Darvin may have just-said-no to an invite to the WSOP final table this year, but that doesn’t mean his participation in poker tourneys is finito.

From the heartlands to New England, Darvin Moon has spent the latter part of 2010 running the tournament hosting circuit.  Hosting the Mega Stack Challenge XVII with Chris Moneymaker in August, and making two stops along the Heartland Poker Tour in Iowa/Michigan in the past month, Darvin will be hosting and playing in Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge XVIII $375,000 Guarantee kicking off Saturday in Mashantucket, CT – not too far from Darvin’s homebase in Maryland.

Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge XVIII
December 4-12, 2010

$500+$60 NLHE (2 day) -> $75k guarantee – 20k/50 min
$200+$30 NLHE Re-Entry (2 day, 4 flights 1A/1B) -> $100k guarantee – 8k/30 min
$100+$20 NLHE Deep Stack Special -> $10k guarantee – 15k/20 min
$125+$50+$25 NLHE Bounty Deep Stack-> $15k guarantee – 15k/25 min
$300+$40 NLHE (2 day) -> $75k guarantee – 15k/40 min
$1,000+$100 NLHE Main Event (2 day) -> $100k guarantee – 40k/50 min

Bernard Lee, the Foxwoods Poker Room spokesperson who TV-tabled the HPT Michigan Season Finale a couple weeks back with a 5th place finish, invited Pokerati along to catch the action.

Visit the foxwoodslive.com for @WhoJedi‘s tournament coverage updates.
Follow the @FoxwoodsPoker for event twitfeed.

Follow me @scarlet_lv for other behind-the-scenes updates from Connecticut.

Not that it means anything, nor that we’re gonna horserace this … but just a little indication how Pokerati’s early adopters see things. Results from the first batch of votes we’ve gotten in Pokerati’s Mock Hall of Fame selection process:

Harrington – 81
Seidel – 56
Ivey – 54
Johnson – 33
Greenstein – 30
McEvoy – 20
Nguyen – 15
Negreanu – 9
Ferguson – 12
Harman – 0

Click here to cast your mock ballot if you haven’t already.
Note: We’ve added a spot for write-ins and for you to leave your Twitter ID!

Of the 33 ballots tabulated, two had to be thrown out, which should be a bummer for Scotty Nguyen, since he had the most among the illegitimate points, and I don’t mean that in any sorta racist way.

You know, when Scotty does get in, you can imagine much will be made of his whole “Baby” shtick. That right there tells me something, as it would be much more “adorable” coming from a withering inductee in his 70s than an active player apparently getting paid in product for his sponsorship deal with Jheri curl.

With age always relevant in the Hall of Fame selection process, naturally, @BJNemeth and I couldn’t resist a Socratic dialogue competitively pissing in the wind about the meaning of the emphasized phrase this year:

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On this day nine years ago — September 11, 2001 — cards got in the air for a new online poker site called PokerStars.

The best multitable tournaments, player loyalty rewards, stats, and seeing your own picture at the table were the vision unleashed on the world on September 11th. Click to look back at the site as it was then.

It was just for play money at first, but the timing would prove fortuitous. People seemed to enjoy the software and were telling their friends … as online poker seemed to provide a much-needed escape from the ever-more-difficult to swallow news of the day.

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Surely it’s got to be, right? And maybe not just for main events … I wouldn’t be surprised if this represents the youngest final table ever — for any WSOP event in history! One of the youngest five, for sure, I’ll virtually guarantee.

Eight 20somethings and one Gen-Xer (who happens to be the second shortest stack):

FILIPPO CANDIO – 26
JOSEPH CHEONG – 24
JOHN DOLAN – 24
JONATHAN DUHAMEL – 22
MATTHEW JARVIS – 25
MICHAEL MIZRACHI – 29
CUONG “SOI” NGUYEN – 37
JOHN RACENER – 24
JASON SENTI – 25

It seems the most prescient pre-game analysis might have come from a non-poker media source … specifically Time Magazine’s Dan Kadlec, whose article (“World Series of Poker: Attack of the Math Brats“, 28 June 2010) is now up online for those of you who didn’t get to read it in full when it first came out.

