Evidently, Robert Williamson III is now a Full Tilt Pro. When I asked an FTP rep about the possibility of a forthcoming press release, I was told that there was not one planned because the information already leaked out. Ummm, putting a patch on the guy is a pretty good hint for those of us paying attention.

Although, as I looked over the list of Full Tilt team members, pros, and friends on the website, I realize exactly how many players are on the Full Tilt Poker roster and how easily a new signing could be overlooked. In fact, Williamson isn’t even listed on the site yet.

The list of FTP players is impressive and confusing at the same time… How many players can feel truly represented by a site that sponsors approximately 123 people? It would be like having dozens of siblings; how much one-on-one time with the parents will each one get?

There is also a tier of sponsorships, a little like a ranking of the kids from most special to barely recognizable. On one end, there is Team Full Tilt - Lederer, Ferguson, Ivey, Hansen, Harman, et al. Listed below that category is Team CardRunners, then the Hendon Mob, then the Full Tilt Pros, and finally the Friends of Full Tilt. Friends include Bruce Buffer, authors Michael Craig and Jim McManus, commentator Ali Nejad, Jerry Yang, and a few others whose names don’t ring a bell. It’s the Pro category that blows my mind a little, with lots of well-known pros mixed with several players I’ve never heard of. Just makes me wonder about the criteria when David Singer and Lee Watkinson are in the same category with Christoph Wolters and Roland Specht.

I wonder if there’s a limit as to the number of players that Full Tilt wants, needs, or will tolerate. It’s already quite the full house.

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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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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Another day, another 2,000 players will be expected to start play in the first $1,500 NL event of the 2008 WSOP. When play starts shortly after 12pm PT today, the record for the largest field in WSOP preliminary event history will have been set, all that’s left to be answered is if it can break the magical 4,000 figure. Today’s field will match the progress of day 1a, playing eight 60-minute levels plus the first 16 minutes, 13 seconds of level 9.

Today will also have the first final table, as the $10,000 PL Holdem event finished up just before 5:00am, setting up a fantastic final table under the ESPN cameras. This final table has something for every section of the poker community. You have the young Internet stars (Mike Sowers and Amit Makhija), players wel-known to the mainstream audience (Phil Laak and Mike Sexton), a female player (Kathy Liebert), a math genius (Andy Bloch), international stars (Patrik Antonius and Nenad Medic) and a good ole boy from North Carolina (Chris Bell).

Here’s how the final table will be seated:
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As reported by Gambling911.com, professional poker player Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and his wife Charlene Abendroth, 57, were found dead in their Pleasanton, California home on Friday morning.

While no details are being reported yet, authorities are investigating the deaths as homicides.

The Hendon Mob results are difficult to verify because Ernest Scherer only has two tournament cashes to his name, while Ernest Scherer III (presumably his son) is listed as having over $330,000 in tournament winnings.

Unfortunately, I have not had the pleasure to meet father or son during my time in the poker community. But in this terrible time, may the family find some peace.

Familiar faces left in Day 2a are few and far between. John Duthie (one of my favorites) is among the chip leaders with Huck Seed not too far behind and David Levi working a short stack. On break Levi said he wasn’t too excited about 50k after a big loss but since he started the day with only 15k…then he shrugged his shoulders. John Duthie said he was up and down but thought he should be okay if he made it through tonight. I should say so…Duthie is looking good with a stack over 300k

Other notables are Houston’s Ted Leva, Bobby Baldwin (see photo), Bruno Fitoussi, Neil Channing, Robert Mizrachi and Tobey Maguire. They are down to 386 players and will play down to 350 tonight “no matter what.”

BTW - I announced Liger in the media room and someone from not America said “Did you say Liger? I didn’t know anyone knew they existed, I know a lot about Ligers!”

Not sure why Ram Vaswani’s not in the vid (playing golf with Phil Ivey, perhaps?) but check it out … the Hendon Mob getting cheated in a recent televised home game: