OK, I think this is the last of it … the 96 players who have bought in to the $50k HORSE event two years in a row, arguably enrolling them all in The Current Poker Elite:

More…

For some reason or another, the following 52 players participated in the $50k HORSE event last year, but not this year. Some of these names, of course, are more interesting than others:

Ariel Schneller
Bart Hanson
Bill Edler
Bob Feduniak
Carlos Mortensen
Charles Kaelin
Chip Reese
Chris Gentile
Cyndy Violette
Daniel Shak
Darrell Dicken
David Pham
David Sklansky
Erik Seidel
Gavin Smith
Harry Thomas
Jack Zwerner
James Owens
Jason Lester
Jeff King
Jerri Thomas
Jerrod Ankenman
Jesse Jones
Joe Tehan
John Cover
John Duthie
John Kabbaj
John Phan
Josh Arieh
Keith Lehr
Kirk Morrison
Kristy Gazes
Luke Neely
Marco Traniello
Mark Tenner
Mark Vos
Matt Lefkowitz
Maureen Feduniak
Meikle Partin
Neal Friets
Nick Frangos
Phil Laak
Q Knopow
Sam Farha
Sam Grizzle
Shih-Ping Sun
Ted Lawson
Tom Franklin
Tony Cousineau
Tuan Le
Victor Ramdin
Vladimir Troyanovskiy

Semi-related … do you know how much the WSOP spent on media food and water last year? Reportedly $440,000. Yeow! That means collectively, we sandwich-eating, water-and-Pepsi-product-slugging hacks grossed more than Tom won en route to becoming POY.

The key word in that sentence, of course, is “gross.”

I came across a certain post from the PokerNews Live Reporting log for Event #10 - Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or-Better that sent me right back to 2007.

Eskimo Freezes
Paul “Eskimo” Clark was feeling pretty good about his hand on an Omaha board reading {K-?} {5-?} {6-?} {Q-?} — he was holding {A-?} {2-?} {7-?} {8-?} for the nut low draw and an up-and-down straight draw. But a cruel deuce on the river counterfeited his low, made him absolutely no straights, and his opponent scooped the pot. Horrified, Eskimo stared down at his cards for a while, unable to speak or move. This can be a harsh game sometimes.

Remind anyone of the mini-strokes he had last year? The time he collapsed at the table? The time paramedics had to come to the floor of the Amazon Room to check on Eskimo, but he refused to be taken out of the tournament?

When someone reports that the guy is unable to move or speak, ya gotta wonder if this is a bad sign. I’m sure Harrah’s has the paramedics on speed dial about now.

Take a little gander at Pauly’s Day 6 post called 2008 WSOP Day 6: Melting Eskimo’s Igloo and Erick Lindgren Wins First Bracelet. (The part about Lindgren’s bracelet is cool, but the Eskimo part is pertinent to this post. Focus, people.)

At the moment my background music is Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith on Spike the main event of the 2007 WSOP (Episode 4, part 2 of 5 according to YouTube):

It’s actually the first time I’ve seen this episode — if that tells you anything about the immediacy or lack thereof attached to current WSOP broadcasts … and it prominently features/follows Jamie Gold. Pretty impressed with how ESPN handled his storyline, and Gold does a pretty good job explaining the Crispin Leyser lawsuit … well enough that I start empathize for just a moment until Norman Chad follows up with a reminder of why he may not have had many supporters regardless.

(About 2:00 in.)

I wrote this post right after the 2007 WSOP, but I hadn’t pressed publish yet. With all the talk about structural changes and travel plans for the upcoming WSOP, now seem’s a good time for us to think about our (poker players’) behavior for the upcoming WSOP:

I have a request for all poker players. Anyone that wants to complain at the WSOP 2008, please STAY HOME! I don’t care how much dead money you bring to the tables, I don’t want to hear the yakking when I’m taking a leak.

At the 2007 WSOP, bitching was the theme. Here are just a few of the complaints that I heard.

• Harrah’s is making too much money. Have you seen how much juice they are taking out?
• The food is horrible
• The dealers are making too many mistakes
• It’s cold
• It’s hot
• The lines are too long
• The structures are too fast, too slow, too medium
• The walk is too long to the tournament area
• There are too many tournaments
• The cocktail service is bad.

Is that enough or should I keep going?

