Recapping the first half of Saturday tournament action.

Doyle Done in 10k Stud 8

The remaining players in the $10,000 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship rolls along with 6 players remaining, as Doyle Brunson’s attempt at an 11th bracelet ended when he finished in 7th place. Farzard Rouhani, Abe Mosseri, and Jeff Lisandro are the three players over the 1 million chip mark. Yan Chen, Mike Wattel and Frank Mariani are the short stacks battling to stay alive as the limits are at 30k/60k, leaving the short stacks with under 10 big bets.

Meanwhile, at the Other Featured Table…

The $2,000 NL Holdem final table is down to three players, with Jordan Smith the current chip leader at 4,890,000. Laurence Grondin, a Canadian woman, is second at 4,120,000 with Swedish pro Ken Lenaard in third with 1,240,000. Grondin replaces Lika Gerasimova (5th in 5k NL Holdem) as the highest placing female in an open event at this year’s WSOP.

Obligatory Limit Holdem Mention

The $2,000 Limit Holdem event is down to 35 players with Eric Rivkin the current chip leader at 165,000 in chips. Rep Porter is 2nd at 138,000, with David Baker (the one from Texas — 106,000), Phil Hellmuth (100,000), Rafe Furst (73,000), and Daniel Negreanu (45,000) among the notables remaining hoping to reach the 3am deadline with a final table. It was just announced during the Stud 8 event that if Hellmuth makes the final table, they will stream that final table over at Bluff magazine’s website.

Donkament, Chapter Five

The fifth version of the $1,500 NL Holdem event drew a field of 2,715, of which 873 returned from their dinner break a short while ago. Unfortunately, an unofficial chip leader is hard to come by, but expect a chip leader to be revealed in my Sunday morning update.

PLO-wing Through $10,000

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship drew a field of 296, down over 80 entrants from last year’s edition. Freddy Deeb is the unofficial chip leader as he’s reporting over 60,000 in chips. Barry Greenstein, Joe Serock and Michael Binger appear in the unofficial top 5, while Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi, John Duthie, Nam Le and Isaac Haxton are already gone.

Check out more updates this evening at www.wsop.com, and Pokerati for more stuff going around the poker community as Michalski’s may be trying to find out some more about Richard Austin.

The final table of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship is now being streamed over the Internet at www.bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com The official final table has been reached, in the following chip order:

Abe Mosseri
Jeff Lisandro
Farzad Rouhani
Yan Chen
Frank Mariani
Doyle Brunson – 7th
Justin “Boosted J” Smith – 8th
Mike Wattel

Watching should be interesting, as most of the cards will be visible, but the Bluff coverage is more suitable to games that have a flop. Also unknown is if there will be “expert” commentary or they’ll just point some cameras at the table and broadcast what the tournament director on the mic says like they did in Phil Ivey’s win in the 2-7 NL Draw event. Tune in and find out what happens.

Happy Saturday, ya’ll! This is Dan here, taking over for KevMath this morning so he can enjoy a well-deserved day off to show him who’s boss. So here we go, recapping last night’s action from the Amazon room and beyond … (brought to you by the internet):

Players to Watch

Brunson

Lisandro

Rouhani

Smith

Schneider

Vahedi

Brunson Bracelet Countdown

In the $10k 7CS-HL (or “Split” as @TexDolly calls it) Doyle Brunson is going for his Hellmuth-tying 11th bracelet, while Jeff Lisandro looks for his second of 2009 while making a surge up the Player of the Year leaderboard. Below’s who’s left. No plans yet (as far as we know) for Bluff or ESPN360 to be carrying this live — though we wouldn’t be surprised if that changed should Brunson and/or Scotty Nguyen make the final table.

Abe Mosseri 950,000
Jeff Lisandro 786,000
Doyle Brunson 525,000
Farzad Rouhani 494,000
Yan Chen 476,000
Perry Friedman 378,000
Lyle Berman 333,000
Scotty Nguyen 298,000
Frank Mariani 267,000
Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith 237,000
Mike Wattel 96,000
Anthony Rivera 92,000

Rouhani, btw, is Iranian. In case you poker-only degens weren’t aware, there’s some big shit going down in his homeland right now — and to some extent (especially after Iran’s protesty soccer team got eliminated from World Cup contention this week) isn’t a 7-Stud Hi-Lo World Championship exactly what that country needs?

