My how far we’ve come since the days when Jeff Madsen held the mic for the WSOP.

UPDATE: Or Panorama Towers. Word is the ride belongs to Jeff Madsen.

The end of the Series is a time when poker media types often throw out much of the good stuff they’ve heard but haven’t yet shared, or exchange different bits of info to figure out what all adds up and what doesn’t. So I headed their way …

As a longtime, multi-show podcaster, there’s little I dislike more than when someone encroaches on an episode in progress … whether that be a solicitor at the door (when on skype) or an ignorant walker-upper during mobile recordings. That’s what I did here. Oops. My bad, but hey, Jess is plenty familiar with the concept of me botching up a show, so …

Their conversation seemed intelligent and intense for several minutes. That’s all I know. Thus, I plan to skip over the part with Jeff Madsen (sorry dude) to get right to the Jess part to hear what sort of industry dirt, informed or otherwise, they were batting around.

http://wickedchopspoker.com/wicked-chops-podcast-ep-11-with-jeff-madsen-jessica-welman/

Québécois LeFrancois wins $1,500 NL

Pascal LeFrancois, a 23-year old student from Quebec, won the $1,500 NL Holdem event, winning $568,974 along with the coveted WSOP bracelet. LeFrancois defeated Max Steinberg in heads-up play, with Steinberg collecting $352,916 for his runner-up finish. The full list of results, Nolan Dalla’s tournament report, and a first for the official winner’s photo, can be found over at wsop.com.

Schmelev and Mizrachi at it Again in 10k Stud

Twelve players remain for day three of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship with Vladimir Schmelev and Michael Mizrachi looking to renew their rivalry from the $50,000 Players’ Championship won by Mizrachi earlier this week. Schmelev is the current chip leader (921,000), with Mizrachi in third (544,000). Other notables: Nikolay Evdakov (543,000), Steve Bilirakis (448,000) and Men Nguyen (302,000). The full list of chip counts is now available at PokerNews.

Chanthabousay Leads Pot-Limit Final Table

The final table of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem gets underway at 2:30 this afternoon. JJ Liu is the first woman to make a final table at this year’s, starting third in chips with 479,000. Here’s how the entire final table will look:

Armen Kara 220,000
Gregg Wilkerson 230,000
Mark Babekov 246,000
JJ Liu 479,000
Edward Brogdon 89,000
Scott Haraden 224,000
Steve Chanthabouasy 533,000
Joseph Williams 385,000
James Dempsey 528,000

Gupta Going Great in $1,500 NL

Day 2 of the third $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event resumes at 2:30 this afternoon with 291 players returning, 270 making the money. Venkatesch Gupta will be the leader with 199,100 in chips. Among the notables: Blair Hinkle (112,400), Shannon Shorr (64,300), Erick Lindgren (57,600), Jerry Yang (49,100), Tom Dwan (44,500) and Neil Channing (42,000). Team Pokerati’s Pat Poels finished the day in 288th place with 3300 chips. The full list can be found over at PokerNews.

Taking it to the Limit for Day 2

The $1,500 Limit Holdem event returns with 177 players returning at 3:00pm to attempt to play down to a final table. Jameson Painter, who finished 5th at the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw event earlier this week, starts play today as the chip leader with 47,600. David Williams is 3rd in chips (41,800) with Jason Potter (32,800), Jeff Madsen (28,700) and Matt Hawrilenko (23,900) among the notables near the top of the standings. The full list of players returning can be found at wsop.com.

Saturday Tournaments

Saturday brings Day 1a of the second $1,000 NL Donkament to the WSOP at 12pm today, with about 4,000 runners expected over the next two days. The plan is to play ten one-hour levels today per usual, but if the pace of eliminations is as rapid as it was last Saturday, there could be a change in plans. The 5pm tournament is the $1,500 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw event, won last year by Phil Ivey when it had a $2,500 buy-in with a field of 147.

We’ll see how any new embedding options work, and what else may or may not change with the new channel. But glad to see the industry still able to support two semi-independent poker television news shows … the other, of course, being ESPNs The Inside Deal presented by PokerStars.

