The LAPC main event is fixin’ to get underway … Friday at noon, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jason Mercier, and a few others got together to hold a $5,000 fantasy draft for the main event of California’s version of the WSOP.
More to come as the field takes shape tomorrow/today Friday. Last stretch of satellites going on now.
I’ve been following this event multimedially via the 147 emails a day they send me and via the official LAPC blog.
Recently stumbled across the blog of a Vegas-grinder guy who rented a couch to Joe Cada at the start of the WSOP, well before the main event. Festive times … and kinda interesting to see that Joey was living a summer life not unlike a lot of other young 20somethings who venture to Vegas for their first ever World Series of Poker.
Pics below from his first night in town:
The caption on the second one, of course, is probably more accurate than any coulda imagined at the time!
The Fox series “Lie to Me*”, featuring favorite of Jennifer Newell Mekhi Phifer, prominently features the WSOP Main Event in the episode Nov. 16(?) at 9pm ET/8pm CT.
The episode, entitled “Fold Equity” has the following synopsis:
Lightman, Foster (Kelli Williams) and Reynolds (Mekhi Phifer) go to Las Vegas to help locate a missing finalist in the World Series of Poker. Lightman uses his skills to reach beyond the other finalists’ poker faces to figure out which one knows about the disappearance. Meanwhile, Loker (Brendan Hines) and Torres (Monica Raymund) analyze Loker’s new relationship and as a result get closer to each other.
For those who miss the episode, you can catch it on Fox’s site or over at Hulu.com on Tuesday.
CORRECTION: The WSOP episode airs next Monday, not tonight.
Confirmation that Darvin Moon and Jack Link’s Beef Jerky should be a match made in thick-forest heaven … @washintonpost-er Josh du Lac tweets:
Darvin Moon’s brother, Bill, says folks wanted him to pose for a pic w/Jack Link’s mascot Sasquatch. “Hell no reminds me too much of Darvin”
I, meanwhile, couldn’t help myself when I saw such a happily hirsute homonid:
That’s what we wanna know … after Saturday/Sunday’s marathon 9->2 session … how long do you think the heads-up battle between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada will go?
They’re currently in Level 39, with blinds at 500k/1000k + 150k.
Moon has almost the same number of chips he started with, 58,850,000, while Cada, who started with just 13,215,000, now has all the rest — 135,950,000.
What they’re fighting for, essentially: $3.36 million in cash, and then everything else that goes with being WSOP champ.
NOTE: In our previous unscientific poll, Moon got the second-most votes … Cada fourth-most.
The record for WSOP heads-up battles is 7 hours 10 minutes, set by Chip Reese vs. Andy Bloch in 2006. Before that it was 7 hours, in the 1983 main event … where after Doyle Brunson busted out in 3rd on a semi-bluff, an unknown from Michigan, Tom McEvoy, beat Rod Peate for $580,000:
BTW, for a fun historical perspective, watch the start of the television coverage of the 1983 final table here.
As the November 9->2 comes to a close, Pauly and I evaluate the make-up (TV- and industry-wise) of the Final Three … and when Antoine Saout goes down, a double-crushed Benjo finds himself baffled by Joe Cada yet still tickled that his countryman’s play allowed him to lock himself in a giant room for 17+ hours to witness this final table spectaculaire.
Episode 7: The Final 3
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Episode 8: Wave the Flag
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This time short-stacked Phil Ivey got it all-in with AK vs. Darvin Moon’s AQ. The crowd has erupted to chants of “I-VEY, I-VEY, I-VEY!”
Ivey tries to hold back a smile … biting into an apple to hide his smirk.
UPDATE: And ooooh, Pokerati’s fave final table dealer Linda Tran delivers a Queen in the window.
The crowd still gives a standing ovation … more chants of “Ivey, Ivey!” … Phil Hellmuth chases him down … Ivey keeps walking, apparently not wanting to talk. He’s on stage immediately giving his ESPN bustout interview. He looks nonchalant and pissed and disgusted at the same time.
Obviously the tenor of this tournament just changed dramatically. No?
We’re 6 hours into the action, Phil Ivey is All-in (with ~ 20 BB in his stack) and Jeff Shulman is in the tank ….
The crowd is shushing each other all of the sudden. And re-shushing. It’s like everyone in here understands that this tourney does change dramatically if and when Ivey goes out.
UPDATE: Shulman folds. Crowd cheers.
Seriously, wow, that was different. Phil Ivey is different. (Can’t wait to see who had what with that hand.)
Now on to level 36 … 250k/500k blinds … 50k ante.
