Was just watching a little early Fox News, and the weekend hosts got visibly excited about the World Series of Poker. Their hedline: “Average Joes Taking Over.” Wha? Apparently the Fox reporters/interns aren’t reading Wicked Chops. Idiots But regardless, dead money is dead money, right?

“That’s why we like it so much, because the underdog can win!” cooed Ainsley Earhardt. Coming up is one of those Average Joes, Dennis Phillips. From there the Fox-branded morning sunshine went on to a story about cadaver dogs being called in to search for a two-year-old girl, and then the weather. My personal chills subsided.

Go delayed final table!

UPDATES/LIVE-BLOG

Interview starts with “This is wonderful stuff, the World Series of Poker”

Dennis appears, wearing STL ballcap and Pokerstars.net logo on his shirt. (Boo, St. Louis!)

He refused sponsor money for his cap.

“I’m a 53-year-old truck salesman, I’m not going to go around wearing a hat backwards. It’s just not going to happen.”

Headline under random, low-quality footage from the WSOP (as if the lighting situation in the Amazon room were new to them or something) — Poker-Palooza: Average Poker Guy Takes Vegas

The key to his success at the WSOP was having fun the whole way.

Dennis is not married and has no kids.

The Fox News staff is rooting for him.

After a break, the extended crew comes back and has a discussion about how amazing his poker face is. They all give impressions, then asks who plays — I’m shocked that the two dudes who are so excited about poker say they don’t — and then they turn to Courtney Friel. She says that while he was hostess of the World Poker Tour, she herself wasn’t very good because she gave away her excitement over big hands.

They end the show with: “Go All-in with Fox & Friends!”

Photo: Flipchip/LasVegasVegas

This seems as good a time as any to share with you another leftover bonus! episode of Tao of Pokerati … where Dr. Pauly chats with Change100 (his personal fashion yogini) about Tiffany Michelle’s attire before her Ultimate Bet patchwork became such a major wardrobe malfunction. It’s sickeningly cute as this pokerblogging duo draws the fine line between rocker-chick chic and Tijuana hooker — and further fashion analysis tries to differentiate between the new-money stylings of Alexander Kostritsin, typical “online douchebag” and Mean Gene, and the poker-prep ways of Shronk and Brandon Adams.

Tao of Pokerati
Episode 28.5: Fashion Report (feat. Change100)

Pauly’s got up a great recount up of our whole Tao of Pokerati experience at the WSOP. But guess what, we’re not done yet … still have a few more episodes to share with you, and Brian Balsbaugh and Oliver Tse our agents are in negotiations with French authorities over possible continuation of the show.

Meanwhile, one leftover episode — actually it’s a 6-minute double-episode — that seems particularly timely with the benefit of hindsight was recorded from the dead-center of an emptied out Amazon room, shortly after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. Here Dr. Pauly and I survey the atmospheric damage as “the last hope” of the main event exits the building … and I argue that she was the only one of the final 27 players with true Chris Moneymaker potential — meaning her performance wasn’t so much about her own abilities to win big cash as it was about the future of poker. Comparisons to Scotty Nguyen and college basketball as well, before one of your not-so-gracious hosts goes through severe WSOP separation anxiety.

Episode 28: Exit, Stage Tiffany

It’s been fun keeping track of the 2008 WSOP by city-nation-state … taught me a lot about something — what exactly, I’m not yet sure. But I did get a clearer picture of just how significant the main event really is compared to all other poker tourneys. Just a little more than a week ago, I wrote:

Unless something really funky happens in the main event, it looks like Nevada has the edge on California when it comes to home base for the best poker players in the world.

Well I guess something funky did happen, because even with the biggest prize-pool distributions TBD, California poker players absolutely dominated in the 2008 main event (93 cashes, 2 final tableists)… while the Nevadans (mostly Las Vegas-based, of course) seemed to be napping, or perhaps just resting on their laurels (49 cashes, 0 final tableists). Regardless, looking at the 55 events that comprised the 2008 WSOP, I think it’s clear that the visitors can stake their claim: California is the Poker Capitol of the World … at least for now.

