1k NL final table set

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table gets underway this afternoon at 2:30pm with this lineup:

Seat 1: Blake Kelso – 1,166,000
Seat 2: JD McNamara – 2,393,000
Seat 3: Kiet Tran – 2,311,000
Seat 4: Greg Pohler – 1,660,000
Seat 5: David Cai – 844,000
Seat 6: Michael Gross – 535,000
Seat 7: Denis Murphy – 789,999
Seat 8: Jeffrey Tebben – 466,000
Seat 9: John Tolbert – 925,000

Cowley leads final 15 in 2500 NL 6-max

Steve Cowley (1,279,000) leads the remaining 15 players in the $2,500 No-Limit 6-max event when they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Among the notables with chips: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (641,000) and Erik Cajelais (345,000). The full list of chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Troy leads 1500 Stud 8 on final day

Maxwell Troy (430,000) leads the final 23 players who return at 3pm in the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better event. Among the familiar names looking to get a WSOP bracelet in this event: David Levi (216,000), Karina Jett (187,000), Blair Rodman (117,000) and Brandon Cantu (50,000). The remaining field’s chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Klein leads 2500 PLO after day 1

A field of 596 players started the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event Tuesday afternoon, with 102 returning at 2:30 today. The final 54 players make the money, with the winner collecting $315,311. The leader is Loren Klein with 187,300 in chips. Other notables on the leaderboard: Richard Ashby (137,700), Tex Barch (72,600), T.J. Cloutier (70,400), Chau Giang (59,800), and Scott Clements (58,200). A full list of the survivors will appear soon at wsop.com.

Lisandro leads 10k limit holdem

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship drew a field of 171, with 102 remaining after ten levels of play. The leader is Jeff Lisandro with 130,900 in chips. Other names you’ve heard of: Brett Richey (113,800), Hoyt Corkins (109,900), Shaun Deeb (89,000), Michael Mizrachi (69,800), Doyle Brunson (65,300) and Jennifer Harman (46,300). The full chip counts are online at wsop.com.

Wednesday’s tournaments

Another two bracelet events get underway this afternoon, starting with the fourth full-ring $1,500 No-Limit Holdem starting at 12pm. The defending champion in this event is Eric Baldwin, defeating a field of 2,095 for $521,991. At 5pm it’s the $1,500 HORSE event, with James Van Alstyne defeating a field of 770, earning $247,033.

@JimShipley wrote:

How rigged was the beer pong seeding you fuck! You’re in the effin ladies bracket. Fuller and I play last yrs champion if we win?

From there the evidence was mounting. 2+2 posters did a statistical analysis and noticed discrepancies that stretched far beyond the realm of variance:

Facing all these allegations and (screams for a life-ban from poker), @Pokerati admitted “Indeed, there absolutely was no random draw involved! But I’m not sorry … I’d do it again!” In the meantime Beer Pong officials and Pokerati Corporate have invited the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to investigate.

Perhaps pressuring me into this ethical compromise, John Katkin had to back out as my partner, and that left me with untested PokerNews young-gun Drew Flynn as his replacement. though I think my team actually improves with the addition of a player under 30, I just couldn’t trust the results in this situation to a truly fair and honest game.

As details of the scandal have come to light, doctored pairings revealed:

• I purposely put my team up against two presumably hot-and-young Hogs & Heifers bartenders, figuring it’s no-lose even if we do lose.
• If we do win, there’s a chance Team Pokerati’s next match will be against Ty Stewart and Brian Balsbaugh … I’ve wanted to chat with Stewart pre-WSOP for a while now, but just hadn’t gotten to it. Plus, I think they will likely be weak drinkers.
• If they lose, it would be Tiffany Michelle / Lisa Parsons … again, two attractive women bouncing wet balls. And if Team Pokerati is out after Round 1 … then it’s a four-girl free-for-all! Good for TV!
• There’s only one other two-lady team, Melanie Weisner / Vanessa Ping. I purposely matched them up in the first round against my poker-newsbuddy @FtrainPoker because he has a thing for petite Asian girls … and Ping seemed my best bet there.
• Was gonna put him against the Hogs team of Luci & Pedro … because I wanted to throw at least one chick his way, and even if she weren’t his type, just seemed like there’s a good chance Pedro might be gay and that could work for Ftrain, too.
• Put this year’s favorites of Todd Brunson and Brett Jungblutt against a Hogs Team in the first round, because these folks play a lot of beer pong and make for a really tough match right from the start.
• Intentionally put Team Erick/Erica against Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso in round 1 … because they’re all make for such dern cute poker couplings. Will be good for video and help capture the chick-flick audience.
• There was a typo in the spelling of @AlCantHang’s name, and thus I put Matt Stout and his partner “Allen Rasah” against host Hoyt Corkins … well not sure why, just because.
• In a match-up between Allie Prescott / Shaun Deeb vs. Rick Fuller / Jim Shipley … all these guys are good trash-talking buds, so again figured good for TV … and because they talk so much trash let’s see how they do in a bracket loaded with tough beer-pong semi-pros from Team Hogs, including last year’s champion.

“There’s actually more to the scandal than that,” Pokerati editor DanM admitted. “A lot of thought went into how to create the best scenarios regardless of who has the better beer pong skills.”

