You can’t’ tell from the groovin’ tunes in the background, but Pauly y yo are in the PT Theater as the heads-up battle is just one hand from completion — and I’m suffering from severe WSOP separation anxiety tech tilt as Pokerati goes offline at a fairly critical time, presumably at the hands of loyal Tao of Pokerati listeners. (Bastards.) From there we speculate on the future of the WSOP’s relationship with Milwaukee’s Best Light, particularly in light of a pretty major biz merger we missed during the start of the regular WSOP.

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.13: Web Player Down! 4:53

Pauly and I discuss what goes into becoming a WSOP final-final table dealer, his crazy series of prop bets with Otis, Lou the Dealer’s up-close observations about the heads-up action (both were nervous, and Peter Eastgate kept messing up his bets in early hands), and the Linda Tran vs. Jena Phillips controversy, both of us unaware that Lou (my pick) would end up winning the side-action on who deals the final hand a few hours later.

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.12: Dealer or No Dealer? 3:31

More than two hours into heads-up play, most of the crowd remains in their seats, despite discovering how slow and uneventful live poker can be at times. Some other points of interest:

~From the time the final table began yesterday, this just turned into the longest WSOP main event final table in history, beating out the 14-hour 2005 table which went to Joe Hachem.

~Dennis Phillips and Darus Suharto are in the audience to sweat their former opponents and see this thing come to a conclusion.

~Reportedly, Erick Lindgren’s name was misspelled on his engraved Harley.

~Demidov came on strong tonight by evening up the chip stacks, but within the last hour, Eastgate not only regained his lead but became the first player to leap over the 100 million chip mark. Demidov just dipped below the 30 million mark and can’t seem to find a spot to make a comeback…yet.

The famed ringside announcer did the “shuffle up and deal” at the start of today’s heads-up. It was pretty entertaining stuff, as you could tell that Jack Effel (who introduced him) has been practicing emulating him … and also amusing the way Buffer treated chips as if they were body mass.

In non-crazy-governor-attempts-to-take-over-online-gaming news, a poker player in the U.K. set an official world record, according to the World Records Academy.

Dave Cain set the record by playing poker for 72 hours and 12 minutes in September of 2008. He played heads-up deep stack poker at the Library Bar in Lincolnshire, England, and beat the previous record of 72 hours and 2 minutes held by Larry Olmsted. To make the record official, Cain had 1 steward, 1 practicing medical practitioner, and 2 official witnesses in attendance. And funds were raised during the event for two local hospices.

Cain is the manager of the Live Pub Poker League in the U.K.

Poker players around the world who play cash games for a living were said to have responded to the 72 hour session news with something like, “Whoopie.” (Not a direct quote.)

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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Recapping last night’s action and previewing today’s tournament at the World Series of Poker, hoping Dan avoids having a similar picture to this taken.

The $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event was won last night by Belgian player Davidi Kitai as he finally eliminated Chris Bell after almost 200 hands of heads-up play. Kitai wins nearly $250,000 and his first WSOP bracelet, while Bell’s left with $155,000 to attempt and salve his wounds as to what could have been.

The only tournament being held today is the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship, for those 50 and over (insert AARP jokes, GSN demo cracks or other old person humor here). Last year’s version drew 1,882 entrants with Ernest Bennett winning the bracelet and nearly $350,000.

Today’s final table and recapping other Sunday action on page 2:

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Tonight’s goings-on at the WSOP:

The one final table of today is down to heads-up play, as the $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event is down to Chris Bell and Davidi Kitai. So far during heads-up play, there have been 10 lead changes as they’ve battled back and forth for over 3 hours, covering about 120 hands at this time. Follow along with the live updates at the WSOP website here.

Other action from today at the jump:

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Happenings tonight at the WSOP.

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table is now heads-up between Jesper Hougaard and Cody Slaubaugh. Jesper had been dominating the final table and started heads-up with $6,500,000 in chips to about 800,000 for Slaubaugh. Just 6 hands later, Slaubaugh had a nearly 2-1 chip lead as Hougaard decided it was now an opportune time to take the dinner break. They’ll return at about 9:30 PT to finish, the way it’s going it won’t take long either way. Follow along on the World Series of Poker’s update site here.

