An oddly timed official statement, released from PokerNews Mgmt:

PokerNews Official Statement
July 14, 2008
PokerNews Management
The last 48 hours have been a crucial and trying time for PokerNews.

On the outset of the World Series of Poker, we have been associated with an outstanding female poker player, who until a few hours ago, was the last woman standing in the original field of 6844 entrants in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Official PokerNews representative, Tiffany Michelle, was one of the chip leaders for the better end of her run in the Main Event and was poised for a brilliant Final Table appearance that would make her the second woman in history to achieve such a feat.

As a company that truly believes in this industry and in the importance of supporting aspiring poker players, PokerNews sponsored her Full Tilt Poker into several buy-in events at this year’s World Series including the Main Event, enabling Tiffany to showcase her irrefutable talent and flair on the felt. However, a few days into the Main Event, several media outlets published reports and images showing Tiffany donning an UltimateBet.net logo during her play at the ESPN feature table.

It was later confirmed that without any consultation with PokerNews, Tiffany went ahead and signed a sponsorship deal with Ultimate Bet. While we welcome such sponsorship deals between online gaming operators and players, as a company we could see no reason as to why we were left out of such negotiations, especially considering the relationships that PokerNews has with all such entities. Tiffany was bought into the event by PokerNews and had a signed player contract with PokerNews Ltd. We believe, that based on advice from her agent that the contract may have loopholes; she went and made a deal with an online gaming operator that completely contradicted the trust that we had put in her, both as an employee and as a sponsored player. As an organization we felt completely sabotaged by Tiffany, her agent and Ultimate Bet.

More…

It might not be obvious by the name California Jen, but I’m actually a native St. Louisan - born and raised. Having lived there most of my life, I still have family in the Gateway to the West and visit several times a year. (Hi, Mom!)

Who am I going to root for at the final table when no pros are left and I couldn’t tell one player from the next? The guy wearing the STL hat! How could a die-hard Cardinals fan not root for the guy with the red STL logo?

As Johnny mentioned, St. Louis is ready to saunter rally behind their hometown hero, at least they will when they find out about this little thing called the World Series of Poker and the $9 million at stake. Even though the final table has not been set, as 11 player still remain, Dennis is the massive chipleader with over 24 million chips (second place has under 15 million). The 53-year old trucking company worker is making a solid run at going to the November final table as the top dog, and I’m jumping on the bandwagon.

GO STL!

14 players left as they head to the dinner break, to return at 8:30). Average stack will be 9.77m as the players return at 80,000/160,000 with a 20,000 ante.

Eliminations:
15th - Owen Crowe
16th - Anthony Scherer
17th - Tiffany Michelle

Chip counts at the dinner break:

More…

Well, that sure didn’t last. Pokerati’s only just-like-family player in the main event has been eliminated.

After losing momentum throughout the day, Tiffany Michelle’s last hand and last stand went down as reported by PokerNews:

Dennis Phillips raised to 500,000 from UTG, Peter Eastgate called and Tiffany Michelle called from the big blind. The flop was . Michelle checked, Phillips bet 1,000,000, Eastgate called and Michelle sat, propped up on her knees for about a minute before annoucing, “All in.” She had about 3.8 million behind. Phillips folded and Eastgate called.

Eastgate

Michelle

Tiffany Michelle needed serious help. Her top pair needed running straight cards to beat Eastgate’s set of aces. The turn was the and Michelle was drawing dead. The river was the and Tiffany Michelle’s Main Event run came to an end. She exited the stage in 17th place to a standing ovation.

Nice run, chica! Sorry we won’t be seeing you at the final table…

17 players left, players return from break at the 60/120/20k level:

Chip leader - Joe Bishop - 16.3m
Tiffany Michelle - 4.42m

Eliminations:
18th Jason Reisenberg
19th Albert Kim
20th Brandon Cantu
21st Paul Snead
22nd Judet Toni Cristian
23rd Tim Loecke

5:10pm Update: Tiffany Michelle out in 17th place.

The table draw with two tables left:

More…

Supposedly our favorite Dallas homey still alive in the main event … his dad was the air traffic controller at DFW airport that figured out bad shit was going down on September 11th.

Go Dallas Poker / America!

Not long after I wrote about the finalists in the main event who might be closer to Pokerati than our own families - call that the blurry misconception of the WSOP long haul - one of our top two left the building. The Six Degrees of Pokerati will have to start making shit up expand its criteria.