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, Doyle Brunson happened to back out of his own Beer Pong Invitational 3 the day before the bracket was to be released. Supposedly he just had some travel and/or health matters to attend to, but word on the street is that he might have caught wind of the conspiracy and did not want his name to be associated with such shenanigans. Todd’s name being sullied by all this was fine, though.

Click here to see the 32-team single elimination bracket for the BBPI 3 …

Fun brackets & barbecue good times at Hogs & Heifers in downtown Vegas … hosted primarily by Doyle’s Room and the longstanding beer-pong team of Doyle Brunson and Hoyt Corkins. There’s still room for some 15 more booze-pounding twosomes to compete … invites limited to poker pros or poker industry types, however. I’ve partnered with Katkin, who should be training hard for the event, as I expect him to anchor our team.

Click below for enlarged details …

And click here to RSVP via Facebook.

Interesting: This event used to be called the World Series of Beer Pong, until the poker people presumably decided there wasn’t enough in the pot to put up a fight for that official name.

Seat 1: Daniel Clemente (1,345,000)
Seat 2: Sam Stein (6,145,000)
Seat 3: Thomas Fuller (4,735,000)
Seat 4: “Miami” John Cernuto (1,300,000)
Seat 5: Yunus Jamal (3,940,000)
Seat 6: David Paredes (4,700,000)
Seat 7: Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (2,370,000)
Seat 8: Eric Blair (1,690,000)

On Thursday, the final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Invitational Shootout will play out, also scheduled to start at 2pm PT. Here’s the final table, with the number of $5,000 bounties each collected:

Scott Seiver (6)
Hoyt Corkins (4)
Faraz Jaka (4)
Joe Cassidy (4)
Brett Richey (3)
Peter Eastgate (2)
Ashton Griffin (2)

Each player earned $75,000 for winning their table, with the last man standing on Thursday pocketing $455,000 in the winner-take-all format. All seven players are also eligible to win an additional $100,000 from PokerStars.net for having the most bounties.

For those looking to follow the action, check out www.pokerstarsblog.com w/ ShortStack Shamus, Jennifer Newell and Otis, or the live reporting over at PokerNews.

Mika v Angel for a Bracelet

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is down to headsup play with Finn Mika Paasonen holding a slight chip lead over Angel Guillen. Play resumes shortly in that matchup.

Sextet Left for a Limit Holdem Bracelet

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to six players as they take their one-hour dinner break. Pat Pezzin is the current chip leader, followed by Daniel Alaei, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Chad Brown with all four players over 1,000,000 chips. The two Matts, Hawrilenko and Glantz make up the remaining field. For those who like to follow the ladies, Jennifer Harman finished in 12th, while Maria Ho finished in 11th.

Elky Crafting a Star in $1,500 NL

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to under 100 players remaining, trying to get as close to a final table as possible before the 3am deadline. Bertrand “Elky” Grospelier is the current chip leader (470,000) with Day 1 chip leader James Taylor (180,000), Luke Vrabel (150,000), Roland de Wolfe (130,000), Praz Bansi (104,000) and Young Phan (90,000) among the notables remaining. Phil Hellmuth added another cash to his WSOP record with a top-200 finish.

Baron Best in PLO, for Now

The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event drew a field of 363, with just 139 returning after the level 6 dinner break. Isaac Baron is the current chip leader at 140,000. Other notables returning include Jeff Lisandro (128,000), Nam Le (76,000), Scott Clements (56,000), Hoyt Corkins (49,000) and Greg Raymer (42,000) also make their return shortly as they play four more levels tonight.

For more updates, check out www.wsop.com for more updates and Pokerati for more goings on at the World Series of Poker.

By all accounts, the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic final table was going to be a good one with a line-up that included Corkins, Sung, Rheem, and Filippi. But most eyes were on Rheem, who was one of the November Nine favorites but had to settle for a seventh place finish at the 2008 WSOP final table.

Rheem was determined going into the WPT final table, even knowing that two of his opponents – Steve Sung and Amnon Filippi – were close friends. But as players dropped out of sight, Rheem was able to go heads-up against Justin Young in what ended up being a five-hour epic heads-up match. The chip lead was exchanged numerous times, but it may have been sheer determination and fan support that led Rheem to finally capture the title at 2am. He won the World Poker Tour title and the $1,538,730 that came with it.

Here are the final results:

6th – Hoyt Corkins $216,175
5th – Amnon Filippi $288,235
4th – Steve Sung $396,206
3rd – Evan McNiff $540,440
2nd – Justin Young $936,760
1st – Chino Rheem $1,538,730

I would point you to the official WPT live updates, but it has been unavailable on the internets all morning. So, for updates as they happened throughout the final table, check out Martin’s reporting at PokerListings.

It seems that the swimming legend does things on his own terms. Phelps recently traveled to Las Vegas with some friends as guests of the Palms, and one of his wishes was to meet Doyle and Todd Brunson and Hoyt Corkins.

