THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Down to 61 players. Average stack is about 80k. Chip leader has about 300k. Blinds are 3000/6000+500. A few chip counts that Pokeratizens might care about:

Abteen Vaziri (the “dude” whose name I couldn’t remember on Friday) – 90k
Troy Phillips – 80ishk
Josh Evans – 60k
TJ Cloutier – 85k

Greg Raymer and Kido Pham are milling around. Raymer will be commentating as we move through the money.

UPDATE: TJ Cloutier just almost doubled up … got it all-in with QQ against AK. The lady with big slick would flop an ace, but by the river, TJ would make a spade flush. He is clearly becoming a stronger and stronger force.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–No internet north of the Red River, or at least not at WinStar, where the first of three Day 1s in the $1 million NLH tourney concluded shortly before midnight yesterday. We’ll try to keep you posted from now through the final table, but can only promise so much with two-thumb typing.

Red River Roundup, Day 1 report:

- Event is sold out. 1,000 players. Double last year’s field.
- 333 played yesterday, of which 33 remain and will convene on the other side of the bubble on Sunday.
- Josh Evans and TJ Cloutier both advanced.
- So did Troy “Darling” Phillips. (Go Batfaces!)
- Marco Palacios went out near thw bubble.
- Avg. stack is 50k. Chip leader has about 150k.
- Media coverage is kinda new to WinStar. They haven’t figured out yet whether or not to allow photos.
- New poker room here is very nice.

Day 2-Day 1 has gotten underway. Favorites include Kido Pham and Randy “The Big Randy” Brown. Greg Raymer supposedly plays tomorrow.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ–Robert, one reason you should feel pretty good about your chances in the Arizona State Poker Championship next weekend … well, let’s just say the signs are there! Hanging inside the Casino Arizona poker room — pimping the tourney and its $250k first prize — is a big banner that looks all too familiar. Basically just take the crest-like thingy pictured below, swap out the Batface skull with a CA logo, change the word “Pokerati” to “Arizona,” and there you have it. Seriously, everything else is the same.

click to enlarge / use your imagination

Fascinating, I know … especially if you happen to be into poker clip-art non-copyrighted templates.

LAS VEGAS–Funny how being in Las Vegas has put me so out of touch with all the poker news. I think there are some big tournaments going on, online poker execs in the courts, business deals shaking down, but I’ve got little to report other than poker being played. Still, it’s been kinda interesting to see who you run into at the tables around this town:

The first notable I ran into was OREL HERSHEISER, who apparently just moved here to Las Vegas and sat to my left in a 1/2 NLH game at RED ROCK — fresh after being denied selection into the baseball HALL OF FAME. I tried to play the not-knowing-who-he-is thing — “You lost a vote? Were you running for city council or congress or something?” — but he would end up busting me out when I tried to run a little STOP-N-GO. As I pushed all-in, he asked, “How much money do you have?”

“Um, I’m all-in. About $140 more,” I said, pointing to my stacks.

“No, I mean other money. Because we can make a little side-bet away from the table,” he said, upon showing me THE NUTS.

Red Rock seems to be the OFF-STRIP place to be. On my second post-WSOP outing there, I ran into GARY THOMPSON — World Series of Poker media master and tournament overlord. He was wearing comfortable jeans, loafers, and a button-down shirt while playing 2/5 NLH. With about $800 in front of him, he said he was “down a couple hundred.” But it wouldn’t take long for him to grow his stacks, and a few hours later, he had moved up to the 5/10 game and had what looked to be about $2k.

On that same day, I saw A GUY I BUSTED at the Rio. He was a good player who went with the whole BLACK HOODIE and SUNGLASSES kinda thing, while saying almost nothing and acting with stoic (but angry) CHRIS FERGUSON-like motions. He was playing 1/2 NLH and nursing about $200.

