Recapping Sunday night’s WSOP action:

Angle corners Seniors’ bracelet

78-year old Harold Angle of Sun City Center, Florida defeated Michael Minetti heads-up to win the $1,000 Seniors’ No-Limit Holdem Championship and add $487,994 to his bank account. Minetti earned $301,389 for the runner-up finish. As Dan noted in the post below, Tom Schneider finished 14th in his WSOP Seniors’ debut. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is available at wsop.com.

Mahmood leads 10k Heads-Up final 1-0

The finals of the $10,000 No-Limit Holdem Heads-Up Championship was expected to have finished earlier today, but the first match in the best-of-three final between Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal took over six hours to complete, with Mahmood eventually winning. Play will resume at 7pm tonight as they play to a finish, hopefully.

Juanda leads stacked 3k HORSE

25 players remain on day 3 of the $3,000 HORSE, with John Juanda (393,000) leading the way when play resumes at 3pm. The stacked field includes David “Not Bakes” Baker (373,000), Phil Ivey (205,000), Jeff Lisandro (193,000), Dan Heimiller (180,000), Bill Chen (158,000), David Benyamine (137,000), Chad Brown (108,000), Scott Seiver (105,000) and David Singer (93,000). The full list of chip counts are available at PokerNews.

Marchese leads 10k PL Holdem Day 2

A field of 268 players started Sunday afternoon in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem Championship, after ten hours of play, Thomas Marchese emerged as the leader with 334,600 in chips when play resumes at 3pm today. Some of the notables returning include Dani Stern (200,500), John Duthie (171,400), Noah Boeken (136,400), Blair Rodman (92,900), Mike Matusow (77,300) and Shannon Shorr (72,700). The top 27 players get paid, with the winner pocketing $617,214. The full list of chip counts are available at PokerNews.

D’angelo leads 1k NL day 1b field

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 1,119 players, with 165 of them joining the 268 day 1a players when play resumes at 2:30pm. The top 324 players make the money, with the winner picking up $481,760 at the cashier. The full list of chip counts for both days is available at wsop.com.

Monday’s tournaments

Two tournaments on the schedule today, first is the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem Shootout at 12pm. This has a listed cap of 2,000 players, which appears to be a strange number to use for a shootout. If more than 1000 players are registered, 20 additional tables will be added, with some tables being 9-handed. The winners from round 1 will make the money and return on Tuesday, with the winners of those tables playing on Wednesday to determine a winner. With a 1,000 player cap last year, Jeffrey Carris won this event last year, good for $313,673. The 5pm tournament is the $2,500 Razz, won by Jeff Lisandro in a field of 315 for $188,390.

Boys will be boys, and those of us in poker’s minority know this. The Wicked Chops entities made “hot girls” the norm for poker media, and the PokerListings guys have jumped on board with this gem, including comments about how their telephoto lenses are always “extended and ready.” Seriously, guys? Argh! But I’ve gotta be honest… The other side of that coin is that girls will be girls.

Believe it or not, there are some hot boys in poker who, with just a glance across the table, can make us drop our, ummm, chips. It is true that many of them, while looking good with their rock-hard abs and chiseled upper arms, do have poker “performance issues” (most of my hot boy picks didn’t exactly show positive results at the WSOP), but sometimes poker is hard! Even without final tables or gold bracelets, they still to stand out from the masses – at least 6 to 8 inches, I assume. Here are a few:

Chad Brown
Now that is what the gym is for. Not only is he in shape but he shows it off with his tight-fitting shirts. And he’s well-spoken and intelligent. Go on witcha bad self. Turn-ons: playing poker and traveling the world with wife Vanessa Rousso, donating to various charities, and working out.

Erick Lindgren
Not sure if he has rock-hard abs because his shirts aren’t tight enough, but he is athletic and good-looking. Best of all, he’s got a fantastic dry sense of humor. Turn-ons: playing poker tournaments, engaging in a little one-on-one on his home (basketball) court, and remembering reporters’ names (hi, Erick!).

Patrik Antonius
A list of hot boys would not be complete without Patrik, who likely was just born looking so amazing. His model good looks make everyone’s heads turn when he enters a room. Turn-ons: playing the highest stakes poker games in the world, living in Monte Carlo with wife Maya, and being a hot dad to his baby.

More…

The Day 1c field has returned from its dinner break a few minutes ago, with two more levels to play today. The difference between this field and the first two Day 1’s is that the field as well as tomorrow’s field will play 5 two-hour levels. When Day 2a commences Tuesday, they’ll also play 5 two-hour levels, while the Day 2b field will play 4 levels. A field of 1,697 were registered today, and there’s a possibility that Monday’s Day 1d field could be sold out. If not, it will certainly be the largest Day 1 field with well about 2,300 already registered.

Notable names already eliminated: Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, John Caldwell, Lacey Jones, Chino Rheem, and Jamie Gold. The unofficial leader at this time is Jeff Lisandro, looking for his 4th bracelet this year, leading the field with 132,000 in chips. Other notables with stacks include Hevad Khan (94,000), Joe Hachem (88,000), David Singer (78,000), Justin Bonomo (56,800), Brett “gank” Jungblut (51,000), Scotty Nguyen (49,000), and Dan Harrington (47,500). Other chip counts and live updates can be found at the wsop.com site here.

More updates later this evening from Team Pokerati, and another update from me in the morning recapping who’s left at the end of the night.

Recapping the overnight action from Tuesday:

Alaei-ay-ay!

Daniel Alaei won his second career WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship, to win over $445,000. Alaei took the chip lead from Scott Clements as the final table progressed, as heads-up play with Clements lasted just two hands. Daniel Negreanu finished in 4th, John Monnette finished in 5th.

Brock to Brock for Parker?

The $2,500 NL 6-max event finished with 11 players at the 3am deadline, who get to return at 12 noon to reach the feature table, with final table coverage on ESPN360. Joseph Serock is the current chip leader, with Brock Parker in second place looking for another WSOP bracelet. Here’s how the final two tables will be situated when play resumes:

Seat 1: Alexander Ivarsson – 734000
Seat 2: Clayton Newman – 501000
Seat 3: Brian Meinders – 423000
Seat 4: Joseph Serock – 1745000
Seat 5: James Sudworth – 247000
Seat 6: Russell Crane – 672000

Seat 1: Alexander Wilson – 603000
Seat 2: Brian Friesen – 258000
Seat 3: Jay Kinkade – 542000
Seat 4: Jesse Rios – 745000
Seat 5: Brock Parker – 1603000

Is it Seif?

Day 2 of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event returns at 2pm today with 61 players remaining, all having made the money. Jason Dewitt is the chip leader at 184,700, with Mark Seif (83,000) and David “The Maven” Chicotsky (82,400) among the top 10. Selected notables: Glynn Beebe (62,700), Erik Seidel (61,400), Mike Sexton (35,000), and Joe Sebok (24,000).

HORSE for $3,000, Alex

Day 2 of the $3,000 HORSE event drew a field of 452, up nearly 40 from last year, with 197 players remaining. Rob Amereno is the leader at 96,800. Featured notables: Markus Golser (52,500), David Singer (48,700), David Levi (35,600), Doyle Brunson (32,800), Shirley Rosario (31,100) and Michael Binger (28,700).

Shootout at the Rio, High Noon

The 12pm tournament, as Dan noted in below, is the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout event, which looks to be maxed out at 1,000 players already. 100 tables of 10 each play down to a winner, with the 100 players remaining coming back on Day 2. Last year, Jason Young won the bracelet in another maxed out field of 1,000 for over $330,000 in winnings.

Drawing to Conclusions

The 5pm event today is the debut of the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw World Championship event. Players start with 10,000 in chips along with two additional “rebuy” chips that can be used at any time in the first three levels. Phil Ivey won the $2,500 version of this event last week in a field of 147. The WSOP Staff Guide states that 85 players projected for today, so dead money will be hard to find. The projection appears a smidge high, so expect a field of 74 when registration is closed.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati and this afternoon at www.wsop.com

Recapping the Monday overnight at the World Series of Poker:

Brian Lemke Goes ShronkDaddy on 5k Final Table

Brian Lemke, cousin of the late Justin Shronk of PokerRoad and PokerNews, came back from a 4 to 1 chip deficit against Fabian Quoss to take down the $5,000 NL Holdem event for his first WSOP cash, final table, and bracelet, picking up $692,690 in the process. Quoss collected $427,911 for the 2nd place finish. An emotional Lemke dedicated the win to Shronk, saying “He was with me the whole time – the entire time. I know he brought that queen for me.” (The final hand had Lemke holding A-8 to Quoss’ A-Q, the board ran out 9-10-J-Q-x). “I miss him and that bracelet is dedicated to him, my family, my grandma, and his mom”.

All the Ladies at the Final Table, Say Yeahhhhh!