Photo courtesy of DoylesRoom.com

According to the most recent post on Doyle’s blog, he received a call and brought his son and Corkins, along with Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello, to meet Phelps for a dinner at Nine Steakhouse at the Palms. “What a nice kid!” Doyle wrote. “Phelps and some of his friends wanted books so I took Super System 1 and 2 to them and they asked all kinds of poker questions. Michael said all he wanted to do in life, was to eat, swim and play poker.”

Oh yeah… I can already see Phelps with a Doyle’s Room cowboy hat at the WSOP in 2009. Obviously, no deals have been signed at this point and Phelps has not accepted any invitations to play in tournaments thus far, but I can see an NBC National Heads-Up Championship and World Series in the kid’s future. Just a personal prediction…

Nearly driven mad from the land of poker, I had the opportunity on Sunday to get out of town. Since Hoyt Corkins busted out of the main event on Saturday he now had time to go for a hike.

I went to his house and we hopped in his jeep, fully equipped with four-wheel drive, roll bars and a winch with five-ton capacity that would surely get you out of a sticky situation. Starting too late to tackle Mt. Charleston, we instead headed to Red Rock Canyon to take the jeep trails into the Rainbow Wilderness area there.

It was no easy go up the rocky trails and I was surprised to see some drivers of Grand Cherokees try the climb. From the point in which we exited the main scenic drive through the canyon until we arrived at the trail to the North Peak probably took nearly an hour over the short, but rough terrain.

The hike was 1.3 miles from the jeep and I lugged a backpack full of bottled water and trail mix. As the young one of the duo I got to be the mule. Although the trail was labeled as difficult on the guide sign, we found the going fairly easy at first. Still those uphill trails can get an out of shape fellow winded pretty quickly so we took frequent breaks.

The view from the top was worth the hour hike to it. From the North Peak we could see all of Vegas below, as well as Lake Mead, which was probably 50 to 60 miles in the distance. I’ve done a lot of hiking in my day, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, but this was the best view from the top with the absence of trees blocking the panoramic view. We stopped for a while to check out the view, but departed when we saw rain clouds coming up on us.

“You don’t mess with those flash floods,” Hoyt said. “If it starts raining hard we’ll be stuck here for the night.”

I certainly perished that thought so we hustled back, although we had to take it easy in spots due to the loose shale along the trail. It started sprinkling on the way down with a cool breeze in our faces. It sure beat the heat of walking down the Strip.

We arrived safely back at the jeep and the rain had stopped. We headed back down. Probably the most enjoyable day I’ve had on this trip. Not to self: need to get out of the casinos more often…

To see where your favorite remaining player is starting, head to page 2:

Here’s the day 4 starting seat assignments and chip counts:

Matt Matros 822,500 B01 1
Mitchell Smith 332,500 B01 2
Frank Chimienti 175,000 B01 3
Danny Lee 162,000 B01 4
Brian Hansen 634,500 B01 5
Helge Pedersen 517,000 B01 6
Eric Tom 218,500 B01 7
Alan Jaffray 908,500 B01 8
David Saab 321,500 B01 9

Jeff Kimber 632,500 B03 1
Petteri Pirinen 245,500 B03 2
Dale Hoy 322,500 B03 3
Ferdinand Quelle 518,500 B03 4
Virgil Beddingfield 347,000 B03 5
George Ramsey 113,500 B03 6
Leonardo Emperador 385,500 B03 7
Jimmy Nickens 150,500 B03 8
Ed Godfrey 84,000 B03 9

Hannu Korva 331,500 B05 1
Dylan Linde 217,500 B05 2
Mikael Johansson 181,000 B05 3
Reggie Lyons 200,000 B05 4
Paul Ridley 78,500 B05 5
Herbert Morici 189,000 B05 6
Hyon Kim 285,500 B05 7
Tony Basile 77,500 B05 8
Michael Carroll 204,000 B05 9

Matthew Jensen 625,000 B06 1
Magnus Petersson 352,000 B06 2
Andreas Berggren 612,500 B06 3
Robin Larsson 374,000 B06 4
Tiffany Michelle 249,000 B06 5
Craig Stein 230,500 B06 6
Evan Woodington 63,500 B06 7
Mads Andersen 98,500 B06 8
Greg Debora 319,000 B06 9

Gary Do 125,000 B08 1
Cort Kibler-Melby 439,000 B08 2
Darus Suharto 420,500 B08 3
Dennis Phillips 295,000 B08 4
Brad Johnson 424,000 B08 5
Ivan Demidov 573,500 B08 6
Kido Pham 228,500 B08 7
Scott Harris 68,500 B08 8
Michael Vanier 129,000 B08 9

David Dao 310,000 B10 1
Jeremy Gaubert 254,000 B10 2
Brian Lamanna 54,000 B10 3
Kai Chang 325,000 B10 4
Peter Ling 294,500 B10 5
Tino Lechich 211,500 B10 6
Cristian Dragomir 824,000 B10 7
Carmel Petresco 158,500 B10 8
David Benefield 399,000 B10 9

Terry Stewart 641,500 B11 1
Marc Podell 558,000 B11 2
Mike Souza 260,000 B11 3
Tomer Berda 69,500 B11 4
Eric Bamer 584,000 B11 5
Suresh Prabhu 310,500 B11 6
Derek Buonano 588,000 B11 7
Andrew Qiu 100,500 B11 8
Manuel Bevant 212,500 B11 9