More…

The video of Shannon Shorr’s drunken shenanigans last summer in Las Vegas that almost led to his becoming the Christopher Reeve of Poker has been posted on YouTube. 22-year-old kids with lots of money are so funny in how they almost die … though I have to say, it is kinda refreshing to see the youthful purity of engaging in such prop-bettable pursuits for nothing but the glory. Gavin Smith wouldn’t do this for less than $12,000, I am sure.

Via Wicked Chops:

I find a new level of respect for Annie Duke every time I speak with her.

Last month, she taught the WSOP Ladies Academy I attended, and we had several chances to speak about life and ladies-only tournaments.

On life, Annie changed hers drastically after the 2007 WSOP. She admitted that she didn’t feel so great after smoking and drinking tons of caffeine throughout the Series, so she just stopped. Cold turkey. She went smoke-free and caffeine-free in one day, and she switched to eating only organic foods. On top of that she began running - not just a mile or two but ten or twenty. When we spoke in January, she was up to nearly 20 miles at a time and preparing to run the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on June 1st in San Diego. She’s going to challenge herself with the run while raising money for Ante Up for Africa.

Her comments on ladies-only events in poker went into my article on PokerWorks. As always with Annie, she doesn’t mince words or filter herself, which is something I admire.

Now, I’m going to think about her healthy ways while I put on my workout gear and eat some fruit light up and drink my caffeinated tea.

The Montel Williams Show will be ceasing production after 17 years — and so where does one go from there but to a downtown Vegas poker room? Ever since he took the chip lead on Day 1 of the 2007 WSOP main event, Montel seems to have gotten hooked … and lately he’s been hosting $1,000 sit-n-gos at the Golden Nugget poker room:

More…

The issue of women holding ladies-only events and a separate Hall of Fame is certainly drawing attention. There are great arguments on both sides.

I happen to be on the anti-ladies-only side of the debate, as demonstrated in this article on PokerWorks. When I took this stand during the 2007 WSOP by writing an article for PokerPages, specifically about the WSOP Ladies Championship bracelet event, I received some harsh criticism by women in the poker community, but I also received more support than anticipated - from men and women.

It’s an issue that won’t be resolved any time soon, as women continue to turn out in droves for the ladies-only tournaments, but it’s an interesting topic for discussion.

Tom Schneider’s memorable 2007 is coming to an end — WSOP Player of the Year, 7th in CardPlayer’s POY, 96th in Bluff’s — oy, now he gets to start all over. But before he does, we get a sense of where this semi-regular blogger’s accomplishments fit into the bigger word beyond poker (or, as Scotty Nguyen says, “Poker Beyond!”) … as Tom has been chosen as a finalist — and poker’s only representative — for ESPN’s 2007 All-SportsNation Team.

Click here to vote, preferably for Tom.

The Top 5 get the Espy honors. Currently the leaders are Randy Couture, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez, and Brett Favre … with Tiger Woods following just a single percentage point behind. Yikes, tough competition for Tom — dare I say tougher than any he has seen at the poker table? — but kinda cool that he’s (at the time of this posting) right ahead of Dirk Nowitzki and tied with Kaká.

Seriously, click on over … for the sake of poker players everywhere to further boost the ego of everyone’s second-favorite Beyond the Table cohost.

CORRECTION: Tom is ranked 96th overall for the past two years by Bluff. For 2007 he finished 158th, compared to 76th in 2006.

I recently received a thoughtful email from a young guy who has great interest in playing poker for a living or finding a good job or possibly doing both. He has asked for my advice regarding various topics of passion and career. I thought that my response might be helpful to others figuring out where poker fits in their lives, and Pokerati readers might be able to provide genius insight or alternate feedback.

Here are some excerpts from what he sent, and my honest opinions:

My name is Ralph, and I am a very big fan of your book. I am an avid poker player who is hoping to become a professional in the distant future. I just wanted to commend you on authoring such a simple, yet brilliant book. It has reemphasized so much of the values that have already been instilled in my life, yet has reminded me so much of the important things that I have forgotten along the way. I just couldn’t put the book down.

Right away, you can tell that this young man has wonderful taste, and no, this is not a fictitious caller on Beyond the Table.

I was hoping you could pass along some winning wisdom to me if you had the time. I am 26 years old and graduated from college with a BA in Communications in January 2007. I have been unemployed during this time with the exception that I have been working part time for the past 7 years. I’m really struggling to find my place in the “real world” being that I don’t consider myself too business savvy, or intellectually smart.

More…

In a podcast interview with Gary Wise on Rounders Radio last week, Hevad Khan spoke about his online poker accomplishments, his sixth place finish at the 2007 WSOP, and his antics during the WSOP main event.

