Ivey Going for Bracelet #7…

Four players remain in the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 event, with Phil Ivey the current chip leader with over 1.1 million in chips. Ming Le, Carlos Mortensen, and Dutch Boyd round out the remaining players.

and #8?

Remarkably, Ivey is still in the field in the $5,000 PLO 8 or Better event with 23 players remaining, 18 make the money. He’s played very few hands in this event, but the ones he has played have given him a medium sized stack. The current chip leader is Anthony Lellouche with 357,000 in chips. Other notables include: Brett Richey (250,000), Scott Clements (155,000), Jeff Lisandro (124,000), and Ivey (92,000).

McCaffrey One to Beat in $1,500 NL

The final table of the $1,500 NL Holdem event now has six players remaining with Glenn McCaffrey the current chip leader with 2.64m in chips. Michael Greco battled back from a short stack to take second with 2m in chips, followed by Andy “BKiCe” Seth, “Pete the Greek” Vilandos, Dean Hamrick and Alan Jaffray, and round out the field.

Check-Raise FTW

The $1,500 Limit Holdem event is now down to 44 players with Glenn Englebert the leader with 144,000. Notables remaining include Rep Porter, Paul Darden, Noah Boeken, Justin Bonomo and Phil Tom.

Donking Around

The $1,500 NL Holdem donkament field has returned from their dinner break with 846 players remaining from a field of 2,641. Jason Potter is the unofficial chip leader at 28,000 and a cast of hundreds following behind him. Four more levels of play remain, unless they’re near the money and extend play for a few extra minutes.

Tete a Tete on the Felt

The $10,000 Heads-Up NL Holdem World Championship has concluded round 1, with the 2nd round starting at 10pm PT. Notables returning at that time include David Benefield, Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf, Tom Dwan, Greg Raymer, Brock Parker, and Chris Ferguson. Phil Hellmuth, Nam Le, Gus Hansen, Erick Lindgren, Vivek Rajkumar and Howard Lederer weren’t as lucky, as they were early eliminations.

A few more hours remain on Saturday, so check out www.wsop.com and Pokerati for more stuff.

Jeffrey Carris was the last one standing in the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout besting Jason Somerville in a brief heads-up battle as noted by Dan in the post below me. Carris collects over $300,000, while Somerville settles for nearly $200,000 in tournament winnings.

BKiCe BKiCe Baby, Too Cold

19 players return to the Rio at 1pm today in the $1,500 NL Holdem event, with Anirudh Seth or Seth Anirudh, listed in the chip counts as Andy Seth, better known as BKiCe online is the current chip leader with 1,407,000. Notables remaining include: Alan Jaffray (1,193,000), November Nine bubble boy Dean Hamrick (629,000), British actor Michael Greco (546,000) , and a triumvirate of Houstonians (Pete Vilandos – 325,000, Roberto Correa – 309,000 and Ali Davoudi – 254,000).
This final table of this event of this event is scheduled to appear at Bluff or wsop.pkr.com for international viewers, but that could change if the other final table for today gets there first.

Omaha 8/Stud 8 a real page “Turner”

Jon Turner will lead the 14 players back to complete the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 event, also resume at 1pm today. Turner will start with 465,000 in chips followed by notables Carlos Mortensen (328,000), Blair Rodman (290,000), Steve Wong (226,000), Phil Ivey (161,000) and Chad Brown (23,000).

Von Halle of Fame for Jon?

$1,500 Limit Holdem resumes at 2pm today with 124 players vying for the final nine seats, with Jon Von Halle the current chip leader at 68,300. Some of the notables looking to make some money back on their investment include: Bill Chen (60,600), Justin Bonomo (44,800), Richard Brodie (41,500), Nikki Harris (39,400), and Bryan Devonshire (34,100).

PLO 8 is Great for Newitt

Jason Newitt (185,900) is the chip leader at the end of Day 1 in the $5,000 PLO 8 or Better event. He’ll join 58 others at 2pm to play down to the final table with notables such as Andy Black (97,000), Jeff Lisandro (92,000), Daniel Negreanu (78,300), Barry Shulman (49,800), Phil Ivey (40,800) still in contention.

Return of the Donkament and Heads-Up!

Saturday brings two more events to the tournament roster starting with yet another version of the $1,500 NL Holdem event as another 2,500+ being put through the grinder to see which donks survive today. Last year’s version of this particular donkament was won by Jesper Hougaard in a field of 2,447. Hougaard also won a bracelet last year at the WSOP Europe, so could another double be in the offing for this year’s winner? The WSOP Staff Guide projected a field of 2,534, but expect closer to 2800 to enter when play starts at 12pm today.

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads-Up World Championship also starts today with a capacity field of 256 expected when play starts at 5pm. Kenny Tran is the defending champion in this event, winning over $530,000 last year. Winners of the 5pm matches will return at 10pm for round 2.

More updates during the day at Pokerati, and for other live update coverage, check out www.wsop.com starting at 12pm PT.

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Thang Luu defended his title in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event for $263,135. Ed Smith, the chip leader at the end of play on day 2, finished in 2nd for just over $162,000. Ming Reslock finished 3rd ($106,373).

More stuff on the next page:

Day 1b of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special J.C. Tran (and his spectacular breasts) will return at 2pm as the overall chip leader with 130,800. J.C. will be part of the 760 entries who’ll be playing for the first prize $771,106. The rest of the final table will earn at least $114,000 each, with the payouts work their way down to 621st place for $1,894. More details will be in my report for Pokernews later in the morning. The plan today is to get down to a final table, when I posed that question to my Magic 8-Ball, it responded “No way!”. I have to agree, if they’re lucky they’ll stop play with 4 tables left. This event was scheduled to be the first table to be streamed this year on ESPN360.com, so who knows how far they’ll push the players’ endurance.

The final tournament that started on Sunday a 20-player SNG, better known as the Champions Invitational. When play was stopped after Joe Hachem’s elimination in 11th, the chip counts were as follows:

Carlos Mortensen — 42,375
Tom McEvoy — 31,000
Jim Bechtel — 30,475
Doyle Brunson — 20,250
Dan Harrington — 19,975
Peter Eastgate — 18,425
Huck Seed — 15,400
Robert Varkonyi — 13,450
Berry Johnston — 7,625
Phil Hellmuth — 1,125

The plan was to stop when they reached the final nine, but the possible lack of Phil Hellmuth may have changed that plan, so he gets a few moments of time on ESPN unless he makes a miracle comeback starting after 3pm today.

Today starts a week of two-a-day bracelet events, as the $1,500 PLO event starts at 12 noon while the $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship starts at 5pm. The $1,500 PLO event was won last year by Vanessa Selbst, who topped the field of 759 to win $227,965. The projected field for this year is 835, and will go with the over, saying 884 will enter. The $10,000 7-Card Stud event was won last year by Eric Brooks, besting a field of 158 and donating his $415,856 winnings to the Decision Education Foundation, of which he is a member of their board. The projected field for the event this year is 166, and I’ll take the over again, saying they’ll wind up with 174. More stuff throughout the day on Pokerati, and follow the updates at www.worldseriesofpoker.com starting at noon today.

As of this moment, there are 85 players left — Anna Wroblewski just went out … she was looking strong all tourney long. Our best friend Tom Schneider is still alive with a slightly above average stack. (Notice he’s our best friend as opposed to just a friend or Pokerati contributor now that he’s secured the money. If he can make the final table, he’ll be our super-best-very-best friend … and I’m sure that’s what’s motivating him.)

Other names of note (to me) that are still live include Carlos Mortenson (defending champ), Rhynie Campbell (met him last night, he seems funny and cool), Mark Seif (who’s been keeping people posted about the condition of his wife’s cervix), Isabelle Mercier and Kristy Gazes (attractive women), Jared Hamby (Go Texas!), Tommy Le (one of my MySpace friends with a really cool name), Steve and Danny Wong (Go 2007 Fantasy Team!), and TJ Cloutier (Go same Dallas flight!)

