UPDATE: No-stakes Dallas Amateur-turned-Vegas small-stakes pro David Pflaster is hanging in there. Has built his stack back up to about 6,000.

“I did stop-and-go,” he said, “the best play in poker … He raised it up and i couldn’t go all-in because I only had like 1,500 more, so I just flat called and bet all-in on the flop.”

“Ah, because in that situation it doesn’t matter what you have or if it hits you — you’re just banking on it not hitting him.”

“Yeah, but it did hit me,” and he folded.

Hmm, so in that case a check wouldn’t have been better? Maybe not. Still, good stuff, DP … back in survivable action … with 520 of 2,317 remaining. Money kicks in at 198.

UPDATE: Pflaster is out. He built his stack up to 8,500 by making moves. First go was all-in with J-3 … tight table, his short stack still big enough to hurt any and all of them … everybody folds.

Next hand: AK … can’t just raise a little bit, so he moves all-in again … no one calls.

Next hand: . Same move again … by this point players are getting suspicious, but he still has too many chips for any of them to call … except for the dude with pocket queens. Flopped a 9, but never improved. Totally crippled, moves all-in in the dark in the next hand, late-position min-raises … they’re heads-up, but Pflaster’s Q7s fails to outflop-turn-river the raisers K-J.

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Playing under our little satanic-spade banner … David Pflaster. Some of you may recall … he got his start playing at the Lodge and before you knew it was getting aces tattooed on his forearms, dealing in Dallas, and about a year ago moved to Las Vegas to make it as a low-stakes pro.

He actually seems to be doing it — says he’s just slightly better than breaking even in cash games while hitting some “big” scores in tourneys. More than $20k in the past few months in Caesar’s freerolls, another $10k win online … today he’s playing in the $2,000 NLH event … and with about half the field eliminated just before dinner break, he’s a pretty-big stack with about 18,000 chips (more than double the avg.). Seen here after just having taken out a player who moved all-in on his big blind in a hand where he woke up with pocket kings.

NOTE TO SELF: Satanic Spade … good name for a new death metal band!

UPDATE: According to Pflaster: “Dude, my Aces ran into Jacks.” His opponent was apparently a relative big-stack … so he’s now down to 3600, with blinds at 300/600 … and Pflaster in the big blind on the next hand after dinner break.

Yikes. But at the same time, on the previous break he and I talked about this exact situation, and how he’s learned his way out of it. We’ll see, no?

Joel the MySpace Friend / Account Exec in Dallas writes in inquiring about a possible career change:

—————– Original Message —————–
From: “Joel”
Date: May 5, 2008 2:02 PM

How are things? How is Vegas? I might be moving out there at the end of the Summer to play poker professionally. Cash games and tourneys. Any advice, suggestions or best games you are finding out there? Any tips would help. Thanks!

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As I surveyed the room, it was about what I expected/hoped for. Mostly pros and several table with 5-6 well known players per. Sure, it would be tough as could be, but what a great experience nonetheless. At first glance, Ted Lawson was the only player I recognized at my table, sitting to me immediate right in the 2 seat and fresh off a win in one of the prelims. Then I saw that Mark Newhouse was in seat 6. Okay no biggie. Come to find later that Theo Tran was in the 1, John Racener the 7 and Michael Esposito in 5. There was also a very aggressive Asian kid in 10 who appeared to be a pretty good player at first blush.

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North Texas fireworks kingpin Ran Nelson brought his tight-aggressive Dallas game recently to the Mandalay Bay.

Though I haven’t been writing much about anything it, I have been hitting the tables here in Vegas. Have sampled a handful of rooms and action … spreading the lore of the Hammer and the Sang all along the way, of course, as I seek to replace the competitive camaraderie of the Batface home game perhaps with something akin to Jackie’s back in the (Dallas underground hey)day.

That came easier than usual this week, when TBR-bro-in-law Patrick came to town. He was staying at the Luxor, so we met up at Cathouse for a drink. (Cathouse is basically like the Lodge without the nipples, and Celeb-chef Kerry Simon in place of Jose Luis.) A couple Lagavulins later, we walked over to Mandalay Bay, where we took two seats together at a $2/$4 no-limit table. This was bigger stakes than either of us had been playing, but hey, we were feelin’ half-drinky good, and it seemed a better option than waiting, as the room was totally full and festive on a Thursday night. A familiar face was seated with us – Ran Nelson, a very good Dallas player whom I hadn’t seen since the days of Jackie’s – what a delight. He had a new cardmarker, a square block of acrylic with his little Stuey guy inside of it, surrounded by chips from the various important poker rooms to Ran, including WinStar in Oklahoma and the old Sixth Street in Dallas.

I was playing great – more-than-doubled up in about an hour by trapping a well-stacked opponent in classic Dan-style … but then was back to square 1 a few hands later when I got unlucky on the turn … and back to square 0 when I don’t remember what I did but I am pretty sure it was stupid, starting with playing the likes of .

Mandalay Bay
$2/$4 NLH
Buy-in: $300
Cash out: $0
Food: starved
Drinks: $28
Net: -$328

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Just got word over the poker satellite that Gregg Merkow and Jamie Gold are currently engaged in some high stakes action — $50/$100 NLH with a $200 straddle. I can only presume in Tunica, where there’s a WSOP Circuit main event and a big WPT event going right next to each other. Don’t know who’s got what kinda stacks in front of them, but you know who we’re rooting for … 2008 baby, it feels good to run good!