GREAT DANES: Another big surprise (to me) — apparently the Scandis aren’t so overrated after all. Denmark in particular showed up at the main event ready to play, and not only did they get one of their own on the final table, but also they performed so well in the latter events that they scooched past a bunch of other supposed Europoker powerhouses in the money won. The best non-American players, according to these results, in order: Canadians, Brits, and then the Danes … who actually could move past the Brits come November … and if you add the Danish in with the rest of the Scandis, it’s clear that Scandinavia and the UK are like the California and Nevada of European poker.

More…

It’s Nolan Dalla’s job to feed us media types official information for use in our presumably unique WSOP coverages. And in doing so, he puts in more hours at the World Series than even Pauly. (Sorry dude, it’s true.) When Nolan checked out last night, he said a few goodbyes as he walked from his crow’s nest in the pressbox and made some final announcement saying his last report would be forthcoming, and looking semi-exhaused, with heartfelt sincerity, yadda yadda. The thanks and adieus from the remaining poker journos — it was past 4 am — turned into applause … he smiled, turned and walked across the dark open floor of the broken-down Amazon room to the light of the final table stage.

Below is the last email he sent out, which tells you better than I can the official take on what went down over the past few days and what lies ahead.

 

2008 World Series of Poker

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Official Report 

Event #54                                                                         

World Championship

No-Limit Hold’em

Buy-In:  $ 10,000

Number of Entries:  6,844

Total Net Prize Pool:  $64,333,600

Number of Places Paid:  666

First Place Prize:  $9,119,517

Total Players Remaining:  9

July 3 - November 10, 2008

 

 

NEWS FLASH:  The WSOP “November Nine” is Set!

 

Tournament Notes from Day Seven:

 

• Eleven days ago, the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event began on Thursday, July 3^rd.  The official Day Seven was played on Monday, July 14^th.

 

• This is the 47^th and final day of a 47-day span which comprises the vast majority of the 2008 WSOP schedule (not including WSOP-Europe, which takes place September 19^th through October 2^nd and the Main Event final table to be played November 9-10).

 

• The day began with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, who assembled the final 27 players together and provided some basic information which will be applicable to the nine survivors.  Pollack stated that the WSOP management team will maintain its close association with the surviving players during the 117-day interim period between the close of the WSOP and commencement of the Final Table, which is to be played in November.   

 

• Play on Day Seven began with the “Shuffle Up and Deal” announcement at 12:30 pm PST.

 

• The number of players who started Day Seven was 27.  Play continued until 18 players were eliminated, and the final nine players were determined.

 

• The average stack at the start of the day was 5,070,000 in chips.

 

• The average stack at the end of the day was 15.1 million in chips.

                                                 

• The chip leader at the start of Day Seven was Dennis Phillips (St. Louis, MO).  He maintained his chip lead and now has the biggest stack going into the final table.

 

• Craig Marquis (Arlington, TX) started the day in second place.  He made it to the final table, but is now ranked eighth in chips.

 

• Scott Montgomery (Perth, Ontario – Canada) made the greatest move up the chip ladder during the course of the day.  He started off in 16^th place and rocketed up to 4^th place by day’s end.

 

• Tiffany Michelle (Los Angeles, CA) suffered the greatest setback of any player of the final 27.  She started the day ranked third in chips but ended up busting out in 17^th place.

 

• Day Seven started with only one female player still alive in the tournament.  Tiffany Michelle came in ranked third in the chip count.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to establish the momentum necessary to propel her to the final table.  She ended up finishing in 17^th place, worth $334,534 in prize money.  Michelle’s performance is the best by a female in the Main Event since Annie Duke’s 10^th-place showing in 2000.  The year before, Susie Isaacs also finished in 10^th place.  The best finish ever by a woman in the WSOP Main Event was by Barbara Enright, who finished 5^th in 1995.  Michelle’s earnings – at slightly more than one-third of a million dollars – is the most ever won by a female in the WSOP Main Event.   

 

• Only two former WSOP gold bracelet winners were still in contention when play resumed, including – Phi Nguyen and Brandon Cantu.  Both former champions were eliminated early in the day.

 

•  Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phi Nguyen (Hawaiian Gardens, CA) finished in 26^th place.  This was his second time to cash in the Main Event (164^th place in 2006) and 14^th career in-the-money finish at the WSOP.

