Doh, I gave away the secret in the title!

It seems that all one needs to do is be Phil Hellmuth, and no penalty will be given to you during a World Series of Poker tournament. And if the staff mistakenly decides to hold you to the same rules as they do every other player on the planet, if you argue that you are Phil Hellmuth, they will rescind it.

It seems that the WSOP and Harrah’s staff has learned that lesson. At the summer WSOP in Las Vegas, they attempted to give Hellmuth a penalty for berating a player, but when play resumed the next day, they took it back. It was noted that penalties are intended to correct inappropriate behavior, and WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said at the time, “Phil has now been warned and put on notice in a way that he never has been.”

Oh, really? Following the coverage of the second day of the WSOPE HORSE event in London tonight, it seems that a certain organization has forgotten about said notice. According to official reports, Hellmuth continuously berated opponents and the dealer (making one of them cry), and threw his cards at the dealer. Reports described him as “furious” and “livid,” even going so far as to get a warning from the tournament director. *Oooooh*

Since rules don’t apply to Hellmuth, it seems that karma does. He was eliminated in 12th place.

Click below to see the live reports chronicling the final two hours of Hellmuth tirades.

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Compared to some of the marathon WPT final tables, it probably seemed like it took only ten minutes to complete the final table of the WPT Borgata Poker Open. Vivek Rajkumar did, however, win the title in only 48 hands, beating the previous record of 53 hands set by Eugene Katchalov at the December 2007 Bellagio Five Diamond.

Vivek was surrounded by his group of internet young-gunnish friends like Gobboboy and Devo, and the support probably didn’t hurt as he came to the table as the chip leader and went into heads-up play with a massive 16.8 million to 3.9 million lead over Sang Kim. That HU part of the event took only one hand, and Vivek was the latest to win a WPT title. Oh, and he won $1,424,500 to get a good haircut go along with the bracelet and the victory.

The final table results were as follows:

6th place: Andrew Knee ($237,500)
5th place: Mark Seif ($287,500)
4th place: Jason Strochak ($337,500)
3rd place: Dan Heimiller ($387,500)
2nd place: Sang Kim ($750,000)
1st place: Vivek Rajkumar ($1,424,500)

Photo courtesy of World Poker Tour, where WPT Live Updates detailed all of the final table action.

There’s a lot of action going on, now and into this weekend …

First off, in the online world, the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) is going on on PokerStars. You can rail it live as an observer on PokerStars itself, of course, or if you’ve got an offline life you can follow it semi-live on the PokerStarsBlog in the capable hands of our own California Jen and some of your other favorite bloggers (Change100, Tuscaloosa Johnny, Otis).

Believe it or not, they’ve also got “TV” coverage of these big online tourneys — they’re about halfway through 33 of them. Check it out right here if you’ve got a half-hour to kill:

The new PokerStars TV will also be all over the EPT Barcelona, which just got underway — including some live video coverage viewable on the internet, along with more traditional blog-coverage and chip updates.

On the salty side of the pond, the Borgata Poker Open is getting heated in Atlantic City. That’s where Pauly’s at. And he’s covering all the action (along with the ever-illustrative Tropical Steve and poker-media journeyman Michael Friedman) on the official Borgata Blog. The WPT main event kicks off on Sunday. The WPT has their own blog-crew coverage, too — something called “The Muck”.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck here in Vegas, where it’s a Freerollin’ Saturday for me:

I start the day in Event #2 of the PokerListings Run Good Challenge. Supposedly we’re having some blind-structure issues with PokerStars, but regardless, it will be a chance to redeem myself from my lackluster Event #1 performance.

Then, later tomorrow evening, it’s the grand-opening tourney at the Hard Rock, where I’ll be playing against Phil Hellmuth, Anjela Brunson, Rick Fuller, Scott Fischman, Scott Ian (of Anthrax), Jeremiah Smith, Andre Agassi, Montel Williams, Randy Couture, Jermaine O’neal, Paul Pierce, and others for an important motorcycle. Will be texting in updates via CSR should you care to follow my quest against a field that should be a combination of great and terrible, with a less-than-skill-friendly blind-structure.

Click below for more detailed info on the event itself, and the motorcycle.

It really is shaping up to be a Good Poker September.

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Courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Scratch what I said about Men “The Master” being on a hot streak. John “The Razor” Phan is having an unbelievable year and just added another notch to his belt early this morning by winning his first World Poker Tour title.

