Tony G says he’s thinking of skipping the 2011 WSOP, too … but the reason he gives — not being able to keep up with the kids these days — seems questionably weak when one of the most influential men in poker has been throwing firebombs at Full Tilt and Howard Lederer specifically, as they relate to player monies and the WSOP.

I think the real question is: Is he looking to skip just the events, or skip out on Las Vegas and/or the US altogether? I mean shoot, I was hoping he’d at least show up to play the media event!

You tell me. It’s different, that’s for sure … I do know Poker Affiliate World is a pretty big mega-affiliate that at least at one point was owned (at least in part) by PokerNews … and with or without Tony G’s involvement, a huge chunk of online poker signups pass through PAW in some capacity.

From: Poker Affiliate World
Date: June 7, 2011 6:01:44 PM PDT
To: Pokerati.com
Subject: Full Tilt Withdrawal Option Disabled – Temporarily

Dear Affiliate,

Due to recent issues with Full Tilt Poker in regards to “Black Friday” we have temporarily removed Full Tilt player transfer from our withdrawal options until further notice.

We are confident of a resolution in the near future so please feel free to use another method or wait until this option is reinstated.

Regards,

The PAW Team

Hoping someone who understands this stuff better than I can clue me in to what I’m missing between the lines.

Meanwhile, Tony G is saying that he might skip the 2011 WSOP … supposedly because he can’t keep up with the young players. Ahh, if only it could be that simple this year.

On yesterday’s show they talk to Pauly — one of the Top Two Podcasters on Tao of Pokerati — who lets it be known that while player money from PokerStars may indeed be filtering back to American players via US banks … affiliates got a form letter saying they would not be paid, and I think it sounds like he’s saying they have no intent to in the near future or ever.

Check with the Tao of Poker to see if he (or someone else) posts this letter. Until we see it I can’t know if Pauly — who removed his PokerStars affiliate banners — is simply speaking the aggressive truth or just playing squeaky-wheel hardball or both. He is a New Yorker, after all — from the Southern District no less!

UPDATE: He has posted it.

Tony G, the owner of PokerNews is next on the show — and really, for all the voices that have been clamoring since “Black Friday”, he’s one of the biggest names in poker with a direct connection to the money-flow from Full Tilt, Stars, and others to do an in-depth, candid interview.

Here’s a clip from the show to give you a taste.

download

And click here for the whole episode.

Controversial for sure … but his words seem to be less publicity-whorey than usual. The G says any American depositing money on any site is high-risk, and payout could be unlikely. While believing that Stars seems to be making good, he sees signs that Full Tilt accounts could be in greater jeopardy — and calls out Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey specifically to address the issue (either in public or private) and possibly offer up their personal assets to take care of players.

You do have to take Tony G with a grain of salt, as potential conflicts of interest abound — he represents PartyPoker, for one … but also owns PokerNews, which does (or did) a lot of business with Full Tilt and PokerStars as well as the WSOP. He also could just be looking to fill a “good guy” power vacuum in poker … but this interview doesn’t seem loaded with the usual G bluster for attention; he conveys sincere concern in his offer to “help” and admits that he feels some responsibility to players that his site sent to Full Tilt.

He also says repeatedly that “No US company has ever survived a DOJ prosecution.”

Yeow. I have no clue if that’s accurate or not … (I’m still looking around for verification of the 92 percent conviction/guilty plea DOJ success rate I’ve been touting) … but it’s probably not far from reality. Whether or not there’s any competitive tattle-tales in play, it seems a good bet that in the coming weeks we will see more facts emerge that simply can’t be spun in a positive light … which may already explain the silence by some.

Two Plus Two Pokercast:

The guys from 2+2 open up their 6th year of their 154th episode. Tony G joins the crew to discuss his recent SuperStar Show down match against isildur1. Other topics on with Tony G were his attempt at purchasing Peter Eastgate’s WSOP Main Event bracelet and the amount of trash talking that he does on the tables. After the Tony G interview the recent UB shakeup became the focus of discussion. The potential sellout of Prahlad Friedman occupied the majority of discussion as they discussed the reason why he would join the site the essentially ruined his career. Listen to the show at the Two Plus Two Pokercast site or download it on iTunes.

