Not sure what really happened yesterday, but I guess I started paying attention to the poker tournaments … or at least wandered near them. And it just so happened to be on a day when the 2010 WSOP faced its first brushes with meltdown.

First probs came with PokerNews’ suffering extended downtime … You’d expect the Lithuanians to have it all fixed by Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 … With hand reports and chip counts hard to find, the big story of the day was supposed to be the $50k Mix, whittling its way down toward the money. However, it was the first of six $1k NLs getting too close to the money too quickly that had Ty Stewart potentially facing his own Day 1-Donkulus. And it apparently came at a time when Nevada Gaming regulators were supposedly on premises breathing down necks while studying payout structures. Perhaps to his chagrin, Stewart had little choice but to give an unrehearsed, impromptu press conference in the face of a Tao/Pokerati ambush, complete with cussing and follow-up questions.

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It seems as those tech issues have been plaguing the poker media from Poker News to the Tao of Pokerati. Dan quizzes Pauly about what really goes on behind the scenes at Poker News.

Episode 7: Ty Sweat

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While “brainstorming” for future episodes of Tao of Pokerati, Dan and Pauly encounter WSOP VP Ty Stewart, who is returning to the Rio around Midnight to keep an eye on a potential disaster, as he sweats the thinning field in the last level of Day 1B of the $1k Donkulus.

Click below for the first thing that comes up, from Urban Dictionary, when you do a Google search for “donkulus”:

More…

Some astute Pokerati commenters have broken down the November Nine prizepool bump (note to self: actually read WSOP media guide; people worked hard on that) … and man, the economy the economy … Thanks to KevMath, Mean Gene, and Fifth Street Journal for showing us how such an infinitesimal little slice of the WSOP can reveal so much more.

Read their tri-alogue for relevant microeconomic calculations, and even some suggestions on how Harrah’s might want to gamble with these funds in the future.

In a nutshell, last year $25 million held in the Nov-9 interim accrued $98k in interest. This year remaining payouts total $16 million; but the extra money that brings to the party — thanks to a drastic drop in short-term T-bill rates — is only $1,321.

ALT HED: Lack of Interest in the November Nine?

I said at the end of play yesterday: “Today was the fight for the money. Tomorrow is the fight for the real money,”

That’s not really correct. In fact, it’s pretty inaccurate … at least the second part, about Day 5.

The prize jumps that should be reached today are relatively small. Click here to see the prize payouts again.

404th place pays $27k.

If we lose more than half the remaining field today, we’ll be up to $37k. That’s a lot of fight necessary for just a single buy-in to next year’s main event.

The “big money” doesn’t kick in until about 72nd place … where the payouts jump from $69k to $90k, and then every few spots of survival from there translate into the kind of money jump of which the IRS is likely to take note.

63rd place is the six-figure line. Beyond that:

1st $8,546,435
2nd $5,182,601
3rd $3,479,485
4th $2,502,787
5th $1,953,395
6th $1,587,133
7th $1,404,002
8th $1,300,228
9th $1,263,602