Click, and enjoy.™

From the always clickworthy good folks at RawVegas.TV

I’m just askin’ … watchin’ a little WSOP, and after an hour-and-a-half of ZeeJustin, I see a dude who’s good — really good — and possibly due for an ass-kicking.

UPDATE: Erick Lindgren says Bonomo is “the future of poker.”

The smallest opening day field (1,158) since the WSOP was first held at the Rio in 2005 started play shortly after noon yesterday. The attendance for days 1c and 1d look to be much more encouraging, with at least 3,000 expected to play over the next two days. They’re going to need another 800 to sign up over the next couple of days to match last year’s total, and it looks to be a close call if that actually happens.

The 636 who made it through day 1a are now combined with the 615 who made it through the end of play earlier this morning to play July 8th at 12 noon. Ben Sarnoff is the day 1b leader with 177,500 in chips. Notable names near the top of the leaderboard: Robert Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Marc Karam, Thor Hansen, Hal Lubarsky, Hoyt Corkins, Patrik Antonius, John Duthie, and Victoria Cohen. You can see the other chip counts at the WSOP site here (or wait until later for some sort of list by seat assigment/alphabetical order).

Another 1,700+ souls descend on the Rio today to start their chance at WSOP glory shortly after 12, who knows what musical act/attraction will greet the nonplussed group.

More updates during the day…

The 4th of July holiday certainly put a damper on the size of day 1b, as a disappointing 1,158 showed up to play at noon today. Pauly notes that some country music singer did the Star Spangled Banner and some sort of flag ceremony was attempted that didn’t go as planned. The players are currently on their dinner break, with about 850 remaining. Among those whose dream is over: Kenny Tran, Ram Vaswani, Orel Hershiser, Jamie Gold, Greg Raymer, Tuan Le, Ted Forrest, Daniel Negreanu, among many others. The early chip leader appears to be Patrik Antonius, with Robert Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Vanessa Rousso, and 2007 ME final tablist Philip Hilm near the top of the leaderboard. Follow the progress when they return on the WSOP.com website here.

More updates as they warrant…

Erick Lindgren

When Event 53 came to an end with Matt Graham capturing the $1500 LHE Shootout bracelet on the morning of Thursday, July 3, the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race ended, as the main event doesn’t count for points. And out in front of the POY leader board was Erick Lindgren. He was ten points ahead of Barry Greenstein, and E-Dog’s five cashes (one of which was a bracelet) and $1,348,528 in winnings this summer added up to the win.

It was announced yesterday that Lindgren officially captured the title. Congratulations!

The entire list of players in contention for the 2008 WSOP POY race can be found here.

We take you into Tao of Pokerati studios on a random Sunday evening bustling with action. Pauly and I look at Kiddie Table HORSE and discuss how a new player-of-the-year point system — with Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren at the Big Dog HORSE final table — presents real possibilities for a WSOP Triple Crown. Special appearances by Isabelle Mercier, David Benyamine, Donkey Bomber, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Richard Brodie, and Chris Ferguson.

Episode 18: Triple Crown-and-Coke

What happened last night, as we finish the preliminary events of the Series today before the Main Event begins tomorrow:

Phil Hellmuth was unable to take down the $1,500 HORSE event for his 12th bracelet, as he finished in 3rd place. James Schaaf, from Torrance, California takes down the bracelet in what also appears to be his first tournament cash. Tommy Hang follows up on his 3rd in the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship by finishing in 2nd.

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship was won by Irishman Marty Smyth who eliminated Canadian Peter Jetten in one of the more exciting final hands of the Series. Both players flopped a straight when all the money went in, but Smyth was freerolling to a club flush. The turn was a brick, but when the 6 of clubs appeared on the river, the Irish part of the crowd exploded with delight while the Canadian contingent groaned in despair at Jetten’s turn of events. Smyth takes down almost $860,000 with the bracelet, while Jetten is consoled with the fact of winning $528,000 for second place. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi ground to a halt in 3rd.

The last two tournaments conclude today, the ESPN360 table and the WSOP POY on page 2:
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Scotty Nguyen is the 2008 World Series of Poker $50K H.O.R.S.E. champion!

First things first…
3rd place - Erick Lindgren - $781,440 (This occurred at approximately 4:30am after a valiant fight with a pesky short stack. Fine job, Erick. Seriously.)
2nd place - Michael DeMichele - $1,243,200 (An amazing feat for a young, up-and-coming player.)