The Hardcore Poker Show:

The Phil and Annie departure is the only topic on task this week on the show. Joe Seebok comes on to discuss what the recent departures mean for UB and how the new UB team is going to look. Prahlad Friedman is also discussed along with whether someone like Daniel Negreanu should be publically calling Prahlad out for selling out. You can listen weekly on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 98 every Wednesday from 8-9pm ET or you can download it via iTunes.

Final Table Poker Radio Show:

This week’s show gets kicked off with an unplanned interview from Annie Duke where she attempts to clear up some of the speculation surrounding her recent departure from UB and what her plans are for her future. WSOP bracelet winner Linda Johnson follows Annie Duke to the show to discuss changes in tournaments since she first came onto the poker scene and what the TDA can do about the influx of deep stack tournaments. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.

The second installment of the Islidur SuperStar Showdown took place yesterday evening on PokerStars. After getting beat by Isaac Haxton in the first match Islidur1 took on Tony G in the 2,500 hand heads-up match. By the time the 9 hour match was concluded Islidur1 came out victorious with a final winning margin of $44,820.

At different points of the match each player held a lead of at least $70,000 before the biggest hands of the match even happened. The largest hand of the match came on one of the PLO tables when both players were sitting with over 60k each. Tony G was the aggressor for the entire hand and was the one who got the players all-in after the river when the board read . Tony G held the lead throughout the hand with his but the river was enough for Islidur1 to steal the $124,300 pot with his .

As the matched closed Tony G went into desperation mode and tried to make a move with but ran into the of Islidur1. After this hand Islidur held a $45,000 lead and that was where the match ended.

Post match comments by Tony G can be found on his blog where has laid down the challenge for Islidur1 to come over to Party Poker.

Who is next in line for the SuperStar Showdown? Some think it will be Phil Galfond while others think that a Islidur/Haxton rematch is possible. PokerStars Pro David Williams hinted in the chat box last night that David “Viffer” Peat has sent in a proposal for a challenge between him and Islidur1 take place live at PCA this month. Keep an eye on the official SuperStar Showdown page for the announcement of the next opponent.

Gold is currently selling for $1,390 an ounce, just short of what Eskimo would need for his next WSOP buy-in.

I’m back in action because I thought I was going to be up this morning spending my Pokerati paycheck on an Eskimo Clark bracelet — there’s one for sale on Ebay right now, in an auction that closes in about an hour. But holy meltdown, they’re up to 15 bids already, from six different bidders, and $4,050! That’s already more than TJ Cloutier got for his pawned-off WSOP hardware nearly a year ago, and puts Eskimo’s jewels way out of my league unless someone wants to give me a raise by infinity. Can you say, “Going once, going twice … going in your pants at the table?”

The auction closes today at 10 am PT.Get in before this “pre-owned” 1999 $1,500 Razz beauty is gone. (Replace the word Razz with “Dodge Neon” and that’s what my last boyfriend used to say to initiate foreplay.)

I knew I had no chance of scoring Peter Eastgate’s bracelet on eBay last week. His newer model fetched a whopping $147,500 after Interpoker got into a bidding war with Tony G, who made a play for the limelight by blog-bragging about plans to buy it for a collar for his dog. Inter stepped in to thwart him from making a “mockery” of the WSOP, but I’m not sure which is worse – seeing a WSOP bracelet on a dog or seeing it on eBay. But with the prize going to anonymous bidder “7***l”, it did raise a lot of money for UNICEF.

And check it out, Eastgate’s not done hawking his WSOP main event booty yet. Little Petey’s now got his “2008 WSOP Final Table Corum timepiece” for sale. The seller is “petereastgate” himself, making his first ever eBay posting. Asking price: $7,000. Money from that auction will go to UNICEF, too, but so far it has 0 bidders and closes on Friday.

