A sign of how things change … back in 2005 the already legendary TJ Cloutier was still tearing it up. But in 2010, the WSOP bracelet he won in the 2005 $5k NLHE is now for sale on eBay. I guess he didn’t cash big enough via the sale of PokerPages to buy it back Bummer, dude. We feel ya. Not sure where the big fields are coming from in LA, AC, Australia, and France … everybody seems broke. But either way, you get the sense that those who are playing are doing so with far more seriousness than the fields were back in the day when TJ won this:

The seller is Plano Pawn Shop (”specializing in fine jewelry and firearms”), who has a 100 percent positive feedback rating after 314 eBay sales. Plano, of course, is the suburb next door to TJ’s home in Richardson … and on the way to the Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma, not to mention some of the bigger private games in the Dallas area.

UPDATE: His bracelet from the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV is also up for sale.

Via Bluff Magazine.

Short jokes aside, “the little corporal” of poker is on a Napoleonic quest to dominate the poker world … or at least the WPT.

The WPT Festa al Lago final table gets underway this afternoon/eve (4pm PT). After all the early tourney hubbub about super-late registrations and related blind structures, the final table looks not unlike just about every other WPT final table — with one well-known pro, one kinda-sorta known pro (Vedes), and four other guys.

Freddy Deeb is the chip leader going into today’s action, but not by much. This is Deeb’s fifth WPT final table (out of 70 appearances) and stands to be his third win, which would tie the WPT bracelet record currently held by Gus Hansen. Deeb also has two WSOP bracelets to his name.

The Festa al Lago final table, by chip count, with seats yet to be drawn:

1. Freddy Deeb – 3,840,000
2. Shawn Cunix – 3,670,000
3. Tommy Vedes – 2,990,000
4. Craig Crivello – 2,570,000
5. Jason Lavallee – 2,045,000
6. Jason Burt – 1,375,000

You can follow the play-by-play at WorldPokerTour.com or via PokerListings here.

The WSOP-E main event is well underway … they’re getting into the money today, playing down to 27. We’ll wait ’til a few more get knocked out before we see what kinda final table is really taking shape. Lots of interesting names still alive — including a couple November Niners. But one player long dead: Phil Hellmuth, aka Caesar.

Check it out, he did a repeat performance of his Caesarian entrance … but this time with actual animals parading through the streets of London. Gag away:

But here’s the funny part … so he had all his tunic-clad ladies, each representing a bracelet … but when they got to the casino door, they couldn’t get in because they didn’t have their ID’s!

More details here:

Phil Hellmuth WSOPE Entrance FAIL

In the last edition of Card Player Magazine that I may receive (canceled the subscription after his initial WSOP comments), November Nine member Jeff Shulman takes the sly opportunity to make another unclear accusation point about the WSOP and Harrah’s.

To refresh memories, Shulman was headed for the final table of the WSOP Main Event in July and made some comments regarding the possibility of winning the bracelet, namely that he would throw the gold in the trash. Two days later, CardPlayer.com published a story allowing Shulman to clarify his feelings. He noted therein that he was disappointed in how the WSOP is run, and that it is no longer run by people who care about poker or have the players in mind. Some of his comments:

“Look, I love poker and entered with the hopes of winning,” Shulman stated. “But, more importantly, I support making the industry stronger and better for the players, and to do this, there needs to be some major changes to the way the World Series is run at the highest level. Hopefully, by doing something like this, people will start talking about those changes. I am going to stand by my commitment, but instead of pointlessly throwing it in the trash, I have come up with a few ideas.”

Jeff Shulman’s alternative bracelet ideas:
1. Auction off the bracelet and give the money to charity
2. Hold a tournament for all players shut out of the main event and award the winner the bracelet
3. Give the bracelet away in a SpadeClub.com tournament
4. Give the bracelet to Stephen Colbert

As the Card Player Media President and COO, Shulman has the magazine at his disposal in which to write a lengthy explanation of what is so wrong with Harrah’s and how he could fix poker. Instead, though, a page in the September 1 issue is dedicated (as always) to the Card Player TV show entitled “The Scoop with Adam & Diego,” and this time Shulman was the guest and excerpts were printed from the interview. Right off the bat, Diego Cordovez asked a question that baffled me coming from someone in the poker press:

“Now, the last couple of days, the poker press, what there is of it, has started to quote you and stir up controversy, which you initiated…”

Anyhooo, his answer? “…I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say that somebody’s got to do something about it. I’m not sure I’m the right guy, being that I’m in the industry, but it’s not like we have some special relationship here. They hate us, for whatever reason… I think they hate anyone who’s not a celebrity, or maybe it’s just that they treat the celebrities so much better than everyone else that they have special rules, they don’t get penalties. I’ve never seen anything like it. If we really want to take poker to the next level, you can’t have different rules for different people.”