The final table at the Legends of Poker at the Bike had some potential to be a good one, as several semi-notable pros were seated there with Phan. Amit Mahjika, the chip leader coming into the final table, held his lead for the majority of the night but found himself heads-up with Phan, and that battle lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours with the two players trading the lead over and over. Both were quite determined, as evidenced by the WPT live updates, and Mike Sexton called it the “greatest heads-up match in WPT history.” Finally, at about about 1:40am, Phan did it and claimed his first WPT victory.

Finishes were as follows:

6th place: Kyle Wilson ($176,035)
5th place: Trong Nguyen ($211,245)
4th place: Paul Smith ($246,450)
3rd place: Zach Clark ($281,645)
2nd place: Amit Makhija ($563,320)
1st place: John Phan ($1,116,428)

Phan’s year has consisted of five WSOP cashes (two of which were bracelet wins) and four WPT cashes (three of which were final tables and one of which was this victory). Not only was the WPT win his first, as were the WSOP bracelets, but his 2008 tournament winnings now top the $2 million mark. The year of the Razor, indeed.

In a previous post, Dan mentioned Scotty Nguyen’s (bad) behavior as shown on the ESPN coverage of the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE final table. His drunken/erratic/insulting antics and chatter at the table has been controversial, as some members of the media blame editing for making Scotty look a little mentally unstable moody, while many viewers were clearly shocked by his treatment of his opponents, cocktail servers, and chips.

Evidently, Scotty reads forums and blogs. As I was made aware by Short-Stacked Shamus in his analysis of the ESPN episode, Scotty posted an apology of sorts on the CardPlayer forums.

He expressed his “sincerest apology” for the disappointment caused by his behavior caught on camera, and though he felt that he beat his opponents fair and square (”I would never be sorry to beat those players”), he felt bad that the fans saw him in a bad light. Scotty admits that he was caught up in a range of emotions, as is human nature, but knows that his fans are his bread and butter and wouldn’t want to disappoint them.

The full forum post is as follows:

I would like to apologize to all my fans for the disappointment I have caused in the H.O.R.S.E. Event. For that I would like to express my sincerest apology.

I would like to ask for understanding of what really took place.

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…Actually, I’m just the opposite. I went out middle, at level 6. Four PP’s (55,77,99,QQ). I hit one flop, never saw a turn all day, much less a river. Never played a loser through… until about 10 minutes ago. Never been so card dead. *cry,bitch,moan,walk*

Shawn Rice is nursing a short stack of about 7k, as we enter $400/$800+$75. We are at that pivotal point where all you can hear is “Seat Open on X”.

As I noted in a comment to a prior post, one player actually advanced with a single chip. That drive will suck. Another player advanced with ZERO, after coming in 2nd in a 3-way all-in. No word on whether he has to drive in to collect.

I still can’t get my hands on yesterday’s survivors. I’m packing it up and going home. The media table is now officially empty. (Again)

According to Craig’s list, the Winstar Thrusday chips are a hot property, as people are asking $3,000-$5,000 for the sold-out $2,100 seats. I’m curious as to how many of those folks are having any luck. Comments? Anybody? Personally, I’m not seeing any deals working and am thinking that there will be a lot of late comers who couldn’t flip their chip.

Thursday is starting up the TV crew is running about. I’ve requested Survivor updates for Wednesday and should have those later today. I would already have posted them, but the person with the goods told me that he didn’t want to walk over to the poker room and get it. He’s a nice enough guy, but when, oh when will Winstar figure out that there’s live “Beyond The Tent”. (Is that domain available?)

Updates to come.

Here’s the survivor data thus far. I’m pretty surprised that I don’t recognize more names than I do. One name that we’ll all know and didn’t make this leader list is that of Mr. Scott Clements, who enters the Saturday play-down with $68,000.

I’m not gonna be here long, but I’ll try to get a chipleader update and at least one interview. Like I’ve told the folks here, without more up-front coordination with online media, their coverage is going to be sparse, if anything. If I had brought my camera, I’d show you the lonely “press table”. But picture this: There’s one semi-handsome fellow seated there all by himself. …And I can shit in his pants. Cumon, Winstar!

I know it’s been discussed before, but a recent California “ladies” event held at the Bicycle Casino brings back that discussion. I was looking at Pokerpages on Monday and decided had a look at the Legends of Poker series of tournaments to see the latest results. Barbara Enright took down the title, but if you looked at who finished in 7th place (which has been removed) you would have seen poker author John Vorhaus listed. Fortunately the tournament reporter mentioned that Vorhaus, the chip leader going into the final table, “dressed appropriately for the ladies event wearing a red-haired wig and a dress”. Is this how “Killer Poker” is supposed to be played?