Gary put him on the spot about the controversy that Hevad’s monkey noises and other antics caused after the ESPN airing of the WSOP. (For example, Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider launched into an editorial about it here.)

Some of Hevad’s comments:

“There was one thing that I did regret, and that was when Ed de Haas told me to act normal. ESPN didn’t show it, but after I called his bluff and sang a song for awhile, I realized how much of a dumb ass I was being… I was so regretful… I was like, ‘I’m really sorry about that, man.’”

In reference to tournaments he’s played since the WSOP: “In my defense, I went to London and Austria, and I was drinking a lot of Red Bull but I wasn’t really crazy… It didn’t match up to the World Series, so I didn’t care.”

To answer Gary’s hypothetical about being faced with Humberto rivering a big pot against Hevad: “I would not have been happy with it. That’s rubbing it in someone’s face. To some people, the way I came across on ESPN, it kinda looked like I was going a little bit over the top… It looked childish and goofy as opposed to offensive…”

“I had a lot of time to reflect after the World Series, and there were times when I was over the top… I look at it different now… I’ve made it, so I can take the game competitively now and be more professional about it.”

While certain parts of the interview certainly show that Hevad is still very young and has a lot to learn about sportsmanship and a career in poker, others demonstrate that he may have learned something about human behavior after watching his performance. Only the future will tell…

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.

Poker must be the most boring activity in the world. Why else would the industry focus its cameras on the most ridiculous people?

We have spelling bees and Scrabble championships on TV and none of the competitors have little “charks” and make munching sounds then yell their name “HUMBERTO, HUMBERTO”. None of them spell a tough word and start making animal sounds while moving their bodies in hunchback dance moves. Could you imagine Humberto as a little kid competing in a spelling bee and yelling his name every time he spelled a word correctly, then getting out a little Power Ranger and acting like he is going to hit the little girl he is competing against?

We as poker players should want nice people with lots of money to come play with us. Do you think when Bill Gates sees Hevad Kahn doing his monkey noises and strange gyrations he says to himself, “boy I want to play with that guy? Maybe I could get that guy to represent Microsoft.” I’m guessing not; however, I guess that’s exactly what Pokerstars says. He is now a face on Pokerstars. Why would any company want to associate with these embarrassing people? Answer, they get a lot of exposure on TV. Michael Vick is getting a ton of exposure, I hear he likes gambling too, and he’s available for about 5-10 years.

Poker is reaching the lowest common denominator, and it’s a joke. I am really tired of people having to exhibit ridiculous behavior in order to get noticed in poker. There was actually a guy at a featured table at the main event who made balloon animals for the other players at the table. Are people really this desperate to get on TV? The answer is clear. Therefore, I have compiled a list of things that I’m willing to do at a featured table next year.

More…

One of the criticisms observations about young-punk online phenoms when they play live tourneys is that they don’t know how to compose themselves when not in front of a computer. Like they struggle when it comes to controlling their physical bodies. Of course plenty don’t really give a shit, either.

Check out this fun video of Hevad Khan gettin’ jiggy with, er, something:

Thanks, Shuttergypsy, for the link!

ALT HED: Automated Tell Machines?

New episode of Beyond the Table is up. Best poker podcast ever recorded on Day 2 of the 2007 WSOP main event — especially when Tom’s wife (shout out Julie!) gets on the air and screams at all things poker media. Click, and enjoy.

Four what, you ask? Since coming home from the WSOP I have had four of my worst live-action, cash poker sessions in a long time. All have been 40+ BB losses. Sure, I have had losses this big in the past…in fact I expect to have one every once in a while. You can play perfectly and they will happen. I never like them…and its not much fun having them come all within a 10-day stretch.

I came home from the WSOP with the plan of rebuilding the portion of my bankroll that was expended in tournament buy-ins over the past two months. I was counting on the super-juicy $40/$80 and $60/$120 limit hold ‘em and mixed games at CA (Casino Arizona) to do the trick. I’m not off to a good start. There is a $1,000 buy-in tournament at CA on August 18, limited to 450 players with a guaranteed $250,000 1st place prize. I am planning on winning, so that just might get me even for the series.

I have always kept perfect records of every session of casino poker I have ever played and whenever I have an especially brutal run, I have found comfort in being able to reflect on the bottom line. As long as I can boot up the spreadsheet and see black ink, I can remind myself that I am a winning player. Individual losses hurt, but it’s one long game.