Evidently, by disrespecting the WSOP bracelet and Harrah’s (and all the players who would do anything to be in his final table position), he plans to take poker to the next level. Would that be the rude and insulting level? Would that be the vague and evasive level? Would love to hear some thoughts on this issue…

(The opinions/insinuations herein are Cali Jen’s views and not necessarily those of Pokerati or Pokeratizens.)

Recapping the first half of Wednesday’s WSOP:

Lisandro Wins Bracelet #3, Wins Stud Triple Crown

Jeff Lisandro becomes the first player to win three bracelets in one WSOP after Chris Moneymaker initiated the poker boom in 2003, takes down the $2,500 Razz event, good for $188,370. Lisandro has won all three of his bracelets in stud events in each of the three disciplines of stud (Stud high, Stud Hi/Lo and Razz). Lisandro held the chip lead at the beginning of the day and was never seriously threatened. Michael Craig finished in 2nd, good for $116,405. Other notable finishes: Kenna James (6th), Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri (10th), Ville Wahlbeck (12th) and Nikolay Evdakov (13th).

Seniors Six-Pack

Half a dozen players remain in the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship, led by Scott Buller with over 2 million in chips. Michael Morusty, Charles Simon, Dan DeLatorre, Michael Davis and Barry Bounds make up the remaining players.

Thang Flung From Omaha-8

The $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better has 70 players remaining, only 45 get paid. The unofficial chip leader is Frankie O’Dell (109,000), followed by day 1 chip leader Josh Schlien (85,000), Pat Poels (71,500), Marsha Waggoner (54,000), Mike Matusow (38,000), and Max Pescatori (28,000) among the familiar faces. Thang Luu unfortunately was eliminated before the dinner break earlier today.

Brummelhuis Bringing It in Pot-Limit

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 35 players, only 27 get to cash with day 1 chip leader Michiel Brummelhuis remaining chip leader (570,000). Isaac Haxton (450,000), Eric Baldwin (430,000), Darryll Fish (310,000), Vanessa Rousso (280,000), Sam Simon (173,000), and Eugene Todd (165,000) are among the remaining.

Mixed Holdem Brings Mixed Blessings

The $2,500 Mixed Holdem event drew a field of 527 players, of which just 184 remain. The unofficial chip leader is David Baker (unknown if that’s the one from Michigan or Texas) at 73,000. Eli Elezra (51,000), Marc Naalden (46,000) and Jean-Robert Bellande (42,000) are some well known folks with chips.

More updates during the evening over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for more Lisandro stuff and other commentary about all things WSOP.

From official WSOP reports … (with a WSOP historical info, Phil Ivey bio stuff, and post-game interview):

The Winner –

· The 2009 World Series of Poker $2,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split / Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split champion is Phil Ivey, from Las Vegas, NV.

· Ivey collected $220,538 for first place. He was also awarded his seventh WSOP gold bracelet.

· With this victory, Ivey joins Billy Baxter with seven WSOP titles, which ranks sixth on the all-time wins list. Remaining ahead of Ivey are Phil Hellmuth (11 wins), Doyle Brunson (10 wins), Johnny Chan (10 wins), Johnny Moss (9 wins), and Erik Seidel (8 wins).

· According to the official records, Ivey now has 7 wins, 19 final table appearances, and 33 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP.

· Ivey currently has $3,439,386 in WSOP winnings.

· Ivey won three of his WSOP gold bracelets at the 2002 WSOP.

· Ivey has never won a WSOP gold bracelet in Hold’em.

More…

Just happened … more TK.

Photo: BJ Nemeth (via iPhone?)

UPDATE:
Not so fast Ville Wahlbeck and Brock Parker … Player of the Year race ain’t over yet!

And prop bets? Oyy, the prop bets. One of the good things about poker is that betting on yourself won’t keep you out of the Hall of Fame. But it will keep your friends, cronies, and fans wildly speculating on your side action … which Pokerati, btw, puts at anywhere from $2 million to $12 million for Phil Ivey this summer. (We stand behind our numbers.)