The $1,000 Ladies NL Holdem World Championship has their final table which will be seated as follows, with the final table streamed at 2pm on ESPN360:

Seat 1: Mari Lou Morelli 320,000
Seat 2: Lisa Parsons 427,000
Seat 3: Dawn Thomas 212,000
Seat 4: Lisa Hamilton 527,000
Seat 5: Lisa Santy 196,000
Seat 6: Angel Pedroza 522,000
Seat 7: Lori Bender 643,000
Seat 8: Kimberly Cunningham 140,000
Seat 9: Kim Rios 197,000

Omaha 8, 17 Looking to be Great

Meanwhile, the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship is down to its final 17 players, with John Monnette looking to get the bracelet that Phil Ivey had won from him in the $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball event last week. Monnette is the dominant chip leader (1,141,000) with Ben Boyd in 2nd place (663,000). Eight bracelet winners make up the other half of the field, topped by Scott Clements (477,000),
Daniel Alaei (297,000) and Ville Wahlbeck (231,000). The other bracelet winners: Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Toto Leonidas, Ted Lawson, and Alex Kravchenko. Play resumes this afternoon with the final table scheduled to air at around 2pm PT at www.bluffmagazine.com/live.

$2,500 6-max Going All Out on Day 2

2pm today also brings the return of 135 players for Day 2 of the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event, of which 108 will make the money. Brett “threatnasty” Switzer is the chip leader (183,000), with Brock Parker in 6th place trying to pick up a second bracelet this WSOP (138,900). Among the notables: Howard Lederer (93,900), Shaun Deeb (80,100), Neil Channing (59,000), and Erick Lindgren (31,600).

Two for Tuesday and Projections

It’s a return to double duty for the WSOP, with the 12pm tournament the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by David Singer in a field of 713, collecting over $210,000. The 5pm tournament is $3,000 HORSE, which was won last year by Jens Voertmann taking home almost $300,000 in a field of 414.

The WSOP Staff Guide projections for today’s events: $1,500 PL Holdem – 713 (take the under, with around 685). $3,000 HORSE is projected at 435 (take the under as well, I’ll guess 403).

More stuff during the day so check back to Pokerati frequently.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event started at noon today, and it appeared they were competing with the two Day 1’s of the $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special in terms of winnowing the field in a hurry. As the players go on their dinner break, just 198 players remain from a starting field of 809. There’s a chance that the field will be able to make the money, as 81 players will get paid, with first place taking down just over $237,000. The 75% reduction of the field in the PLO event is greater than the 67% decimation that hit the $1k NL event this past weekend. The early leaders appear to be Jason Mercier and Jesse Rios, both over 70,000 in chips. Other notables still with a chance: Josh Arieh, Amnon Filippi, Shannon Shorr, David Sklansky and Andy Black.

In games where you use two cards, the $1k Stimulus Special is on their dinner break, with play scheduled to end at 3am with the belief that a final table will be close at hand. Zach Melaney appears to be the chip leader (260,000). Notables near the top include J.C. Tran (200,000), Jonathan Aguiar (140,000), Steve Sung (90,000) and Will “The Thrill” Failla (76,000).

The WSOP Champions Invitational is currently three-handed as Tom McEvoy, Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington are playing for the Binion Cup and 1970 Corvette. Probably not the final three the ESPN cameras were hoping for, but that’s poker for you.

The $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship drew a smaller than expected field of 142, down 16 from last year. However, plenty of poker’s elite still make up the field such as: Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, David Singer, John Hennigan and Chau Giang. Updates on all of these events can be found at www.worldseriesofpoker.com all night.

First, some belated congratulations to the winners of the tournaments that started on Monday. The media tournament was won by Brett Collson of pocketfiveslive.com (he donated his $5,000 prize to the Wounded Warrior Project. The casino employees winner was Jonathan Kotula, who works at the O’Sheas casino on the LV Strip.

Day 2b of the Main Event started with almost 2,400 players looking to play again tomorrow for day 3. The dinner break started a few minutes ago, and about 1,400 players are still in action today as they finally got everyone into the Amazon Room at the Rio. The current leader appears to be Steve Lade, who has about 380,000 in chips. Notables near the top: Day 1c leader Hennig Granstad, Victor Ramdin, David Singer, a much slimmer Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Nenad Medic, Evelyn Ng and Chip Jett. You can follow all the action when they return around 8:45pm Vegas time at the WSOP website here.

More updates later…

What’s happening at the WSOP while waiting for the arrival of Phil Hellmuth and the UB Army at 2pm:

A little over half of the 1,928 that started play on Day 1c get to return on Wednesday to meet those who remained after five playing five levels on Sunday. Henning Granstad appears to be leader with about 228,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: David “Bakes” Baker, David Singer, Brad Booth, Evelyn Ng, Brian Townsend, Nenad Medic, and Jeff Madsen.