Donkey Bomber Pokerati Tom — my words, not his — is at another final table today. That’s about all we know. I think it’s in a $2,500 Venetian/NPL Vegas Open event — I know it’s not at one of the preliminary Bellagio 5-Diamond tourneys where most of the pros are playing — but can’t be sure because, frankly, Tom tends to slack off from his frontline tournament reporting duties whenever he’s playing well (or vice versa). Too bad Goldfarb’s not making more final tables, because even if he can’t post directly from the table, he loves to send me the suckout-by-suckout recaps.

Tom Schneider starts today third in chips … I do know that much. And yeah, looking again, it’s gotta be event #3, because that’s one that counts toward Player of the Year. He really wants to win it, and thinks he can. Personally, I don’t think he stands a chance — though I suppose technically it’s possible and the Arizona Cardinals could win the next Super Bowl, as neither have been mathematically eliminated from contention.

In the meantime, keep up the good work, Tom (6)! We’re rooting for you against David Pham, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Bill Edler, JC Tran, David Fox, James Van Alstyne, Jared Hamby, and Danny Wong! Actually, I’m kinda rooting for Danny Wong, too … because he’s on my fantasy team. And Travis Rice, who is Dallas Poker’s highest ranked player in the CardPlayer standings at #11 — 5 spots, and 680 points behind Tom.

UPDATE (from Tom):

Belagio 2500 started yesterday 247 players

Hmm, OK, so I guess it was not one of the Venetian tourneys … it was a 5-Diamonder. Oops! But can we say sic.?

CORRECTION: Despite his own reports to the contrary, Schneider starts the day second in chips, not third. Click below to see who’s at the final table …

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We probably shoulda mentioned this earlier, but there’s been a pretty big series of tournaments going on at the Cherokee Casino in Upper Oklahoma. The main event of the Scotty Nguyen Classic IV just finished up … another quarter-million first-place payout from our good friends north of the Red River … and TJ Cloutier won it, avenging the two-outer that cost him the top spot in WinStar’s big-daddy event.

He defeated Houstonian Ray Henson, whom you may recall went deep in the 2007 WSOP main event — the last Texan standing, finishing in 12th place before being knocked out by, interestingly enough, Scotty Nguyen.

124 players bought in to this $5,000 NLHE event, including a handful of names and faces you may recognize from tables around North Texas and elsewhere:

TJ Cloutier, Richardson, 1st place — $241k
Ray Henson, Houston, 2nd place — $138k
Brant Hale, Norman, 3rd place — $72k
Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, 4th place — $42k
Noah Nodine, Norman, 5th place — $33k
Daniel Robertson, Alma, AR, 6th place — $27k
Gil George, Dallas, 7th place — $21k
Scotty Nguyen, Las Vegas, 8th place — $15k
Bill Edler, Las Vegas, 9th place — $12k

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Running Good: 25-year-old Travis Rice made two final tables at the 2007 WSOP and follows that up with a high-six-figures win in Aruba.[photo: PocketFives]

One of the other major tournaments going on this weekend took place in Aruba — a slightly more scenic destination than New Jersey. The $5,500 buy-in event drew 548 players, and in the end, after enduring a semi-difficult outdoor final table (complete with sun, wind, and bugs) Fort Worth’s Travis Rice was the last player standing — winning $800,000 and providing further proof of the old adage about the success of the Dallas Cowboys being tied to the Ultimate Bet Aruba Classic.

Mean Gene was there ogling the bikini-clad following the official action, as was PocketFives. While a handful of big-name pros competed (Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Robert Williamson, Mike Matusow, Kristy Gazes, et al.), by the time this thing got to the money, the online qualifiers were clearly dominating.

Online players know Travis as “TravestyFund” … but some of you may remember him as a dealer at the now defunct Sixth Street. He has since turned pro, and thus far in 2007 banked nearly $1.2 million in tournament winnings. He celebrated his most recent victory by jumping in a pool.

More photos here.

Louis Lee continues to kick arse at the US Poker Championship in Atlantic City. They’re down to three and he’s the middle in chips. Go Louis!

By the way, one hand that deserves mention … Louis knocked out Victor Ramdin, who was previously belittling his play and claiming he would take all of Lee’s chips. From PokerListings:

Sickening!
Louis Lee raises to $68,000 on the button and Victor Ramdin comes over the top all-in for another $205,000 from the small blind. Ed Brogdon gets out of the way in the big blind and the action’s on Lee, who ruminates for a few minutes, saying, “This would be the sickest thing in the world if I called this.”

It is the sickest thing in the world, because Lee calls with and is way behind Ramdin’s . The flop is cruel, coming , and after the turn is the the river is the and Victor Ramdin, who yesterday told Lee he’d take every last one of his chips before the tournament was over, has been eliminated at the hands of the man he’d trash talked.

Ramdin is out in fifth place and will take home $71,586 to add to the coffers.

Awesome. You can see why I am such a big Louis Lee fan.

UPDATE: They’re down to heads-up. Louis is guaranteed $318k … winner takes home $606k. He has 1.6 million chips, to Adam Gerber’s 3.8 million.

UPDATE: Rough hand … but Lee couldn’t lay down his boat and he got 2nd place:

Louis Lee limps-in and Adam Gerber pops it to 125,000. Lee makes the call and the flop comes . Gerber checks and Lee bets 200,000. Gerber immediately pops to 500,000 and Lee makes the call. The turn is the and Gerber moves all-in, putting Lee to a decision for his tournament life.