The November Nine Class of ’10 includes only two players who were 21 or older when Chris Moneymaker did his thing at age 27.

You’ve all seen it before … but it had been several years since I watched it in full (with no other distractions). If you haven’t seen it for a while either, enjoy a clip from back when poker was just poker …

Seven years ago today, the 2003 Main Event got underway …

After wading through a massive field of 839, Chris Moneymaker would end up facing off against Sam Farha, the quintessential Vegas gambler, and making the bluff that created an industry:

(Check out his hat. Think PokerStars got good ROI on their swag?)

Not many details at the moment, but Mark Seif noted on his blog tonight on the passing of veteran pro Amir Vahedi. Most people may recognize him for his 6th place finish at the 2003 WSOP final table, he earned over $3,000,000 in tournament action. More details as they become available.

Another down day for today’s Main Event as only 873 registered for day 1b, the lowest day 1 figure since the poker boom began. Reports indicate that over 2,700 players combined have already registered for days 1c and 1d, combined with the 1,989 who have already registered means the 5,000 figure should easily be reached. Another rumor, this one reported by ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, says that Days 1c and 1d will play 5 two-hour levels, followed by 4 two-hour levels for Day 2b. The Day 1a and 1b survivors will then play 5 two-hour levels on Day 2a so everyone has played nine levels when the field combines for day 3.

On to what’s known, and that is the Day 1b field is on their fourth and final level of today’s play, with about 720 players remaining. Notables who have already been eliminated: Chris Moneymaker, Doyle Brunson, Vicky Coren, David Pham, boxer Winky Wright, and Marlon Shirley, who will definitely get some airtime during ESPN’s Day 1b coverage.

The unofficial chip leader is Nick Maimone, with 129,000 in chips. Some notables with chips includes: Ali Eslami (85,000), Fabrice Soulier (66,000), Erik Seidel (59,500), Shaun Deeb (53,000), Joe Sebok (42,500), and Amarillo Slim (36,000). You can follow the live updates at www.wsop.com here.

See what other rumors get started or squashed at Pokerati in the evening hours and early morning and I’ll be back with more stuff in the morning.

[tab: News]All In: The Poker Movie won the jury prize for Best Documentary at the CineVegas Film Festival last week — which knowledgeable movie people tell me is known as a respected minor league version of Sundance. It supposedly won’t be announced until tomorrow afternoon, but Variety already has the results.

Chris Moneymaker is a hero again.

Even not-so-pokery people are saying this 98-minute history of the game is a sleepy sleeper hit. Indie Film Examiner says:

This film claims that poker is a “microcosm of the American dream”. After viewing it I completely agree.

And VegasHappensHere:

But “All In” tonight really taught me something else: The poker boom is about as American as anything ever was. The variation on the game itself — Texas Hold ‘Em — is an American invention. Risk-taking is the foundation of our capitalist society. And the ingredients that turned it into what it is today include new technology (hole-card cams, Web poker) and anyone-can-succeed chutzpah (Moneymaker) that have deep roots in our national traditions.

[tab: Video from premiere]
PokerListings was at the premiere, at the Palms:

All In: The Poker Movie Premiere from PokerListings.com

A few recaps while several tournaments are on their dinner breaks:

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem final table has 4 players remaining. Greg Raymer, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton and Dani Stern make up the final four to take home nearly $2m and the first open gold bracelet of the WSOP. Ted Forrest, Noah Schwartz, Lex Veldhius, Alec Torelli and Justin Bonomo were eliminated earlier today from the final table.

Speaking of Raymer, the WSOP Champions Invitational got underway earlier this afternoon. 20 of the 25 surviving champions accepted their RSVPs to be filmed under the bright lights of the ESPN cameras. Within the first orbit, 2006 winner Jamie Gold was the first player eliminated, while 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker watched his 10,000 chip stack dwindle erode before he finally busted. Raymer was able to get a couple of hands in before returning to the $40k final table. Six more one-hour levels or until the final table of nine return Monday afternoon.