The other final table on Page 2.

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Reviewing what happened last night…

In a final table that ESPN SHOULD be covering (instead of ESPN360), the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys final table has been set for around 3pm.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,800
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

The three names that may not appear familiar to the poker fan, but those who follow the online scene know OMGClayAiken, tsarast and the_houdini very well.

Other action from last night after the jump:

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What’s happening this evening while watching Tiger Woods decide to wait until Monday to win his next major:

The $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship is down to the final 2, as Kenny Tran is taking on Eric Torelli in a best of 3 match for the bracelet. Vanessa Selbst would finish tied for 3rd in this event for the second straight year, but does move into 2nd place in the ESPN POY standings for the time being.

More at the jump:

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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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Ya gotta love poker history - those great moments that are more than just statistics but interesting stories. Okay, you don’t have to love it, but can you at least be mildly amused?

Tonight, Blair Hinkle won Event 23 at the WSOP, the $2K NLHE tournament. Less than two weeks ago, Grant Hinkle won Event 2, the $1,500 NLHE. You guessed it - they are brothers. Their mother was in the audience for both victories. The only other brothers in the history of the WSOP to each win bracelets were Puggy Pearson and J.C. Pearson, but theirs were 21 years apart. The Hinkle bros were the first to ever do it in the same year.

In other brother news, Robert and Michael Mizrachi tried to both advance to the “elite eight” round tonight in the World Championship of Heads-Up NLHE, and though Robert defeated his opponent, Michael was unable to squash Vanessa Selbst and wasn’t able to move on. While ESPN and other media outlets were disappointed at the outcome, the focus of the night is now solely on the bracelet-winning Hinkle brothers.

Congratulations to the Hinkle family… Momma Hinkle, you’re next!

What’s happening at the WSOP while some people can’t wait to turn 21 to play in Vegas. For those unfamiliar with Ozzy87, his name is Aurangzeb Sheikh, he made a WPT final table at 18, and has had previous issues with the law.

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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP as I read a post that makes you want to take AP’s side for once:

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Happenings from yesterday with a preview of today’s action::

The two final tables yesterday have been covered enough here so on to the day 2 action. The $5,000 NL Holdem final table is now set for this afternoon under the ESPN360 cameras shortly after 2pm.

Seat 1: Anders Henriksson 311,000
Seat 2: Jacobo Fernandez 848,000
Seat 3: Rajesh Vohra 1,040,000
Seat 4: Ben Sprengers 441,000
Seat 5: Adam Geyer 645,000
Seat 6: Scott Freeman 423,000
Seat 7: Scott Seiver 2,512,000
Seat 8: Chuck Sklar 439,000
Seat 9: Dave Seidman 653,000

More after the jump:

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The Aces Club is the VIP room set up across from the Amazon Room. Players who paid $2,500 as a donation to the Nevada Cancer Institute were granted access throughout the World Series. The ability to pay the fee and gain access is also not publicized, so only those “in the know” are offered the opportunity to buy in.

I’ve heard about it. I even tried to get in one night with WSOP media guru Nolan Dalla, but players were on their break and hovering about the VIP room, so security denied us access. Yep, there is a 24-hour security guard at the door to keep the riff-raff out.

Today, I was conducting an interview with an unnamed poker pro. He just busted out of the $10K stud championship and suggested the VIP room as a quiet area to chat. I didn’t want to like the Aces Club, but I have to admit it was a sweet set-up - very comfortable leather couches, an enormous food spread, and video games. One was a PokerTek-ish flat table heads-up poker game.

Aforementioned unnamed pro told me that he witnessed a game earlier in the day between Phil Ivey and David Williams on the heads-up machine. Evidently, Phil didn’t look at his cards once and smoked David. Smoked like a fine cigar. Smoked like a dinner salmon. Smoked like a…well, you get it. Quite embarrassing.

I’d like to think we’re not missing anything by not having access to the Aces Club, but I’m not so sure. Next mission: Get back into the VIP and beat David Williams at heads-up poker roll around on those couches naked nab some of that free VIP food.