LAS VEGAS–Here’s what’s going on today at the WSOP, and some of what’s recently gone down leading up to it all:
A Canadian Polack named LUKASZ DUMANSKI won the $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo event. Go non-American players!
The $50,000 HORSE final table has been set.
Interesting field and chip situations …
Amnon Filippi 4,015,000
Freddy Deeb 3,500,000
Kenny Tran 2,445,000
John Hanson 1,995,000
David Singer 1,330,000
Bruno Fitoussi 895,000
Barry Greenstein 750,000
Thor Hansen 40,000
(Pokerati fave GABE KAPLAN went out on the final table bubble, in 9th place.)
Click here to follow the coverage of today’s action, where they will continue to mix games and not play a final table of just no-limit hold’em. Any odds on what will be the final game?
You’ll notice that TOM SCHNEIDER is not there. He went out early in Day 2. He was in the Big-little-big one for $34,000. The rest went to a smattering of backers, to whom 9 percent was available for $5,000. Can Tom build on his early WSOP success and make that third final table without dropping below the six-figure mark? After paying taxes, BACKERS, and living expenses associated with moving to Las Vegas for two months, mixed with tournament buy-ins, cash-game losses, and fancy scotches for Dan … the money can go fast during the WSOP.
But busting out early did allow him to play the $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo, which, after a night of drowning his sorrows followed the next day by a cash-game all-nighter, he played with “no sleep”:
Tom went out toward the end of Day 1.
Lori from Carrollton was dealing — with new hair no less:
She seems to be having a pretty good time — seen here sweating Pokerati fantasy poker favorite STEVE WONG, as he plays $50-a-point Chinese:
Day 2 of Omaha Hi Lo gets underway at 2 pm pacific, 4 pm central.
Day 1 was a pretty relaxed, jovial affair … presumably because it was a relatively low buy-in for the big-time pros who had busted out of the $50k HORSE event. Very fun and chatty. On a break PHIL HELLMUTH and ROBERT WILLIAMSON III had a semi-private discussion about sponsorship deals and the logistics of autographing products en masse. (The easiest are things you can sign with one hand, and slide to the side with the other.)
Robert is selling pieces of himself in by-the-inch embroidered increments. I should probably get a better picture of his jacket …
Here are the patches Hellmuth will be wearing in the main event — 13 of them so far:
Many of these are companies selling Phil’s products, but still, let’s face it, the NASCARIZATION of poker is here. Now if only the non-online-poker companies will buy in.
At the 2007 WSOP, patches are the new body paint.
The other final table today is in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event — no known pros in this one.
Getting underway at noon is the $5,000 World Championship of 6-handed No-Limit Hold’em.
And the 5 pm (Vegas time) tourney is $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo (aka Stud 8 aka Stud 8 OB aka Stud 8 or better).
JEFFREY POLLACK has a new post up on his “blog” (yo, dudes, they’re called “posts,” OK? Get with the program … a single memo ain’t no blog, but a collection of such theoretically could be)– where he informs the poker world (at 10:30 pm last night) that there will be a “players town hall” at 10:30 am today. I’m a bigger fan than most of the poker’s most corporate representative, but either he doesn’t realize that poker hours dictate that the vast majority of players won’t see this, which is pretty bad … or he does, which is worse. But still, we kinda like The Jeffster’s relative openness in his “blogs” .:
[STEVE ZOLOTOW] was so honest with me that he started our conversation by asking for my boss’s phone number so he could call to recommend that I – and every other key WSOP executive – be fired.
Pollack, of course, ain’t going nowhere — at least not for a while — but can you imagine if the “blogs” on worldseriesofpoker.com had comments?
UPDATE: Amy informs me that the players town hall was actually held yesterday … 11-and-a-half hours before Pollack’s post went up. Nice … Here ye, hear ye!
Don’t forget to follow my following the cash game action at the Rio. It’s a little awkward poking around these games with a notepad and camera, because a lot of people make their livings at these tables and don’t really want people to know that they are good.
One such player I am following is “TEDDY,” who has become a fixture at the $100/$200 Limit Hold’em table. He’s a trip. We’ll leave it at that for now.
I’ve had a decent run at the cash games myself — except for the two times I lost, which negate a big fat win, seen here:
My second-favorite hand was dealt by Linda the Dallas dealer … who flopped me a straight and said, “I knew you had Q-J when you said, ‘This is probably a pretty bad call,’” as she shipped me a $300 pot.
Favorite hand of the night would come a little later upon busting out the dude in the background for another $600.
By the way, if you like the photos, you can see more of what Pokerati sees by checking out our FLICKR gallery.
In other news, ERICK LINDGREN beat PHIL IVEY in a $340,000 golf course prop bet. RAM VASWANI chits presumably in the mail.
Meanwhile, at the secondary final table of $1,000 SHOE, 
LAS VEGAS–They’re down to four players … and Tom Schneider is the short stack with 320k. (But he’s hardly in desperate straits.) Interestingly enough, we are thinking this HORSE event might be the oldest final table (on average) of any others at the WSOP. Not an internet whiz-kid in sight. 
LAS VEGAS–When Tom won a bracelet last week, he did it Jamie Gold-style — got hit in the head with the deck then successfully wielded his chip-lead for the duration of the tourney. Now they’re down to six at the final table in the $2,500 HORSE event, and this time Schneider is playing more “cockroach” style … they just can’t seem to kill him. He’s had pretty much a short stack throughout the tournament, and yet when he’s starting to look like he’s in a really bad place … he wins a big hand. 
