Recapping the Tuesday night activities as we begin week four of the WSOP…

Van Alstyne Back in the Saddle with HORSE Triumph

James Van Alstyne, who finished second in the $3,000 HORSE event last week after holding the chip lead, came back in the $1,500 HORSE event to take down his first WSOP bracelet along with the $247,003 winnings. Tad Jurgens was runnerup, Mitch Schock finished third, and Bryan Micon, named one of poker’s “true anarchists” in Nolan Dalla’s final table report, finished fourth.

Boyes Buoyed by Chip Lead

The $2,000 NL Holdem event starts day 3 with 19 players remaining as they play down to a bracelet winner with Jason Boyes the current chip leader at 976,000. Finland’s Mika Paasonen is in 2nd place to try to be the 2nd Finn with a WSOP bracelet this year. Angel Guillen (496,000) and Peter “Nordberg” Feldma (486,000), and Daniel Makowsky (177,000) appear to be the most notable players remaining.

Limit Holdem Left with a Not So Dirty Dozen

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship has twelve players remaining as they resume at 1pm today to reach the final table for a scheduled 2pm broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are seated with plenty of familiar names for the poker viewer:

Seat 1: Maria Ho – 228000
Seat 3: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller – 485000
Seat 4: Pat Pezzin – 300000
Seat 5: Kenny Hsiung – 831000
Seat 6: Soheil Shamseddin – 385000
Seat 9: Jennifer Harman – 126000

Seat 1: Matt Glantz – 483000
Seat 4: Chad Brown – 545000
Seat 5: Matt Hawrilenko – 601000
Seat 7: Michiel Brummelhuis – 687000
Seat 8: Mark Klecan – 603000
Seat 9: Daniel Alaei – 330000

Unfortunately, Ville Wahlbeck finished outside the money, but maintains his WSOP Player of the Year lead.

The Pros Strike Back Against the Donks

The $1,500 NL Holdem event returns at 2pm with 240 players remaining, only 216 get paid. James Taylor, unfortunately not this James Taylor has the chip lead with 174,400. More notable names are near the top of the leaderboard include: Eugene Katchalov (90,600), Roberto Romanello (89,400), Phil Hellmuth (88,100), Pat Poels (84,500), Quinn Do (80,600), Roland de Wolfe (61,300), and Allen Cunningham (60,200).

Wednesday’s Tournament

Only one event again on the calendar today, with the debut of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. This event usually is played with rebuys, but their elimination this year makes this a new event. As usual, players will start with 5,000 in chips followed by two “free rebuy” chips to add to their stacks at any time in the first three levels. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 250, but expect closer to 400 when play starts at noon this afternoon. Follow along with the action at www.wsop.com and return to Pokerati during the day for other stuff.

Recapping the early part of Tuesday action at the WSOP…

JC’s a Runaway Tran in PLO

JC Tran took down his 2nd career WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event defeating Jeff Kimber in heads-up play to also adds $235,685 to his tournament database. Ross Boatman finished in 4th, John Juanda finished in 9th place.

Wolpert Topples Duthie Heads Up

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads Up World Championship just conclude with Leo Wolpert taking the final two matches to defeat John Duthie 2-1 and pick up $625,682. Duthie settles for the 2nd place winnings of $386,636. Duthie won the first match in about 90 hands, while Wolpert won the second match in just nine hands. The third match took 191 hands, ending when Wolpert flopped bottom two pair against Duthie’s top pair.

Micon Trying to Schock the World

The $1,500 HORSE now has six players remaining at the final table, as Mitch Schock is the current chip leader with Shannon Shorr, Tad Jurgens, Bryan Micon, Brian Malcolm, and James Van Alstyne round out the final table.

Lennaard, Part 7

Ken Lennaard, a veteran Swedish pro, is the current chip leader with 77 players remaining in the $2,000 NL Holdem event. Notables still in the field include: Michael Binger, Peter Feldman, Andre Akkari, Kelly Kim and Chau Giang.

Go, Ho, Go!

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 48 players, only 18 get paid as they strive to reach a final table tomorrow. The current chip leader is online high stakes cash-game specialist Matt Hawrilenko with 272,000. Maria Ho is currently 3rd (225,000) with Ralph Perry (180,000), Josh Arieh (170,000), Steve Zolotow (150,000) and Jennifer Harman (142,000) among the notables still in contention. Ville Wahlbeck is still in the field, but towards the bottom of the field with just 54,000 in chips.