After slowly losing chips throughout the day, Brandon Cantu took a bit hit with the following hand, as reported by PokerNews:

Dean Hamrick Doubles Through Brandon Cantu

Kelly Kim opened for 275,000, Brandon Cantu reraised to 950,000, and Dean Hamrick moved all in. The crowd let out an “Ooooooooooh!” and got on their feet as the action came back to Kim. Kim let his hand go and it was Cantu’s turn to tank. Cantu thought for well over five minutes (Tim Loecke getting knocked out in the meantime) before saying “I call.”

Cantu {10-Spades} {5-Clubs}

Hamrick {A-Hearts} {A-Clubs}

There was mass disbelief and gasps from the crowd as Cantu rolled over his hand.

The flop was {8-Spades} {7-Clubs} {5-Hearts} and Cantu flopped a pair of fives. The turn was the {8-Diamonds}, a bad card for Cantu as Hamrick made aces up. Cantu paced in back of the table looking resigned to his fate as his entourage called for a five. The river, though was the {10-Diamonds} and Cantu made two pair, but it was no matter– Hamrick’s aces and eights were best and he raked in the massive pot.

Cantu was down to 2.4 million after the hand while Hamrick was up to 5.5 million. Cantu is now the tournament’s shortest stack.

After the 10-5 fiasco, Brandon ended up all-in pre-flop with pocket 9’s against Peter Eastgate’s A-Q. Peter ended up with a flush, and Brandon was out in 20th place with a little $257,334 for his spending pleasure.

The last of Pokerati’s top tier of players in the main event is Tiffany Michelle, who would be a lot more adorable right now if she wasn’t wearing UltimateBet gear!

Pokerati has no horses in the race, but in a remote way, we do. As a matter of fact, Pokerati is connected to all of the remaining 27 players in the 2008 WSOP main event. We like to call it Six Degrees of Pokerati.

Familiar with the Six Degrees of Separation? Or more importantly, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? There’s our logic in a nutshell. It’s not the most original concept in the world, but give us a break, will ya?

Since some players will be eliminated as the day progresses, we should at least throw out the top tier – those who come in at only one degree of separation from Pokerati. Drumroll…

Tiffany Michelle: Dan and I both know her. We have been to karaoke with her at Imperial Palace, I have been to dinner parties with her at Mariealena’s, and I have even seen her sing at several L.A. nightclubs. Most importantly, Dan and I are both MySpace friends with her, and we’ve shared close quarters on media row at the WSOP. We’re practically family.

Brandon Cantu: We share some of the same friends, like Joy, Tiffany, and Jeff Madsen, and we have ended up at some of the same social functions. Not only are we MySpace friends, but he came to my 2007 birthday party at PURE nightclub. He’s practically a brother to me.

Players in the main event who are two or three degrees of Pokerati coming soon…

No one’s got a better collection of WSOP factoids than Nolan Dalla (no offense, KevMath, you’re also a fact gathering machine) … and here are the WSOP media director’s notes about Day 6 (money, players, storylines, countries, stats, etc.) with potentially relevant info about the field moving forward:

[Hmm, maybe it is still the Year of the Pro, even though most of these pros are relatively unknown outside their home casinos?]

More…

Today’s the final day of play in the Amazon Room, as the 27 players remaining will play down to the November Nine, as those players scatter around the world an the vultures agents that represent them in an attempt to maximize the profile and sponsorship potential of a relatively unknown group of players looking to win just over $9m early in the morning of November 11th.

To see those final 27, head to page 2:
More…

This weekend wasn’t about life-changing money so much as it was about life-easing money for those who went super-deep (top 1 percent), but not deep-deep-deep in the main event: Margo Outhred reading David Sedaris’ latest (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) while awaiting important updates via text from her husband Alex. Though supposedly tournament poker is all about going for the win, there were points when he got short-stacked that she became very interested in the payout levels, and would rush back into the Amazon Room to let him know what they stood to gain if he could hold on for X spots longer.

63rd-55th place paid $115,800

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred finished in 54th(-46th) for $135,100 — a small but noticeable victory on his way out of the 2008 WSOP main event.