Over at THE VENETIAN in the 2/5 game, I found myself up against a WSOP Dealer — SHAI the ISRAELI GUY. He was sick when I pushed all-in and convinced him to fold his top-pair-top-kicker that would turn into TOP BOAT … only to see the guy who took down the pot from me win with KING-HIGH. A couple hours later I was playing a goofy hand with K-6 offsuit in late position, the flop came K-7-K … he checks, I bet, he raises big, I call. Turn is a 6, he pushes all-in, I call … at which point he shows his POCKET 7s. The table cheers for a FOURTH SEVEN, but it doesn’t come and I send him to the ATM.

One table over, KARINA JETT’S MOTHER was playing — beyond her typical quiet game, she was practically falling asleep at the table (at 3 AM) while nursing about $400. She may not remember this, but she won a $15 PROP BET from me once over a RULES DISPUTE. (My bad … I thought I knew stuff.)

Back at RED ROCK a couple days later, I ran into ABRAHAM, and he really deserves his own post, because he tilted the table unlike anything I had ever seen — and even managed to invoke mockery from a cute young girl who wasn’t playing. Basically imagine the worst personality and poker characteristics of ME, TIM ROGERS and EON MARSHALL all wrapped up into an obnoxious kid who graduated from high school in 2003 and is well aware that he looks like STU UNGAR. Then give him a lot of chips. (His behavior and play was so table-altering it had me interrupting TOM SCHNEIDER’S vacation in ST. THOMAS for some emergency coaching … who advised me well until I played back without paying attention to a guy to my left who had pocket kings.)

I really wanted to KILL THIS KID, or at least make him cry. And so did everyone else — especially the old (presumably) gay man who he busted by calling a $260 raise pre-flop with 2-3 suited only to flop two threes. But he can’t be all that bad, because without provoking from me, he at one point shouted, “THE HAMMER!” with glee. Hey kid, if you are reading this, what I told you at the table after you “bluffed” me with pocket-5s and then taunted (it took me a good five minutes to lay down Ace-high) still applies: “I look forward to seeing you get your education.” Punk-ass. Like seriously, you had at least two of us at the table contemplating how one might go about rolling you in the parking lot.

One of the cool things about Red Rock is that when you need to shake off a bad beat or just step away from a dipshit the table to refocus, you can go BOWL A GAME 24 hours a day — for $3 +$3.50 for shoes. That seems like positive EV.

The picture above is from a day I didn’t actually play poker … but I did walk through the poker room just for funsies after bowling, and whom should I run into but NOLAN DALLA, longtime Dallas poker expat and WSOP media guru, legendary sports handicapper, and Stu Ungar biographer. He was wearing CARGO SHORTS, a frumpled shirt, and seemed pleasantly drinky while playing 5/10 NLH with a couple old friends from POKERSTARS.

“I’m stuck $800 but having a great time!” he screamed upon embracing me with a BEAR HUG. “Isn’t this a great casino!?! Hey everybody, it’s Dan from Pokerati!”

Murmur?

“Oh, right …” Nolan said. “Didn’t mean to blow your cover.”

I also ran into STEVE HALL one night at Red Rock, too. He was playing PENNY VIDEO SLOTS. He had a big hit of some sort of crazy picture combinations that won him about $60.

And then to top it all off, I went to CAESAR’S PALACE with DON JONES (of Rounder Club fame), LEIGH & BRIAN from the Poker Atlas , DOCTOR STEVE, and former Absolute Poker marketing chick JEN TIDWELL to play in their 50-player-max $65 tourney. We all had 10 percent of each other, which proved irrelevant as our top player would bubble.

I was the first to bust out (of the tournament) and would take a seat playing some 2/5. Of all the poker tables in Las Vegas … what are the chances that DAN BALLENGER (aka HONG KONG SUE, father of SON OF SUE) would get seated at my table? It would take more than a full orbit before he realized he was sitting with a fellow BATFACE. He bought in for $500 and cashed out a couple hours later for a little less than that. HKS got most of those chips from me … calling a $100 bluff with second-pair-no-kicker (what was I THINKING!?!) … and then bluffing me out of a $400+ pot on the river, getting me to lay down aces. He mucked at the time, but told me as he left that he pushed all-in for his remaining $135 with an underpair. Wish I hadn’t asked, because it had me semi-tilting for a good 30 minutes or more. I know he was just trying to be nice, but still …

Then JASON from JACKIE’S (in Dallas) and “RICKY ZILEM” showed up. They were just walking through checking out the action. Fancy running into these guys here. Chris/Ricky, said, “I did what nobody does when they first land in Vegas and took a nap.”

Ah, indeed.

Small world. Good times.

A technologically significant poker match is going down right now in Canada — Phil Laak and Ali Eslami vs. Polaris, a supposedly bad-ass poker bot — for $50,000. Here’s an article with more specifics. (Thanks, Venita, for the link!)

This is a scientifically controlled experiment, being played in “duplicate poker” format. Further explanation of this concept here. To learn more and follow the action live, you can do so here.

That’s what Sommer the Batface is doing:

also, don’t imagine you’re following that bot-live-blog, but Ali is absolutely running over the computer in the first 75 hands, thanks to an insane run of cards. He’s up $350 (in limit). Will be fasincating to see if the bot can extract more or less money from Laak with the same cards Ali has gotten so far.

Very cool and interesting. I could see people lining up to try their luck/skill against Polaris. For example, while Laak and Eslami are clearly good players, I wonder how RaiNKhaN would do … you know, since he has been mistaken for a bot and all.

UPDATE (4:39 pdt): JOSH EVANS still kicking ass. 300k in chips puts him near the top.

LAS VEGAS–Day 2b action is well underway about to get underway. In fact, it probably already will be so by the time this post is finished. It rained last night in Las Vegas — I knew it would!

Today, like yesterday, is all about the serious, “somber” poker. Most of the folks who got chips early by getting lucky will be getting knocked out. Short stacks will consistently be all-in. And serious players with a real chance of going deep will figure out if they’ll be nursing their chips into the money or making moves to put them in a position to really contend.

2007 WSOP Player of the Year TOM SCHNEIDER, by the way, is out. Happened a few hands after the dinner break, at which point he told me he was so beat down from the World Series that he didn’t really care if he got eliminated, because it would mean he could go home. Shocking with that attitude that he didn’t win.

Perhaps RANDY BROWN will do better. He starts today with 67,000 chips.

UPDATE: TBR is out. Lost every hand he played, he says. Got it all-in on the button, pushing with pocket 9s into a single-limped pot. The small blind woke up with Kings, the big blind with Aces. The BATFACES officially go 0-fer in the 2007 WSOP, but win the award for best hats.

Better luck next year, “The Big Randy.” You seem to have Day 1 figured out, but can’t make it through Day 2 with terrible cards unless you have a tiny, tiny stack.

TBR, by the way, was sitting virtually back-to-back with SHANNON ELIZABETH throughout Day 1. Nice! Go Poker!

Oops, zoom lens malfunction … Anyhow, yes, SHANNON ELIZABETH is out.

JOSH EVANS (below, left) will be a guy to really watch, as he carries 240,000 chips into Day 2 … with the money just a day-and-a-half only a day away.

And another North Texas pokerer fighting to make it to the pre-money bubble is JERRY RANDACK (right). Considering that he took 2nd place in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, we like his chances.

Dallas big-game player PRIMO is also still alive. He’s seen here tearing up the $5/$10 NLH cash game (moments away from bluffing — oops! — away more than $1,300 in a hand).

We’re still looking for VANDY CROUCH — seen here, cashing in the 6-handed No-Limit event — who is rumored to be protecting some 240,000 chips.

UPDATE: I mean not like right now. He finished Day 2a with about that many. He makes it to Day 3 — where the fight for the money begins!

For those who may have missed it, ROUNDER CLUB representative CHRIS COMO did not move on to day 2. Despite building up his stacks and taking control of his table, he got beat down toward the end of the day, and, in the end, surrendered them to online powerhouse CARL OLSON.