 

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Brandon Cantu finished in 20^th place.  Cantu was expected to be a wild card in the group, since he has a reputation for playing hyper-aggressive poker.  One fellow poker pro predicted that Cantu would either bust out early or would end up at the final table as the chip leader.  Unfortunately, he had to settle for the former – which meant the last of the former champions was gone.

 

• All players who started play on Day Seven were guaranteed at least $257,334 in prize money.  All players who made it to the final table are now guaranteed at least $900,670.  Players are to be paid the guaranteed prize money on July 15^th, which is the day after the November Nine had been determined.

 

• Tim Loecke, from Highland Park, IL ended up as the 22^nd-place finisher.  Most interesting is the fact that this was Loecke’s first-ever live poker tournament.  He qualified to play in this event by winning a $63 satellite.  His win amounted to $257,334.

 

• Nations still alive in the Main Event include:  United States (5 players), Canada (2), Denmark (1), and Russia (1).

 

• A Russian poker player has now made it to the final table in each of the last two years.  Ivan Demidov follows in the footsteps of Alex Kravchenko, who finished in fourth place last year.

 

• A Canadian poker player has now made it to the final table in each of the last two years.  Two Canadians, Darus Suharto and Scott Montgomery follow in the footsteps of Tuan Lam, who finished in second place last year.

 

• Players from several different nations were represented in the top 100 of the Main Event for the first time ever.  Brazil enjoyed its highest world championship finish ever as Rafael Caiaffa, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil took 55^th place.

 

• Argentina enjoyed its highest world championship finish ever in this event as Jose Barbero, from Buenos Aires, Argentina took 89^th place.

 

• Venezuela enjoyed its highest world championship finish ever in this event as Jamal Kunbuz from Valencia, Venezuela took 33^rd place.

 

• Romania enjoyed its highest world championship finish ever in this event as Toni Judet was Bucharest, Romania took 22nd place.  Note:  Judet had previously been misidentified as “Judet Toni Cristian.  It should be noted that he prefers to be called “Toni” and his last name is “Judet.”    

 

• Play was suspended with 21:50 remaining in Level 33.  Day Seven concluded at 3:29 am PST, about 15 hours after play began.

 

• Day Eight begins Sunday, November 9^th at 10:00 am.  The final table will be played at the Rio Las Vegas.  The venue will be announced later.

 

• This is one of the younger final table fields in WSOP history.  The youngest player remaining is 22.  The oldest player remaining is 53.  The average age of the surviving players is 31.8 years.  Five of the final nine are in their 20s.

 

• When Phil Hellmuth won the WSOP in 1989, he was the youngest world champion in history – at age 24 years, 10 months, and 5 days.  Should either Peter Eastgate or Craig Marquis win this year’s Main Event, the record for youngest champion would be broken.

 

• Here is a list of the final nine players, along with some basic biographical information:

 

Ivan Demidov (Moscow, Russia)

– Age 27

– Professional Poker Player

– Single

– Enjoys skiing and scuba diving

– Playing at the WSOP for the first time, this year

– Finished 11^th place in Event #44

 

Peter Eastgate (Odense, Denmark)

– Age 22

– Professional Poker Player

– High school graduate, no college

– Paid cash to enter

 

Kelly Kim (Whittier, CA)

– Age 31

– Professional Poker Player

– Born in Korea

– Used to work as a business analyst

– Earned his college degree from the UC-San Diego

– Paid cash to enter

– Had three WSOP cashes, all last year

 

Scott Montgomery (Perth, Ontario – Canada)

– Age 26

– Professional Poker Player

– Has been playing poker for about four years

– Paid cash to enter

 

Craig Marquis (Arlington, TX)

– Age 23

– College Student

– Has been playing poker for only about 18 months

– Plays the guitar

– Plans to buy his family a swimming pool with the prize money

– Paid cash to enter

 

Dennis Phillips (St. Louis, MO)

– Age 53

– Account manager for a commercial trucking company

– Actually lives in suburban town of Cottage Hills, IL – but calls St. Louis his home

– Gained entry by winning a WSOP satellite held at Harrahs Casino in St. Louis

– Nickname is “Fordman”

– Earned B.A. college degree

 

David “Chino” Rheem (Los Angeles, CA)

– Age 28

– Professional Poker Player

– Paid cash to enter

– Has been playing poker for about ten years

 

Ylon Schwartz (Brooklyn, NY)