And first place goes to Scotty Nguyen…baby.

After a seemingly kind and understanding conversation with the runner-up, Scotty took in the win. He hugged some friends in the audience (like Layne Flack and David “Devilfish” Ulliott), then looked to his wife whom he embraced and lip-locked for quite some time. The emotion from both of them was obvious. He thanked the audience who was still there after 5am to take in the history. Scotty did an interview with ESPN and proceeded to the presentation platform where Jeffrey Pollack presented him with the Chip Reese trophy. Scotty was quite overcome with emotion and stood with his face in his hands for several moments before wiping the tears and accepting the trophy. He held it up and thanked Chip Reese with an eye to the sky, thanked his fans and friends, most importantly his wife, and was subsequently awarded the WSOP bracelet.

It was an emotional victory for the long-time pro, and the importance of the victory was not lost on Scotty Nguyen. The hard-fought battle took more than 12 hours but ended with a very grateful and deserving champion. Congratulations, Scotty!

Click below for some photos from the $50K H.O.R.S.E. victory…

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Not saying it’s not exciting to watch and follow along… Okay, maybe I am saying that. We’ve hit a rut. It has been three-handed for nearly 75 hands. While there is some form of action on many of the hands, it is getting monotonous. Am I the only one thinking about a chop here?

Seriously, since we last chatted, two players have left the field:

5th place - Lyle Berman - $444,000
The WPT will not win the WSOP. It would’ve been an amazing and interesting story for the WPT Enterprises bigwig to win the $50K HORSE championship event at the WSOP. Berman came close to winning a bracelet by going deep in the heads-up event several weeks ago… The $2 million first prize tonight might have been enough to perform a semi-bailout of the WPT, but now we’ll never know what he would’ve done with the money…

4th place - Matt Glantz - $568,320
I’m not familiar. He’s probably a great human being. Now, he’s a much richer human being.

Three-handed is taking what seems like days, but Erick Lindgren isn’t going out that easily. Up until now, the shortest stack is typically the next to go, and it hasn’t taken terribly long to make that happen. But E-Dog is staging a comeback. Whether it is his enormous fan/friend support in the audience, the $2 mil, the Chip Reese trophy, the title of champion in this prestigious event, or all of the above, Lindgren is doing his best to get back on the horse. (Get it? Horse? HORSE? Work with me here; I’m tired…)

UPDATE: 2:30am PST - Still three handed. Nearing hand #235. DeMichele with 5.73 million, Nguyen with 4.605 million, and Lindgren with 4.465 mil. And you thought I was exaggerating when I indicated this may never end…

UPDATE: 4am PST - There are some signs that this might end before the presidential election. Updated chip counts, courtesy of PokerNews: Nguyen 10,085,000; DeMichele 3,040,000; Lindgren 1,675,000.

It has taken over three hours to see three players hit the door in the $50K HORSE. It has seemed slow at times, but the intensity at the table dictates that this could be a long night.

8th place - Patrick Bueno - $230,880
He was the short stack with less than 700K upon sitting down today, so it was only a matter of time before he would make a move. He did it against Lyle Berman and lost. The French businessman bid adieu to the table.

7th place - Huck Seed - $284,160
Huck never has much to say, and neither do I.

6th place - Barry Greenstein - $355,200
Though he’s not the kind of guy most people would want at a fun dinner party, Barry’s story at the WSOP, especially in this event, would have been a great one. He is the only player to have cashed in each of the three years that the $50K HORSE has been played, and this was his second year in a row for a final table in it. He already won a WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago in seven-card razz, but he couldn’t pull of the big one with his short stack. (That just sounded wrong, I know.) He did earn his sixth cash of the WSOP, though. Not a bad showing for the Bear this year so far.