Sarkis Akopyan 858,000 B13 1
Whitney Blanton 50,500 B13 2
Allen Kennedy 199,000 B13 3
Jean-Robert Bellande 124,500 B13 4
Phil Hellmuth 475,000 B13 5
Andy Schultz 193,000 B13 6
Adam Zinn 116,500 B13 7
Mark Crocker 96,000 B13 8
Adam Levy 473,500 B13 9

Bob Bright 324,000 B15 1
Jeremy Renz 297,500 B15 2
David Ritter 21,500 B15 3
Jason Young 51,500 B15 4
Jason Sagle 130,000 B15 5
Craig Marquis 147,000 B15 6
Markus Feurie 280,000 B15 7
Jesse McEven 356,000 B15 8
Chris Klodnicki 330,500 B15 9

Theodore Park 374,000 B16 1
James Washer 117,000 B16 2
Judet Cristian 315,000 B16 3
Van Nguyen 145,500 B16 4
Bayani Flores 150,500 B16 5
Ziv Bachar 210,000 B16 6
Chris Smith 187,500 B16 7
Scott Hale 94,500 B16 8
Owen Crowe 900,000 B16 9

Mike Spinasanta 249,500 B18 1
Scott Montgomery 162,500 B18 2
Edward Roger 477,000 B18 3
Robert Betts 277,500 B18 4
Garret Beckman 192,000 B18 5
Peter Christensen 124,500 B18 6
Jens Klaning 689,000 B18 7
Jeff Heyn 103,000 B18 8
Scott Landrem 82,000 B18 9

Tommy Le 731,000 B20 1
Kara Scott 171,000 B20 2
Kory Mitchell 195,000 B20 3
Jason Glass 503,500 B20 4
Shawn Farley 119,000 B20 5
Geert Jans 728,500 B20 6
Russ Silva 50,500 B20 7
Tyron Krost 212,000 B20 8
Dan Assor 658,500 B20 9

Alan Gould 464,500 B21 1
David Olson 219,500 B21 2
Paul Leckey 114,000 B21 3
Daniel Fechser 170,500 B21 4
Dominik Kulicki 134,500 B21 5
Adam York 240,500 B21 6
Joe Brandenburg 99,500 B21 7
Andrew Rosskamm 465,000 B21 8
Ryan Eber 231,500 B21 9

Vito Branciforte 564,500 B23 1
Chris Anziuno 267,500 B23 2
Bruce Hyde 200,000 B23 3
Ben Roberts 200,450 B23 4
Mark Wilds 152,500 B23 5
Kevin Schaffel 393,500 B23 6
Jeffery Anderson 462,000 B23 7
Brent Sheirbon 395,000 B23 8
Craig Goodling 80,000 B23 9

Andy Armstrong 113,000 B25 1
Patrick Fortin 227,500 B25 2
Eetu Vehilainen 105,000 B25 3
Aaron Gordon 371,500 B25 4
Gert Anderson 214,500 B25 5
Kellen Hunter 210,500 B25 6
Chan Do 160,000 B25 7
Jani Vilmunen 361,000 B25 8
Jerry Martin 111,000 B25 9

William Purle 367,000 B26 1
Alberto Fontrytzner 489,000 B26 2
Jason Schaedlich 555,000 B26 3
Andre Johnstone 443,500 B26 4
Matthew Calhoun 174,000 B26 5
Lou Esposito 302,000 B26 6
Peter Eastgate 253,500 B26 7
Clint Schafer 544,000 B26 8
Leo Wolpert 253,500 B26 9

Brent Roberts 182,000 B28 1
Joe Bolnick 258,000 B28 2
Jeffrey Papola 295,500 B28 3
Nghia Le 323,000 B28 4
Tim West 63,500 B28 5
Darren Grant 101,500 B28 6
Brian Schaedlich 22,000 B28 7
Robert Georato 747,000 B28 8
Michael Pedley 323,500 B28 9

Kirill Gerasimov 146,500 B30 1
Karen Manfrede 222,500 B30 2
Bernard Brady 288,500 B30 3
Denys Drobyna 34,600 B30 4
Gus Hansen 355,000 B30 5
Tom Hanlon 140,500 B30 6
Danny Mitnick 265,500 B30 7
Chris Overgard 276,500 B30 8
Larry Wright 452,000 B30 9

Jason McCarty 130,500 B31 1
Daniel Buzgon 86,000 B31 2
Jose Baeza 107,000 B31 3
Keoni Schwartz 286,500 B31 4
Zafar Aslam 143,500 B31 5
Mark Vos 468,000 B31 6
Iwan Jones 67,500 B31 7
Peter Hedlund 146,500 B31 8
Dwayne Stacey 144,000 B31 9

Geoffrey Herzog 216,500 B33 1
Michael Ortlieb 121,500 B33 2
Shawn Pilot 26,600 B33 3
Mark Velloney 163,500 B33 4
Paul Lieu 455,500 B33 5
Brian Tatum 224,500 B33 6
Thayer Rasmussen 394,000 B33 7
Christian Oman 209,000 B33 8
Diren Yildiz 236,000 B33 9

