Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.4: Bustin’ Outs 2:43

With the elimination of Craig Marquis in ninth place, and the sudden eighth place elimination of Kelly Kim in the very next hand, Full Tilt is left to hang all of its WSOP champion hopes on Scott Montgomery.

All of the PokerStars players remain at the table… I’m notoriously bad at prop bets, but I’m thinking – work with me on this one – tomorrow’s champion might be decked out in PS gear.

I’m pretty sure Dallas dealer Linda didn’t throw down that river.

He goes home with … er, he’s already been paid is $900k, so … nothing! Thanks for your trouble over the last four months, dude.

Less than a month later, Tiffany signed a longer-term deal with UB. That spurred some talk within the poker community, but she is in the news again, this time as a result of her actions at the WSOP main event as chronicled by ESPN. The most talked-about incident involved her calling the clock on an opponent, during a hand of which she was not a part, and the criticism she received from Craig Marquis. If you haven’t seen it, here ya go, with the hand in question at the beginning of the video:

Evidently, Tiffany received some not-so-cutesy messages from people after the show aired, and she responded with a post on her website, MySpace, and 2+2. In essence, she blamed television editing, the fact that she’s a female, and the non-understanding people have of her and her poker game for the hubbub. To see the entire message, as posted on her website, click here.

In response to the post on 2+2 by Tiffany of the above-mentioned message, Craig Marquis called her disrespectful and rude. To see his short and not-sweet forum comment, click here.

Another perspective on Tiffany’s general demeanor at the WSOP main event was posted by F-Train, wherein he called her self-impressed and noted that as a tournament reporter, he was not a fan. For the post, click here.

The Poker King also had a few things to say about Tiffany by calling her out for general bad behavior and opining that her hype-train is now nothing more than smoldering wreckage. The entire opinion post can be found by clicking here.

While this is certainly not the biggest of controversies to hit the poker community, it has several interesting sides to it.

Otherwise I’d expect a President/Election story, something political (probably about the environment, or Wall Street), poker (with Russ Hamilton as the villain), and a few minutes with Andy Rooney.

Presuming this story does run on November 9th — whether it’s “good for poker” or not — it will be great promotion to non-poker people of ESPN’s final table broadcast. And these people, frankly, wouldn’t know a Peter Eastgate from a Brandun Cantu or a Craig Marquis from Huck Seed … or heck, even a Chino Rheem from a JC Tran, and won’t care so long as they see some fireworks.

UPDATE: Poker Player Newspaper gives a little confirmation on the date. So set your Tivos, unless of course a war breaks out before then.

Now that we know who the November Nine are, who do people root for?

Is it the chip leader from St. Louis?
Is it the quiet Russian?
Will it be the grinder from Los Angeles?
Can it be the player with 10 BB’s, has two female first names, and is on a virtual freeroll from this point forward?
Will the Canadians have their first Main Event winner?
Will the FIDE Master from New York follow through on his threat to be invisible until November?
Can the only player from Texas bring the holdem title back to the Lone Star State?
Will the Danish player do what Gus Hansen was unable to do in the Series?

Only 117 days until we start finding out…

I thought it would be extra funny if two people went out on the final hand … would’ve totally caused a “Doh!” moment to the folks who bought thenovembernine.com and thenovember9.com. (I’ll give you a hint, since I can’t link specifically to search results here.)

Craig Marquis made it! And even though he had the smallest cheering section of any player — save for maybe the stoic Russian — the dude from Dallas is clearly the man, and the only player who matters. St. Louis, Shmaint Louis!

In the meantime, while we figure out what’s up over the next almost-four months, you can see a few more details about the final table of the 2008 WSOP main event here.

Eliminations:
15th – Owen Crowe
16th – Anthony Scherer
17th – Tiffany Michelle

Chip counts at the dinner break:

Peter Eastgate 18.6m
Darus Suharto 14.8m
Dean Hamrick 12.0m
Joe Bishop 11.8m
Chino Rheem 11.2m
Ylon Schwartz 10.5m
Scott Montgomery 10.4m
Dennis Phillips 10.2m
Craig Marquis 9.6m
Kelly Kim 6.8m
Chris Klodnicki 6.7m
Nicholas Sliwinski 5.9m
Ivan Demidov 5.4m
Gert Andersen 3.4m

Go Dallas Poker / America!

He says he doesn’t really play in Dallas underground games — just sticks to online — but he’s exactly the kinda player who I thought would do well this main event … a relative unknown who ain’t dancin’ at his first WSOP rodeo.

Big pre-emptive congrats, dude, and damn all you longtime Pokerati readers for not giving me the heads-up that a Dallas guy was still alive!!! thanks for giving us another person to cheer on as we work our way towards the November Nine.