The 2008 World Series has come and gone and will most likely, in a little less than three months, will come again. In the meantime, while cleaning out the computer(s) we’ve come across these “lost” episodes … recorded in the tail days of the main event. But this is everything … there’s no more, OK? At least not for now. So if you’d like to step back into the WSOP for just a few minutes at a time to the vocal stylings of yours truly and Dr. Pauly, by all means, have a listen/download. Some of it actually seems a little extra interesting with the benefit of a month-or-so of hindsight.

For the entire WSOP season click here.

The heretofore unheard old-new episodes, salvaged from the cut-and-pasting room floor:

Episode 30: The Cost of Donuts
Grubby joins the media to talk main event numbers and the price of trendy donuts in today’s oil economy. (3:19)

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Episode 31: Scotchy Poker
Dan+scotch early in the WSOP day=talk of Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier. (4:02)

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Episode 32: French Warfare
Benjo takes over the mic when Dan calls in drunk, and he and Pauly talk more about Isabelle Mercier live from the Day 2 killing fields. (5:14)

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Episode 33: New York & Texas
Michele Lewis joins in as Dan and Pauly break down the difference between Texas and New York humor, or at least the difference between Pauly and Dan. (2:40)

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Episode 34: Go Team!
Dallas’ Raj Kattamuri is going deep, and Pauly tracks down Dan in the poker kitchen to find out what it takes to be patched up on Team Pokerati. (2:37)

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Episode 35: No Wiener
Benjo is not his usual jovial self as the main event comes to a close and he bids farewell to his American friends in the penultimate WSOP episode of Tao of Pokerati. (4:41)

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Episode 36: Unhookered
The traditional late-late night poker-blogger farewell binge drinking at the Rio’s Hooker Bar, with guest appearances by Otis and Mean Gene. (3:29)

It was a fabulous party! PokerStars went all out for this bash at the Palms, even so far as to have the valets where PS logos on their shirts. The night began with a media get-together for the players and PS guests from 7pm to 9pm with free drinks in The Lounge, and continued with the party at nightclub Rain that started at 9pm with a red carpet entry for the media to get shots of the pros with the night’s entertainment, burlesque star Dita Von Teese. Personally, I skipped the mish-mash of media fighting for a spot to snap pics and went straight for the club, as it was a night off for me, and I was ready to enjoy it.

Matt from the PokerStars PR company told me that the party was filled to capacity with 1300 people, and there were still lines of people trying to get in. Makes sense…it was wall-to-wall people in there. Oh, and there were free drinks.

The big story of the night was the locked lips of Isabelle Mercier and Dario Minieri. Evidently, there was no shame and no realization that despite a ban on cameras in the joint, everyone has cell phones with photo capability. Those pics will surely surface sometime today.

All I can remember say about the evening is that I’m really starting to like the Germans, and I think there were free drinks at the party.

Recapping the Friday action and a preview for today:

The $1,500 7 Card Stud winner turned out to be Mike Rocco, who endured the barbs of Al Barbieri to take down his first bracelet and about $135,000.

The $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship stopped play with 18 left, they get to return at 3pm to determine their winner. The final two tables have plenty of notable names remaining, which consist of:

Table 14

1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000

Table 15

1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu “Tony” Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000

The ESPN360 final table for today on the next page…

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Considering I am a solid 25% Italian and have a vacation planned in Italy this October, I’m rooting for the Italians this WSOP. And mama mia, they are doing it. With two bracelets thus far and more than a few events to go, this could be the year of the Italians!
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In an attempt to destroy their language congratulate them, here goes:

Maximillian Pescatori, il pirata italiano, ha 37 anni e grandina da Milano. Ha vinto il suo secondo braccialetto di WSOP questo anno. Ha vinto lo stesso giorno quello primo di 2006 mentre l’Italia ha vinto la tazza di mondo.

Dario Minieri è 23 anni e vite a Roma. Ha vinto il suo primo braccialetto di WSOP questo anno. È stato conosciuto per la conquista della Porsche su PokerStars ma è inoltre un riuscito giocatore in tensione.

Congratulazioni a massimo ed a Dario! Gli italiani intorno al mondo sono fieri di voi!

