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Erick Lindgren

When Event 53 came to an end with Matt Graham capturing the $1500 LHE Shootout bracelet on the morning of Thursday, July 3, the 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race ended, as the main event doesn’t count for points. And out in front of the POY leader board was Erick Lindgren. He was ten points ahead of Barry Greenstein, and E-Dog’s five cashes (one of which was a bracelet) and $1,348,528 in winnings this summer added up to the win.

It was announced yesterday that Lindgren officially captured the title. Congratulations!

The entire list of players in contention for the 2008 WSOP POY race can be found here.

We take you into Tao of Pokerati studios on a random Sunday evening bustling with action. Pauly and I look at Kiddie Table HORSE and discuss how a new player-of-the-year point system — with Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren at the Big Dog HORSE final table — presents real possibilities for a WSOP Triple Crown. Special appearances by Isabelle Mercier, David Benyamine, Donkey Bomber, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Richard Brodie, and Chris Ferguson.

Episode 18: Triple Crown-and-Coke

What happened last night, as we finish the preliminary events of the Series today before the Main Event begins tomorrow:

Phil Hellmuth was unable to take down the $1,500 HORSE event for his 12th bracelet, as he finished in 3rd place. James Schaaf, from Torrance, California takes down the bracelet in what also appears to be his first tournament cash. Tommy Hang follows up on his 3rd in the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship by finishing in 2nd.

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship was won by Irishman Marty Smyth who eliminated Canadian Peter Jetten in one of the more exciting final hands of the Series. Both players flopped a straight when all the money went in, but Smyth was freerolling to a club flush. The turn was a brick, but when the 6 of clubs appeared on the river, the Irish part of the crowd exploded with delight while the Canadian contingent groaned in despair at Jetten’s turn of events. Smyth takes down almost $860,000 with the bracelet, while Jetten is consoled with the fact of winning $528,000 for second place. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi ground to a halt in 3rd.

The last two tournaments conclude today, the ESPN360 table and the WSOP POY on page 2:
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What’s happening at the WSOP in Vegas, while some may be planning their itinerary around the WSOP Europe (press release found on page 2).

The $1,500 HORSE event is down to their final table, and Phil Hellmuth is currently in 2nd place as he looks to take down his 12th bracelet. To see if Hellmuth gets that 12th bracelet, you can catch the live updates here. Here’s what the final table will look like as they’re now on their dinner break:

Seat 1: James Schaaf - 392,000
Seat 2: Matt Grapenthien - 46,000
Seat 3: Sam Silverman - 310,000
Seat 4: Phil Hellmuth - 400,000
Seat 5: Jason Dollinger - 346,000
Seat 6: Tommy Hang - 680,000
Seat 7: Victor Ramdin - 78,000
Seat 8: Esther Rossi - 166,000

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship is down to 5 players as they take their dinner break with Marty Smyth recently doubling through Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi to take the chip lead. Kido Pham ran into Mizrachi at the wrong time and was eliminated in 6th place. Follow the action at the wsop.com website here.

Other tournament action, plus the 2008 WSOPE announcement, on page 2:

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What’s happened tonight at the WSOP:

The two final tables for today are both heads-up. First, the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event is down to Joe Commisso and Richard Lyndaker, having played over 130 hands of heads-up action so far. Commisso at one point had a 7-1 chip lead before Lyndaker clawed his way to having his own chip lead. At this time Joe has retaken the lead, but it’s still going to be hard for him to close the deal.

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better tournament is was down to Ryan Hughes and Ron Long. At the moment, Hughes has a 2-1 chip lead, but the chips have been going back and forth quite a bit during heads-up play. Hughes finally defeats Long, taking home the bracelet and $183,000, while Long takes home just over $113,000. This is Hughes’ second bracelet, as he took down the $2,000 Stud Eight or Better event last year. The only other notable name at this final table was 2+2 author David Sklansky, who was the first out at the final table again, finishing in 8th.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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I use the phrase “last minute” loosely, because it’s possible this changed occurred back in 2007 and I just missed it … but Change100 points out there’s been a change in how the WSOP calculates its Player of the Year. It used to be that HORSE and the main event didn’t count — the intent being to create a “triple crown” for anyone who might manage to win all three in their lifetime … main event, POY, and $50k HORSE.