One of poker’s top female pros, Susie Isaacs will be at the Lake Austin Spa to teach a Texas Hold’em Seminar. I’ve only sped past this spa in my earlier days of wakeboarding but it looks nice and I hear it’s amazing. For those of you or your partner that do the spa thing and have been wanting to learn poker this would be a great opportunity.

Suzie and I played on the same table in the 2007 WSOP ladies event. With so many new ladies to the game, I may have been one of the few to know she had won the ladies event back to back in 1996 and 1997.

From Ms. Poker’s site:

September 6-8 - Lake Austin Spa - I will be teaching a Texas Hold’em Seminar in Texas, Austin to be exact. A fun way to learn the game or improve your game. Packages include being totally pampered all day every day, great food, new friends, and spa treatments. In a word, terrific! Call 1-800-847-5637 for prices.

That’s right folks, there will be two episodes on ESPN tonight starting at 8pm Eastern. Tonight’s episodes will be airing the 2007 WSOP’s $3,000 no-limit hold ‘em (Event 28).

I won’t spoil the show by telling you who won but for those of you that need to know check out the results here from Pokernews.com. This episode should offer some good drama if you know what I mean.
More from the ESPN Poker Club here.

Check it out … Fresh Princess sits down with The Commish (he’s got a new post up on the official WSOP “blog,” btw) and tries to get the biggest suit in poker to loosen up his tie … only to find out he’s not wearing one! A sample of her tête-à-tête with Jeffrey Pollack:

ML: I liked the tent.
JP: You liked the tent. [Knowingly]
ML: I think it would be best for satellites or cash games where people are not there for long and or have the option to get up.
JP: [nodding in agreement] we may do that. Or maybe we’ll have some other temporary structure, a log cabin, I don’t know, an igloo.
[...]
ML: “Games, Girls and Gear,” will the Gaming Life Expo keep this name for next year and if so could we have some male strippers for the ladies…possibly, some of the Chippendale dancers?
JP: If the GLE comes back next year I suspect it would just be “Games and Gear” based on this year’s experience. Some elements of that show were not The Rio’s prouder moments.
[...]
ML: So no more strippers?
JP: No, they won’t be back.
ML: No Chippendales? [Disappointed]
JP: No. Not my style…not my….No.

Good stuff! (Except for maybe the no more strippers part, depending who asks.) Click here to read the full interview.

Mark Cuban has long contended that YouTube is going to run into all sorts of copyright problems, akin to Napster. I hope not, because I love being able to embed YouTube vids and watch them on whatever site I happen to be visiting at the time. But I recently ran across this new-ish site — PokerTube.com — and based on the bulk of their content that provides no benefit to ESPN … I have a hard time seeing how this sorta thing is legal:

NOTE: There seems to be some trouble embedding from Pokertube. Not sure if this is a technical guffaw or related to what we are talking about here.

Don’t get me wrong … I philosophically think it should be legal, or at least appreciate the viewing ease embeddable players provide. But beyond brand recognition, I’m not sure ESPN will see enough value in this form of distribution to stand idly by. I mean heck, what’s to stop a site like, say, Pokerati, from becoming the unofficial home of 12-minute clips of the WSOP, and then profit off the fruits of ESPN’s labor? But PokerTube is based out of Sweden, so how ESPN would be able to enforce their copyright remains to be seen. Interesting international internet economics issues for the 21st century, to be sure.

One short-term solution, of course, would be for ESPN (and any others who have copyrighted video content they are looking to protect) to embrace the embedding — the always cheaper “if you can’t beat’em, join’em” concept — and offer up virtually the same stuff on their own site. They could get the benefit of brand exposure if they made their own RawVegas-style player … and figure out the best way to include their own commercials, which may or may not be different from what airs on TV. So long as they made it easiest for other sites to find (and embed), then there would be no need for internet traffic middlemen to go elsewhere for that content … and they would therefore maintain control of a hypermajority of all the viewings out there.

UPDATE:Click here to watch the episode of the WSOP I was trying to embed, on which Tom makes his first appearance.

And click here to see a really cool interview of Phil Hellmuth auditioning for a role on European TV as a caped Superhero/villain … which would look cooler and get more viewings if folks could watch it right here, instead of one page away.

