Previewing Day 9, reviewing Day 8 at the WSOP, as I wonder why the EUROPEAN Poker Tour allows worldwide airing of final tables live, while the WORLD Series of Poker decides to restrict airing of final tables to a select few in the United States.

The second Saturday of the Series gets underway at noon with event #13 ($2,500 NL Holdem). Being a NL tournament held on the weekend, expect another large field to lay their money down. At 5pm, the latest round of $10,000 buyin World Championships takes place, this time it’s 7 Card Stud. Expect a small but elite field to try their hand at winning a bracelet.

Earlier today:
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Happening today at the WSOP, while plotting against my cable provider for not having ESPN360.

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A review of the action from the first week of the World Series of Poker:

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Happenings at the WSOP while JC Tran (and his spectacular breasts) make the final table.

Play ended shortly after 5am in the $10k Mixed Event World Championship. A tournament that had its share of controversy, from confusion over the structure to players threatening to go to 2+2 to express their dislike of having table redraws start at triple draw instead of going through the eight-game rotation. Here’s the final table, starting at 4pm:
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What’s going on at the WSOP this afternoon while waiting for Tom updates from Michalski:

For the first time at the Series this year, an event sold out as the $1,500 NL 6-handed tournament drew a full field of 1,236. Reports from elsewhere said that at least 200 were shutout of the event. The Brasilia room still won’t be available for another week, costing those players (and Caesars/Harrah’s getting their 9%) the chance to participate. Less than 3 hours into the tournament and already the field is down by half. Maybe some of them will try their hand at the next tournament at 5pm, $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8. Other action after the jump.
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I like to troll Craigslist every so often for some hot, anonymous NSA poker action. Not looking for games — there’s no shortage of ‘em here in LV — just wanting to take the pulse of what people are pushing related to poker. Look at the ads all together and you get some interesting tells on the state of the poker world and its semi-anonymous inhabitants:

There are a lot of chips , tables, fancy custom tables and chips and tables for sale, of course, and for $15 a made-for-TV WPT video game. WSOP: Tournament of Champions for the Playstation goes for $8

For $150k you can have documentary footage of the rise and fall of Jamie Gold.

A WSOP baby’s blanket.

More chips, from the Aladdin, and from the Atlantic City Playboy Club. “Omaha Table” from Sante Fe Station.

Perhaps frighteningly, there are even poker bots for sale. At least one suspicious reader is questioning whether or not this is legal.

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I rarely post hand histories, but this one is just too good. I am curious what people think of my move on the flop? The set-up: we are on the bubble in last night’s Sunday Million on Pokerstars, and I am sitting in pretty good shape in the top 40 in chips with 487 left (486 get paid) when I am dealt KT suited, aka the ‘new John Brown’. One other somewhat criticalish piece of info (and as a result of playing a PL Omaha game simultaneously) when I made my move I did not realize that ’2A472′ was in the pot.

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PokerNews has posted an interview for all you Tom Schneider fans. Very interesting read on what goes through a pro’s mind during a tournament he really did not want to play in the first place he was looking forward to playing so he could take home a bracelet.

Click here to read Part One.

UPDATE: And here for Part Two.

ESPN is kicking off this years 2007 WSOP this Tuesday at 8pm ET for their earliest airing ever. Viewers will get a taste of what’s been going on over here while it’s still going on over here. Even better news is the variation of games they’ve added to the line up…omaha, pot limit hold’em, mixed hold’em and heads up have spiced up the life of this years series and kudos to ESPN for keeping with the flow.

The main event will be broadcast live on July 17th on PPV.

Now sit back and enjoy the show(s).

Fellow blogger Crispin Glover Jeffrey Pollack (photo of Crispin Glover not Jeffrey Pollack) reported Friday night he would be addressing the temperature of the Amazon room here at the Rio as well as the limit structures, next day breaking order, space between players and railbirds, the infamous-tent comfort zone and visibility of the tournament clocks. All of us in the media room are shivering with frostbite anxiously awaiting the solutions.

And in other poker related news…Patrik Antonius is starting day two in the 10k PLO as a chip leader. Lance Bradley of “The Poker Biz” is salivating and not because Patrik is the sexiest poker player in the world (at least Lance’s wife hopes not) but because he’s on his Fantasy Poker Team.