LAS VEGAS–Randy Brown (who is this guy, not this guy of similar nomenclature in the various player databases, fyi) was climbing up the leaderboard when his name appeared on the TV screens, and one fan, unaware that he was standing so close to TBR’s table said:

What the hell is “The Big Randy”? What a douchebag.

LAS VEGAS–OK, this will probably be my last update of the night, because I have TWO parties I HAVE to get to. One is with my old-good-good-ole friends at PartyPoker, and the other is a bikini party at a pool. So I am sure you understand.

Clonie Gowen is out. Not happy.

Chris Como is holding together nicely, with about 33,000. UPDATE: Just took a hit and looks a little bummed. But now with about 24,000, he still has almost as many chips as Tom Schneider.

Randy Brown, whom you all know as “The Big Randy” is in the top 10 or 20 in chips for the day, with at least 115,000.

Um, Go Batfaces/Watch out Arizona Posse!?! Sorry folks … yes, I’ve got pictures, but they are going to have to wait. Enjoy what’s in the Pokerati Flickr files in the meantime.

LAS VEGAS–Everyone keeps texting me looking for results. Players are on break, and Como is just above where he started, with about 23,000. TBR is going strong, with something like 36 or 37ish k. And he looks quite stylish sporting his intriguing Batfaces lid.

UPDATE: The Big Randy is getting bigger. He’s at 63,500. I happen to be sitting next to some key PokerNews reporters and have informed them, and they have taken note of his progress but have also given me a polite, “let’s see how things stand after the dinner break before we start tracking someone we don’t know.” Fair enough, because you certainly can’t count on my sticking around any more than you can count on the running chip counters to recognize his Batfaces hat.

At that point his count would become “stale” — something PokerNews tries to avoid, I just learned.

LAS VEGAS–Text to Tom (who has been a gracious sounding board this WSOP on matters of game selection, bankroll management, and getting to know that leavin’ feelin’) late last night:

5:11 am — I am good at poker, bad at drinky blackjack. In for 800, cashed out for 2800.

This came after attending Z-Fest 2007 – a 4th of July barbecue hosted by the Lederer family at Steve Zolotow’s house. It also happened to be the site of the “World Series of Karaoke,” which meant getting to see Joe Reitman dance and scream while exposing/shaking/rubbing his belly, and a shitfaced Mike Matusow parading around like a drunken 7-year-old boy with balloons. Good fun. You gotta love a party that celebrates America’s birthday with great Middle Eastern food and an open bar.

From there, I was supposed to meet up with some Dallas friends to chase a few skirts engage in frotteurism at Carnaval Court. But while waiting around I played a little tiny-stakes outdoor blackjack and somehow managed to lose $497 in less than an hour. Dammit! So I went to make it back playing poker across the street at Caesar’s …

More…

RE: HammerWear

LAS VEGAS–There’s a sale at the Rio! That’s right, get your non-freebie swag! Last year so many T-shirts were being given away, I’m sure it was hard for the official joint to hawk its merch. This year no one’s here to give away the goods gratis … so apparel is being sold on the corner (like literally — prime location at the Amazon room crossroads) for $25 a pop. Or shall we say $17.50 a pop?

A few featured selections:

Wow. Kinda hard to believe that these shirts have the officially licensed WSOP logo, no? Oooh, Dead Man’s Hand! Pizz-izz-zashhaw! Don’t Hate the Playa, Foo! Booh-yah! Perhaps the worst shirt for sale — one commemorating Phil Hellmuth’s historic 2007 WSOP victory:

click to enlarge

These shirts have been on sale for about two weeks now … guess how many they have sold.

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LAS VEGAS–TBR in Dallas calls in seeking information about the logistics of buying into the main event. He missed the pre-registration deadline and wants to know if he can still get his money to the WSOP before he gets back to Vegas … and if he can still secure a specific starting day:

[display_podcast]

Randy, I spoke with some higher authorities … and you are shit-outta-luck. Kinda. The only way you can buy in is to show up and buy in. You can, of course, wire money to the Rio (or any other casino) and pick it up to carry to the registration desk if you don’t want to carry that much cash through various airports.

As to choosing your starting day, that option is still available — and will be available until a specific day fills up. But, says WSOP guru Nolan Dalla, it is highly unlikely that any specific day will fill up until the day before the main event starts. So if you plan to get here a little early, you’re fine and dandy. But if you wanted to play Day 1c because you weren’t planning on making it out here until the end of Day 1b, then you might run into a few problems.

LAS VEGAS–The Fat Guy came to town yesterday for a super-secret meeting. Fresh Princess had busted out early in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, and after spending some presumably soothing normal-people dinnertime hours with her kids, she joined us at a tucked-away Strip-casino coffee shop. International, worldwide Vegas poker types aside, there was also something comfort-foodish about three Texans sittin’ down over lattes talkin’ major-powerful bidness.

After formulating plans for recalibrating galactic travel infrastructures, Michele met up with her husband for some late-night cash action as I took TFG back to his luxury Binion’s abode. While it’s always good to be downtown — especially when Binion’s is running $20-a-night specials during the WSOP — we were a little disappointed to walk up and down Fremont Street in search of a cool, refreshing Milwaukee’s Best Light, but to no avail. We did, however, see Scotty Nguyen playing 25-cent slots at Binion’s, and despite being with a girl who must’ve been his niece — because she was really young and he hugged her a lot — he was happy to step away from his own personal action to pose for pictures with fans.

Eventually the Fat Guy had to go to bed … it was too late to check up on the action at the Rio, and Binion’s had a $70 non-bracelet event starting in four minutes …

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OK, so maybe he isn’t the first amateur online qualifier, nor will he be the last … But he is the first Rounder Clubber to make accomplish such a feat, and that’s pretty cool. So big congrats to Chris Como, the most accomplished Lodge Amateur Poker graduate and Rounder Club alum. He invested $24+2 in a 336-player event on Full Tilt, where the top 25 qualified for a $200 event … where the top 9 out of 552 won a $12,000 main-event package.

(Sorry Como, can’t Google- hide your name any more … When you register for the WSOP, that becomes a matter of semi-public record.)

UPDATE: Numbers corrected above. Interestingly enough, the first tourney was the last super-satellite into the last WSOP-qualifying satellite on Full Tilt. Como played both events back-to-back, from about 6 pm to 1:30 am.

So out of however many hundreds of pros and thousands of amateurs in the main event, he is now someone whose progress Pokerati will be following — and we couldn’t be happier. Go Como! Make the final table and maybe we can get you a jersey.

In addition to him, below are other the players we care about might possibly be watching in a couple weeks:

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DALLAS–It’s effectively Super Bowl week for me. While I will be there for the main event as well, this week marks our second annual pilgrimage to the WSOP (and fourth poker adventure). Tiny B Tulsa and Gentle Shane are heading out tomorrow, and I will be there by Thursday morning. All of us (assuming Shane can find a backer) plan on rolling the dice in Thursday’s $1,500 No Limit Uberdonkfest.

We’re all still basically dead money, though, collectively, we have been playing poker and tournament poker for several years, and each of us has made a final table in an event with a buy-in of $500 or more. Also, we’ve all played in the WSOP before, and for some of us, this will be at least our fourth event.

Last year, we had several batfaces in the $2,500 NL event (won by Max Pescatori), and our own Zac “Son of Sue” Ballenger cashed fairly deep, finishing 50th out of 1200 (and he probably would have gone deeper if he hadn’t given most of his chips to Scott Fischman).

This year, though we won’t have our tourney ace Son of S. in tow, I think we have another real good chance to send someone deep. The following are my off-the-top-of-my-head odds on how we’ll do:

Make it through Day 1: Only ten percent of the field will survive Day 1. If I were to average what I think each of our individual chances are to survive Day 1, it’s probably somewhere between 7 and 8 to 1. Mathematically, I think that means we have about a 66% chance of someone from our group surviving Day 1.

Make it to final table: Somewhere around 15 to 1.

Final 3: 40 to 1

Bracelet: 100 to 1.