So much craziness going on, and we’ve hardly covered any poker. James Akenhead hit a sick three-outer — the crowd erupted — to triple up, and Antoine Saout called an all-in bluff from Darvin Moon with two pair to stay alive … that was like over an hour ago when this post started.
So here’s a rundown of the off-the-table things that have gone on … and maybe a few on-table situations as well.
HAND UPDATE: Akenhead vs. Schaffel … KK < AA and Schaffel doubles up to stay alive.
Thanks to @haribo22 for sneaking me in to the special Harrah’s VIP room in the Palazzo Suites for the free sandwiches and Pepsis. Mooching off the elite, of course, is how we roll.
Turned out to be a good thing … as the original plan was to attend a special PPA gathering with free sandwiches and Pepsis … but the event got canceled when they ran out of food and neither Howard Lederer nor Annie Duke showed up. To be fair, one or both of them was on the air with Bluff Radio at the time.
The new-and-improved WSOP website has a pretty nice feature for following the action … combining chip counts, pics, and tweets:
(Click to launch.)
It’s funny, of course, because for the past few years, there has been so much to-do over number of posts per hour, and who covers what … and now, after so much chest thumping and kneecap cracking to figure out how it all should and does work … all that stuff is pretty much irrelevant in 2009 — not only because there’s no selfishly “official” info provider, but moreso because twitter has become the default way to go for immediate, albeit unofficial, results.
HAND UPDATE: James Akenhead is out 9th! 33 < 99 vs. Kevin Schaffel. Crowd doesn't so much erupt as respectfully and enthusiastically applauds.
If you're not already, follow the action and then some on Tao of Poker.
Check it out: the Penn and Teller Theater did reach capacity (1,200). And the line outside the WSOP&T, stretching through that long long hallway that summertime WSOP visitors know all too well:
HAND UPDATE: Ivey folded. But he really had to think about it.
HAND UPDATE: Schaffel all-in again, with AA vs. Eric Buchman’s KK. Flop K-Q-J. WOOOOOT! 4th King on the turn … Schaffel out in 8th place.
Note for next year: How ’bout a visible tournament clock? We’re all guessing where we are in the levels.
Supposedly the WSOP website has been a bit slow at times … as has PokerNews. If in need for a super-updated chip count fix, check out PokerListings as a go-to backup. They also have rules there for a main event final table drinking game … which can still have you pretty hammered by heads-up, even with others having nearly a 6-hour head start.
HAND UPDATE: Shulman starting to come alive.
We’re back … with the world’s shortest poker podcast … so short, we’ve already got two episodes for you.
Episode 1: Pre-action Action
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Episode 2: Homme-team Advantage
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In spirit … Phil Ivey just took down his first pot, and a voice from the crowd screamed: “Stack’em, stack’em, to the top!”
Here’s a storyline that ESPN somehow missed/didn’t feed us on the media-prep conference call … It’s a very Jewish WSOP main event final table.
The Jewish Daily Forward points out what may or may not be a statistical anomaly: Four of the November Nine — Jeff Shulman, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and Kevin Schaffel — happen to speak Hebrew, at least during family holidays.
From a stack perspective, these Jewish players control 49.6 percent of all the chips in play. How stereotypical …
The J-article also offers a rich history of Jews in the game … from Jack Strauss to Jamie Gold … and most recently Barry Shulman’s Yom Kippur victory at WSOP-E. Back in the day, of course, the World Series was all about Jews vs. Texans, but Texans have been sucking it up in recent years now the game has a more widespread international appeal that has prevented any one region from owning pwning it.
Full Disclosure: I used to make an annual pilgrimage to a Dallas synagogue in an effort to bring people with money to the Lodge convert non-gentiles to the poker way. So yeah …
ALT HED: נובמבר תשע עצה: בית על היהודים
The usual crew talked a little (new era) poker on TV this week — 2M2MM + PokerStars Million-Dollar Challenge — and then BJ number-geeked out on Daniel Negreanu’s breakdown of WPT performance stats … and a Calling the Clock segment on coaching at the WSOP main event.
on PokerRoadThe Poker Beat
Huff, Caldwell, Wise, Michalski, Nemeth, Stapleton
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ESPN had a little tele-press conference about the upcoming coverage of the WSOP November Nine. ESPN’s chief Flack George McNeilly moderated the call, and on it taking questions were Norman Chad, Lon McEachorn and Doug White, ESPN’s Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions.
(Jeffrey Pollack bowed out with regrets, apparently claiming “tummy-ache”/swine flu.)
