Going over what’s happened so far this Tuesday at the WSOP:

10k Stud 8 Final Table Set

The final table of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better final table has been set, with plenty of big names looking to take down a bracelet this evening. Here’s how the final table will look when play resumed at 9pm:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman – 861,000
Seat 2: Steve Zolotow – 684,000
Seat 3: Frank Kassela – 800,000
Seat 4: John Juanda – 787,000
Seat 5: Vladimir Schmelev – 304,000
Seat 6: Kirill Rabtsov – 882,000
Seat 7: Allen Kessler – 467,000
Seat 8: Dario Minieri – 316,000

Follow the split-pot action at PokerNews.

Vance Still Best in $1k NL

Matt Vance remains the chip leader (1,100,000) with 19 remaining on day 3 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event. David Baker, no relation to 50k Player’s Championship final tablist David “Bakes” Baker, has 990,000. It was hoped that they would play down to a finish, but that looks unlikely at this time, so they’ll stop when they reach the final 9. See what does happen by following over at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL 6-max Day 2

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max has under 50 players remaining, with Michael Myers the current chip leader with 385,000. Other notables include Ray Henson (329,000), Jordan Morgan (240,000), and Mark Seif (200,000). Follow the updates and results over at wsop.com.

$5,000 NL Day 1

The only tournament to start this afternoon, the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of 792 players, up over 100 from last year’s edition. Under 500 remain after the dinner break at the end of level 6 with Amit Makhija currently in front with 83,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: Chino Rheem (60,000), Perry Friedman (55,000), Scott Fischman (53,000) and defending champion Brian Lemke (48,900). More updates and chip counts are available at wsop.com.

Here’s a look at Saturday evening’s WSOP action, starting with the two bracelet winners:

Men Master’s Stud for Bracelet #7

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship was won by Men “The Master” Nguyen defeating Brandon Adams heads-up to win his 7th WSOP bracelet and $394,807, moving him into a tie for 5th place with Phil Ivey and Billy Baxter. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are now online at wsop.com.

Dempsey Flush with a Bracelet

James “Flushy” Dempsey wins his first WSOP bracelet, in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event, defeating Steve Chanthabousay heads-up to win $197,470. A complete list of results plus Nolan Dalla’s report is at wsop.com.

Dwan Durrrrable in $1,500 NL

Day 3 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem has Tom “Durrrr” Dwan the chip leader (1,068,000) with 21 players remaining. Play resumes at 2:30pm to play down to a winner and PokerNews will be following all the action.

Lucky Thirteen Going for Limit Bracelet

Day 3 of the $1,500 Limit Holdem event has 13 players returning at 3pm to play down to a winner. Jason Potter moves into the chip lead (371,000) followed by day 1 chip leader Jameson Painter (307,000) in second. Terrence Chan (288,000), Matt Matros (272,000) and Frank Kassela (162,000) are the other notables returning this afternoon. Find all chip counts and live updates this afternoon over at PokerNews.

The 15% Solution

Day 1a of the second$1,000 No-Limit Holdem played about halfway into level 9 this morning, with 278 players, about 15% of the field, returning Monday at 2:30pm. This decision was made after last weekend’s $1,000 event had players getting eliminated too quickly, a problem Tao of Pokerati discussed with Ty Stewart. The current chip leader is Andy Black (90,275), with Phil Gordon (44,225), Jena Delk (34,300), Shaun Deeb (26,850), Victor Ramdin (23,350) and An Tran (20,350) are some of the recognizable names returning Monday at 2:30pm. The full list of players and their chip counts is now available over at PokerNews.

Binger Best in 2-7 Lowball

A field of 67 returns Sunday afternoon at 3pm for day 2 of the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw with Nick Binger the leader with 54,300 in chips. Scott Seiver is in 2nd with 46,875, with Chino Rheem in 3rd with 42,725. Other notables include Dario Minieri (31,725), 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball winner Peter Gelenscer (21,925), Michael Binger (17,350) and Erick Lindgren (16,600). Only 28 make the money, with the winner earning $92,817. The full list of players counts is at PokerNews.

