Gold is currently selling for $1,390 an ounce, just short of what Eskimo would need for his next WSOP buy-in.

I’m back in action because I thought I was going to be up this morning spending my Pokerati paycheck on an Eskimo Clark bracelet — there’s one for sale on Ebay right now, in an auction that closes in about an hour. But holy meltdown, they’re up to 15 bids already, from six different bidders, and $4,050! That’s already more than TJ Cloutier got for his pawned-off WSOP hardware nearly a year ago, and puts Eskimo’s jewels way out of my league unless someone wants to give me a raise by infinity. Can you say, “Going once, going twice … going in your pants at the table?”

The auction closes today at 10 am PT.Get in before this “pre-owned” 1999 $1,500 Razz beauty is gone. (Replace the word Razz with “Dodge Neon” and that’s what my last boyfriend used to say to initiate foreplay.)

I knew I had no chance of scoring Peter Eastgate’s bracelet on eBay last week. His newer model fetched a whopping $147,500 after Interpoker got into a bidding war with Tony G, who made a play for the limelight by blog-bragging about plans to buy it for a collar for his dog. Inter stepped in to thwart him from making a “mockery” of the WSOP, but I’m not sure which is worse – seeing a WSOP bracelet on a dog or seeing it on eBay. But with the prize going to anonymous bidder “7***l”, it did raise a lot of money for UNICEF.

And check it out, Eastgate’s not done hawking his WSOP main event booty yet. Little Petey’s now got his “2008 WSOP Final Table Corum timepiece” for sale. The seller is “petereastgate” himself, making his first ever eBay posting. Asking price: $7,000. Money from that auction will go to UNICEF, too, but so far it has 0 bidders and closes on Friday.

Maybe I’ll use what I thought I’d spend on Eskimo to buy a couple Peter Eastgate 8x10s.

Four EPT winners walk into a bar …

Eastgate ups the ante for promising poker quitters like Carter Phillips, who says he’s 95 percent sure he’s done with poker after being robbed of €4,000 at EPT Barcelona. The defending champion claims he was attacked by Zorro … but this machete-wielding lunatic wasn’t like the one at EPT Berlin. Phillips was with three other up-and-coming big-money pros — Kevin Stani (winner EPT-Tallin), Kayvan Payman (final table EPT-London) and William Reynolds (winner PCA High Roller) — when they supposedly got pickpocketed at a “hookah bar” (that sounds Spanish for “hooker bar”) then ambushed by a man with a frying pan?

Phillips was the only one there with a WSOP bracelet (2010 $1,500 NLH 6-max) to pawn off if he’s serious about quitting. We all know he’s bluffing, but when the 21-year-old does decide to man up, drop balls, and get back in the game, it will be a long time before we hear him ask for a chopped pot.

So while I’m still here with nothing to bid on …

Happy-sappy crap

Bryan Micon posted on Facebook over the Thanksgiving holiday: “Let it be known: I have married my beloved Martha.” Inspiring, really. A guy who has made a career out of posting peens on the internet gets married for the SECOND time. Related: In an effort to improve my love life, I am now accepting pics of random wood.

Gavin Smith made himself a baby — with whom, I’ll find out, but right now I know he calls her “Moomy” and she’s not me. After the birth a couple weeks ago, proud poker papa tweeted, “7lbs 2oz, 20 inches long and quite well endowed if I may say so myself.” Let’s hope Micon doesn’t get a picture of that before the kid gets a million twitter followers.

Mike Matusow has a new girlfriend. Annie LePage, some Las Vegas PETA chick that Dan can’t shut up about. Let’s face it – Mike Matusow isn’t the sexiest player alive, but I’d take my chances with someone nicknamed “The Mouth”, too. It became official with giddy girltalk about meeting his parents and then a change in Facebook status that I know crushed our Pokerati in Chief. Hey, cheer up, toots. I’m sure Matusow will fuck this up before long. And you can do better with ME and my… um… yeah, nevermind.

No FAIR! I’ve got three!

And finally, once again proving that he’s constantly got male genitals on his mind, Daniel Negreanu paid some dude to get a ‘Loves Cock’ tattoo. Yup, $1,000 was the price happily paid by Kid Poker to see Dominic Mattucci declare his fondness for eating meat. Jeez… wish I’d have known about this before I got mine.

The 5pm Detox Poker Series event, $350 Omaha 8 or Better, drew a field of 57 as they played down to the final six players making the money. Here’s how the final table will be seated with blinds of 1,500/2,500, limits of 2,500/5000:

Seat 1: Steve Kaufman 40,500
Seat 2: Frankie O’Dell 41,000
Seat 3: Mitch Schock 86,500
Seat 4: Peter Mauro 12,000
Seat 5: Joe Worrell 54,500
Seat 6: Jason Reading 50,000

Saturday at 1pm is day 1b of the $335 NL Holdem event, with 127 players needed to reach the $100,000 guarantee. At 5pm, it’s event #3, $350 HORSE with a few dozen player expected for some mixed-game action.
Check out www.detoxpoker.com for updates/video/chat/etc.

Yan Chen Lowball Winner

The $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw champion was Yan Chen, a cash game veteran defeated Mike Wattel heads-up to earn his first bracelet, along with $92,817. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are online at wsop.com. Check out a brief documentary on Chen, which I believe appeared on Pokerati a while ago, here.

18 Left for Day 3 of 10k Stud 8

Day 2 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better World Championship concluded with 18 players returning at 3:30 this afternoon, but only 16 will make the money. The current chip leader is Frank Kassela (515,000), followed by Sergey Altbregin (497,000) and Kirill Rabtsov (388,000). Other notables returning include John Juanda (368,000), Allen Kessler (316,000), Steve Zolotow (301,000) and Vladimir Schmelev (275,000). Here’s the full list of the remaining field.

Vance leads day 3 of $1,000 NL

Matt Vance (547,000) will lead the day 3 field of $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event with 56 players remaining. Other notables returning at 2:30 to maybe play down to a winner: Mats Gavatin (453,000), Carl Olson (325,000), Jared Hamby (217,000) and Ylon Schwartz (183,000). See the full list of chip counts here.

Teska Tops for Day 2 of $1,500 NL 6-max

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-Max event drew a field of 1,663 players, with the field making the money near the end of play. When the 146 players return at 2:30 this afternoon, Roger Teska (221,000) will start with the chip lead, with familiar names David Sands (117,800), JP Kelly (92,900), Mark Seif (70,300), and Bryan Micon (65,500). Event 16 chip counts here.

Tuesday’s Tournament

The only tournament starting today is at noon, the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event should bring out a strong field of pros, both live and online. Last year’s event was won by Brian Lemke, cousin of Justin Shronk, for nearly $700,000. Follow all the action this afternoon at WSOP.com or PokerNews.

After a crazy-busy multilocation 8 am-2 am Thursday (breakfast meeting at Wynn, Poker Beat at Rio North, Semi-secret Chops/Pauly meeting in Rio South, impromptu meeting with Dan from Victory at Starbuck’s … then back to the Amazon for web-advice from @chazbeaner about the upcoming World Cup, and a lengthy convo with @JoeSebok about UB and pedophilia … and then on to the CardRunners happy hour at StripBurger in Fashion Show Mall … and then to the Hard Rock for my 1/2 NL/PLO game, where I may have stayed a little longer than I shoulda, according to my chip stacks, because with two tables running all night, friends, colleagues, and Pokerati readers were showing up one after another, and I wanted to be a good host) …

Anyhow, yes, so I decided to sleep in, which I did for nearly eight hours, and then took a nap for a couple more hours. It was awesome. So to catch up on everything I missed, I went first to KevMath’s Way Outside … and then to the latest link dump(s) on Tao, where I found all sorts of great clicks.

Most notably … Micon’s Donkdown Degen Report on Raw Vegas:

In this first episode, Micon reports on the latest Thang Luu hand-smashing news … though surely he’s just got his timeline crossed, right? No way Luu went back-to-back in $1,500 O8 bracelets AND breaking dealer hands! It’s gotta be a mistake, because if Luu broke two dealer hands in two separate incidents … damn, that is terrible legendary/awesome … assault and battery or not, that’s the kinda tale people will be telling at the 80th WSOP and beyond.

(Here’s what KevMath has on the matter, btw: http://pokerati.com/2010/05/31/way-outside-the-wsop-day-4/#comments)

And who else to get to the bottom of it than a man who funded his bankroll by picking up dog shit?