I personally don’t understand why men would want to play in a ladies’ event unless they’re either looking for attention, or that they’re so bad at poker they feel their best chance at winning is to play the “weaker” sex. Maybe it was done for a more noble purpose, so I hope the $725 was worth it.

Update: Vorhaus talks about his experience in the event on his blog.

The World Poker Tour kicked off its seventh season with the Bellagio Cup at Bellagio (go figure). The powers-that-be raised the buy-in to $15K in the hopes of getting a field of pros, and that’s what happened. A total of 446 players anted up to create a prize pool of $6,489,300 with a whopping $1,673,700 first prize. (The prize money was not given away in a cup, which would have been a creative idea, right? C’mon, guys. A WPT bracelet and a Bellagio Cup bracelet? A gold cup - use your imagination!)

Anyway, the final table looked promising… Several pros made it, and it looked like David Benyamine was going to take it down and add two bracelets (ugh) to the WSOP bracelet he won this year. But 24-year old online pro Mike “SirWatts” Watson’s luck skillful play got in the way, and a brand new name was added to the list of WPT millionaires. The action will be shown - dates unknown - on Fox Sports.

The final table results were as follows:

1st: Mike “SirWatts” Watson - $1,673,770
2nd: David Benyamine - $840,295
3rd: Luke Staudenmaier - $452,465
4th: Ralph Perry - $290,900
5th: John “The Razor” Phan - $193,915
6th: Gabe Thaler - $129,275

Next stop on the World Poker Tour: The Bike in Los Angeles at the end of August.

It was officially announced today that Amanda Leatherman, formerly of PokerWire and currently of PokerRoad, has joined the World Poker Team of traveling reporters and will take on the role of live updates hostess. In a position formerly held by Kimberly Lansing, Amanda will be doing player interviews, video updates, etc.

As for Lansing, no word. Some speculate that she might be moved into the television hostess role, but if that was the case, wouldn’t it have been announced already? My inside sources say that auditions were open, and Lansing was not guaranteed that spot. And with the Bellagio Cup beginning tomorrow, WPT will be forced into a decision and announcement soon.

For now, congratulations to Amanda!

While Tuscaloosa Johnny was representing in the media tourney, 85Nutz was also badged up today in Event #55, the Casino Employees Event. But alas, he ran out of chips before we could get a picture and begin following his stack status.

His update:

Out, crippled by JJ vs KK, pushed with A10 and called by AK … that’s poker

Indeed it is. Nice job, John. I mean except for the bad plays. But other than that, all good. Thanks for trying.

It’s still a little too early to say, obviously. But right now it’s a guy named Mark Garner. Brandon Adams is close behind. They get to play with the comfort of knowing that essentially, theoretically, they could not play another hand and make the money. I say that loosely because we all know how blinds and antes work … and neither of them have quite what will be an average stack when we do burst the money bubble. But in general, finishing Day 1 with nearly 10x your starting stack is a pretty good place to be.

Other players of note making it through to Day 2 include:

Click below to see the complete list (the same as the one in the previous post) sorted by stack size:

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I’m seriously trying to stop it. In truth, I wouldn’t call it stalking… But every time I see the hot talented actor/producer/director in a field of poker players at a tournament, I just can’t help myself. But it is true that I haven’t exactly covered Ray Romano or Jason Alexander the same way… I suppose I might have a bias toward Mekhi.

When I saw Mr. Phifer at the Ante Up for Africa tournament yesterday and proceeded to take his picture, he had a certain look about him, one that said, Seriously? You again? or A call to Security might be in order here. So, when I was told that he was in the field today, I got control of myself and decided that I should leave him alone for the day. I already know he will be at a party I’m attending on Monday night, so I shouldn’t overdo it.

But lo and behold, he is sitting close to media row. Argh! Self-control is hard! But when I was made aware that he was doing quite well, I looked from afar and asked Dan to take a picture of his chip stack.

Take a look at that stack - it’s huge! Seriously, though, he had 55K going into the dinner break and seems to be playing a good game today while trying to stay under the radar. If it wasn’t for my well-intentioned and un-scary inability to stop following him around the poker tables his PokerStars patch, he might just go unnoticed.

UPDATE: Phifer has been eliminated from the tournament with less than an hour left in Day 1A.

Scotty Nguyen is the 2008 World Series of Poker $50K H.O.R.S.E. champion!