Sunday’s Bracelet Action

Starting at 12pm is day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event, will there be a smaller field like last week? The 5pm tournament starts the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship. Jeff Lisandro won this event last year in a field of 164, one of the three he won in 2009. Plenty of big names are expected to turn out for their chance to win a bracelet without so many donks in the field.

Not the most action-filled episode of High Stakes Poker, but you can still watch it anyways, right?:

Valentine’s Day was the debut of season 6 of GSN’s most popular show, High Stakes Poker. AJ Benza is no longer on the show, replaced by Kara Scott to provide some player interviews, leaving Gabe Kaplan to provide commentary solo. This would have been up earlier if GSN decided to put the full episode on Youtube, but they decided to only put it up on their own site.

International team poker is just a fad, right? Maybe so … but this defending Dream Team Poker-WSOP champion who loves to monitor WSOP prowess by country is looking forward to the television coverage of the Caesar’s Cup — a special event at WSOP-Europe that pits the Canadians Americans vs. the Euros in an 8-player-a-side format. As the teams take shape, it’s looking to be quite the competitive experience vs. youth match-up:

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and John Juanda

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier

I still don’t quite have a grasp on the format, or how the other four slots will be selected. But I do know Euros can qualify for a seat on their team via our good mates at Betfair Poker.

Recapping the conclusion of Thursday’s action at the WSOP…

Baldwin Hits a Grand Slam with Bracelet

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin a member of the 2005 NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team, took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event early Friday morning, besting Dane Jonas Klausen in heads-up play to take home over $520,000 in winnings and his first career bracelet. Baldwin picks up his second major tournament victory of the year, he won the $2,500 NL Holdem main event at the Venetian Deep Stacks Extravaganza II in April.

Mizzi Mastering PLO

Sorel Mizzi leads the final 11 when day 3 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event when play resumes at 1pm today, with the hope of having a final table of nine ready for the 2pm internet broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are currently seated:

Seat 1: Rifat Palevic (949,000)
Seat 3: Samuel Ngai (207,000)
Seat 4: Dan Hindin (342,000)
Seat 5: Felipe Ramos (323,000)
Seat 7: Richard Austin (537,000)

Seat 1: Van Marcus (482,000)
Seat 2: Peter Jetten (370,000)
Seat 3: Jeppe Nielsen (242,000)
Seat 5: Sorel Mizzi (969,000)
Seat 7: Cliff Josephy (805,000)
Seat 8: Isaac Baron (170,000)

Corwin Cole Claims Cardinal Condition

Corwin Cole is the chip leader at 185,700 when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event resumes at 2pm today with 213 players remaining, 171 making the money. Other notables returning include: Dustin Dirksen (145,000), Shaun Deeb (88,500), Chino Rheem (74,600), Rob Hollink (53,500), and Eugene Todd (48,500).

Tuan Top Stud

Tuan Le is the reported chip leader of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship when play resumes at 2pm today with 110 players remaining, 16 getting paid. Le has 234,000, with Los Angeles Lakers CEO Frank Mariani in second place with 111,300. Tom Schneider is among the returnees with 83,300, good for 8th place. Dario Minieri (81,500), Nick Schulman (73,000), Jerry Buss (67,800), David Benyamine (65,400), and Mike Sexton (53,400) are some of the other notables hoping to play on Saturday’s final table.

Friday’s Tournament

Only one tournament kicks off today, the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by Daniel Negreanu in a field of 479, good for just over $200,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event is 480, but don’t be surprised if just over 500 take to the felt today.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati, and catch the live updates over at www.wsop.com

Parker casts spell over Negreanu

Brock Parker, a former Magic the Gathering player, knocked off Daniel Negreanu heads-up to take down his first bracelet in the $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event last night.

“Stamdogg” Top Dog in $2,500 NL

Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen bested Angel Guillen to collect over $500,000 and his first bracelet in the $2,500 NL Holdem event.

WSOP, Where Final Tables Actually Happen on Time, Sometimes

The $1,500 7 Card Stud event reached their final table earlier this morning, with action starting at 2pm today. The participants are:

Seat 1: Jeff Lisandro (334,000)
Seat 2: Eric Pardey (217,000)
Seat 3: Nick Frangos (84,000)
Seat 4: John Juanda (287,000)
Seat 5: Mitch Schock (83,000)
Seat 6: Steven Stencil (323,000)
Seat 7: Rod Pardey (245,000)
Seat 8: Daniel Studer (43,000)

Our Pokerati cohort Robert Goldfarb finished 29th for $2,945.

Monday’s other final table will take place later this afternoon in the $5,000 NL Holdem event. Faraz Jaka was the last player eliminated when the clock struck 3am, and with 17 players remaining, Isaac Baron is the chip leader (1,101,000). Other notables remaining: David Pham (880,000), Mike Sowers (583,000), Liya Gerasmova (527,000), Lars Bonding (365,000), Thomas Keller (314,000) and David Benefield (239,000). The players will be returning at 12 noon tomorrow, which didn’t make Bonding or Keller too happy about hearing that news, as this will be streamed on ESPN360 and PKR later this afternoon.

Ladies and Omaha Returnees

The $1,000 Ladles NL Holdem World Championship returns with 146 remaining, of which 117 get paid. The reported chip leader is Tammy Tibbles, with 129,700 in chips. Defending champion Svetlana Gromenkova is in 2nd (62,200). Other notable ladies returning at 2pm today include: Lisa Parsons (46,300), JJ Liu (38,300), Susie Isaacs (32,600), and Maria Ho (24,800).

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship returns with 129 players remaining, 111 of which will leave with nothing. Chris Bjorin is the day 1 chip leader at (134,400) with Scott Clements (130,800), defending champion David Benyamine (94,800) and Phil Hellmuth (83,700) in the top 10. Selected notables include: Phil Ivey, (80,000) Thang Luu (63,400), and Matt Savage (60,100) among the returnees at 2pm today.

Monday: Only One Today

Only one tournament today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event. Last year, it was won by Dario Minieri in a field of 1,012 for over $528,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event was set at 1,113. With the recent downward trend in tournament entries, take the under expecting just over 1,000 to take to the felt.

That’s all for me, but more stuff can be found at Pokerati during the day.

I’m sure many people missed last night’s High Stakes Poker episode on GSN to watch Annie Duke get slowrolled by Donald Trump. The show featured the debut of the day 1 lineup with a few new faces so check it out below:

The 2008 World Series has come and gone and will most likely, in a little less than three months, will come again. In the meantime, while cleaning out the computer(s) we’ve come across these “lost” episodes … recorded in the tail days of the main event. But this is everything … there’s no more, OK? At least not for now. So if you’d like to step back into the WSOP for just a few minutes at a time to the vocal stylings of yours truly and Dr. Pauly, by all means, have a listen/download. Some of it actually seems a little extra interesting with the benefit of a month-or-so of hindsight.

For the entire WSOP season click here.

The heretofore unheard old-new episodes, salvaged from the cut-and-pasting room floor:

Episode 30: The Cost of Donuts
Grubby joins the media to talk main event numbers and the price of trendy donuts in today’s oil economy. (3:19)
[audio:30-TOP-grubby.mp3]

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Episode 31: Scotchy Poker
Dan+scotch early in the WSOP day=talk of Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier. (4:02)
[audio:31-TOP-scotch.mp3]

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Episode 32: French Warfare
Benjo takes over the mic when Dan calls in drunk, and he and Pauly talk more about Isabelle Mercier live from the Day 2 killing fields. (5:14)
[audio:32-TOP-benjohappy.mp3]

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Episode 33: New York & Texas
Michele Lewis joins in as Dan and Pauly break down the difference between Texas and New York humor, or at least the difference between Pauly and Dan. (2:40)
[audio:33-TOP-michele.mp3]

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Episode 34: Go Team!
Dallas’ Raj Kattamuri is going deep, and Pauly tracks down Dan in the poker kitchen to find out what it takes to be patched up on Team Pokerati. (2:37)
[audio:34-TOP-teampokerati.mp3]

