photo: Michele Lewis

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb taking in the spectacle of the main event and whatever it may suggest about what’s ahead on the poker horizon.

All WSOP-long I’ve been seeing Lyle Berman and feeling torn between my journalistic ethos and respect for poker etiquette. Here, the guy who has answers to everything everyone wants to know about the future of the World Poker Tour has been anywhere from 10-feet to 100 yards away from me, but I can’t bring myself to approach him mid-tourney or just after a painful bustout to pepper him with questions about whether or not the business he helped build is crumbling. Call me a wussy journo or poker fanboy, but could I really take a chance of putting Mr. Berman on tilt, especially when WPTE stock is trading for less than a dollar a share and he might really need the prize money?

But lo and behold, WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb showed up at the Rio yesterday, and he wasn’t playing! He was just taking his annual tour of the WSOP main event with buddy Jeffrey Pollack … which seemed like a great time to trip him by the shoelaces, pin him down on the ground and shove a recorder in his face while threatening to pop him with a loogie. Alas, no one had a concealed watergun in the pressbox and he was wearing loafers, but still … Lipscomb did sit down with Pokerati for almost a half hour during the main event and give some frank(ish) answers to whatever softballs I could hurl at him.

(NOTE: I didn’t know at the time that the WPT had laid off about 10 people last week and was about to give a few more their walking papers today — but now his comments about hating that part of the job make a little more sense.)

Steve Lipscomb (at the WSOP) on the future of poker and the WPT
June 6, 2008 — Las Vegas

What you don’t hear below …
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Play started about 12:20 this afternoon for day 1a of the $10,000 NL Holdem Main Event, with the UNLV Marching Band and Wayne Newton kicking things off. I’m sure those who’ve chosen days 1b-1d are thankful that they didn’t have to experience that for their start as it will probably be a bit more low-key for them when play starts. It appears that the day 1a numbers will be around 1,297, which is very slightly above the day 1a figure from last year. The mysterious figure so far appears to be in the 4500-4900 range for now, as there are 468 spots currently showing for the prize pool (of course no $ figures as of yet) if you take a look at the picture on Pauly’s site.

Among those that won’t have to worry about making the November Nine: Raymond Rahme, Tuan Lam, Roy Winston, Tom “Durrr” Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Eli Elezra, Katja Thater, Phil Galfond, Bob and Maureen Feduniak, Chad Brown, Lyle Berman, Dan Harrington, Jason Alexander, and plenty of other names (known and unknown). The current chip leader going into the dinner break is David “Chino” Rheem, who is currently at 103,000 in chips. Other recognizable names: Blair Hinkle, Svetlana Gromenkova, Kido Pham, Noah Boeken, Anna Wroblewski, Mekhi Phifer, Maya Antonius and plenty of others. Follow the updates during the evening at the WSOP.com site here. Play starts again shortly, as they play two more 2-hour levels, then the survivors get to return on July 8 for day 2a.

More updates during the rest of the evening…

Not saying it’s not exciting to watch and follow along… Okay, maybe I am saying that. We’ve hit a rut. It has been three-handed for nearly 75 hands. While there is some form of action on many of the hands, it is getting monotonous. Am I the only one thinking about a chop here?

Seriously, since we last chatted, two players have left the field:

5th place - Lyle Berman - $444,000
The WPT will not win the WSOP. It would’ve been an amazing and interesting story for the WPT Enterprises bigwig to win the $50K HORSE championship event at the WSOP. Berman came close to winning a bracelet by going deep in the heads-up event several weeks ago… The $2 million first prize tonight might have been enough to perform a semi-bailout of the WPT, but now we’ll never know what he would’ve done with the money…

4th place - Matt Glantz - $568,320
I’m not familiar. He’s probably a great human being. Now, he’s a much richer human being.