Oh shit, while contemplating the significance of Tiffany Michelle in a Matusow-less field, I almost completely overlooked Craig Marquis — an online player from Arlington (craigmarq) who Raj Kattamuri introduced to me just the other day. And lo and behold, he’s frickin’ second in chips! 11.5 million! Go craigmarq!

He says he doesn’t really play in Dallas underground games — just sticks to online — but he’s exactly the kinda player who I thought would do well this main event … a relative unknown who ain’t dancin’ at his first WSOP rodeo.

Big pre-emptive congrats, dude, and damn all you longtime Pokerati readers for not giving me the heads-up that a Dallas guy was still alive!!! thanks for giving us another person to cheer on as we work our way towards the November Nine.

Ouch … on a baddish beat where his trip aces with a jack kicker lost to a trip aces with a nine.

That means with 27 players left, there are only two I had heard of before the event started: Brandon Cantu and Tiffany Michelle. I gotta say, though our interaction has been limited to accepting MySpace friend requests and sharing a power outlet in the press box, I’m so ready to jump on the Tiffany Michelle bandwagon. If I’m gonna cheer lead for anyone right now, it’s gonna be her.

I’m almost afraid to comment too much on what her current chip position and status as Last Woman Standing means for fear of the jinx factor. And really, the relevance of anything anyone might have to say about her still depends on the fall of fuckin’ cards. But one thing is for sure, right now, going into the penultimate day of WSOP poker, there is no more valuable commodity player still alive in the main event than 24-year-old Tiffany Michelle — and based on the way agents and backers and Hollywood Daves are all up in her bidness, you can tell I’m not the only one to realize how much is really riding on her action.

I continue to work the hallways and set up executive-journo shop this time outside the payouts cage — where Pauly teaches me how to figure out who’s really backing whom … but not before we get distracted by a player sponsorship deal taking shape right before our very eyes, as a PartyPoker representative exchanges pleasantries with guys who clearly love the show Entourage agents from Poker Royalty. (Nothing would become of these pre-negotiations, however, as the lone remaining PartyPoker player would go from chip leader to out in 71st place in less than a day — falling just 62 spots short of the ever-valuable final table that various poker bizzers are jockeying for a piece of.)

Episode 27: Payouts and Payoffs

Supposedly the 2008 WSOP has been the “Year of the Pro”. Arguably so … but that puts a lot of pressure on Mike Matusow to make the final table. Otherwise, might we be looking at something in November that ain’t too different from a deep-stack donkament? Think about it … take a typical 1500 WSOP tourney and multiply by … yikes! 6.66 — ooh, there’s that number again! Evil-creepy!

But hey, numbers are numbers, and investigative math leads us to some pretty damning evidence:

$1,500 NLH x 1% of Satan = $10k main event.

Now factor in all the skulls seen in 2008 poker apparel … uh-huh, exactly. So it’s all on Matusow now, obviously, to be the Charlie Daniels of Poker.

Meanwhile, hallway rumors are that Poker Royalty is trying to negotiate a deal to represent the Antichrist as we get closer to the final table.

Finalist:

Best Mullet
Best Mullet-to-Chipstack Ratio

Though unspoken blogger code prevents me from telling you whether or not this is a picture of Iggy, I can tell you that this player was seen at Iggy’s table well into the main event money.

As noted in the previous post, Phil Hellmuth was able to have his penalty reversed. The penalty was initial imposed when he consistently berated an opponent during last night’s play, and he was supposed to sit out the first orbit of play today. Not anymore. The official statement on the special exception change was released by the World Series of Poker as follows:

This morning Phil Hellmuth met with Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director, Howard Greenbaum, Harrah’s Regional Vice President for Specialty Gaming, and Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP. Based on that meeting and an official review of the situation, it was decided that the penalty imposed on Mr. Hellmuth at the conclusion of play last night was excessive.

“Warnings and penalties are intended to correct inappropriate behavior and our rulings should be as fair as possible, given the circumstances,” said Pollack. “In this instance, the punishment did not fit the crime.”

“Phil has now been warned and put on notice in a way that he never has been,” Pollack added.

According to Dr. Pauly, Phil Hellmuth was not allowed to flaunt his massive UB logo for the television cameras while seated at the ESPN feature table. The powers-that-be put duct tape all over the big round UB symbol on the front of Hellmuth’s jersey. No special treatment for the Brat today.