Lee tanks for a good five minutes, standing and pacing and trying to figure out his move. After an agonizing deliberation he makes the call, shoving his stack into the middle and turning up for the boat. Gerber has a better boat, however, with and Lee is drawing dead. After the hits the river it’s official; Adam Gerber is USPC Champ!

While Louis may be rethinking the call for a while, one thing that probably makes it a little more stomach-rumbly is the chop he turned down. When they got to heads-up, Gerber (the 2.5x bigger stack) offered him $450,000 and they’d play for the bracelet and a Rolex. Very fair, he agreed, but Louis wanted to play it out.

Still, nice debut performance on the high-stakes circuit. Big congrats to LL.

Louis Lee, sitting pretty at the final table in his first $10,000 event, is no longer being underestimated by his competition. [photo: Dale Perryman]

The story of Louis Lee has made the USPC entertaining for some of us to follow — moreso than, say, Gavin Smith, who busted out in 9th place when his two-pair couldn’t hold up against a flush draw. With eight players remaining, Lee, who has just $4,000 in major tournament winnings prior to this event, is 2nd in chips with 1.35 million. His trash-talking next-door neighbor Victor Ramdin (last week’s cover of CardPlayer, by the way) is 5th with 322k. Fun!

While this tournament hardly qualifies as a “major,” it still offers potentially life-changing money to the winner. $32k to the next player out; $600k to the last man standing. That’s a big-time sit-n-go no matter how you look at it. (Can we say chop?) For a not-so-winning player like yours truly, it’s kinda extra cool to see a guy sitting next to me at a 2/5 table at WinStar just a month ago in this situation.

Louis and his poker buddy Dale were kind enough to keep us updated throughout Day 4. Click below to see how he got to the final table in such a strong position, where he can theoretically weather a bad beat or two, and totally dominate if he happens to get a tad lucky:

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An update on the US Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City as they get near the money bubble. For all you Louis Lee fans out there:

Up to 460,000 chips. 22 players left. Ramdin crippled Bill gaze. Pocket 10 held up to pocket 7. Gaze out. got most of my chips from ramdin.

Excellent. Final table in his sights.

Coverage from PokerPages here.

Coverage from PokerListings here.

UPDATE: From PokerListings:

As we start hand-for-hand play, Victor Ramdin turns to seatmate Louis Lee and tells him, “I promise by the end of the tournament I’m going to take every one of your chips. I promise. And you know why? Because you play bad. You’re playing bad poker. And people who play bad poker, I take all of their chips.”

Awesome … Ramdin sounds like a break-even online player.

There seems to be a rash of donkeys putting themselves in holes around the country.(Photo: AP)

NOT THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Crap. Did I say that already? You can’t be a good poker player if you let going bust upset you too much … always sucks … but man, does it really suck to go bust after sunrise. Hurts even more when the winner of your final hand turns his cards up in disgust after seeing the turn and the river and says, dejectedly, “you got it,” when in fact you don’t.

So my experiment has come to an end. Brought $1,000 to play with, and finished down $837. I’d like to say I got average cards and played them below-average. But considering my results of late, I think I might have to admit that I was playing them full-on average for me.

To be good at poker you’re supposed to see the action just in terms of chips, not dollars. But I sometimes wonder if that’s 100 percent true. Because it is real money you’re playing with, and perhaps keeping that in mind can help you make better decisions. Regardless, as part of my punishment for 15 hours of poker sloth, here’s a list of what else I could’ve done with $837 besides hanging out on an Oklahoma Indian Reservation with a bunch of mostly Asian guys not getting any sleep:

Numbers Game

• An HD Tivo and Nintendo Wii (with plenty leftover for service and games)
• Laser back-hair removal
• 2 or 3 ounces of high-grade marijuana
• 4 third-row seats (on the 27-yard-line) to the Bears-Cowboys game at the new Soldier Field
• 5-night vacation in Maui
• 1,637 shares of PartyGaming stock (PRTY.L)
• 1 pair of Chanel multi-tweed printed lizard ankle-strap pumps

OK, for some reason that last one makes me feel better about everything. Guess I won’t quit poker after all. Baby don’t need no shoes.

UPDATE: I forgot I had three one-dollar chips in my pocket. So really, I only finished down $834. Movin’ on up!

Well that went fine but not great. Out early in level 4. (Posted two updates earlier, but ran into technical difficulties with my non-iPhone.) Anyhow, all I know is that i will be a better player when I learn how to lay down trips when I suspect I might be outkicked and the all-in big stack really has a flush.

But not all is lost. Saw lots of friendly faces here and one has owed me $388 since February. I knew he was good for it — had just been awhile since we had seen each other, and indeed he paid me. So despite the early bustout, I am so far up $163. Cool, ish.

UPDATE: They are at the final table … Como is alive and healthy, and Fubu is the chip leader! No cash game got rolling, however, so I am heading north … to Oklahoma. Should be there in an hour or so. You know, from Mexico.

I’ve got a plan in place — a test really — and am ready to embark. I’ve got a specified wad of cash, two packs of cigarettes and some breath mints in my pockets, a change of shirt in the bag, and am fixin’ to hit the tables. We’re going to see how much I can return home with by the time most of you are reading this Monday morning.

First stop: a $225 “deep stacks” tourney somewhere in “Mexico.” 7,500 starting chips and 30 minute levels. Should be fun.

If I bust out early I will probably play some cash in the nearest 1/2 game. If I last long enough that I need a little break before action resumes, I am headed to Oklahoma — to WinStar, to try a little 2/5 no-limit hold’em. Not sure what the weekend tournament scene is like there, but that’s part of what I’m looking to go find out.

Will try to update as I go along, but as always, that is often internet-dependent … so I make no promises there.

I’ve thought this all through clearly, thoroughly, and rationally. Worst case scenario I am home early this evening and kicking myself while doing real-world work to recoup my losses. Best case scenario I’ll come home significantly more phizzat having finished off the extra-pokery weekend with a late-Sunday night amateur victory at the Lodge … where I hear the (tournament) action is still good. It will be a test of discipline, focus, and fortitude. Wish me luck!

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–TJ Cloutier made a raise, and Vikram Vijay folded 2-7o face-up. Greg Raymer, announcing the action, says, “Folding the Hammer.” I think I was the only one cheering on the inside … not for the fold, but for the Raymer recognition. (Otis must have taught him well.)

On the very next hand, they got it all-in … Cloutier had A-J, an Vijay called with 3-3. An ace came on the flop … no straight or flush draw on the turn … and congratulations to the New Yorker-cum-Oklahoman Vikram Vijay, who wins the 3rd annual Red River Roundup with a red 3 on the river.

Perhaps just as it should be?

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–North Texas player Abteen Vaziri just said now that I know his name I can delete it. He is out. He wins $2,500 for finishing in 55th place. Much of Abteen’s recent success has come from study of Joe Navarro’s book on tells. But he misread a pulsing neck vain for weakness when in reality it was pocket queens.

Sorry dude.

Looks like it’s up to Josh, Troy, and/or TJ to do the Dallas gamers (whose names Pokerati knows) proud.

UPDATE: Troy “Darling” Phillips is out. He got pocket jacks on the button and raised. The ever-aggressive big blind pushed all-in … Troy called … and would learn the sad news that he was up against aces. Ouch!

50th place. $3,000. Still, nice job by the Batfaces favorite sugar daddy curly haired representative. It’s only a matter of time before he runs out of money makes another final table.

UPDATE: Josh Evans also appears to be out. Turned away for a second and his table was gone … and he couldn’t be found elsewhere in the field.

Interestingly enough, while Kido Pham and Greg Raymer were brought out here (and presumably bought in) by WinStar … TJ Cloutier simply showed up on his own and plunked down $1,100. Definitely not a charity event for him. And to think, they don’t even have craps in Oklahoma. Can we say positive EV?

With 45 players left and blinds at 4k/8k+500, Cloutier has about 165,000 chips. Average stack is 111,000.

UPDATE: Just learned that Cloutier was bought into this event by a heretofore unnamed military-ish backer in Dallas … who has 50 percent of the poker hall-of-famer.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Still anybody’s game in the WinStar tourney. Though in the parking lot, the Okies seem to be mounting a comeback. Our unscientific license-plate spot-check today:

Texas - 184
Oklahoma - 14
Pennsylvania - 1
South Dakota - 1
Kansas - 1
Missouri - 1
Mexico D.F. - 1

That’s really all there is to it. He got some chips and then lost them. “You gotta win your races,” he said.

UPDATE: They are down to about 100 players, and Merkow, Randack, and Sanbob all appear to be out, too. Vandy Krouch is still alive but nursing a tiny stack.

One player still alive with about 20k I know I know but I can’t seem to place his name. He keeps saying, “Hi Dan,” when I walk by and asks me how “our guys” are doing.

“Dude, you’re the last man standing. Dude.”

Feel semi-assy for not knowing. And though I’m sure he’ll be only minorly bummed when he doesn’t see his name on the internet, I don’t want to disturb his game by saying, “Sorry, man … you look familiar, but no clue about your name … I used to smoke a lot of pot.”

For the record, by the way, it’s really tough to live-blog without the internet!

UPDATE: La Sengphat and her “honey” DC both busted out early today. Flopping two-pair to a set repeatedly can do that to you. Dallas poker seems to be getting its ass KICKED today!

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Some chip counts from the Red River Roundup, Day 2-Day 1:

TBR - 10k
Gregg Merkow - 20k
Webber Kang - 3500
Robert “Sanbob” Sanchez - 3k
Jerry Randack - 2500

UPDATE: Webber is out. Now playing 5/10 nlh.

Spot-check of license plates on my walk from the parking lot:

Texas - 92
Oklahoma - 9
Kansas - 1

In the cash room:

Omaha games running - 2/5 and 5/10 PLO
Full 5/10 NLH tables - 4
Number of players in the smoke room playing for their very first time - 2
Amount one of these players is up playing 4/8 - $840

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–No internet north of the Red River, or at least not at WinStar, where the first of three Day 1s in the $1 million NLH tourney concluded shortly before midnight yesterday. We’ll try to keep you posted from now through the final table, but can only promise so much with two-thumb typing.

Red River Roundup, Day 1 report:

- Event is sold out. 1,000 players. Double last year’s field.
- 333 played yesterday, of which 33 remain and will convene on the other side of the bubble on Sunday.
- Josh Evans and TJ Cloutier both advanced.
- So did Troy “Darling” Phillips. (Go Batfaces!)
- Marco Palacios went out near thw bubble.
- Avg. stack is 50k. Chip leader has about 150k.
- Media coverage is kinda new to WinStar. They haven’t figured out yet whether or not to allow photos.
- New poker room here is very nice.

