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:

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Not long after I wrote about the finalists in the main event who might be closer to Pokerati than our own families - call that the blurry misconception of the WSOP long haul - one of our top two left the building. The Six Degrees of Pokerati will have to start making shit up expand its criteria.

After slowly losing chips throughout the day, Brandon Cantu took a bit hit with the following hand, as reported by PokerNews:

Dean Hamrick Doubles Through Brandon Cantu

Kelly Kim opened for 275,000, Brandon Cantu reraised to 950,000, and Dean Hamrick moved all in. The crowd let out an “Ooooooooooh!” and got on their feet as the action came back to Kim. Kim let his hand go and it was Cantu’s turn to tank. Cantu thought for well over five minutes (Tim Loecke getting knocked out in the meantime) before saying “I call.”

Cantu {10-Spades} {5-Clubs}

Hamrick {A-Hearts} {A-Clubs}

There was mass disbelief and gasps from the crowd as Cantu rolled over his hand.

The flop was {8-Spades} {7-Clubs} {5-Hearts} and Cantu flopped a pair of fives. The turn was the {8-Diamonds}, a bad card for Cantu as Hamrick made aces up. Cantu paced in back of the table looking resigned to his fate as his entourage called for a five. The river, though was the {10-Diamonds} and Cantu made two pair, but it was no matter– Hamrick’s aces and eights were best and he raked in the massive pot.

Cantu was down to 2.4 million after the hand while Hamrick was up to 5.5 million. Cantu is now the tournament’s shortest stack.

After the 10-5 fiasco, Brandon ended up all-in pre-flop with pocket 9’s against Peter Eastgate’s A-Q. Peter ended up with a flush, and Brandon was out in 20th place with a little $257,334 for his spending pleasure.

The last of Pokerati’s top tier of players in the main event is Tiffany Michelle, who would be a lot more adorable right now if she wasn’t wearing UltimateBet gear!

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…

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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He finished in 45th place, paying $154,400. It’s all probably Jen’s fault. I suspect the 10-4suited will now be wielded like The Hammer against Hellmuth only, and will become his kryptonite, impeding his effort to dodge bullets baby.

The people remaining that you may or may not care about:

Tiffany Michelle (Go MySpace friends!)
Mike Matusow (Go MySpace friends!)
Brandon Cantu (Go Jen’s MySpace friend!)
Gert Andersen
Kido Pham (Go Dallas Poker/MySpace friends!)

UPDATE: Kido rode a tournament roller coaster extremely deep, but in the end he got flung in 41st place, also for $154,400 — about the size of a big-ass pot in the 25/50 PLO game at the old Red Man’s in Dallas.

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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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…

747 733 players survived to make the dinner break, trying not to crash eliminate themselves just short of the money at a devilish 666. Strangely, the current chip leader has less chips than the leader at the end of day 2 as Brian Schaedlich, who started with 801,000 in chips has gone under 300,000 in chips after Jeff Kimber flopped a set of queens to Brian’s AA in a 681,000 chip pot (he’s since recovered to be just under 500,000 in chips). However, the leader going into the dinner break is Jeremiah Smith, with 766,000 in chips. Kimber’s in 4th with the Satan-like 666,000, other notables with a pretty good stack include Victor Ramdin, prospective member of Team Pokerati Raja Kattamuri, Matt Matros, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, James McManus (not the author), Chip Jett, Brandon Cantu, and Steve Bilirakis. Notable players who won’t have to worry about the bubble: Chris Moneymaker, Phil Gordon, Tony Hachem, Andy Griggs, and Steve Zolotow. More updates can be found at the WSOP.com site here.

Once the players return from dinner break, there’s a couple more two-hour levels left for today, but the bubble will be looming in that first level, we’ll see if the tournament staff adds time back to that level and maybe stop play after it’s broken, depending on the time of course.