Donkament 4: Voyage to the Rio

The 4th $1,500 NL Holdem event started with a field of 2095, with only 669 players remaining. Unfortunately an early chip leader hasn’t been announced yet, but check out the morning update or wsop.com for an update later this evening.

As we get near the halfway point — through 27 events — here’s how the WSOP Player of the Year race is shaping up:

250 – Ville Wahlbeck
220 – Brock Parker
220 – Phil Ivey
175 – Pete “the Greek” Vilandos
160 – Steve Sung
155 – Daniel Negreanu
150 – Jeffrey Lisandro
147 – Jason Mercier
145 – Roland de Wolfe
135 – Scott Clements

Click here for the full list and point totals. Personally, I think the best bet is probably Lisandro, who has been in this spot multiple times before … and maybe Negreanu, who really wants to win … oh, and Phil Ivey, too!

Recapping the Monday evening tournament action…

$10k Heads-Up Going Overtime

The $10,000 NL Holdem Heads-Up World Championship is down to the final match as John Duthie takes on Leo Wolpert in a best of three match at 12pm (broadcast here and at wsop.pkr.com for international viewers to determine a winner. Duthie, the founder of the European Poker Tour, which announced the first half of its schedule yesterday, takes on Wolpert a professional poker player who went back to law school and is currently on a summer internship in Nevada, will attempt to pick up their first career bracelet and the $625,682 that goes with it.

Eise Uses the Force to Win a Bracelet

Mike “The Force” Eise made his first tournament cash worthy of a bracelet, taking down the $1,500 NL Holdem event defeating Jeff Chang heads-up for the title as well as picking up a hefty $639,331.

Boatman Leads the Mob in PLO

Ross Boatman, member of the Hendon Mob (the best place to find tournament results) leads the final table in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha final table, which is seated as follows when play resumes at 2pm :

Seat 1: Jeff Kimber – 525000
Seat 2: Rami Boukai – 325000
Seat 3: Dallas Flowers – 239000
Seat 4: Ross Boatman – 718000
Seat 5: J.C. Tran - 387000
Seat 6: John Juanda – 129000
Seat 7: Theo Jorgensen – 419000
Seat 8: Chad Layne – 206000
Seat 9: Jean-Philippe Leandri – 324000

Soulier Écouter en $1,500 Cheval

Fabrice Soulier is the chip leader (351,000) when day 3 of the $1,500 HORSE resumes at 2pm with 23 players remaining. Shannon Shorr (323,500), Joseph Serock (152,500), Chris Bjorin (143,000) Vanessa Rousso (131,000), James Van Alstyne (130,000), Kathy Raymond (111,000), and Bryan Micon (76,000) and Paul Darden (54,500) are some of the notables remaining when play resumes.

Shan Jing Rings Up Day 1 Chip Lead

Shan Jing holds the chip lead (137,400) when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event restarts at 2pm today with 220 players remaining, 171 of which make the money. Ken Lennaard (109,200), Alex Bolotin (100,700), Luke Staudenmaier (88,600), Neil Channing (65,900), and Chau Giang (57,600) are some of the notables in the top half of the leaderboard, which will try to make the final table by the 3am deadline.

Harman Leading Lady in World Championship Event

116 players will return at 2pm today to resume the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship with Jennifer Harman the day 1 chip leader (127,600). Maria Ho (113,400), Josh Arieh (112,100), Shaun Deeb (106,000), and Chino Rheem (87,400) are notables in the top 10. Ville Wahlbeck is trying for his 5th straight cash in a 10k buyin event, 44th with 54,400 in chips. Only 18 make the money with a goal of the final table a possibility.

Tuesday’s Tournament

Only one event on the calendar today, the fourth $1,500 NL Holdem donkament, this version was won last year by David Woo for over $630,000 in a field of 2,720. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 2,569, so take the over with at least 2,700 signing up to try their hand at that game they saw on ESPN.

Plenty of action yet again today at the WSOP, follow the action at and other stuff on Pokerati during your Two for Tuesday.

Just happened … more TK.