Day 2-Day 1 has gotten underway. Favorites include Kido Pham and Randy “The Big Randy” Brown. Greg Raymer supposedly plays tomorrow.

LAS VEGAS–Oops, we had our number in the hedline wrong. Turns out poker peeps from Texas were even more dominating than we thought — with nine Here are the Texans who made it to Day 5, with either their current chip count or their cash prize already collected:

Ray Henson — Houston — 6,200,000 (chip leader)
Ayaz Mahmood — Houston — 1,600,000
John Armbrust — Austin — 780,000
Senovio Ramirez III — Mercedes — 770,000

Leonard Pruzansky — Richmond — 75th — $106,382
Josh Evans — Plano — 76th — $106,382
Mark Ellerbe — Richmond — 84th — $82,476
Jared Hamby — Waco — 88th — $82,476
Michael Zinna — San Antonio — 93rd –$67,535

Go Ray Henson! You’re the best! Woooo!

UPDATE: As of dinner break, Henson has dropped to 6th chip position, with 4 million.

LAS VEGAS–The Pokerati dream of following a local boy all the way to the final table has come to an end. Clonie David Williams Tex Barch Chris Como The Big Randy Jerry Randack Josh Evans has been eliminated. After taking a rough hit by a cowboy who doubled through him, he was in a position where he needed a little luck … needed to win all races and maybe hit a river here or there to get back in the action. Still, he finished high enough that — according to his friends who drove into town overnight — he could start doing what he needed to make it to the final table.

That entailed pushing with A-6 … and getting called, unfortunately, by A-10.

Josh Evans Eliminated By Jason Welch

Josh Evans pushed all-in preflop with {A-Clubs}{6-Hearts} and was called by Jason Welch holding {A-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}.

Board: {K-Diamonds}{J-Spades}{8-Spades}{J-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds}

Welch had the nut flush by the river and Josh Evans was eliminated.

Still, 76th place, for $106,382 … not bad for a guy who was playing $60 tourneys every Tuesday not that long ago. (By the way, Josh is running pretty dern good. He won $49,505 less than a month ago by finishing 2nd in a Venetian Deep Stacks tourney.)

Congratulations, Josh! And thanks for making our main event a little more exciting.

As for Pokerati, we’re off to find another bandwagon to jump on. Remaining Texans, of course, will take priority … as will players with healthy chip stacks.

LAS VEGAS–Throughout history, the WSOP has been dominated by Texans and Jews. At least one side is doing its part to keep that up this year, as eight Texans made it through to Day 5. One guy who probably didn’t get the coverage he deserved is Jared Hamby, known both live and online as “The Waco Kid.” Like Josh Evans, he too happens to be a Jackie’s alum. (Funny to me how reminisces of Jackie’s sound the same as non-Texan reminisces of PartyPoker. Ahh, yes, the good-old-days [of 2006] … )

Anyhow, mad props to Hamby, who finished in 88th place, winning $82,476.

LAS VEGAS–Josh Evans appears to have lost a chunk of his stack … now sitting below average with 1 million chips, but not yet frighteningly so.

Follow the action here. And don’t fret if there’s a lack of updates on him … suggests little drama over at his table; that he’s just waiting for the right opportunities.

(Homer much?)

To really get a grasp of Josh’s situation, Change100 spells it out in a way that should make sense to all those serious semi-amateurs interested in seeing him do well.

The Cost Per Round

In Dan Harrington’s book “Harrington on Hold’em” he introduces readers to the concept of “M,” which is just a fancy way of referring to what it costs a player in blinds and antes to play one orbit in a tournament.

At the current blind level, 12,000-24,000 with a 3,000 ante, it costs players 63,000 just to play one round. With the current average stack of 1,428,700, the average chip stack’s “M” is 22.67 (meaning, they could fold every hand for 22 2/3 orbits before going broke). According to Harrington, an “M” of 5 is considered a short stack while an “M” of 30 or more is a very comfortable stack to play with.

Speaks well of the new WSOP blind structure, too, no?

UPDATE: [4:20 pm pdt] Josh is hanging on with 600,000 chips. With 83 players left, he’s three spots away from the six-figure payouts.

LAS VEGAS–As play gets underway today in Day 5 — the battle for the deep money — there are more people from Texas than any other state … any other nation for that matter.

Click below to read the official recap/preview to learn more.

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LAS VEGAS–It’s gettin’ kinda funky in here. As the intensity of the on-the-table action ramps up, everything else is dying down. They’re tearing down the tables in the tent and throughout the Amazon rooms, the cash games hearken back to a low-rent poker room (with just a few smallish stakes games going), the Lewis family is headed back to Houston … just a couple hours ago a guy from Pokerwire was being staked 60-40 for some online play by some online pro — I have no idea who, but he reportedly has had as much as 141k in his Full Tilt account.

“Don’t worry if you lose the first thousand,” he said. “I can keep giving it to you $1,000 at a time.”

Meanwhile, at “the crossroads” right outside the Amazon Room, Max Pescatori was talking to Jason from Full Tilt about a potential endorsement deal for an online phenom named Dario. (He’s the kid who bought a Porsche with his PokerStars points.) And we have new security guards on duty. One of them was advising (in a whisper) some Germans to go to “The Green Door” — a Las Vegas swingers club — and his replacement is talking WWII history to anyone who will listen.