After 75 hands, Michael DeMichele has taken the chip lead. Lookie here for the PokerNews chip counts:

Michael DeMichele - 3,700,000
Erick Lindgren - 3,400,000
Scotty Nguyen - 3,300,000
Lyle Berman - 2,200,000
Matt Glantz - 2,150,000

Finishing the action from last night, with the Sunday preview that’s not really a preview:

The HORSE final table is now set for 3pm to be under the really hot lights of the ESPN cameras. Here’s how this stacked lineup will be seated at that table:

Seat 1: Matt Glantz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) — 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) — 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) — 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,680,000

The other final table for today the $2,000 NL Holdem event, will be held in some corner of the Amazon room at 3pm, but here’s what that final table will look like:

Seat 1: Dan Rome 650,000
Seat 2: Ryan D’Angelo 520,000
Seat 3: Marco Johnson 2,135,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 1,145,000
Seat 5: Robert Brewer 1,050,000
Seat 6: Gabe Costner 1,475,000
Seat 7: Alan Cutter 535,000
Seat 8: Alexandre Gomes 1,075,000
Seat 9: Sverre Sundbo 685,000

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed final table finally ended after 6 hours of heads up play when Joe Commisso finally eliminated Richard Lyndaker to take down the bracelet and just over $911,000. Commisso had to be wondering if he’d ever win after having Lyndaker dominated 7-1 on 3 separate occasions, only for Lyndaker to claw back into contention and take the chip lead. Between the two of them there was almost a dozen all in confrontations where the smaller stack would win, which turned out to be a one in 600-something possibility.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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Since returning from dinner break, the players in the $50K HORSE have been in slow motion, barely trotting here. So much is on the line, so I don’t blame them… The railbirds aren’t getting tired, though. They’re still packed in there like wide-eyed sardines, snapping photos and hoping to get a wink or a nod from a pro. Entertaining to watch…for a few minutes at a time.

In the past three hours, only two players have busted.

13th place: Daniel Negreanu - $142,080
If Daniel had won this tournament, the prize money would have catapulted him into the position of top tournament money earner of all time, surpassing Jamie Gold. Well, that ain’t happenin’ in this tournament, sad to say.

12th place: Phil Ivey - $159,840
Not the most entertaining player at the table, but definitely a fan favorite and one of the best out there. Much to the dismay of the standing-room audience, he had to nod goodbye.

Erick Lindgren has jumped out to a dominating lead here, as it stands at 1am. He has 3.25 million, and the next closest stack belongs to Scotty Nguyen with 2.7 million. I smell a good final table. (And I smell a poker player who needs a shower, but that’s not relevant here.)

UPDATE:
11th place: David Bach - $159,840
10th place: Raymond Davis - $177,600
9th place: Ralph Perry - $177,600
Final table set! Seat assignments and accurate chip counts to be posted when announced…

What’s happened tonight at the WSOP:

The two final tables for today are both heads-up. First, the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event is down to Joe Commisso and Richard Lyndaker, having played over 130 hands of heads-up action so far. Commisso at one point had a 7-1 chip lead before Lyndaker clawed his way to having his own chip lead. At this time Joe has retaken the lead, but it’s still going to be hard for him to close the deal.

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better tournament is was down to Ryan Hughes and Ron Long. At the moment, Hughes has a 2-1 chip lead, but the chips have been going back and forth quite a bit during heads-up play. Hughes finally defeats Long, taking home the bracelet and $183,000, while Long takes home just over $113,000. This is Hughes’ second bracelet, as he took down the $2,000 Stud Eight or Better event last year. The only other notable name at this final table was 2+2 author David Sklansky, who was the first out at the final table again, finishing in 8th.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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Wrapping up yesterday’s action, with a preview of today’s tournament (with a moment of silence for John Bonetti):

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event finally reached their final table at around 5:30am, now they have to attempt to get some rest before returning in front of the watchful eye of the ESPN360 cameras at 2pm with this sextet:

Seat 4: Richard Lyndaker 2,345,000
Seat 3: Joe Commisso 1,961,000
Seat 5: Tom Lutz 1,493,000
Seat 1: Samuel Trickett 1,045,000
Seat 6: Edward Ochana 928,000
Seat 2: Davidi Kitai 298,000

The $1,500 Stud Eight or Better stopped play with 13 players remaining as they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Here’s the approximate chip counts of the baker’s dozen (chip counts and seats to be rearranged later):

(Table 14)
Seat 1: Ryan Hughes 73,000
Seat 4: Margaret Macre 173,000
Seat 5: James Richburg 274,000
Seat 6: Ron Long 33,000
Seat 7: David Brooker 45,000
Seat 8: Daniel Nicewander 41,000

(Table 15)
Seat 1: Mike Hefer 71,000
Seat 2: Tim D’Alessandro 82,000
Seat 3: David Sklansky 110,000
Seat 4: Thomas Hunt III 101,000
Seat 6: Alessio Isaia 172,000
Seat 7: Joshua Feldman 121,000
Seat 8: Jonas Klausen 346,000

Other tournament action (plus the final 24 in the $50k HORSE) on page 2:
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What’s doing tonight at the WSOP while I welcome Tuscaloosa Johnny to the Pokerati fold:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event is down to it’s last 3 with Casey Kastle, Martin Klaser, and Michael Fetter remaining. Kastle currently holds the chip lead, Erik Seidel was eliminated in 4th in his attempt at winning his 9th bracelet.