Photo: BJ Nemeth (via iPhone?)

UPDATE:
Not so fast Ville Wahlbeck and Brock Parker … Player of the Year race ain’t over yet!

And prop bets? Oyy, the prop bets. One of the good things about poker is that betting on yourself won’t keep you out of the Hall of Fame. But it will keep your friends, cronies, and fans wildly speculating on your side action … which Pokerati, btw, puts at anywhere from $2 million to $12 million for Phil Ivey this summer. (We stand behind our numbers.)

Oh, right … the event: $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better … or as I like to call it, OHL/7CSHL. (LOL.) The guy he beat was Ming Lee (not to be confused with Minh Ly).

ALT HED: Black Guy Beats Asian (of course) in Yet Another Event Involving 7-Stud

ALSO UPDATE: I think this pretty much gives Daniel Negreanu the lock on the ESPN Fantasy WSOP pool. We all picked eight players … and Negreanu’s squad has four bracelets less than halfway through the Series. (Lisandro, Alaei, Ivey, Ivey.)

Ville or Won’t He?

The $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball World Championship just concluded with Nick Schulman eliminating Ville Wahlbeck in heads-up play to take down his first WSOP bracelet and $279,750.

Six Guns Left in Shootout

With six players left in the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout, Jeffrey Carris is the current chip leader, with Andrew Margolis, Jason Somerville, Joseph Cutler, Brandon Wong and Christopher Moore the other players remaining.

Battle of the Poker Media Stars

Less than 80 players remain in the $1,500 NL Holdem event, playing down to a final table, maybe. The current chip leader is Brian Fitzpatrick with 450,000 in chips. Some of the notables remaining: “Pete the Greek” Valindos (320,000), Dean Hamrick (318,000), PokerListings’ Martin Derbyshire (170,000), EPT’s Kara Scott (103,700), and PokerNews’ Anthony Yeh (32,000)

Eight Tables left in Omaha 8/Stud 8 event

64 players remain in the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 event, with 40 making the money. Phil Ivey is the current chip leader with 135,000. Others looking to avoid being quartered include: Chau Giang (70,000), Pat Pezzin (65,000), Blair Rodman (40,000), Bart Hanson (32,000) and Chip Jett (12,000).

Limiting Your Losses

The $1,500 Limit Holdem event drew a field of 643, down 240 from last year. About 300 players remain when the players returned from their dinner break. The average stack is about 14 big bets, so the money may be reached (63 will make money) by the end of level 10 tonight.

Pea Ell Oh, Hate or Bettor

The debut of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event saw a better than expected field of 198 players take their seats, of which only 18 will be paid. 22 of those who started have already gone from the tournament, with many more expected by the end of the eighth level. One of those players is Scotty Nguyen, still at zero on his goal of winning $4,000,000 at the WSOP or “retiring from poker”.

For more updates, check out www.wsop.com and Pokerati during the rest of your Friday evening.

The morning update for those that didn’t stay up all night to watch…

Zac Attac!

Zac Fellows took down the $3,000 HORSE event in a marathon final table just a couple hours ago, outlasting James Van Alstyne to take a bracelet home to Canada along with $311,899. With five players left, Van Alstyne had over half the chips in play, while Fellows was extremely short stacked. Eventually he worked his way to heads-up with Van Alstyne, the stacks nearly even. After nearly two hours of heads-up action, Fellows would finally finish off Van Alstyne, leaving him drawing dead in the holdem round to finish 2nd, good for nearly $200,000 and take him over the $3m mark in career tournament earnings.

Shootout at the Rio, Day 3

The final table is now set in the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout with these 10 players left for a bracelet returning at 2pm to air on ESPN360 (wsop.pkr.com for those outside the US, and as always links courtesy of The Hendon Mob database:

Seat 1: Jason Somerville – 450000
Seat 2: Christopher Moore – 450000
Seat 3: Joseph Cutler – 450000
Seat 4: Jeffrey Carris – 450000
Seat 5: Michael McNeil – 450000
Seat 6: Joshua Tieman – 450000
Seat 7: Eugene Katchalov – 450000
Seat 8: Ralph Shannon – 450000
Seat 9: Andrew Margolis – 450000
Seat 10: Brandon Wong – 450000

