Today’s $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better tournament drew a record (for Omaha 8 ) 918 participants, with the eventual winner taking home over $263,000. No clear chip leader has emerged from the field, but some notable players who won’t take home a bracelet include : Barry Shulman, Mike Matusow, Jerry Buss, and Allen Cunningham. As the players near their 90-minute dinner break, nearly 600 will be enjoying their meal.

The 40th Annual $40,000 NL Holdem tournament is now in their hour-long dinner break, with 44 players remaining. For those who were wondering if there’s injuries in poker, 2008 WPT Championship winner David Chiu was receiving treatment for an injured right wrist. How this injury came up is unknown, but an explanation may come out shortly. Justin Bonomo entered the break as chip leader with 1,350,000 in chips, with Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis in 2nd with 1,335,000, and Greg Raymer 3rd at 1,326,000. Day 1 chip leader Bruno Fitoussi was eliminated shortly before the dinner break. When the players return, they have another four levels or 18 players remaining, whichever comes first.

For anyone looking to play in this weekend’s $1,000 Stimulus Special and hasn’t registered, there are over 4,400 who have done so, with over 2,200 registered for day 1a Saturday already. The expected cap for each day 1 is 2,800 and it looks like it’ll be at least one day could be sold out shortly unless more tables get added. Stay tuned for more stuff during the evening.

Once upon a time, poker books were everywhere and everything. Then we found that saturation point, right around the time the poker boom was coming to an end … and it became harder and harder to really care about the latest poker tome … poker books stopped selling, the bookstores took down their dedicated poker racks, and uber-poker geeks like yours truly built up a pile of literature still collecting dust while waiting to be read. I swear I’ll move beyond page 26 of Bill Chen’s The Mathematics of Poker one of these days!

But probably not before reading two books that we can expect later this year: Lost Vegas, by Dr. Pauly … and Check-Raising the Devil, by Mike Matusow (with Tim Lavalli and Amy Calistri). Lost Vegas will be based on much of what we’ve been reading over the years on Tao of Poker, though I personally know the book is what Pauly’s been saving his best, so-far untold stuff for … so I’m confident every poker-industry douche insider will be eager to read what he’s been holding back.

Likewise, Matusow’s tale promises to be the kind of interesting auto-bio that even my grandmother could enjoy — lots of sex, drugs, and crime that just so happens to be set in the world of high-stakes casino gambling and/or prison — by a guy who has seen up-close-and-personal the good, the bad, and the really bad side of it all. Judging both these books by their recently completed covers (click to enlarge), I gotta think there might be something to these pokery stories, even though neither promise to tell you anything about how to play Ace-King.

We’ve called him the Bernie Madoff of Poker, but really, that moniker may no longer be apropos … because Bernie’s in jail. Now he’s more like the OJ Simpson of Poker … a man who most believe has so far gotten away with a shameful crime. Sure, no one has died yet, but honestly, it’s only a matter of time, isn’t it? Folks are still being protective of names, but I keep hearing stories of people who were ripped off by Russ Hamilton the way Mike Matusow claims he was … playing heads-up matches, losing, having Hamilton ship the money back to them, losing again, repeat … pay him off in cash. The results have been mortgaged houses, broken marriages, dangerous drug binges, and near-nervous breakdowns. We are talking very real lives here being very really fucked up … and all accuse the same man, who has thus far dodged criminal prosecution.

What makes it worse for these folks is that they haven’t gotten any refunds from Ultimate Bet — because either they paid off their “debts” in cash, or they too have been flagged for further investigation because of the large money transfers between them and Hamilton. So with that in mind, and some $60 million that would otherwise be in the Poker Economy unaccounted for … it’s always interesting to know what this man who has been convicted of nothing (and, sadly, charged with nothing) is up to.

Micon from Neverwin spotted him recently playing 2/5 NL at Red Rock:

Elsewhere around town, reliable sources tell us Hamilton recently played a bar freeroll at one of the pubs at Flamingo and Jones. (Still seeking confirmation on the bar’s name.) No buy-in and no prizes beyond bar tabs and food coupons. Supposedly playing with him in this same event (about six weeks ago?): Layne Flack.

No word on whether either of them made the final table.

More Matusow on Hamilton’s impact here. (Scroll halfway down.)

UPDATE: The bar where Flack and Hamilton were spotted playing a freeroll is Torino’s.

They’ve been playing all day weekend, and are down to two at the NHUPC. And regardless of how it turns out Vanessa Rousso has arguably earned her keep as the Danicka Patrick of Poker.

(I’m keeping up with results on my own time at PokerNews, btw.)

I ranked her 55th. Overall, the ESPN panel put her 49th. But hey, just goes to show you, anyone can get an easy draw. The laughable field the newest GoDaddy spokesmodel had to beat, in order: Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, 2007 NHUPC champ Paul Wasicka, Daniel Negreanu, and online wunderkind Bertrand Grospellier, aka ‘Elky’. Hmm. Wow.

Meanwhile, my bracket’s turned to shit. Of the 96 players in on PokerRoad/Pokerati’s fun, eight people picked Vanessa Selbst to win it all, yet no one … as in ZERO! … picked Vanessa Rousso.

Of the final four, here’s how many people picked them to win it all:

Vanessa Rousso – 0
Sammy Farha – 0
Huck Seed – 5
Elky – 9

CORRECTION: Technically Mike Matusow is GoDaddy’s newest spokesboy. He went out in Round 1.

So we’re really kinda having some fun over at The Poker Beat. Turns out the shop a bunch of us media types talk amongst ourselves is kinda interesting to at least a few people … and dare I say even more captivating than an hour-long episode of ClubWPT? What’s really making the show work, I think, is that all of us panelists actually wanna listen to the segments we’re not on … it’s turning out to be a great way to find out reliable info about important stuff we may not cover closely, which all turns out to really be just a 57-minute set-up for Joe Stapleton jokes (which really are kinda funny).

On this week’s episode, BJ reports from the LAPC about field sizes and Scotty Nguyen’s repeat performance in the $10k HORSE Event; I chime in to discuss WPT Season 8 and try to fill BJ with job insecurity; Parvis and Gary Wise get all Durrr Challengy vs. Patrik Antonius; and podcast newbie Chops joins the fray to break down the Erick Lindgren vs. Dane Cook comedy feud and Mike Matusow’s fiddna to go ballistic on Russ Hamilton.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Michalski, Wise, Parvis, Chops, Stapleton
2/19/09

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NOTE: The five guilty in South Carolina just got fines, not jail time.

Chewed up, spit out? Clonie Gowen is challenging the most fearsome of Full Tilt avatars in Clark County Court.

We all knew something fishy was going on with Clonie and Full Tilt, right? And we’ve always wondered how exactly Full Tilt operates — seriously it’s kinda a mystery, even to people who work for them — and now, with Clonie Gowen suing four different companies connected to the game so many play with the pros, we should find out quite a bit of interesting info.

As far as I know, this is the first time any online poker biz that operates in the grayish world of processing money from American players (really really light gray, but still … ) will have to show its stuff publicly. Even Ultimate Bet/Absolute, with all the audits and investigations hasn’t really had to show anything it doesn’t want to to anyone outside its own semi-corporate family.

Um, hole-card cameras in the courtroom?

Official court docs here.

Gowen v. Tiltware LLC, et al.,
Plaintiff: Cycalona Gowen
Defendant: Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware LLC, Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation, A.V.V., Raymond J. Bitar, Howard Lederer, Andrew Bloch, Phillip Ivey, Christopher Ferguson, John Juanda, Phillip Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Michael Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrick Antonious

Case Number: 2:2008cv01581
Filed: November 14, 2008

Court: Nevada District Court
Office: Las Vegas Office [ Court Info ]
County: Clark
Presiding Judge: Judge Robert C. Jones
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston

Nature of Suit: Contract – Other Contract
Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Other Contract
Jurisdiction: Diversity
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

They’re talking about it on 2+2, and the summary of her allegations below comes from the Hendon Mob:

More…

The day that the poker community has been waiting for has finally arrived, as the November Nine reunite to determine this year’s “World Champion”.