Neil Sweeting 277,000 B35 1
Steven Rosen 157,000 B35 2
Thomas Keller 294,000 B35 3
Regan Silber 355,500 B35 4
Mike Matusow 438,500 B35 5
Robert Hwang 253,000 B35 6
Cornel Pazai 515,500 B35 7
Keith Hawkins 148,500 B35 8
Jamie Rosen 576,000 B35 9

Mike Bertolini 157,000 B36 1
Patrick Zamarian 92,500 B36 2
Maya Geller-Antonius 245,000 B36 3
Peter Wesselius 101,500 B36 4
Lonnie Heimowitz 537,500 B36 5
Greg Peters 123,000 B36 6
Allen Carter 300,000 B36 7
Nathan Mullen 94,500 B36 8
Jamal Sawaqdeh 201,000 B36 9

Brad Hood 161,500 B38 1
Phongthep Thiptinnakon 333,000 B38 2
Tom Cope 377,000 B38 3
Thamir Akrawi 153,000 B38 4
Nick Voyatzis 263,000 B38 5
Nicholas Sliwinski 575,000 B38 6
Oliver Busquet 100,500 B38 7
Joshua Norris 141,000 B38 8
Israel Hodara 130,000 B38 9

Ronald Adams 348,500 B40 1
Jason Newburger 156,500 B40 2
Steve Davis 117,500 B40 3
Ryan Milisits 579,500 B40 4
Brandon Cantu 710,000 B40 5
Kevin Lang 143,000 B40 6
Pat P Callaghan 308,500 B40 7
Martin El-Kher 155,000 B40 8
Tai Nguyen 186,000 B40 9

Chris Crilly 369,000 B41 1
Phidias Georgiou 404,000 B41 2
Fredrik Halling 115,000 B41 3
Ken Holcombe 34,500 B41 4
Max Troy 76,000 B41 5
Steven Landfish 764,500 B41 6
Justin Sadauskas 401,000 B41 7
Raja Kattamuri 568,000 B41 8
Devin Porter 52,000 B41 9

Igor Ioffe 266,000 B43 1
Tony Clark 204,500 B43 2
Ylon Schwartz 554,000 B43 3
Pawel Andrzejewski 340,000 B43 4
Stephen Kenna 354,000 B43 5
Jeffery Bryan 52,000 B43 6
Edward Zane 399,000 B43 7
Tim Loecke 499,500 B43 8
Sean David 233,500 B43 9

Jamal Kunbuz 598,000 B45 1
Clifton Allen 178,500 B45 2
Aaron Lerner 155,500 B45 3
Fokke Beukers 142,500 B45 4
Mauro Lupo 423,500 B45 5
George Rahme 369,500 B45 6
Jeffery Frye 470,500 B45 7
Paul Kitsos 261,500 B45 8
Andrew Teng 486,500 B45 9

Garth Paul 456,500 B46 1
Trevor Reardon 75,000 B46 2
Frank Russo 145,500 B46 3
Allen Cunningham 386,500 B46 4
John Goesen 575,000 B46 5
Evan McNiff 109,500 B46 6
Melvin Lowe 55,000 B46 7
Theodore Harris 170,000 B46 8
Shane Pacheco 467,000 B46 9

Comuelo Navamo 43,000 B48 1
Justin Wald 187,500 B48 2
Neville Robbeson 85,000 B48 3
George McKeever 92,500 B48 4
Brandon Becker 347,000 B48 5
Hunter Frey 204,500 B48 6
Robert Ford 701,000 B48 7
Jerry Cusick 337,000 B48 8
Mike Blocksidge 456,000 B48 9

Robert Wood 242,500 B50 1
Dave Colclough 140,000 B50 2
Anthony Meeker 398,000 B50 3
Tim Taylor 358,000 B50 4
Rafael Caiaffa 428,500 B50 5
Marc Tschirch 150,500 B50 6
Mark Ketteringham 950,000 B50 7
Hevad Khan 338,500 B50 8

Noah Kawashige 76,000 G02 1
Alex Tinsley 43,500 G02 2
Bernie Koerner 155,000 G02 3
John Bowler 104,000 G02 4
Hasan Habib 326,000 G02 5
Morten Antonsen 48,000 G02 6
Barry Leventhal 600,000 G02 7
Rick Lowe 81,000 G02 8
Kelly Kim 376,000 G02 9

Mike Ngo 235,500 G03 1
Everett Carlton 144,000 G03 2
Matthew Beisner 155,000 G03 3
Jasper Lee 134,500 G03 4
Jose Martin 215,500 G03 5
Alex Outhred 326,000 G03 6
Darryl Ronconi 302,000 G03 7
Charles Dolan 87,000 G03 8
Peter Neff 626,500 G03 9

Nathan Hays 196,000 G04 1
Chino Rheem 707,500 G04 2
Eric Bremond 387,500 G04 3
Yde van Deutekom 462,000 G04 4
Marco Marcon 71,500 G04 5
Michelle Sainz 173,500 G04 6
Mark Radoja 362,000 G04 7
Peter Biebel 439,000 G04 8
Eric Thompkins 148,000 G04 9