But now, according to the official WSOP website, POY points come from all open events (meaning seniors, ladies, and casino employees don’t count) except the main event. I suppose it’s not a bad change — maybe it is, who knows, will reserve judgment for now — but I know I heard some complaints about the old system before from Greg Raymer and others … the beef being that making the final table in HORSE hurts you a lot in the Player of the Year race because you missed out on so many other POY events in that five days.

Again, click here to see where the 2008 HORSE-friendly race stands, and thanks to Change100 for pointing out what I’ve been missing.

UPDATE: Change informs me that the change was made last week.

OPINION OF THE MOMENT: OK, I like it … why shouldn’t this big event count towards Player of the Year? Fuck, it probably should count double. And it doesn’t take away from the Triple Crown concept … in fact, facilitates it greatly, as winning the HORSE Championship and any other bracelet in the same year would take one a long way towards knocking out two of the three triple-crown prongs in one WSOP swoop. I wonder how much, if at all, the added excitement Harrah’s must’ve seen around the June 7 Belmont Stakes factored into a decision that makes a WSOP Triple Crown a slightly more realistic possibility.

Limiting POY points to only open events also seems right, so all contenders theoretically have the same chance.

What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

The $1,000 NL Holdem with rebuys event has a winner, Canadian Max Greenwood took down the bracelet, making a remarkable comeback from being shortstacked 3-handed to take down the bracelet and almost $700,000. Rene Mouritsen of Aarhus, Denmark finished in 2nd (for the 3rd time at a WSOP event the past two years) to win just over $445,000. Fellow Aarhus resident Albert Iversen finished in 3rd. Greenwood was down to just over 400,000 when he went allin with a pair of 5’s against Mouritsen’s AJ. Another ace hit the flop, and a brick on the turn meant that Greenwood was down to two outs. Miraculously, Max hit that 5, doubling up twice more off Mouritsen to take the chip lead before Mouritsen would take it back when Iversen’s set of 5’s was run down by Mouritsen’s turned flush. After just over 30 hands of head-up play (and boisterous rooting from both player’s friends), all the money went in on a Jack high flop with Max’s AJ ahead of Mouritsen’s KJ. No help came and Greenwood completes the remarkable comeback.

The only tournament to start today, the $2,000 NL Holdem event, drew a field of 2,317, with just under 400 remaining with a couple more levels remaining in the day. Notable names at the top of the leaderboard: Erik Cajelais, Marco Johnson, Erica Schoenberg, Blair Rodman (who won this tournament last year), David Pham and Chau Giang.

Other tournament action today on the next page:
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Recapping the rest of last night at the WSOP with the Thursday preview of tournaments:

The final table was set for the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/ Lo Eight or Better tournament, and a familiar face makes the final table in search of his 9th WSOP bracelet, Erik Seidel. He joins the rest of these people under the bright lights of the ESPN360 cameras:

Seat 1: Joseph Haddad 135000
Seat 2: Tom Chambers 263,000
Seat 3: Larry Wright 117,000
Seat 4: Chad Burum 117,000
Seat 5: Michael Fetter 288,000
Seat 6: Casey Kastle 188,000
Seat 7: Jon Maren 377,000
Seat 8: Martin Klaser 337,000
Seat 9: Erik Seidel 340,000

In ESPN Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year news, Jacobo Fernandez’s 30th place finish (his 6th cash of the Series) extended his lead over David Benyamine to 7 points (227-220).

Other action from yesterday on the next page:

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Tonight’s goings-on at the WSOP:

The one final table of today is down to heads-up play, as the $2,000 Pot Limit Holdem event is down to Chris Bell and Davidi Kitai. So far during heads-up play, there have been 10 lead changes as they’ve battled back and forth for over 3 hours, covering about 120 hands at this time. Follow along with the live updates at the WSOP website here.

Other action from today at the jump:

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Recapping last night with a preview of Sunday activities:

In the $1,500 NL holdem event, Jesper Hougaard returned from the dinner break seemingly in better spirits, as he was able to recover from giving up a 6.5-1 chip lead to Cody Slaubaugh to get back to having a very slight chip lead. A single $25,000 chip separated the two when the final hand was played out as Jesper’s QQ (with a 3rd Q on the flop) crushed Cody’s A-10. Hougaard takes home the bracelet and $610,000, while Cody has the consolation of winning $389,128 for finishing 2nd.