Pokernews will have the live updates.

LAS VEGAS – First things first…Congratulations to Tom on winning his second bracelet and for reaching his goal of three 2007 WSOP final tables! And congratulations to Dan for his 4th place finish at, the former WSOP stomping grounds, Binions.

I’m relaxing in writing from Summerlin with my three two children and husband who bought $100 worth of fireworks. If you see anything on the news regarding wild fires in West Vegas…

The S.H.O.E. event started at 5pm today and in the line up is Marcel Luske, David Levi, Chad Brown, James Van Alstyne and beauties Shannon Elizabeth and Lacey Jones.

Speaking of ladies…Anna Wroblewski has made the final table for event #47 2k NL Holdem.

Just when you thought this post was finished, there’s a bit more…John Duthie, a personal favorite and who coached Daniel Craig in the new James Bond film, is currently chip leader in today’s PLO with over 100k but lady favorite Patrik Antonius (who, according to WCP, should have the massage therapist paying him to rub his body) is close behind.

Oops, Patrik just made the pass (in the race not at a massage therapist).

LAS VEGAS–The $50k HORSE event finished up this morning … and FREDDIE DEEB is officially crowned the best all-around poker player in the world for the time being.

You can only presume HARRAH’S OFFICIALS are breathing a sigh of relief — after having pimped the tourney as the biggest deal, it makes a much better story to give the title to an immigrant who came to America to save his family from war and turned to poker as a way to make good while AMERICAN IMMIGRATION BUREAUCRACY futzed around with his ability to earn a living.

Had JOHN HANSEN won, the story would’ve been about a relatively unknown bad-ass from the NEW YORK hardcore poker underground. Less savory.

Speaking of LEGALLY QUESTIONABLE poker players, did you know drug kingpin JIMMY CHAGRA — released from prison earlier this year — played in the SENIORS EVENT?

He was on “Talkin’ Trash” with BRIAN WILSON just a couple days ago. [via Gary Wise on 2+2.]

JEFFREY POLLACK did a little semi-live blogging from the HORSE final table. Maddest props to the Commish — not only for letting us know what he heard from the poker-players town hall, but also for providing his first-ever outbound link. Puts him on a short-list of people who just-might qualify for Pokerati posting privileges some day. We’ll be watching as he continues to cut his Wicked blogging chops.

In the meantime, The Jeffster tells us:

1. There is insufficient play in the middle levels of limit games and too much in the beginning.

2. There are some instances where the color-up process isn’t being handled correctly.

3. The tent is not a comfortable place to play.

4. There needs to be more room between the spectators on the ropes and the players.

5. The next day’s breaking order should be posted when an event ends for the night.

6. We need to improve media access to final tables.

7. The sequestered tables are tough to cover for the media and follow for the fans.

8. Tournament clocks should be more visible.

9. The Amazon Room is too cold.

10. We should continue and better publicize escort service to the parking lot late at night.

Yesterday’s “other” bracelet went to a guy named SAIF AHMAD, who won the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event with relative ease.

View from the rooftop of Pokerati’s VEGAS EDGE bureau:

ERIC ROSENBERG poses an interesting question on his new-ish blog — about why official poker “stats” don’t subtract known tournament buy-ins from “winnings.” The WSOP, of course, has records of every bracelet-bound buy-in … so it could be done. Likewise, they bar-code initial seat cards, so it’s theoretically possible to provide PokerNews or whoever with the basic info on every single player whose chips they try to track.

Maybe next year?

Rosie has also spurred further conversation about BACKING-DEAL DISCLOSURE — specifically as it pertained to BILL CHEN’S WSOP-approved chip-dumping agreement. It’s not about gratuitous rabble-rousing so much as it is about decisions that will affect the future of poker, regardless of what they are.

So the $1,000 7-Stud Hi Lo continues today. Pokerati’s own TOM SCHNEIDER sits down with 4,300 chips. We’ll find out if North Texas pokerer DAMON RAMIREZ is still alive. And DOYLE BRUNSON takes his second stab at bracelet #11 with 10,700 chips. Pokerati fantasy man STEVE WONG also ain’t too far behind.