For a little preview of what’s in store — from the perspective of storylines, production, and a wee-bit of Darvin Moon sponsorship business …
ESPN 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table Media
CattleConference Call
Oct 29 2009
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SPOILER ALERT: More heads-up coverage, table/stage a bit closer to the crowd, welcome to the show ESPN Inside Deal, and play along online at ESPN.com. Go Phil Ivey or Darvin Moon, and really any of the other guys, too! Akenhead is kinda a funny last name. Presented by Jack’s Links Beef Jerky, yum. Let’s dance.
Besides Kevin Schaffel, Mike Sexton discusses his being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, the latest poker news, previews of tonight’s WSOP episodes (the first half of day 8 coverage) and Phil Ivey’s ESPN: The Magazine cover appearance.
Not to get all Lady Gaga over Phil Ivey … but seriously, the dude who’s only the third-biggest tournament winner in history seldom speaks to anyone not engaged in some sort of gamble with him for more than 30 seconds at a time. But he sat down for nearly 9 minutes with Poker.se and tells what it took to develop his game (15-16 hrs/day, 4-5 yrs), how rough it is to make it as a pro, bankroll management, the importance of Bobby’s Room during the WSOP, his bracelet prop-bet odds, November Nine preparation, etc.
via PokerNews
My favorite excerpt:
Moon started playing poker after giving up softball because, he says, “I got fat.” … Of course, in the slovenly melting pot of the poker room, having a half-watermelon for a gut doesn’t stand out, particularly not at the World Series, where players have been known to show up wearing animal costumes or dressed as Roman emperors.
LOL, “slovenly melting pot” … It’s funny because it’s true! fair description?
BTW, check out the comments on this piece … you’ll see at least a few WaPo readers question why they should even give a flip about this story.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but wonder if Moon isn’t a matter of weak-means-strong … both on the table and off. (I guess that’s one of the things we’ll be looking to find out at the final table, and the lead-up to it.)
Says Card Player magazine President Jeff Shulman, who will be sitting at the final table with Moon in November, albeit with 40 million fewer chips: “Darvin tries to say he’s not that good, he’s just an amateur who got lucky and ran really well for eight days. But at some point, you can’t say you’re just lucky. He was making good decisions.”
The WSOP-E main event is well underway … they’re getting into the money today, playing down to 27. We’ll wait ’til a few more get knocked out before we see what kinda final table is really taking shape. Lots of interesting names still alive — including a couple November Niners. But one player long dead: Phil Hellmuth, aka Caesar.
Check it out, he did a repeat performance of his Caesarian entrance … but this time with actual animals parading through the streets of London. Gag away:
But here’s the funny part … so he had all his tunic-clad ladies, each representing a bracelet … but when they got to the casino door, they couldn’t get in because they didn’t have their ID’s!
More details here:
CardPlayer.com is reporting …
“The simplest reason why I’m doing this — I want to win, and I think it will help,” said Shulman.
Shulman and Hellmuth’s relationship go way back, as the two have been friends for years, all the while maintaining a successful business relationship. Hellmuth was an obvious choice when Shulman started to seriously consider getting a coach for the final table.
“I turned on the TV and I was watching Tiger Woods or something, and I realized — every single player has a coach,” said Shulman. “No matter how good or bad my game is, it can always get better.”
While there are plenty of jokes to made about how yeah, Jeff Shulman stands to learn a lot about the business of being a professional poker a-hole … actually, what a good move!
Forget the betting and raising and reads … Hellmuth just gave ESPN a great story line, and guaranteed himself a lot of additional (sellable) airtime. (UB jersey allowed?) The 11-bracelet king of WSOP champions — who’s well-aware that people love to hate him — on the sidelines keeping the self-appointed November Nine bad guy in check? That’s gold, Jeffrey, gold I tell ya!
Whether or not Hellmuth ends up throwing a chair remains to be seen, but either way, it’s easy to see how Happy Shulman, by partnering with the Poker Brat, just gave WSOP Inc. a gift.
Tuesday night’s WSOP Main Event episode featured Norman Chad stating one sentence about the Ultimate Bet scandals as Phil Hellmuth and Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles were at the same feature table. Michalski noted in the comments, Mark originally “broke his silence” regarding the Absolute Poker scandal over at Raw Vegas back in 2007.
Watch The Toke – Absolute Poker’s Mark Seif on RawVegas.tv
In response to some of Seif’s comments, Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles offered a response on RawVegas.tv a few days later.
In the last edition of Card Player Magazine that I may receive (canceled the subscription after his initial WSOP comments), November Nine member Jeff Shulman takes the sly opportunity to make another unclear accusation point about the WSOP and Harrah’s.
