Lisa in San Francisco, who may or may not be aware of the millions of hands just dealt in the Amazon room this summer, writes in:

I can’t find this anywhere—do you by chance know what the average number of poker hands dealt in Las Vegas on any given day is?

So difficult to find!

Yeesh, I’m not even sure where to begin. 50 poker rooms in Vegas (not counting the Amazon or Brasilia) … 365 days in a year …

I’m gonna say definitely more than 10,000 and less than 500 billion. We should be able to narrow that window of possibility down a little bit, I’d think.

UPDATE: Lisa gives us more info to work with, some of which comes from Harrah’s, even though their main event numbers seem to be slightly off … and we may or may not gotta presume by Amazon they mean Rio, with Brasilia, Miranda, Buzio’s, etc. factored in:

I do know that the number of hands dealt in this year’s WSOP Amazon room (Main Event only) was approximately 722,000 hands. That’s to get from 6,494 players to 9.

I also found another stat from UNLV Research Center: 10.9M is the max no. of hands that can be dealt in Nevada in a single day = 457,500 x 24 (not all tables are open that long)
(assuming all tables are working at full tilt 24 hours)

photo: LasVegasVegas

The $2,500 Razz event came to an abrupt halt today when Miami John Cernuto collapsed at the table. Apparently action was on him, at first people thought he was asleep, and then someone said I don’t think he’s breathing … at which point they kinda poked him, and he fell to the ground felt.

Tournament officials stopped the clock and cleared the area while paramedics rushed to attend to him. No official medical report yet, but it appeared to be a heart attack. However, in the end, about 40 minutes later, he appeared to be OK. Like an injured athlete being carried off the field of play, Cernuto waved to the crowd and received an ovation as he left the Brasilia room and was calling someone on his cell phone en route to the hospital.

Pokerati was there to try to show how a major tournament handles such incidents — and though we know this matter isn’t about “us”, we apologize for the unclear photographs snapped before being expelled from the premises for trying to bring you the story:

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The $1,000 NL Hold’em Stimulus Special looks to be a huge success, as day 1a appears to be sold out with at least 2,800 entered. There’s still some room for tomorrow’s day 1b, but it looks like that field will also be maxed out before play gets underway at 12 noon today. The WSOP Staff Guide projected 5,305 entrants and that has already been exceeded, so I’ll take the cheap win and take the over with a field of 5700 who will eventually play this weekend as the WSOP staff finds a few additional tables to put on the floor to accommodate the field.

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Hold’em event returns for day 3 action today at 2pm with 23 players playing down to Sunday’s ESPN final table. Justin Bonomo will start action as the chip leader with 2,678,000 in chips, Ted Forrest in 2nd with 2,586,000, and David “WhoooKidd” Baker in 3rd with 2,367,000. Greg Raymer is the last remaining World Champion in the field, in 4th place with 2,287,000. Other notable names include Alec Torelli, Dani Stern, Matt Glantz, Isaac Haxton, David Chiu, Neil Channing, Andy Black, and Andrew Robl.

The $1,500 Omaha Eight or Better also comes back at 2pm today with 197 players remaining from their record field of 918. 2008 winner Thang Luu appears to have returned to his winning form, as he’ll start play today as the chip leader with 73,600 in chips. Other notable names remaining in the field include Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Todd Brunson, and Brandon Cantu. Their final table is also scheduled for Sunday, although with much less exposure than what will be a mix of live and online stars of the 40k event or the WSOP Champions Invitational event, which also starts on Sunday. More to come today, with an update soon (?) if the Stimulus Special has sold out.

8am Update: Under 80 seats left for Sunday.
10:30am Update: 5,839 registered from Da Commish’s Twitter

Facts and Figures from the WSOP so far, at the end of play early Friday morning:

Number of entrants: 20,141
Bracelets awarded: 20
Most cashes: Nikolay Evdakov – 5
Most final tables: Theo Tran, Erick Lindgren – 2
Current ESPN POY: Erick Lindgren 175 points
Leading money earner: Grant Hinkle – $831,462

A review of the week 2 action at the World Series of Poker:

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Today the good doctor and yours true venture into the new 65-table Brasilia Room … and contemplate what a $2,500 PL Hold’em/Omaha tourney in this new locale may or may not mean for the WSOP, and what it says about the state of the greater Las Vegas economy. Yo … heavy.

Episode 7: Brasilia Time

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