PokerNews finally has their Jerry Yang post-victory interview up on YouTube, thereby viewable by the click-lazy masses page-load averse. Good stuff, good guy, and praying to the porcelain god(s)? Check it out, for either the first time or second:

LAS VEGAS–Funny how being in Las Vegas has put me so out of touch with all the poker news. I think there are some big tournaments going on, online poker execs in the courts, business deals shaking down, but I’ve got little to report other than poker being played. Still, it’s been kinda interesting to see who you run into at the tables around this town:

The first notable I ran into was OREL HERSHEISER, who apparently just moved here to Las Vegas and sat to my left in a 1/2 NLH game at RED ROCK — fresh after being denied selection into the baseball HALL OF FAME. I tried to play the not-knowing-who-he-is thing — “You lost a vote? Were you running for city council or congress or something?” — but he would end up busting me out when I tried to run a little STOP-N-GO. As I pushed all-in, he asked, “How much money do you have?”

“Um, I’m all-in. About $140 more,” I said, pointing to my stacks.

“No, I mean other money. Because we can make a little side-bet away from the table,” he said, upon showing me THE NUTS.

Red Rock seems to be the OFF-STRIP place to be. On my second post-WSOP outing there, I ran into GARY THOMPSON — World Series of Poker media master and tournament overlord. He was wearing comfortable jeans, loafers, and a button-down shirt while playing 2/5 NLH. With about $800 in front of him, he said he was “down a couple hundred.” But it wouldn’t take long for him to grow his stacks, and a few hours later, he had moved up to the 5/10 game and had what looked to be about $2k.

On that same day, I saw A GUY I BUSTED at the Rio. He was a good player who went with the whole BLACK HOODIE and SUNGLASSES kinda thing, while saying almost nothing and acting with stoic (but angry) CHRIS FERGUSON-like motions. He was playing 1/2 NLH and nursing about $200.

Over at THE VENETIAN in the 2/5 game, I found myself up against a WSOP Dealer — SHAI the ISRAELI GUY. He was sick when I pushed all-in and convinced him to fold his top-pair-top-kicker that would turn into TOP BOAT … only to see the guy who took down the pot from me win with KING-HIGH. A couple hours later I was playing a goofy hand with K-6 offsuit in late position, the flop came K-7-K … he checks, I bet, he raises big, I call. Turn is a 6, he pushes all-in, I call … at which point he shows his POCKET 7s. The table cheers for a FOURTH SEVEN, but it doesn’t come and I send him to the ATM.

One table over, KARINA JETT’S MOTHER was playing — beyond her typical quiet game, she was practically falling asleep at the table (at 3 AM) while nursing about $400. She may not remember this, but she won a $15 PROP BET from me once over a RULES DISPUTE. (My bad … I thought I knew stuff.)

Back at RED ROCK a couple days later, I ran into ABRAHAM, and he really deserves his own post, because he tilted the table unlike anything I had ever seen — and even managed to invoke mockery from a cute young girl who wasn’t playing. Basically imagine the worst personality and poker characteristics of ME, TIM ROGERS and EON MARSHALL all wrapped up into an obnoxious kid who graduated from high school in 2003 and is well aware that he looks like STU UNGAR. Then give him a lot of chips. (His behavior and play was so table-altering it had me interrupting TOM SCHNEIDER’S vacation in ST. THOMAS for some emergency coaching … who advised me well until I played back without paying attention to a guy to my left who had pocket kings.)

I really wanted to KILL THIS KID, or at least make him cry. And so did everyone else — especially the old (presumably) gay man who he busted by calling a $260 raise pre-flop with 2-3 suited only to flop two threes. But he can’t be all that bad, because without provoking from me, he at one point shouted, “THE HAMMER!” with glee. Hey kid, if you are reading this, what I told you at the table after you “bluffed” me with pocket-5s and then taunted (it took me a good five minutes to lay down Ace-high) still applies: “I look forward to seeing you get your education.” Punk-ass. Like seriously, you had at least two of us at the table contemplating how one might go about rolling you in the parking lot.

One of the cool things about Red Rock is that when you need to shake off a bad beat or just step away from a dipshit the table to refocus, you can go BOWL A GAME 24 hours a day — for $3 +$3.50 for shoes. That seems like positive EV.

The picture above is from a day I didn’t actually play poker … but I did walk through the poker room just for funsies after bowling, and whom should I run into but NOLAN DALLA, longtime Dallas poker expat and WSOP media guru, legendary sports handicapper, and Stu Ungar biographer. He was wearing CARGO SHORTS, a frumpled shirt, and seemed pleasantly drinky while playing 5/10 NLH with a couple old friends from POKERSTARS.