2-7 NL Draw-ing to an End

The final table of the $10,000 NL 2-7 Single Draw World Championship finished with 10 players remaining when play ended earlier this morning. Here’s how these players are currently situated:

Seat 1: Justin ‘BoostedJ’ Smith – 122500
Seat 2: Steve Sung – 212500
Seat 3: Nick Schulman – 300000
Seat 5: Archie Karas – 264500
Seat 6: Vince Musso – 765500
Seat 7: David Benyamine – 139000

(Table 151)
Seat 2: Michael Binger – 108000
Seat 3: Ville Wahlbeck – 481000
Seat 5: Roland de Wolfe – 102000
Seat 6: John Juanda – 387000

Ville Wahlbeck continues his impressive run in World Championship events this WSOP, cashing in his fourth $10k buyin event. Steve Sung started play on Thursday 57th out of 57 players with just 6,100 in chips.

Donks Down!

The $1,500 NL Holdemevent finished exactly on the money as 270 players remain when play resumes at 2pm this afternoon. Glenn McCaffreywill start the day as chip leader at 187,800. Some of the notables who will also return on Friday: Dean Hamrick (134,700), Anthony Yeh (111,400), Kara Scott (81,700), Nam Le (57,000), and Thayer Rasmussen (50,200).

Half and Half

Day 2 of the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 resumes at 2pm with 153 players returning, 40 of which make the money. Veteran pro Can Kim Hua starts the day chip leader at 51,800. Notables trying to surpass him include: Jon Turner (43,300), Shirley Rosario (36,200), Phil Ivey (33,600), Chad Brown (31,200), and Shawn Sheikhan (29,500).

Friday’s Tournaments/Projections

The 12pm tournament will be the $1,500 Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by Jimmy Schultz for over $250,000 in a field of 883. The 5pm event makes its debut, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better. The WSOP Staff Guide projects the $1,500 Limit Holdem event field as 880 (taking the under, 804 is my guess), while the $5,000 PLO 8 event has a projected field of 150 (take the over, 168 being my estimate).

More news during the day here at Pokerati, so come back several times during the day.

Recapping some of the events of today at the the Rio:

JP wins bracelet at WSOP

John-Paul Kelly took down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event a few minutes ago besting Marc Tschirch in headsup play to win his first career bracelet, and over $190,000. Erik Seidel, who announced that he would donate his entire winnings in this event to charity, finished 7th for $24,919.

HORSE Drags its Way to Final Table

The official final table of the $3,000 HORSE event comes back from its one-hour dinner break with eight players remaining at the final table. After Gavin Smith was eliminated in 10th, the remaining players played for nearly three hours to eliminate one player. Here’s how the final table will be seated when played resumed:

Seat 1: Gabriel Nassif
Seat 2: Timothy Finne
Seat 3: Chris Amaral
Seat 4: James Van Alstyne
Seat 5: Michele Limongi
Seat 6: Martin Eikeng
Seat 7: Matt Hawrilenko
Seat 8: Zac Fellows

Shootout Still Ongoing at the Rio

What started with 100 players is now down to about 40, spread out over 10 tables in the $1,500 NL Shootout. Play ends for the evening after the 10 tables each have one winner, returning tomorrow afternoon to appear on the ESPN broadband service, subject to change of course.

NL 2-7 Still Drawing

24 players remain in the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw World Championship, playing down to a seven player final table before the clock strikes 3am. Vince Musso is the current chip leader at 270,000 followed by Roland de Wolfe (200,000), Jean-Robert Bellande (188,000), Ville Wahlbeck (160,000) and David Benyamine (142,000) among the notables remaining. Wahlbeck’s looking to cash in his 4th 10k event of this Series, one of the more impressive feats of any WSOP.

Return of the Donkament

A field of 2,506 started the latest version of the $1,500 NL Holdem event, with less than 800 remaining. It appears that Anthony Yeh, who works for PokerNews, is the unofficial chip leader with over 70,000 in chips. Play continues for another four levels tonight, the morning update will have the chip leader and other notables of the remainder of the field.

OHL and SHL, Two Split Games that Go Together

A field of 376 took to the felt in the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 event at 5pm. Check out the WSOP website for more details from this evening’s remaining events throughout the evening.

