Phil Ivey - Courtesy of the World Poker Tour

In the most exciting World Poker Tour final table in recent memory, Phil Ivey used everything in his power to win the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic.

Phil Hellmuth left in sixth place with only a minor indication of tilt, and it looked like the two relative newcomers - Scott Montgomery and Charles Moore - looked like they might be able to squash the pros. But Montgomery took a dive to get out in fifth place, then Nam Le in fourth, and Moore in third. Heads-up play only lasted two hands between Quinn Do and the overwhelming chip leader Phil Ivey.

Ivey won with a full house over Do. While it looked at the beginning of the final table that Ivey may lose it when he lost several big pots in the first round, he calmed down and used as much patience as he had to pick his spots more carefully throughout the remainder of the action. At his eight appearance at a WPT final table, he finally won and pocketed nearly $1.6 million to boot.

For all of the action as it happened, check out the WPT Live Updates summary.

Congrats to Phil!

Seriously, look at this line-up:

Seat 1 Quinn Do - 1,450,000
Seat 2 Nam Le - 1,180,000
Seat 3 Phil Hellmuth - 2,380,000
Seat 4 Phil Ivey - 4,100,000
Seat 5 Charles Moore - 1,510,000
Seat 6 Scott Montgomery - 2,680,000

Could the WPT have asked for a better final table?

Whether you love or hate Phil Hellmuth, he’s going to make for great poker and interesting television. Phil Ivey has been at multiple WPT final tables but never been able to take a title. Quinn Do and Nam Le are friends and both quite capable of pulling this off. The wild cards are Charles Moore and Scott Montgomery, but can they really compete under the lights and cameras against such experienced pros?

Enough with the questions. Check out WPT Live Updates for all of the action when it begins today at 5pm.

UPDATE: Phil Hellmuth was just eliminated in sixth place. Ouch. The upside is that he crossed the $10 million tournament earnings mark with this finish.

It’s good to be back in Vegas. Was interesting being on the plane as someone “returning home” as opposed to heading out. The guy in front of me was 21 and heading to Vegas for his first time with an older man who I can only presume was his father. A hot blonde local was sitting in the window seat. She works in construction — and apparently it’s been a little slow around here this winter (the best time to build, weather-wise), so she was on her way back from a vacation to Puerta Vallarta.

Not sure who was behind me, but he had three little open airline liquor bottles on the middle tray — one of which was tipped over, as if a Smurf had passed out with it in his hand before falling over. It was enough to have me feelin’ a little pokery and ready to head to the Strip myself. It is Super Tuesday Mardi Gras, after all.

Tom went to San Diego for his Fat Tuesday. He’s goin’ for two final tables in a row at WSOP Circuit events, which would be a nice way to start the year, no? This is the $5,000 Harrah’s Rincon event. I’m quasi-following on the WSOP website. Looks to be a solid field full of pros still alive … all competing for a $TKK,000 first prize:

Time Stamp: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 12:51:35 AM
Player / Chip Count

Vanessa Rousso 72,000
Layne Flack 69,000
Bill Edler 60,800
Ted Lawson 57,000
Lee Watkinson 54,000
Theo Tran 47,800
Tom Schneider 35,000
Damien Oborne 34,000
Chad Brown 29,000
Jeff Madsen 28,600
Roy Winston 24,000
Erick Lindgren 23,000
Alex Jacob 21,025
Gavin Smith 15,500
Brandon Cantu 13,500
Allen Kessler 8,800
Jerry Buss 5,600
Anna Wroblewski 5,600

Peter ‘Nordberg’ Feldman 0
Jerry Yang 0

Here it is a little more closer to live, from PokerNews.

DALLAS–The charity tourney for Bea’s Kids was Saturday night, and none other than your second-favorite host of Beyond the Table won it! No, I’m not talking about Tom … In a field of 80-someodd players — most of whom had little or no experience — Karridy took down first prize, winning a 52-inch HDTV for his efforts and charitable donation(s). Nice!

Karridy Askenasy, counting out his chips two at a time before making a call and sucking out on the river (four outer?) to win the 2nd Annual Bea’s Kid’s Texas Hold’em Tournament.

His victory was extra impressive not just because at one point he was the chip leader at the final table with an M=4, but also because he played taking a note from Gentle Shane and acted the whole time as if this were his very first time playing poker. “For a second there I thought that was Jamie Gold,” said one of his more knowledgeable competitors.

Even if Karridy hadn’t won it — along with my $20 in our lasts-longest bet — this was still a great event. Kudos to tourney organizers for kicking it old-school and insisting on giving non-raffle prizes to the winners, and to Eddie Deen’s for not letting legally questionable threats from anti-poker forces get in the way of raising money for a good cause.

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Tom Schneider makes another final table, this time in Tunica. It was only back in November that he made the WSOP Circuit final table at Caesar’s Indiana, though then he was short-stacked.

Tomorrow, Tom will begin final table play with a healthy stack of 422,000. (Correction: The final table is Tuesday at noon CST. Thanks, Kevin!)