Despite slightly lower numbers, the WPT World Championship will still likely end up being one of the five biggest tournaments in the Milky Way this year … and Day 2 has just gotten underway. Pokerati would love to beyotch about not having access to the makeshift WPT TV studio at Bellagio to do our brand of non-chip coverage, but we’ve been invited to a WPT Party tonight with free food and booze, so we’re obviously all good with the status quo.

421 of 545 starting players remain … A few names that I’ll be paying attention to for various reasons, and where they stand in relation to their starting 50k chipstack include Carlos Mortenson (defending champ – 172,075), Tom Schneider (25,400), Clonie Gowen (93,975), Gregg Merkow (40,075), Nenad Medic (12,425), Rodeen Talebi (18,000), Ray Henson (89,550), and David Sklansky (41,050).

Click below to see how the whole pro-studded field shaped up as of noon-Pacific today, and click here to follow the action throughout Day 2.

1. Jeff King – 211,575
2. Paul Chauderson – 200,900
3. Kenny Tran – 193,025
4. Robert Mizrachi – 173,375
5. Carlos Mortensen – 172,075
6. Jordan Morgan – 171,750
7. David Benyamine – 169,350
8. Billy Baxter – 167,150
9. Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken – 163,675
10. Steve Billirakis – 156,800
11. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan – 155,675
12. Nashaat Antonius – 153,375
13. Andrew Shack – 150,300
14. Scott Epstein – 147,800
15. Charles Kelley – 147,325
16. Brandon Cantu – 145,125
17. Joe Tehan – 143,275
18. Jonathan Kalmar – 140,325
19. Michael Katz – 138,500
20. J.C. Tran – 138,350
21. James Mordue – 137,500
22. Michael Sohayean – 134,275
23. Greg “FBT” Mueller – 132,675
24. Soheil Shamseddin – 131,300
25. Jayde Tran – 129,025
26. Thomas Wahlroos – 127,875
27. Jimmy Tran – 125,125
28. John Hillman – 124,550
29. Rock Cloutier – 124,025
30. Abe Mosseri – 123,400
31. Victor Ramdin – 122,675
32. Martin Hansen – 121,125
33. John Celii – 121,075
34. Josh Arieh – 120,250
35. Dario Minieri – 118,650
36. Marcel Luske – 117,225
37. Vanessa Selbst – 117,025
38. Will Wilkinson – 116,050
39. Eli Elezra – 115,000
39. Jim Bechtel – 115,000
41. John Hoang – 113,350
42. Anna Wroblewski – 112,450
43. Michael Gracz – 111,650
44. T.J. Cloutier – 110,525
45. Gus Hansen – 110,325
46. Brian Rast – 110,175
47. Eugene Katchalov – 109,900
48. Rhynie Campbell – 109,675
49. Tommy Hang – 108,000
50. Ron Levi – 106,775
51. Keith Tilston – 106,425
52. Thayer Rasmussen – 106,400
53. Steve Sung – 105,800
54. John Kincaid – 105,600
55. Peter Neff – 104,275
56. Jimmy Dowda – 103,925
57. Steven Koplow – 103,000
58. Steve Zolotow – 102,750
59. Joe Cassidy – 102,725
60. Karga Holt – 102,100
61. David Tran – 101,500
62. Mike Sexton – 101,325
63. Robert Wisiak – 101,000
63. Roy Winston – 101,000
63. Edwin Ting – 101,000
66. Dino French – 100,750
67. John Hennigan – 100,250
68. David “Devilfish” Ulliott – 100,000
69. Alex Melnikow – 99,775
70. James Van Alstyne – 98,350
71. Kathy Liebert – 98,250
72. Nadim Shabou – 97,850