“I’m stuck $800 but having a great time!” he screamed upon embracing me with a BEAR HUG. “Isn’t this a great casino!?! Hey everybody, it’s Dan from Pokerati!”

Murmur?

“Oh, right …” Nolan said. “Didn’t mean to blow your cover.”

I also ran into STEVE HALL one night at Red Rock, too. He was playing PENNY VIDEO SLOTS. He had a big hit of some sort of crazy picture combinations that won him about $60.

And then to top it all off, I went to CAESAR’S PALACE with DON JONES (of Rounder Club fame), LEIGH & BRIAN from the Poker Atlas , DOCTOR STEVE, and former Absolute Poker marketing chick JEN TIDWELL to play in their 50-player-max $65 tourney. We all had 10 percent of each other, which proved irrelevant as our top player would bubble.

I was the first to bust out (of the tournament) and would take a seat playing some 2/5. Of all the poker tables in Las Vegas … what are the chances that DAN BALLENGER (aka HONG KONG SUE, father of SON OF SUE) would get seated at my table? It would take more than a full orbit before he realized he was sitting with a fellow BATFACE. He bought in for $500 and cashed out a couple hours later for a little less than that. HKS got most of those chips from me … calling a $100 bluff with second-pair-no-kicker (what was I THINKING!?!) … and then bluffing me out of a $400+ pot on the river, getting me to lay down aces. He mucked at the time, but told me as he left that he pushed all-in for his remaining $135 with an underpair. Wish I hadn’t asked, because it had me semi-tilting for a good 30 minutes or more. I know he was just trying to be nice, but still …

Then JASON from JACKIE’S (in Dallas) and “RICKY ZILEM” showed up. They were just walking through checking out the action. Fancy running into these guys here. Chris/Ricky, said, “I did what nobody does when they first land in Vegas and took a nap.”

Ah, indeed.

Small world. Good times.

LAS VEGAS–Just looking at a little more thorough analysis of all my gambly activity over the past two months — including what went down before I began formal experimentation — and it’s pretty interesting, if not accurate. The numbers below represent a total of 144 hours with something at stake … spread across 56 various sessions. Still not exactly adequate sample sizes — but the numbers do give me an idea about the tables where I may or may not want to be spending my time:

Total Amount Won or Lost / hours played

2/5 NLH +$5,819 / 74.5
NLH Tourneys +$1,550 / 15
1 to 1000 +$190 / na
1/3 NLH +$134 / 8.5
4/8 OHL +$108 / 3
Lime Tossing +$80 / 0.5
——————————————
Bowling -$10 / 2
Video Poker -$190 / 2.5
Paigow -$220 / 0.5
1/2 NLH -$1,481 / 24
Blackjack -$2,169 / 13

Hourly Rate*

Lime Tossing: $160
NLH Tourneys: $103.67
2/5 NLH: $78.10
4/8 OHL: $36
1/3 NLH: $15.76
——————————————
Bowling: -$5
1/2 NLH: -$61.71
Video Poker: -$76
Blackjack: -$166.85
Paigow: -$440

*hourly rate not calculated for 1-to-1000, because everyone’s gotta eat/drink

Some other interesting related stats … based on 13 sessions, a typical 2/5 sitting nets me $448 … while 1/2, based on eight sessions, costs me about $185 each time I play. (I suspect most Dallas players can confirm this is in line with my their expectations every time I show up at a game.)

Blackjack … wow, might I actually remove this long-beloved pastime from my arsenal, considering I lose roughly $217 every time I get the itch to double down?

Clearly the moral of this story is that I need to be tossing more limes.

LAS VEGAS–This post woulda been much more timely and sensible had it appeared a week ago, but hey, sometimes what happens in Vegas takes a little while before it becomes public. Anyhow, the last day of the World Series is the point where all unofficial media outlets have to take a back seat in terms of coverage. Understandable considering that, for the first time in nearly seven weeks, all eyes are focussed on a single table … and it just won’t be possible for all interested parties to sit ringside until Brobdingnagian dominance forces Harrah’s to make structural changes to the TV stage.

So that left most of us doing what you were doing … following some rather exciting coverage of a relatively unexciting, straightforward final table on PokerNews while listening to play-by-play on Bluff Radio (which was being piped into the media room) while watching live-camera coverage on a flat-screen monitor.

