Before we make 2008 The Year of Bitching about Tom’s Lack of Coverage (Again) — because really, if it weren’t for that, what would Angry Julie have to scream about? — I do want to point out that ESPN Correspondo Gary Wise did pick the Donkey Bomber to be on his WSOP fantasy team. Looks like he was a 5th-rounder.

LAS VEGAS–The fireworks are still going off, just not as frequently anymore … and Tom has taken the chip lead. He’s been at a pretty tough table:

Seat 1 - Tony G
Seat 3 - John Juanda
Seat 4 - Tom Schneider
Seat 5 - Gavin Smith
Seat 6 - Howard Lederer

Click here to follow. Or here.

John Juanda (fantasy team disappointment) was just eliminated, so not sure if that means their table will break or have a player added. Also not sure where Jeff Lisandro stands, as an obvious typo has him listed with 146 chips (even though the antes were recently at 700).

At present, the official prize payouts and total number of entries haven’t been released yet, but we know (from our seat overlooking the action 12 miles away) that there were 78 players in the field, seven of whom get paid. Bottom payout is about $55k, top prize being $500somethingish-k.

UPDATE: Lisandro is the chip leader with 240,000. Tom is second in chips with 171,000. This doozy of a race for Player of the Year in a high-dollar obscure game played no-limit-style is back, baby!

BIASED JOURNALISM ALERT: Go Big Tom!

CLARIFICATION: Phil Hellmuth is also technically still in the hunt for Player of the Year. He reportedly has a paltry 25,000 chips. But he has had those 25,000 chips for at least two hours now. So for all we know he may or may not be the actual chip leader at some point during one of three levels.

ALT HED: Horserace Poker

(Yeah, but what a nail biter!)

LAS VEGAS–Here’s what’s going on today at the WSOP, and some of what’s recently gone down leading up to it all:

A Canadian Polack named LUKASZ DUMANSKI won the $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo event. Go non-American players!

The $50,000 HORSE final table has been set.

Interesting field and chip situations …
Amnon Filippi 4,015,000
Freddy Deeb 3,500,000
Kenny Tran 2,445,000
John Hanson 1,995,000
David Singer 1,330,000
Bruno Fitoussi 895,000
Barry Greenstein 750,000
Thor Hansen 40,000

(Pokerati fave GABE KAPLAN went out on the final table bubble, in 9th place.)

Click here to follow the coverage of today’s action, where they will continue to mix games and not play a final table of just no-limit hold’em. Any odds on what will be the final game?

You’ll notice that TOM SCHNEIDER is not there. He went out early in Day 2. He was in the Big-little-big one for $34,000. The rest went to a smattering of backers, to whom 9 percent was available for $5,000. Can Tom build on his early WSOP success and make that third final table without dropping below the six-figure mark? After paying taxes, BACKERS, and living expenses associated with moving to Las Vegas for two months, mixed with tournament buy-ins, cash-game losses, and fancy scotches for Dan … the money can go fast during the WSOP.

But busting out early did allow him to play the $2,000 Omaha Hi Lo, which, after a night of drowning his sorrows followed the next day by a cash-game all-nighter, he played with “no sleep”:

Tom went out toward the end of Day 1.

Lori from Carrollton was dealing — with new hair no less:

She seems to be having a pretty good time — seen here sweating Pokerati fantasy poker favorite STEVE WONG, as he plays $50-a-point Chinese:

Day 2 of Omaha Hi Lo gets underway at 2 pm pacific, 4 pm central.

Day 1 was a pretty relaxed, jovial affair … presumably because it was a relatively low buy-in for the big-time pros who had busted out of the $50k HORSE event. Very fun and chatty. On a break PHIL HELLMUTH and ROBERT WILLIAMSON III had a semi-private discussion about sponsorship deals and the logistics of autographing products en masse. (The easiest are things you can sign with one hand, and slide to the side with the other.)