The new season begins on Wednesday, March 3, supposedly at 11 pm … though I am thinking that must be Eastern Time since the Cox Las Vegas listings say it airs at 8 pm and re-airs on Fridays at 2:30 pm. Channel 38.

And a little bubbling-under semi-related to the show … Cohost Sebok says he tried to buy out of his face-tattoo prop bet with Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen, but they wouldn’t accept … which you know how that works … makes him the odds-on favorite to win the permanent lasts-longer bet for the LAPC main event.

ALT HED: Poor Girl

ALT HED: P.W.A. Straight Outta Bellagio

via PokerNews

Watch Bryan Micon and Dutch Boyd Get Degenerate on RawVegas.tv

From here, it all gets really interesting — as the two discuss the enforcement of language and abuse penalties, the WSOP penalty “book”, and bring into question a potentially flawed rule that prohibits checking the river with the nuts … contending that indeed, there are situations where you might want to do that (particularly in split-pot games) without regard to soft-play perceptions.

And considering how confident Madsen is about his game headed (literally) into the WSOP, I think that might explain why a few pros who are also super sure they’re ready to take down some serious shizznit might be 0-fer so far. Everyone seems ready to play, and thinks they’re more ready than all the rest … and, well, that’s just old-school poker.

Jeff Madsen videos on Poker Road (via Wicked Chops on Facebook)

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem final table has 4 players remaining. Greg Raymer, Vitaly Lunkin, Isaac Haxton and Dani Stern make up the final four to take home nearly $2m and the first open gold bracelet of the WSOP. Ted Forrest, Noah Schwartz, Lex Veldhius, Alec Torelli and Justin Bonomo were eliminated earlier today from the final table.

Speaking of Raymer, the WSOP Champions Invitational got underway earlier this afternoon. 20 of the 25 surviving champions accepted their RSVPs to be filmed under the bright lights of the ESPN cameras. Within the first orbit, 2006 winner Jamie Gold was the first player eliminated, while 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker watched his 10,000 chip stack dwindle erode before he finally busted. Raymer was able to get a couple of hands in before returning to the $40k final table. Six more one-hour levels or until the final table of nine return Monday afternoon.

More recaps on the next page:

The $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event came back today with 19 players, with 6 players remaining at their final table. To give them their due, here’s how the final 9 were situated:

Seat 1 – Ming Reslock
Seat 2 – Jordan Rich
Seat 3 – Pascal Leyo
Seat 4 – Ed Smith
Seat 5 – Freddy Deeb Out in 8th
Seat 6 – Senovio Ramirez Out in 9th
Seat 7 – Thang Luu
Seat 8 – Robert Price
Seat 9 – Jim Geary Out in 7th

Price will return with the chip lead, followed by Reslock, and Rich. Thang Luu is towards the back, but this is his third straight year with a WSOP final table in an Omaha 8 event. In 2007, he finished 2nd in a $2,000 OHL event, and last year took down this same event.

Finally, day 1b of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special drew a field of 3,014 entries today. The 6,012 total creates the 4th largest sized field in live poker behind the 2006, 2007 and 2008 WSOP Main Events. Like Saturday’s field, over 2/3rd of the field weren’t able to make the dinner break. Among them: Phil Ivey, Jonathan Little, Thor Hansen, Roy Winston, Jeff Madsen, John Phan and Erick Lindgren. Some players who are sticking around: JC Tran, Lee Watkinson, Kathy Liebert, Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke and Mike Wattel. You can follow the four tournaments in action during the overnight over at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and get more stuff here at Pokerati.

With Tournament Director Matt Savage running the LAPC show for the entirety of the series, all poker media was invited to cover it. Steve Hall has been there for the majority of it, providing some updates and gossip as only he can. (Personal fave: report of Nelly’s random appearance to play high-limit cash.) With the Monday HORSE event and subsequent $10K heads-up, PokerRoad settled in for their live shows, Life’s a Bluff came to pick up some interviews, and CardPlayer got comfortable for the duration to provide live updates of the major preliminaries and the main event. Word is that PokerNews will even be showing up for the main, as Savage welcomes the coverage, overruling (in most areas of coverage) the usual WPT media restrictions.

The pros have been all over the 2009 LAPC, starting with David Plastik winning Event 2, Fabrice Soulier taking Event 16, Jason Mercier Event 19, Frankie O’Dell Event 22, Jeff Madsen Event 24, and Scotty Nguyen grabbing another HORSE title in Event 29 (the aforementioned $10K event). The $10K heads-up will find its winner today, and the $10K WPT main event begins on Saturday.

Side note: Scotty Nguyen is evidently unable to win a HORSE event without controversy. CardPlayer reported that he taunted another player and began to show signs of his 2008 WSOP behavior, though he calmed down after a warning from Savage.

From CardPlayer updates:

As his chip stack has grown at this final table so has the level of Nguyen’s voice. He specifically taunted Matt Graham after he busted him in fifth place in a manner that definitely crossed the line.

Really? Damn.

After spending quite a bit of time as the small stack, Dallas’ own Allen Carter bested the most recent WPT Final table at the Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, MS, taking home $1,000,000, an entry into the WPT Championship, and his first major bracelet. This win also marked his first 6-figure drag.

Allen is a member of a very elite group of poker players. Not because of his new bracelet or his arguable transition to pro ranks. It actually has little to do with how he plays, but more to do with why he plays. In my opinion, there are about 5 different kinds of players. Let me also note that I recognize that the majority of players belong to more than one of each.

1) Those who play for fun (Think Guy Laliberte)

Even his txt msgs have the right attitude.

2) Those who play for profit (Tom Schneider)
3) Those who play for action (Dan Michalski)
4) Those who play because of addiction (Endless list)
5) Those who play for lack of better options (Think tomorrow’s Madsen and other young guns turn college drop-outs of today)
…and finally…
6) Those who play purely for competition (Allen Carter)

I first met Allen in ’06 in the DFW airport, waiting to board a flight to the WSOP. He had won an entry into the Main Event through and online tournament. Actually, I should be clear,… He won FOUR entries. Pretty awesome in its own right, but totally redonkulous if you consider that he did all of it in only 6 attempts! And I believe that I remember he also came in 2nd in another one of those events.

You can’t enjoy success like that if you can’t commit yourself completely and exclusively to a single player category. And in case it isn’t obvious, the only two categories capable of supporting such are 1) Profit and 2) Competition. Allen has expressed to me multiple times that competition is his only reason for playing. Without that, he simply won’t play.

I understand that this philosophy almost completely contradicts the principles of the only other successful player category, profit, where you try to find the juiciest and softest game available. But maybe what Allen has figured out is that as long as you have enough water in the sports bottle (bankroll), you should always opt to play against the young, tall, black team, and never against the short, white, computer nerd, poker enthusiasts. Because with poker, unlike any other sport, you can put yourself or find yourself in the ‘big game’ at any time. This time it was a white, 40-something, former CPA from Dallas who prepared for and conquered the biggest game of his life. While he was preparing, you were checking your fish lists and looking for the softest SnG’s you could find.

Top 5 Chip leaders:

Nikolay Losev – 3,500,000
Mark Ketteringham – 3,450,000
Jamal Kunbuz – 3,250,000
Aaron Gordon 3,200,000
James McManus 3,200,000

More on page 2:

Notable eliminations:
Kara Scott
Shawn Sheikhan
Tri Nguyen (didn’t try hard enough it appears)
Jeff Madsen

Notables:
Brandon Cantu 2,700,000
Mark Vos 1,750,000
Matt Matros 1,650,000
Phil Hellmuth 1,280,000
Mike Matusow 650,000

A little over half of the 1,928 that started play on Day 1c get to return on Wednesday to meet those who remained after five playing five levels on Sunday. Henning Granstad appears to be leader with about 228,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: David “Bakes” Baker, David Singer, Brad Booth, Evelyn Ng, Brian Townsend, Nenad Medic, and Jeff Madsen.