The media room, anytime there was an all-in and a call. CardPlayer decides not to run with the hedline: ESPN blogger violates Rio chair-standing policy

Actually, large-scale LCD screens were sprinkled throughout the hallways and the Amazon itself, so we could watch the overhead cam pretty much anywhere we went. We just couldn’t camp out for more than a few minutes near the real action. But that was fine by me, because we’ll all get to see The Jerry Yang Show soon enough on TV, and the World Series really is about so much more than just poker. As it turned out, there was lots of fun stuff going on away from the table that provided a little insight into how the poker industry really works …

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Some of you say that you want to get a breakdown of what Harrah’s takes out of the pot and how much the dealers make. It’s none of your business. Some of you have done some horrendous math which indicates that dealers for the main event only made $10.15 per hour, hogwash. Hey, I’ve never used that word before. That was fun. How can you divide the total tip by 700 people working 11 days? I didn’t notice 700 dealers at the final table.

Do you know how much the person at the Gap makes when you go in to buy your plaid shorts? Do you know how much the guy makes that is changing the oil in your Yugo? How much does the Slot Manager at Caesar’s Palace make? Who cares about any of this, and who cares how much dealers make except for dealers and the people hiring them?

What should a dealer make? I say pay them whatever they need to be paid to attract reasonably talented people. The answer I’m guessing is probably somewhere between $20 and $35 per hour. For a full time employee, that’s an annual salary between $41,600 and $72,800.

Excepting errors, does the dealer have anything to do with me winning or losing a tournament? If you say yes, start collecting stamps not playing poker. Since the answer is no, why should I tip them? Do I want them to make a good wage? Of course I do. So here’s the plan. In this plan I will use the WSOP as the example:

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The following question was posed on 2+2 and I really liked it. “Who Should Be the Player of the Year”? Here are the five that they proposed as possible candidates. For those of you that don’t know, I won; however I’m not saying that I should have and I’m not asking for your support; however, I think the debate is interesting. Here are the results for each of the players that they listed including total cash won, finishing position, number of entrants and event. If there are others that are worthy of consideration, please review their results for the assignment that I am going to give you.

Tom Schneider ($416,829):
Event 5: 1st/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 16: 4th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 46: 1st/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Jeff Lisandro ($457,309):
Event 7: 13/145 Pot Limit Omaha W/Rebuys
Event 13: 2nd/398 World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 32: 1st/213 Seven Card Stud
Event 40: 18/620 Mixed Hold’em limit/no-limit
Event 46: 62/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Robert Mizrachi ($861,138)
Event 5: 26/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 9: 40/690 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Event 16: 6th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 26: 5th/192 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 50: 1st/314 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha

Phil Hellmuth ($738,724)
Event 10: 104/1,531 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 15: 1st/2,628 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 28: 6th/827 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 34: 25th/296 Limit Hold’em
Event 45: 31st/728 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 52: 95/1,048 No Limit Holdem w/ rebuys

Freddy Deeb ($2,291,489)
Event 4: 45/481 Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 30: 27/847 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 39: 1st/148 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.

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After many talks and rumors, Harrah’s finally announced today a $1 Billion expansion of Caesar’s Palace.

According to Harrah’s Release:

Octavius Tower

The heart of the Caesars Palace expansion is the Octavius Tower, located along Flamingo Road on the southeast corner of the Caesars property. The new Octavius Tower will include:

665-room, 23-story hotel tower rising 350 feet;
594 hotel guest rooms (floor plans from 600 square feet);
19 1 1/2-bay suites;
41 two- or three-bay suites;
4 four-bay suites;
3 five-bay suites;
1 six-bay suite; and
3 lavish pool villa suites.
Named for the great-nephew of Julius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus, the $375 million Octavius Tower will adjoin and resemble the resort’s Augustus Tower that opened in August 2005 with a new hotel registration lobby and VIP check-in lounges. In addition to convenient access from the hotel lobby and VIP reception areas, Octavius guests also will enjoy panoramic views and direct entry to swimming pools and gardens.

In addition to the new Octavius Tower, the resort’s existing 512-room Forum Tower will undergo a major refurbishment. A regal new front entrance and expanded valet parking will open to expansive new casino interior decor, inviting guests to a remodeled buffet restaurant, redesigned Cypress Street Marketplace casual restaurant and enlarged Race & Sports Book.

Wow, doesn’t this sound exciting? Not sure if they will offer any of the round beds with mirrors on the ceiling that Caesars had in the older days but I’m sure the new rooms will be nice. Perhaps this is to get ready for the WSOP relocation? If so, I may actually miss the Tilted Kilt (even though they don’t serve dessert).