Maybe I’ll use what I thought I’d spend on Eskimo to buy a couple Peter Eastgate 8x10s.

Four EPT winners walk into a bar …

Eastgate ups the ante for promising poker quitters like Carter Phillips, who says he’s 95 percent sure he’s done with poker after being robbed of €4,000 at EPT Barcelona. The defending champion claims he was attacked by Zorro … but this machete-wielding lunatic wasn’t like the one at EPT Berlin. Phillips was with three other up-and-coming big-money pros — Kevin Stani (winner EPT-Tallin), Kayvan Payman (final table EPT-London) and William Reynolds (winner PCA High Roller) — when they supposedly got pickpocketed at a “hookah bar” (that sounds Spanish for “hooker bar”) then ambushed by a man with a frying pan?

Phillips was the only one there with a WSOP bracelet (2010 $1,500 NLH 6-max) to pawn off if he’s serious about quitting. We all know he’s bluffing, but when the 21-year-old does decide to man up, drop balls, and get back in the game, it will be a long time before we hear him ask for a chopped pot.

So while I’m still here with nothing to bid on …

Happy-sappy crap

Bryan Micon posted on Facebook over the Thanksgiving holiday: “Let it be known: I have married my beloved Martha.” Inspiring, really. A guy who has made a career out of posting peens on the internet gets married for the SECOND time. Related: In an effort to improve my love life, I am now accepting pics of random wood.

Gavin Smith made himself a baby — with whom, I’ll find out, but right now I know he calls her “Moomy” and she’s not me. After the birth a couple weeks ago, proud poker papa tweeted, “7lbs 2oz, 20 inches long and quite well endowed if I may say so myself.” Let’s hope Micon doesn’t get a picture of that before the kid gets a million twitter followers.

Mike Matusow has a new girlfriend. Annie LePage, some Las Vegas PETA chick that Dan can’t shut up about. Let’s face it – Mike Matusow isn’t the sexiest player alive, but I’d take my chances with someone nicknamed “The Mouth”, too. It became official with giddy girltalk about meeting his parents and then a change in Facebook status that I know crushed our Pokerati in Chief. Hey, cheer up, toots. I’m sure Matusow will fuck this up before long. And you can do better with ME and my… um… yeah, nevermind.

No FAIR! I’ve got three!

And finally, once again proving that he’s constantly got male genitals on his mind, Daniel Negreanu paid some dude to get a ‘Loves Cock’ tattoo. Yup, $1,000 was the price happily paid by Kid Poker to see Dominic Mattucci declare his fondness for eating meat. Jeez… wish I’d have known about this before I got mine.

Listing the item under the “Jewelry & Watches >> Fashion Jewelry >> Bracelets >> Other” category, Peter Eastgate, who announced his retirement from poker during the series in July, put his 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet for auction on eBay yesterday – donating 100% of the sale amount to UNICEF.

PartyPoker’s Tony G, who has pledged to win the bidding for the “pre-owned” item (a.k.a. bling for his German Shephard Zasko), can be assured that there is no wear and tear:  The Las Vegas Review Journal quotes Eastgate as saying that while he had great pride in the title, the bracelet was never worn.

While this sale hasn’t been met with a lot of support by poker media-types in Twitter this morning, at least the potential buyer(s) will be happy to know that it is ready for delivery (standard shipping free!) just after Dec 24th.  No returns accepted.

My name is Kim Shannon, and I’m all up in everyone’s bidness… which is why Pokerati invited me to share with you the poker gossip and celebrity “news”. My initial response was “I’d rather drink a thumbtack-and-jalapeno smoothie”, but then Dan reminded me that I still owe him a beej from a prop bet I lost… so here I am.

Let’s skip the gristle and get right to the bone, shall we, with what’s buzzing in poker … or wait, is that coming from my purse?

