For those Pokerati readers who missed out on what’s going on, here’s some stuff that’s happened over the past few days:

The first PokerStars.net NAPT event in the US got off to a roaring start on Saturday, with 872 players putting up $5,000 at the Venetian as part of their Deep Stack Extravaganza. 149 players started day 3 a few minutes ago, with 128 making the money. Hand for hand play has just begun, and the tournament staff is hoping to play down to 24. You can follow the action over at PokerNews, PokerStarsblog.com, or PokerListings. The winner when play ends on Thursday will collect $827,648.

Reality show star Trishelle Canatella made the final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational, part of the LA Poker Classic currently running at the Commerce Casino. The final table will resume on March 3rd with this lineup:

Seat 1: Steve Elliott – 1,520,000
Seat 2: Thor Hansen – 1,480,000
Seat 3: Trishelle Cannatella – 1,540,000
Seat 4: Sean Urban – 2,090,000
Seat 5: Neev Baram – 1,900,000
Seat 6: LeRon Washington – 1,790,000

In other LAPC news, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri took down his 3rd preliminary event of this year’s LAPC, winning the $2,100 Ironman event, a tournament with no scheduled breaks. Barbieri pocketed almost $60,000 for the win, plus a seat to the $10,000 Main Event, which starts February 26th.

The NBC National Heads-Up Championship is just a few days away, with the draw party on March 4th at Pure at Caesars’ Palace, followed by the tournament from March 5-7. The full list of 64 participants hasn’t been announced yet, but over 20 players already received their invite through a series of criteria, including last year’s winner, Huck Seed. Other automatic invites include: Phil Ivey, Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso, Darvin Moon, Jason Mercier, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Barry Shulman. One invitee who had to decline: Jeff Lisandro, who has a prior commitment in Australia which prevents him from attending.

The EPT Copenhagen event, which drew 423 entries, concluded Sunday evening with Sweden’s Anton Wigg outlasting Italy’s Francesco de Vivo in a four-hour heads-up duel to win 3,675,000 Danish kroner ($6782,918). Other notables who cashed: Roberto Romanello, Peter Eastgate, Juha Helppi, and Bertrand Grospellier.

Though personally I don’t expect Darvin Moon to look anything like Sammy Farha en route to 2nd place … you gotta love the debate going on over who will, and who should win … let alone whose victory would be “better for poker”.

Super-young but true online pro vs. the “Ultimate Everyman” … you know, if everyman happened to cut trees for a living.

As you know by now, I’m probably as much a Cada fan as I am an Aston Villan (I’ve got Fake$100 invested in his winning) … but the hubbub going on right now reminds me a bit of funny-in-retrospect conversation as WSOP things got down to heads-up in 2003 …

From my first poker magazine piece in the first issue of (the recently resurrected) ALL IN:

On the last day of the 2003 WSOP main event, a handful of eliminated pros gathered around the final table to watch the action. Moneymaker — the Tennessee accountant who had never before played a live tournament — had amassed a sizable chip lead when Mike Matusow turned to fellow professional Eric Siedel and said, “I can’t believe another donkey is going to win the World Series of Poker.”

“You better hope he wins,” Seidel responded. “If Moneymaker can pull this off, it’s going to be worth at least $5 million to you and me over the next two years.”

“Are you crazy?” Matusow said, dismissively.

The only difference this go-round, of course, is that the world has already been introduced to online poker, and the Sammy Farha pro character is being played by a 21-year-old who stands to be the youngest WSOP main event champ in history (for the second year in a row).

The first three levels of the Main Event have seen over 900 players already hit the rail, leaving around 1,100 players returning from dinner break. The unofficial chip leaders are Brian Hanson and James Akenhead with 625,000 in chips. Other notables with an above average stack (currently around 170,000): Owen Crowe (555,000), Bertrand Grospellier (520,000), Sorel Mizzi (445,000), David Benyamine (402,000), Phil Hellmuth (390,000), Phil Ivey (360,000), Lou Diamond Phillips (345,000), Mike Sexton (297,000), Dennis Phillips (240,000), Tom Schneider (230,000), 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro (211,000) and Jason Alexander (190,000).