There were 180 players entered into the $7500 buy-in event, and the winner is guaranteed $428,210. Not a bad way to kick off 2008…

PokerListings is doing live updates from the event, which is where you can find the following info (and more):

Here are the final table seats and chip counts:
Seat 1: Tom Schneider $422,000
Seat 2: Ben Sabrin $417,000
Seat 3: John Devia $929,000
Seat 4: Giovanni Marcacci $465,000
Seat 5: Jordan Rich $147,000
Seat 6: Mark Garner $213,000
Seat 7: Bart Tichelman$164,000
Seat 8: Don Nicholson $325,000
Seat 9: Ryan Young $521,000

* Blinds: $4,000/$8,000
* Ante: $1,000
* Average Stack: $400,000
* Players Left: 9
* Tables Left: 2

Donkey Bomber Pokerati Tom — my words, not his — is at another final table today. That’s about all we know. I think it’s in a $2,500 Venetian/NPL Vegas Open event — I know it’s not at one of the preliminary Bellagio 5-Diamond tourneys where most of the pros are playing — but can’t be sure because, frankly, Tom tends to slack off from his frontline tournament reporting duties whenever he’s playing well (or vice versa). Too bad Goldfarb’s not making more final tables, because even if he can’t post directly from the table, he loves to send me the suckout-by-suckout recaps.

Tom Schneider starts today third in chips … I do know that much. And yeah, looking again, it’s gotta be event #3, because that’s one that counts toward Player of the Year. He really wants to win it, and thinks he can. Personally, I don’t think he stands a chance — though I suppose technically it’s possible and the Arizona Cardinals could win the next Super Bowl, as neither have been mathematically eliminated from contention.

In the meantime, keep up the good work, Tom (6)! We’re rooting for you against David Pham, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Bill Edler, JC Tran, David Fox, James Van Alstyne, Jared Hamby, and Danny Wong! Actually, I’m kinda rooting for Danny Wong, too … because he’s on my fantasy team. And Travis Rice, who is Dallas Poker’s highest ranked player in the CardPlayer standings at #11 — 5 spots, and 680 points behind Tom.

UPDATE (from Tom):

Belagio 2500 started yesterday 247 players

Hmm, OK, so I guess it was not one of the Venetian tourneys … it was a 5-Diamonder. Oops! But can we say sic.?

CORRECTION: Despite his own reports to the contrary, Schneider starts the day second in chips, not third. Click below to see who’s at the final table …

More…

Our favorite Donkey Bomber is back in Vegas … trying to score some bank at the Venetian’s NPL Vegas Open. He did OK in his first go — making another final table and finishing 3rd. It was a $2,500 NLH event, with 61 players. According to Tom via text:

6:40 pm: Down to 3 medium stak
7:59 pm: Out3rd qq vs a5 4 a lot of money

Kathy Liebert would go on to win this event, and the $55k first prize. Still, not a bad warm-up for the main event, which starts this coming Monday. It’s a $15,000 buy-in and should be a doozy.

Tom is making his desperate last-ditch effort to win CardPlayer’s Player of the Year, where he currently is ranked 6th. Though he has not been mathematically eliminated from contention, he basically needs to kick major ass while relying on Bill Edler, JC Tran, David Pham to seriously falter.

We probably shoulda mentioned this earlier, but there’s been a pretty big series of tournaments going on at the Cherokee Casino in Upper Oklahoma. The main event of the Scotty Nguyen Classic IV just finished up … another quarter-million first-place payout from our good friends north of the Red River … and TJ Cloutier won it, avenging the two-outer that cost him the top spot in WinStar’s big-daddy event.

He defeated Houstonian Ray Henson, whom you may recall went deep in the 2007 WSOP main event — the last Texan standing, finishing in 12th place before being knocked out by, interestingly enough, Scotty Nguyen.

124 players bought in to this $5,000 NLHE event, including a handful of names and faces you may recognize from tables around North Texas and elsewhere:

TJ Cloutier, Richardson, 1st place — $241k
Ray Henson, Houston, 2nd place — $138k
Brant Hale, Norman, 3rd place — $72k
Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, 4th place — $42k
Noah Nodine, Norman, 5th place — $33k
Daniel Robertson, Alma, AR, 6th place — $27k
Gil George, Dallas, 7th place — $21k
Scotty Nguyen, Las Vegas, 8th place — $15k
Bill Edler, Las Vegas, 9th place — $12k

More…

Running Good: 25-year-old Travis Rice made two final tables at the 2007 WSOP and follows that up with a high-six-figures win in Aruba.[photo: PocketFives]

One of the other major tournaments going on this weekend took place in Aruba — a slightly more scenic destination than New Jersey. The $5,500 buy-in event drew 548 players, and in the end, after enduring a semi-difficult outdoor final table (complete with sun, wind, and bugs) Fort Worth’s Travis Rice was the last player standing — winning $800,000 and providing further proof of the old adage about the success of the Dallas Cowboys being tied to the Ultimate Bet Aruba Classic.

Mean Gene was there ogling the bikini-clad following the official action, as was PocketFives. While a handful of big-name pros competed (Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Robert Williamson, Mike Matusow, Kristy Gazes, et al.), by the time this thing got to the money, the online qualifiers were clearly dominating.

Online players know Travis as “TravestyFund” … but some of you may remember him as a dealer at the now defunct Sixth Street. He has since turned pro, and thus far in 2007 banked nearly $1.2 million in tournament winnings. He celebrated his most recent victory by jumping in a pool.

More photos here.

Louis Lee continues to kick arse at the US Poker Championship in Atlantic City. They’re down to three and he’s the middle in chips. Go Louis!

By the way, one hand that deserves mention … Louis knocked out Victor Ramdin, who was previously belittling his play and claiming he would take all of Lee’s chips. From PokerListings:

Sickening!
Louis Lee raises to $68,000 on the button and Victor Ramdin comes over the top all-in for another $205,000 from the small blind. Ed Brogdon gets out of the way in the big blind and the action’s on Lee, who ruminates for a few minutes, saying, “This would be the sickest thing in the world if I called this.”

It is the sickest thing in the world, because Lee calls with and is way behind Ramdin’s . The flop is cruel, coming , and after the turn is the the river is the and Victor Ramdin, who yesterday told Lee he’d take every last one of his chips before the tournament was over, has been eliminated at the hands of the man he’d trash talked.

Ramdin is out in fifth place and will take home $71,586 to add to the coffers.

Awesome. You can see why I am such a big Louis Lee fan.

UPDATE: They’re down to heads-up. Louis is guaranteed $318k … winner takes home $606k. He has 1.6 million chips, to Adam Gerber’s 3.8 million.

UPDATE: Rough hand … but Lee couldn’t lay down his boat and he got 2nd place:

Louis Lee limps-in and Adam Gerber pops it to 125,000. Lee makes the call and the flop comes . Gerber checks and Lee bets 200,000. Gerber immediately pops to 500,000 and Lee makes the call. The turn is the and Gerber moves all-in, putting Lee to a decision for his tournament life.

Lee tanks for a good five minutes, standing and pacing and trying to figure out his move. After an agonizing deliberation he makes the call, shoving his stack into the middle and turning up for the boat. Gerber has a better boat, however, with and Lee is drawing dead. After the hits the river it’s official; Adam Gerber is USPC Champ!

While Louis may be rethinking the call for a while, one thing that probably makes it a little more stomach-rumbly is the chop he turned down. When they got to heads-up, Gerber (the 2.5x bigger stack) offered him $450,000 and they’d play for the bracelet and a Rolex. Very fair, he agreed, but Louis wanted to play it out.

Still, nice debut performance on the high-stakes circuit. Big congrats to LL.

For those who are curious, here’s how the USPC has changed over the years, in terms of the size of the main event field, and thereby payouts:

(Top 2 finishers in parentheses)

2002 — 72 players* (John Hennigan beats Erik Seidel)
2003 — 99 players (Toto Leonidas beats Erik Seidel)
2004 — 177 players (John Aglialoro beats Joe Cassidy)
2005 — 226 players (James “Capo” Caporuscio beats Ralph Pecorale)
2006 — 261 players (Alex Jacob beats Jordan Morgan)
2007 — 164 players (Winner TBD / Not Gavin Smith)

Not sure what all this says about the level of competition or the poker world in general, but the numbers are telling of something. This tourney did lose its TV contract this year, which certainly alters the field. But what becomes of it from here remains to be seen.

Click here to see the top-heavy payout structure.

And/or click here to dig into the history of this boldly named event. (Pre- and post-poker boom.) Do you think it’s possible that “struggling” tourneys like this one might change their payout structures to make them more appealing? Because while the 1st Place prize is plenty hefty, pros know how hard it is to actually win one of these things … and I gotta think if they knew a final table provided a bigger ROI it might be easier to put it on their schedule. Just a thought …

* Buy-in in 2002 was $7,500. Raised to $10,000 thereafter.

Louis Lee, sitting pretty at the final table in his first $10,000 event, is no longer being underestimated by his competition. [photo: Dale Perryman]

The story of Louis Lee has made the USPC entertaining for some of us to follow — moreso than, say, Gavin Smith, who busted out in 9th place when his two-pair couldn’t hold up against a flush draw. With eight players remaining, Lee, who has just $4,000 in major tournament winnings prior to this event, is 2nd in chips with 1.35 million. His trash-talking next-door neighbor Victor Ramdin (last week’s cover of CardPlayer, by the way) is 5th with 322k. Fun!

While this tournament hardly qualifies as a “major,” it still offers potentially life-changing money to the winner. $32k to the next player out; $600k to the last man standing. That’s a big-time sit-n-go no matter how you look at it. (Can we say chop?) For a not-so-winning player like yours truly, it’s kinda extra cool to see a guy sitting next to me at a 2/5 table at WinStar just a month ago in this situation.

Louis and his poker buddy Dale were kind enough to keep us updated throughout Day 4. Click below to see how he got to the final table in such a strong position, where he can theoretically weather a bad beat or two, and totally dominate if he happens to get a tad lucky:

More…

An update on the US Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City as they get near the money bubble. For all you Louis Lee fans out there:

Up to 460,000 chips. 22 players left. Ramdin crippled Bill gaze. Pocket 10 held up to pocket 7. Gaze out. got most of my chips from ramdin.

Excellent. Final table in his sights.

Coverage from PokerPages here.

Coverage from PokerListings here.

UPDATE: From PokerListings:

As we start hand-for-hand play, Victor Ramdin turns to seatmate Louis Lee and tells him, “I promise by the end of the tournament I’m going to take every one of your chips. I promise. And you know why? Because you play bad. You’re playing bad poker. And people who play bad poker, I take all of their chips.”

Awesome … Ramdin sounds like a break-even online player.

With 27 players remaining in the U.S. Poker Championship, held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Louis Lee from Plano will start Day 4 tomorrow 4th in chips. Jeff Madsen is the fairly dominant chip leader, followed by his party pal Gavin Smithr. Other recognizable names still alive in this $10k event include Allen Kessler, Victor Ramdin, Cliff Josephy (aka JohnnyBax), and Bill Gazes.

Eighteen get paid, with first prize being a little more than $600,000. (164 players started — kinda small, no?)

PokerPages is the only outlet following the action semi-live …

CORRECTION: PokerListings is at the USPC tables, too.

Louis’ up-and-coming tournament history here.

Have been enjoying the new episodes of the WSOP on ESPN. Brings back the memories … and while tourney officials this year were extra careful about coloring up chips when they got into the big money in the main event, they didn’t make it easy on themselves. When selecting colors for chip denominations, they apparently did so with an old box of Crayolas, choosing off-orange (5k), flesh (25k), and semi-pale pink (50k) to all be on the table at the same time:

Oops.

Tourney Director’s Tip: For the sake of players, dealers, floor staff, and chip counters … limit the total number of chip colors in play at any one time to four (4), and make sure they come from at least three (3) different regions of the rainbow.

Let’s not talk about me (and how turning the straight with the second-nuts flush draw didn’t get there) … no no, there’s far more excitement going on in Scottsdale, as our good friends in the Arizona Posse are making quite a showing online this weekend.

Big Robert won a 300-player multi on Full Tilt last night–paid about $7,000–and tonight he’s sweating Pat Poels and Ryan Hughes, who are both at two different WCOOP final tables on PokerStars.

Poels is chip leader with seven left in 2-7 Triple Draw, and Hughes is sitting solid in Pot Limit Omaha (6-max). Both are playing for big five-figure payouts … actually Poels Hughes is already there.

Meanwhile, I’m deciding whether or not to drive home … or to Arizona.

UPDATE: Poels — pstarfish – finished 2nd (out of 649) to win $18,821. Hughes — elycash41 – finished 3rd (out of 1,818) to win $27,379. Nice job, Arizona! Way to represent. So wanna party like you guys.

Well that went fine but not great. Out early in level 4. (Posted two updates earlier, but ran into technical difficulties with my non-iPhone.) Anyhow, all I know is that i will be a better player when I learn how to lay down trips when I suspect I might be outkicked and the all-in big stack really has a flush.

But not all is lost. Saw lots of friendly faces here and one has owed me $388 since February. I knew he was good for it — had just been awhile since we had seen each other, and indeed he paid me. So despite the early bustout, I am so far up $163. Cool, ish.

UPDATE: They are at the final table … Como is alive and healthy, and Fubu is the chip leader! No cash game got rolling, however, so I am heading north … to Oklahoma. Should be there in an hour or so. You know, from Mexico.

OK, now I feel bad. From worldpokertour.com:

Hand #80: Tom Schneider Eliminated in 4th Place ($228,625)
Thursday, August 30, 2007 09:33 PM PDT

Hand #80 - Thu Nguyen has the button in seat 4, Schneider moves all in under the gun for 1,070,000, and David Pham calls from the small blind with KK. Schneider shows A9, and he’ll need to improve to stay alive.

The flop comes J-10-9, and Schneider picks up additional outs with a pair of nines. He’s looking for an ace or a nine, and he’ll also need to avoid kings and queens.

The turn card is [a] 10, and the river card is [a] 6. David Pham wins the pot with two pair, kings and tens.

Tom Schneider is eliminated in fourth place, earning $228,625. The final three players are guaranteed at least $388,660.

Nice job, Tom. Seriously. But really, you didn’t need to give Karridy and me our old material back by busting out so close to the real shizznit. Better cards next time.

Follow the remaining action — you know, the part where they play cards to divvy up almost $3 million the other players left behind — here.

Robert and Tom have both made it to another pay level … with 15 players left, the worst either can do is cash out with 44k. Tom’s stack is still healthy … Robert’s is still tiny … just like he likes it.

By the way, regarding that marked ace Robert pointed out … very nice diversionary tactic tourney officials won’t notice the inevitable colluding that will should be going on between Robert and Tom.

I can’t stop following the action here.

UPDATE: After fighting long and hard, making it to the final two tables, Robert Goldfarb exits in a very respectable 15th place, taking home $43,440. Congrats on grinding that short stack! - Karridy

UPDATE: It’s TV table bubble time. Tom slowed a set of 5’s to let Thu Nguyen find false hope in a river King, building Tom’s stack to right at 3 Million. He is currently the chip leader, and is looking good enough for me to book a flight to Burbank. - Karridy

Here are the seating charts for the final two tables in Wednesday afternoon’s Legends main event. Below that are the payouts the players are fighting for. If Tom were a real friend, he would dump chips to his home-game buddy.