Clock Blocked

Word from the felt is that Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl have kissed and made up in the wake of a spat over last week’s episode of “The Big Game”, in which Negreanu & Tony G were poster children for fucked up poker etiquette. Poker bitching about implied collusion aside, I hadn’t seen so much high-fiving and snickering since I last got “Eiffel Towered” in a drunken MFM.

After the broadcast, Tony G redeemed himself by posting a quasi-apology, but Daniel kept the drama going with a post of his own expounding on Robl’s nittiness. I was in the middle of reading Robl’s rebuttal when I realized that I had been punching myself in the face the whole time over the pettiness of it all. However, I do feel the need to give Daniel a special award for managing to refrain from calling Robl a “cunt”.  Then, just as I was about to start placing bets on who would blow a gasket and sprain their vagina first, Negreanu ruined my fun by saying he has since called Robl and smoothed things over.

A-Rod’s Poker

Alex Rodriguez was in the Ivey Room at Aria with Jean-Robert Bellande last week — supposedly playing 50-100 NL with a couple non-pro Aria regulars. Tweeting from Haze Nightclub, @BrokeLivingJRB reported that A-Rod “won 3k” in the game, which sounds to me more like 5-10 without steroids — hardly enough for new pair of Yankee-caliber starter tits. Dealers say A-Rod tipped adequately, btw, tossing “like $36 in gravel” before leaving the game. Not one to hit-and-run, he was back at the tables a couple days later, playing 10-20 NL at Bellagio. John Kim snapped a pic. Orel Hersheiser (great first name, terrible last) also joined the action somewhere along the way.

Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is?

And speaking of blowjobs… Huh? Oh, we weren’t? Oopsies. Well, we’re all definitely on the subject NOW; rumor has it that Phil Ivey was promising fellatio in lieu of a Wynn boycott. The buzz at 2+2 is that Ivey flipped out over a ruling on a craps roll and publicly promised to suck a little floor-cock, and maybe the croupier, too, if he ever returns to their tables.

Ivey went a little less homo at Bellagio, where he was drinking cognac and whiskey while shooting dice with 25-year-old pro golfer Andrew Kim. Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke reports that Kim got so rowdy management had to step in and request he stop screaming “fuck!” and “hard six!” at the top of his lungs … because hookers could get offended and verbal is binding?

Elsewhere in the Game …

Marco Traniello and Jennifer Harman got remarried a couple weeks ago by an Elvis impersonator for their 10th anniversary. At least some people have enough decency to muster up fake happiness in front of a fake celebrity with a fake 11-inch peen in his jumpsuit.

Johnny Chan is hoping to land a spot on the new season of “Survivor”. Never thought Chan would try to follow in the footsteps of Annie Duke and Tiffany Michelle. Over/Under on getting tossed off the island more quickly than Jean-Robert Bellande?

Royal Flush Girl Melanie Iglesias was chosen as a Top 10 finalist for Maxim Magazine’s Hometown Hottie contest. Congrats. But Maxim? Yawn. Impress me when you get a full spread in Hustler’s Beaver Hunt.

Justin Smith knows what I’m talking about. The online pro better known as Boosted J attended a wrap party in LA for the movie “Detention”, where he went heads-up with Ron Jeremy, better known as the Phil Ivey of overweight hairy middle-aged porn stars.

Donkament Disappointing?

Day 1a of the Event #3 – $1,000 No-limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 2,601 entries today, a disappointment for those expecting a field of over 7,000 battling for this bracelet over the weekend. The 788 players who made it to the dinner break are returning shortly for another four levels of play. The unofficial chip leader is PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok with 27,000 chips. Other notable chip counts: Amarillo Slim (21,000), Chris Bjorin (20,000) and Bryan Devonshire, (17,500). Track the action for this event over at PokerNews.

First bracelet winner to be determined tonight

Just 18 players remain in the first WSOP bracelet event the $500 Casino Employees Event have returned from their dinner break, with Kent Washington maintaining the chip lead at 332,000 in chips. You can follow the action for this event over at PokerNews.com.