Notables who hit the rail:

Erik Seidel, Raymond Rahme, Jimmy Fricke, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Edler, Darus Suharto, Ville Wahlbeck, “Miami John” Cernuto, Bryan Micon, Roland de Wolfe and Sam Farha.

More stuff from Pokerati later this evening as the money bubble may be reached tonight, depending on how fast the eliminations go after dinner.

First, an interview with the Commish from SkyPoker’s James Hartigan about Day 1d (Thanks to DesD on 2+2 for the link):

Day 2a concluded with 607 players remaining and Andrew Gaw the chip leader with 386,800 in chips. In an interesting story, Eric Cloutier, who was reported chip leader at the end of day 1a with 150,750 in chips, turned out to have 15,075 to start the day. He ends today in 2nd place with 383,500 in chips. Other notables: Greg Mueller (287,300), Andy Black (215,700), Mike Sexton (169,000), Kara Scott (139,500), Jimmy Fricke (138,300), Tom Schneider (123,700), Greg Raymer (95,900), Jason Alexander (73,700), Sam Farha (67,500), Erik Seidel (55,600) and Roland de Wolfe (21,200). To view the entire list of day 2a survivors, follow this link.

The Mystery of Amazon Green 156

The day 2 situation brings up this interesting case, especially since it’s the very last table in the Amazon Room. As I mentioned to Pauly, there were 4 players on the day 1d entrants list who were seated in the 10 seat, all of them in the Amazon Green section:

Jeppe Nielsen – Amazon Green 143/10
Joe Reitman – Amazon Green 144/10
Marco Bertaccini – Amazon Green 145/10
Dale Poynter – Amazon Green 146/10

To be fair, only Poynter’s table was actually 10-handed, although in Reitman’s case, that table only seated 7 players (according to the list). Another interesting table is Amazon Green 156, which is seated as follows:

LANDAU, MICHAEL
ERNA, SALVATORE
GASPARD, JEAN
HACHEM, TONY
MICHNIK, MICHAEL
HARRISON, AUDLEY
SEED, HUCK
MORRISON, KIRK
ODONNELL, KEVIN

Gaspard and Seed both had been guaranteed a seat, for winning WSOP-C New Orleans and the NBC Heads-Up event respectively, as noted by the Commish in the above video. Audley Harrison is a known British boxer who has played a few events this year at the WSOP. Some of the rumors that were flying around the Rio yesterday were about some players getting preferential treatment. I’ll leave it to the reader to guess which names on the above list fit that role. Another name worth mentioning is Kevin O’Donnell, who apparently was shut out, according to Gary Wise’s article on ESPN.com:

Frustration was boiling over among those who felt their dreams of championship glory moving beyond reach, many feeling betrayed by what they saw as insufficient warning of what might be going down.

“I think that Harrah’s communications was awful,” said Kevin O’Donnell, a professional circuit regular who’d gone home to Arizona for Independence Day. “If they’d warned us better about this possibility, we’d have made the needed adjustments. There are a lot of things they’re going to say that are true, but ultimately the communications broke down. As a business person, I understand you can only fit in so many people, but they should have done a better job of letting people know they were going to have these space issues.”

Meanwhile, Palansky was sending out a follow up e-mail at 12:08 p.m. entitled “WSOP Main Event – Flight 1D is a SELLOUT.”

Yet O’Donnell did get a seat — at Amazon Green 156 — and returns today with more than 72,000 in chips.

Day 2b gets underway at noon today, playing 4 two-hour levels. A not exact list of chip counts and where they’ll be sitting can be found here. If you’re in the Amazon Room and poker room, you’ll be playing 9-handed. Buzio’s and any of the other tournament rooms will mostly start 10-handed, although they’ll be breaking tables as fast as they can to get to 9-handed as quickly as possible. One of the tables not in use at the moment, Amazon Green 156.

Follow the live updates at www.wsop.com and other updates from Pokerati about other goings on at the WSOP.

The day 2a field has returned from dinner break with less than 900 players remaining from the starting field of 1,476. Notable eliminations include: Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Mike Caro, Tony G, Jennifer Tilly, Shaun Deeb, Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein and Mel Judah.

The current chip leader is Samer Rahman with 325,000 in chips. Other notables: Greg Mueller (223,000), Andy Black (164,000), Tom Schneider (140,000), Vitaly Lunkin (120,500), Jimmy Fricke (105,000), Joe Sebok (94,000), Sam Farha (70,000) and Amarillo Slim (48,000). More chip counts and updates can be found at www.wsop.com here.

Recapping some of the afternoon action on Sunday:

Negreanu looking for bracelet #5

The $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max is down to the final three players, with Daniel Negreanu having a dominant chip lead. Brock Parker and Tommi Horkko are the other two left in the field. Finland now has its third top-3 finish in less than a week. You can still watch this final table at the Bluff website or for the international reader the PKR site.

Stammen Stampeding His Foes

The $2,500 NL Holdemevent just got to heads-up with Keven Stammen holding a 2-1 chip lead over Angel Gullen. This looks to be a very fast final table as it took just 70 hands to go from ten players down to two.

Ladies Event Attendance Showing Its Slip

The $1,000 Ladies NL Holdem World Championship drew a field of 1,088 this afternoon. That figure is down from last year’s 1,190, which was lower than 2007’s 1,286 total. 370 ladies remain in the field when they return from dinner break, with Ulrika Tangstrom the reported chip leader at 30,000. Defending champion Svetlana Gromenkova is third in chips (22,200), other notables include Maria Ho (22,100) Anna Wroblewski (14,100) and and Pam Brunson (8,200).

Seven Card Studs Wheeze into the Money

The Ladies’ field had at least one regular not in the field, as Barbara Enright ended a 23-year tradition of playing, as she was still in the field for the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event. The players made it into the money just before their dinner break, with 34 players currently remaining. Fabrice Soulier is the current leader with 120,000 in chips followed close behind by Dutch Boyd at 116,000. Defending champion Michael Rocco is 6th in chips at 75,000, with Enright listed in 7th in with 60,000. Other notables remaining include Thor Hansen (56,000), John Cernuto (40,000) and Pokerati blogger Robert Goldfarb (20,000. The players will now try to beat the 3am deadline to reach a final table, which does look like a possibility for this event.

5k Bubble Play

The $5,000 NL Holdem event has 65 players remaining, just two away from the money. Billy Kopp is the current chip leader at 350,000. Faraz Jaka is in 3rd place (334,000), with online phenoms Isaac Baron (326,000) and Mike Sowers (320,000) close behind. More experienced professionals Kathy Liebert (238,000) and Erik Seidel (225,000) are also in the chase. While Ivan Demidov hasn’t cashed at this year’s WSOP, his girlfriend Liya Gerasimova is on the cusp of doing just that with 215,000 in chips.

Omaha Will Get You Farha

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship brought a field of 179, including Sammy Farha, down 56 from last year. 30,000 in chips and a slow structure means low eliminations so far, but there’s bound to be a few when play ends today at the end of level 8.

To catch the updates for all of these events, head to www.worldseriesofpoker.com to follow all the exciting tournament action.

They’ve been playing all day weekend, and are down to two at the NHUPC. And regardless of how it turns out Vanessa Rousso has arguably earned her keep as the Danicka Patrick of Poker.

(I’m keeping up with results on my own time at PokerNews, btw.)

I ranked her 55th. Overall, the ESPN panel put her 49th. But hey, just goes to show you, anyone can get an easy draw. The laughable field the newest GoDaddy spokesmodel had to beat, in order: Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, 2007 NHUPC champ Paul Wasicka, Daniel Negreanu, and online wunderkind Bertrand Grospellier, aka ‘Elky’. Hmm. Wow.

Meanwhile, my bracket’s turned to shit. Of the 96 players in on PokerRoad/Pokerati’s fun, eight people picked Vanessa Selbst to win it all, yet no one … as in ZERO! … picked Vanessa Rousso.

Of the final four, here’s how many people picked them to win it all:

Vanessa Rousso – 0
Sammy Farha – 0
Huck Seed – 5
Elky – 9

CORRECTION: Technically Mike Matusow is GoDaddy’s newest spokesboy. He went out in Round 1.

Crap, one of my final four picks is already out. Erik Seidel. I so almost went the other way with that one, too.

Otherwise, all is well in my bracket. Got the 4 3 other matches right — Farha d. Cunningham, Eastgate d. Bloch, Lindgren d. Lederer, Elezra d. Chan. Alas, we will not be seeing Gowen vs. Lederer deep, which Ali Nejad reminded us yesterday woulda been great for poker, because it probably woulda been followed on Court TV.