Some updates from Monday:

Lisandro Liquidates 7 Card Stud Field

The $1,500 7 Card Stud event saw Jeff Lisandro make quick work of the final table, taking home his 2nd bracelet along with $124,959 in winnings. Rodney Pardey was the final victim to Lisandro, taking home $77,230 for his 2nd place finish. Pardey’s nephew Eric Pardey was also at the final table finishing in 6th place. Nick Frangos (4th) and John Juanda (5th) were two of the more notable names at that final table.

5k NL Holdem Five-Handed

The $5,000 NL Holdem final table will be returning from dinner break shortly with five players remaining. The chip leader is Fabian Quoss with over 3.4m in chips. Brian Lemke, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Mike Sowers and Ivan Demidov’s girlfriend Lika Gerasimova round out the quintet. The final table is airing on ESPN360 as well as wsop.pkr.com for those overseas who are still awake.

Ladies Workin’ It Out

The $1,000 Ladies NL World Championship is now under 50 players, with Lisa Hamilton the chip leader (245,000). Notables remaining include Day 1 chip leader Tamara Tibbles (190,000), JJ Liu (78,000), Lisa Parsons (46,300), and Karina Jett (45,000). Players will try to play down to their final table or the next few hours for a possible streamed final table.

Omaha 8 Field Splitting Apart

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship has 41 players remaining, as they also try to get to a final table tomorrow before the 3am deadline. Sam Khouiss is the current chip leader at 360,000. Notables remaining include Scott Clements (240,000), Ville Wahlbeck (190,000), Phil Ivey (165,000), Jean-Robert Bellande (150,000), Annie Duke (114,000) and Phil Hellmuth (105,000).

Monday’s 6-Maxed Out

The $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event drew a field of 1.068, a slight increase over last year, with 370 players remaining. The unofficial chip leader is Layne Flack with over 80,000 in chips.

Follow the action for the next few hours over at www.worldseriesofpoker.com

One of Pokerati’s media eavesdroppers got the real skinny on what went wrong with the Finnish national anthem yesterday. Indeed, Jeffrey Pollack and Seth Palansky acknowledged to each other that the anthem played to honor $10k Mixed World Champion Ville Wahlbeck was not that of his native Finland — it was Sweden’s.

(Oops.)

During the ceremony Wahlbeck leaned over to Pollack and said, “This is a nice song, but it’s not the Finnish National Anthem.”

“Roll with it,” Pollack replied.

Palansky said that he got the song off the internet, and it was labeled as “Track #37: Finnish National Anthem.”

LOL, when are WSOP officials going to learn not to trust what they find on the internet?

You can read Wahlbeck’s blog (in Finnish) here.

And now that he’s won a bracelet, have a listen to the youngster Scandi pro talk about how he’s ready to retire from poker … save for the World Series, WSOP-Europe, the EPT, and maybe some other tournaments:

The implementation of this year’s WSOP bracelet ceremonies have been a hit thus far, as play is stopped in the Amazon Room for Jack Effel and Jeffrey Pollack to announce the previous day’s bracelet winners, award them the bracelets and Harrah’s Diamond Rewards cards, and play the national anthem(s) of the newest WSOP winners. In general, it seems to go over well each day with players, fans, and media alike. Today? Not so much.

Ville Wahlbeck is a Finnish player, and his ceremony culminated in the playing of the Finnish anthem. Not sure what the song actually was, but Benjo reported that Finnish players seemed perplexed. And according to Benjo‘s conversation with Wahlbeck, it was NOT the Finnish anthem. Whoops.

Yesterday, media row received a visit from Dan Frank, owner of a relatively new player representation company called Top Set. He announced that there would be a “can’t miss” formal introduction of the company just after the start of today’s ladies event.

We watched from media row as a line of people marched into the Amazon Room with a bright-lighted camera filmed the entrance. Led by a petite woman, Frank followed, as did a string of rented ladies in Top Set logo’ed skimpy-ish t-shirts and tight pants, and they all paraded around the room. After taking the long route and finally ending up at a table, the lead woman sat down to play in the event, and the rest of the crew took places on the rail to cheer her on. Who was this woman? No one knows. And the Top Set website said nothing whatsoever about her, as there is no woman even listed as one of their clients. None of the media recognized her. And, she was out of the tournament by the end of the first level. Serious flop.