Players’ Championship Day 2

The $50,000 Players’ Championship field is currently on their one-hour dinner break at the conclusion of level eight with 90 players remaining. The current chip leader appears to be Steve Zolotow, with 420,000 in chips. Some of the fallen who may be looking to watch UFC 114 include: Phil Galfond, Tony G, and Todd Brunson. When play resumes, the field will play another three levels before the bag up their chips, sign their name, and hopefully don’t be recorded as busted when they decided not to report their chip counts. To catch the action of this event over at PokerNews, head here.

More info on the Tony G Soliloquy Contest here.

First prize is, of course, a signed copy of the amazing great revolutionary controversial revealing brilliant! unpublished book Pauly has been promising for nearly a year.

In the meantime, a little inspiration from one of the best/worst trash-talkers in the game:

And here’s a fun video of tricycle crashes:

Meanwhile, even without a highest-stakes masked man at the tele-tables, PartyPoker still plans to bring a new component to televised cash games, with each player choosing “walk-on music“.

Click below for the Isildur1-less roster of players who have submitted their personal soundtrack poker theme songs:

Tony G – Team PartyPoker.com – ‘Bicycle Song’ – Queen
Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz – ‘Pass Out’ – Tinie Tempah
Paul Marrow – ‘Champagne Supernova’ – Oasis
Jennifer Tilly – ‘Maneater’ – Hall and Oates
Neil Channing – ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ – The Smiths
Dusty ‘Leatherass’ Schmidt – ‘Flashing Lights’ – Kanye West
David Peat (Viffer) ‘Remember The Name’ – Fort Minor
Dixie Dean – ‘London Calling’ – The Clash
Issac Haxton ‘Basketcase’ – Green Day
Justin Bonomo ‘Bullet And A Target’ – Citizen Hope
Roland de Wolfe -’ Hungry Like The Wolf’ – Duran Duran
Andrew Feldman – ‘Mamma’s Gonna Knock You Out’ – LL Cool J
Simon “Schnibl0r” Münz – ‘Conquest Of Paradise’ – Vangelis
Roberto Romanello – ‘Sex Bomb’ – Tom Jones
Laurence Grondin – ‘Rich Girl’ – Gwen Stefani
Sam Trickett – Right Round’ – Flo Rida
Richard Wheatley – ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ – StealersWheel
Paul Zimbler – ‘Who Am I (Zimm Zimmer) – Beanie Man

Tell the G you’re the man he’s been looking for with this powerfully stylish le chemise, perfect for an episode of High Stakes Poker:

I am Isildur1 by Pokerati (w alcanthang)

Also … just related:

I am Isildur’s Brother

1 McLean Karr $878,500 including $25k WPT seat
2 Andy Seth $521,200
3 Daniel O’Brien $292,800
4 Hasan Habib $234,300
5 Matt Keikoan $175,700
6 Phil Hellmuth $117,000

Here’s an interview tournament director Matt Savage had with McLean and friend Maria Ho after his win:

Oops, I can’t believe I forgot Tony G in my Power 20 rankings … the man who directly controls the paycheck of so many of my cronies and the bankroll of at least a handful of international tournament players is now officially on board with the crew Mike Sexton built/is building. Further evidence that PartyPoker/WPT is making serious moves (to challenge PokerStars and Harrah’s?) … and re-enforcing Sexton’s original vision that anybody is welcome to play at Party. Also makes Party’s upcoming Premier League Poker in Las Vegas a lot more interesting …

Click below for the full press release. We’ll see if we can’t figure out any more details about what went into bringing The G on board.

Meanwhile, speaking of G’s, Kesan, the Napoleonic thug on Season 2 of From G’s to Gents, is going to prison for beating a baby.

[Link thanks California Jen!]

