Austin Awesome in $5,000 PLO

Richard Austin took down the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event in stunning fashion, eliminating Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy and Sorel Mizzi on the final hand when he hit a flush on the river to take down the coveted WSOP bracelet as well as $409,484. Mizzi would take second place, good for $253,048, while Josephy finished in 3rd for $166,771.

Nguyen Winning $10k Stud 8

Day 2 of the $10,000 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship has Scotty Nguyen, still $4,000,000 short of his goal at this year’s WSOP or he retires from poker, is the current chip leader (342,500) with 33 players remaining. Lyle Berman (280,000), John Hennigan (230,000), Greg Raymer (196,000) and Jeff Lisandro (154,000) are some of the notables remaining. Unfortunately for Pokerati readers, Tom Schneider was one of the most recent eliminations.

Woodall Waxing Competition in $2,000 NL

Warren Woodall, who had a deep run in an earlier $2,000 NL holdem event, is the current chip leader (580,000) with 68 players remaining in another $2,000 NL Holdem event. Corwin Cole (465,000), Christian Harder (375,000) and Ken Lennaard (251,000) make up a few of the notables remaining as they play down to the final table or the 3am deadline, whichever comes first.

Sands Rises in the Desert

David Sands leads the remaining 239 players from a starting field of 446 in the $2,000 Limit Holdem event with two levels left in the day. Sands currently has about 36,000 in chips, followed by John Monette (30,000), Daniel Negreanu (23,500), Alex Kravchenko (20,000) and Mickey Seagle (19,000) as notables on the unofficial leaderboard.

Follow the updates over at www.wsop.com and more pictures of ass crack here at Pokerati.

In a final table that ESPN SHOULD be covering (instead of ESPN360), the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys final table has been set for around 3pm.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,800
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

The three names that may not appear familiar to the poker fan, but those who follow the online scene know OMGClayAiken, tsarast and the_houdini very well.

Other action from last night after the jump:

The pros continued their domination of the World Series of Poker last night, taking down both bracelets awarded. First, Full Tilt Pro Kenny Tran beat Alec Torelli 2-0 to take down the $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship, taking down almost $540,000 and an invite into the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In the $1,500 Razz event, Team Poker Stars Pro Barry Greenstein won his 3rd career bracelet, eliminating Chris Klodnicki in an almost 3 hour headsup match. All three of Barry’s bracelets have been won in non-holdem events (PLO and NL KC Lowball being the other two).

The $1,500 NL donkament couldn’t get to a final table, so they return this afternoon with 17 remaining. Here’s the lineups for those two tables, filled with mostly unrecognizable names:

Seat 2: Trevor Donaldson (Phoenix, Arizona) — 470,000
Seat 3: Vitaly Lunkin (Moscow, Russia) — 912,000
Seat 4: Frank Simpson (Novi, Michigan) — 199,000
Seat 5: Deb Blair (Tucson , Arizona) — 310,000
Seat 6: Philip Yeh (Stenungsund, Sweden) — 819,000
Seat 7: Carl Jerome (Ellston, Iowa) — 495,000
Seat 8: Barry Schultz (Cordova, Tennessee) — 858,000
Seat 9: Richard Alm (Los Angeles , California) — 322,000

(Table 15)
Seat 1: Jordan Smith (College Station , Texas) — 789,000
Seat 2: Bashar Ramahi (Edmonton, Alabama) — 204,000
Seat 3: Jeffrey Brown (Hollywood, Florida) — 337,000
Seat 4: Tony Gargano (Sterling Heights, Michigan) — 284,000
Seat 5: Deric Fitzgerald (Huntington Beach, California) — 175,000
Seat 6: Brett Kimes (San Antonio, Texas) — 208,000
Seat 7: Bobby Firestone (Santa Barbara, California) — 544,000
Seat 8: Kenneth Terrell (Lawrenceville, Georgia) — 888,000
Seat 9: Robert Brown (Roseville, California) — 300,000

The $3,000 NL Holdem field is down to 81, but only 72 will get paid. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, other notable names remaining include John Phan, David Singer, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, Jimmy Fricke and Kathy Liebert.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 98 on day 2, with Patrick Bueno the current chip leader. Other notable names include Justin Bonomo, JC Tran, Terrence Chan, Michael Mizrachi, and Alex Kravchenko.

Today, there’s only one tournament, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event that will start at noon. Last year, Hoyt Corkins won the bracelet in an 837 entrant field.

More updates later in the day…

One table in particular, Table 15 in the Orange section has an impressive line-up: Robert Williamson III, Phil Hellmuth, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Sirous Jamshidi, Daniel Negreanu, and Daniel Alaei. And as I’m typing, Alex Kravchenko was moved to that table as well.

The players are having a good time with the set-up, and it’s a couple tables away from the spectator rail, so railbirds aren’t hovering. Strange thing happened, though. A non-ESPN-credentialed person came up to the table with a video camera, which is typically good enough to get you and your media credential kicked out on your ass, and filmed some of the action, even commenting to the players and looking for reactions. Hellmuth started to get annoyed, and that’s when a certain Harrah’s big-wig came over and monitored the filming; by his mere presence, he sanctioned it.

As a few fans found their way through the tables and security to get closer to the table, they were shooed away and told to get out of the area. Yet, the rogue videographer was able to stay and continue filming for quite awhile before leaving upon obtaining the footage he desired. Interesting exception to the media rules. I’m sure there was a good reason…

Tom Schneider ($416,829):
Event 5: 1st/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 16: 4th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 46: 1st/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Jeff Lisandro ($457,309):
Event 7: 13/145 Pot Limit Omaha W/Rebuys
Event 13: 2nd/398 World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 32: 1st/213 Seven Card Stud
Event 40: 18/620 Mixed Hold’em limit/no-limit
Event 46: 62/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Robert Mizrachi ($861,138)
Event 5: 26/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 9: 40/690 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Event 16: 6th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 26: 5th/192 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 50: 1st/314 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha

Phil Hellmuth ($738,724)
Event 10: 104/1,531 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 15: 1st/2,628 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 28: 6th/827 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 34: 25th/296 Limit Hold’em
Event 45: 31st/728 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 52: 95/1,048 No Limit Holdem w/ rebuys

Freddy Deeb ($2,291,489)
Event 4: 45/481 Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 30: 27/847 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 39: 1st/148 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.

The current method of determining the POY is to give the same amount of points to each tournament excluding the Main Event, the $50,000 Horse Event and all other events that are restricted, i.e. Seniors, Ladies, Casino Employees and Media. A player receives 100 points for a win no matter what event he wins, 75 points for a second all the way down the line to 5 points for cashing.

Before providing your assignment, here are some of the comments that I have heard regarding the criterion to determine the POY. I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with any of them. Number of players in the field, dollar amount won, dollar amount of buy-in, versatility in tournaments won, the $50K HORSE should count, the Main Event should count, perceived skill of field, and I’m sure there are more. Come up with your own too.

Here’s what I would like you to think about. First look at the performances of the five players above and any other player you would like to include. Based upon your own beliefs about what the criterion should be, pick your winner of the POY. Now that you have your POY, design a system that would end up selecting your player. I think you’ll find that its not easy, however, I may have a little say in this process next year, so I would love the feedback of the smart readers of Pokerati.