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event have returned from their dinner break with 280 out of a starting field of 805 to return. Notable names near the top include Alex Jacob, Mark Vos, Gavin Griffin, and Hevad Khan.

Other tournament action is available by clicking on the more thingy:

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What’s happening at the WSOP tonight:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event just concluded with a winner, and it’s Layne Flack who put on a dominant performance at the final table, taking an overwhelming chip lead that no one would be able to catch him. Layne wins his 6th WSOP bracelet, putting him in some elite company as one of 10 poker players who have won at least 6 bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan, D. Brunson, Seidel, Cloutier, Moss, Baxter, Heimowitz, M. Nguyen are the others). Daniel Makowsky finished in 2nd, and Ted Forrest will have to try yet again to get his 6th bracelet, as he finished in 5th. Dario Alioto finished in 4th for those following the Italian contingency.

Other action from today after the jump:

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Finishing the recap from last night’s activities with a preview of today’s lone tournament:

The $5,000 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better World Championship concluded shortly after 2am, with German Sebastian Ruthenberg outlasting Chris “Jesus” Ferguson to win his first bracelet, along with just over $328,000 in a grueling 3 hour heads-up battle. Ferguson and Ruthenberg would trade the lead several times, each having a huge chip advantage. While some may say the structure went too fast at the end, I have the feeling he wouldn’t be as vocal if the other player won.

Final tables for today and other action from last night after the leap:

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Without having to calculate exact days or tournament numbers, let’s consider the WSOP to be at the halfway mark.

Taking a look at the WSOP Player of the Year overall points standings, Erick Lindgren is in a pretty solid first place spot right now. Jacobo Fernandez-Hernandez is in second place, followed by Scott Seiver, Daniel Negreanu, and Theo Tran. A certain Tom Schneider looks to be in 31st place, but the current standings do not include his 12th place razz finish last night; that addition might move him up 15-20 spots.

As far as the number of cashes, Tom just moved up to a three-way-tied first place with Nikolay Evdakov and Alex Jacob - all of them have five cashes thus far. The all-time record for cashes at the WSOP in a single year is eight, and with quite a few tournaments to go, the goal of beating that record is definitely attainable.

Happenings from last night and the Sunday preview at the WSOP:

The semifinals of the $10,000 Headsup World Championship have now been set, even if it appeared Lyle Berman didn’t want that to happen. His round of 16 match with David Williams would eventually take over 5 hours, before Berman eventually took it down. That match went so long that the tournament staff decided to start the quarterfinal matches unaffected by the outcome. Those winners were Vanessa Selbst, Jonathan Jaffe, and Kenny Tran. Lyle would face Alec Torelli in their quarterfinal match, and true to form, this match would take over 4 hours with Torelli triumphant in the end. So here’s the semifinals that meet the ESPN360 cameras:

Vanessa Selbst v Alec Torelli
Kenny Tran v Jonathan Jaffe

Other action from yesterday at the jump:

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All of the tables in the PLO w/rebuys tournament are sick. The field isn’t enormous, but it consists of so many notable players that it’s hard to look away.

One table in particular, Table 15 in the Orange section has an impressive line-up: Robert Williamson III, Phil Hellmuth, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Sirous Jamshidi, Daniel Negreanu, and Daniel Alaei. And as I’m typing, Alex Kravchenko was moved to that table as well.

The players are having a good time with the set-up, and it’s a couple tables away from the spectator rail, so railbirds aren’t hovering. Strange thing happened, though. A non-ESPN-credentialed person came up to the table with a video camera, which is typically good enough to get you and your media credential kicked out on your ass, and filmed some of the action, even commenting to the players and looking for reactions. Hellmuth started to get annoyed, and that’s when a certain Harrah’s big-wig came over and monitored the filming; by his mere presence, he sanctioned it.