73. Eric Kesselman – 97,325
74. Jordan Rich – 96,975
75. Shawn Lampman – 96,425
76. Rafael Perry – 96,325
77. Andrew Robl – 95,800
78. Zvi Shiff – 95,325
79. Jonathan Westra – 95,025
80. Weikai Chang – 94,675
81. Gary Kainer – 94,125
82. Clonie Gowen – 93,975
83. Freddy Deeb – 92,300
84. Paul Wasicka – 92,250
85. Erik Seidel – 92,025
86. Shawn Buchanan – 91,950
87. Jeff Madsen – 91,350
88. Yan Chen – 90,775
89. Bruce Corman – 90,500
90. Cristiano Blanco – 90,225
91. Burt Boutin – 90,025
92. Ray Henson – 89,550
93. Richard Fohrenbach – 89,250
94. Daniel Negreanu – 89,200
95. Lars Bonding – 88,750
96. Mario Silvestri – 88,225
97. Nicholas Binger – 87,975
98. Scott Fischman – 87,625
99. Eric Hershler – 87,075
100. Matthew Vengrin – 86,775
100. Vijayan Nagarajan – 86,775
102. Layne Flack – 86,325
103. Chris “Armenian Express” Grigorian – 85,850
104. Pat Madden – 85,700
105. Patrick Bruel – 85,175
106. Kwang Min Lee – 85,025
107. Phil Ivey – 85,000
108. Tim West – 84,925
109. Amir Vahedi – 84,475
110. James McCrink – 83,600
111. Martin de Knijff – 83,500
112. John Baarstom – 83,225
113. Alex Bolotin – 82,875
114. Gary Margadonna – 81,925
115. Todd Keikoan – 81,525
116. Mike Chow – 81,425
117. John Esposito – 81,275
118. Doyle Brunson – 80,850
119. David Grey – 80,350
120. Tony Hartman – 80,275
121. Francois Safieddine – 80,200
122. Tad Jurgens – 79,800
123. Will Failla – 79,500
124. Jonathan Depa – 79,475
125. Huckleberry Seed – 78,900
126. Steven O’Dwyer – 78,675
127. Surinder Sunar – 78,650
128. Gavin Smith – 78,400
129. Daniel Zogman – 78,200
130. Danny Fuhs – 77,875
131. Humberto Brenes – 77,650
132. Jared Okun – 77,375
133. Barry Greenstein – 76,950
134. Loi Phan – 76,625
135. Steve Dannenmann – 76,400
136. Philippe Rouas – 76,325
137. Jeff Bayles – 76,275
138. Larry Wright – 76,100
139. Tim Phan – 75,900
140. Art Duncan – 75,700
141. Herman Zango – 75,575
141. Eugene Todd – 75,575
143. James Mettler – 75,050
144. Narendra Banwari – 75,000
145. Ralph Rudd – 74,975
146. Cary Katz – 74,825
147. Steven Weinstein – 74,500
148. Art Peacock – 73,600
149. Keith Gipson – 73,225
150. Gary Horn – 73,000
151. Billy Pilossoph – 72,550
152. Padraig Parkinson – 72,075
153. Howard Lederer – 71,975
154. George Abdallah – 70,925
155. Isabelle Mercier – 70,750
156. Jared Hamby – 70,125
157. Chris McCormack – 70,000
158. Curt Kohlberg – 69,850
159. Nicolas Levi – 69,650
160. Jeff Shulman – 69,225
161. Alex Jacob – 68,750
162. Praz Bansi – 67,800
163. Hyon Kim – 67,750
164. Donnacha O’Dea – 67,725
165. Arnaud Mattern – 67,700
166. Cory Carroll – 67,625
167. David Goad – 67,500
168. Nikolay Losev – 67,450
169. Nam Le – 67,400
170. Vivek Rajkumar – 67,175
171. Emeline Boich – 67,100
172. Stan Jablonski – 66,950
173. Kevin Haeri – 66,750
174. Vanessa Rousso – 66,500
175. Hoyt Corkins – 66,400
176. Eric Cloutier – 66,125
177. Champie Douglas – 65,925
178. Saifuddin Ahmad – 65,850
179. Paul Smith – 65,600
180. Sean O’Donnell – 65,250
181. Jason Lester – 65,150
182. Vadim Trincher – 65,050
183. Arthur Azen – 65,000