First things first…
3rd place - Erick Lindgren - $781,440 (This occurred at approximately 4:30am after a valiant fight with a pesky short stack. Fine job, Erick. Seriously.)
2nd place - Michael DeMichele - $1,243,200 (An amazing feat for a young, up-and-coming player.)

And first place goes to Scotty Nguyen…baby.

After a seemingly kind and understanding conversation with the runner-up, Scotty took in the win. He hugged some friends in the audience (like Layne Flack and David “Devilfish” Ulliott), then looked to his wife whom he embraced and lip-locked for quite some time. The emotion from both of them was obvious. He thanked the audience who was still there after 5am to take in the history. Scotty did an interview with ESPN and proceeded to the presentation platform where Jeffrey Pollack presented him with the Chip Reese trophy. Scotty was quite overcome with emotion and stood with his face in his hands for several moments before wiping the tears and accepting the trophy. He held it up and thanked Chip Reese with an eye to the sky, thanked his fans and friends, most importantly his wife, and was subsequently awarded the WSOP bracelet.

It was an emotional victory for the long-time pro, and the importance of the victory was not lost on Scotty Nguyen. The hard-fought battle took more than 12 hours but ended with a very grateful and deserving champion. Congratulations, Scotty!

Click below for some photos from the $50K H.O.R.S.E. victory…

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It has taken over three hours to see three players hit the door in the $50K HORSE. It has seemed slow at times, but the intensity at the table dictates that this could be a long night.

8th place - Patrick Bueno - $230,880
He was the short stack with less than 700K upon sitting down today, so it was only a matter of time before he would make a move. He did it against Lyle Berman and lost. The French businessman bid adieu to the table.

7th place - Huck Seed - $284,160
Huck never has much to say, and neither do I.

6th place - Barry Greenstein - $355,200
Though he’s not the kind of guy most people would want at a fun dinner party, Barry’s story at the WSOP, especially in this event, would have been a great one. He is the only player to have cashed in each of the three years that the $50K HORSE has been played, and this was his second year in a row for a final table in it. He already won a WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago in seven-card razz, but he couldn’t pull of the big one with his short stack. (That just sounded wrong, I know.) He did earn his sixth cash of the WSOP, though. Not a bad showing for the Bear this year so far.

After 75 hands, Michael DeMichele has taken the chip lead. Lookie here for the PokerNews chip counts:

Michael DeMichele - 3,700,000
Erick Lindgren - 3,400,000
Scotty Nguyen - 3,300,000
Lyle Berman - 2,200,000
Matt Glantz - 2,150,000

The bi-weekly “donkaments” carry on … Event #49 — $1,500 NLH … 2,700 players. A few of them are people Pokerati cares about covering … Pflaster is back in action, Robert Goldfarb is in the field and texting in updates via CSR, a few other “no names” from my old stompin’ grounds … Tom is not playing, however, as he showed up to register 10 minutes before start and was shut out — sorry, full field, no alternates, the registrar said.

UPDATE: No-stakes Dallas Amateur-turned-Vegas small-stakes pro David Pflaster is hanging in there. Has built his stack back up to about 6,000.

“I did stop-and-go,” he said, “the best play in poker … He raised it up and i couldn’t go all-in because I only had like 1,500 more, so I just flat called and bet all-in on the flop.”

“Ah, because in that situation it doesn’t matter what you have or if it hits you — you’re just banking on it not hitting him.”

“Yeah, but it did hit me,” and he folded.

Hmm, so in that case a check wouldn’t have been better? Maybe not. Still, good stuff, DP … back in survivable action … with 520 of 2,317 remaining. Money kicks in at 198.

UPDATE: Pflaster is out. He built his stack up to 8,500 by making moves. First go was all-in with J-3 … tight table, his short stack still big enough to hurt any and all of them … everybody folds.

Next hand: AK … can’t just raise a little bit, so he moves all-in again … no one calls.

Next hand: . Same move again … by this point players are getting suspicious, but he still has too many chips for any of them to call … except for the dude with pocket queens. Flopped a 9, but never improved. Totally crippled, moves all-in in the dark in the next hand, late-position min-raises … they’re heads-up, but Pflaster’s Q7s fails to outflop-turn-river the raisers K-J.

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Playing under our little satanic-spade banner … David Pflaster. Some of you may recall … he got his start playing at the Lodge and before you knew it was getting aces tattooed on his forearms, dealing in Dallas, and about a year ago moved to Las Vegas to make it as a low-stakes pro.