ON YER BIKE! TONY G JOINS ‘TEAM PARTY’ AND IS CONFIRMED FOR PREMIER LEAGUE IV
TONYGPOKER.COM ASSETS ARE ACQUIRED BY PARTYGAMING

Gibraltar – 21st January 2010 – In a significant move for the industry, http://www.partypoker.com/ is delighted to announce that the one and only Tony G is the latest player to be added to the roster of ‘Team Party.’ Tony will make his debut in Party colours at the Aussie Millions. At the same time, it has been announced that ‘The Mouth From Down Under’ will take part in the eagerly awaited PartyPoker.com Premier League IV in Las Vegas in February and that the assets of http://www.tonygpoker.com/ have been acquired by PartyGaming.

Antanas Guoga, more commonly known as Tony G, is a businessman and respected professional poker player known for his entertaining outlandish table talk and aggressive play. Undoubtedly one of the biggest characters and hottest box office in the game today, Tony won the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II in 2006 and famously finished runner-up in the 2006 PartyPoker Intercontinental Poker Championship in Las Vegas. Tony has cashed 15 times at the World Series of Poker and historically won the inaugural Asian Poker Tour event in Singapore in 2006, giving half of his prize money to charity. Known for his extraordinarily big heart and philanthropy, Tony also generously donated the $205,000 he won at a big tournament in Moscow in November 2007 to local orphanages. Tony has accumulated over $4,000,000 in live tournament winnings.

“I cannot wait to start playing for Team Party on the circuit,” said Tony. “I’ve always loved Party and what better way to kick off than at the Aussie Millions. I am also really excited about the Premier League in February – it is the best event in poker in my eyes. After finishing runner-up and third in the last two years the title has to be mine! I just hope my rivals have the heart and commitment to the game to stop me!” Tony joins a line-up that also includes Phil Hellmuth, JC Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz and Roland De Wolfe.

Tony, whose poker catchphrase is ‘On Yer Bike’ – his ‘farewell’ message to opponents he knocks out – will be joined at the Crown Casino in Melbourne for the Aussie Millions by fellow Team Party players Bodo Sbrzesny and Stewart Scott as well as 43 online qualifiers who won packages online at PartyPoker.com. “If one of the Party qualifiers knocks me out of the Main Event I will buy them a bike. First of all though I will ride it out myself – I know when it is bike time!”

Tony’s landmark personal player deal incorporates live tournament buy-ins to events around the world. He will also be playing online under the screen name ‘TonyG’ and has already sparked plenty of debate with his presence at the cash game tables. Tony G joins Team Party alongside Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, Ian Frazer, Bodo Sbrzesny, Remy Biechel, Stewart Scott and Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos.

The acquisition of the assets of TonyGPoker.com sees all TonyGPoker.com players migrate to http://www.noblepoker.com. TonyGPoker.com is a well known online poker room with an extensive selection of games, tournaments, freerolls and promotions. As part of the deal, Tony will continue to run the Sunday Bike Ride, a popular bounty promotion, at NoblePoker.com, which is owned by PartyGaming.

“It’s business as usual for TonyGPoker.com. The exciting acquisition of its assets by the PartyGaming will create a larger more flexible and productive playing environment,” said Tony.

A PartyGaming spokesman said: “We’re delighted to welcome Tony to Team Party. Tony is undoubtedly one of poker’s biggest characters in the game – a personal deal for him made huge sense. We are also happy to have acquired the assets of TonyGPoker.com and look forward to welcoming his players on board.”

The status of PokerPages has been up in the air ever since they announced they’d be closing up shop effective Oct. 31. That day passed and they still kept publishing — and even sent two reporters to cover the November Nine. But no original content has been put up on the site since Dec. 3. Everyone was expecting some sort of sale, and now that has apparently gone through.

PokerPages, of course, is one of the oldest poker information sites on the internet – having reported on tournaments since 2000 … and having built a massive tourney/player/results database in the process.