As a few fans found their way through the tables and security to get closer to the table, they were shooed away and told to get out of the area. Yet, the rogue videographer was able to stay and continue filming for quite awhile before leaving upon obtaining the footage he desired. Interesting exception to the media rules. I’m sure there was a good reason…

Facts and Figures from the WSOP so far, at the end of play early Friday morning:

Number of entrants: 20,141
Bracelets awarded: 20
Most cashes: Nikolay Evdakov - 5
Most final tables: Theo Tran, Erick Lindgren - 2
Current ESPN POY: Erick Lindgren 175 points
Leading money earner: Grant Hinkle - $831,462

A review of the week 2 action at the World Series of Poker:

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So bummer that ESPN has bad insurance — and I’m not just sayin’ that because Pokerati’s new made-for-TV patches just arrived. While the ESPN camerapeople are taking some atmosphere filler shots — you know, just in case Erick Lindgren wins his second bracelet — it really is too bad that the WSOP doesn’t have the ability to call a final-table audible or two. (The actual physical table for the bracelet-crowning end of the $5k NL 2-7 lowball single-draw w/ rebuys doesn’t even have hole-card cams.)

Not only is there a great field to follow, and multiple story lines … Lindgren going for his second bracelet, which would put him way ahead in the WSOP Player of the Year race … and speaking of POY, last year Jeff Lisandro and Tom Schneider had everything riding on the results of this event … but also, if you’re gonna show a crazy mixed game on TV, there’s really not a better one to televise than NL 2-7 single-draw.

TV fans are already comfortable with the concept of no-limit … and it won’t take much for them to understand that the best hand in this game is 2-3-4-5-7. Then mix in the poker psychology (wielded by top-notch pros) of a game where you get soooo little information on your opponent’s hand — there are only two rounds of betting — and consider that there are only 5 cards in each hand to think about … and there you have it: great, surprising and unexpected poker TV. (The $5k with rebuys also adds a bigger-money component to it as well.)

When I watched this game last year, I got totally hooked — would love to be able to play it somewhere. And F-Train’s solid coverage of it for PokerNews/the WSOP reflects that he’s finding the same thing. Read along for just a few posts and you’ll have a whole new understanding of a game you previously probably hardly knew.

UPDATE: Tom is now second in chips … click here to follow along.

Event #18 is the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Rebuys tournament. The field was small with only 85 competitors, but those few people managed to rebuy 272 times and create a $1,036,035 prize pool to be divided between the top 14 finishers.

Today, the third day of the event, the final table is underway. Check out this line-up:

Seat 1: Jeffrey Lisandro (Salerno, Italy) 461,000
Seat 2: Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, Nevada) 520,000
Seat 3: Tom Schneider (Scottsdale, Arizona) 162,000
Seat 4: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) 1,104,000
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) 541,000
Seat 6: Tony ‘G’ Guoga (Melbourne, Australia) 394,000
Seat 7: David Benyamine (Las Vegas, Nevada) 410,000

Here’s the kicker. Hardly anyone can see it.

The table is being held on a table NEXT to the ESPN stage. The rail is insane, four- or five-people deep, and those people are frustrated because they can’t see anything. Throw in the official WSOP media, ESPN cameras and crew, and floor staff, there’s nothing to see. Some members of the media tried to go up to the Milwaukee’s Best Lounge so we could watch from above, though that is rather uncomfortable as well, and snap a photo or two, but security instructed us to leave. Immediately.

Why, I asked of some fellow media folk, is the ESPN stage empty with no other final tables running today? Why can’t move this stellar final table over there with more room for the media and lots of room for fans to take seats and watch? WHY? The Poker Shrink informed me that ESPN does not take out insurance on the stage and lounge areas if there is no final table scheduled there. There is no insurance on the area today, and evidently, no one can make a phone call to get it.

Therefore, the players are stuck in a very small space, their friends and family are having a tough time seeing the table, and those against the rail have fans breathing down their necks. The fans are annoyed that they can’t see the best final table of the WSOP so far. The non-official media is pissed at being treated rudely by the floor staff and security team - being shooed from the area and given NO explanation, leeway, or assistance.

After a few weeks of virtually no missteps on the part of Harrah’s and the WSOP, this may be one that they hear about from the players and the media.