He actually seems to be doing it — says he’s just slightly better than breaking even in cash games while hitting some “big” scores in tourneys. More than $20k in the past few months in Caesar’s freerolls, another $10k win online … today he’s playing in the $2,000 NLH event … and with about half the field eliminated just before dinner break, he’s a pretty-big stack with about 18,000 chips (more than double the avg.). Seen here after just having taken out a player who moved all-in on his big blind in a hand where he woke up with pocket kings.

NOTE TO SELF: Satanic Spade … good name for a new death metal band!

UPDATE: According to Pflaster: “Dude, my Aces ran into Jacks.” His opponent was apparently a relative big-stack … so he’s now down to 3600, with blinds at 300/600 … and Pflaster in the big blind on the next hand after dinner break.

Yikes. But at the same time, on the previous break he and I talked about this exact situation, and how he’s learned his way out of it. We’ll see, no?

With 140 of 148 players remaining, my horse in the HORSE starts here, as today is the day we find out who in the field is really looking to contend for something meaningful:

(Mathematically, I suppose I’m still pretty short-stacked with just 1,178 of those chips working for me; ; let’s hope Tom realizes he needs to get more of them.)

(Table 6)
Seat 1: Matt Hawrilenko – 41,100
Seat 2: Andy Bloch – 101,000
Seat 3: David Grey – 79,900
Seat 4: Johnny Chan – 172,200
Seat 5: Roy Thung – 90,000
Seat 6: Tom Schneider – 117,800
Seat 7: Michael Mizrachi – 82,300
Seat 8: Mike Wattel – 120,600
Click below for the complete HORSE table seatings:

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Through 39 41 events, the California vs. Nevada race for WSOP supremacy gets tighter … I’m already foreseeing a demand for a recount … because with Shannon Shorr alone booking one final table for Las Vegas and another under the flag of Alabama, LV is due for either some addition or subtraction. Not to mention David Benyamine, who is either from France, Las Vegas, or the Weebles Treehouse.

Interestingly enough, Cali and NV are the only two states/countries to have moneyed in every single event. Florida has at least one money finisher in every event except one — #22, the $5,000 7-Stud Hi-Lo World Championship.

UPDATE: Now two — no Floridians cashed in #40, $2,500 2-7 Limit Lowball Triple-Draw. Ha ha.

My beloved Texas has cashed in all but seven events, and remains the only self-acclaimed poker powerhouse yet to book a bracelet.

Newcomers on the WSOP World Poker Leaderboard:
Vermont
Peru
Yukon Territory
Poland (woot!)
Panama

Have a look below or see the full, regularly updated list here.

Who would’ve guessed Guatemala would have nearly twice the money finishings of the always pokerfied Costa Rica?

The $10K World Championship of Omaha Hi-Lo started its third day of play with 18 players today and will play down to a winner. One of those 18 players is Stuart Paterson, one of the many Full Tilt Pros playing this WSOP.

Little note about Stuart: He’s in a wheelchair.

Now check out this post from the official live updates team:

Stuart Paterson Crippled

Stuart Paterson was all in on the turn against Eugene Katchalov.

Paterson: {A-Spades} {5-Hearts} {9-Hearts} {6-Spades}
Katchalov: {A-Hearts} {7-Hearts} {8-Clubs} {5-Clubs}
Board: {8-Hearts} {Q-Spades} {6-Clubs} {2-Hearts} {9-Clubs}

Katchalov had a nine high straight and a low with the A-5. Paterson had the same low.
After getting quartered, Paterson is down to around 25,000 in chips.

UPDATE: The title of the aforementioned post was just changed to read: “Stuart Paterson Nearing the Felt.” Better.

Once upon a time, we used to actually talk about hands on this here blog. Don’t worry, we still think it was a good idea to replace the important strategy talk with much easier to understand poker cartoons … But I did come across Daniel Negreanu’s video blog (via Wicked Chops), and in his latest update he talks about a really interesting Pot Limit Omaha hand against OMGClayAiken — aka Phil Galfond — one that leads Negreanu to the conclusion that the up-and-coming onliners are indeed threats … but not much more than that.

OMGClayAiken is currently the chip leader in the $5k PLO event with three players remaining. David Benyamine and Adam Hourani are the others … as all three have outlasted a final table that included Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, and others.

Tom’s continues to be on a tournament tear — having cashed for his 5th time in 2008 this weekend by finishing in 10th place in the $1,500 Razz event to bring him close to even for the WSOP so far! (He got busted by Archie Karas, holding the nuts.)