Bob Whalen 366,500 G05 1
Chris Bjorin 40,500 G05 2
Bill Seber 328,000 G05 3
Matt Lessinger 268,000 G05 4
Nicholas Keegan 10,300 G05 5
Larry Bernstein 158,000 G05 6
Bob Coor 144,000 G05 7
Shahram Sheikhan 724,000 G05 8
Josh Chait 318,000 G05 9

Dale Andreas 135,000 G06 1
Hugo Navarrete 86,500 G06 2
Michael Schnabel 130,000 G06 3
Damien Creurer 281,000 G06 4
Jeremy Joseph 1,458,000 G06 5
Kenneth Lee 79,500 G06 6
Michael Graffeo 193,500 G06 7
Ed Aister 289,500 G06 8
Will Brewin 121,500 G06 9

Jeremiah Smith 1,079,500 G07 1
Chad Layne 382,000 G07 2
Tom Cummins 177,500 G07 3
Nick Rampone 148,500 G07 4
Albert Kim 422,000 G07 6
Lisa Parsons 230,000 G07 7
Justin Scott 541,500 G07 8
Felix Osterland 361,500 G07 9

Chase Madden 159,500 G08 1
Jon Friedberg 426,000 G08 2
Charalampos Tsaoussis 52,500 G08 3
Anthony Zinno 528,000 G08 4
Phi Nguyen 645,000 G08 5
William Burdick 249,000 G08 6
Bertrand Grospellier 181,500 G08 7
Doug Ashmore 358,000 G08 9

Gary Friedlander 136,500 G09 1
Travis Cook 110,500 G09 3
Evan Jarvis 366,500 G09 4
Paulo Loureiro 114,000 G09 5
Jim Dalessandro 208,500 G09 6
Ross Smith 196,500 G09 7
Chris Barrile 873,500 G09 8
Lanini Davor 635,000 G09 9

Cory Albertson 260,000 G10 1
Jose Barbero 272,500 G10 2
Aaron Keay 341,000 G10 3
Brian Eckstrom 156,000 G10 4
Deng Dong 480,000 G20 5
Paul Vicary 112,500 G10 6
Ray Henson 358,500 G10 7
Dragoslav Timarac 71,000 G10 8

Leo Fernandez 346,500 O01 1
David Naimark 66,500 O01 2
Chris Zapf 112,500 O01 3
Scott Carpenter 87,000 O01 4
Doron Malinasky 247,500 O01 5
Kristian Obbarius 309,500 O01 6
Karl Wilson 785,000 O01 7
Dean Hamrick 374,000 O01 8
Frankie O’Dell 339,000 O01 9

Evelyn Ng 414,500 O03 1
J.R. Reiss 207,000 O03 2
Kevin Mason 770,500 O03 3
Andres Alvarez 54,400 O03 4
Terry Lade 500,000 O03 5
David Baker 195,000 O03 6
Clayton Newman 168,000 O03 8
Adam Schwartz 133,000 O03 9

Niklas Flisberg 219,500 O04 1
Leonard Nicoletta 124,000 O04 2
Nikolay Losev 557,500 O04 3
Mirza Nagji 91,500 O04 4
Saide Raymond 134,500 O04 5
Veronica Dabul 223,500 O04 6
Banh Le 155,000 O04 7
Chip Jett 318,500 O04 8
Chad Freid 210,000 O04 9

Kyle Carlston 932,500 O06 1
Andy Goetsch 157,500 O06 2
Joanne Monteavaro 45,000 O06 3
Alfredo Fernandez 480,500 O06 5
Steve Pestal 271,500 O06 6
Peter Aiello 61,000 O06 7
Steven Goosen 298,500 O06 8
Nichlas Mattsson 103,000 O06 9

Marc Fineman 411,000 O07 1
Richie Owens 114,500 O07 2
Aditya Agarwal 222,000 O07 3
Joseph Ward 141,000 O07 4
Eric Kesselman 214,000 O07 5
Hoyt Corkins 439,500 O07 6
Paul Kristoffersson 347,500 O07 7
Tracy Scala 368,000 O07 8
Stefan Mattsson 169,500 O07 9

Dag Martin Mikkelsen 931,000 O09 1
Anton Nikaj 223,000 O09 3
Jeff Madsen 349,000 O09 4
Egerton Bullock 232,200 O09 5
Mike Wattel 89,000 O09 6
Glenn Cozen 112,500 O09 7
Steven de Vries 82,500 O09 8
Greg Byard 253,500 O09 9

James McManus 875,000 O10 1
Mark Owens 466,500 O10 2
Raul Paez 212,000 O10 3
Anthony Scherer 299,500 O10 4
Andreas Martens 104,500 O10 5
Shahram Rastegari 337,500 O10 6
Johnny Chan 252,000 O10 7
Tracey Nguyen 476,500 O10 8
Alana Morin 374,500 O10 9

Ed Fernandez 251,500 O12 1
Phillip Liou 185,500 O12 2
Sylvain Coeur 300,500 O12 3
Jason Riesenberg 141,000 O12 4
Paul Snead 506,000 O12 5
Gary Berbiglia 13,000 O12 6
Andy Witek 261,000 O12 7
Stephane Hornet 194,000 O12 9