What PokerStars plans to do with a site they haven’t yet told many people they’ve bought (or intend to buy) remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the transition from NeverwinPoker to Donkdown seems complete — with the old NWP forums successfully transfered over to their new home. Donkdown is now a Bryan Micon and Todd Witteles (aka “Dan Druff”) joint, with no more Tony G or Dustin Woolf, who is now the lone face for his namesake site.

Speaking of forums … 2+2 honcho Mason Malmuth has sued Dutch Boyd (and a guy named Anthony Scocozza) over domain squatting issues.

Oh, and our once-superbeloved PokerBlog.com … yeah, they’re apparently gone. For at least the past week, visiting the site gives you this message:

Fatal error: Table ‘./pokerblog/cache’ is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: SELECT data, created, headers FROM cache WHERE cid = ‘variables’ in /home/pokerblogcom/public_html/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 66

R.I.P. Yeah, seems kinda appropriate. PokerBlog was/is a PartyPoker operation … but now they seem to be focussing blogging efforts on their more official company blog.

UPDATE: PokerBlog is back. Looks like we can expect some WPT coverage there.

Tony G and the semi-corporate interests at PokerNews, who bought a controlling interest in the “gossip site” two years ago, have turned off the infamously uncensored forum. It simply wasn’t “converting” supposedly.

But don’t expect thousands of black-cock refugees to suddenly flood 2+2. Neverwin pioneer Bryan Micon is launching a new site for his toxic flock of angry outcasts at www.donkdown.com.

Meanwhile, PokerPages is somehow staying afloat — producing semi-regular new poker articles — despite declarations that they’d be fully out of business by the end of October.

Bracelet Winners go 1-2-4 in Limit Shootout

Greg Mueller becomes the fourth double bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP, taking down the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, good for $194,854 as he denied Marc Naalden his second bracelet this year. The only year where more players have won more at least two bracelets was 2003 (Ivey, Juanda, Men Nguyen, Ferguson, Chan and Flack) . Millie Shiu finished in 3rd, tied for the highest placing woman in an open WSOP event this year(Ming Reslock in the $1,500 Omaha-8 and Laurence Grondin in the $2,000 NL Holdem). David Williams finished in thirdfourth..

Lunkin Looking to Make it Five in $50k HORSE

Vitaly Lunkin, winner of the first open bracelet ($40,000 NL Holdem) leads the remaining 19 players in the $50,000 HORSE event going into day 4. Three players will make zero on their investment, as they play down to the final table today starting around 2pm. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated:

(Table 58)
Seat 1: Erik Sagstrom – 1315000
Seat 2: Erik Seidel – 464000
Seat 3: Steve Billirakis – 576000
Seat 5: David Chiu – 397000
Seat 6: Mike Wattel – 779000
Seat 7: Chau Giang – 616000

(Table 60)
Seat 1: Huck Seed – 672000
Seat 2: Ray Dehkharghani – 262000
Seat 4: Brett Richey – 671000
Seat 6: Todd Brunson – 145000
Seat 7: Vitaly Lunkin – 1527000
Seat 8: Frank Kassela – 499000

(Table 62)
Seat 1: Tony G – 642000
Seat 2: David Bach – 1265000
Seat 3: John Hanson – 815000
Seat 5: Ville Wahlbeck – 842000
Seat 6: John Kabbaj – 678000
Seat 7: Freddy Deeb – 1300000
Seat 8: Gus Hansen – 801000

Durand Looking for Durability in $1,500 NL Holdem

Day 3 of the $1,500 NL Holdem starts with 30 players remaining, with Thibaut Durand (1,650,000) holding the chip lead when play resumes around 1pm PT. Owen Crowe (1,025,000), Josh Schlein (875,000), and Alex Jacob (274,000) are the most recognizable names remaining. When the final table is eventually reached, bluffmagazine.com and wsop.pkr.com will stream all the action.

