Recapping Monday afternoon’s WSOP action:

Matusow leads TOC, resumes Saturday night

Another four hours of play in the WSOP Tournament of Champions Monday afternoon, with 17 players still remaining after eight levels have been played. Since ESPN wants a final table of nine on Sunday July 4, another day of play has been scheduled for Saturday, July 3 at 7pm. However, those plans get scrapped if one or more of the 17 are still involved in the $25,000 6-max event or the $5,000 Ante Up for Africa tournament. Whenever play resumes, Mike Matusow (85,500) will hold the chip lead, followed by Huck Seed (73,000) and Johnny Chan (68,600). The full list of chip counts is available over at wsop.com.

Sung slips into lead at Mixed Event final day

Ten players remain as the $2,500 Mixed Event went to dinner break with Steve Sung leading the field with 581,000 in chips. Other notables returning include Matt Vengrin (522,000), Scott Seiver (218,000) and Todd Brunson (145,000). Full chip counts and updates available at wsop.com.

Busquet leads 1k NL into the money

Day two of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem is now deep into the money with around 200 players remaining with WPT winner Olivier Busquet leading the field with 185,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris unfortunately fell just short of the money, while veteran poker tournament reporter Mike Paulle squeaked into the money, finishing in 318th for a mincash. Among the players still with chips: Andre Akkari (132,000), Scott Montgomery (83,000), Antonio Esfandiari (65,000) and Carter King (42,500). The other person who Pokerati may be following Richard Ferro, there has not been any updates or in the results at wsop.com so he’s probably still in the field.

JP Kelly leading 1500 NL day 1

A field of 2,543 started in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem, with less than 900 returning after their dinner break with Vegas/Europe WSOP bracelet winner JP Kelly holding the lead with 48,000 in chips. Some other notables: Roland de Wolfe (39,000), Theo Tran (23,000), Amnon Filippi (21,000) and David Pham (13,500). The money will be reached with 270 players remaining, with the winner earning over $600,000. More updates and chip counts over the final four hours of action over at wsop.com.

5k PLO underway

The 50th event of the WSOP, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, drew a field of 460 players, an increase of nearly 100 from last year took the felt this afternoon. The very early leader is Michael Mizrachi with 35,000 in chips, with plenty of big names in contention. Some of those names: Greg Raymer (26,000), David Singer (22,000), Ville Wahlbeck (19,000) and JC Tran (14,000). The field still has four levels of play as well as their dinner break so catch the proceedings at wsop.com.

Briefly recapping a busy Wednesday afternoon:

Montgomery leads 1k NL

Five players remain in the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem, with original November Niner Scott Montgomery moving into the chip leader with 3,200,000. Adam Richardson is close behind with 2,700,000. See who comes out on top at PokerNews.

Obrestad, Tran make early exits in shootout

The two big names in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout, Annette Obrestad and JC Tran, both were eliminated short of the final table, finishing in 11th and 13th respectively. Derric Haynie (1,365,000) leads the remaining 9 players, follow the updates and see who wins at PokerNews.

Final five in Razz

The $2,500 Razz is down to five players with the most recent elimination being Jennifer Harman in 6th place. Melville Lewis (945,000) leads the field with Maxwell Troy (545,000), Vladimir Shchemelev (455,000), Frank Kassela (390,000) and Mikko Pispala (385,000) rounding out the field as they take their dinner break and/or play in the $10,000 HORSE. Updates available at wsop.com.

Baker leading $1,500 PLO 8 day 2

Jeffrey Baker (no relation to the dueling David Bakers) holds the chip lead with 160,000 chips with about 60 players remaining in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better. Notables still in the field include Barry Greenstein (153,000), Kevin MacPhee (89,000), Mike Matusow (68,000) and Phil Hellmuth (60,000). Find more updates and chip counts at wsop.com.

Another large field in $1,500 NL

The first of Wednesday’s tournaments drew a field of 2,521 players for the latest $1,500 No-Limit Holdem tournament. Less than 1,000 players returned from dinner break with the early chip leader Arnaud Mattern reported as leading with 46,000 in chips. Other notables: Eric Lynch (33,000), Shane Schleger (25,500), Jon Friedberg (22,700), Bernard Lee (17,000) and Lauren Kling (14,000). More information on the happenings in this tournament at PokerNews.

High stakes HORSE underway

The 5pm tournament was the debut of the $10,000 HORSE World Championship, which drew a field of 241 players. The top 24 players make the money, with the winner earning $611,666. David Oppenheim is the early leader with 52,000 chips, followed by Jimmy Fricke (44,000), Maria Ho (40,000), Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider (36,000), Erik Seidel (34,000) and Joe Hachem (31,000). More updates and info at wsop.com.

Recapping Sunday night’s WSOP action:

Angle corners Seniors’ bracelet

78-year old Harold Angle of Sun City Center, Florida defeated Michael Minetti heads-up to win the $1,000 Seniors’ No-Limit Holdem Championship and add $487,994 to his bank account. Minetti earned $301,389 for the runner-up finish. As Dan noted in the post below, Tom Schneider finished 14th in his WSOP Seniors’ debut. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is available at wsop.com.

Mahmood leads 10k Heads-Up final 1-0

The finals of the $10,000 No-Limit Holdem Heads-Up Championship was expected to have finished earlier today, but the first match in the best-of-three final between Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal took over six hours to complete, with Mahmood eventually winning. Play will resume at 7pm tonight as they play to a finish, hopefully.

Juanda leads stacked 3k HORSE

25 players remain on day 3 of the $3,000 HORSE, with John Juanda (393,000) leading the way when play resumes at 3pm. The stacked field includes David “Not Bakes” Baker (373,000), Phil Ivey (205,000), Jeff Lisandro (193,000), Dan Heimiller (180,000), Bill Chen (158,000), David Benyamine (137,000), Chad Brown (108,000), Scott Seiver (105,000) and David Singer (93,000). The full list of chip counts are available at PokerNews.

Marchese leads 10k PL Holdem Day 2

A field of 268 players started Sunday afternoon in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem Championship, after ten hours of play, Thomas Marchese emerged as the leader with 334,600 in chips when play resumes at 3pm today. Some of the notables returning include Dani Stern (200,500), John Duthie (171,400), Noah Boeken (136,400), Blair Rodman (92,900), Mike Matusow (77,300) and Shannon Shorr (72,700). The top 27 players get paid, with the winner pocketing $617,214. The full list of chip counts are available at PokerNews.

D’angelo leads 1k NL day 1b field

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 1,119 players, with 165 of them joining the 268 day 1a players when play resumes at 2:30pm. The top 324 players make the money, with the winner picking up $481,760 at the cashier. The full list of chip counts for both days is available at wsop.com.

Monday’s tournaments

Two tournaments on the schedule today, first is the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout at 12pm. This has a listed cap of 2,000 players, which appears to be a strange number to use for a shootout. If more than 1000 players are registered, 20 additional tables will be added, with some tables being 9-handed. The winners from round 1 will make the money and return on Tuesday, with the winners of those tables playing on Wednesday to determine a winner. With a 1,000 player cap last year, Jeffrey Carris won this event last year, good for $313,673. The 5pm tournament is the $2,500 Razz, won by Jeff Lisandro in a field of 315 for $188,390.

A few years ago, Mike Matusow was drinking pink Vitamin Water for the critical focus he needed during the WSOP. The next year it was just a matter of keeping up with his meds and occasionally mumbling about happy thoughts. Then, somewhere in there, he threw away his laptop and asked friends to forcibly prevent him from playing online.

Heading in to the 2010 World Series, we’ve learned from reliable sources, Matusow has retained the services of Sam Chauhan to give him a mental edge. Two other well-known TV pros also apparently signed up to become Sammy’s mindset disciples, but based on my own eavesdroppings, they want to keep the relationship private … so I’ll respect that (for now).

But maybe his luck is running out? He dad have a few clients on Team USA in this week’s WTP, including Matusow and team captain Phil Hellmuth, and yet the Americans had no one make the final table.

More…

So little gets me excited about poker these days … unless, of course, it includes Pot-Limit Omaha or somebody getting sued/arrested. (C’mon HSP, can we just get one episode of PLO? Just to hear Gabe Kaplan talking about it. Promise not to sue you if you use this idea.)

But I stumbled across this last night — a game I read about on the internet back when it was being recorded (I believe in September). It’s just a regular-ole episode (Season 4 Ep. 3). But still much more exciting on video than anything I read about online, and way better than the Poker Stars Million-Dollar Challenge, not to mention Face the Ace:

Starring:

Patrik Antonius
Tom Dwan
Mike Matusow
Chris Ferguson
Gus Hansen
Allen Cunningham
Andrew Feldman
Isildur1

[via LV Poker Source]

Though personally I don’t expect Darvin Moon to look anything like Sammy Farha en route to 2nd place … you gotta love the debate going on over who will, and who should win … let alone whose victory would be “better for poker”.

Super-young but true online pro vs. the “Ultimate Everyman” … you know, if everyman happened to cut trees for a living.

As you know by now, I’m probably as much a Cada fan as I am an Aston Villan (I’ve got Fake$100 invested in his winning) … but the hubbub going on right now reminds me a bit of funny-in-retrospect conversation as WSOP things got down to heads-up in 2003 …

From my first poker magazine piece in the first issue of (the recently resurrected) ALL IN:

On the last day of the 2003 WSOP main event, a handful of eliminated pros gathered around the final table to watch the action. Moneymaker — the Tennessee accountant who had never before played a live tournament — had amassed a sizable chip lead when Mike Matusow turned to fellow professional Eric Siedel and said, “I can’t believe another donkey is going to win the World Series of Poker.”

“You better hope he wins,” Seidel responded. “If Moneymaker can pull this off, it’s going to be worth at least $5 million to you and me over the next two years.”

“Are you crazy?” Matusow said, dismissively.

The only difference this go-round, of course, is that the world has already been introduced to online poker, and the Sammy Farha pro character is being played by a 21-year-old who stands to be the youngest WSOP main event champ in history (for the second year in a row).

From GSN’s press release:

More…

Two players in California have sued presumable principals of Full Tilt Poker in LA Superior Court. Lary Kennedy (aka Poker Girl) and Greg Omotoy (a Vegas-reared LA nightclub manager) claim that Full Tilt confiscated $80,000 from their accounts, believing they were bots.

We haven’t seen the legal docs yet, but named in the lawsuit: Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, and Phil Ivey (a November Niner).

From TMZ.com:

Poker Legends Sued for Robot Fraud

For all the obvious attempted shakedowns and plausibly legit payment beefs, this one (not sure how much they are seeking in damages) could be downright fascinating — on its surface at least — because it cuts to some key issues that are super-relevant to the past, present, and future of online poker … where the decisions any court renders (assuming there’s at least a smidgen of factual basis for the claim) affect not just the plaintiffs and defendants, but 10s of thousands if not millions of players.

More…

And yet this time, he doesn’t even try to get camera-time, even though he’s holding the camera. Via twitvid … @Phil_Hellmuth gives us a tour into the bowels of the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, where, yes, he will indeed be making another uber-grand Caesar’s entrance for WSOP-Europe.

While I personally found it interesting to see the layout of the casino and how it fits innocuously within a cityscape, his encounters with Men the Master and Mike Matusow are also quite good.

Watch (a tired) Men for tells as Hellmuth calls him “the Vietnamese Godfather of Poker” and addresses when he will or will not get into the Hall of Fame. And hear Matusow explain why he thinks the Caesar’s Cup is a “farce” … he swears it’s not just because he didn’t get picked to play.

Even more semi-pokery TV … Shaquille O’Neal is in town, doing some filming at Planet Hollywood for his new Shaq Vs. program, which debuts tomorrow at 9pm ET/PT on ABC.

The concept is that Shaq takes on the best in the world at their own game(s). He’s got some sort of swimming contest set up with Michael Phelps, a tennis match vs. Serena Williams, boxing vs. Oscar de la Hoya, and he’s been taunting David Beckham on twitter claiming the (once) great soccerer can’t bend one past him in goal.

While the entire show seems to be athletic-based — there’s no challenge to Elton John for some dueling pianos, e.g. — poker seems to have slipped in there. (Props to Disney sibling ESPN?) According to @Phil_Hellmuth, he, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, and Erick Lindgren are on set right now filming an episode that we can only presume is Shaq trying to beat the best at Texas Hold’em.

Not sure about the format, but gotta think Lindgren’s got the edge after all his experience on Face the Ace.

They’re back in action in 2.5 O8B (bear with me, still experimenting with new abbreviations) … Mike Matusow is out, but with 14 players left Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is climbing back hanging on for dear life. Mark Tenner is the chip-leader, but imho the guy you really have to watch out for is Mark Gregorich. This game caters to his style, and with half-a-table of knockouts to go before the final, fifth chip position is arguably a stronger spot to be in than momentary #1.

Click here to follow.

UPDATE: 13 left now. Pat in 11th chip position. Needs a scoop something fierce …

UPDATE: 12 left … but Poels involved negatively in the three-way-action scooped pot that knocked out Patrice Boudet. OK, now 11 left … Pat still near the bottom, but with more relative chips. 8th overall — and that’s with having just lost a pot. At the same time, even a double-up right now would still leave him in 8th place.

Here’s what they’re playing for when they get down near the final table bubble in this sort lower-middle buy-in split-game event. Obviously the $229k for the bracelet is nice, but for the non-winners, where exactly they finish could make the difference on whether or not they have a wave a winning or losing World Series:

1 $ 229,192
2 $ 141,647
3 $ 93,199
4 $ 65,094
5 $ 48,028
6 $ 37,350
7 $ 30,562
8 $ 26,213
9 $ 23,541
10 $ 17,007
11 $ 17,007

UPDATE: Poels = 9th. Nice-ish.

Recapping the late-night Wednesday action…

Michael T. Davis Goes ShronkDaddy on Seniors

Michael T. Davis became the second player to take down a WSOP bracelet this year wearing a PokerRoad t-shirt, winning the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship. Davis, 58, from Dubuque, Iowa, had just sold his home inspection business last week, and was looking to move to a warmer location. The $437,358 and gold bracelet for his win will surely help with the moving expenses. Like Brian Lemke earlier this month, Justin Shronk was in the winner’s thoughts. From Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

“Justin gave me this shirt,” Davis said afterward. “A lot of people miss Justin. He was very good for the poker community.”

Davis never held the chip lead until the first hand of heads-up, when he doubled through runner-up Scott Buller with pocket aces against Buller’s pocket nines. The final hand had Davis’ A-9 best Buller’s A-J when another 9 came on the turn.

Kabbaj Dominating Pot-Limit

John Kabbaj is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack, holding over 2.2m in chips with 14 players remaining in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship which resumes at 1pm today. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated:

(Table 154)
Seat 2: JC Alvarado – 924000
Seat 3: Eric ‘basebaldy’ Baldwin – 713000
Seat 4: Davidi Kitai – 581000
Seat 5: Mohsin Charania – 224000
Seat 6: Jason Lester – 240000
Seat 7: Darryll Fish – 368000
Seat 8: Kirill Gerasimov – 550000

(Table 154)
Seat 1: Billy Kopp – 772000
Seat 2: Eugene Todd – 351000
Seat 3: Thomas Pettersson – 121000
Seat 5: John Kabbaj – 2226000
Seat 6: Isaac Haxton – 660000
Seat 7: Ken Lennaard – 467000
Seat 8: Michael Kamran – 261000

When the final table is reached, streaming will be available at bluffmagazine.com and wsop.pkr.com

Tenner Looking to be a Winner in Omaha-8

Play also resumes at 1pm in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better event with 23 players remaining, with Mark Tenner leading the field at 285,000. John Monnette (237,000), C.K. Hua (225,000), Day 1 chip leader Josh Schlein (201,000) Frankie O’Dell (194,000), Mark Gregorich (108,000), Pat Poels (89,000) and Mike Matusow (63,000) are the notables looking to pass the Omaha-8 author.

Greenstein Leader in Mixed Holdem

Barry Greenstein (177,200) will lead the remaining 67 players in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event when play resumes at 2pm. Notables also making a return on Thursday include: Hasan Habib (165,000), Daniel Negreanu (101,000), Amnon Filippi (98,000), Mimi Tran (65,300) and Gavin Griffin (46,600) with 54 players making the money.

Thursday’s tournament

Only one tournament this afternoon, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, won last year by Martin Klaser winning over $210,000 in a field of 720. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 756 for this event, and expect less than 20% of the field when play concludes at the end of level 10.

Follow along at www.wsop.com for updates starting at noon PT, and Pokerati will have more stuff from around the poker community during the day.

Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is going deep in the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo. With 28 players left (out of 424) he’s about 10th in chips. Should be interesting … though he’s cashed a few times this WSOP, his net isn’t too much better than Tom’s for 2009. He knows how to win it — Poels booked his first bracelet in the $1,500 version of this event in 2005, and fortunately it doesn’t look like big money payout differential decisions would come into play until the final 5ish.

CK Hua is the threatening name at near the top of the stack-count, Max Pescatori is hanging on in the relegation zone, and in the middle with Pat, @TheMouthMatusow is alive and growing stronger — and he’s twittering that he’s on a mission to win it … so that threat’s out there.

Click here to follow along.

Recapping the first half of Wednesday’s WSOP:

Lisandro Wins Bracelet #3, Wins Stud Triple Crown

Jeff Lisandro becomes the first player to win three bracelets in one WSOP after Chris Moneymaker initiated the poker boom in 2003, takes down the $2,500 Razz event, good for $188,370. Lisandro has won all three of his bracelets in stud events in each of the three disciplines of stud (Stud high, Stud Hi/Lo and Razz). Lisandro held the chip lead at the beginning of the day and was never seriously threatened. Michael Craig finished in 2nd, good for $116,405. Other notable finishes: Kenna James (6th), Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri (10th), Ville Wahlbeck (12th) and Nikolay Evdakov (13th).

Seniors Six-Pack

Half a dozen players remain in the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship, led by Scott Buller with over 2 million in chips. Michael Morusty, Charles Simon, Dan DeLatorre, Michael Davis and Barry Bounds make up the remaining players.

Thang Flung From Omaha-8

The $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better has 70 players remaining, only 45 get paid. The unofficial chip leader is Frankie O’Dell (109,000), followed by day 1 chip leader Josh Schlien (85,000), Pat Poels (71,500), Marsha Waggoner (54,000), Mike Matusow (38,000), and Max Pescatori (28,000) among the familiar faces. Thang Luu unfortunately was eliminated before the dinner break earlier today.

Brummelhuis Bringing It in Pot-Limit

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 35 players, only 27 get to cash with day 1 chip leader Michiel Brummelhuis remaining chip leader (570,000). Isaac Haxton (450,000), Eric Baldwin (430,000), Darryll Fish (310,000), Vanessa Rousso (280,000), Sam Simon (173,000), and Eugene Todd (165,000) are among the remaining.

Mixed Holdem Brings Mixed Blessings

The $2,500 Mixed Holdem event drew a field of 527 players, of which just 184 remain. The unofficial chip leader is David Baker (unknown if that’s the one from Michigan or Texas) at 73,000. Eli Elezra (51,000), Marc Naalden (46,000) and Jean-Robert Bellande (42,000) are some well known folks with chips.

More updates during the evening over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for more Lisandro stuff and other commentary about all things WSOP.

Not everyone is winning this year … and we’re getting near that point where you either gotta make something happen to turn it around or be left, perhaps literally, in the main event going for broke.

Mike Matusow getting ready to lose it (via Annie Duke):

And of course we know how our buddy Tom is doing (0-for-14) … so he decided to booze it up for the $2,500 Razz. “It can’t really make me do worse,” he said, before giving most of his stack to Eskimo Clark en route to going bust: