Finishing up the last two prelim events (eventually) while the rest of the poker world anxiously awaits the start of the Main Event.
The $1,500 NL Holdem winner turned out to be David Daneshgar, besting Scott Sitron in heads-up play while Dan Heimiller wound up in 3rd. Daneshgar takes his first bracelet and just over $625,000 while Sitron wins over $385,000 for finishing 2nd.
The $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout is finally over as Matt Graham outwitted, outplayed and outlasted Jean-Robert Bellande to take down his first bracelet plus just over $278,000. Bellande will have to survive out of whatever he gets from the $173,000 he won for finishing 2nd.
The more important tournament happens at 12pm today, as thousands of people put down their $10,000 (however they got it) and start down the road to winning the Main Event on November 10th with day 1a. I\’m sure there will be plenty of glowing praise from the dear commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, and maybe even Jerry Yang will show up to do the \”shuffle up and deal\” announcement. The Main Event brings out all the celebrities who think they can play poker to get a few seconds of ESPN time to promote their new movie/TV show/pet project. With the celebrities comes the hordes of media who couldn\’t be bothered to cover the preliminary events (or bother to learn the basic facts of poker), taking over the media room while the members of the poker media get pushed to the side.
Eleven days of mayhem start in a few short hours, time to buckle up and enjoy the ride, wherever it takes you…