Australians go 1-2 in Triple Chance

Day 1 of the $3,000 Triple Chance NL Holdem ended with 149 players remaining and it’s two Australians who hold the top spots when play resumes around 2pm today. Tim Horan is the chip leader (149,000), followed by Harris Pavlou (137,300). Notables returning on day 2 include Jeff Lisandro, Antonio Esfandiari, Shane Schleger, Nick Binger, Mike Caro, Noah Schwartz and Praz Bansi.

Prescott Gives Field Allie Can Handle in Stud 8

Day 2 of the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Betterevent resumes around 2pm with 146 players remaining, with Allie Prescott leading the field with 52,500 in chips. Notables returning include Jim Geary, Annie Duke, Marcel Luske, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Jon Turner, Matt Savage and Norman Chad.

Monday’s Tournaments

The 12pm $1,500 NL Holdem Donkament is already sold out, although there’s always the slim chance they’ll open a few more seats during the day. This is the seventh event of the $1,500 NL Holdem of this year’s WSOP, so it’s a “new” event, not having a winner last year. The 5pm (if it starts on time) event is the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event, won last year by John Phan for just over $150,000 in a field of 238. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 262 entries.

Today and tomorrow will both be extremely busy with six tournaments going on at the same time, so check out www.wsop.com for live updates, and Pokerati for other stuff during the day.

Cantu Wins Bracelet #2

In a battle of bracelet winners, Brandon Cantu defeated Lee Watkinson heads-up to win his second career bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, good for $228,867.

Hansen HORSE Honcho

Day 3 of the $50,000 HORSE resumes at 2pm Sunday with 53 players remaining and Gus Hansen (686,000) the chip leader. Other notables close behind include Erik Sagstrom (560,000), Scotty Nguyen (463,000), and Tony G (433,000) in the top 10. The entire list can be found here.

Limit Shootout Final Table

Unfortunately, Tom Schneider won’t be there, but there will be three WSOP bracelet winners at the final table of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, each starting with 450,000 chips when play resumes at 2pm:

Seat 1: David Williams
Seat 2: Flaminio Malaguti
Seat 3: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller
Seat 4: Joep Van Den Bijgaart
Seat 5: Jose Barbero
Seat 6: Marc Naalden
Seat 7: Matthew Sterling
Seat 8: Millie Shiu

Bonita Benefits with Donkament Lead

Christopher Bonita (131,700) will start day 2 of the $1,500 NL Holdem event when play resumes at 2pm. Other notables include: Cody Slaubaugh (125,900), Jason Potter (100,100), Amnon Filippi (77,700), Men Nguyen (71,200) and Joe Reitman (41,200).

Sunday’s Tournaments

The noon tournament is the debut of the $3,000 NL Holdem Triple Chance event. With no rebuy tournaments this year, the twist is that players start with 3,000 in tournament chips. They’re also given two “add-on” chips, each good for an additional 3,000 in chips. These can be used any time within the first three levels and any players who still have the chips will have it added to their stack at the end of level three. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 700 for this event. The 5pm tournament today is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better event, which was won last year by Ryan Hughes for over $180,000 in a field of 543. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 598.

More stuff during the day from Pokerati and over at www.wsop.com

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Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.15: Press Badgered
3:05

Episode 11.16: Blogger Backing
4:14

In games where you use two cards, the $1k Stimulus Special is on their dinner break, with play scheduled to end at 3am with the belief that a final table will be close at hand. Zach Melaney appears to be the chip leader (260,000). Notables near the top include J.C. Tran (200,000), Jonathan Aguiar (140,000), Steve Sung (90,000) and Will “The Thrill” Failla (76,000).

The WSOP Champions Invitational is currently three-handed as Tom McEvoy, Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington are playing for the Binion Cup and 1970 Corvette. Probably not the final three the ESPN cameras were hoping for, but that’s poker for you.

The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship drew a smaller than expected field of 142, down 16 from last year. However, plenty of poker’s elite still make up the field such as: Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, David Singer, John Hennigan and Chau Giang. Updates on all of these events can be found at www.worldseriesofpoker.com all night.