To refresh memories, Shulman was headed for the final table of the WSOP Main Event in July and made some comments regarding the possibility of winning the bracelet, namely that he would throw the gold in the trash. Two days later, CardPlayer.com published a story allowing Shulman to clarify his feelings. He noted therein that he was disappointed in how the WSOP is run, and that it is no longer run by people who care about poker or have the players in mind. Some of his comments:
“Look, I love poker and entered with the hopes of winning,” Shulman stated. “But, more importantly, I support making the industry stronger and better for the players, and to do this, there needs to be some major changes to the way the World Series is run at the highest level. Hopefully, by doing something like this, people will start talking about those changes. I am going to stand by my commitment, but instead of pointlessly throwing it in the trash, I have come up with a few ideas.”
Jeff Shulman’s alternative bracelet ideas:
1. Auction off the bracelet and give the money to charity
2. Hold a tournament for all players shut out of the main event and award the winner the bracelet
3. Give the bracelet away in a SpadeClub.com tournament
4. Give the bracelet to Stephen Colbert
As the Card Player Media President and COO, Shulman has the magazine at his disposal in which to write a lengthy explanation of what is so wrong with Harrah’s and how he could fix poker. Instead, though, a page in the September 1 issue is dedicated (as always) to the Card Player TV show entitled “The Scoop with Adam & Diego,” and this time Shulman was the guest and excerpts were printed from the interview. Right off the bat, Diego Cordovez asked a question that baffled me coming from someone in the poker press:
“Now, the last couple of days, the poker press, what there is of it, has started to quote you and stir up controversy, which you initiated…”
Anyhooo, his answer? “…I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say that somebody’s got to do something about it. I’m not sure I’m the right guy, being that I’m in the industry, but it’s not like we have some special relationship here. They hate us, for whatever reason… I think they hate anyone who’s not a celebrity, or maybe it’s just that they treat the celebrities so much better than everyone else that they have special rules, they don’t get penalties. I’ve never seen anything like it. If we really want to take poker to the next level, you can’t have different rules for different people.”
Evidently, by disrespecting the WSOP bracelet and Harrah’s (and all the players who would do anything to be in his final table position), he plans to take poker to the next level. Would that be the rude and insulting level? Would that be the vague and evasive level? Would love to hear some thoughts on this issue…
(The opinions/insinuations herein are Cali Jen’s views and not necessarily those of Pokerati or Pokeratizens.)
It was dinner break on Day 7 of the main event — and hoping to finalize our patch deal with the really big money (and camera time) getting nearer, I joined Tom Schneider, along with Julie and Robert Goldfarb, at a Vietnamese restaurant with less than 30 minutes before play resumed. But alas, so much for Team Pokerati cracking the top 50 … all they wanted to do was play Chinese for $10 a point.
Here’s his latest instructional vid, teaching Kristy Arnett how to play everybody’s favorite 13-card game:
Big congratulations to Savvas Zenonos for successfully stealing $2,400 from the prize pool in a 2009 WSOP main event mega-satellite that was supposed to be shared in a 22-player chop.
Click here for the details of how a good chop can go awry.
It was a skillful play by Zenonos, who hails from Queensland, Australia — effectively mugging five other players of $300-$500 each without even having to reach in their pockets! Nice!
On the benefit of the doubt that it was a simple mistake (despite his saying, “I’m going to screw you over,” before actually doing so), we gave him three days to make good … and then even another couple of weeks before outing him as a brazen petty poker thief here … but no luck.
Zenonos had no cashes at the 2009 WSOP, but did finish 3,050th for number of cashes in 2008, and 2,984th in WSOP money won that year. His lifetime tournament winnings total $7,675 — though these results do not include satellite wins like this one, where he won an agreed-upon $7,800 but left (supposedly he literally ran off) with $10,200.
Pokerati was unable to reach Zenonos for comment, but will respectfully keep him on The Pokerati Bad List until he pays the money he owes (to any or all of the five afflicted) or volunteers to serve 10 days in a pillory at the 2010 WSOP.
Yeah, I almost forgot, too … was reminded by @ESPN_Poker:
Don’t forget, the 2009 WSOP debuts tonight on ESPN at 8 p.m. with the $40,000 no-limit hold ‘em event
We’re way past complaining that ESPN is showing only four events, right? Because I’ll be missing tonight’s episode, and I’ll be honest … I might not even set the Tivo were it a $1,500 donkament.
OK, I’m lying … I’m not setting the Tivo for this one either. Will catch it on a rerun, I’m sure. Spoiler alert: Vitaly Lunkin wins.