Should be even more different as Day 5 moves on. Speaking of … with 112 players remaining, Josh Evans enters Day 5 with exactly 1,792,000 chips — enough to put him in the top 20. Everyone redrew for tables, and an exact map of who’s sitting where is forthcoming. But I looked at the bagged chips on his table, and while he’s not the chip leader, he should be relatively comfortable, with only three others in his chip vicinity.

LAS VEGAS–Josh Evans has lost the chip lead … he’s now 4th, with just fewer than 2 million. With 191 players left, that’s about four times the average stack, so he’s still in very fine position. The chip leader has about 4 million.

UPDATE: Josh is down to 1.7 million … and he’s got a pretty tough table (that looks like it will be broken before the end of the night). At least four people on his table have at least a million, and, he says, “There are three Asians, so they really like to gamble.” Fortunately, he has enough chips that he can play extremely passively and wait out the typhoon, at least for a little while or until conditions change.

UPDATE: Josh’s table has turned rather passive all around. Very few hands played, almost no showdowns. Phil Hellmuth stopped by to wish two players good luck — including one guy who had just been re-raised by Josh … and folded before shaking hands with Phil.

LAS VEGAS–A good way to start the day …

From PokerNews:

Josh Evans Doubles Through Phillip Liou

After a flop of 10c-4s-3d, Phillip Liou bets 100,000, Josh Evans raises to 240,000, Liou pushes, and Evans calls all in for 582,000. Liou shows Ad-As, but Evans has 10h-10s for a set of tens.

The last two cards are 6d-8c, and Evans doubles up to over a million in chips.

UPDATE [3:07 pm pdt]: Josh is the chip leader, with more than 2 million chips. Should he end up on a table with Gus Hansen, he should be in prime shape after years of duking it out with Nic the Straddler. 225 players remaining … $50k guaranteed for all.

LAS VEGAS–Play has ended for the day, and Josh Evans is alive and well with exactly 400,000 chips — a still comfortably above average stack a slightly above average stack (briefly forgot they started with 20,000 this year), but way behind the chip leaders. (Ten players are already above a million.) He was into the 600s for a while, but gave a healthy chunk to the guy on his left. “I hate this table,” he told me. It had on it the aforementioned big stack, Humberto Brenes, Tobey Maguire, and an online phenom/Jackie’s alum I am learning more about named “The Waco Kid.”

Fortunately for Josh, his table was broken as players bagged their chips for the night … so we’ll see where he starts the day tomorrow — 337 players remain.

LAS VEGAS–Josh Evans crossed over … he’s got about 420k. So did Vandy Krouch, also with about 420k. Both guys are guaranteed more than $20,000 … and have a shot at $8.25 million.

There were some other North Texas players I saw on the official roster for today — but not sure of their stati.

Also not sure about Jerry Randack. He was relatively short stacked going into today, and I didn’t see him on first perusal of the remaining 60something tables. (Jerry’s a hard guy to miss.) So it looks grim as to whether or not he survived atmospheric re-entry, but we’re not ready to write him off as dead, yet.

UPDATE: Jerry is dead. I mean not like Eskimo Clark dead or Lady Bird Johnson deceased (God Bless Texas). But the 2007 Pokerati Invitational runner-up is out, finishing just shy of the money. Nice-ish go, Jerry!

Huck Seed, by the way, is near the chip lead — and I’m rooting against him. I dropped him from my fantasy team just two weeks ago — for virtually no reason other than to make room for Danny Wong, who I haven’t even seen at the WSOP. Would hate to see Seed get paid off for my poor fantasy play.

UPDATE: Vandy is out. From one of his friend’s in Dallas:

vandy got popped in 474, set of 6’s and the guy hit his set of Q’s on the turn. That started the popping…anyway very exciting.

Congratulations, Krouch! Way to do North Texas poker proud … and I am sure there are a few folks who are more than happy to see you with an extra $29,883 in your bankroll.

LAS VEGAS–Play is coming to a close for the night, and both Josh Evans and Jerry Randack look like they should make it to Day 3 … where the bubble will get crossed.

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.

UPDATE (4:39 pdt): JOSH EVANS still kicking ass. 300k in chips puts him near the top.

LAS VEGAS–Day 2b action is well underway about to get underway. In fact, it probably already will be so by the time this post is finished. It rained last night in Las Vegas — I knew it would!

Today, like yesterday, is all about the serious, “somber” poker. Most of the folks who got chips early by getting lucky will be getting knocked out. Short stacks will consistently be all-in. And serious players with a real chance of going deep will figure out if they’ll be nursing their chips into the money or making moves to put them in a position to really contend.

2007 WSOP Player of the Year TOM SCHNEIDER, by the way, is out. Happened a few hands after the dinner break, at which point he told me he was so beat down from the World Series that he didn’t really care if he got eliminated, because it would mean he could go home. Shocking with that attitude that he didn’t win.

Perhaps RANDY BROWN will do better. He starts today with 67,000 chips.

UPDATE: TBR is out. Lost every hand he played, he says. Got it all-in on the button, pushing with pocket 9s into a single-limped pot. The small blind woke up with Kings, the big blind with Aces. The BATFACES officially go 0-fer in the 2007 WSOP, but win the award for best hats.

Better luck next year, “The Big Randy.” You seem to have Day 1 figured out, but can’t make it through Day 2 with terrible cards unless you have a tiny, tiny stack.

TBR, by the way, was sitting virtually back-to-back with SHANNON ELIZABETH throughout Day 1. Nice! Go Poker!

Oops, zoom lens malfunction … Anyhow, yes, SHANNON ELIZABETH is out.