This cash ties him with some new Russian guy – sorry, haven’t yet figured out who’s who amongst the New Red Army (”Wolverines!”), but I know it’s not Alex Kravchenko – for most ITM (in the money) finishes … and puts him on pace to threaten the record of eight. From Nolan Dalla’s official updates (sent out before the conclusion of Razz):

Through the conclusion of Event #23, only one player has cashed five times to date – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow. Evdakov is in serious contention to challenge the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by four players — Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes.

That’s kinda fun, no? Because the most overblogged pro of the Series clearly knows his way around different events, he did a quick hallway interview with PokerNews while on break after busting out Doyle Brunson en route to crossing the money bubble in the $3k HORSE event:

Longtime Tom fans — Karridy and Angry Julie especially — will love the ending, and Tom’s face during it.

Wait, Dan has friends?

I kid. Evidently, he knows the Batfaces, and a group of them are in Vegas to drink heavily play in the World Series. I daydreamed about Mekhi Phifer listened intently as Dan told me about his friends and how their tournaments are going.

Here’s what I caught: Tim, Troy, and Randy are out. Eric (one of them, not sure which) and Todd are still in.

Dan is at the Rio today and walking the tournament floor to text CSR updates about the guys. Go Batfaces!

So bummer that ESPN has bad insurance — and I’m not just sayin’ that because Pokerati’s new made-for-TV patches just arrived. While the ESPN camerapeople are taking some atmosphere filler shots — you know, just in case Erick Lindgren wins his second bracelet — it really is too bad that the WSOP doesn’t have the ability to call a final-table audible or two. (The actual physical table for the bracelet-crowning end of the $5k NL 2-7 lowball single-draw w/ rebuys doesn’t even have hole-card cams.)

Not only is there a great field to follow, and multiple story lines … Lindgren going for his second bracelet, which would put him way ahead in the WSOP Player of the Year race … and speaking of POY, last year Jeff Lisandro and Tom Schneider had everything riding on the results of this event … but also, if you’re gonna show a crazy mixed game on TV, there’s really not a better one to televise than NL 2-7 single-draw.

TV fans are already comfortable with the concept of no-limit … and it won’t take much for them to understand that the best hand in this game is 2-3-4-5-7. Then mix in the poker psychology (wielded by top-notch pros) of a game where you get soooo little information on your opponent’s hand — there are only two rounds of betting — and consider that there are only 5 cards in each hand to think about … and there you have it: great, surprising and unexpected poker TV. (The $5k with rebuys also adds a bigger-money component to it as well.)

When I watched this game last year, I got totally hooked — would love to be able to play it somewhere. And F-Train’s solid coverage of it for PokerNews/the WSOP reflects that he’s finding the same thing. Read along for just a few posts and you’ll have a whole new understanding of a game you previously probably hardly knew.

UPDATE: Tom is now second in chips … click here to follow along.

OK, you know I don’t want to make this year’s WSOP all about Tom’s lack of sponsorable attention … but I can’t help it on this one … watch the WSOP video update, and they talk about what a star-studded final table this is … and they mention 6 of 7 players’ names. I guess the two bracelets and that WSOP POY title, like bitching about Tom’s lack of coverage, is so 2007!

Click here to follow along. Tom just picked up another big pot. He seems focussed.

Two other interesting things to note: 1) Barry Greenstein was the tiny stack once they got into the money; and 2) Last year’s POY race came down to this event (the last one pre-main event in 2007). Tom went out somewhere in the teens, leaving it to Jeff Lisandro to make the final table to snatch the Player of the Year honors. At the time his chip stack was strong, and Tom went over to donk off $3,000 at the high-stakes cash tables. (I’m sure he couldn’t even tell you what game he was playing.) But Lisandro fell short … so in a way, he probably really wants this win, too.

Event #18 is the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Rebuys tournament. The field was small with only 85 competitors, but those few people managed to rebuy 272 times and create a $1,036,035 prize pool to be divided between the top 14 finishers.

Today, the third day of the event, the final table is underway. Check out this line-up:

Seat 1: Jeffrey Lisandro (Salerno, Italy) 461,000
Seat 2: Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, Nevada) 520,000
Seat 3: Tom Schneider (Scottsdale, Arizona) 162,000
Seat 4: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) 1,104,000
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, California) 541,000
Seat 6: Tony ‘G’ Guoga (Melbourne, Australia) 394,000
Seat 7: David Benyamine (Las Vegas, Nevada) 410,000

Here’s the kicker. Hardly anyone can see it.