Has the 100+ day delay been a success? ESPN says ratings are the highest they’ve been in two years, but that was when Hellmuth and Matusow were heavily featured in the coverage. The hoped for mainstream coverage talked about when this all began never really came through, as Lou Krieger mentions.

Play is scheduled to start today at 10am PT at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas. For those that want to listen to the coverage, http://www.bluffmagazine.com/blufftvBluff Magazine and worldseriesofpoker.com will provide an audio stream along with constantly updated chip counts, using their Poker Tracker software. Nick Geber, Lacey Jones and a bunch of other guests will be in on the action. Jeffrey Pollack even writes a rare blog about tonight’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place at about 7:15, just before play resumes from the dinner break. When heads-up play resumes Monday at 10pm PT, Erick Lindgren will receive his WSOP Player of the Year award (and whatever comes with that).

It was decided earlier last week that they will NOT redraw for seats, so here’s how they’ll be situated when cards go in the air (in case you forgot):
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Just curious. We all know the presidential election has been a boom for Saturday Night Live’s ratings … tonight I was watching to see John McCain’s guest appearance. Gotta say, he was pretty damn good:

The host was Ben Affleck — real poker player — and in the group farewell, it was like a sincere, conciliatory ovation to the honorable senator. Majillions had to be watching … and from that scene, at least here on Cox cable in Las Vegas, it went right to Poker after Dark. (And a good episode, too! Mike Matusow vs. all previous champs, director’s cut.)

Certainly at least a few folks (thousand? hundreds of thousands?) had to be drawn into poker for their first time in a while with that fortunate positioning, right?

More…

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.

Play ended on an explosive note last night as Phil Hellmuth’s antics earned him a 1 orbit penalty for his prolonged verbal attack on Cristian Dragomir on the last hand of play. 79 players return at 12 today to play down to the final 27, however long that takes. There’s still two women in the field (Tiffany Michelle 5th with 3,438,000 and Lisa Parsons 73rd with 581,000). The leader is Mark Ketteringham, with 5.8m in chips,Andrew Brokos in 2nd with about 4.08m, and Nikolay Losev in 3rd with 4.06m. Notable names remaining include David Benefield, Brandon Cantu, Kido Pham, David “Chino” Rheem, Mike Matusow, Hellmuth, Victor Ramdin, Matt Matros, Keith
“The Camel” Hawkins, Alex Outhred, and Thomas Keller. To see everyone’s situation in terms of chips and where they sit, head to page 2:

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On dinner break until 9:30pm with 92 players left. Tiffany Michelle at 3,000,000 and Lisa Parsons at 1,200,000 are the last two women standing. Players will play one more level after dinner break, like Jen notes below.

Top 5 Chip leaders:

Nikolay Losev – 3,500,000
Mark Ketteringham – 3,450,000
Jamal Kunbuz – 3,250,000
Aaron Gordon 3,200,000
James McManus 3,200,000

More on page 2:
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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

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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

About 215 players head towards their 90 minute dinner break, knowing that they’re only playing one more level when they return around 9:45pm. At that point, they should be under the magical 175 figure tournament director Jack Effel had mentioned when play could possibly be stopped early. Saturday is scheduled for another 5 two-hour levels, while on Sunday they play down to the final 27.

The chip leader appears to be Jeremy Joseph, currently atr 2.8m in chips, 1m more than Brandon Cantu in 2nd. Today’s been a moving day for many pros (live and online), as Allen Cunningham, David “raptor” Benefield, APT winner David Saab, and Alex Outhred have moved into the top 10, More notable names left include Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Hoyt Corkins, Raja Kattamuri, Chip Jett, and Adam “roothlus” Levy. There’s less than 10 female players left (Alana Morin leads the ladies with 1m in chips), but two of them are more known for their work in front of the microphone, as Tiffany Michelle (Pokernews reporter) and Kara Scott (EPT hostess) survived the dinner break as well.

More updates later, as the Amazon room gets more deserted by the elimination…