The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship was a battle of the ages, literally. In what appears to be a record for a non-senior event, Freddie Ellis (74) bested Eric Drache (66) to take down the title as Ellis becomes the sixth African-American (Phil Ivey, David Williams, Walter Smiley and Carolyn Gardener being the other five) to win a WSOP bracelet. As Nolan Dalla noted in his tournament report, the distinction all six players have is that they each have won a bracelet in seven card stud. Here’s a bonus piece by Benjo on Eric Drache, from the Tao of Poker site.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event wasn’t able to reach their final table, as 33 players were left at 3am. They get to return at 1pm today to play down to a final table. This final table was scheduled to be streamed later this afternoon at bluffmagazine.com, but that’s definitely not happening at the scheduled 2pm start time. Follow them on Twitter for the latest updates on that situation. Notable names remaining: Michael Martin, Francois Safieddine, and Jeremy Joseph.

One final table that is known is the $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw event. When play began Tuesday afternoon, there were several big names among the 35 remaining. Those players all fell by the wayside, except for Phil Ivey, here’s how the final table will look when they come back at 2pm today.

Seat 1: Raphael Zimmerman – 238,000
Seat 2: Eric Kesselman – 119,400
Seat 3: John Monnette – 259,000
Seat 4: Rodeen Talebi – 94,500
Seat 5: Yan Chen – 159,000
Seat 6: Elia Ahmadian – 136,900
Seat 7: Phil Ivey – 106,300

Today’s other events on the next page:

The $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event returns today at 2pm with 105 players remaining, all players making the money as they wind their way down to a final table scheduled for Thursday afternoon. David Fox is chip leader (186,600) with other notables coming back include: Doug Lee, Bill Chen, Todd Witteles, Rafe Furst and Joe Awada.

The $2,500 1/2 PL Holdem, 1/2 PLO event finished play with 99 players, of which only 45 make the money when play resumes at 2pm. Jamie Rosen (110,200) will start the day in front, with Tony Cousineau, Michael Mizrachi, Ben Grundy, Hevad Khan and Nam Le among the established players near the top of the leaderboard.

Two more WSOP bracelet events get kicked off today, starting with 12 noon’s $2,000 NL Holdem event. Last year, Matt Keikoan outlasted a field of 1,593 to take down $550,000. This year’s WSOP Staff Guide projection sets the field size at 1,672, so I’ll take the over as well as I’ll estimate nearly 1,800 will be seated. The 5pm event, the $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is a combination of eight separate games (HORSE, NL Holdem, PLO, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball), with the games alternating every eight hands. Last year, Anthony Rivera, a young cash game specialist, beat a field of 192 to collect nearly $500,000 in winnings. The staff guide projections for this event was set at 202, but I’ll estimate the field will be a bit smaller, around 185. As usual, www.worldseriesofpoker.com will be home to updates all during the day starting at noon, and head back to Pokerati for more blogging goodness.

1. Who knew that Joe Awada wrote articles?
2. Decent stuff, but he could use an editor.

The $12 million Poker Lounge (yikes) will not only have some swanky features and its own bathrooms, but the room can be reserved for parties, as they claim two dozen divorce parties are already lined up. There will also be a poker league with various teams of employees and open groups, such as radio stations and gentleman’s clubs. Sounds intriguing as more information comes out, no?

For instance, the 7,500-square-foot poker lounge will start with 18 tables (expandable to 25) and will feature five roped-off, high-limit tables.

The lounge will have its own bar with tables, comfy chairs and couches, five high-end slot/video poker machines and its own bathrooms.

The room will also have its own cashier and safety deposit boxes for the players.

There will also be a dedicated host staff, massage therapists, bottle service at the tables, a race and sports writer and a kiosk for placing bets. Players will be entitled to a full comp system, with extra goodies like concert tickets, backstage passes, cabanas at the adult pool and other benefits.