Advanced Beginners

In $2,000 NLH, 17 (out of 1,695) players remain — competing for prizes ranging from $21k to $586k. You may not recognize many of the remaining players in this one, but most have found success in smaller tourneys, circuit events, and, of course, online. Spread around the final two tables, there are zero bracelets in the mix, 49 WSOP cashes, and six WSOP Circuit money finishes. The favorite is probably Jordan Smith (from Texas!). Click here to follow throughout the day and see who’s really ready to step up on a bigger stage.

Oh Brother, Who Art Thou?

In the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, 107 out of 446 players remain. David Baker is the chip leader, while some known names still alive in the field waiting to get eliminated include Scott Lazar, Rafe Furst, Diego Cordovez, Phil Hellmuth, Greg “FBT” Mueller, John Monnete, Marcel Luske, Maria Ho, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Schneider (part of some strange Minnesota Limit Posse), Shannon Shorr, and Abdol Vahedi — who for the moment we are presuming is Amir Vahedi’s brother or at least cousin, as both Iranians hail from Sherman Oaks, CA. Day 2 gets underway at 2 pm pacific — click here to see who else is left in the field and where they’re sitting.

So there you have it. Hopefully KevMath will be back next week, or otherwise you may never have it again.

Yours truly, meanwhile, got a call from some of his old homies and will be playing (poker, not basketball) in an NBA charity event later today.

Recapping the overnight action from Tuesday:

Alaei-ay-ay!

Daniel Alaei won his second career WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship, to win over $445,000. Alaei took the chip lead from Scott Clements as the final table progressed, as heads-up play with Clements lasted just two hands. Daniel Negreanu finished in 4th, John Monnette finished in 5th.

Brock to Brock for Parker?

The $2,500 NL 6-max event finished with 11 players at the 3am deadline, who get to return at 12 noon to reach the feature table, with final table coverage on ESPN360. Joseph Serock is the current chip leader, with Brock Parker in second place looking for another WSOP bracelet. Here’s how the final two tables will be situated when play resumes:

Seat 1: Alexander Ivarsson – 734000
Seat 2: Clayton Newman – 501000
Seat 3: Brian Meinders – 423000
Seat 4: Joseph Serock – 1745000
Seat 5: James Sudworth – 247000
Seat 6: Russell Crane – 672000

Seat 1: Alexander Wilson – 603000
Seat 2: Brian Friesen – 258000
Seat 3: Jay Kinkade – 542000
Seat 4: Jesse Rios – 745000
Seat 5: Brock Parker – 1603000

Is it Seif?

Day 2 of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event returns at 2pm today with 61 players remaining, all having made the money. Jason Dewitt is the chip leader at 184,700, with Mark Seif (83,000) and David “The Maven” Chicotsky (82,400) among the top 10. Selected notables: Glynn Beebe (62,700), Erik Seidel (61,400), Mike Sexton (35,000), and Joe Sebok (24,000).

HORSE for $3,000, Alex

Day 2 of the $3,000 HORSE event drew a field of 452, up nearly 40 from last year, with 197 players remaining. Rob Amereno is the leader at 96,800. Featured notables: Markus Golser (52,500), David Singer (48,700), David Levi (35,600), Doyle Brunson (32,800), Shirley Rosario (31,100) and Michael Binger (28,700).

Shootout at the Rio, High Noon

The 12pm tournament, as Dan noted in below, is the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout event, which looks to be maxed out at 1,000 players already. 100 tables of 10 each play down to a winner, with the 100 players remaining coming back on Day 2. Last year, Jason Young won the bracelet in another maxed out field of 1,000 for over $330,000 in winnings.

Drawing to Conclusions

The 5pm event today is the debut of the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw World Championship event. Players start with 10,000 in chips along with two additional “rebuy” chips that can be used at any time in the first three levels. Phil Ivey won the $2,500 version of this event last week in a field of 147. The WSOP Staff Guide states that 85 players projected for today, so dead money will be hard to find. The projection appears a smidge high, so expect a field of 74 when registration is closed.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati and this afternoon at www.wsop.com

Here’s tonight’s action in brief:

Four left in $2k NL on ESPN360: 4 left, currently on dinner break until 9:40pm Anthony Harb and Peter Rho chip leaders.
Nine left in $10k Mixed Event: Doyle out 13th, Scott Dorin leader, Huck Seed 2nd, Todd Brunson 9th

81 left in $2.5k NL holdem, Alex Keating chip leader.
39 left in $2.5k Limit holdem 6-max, 36 get paid. Shawn Buchanan chip leader.

366 return from dinner break in $5k NL, starting field was 655, down about 80 from last year.
359 entries in 1.5k 7 Card Stud, Mark Seif and Tom Schneider among very early chip leaders.

More updates at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokerati (maybe) during the evening.

Another day, another two final tables delayed at the WSOP yesterday. Starting with the $2,000 No Limit Holdem event, 25 players return at noon on Saturday to play down to the winner. The reason for the early start is in the hopes that a final table will be reached around the scheduled 2pm time that the final table would air on ESPN360 (http://wsop.pkr.com for those outside the US). The chip leader when play resumes will be Mike Carlson with 858,000 in chips. Others people may have heard of include Jim Geary (511,000), and Jose Rosenkrantz (187,000).

The other event will definitely have a more intriguing final table, as the $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is down to its final 20 players, all of whom are in the money. Huck Seed will be the chip leader at 645,500. In a father-son battle, it’s Todd Brunson (374,500) with a slight chip lead over Doyle Brunson (335,000). Other notables remaining include Mark Gregorich (266,000), Mike Wattel (210,000), Michael Binger (132,000), Eric Froehlich (102,000) and a mystery person who name and chip count wasn’t reported. They’ll get to return at 1pm, and with the average stack having just 10 big bets, a final table may not be that long in the offing.

In the two final tables that concluded earlier this morning, Ken “Teach” Aldridge schooled the final table to win the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event for $428,259, and Rami Boukai took down the $2,500 PLO/PLH (HA) event, which was worth $244,862.

More tournament news after the jump:

More…

It’s a special moment as Vitaly Lunkin, from Moscow, receives his bracelet for the $40k, and Benjo and Pauly are there to hear the first ever playing of Gosudarstvenny Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii, aka the “State Hymn of the Russian Federation” — while contemplating what a European bracelet and Harrah’s diamond card means for international relations. Meanwhile, yonder down the Rio hallway, two elderly Texans race their scooters on what reliable sources say is a $50,000 prop bet. But with Amarillo Slim on his comeback tour, did Doyle Brunson take a dive?

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.9: Ruskies Win
3:03

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Episode 11.10: Scooter Race Action
6:51

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack’s latest v-Log, giving his marketing pitch critical assessment one week into the 2009 World Series:

And for those who haven’t seen it yet, click here to see the Doyle Brunson vs. Amarillo Slim scooter race and $50k prop bet.

I’m sure many people missed last night’s High Stakes Poker episode on GSN to watch Annie Duke get slowrolled by Donald Trump. The show featured the debut of the day 1 lineup with a few new faces so check it out below:

Annie Duke vs. Joan Rivers tonight … (getting underway live … we West Coasters have to wait a bit). I’m still not sure whether or not they’ve already done their task … my guess is they have, so tonight, “live”, is the final boardroom. Either way, @TexDolly is having fun coming up with some “Boo Joan!” doozies:

Joan Rivers got trapped on an escalator. The power went out,
12:45 PM May 8th from web

Joan Rivers has a concussion. She was getting a drink and the toilet seat fell on her head.12:27 PM May 9th from web

Meanwhile, you can follow Annie (@RealAnnieDuke), and probably even better, her boyfriend (@JoeUgly), before-during-after tonight’s finale. Likewise for @JoanRivers___.

Others on-set or nearby:
@CelebApprentice (@MelRivers and @brandenroderick got the official tweeting gigs)
@Zappos
@tomgreenlive
@Andy_Bloch
@natalie_gulbis
@howardhlederer

Just some early-morning semi-pokery stuff that’s caught my eye … actually, first part’s not so pokery, but I think a lot of poker fans might be curious about this upcoming ESPN piece on the governor’s efforts in Delaware to bring sports betting to that state:

(And no wonder Doyle Brunson loves it in Montana.)

E:60 Delaware Betting Preview

And this job ad, for a new position in London … Investigator – Poker Specialist. I don’t have much to say about the specific position (London usually means PartyPoker, but not always) … except that I’ve never seen such a title before. New.

Key Responsibilities:

• Fraud prevention, detection and investigation
• Understanding of international online payment methods
• Knowledge of Money Laundering detection and regulation
• Knowledge of foreign language/customs
• Experience of reading Poker hands in relation to chip dumping cases.

An LOL from @TexDolly:

Joan Rivers is so dumb she named her Zebra Spot

I think the finale is tonight The semi-finals are tonight … I can tell people are starting to watch it on the east coast. Doyle Brunson’s watching it, too, apparently, but I guess he’s got some special cable/satellite hook-up that doesn’t make him wait for the same time-zone delay that has me waiting.

(And yes, I’m waiting. Apparently Pokeratizens got it wrong when, pre-episode 1, we thought the only show it would beat ratings-wise was World Poker Tour reruns. Turns out to be one of the hot shows of the year worldwide, even among non-poker people — much because of the Annie Duke/Joan Rivers disrepute.)

Everybody and their dogma seems to be jumping on the Twitter bandwagon these days. Whether texting your whereabouts will prove to be fad or societal fabric a few years from now remains to be seen. In the meantime …

Doyle Brunson’s loving it as a way to share what’s going on in Bobby’s Room.
Annie Duke will let you eavesdrop on semi-private convos with her boyfriend and her catfight with Joan Rivers.
And now Jeffrey Pollack says Twitter is the way he’ll remain accessible to the people during his ever-hectic WSOP.

UPDATE: Interesting … Pollack is with Joan Rivers today in BH (Beverly Hills) … funny coincidence or evil WSOP ratings plot being hatched?

Right now you can follow the final table of the WPT Championship via Twitter, and the activities of their lead reporter, BJ, for a little unintentional real-life behind-the-scenes.

UPDATE: Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier just locked up WPT Player of the Year.

Pauly’s a little bummed I think … because last year Twitter was his semi-secret cybernook where he could relay the real WSOP dirty for his loyalist, most technologically advanced fans … but now this space is anything but “under the radar”.

UPDATE: @Pauly openfaced jerkchicken sandwich w/ jack cheese & dijonaise mustard …

Pokerati’s on the Twitter train now, too. Still trying to figure it all out — but so far definitely not “good for my poker”.

Feel free to add any peeps in the comments that you think we might-should pay attention to; and/or weigh in on whether or not you think this internet-texting convergence thing is “good for poker” will stick around.

Doyle Brunson is on the grid, that’s for sure. In his latest blog post, which I read via Facebook, he tells us he’s really getting into Twitter. Here’s his address if you want to follow him: twitter.com/texdolly

In doing so, you’ll learn why he’s not playing in the WPT Championship, and that Phil Ivey lost $1 million in Bobby’s Room last night.

And then, back to his blog, he explains to all the Teabaggers out there why he thinks they should STFU!

I headed over to my CPA to get my taxes done and ran into a traffic jam. Hundreds of people were blocking the streets having what they called a “tea party”. I think they were protesting the current financial crisis our nation is going through, but some of the signs were ridiculous. “Impeach Obama”, “What comes after trillions”, “Stop spending our money” and other statements blaming our president. For Pete’s sake, let’s give the guy a chance to straighten this mess up. I got a lot of heat for voting for McCain, but I knew when I cast a late vote, John didn’t have a chance to win. I was just being loyal to the Republican Party. But now that the nation has spoken that they wanted Obama, we should all support him.

While the cause of death is being investigated, Doyle Brunson wrote in a blog post today that it was a prescription drug overdose.

It seems like yesterday when my nephew called and gave me a message that made my blood run cold, “I think Chip just died” he told me.

It happened again yesterday, only this time it was Chip’s only son, Casey Reese. Casey was found in his apartment from an apparent overdose of prescription drugs. I had seen Casey a few days ago and he looked great. He was very handsome and extremely personable. I will always remember the closeness between Chip and Casey.

My deepest condolences to the Reese family. I feel like I’ve let Chip down but I don’t know what I could have done to help Casey.