Events from last night at the WSOP, as I try in vain to come up with new ways to say the same old stuff:

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Dario Minieri took down the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event in a final table that lasted almost 200 hands, surprising for a 6 handed final table. Seth Fischer finished in 2nd, putting a brutal beat on Justin Filtz to eliminate him in 3rd when the AK of Fischer ran down Filtz’ AA.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better final table was finally set after 7am this morning, and another first almost occurred as both Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer were among the final 9. However, Howard was eliminated in 9th, but the final table still has notable names such as Chris Ferguson, Steve Sung and Marcel Luske that will return at 5pm today to determine the winner. Here’s that final table:

Seat 1: Bob Lauria: 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske: 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung: 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke: 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia: 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg: 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson: 434,000
Seat 8: Robert Beveridge: 288,000

The other final table today and other action after the thing you click to get to the next page:

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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

The only final table for today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event, is down to the final 3.  Seth Fischer is the current chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri is second, and Justin Filtz is in 3rd. Dario once had over half the chips 3-handed, but he’s doubled up both players and run into some bad luck to fall into 2nd. Their action can be followed at the World Series of Poker’s live updates here.

Other action after the thing that says More…

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Happenings from last night at the World Series of Poker:

Finishing up the final tables from last night, Full Tilt Pro Rob Hollink came back from the dinner break to make a rush and take down the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship, knocking out Jerrod Ankenmann in a short headsup match.

A heads-up match that took a bit long was the $3,000 NL Holdem final table. Even though a deal to chop the top two places took place, John Phan and Johnny Neckar still had a heads-up match that went for over 6 hours. There were several wild swings in the chip counts, and with both players allin, Neckar thought he had the title won when his KJ had outflopped Phan’s AJ when a K hit the flop. However, Phan’s entourage would erupt when the Ace hit the river keeping him alive. Later, they played three hands all-in blind. Neckar took the first to take the chip lead, then Phan won the second hand with 7 high to double up, then Neckar would double off Phan in the third hand. They returned to more conventional poker after that and a short time later Phan would take down his first bracelet.

More action from yesterday after the jump:

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What’s happened tonight while preferring to watch the Pokerati Bowling Series over PBS every time:

The $3,000 NL Holdem event is down to headsup play with John Phan and Johnny Neckar. There’s been some controversy over where the action has taken place. First, David Singer had an issue with the lighting in the area and requested to be moved to another location. The table they were moved to was in the center of the tournament floor, and the crowd of players in other tournaments, fans, and media were too much for the players. The floor staff would eventually rope off the area to give the combatants some breathing room. Singer eventually finished in 5th place, chip leader Matthew Vengrin would be eliminated in 3rd.

More after the leap:

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What happened at the WSOP last night while Phil Hellmuth was humble in defeat…

In a table full of well known names, it was online regular Phil Galfond who took down the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event, beating Adam Hourani in a heads-up match that lasted over 100 hands. David Benyamine would finish 3rd. Galfond gets to take down over $817,000 and take the WSOP earnings lead over Grant Hinkle by less than $1,000.

The $1,500 NL event winner last night was Vitaly Lunkin, who beat Brett Kimes headsup to win just over $628,000 and the coveted bracelet. Other results from that event can be found here.

Two more final tables were established last night, they can be found on the next page:

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The $5,000 PLO w/rebuy event is down to its final 3, with Phil Galfond the dominating chip leader, David Benyamine is a distant 2nd. Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th and 6th respectively in a short period of time. Johnny Chan was later eliminated in 4th place. The $1,500 NL event finally reached its final table, with Vitaly Lunkin currently the chip leader with 7 left.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

UPDATE: Oops, Dario is out in 96th place — for $67,535. He’ll be back, of course. Hevad “Rain” Kahn (not to be confused with Jeff “Mr. Rain” Banghart) is still alive and well, slightly above the middle of the pack.

LAS VEGAS–Loyal readers have heard me yammer on and on for the better part of 2007 about how this is going to be the Year of the Europeans. So far I’ve been kinda right … while they haven’t dominated this WSOP, they have been a ubiquitous presence deep in just about every event. But the real “Year of” players this year have been the internet kids. Not internet people like Chris Moneymaker … but internet kids. Think about it. The poker boom exploded in 2003. And thus, in 2007, a lot of guys who got their start right around then have just turned 21 — making quite the impression on players at the tables and poker insiders off.

Throughout this World Series, friends and colleagues have been coming up to me saying things like, “You mean you don’t know who RamSquad64 is? Dude.” Or, “JohnnyVoltron, man, JohnnyVoltron!” OK, he sounds familiar. What has he done? But otherwise, sorry, I haven’t really been following the shenanigans on PocketFives. But it seems like soon we might have to. One of the most fascinating stories — Pokerati’s correspondent-on-loan Chris Hanel is all over this one — is a guy named Hevad “Rain” Kahn. This upstate New Yorker was supposedly banned from PokerStars because they thought he was a bot, playing up to 40 sit-n-gos at a time. Kahn then shot a YouTube video to show him playing 26 tables at a time and had his account re-opened. Wow, no? (For some reason I can’t find the vid on YouTube. If anyone else can, please post a link!)

But the kid everyone is really talking about is Dario Minieri (pictured).

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