Registration is finally over for the Main Event, and a record 2,461 took to the felt today in their quest to be part of the November Nine and take down the over $9.1m first place prize. Among those who’ve already been eliminated today: Phil Ivey, Jennifer Tilly, Andy Bloch, Jose Canseco, Annie Duke, Allen Kessler, David Williams and Noel Furlong. The leader at the dinner break appears to be Brad Tisdale with about 112,000 in chips. Notables towards the top of the leaderboard: Victor Ramdin, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Aaron Kanter, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, Mark Newhouse and Antonio Esfandiari. You can follow the players as they return from their dinner break at the WSOP.com site here.

More updates later this evening…

What’s happening tonight at the WSOP (besides the HORSE event):

The $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship final table is already over, as Dan Lacourse a retired firefighter from Dayton, OH took down the bracelet along with almost $370,000. Dale Eberle, a retired police officer from Akron, Ohio finished 2nd, for just over $235,000.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event is down to the final 16, as they make their way to a final table. Among the notable names: Erik Seidel, Casey Kastle, and WSOP runner-up Tom Chambers. Updates for this event can be found here.

The $1,000 NL Holdem w/rebuys event started with a field of 879 and 2,508 addons and rebuys. Only 320 are left at the present time, the notable names at the top of the leaderboard include Mark Seif, Brandon Cantu, JC Tran, Humberto Brenes, and Scott Clements. Follow their progress at the WSOP.com website here.

Dan and Jen will surely provide numerous posts about the HORSE event, but you can get further updates on the action here.

More throughout the evening…

A recent player bashing discussion has evolved on the 2+2 forums regarding tipping dealers and tournament staff upon winning a major event. Specifically, this is in reference to Brandon Cantu’s recent World Poker Tour $1 million win at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament.

Evidently, unlike many tournaments on the circuit, Bay 101 didn’t take anything from the buy-ins to tip the staff, but Brandon was unaware of this. CardPlayer has done an interesting two-part article, which includes some words from Brandon and TD Matt Savage.

Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 2.

So many interesting questions arise from this discussion, as they did when Jerry Yang won the 2007 WSOP main event.

Should the players be told up-front about the tipping policy at that particular venue?
Is it the players’ responsibility to find out or that of the tournament director to inform everyone?
If a tip is taken from the buy-ins, should players still tip on top of that?
Do only the winners tip? Or should everyone at the final table tip?
What is the correct percentage to tip?

This is a subject that should be discussed in length. I’d love for some tournament pros to weigh in on this.

Photo taken by Kaelaine Minton of PokerPages

The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event wrapped up late last night in San Jose, California. The player who walked away with the $1 million prize and his first WPT title was Brandon Cantu.

This tournament is always a unique one, with bounties on numerous pro players worth $5k each, and $10k bonuses for the chip leader at the end of Day 1A, Day 1B, and Day 2. Players typically enjoy the unique aspects of the game, and the fans can’t get enough. There are fans everywhere seeking autographs, photos, and a glance at the pros in action.

The final table was set to be a great one…

Seat 1: Noah Jefferson - 842,000
Seat 2: John Phan - 374,000
Seat 3: Brandon Cantu - 3,323,000
Seat 4: Steve Sung - 474,000
Seat 5: Jennifer Harman - 541,000
Seat 6: Michael Baker - 1,964,000

Phan was the first to go, followed by Baker and Jefferson. The lovely Jen Harman put up a solid fight but finished in third. By the time heads-up action began, Cantu had over 6 million chips to Sung’s 1.3 million. It didn’t take long for Cantu to seal the deal.

Cantu had a stellar tournament. Not only was he the Day 1A chip leader for a $10k bonus, but he ended up collecting six bounties throughout the event for an extra $30k. And in the end, he maintained his final table chip lead, which is an usual phenomenon these days, and took the WPT title and cool mil. He is now one of the elite group of players to have won a WSOP bracelet (2006 $1500 no-limit hold’em) and a WPT tourney.

Congrats, Brandon!