Robert is selling pieces of himself in by-the-inch embroidered increments. I should probably get a better picture of his jacket …

Here are the patches Hellmuth will be wearing in the main event — 13 of them so far:

Many of these are companies selling Phil’s products, but still, let’s face it, the NASCARIZATION of poker is here. Now if only the non-online-poker companies will buy in.

At the 2007 WSOP, patches are the new body paint.

The other final table today is in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event — no known pros in this one.

Getting underway at noon is the $5,000 World Championship of 6-handed No-Limit Hold’em.

And the 5 pm (Vegas time) tourney is $1,000 7-stud Hi Lo (aka Stud 8 aka Stud 8 OB aka Stud 8 or better).

JEFFREY POLLACK has a new post up on his “blog” (yo, dudes, they’re called “posts,” OK? Get with the program … a single memo ain’t no blog, but a collection of such theoretically could be)– where he informs the poker world (at 10:30 pm last night) that there will be a “players town hall” at 10:30 am today. I’m a bigger fan than most of the poker’s most corporate representative, but either he doesn’t realize that poker hours dictate that the vast majority of players won’t see this, which is pretty bad … or he does, which is worse. But still, we kinda like The Jeffster’s relative openness in his “blogs” .:

[STEVE ZOLOTOW] was so honest with me that he started our conversation by asking for my boss’s phone number so he could call to recommend that I – and every other key WSOP executive – be fired.

Pollack, of course, ain’t going nowhere — at least not for a while — but can you imagine if the “blogs” on worldseriesofpoker.com had comments?

UPDATE: Amy informs me that the players town hall was actually held yesterday … 11-and-a-half hours before Pollack’s post went up. Nice … Here ye, hear ye!

Don’t forget to follow my following the cash game action at the Rio. It’s a little awkward poking around these games with a notepad and camera, because a lot of people make their livings at these tables and don’t really want people to know that they are good.

One such player I am following is “TEDDY,” who has become a fixture at the $100/$200 Limit Hold’em table. He’s a trip. We’ll leave it at that for now.

I’ve had a decent run at the cash games myself — except for the two times I lost, which negate a big fat win, seen here:

My second-favorite hand was dealt by Linda the Dallas dealer … who flopped me a straight and said, “I knew you had Q-J when you said, ‘This is probably a pretty bad call,’” as she shipped me a $300 pot.

Favorite hand of the night would come a little later upon busting out the dude in the background for another $600.

By the way, if you like the photos, you can see more of what Pokerati sees by checking out our FLICKR gallery.

In other news, ERICK LINDGREN beat PHIL IVEY in a $340,000 golf course prop bet. RAM VASWANI chits presumably in the mail.

LAS VEGAS—Michele, I’m wrong? Wanna bet? Steve Wong made, by definition, the final table. There were no other tables that followed the last one he sat at … and there were no other tables running when he was seated there with chips.

But because I think you sometimes know stuff and because I don’t always trust my own hearsay, I consulted higher authorities on the 7-seated 6-handed final table matter. BJ Nemeth covered the event for PokerNews and knows how to explain the intricate details of on-field tournament operations pretty-dern well:

Dan —

In most events, you need to finish in the top 9 to be recognized as “reaching the final table.” This is why Phil Hellmuth didn’t tie T.J. Cloutier for the most final tables until the tenth player busted on ESPN. The final ten players all play at the same table, but the official “final table” doesn’t start until they reach nine players.

The same logic applied to the six-handed event. They combined the final seven players into one table (rather than playing three- and four-handed), and continued play until one more player was eliminated. The remaining six players reached the official “final table.” But the final seven all played at the same table.

So if you’re asking me if the final seven players in the six-handed event played at the same table, that’s true. But play continued on Day 2 until #7 busted. The official final table started on Day 3 with just six players, and only those six players receive “credit” for reaching the final table.

Confusing enough for you? Well, that’s the way the tradition goes.

– BJ

Thanks, BJ. It does make sense. Well I mean not really — but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see decision-making poker people not understanding that words should almost always mean what they say, especially when numbers are attached.

ALT HED: Strunk & Poker?