Three-handed is taking what seems like days, but Erick Lindgren isn’t going out that easily. Up until now, the shortest stack is typically the next to go, and it hasn’t taken terribly long to make that happen. But E-Dog is staging a comeback. Whether it is his enormous fan/friend support in the audience, the $2 mil, the Chip Reese trophy, the title of champion in this prestigious event, or all of the above, Lindgren is doing his best to get back on the horse. (Get it? Horse? HORSE? Work with me here; I’m tired…)

UPDATE: 2:30am PST - Still three handed. Nearing hand #235. DeMichele with 5.73 million, Nguyen with 4.605 million, and Lindgren with 4.465 mil. And you thought I was exaggerating when I indicated this may never end…

UPDATE: 4am PST - There are some signs that this might end before the presidential election. Updated chip counts, courtesy of PokerNews: Nguyen 10,085,000; DeMichele 3,040,000; Lindgren 1,675,000.

It has taken over three hours to see three players hit the door in the $50K HORSE. It has seemed slow at times, but the intensity at the table dictates that this could be a long night.

8th place - Patrick Bueno - $230,880
He was the short stack with less than 700K upon sitting down today, so it was only a matter of time before he would make a move. He did it against Lyle Berman and lost. The French businessman bid adieu to the table.

7th place - Huck Seed - $284,160
Huck never has much to say, and neither do I.

6th place - Barry Greenstein - $355,200
Though he’s not the kind of guy most people would want at a fun dinner party, Barry’s story at the WSOP, especially in this event, would have been a great one. He is the only player to have cashed in each of the three years that the $50K HORSE has been played, and this was his second year in a row for a final table in it. He already won a WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago in seven-card razz, but he couldn’t pull of the big one with his short stack. (That just sounded wrong, I know.) He did earn his sixth cash of the WSOP, though. Not a bad showing for the Bear this year so far.

After 75 hands, Michael DeMichele has taken the chip lead. Lookie here for the PokerNews chip counts:

Michael DeMichele - 3,700,000
Erick Lindgren - 3,400,000
Scotty Nguyen - 3,300,000
Lyle Berman - 2,200,000
Matt Glantz - 2,150,000

Finishing the action from last night, with the Sunday preview that’s not really a preview:

The HORSE final table is now set for 3pm to be under the really hot lights of the ESPN cameras. Here’s how this stacked lineup will be seated at that table:

Seat 1: Matt Glantz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) — 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) — 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) — 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,680,000

The other final table for today the $2,000 NL Holdem event, will be held in some corner of the Amazon room at 3pm, but here’s what that final table will look like:

Seat 1: Dan Rome 650,000
Seat 2: Ryan D’Angelo 520,000
Seat 3: Marco Johnson 2,135,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 1,145,000
Seat 5: Robert Brewer 1,050,000
Seat 6: Gabe Costner 1,475,000
Seat 7: Alan Cutter 535,000
Seat 8: Alexandre Gomes 1,075,000
Seat 9: Sverre Sundbo 685,000

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed final table finally ended after 6 hours of heads up play when Joe Commisso finally eliminated Richard Lyndaker to take down the bracelet and just over $911,000. Commisso had to be wondering if he’d ever win after having Lyndaker dominated 7-1 on 3 separate occasions, only for Lyndaker to claw back into contention and take the chip lead. Between the two of them there was almost a dozen all in confrontations where the smaller stack would win, which turned out to be a one in 600-something possibility.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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Wrapping up yesterday’s action, with a preview of today’s tournament (with a moment of silence for John Bonetti):

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event finally reached their final table at around 5:30am, now they have to attempt to get some rest before returning in front of the watchful eye of the ESPN360 cameras at 2pm with this sextet:

Seat 4: Richard Lyndaker 2,345,000
Seat 3: Joe Commisso 1,961,000
Seat 5: Tom Lutz 1,493,000
Seat 1: Samuel Trickett 1,045,000
Seat 6: Edward Ochana 928,000
Seat 2: Davidi Kitai 298,000

The $1,500 Stud Eight or Better stopped play with 13 players remaining as they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Here’s the approximate chip counts of the baker’s dozen (chip counts and seats to be rearranged later):