Table 13
Seat 1 – Mike Jung – 191,000
Seat 2 – Thu Nguyen – 490,000
Seat 3 – Franco Brunetti – 218,000
Seat 4 – Mike McClain – 684,000
Seat 5 – Lee Markholt – 873,000
Seat 6 – Raymond Davis – 539,000
Seat 7 – Brian Powell – 248,000
Seat 8 – Shi Jia Liu – 476,000
Seat 9 – Joe Sebok – 1,057,000

Table 17
Seat 1 – Peter Feldman – 853,000
Seat 2 – Dan Harrington – 370,000
Seat 3 – Robert Goldfarb – 296,000
Seat 4 – David Pham – 1,007,000
Seat 5 – Don Zewin – 378,000
Seat 6 – Sean McCabe – 183,000
Seat 7 – Wayne Chang – 281,000
Seat 8 – Tom Schneider – 803,000
Seat 9 – Billy Pilossoph –788,000

More…

OK, so maybe it’s not earth-shattering … but I take great pleasure in reporting the results of the WPT Legends tourney before CardPlayer did. No media badge needed, and I didn’t even pay a dime for the privilege! Woo-hoo, poker journalism is easy!

So anyways, yes, we they have moved on to Day 4 … with 18 people still in contention for the $1.6 million win. One of those players is our own Tom Schneider, who is 5th in chips with 803,000, and our newly beloved Robert Goldfarb, who has a little better than half the average stack with 296,000. That whole M=11ish thing again.

Blinds start tomorrow at 5k/10k + 1k.

All remaining players are guaranteed at least $34,000 (net: +$24,000) and the tournament resumes tomorrow as they play down to a 6-man final table.

At the end of Day 2 of the WPT Legends of Poker tourney at the Bike, there are 53 players remaining … 45 of whom will make the money — $16,000 for crossing the bubble — and a few who will have a real chance at the $1.6 million first prize. Tom was a serious force all day, but ended up with 180k in chips … just below the average stack line. Robert (along with David Chiu) will start Day 3 with the smallest stack. Should be a real test of his critical bubble play. That or pocket queens on his first playable hand will or will not hold up.

Dallas underground expat Gavin Griffin is also alive and well, by the way.

Interesting thing in the official tournament wrap-up is the growing disparity between CardPlayer, now in partnership with the WPT, and the WSOP. I guess it’s kinda like Japan and Italy were technically allies in WW2, semi-united in their animosity toward the USA and its way of doing things:

Legends of Poker Day 2 Recap

In a quiet corner of the Bicycle Casino, day two of the Legends of Poker played out as the antithesis of the World Series of Poker. The first major tournament since hoards or poker fanatics descended upon the circuit, Legends produced a focused group of name professionals that batted until 53 were left standing. Flurries of action were set between long periods of calm, and numerous pros fell early.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that they are trying to put a positive spin on the “closed set” nature of their events. After all, it is quite different from the carnival atmosphere of the WSOP, and indeed, that’s their prerogative to run ‘em that way. It probably will work just fine — players will still play — but gotta say, I probably wouldn’t care as much about what’s going on behind closed curtains if I didn’t have a couple friends alive behind them.

Any thoughts on this from you poker-geeky internet readers out there?

As Tom Schneider stays near the top of the field in the Legends tourney, our embedded reporter Robert Goldfarb picks his first spot as he tries to claw his way up the leaderboard:

All in for 6000…3 callers…cunningham raises 20..all fold…he has jj, i have kj…he never stood a chance. 30k.

Awesome. All he needs to do now is quadruple up and he’ll be an average stack!

UPDATE:

Moved in from c/o w/33 dutch called with aT. 58k.

Go Big Robert! I’m roo … er … you do what you gotta/know-how-to do. You are still small enough that they won’t even see you coming. Nine-touple up and you’ll be even with Tom!

UPDATE:

AA in the bb. 90k.

Ahh, welcome back. Maybe the CP-WPT crew will notice you now. It’s my lunch hour, so I gotta step away from the computer and drink.

NOTE: Actually just noticed the average stack is now 140k, and the leaderboard hasn’t been updated to include Danny Wong’s elimination … so it could be hire than that. Keep punching, Robert!

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–The final table is set, Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” is playing over the PA, and there are two topics of conversation as players take their seats … Arnie Block’s friends were telling him to push for a chop — “I know, I will!” — while Brian Horton from Richardson wanted to know if CardPlayer knew about this tournament and would be counting it toward Player of the Year points. “It’s a million-dollar prize pool and should count,” he said.

Indeed, it should. (But will CP stop caring about events where they are not the exclusive semi-live coverage provider?)

UPDATE: Arnie, despite having the hugest cheering section (four people) chanting, “Ar-nie! Ar-nie!” went out in 10th place. $20,000.

Though as I’m typing there was already a huge 3-way all-in that created some dramatic shifts in chips, here’s who and how the final table started:

TK …

1st - $230,000
2nd - $120,000
3rd - $70,000
4th - $50,000
5th - $40,000
6th - $35,000
7th - $30,000
8th - $25,000
9th - $22,500

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Down to 61 players. Average stack is about 80k. Chip leader has about 300k. Blinds are 3000/6000+500. A few chip counts that Pokeratizens might care about:

Abteen Vaziri (the “dude” whose name I couldn’t remember on Friday) - 90k
Troy Phillips - 80ishk
Josh Evans - 60k
TJ Cloutier - 85k

Greg Raymer and Kido Pham are milling around. Raymer will be commentating as we move through the money.

UPDATE: TJ Cloutier just almost doubled up … got it all-in with QQ against AK. The lady with big slick would flop an ace, but by the river, TJ would make a spade flush. He is clearly becoming a stronger and stronger force.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Here’s the complete, unofficial starting field for today and their chip counts. All three Day 1s finished almost at the same time. Yesterday’s group got seven minutes into the next blind level, so they will roll back to one level earlier, starting where the previous Day 1s left off. Not sure where all the players are from, but anyone want to place a wager that the winner of the biggest Oklahoma tourney of the year will be won by a Texan?

Ladd Gibke 152,000
Brian Horton 149,500
Allen Striegler 140,000
Kenneth Blanton 131,000
Abteen Vaziri 126,400
Mike Dickson 116,000
Jeremy Vaughn 106,700
Vikram Vijay 105,700
Michael Brown 102,600
Stephen Goodrich 98,800

More…

Hand-for-hand play at the bubble to see who will compete for the big money on Sunday at the WinStar Casino’s signature annual event.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Below is the list of Day 1-Day 1 Day 2 qualifiers. Names of those who advanced yesterday aren’t yet available, nor is any info on the 41 39 remaining players today. But hey, no sweat … after all, the entire prize pool for this $1 million tourney was just $50k two years ago … so a lot of this is new to the people running the show here, and I gotta say, speaking as a tournament directorial wonk guy who likes to tell people they are doing things wrong, they seem to be doing a really good job. They may not have figured out whether or not they’re gonna let media take pictures — seriously, dudes, it’s cool … players like it … just be sure to remind us “no flash” — but they’ve for the most part got a smooth-running show going on here, with a player-friendly blind structure to boot. Priorities, right?

(Meanwhile, while the lone person sitting at an unwatched table littered with stray media/player/staff badges, I am getting a lot of curious looks, along with some friendly “hello’s” from WinStar employees moving in a bit closer to size me up. Like why on earth would someone be typing so vigorously at a poker tournament!?! Is that a computer?)

We’ll see if we can’t have a list of the entire field of those who have made the money and are fighting for the $230k first prize up before cards go in the air tomorrow. In the meantime, we know that these 33 people will be there:

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THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Woo-hoo, it works! Yep, it took some sore thumbs and a little extra money to Cingular to make things happen, but I am blogcasting semi-live from my laptop in the WinStar poker room. Still have a few kinks to deal with … for example, it’s hard to find a power outlet in this giant tent. (Quick aside … the WSOP might want to consult with the Chickasaws when it comes to building super-big, functional, well air-conditioned poker tents.) Anyhow, it’s a bit longer of a walk to the WinStar casino entrance on a Saturday evening. Our unscientific license-plate spot-check of the parking-lot action north of the Red River:

Texas - 124
Oklahoma - 3
Louisiana - 1
Ontario (Canada) - 1
Missouri - 1
Illinois - 1

They’re getting near the bubble in Day 3-Day 1 of the Red River Roundup. Forty-six players remain, and today they’re playing down to 34. Greg Raymer and Kido Pham both went out early. No other “big names” remain … but we’re about to take a walk on the other side of the ropes to see if we don’t recognize anyone.

UPDATE: Nope, hardly recognize a remaining soul. Across the way in the cash games, however, is another story, where dealers and players alike look familiar … almost like an old higher-stakes Rounder Club tourney at the old P-room! I’m sure there are some good players left in the field, it will just take us a bit to learn who they are. (And hey, one of these days, the Chickasaws may even let us take pictures!)

That’s really all there is to it. He got some chips and then lost them. “You gotta win your races,” he said.

UPDATE: They are down to about 100 players, and Merkow, Randack, and Sanbob all appear to be out, too. Vandy Krouch is still alive but nursing a tiny stack.

One player still alive with about 20k I know I know but I can’t seem to place his name. He keeps saying, “Hi Dan,” when I walk by and asks me how “our guys” are doing.

“Dude, you’re the last man standing. Dude.”

Feel semi-assy for not knowing. And though I’m sure he’ll be only minorly bummed when he doesn’t see his name on the internet, I don’t want to disturb his game by saying, “Sorry, man … you look familiar, but no clue about your name … I used to smoke a lot of pot.”

For the record, by the way, it’s really tough to live-blog without the internet!

UPDATE: La Sengphat and her “honey” DC both busted out early today. Flopping two-pair to a set repeatedly can do that to you. Dallas poker seems to be getting its ass KICKED today!

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Some chip counts from the Red River Roundup, Day 2-Day 1:

TBR - 10k
Gregg Merkow - 20k
Webber Kang - 3500
Robert “Sanbob” Sanchez - 3k
Jerry Randack - 2500

UPDATE: Webber is out. Now playing 5/10 nlh.

Spot-check of license plates on my walk from the parking lot:

Texas - 92
Oklahoma - 9
Kansas - 1

In the cash room:

Omaha games running - 2/5 and 5/10 PLO
Full 5/10 NLH tables - 4
Number of players in the smoke room playing for their very first time - 2
Amount one of these players is up playing 4/8 - $840

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–No internet north of the Red River, or at least not at WinStar, where the first of three Day 1s in the $1 million NLH tourney concluded shortly before midnight yesterday. We’ll try to keep you posted from now through the final table, but can only promise so much with two-thumb typing.

Red River Roundup, Day 1 report:

- Event is sold out. 1,000 players. Double last year’s field.
- 333 played yesterday, of which 33 remain and will convene on the other side of the bubble on Sunday.
- Josh Evans and TJ Cloutier both advanced.
- So did Troy “Darling” Phillips. (Go Batfaces!)
- Marco Palacios went out near thw bubble.
- Avg. stack is 50k. Chip leader has about 150k.
- Media coverage is kinda new to WinStar. They haven’t figured out yet whether or not to allow photos.
- New poker room here is very nice.

Day 2-Day 1 has gotten underway. Favorites include Kido Pham and Randy “The Big Randy” Brown. Greg Raymer supposedly plays tomorrow.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that a bunch of top players in Arizona made the final table of the Arizona State Championship today. Though Pokerati’s horses keep dropping, it’s good to know we can keep adding horses from the soon-to-be-recognized and reckoned-with Arizona Posse. (OK, that name is starting to grind on me — perhaps we need something else — like the Scottfaces?)

Our embedded reporter Robert Goldfarb went out in 130somethingth place.

Our favorite Chinese Poker champion Jesse McGinty made the final table and finished 9th. Still waiting on the payouts.

Danny Fuhs finished 8th.

CORRECTION: Hooman Nikzad (also an AP player) finished 8th. You can see how we confused the names. It’s kinda a shame that a state championship doesn’t count in the various tournament-ranking databases, no?

Still alive from the Scottsdale-based crew are Ben Tang and Ryan Hughes (pictured), who won his first WSOP bracelet this summer. According to Tom Schneider, Ryan went to the final table with “a monstrous chip lead and will probably win it.”

UPDATE:

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More “exclusive” semi-live coverage of the Arizona State Poker Championship in Scottsdale from Robert Goldfarb, who seems to be surgically navigating the field with his short stack:

[Pacific times]
2:55 pm
Oh baby. Just moved all in for 4975 w/qt h, no callers. 7750

2:56 pm
158 left

3:03 pm
[avg. stack is] 30k

Damn …

3:06 pm
Moved all in for 4500 from cutoff with a3d, button called with ak….ighn. (i go home now)

That sucks, but probably for the best, as I’ve got to go to Sweet Texas Jimmy’s wedding now. Woulda been a pain/questionable form to update from the nuptial ceremonies.

ALT HED: Thanks for Playin’

The Arizona State Poker Championship has gotten underway — and Pokerati’s embedded reporter Robert Goldfarb texts in an update from the front lines:

11:07 am (Pacific)
396 players remain 450 started. I have 11.7k/10k start. 1st break.

Nice start. Clearly Goldfarb’s game is on. Go Big Robert!

Click below to read the Casino Arizona press release with some more basics about this event.

UPDATE:

1:23 pm
Lost big pot all in preflop had kk v a5 4000 now

Yikes, not a preferred situation. I don’t know enough about Goldfarb’s play … does he go on tilt easily or almost never when the chips are down but he’s still alive and kickin’?

1:38 pm
I don’t tilt.

OK ok. Now don’t you have a tournament (and a short stack) to be focusing on, Robert? Just so the readers know, I did some fact-checking, and hmm, wow, apparently you are indeed capable of not going on tilt en route to victory.

1:40 pm
Got allin with qq v k2, up to 7250.

Oh yeah … back in action, beyotch. By the way, the longer you can stay alive, the longer Pokerati gets to serve as the unofficial “exclusive” semi-live update provider of this event. Your paycheck depends on it No pressure.

2:48 pm
All in for 2k w/88 flopped set. 6k

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LAS VEGAS–Remember how I was telling you that Full Tilt honchos henchmen weren’t too excited about the prospects of Jerry Yang winning? Well something must’ve changed by the time they got heads-up.

The players had just gone on break, and Jerry Yang had a 6:1 chip lead over Tuan Lam. An Asian guy in a suit grabbed Oliver Tse (who represents Yang for now, but is already trying to plan for the likelihood of bigger agencies wrestling his World Champion client away from him) and the two started walking away. Following not too far behind the was Yang, who was headed to the bathroom, with a small entourage following him.

That’s when the Full Tilt guys both, almost simultaneously, clapped their hands together and started rubbing their palms with wide eyes and grins on their faces. I let them go through the door in front of me, saying, “Please, you have serious business to attend to.”

“‘Wha…? I’ve just gotta go to the bathroom,” the smaller Full Tilt rep said.

“Like I said, serious business.”

They chuckled and kept walking briskly.

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LAS VEGAS–Tuan Lam moved all-in with AQ, got instacalled by 88.

Flop: 5-Q-9
Turn: 7
River: 6

LAS VEGAS–Raymond Rahme, the first ever African to make a main event final table, just went out (on a questionable play running a quasi-bluff with KK after an ace flopped) … so they’re heads-up now. “I made one mistake this whole tournament,” Rahme says.