Wonder if the duct tape, along with his one-orbit penalty for berating another player at the end of play last night, will affect his play today. He only had 721K coming into Day 6, and if he doesn’t keep himself from Phil-tilt, he could lose it all.

UPDATE: No penalty for Hellmuth. Evidently, it was overruled! According to PokerNews, WSOP Commissioner said, “The penalty has been overturned, and we will be issuing a formal statement shortly.”

photo: Wicked Chops Poker
EPT Powergirl Kara Scott proudly representing the “World’s Argest Oker Ite”.

It is no secret that poker tournaments filmed for television have made logos an important part of the game. Online poker websites and companies selling poker-related products are among the most lucrative deals to be had, as they are willing to pay players in front of the cameras to advertise for them. It works – players receive bonus compensation to allow a company rep to strategically place a Full Tilt or PokerStars or All In Energy Drink sticker on their shirts or hats.

Most television production companies involved with the big tournaments now lay out specific guidelines for the number of logos allowed, as well as the size and wording of them. For example, the World Poker Tour allows only one pre-approved logo per player, no bigger than 6 square inches and located on the shirt breast pocket.

The World Series of Poker has taken a different approach, allowing multiple logos for any site or product, with a few exceptions like prohibiting dot.com gaming sites that accept U.S. customers. The specific rule about logos at the WSOP is as follows:

Tournament Rule #43:
Tournament participants may wear apparel with multiple logos, patches or promotional language. However, no individual logo, patch or block of promotional language is to be larger than 12 square inches. No single company name is to be represented more than once on any individual article of clothing. For players seated at a table taped for television or broadband video coverage, logos may not be added after the beginning of that day’s session of play.

As the 2008 WSOP hit the money, many players had sponsorship deals of some sort, and there was no shortage of logos in the tournament area. Full Tilt logos were well within the guidelines, while PokerStars pushed the envelope but somehow did not violate the rules. Other sites like UltimateBet played by the rules, except when it came to Phil Hellmuth’s jersey, the entire front of which is a UB symbol.

When I asked a WSOP official about the exception made for Hellmuth, he noted that the ESPN cameras never get the entire logo in the shots. He likened it to a player’s shirt that read “Illinois” across the front, and when I pointed out that Illinois isn’t selling itself like UB is, he said that it would simply be too arduous a task to ask everyone with a word or symbol on their shirt – like University of Michigan or Nike – to change clothes. Understandable, but is it too much to ask that an experienced pro like Hellmuth abide by the fairly clear-cut rules?

The WSOP official did mention that the logo rules will be revisited during the planning of the 2009 WSOP. Now, if someone would just tell Hellmuth…

With 92 players remaining, Phil Hellmuth is in about dead-middle of the pack, with 1.28 million chips. He had climbed up from near the bottom of the pack some two hours earlier, where he had to fight off some major steam after some bad beats/21st century plays. On break, Hellmuth asked if he could stay in the Amazon Room just to pace, but tournament staff said sorry, they couldn’t make any special exceptions (even for him), which conceivably added to his steam factor … so he went outside into the hot Vegas sun (actually, it was a relatively cool, humid 94 degrees) and paced back and forth along a straight line for the full 20 minutes.

As the remaining 92 players head off to dinner, it was just decided by the tournament staff that they will play only one more level upon their return. That will allow everyone to get outta here around 11:30pm and be here with bells on at noon tomorrow.

Over/under on what the ending number will be tonight?

For some reason that’s really kinda hard to figure out, everyone likes Mike Matusow … maybe its because he encompasses the issues of every emotionally disturbed pre-adolescent boy any of us knew or were. So when you can be entertained by his downswings, how can you not celebrate his successes and root for more? After all, if this guy who clearly got in lots of trouble in elementary/Hebrew school can do it, why can’t we, right?

That’s just a guess, really, on my part. But Pauly tries to get down to the brass tacks of it all by talking with the Poker Shrink, who happens to be working on Mike’s autobiography with Amy Calistri. And in doing so, we learn not only about Mike’s strategy that brought him to Day 5 and what he’s looking to do moving forward, but also the Shrink tells us about Mike’s performance enhancing drug use — and the mutual benefits of Adderall, a drug that keeps certain people sane and happens to help them focus on the poker at hand.