Haysam Chiniara 79,500 O13 1
Sigurd Eskeland 399,500 O13 2
Dustin Holmes 734,000 O13 3
Joe Bishop 247,500 O13 4
Joe Turner 726,500 O13 5
J.P. Kelly 217,000 O13 6
Lawrence Jacobs 141,500 O13 7
Adam Schoenfeld 200,000 O13 8
David Angel 164,000 O13 9

Justin St. John 99,000 O15 1
Alexander Kostritsyn 887,000 O15 3
Tom Schaffer 49,500 O15 4
Moon Kim 127,000 O15 5
Santeri Valikoski 366,000 O15 6
Minna Ritakorpi 178,000 O15 7
Jonathan Plens 546,000 O15 8
Samir Shakhtoor 405,000 O15 9

Joel Fischbein 275,500 O16 1
Alexander Borteh 615,500 O16 2
Scott Zakheim 76,000 O16 3
Thierry van den Berg 170,500 O16 4
Keith Ferrera 578,000 O16 5
Stephen Giufre 168,500 O16 6
Mark Weil 119,000 O16 7
Art Tanimoto 127,000 O16 8
Jason Lester 100,000 O16 9

Huyen Vo 224,000 O22 1
Graddus Terwiss Cha Van 318,000 O22 2
Randy Benton 176,000 O22 3
Hai Bo Chu 453,500 O22 4
James Mills 757,000 O22 6
Aleksandar Rasic 35,000 O22 7
Cedric Kolstad 217,000 O22 8
Andrew Brooks 566,500 O22 9

Robert Mizrachi 138,000 O28 1
Danny Fuhs 320,000 O28 2
Jiri Hlavaty 235,000 O28 3
Marcelo Dabus 159,000 O28 4
Steve Billirakis 124,000 O28 5
Salomon Sutton 225,500 O28 6
Cliff Josephy 59,000 O28 7
William Soffin 294,500 O28 8
Tri Nguyen 370,000 O28 9

Greg Duros 182,500 O34 1
David Kronick 66,500 O34 2
Diogo Borges 500,000 O34 3
Joshua Freeman 93,500 O34 4
Soren Petersen 51,500 O34 5
Jolyne Thompson 84,500 O34 6
Pat Poels 257,500 O34 7
Mike Purdy 361,000 O34 8
Bill Blanda 347,000 O34 9

Billy Pilossoph 75,000 O40 1
Peter Traply 828,000 O40 2
Victor Ramdin 471,000 O40 3
Frank Browne 145,000 O40 4
Pontus Khosravi 225,000 O40 5
Thomas Cargill 139,000 O40 6
Greg Jamison 173,000 O40 7
Stuart Hosen 102,500 O40 8

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…

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:

The $1,500 NL Holdem event faces the not-as-bright lights of the ESPN360 cameras as their final table has been set to start shortly after 2pm:

Seat 1: Dan Heimiller (Plymouth, Michigan) — 544,000
Seat 2: Matt Matros (Brooklyn, New York) — 1,472,000
Seat 3: Farzad Rouhani (Germantown, Maryland) — 212,000
Seat 4: Andrey Zaichenko (Moscow, Russia) — 521,000
Seat 5: Scott Sitron (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) — 504,000
Seat 6: Voitto Rintala (Helsinki, Finland) — 553,000
Seat 7: Jeff Courtney (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) — 1,443,000
Seat 8: David Daneshgar (Westlake Village, California) — 1,178,000
Seat 9: Corwin Cole (San Diego, California) — 1,668,000

The $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout returns with 9 tables and 72 players at 2pm fighting to take down the last preliminary bracelet. One of those who won’t return is JC Tran, who comes up short of overtaking Erick Lindgren in the Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year race. Lindgren will win with 245 points, edging Barry Greenstein in 2nd with 235 points, Jacobo Fernandez finishes 3rd with 232 points.

Among the notables remaining: Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Wattel, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Blair Rodman. It appears to be a long night ahead for those who go deep in this event, hopefully they’re not playing Day 1a of the Main Event tomorrow.

More updates later…

The $1,500 HORSE event is down to their final table, and Phil Hellmuth is currently in 2nd place as he looks to take down his 12th bracelet. To see if Hellmuth gets that 12th bracelet, you can catch the live updates here. Here’s what the final table will look like as they’re now on their dinner break:

Seat 1: James Schaaf – 392,000
Seat 2: Matt Grapenthien – 46,000
Seat 3: Sam Silverman – 310,000
Seat 4: Phil Hellmuth – 400,000
Seat 5: Jason Dollinger - 346,000
Seat 6: Tommy Hang – 680,000
Seat 7: Victor Ramdin – 78,000
Seat 8: Esther Rossi – 166,000

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship is down to 5 players as they take their dinner break with Marty Smyth recently doubling through Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi to take the chip lead. Kido Pham ran into Mizrachi at the wrong time and was eliminated in 6th place. Follow the action at the wsop.com website here.

Other tournament action, plus the 2008 WSOPE announcement, on page 2:

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is well into day 2 with about 75 remaining to play down to a final table. Andrey Zaichenko appears to be chip leader, others you may have heard of that are still in: Mimi Tran, Dan Heimiller, Vanessa Rousso, David Daneshgar, and An Tran.