The table is being held on a table NEXT to the ESPN stage. The rail is insane, four- or five-people deep, and those people are frustrated because they can’t see anything. Throw in the official WSOP media, ESPN cameras and crew, and floor staff, there’s nothing to see. Some members of the media tried to go up to the Milwaukee’s Best Lounge so we could watch from above, though that is rather uncomfortable as well, and snap a photo or two, but security instructed us to leave. Immediately.

Why, I asked of some fellow media folk, is the ESPN stage empty with no other final tables running today? Why can’t move this stellar final table over there with more room for the media and lots of room for fans to take seats and watch? WHY? The Poker Shrink informed me that ESPN does not take out insurance on the stage and lounge areas if there is no final table scheduled there. There is no insurance on the area today, and evidently, no one can make a phone call to get it.

Therefore, the players are stuck in a very small space, their friends and family are having a tough time seeing the table, and those against the rail have fans breathing down their necks. The fans are annoyed that they can’t see the best final table of the WSOP so far. The non-official media is pissed at being treated rudely by the floor staff and security team - being shooed from the area and given NO explanation, leeway, or assistance.

After a few weeks of virtually no missteps on the part of Harrah’s and the WSOP, this may be one that they hear about from the players and the media.

photo: Aaron Hendrix / The Poker Mentor

It’s clear Phil Ivey is a problem gambler. The question is whether he’s a problem for casinos and his prop bet opponents or himself. One well-respected ambassadorial poker friend of Ivey’s has said he worries that Phil is too into gambling — to the extent that he doesn’t really have the time of day for anyone who isn’t up for a big-money wager. And this year one of his Full Tilt cronies has reportedly said that if he keeps up the prop bets at his current pace, he’ll be broke in two years.

Yeow, I don’t know Ivey’s real numbers, but his friend who said the latter certainly knows a thing or 12 about going broke. The dollar amounts circulating for Ivey’s off-table wagers are $2 million. On two separate wagers — one about whether or not he will win a bracelet, and the other on the outcome of the Laker-Celtics series. Supposedly Ivey has $2 million riding on the LA winning the NBA Championship. Not sure if I believe it of course — just seems a little coincidental that both his big bets would tally $2mm on the dot … but maybe … regardless, a lot of people saw Ivey auditioning to be the next Spike Lee courtside at Game 1, and yesterday, Game 3/Day 1 of a $2,000 Limit Hold’em event, it was very apparent that he had a lot of something riding on the outcome.

During the tournament, Ivey had no problem convincing the floor to replace the big-screen tournament clock with the basketball game, and his opponents at this table got a rare glimpse of Phil without his usual inscrutable poker face (as Daniel Negreanu occasionally popped by to laugh).

ALT HED: I Like Big Bets!

Phil Ivey’s Laker Tells
Photos by Benjo:

Teddy “The Iceman” Munroe: Watch out for this guy. Tough to play against.

Tom is was the chip leader in the $2k Omaha Hi-Lo. That’s pretty cool.

UPDATE: Tom is out. Not cool.

And that limit event he busted out of yesterday … Erick Lindgren just missed the final table, which is now set with some interesting players, including Teddy Munroe, Ali Eslami, and Vinny Vinh. (Teddy and I go way back — last year I’d be typing outside and “The Iceman” would fill me in on the $100-$200 cash action while taking a piss on the tournament tent air conditioners. “Makin’ money, baby!” he’d say before shaking himself dry and heading back to the table.)

Even the $10k 7-Stud World Championship is getting interesting … with Doyle still alive and both Bob and Maureen Feduniak with the potential to become the first ever husband-wife presumably non-collusive team at the final table. Never mind. Since typing this, all the above-mentioned have been eliminated.

I learned about this 7-Stud shape-up from the a WSOP-TV vid. And though I tend to detest any lack of imbeddability, I gotta say I like a lot of what this ESPN/WSOP/Bluff (?) crew has got going here. For example, Harmonie Krieger does a basic feature video interview set on the different jobs people come to the WSOP from. Nice enough, right? — but very real when one of the guys she talks with is Jay Columbo, who ran the legendary Mayfair and Playstation poker clubs in New York City, legally questionable status notwithstanding.

And then, perhaps most shocking to me, I enjoyed Jean-Robert Bellande’s “Surviving the WSOP” — where the young, aspiring Eskimo Clark chronicles his ups and downs at the World Series while his video-podcast editors comment Pop-up Video-style — follow along as he hustles high-rollers for buy-ins.