AVERAGE – 64,727

184. Rich Salomon – 64,700
185. Mikael Thuritz – 64,650
186. Steve Wong – 64,600
187. Dewey Tomko – 64,500
188. Eric Richards – 64,400
189. Berry Johnston – 63,250
190. Bryan Devonshire – 62,650
191. Philip Galfond – 62,300
192. Balint Barta – 62,100
193. John Monnette – 62,100
194. Dan Shak – 62,000
195. Ted Forrest – 62,000
196. Mimi Tran – 61,800
197. Sylvester Geoghegan – 60,675
198. Brandon Adams – 60,550
199. Robert Cheung – 60,525
200. Stuart Fox – 60,500
201. Matthew Hyman – 60,350
202. Mike Matusow – 60,275
203. Bruno Fitoussi – 60,050
204. Ross Boatman – 59,925
205. Michael Hudson – 59,900
205. Kelly Kim – 59,900
207. Cliff “Johnny Bax” Josephy – 59,700
208. Benjamin Springer – 59,650
209. James Calderaro – 59,500
210. David Chiu – 59,100
211. David Redlin – 59,050
212. Karl Mahrenholz – 59,000
213. Thang Pham – 58,900
214. Ray Coburn – 58,775
215. Mark Appleman – 58,650
216. Michael Ellis – 58,125
217. Shawn Cunix – 57,750
218. Chau Giang – 57,650
219. Ted Kearly – 57,625
220. Mikiya Takitani – 57,625
221. Gary Gibbs – 56,975
222. Michael McKenna – 56,925
223. Noah Schwartz – 56,575
224. Mark Muchnik – 56,525
225. Hevad “Rain” Khan – 56,425
226. Scotty Nguyen – 56,175
227. Danny Shiff – 56,000
228. Jean Gaspard – 55,825
229. Antonio Salorio – 55,500
229. Kevin O’Donnell – 55,500
231. John Strzemp – 55,475
232. Robert Suer – 55,075
233. Nathan Doudney – 55,000
234. Noah Jefferson – 54,850
235. Mats Rahmn – 54,725
236. Terry Akins – 54,700
237. Alan Vinson – 54,325
238. Mark Teltscher – 54,000
239. David Peters – 53,650
240. Wayne Boich – 53,525
241. John Roveto – 53,500
242. Toto Leonidas – 53,275
243. Douglas Janney – 53,000
244. Andreas Krause – 52,775
245. Vincent Bartello – 52,350
246. Grant Lang – 52,175
247. Amit Makhija – 52,100
248. Joseph Fallows – 52,025
249. Robert Fitzpatrick – 51,875
250. Joe Awada – 51,575
251. Scott Seiver – 51,175
252. Dan Harrington – 51,000
253. Darren Kramer – 50,875
254. Larry Karambis – 50,700
255. Vincent Procopio – 49,950
256. Peter Jetten – 49,700
257. Scott Mayfield – 49,425
258. Shane Schleger – 49,400
259. Soren Jensen – 49,250
260. Chris “Jesus” Ferguson – 48,900
261. Marco Traniello – 48,850
262. Vincent Shaw – 48,750
263. Jerry Yang – 48,325
264. Uri Kadosh – 48,175
265. Tommy Legend – 48,000
266. Christopher Bush – 47,925
267. Tony Grappo – 47,750
268. Heather Sue Mercer – 47,550
269. Bob Stupak – 47,175
270. Tony Ma – 47,150
271. Bill Gazes – 46,900
272. Joseph Risi – 46,625
273. Steve Brecher – 45,875
274. Sudhakara Kattamuri – 45,875
275. Allie Prescott – 45,850
276. Mike McClain – 45,700
277. Jon Turner – 45,650
278. Kristy Gazes – 45,000
279. Alan Sass – 44,675
280. Jennifer Harman – 44,625
281. Jonathan Aguiar – 44,475
282. Alven Zeidenfeld – 44,275
283. John Murphy – 43,925
284. Glynn Beebe – 43,625
285. Daniel Moorman – 43,575
285. Dan Lu – 43,575
287. Antonio Esfandiari – 43,400
288. Eric “Rizen” Lynch – 42,850
289. Sam Farha – 42,800
290. Alan Goehring – 42,500
291. John Smith – 42,500
292. Danny Wong – 42,325
293. Shannon Shorr – 42,250
294. Corwin Cole – 42,250
295. Joe Beevers – 41,650
296. Haralabos Voulgaris – 41,600
297. Tim Chauser – 41,575
298. Cory Zeidman – 41,375
299. Barry Berger – 41,275
300. Thomas McCormick – 41,075
301. David Sklansky – 41,050
302. Dustin Dirksen – 41,000