First, important Pokerati news:

Tom Schneider made the final table of the $5,000 NL 2-7 KC Lowball w/rebuys final table. Per usual, this event has an impressive final table lineup (starting at 3pm):

Seat 1: Jeffrey Lisandro 461,000
Seat 2: Mike Matusow 520,000
Seat 3: Tom Schneider 162,000
Seat 4: Erick Lindgren 1,104,000
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein 541,000
Seat 6: Tony ‘G’ Guoga 394,000
Seat 7: David Benyamine 410,000

Here’s the payouts:

1 $ 537,862
2 $ 347,004
3 $ 225,552
4 $ 156,151
5 $ 104,101
6 $ 78,075
7 $ 58,990

Other action from yesterday and a preview of today after the jump:

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Happenings this evening, while I make this part small so you can read all the good stuff below:

The $5k NL Shootout final table is down to headsup. The current chip leader winner is Phil “The Chairman” Tom. His son, Scott, was the founder of Absolute Poker, and we know how that turned out. (Readers may want to insert their own superuser jokes here). Greg “FBT” Mueller is in a close finished 2nd, while Leo Wolpert was recently eliminated in 3rd.

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Teddy “The Iceman” Munroe: Watch out for this guy. Tough to play against.

Tom is was the chip leader in the $2k Omaha Hi-Lo. That’s pretty cool.

UPDATE: Tom is out. Not cool.

And that limit event he busted out of yesterday … Erick Lindgren just missed the final table, which is now set with some interesting players, including Teddy Munroe, Ali Eslami, and Vinny Vinh. (Teddy and I go way back — last year I’d be typing outside and “The Iceman” would fill me in on the $100-$200 cash action while taking a piss on the tournament tent air conditioners. “Makin’ money, baby!” he’d say before shaking himself dry and heading back to the table.)

Even the $10k 7-Stud World Championship is getting interesting … with Doyle still alive and both Bob and Maureen Feduniak with the potential to become the first ever husband-wife presumably non-collusive team at the final table. Never mind. Since typing this, all the above-mentioned have been eliminated.

I learned about this 7-Stud shape-up from the a WSOP-TV vid. And though I tend to detest any lack of imbeddability, I gotta say I like a lot of what this ESPN/WSOP/Bluff (?) crew has got going here. For example, Harmonie Krieger does a basic feature video interview set on the different jobs people come to the WSOP from. Nice enough, right? — but very real when one of the guys she talks with is Jay Columbo, who ran the legendary Mayfair and Playstation poker clubs in New York City, legally questionable status notwithstanding.

And then, perhaps most shocking to me, I enjoyed Jean-Robert Bellande’s “Surviving the WSOP” — where the young, aspiring Eskimo Clark chronicles his ups and downs at the World Series while his video-podcast editors comment Pop-up Video-style — follow along as he hustles high-rollers for buy-ins.

Even learned something from Phil Ivey’s less exciting V-log … and that is that he’s playing so many big-field, low-buy-in donkfests because he has a lot of side action pending on whether or not he’ll win a bracelet this year. We’ll see if we can’t find out more about this.

Speaking of donkfests, the Ladies Event has already lost 2/3 of its starting field, and of those still remaining, at least three of them are Pokerati MySpace friends: Lacey Jones, Kathy Liebert, and Mandy Baker are looking strong and pretty much representing the spectrum of all that is good about women. Go girls! I mean chicks … er babes .. uh bitches?

UPDATE: Lacey is nursing a short stack. Poker Roadie Amanda Leatherman has come on strong, however, and picked up the aggressive pace. Michele Lewis, Tiffany Michele, and PokerNews editrix Haley Hintze are all out.

In the meantime, primarily because it is awesomely embeddable, check out the debut episode of The Degenerate Report, from Neverwin Poker:

What’s happening at the WSOP while I go looking to buy some vurry expensive watches :
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Previewing Day 9, reviewing Day 8 at the WSOP, as I wonder why the EUROPEAN Poker Tour allows worldwide airing of final tables live, while the WORLD Series of Poker decides to restrict airing of final tables to a select few in the United States.

The second Saturday of the Series gets underway at noon with event #13 ($2,500 NL Holdem). Being a NL tournament held on the weekend, expect another large field to lay their money down. At 5pm, the latest round of $10,000 buyin World Championships takes place, this time it’s 7 Card Stud. Expect a small but elite field to try their hand at winning a bracelet.

Earlier today:
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A review of the action from the first week of the World Series of Poker:

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Tonight’s $10k Mixed Event World Championship drew 192 players, and after some confusion regarding the structure, things appears to be going along nicely.