– Age 38

– Former professional chess player, who hustled games in New York City’s public parks for money

– Discovered he could make a far better living playing poker, and has been doing so the last several years

– 12^th time to cash at the WSOP (more than any other finalist); best previous finish was 15^th place in the $2,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em event this year

 

Darus Suharto (Toronto, Ontario – Canada)

– Age 39

– Accountant

– Born in Indonesia

– Earned MBA from Indiana University

– Won satellite entry into the Main Event

 

• Seats were re-drawn on three separate occasions.  When the 27-player mark, 18-player mark, and 10-player mark were reached, survivors were reconfigured into different tables and seats.  Play was consolidated from three tables down to two about mid-way through the second level of the day (or just three hours into Day Seven).  The rate of bust outs was much quicker than had been anticipated. 

 

• Late on Day Seven, although ten players actually sat at a single table, only the nine surviving players constitute the official “final table,” in standard poker reporting and official WSOP records.

 

• The tenth-place money spot is now referred to as the “TV bubble.”  This is because the player will not partake in the three-month publicity built-up to the final table, nor the actual play of the November Nine,” which will be shown on ESPN.  Dean Hamrick ended up as the tenth-place finisher.  His sorrows will be soothed somewhat by collecting $591,869 in prize money.

 

• When play resumes, the finalists are scheduled to play from nine down to two on November 9^th, and two down to a single winner on November 10^th.

 

• The nine finalists are to be paid 9^th-place prize money at this time ($900,670).  That will leave approximately $24 million up for grabs in November.  Since the interest in $24 million for a 117-day period is substantial, Harrahs Entertainment will place the prize money into an interest-bearing account.  The additional funds earned from the account will be added to the prize pool amongst the remaining nine players.  Hence, each player is expected to collect a bit more in prize money than the figures which have previously been announced.

 

• When play resumes, Level 33 will continue with blinds set at 120,000-240,000 and antes at 30,000.

 

• An interesting side note:  The tournament has now reached the point where a single ante represents 1.5 player buy-ins for the Main Event.  Players started this tournament with 20,000 in chips.  Antes are now 30,000.

 

• ESPN’s broadcasts of this year’s WSOP begin on July 22^nd from 8-10 pm EST.  New programs of various tournaments, including the Main Event, will debut each week.

 

• ESPN will broadcast the final table on November 10^th and 11^th, just hours after play is expected to end on the previous days/nights.

 

• The final table will be played just five days after the conclusion of the U.S. presidential election.

 

• Players who have made it to the “November Nine” have now played a total of 65.5 tournament hours, not counting breaks or end of day recesses.

 

• In the 39-year history of the WSOP, champions were citizens of the following nations at the time of victory:  United States (35), England (1), Ireland (1), Australia (1), Spain (1)

 

• Past WSOP champions were born in the following nations:  United States (31), Iran (2), Ireland (1), Lebanon (1), Ecuador (1), Laos (1), Vietnam (1), and China (1) 

 

• This is the largest World Series of Poker in history.  A grand total of 58,720 players entered into 55 gold bracelet events surpassed last year’s number of entries, which was 54,288.  These figures represent an 8 percent increase over 2007.

 

• This was the richest World Series of Poker in history.  A grand total of $180,676,248 in prize money awarded in 2008 makes this the richest event in all of sports.  Note:  This figure does not include the upcoming four events to be played at WSOP-Europe.  These figures represent an increase of 13 percent over 2007.

 

• This ranks as the second-largest live poker tournament in history.  This year’s turnout surpassed 2007 attendance (6,358) by 7.4 percent.  Only the 2006 WSOP Main Event was larger than this tournament — with 8,773 entrants.

 

• This is the second-largest tournament prize pool in history.  The total prize pool amounts to $64,333,600.  The top 666 finishers will collect prize money.

 

• There were at least 118 different nations and territories represented by all players who entered the 2008 Main Event.  By contrast, there were 87 different countries present last year.   This represents a 36 percent increase in international participation.

 

• The 2008 WSOP Main Event winner will collect $9,119,517 in prize money.  The minimum payout is $21,230. 

