The bill, which passed out of committee yesterday, looks to make Hawaii a destination for big-time live (and televised) poker events … as well as a potential home base for online sites serving US players … by designating the foundations of Pokerati NLH/PLO as games of skill, not played against a casino “house” and therefore exempt from state gambling prohibitions.

PPA Exec Dir. John Pappas supplied written testimony for the hearing, suggesting that the way this current bill is crafted could be problematically prohibitive, as it seeks to charge $100 million for a server license and impose a 20 percent tax on all wagers while potentially challenging federal law. Pappas, however, did not provide any statement on the economic impact such a law would have on Waikiki vendors selling T-shirts like these:

Surf’s Up by Pokerati Generic T-Shirt Shoppe

The Hawaii poker bill — originally written supposedly to provide a tax holiday for buying school supplies — passed out of the Economic Revitalization & Business Committee on a 7-1 vote, and the House Judiciary Committee, 9-3. It now moves on to the House Finance Committee.

(Mahalo Poker Gnome for the heads-up.)

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.

Really, the entire state of Nebraska Iowa should be ashamed that in 2008, at the WSOP Omaha Circuit event (OK, technically it’s “Council Bluffs” … which is just across the river from the PL-namesake city) featured no Omaha tournaments! This year they added two — a $345 Omaha Hi-Lo, and a $345 PLO. But in New Orleans, there’ll be five Omaha events, with buy-ins ranging from $235 (w/ rebuys) to $1,070.

Don’t know what it means, or if it’s just coincidence that I’ve started playing Omaha. The Atlantic City circuit event that gets underway this week still has no Omaha tournaments on the schedule. Maybe the desire for four hole cards instead of two simply increases as you move west?

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event is down to it’s last 3 with Casey Kastle, Martin Klaser, and Michael Fetter remaining. Kastle currently holds the chip lead, Erik Seidel was eliminated in 4th in his attempt at winning his 9th bracelet.

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event have returned from their dinner break with 280 out of a starting field of 805 to return. Notable names near the top include Alex Jacob, Mark Vos, Gavin Griffin, and Hevad Khan.

Other tournament action is available by clicking on the more thingy:

The $50,000 HORSE event is moving along on Day 2, with 109 remaining as the eliminations are happening a bit quicker today. Notable names near the top include Doyle Brunson, Lyle Berman, Isabelle Mercier, Erick Lindgren and Tom Dwan. Tom Schneider’s still in the middle of the pack at 131,000 in chips

The $1,500 Stud Eight or Better event drew a field of approximately 544, of which 460 are remaining. Notables at the top of the leaderboard: Bryan Micon, David Sklansky, Annie Duke, EPT winner Tim Vance and John Phan.

The $1,000 NL Holdem w/rebuys even is down to 26, as they make their way to a final table tomorrow. Scott Freeman is the current chip leader, other names you may have heard of still in the field: Mark Seif, Joe Tehan, JC Tran, Gioi Luong and Eric Froehlich.

More updates later in the evening…

The $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship final table is already over, as Dan Lacourse a retired firefighter from Dayton, OH took down the bracelet along with almost $370,000. Dale Eberle, a retired police officer from Akron, Ohio finished 2nd, for just over $235,000.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event is down to the final 16, as they make their way to a final table. Among the notable names: Erik Seidel, Casey Kastle, and WSOP runner-up Tom Chambers. Updates for this event can be found here.

The $1,000 NL Holdem w/rebuys event started with a field of 879 and 2,508 addons and rebuys. Only 320 are left at the present time, the notable names at the top of the leaderboard include Mark Seif, Brandon Cantu, JC Tran, Humberto Brenes, and Scott Clements. Follow their progress at the WSOP.com website here.

Dan and Jen will surely provide numerous posts about the HORSE event, but you can get further updates on the action here.

More throughout the evening…

The $1,500 Mixed Holdem event is down to its final 3 competitors with Jonathan Tamayo, Frank Gary and Nick Binger went on their dinner break. Binger, who at one point had over 1.6m in chips and had eliminated the first 6 players, lost his chip lead to Tamayo while Gray has been playing just enough to try and get into 2nd place. Follow their progress on the WSOP website here.

The $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event is also on dinner break 3 handed. Shun Uchida, John Phan and Gioi Luong are remaining in what has been a very contentious final table. Luong and Phan had a verbal altercation after Luong attempted to change his discard, while Phan angrily accused him of angle shooting. Things have appeared to calm down, but in all the tension, Uchida has a commanding lead at this time. To see how that turns out, check the updates over at worldseriesofpoker.com here.

