the hand locked up. But there was some murmuring in the crowd as everyone realized that Akopyan now had a gutshot straight draw.

The was the usual dramatic pause before the river was dealt…and when the dealer placed the on the felt there was a combined roar and moan from the crowd as Bellande fell to a brutal runner-runner straight and saw his Main Event come to an sudden end.

Craig Cunningham likes to – during the main event particularly — look at data, tabulate it, and occasionally share the results with his fellow poker bloggers. Today he sends along a good quick-list of the blind levels we’ll be seeing today, and some interesting thoughts on picking out the likely chip leaders as we whittle our way down to fewer and fewer tables:

No time for great wisdom today and analysis (maybe tomorrow). I would point you to the table tab which is my favorite to look for. I always total the chips at each table when we get to this stage to see where the big tables are. The big tables often yield chip leaders as we move into Day 4 and beyond. Iggy’s table has the fifth most chips to start with only eight players to begin with, including Jeremiah Smith (2nd in chips at just over a million). Structure below.

	SB	BB	Ante	Pot
Level 16	2,500	5,000	500	12,000
Level 17	3,000	6,000	1,000	18,000
Level 18	4,000	8,000	1,000	21,000
Level 19	5,000	10,000	1,000	24,000
Level 20	6,000	12,000	2,000	36,000
Level 21	8,000	16,000	2,000	42,000

Obviously there are only five levels in play today (16-20), but as is the case for the players at the tables, you gotta know what’s coming up (in level 21) to make proper decisions before it.

474 players remain when play starts again at 1pm, some happy to have made the money, others hoping for a much bigger prize later this year. Brian Schaedlich, who started day 3 with over 800,000 in chips, ended up with a much smaller stack of 22,000. The leader at the start of play this afternoon appears to be Jeremy Joseph, who will have about 1,470,000 to start play today. Jeremiah Smith, the one time tournament reporter over at www.pokerwire.com, will be in 2nd with 1,300,000. Alan Jaffray, who tried to enter the ladies’ event earlier in the Series, is among the top 10. Other notables include 2008 Aussie Millions winner Alexander Kostritsyn, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Shawn Sheikhan, Phil Hellmuth, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Matusow, Raja Kattamuri, Johnny Chan and Chad Layne looking to keep their head above water in the killing fields that make up the Amazon Room. Another 5 two-hour levels are scheduled for today, will play start slowing down now, or does the carnage continue unfettered? We’ll know more for certain later this afternoon.

To see where your favorite remaining player is starting, head to page 2:
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The remaining 600-something players are in the money, and the field is dwindling fast. Fewer poker fans are checking out the action, and cash game players are practically non-existent. It’s that time that the World Series begins to come to a close; only four days left after tonight, and everyone is outta here.

So, the production that is the WSOP begins to shrink as well. The Poker Kitchen closed its doors tonight for the final time. With chains on the doors, the staff can be seen through the glass tearing down tables and packing up packets of ranch dressing. The only place left to get food in this area of the Rio for the next four days will be a makeshift pizza stand in the hallway and the gift shop for snacks and boxed sandwiches.

The All In Energy Drink booth has transported the last of its products to the warehouse. The Poker Players Alliance information booth is no more. The Hertz rental car company is gone. And various other booths, like Gamma-O Testosterone Booster and NatureEnergy will likely be deconstructed in the next 24-48 hours.

As media access for non-official media begins to be restricted tonight and in the coming days, with fewer tables and less space to get around the ESPN cameras, many members of the media will be less visible here at the Rio because of the limited access. Granted, there will be much more coverage to come as the remaining hundreds of players vie for seats at the final table, but the light at the end of the WSOP/Rio tunnel is causing some inevitable shrinkage.