Today’s the final day for people to sign up for the Main Event, as registration closes at the end of Level 2, or at 2,700 entrants (whichever comes first). Over 2,000 have already signed up, and today’s attendance looks to be the highest for a Main Event in history (2,299 on day 1d in 2006 is the current record). At the moment, first place looks to take down about $9,000,000 when November rolls around, and about $850,000 would be given to each of the “November Nine”.

12:25 Update: Pauly is reporting almost 2,500 entered for today, pushing the total over 6,800 (2nd most in Main Event history). First place will pay over $9,600,000.

More updates during the day…

The leader at the dinner break appears to be Michael Martin, who is just under 100,000 in chips. More familiar names near the top: Jeff Madsen, Chris Moneymaker, Mike Matusow, TJ Cloutier, and the lovely and talented Liz Lieu, Clonie Gowen, Evelyn Ng, Kara Scott, and Isabelle Mercier. More updates can be found at the WSOP update site here.

The returning horde of about 1,500 will return shortly to play two more two-hour levels, with those survivors returning to play on Wednesday, July 9.

More updates during the evening…

Also, who knew J-Mad had such dope skillz?

Lo and behold he’s been getting practice while videoblogging for PokerRoad. Click here to see/hear the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year giving tourney reports in rhyme.

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:

As noted below, the $50,000 HORSE event is now on dinner break as they go from 13 down to the final table of 8. Erick Lindgren is the current chip leader, with World Champions Huck Seed and Scotty Nguyen also in the top 5. Daniel Negreanu’s the current short stack, while Phil Ivey, Lyle Berman and Barry Greenstein are in the hunt as well.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event has under 50 remaining as they attempt to get down to a final table for tomorrow. Notable names remaining: Fu Wong, Kirill Gerasimov, Adam Katz, and Robyn Hood (not the most notable names, but I’m sure everyone’s familiar with Hood’s story). Nikolay Evdakov set a WSOP record with his 9th cash of the Series, while Jacobo Fernandez cashed for the 7th time this Series, adding another 5 points to his Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year, now standing at 232 points. Lindgren, Greenstein and Negreanu are guaranteed at least 20 points from the HORSE event, making that race even more competitive with just 4 more tournaments to be counted.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event drew 2,718 entrants, and about 500 returned from the dinner break. Names that you might have heard of near the top of the leaderboard: Young Phan, Greg FBT Mueller, Men Nguyen, Andy Black, Jeff Madsen, and Hevad “Rain” Kahn.

More exciting stuff during the evening, I get to come back tomorrow morning…

Play ended shortly after 5am in the $10k Mixed Event World Championship. A tournament that had its share of controversy, from confusion over the structure to players threatening to go to 2+2 to express their dislike of having table redraws start at triple draw instead of going through the eight-game rotation. Here’s the final table, starting at 4pm:

Seat 1: James “mig.com” Mackey 742,000
Seat 2: Matt Glantz 1,115,000
Seat 3: Sam Farha 374,000
Seat 4: Michael DeMichele 434,000
Seat 5: Tom “durrrr” Dwan 642,000
Seat 6: Eli Elezra 76,000
Seat 7: Anthony Rivera 274,000
Seat 8: Jeff Madsen 149,000

The other final table today will be the televised (on espn360.com) $2k NL Holdem, event #7, starting at 3pm. Their final nine will consist of:

Seat 1: Matt Keikoan 1,011,000
Seat 2: Theo Tran 1,884,000 (his 2nd FT this Series)
Seat 3: Shannon Shorr 620,000
Seat 4: Carter Gill 652,000
Seat 5: Mihai Manole 1,020,000
Seat 6: Chris Bjorin 205,000
Seat 7: Mike Lisanti 358,000
Seat 8: J.C. Tran 273,000
Seat 9: Alex Bolotin 345,000

Two more bracelets were given out early this morning, in the $1,000 NL w/rebuys (Event #5) Michael Banducci defeated former EPT Grand Final winner Jeff Williams. Meanwhile, Thang Luu bested Spencer Lawrence in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better (Event #6)

Today starts two more events, at noon is the $5,000 NL Shootout (Event #11). For those unfamiliar, shootouts are a series of one table sit n go’s, win your table and you move on to the next round. Win three tables and the bracelet is yours. At 5pm will be the $1,500 Limit Holdem (Event #12).