303. John Myung – 40,850
304. Tuan Le – 40,800
305. Alan Smurfit – 40,700
306. Matt Brady – 40,650
307. Raffi King – 40,375
308. Gregg Merkow – 40,075
309. Mark Newhouse – 39,675
310. Samuel Hiatt – 39,350
311. Danilo Sahiune – 39,225
312. John Juanda – 39,225
313. Peter Feldman – 39,100
314. Roland DeWolfe – 38,975
315. Christian Pereira – 38,975
316. Phil Hellmuth – 38,075
317. Jon Friedberg – 38,025
318. Allen Kessler – 37,800
319. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – 37,475
320. Sirous Jamshidi – 37,125
321. Eric Baldwin – 37,075
322. Louis Werman – 36,650
323. Minh Ly – 36,350
324. Quinn Do – 36,350
325. Gary Dolenga – 36,175
325. Ting Li – 36,175
327. Ryan Daut – 35,300
328. Joe Hachem – 35,300
329. Herb Montalbano – 35,125
330. Raymond Davis – 35,000
331. Abdo Lattouf – 34,900
332. Ira Mazie – 34,725
333. David Farber – 33,950
334. Dennis Waterman – 33,825
335. Lee Markholt – 33,600
336. Mike Wattel – 33,275
337. Jean-Robert Bellande – 33,250
338. Andrew Pierz – 33,200
339. Rhett Butler – 32,875
340. Matt Lefkowitz – 32,600
341. Elia Ahmadian – 32,175
342. Erik Sagstrom – 32,100
343. Roy Thung – 32,000
344. Amnon Filippi – 31,750
345. Mark Stubbs – 31,700
346. Marcus Gonsalves – 31,325
347. Barny Boatman – 31,325
348. Mark Dickstein – 30,775
349. Mark Seif – 30,625
350. Johan Storakers – 30,550
351. Thor Hansen – 30,475
352. Jyri-Petteri Linna – 30,450
353. Franco Brunetti – 30,000
354. Russell Rosenblum – 29,850
355. David Rheem – 29,600
355. Robert Zeps – 29,600
357. Parviz Razavian – 29,250
358. Fred Berger – 29,075
359. Adam Levy – 28,925
360. Aaron Been – 28,525
361. Markus Lehmann – 28,500
362. William Klein – 28,325
363. Florian Langmann – 28,250
364. Stuart Christerson – 28,000
365. Karl Tretter – 27,850
366. Erica Schoenberg – 27,250
367. Bill Kontaratos – 27,200
368. Dan Barry – 26,800
369. Matt Giannetti – 26,625
370. James Dawick – 26,500
371. Alexander Kravchenko – 26,225
372. Thomas Wolfinger – 26,125
373. Benedetto Bianco – 26,100
374. David Gregory – 25,975
375. Samuel Korkis – 25,475
376. Tom Schneider – 25,400
377. David Kim – 25,325
378. Gary Burrell – 25,150
379. Michael Graffo – 24,425
380. James Cornell – 23,775
381. Matt Russell – 23,500
382. Mark Cole – 23,475
383. Serena Liu – 23,100
384. Bertrand Grospellier – 22,725
385. David Rubin – 22,325
386. Kenna James – 21,975
387. Chad Brown – 21,850
388. Hooman Nikzad – 20,875
389. Simon Moussa – 20,675
390. Edwin Kim – 20,475
391. Tony Cousineau – 20,350
392. John Duthie – 19,625
393. Scott Ross – 19,500
394. Michael Binger – 19,275
395. Mark Gregorich – 18,550
396. Rodeen Talebi – 18,000
397. Christopher Bach – 17,700
398. Scott Paust – 17,125
399. Jeff Langdon – 16,950
400. Lance Oliver – 16,525
401. Jason Potter – 16,225
402. Erick Lindgren – 15,800
403. Adam Geyer – 15,675
404. Brian Haveson – 15,575
405. Sorel Mizzi – 15,475
406. Alexander Kostritsyn – 15,450
407. Andrew Rosskamm – 13,900
408. Joe Sebok – 13,300
409. Theodore Park – 13,250
410. Enrique Leigue – 13,100
411. Brian Powell – 12,850
412. Nenad Medic – 12,425
413. Andrew Black – 11,800
414. Bob Cole – 11,575
415. Men “The Master” Nguyen – 10,725
416. Dennis Burns – 10,625
417. Erik Haakenson – 10,375
418. Van Nguyen – 9,100
419. Nick Schulman – 8,400
420. Albert Huang – 7,875
421. David “The Dragon” Pham – 4,750