Episode 25: Mike Madderall

A little leftover T-o-P audio, recorded late-night on Day 2B, as I throw the entire observant media for a loop by setting up shop outside the standard media home bases for the biggest Day 2 in the history of poker. People are baffled, and some want to know who’s winning … when all we really know is that about 200-an-hour aren’t. Special appearances by a tournament floor supervisor and some Euro-friends from PokerListings, PokerStars, etc. devolves into prop-betting over the gender and race of people emerging from a set of doors.

Episode 24: Kids in the Hall

Today is the day we watch the all-in-and-busts or all-in-and-double-ups while generally overlooking the pre-river play of players skillfully wielding medium-sized stacks to stay ahead of escalating blinds. It’s also the day that the 2008 189th through probably 28th or maybe 37th place WSOP main event finishers get crowned … so strike up the band(s)!

No more Team Pokerati members still alive … but we do have one Friend of Pokerati still with a fighting chance to make the bigger money — Raj Katamrsaddssldkasdi. He starts the day with 499,000 chips. (Avg. stack is 725k.) His table as Day 5 begins:

Seat 1: Mao Qiu – 1,200,000
Seat 2: Garth Paul – 647,000
Seat 3: Mark Owens – 577,000
Seat 4: Nicholas Sliwinski – 1,408,000
Seat 5: James McManus – 1,761,000
Seat 6: Stephen Kenna – 495,000
Seat 7: Alex Tinsley – 168,000
Seat 8: Raja Kattamuri – 499,000
Seat 9: Yde van Deutekom – 384,000

Others we’ll be paying attention to in the field include:

Phil Hellmuth — the last of the Big Three remaining, he’s impossible not to watch. 581,000

Mike Matusow — seriously, why is it that a guy who would be considered a total miscreant in just about every other profession is generally beloved in the poker world? I know I’d like to see him do well. 458,000

Tiffany Michelle — holy shit, like she can really play or something? Apparently more than just a texter. 909,000

Allen Cunningham — Dan Harrington’s long-lost child? (He’s on the same table as Tiffany.) 1,141,000

(Lost first post because of Rio internet. F!@$&! Abbreviated version here.)

The goal of Day 4 was to play five levels, though it the tournament staff noted that if the field dwindled from the starting number of 474 down to the 175-200 range, play may be stopped after four levels. So, Level 19 played until…189 players remained and a random announcement came that play ended for the day. Huh? With 38 minutes left in the level, they were done for the day.

While straight answers are hard to come by, it is widely accepted that ESPN makes decisions like that. Dr. Pauly speculated that the ESPN featured table was the next one to break, and instead of going through the hassle of moving players and setting up new ones on the stage - attaching microphones, making sure they understand the hole card cameras, etc. - it was easier to end play for the day and start over on Day 5. Voila! It was done.

Today, players are scheduled to play the 38 remaining minutes of Level 19, then the regularly scheduled five levels. Tournament director Jack Effel announced that although that is the plan, it will be reevaluated throughout the day as the field continues to dwindle.

It only took those 38 minutes to see the field shrink from the original 189 to 177. They’re going fast. Hope that fits into ESPN Standard Time.

Change 100 reports (via PokerNews):

25,000 Chips Introduced

“Hey, what are those green chips in your stack?” asked a surprised Maya Antonius. A small stack of forest green chips sat atop her tablemate’s stack of yellows and oranges.

He showed the chips to a curious Antonius– at the last color-up dark green 25,000-denomination checks were introduced into play.

Ms. Antonius looked a bit disappointed that she didn’t have any… yet.

The arrival of these chips have been highly anticipated — not just because they are big — but because of the color troubles last year with orange, off-orange, and pinkish-orange all on the table at the same time.

All the denominations higher than 5,000 have changed this year, and even the floor staff doesn’t now what they will be until they come out for color-up.

These shots were taken on Day 2, and they show the player sitting to Pat Poels’ left trying to sneak a peak at his hole cards. I told Pat about this, btw, and like Tommy Grand or Joey Greco, I showed him the surveillance footage of the disappointing truth.

“It’s better that you know,” I told him.

But Pat reassured me that it’s OK, his opponent didn’t see anything, because “I’m very good at looking at my cards,” he said with a straight face as if he were being totally serious about a practiced skill. “Just ask Robert, he’s told me before when trying to sweat me he can’t see my cards.”

Pat is currently on break in Day 4 of the main event — 450k in chips with 350 players remaining, one of whom is not the guy at right.

With a double-up on his first hand, and a favorable flop on his next push, we started to believe … alas, the World Series has ended for Whit, who repped Dallas, Texas, Pokerati, and average white guys with day jobs well.

Whit is now 2-for-2 when it comes to main event cashes. This year he’ll be bringing home 28,950 pre-tax American dollars to donk off in Oklahoma.

Net: +$18,950

Not bad for an extra-exciting summer trip to V-town.

Mean Gene’s official hand recount for PokerNews:

Whitney Blanton Eliminated

A few hands after doubling up against Adam Zinn, Whitney Blanton again moved all in and was called by Sarkis Akopyan. Blanton held to Akapyan’s and took the lead from Sarkis when the flop came . But the turn brought the , giving Akopyan the straight and leaving Whitney needing a king or queen for the full house. But the {4-Hearts} fell on the river and Blanton’s Main Event came to an end.

Craig Cunningham likes to – during the main event particularly — look at data, tabulate it, and occasionally share the results with his fellow poker bloggers. Today he sends along a good quick-list of the blind levels we’ll be seeing today, and some interesting thoughts on picking out the likely chip leaders as we whittle our way down to fewer and fewer tables:

No time for great wisdom today and analysis (maybe tomorrow). I would point you to the table tab which is my favorite to look for. I always total the chips at each table when we get to this stage to see where the big tables are. The big tables often yield chip leaders as we move into Day 4 and beyond. Iggy’s table has the fifth most chips to start with only eight players to begin with, including Jeremiah Smith (2nd in chips at just over a million). Structure below.

	SB	BB	Ante	Pot
Level 16	2,500	5,000	500	12,000
Level 17	3,000	6,000	1,000	18,000
Level 18	4,000	8,000	1,000	21,000
Level 19	5,000	10,000	1,000	24,000
Level 20	6,000	12,000	2,000	36,000
Level 21	8,000	16,000	2,000	42,000

Obviously there are only five levels in play today (16-20), but as is the case for the players at the tables, you gotta know what’s coming up (in level 21) to make proper decisions before it.

The remaining 600-something players are in the money, and the field is dwindling fast. Fewer poker fans are checking out the action, and cash game players are practically non-existent. It’s that time that the World Series begins to come to a close; only four days left after tonight, and everyone is outta here.

So, the production that is the WSOP begins to shrink as well. The Poker Kitchen closed its doors tonight for the final time. With chains on the doors, the staff can be seen through the glass tearing down tables and packing up packets of ranch dressing. The only place left to get food in this area of the Rio for the next four days will be a makeshift pizza stand in the hallway and the gift shop for snacks and boxed sandwiches.

The All In Energy Drink booth has transported the last of its products to the warehouse. The Poker Players Alliance information booth is no more. The Hertz rental car company is gone. And various other booths, like Gamma-O Testosterone Booster and NatureEnergy will likely be deconstructed in the next 24-48 hours.

As media access for non-official media begins to be restricted tonight and in the coming days, with fewer tables and less space to get around the ESPN cameras, many members of the media will be less visible here at the Rio because of the limited access. Granted, there will be much more coverage to come as the remaining hundreds of players vie for seats at the final table, but the light at the end of the WSOP/Rio tunnel is causing some inevitable shrinkage.

The 2008 main event gets into the money, and 666 players in the World Series of Satan Poker experience $20,000+ of pleasure. It’s an exciting time as a bunch of people take pleasure in one man’s demise (who then get’s called up on stage to see if he can resist screaming “Fuck You!” to the whole crowd. Before all is said and done, Juan from PokerNews-España informs us of one player — Fernando Gordo — who didn’t show up for Day 3 and survives with two chips and a chair. Can you imagine how fast his table must’ve wanted to play while the others were wanting to go slow? Regardless, forget imagining … listen for yourself, and experience the only “sport” where 667th place comes with such intense agony and ecstasy.

Episode 23: Bubblicious

Fernando Gordo is the Argentinian who started the day with just under 140,000 chips. Only thing … he pulled a Vinny Vinh and didn’t show up.

Well, with 1,500 chips remaining — 1 yellow, 1 blue — he survived the bubble and made the money.

And though I’ll need to check with Oliver on this, I think he might have been the guy that just signed a contingency deal with Full Tilt. Very confusing — but now we know how many chips you need, essentially, to survive Day 3 without playing.

We’re 19 players away from the magic evil bubble at the start of my writing this post. Hands began to accelerate dramatically — lots of all-ins over the past half-hour, almost frantically so — and now here come the brakes … and the time where the (knowledgeable) big stacks superbully, the pros pick off blinds and antes, and everyone else, like Iggy, folds folds and folds their way into the money, or, of course, out of it.

UPDATE: 17 players away … now 15.

Damn, maybe I’m wrong, but I really expect this thin to come to a screeching halt. They’ll be going hand-for-hand once they get down to 9 players before the bubble — the hope being that three or so will drop out right there upon announcing the hand-for-hand grind. Think about it … going h4h with nearly 75 tables, with lots of major decisions on the line.

The players I’m paying attention to:

Team Pokerati

Pat Poels — about 210k

Whit Blanton — looks a little more nervous, though really he’s fine, with about 140k

Friends of Pokerati

Raj Kattamuri is scooping pots every time I check on him. He seemed to be up over 400k last I saw, though fyi, my margin of error on his stacks could be + or -100k, because he’s just got so damn many. Phil Hellmuth is at his table, btw.

Danny Fuhs — not sure of his status. Sorry, unofficial media shut out at this point, and official media has no mention of him. But about a half-hour before bubbletime, he had 100k or more.

Pokerati Also-Rans

Iggy is up to 112k in chips.

Tiffany Michelle is short stacked in the 50ishk area, and is doing what she has to do — not afraid to push all-in, which she did with AK, only to get a call from a big-stack
Kido Pham — Dallas guy who started out strong, is now clinging to life, and accused me of being “not nice” by taking a picture of his tiny stack. “I have lots of readers in Dallas, though,” I told him, “They want to know how you’re doing.”

“But I told my friends in Dallas I already busted!” he answered, “so they stop texting me.”

Jeremiah Smith — He’s supposedly running good, and different media members are already starting to talk about his destiny. Raising all-in with 6-9, getting called by queens and a flop of 7-8-10 is pretty much the definition of “running good.” But most curious to me about this former employee of PokerWire is that he’s wearing a Hard Rock Poker Room shirt. The Hard Rock Poker Room, of course, doesn’t exist yet. But it will in August. Wondering what’s his gig there.

UPDATE: We are at H4H — 674 players remain

Other Pros et al.

These players also have caught my attention for some reason or another:

UPDATE: We are 3 away from the money, going H4H.

Victor Ramdin — 511,000
Sean Sheikhan — 510,000
Gert Jans — 530,000 — some amazing PokerStars Swedish bad-ass, who has been at Iggy’s table most of the day
Jon Friedberg — 448,000
Matt Matros — 448,000
Hoyt Corkins — 355,000
Chip Jett — 340,000
Brandon Cantu — 330,000
Alex Outhred — 320,000
Phil Hellmuth — 310,000
Gus Hanson — 310,000
Evelyn Ng — 305,000
Hasan Habib — 300,000
Mike Matusow — 295,000
Larry Wright (Texan) — 290,000
Robert Mizrachi — 290,000
Steve Billrakis
Allen Cunningham
Nenad Medic
Ray Henson (remember him from last year)
Jean Robert Bellande — 213,000
Johnny Chan — 194,600
Van Nguyen — 190,000
Hevad Khan — 178,

Bubble is bursting … sorry, gotta presh publish.

Phil Gordon is still alive and well in the main event — and because he clearly doesn’t have his podcast priorities straight, I got to sit in for him on ESPN’s The Poker Edge. This was new poker podcast territory for me, as co-host Andrew Feldman made me talk about actual poker players and chips — as if we were tracking some sort of athletic competition or something. But in doing so, we actually get down to the brass tax of it all, and break down what this field size, blind structure, and remaining-player make-up means for various stack sizes going into Day 3.

Click here to have a download/listen.
36:40

Oh, by the way, ESPN also honors Raj Kattamuri as the 2008 WSOP Main Event-Day 2B Player of the Day. Go Dallas poker!

Sorry for the brief delay in getting new episodes of Tao of Pokerati to you. Our production crew was being held hostage by our fellow podcast colleague/competitors at Poker Road and ESPN! They apparently went to all lengths possible to keep the T-O-P down, but we knew it was only a matter of time before the military arrived, freed the T-O-P crew, and deprogrammed the secret mental suggestion they implanted in the hosts’ brains to drink more and podcast less.

This special double-album episode starts out with an update from my undercover investigative reporting on the trials and travails of branding players with sticky fabrics, and from there, Dr. Pauly and I dig in to what’s at stake in some of the cutthroat agent warfare going on inside and outside the ropes during the main event.

Episode 22: Agent Oranges

Oops. Chud is out.

We lost Randack, TBR, and Goldfarb early today, but with three fewer players to follow, we were able to find another one roaming the hallways at dinner break and get him aboard Team Pokerati.

Andrew Chud is, um, a rrreally good player? He’s from Texas, I know that much — in like the telecom industry, I think — and having cut his teeth in the Dallas and Oklahoma minor leagues, he shows up for his first Big One and finds himself nearing the end of Day 2b with a comfortable 77k in chips.

Besides all that, his name is CHUD! We’re proud to have him aboard, of course, and are counting on him to maintain his average chipstack and go deep.

Chud, Chud, Chud, Chud!

For those of you still alive in the main event, or perhaps those who wish they still were, here’s a good song — you’re welcome to borrow it — to keep you thinkin’ straight and your eye on the prize as the field works its way toward the bubble:

Iron Maiden — Number of the Beast

Click below for the lyrics. They don’t speak specifically about the 2008 main event, but if you close your eyes and pretend, they really do have a lot to do with a poker player’s struggle to acquire chips (and keep them) en route to making the money.

Also works as a good soundtrack for reading Pokerati, of course.
More…

Michael Binger said she was due … and sure enough, Clonie Gowen got it good — not at the WSOP, but across I-15 at the Bellagio Cup IV, in a $5,000 NLH event that drew 235 runners.

Kinda like a high-stakes second-chance tourney for early main-event busters and pros callously accused of being in a drug-addled downward spiral. Her payday for winning: $437,775

Awesome. Congrats, Clonie! I knew you had it in you, regardless of your status with Full Tilt … Seriously, we should be like best friends again and hang out all the time.

Some updated info about the totality of the WSOP, from media director Nolan Dalla:

· This is the largest World Series of Poker in history. A grand total of 58,720 entries for an identical number of gold bracelet events (55 tournaments) surpassed last year’s number of entries, which was 54,288. These figures represent an 8 percent increase over 2007.

· This was the richest World Series of Poker in history. A grand total of $180,676,248 in prize money awarded in 2008 makes this the richest event in all of sports. Last year’s total prize pool was $159,796,918. These figures represent an increase of 13 percent over 2007. Note: Prize money increased more than the number of entries because there were more events with higher buy-ins and more re-buy events on this year’s schedule.

More…

With the slower structure at the 2008 WSOP main event, the number of players still in the field after all of the Day 1’s were completed is massive - 3,929 to be exact. Luckily, the second days are divided into two, with Day 1A and 1B finishers playing on Day 2A on Tuesday, and Day 1C and 1D finishers playing on Day 2B on Wednesday. Are ya with me?

There will be 1251 players on Day 2A, with the top ten as follows:

Mark Garner - 194,900
Ben Sarnoff - 177,500
Brandon Adams - 176,450
Brian Schaedlich - 160,725
Kellen Hunter - 155,200
Stefan Mattsson - 154,275
Patrick Fortin - 145,275
Robert Mizrachi - 142,400
Jeff Frerichs - 138,025
Soren Peterson - 135,475

And there will be a whopping 2678 players on Day 2B, with the ten chip leaders as follows:

Henning Granstad - 242,950
Curt Kohlberg - 173,050
David Baker - 163,450
Howard Berchowitz - 160,075
Arnaud Mattern - 157,650
Steve Austin - 149,000
Mohamad Kowssarie - 146,000
David Stucke - 140,525
Sami Rustom - 140,450
Dylan Linde - 138,425

We’ll be at the Rio tomorrow to bring you any interesting info and gossip as the field plays down over the coming days.

This hedline could refer to thousands of players, of course, but I’m talkin’ bout Pokerati’s own Donkey … who busted out on the near last hand. He re-raised with a broadway open-ender, got called with a flush draw, and a club on the turn did him in. Nice go, though Donk!

By the way, he apparently drove Beth Shak nuts — his K-J suckout against hre A-J really set her off. By the way, fyi Donkey, she gave me some of your tells. You apparently blink your eyes a lot when the flop hits