More recaps on the next page:
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There’s a lot of interesting action going on tonight. The $40k NLH seems to have quite the storylines developing … Chris Moneymaker (@cmoneymaker) is still alive and strong, but the chip leader is now his new-poker-era successor, Greg Raymer. Justin Bonomo (@JustinBonomo) is still proving to be a big threat … all these boomtime champions, yet plenty of old dogs there, too — Steven Zolotow, David Chiu, Ted Forrest, e.g. — representin’ those pre-boom big-time days.

There are currently 38 players remaining, with 27 making the money. Click here to follow the official chip counts – and Dr. Pauly is all over this one, too.

UPDATE: Moneymaker just took a huge hit, losing 2/3 of his stack.

RE-UPDATE: Pauly is ahead of the official counters — Moneymaker is out. So is Zolotow.

There’s also some potential excitement brewing in the ESPN Fantasy Pool, with Matt Glantz (@MattGlantz, one of my guys) way up near the top of the chip counts; and Mathers has Neil Channing hanging on for his team of fantasy scabs.

Vanessa Rousso (@VanessaRousso) is also still alive, though barely. Wouldn’t it be something …

Last but definitely not least, Dallas/Shreveport baller Keith Lehr (pictured) is currently 5th in chips.

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.

The $40k NLH is movin’ along … 111 left out of 201. One of the guys near the top in chips, @JustinBonomo, says:

Just broke 500k, but can’t believe new rule. Any card ACCIDENTALLY exposed is a 1 hand penalty. Dealers are instructed to always enforce it.

I tend not to like the absoluteness in the hands of a dealer, but then again, it is just one hand.

Click below to see who’s still alive and who’s busted:

(Chris Moneymaker is winning.)

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In a case of subtraction by addition, the last two players to register for the 40th Annual $40k NL holdem event cost the eventual winner almost $135,000. Going by the WSOP’s payout structure, the winner would have taken 26.5% of the prize pool, or $2,025,000. However, the last two entrants pushed the payout into another bracket, as the winner takes down 24.5% of the prize pool–$1,891,000. The players are currently on their dinner break, to return at 8:30pm to play a few more levels tonight. 150 players remain when play resumes, some known names who don’t have to worry about returning: Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Annie Duke, David Williams and John Juanda. The top three on the leaderboard: Antonio Esfandiari, Justin Bonomo and Chris Moneymaker, who have increased their 120,000 starting stack to over 400,000 so far.

The other tournament taking place, the $500 Casino Employees event, is also on a dinner break with 17 players remaining, with a winner to be crowned tonight. Andrew Cohen is the current chip leader with over 360,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris was knocked out in 26th place to take home $2,475.

Follow the players progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com, and I’ll be back in the morning with more discussion on what day it really is at the WSOP. a recap of today’s events.

The Atlantic has a post about a section of a chapter of a book that may have figured out why America and the world has gotten in a total economic mess ever since George W. Bush Osama bin Laden Chris Moneymaker won … bridge helped pull us out of the Great Depression, apparently, and poker has taken us the other way:

Yet in the first decade of the twenty-first century contract bridge is in serious decline, viewed as a game for the elderly, with few younger enthusiasts. In contrast, in recent years poker — and especially its twenty-first century variation, Texas hold ‘em — has surged forward. These games are played by individuals for themselves alone, emphasize a type of deception variously called bluffing and “keeping a poker face,” and are generally played for money.

[...]

if card games played by millions of people shift the role of deception, wouldn’t we be naive simply to assume that such shifts do not also occur in the world of commerce?

Now before you get all up in arms at the absurdity of blaming a whole subculture that just so happens to take pleasure in raping their friends and stealing from the blinds with total junk hands, I think we should consider taking the heat on this: Yes, absolutely, poker is to blame. We totally fucked up. Oops, sorry about that. But we get a bailout now, right? Please send a few hundred billion care of PartyPoker and the World Poker Tour.

Either that or Peter Hellmuth. As we wind down the day yesterday and look forward to tonight’s action, that’s what’s at stake — either we’ll have a new youngest main event champion ever, or the Ruskies will have a new national hero. Meanwhile, Dan gets his facts wrong, but does Pauly even care when he can’t see the final f-in table?

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.10: Ivan Moneymaker 3:29

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