 

• The full payout list for the Main Event (all places) is as follows: 

 

$9,119,517	1st
$5,790,024	2nd
$4,503,352	3rd
$3,763,515	4th
$3,088,012	5th
$2,412,510	6th
$1,769,174	7th
$1,286,672	8th
$900,670	9th
$591,869	10th-12th
$463,201	13-15
$334,534	16-18
$257,334	19-27
$193,000	28-36
$154,400	37-45
$135,100	46-54
$115,800	55-63
$96,500	64-72
$77,200	73-81
$64,333	82-90
$51,466	91-99
$41,816	100-162
$38,600	163-225
$35,383	226-288
$32,166	289-351
$28,950	352-414
$27,020	415-477
$25,090	478-540
$23,160	541-603
$21,230	604-666

   

Some of us may have gotten a bit sloppy with the development of the final table yesterday — look, I was going on about 5 hours of sleep over the previous three days, and was so hopped up on caffeine and energy drinks that my urethra had constricted to near the size of a coffee stir. Peeing wasn’t painful, but it did take some extra time … and you readers were already in bed on that final day of 2008 WSOP Summer Camp, and I may have been in a rush to the Hooker Bar farewell when deducing that almost all the final tableists were in their 20s and from California, so … not making excuses, just sayin’ … the process of gathering news on the fly can be a bit messy sometimes.

So here is a more accurate recount of who’s really left in the 2008 WSOP main event:

Interestingly enough, Pokerati readers picked a “middle aged white American male” as most likely to win the main event (we discounted a last-minute surge of Jerry Yang votes after he had been eliminated) — and yet 40somethings were completely shut out of the November Nine. (Ask Tom, Pokerati’s resident 40something, I tell him all the time: it’s a lot easier to win when you make the final table.) New era, it seems.

No one’s got a better collection of WSOP factoids than Nolan Dalla (no offense, KevMath, you’re also a fact gathering machine) … and here are the WSOP media director’s notes about Day 6 (money, players, storylines, countries, stats, etc.) with potentially relevant info about the field moving forward:

[Hmm, maybe it is still the Year of the Pro, even though most of these pros are relatively unknown outside their home casinos?]

More…

This weekend wasn’t about life-changing money so much as it was about life-easing money for those who went super-deep (top 1 percent), but not deep-deep-deep in the main event: Margo Outhred reading David Sedaris’ latest (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) while awaiting important updates via text from her husband Alex. Though supposedly tournament poker is all about going for the win, there were points when he got short-stacked that she became very interested in the payout levels, and would rush back into the Amazon Room to let him know what they stood to gain if he could hold on for X spots longer.

63rd-55th place paid $115,800

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred finished in 54th(-46th) for $135,100 — a small but noticeable victory on his way out of the 2008 WSOP main event.

Oh shit, while contemplating the significance of Tiffany Michelle in a Matusow-less field, I almost completely overlooked Craig Marquis — an online player from Arlington (craigmarq) who Raj Kattamuri introduced to me just the other day. And lo and behold, he’s frickin’ second in chips! 11.5 million! Go craigmarq!

He says he doesn’t really play in Dallas underground games — just sticks to online — but he’s exactly the kinda player who I thought would do well this main event … a relative unknown who ain’t dancin’ at his first WSOP rodeo.

Big pre-emptive congrats, dude, and damn all you longtime Pokerati readers for not giving me the heads-up that a Dallas guy was still alive!!! thanks for giving us another person to cheer on as we work our way towards the November Nine.

Ouch … on a baddish beat where his trip aces with a jack kicker lost to a trip aces with a nine.

That means with 27 players left, there are only two I had heard of before the event started: Brandon Cantu and Tiffany Michelle. I gotta say, though our interaction has been limited to accepting MySpace friend requests and sharing a power outlet in the press box, I’m so ready to jump on the Tiffany Michelle bandwagon. If I’m gonna cheer lead for anyone right now, it’s gonna be her.

I’m almost afraid to comment too much on what her current chip position and status as Last Woman Standing means for fear of the jinx factor. And really, the relevance of anything anyone might have to say about her still depends on the fall of fuckin’ cards. But one thing is for sure, right now, going into the penultimate day of WSOP poker, there is no more valuable commodity player still alive in the main event than 24-year-old Tiffany Michelle — and based on the way agents and backers and Hollywood Daves are all up in her bidness, you can tell I’m not the only one to realize how much is really riding on her action.