Sadly, however, Antonio Esfandiari seemed to be on a bad run this evening, then took a hit from Kyle Burnside, and just got eliminated. He’s had a great week with the announcement of his partnership with WPT, but a shot at a second WPT LAPC title would have been icing on the cake. It wasn’t meant to be, but there’s the NBC Heads-Up in a few days, along with the WPT Invitational next weekend. Momentum could take him far if he lets it.

Click below for some semi-gossip-y notes:

Mark Newhouse (eliminated today) is meeting with a lawyer this week to discuss a lawsuit against Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Newhouse first discussed his problems on his Wise Hand Poker blog, and it seems that the problems have never been resolved. When I asked him if I should keep the lawsuit information private, he responded, “I don’t give a shit. Tell everybody.” Ummm, ok.

Isabelle Mercier was sporting a blond hair color at the LAPC. I’m not sure if it’s her color, but it’s her head of hair.

Carlos Mortensen was sporting a hot chick on his arm during the LAPC. The divorce has long been done, so why not?

David Benyamine looks markedly thinner. Maybe fiancee Erica Schoenberg teaches him health and exercise while he teaches her poker? She had several cashes at the LAPC, including a second-place finish in the ladies event. I’ve always thought they were a good couple.

Jean-Robert Bellande had a Bodog patch on his shirt and was telling folks that he was sponsored by Bodog. Justin Bonomo also had a Bodog patch. Still trying to find out if Bodog was doing some one-time sponsorship deals or if these are permanent – no press releases from Bodog yet.

Bellande also played WPT video hostess Kimberly Lansing in a heads-up match. The winner will get to choose an outfit for the other to wear at Bay 101 for an interview on camera. Bellande won. Shocking.

Jerry will have his work cut out for him, as he has about 61k chips.

Josh, is still very strong with 306k. He’s got Chip Jett at his table. Previously, his toughest opponent at his table was Carlos Mortenson. “I was scared of him,” Josh says.

The avg. stack is currently 154,000.

Thor Hansen, who rocked this series, is playing today as well as Amnon Filippi (4th in H.O.R.S.E.), Allen Cunningham, Chad Brown, Carlos Mortenson, Chris Ferguson, Chip Jett, Humberto Brenes, JC Tran, looks mean but really a sweetie pie Eric Buchman has about 80k and George Costanza AKA Jason Alexander will get some main event action.

Recent eliminations include David Plastik, Phil Gordon, Joe Sebok, Evenlyn Ng, Tom Schneider, James Van Alstyne and Vicki Coren. No one seems to know if Jennicide played wearing lingerie, in fact, we’re not sure if she played the Main Event at all.

David Levi ended the first day without increasing his starting stack while Scott Fischman was in worse condition ending with only 17k in chips. Yet, Scott and David stepped up to bat on day two and hit several home runs placing them currently in 8th and 9th.

But they better not slack tomorrow because Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Paul Wasicka, Roland De Wolfe & Paul Lee are apparently wanting to win this little tournament.

Today’s notable eliminations were Lyle Berman (WPT Chairman of the board), Justin Bonomo and Dan’s crush.