CORRECTION: I guess I changed my pick on Chan vs. Elezra / didn’t go with my gut. Of course Eli was gonna win.

If you wanna follow a little more play-by-play, take your pick:
CardPlayer.com
PokerNews.com
PokerListings.com

Flipchip for really good photos.
Audio stuff TK at PokerRoad.

And it’s still not too late to get in on the bracket-picking action … though points scored on matches already started won’t count in the end. We’re doing this with our forum friends at PokerRoad. Show who’s boss.

UPDATE: Yang defeats Gowen! Boo Jerry Yang! Makin’ us rankers eat it!

From another HRH-lovin’ tipster (the words … photo by me):

Perhaps if the music thing doesn’t work out for Billy Bob, he can take up professional poker as his next gig.

Billy Bob Thornton was spotted playing poker in the new Poker Lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Thursday night. He was joined by friends and bandmates from The Boxmasters in the back room of the lounge that some are calling the Billy Bob Thornton room – an oversized image of the actor/musician hangs on the wall above the table. Thornton was back inside the Poker Lounge Friday morning signing the large picture of himself. Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters performed yesterday night at The Joint.

ALT CAP: Billy Bob Thornton doing his best Sammy Farha at the Hard Rock.

It is common knowledge that poker players in Las Vegas flock to Bellagio for cash game action, primarily on the higher end of the buy-in scale. While there seem to be a plethora of cash games going on at the Rio around the clock during the WSOP, anyone looking for games higher than $10-$20 usually heads over to Bellagio. Since I am such a high-stakes player can always use a change of scenery from the Rio, I took a trip on over on Monday night around 10pm to see what was happenin’.

Craziness.

More…

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:
More…

Just flipping channels while changing Pokerati’s spark plugs … and Lucky You is on HBO. I’m Tivo’ing it. It’s only fair that if we’re gonna continue to look at this movie as the Greek Tragedy that poker has become, I should actually watch it.

5 minutes in — Dude’s in a pawn shop muttering … losing interest.
7 minutes in — Fontana Room, Sammy Farha saying “raisey daisey” … don’t care … ooh, wait, it’s the fat guy from Borat? At-the-table hand analysis and Andy Bloch’s hat … hmmm.
11 minutes in — Horatio Sanz as Robert Goldfarb?

18 minutes in — OK, tuning out for now. Got better things to do. Online poker joke, ha. Flush got there, damn.

DALLAS–I happen to be on my old stomping grounds … to play a little Batface poker and try to do the work that police can’t and get to the bottom of the string of robberies here. (Pokerati’s conclusion, despite declarations to the opposite a few weeks ago: the Dallas Poker Bandits are a single group of three or four people hitting one room after another … not random coincidental robberies by different sets of two black guys in ski masks.)

Anyhow, this post isn’t about robberies in Dallas or police raids in Houston — everybody wants the poker money, don’t they? … it’s about the April ‘08 issue of Bluff. Though these articles aren’t online yet, three of the four they highlight are about Texans:

One is about how to be like Houstonian Sammy Farha. Another is about poker politics and ledes with a certain group of Dallas players wooing Congressman Pete Sessions to get behind pending poker legislation. And a third is about Gavin Griffin, a former Dallas underground dealer who became poker’s first “triple crown” winner.

Not only do I think that is Texas neato, but also I think it says something about the state’s continued super-relevance in the game. But hey, maybe I’m biased.

Battle of the Podcast Stars.

The 64-player field competing for $500,000 (on a $20k buy-in) this weekend has been set (up) — with pairings drawn last night at a kick-off party at Pure.

Click here to see the full bracket and make your picks. (This bracket-maker is kinda new to me, so not sure whether or not you can see my predictions here.)

Some of the more interesting pairings to me:

Tom Schneider vs. Gavin Smith
Clonie Gowen vs. Jennifer Tilly
Sammy Farha vs. Doyle Brunson
Hooman Nikzad vs. Greg Raymer
Chris Ferguson vs. John Juanda
Chris Moneymaker vs. Jerry Yang
Jean Robert Bellande vs. Sam Grizzle