Seriously, it’s 2005 again, right? Remember, Juha Helppi and Robert Varkonyi were playing underwater, or maybe it was on an iceberg? Regardless … while on first glance this gets more eyeroll and groan than live-event invitations to Michael Phelps, Lady Gaga, Barack Obama, Sasquatch, and Superman … the idea of Mike Sexton and Tom Dwan playing against some Danish online qualifiers while dangling over the streets of Copenhagen? Yeah, I can dig …

From a poker perspective, it’s actually an interesting concept: Let’s force difficult poker decisions under conditions that guarantee a little extra heart-pumping, with some extra life-on-the-line chemicals in the bloodstreams. Though that’s about as gimmicky as you can get, gotta say, I think I’d be really interested in seeing this on TV — bring back some heart monitors and attach everyone to bungee cords for when they get knocked out! And maybe sprinkle the set with bread crumbs to attract the railbirds …

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Recapping the conclusion of Thursday’s action at the WSOP…

Baldwin Hits a Grand Slam with Bracelet

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin a member of the 2005 NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team, took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event early Friday morning, besting Dane Jonas Klausen in heads-up play to take home over $520,000 in winnings and his first career bracelet. Baldwin picks up his second major tournament victory of the year, he won the $2,500 NL Holdem main event at the Venetian Deep Stacks Extravaganza II in April.

Mizzi Mastering PLO

Sorel Mizzi leads the final 11 when day 3 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event when play resumes at 1pm today, with the hope of having a final table of nine ready for the 2pm internet broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are currently seated:

Seat 1: Rifat Palevic (949,000)
Seat 3: Samuel Ngai (207,000)
Seat 4: Dan Hindin (342,000)
Seat 5: Felipe Ramos (323,000)
Seat 7: Richard Austin (537,000)

Seat 1: Van Marcus (482,000)
Seat 2: Peter Jetten (370,000)
Seat 3: Jeppe Nielsen (242,000)
Seat 5: Sorel Mizzi (969,000)
Seat 7: Cliff Josephy (805,000)
Seat 8: Isaac Baron (170,000)

Corwin Cole Claims Cardinal Condition

Corwin Cole is the chip leader at 185,700 when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event resumes at 2pm today with 213 players remaining, 171 making the money. Other notables returning include: Dustin Dirksen (145,000), Shaun Deeb (88,500), Chino Rheem (74,600), Rob Hollink (53,500), and Eugene Todd (48,500).

Tuan Top Stud

Tuan Le is the reported chip leader of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship when play resumes at 2pm today with 110 players remaining, 16 getting paid. Le has 234,000, with Los Angeles Lakers CEO Frank Mariani in second place with 111,300. Tom Schneider is among the returnees with 83,300, good for 8th place. Dario Minieri (81,500), Nick Schulman (73,000), Jerry Buss (67,800), David Benyamine (65,400), and Mike Sexton (53,400) are some of the other notables hoping to play on Saturday’s final table.

Friday’s Tournament

Only one tournament kicks off today, the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by Daniel Negreanu in a field of 479, good for just over $200,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event is 480, but don’t be surprised if just over 500 take to the felt today.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati, and catch the live updates over at www.wsop.com

Recapping the late Wednesday night WSOP activity…

WSOP Bracelet Touched by Angel

Angel Guillen picked up his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,000 NL Holdem event, defeating Mika Paasonen in a marathon heads up match to deny Finland a second WSOP bracelet. Guillen adds over $530,000 for first place, and throws his name into the Player of the Year race, as he had a 2nd place finish in the $2,500 NL Holdem event two weeks ago.

Mueller Musters a Bracelet

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship ended with a 1-2 finish for Canada, as Greg “FBT” Mueller passed Pat Pezzin to win his first WSOP bracelet. Mueller, a former hockey player, mentioned he was inspired by the Stanley Cup making an appearance at the WSOP on Wednesday, saying it was his destiny to win after having made several WSOP final tables, and two second place finishes in previous attempts.

Klausen Claims Day 3 Chip Lead

The $1,500 NL Holdem event heads to its conclusion at 1pm today with 21 players remaining, and Dane Jonas Klausen holding the lead with 939,000 in chips. Swede Martin Jacobson starts in second (806,000) with Roland de Wolfe, (644,000), Eric Baldwin (610,000), Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (414,000) and Young Phan (211,000) among the notables remaining. When they eventually make the final table, it’ll be streamed over the Internet at www.bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com.