What I would wanna watch, personally … Any PLO $5k or higher, any Omaha Hi-Lo (because I really think I’m starting to learn that game), and No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Single-Draw, especially were Phil Ivey to make the final table.
This season, as we know, is going to be all about the main event, which we can only expect by the extra weeks to be more of a reality TV-type experience. And then of course the final table being semi-live … yes, live poker is often pretty good, and I look forward to seeing ESPN’s improvements on their second go at the November Nine.
Seriously, not trying to hate on ESPN’s WSOP coverage by letting you know I don’t really care about tonight’s show. On the contrary, props to them for recognizing that poker-on-TV coverage continues to evolve, and they need to mix it up a bit to stay relevant. But I do wonder how knowing this, knowing the role TV plays in getting pros to pony up the bigger buy-ins and online sites to pony up patch-wear overlays, might affect future WSOP tournament schedules.
UPDATE: OK, admittedly I am getting a bit more interested, and see how the $40k will presumably set the stage for the main event reality show after reading this and watching the teaser for Episode 2:
Our good friends at Betfair have released the betting lines — already moving — for the final table of the WSOP main event. Current market numbers:
Darvin Moon – 4.2
Eric Buchman – 5.8
Steven Begleiter – 7.2
Phil Ivey – 8
Jeff Shulman – 8
Joseph Cada – 16.5
Kevin Schaffel – 17.5
James Akenhead – 19
Antoine Saout – 21
Bodog’s lines are a tiny bit different, at least at the top:
Darvin Moon – 17/10
Eric Buchman – 3/1
Phil Ivey – 4/1
Jeff Shulman – 4/1
Steven Begleiter – 4/1
Joe Cada – 10/1
Kevin Schaffel – 12/1
Antoine Saout – 12/1
James Akenhead – 22/1
Am I the only one who thinks being chip leader is virtually a kiss of death?
Sometimes I think they’re important to have. Other times, um, lol? From Facebook:
J ***** sent you a message.
Subject: WSOP
“You still in the main event? In the money yet?”
Hey, so if all you could play along … I’m thinking of telling him yeah, it’s Day 3, I’m good for like $160k and am thinking of cashing out before I lose it all. Cool? If he asks who’s winning we’ll say Greg Raymer, OK? Ooh, or even better, Phil Ivey … er …
Frankly, I’m starting to see the “value” in having a bitter, Harrah’s-hating heir to an unloved magazine at the final table (seriously, ripping on CardPlayer has been kinda our shtick from the get-go! If it weren’t for them and their incompetence unfriendliness back in the day, we honestly might not be here). And while everybody wants to see Phil Ivey make the final table for millions of reasons … really, do you see him charming the crowd on David Letterman if they’re not willing to wager a few months worth of normal-people income or more?
Here’re the final 10, and their chip positions
Darvin Moon 44.3m
Eric Buchman 36.78m
Steven Begleiter 26.495m
Jeff Shulman 17.9m
Jordan Smith 15.43m
Joseph Cada 13.4m
Kevin Schaffel 13.08m
Phil Ivey 10.21m
Antoine Saout 10.2m
James Akenhead 5.1m
UPDATE: Jordan Smith is out. November Nine is set. We’ll be learning more about them in coming hours/days/weeks/months, I am sure.
As you know, Poker Shrink put together a little pool amongst a handful of media making our picks for the final table with 64 players left. Here’s the complete list of who picked whom, and who stands to win the $320 winner-take-all:
The moment the poker world has been waiting for nearly two weeks comes to a climax this afternoon with the final 27 players in the Main Event playing down to the November Nine. Here’s how the final three tables will look when play kicks off around 12 noon (database results courtesy of The Hendon Mob):
(Table 1)
Seat 1: Jesse Haabak – 2,750,000
Seat 2: Ian Tavelli – 4,385,000
Seat 3: James Calderaro – 6,475,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Tamayo – 3,300,000
Seat 5: Warren Zackey – 5,485,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman – 10,005,000
Seat 7: Leo Margets – 1,530,000
Seat 8: Tommy Vedes – 5,070,000
Seat 9: James Akenhead – 8,615,000
(Table 2)
Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 11,350,000
Seat 2: Jeff Shulman – 10,170,000
Seat 3: George Caragiorgas – 1,615,000
Seat 4: Nick Maimone – 1,545,000
Seat 5: Andrew Lichtenberger – 5,625,000
Seat 6: Marco Mattes – 5,285,000
Seat 7: Joseph Cada – 6,565,000
Seat 8: Darvin Moon – 20,160,000
Seat 9: Jordan Smith – 4,510,000
(Table 3)
Seat 1: Jamie Robbins – 9,795,000
Seat 2: Antonio Esfandiari – 4,470,000
Seat 3: Francois Balmigere – 1,440,000
Seat 4: Ludovic Lacay – 5,610,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter – 11,885,000
Seat 6: Ben Lamb – 9,410,000
Seat 7: Antoine Saout – 11,135,000
Seat 8: Kevin Schaffel – 11,245,000
Seat 9: Billy Kopp – 15,970,000
When play resumes, there will be 7:17 left in the 50,000/100,000/10,000 level, moving to 60,000/120,000/15,000. For Amy and The Shrink, there’s an extra 580,000 in chips spread out among the remaining field.