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Episode 35: No Wiener
Benjo is not his usual jovial self as the main event comes to a close and he bids farewell to his American friends in the penultimate WSOP episode of Tao of Pokerati. (4:41)
[audio:35-TOP-benjosad.mp3]

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Episode 36: Unhookered
The traditional late-late night poker-blogger farewell binge drinking at the Rio’s Hooker Bar, with guest appearances by Otis and Mean Gene. (3:29)
[audio:36-TOP-hookerbar.mp3]

It was a fabulous party! PokerStars went all out for this bash at the Palms, even so far as to have the valets where PS logos on their shirts. The night began with a media get-together for the players and PS guests from 7pm to 9pm with free drinks in The Lounge, and continued with the party at nightclub Rain that started at 9pm with a red carpet entry for the media to get shots of the pros with the night’s entertainment, burlesque star Dita Von Teese. Personally, I skipped the mish-mash of media fighting for a spot to snap pics and went straight for the club, as it was a night off for me, and I was ready to enjoy it.

Matt from the PokerStars PR company told me that the party was filled to capacity with 1300 people, and there were still lines of people trying to get in. Makes sense…it was wall-to-wall people in there. Oh, and there were free drinks.

The big story of the night was the locked lips of Isabelle Mercier and Dario Minieri. Evidently, there was no shame and no realization that despite a ban on cameras in the joint, everyone has cell phones with photo capability. Those pics will surely surface sometime today.

All I can remember say about the evening is that I’m really starting to like the Germans, and I think there were free drinks at the party.

Recapping the Friday action and a preview for today:

The $1,500 7 Card Stud winner turned out to be Mike Rocco, who endured the barbs of Al Barbieri to take down his first bracelet and about $135,000.

The $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship stopped play with 18 left, they get to return at 3pm to determine their winner. The final two tables have plenty of notable names remaining, which consist of:

Table 14

1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000

Table 15

1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu “Tony” Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000

The ESPN360 final table for today on the next page…

More…

Considering I am a solid 25% Italian and have a vacation planned in Italy this October, I’m rooting for the Italians this WSOP. And mama mia, they are doing it. With two bracelets thus far and more than a few events to go, this could be the year of the Italians!
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In an attempt to destroy their language congratulate them, here goes:

Maximillian Pescatori, il pirata italiano, ha 37 anni e grandina da Milano. Ha vinto il suo secondo braccialetto di WSOP questo anno. Ha vinto lo stesso giorno quello primo di 2006 mentre l’Italia ha vinto la tazza di mondo.

Dario Minieri è 23 anni e vite a Roma. Ha vinto il suo primo braccialetto di WSOP questo anno. È stato conosciuto per la conquista della Porsche su PokerStars ma è inoltre un riuscito giocatore in tensione.

Congratulazioni a massimo ed a Dario! Gli italiani intorno al mondo sono fieri di voi!

Events from last night at the WSOP, as I try in vain to come up with new ways to say the same old stuff:

As Dan mentioned in the post below, Dario Minieri took down the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event in a final table that lasted almost 200 hands, surprising for a 6 handed final table. Seth Fischer finished in 2nd, putting a brutal beat on Justin Filtz to eliminate him in 3rd when the AK of Fischer ran down Filtz’ AA.

The $5,000 Stud Eight or Better final table was finally set after 7am this morning, and another first almost occurred as both Annie Duke and her brother Howard Lederer were among the final 9. However, Howard was eliminated in 9th, but the final table still has notable names such as Chris Ferguson, Steve Sung and Marcel Luske that will return at 5pm today to determine the winner. Here’s that final table:

Seat 1: Bob Lauria: 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske: 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung: 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke: 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia: 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg: 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson: 434,000
Seat 8: Robert Beveridge: 288,000

The other final table today and other action after the thing you click to get to the next page:

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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

The only final table for today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-handed event, is down to the final 3.  Seth Fischer is the current chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri is second, and Justin Filtz is in 3rd. Dario once had over half the chips 3-handed, but he’s doubled up both players and run into some bad luck to fall into 2nd. Their action can be followed at the World Series of Poker’s live updates here.

Other action after the thing that says More…

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