LAS VEGAS–Be sure to check out Tiffany Michelle’s interview with newly crowned WSOP champ Jerry Yang. I gotta say … seems like a great guy. In this vid, he spells out the details of his poker tithes — to Make-a-Wish, Feed the Children, and Ronald McDonald House — and about two minutes in, gives us some insight into what went really went down on those bathroom breaks. On your knees in front of the urinals? Sounds like a crazy prop bet you might see on RawVegas. Either that or those Full Tilt guys must play rough!

OK, seriously … I don’t think we could ask for a better WSOP main event champ/Miss America of Poker. “The Shadow” clearly knows poker, but doesn’t claim to have done anything beyond the basics at the table. Pretty cool that a guy like this can win … and looks to be a lovable ATM spokesman for the game.

LAS VEGAS–The WSOP dealers, as mentioned before, were wanting to see Jerry Yang win for the sake of a bigger tip. He couldn’t have had a reputation as a big tipper — because as a guy playing in his first WSOP and with no noted accomplishments high-stakes or otherwise, how could they know? Perhaps they saw him as a mark … an inexperienced player who had already committed 10 percent of his winnings to charity might be easily persuaded to “give a little back,” if you know what I’m sayin’.

Not sure what Yang’s intentions were as he walked into the payouts room … but Chris Ferguson reportedly joined him — not because he was invited, but because he was a Full Tilt guy looking after a Full Tilt player. When the payout ladies asked what he would like to leave for the dealers, Ferguson supposedly informed him that he had already given 2 percent. Nolan Dalla corrected him, saying, “Actually it’s 1.8 percent.” [Ed. Note: Inaccurate as originally reported. We regret/apologize for the error lazy journalism.]

At that point Ferguson pointed out what that came out to — $148,500 by my calculations, but not certain that’s the number he cited — and said, according to a mostly reliable source who was in the payouts room, “So I recommend zero.”

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Just before reaching the Amazon room the carpet turns to marble and suddenly one is faced with an option…straight ahead - food and poker, turn to the left - poker and poker sweatshirts and juuuuust right…the media room.

Every morning I made the right choice of the media room to set up shop and claim my spot. I can only wonder if everyone else had the same thoughts during the long haul of the hallway…Will there be a stranger in my seat? Will I be able to get a seat? Has someone eaten the last chocolate croissant?
These questions would remain unanswered if you didn’t posses the goods (a media badge) to pass through security (at least the first and last week of the 2007 WSOP).

John was our afternoon security guard who smiled, waved and always asked how we were doing.

John, who was in the ARMY and recently moved to Vegas, liked Gary Wise the best of the media crowd because he was “funny.”

Gary, seen holding an ice cream cone in photo, said it was mostly because he gave him the knuckle thing. What is that hand thing called? You know, the one that’s like a high five/hand shake but avoids germs by just touching knuckles?

Congratulations Gary! You made John’s job enjoyable.

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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LAS VEGAS–Here’s Tiffany Michelle’s bustout interview with John Armbrust from Austin, where he gives a shout out to Austin Pete’s friend … and seems to be a pretty nice guy — a teacher who loves his kids — non-Dario RaiNKhaNish at all.

WSOP: Great way to spend your summer vacation.

LAS VEGAS–Texas’ last man standing is no longer sitting. Ray Henson from Houston went out in 12th place … banking $476,926. Nice job, Ray. Though it woulda been nice if you coulda taken down that Scandi Philip Hilm with you!

Oh well, better luck next year?

(And I guess that’s what we get for overlooking Hilm.)

Here’s an animated look at the hand Henson went out on, against Scotty Nguyen.

LAS VEGAS–This new batch of freshly legal internet wisehands … not sure what to make of ‘em. It’s kinda hard not to like the savant-ish ability of RaiNKhaN (I think I’m getting the way he does the funky caps right). But there’s a clear leaning toward the WWE as opposed to the PGA that they seem to bring to the table with them.

Hevad “Rain” Khan is currently 4th in chips with 12 players remaining. I know I really do hope he makes the final table — for pure entertainment value and to, you know, yo, represent. But were he to win? Yikes … that would create 10s of thousands of young punks wanting to be like him … and that would be either a really good thing, or a really bad thing.

Here’s the video of RaiNKhaN playing more sit-n-gos than any normal person would know what to do with:

And here’s a “secret” video of one of his tamer outbursts during main event play:

(The comments he’s getting are also rather telling about Gen-Y poker players and what they think matters.)