Even learned something from Phil Ivey’s less exciting V-log … and that is that he’s playing so many big-field, low-buy-in donkfests because he has a lot of side action pending on whether or not he’ll win a bracelet this year. We’ll see if we can’t find out more about this.

Speaking of donkfests, the Ladies Event has already lost 2/3 of its starting field, and of those still remaining, at least three of them are Pokerati MySpace friends: Lacey Jones, Kathy Liebert, and Mandy Baker are looking strong and pretty much representing the spectrum of all that is good about women. Go girls! I mean chicks … er babes .. uh bitches?

UPDATE: Lacey is nursing a short stack. Poker Roadie Amanda Leatherman has come on strong, however, and picked up the aggressive pace. Michele Lewis, Tiffany Michele, and PokerNews editrix Haley Hintze are all out.

In the meantime, primarily because it is awesomely embeddable, check out the debut episode of The Degenerate Report, from Neverwin Poker:

That’s two cashes so far for Schneider. This one paid a net $1,743. Congratulations-ish, Tom.. Nice to book another win, and this one should cover two or three of the many dozens of blinds you’ve defended poorly in the cash games! Don’t call it a comeback!

I ran into Angry Julie in the poker kitchen late last night shortly after Tom had busted out, and she was unusually happy. Giddy, I’d even say. She was buying herself a Krispy Kreme donut and Tom an ice cream using the $15 food voucher you get for playing in a WSOP event. Informed that she wouldn’t get back any change, she looked at the guy behind her in line and said, “How much is what he’s having? ($8) Great, his too!”

The dude was super-thankful, but before he could walk away with a smile, she stood there and wouldn’t let him leave until he tipped the cashier. “Not until you put at least a dollar in there,” she said, pointing to the tip basket in front of the register. I know what Tom would think if he saw this: “Leak.”

Meanwhile, Tom thinks Pokerati should be all over the continuing saga of the Donkey Bomber POY Banner. “My picture the only one without a light - rodney dangerfield,” said a text he sent to me yesterday. I checked, and it’s true — everyone else has a big beam accenting their mugs. But considering that I have to sit right below his banner and I don’t want any additional glare, I think we’ll stick to keeping you posted about his feats busting out of a tournament with only nine tables to go.

The ladies event brings out all sorts … supposedly one man entered, and one man left. Because the WSOP wasn’t gonna get themselves into anything resembling a civil rights and discriminatory mess, anyone who stood in line for Event #15 would be allowed to buy in. However, when only one man did this, Nolan Dalla went up to him and politely asked him not to play — refunded his buy-in as he obliged.

One lady who is supposedly playing: Mindy McCready. She’s the country singer-turned-Roger Clemens affairester. Can you imagine if she got seated with a dress-wearing Jose Canseco? Sorry that I don’t have a pic of her in action … but I have to admit, I’m less interested in Day 1 of the Ladies Event than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with a chat I had with Snake, or maybe it’s just because Pokerati fave Evil Omaha Sharron (NSFW) isn’t playing.

Regardless, Jen has pretty much successfully convinced me that non-open events should be non-bracelet events. Ladies, Seniors, Casino Employee’s … since anyone can’t win then they should not receive the same acclaim as those who take down a tourney where technically anyone can.

Of course the problem with this would be that if these events lost their prestige, then they would also lose their crowds, which are an important part of bringing newbies into the game. The solution: partner up with some other entity to make these special events the pinnacle of their season(s). Though I don’t really know much about the LIPS Tour, it seems a pretty big, legitimate deal. Why not bring in them (or some entity like them) to give some special championship prize that still makes the non-bracelet event exciting?

Tom Schneider goes semi-deep (halfway through the paying field) and wins $36,096 — net $26k. Congrats a lot/Sorry bud. But way to get back into the game. Ali Eslami followed soon after for the same amount. They’re playing down to 8 — number of players, not a.m. Remaining contenders include, in order of current chip count:

Matt Glantz
James Mackey
Tom Dwan
Gus Hansen
Michael DeMichele
Sam Farha
Jeff Madsen
David Oppenheim
Eli Elezra
Anthony Rivera

The remaining payouts they’re fighting for:
1 $483,688
2 $297,792
3 $184,992
4 $139,872
5 $108,288
6 $85,728
7 $67,680
8 $54,144
9 $45,120
10 $45,120

Just curious … does anyone here think they should start reporting payouts in net terms, with at least the buy-in subtracted?