Here’s the chart of the players that made the money:
Updates resume starting at noon over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati will have other news during the day, so come back later, please.
Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:
After the remaining 29 players in the Main Event returned from dinner break, it took nearly a full level to get down to 27 players. Darvin Moon will return Wednesday at noon the chip leader with over 20,000,000 in chips. Billy Kopp will be in 2nd with nearly 16,000,000 chips. Phil Ivey will be in 4th place with just over 11,000,000 in chips. The remaining notables: Jeff Shulman (10,170,000), James Akenhead (8,600,000), Ludovic Lacay (5,6100,000) and Antonio Esfandiari (4,400,000).
Chip counts and the table draw will be available later today, check out wsop.com or Pokerati for further news.
Today is finally the Big Money Day — where the remaining field is competing for the bankroll-relevant cash. (Save for maybe Phil Ivey, who needs to get pretty close to the final table for that.) Shamus has a good write-up of his day at work yesterday, and the relevance of the action today (particularly as it relates to the blinds).
Good explanation of why it’s been kinda a bummer to see Tom Schneider, Joe Sebok, and Dennis Phillips go down early today, too. Media-friendly “good guys”.
So of course now we (as in everybody) still have Ivey — really, does anyone see him not making the final table at this point? — and Antonio Esfandiari (Go Iran!) … and a handful of non-American countries have their remaining players of choice to root for.
Kinda surprising kinda not that there seems to be no groundswell of support (from the media or online poker sites) for the 420-loving CardPlayer heir/editor Jeff “Happy” Shulman, who’s currently 11th in chips.
But beyond that, we don’t really know yet who’s who, and who will be remembered for anything more than just “going deep” or maybe “really deep”. That, of course, is what tomorrow will be all about.
Currently 29 players left. Playing down to 27. All the action, chip counts, and prize payouts at WSOP.com.
From WSOP.com:
Down to his last 1.12 million, the 2007 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Tom Schneider pushed all in from middle position, and got a caller in Marc Etienne McLaughlin from the small blind.
McLaughlin turned over
and Schneider tabled
. The flop came
and the turn the
. Schneider was down to his last card, looking for another seven or an ace.
The river brought the
, and Schneider is out in 52nd place. He gets $138,568, and a big hug from his supportive wife, Julie.
McLaughlin now has 3.6 million.
Nice run, Tommy-boy, and as testament to the significance of the main event, this score likely moves him from last to first in the unofficial Team Pokerati Net-Results Challenge.
From Tao:
3:15pm… B-52… DonkeyBomber Eliminated in 52nd Place
Chip Leaders: Billy Kopp, Darvin Moon. Phil Ivey, Ludovic Lacay
Recent Eliminations: DonkeyBomber
Players Remaining: 49DonkeyBomber lost a couple of pots before the break. AngryJulie went to fetch him a pizza so he could snack on his break. The railbirds are an integral part of the team in some cases, like a Nascar pit crew.
Bomber was short and made a stand with A-7. A French-Canuck called with 9-9. AngryJulie stood on the rail with an obstructed view and could not see the hands. “Do you have the pair or A-7?” she shouted.
“I have the Ace,” mumbled DonkeyBomber.
“That’s OK. I like it.”
The flop missed DonkeyBomber but he turned a seven to pick up a few outs. His Main Event came to an official close when he whiffed on the river. The DonkeyBomber was nevermore. A dejected AngryJulie fought back cheers as she joined in with a shower of applause. DonkeyBomber somberly walked over to the payout desk as his named was announced over the PA system, “The 2007 Player of the Year Tom Schneider from Scottsdale, Arizona was eliminated in 52nd place.”
“I’m proud of you!” shouted AngryJulie.
The two were followed by a camera crew as they walked through the vast emptiness of the Amazon Ballroom. At one point, they stopped and embarced for several seconds amidst the dimly lit room as a delicate clattering of chips echoed in the background. He disappeared into the crowd $138,568 richer, but he’ll tell you that this is the worst day of his life.
Play ended in the Main Event earlier today after 5 full levels of play, the first time that’s happened since Friday, leaving just 64 players remaining when play resumes at noon today. Here’s how the field will look (first by chip count, then by table):
As a note, the average chip stack is now about 3,044,000 with the blinds starting at 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante. Leo Margets will earn the last woman standing title as Nichoel Peppe finished in 75th place, good for $68,979. Other notables eliminated after the dinner break: Peter Eastgate (78th), Kenny Tran (86th), Noah Boeken (96th).
Follow the live updates over at wsop.com and check out Pauly for his own version of the action.
To wrap up the Dream Team Poker event, Kenna James did take down the individual title.
Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:
101 players remain as the players return from their dinner break shortly. The current chip leader is Darvin Moon of Oakland, Maryland with 5,700,000 in chips. Some notables returning with chips: Eugene Katchalov (3,600,000), Fabrice Soulier (3,550,000), Jeff Shulman (3,200,000), Phil Ivey (2,680,000), James Akenhead (2,500,000), Antonio Esfandiari (2,300,000), Dennis Phillips (2,200,000), Tom Schneider (1,571,000), Prahlad Friedman (1,280,000), Peter Eastgate (940,000), Noah Boeken (481,000), Joe Sebok (300,000) and Kenny Tran (262,000). There are still two women left as well: Nichoel Peppe (1,300,000) and Leo Margets (1,195,000).
Notable eliminations: Joe Hachem, David Benyamine, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, Bertrand Grospellier, Blair Hinkle and Joe Serock.
The Dream Team Poker event is down to Kenna James versus Judy Tejwani for the individual title. Congrats again goes to the Tao of Pokerati team for clinching the team title a few hours ago. Live updates now available for the Main Event at www.wsop.com and more stuff from the rest of the writing team during the evening.
Tom Schneider was seated at the ESPN feature table at the start of Day 6 and started in fourth chip position, though he seems to have slipped a bit. But he’s wearing PokerStars gear! (Go poker agent madness!) The table began with:
Seat 1: Clayton Newman – 244,000
Seat 2: Prahlad Friedman – 715,000
Seat 3: Tom Schneider – 3,168,000
Seat 4: Scott Eskenazi – 270,000
Seat 5: Paul Johnson – 1,606,000
Seat 6: Miika Puumalainen – 2,894,000
Seat 7: Scott Sitron – 778,000
Seat 8: Dwayne Stacey – 410,000
Seat 9: Michael Jansen – 852,000
Julie Schneider is in the front row supporting Tom, after having had a great series of her own with a third place finish in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event about two weeks ago.
Go Team Pokerati/PokerStars/Schneider!
UPDATE: Tom now sitting in third place on leaderboard. From Karridy: @DonkeyBomber busts 2 players at the featured table and is now over 4 Million in chips in the WSOP Main Event. Appx 125 players left.
Day 6 of the Main Event resumes today at 12 noon today, with the plan to play down to 63 players, which may make today the longest day of the WSOP so far. Here’s a few tables to scroll through, consisting of Day 6 table draws, payouts so far, and the 2nd page consists of Nolan Dalla’s tournament report.
For those that don’t care to click ahead, follow the live updates over at www.wsop.com and I’m sure Pauly and Dan will be providing updates on their run to Dream Team Poker glory.
The rail around the WSOP Main Event is substantial. Though the fans are quite a distance from most of the tables, many of them are there to support friends and family or catch a glimpse of some of the recognizable faces still in the game. The most popular? One Phil Ivey. And unfortunately for the somewhat-shy guy, his table today happened to be close to the rail AND an elevated platform where fans could attempt to smother him congregate.
For most of Day 5, Phil looked as if he wanted to run away. But with a Main Event championship title that he may envision with his name on it, he’ll stick around and put up with the ESPN camera crews and rows of fans (and media people with cameras).
Lou Diamond Phillips is the lone (non-poker) celebrity remaining in the main event, with a respectable 607,000 chips. (Avg. is 481k.) I’ve played with him once before … and it was a memorably odd night of poker, to say the least.
The recap of that eve has been lost in the old-old Pokerati archives, but I was able to dig up some pics from that eve:
LDP (as we called him before he became @LouDPhillips) was in town for the Deep Ellum Film Festival, so Robert Wilonsky invited him to a $.50/$1 Batface game at The Lodge. Clonie Gowen and Rick Fuller were there, as was David Williams I believe. Lou was actually running over the table … building his stack to about $700, which was very threatening in that game. Then Jerome Bettis showed up (out of nowhere and uninvited, btw) … The Bus was apparently at The Lodge on unrelated lap-lovin’ business, and couldn’t help but pull away when he heard there was a poker game going on in the champagne room.
Ahh, remember the good-ole-days of 2005, when poker was on its exponentially fast pop-cultural rise, and nights like these happened all the time?
But then things got kinda strange as Lou began playing shirtless and was flexing whenever he pushed all-in …
Bizarre, I know … but hey, it’s a small poker world.
(Table Blue 34)
Seat 1: Zhehao Zhang – 309000
Seat 2: Keith Burt – 237000
Seat 3: Alessandro Longobardi – 183000
Seat 4: Jose Rosenkrantz – 456000
Seat 5: @DonkeyBomber – 797000
Seat 6: Kevin ‘BeL0WaB0Ve’ Saul – 396000
Seat 7: Taher Alisheik – 745000
Seat 8: Josh Mancuso – 548000
Seat 9: Antonio ‘Bagels’ Cavezza – 824000
Let’s hope we’re not softballed the hedline: Rosenkrantz and DonkeyBomber Are Dead!
Arguably the best episode of PokerListings’ Rail Rewind ever … plenty of familiar faces (and bikini tops) … very pirate-y.
I said at the end of play yesterday: “Today was the fight for the money. Tomorrow is the fight for the real money,”
That’s not really correct. In fact, it’s pretty inaccurate … at least the second part, about Day 5.
The prize jumps that should be reached today are relatively small. Click here to see the prize payouts again.
404th place pays $27k.
If we lose more than half the remaining field today, we’ll be up to $37k. That’s a lot of fight necessary for just a single buy-in to next year’s main event.
The “big money” doesn’t kick in until about 72nd place … where the payouts jump from $69k to $90k, and then every few spots of survival from there translate into the kind of money jump of which the IRS is likely to take note.
The remaining 407 players return for Day 5 at noon today in the Main Event. The plan is to play 5 two-hour levels today. This is subject to change, depending on how many eliminations take place.
The charts below show the chip counts by table, and those who’ve made the money so far:
The other event going on today is the Dream Team Poker event also in the Amazon Room, starting at 2pm today.
Page 2 has the comprehensive Day 4 report from Nolan Dalla:
Edit: Here’s the official chip counts:
In a surprising move, play ended Saturday after just three levels of play in the main event, as the field is now down to about 400 players after three levels of play, which included nearly two hours of hand-for-hand play. Chip counts are unofficial at the moment, but it appears that Frenchman Ludovic Lacay will be the chip leader with 1,608,000 chips. Tom Lutz is listed in 2nd place with 1,600,000 chips. Other notables returning tomorrow with unofficial chip counts: Jordan Morgan (1,489,000), Blair Hinkle (1,399,000), Bertrand Grospellier (1,250,000), Nichoel Peppe (880,000), Kenny Tran (850,000), Tom Schneider (790,000), Lou Diamond Phillips (755,000), Dennis Phillips (630,000), Kara Scott (580,000), Joe Hachem (570,000), Noah Boeken (515,000), Joe Sebok (412,000) and Joe Serock (400,000). The returning players resume at 12 noon tomorrow, guaranteed at least $27,469.
The bubble was reached after 13 hands during hand-for-hand play. Kia Hamadani had about 160,000 in chips when they were about 20 players for the money, unfortunately for him, he took several hits to his stack until he was all in for his 500-chip ante. His last hand was 4-3o, which was crushed by someone making a large bet on a Q-Q-6 board with 9-2o. A nine on the turn and river meant that Hamadani would finish in 649, consoled by the fact that Jack Link’s Beef Jerky gave him a free entry to the 2010 Main Event.
Notables who can sleep in tomorrow: Phil Hellmuth, Patrick Bruel, Kelly Kim, Surinder Sunar, Matt Brady, Mark Gregorich, and Jesper Hougaard.
Official chip counts will be available in the morning, so return to Pokerati to see what’s turns up next.
Oh yeah… I began to doubt my picks when many of their preliminary finishes were not as expected (or non-existent). But it seems that two of my favorites for the 2009 WSOP are heading to Day 5 of the Main Event!
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier came into Day 4 as the massive chip leader, and though he lost a little ground, he still finished the day with 1,253,000 chips.
And Kara Scott! She didn’t have a stellar day but ended it with 400K. After the flurry of bustouts after the money bubble today, she hung in there and posted a solid end-of-day result.