(Table 14)
Seat 1: Ryan Hughes 73,000
Seat 4: Margaret Macre 173,000
Seat 5: James Richburg 274,000
Seat 6: Ron Long 33,000
Seat 7: David Brooker 45,000
Seat 8: Daniel Nicewander 41,000

(Table 15)
Seat 1: Mike Hefer 71,000
Seat 2: Tim D’Alessandro 82,000
Seat 3: David Sklansky 110,000
Seat 4: Thomas Hunt III 101,000
Seat 6: Alessio Isaia 172,000
Seat 7: Joshua Feldman 121,000
Seat 8: Jonas Klausen 346,000

Other tournament action (plus the final 24 in the $50k HORSE) on page 2:
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By the end of Day 2 of the 5-day event, there were only 67 players left standing in the tournament. The 81 players who have been eliminated left $4,050,000 behind for the others.

Among those gone from the field is reigning champion Freddy Deeb, courtesy of Steve Zolotow in an Omaha-8 hand. Last year’s second-place finisher Bruno Fitoussi was taken out of this year’s event by Hasan Habib in a razz hand. David Singer’s run for a third final table in three years was thwarted by Rob Hollink in a stud-8 hand early on Day 2.

Taking a look at what is possible, there are several players who could make for some interesting stories here:

1. Barry Greenstein cashed in 2006 (12th place) and 2007 (7th place).

2. 2007 final table players who are still in the running to make it happen a second year in a row include John Hanson, Kenny Tran, Thor Hansen, Gabe Kaplan, and Greenstein. It won’t be possible for Amnon Filippi because though I swore I saw him on Day 1, it seems that he didn’t play this event as his name is not on the bust-outs or chip count list.

3. Of course, Doyle Brunson could make a run at that 11th bracelet, and he would win the first-ever Chip Reese commemorative trophy. Could there be anything better?

There are more stories to develop as the field thins further. The chip leader going into Day 3, which starts in just moments, is Lyle Berman. Could a WPT guy win the biggest tournament at the WSOP? Let’s see how it goes! Updates throughout the evening…

What’s doing tonight at the WSOP while I welcome Tuscaloosa Johnny to the Pokerati fold:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event is down to it’s last 3 with Casey Kastle, Martin Klaser, and Michael Fetter remaining. Kastle currently holds the chip lead, Erik Seidel was eliminated in 4th in his attempt at winning his 9th bracelet.

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event have returned from their dinner break with 280 out of a starting field of 805 to return. Notable names near the top include Alex Jacob, Mark Vos, Gavin Griffin, and Hevad Khan.

Other tournament action is available by clicking on the more thingy:

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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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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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Pokerati file photo: The HB-3186 war room, led by Lavigne in Austin (standing, top left) with Texas poker politicos, player representatives, and out-of-state allies preparing for a capitol offensive.

In addition to those state-by-state member numbers, the PPA put out a press release this week announcing its new state directors. Good to see poker players getting more involved in grassroots activity as the politi-dudes looking out for us in Washington DC continue to develop into a real Beltway force. However, there’s one state where the director curiously isn’t named — and that’s Texas.

Um, Mike …? Has there been a change to your resume that you might wanna blog about that you might wanna blog about?

UPDATE: Lavigne in Austin en-route-to-Wichita-Falls confirms via Blackberry that he is indeed still a state director for the PPA, and showed off his political skills by dodging my follow-up question about “why the ‘TBA’ then?” by reassuring me that the poker political machinery in Texas, having been built and tested now, will be well-oiled for 2009 with real Texas Hold’em in Texas in 2010 so long as I don’t write anything to muck it up.

Players have spoken and Steve Lipscomb has apparently listened. As the WPT tries to recover from the fiscal beating it’s taken for the last couple years of generally crappy programming ratings at a time when High Stakes Poker was just finding its stride and the online poker world was in a tailspin … (why did the PPT collapse again? Those shows were great!) … a simple adjustment to a Berman-Lipscomb-Corp. policy stands to put a little more money into players’ pockets. An email sent out a month ago:

Dear WPT Player,

This is a quick email to announce that we are revising the rules for WPT Final Table Player Sponsorship. In previous seasons, pre-approved sponsors were required to send WPT a list of their players prior to the start of each event. If one of the listed players made the Main Event Final Table, the Player would be able to wear the sponsor’s pre-approved logo. No other logos were accepted for that player.