Follow the 7-Stud Hi Lo action today here.

Today’s other tournament action:

Day 1 of $2,000 No Limit Hold’em
Day 2 of the $5,000 World Championship of Short-handed No-Limit Holde’m.

And the final table for $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo gets underway, with at least one familiar professional face, who will see if he can hold on to the chip lead.

Seat 1- Martin Corpuz, Jr. 292,000
Seat 2- Ming Lee 373,000
Seat 3- Mitch Maples 70,000
Seat 4- Thang Luu 238,000
Seat 5- Jess Robinson 255,000
Seat 6- Frankie O’Dell 318,000
Seat 7- Marcel Luske 427,000
Seat 8- Marvin Ryan 104,000
Seat 9- Stuart Paterson 58,000

LAS VEGAS – Since you can’t comment, I should be writing about Creation VS Evolution just to get a rise but I will spare you the agony.

I’m currently at The Sin. The Sin is one of my pet names for The Rio since predictive text spells sin when typing Rio. This happened to me everyday last year at the WSOP and trust me it was not the word I wanted to see while gambling away my children’s college funds.

So speaking of gambling…today’s high noon event is PL Omaha with Rebuys and at the opposite end of the spectrum is the 3k Limit Hold’em at 5pm. I’m playing in the 3k and having difficulty getting ready. The media room is by far the most distracting place in the world. With bad ring tones, distracting YouTube videos and/or a few individuals that spend most of the day talking about how great they are (rather loudly), it can be difficult to focus. It’s kind of like Al-Qaeda…there is no real governing body so you can’t hold anyone responsible for bad behaviors. However, I will confess I can contribute to the troublesome of the room. It’s not my loud singing of old Poison songs, nor is it the constant view of my lower back tattoo; it’s usually when I am pretending to be smart by discussing cold fusion.
Check live tournament updates here. And to see pictures of sexy women check here.

LAS VEGAS–The most common question I hear here at the WSOP is, How many people do you think will be playing in the main event? “Howya doin’?”

Fine, thanks.

Dan’s 2007 WSOP Gaming Bankroll

So far so good. At poker itself, after five sessions of $1/$2, $1/$3, and $2/$5 … I am up $32. (A little more if you include my first try at casino Omaha.) Kinda amazing considering that comes from $2,400 in buy-ins and 16 hours of play. The maroon areas show wins or losses — and what they either add or subtract from the overall stack, represented in blue. Most of the swelling so far has come from truer gambling. Had a nice run in blackjack, hit quad aces on 25-cent video poker, and am kicking some serious ass in a who-pays-the-tab game called 1-to-1000. Chance-based bar and restaurant prop bets seem to be my strength.

Click here to see some more specific data behind the semi-pretty picture above.

LAS VEGAS–It’s official, I’m important. Or at least all the people without badges in the Amazon room think I’m important. Even though Dan seems to think he needs a better one, my press credential seems to work very well at the table since now the players either think I must know something about poker if I’m working the WSOP, or they think they can get on my good side and I will put them on the internet. Bottom line…they no longer think I’m a bored housewife who’s husband stuck me in a tournament to keep me out of the Forum Shops.

High Noon marked the starting time for the $2k NL Hold’em Event, while yesterday’s $1k NL Hold’em (with rebuys) is down to 20ish players. I watched Amir Vahedi make an amazing call with a Qc-Qh-9c board. Amir held pocket sixes against the short stack with A-4. Amir is rocking in Day 2.

Across the ropes is the $5k Stud event started this afternoon and it is another super pro field. Jen Harman, Doyle Brunson, David Williams, Mel Judah, Thor Hansen & Brandon Cantu. It’s no secret the WSOP added many more events this year to allow the old-school players some real time with the “other” poker games including Razz, Omaha, Stud & more limit games with bigger buy-ins. Many pros feel the large field/small buy-in NL Holdem events are “crap shoots” and not only is there a better chance at a bracelet (Tom) in the other events but they are actually more fun since you don’t have to push all your chips in on one hand with a bunch of little newbie players that are afraid of getting out played on the turn and river. Yes, that’s right, I said afraid. And if you are not afraid…you will be. You will be.