Two tournaments move on to their day two, as the $1,500 6-max (Event #9) plays down to their final 6. What started as a sold-out field of 1,236 whittled themselves down to a compact field of 72. Matt Matros is the current chip leader, Thomas Fuller is a close 2nd. Other notable names in the field: Avery Cardoza, Ian Frazer, Neil Channing.

One hour later, the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 (Event #10) picks up where they left off. A starting field of 388 is down to 120, expect the journey to their final 8 to go well into the night. Bennett Greenstein is the current chip leader with Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi close behind. Other notable names left include “Miami John” Cernuto, Todd Brunson, and Allen Cunningham.

What’s going on at the WSOP while I try to get an invite to Low Stakes Poker.

First the important news, Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider is chip leader at the end of day 1 of the $10k Mixed Event World Championship with ~140,000 in chips. 94 89 of the starting field of 192 in this inaugural event remain to play down to the final table of 8. 2006 WSOP POY Jeff Madsen is in 4th, while Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey are all in contention. Play for them begins at 3pm.

More results from yesterday after the jump:

In yet another stacked final table under the ESPN cameras; Team Full Tilt Pro Erick Lindgren took himself off the “best player to never win a bracelet” list with his win in the $5,000 Mixed Holdem event (event #4). Internet stars Justin Bonomo and Andrew “good2cu” Robl finished 2nd and 3rd, while Howard Lederer finished 4th.

Another Full Tilt Pro, David Singer, also got his first bracelet early this morning in the $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem (Event #3). Singer, 8th in chips at the start of the final table, played some great poker to get to heads-up with Jacobo Fernandez. Fernandez had the lead at the start of heads-up action, and after several back and forth hands, Singer took the chip lead winning a race with AK v 55 in a 1.7m pot to take the chip lead. The very next hand, Singer took Q4 and turned it into a straight against Hernandez’s two pair to take down just over $214,000.

There’s two more final tables today, first will be the $1k NL/rebuys (event #5) Here’s the final table lineup, starting today at 3pm:

Seat 1: Michael Banducci (Traverse City, Michigan) 1,655,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Aguiar (Las Vegas, Nevada) 361,000
Seat 3: Michael Binger (Las Vegas, Nevada) 186,000
Seat 4: Steve Gross (Marlboro, New Jersey) 112,000
Seat 5: Jamie Rosen (Boca Raton, Florida) 475,000
Seat 6: Jeff Williams (Dunwoody, Georgia) 683,000
Seat 7: Alan Jaffray (Silver Springs, Nevada) 1,222,000
Seat 8: Peter Gould (London, United Kingdom) 702,000
Seat 9: Lyric Duveyoung (Fairfield, Iowa) 659,000

In the $1,500 Omaha 8 tournament (event #6), they reached their final table at about 6:15a, here’s their final table:

Seat 1: Chris Falconer (Canton, Ohio) 331,000
Seat 2: James Pritchard (Duluth, Georgia) 155,000
Seat 3: Thang Luu (Las Vegas, Nevada) 560,000
Seat 4: Mark Wilds (Biloxi, Mississippi) 226,000
Seat 5: George Guzman (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) 196,000
Seat 6: Scott Clements (Mt. Vernon, Washington) 315,000
Seat 7: Craig Sabel (Grand Junction, Colorado) 160,000
Seat 8: Spencer Lawrence (London, United Kingdom) 226,000
Seat 9: Greg Jamison (Las Vegas, Nevada) 333,000

Clements has won bracelets the last two years, both were in Omaha events.

As always, Pokernews is your place to follow all the action today.
The other event that started yesterday, $2,000 NL holdem (event #7) drew a field of almost 1600. They reached the money just before the end of play and 3 Trans make up the top 10. Leading the way is Theo Tran with over 145,000 in chips. Thong Tran is 6th with around 105,000 and JC Tran is 8th with over 93,000.

Today’s tournaments are the $1,500 NL 6-handed starting at noon and the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 starting at 5. Tom is the defending champion in the latter event, hopefully he’ll continue his success in the mixed event so he won’t need to defend his title.

More later today…