JOSH EVANS (below, left) will be a guy to really watch, as he carries 240,000 chips into Day 2 … with the money just a day-and-a-half only a day away.

And another North Texas pokerer fighting to make it to the pre-money bubble is JERRY RANDACK (right). Considering that he took 2nd place in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, we like his chances.

Dallas big-game player PRIMO is also still alive. He’s seen here tearing up the $5/$10 NLH cash game (moments away from bluffing — oops! — away more than $1,300 in a hand).

We’re still looking for VANDY CROUCH — seen here, cashing in the 6-handed No-Limit event — who is rumored to be protecting some 240,000 chips.

UPDATE: I mean not like right now. He finished Day 2a with about that many. He makes it to Day 3 — where the fight for the money begins!

For those who may have missed it, ROUNDER CLUB representative CHRIS COMO did not move on to day 2. Despite building up his stacks and taking control of his table, he got beat down toward the end of the day, and, in the end, surrendered them to online powerhouse CARL OLSON.

LAS VEGAS–Loyal Pokeratizens might know this guy … Josh Evans from Dallas is the Day 1d chip leader, with about 240,000:

(We watched him take down a second-chance tourney last year.)

UPDATE: The fact that I am eating my first Poker Kitchen fruit salad of the entire WSOP right now — just like the one the chip leader is eating! — is testament to the notion that non-online-poker-room endorsements, sponsorships, and product placements really work. Yum.

One of the asses he is currently kicking belongs to Paul Magriel, quack-quack.

With Day 1 (all four of ‘em) minutes away from coming to a close done — and almost 2/3 of the field eliminated — various poker dreams and fantasies are really starting to spin in people’s heads … though possibly not in the minds of those who actually have a chance to win it.

LAS VEGAS–We’re coming to the tail end of WSOP Part I. And seeing the opening salvo of WSOP Part II — the parties, the Expo, the main event, yadda yadda.

The biggest deal today is HOWARD AND SUZIE LEDERER’S barbecue (w/ STEPHEN Z) the final table of the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship … with DOYLE BRUNSON looking to put the screws to Phil Hellmuth:

Seat 1 - Doyle Brunson - 510,000
Seat 2 - Patrik Antonius - 650,000
Seat 3 - Marco Traniello - 420,000
Seat 4 - Rene Mouritsen - 775,000
Seat 5 - Tommy Ly - 1,895,000
Seat 6 - Jonas Flug-Entin - 445,000
Seat 7 - Steve Sung - 175,000
Seat 8 - Stephen Ladowski - 360,000
Seat 9 - Robert Mizrachi - 1,090,000

Click here to follow the Best of Omaha, semi-live.

If you want to follow it closer-to-live, it’s being video broadcast today. Mean Gene tells me word is that the event won’t be sequestered … instead it will be broadcast without the hour delay, but no hole cards visible.

Meanwhile, at the secondary final table of $1,000 SHOE, PAT POELS (above) looks to reclaim the ARIZONA POSSE bracelet lead as he is gunning for his third. He was chip leader for most of the day yesterday, but took a big hit right at the end.

The Final Table:

Seat 1: Vladimir Shchemelev - 168,000
Seat 2: Chip Jett - 40,000
Seat 3: Dao Bac - 266,000
Seat 4: Imre Leibold - 250,000
Seat 5: Patrick Poels - 53,000
Seat 6: Raymond Davis - 235,000
Seat 7: Adam Geyer - 293,000
Seat 8: Michael Craig - 161,000

Click here to follow today’s most important mixed-games action.

Mad props to fellow Andy Beal stalker blogger MICHAEL CRAIG (left), who has made his second final table of the WSOP (and also has some ARIZONA roots apparently). CHIP JETT (right), who I believe hails from Arizona originally, is fighting to hang.

Tomorrow he and his wife KARINA are hosting an party at a Las Vegas strip club, by the way:

Another player to watch … RAYMOND DAVIS (left — not from Arizona) has also been kicking butt this year, and seems due for big score. LUCKY LIU (right) just missed the final table. He is STEVE WONG’S poker mentor. Shout out … nice go, LL!

Both TOM SCHNEIDER and MICHELE LEWIS are competing in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout today. Tom made the final table in this event last year, and Michele made a final table in Limit Hold’em, and cashed in a No-Limit shootout.

Since shootouts dictate that only one in 10 move on, Pokerati swears we don’t want to see them at the same table for the sake of PHOTOGRAPHIC CONVENIENCE.

DONKEY BOMBER wants to cash really bad in this — the deeper the better — to lock up Milwaukee’s Best Light Player of the Year. He’s trying to hold off JEFF LISANDRO, who is well-chipped going into Day 2 of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Rebuys event. Interestingly enough, these two have a pending $5,000 bet — not on who will finish higher in the POY standings, but over the NUMBER OF ENTRANTS into the main event. Tom has the under on 5,850.

If you have an opinion about the rightness of Ladies events, JENNIFER NEWELL has an interesting article — and new perspective on tournaments lacking a Y chromosome.

Looks like something out of E.T., no?

This presumably has something to do with why a fourth Day 1 for the main event was added. Really would be unfair to any players who had to start in the “poker superstructure.”

As the WSOP rolls on, the cash games are getting bigger and bigger — but where are the pros? Follow coverage of the LIVE ACTION at PokerWorks.