The dealers are rooting for Jerry Yang. Not only is he apparently a very nice guy who reportedly plans to give a huge chunk of his winnings to the Make-a-Wish foundation, but also he is known as a very generous tipper. (Just confirmed — 10 percent of his winnings will go to three charities.)

A high-ranking source within Full Tilt, however, said (when Alex Kravchenko was still alive) that his people were pulling for Kravchenko over Yang, even though both signed on with Full Tilt upon making the final table. For starters, Yang has never before played online, and learned the game only two years ago. Not quite a “Play with the Pros” kinda guy. And as a family man who looks at pictures of his six kids throughout a hand and says prayers that praise the non-Chris Ferguson Jesus upon moving all-in … “Not exactly the style we’re looking for.”

NOTE: Rahme also has six kids. “Battle of the Brady Bunch x 2″ ESPN’s Howard David just dubbed it.

As for the people who have little stake in who wins between Tuan Lam and Jerry Yang, they are suddenly Yang fans just because that will lead to a quicker end.

Shame on them!

LAS VEGAS–OK, so maybe the Euros didn’t totally dominate this year as I predicted … and the internet young punks — much to the relief of non-ranting poker traditionalists — couldn’t quite hack it at the final table. Perhaps all the dancing and fist pumps were giving away tells. But what is notable is that of the final five players in the main event this year … not a single American passport.

John Kalmar (who went out in 5th place) hails from England.

Raymond Rahme (currently 2nd in chips) is a South African.

Tuan Lam (originally from Vietnam) is now a Canadian.

Alex Kravchenko, from Moscow, has been doing his part all Series long to establish himself as the Doyle Brunson of Russia.

And Jerry Yang (the chip leader) is from California-via-Laos. But as a refugee, he carries an American green card … not a passport. Apparently refugees have a special piece of paper for traveling internationally.

Interesting, no? I think it all means something.

UPDATE: Yang just busted out Kravchenko — seven hours passed between the 5th place finish and fourth — and the crowd began chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

LAS VEGAS–Tom’s doing the live radio broadcast right now on Sirius 119 and Bluff Radio … with ESPN’s Howard David and Robert Williamson. Go Tom … sorta. Even Howard pointed out that Schneider isn’t on his “A-game.” Considering that I’ve seen Tom down at least four Milwaukee’s Best Lights since dinner time … well I think that might have something to do with the string of bad jokes and non-sequiturs.

(But congrats to Tom, who was just personally invited by Jeffrey Pollack to be part of the WSOP Players Advisory Committee.)

UPDATE: Players are on break — so they’ve been temporarily replaced by Gary Wise and Scott Preston … who pointed out the RW3 was drinking Milwaukee’s Best Light with Tabasco sauce. As this broadcast is being blasted through the media room, it’s absolutely delightful for all the media people to have Gary echoing overhead. Everyone is cheering and applauding and singing his praises. If only he could be here to hear for himself.

Oh, almost forgot … if you want to hear Tom on his radio-ish A-game … be sure to listen to the latest episode of Beyond the Table. Well actually not the latest episode — there is a new one up — but maybe two or three episodes ago.

UPDATE: OK, you can go back to listening live (for free). Tom is back on his game … wait, never mind, joke about owing money. He’s off again. He is apparently nothing without Sit’N'Go Steve.

LAS VEGAS–It’s been a multicultural international affair at the WSOP main event final table today. Here are the bios of the players in contention, courtesy of Nolan Dalla.

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LAS VEGAS–”Have you seen a big black Navigator come back here?” asked Craig Abrahams, the official WSOP “new media” guru. My answer was no, with a joke about being a white navigator, which clearly didn’t amuse him. He was waiting for the money to arrive.

They’re down to six players in the 38th annual World Series of Poker. To follow along online live-blogging style, click here. Or for $20, you can watch the action on a one-minute delay — without hole cards — here.

Here’s how the final table started off:

Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 16.32 million
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 6.57 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 13.24 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 8.45 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 9.925 million
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam - 21.315 million
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm - 22.07 million
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar - 20.32 million
Seat 9 - Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan - 9.205 million

And here’s where it all stands at 5 pm Vegas time, with five four players left, whereupon they have all crossed the millionaire’s line:

Jerry Yang - 69,790,000
Raymond Rahme - 29,890,000
Tuan Lam - 18,105,000
Alex Kravchenko - 9,700,000

FUNNY: Somewhere out there the ESPN live feed can be seen for free. Benjo informed us of this with his angry Frenchman’s smirk, and when ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, with great concern, asked for the link, Benjo responded [thick accent here], “I am note go-eeng to tell you!”

Anyhow, eventually Ty Stewart, the official WSOP marketing maestro, did drive up — in a white BMW SUV (not a black Navigator) and started unloading the metal money suitcases. (Properly branded with a Milwaukee’s Best Light logo.) He grabbed three of them out the back, at which point I joked vociferously, “That’s one million, two million, three million …” Not even a smile … but he did walk off into a tunnel while leaving the back of his SUV open, at which point I mustered up all the discipline possible not to grab a money suitcase to find out if they were fully loaded or not.

Inside it’s another story. All about the money — but not necessarily the $8.25 million at stake for first place …

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