The $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout started today with 823 participants trying to work their way down to 90 table winners. It’s also the last event that counts towards the Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year. There’s only one player left that can overtake Erick Lindgren: JC Tran, who won his first round table, needs to make the final table and finish 8th to tie, 7th or better to win. Other notable winners so far: Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke, Mike Wattel, Hoyt Corkins, Andy Bloch, Blair Rodman, Rhett Butler and Tony Bloom. The schedule for today says that the 90 winners will start round 2 at 10pm, play 4 levels then return on Wednesday afternoon.

World Series of Poker Europe Presented by Betfair.com

Announces 2008 Tournament Schedule

ESPN TO DEVOTE MULTI-PLATFORM COVERAGE IN U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD INCLUDING LIVE COVERAGE ON ESPN360.COM

Four Bracelet Events Set for September 19th to October 2nd in London

LAS VEGAS – July 1, 2008 – The second annual World Series of Poker Europesm presented by Betfair.com has solidified its tournament schedule, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., owner and operator of the world’s most prestigious poker tournaments announced today.

The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Presented by Betfair.com (the WSOPE) will feature four bracelet tournaments, including a new addition, the £1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event that will open the tournament. The complete event schedule is as follows:

September 19th, 2008 – Event #1 – £1,500 – No-Limit Hold’em Day 1A (3-day event/2 opening days)

September 22nd, 2008 – Event #2 – £2,500 – H.O.R.S.E. (3-day event)

September 24th, 2008 – Event #3 – £5,000 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)

September 27th, 2008 – Event #4 – £10,000 – World Championship No-Limit Hold’em (5-day event/two opening days)

All the above tournaments will be sanctioned gold bracelet events. Five additional non-bracelet events will also be scheduled during the tournament. Visit www.wsope2008.com for more details.

The WSOPE will be held from September 19th to October 2nd, 2008 in London, England. This year’s tournament will again be hosted by London Clubs International (LCI) at their London locations.

Players can pre-register for the WSOPE at any LCI venue in the UK and all Harrah’s venues in Las Vegas. Alternatively they can try and qualify online exclusively at Betfair Poker. www.betfairpoker.com

For the first time, and subject to the execution of a definitive agreement, ESPN, the exclusive World Series of Poker telecaster, is scheduled to air eight original hours of coverage of the World Series of Poker Europe in the United States and distribute the tournament globally. ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature broadband sports network, is scheduled to provide live coverage in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and Brazil.

Harrah’s Entertainment will distribute the World Series of Poker Europe programming in non-ESPN markets, which in 2007 totaled over 100 million households including U.K. host broadcaster Sky Sports.

“We have enhanced the schedule to build on our initial success and provide a richer experience for players,” said World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “If this year’s World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas is any indication, the level of tournament play is increasing worldwide and we expect the second annual WSOPE to be hotly contested.”

During the WSOP in Las Vegas, players can pre-register for WSOP Europe at the tournament cage as well as lock in poker player hotel rates via www.worldseriesofpoker.com. In addition, $1,570 Mega Satellites for the WSOP Europe Main Event will be held July 10th and 11th at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino.

More updates later…

With that said, is there anyone else we should be considering for statistical reclassification? For the most part, we’re gonna defer to the Hendon Mob db … but I can think of three that are close calls:

Gus Hansen — Denmark or Vegas?
Hoyt Corkins — Alabama or Vegas?
Patrik Antonius — Finland or Monaco?

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

The $5,000 NL Holdem event is down to heads-up action as Scott Seiver has a slight chip lead over Dave Seidman. The $3,000 HORSE final table is down to six, with Doug Ganger in the lead. Marcel Luske, Hoyt Corkins and Steve Zolotow are the other notable names at the table.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is down to 47 as they’re now on their dinner break. Andrew Jeffreys appears to be the chip leader, with Matthew “mlagoo” Lagarde a close 2nd. Other names left include Blair Hinkle (his brother Grant won a bracelet last week), friend of bloggers Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Brock Parker.

The $2,500 PL Holdem/PLO event just hit their money bubble and with 41 left in the field go on their dinner break. David Penly is the current chip leader, other notables include Minh Ly, Max Pescatori, Allen Cunningham and Sorel Mizzi.

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads-Up World Championship got underway with a full field of 256. Round 2 is over and everyone whose won their first two matches has earned at least $14,000. Round 3 will start at 10pm, then finish for the night.

The $1,500 Razz event got underway at 5pm and a certainly older group of people turned out. It also caused what may be a first, with Tournament Director Jack Effel inquiring on who was interested in having sushi for dinner, because the sushi kitchen would close at 8 (before the dinner break). You can read that update, as well as more normal updating of information here.

And thanks for the kudos but I have been eliminated from the limit $3k NLH event. My high pocket pairs were up against a higher pocket pair every time. Just down right cold decked. My table was less than exciting but all around me sat Joe Sebok, Amir Vahedi, Annie Duke, JC Tran, Phil Hellmuth, Eric Seidel and David Sklansky.

FYI – This would typically be a comment; however, the comment feature is still unavailable.

Hello? Is anyone out there?