Was gettin’ all geared up for an exciting #FollowFriday when I got this reminder of how much things have changed. Alas …

But hey, I’ll always have this bit of inspiration — recorded during the 2006 WPBT Winter Classic, shortly after passage of the UIGEA … a time when Twitter hardly existed and I believed, along with Phil Hellmuth, that poker’s future was in ringtones:

Oliver Tse poker future

ALT HED: Oliver Tweetse

Brock to Brock

Brock Parker extended the streak of double braclet winners at the WSOP to 10 years, as he bested Joseph Serock in the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event. Both bracelets came in shorthanded events as he beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up in the $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event earlier this week.

Seidel Looking for Bracelet #9, #9, #9…

The $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem final table was reached earlier this morning, and this is how they’ll be seated when play resumes at 2pm at www.bluffmagazine.com/live:

Seat 1: Marc Tschirch – 268000
Seat 2: Erik Seidel – 337000
Seat 3: Jason Dewitt – 476000
Seat 4: Kyle Carlston – 320000
Seat 5: Andrew Radel – 250000
Seat 6: John-Paul Kelly – 627000
Seat 7: Ravi Raghavan – 145000
Seat 8: Kirk Steward – 231000
Seat 9: Aaron Virchis – 191000

HORSE in the Homestretch

The $3,000 HORSEevent reaches its conclusion today with 21 players remaining when play resumes at 1pm. Zac Fellows will start the day with the chip lead at 471,000. James Van Alstyne (455,000), Ylon Schwartz (186,000), Chau Giang (149,000), Bill Blanda (144,000), and Gavin Smith (121,000) are some of the notables coming back as well.

Shootout at the Rio, Day 2

Day 2 of the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout has 100 players, sitting at 10 tables, remaining when play resumes at 2pm today. Each player will start with 45,000 in chips and play down to a winner, returning on Friday afternoon with 450,000 in chips along with the other table winners to determine the winner.

Drawing Without Limits

Day 2 of the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw World Championship started with 96 entrants yesterday afternoon. 57 players return at 2pm today, 43 of which will get nothing for their efforts. Roland de Wolfe starts the day with 180,300 in chips. Notables also returning include John Juanda (111,800), David Benyamine (69,500), Kenny Tran (64,800), Phil Ivey (56,000), Daniel Alaei (51,000) and Freddy Deeb (49,600). Unfortunately for Dan, Tom Schneider will not be able to wear the Pokerati patch proudly, as he was eliminated.

Thursday’s Tournaments and Projections

Two tournaments start the action today, starting with another edition of the $1,500 NL Holdem event, with another field of over 2,000 players expected. Last year, Luis Velador took down this event in a field of 2,304 for $574,734. The 5pm event is another event for specialists, $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better/Stud 8 or Better won last year by Farzad Rouhani in a field of 388.

The WSOP Staff Guide projected that 2,400 players would start the $1,500 NL holdem event (take the over – 2,541), while the $2,500 OHL/SHL event would draw a field of 419 (take the under, 371). Action abounds at the WSOP today, so head to the WSOP website and Pokerati throughout the day for the latest in the online poker payment processor situation and other stuff during the day.

Seriously, it was a strange prop bet offer … one deemed “unprofessional” by some, and made one other refer to Oliver as the Kim Jong Il of Poker. Though Oliver is Chinese, not Korean, the metaphor kinda sorta holds … because by all means he is sometimes an ostracized “player” in the industry, left to his own devices … and let’s face it: the guy would presumably love to get his hands on some nuclear weapons and wreak havoc on all who ever have tormented him since high school.

I’ll share with you more details of the wager itself as I learn to understand them. But basically – and these are the odds that just seemed too good to pass up on my end — if she’s still alive by the time I show up at the Rio, I’ll get my $10 back. If she makes it to the final table, I get $1,000. There are all sorts of other increased payment tiers along the way.

Though she probably doesn’t remember it, Gabriela Hill and I actually met last year — Oliver introduced us. At the time he told me (with extra emphasis on the rolled R’s) that she was a hot Latin American player. Good enough for me! This is her first ever WSOP bracelet event, apparently. Go Gabi Hill! You the girl!

(FYI, she has only like three followers on twitter, so click on over and become an “early adopter”.)

Meanwhile, as Gabriela’s working on building her stack in a way that makes Dan money! justifies her trip to another continent, we’ll also be following Gregg Merkow closely, as this longtime Pokerati fan — wielding a bankroll fueled at least in part by the high-roller contingent of Batfaces — has his best chance for a bracelet in as long as we can remember.

He’s the chip leader with 18 players left in $2,500 NLH. The short stack going in there, btw, is Phil Ivey … who hasn’t even showed up yet, but has already outlasted three players who started the day.

Click here to follow that action.

UPDATE: Merkow went out 9th. We swear his donning a Pokerati patch and the subsequent cooler effect was purely coincidental.

UPDATE: Supposedly Gabi is out, too. I hope you’re happy, Oliver!

(Apologies for the blur, but I had to kick into full-on Stalkerati mode and take these shots while running.)

The side profiles are pretty good — Doyle Brunson on the old guys, Orel on the similarities between poker and baseball … And I gotta say, Ali Nejad is proving he’s a top-notch color analyst — witty and well-informed.

Overall, the show is sucking me in. I give it a solid A-minus. 90 if you’re using numbers. I know Oliver (Tse, not Nejad) will have many thoughts on the ratings this show is getting, and what that means for the future of televised poker. I say more coverage of the outside tables — with or without hole-card cams — would make it better. (They only had two tables cammed up when they recorded it.)

UPDATE: Still love the Geico caveman commercials. And, of course, love that NBC was able to sell/place non-online-poker room ads.

UPDATE: Hersheiser knows Eminem lyrics. Not the best rapper, but awesome to know a guy born in 1958 appreciates good music. And damn, he is schooling Deeb as if he’s Marshall Mathers rippin’ on Ken Kaniff.

By the way, there’s a point where one cameraman zoomed in on this Pokerati comic. Odds on it making the cut?

UPDATE: Phil Ivey vs. JC Tran = 2 incredibly boring-for-TV players engaged in fascinating hand-to-hand combat. Good stuff. Want more. Just a little bit.

Ali Nejad on Greg Raymer, wearing an orange shirt and safari hat: “Greg working on a sponsorship deal with Tommy Bahama” … as they go right into the straight play-by-play. (Sorry, don’t know Nejad’s PBP partner’s name, and he’s not listed on the NBC website. Matt something.)

On the upside, it led me to a related video with Oliver Tse at a final table. Southern California Poker Tour announcer Matthew Dodd rips into the O-man for leading out from early position when he flops two pair … and I just gotta say, Doddo, you are dead wrong in your analysis — despite your Tom Schneider looks emphatic delivery of it! But hey, I guess that sorta expertise should be expected from the people who bring us the video above?