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship led to another name being removed from the list of best players to never win a bracelet as David Benyamine won $535,687 and the coveted WSOP bracelet. Greg Jamison finished in 2nd, Mike Matusow finished in 5th, Eugene Katchalov was 6th, while David Chiu ended up in 8th. Benyamine’s win places him only 2 points behind Jacobo Hernandez in the ESPN WSOP Player of the Year race. The announcement that the $50,000 HORSE event later this week will count towards the standings means that plenty of big names are still in the hunt to take down that title.

The final table for today, and other stuff on page 2…

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Recapping the Friday action and a preview for today:

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…

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What’s happening this evening while watching Tiger Woods decide to wait until Monday to win his next major:

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:

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Without having to calculate exact days or tournament numbers, let’s consider the WSOP to be at the halfway mark.

Taking a look at the WSOP Player of the Year overall points standings, Erick Lindgren is in a pretty solid first place spot right now. Jacobo Fernandez-Hernandez is in second place, followed by Scott Seiver, Daniel Negreanu, and Theo Tran. A certain Tom Schneider looks to be in 31st place, but the current standings do not include his 12th place razz finish last night; that addition might move him up 15-20 spots.

As far as the number of cashes, Tom just moved up to a three-way-tied first place with Nikolay Evdakov and Alex Jacob - all of them have five cashes thus far. The all-time record for cashes at the WSOP in a single year is eight, and with quite a few tournaments to go, the goal of beating that record is definitely attainable.

That’s two cashes so far for Schneider. This one paid a net $1,743. Congratulations-ish, Tom.. Nice to book another win, and this one should cover two or three of the many dozens of blinds you’ve defended poorly in the cash games! Don’t call it a comeback!

I ran into Angry Julie in the poker kitchen late last night shortly after Tom had busted out, and she was unusually happy. Giddy, I’d even say. She was buying herself a Krispy Kreme donut and Tom an ice cream using the $15 food voucher you get for playing in a WSOP event. Informed that she wouldn’t get back any change, she looked at the guy behind her in line and said, “How much is what he’s having? ($8) Great, his too!”

The dude was super-thankful, but before he could walk away with a smile, she stood there and wouldn’t let him leave until he tipped the cashier. “Not until you put at least a dollar in there,” she said, pointing to the tip basket in front of the register. I know what Tom would think if he saw this: “Leak.”

Meanwhile, Tom thinks Pokerati should be all over the continuing saga of the Donkey Bomber POY Banner. “My picture the only one without a light - rodney dangerfield,” said a text he sent to me yesterday. I checked, and it’s true — everyone else has a big beam accenting their mugs. But considering that I have to sit right below his banner and I don’t want any additional glare, I think we’ll stick to keeping you posted about his feats busting out of a tournament with only nine tables to go.

We’re still trying to figure out the best way to let you know what people are posting over on the Citizen Stack Reporter page … but in the meantime I’ll let you know that we just got word from Tom that his oversize head is now up, lording over the Amazon room, as if he’s actually somebody important. Visual confirmation TK.

UPDATE: Big picture of Tom=Yuck

From Tao:

There’s a new mural of the DOnkeyBomber right above my head.

“DonkeyBomber stinks,” said Lance.

I’m thinking… BO? Shitty poker player?

“Smell the banner. It’s brand new and has that chemically smell.”

I inspected the banner and took a huge whiff. Wow. talk about a buzz. My head is still spinning.

OK, too funny … a year-by-year, larger-than-life gallery of WSOP Players of the Year. Defending champ Tom Schneider (’07) is literally nothing next to Jeff Madsen (’06):

Photo: Jen Newell

Tom Schneider’s memorable 2007 is coming to an end — WSOP Player of the Year, 7th in CardPlayer’s POY, 96th in Bluff’s — oy, now he gets to start all over. But before he does, we get a sense of where this semi-regular blogger’s accomplishments fit into the bigger word beyond poker (or, as Scotty Nguyen says, “Poker Beyond!”) … as Tom has been chosen as a finalist — and poker’s only representative — for ESPN’s 2007 All-SportsNation Team.

Click here to vote, preferably for Tom.

The Top 5 get the Espy honors. Currently the leaders are Randy Couture, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez, and Brett Favre … with Tiger Woods following just a single percentage point behind. Yikes, tough competition for Tom — dare I say tougher than any he has seen at the poker table? — but kinda cool that he’s (at the time of this posting) right ahead of Dirk Nowitzki and tied with Kaká.

Seriously, click on over … for the sake of poker players everywhere to further boost the ego of everyone’s second-favorite Beyond the Table cohost.

CORRECTION: Tom is ranked 96th overall for the past two years by Bluff. For 2007 he finished 158th, compared to 76th in 2006.

Tom Schneider has snuck ahead of J.C. Tran in the CardPlayer Player of the Year race. Currently in 5th place, he’s only 7 points behind Bill Edler for 4th. With a lot of big action coming up — Bellagio 5-diamond and the Venetian NPL main event and probably some others — it could get pretty exciting down the December home stretch.

So while a few pros have convinced me I shouldn’t be poo-pooing Tom’s chances to win it all, I will go out on a limb and say he really needs a big payday to get those top honors, as he looks a little weak in at least one column:

RANK	PLAYER	POINTS	FINAL TABLES	WINNINGS
1	David Pham	5,410	10	$1,534,242
2	Jonathan Little	5,272	9	$2,503,145
3	Scott Clements	5,138	6	$2,206,981
4	Bill Edler	4,777	7	$2,757,042
5	Tom Schneider	4,470	7	$733,589
6	J.C. Tran	4,458	5	$2,364,097
7	David Fox	3,788	8	$566,152
8	James Van Alstyne	3,588	7	$731,158
9	Jared Hamby	3,573	5	$1,252,311
10	Danny Wong	3,406	7	$869,975

Donkey Bomber Pokerati Tom — my words, not his — is at another final table today. That’s about all we know. I think it’s in a $2,500 Venetian/NPL Vegas Open event — I know it’s not at one of the preliminary Bellagio 5-Diamond tourneys where most of the pros are playing — but can’t be sure because, frankly, Tom tends to slack off from his frontline tournament reporting duties whenever he’s playing well (or vice versa). Too bad Goldfarb’s not making more final tables, because even if he can’t post directly from the table, he loves to send me the suckout-by-suckout recaps.

Tom Schneider starts today third in chips … I do know that much. And yeah, looking again, it’s gotta be event #3, because that’s one that counts toward Player of the Year. He really wants to win it, and thinks he can. Personally, I don’t think he stands a chance — though I suppose technically it’s possible and the Arizona Cardinals could win the next Super Bowl, as neither have been mathematically eliminated from contention.

In the meantime, keep up the good work, Tom (6)! We’re rooting for you against David Pham, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Bill Edler, JC Tran, David Fox, James Van Alstyne, Jared Hamby, and Danny Wong! Actually, I’m kinda rooting for Danny Wong, too … because he’s on my fantasy team. And Travis Rice, who is Dallas Poker’s highest ranked player in the CardPlayer standings at #11 — 5 spots, and 680 points behind Tom.

UPDATE (from Tom):

Belagio 2500 started yesterday 247 players

Hmm, OK, so I guess it was not one of the Venetian tourneys … it was a 5-Diamonder. Oops! But can we say sic.?

CORRECTION: Despite his own reports to the contrary, Schneider starts the day second in chips, not third. Click below to see who’s at the final table …

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Meanwhile, Tom is currently playing in the main event of the WSOP-Circuit event at Caesar’s Indiana, where he has made yet another final table. He enters into tomorrow’s action as a short stack, so he’s got some of work to do and might need a little luck early on. (With blinds at 2000/4000 +500, he’s got 45,000 chips.) Click here to follow the action, which gets underway Friday at 2 pm.

Beyond competing for the $223,000 first-prize payout, Tom is trying to stay alive in the overall Player of the Year race as the 2007 poker “season” comes into the homestretch. His placement in the CardPlayer rankings certainly stands out, and in fact looks similar to his situation at tomorrow’s final table, which will be Tom’s fifth of the year:

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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.