In other tournament action, all but the the $2k NL tournament (which just returned) are on their respective dinner breaks.

The $1,500 PL Holdem final table has Jacobo Hernandez and David Singer are heads-up and almost even in chips. The $5,000 Mixed Holdem event is on their break as well with five left at their final table as Justin Bonomo, Andrew Robl, Erick Lindgren, Chino Rheem and Roland de Wolfe remain.

The $1,500 Omaha 8 tournament just broke the money bubble, then went right to their dinner break. The $2,000 NL tournament has about 400 left, with 153 getting paid. The $1k NL tournament is down to 29, returning shortly to get to their final table with Negreanu, Gowen, and Juanda among the remaining.

I’ll be back at it tomorrow, like it or not…

What’s happening at this moment while reading Gary Wise’s latest entry about what’s “good for poker” is really good for poker.

Today brings another two tournaments to the starting line, first at noon is the $2,000 NL holdem event and another large field is expected. The event the pros may be swooning over is the $10,000 Mixed Event “World Championship”. This tournament will have it all for the big cash game specialists as they throw eight games into the mix. This grouping of players will play Triple Draw lowball Deuce to Seven, Limit Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha; playing each game for 8 hands before moving on to the next game in the rotation. Hopefully there won’t be many mixups between the players, dealers, and floor and this becomes a staple of the WSOP schedule.

Play finally finished earlier this morning in the marathon that was event #2, $1,500 NL Holdem. After over two hours of headsup play, Grant Hinkle made an aggressive move, raising and eventually going all in with 10d-4d against James Akenhead’s Ac-Kh. Things were looking good for James, but his was truly aching after the flop came down 10-4-10. A fourth 10 hit the turn and it was over, as Hinkle took the bracelet and over $800,000 in victory. Chris Ferguson finished 3rd, the full results can be found over at Pokernews.

What else happened yesterday:
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It seems that the World Series of Golf has come and gone. A car salesman from Michigan, Andrew “AJ” Johnson, won the $250,000 first prize, and Erick Lindgren came in second place for $60,000. Also in the final round was Allen Cunningham. (Is there anything that guy can’t do?)

The Full Tilt-sponsored 80-person event took place at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort and concluded on May 15. The WSOG is scheduled to air on CBS Sports on June 28 and 29.

Can I get a golf clap?

Pokerati file photo: The HB-3186 war room, led by Lavigne in Austin (standing, top left) with Texas poker politicos, player representatives, and out-of-state allies preparing for a capitol offensive.

In addition to those state-by-state member numbers, the PPA put out a press release this week announcing its new state directors. Good to see poker players getting more involved in grassroots activity as the politi-dudes looking out for us in Washington DC continue to develop into a real Beltway force. However, there’s one state where the director curiously isn’t named — and that’s Texas.

Um, Mike …? Has there been a change to your resume that you might wanna blog about that you might wanna blog about?

UPDATE: Lavigne in Austin en-route-to-Wichita-Falls confirms via Blackberry that he is indeed still a state director for the PPA, and showed off his political skills by dodging my follow-up question about “why the ‘TBA’ then?” by reassuring me that the poker political machinery in Texas, having been built and tested now, will be well-oiled for 2009 with real Texas Hold’em in Texas in 2010 so long as I don’t write anything to muck it up.

LAS VEGAS–Pauly has a great breakdown of Erick Lindgren’s $340,000 prop bet against Phil Ivey and others on the golf course. Bold not only because of the amount, but because it was against Ivey, who has done a nice job earning a reputation as quite the golf-time hustler. And Pauly himself had $2,700 riding on the outcome:

They’re down to six at the WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno. Good players, too … including David Pham, JC Tran, Mark Seif, and Danny Wong (not the Wong I have on my fantasy team, but a really good Wong nonetheless). $683k to the winner — a notably smaller payout than last year … No million-dollar champion, and roughly $90k less to whomever takes over Tom’s coveted 3rd-place crown. I wonder how the fact that there are fewer chips at the final table will affect play. The WPT, of course, still seems to believe that lots of all-ins makes for exciting poker TV, which may or may not be true.

Dallas expatriate Chantel looked like she might do more-than-cash, but in the end, she went out in 48th or 49th place, with 45 getting paid. Though I’m not sure what the chip-stacks were pre-flop, the hand she busted out on might merit some discussion … (You gotta fold those queens, right?)

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