NEW RULES TO WEAR A LOGO:

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The Fontana Room Race for the gold continues as the field of 639 players has now been reduced to 27 lucky little devils skilled men.

David Levi ended the first day without increasing his starting stack while Scott Fischman was in worse condition ending with only 17k in chips. Yet, Scott and David stepped up to bat on day two and hit several home runs placing them currently in 8th and 9th.

But they better not slack tomorrow because Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Paul Wasicka, Roland De Wolfe & Paul Lee are apparently wanting to win this little tournament.

Today’s notable eliminations were Lyle Berman (WPT Chairman of the board), Justin Bonomo and Dan’s crush.

I spoke with both David Levi and Steve Wong this evening for their updates which you can view on CardPlayer. David was not excited about ending day1 with 25k in chips but worked hard to finish today with 230,000k in chips and Steve Wong is rocking the Fontana in 4th with 476,000 bones! They both humbly said they were feeling good about their play but knew they had a long way to go. Two of my favorite Bellagio Sports Bar friends Amir Vahedi & Freddie Deeb are tied for 23rd with 240,000 in chips.

The Donkey Bomber is not only in 14th place tonight but CardPlayer even mentioned his name! Go Tom, more from you Dan/Karridy.

Fellow Houstonians, Sammy Farha is 9th with 345,000 and John “whadayagonnado boys” Bonnetti is hanging in there with 30k.

Other notables still in are Joe Sebok, Phil Ivey, Lyle Berman, Andy Black, Tran and Chan and Barney Boatmaaaan. But leading the pack is one of the greatest players in the world, Phil Hellmuth with 528,100 (don’t lose that 100 dollar chip, Phil).

Sadly Marcel Luske, Gavin Smith, Joe Bartholdi (who told me Friday he was ready to play this tournament) and Doyle Brunson have been eliminated.

And last but not least…The Ladies or as Wicked Chops Poker would say…crazy bitches.
Newcomer Anna Wroblewski leads the women with 350,000 in 7th place with Vanessa Rousso behind her in 53rd stacking up 115,000. Other ladies holding their own are Isabelle Mercier, Melissa Hayden, Erica Schoenberg, Jennifer Harman, Liz Lieu (who won her seat in a satellite), Kathy Liebert and Kristy Gazes.

Good luck to all and to all a good night.

Or not … our beloved little HB 3186 still has a ways to go. But we are “this much closer” to legal-better poker in Texas … at a minimum, people in the law business are becoming more and more familiar with our “issues” … and an increasing number of political bidders are looking at dollar signs (and calculating implied pot odds) on an unusual bill that has, let’s say, 75 percent public support …

Here is the testimony presented earlier this month for and against legalized Texas poker to the legislative committee charged with making the first rounds of decisions about this bill. You will find it either totally boring or C-Span fascinating … and if you’re in the latter camp, you’ll probably hear much that you find encouraging. Listen closer, however, and you may get a sense that some hardline politicking has only just begun:

House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee
Austin, TX - 4/3/07

[display_podcast]

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AUSTIN–It took me to get awhile to get some wi-fi here at the Doubletree across from the capitol … but eventually I hooked into the system by going to the front desk and asking for a password, which they were happy to provide at no cost.

5:17 pm — There is nothing to report. We are waiting. Crandell Addington says he won’t tell bad beat stories … but he will apparently tell “amazing fold” stories that take a long time to listen to. Lyle Berman is the smartest man he knows. Just ask him.

7:36 pm — Still waiting. The Fresh Princess looks pretty today. Clonie is missing a button in the middle of her blouse. Crandell is nodding off. We’ve busted out the Chinese poker. Erick Lindgren had to go home.

7:38 pm — We just got the call. Headed over to the capitol in five minutes.