PS — I have decided to stick with Steve Wong through the remainder of the Series. He knows what’s at stake and seems to have the desire necessary to deliver.

LAS VEGAS - Nope, you’re wrong. A six-handed final table is a…six-handed final table and Hoyt Corkins took it down. I’ve discussed my fantasy poker point system with LB at The Poker Biz, aka Wicked Chops Junior. None for me. Then he scolded me in front of everyone in the media room today for not reading your post. But hey, I’ve got money to lose.

And thanks for the kudos but I have been eliminated from the limit $3k NLH event. My high pocket pairs were up against a higher pocket pair every time. Just down right cold decked. My table was less than exciting but all around me sat Joe Sebok, Amir Vahedi, Annie Duke, JC Tran, Phil Hellmuth, Eric Seidel and David Sklansky.

FYI - This would typically be a comment; however, the comment feature is still unavailable.

Hello? Is anyone out there?

LAS VEGAS–I was this close to dropping Tom Schneider from my fantasy team — it was either him or Steve Wong, to make room for Danny Wong. But we’re still working out some internet kinks here in West V-town, and I was unable to email in the change when Tom busted early in Event 4 - $1500 PLH. Fortunately he was out in time to buy-in to the funky-mixed Event 5 - $2500 Omaha/7-stud Hi Lo, where he finished the day as chip leader.

Play resumes at 3 pm (Vegas time)

Competing for a 1st-place bracelet bounty of $214,347 … 112 players remain, and 32 players get paid. A lot of big-name pros and non-televised toughies still alive, but Pokerati believes in you, Tom! You’re in prime position to get really close to the bubble!

BELLAGIO, LAS VEGAS–While feeling good about turning $600 into $2,300 playing 5-10 NLH last night, I caught the back of Phil Hellmuth’s head as he stepped into Bobby’s Room (the high stakes poker room). I was hoping to see him again so I could tell him he was my number one draft pick. However, my thoughts ran back to…One buy-in down, 53 more to go. That’s right, tomorrow starts the race for the WSOP gauntlet, the cash games in Vegas are already packed, and across the highway the Rio is getting ready (hopefully) for a big turn-out.

Tomorrow starts with the inaugural $5k mixed NL/Limit Holdem event at noon, followed by the $500 Casino Employees Event at 5 pm.

Saturday is the first $1500 NLH and people are already in line registering.

Check it out … Michele has gotten in on the rotisserie poker thing for the World Series. She’s competing against some good peeps in the WLOFPLL (World League of Fantasy Poker Leagues League). Though I woulda taken JC Tran with her first pick, I think Phil Hellmuth shouldn’t be as big of a surprise as some of her competitors contend.

We’ll see, what do I know. Let’s just hope she does better than I am doing in the Batface fantasy game.

(And super-go Steve Wong! You got a lotta Pokerati bankin’ on you.)

I want to trade my whole team for JC Tran.

With his win in Reno, he moves into the lead for CardPlayer’s Player of the Year. Somehow still ranked 27th by Bluff.

Click here to see the entire Batface Fantasy Poker leaderboard … and how all of us pretending to be major-tourney player backers are faring.

NOTE: TBR vs. JC Tran, near the bubble in 2005.

A Batface Rotisserie Poker update … Zach is in the lead, followed by TBR:

Ballenger
Michael Mizrachi 444
Joe Hachem 0
David Daneshgar 256
Anthony Reategui 0
Joe Tehan 0
Gioi Luong1138
An Tran 424
Ralph Perry 0

2262

Brown
Daniel Negraneu 1160
Nam Le 0
Roland DeWolfe 0
Alex Jacob 0
Nenad Medic 0
Can Kim Hua 0
Robert Mizrachi 755
Nick Shulman 0

1915

Michalski
John Juanda 0
Steve Wong 0
Eric Seidel 0
Huck Seed 0
Jeff Madsen 0
Harry Demitriou 0
Tom Schneider 0
1/15 Justin Bomono 0

0