Oh, right … the event: $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better … or as I like to call it, OHL/7CSHL. (LOL.) The guy he beat was Ming Lee (not to be confused with Minh Ly).

ALT HED: Black Guy Beats Asian (of course) in Yet Another Event Involving 7-Stud

ALSO UPDATE: I think this pretty much gives Daniel Negreanu the lock on the ESPN Fantasy WSOP pool. We all picked eight players … and Negreanu’s squad has four bracelets less than halfway through the Series. (Lisandro, Alaei, Ivey, Ivey.)

Imagine this … you’re heads-up against Phil Ivey for your first bracelet … up and down up and down … you start to believe you actually have a chance:

John Monnette, who banked $59,587 for finishing in 2nd place in the $2,500 2-7 NL-1d, can take pleasure in knowing that he won more money for his last win — “Big Poker October” — than Ivey did in this one.

Not counting sidebets, of course.

Nowhere else but poker will you find so many men willing to study jewelry. Take a closer look at the Corum wrist-trophies for (clockwise from left) the main event, $50k HORSE, and all other bracelet events:

click to enlarge

Hi-res photos: IMPDI for 2009 WSOP

Click here to zoom in on just the main event hardware, and then click here to shop for purses.

(Warning: Sarcasm-free blog post. Enjoy it or hate it while it lasts.)

It was one of the best ideas that Commissioner Pollack and crew implemented in years. Starting yesterday, the bracelet ceremonies are in full effect to honor every event winner with a moment in the spotlight. Instead of winners like Andrew Cohen being given his bracelet in the wee hours of the morning when exhaustion mixes with emotion for a sometimes unfulfilling chaotic moment in time, he was honored as the Event 1 Casino Employees World Champion in the middle of the Amazon Room where the eyes of the fans, media, and fellow players were on him. Call me a sap, but it was a touching moment.

Every 2009 WSOP bracelet winner will receive the same treatment. And in a sea of players and tournaments and Day 1’s and Day 2’s and cash games and fan-filled aisles of people, the 2:20pm ceremony each day will be a refreshing few minutes that reminds everyone of why we’re all here.

Earlier this morning, Andrew Cohen became the first bracelet winner of the WSOP as he took down the $500 Casino Employees event. Cohen, a bartender at the N9ne Steakhouse at the Palms, took down $83,833 and will take part in the first bracelet ceremony of the Series at approximately 2:20pm in the Amazon room. Paul Peterson, a barback at the Mandalay Bay, finished 2nd.

At 2pm, the 40th Annual $40,000 NL Event will start their day 2 with 89 players remaining. Bruno Fitoussi will start play as chip leader with 812,500 in chips. Chris Moneymaker is close behind in 2nd with 805,000, with Justin Bonomo in 3rd with 738,000. With the final table scheduled for Sunday, it’s likely they’ll play down to the money today, which will be the final three tables.

The next bracelet event on the schedule will begin at 12 noon with Event #3, $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better. Last year, Thang Luu won $243,342 in a field of 832. This year, the WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 916 for today’s event. Taking into account that tomorrow will be day 1a of the $1,000 NL Holdem “Stimulus Special”, taking the under on this projection looks like the logical play here. I’ll suggest that the field size will be closer to 850. You can check out the WSOP site for updates during the day to follow the action and to see how right or wrong I guessed. More stuff from the rest of the team during the day.

Pure conspiracy theory … inspired by the winner’s pic of “Harold and” Vivek Rajkumar proudly displaying his WSOP WPT bracelet at the Borgata. Without even a rumor to base this on (just circumstantial observations and wild speculation) I called Pauly hoping we could start one. Pauly was in London after covering the entirety of the last WPT event in Atlantic City, and had a brief stop-over in Amsterdam, which I figured put him in the exact right frame of mind to feel the rhymes I was droppin’ … and sure enough, by the time our jam was done we’d have Full Tilt moving in on PokerStars’ brick-and-mortar territory by bailing out Steve Lipscomb & Friends in an effort to challenge the EPT.

So you heard it here first … be sure to spread the word:

Tao of Pokerati: Episode 2.1
WPT Bailout Rumors (7:28)

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Phan Phantastically wins 2nd bracelet of Series

Recapping last night, and a preview of today’s tournaments at the WSOP:

John Phan continued a tradition since 2000: A multiple bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker. Phan takes down the $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball title over Shun Uchida, earning just over $150,000 for his second bracelet of the Series.

The other final table yesterday, the $1,500 Mixed Holdem event, was suprisingly won by RV enthusiast Frank Gary over Jonathan Tamayo. After Michael Binger was eliminated in 3rd, it appeared to be Tamayo’s tournament to win. However, Gary took control during the limit holdem period; winning several large pots that gave him a big enough chip lead to put Tamayo away in the first hand of the NL holdem round to win the bracelet and $219,000, which should cover his gas costs for the rest of the year.

The final table for today, plus a preview of today’s tournaments on page 2:

More…

The ladies event brings out all sorts … supposedly one man entered, and one man left. Because the WSOP wasn’t gonna get themselves into anything resembling a civil rights and discriminatory mess, anyone who stood in line for Event #15 would be allowed to buy in. However, when only one man did this, Nolan Dalla went up to him and politely asked him not to play — refunded his buy-in as he obliged.

One lady who is supposedly playing: Mindy McCready. She’s the country singer-turned-Roger Clemens affairester. Can you imagine if she got seated with a dress-wearing Jose Canseco? Sorry that I don’t have a pic of her in action … but I have to admit, I’m less interested in Day 1 of the Ladies Event than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with a chat I had with Snake, or maybe it’s just because Pokerati fave Evil Omaha Sharron (NSFW) isn’t playing.

Regardless, Jen has pretty much successfully convinced me that non-open events should be non-bracelet events. Ladies, Seniors, Casino Employee’s … since anyone can’t win then they should not receive the same acclaim as those who take down a tourney where technically anyone can.

Of course the problem with this would be that if these events lost their prestige, then they would also lose their crowds, which are an important part of bringing newbies into the game. The solution: partner up with some other entity to make these special events the pinnacle of their season(s). Though I don’t really know much about the LIPS Tour, it seems a pretty big, legitimate deal. Why not bring in them (or some entity like them) to give some special championship prize that still makes the non-bracelet event exciting?

Rick in Greenville, TX writes in with what would count as a major beef in a bizzarro poker world:

Hey Dan o,

I have been a loyal DAILY Pokerati reader for 3 years now. We (myself and 13 other Pokerati readers from Greenville, Texas) will be heading out to the WSOP next week.

I met you for the first time at the Rio last year and you introduced me to The Donkey Bombers wife. She even let me touch Toms newly acquired bracelet. Woo Hoo…

Keep up the good blogging, bowling, drinking, losing….it makes for great reading

Rick
Pokerati-zen

Rick, thanks for the prizzops, but you clearly haven’t been reading us, because we clearly haven’t even started working yet.

See the bracelet?

It’s definitely different than any championship bracelet I’ve seen… Sterling silver and titanium with a diamond in the spade on the logo. Interesting and original design, I must admit.

I’m sure it looks much nicer in reality than in this photo.

There are comments just waiting to be made, but I won’t do it. Please do it for me.

The World Poker Tour has announced that a ceremony will be held on April 21, during the WPT World Championship at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, to award bracelets to each of the 96 past WPT champions.

What a great idea! To memorialize a poker tournament victory with an expensive piece of jewelry that symbolizes the grandeur of what those players accomplished… Wait, haven’t I heard this idea somewhere before? It’s just not coming to me at this moment…

Anyway, the private Ceremony of Champions will take place at the “O” Theater at the Bellagio, where the players’ victories and accomplishments will be celebrated, and each will be awarded a Tiffany & Co. personalized titanium and diamond bracelet. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will be the Masters of Ceremony.

From the press release:

“There are so many incredible stories to celebrate from the six World Poker Tour seasons and we are thrilled to pay tribute to each of our WPT Champions,” said WPT Founder, President and CEO, Steve Lipscomb. “The championship bracelet has become synonymous with poker as a symbol of achievement and respect, and we are honored to continue the tradition that Benny Binion began over 30 years ago.”

When Benny Binion began the tradition… DOH!

The World Series of Poker has bracelet events, and now each WPT event will be a bracelet event. Really? I don’t want to say that one company is trying to be like another, but… Is there no other way to congratulate poker players than with a bracelet? What about a gigantic 25-pound bejeweled poker chip? Or a diamond-encrusted wallet to hold all of their dough?

Originality is dead.