Hougaard Adds to Dane Domination

Another Dane, Jesper Hougaard will lead the 64 returning players who resume at 2pm in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event with 208,500 in chips. Sorel Mizzi (177,000), Jeff Lisandro (162,500), Sandra Naujoks (157,000), David “Devilfish” Ulliott (140,000) and John Kabbaj (95,700) are some of the notables looking to make the money, which will be reached when 36 players remain.

Thursday’s Tournaments and Projections

Two tournaments kick off on Thursday, starting with the $2,000 NL Holdem event at 12pm, which was won last year by Alexandre Gomes in a field of 2,317. The $10,000 Stud Eight or Better World Championship commences at 5pm, which was won last year by Sebastian Ruthenberg in a field of 261 when the buyin was $5,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 2,549 for the $2,000 NL (expect a field of 2,100), while the $10,000 Stud 8 World Championship field is projected at 150 (take slightly under, 135).

Come back to Pokerati during the day for more WSOP stories, and follow the live updates at www.wsop.com starting at 12pm today.

Let’s get ready to rumble! It’s time for the next round in the battle of iMega vs. the State of Kentucky! Not only that, but this week we show video evidence of Governor Steve Beshear’s true motivations for banning online gambling in that state! Also, we have online gambling news from Intertops, Microsoft, and Denmark! What a show!

As we now reach a point in the WSOP where tournaments will be finishing every day, Pokerati’s WSOP World Standings will be back … tracking which nation-states are kicking the most arse. While we can expect the USA to dominate simply because of sheer numbers and home-field advantage, it should be interesting to see which other countries are here to show that poker in their motherlands has fully arrived. The UK, for example — with 26 final tables, 248 cashes, and $6.5million in take-home pay in 2008 — clearly knows what they’re doing, but they couldn’t close anything out to bring home a bracelet for the Queen. It was the Russians and Germans who made the most noticeable claims to poker dominance … but not before the Danes, exclamated by Peter Eastgate’s main event victory, stepped over all of them to say, “Our small socialist utopia will leave you drawing dead on the fjord. Fůgck the G-8 powers in poker!”

On the stateside front, Pokerati declared California the unofficial capitol of the poker world … but Cali blanked at the main event final table and Nevada had a redraw with WSOP-E — and sure enough, John Juanda et al successfully wrestled away the claim.

The final 2008 WSOP World Standings:

A champion is in our midst, and he is the youngest WSOP main event champion ever. Congratulations, Peter Eastgate from Odense, Denmark!

Both players got in cheap to see the flop of 2d-Ks-3h. It was Eastgate who bet out, and Demidov check-called. The 4c hit on the turn, which prompted another check from Demidov. Eastgate bet again, and Demidov then raised to 6 million. Eastgate called, and when the 7s came on the turn, Demidov pushed all-in. Eastgate called instantly with Ad-5s for the wheel. Demidov’s 4h-2h wasn’t good enough, and he was out in second place with $5,809,595 in prize money.

Peter Eastgate became the 2008 WSOP main event champion at only 22-years old, breaking Phil Hellmuth’s record to become the youngest champion ever. He was subsequently awarded the WSOP bracelet and the $9,152,416 that accompanied it.

But hey, let’s keep this on the down-low, huh? Since this is semi-live and will be aired on ESPN in less than 24 hours, keep this to yourselves until it the TV broadcasts the news. Thanks!

Courtesy of PokerStars blog

Wow! It was an all-in moment, good instinct moment, and big whoop-tee-doo all in one.

Eastgate made the initial raise, and short-stacked Montgomery pushed all-in from the small blind. Eastgate called with pocket sixes, and Montgomery showed A-3 of diamonds.

Flop: Ac-Qs-4d
Ace for Montgomery gives him the advantage.

Turn: As
Trips are even better for Montgomery. And according to Jack Effel, Phillips folded a six, so there was only one out for the Scandi…

River: 6d
Oh yeah, the case six. The miracle six. The one-outer. Bam!

Montgomery left in fifth place with a little over $3 millie, and Eastgate jumps into a tight second position on the leaderboard. And Eastgate kept all of us in the media from falling asleep in our after-dinner comas. Thanks, Peter!