The other updates appear on the next page:

The $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship is down to about 70 with their chances of reaching the final table expected to take place early in the morning. Names that you’ve heard of remaining in the field: Tom McEvoy, Men Nguyen, Tom Franklin, and Avery Cardoza.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better started with about 720, of which about 150 are remaining at this time. Notable names at the top include Joe Hachem, Layne Flack, Kathy Liebert, Chris Ferguson, Chip Jett, and Jeff Bryan, who allegedly left with $3,000 more than he should have after a 6-way chop was negotiated in one of the nightly $340 tournaments at the Rio last week. It appears that the tournament staff won’t honor chops and that the players have to settle it amongst themselves. See this post for more details.

Update: The thread has been updated with Jeff Bryan’s side of the deal.

More tomorrow, as we get the $50,000 HORSE underway at 5pm…

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table is now heads-up between Jesper Hougaard and Cody Slaubaugh. Jesper had been dominating the final table and started heads-up with $6,500,000 in chips to about 800,000 for Slaubaugh. Just 6 hands later, Slaubaugh had a nearly 2-1 chip lead as Hougaard decided it was now an opportune time to take the dinner break. They’ll return at about 9:30 PT to finish, the way it’s going it won’t take long either way. Follow along on the World Series of Poker’s update site here.

The other final table on Page 2.

The $10,000 Omaha Eight or Better World Championship will be returning from their dinner break shortly. They made their final table and will restart with several big names remaining as the octet is ready for more Omaha. Here’s the approximate chip counts:

Toto Leonidas 900,000
David Benyamine 765,000
Jason Gray 680,000
Ram Vaswani 670,000
Mike Matusow 600,000
Greg Jamison 375,000
David Chiu 350,000
Eugene Katchalov 270,000

Follow the split-pot action here.

The $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event is down to 14 as they make their way to a final table. The notable names remaining include Chris Bell, bracelet winner Robert Cheung, Michael Binger, Lee Watkinson and Keith Lehr. See who makes the last nine here.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event drew a maximum field of 2,720 and about 500 are remaining at this time. Notable names at the top of the leaderboard: Barry Greenstein, Scott Clements, Humberto Brenes, and Bill Gazes. Track your favorite players here.

More to come tomorrow…

Little note about Stuart: He’s in a wheelchair.

Now check out this post from the official live updates team:

Stuart Paterson Crippled

Stuart Paterson was all in on the turn against Eugene Katchalov.

Paterson: {A-Spades} {5-Hearts} {9-Hearts} {6-Spades}
Katchalov: {A-Hearts} {7-Hearts} {8-Clubs} {5-Clubs}
Board: {8-Hearts} {Q-Spades} {6-Clubs} {2-Hearts} {9-Clubs}

Katchalov had a nine high straight and a low with the A-5. Paterson had the same low.
After getting quartered, Paterson is down to around 25,000 in chips.

UPDATE: The title of the aforementioned post was just changed to read: “Stuart Paterson Nearing the Felt.” Better.

The $1,500 7 Card Stud winner turned out to be Mike Rocco, who endured the barbs of Al Barbieri to take down his first bracelet and about $135,000.

The $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship stopped play with 18 left, they get to return at 3pm to determine their winner. The final two tables have plenty of notable names remaining, which consist of:

Table 14

1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000

Table 15

1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu “Tony” Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000

The ESPN360 final table for today on the next page…

Yet another $1,500 NL Holdem event has their final table at 2pm that gets to be seen on ESPN360. Their final table consists of (chip counts and seat assignments to be added later):

Cody Slaubaugh 1,419,000
Jesper Hougaard 1,582,000
Danny Wong 1,105,000
Owen Crowe 674,000
Justin Wald 873,000
Rick Solis 900,000
Doug Middleton 356,000
John Shipley 269,000
Aaron Kanter 165,000

Shipley and Kanter have both made the WSOP Main Event final table: (Shipley 7th in 2002, Kanter 4th in 2005).

The only tournament on today’s calendar is yet another $1,500 NL Holdem donkament. This particular version last year drew a field of 2,778 with Robert Cheung getting a bracelet of his very own.