Dallas Dealer BETH LAIRD, seen here with ALLEN CUNNINGHAM and STEVEN Z(olotow) in the $1,000 2-7 Triple Draw w/ Rebuys.

RAFI AMIT won that event in the early Monday a.m. As they tend to do in mixed games, the ARIZONA POSSE represented … with DANNY FUHS just missing the final table, but still scoring a POSITIVE EV cash.

LAS VEGAS–Yesterday was kinda a crazy day — full moon and all — and today looks to be just a shade less looney.

Play has just three hours ago gotten underway in the last $1,500 NLH. According to Mean Gene:

Eerily Quiet
You put 3,000 people in a room you’d think there’d be a bit of noise, but as with the other $1,500 events we’ve covered the room falls nearly silent when play begins. For so many of these players this is their first World Series event and while they have their game faces on, it takes some time for them to find their voices. A dry mouth will do that to you.

The final table of $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo gets underway at 3 pm. This was supposed to be just a two-day event. TOM SCHNEIDER entered into nine-handed play last night (with a random fifth alternating between two tables) as the shortest stack; he’ll take his seat as the CHIP LEADER.

Hoyt Verner 129,000
Scotty Nguyen 203,000
Hieu “Tony” Ma 60,000
Saundra Taylor 202,000
Tom Schneider 275,000
Tommy Hang 110,000
Miguel De La Cruz 253,000
Woody Deck 110,000

SCOTTY NGUYEN should be sober by then. He gave Tom a lot of chips as he got drinky and aggressive in the wee hours, turning over bluff after bluff as Tom drank with him and laughed it up while rebuilding his stacks.

Dallas poker lady SONG WEBB, by the way, won $4,498 for finishing 26th; and OLIVER TSE (who started the day at Tom’s table) scored his first WSOP cash (in 11 tries) with a 21st place for $5,106.

Oliver stuck around last night long after he busted because, in his off-the-table attempts to become the BRIAN BALSBAUGH of non-American players, he was chasing down a couple GERMANS fighting for a seat at the final table.

Click here to follow today’s bracelet-eyed action semi-live.

Garthy giving a shout out to the Batfaces.

Getting underway about an hour ago is the final table of $5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em:

Seat 1: Greg Pohler - 655,000
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin - 2,010,000
Seat 3: Gioi Luong - 570,00
Seat 4: Bill Edler - 535,000
Seat 5: Dutch Boyd - 705,000
Seat 6: Erik Friberg - 2,795,000

Some friendly North Texas faces made quite a showing in this event …

Raj Kattamuri (left) finished in 13th place, winning $27,031. Vandy Krouch got $16,766 for finishing 26th. And GREGG MERKOW eeked into the money — 78th place, $6,159.

Other notable cashers include: Tobey Maguire, Vicki Coren, Jamie Gold, Scott Clements, Men the Master, Justin Bonomo, Phil Hellmuth, and Dustin Woolf.

Day 2 of the $2,000 NL Hold’em event is rolling — playing down from 147 players to a final table. This event also featured a ROUNDER CLUB cash: GINA Salinas-Torres won $4,080 for finishing 180th. Way to go, Gina!

Check this out:

A drunken THOMAS WAHLROOS showing how the Euros like to have fun fucking with HELLMUTH …

[via Shuttergypsy]

The EUROS are arriving in force. ENGLISH-ONLY is becoming more and more of a rules call throughout the Rio and Las Vegas. Just ask STEVE WONG, who finished 7th in the SHORT-HANDED event, or MARCEL LUSKE, who fell short of winning a bracelet yesterday in $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo …

LAS VEGAS–The $50k HORSE event finished up this morning … and FREDDIE DEEB is officially crowned the best all-around poker player in the world for the time being.

You can only presume HARRAH’S OFFICIALS are breathing a sigh of relief — after having pimped the tourney as the biggest deal, it makes a much better story to give the title to an immigrant who came to America to save his family from war and turned to poker as a way to make good while AMERICAN IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY futzed around with his ability to earn a living.

Had JOHN HANSEN won, the story would’ve been about a relatively unknown bad-ass from the NEW YORK hardcore poker underground. Less savory.

Speaking of LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE poker players, did you know drug kingpin JIMMY CHAGRA — released from prison earlier this year — played in the SENIORS EVENT?

He was on “Talkin’ Trash” with BRIAN WILSON just a couple days ago. [via Gary Wise on 2+2.]

JEFFREY POLLACK did a little semi-live blogging from the HORSE final table. Maddest props to the Commish — not only for letting us know what he heard from the poker-players town hall, but also for providing his first-ever outbound link. Puts him on a short-list of people who just-might qualify for Pokerati posting privileges some day. We’ll be watching as he continues to cut his Wicked blogging chops.

In the meantime, The Jeffster tells us:

1. There is insufficient play in the middle levels of limit games and too much in the beginning.

2. There are some instances where the color-up process isn’t being handled correctly.

3. The tent is not a comfortable place to play.

4. There needs to be more room between the spectators on the ropes and the players.

5. The next day’s breaking order should be posted when an event ends for the night.

6. We need to improve media access to final tables.

7. The sequestered tables are tough to cover for the media and follow for the fans.

8. Tournament clocks should be more visible.

9. The Amazon Room is too cold.

10. We should continue and better publicize escort service to the parking lot late at night.

Yesterday’s “other” bracelet went to a guy named SAIF AHMAD, who won the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event with relative ease.

View from the rooftop of Pokerati’s VEGAS EDGE bureau:

ERIC ROSENBE