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 been happening at the WSOP since last night, while Dan Michalski anxiously awaits his attempt to make good on his $300 All-In “investment”:

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha final table has been set, this group of 9 faces the hot lights of the ESPN cameras:

Seat 1: Kido Pham 1,080,000
Seat 2: Brandon Moran 1,286,000
Seat 3: Peter Jetten 492,000
Seat 4: Michael Mizrachi 1,767,000
Seat 5: Billy Argyros 729,000
Seat 6: Greg Hurst 637,000
Seat 7: Tom Hanlon 192,000
Seat 8: Marty Smyth 1,068,000
Seat 9: Richard Harroch 372,000

The other final table scheduled for today and the other tournament action on the next page:
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Pauly and I take the Tao of Pokerati studios remote — and set up shop in the Milwaukee’s Best Light Lounge to watch the chipstacks of a PLO/8 final table (on dinner break) as Eric Seidel goes for bracelet #9 (against Casey Kastle) in what may or may not be a record final table. While Phil Hellmuth has the decades left to stay ahead of the pack, Seidel stands a better chance than Doyle Brunson of catching him, chronologically at least.

Episode 16: Generation Bracelet

Recapping last night’s action, with an eye on what’s going on today:

As noted below, Scotty Nguyen takes down the $50,000 HORSE event, taking down almost $2,000,000, his 5th bracelet, and the first to have won the WSOP Main Event and the $50k HORSE event. Erick Lindgren’s 3rd place moves him into first in the Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year race with just 2 tournaments left.

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table has been set, scheduled to start at 3pm. The two most notable names are two WPT winners, JC Tran and Joe Pelton, here’s how the rest of the table will look like:

Seat 1: Christoph Kohnen 293,000
Seat 2: Joe Pelton 1,093,000
Seat 3: Jesper Hoog 320,000
Seat 4: John Conroy 501,000
Seat 5: Robert Kalb 456,000
Seat 6: J.C. Tran 1,438,000 (his 3rd final table of the Series)
Seat 7: Chad Siu 185,000
Seat 8: Peter Nguyen 870,000
Seat 9: Rasmus Nielsen 2,998,000

Other tournament stuff on the next page:
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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

Jen and Dan are taking care of the HORSE event, so I don’t need to duplicate their work, but they’re about to return from dinner break 5-handed.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event was won by Brazilian Alexandre Gomes, the first for that country, moving them up big time in the World Standings. Gomes takes home just over $770,000 while Marco Johnson won’t be feeling super with his 2nd place earnings of just over $491,000.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event is down to 40 as they play down to their final table. Among the notables remaining: JC Tran, Men Nguyen, Andy Black, Joe Pelton, Hevad Kahn. Follow their action on the World Series of Poker website here.

Other tournament action, following the leap:
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Finishing the action from last night, with the Sunday preview that’s not really a preview:

The HORSE final table is now set for 3pm to be under the really hot lights of the ESPN cameras. Here’s how this stacked lineup will be seated at that table:

Seat 1: Matt Glantz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) — 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman (Minneapolis, Minnesota) — 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) — 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 3,680,000

The other final table for today the $2,000 NL Holdem event, will be held in some corner of the Amazon room at 3pm, but here’s what that final table will look like:

Seat 1: Dan Rome 650,000
Seat 2: Ryan D’Angelo 520,000
Seat 3: Marco Johnson 2,135,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 1,145,000
Seat 5: Robert Brewer 1,050,000
Seat 6: Gabe Costner 1,475,000
Seat 7: Alan Cutter 535,000
Seat 8: Alexandre Gomes 1,075,000
Seat 9: Sverre Sundbo 685,000

The $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed final table finally ended after 6 hours of heads up play when Joe Commisso finally eliminated Richard Lyndaker to take down the bracelet and just over $911,000. Commisso had to be wondering if he’d ever win after having Lyndaker dominated 7-1 on 3 separate occasions, only for Lyndaker to claw back into contention and take the chip lead. Between the two of them there was almost a dozen all in confrontations where the smaller stack would win, which turned out to be a one in 600-something possibility.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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Another guy you may see representin’ at the tables: Pat Poels. Pat, of course, is the only two-time bracelet winner on the team. (Tom is just a “Friend of Pokerati” for now, while we haggle over contractual obligations.)

Not sure what Pat’s playing’ in now … probably $1,500 HORSE. He tried to qualify for the $50k — got close in some super-sats a coupla times, engaging in three chops for about $15k — but spent about $12k to win said $15k … so in the end, his satellite success just wasn’t enough to justify making up the difference.

Pat is a casino host at Casino Arizona and thinks he will be able to sneakily kick major ass in the $500 Casino Employee’s event (Event #55, starting July 7).

UPDATE: Pat was playing $1k PLO at Binion’s. Busted out about 20 minutes ago (@ 8:30 pm).