Instead of making a 2nd post, might as well do the leaders after Week 3 (counting Friday’s tournaments):

Number of entrants: 32,208
Number of bracelets awarded:35
Most cashes: Nikolay Evdakov – 7
Most final tables: Jacobo Fernandez – 3
ESPN POY: Fernandez – 187 points
Leading money earner: Phil Galfond – $832,219

Week 3 winners:

Scott Seiver – $5k NL Holdem
Jens Voertman – $3k HORSE
Blair Hinkle – $2k NL Holdem
Max Pescatori – $2.5k PL Holdem/PLO
Kenny Tran – $10k NL Holdem Heads-Up
Barry Greenstein – $1.5k Razz
Vitaly Lunkin – $1.5k NL Holdem
Phil Galfond – $5k PLO w/rebuys
John Phan – $3k NL Holdem
Rob Hollink – $10k Limit Holdem
Dario Minieri – $2.5k NL Holdem 6-handed
Luis Velador – $1.5k NL Holdem
Sebastian Ruthenberg – $5k Stud 8 or Better
Layne Flack – $1.5k PLO w/rebuys
Mike Rocco – $1.5k Seven Card Stud

More stuff later today…

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event just concluded with a winner, and it’s Layne Flack who put on a dominant performance at the final table, taking an overwhelming chip lead that no one would be able to catch him. Layne wins his 6th WSOP bracelet, putting him in some elite company as one of 10 poker players who have won at least 6 bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan, D. Brunson, Seidel, Cloutier, Moss, Baxter, Heimowitz, M. Nguyen are the others). Daniel Makowsky finished in 2nd, and Ted Forrest will have to try yet again to get his 6th bracelet, as he finished in 5th. Dario Alioto finished in 4th for those following the Italian contingency.

Other action from today after the jump:

The other final table is at headsup, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event has Al Barbieri and Mike Rocco dueling for the bracelet. Rocco currently has a 2-1 chip lead, but to see how this one turns out, head to the WSOP’s updates here.

The two tournaments that are on their day 2 are working their way down to their final 9. The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to their final 45. Notable names include Bryan Micon, 2002 WSOP ME final table chip leader John Shipley, bracelet winner Duncan Bell, and Can Kim Hua. Follow the action and see if you can recognize any of these people here.

The $10,000 Omaha Eight or Better World Championship hasn’t reached the money, with about 50 remaining. At this pace, they may still be at it when most everyone else will be waking up again. More notable names are still alive, including Doyle Brunson, David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren, Chau Giang, Ram Vaswani and Mike Matusow. More updates of their play can be found here.

The only tournament that started today was the $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event. A field of 605 is down to about 100. Names remaining include: Shane Schleger, Michael Binger, Ben Roberts, Clonie Gowen, Eli Elezra and Nikolay Evdakov (going for his 8th cash). Track your favorite players here.

The $5,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship is down to the final 3, with Team Full Tilt Pro Chris Ferguson the dominate chip leader. Marcel Luske finished in 4th, Annie Duke finished 5th, you can catch all the action at the WSOP site here.

The other final table for today already has its champion, to find out who it was, click on the jump:

Luis Valedor, a player so good he has three Hendon Mob database entries, just took down the $1,500 NL Holdem event #32 taking down over $570,000 and a coveted bracelet. Anthony Signore finished in 2nd, other results can be found here. Vermont resident Shane Stacey finished in 5th for $166,682 and for the moment passing Kentucky in the World Standings.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event is down to their final 25, with Kyle Kleockner in the lead. Other notable names include Layne Flack, Erik Seidel, Ted Forrest and Dario Allioto. Nikolay Evdakov cashed for the 7th time this Series, finishing in 30th. Clonie Gowen (wearing her FTP patches), finished in 34th. Their progress can be found here.

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud event is down to their final 23. PokerStars Team Pro Chad Brown is chip leader, Sabyl Landrum, Al Barbieri and Bryan Devonshire are the other notable names in the field. Watch how they do here.

The fourth edition of the $1,500 NL Holdem event drew a field of 2,447 that is already down to under 500 as they’ve returned from their dinner break. Among the early leaders, Freddy Deeb, Hevad Kahn, Tom McEvoy and Shannon Shorr. Other chip leaders and updates can be found here.

The $10,000 Omaha Eight or Better World Championship drew a field of 235, and only 3 are gone so far. Among the early leaders: Ram Vaswani, Bruno Fitoussi, Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider, and Mike Matusow. Follow the exciting split-pot action here.

More exciting news to come during the evening and tomorrow from me…

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Dario Minieri took down the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event in a final table that lasted almost 200 hands, surprising for a 6 handed final table. Seth Fischer finished in 2nd, putting a brutal beat on Justin Filtz to eliminate him in 3rd when the AK of Fischer ran down Filtz’ AA.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better final table was finally set after 7am this morning, and another first almost occurred as both Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer were among the final 9. However, Howard was eliminated in 9th, but the final table still has notable names such as Chris Ferguson, Steve Sung and Marcel Luske that will return at 5pm today to determine the winner. Here’s that final table:

Seat 1: Bob Lauria: 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske: 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung: 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke: 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia: 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg: 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson: 434,000
Seat 8: Robert Beveridge: 288,000

The other final table today and other action after the thing you click to get to the next page:

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table starts at 2pm today under the glaring ESPN360 camera, which will feature the following:

Seat 1: Dean Bui 211,000
Seat 2: Justin Hoffman 138,000
Seat 3: Jose Luis Velador 1,898,000
Seat 4: Joseph Georges 1,086,000
Seat 5: Utsab Saha 961,000
Seat 6: Jae Chung 716,000
Seat 7: Shane Stacey 640,000 (The first Vermont cash of the Series, thanks to Change100 in the comments)
Seat 8: Osmin Dardon 660,000
Seat 9: Anthony Signore 636,000

So if you’re friends and/or family of this group, tune in!

In tournaments that started yesterday, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event is down to 49, and notables remaining include Erik Seidel, Barny Boatman, Clonie Gowen, Scott Clements, and Jared Hamby. All five have all been represented by Full Tilt Poker, but it appears one of them may have recently lost their sponsorship, I wonder who could it be.

The other tournament yesterday was the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event that is down to its final 70 ready to ante up for day 2. Among the well-known: Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri, Chip Jett, Sam Grizzle, and Chad Brown.

Two more tournaments get underway today, with yet another $1,500 NL donkament starting at noon with the usual 2,000+ entrants (hopefully without the registration issues that came up Tuesday). Last year’s version if this particular $1,500 event was won by Ryan Young in a field of over 2,500.

The 5pm tournament is another $10,000 World Championship, this time it’s for Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better. The $5,000 version of this event was won by John Guth in a field of 280, expect a slightly higher prize pool with a small field this year.

Things slow down a bit the following three days as there’s only one tournament starting each of those days, but the Pokerati team will plow through it with you with more news during the day…

The only final table for today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event, is down to the final 3.  Seth Fischer is the current chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri is second, and Justin Filtz is in 3rd. Dario once had over half the chips 3-handed, but he’s doubled up both players and run into some bad luck to fall into 2nd. Their action can be followed at the World Series of Poker’s live updates here.

Other action after the thing that says More…

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is now under 50 entrants as they play down to their final table. All of the well known names have appeared to have gone away, but you can following along here.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better World Championship just went on its dinner break with 56 left, only 24 will get paid. They may still be going at it deep into the night tonight to reach their final table. David Benyamine is 2nd in chips, Chris Ferguson, Marcel Luske, and Robert Mizrachi are other notable names left in the field. Their updates can be found here.

Tournaments that started today:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event drew a field of 320, with 1,350 rebuys and addons to bring the prize pool to over $2.4 million. The winner takes down just over $577,000. Gavin Griffin is the current chip leader at the dinner break with about 150 remaining. Layne Flack (who rebought about 20 times), Clonie Gowen and Thomas Wahlroos are other notables in the top 10. You can track their action here.

The afternoon tournament, $1,500 7 Card Stud, drew a field of 382 people of varying ages to attempt to win a bracelet and the $136,000 that will go with it. It’s still early in action, but Amnon Fillippi and Men “The Master” Nguyen are the early chip leaders. Chip counts and updates for this tournament can be found here.

More from me tomorrow, all sorts of good stuff from Dan and Jen the rest of the evening…

Finishing up the final tables from last night, Full Tilt Pro Rob Hollink came back from the dinner break to make a rush and take down the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship, knocking out Jerrod Ankenmann in a short headsup match.

A heads-up match that took a bit long was the $3,000 NL Holdem final table. Even though a deal to chop the top two places took place, John Phan and Johnny Neckar still had a heads-up match that went for over 6 hours. There were several wild swings in the chip counts, and with both players allin, Neckar thought he had the title won when his KJ had outflopped Phan’s AJ when a K hit the flop. However, Phan’s entourage would erupt when the Ace hit the river keeping him alive. Later, they played three hands all-in blind. Neckar took the first to take the chip lead, then Phan won the second hand with 7 high to double up, then Neckar would double off Phan in the third hand. They returned to more conventional poker after that and a short time later Phan would take down his first bracelet.

More action from yesterday after the jump:

Today there’s only one final table that will appear on ESPN360, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed Event:

Seat 3: Dario Minieri 1,721,000
Seat 1: Kevin Song 1,173,000
Seat 2: Justin Filtz 891,000
Seat 5: John O’Shea 589,000
Seat 6: Seth Fischer 508,000
Seat 4: Stuart Marshak 183,000

Yesterday’s tournament debuts:

The $1,500 NL Holdem event made the money last night, and 166 remain to fight it out on Day 2. Alan Garcia is the chip leader, and friends and family of the others can find the chip counts here.

The $5,000 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better World Championship is down to 120 out of a starting field of 261. Michael Grapenthein is the current chip leader, other chip counts (sorry Tom) can be found here.

Today’s tournaments are both non-holdem events. At noon it’s the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event, which last year Irish businessman Alan Smurfit won the bracelet in a field of 293, plus 880 rebuys. The 5pm tournament is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event, last year won by German pro Michael Keiner in a field of 385.

More later today…

In a table full of well known names, it was online regular Phil Galfond who took down the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event, beating Adam Hourani in a heads-up match that lasted over 100 hands. David Benyamine would finish 3rd. Galfond gets to take down over $817,000 and take the WSOP earnings lead over Grant Hinkle by less than $1,000.

The $1,500 NL event winner last night was Vitaly Lunkin, who beat Brett Kimes headsup to win just over $628,000 and the coveted bracelet. Other results from that event can be found here.

Two more final tables were established last night, they can be found on the next page:

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship will be on ESPN360 tonight, here’s their lineup, which starts around 2pm:

Seat 1: Andy Bloch 370,000
Seat 2: Rob Hollink 893,000
Seat 3: Tommy Hang 578,000
Seat 4: Cy Jassinowsky 231,000
Seat 5: Jerrod Ankenman 441,000
Seat 6: Chris Vitch 201,000
Seat 7: Brock Parker 166,000
Seat 8: JC Tran 247,000
Seat 9: Aaron Katz 1,232,000

Also at 2pm, the $3,000 NL Holdem event will have their final table, consisting of:

Seat 1: Sebastian Segovia 128,500
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin 534,000
Seat 3: David Singer 334,000
Seat 4: Thuy Doan 369,500
Seat 5: John Phan 396,500
Seat 6: Matt Vengrin 1,007,500
Seat 7: Stewart Newman 398,000
Seat 8: Johnny Neckar 796,000
Seat 9: Tony Dunst 333,000

The only tournament that started yesterday, $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed returns with 73 returning for day 2. Alon Shahar is chip leader, Dario Minieri is 2nd, others can be found at the Hendon Mob forum.

It’s two for Tuesday (just like almost every day), starting at noon today is yet another $1,500 NL Holdem event. Last year’s edition drew a field of “only” 2,315 with David Stucke taking down the bracelet. The 5pm tournament today is the $5,000 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or better World Championship. Last year, Eli Elezra won the title (and several large prop bets) over Scotty Nguyen in a drunken heads-up duel in a field of 236.

More from me this evening…

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

In a final table that ESPN SHOULD be covering (instead of ESPN360), the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys final table has been set for around 3pm.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,800
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

The three names that may not appear familiar to the poker fan, but those who follow the online scene know OMGClayAiken, tsarast and the_houdini very well.

Other action from last night after the jump:

The pros continued their domination of the World Series of Poker last night, taking down both bracelets awarded. First, Full Tilt Pro Kenny Tran beat Alec Torelli 2-0 to take down the $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship, taking down almost $540,000 and an invite into the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In the $1,500 Razz event, Team Poker Stars Pro Barry Greenstein won his 3rd career bracelet, eliminating Chris Klodnicki in an almost 3 hour headsup match. All three of Barry’s bracelets have been won in non-holdem events (PLO and NL KC Lowball being the other two).

The $1,500 NL donkament couldn’t get to a final table, so they return this afternoon with 17 remaining. Here’s the lineups for those two tables, filled with mostly unrecognizable names:

Seat 2: Trevor Donaldson (Phoenix, Arizona) — 470,000
Seat 3: Vitaly Lunkin (Moscow, Russia) — 912,000
Seat 4: Frank Simpson (Novi, Michigan) — 199,000
Seat 5: Deb Blair (Tucson , Arizona) — 310,000
Seat 6: Philip Yeh (Stenungsund, Sweden) — 819,000
Seat 7: Carl Jerome (Ellston, Iowa) — 495,000
Seat 8: Barry Schultz (Cordova, Tennessee) — 858,000
Seat 9: Richard Alm (Los Angeles , California) — 322,000

(Table 15)
Seat 1: Jordan Smith (College Station , Texas) — 789,000
Seat 2: Bashar Ramahi (Edmonton, Alabama) — 204,000
Seat 3: Jeffrey Brown (Hollywood, Florida) — 337,000
Seat 4: Tony Gargano (Sterling Heights, Michigan) — 284,000
Seat 5: Deric Fitzgerald (Huntington Beach, California) — 175,000
Seat 6: Brett Kimes (San Antonio, Texas) — 208,000
Seat 7: Bobby Firestone (Santa Barbara, California) — 544,000
Seat 8: Kenneth Terrell (Lawrenceville, Georgia) — 888,000
Seat 9: Robert Brown (Roseville, California) — 300,000

The $3,000 NL Holdem field is down to 81, but only 72 will get paid. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, other notable names remaining include John Phan, David Singer, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, Jimmy Fricke and Kathy Liebert.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 98 on day 2, with Patrick Bueno the current chip leader. Other notable names include Justin Bonomo, JC Tran, Terrence Chan, Michael Mizrachi, and Alex Kravchenko.

Today, there’s only one tournament, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event that will start at noon. Last year, Hoyt Corkins won the bracelet in an 837 entrant field.

More updates later in the day…

The $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship is down to the final 2, as Kenny Tran is taking on Eric Torelli in a best of 3 match for the bracelet. Vanessa Selbst would finish tied for 3rd in this event for the second straight year, but does move into 2nd place in the ESPN POY standings for the time being.

More at the jump:

The $1,500 Razz event is down to 3 handed, with Barry Greenstein currently in the lead over Chris Viox and Chris Klodnicki. Archie Karas finished 7th at this final table with $19,000 to attempt to build up the bankroll again.

The $1,500 NL donkament is about to return from dinner break with 66 remaining to play down to the final 9. Among the names remaining, Jean-Robert Bellande, Humberto Brenes, and Bernard Lee.

The $5,000 PLO w/rebuys event is down to the final 27, with only 18 to be paid. Among the notables: Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Nikolay Evdakov (trying for his 6th cash), and David Williams,

The $3,000 NL Holdem event drew a field of 716, with just over 200 to return from dinner break. Early chip leaders: John Phan, Mike Sowers, David Singer, and Kathy Liebert.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship drew a field of just over 200 with Michael Mizrachi the early chip leader.

I get to come back in the morning, while Dan and Jen get to add stuff the rest of the evening…

In what is certainly a first (at least I think so), two brothers have won a bracelet in the same World Series of Poker. Blair Hinkle, whose brother Grant won the $1,500 NL event last week, took down his own bracelet in the $2,000 NL event, knocking out Canadian Mark Brockington.

More after the jump:

The other final table in action, the $2,500 PL Holdem/PLO final table just went on dinner break with 3 remaining. Max Pescatori is the chip leader with Kyle Kloeckner in 2nd and Greg Hurst in 3rd. Allen Cunningham was recently eliminated in 4th.

The $10,000 Headsup World Championship has one match remaining in its round of 16 (Lyle Berman v David Williams). The other winners waiting for that match to finish are: Gavin Griffin, Vanessa Selbst, Robert Mizrachi, Brandon Adams, Jonathan Jaffe, Kenny Tran and Alec Torelli. They all will play one more match and finish tomorrow with the semifinals and best of 3 finals.

The $1,500 Razz event has made the money and Tom Schneider has cashed yet again, his 4th of the Series. Mike Wattel is the current chip leader, Barry Greenstein, Archie Karas and David Levi are among the 37 left in the field.

The $1,500 NL event is now under 500, with Joe Awada the current leader. The $5,000 PLO w/rebuys event is almost at the end of the rebuy period. Rumor is that Daniel Negreanu (part of infamous table 15) is in for either 16 or 17 rebuys, which appears to be a record for this event.

More updates from me tomorrow, enjoy the rest of your Saturday evening…