But also in this episode … an even better story about earning getting others to pay your way to the WSOP … with noted 2+2er HIV, who got the forum to pay for 80 percent of his action, and then traded an additional 5 percent for Las Vegas room and board.

The status of PokerPages has been up in the air ever since they announced they’d be closing up shop effective Oct. 31. That day passed and they still kept publishing — and even sent two reporters to cover the November Nine. But no original content has been put up on the site since Dec. 3. Everyone was expecting some sort of sale, and now that has apparently gone through.

PokerPages, of course, is one of the oldest poker information sites on the internet – having reported on tournaments since 2000 … and having built a massive tourney/player/results database in the process.

What PokerStars plans to do with a site they haven’t yet told many people they’ve bought (or intend to buy) remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the transition from NeverwinPoker to Donkdown seems complete — with the old NWP forums successfully transfered over to their new home. Donkdown is now a Bryan Micon and Todd Witteles (aka “Dan Druff”) joint, with no more Tony G or Dustin Woolf, who is now the lone face for his namesake site.

Speaking of forums … 2+2 honcho Mason Malmuth has sued Dutch Boyd (and a guy named Anthony Scocozza) over domain squatting issues.

Oh, and our once-superbeloved PokerBlog.com … yeah, they’re apparently gone. For at least the past week, visiting the site gives you this message:

Fatal error: Table ‘./pokerblog/cache’ is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: SELECT data, created, headers FROM cache WHERE cid = ‘variables’ in /home/pokerblogcom/public_html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66

R.I.P. Yeah, seems kinda appropriate. PokerBlog was/is a PartyPoker operation … but now they seem to be focussing blogging efforts on their more official company blog.

UPDATE: PokerBlog is back. Looks like we can expect some WPT coverage there.

Tony G and the semi-corporate interests at PokerNews, who bought a controlling interest in the “gossip site” two years ago, have turned off the infamously uncensored forum. It simply wasn’t “converting” supposedly.

But don’t expect thousands of black-cock refugees to suddenly flood 2+2. Neverwin pioneer Bryan Micon is launching a new site for his toxic flock of angry outcasts at www.donkdown.com.

Meanwhile, PokerPages is somehow staying afloat — producing semi-regular new poker articles — despite declarations that they’d be fully out of business by the end of October.

Notables who hit the rail:

Erik Seidel, Raymond Rahme, Jimmy Fricke, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Edler, Darus Suharto, Ville Wahlbeck, “Miami John” Cernuto, Bryan Micon, Roland de Wolfe and Sam Farha.

More stuff from Pokerati later this evening as the money bubble may be reached tonight, depending on how fast the eliminations go after dinner.

Last $1,500 NL Draws Capacity Crowd (Again)

Monday’s $1,500 NL Holdem event drew a field of 2818 entrants for another sold-out event. Around 1,000 players will be left when the players come back to play four levels when play concludes for the evening. The unofficial chip leader is JC Tran (51,000) followed by Theo Tran (no relation) at 42,400.

HORSE Gallops to Final Table

12 players remain on Day 4 of the $50,000 HORSE, with the remaining players on their dinner break. Erik Sagstrom is the current chip leader (3,782,000) followed by David Bach (2,800,000), Vitaly Lunkin (2,060,000) and Erik Seidel (1,315,000). John Hanson, Huck Seed, Ville Wahlbeck, Gus Hansen, Ray Dehkharghani, Chau Giang, Mike Wattel and David Chiu make up the remaining field as they play down to the final 8.

$1,500 NL Final Table

The $1,500 NL Holdem event that started on Saturday finally reached their final table, now streaming at bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com with this lineup with Jason Helder the chip leader:

Seat 1: Owen Crowe
Seat 2: Carsten Joh
Seat 3: Steven Levy
Seat 4: Jason Helder
Seat 5: Thibaut Durand
Seat 6: David Walasinski
Seat 7: Georgios Kapalas
Seat 8: Nathan Page
Seat 9: Andrew Chen

Triple Chance Stumbles into the Money

The $3,000 NL Triple Chanceevent just eked their way into the money before taking their dinner break. Jeff Lisandro got knocked out just short of the money in his attempt to put the WSOP Player of the Race out of reach. Jason Dewitt (375,000) is the current chip leader, followed by notables Jason Somerville (245,000), Karga Holt (230,000), Shane Schleger (155,000), Eric Lynch (140,000), Joe McGowan (135,000) and Nick Binger (125,000). The remaining field will be playing until 3am, unless they get down to the final table of 9 before the deadline.

Sugar Bear Sweet on Stud 8 Bubble

Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri is the current chip leader (130,000) with 49 players (the money bubble) in the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better event. Max Stern, Andy Bloch, Chad Brown, Barry Greenstein, Bryan Micon, Justin Bonomo, Norman Chad and Matt Savage make up some of the noted names remaining in the field as they play down to the 3am deadline.

2-7 Triple Draw

A field of around 250 entrants signed up for the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event, with another five levels of play left on their day 1. Eli Elezra and Shannon Elizabeth are two very early eliminations, with several more to come during the wee small hours of the morning.

More live updates can be found over at www.wsop.com, and discussions on donkaments, entry fees, and all other things WSOP can be found on Pokerati during the evening.

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

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

Van Alstyne Back in the Saddle with HORSE Triumph

James Van Alstyne, who finished second in the $3,000 HORSE event last week after holding the chip lead, came back in the $1,500 HORSE event to take down his first WSOP bracelet along with the $247,003 winnings. Tad Jurgens was runnerup, Mitch Schock finished third, and Bryan Micon, named one of poker’s “true anarchists” in Nolan Dalla’s final table report, finished fourth.

Boyes Buoyed by Chip Lead

The $2,000 NL Holdem event starts day 3 with 19 players remaining as they play down to a bracelet winner with Jason Boyes the current chip leader at 976,000. Finland’s Mika Paasonen is in 2nd place to try to be the 2nd Finn with a WSOP bracelet this year. Angel Guillen (496,000) and Peter “Nordberg” Feldma (486,000), and Daniel Makowsky (177,000) appear to be the most notable players remaining.

Limit Holdem Left with a Not So Dirty Dozen

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship has twelve players remaining as they resume at 1pm today to reach the final table for a scheduled 2pm broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are seated with plenty of familiar names for the poker viewer:

Seat 1: Maria Ho – 228000
Seat 3: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller – 485000
Seat 4: Pat Pezzin – 300000
Seat 5: Kenny Hsiung – 831000
Seat 6: Soheil Shamseddin – 385000
Seat 9: Jennifer Harman – 126000

Seat 1: Matt Glantz – 483000
Seat 4: Chad Brown – 545000
Seat 5: Matt Hawrilenko – 601000
Seat 7: Michiel Brummelhuis – 687000
Seat 8: Mark Klecan – 603000
Seat 9: Daniel Alaei – 330000

Unfortunately, Ville Wahlbeck finished outside the money, but maintains his WSOP Player of the Year lead.

The Pros Strike Back Against the Donks

The $1,500 NL Holdem event returns at 2pm with 240 players remaining, only 216 get paid. James Taylor, unfortunately not this James Taylor has the chip lead with 174,400. More notable names are near the top of the leaderboard include: Eugene Katchalov (90,600), Roberto Romanello (89,400), Phil Hellmuth (88,100), Pat Poels (84,500), Quinn Do (80,600), Roland de Wolfe (61,300), and Allen Cunningham (60,200).

Wednesday’s Tournament

Only one event again on the calendar today, with the debut of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. This event usually is played with rebuys, but their elimination this year makes this a new event. As usual, players will start with 5,000 in chips followed by two “free rebuy” chips to add to their stacks at any time in the first three levels. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 250, but expect closer to 400 when play starts at noon this afternoon. Follow along with the action at www.wsop.com and return to Pokerati during the day for other stuff.

JC’s a Runaway Tran in PLO

JC Tran took down his 2nd career WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event defeating Jeff Kimber in heads-up play to also adds $235,685 to his tournament database. Ross Boatman finished in 4th, John Juanda finished in 9th place.

Wolpert Topples Duthie Heads Up

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads Up World Championship just conclude with Leo Wolpert taking the final two matches to defeat John Duthie 2-1 and pick up $625,682. Duthie settles for the 2nd place winnings of $386,636. Duthie won the first match in about 90 hands, while Wolpert won the second match in just nine hands. The third match took 191 hands, ending when Wolpert flopped bottom two pair against Duthie’s top pair.

Micon Trying to Schock the World

The $1,500 HORSE now has six players remaining at the final table, as Mitch Schock is the current chip leader with Shannon Shorr, Tad Jurgens, Bryan Micon, Brian Malcolm, and James Van Alstyne round out the final table.

Lennaard, Part 7

Ken Lennaard, a veteran Swedish pro, is the current chip leader with 77 players remaining in the $2,000 NL Holdem event. Notables still in the field include: Michael Binger, Peter Feldman, Andre Akkari, Kelly Kim and Chau Giang.

Go, Ho, Go!

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 48 players, only 18 get paid as they strive to reach a final table tomorrow. The current chip leader is online high stakes cash-game specialist Matt Hawrilenko with 272,000. Maria Ho is currently 3rd (225,000) with Ralph Perry (180,000), Josh Arieh (170,000), Steve Zolotow (150,000) and Jennifer Harman (142,000) among the notables still in contention. Ville Wahlbeck is still in the field, but towards the bottom of the field with just 54,000 in chips.

Donkament 4: Voyage to the Rio

The 4th $1,500 NL Holdem event started with a field of 2095, with only 669 players remaining. Unfortunately an early chip leader hasn’t been announced yet, but check out the morning update or wsop.com for an update later this evening.

$10k Heads-Up Going Overtime

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads-Up World Championship is down to the final match as John Duthie takes on Leo Wolpert in a best of three match at 12pm (broadcast here and at wsop.pkr.com for international viewers to determine a winner. Duthie, the founder of the European Poker Tour, which announced the first half of its schedule yesterday, takes on Wolpert a professional poker player who went back to law school and is currently on a summer internship in Nevada, will attempt to pick up their first career bracelet and the $625,682 that goes with it.

Eise Uses the Force to Win a Bracelet

Mike “The Force” Eise made his first tournament cash worthy of a bracelet, taking down the $1,500 NL Holdem event defeating Jeff Chang heads-up for the title as well as picking up a hefty $639,331.

Boatman Leads the Mob in PLO

Ross Boatman, member of the Hendon Mob (the best place to find tournament results) leads the final table in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha final table, which is seated as follows when play resumes at 2pm :

Seat 1: Jeff Kimber – 525000
Seat 2: Rami Boukai – 325000
Seat 3: Dallas Flowers – 239000
Seat 4: Ross Boatman – 718000
Seat 5: J.C. Tran - 387000
Seat 6: John Juanda – 129000
Seat 7: Theo Jorgensen – 419000
Seat 8: Chad Layne – 206000
Seat 9: Jean-Philippe Leandri – 324000

Soulier Écouter en $1,500 Cheval

Fabrice Soulier is the chip leader (351,000) when day 3 of the $1,500 HORSE resumes at 2pm with 23 players remaining. Shannon Shorr (323,500), Joseph Serock (152,500), Chris Bjorin (143,000) Vanessa Rousso (131,000), James Van Alstyne (130,000), Kathy Raymond (111,000), and Bryan Micon (76,000) and Paul Darden (54,500) are some of the notables remaining when play resumes.

Shan Jing Rings Up Day 1 Chip Lead

Shan Jing holds the chip lead (137,400) when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event restarts at 2pm today with 220 players remaining, 171 of which make the money. Ken Lennaard (109,200), Alex Bolotin (100,700), Luke Staudenmaier (88,600), Neil Channing (65,900), and Chau Giang (57,600) are some of the notables in the top half of the leaderboard, which will try to make the final table by the 3am deadline.

Harman Leading Lady in World Championship Event

116 players will return at 2pm today to resume the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship with Jennifer Harman the day 1 chip leader (127,600). Maria Ho (113,400), Josh Arieh (112,100), Shaun Deeb (106,000), and Chino Rheem (87,400) are notables in the top 10. Ville Wahlbeck is trying for his 5th straight cash in a 10k buyin event, 44th with 54,400 in chips. Only 18 make the money with a goal of the final table a possibility.

Tuesday’s Tournament

Only one event on the calendar today, the fourth $1,500 NL Holdem donkament, this version was won last year by David Woo for over $630,000 in a field of 2,720. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 2,569, so take the over with at least 2,700 signing up to try their hand at that game they saw on ESPN.

Plenty of action yet again today at the WSOP, follow the action at and other stuff on Pokerati during your Two for Tuesday.

Enjoy it while it lasts … here’re the last few hands of Phil Ivey’s winning his bracelet (and more prop bets) last night. I really just wanted to share with you all Micon and Jimmy Fricke’s winner’s interview (the last couple minutes of the above vid), but the video portion isn’t showing on WSOP.com, and the Bluff site doesn’t have their embed options turned on, so you know … we figured we’d do them a favor and help spread this example of fine work covering what some consider too-boring-for-TV, lol.

Micon and Fricke do a pretty good job of explaining the game, and after it’s all over of talking to someone who doesn’t really like to talk with those who can’t gamble with him. They even get a little clarity on the Phil Ivey prop bets, confirming that indeed, as The Insider revealed on The Poker Beat, Ivey did accept a buyout when they were down to 3-handed in the 2-7 Lowball that required him to win a second bracelet to make good on the original bet.

UPDATE: Ah, Pokernews also got a minute with Ivey, too … and though he doesn’t give any clue to how much he really won yesterday, he does tell Melissa Castello that the price he was laying was 2.5 : 1.

For all J-Pollack V-logs, click here.

For the original Degen Update from the pseudo-media dude with revoked credentials (supposedly related to his video of a player smoking meth) and a tale of violence around a rule dispute in a $65 satellite, click here.

The 1st of four Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganzae got underway this week … and sure enough, the chance to play a skill-heavy event (deeper stacks, longer level times) for a low buy-in seems extra appealing (at least value-wise) in the current economic client.

I don’t have too many specifics, but I can say the fields seem to be bigger than last time, or at least are staying in the same ballpark. They definitely haven’t shrunk, relative to the world economy, that’s for sure. At this moment, the Venetian poker room and 30-something extra tables set up on the main casino floor aren’t packed, but they are full. Some familiar faces (on very quick glance) about five levels into today’s $550 NLH include Gobboboy Jimmy Fricke and PokerNews expat John Caldwell.

In a few minutes About an hour ago, the final table from yesterday’s $330 got underway. Bryan Micon from Neverwin was there, along with David Plastik, a couple other solid players, and a couple donks (according to Micon, who has since busted). First place: $28k.

To give you another example of the field sizes the Venetian’s 2009 DSE-1 is drawing, Event #1, on Monday, another $330, saw 447 players and a $129k total prize pool. 36 got paid …

1st – $40,117
2nd – $21,029
3rd – $10,353

Some other familiar faces who have been hanging at the Venetian this week: JJ Liu (she hasn’t missed a day), Kenna James, Susie Isaacs, Daniel Alspach, Adam Schoenfeld, and Lacey Jones. Some bloggers seem to be filtering through here, too … just ran into BWOP, and I hear Grubette is on her way.

UPDATE: Also in the $550 hizzouse — Haley Hintze and Mike Laing. Maybe this sorta turnout is nothing new, but it seems to me these events are being taken much more seriously than previous Deep Stacks.

6,844 entrants in the 2008 WSOP main event.

I jut had a wonderful discussion with WPT honcho Steve Lipscomb. He didn’t laugh when I asked him if he was looking for a job with the WSOP.

Team Pokerati updates:

Tom Schneider is hurting. Like 7k in chips last we checked.

Donkey texts in (we’re still getting his CSR set up) — “Back down to 20k after 2nd level.. Thought Micon was playing AK. he had 77. I had 66. Cost 4k to see river”

Damn, that sucks. And oh yeah, Donkey is playing with Micon from Neverwin two or three seats to his left, and Beth Shak on the other end of the table. (Donkey doesn’t know who she is — but he is aware that she is all patched up.

Jerry Randack was doing fine last I checked. Saw him skillfully (albeit a bit cautiously) play Ace-rag with an ace on the flop, and build a nice pot to the point that he got a really nice call by the time he rivered the nut flush.

No report on Robert Goldfarb. Serves him right for not wearing his patch. But he is texting in his status on breaks.

The Big Randy looks to be playing very comfortably … with about 26k in chips.

More TK, of course. The big buzz of the day wasn’t about Phil Hellmuth‘s pro wrestling-esque army-tank entrance … it was about the presence of Ultimate Fighters, including Chuck Liddell and Forest Griffin, who won a big fight just last night.

Um, go poker!

UPDATE: There was a rumor about some smaller agents being shaken down by a bigger one. It didn’t check out, however, on first call … but there’s gotta be something to it — the agent battles are getting harsh as all compete for a piece of nine heretofore unknown needles in a a haystack of 6,844.