Today’s the final day for people to sign up for the Main Event, as registration closes at the end of Level 2, or at 2,700 entrants (whichever comes first). Over 2,000 have already signed up, and today’s attendance looks to be the highest for a Main Event in history (2,299 on day 1d in 2006 is the current record). At the moment, first place looks to take down about $9,000,000 when November rolls around, and about $850,000 would be given to each of the “November Nine”.

12:25 Update: Pauly is reporting almost 2,500 entered for today, pushing the total over 6,800 (2nd most in Main Event history). First place will pay over $9,600,000.

More updates during the day…

What’s happening tonight at the WSOP, while Wicked Chops Poker is celebrating the good news.

JC Tran takes his name off of the “Best player to never win a bracelet” list, taking down the $1,500 NL Holdem event against Danish pro Rasmus Nielsen. JC, at one point down 3-1 headsup, chipped away at Rasmus until he eventually took the chip lead, winning when his KQ nipped the Dane’s QJ on a Q-high flop. Tran takes home over $631,000 plus 100 WSOP POY points, moving him into 6th in the race with 1 event remaining. Nielsen will be consoled with almost $390,000 to take back to Denmark.

Other tournament happenings on the next page:
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Recapping last night’s action, with an eye on what’s going on today:

As noted below, Scotty Nguyen takes down the $50,000 HORSE event, taking down almost $2,000,000, his 5th bracelet, and the first to have won the WSOP Main Event and the $50k HORSE event. Erick Lindgren’s 3rd place moves him into first in the Milwaukee’s Best WSOP Player of the Year race with just 2 tournaments left.

The $1,500 NL Holdem final table has been set, scheduled to start at 3pm. The two most notable names are two WPT winners, JC Tran and Joe Pelton, here’s how the rest of the table will look like:

Seat 1: Christoph Kohnen 293,000
Seat 2: Joe Pelton 1,093,000
Seat 3: Jesper Hoog 320,000
Seat 4: John Conroy 501,000
Seat 5: Robert Kalb 456,000
Seat 6: J.C. Tran 1,438,000 (his 3rd final table of the Series)
Seat 7: Chad Siu 185,000
Seat 8: Peter Nguyen 870,000
Seat 9: Rasmus Nielsen 2,998,000

Other tournament stuff on the next page:
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By the end of Day 2 of the 5-day event, there were only 67 players left standing in the tournament. The 81 players who have been eliminated left $4,050,000 behind for the others.

Among those gone from the field is reigning champion Freddy Deeb, courtesy of Steve Zolotow in an Omaha-8 hand. Last year’s second-place finisher Bruno Fitoussi was taken out of this year’s event by Hasan Habib in a razz hand. David Singer’s run for a third final table in three years was thwarted by Rob Hollink in a stud-8 hand early on Day 2.

Taking a look at what is possible, there are several players who could make for some interesting stories here:

1. Barry Greenstein cashed in 2006 (12th place) and 2007 (7th place).

2. 2007 final table players who are still in the running to make it happen a second year in a row include John Hanson, Kenny Tran, Thor Hansen, Gabe Kaplan, and Greenstein. It won’t be possible for Amnon Filippi because though I swore I saw him on Day 1, it seems that he didn’t play this event as his name is not on the bust-outs or chip count list.

3. Of course, Doyle Brunson could make a run at that 11th bracelet, and he would win the first-ever Chip Reese commemorative trophy. Could there be anything better?

There are more stories to develop as the field thins further. The chip leader going into Day 3, which starts in just moments, is Lyle Berman. Could a WPT guy win the biggest tournament at the WSOP? Let’s see how it goes! Updates throughout the evening…

Recapping last night’s events with a preview of today’s action:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better event was won last night by Martin Klaser, who was dominant in the brief heads-up battle with Casey Kastle to take down his first bracelet and just over $216,000. Kastle winds up with almost $138,000, the biggest cash in his career.

The $1,000 NL Holdem with Rebuys event got down to their final table, here’s how it’ll look like under the hot lights of the ESPN360 cameras at 2pm today:

Seat 1: Scott Freeman 675,000
Seat 2: Max Greenwood 728,000
Seat 3: Curtis Kohlberg 209,000
Seat 4: Rene Mouritsen 1,007,000
Seat 5: Alex Bolotin 308,000 – His 3rd final table of this Series
Seat 6: Albert Iversen 921,000
Seat 7: Aliaksandr Dzianisau 186,000
Seat 8: Phung Ngo 556,000
Seat 9: Jesse Chinni 2,160,000

Other action from yesterday on the next page:
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The $50K H.O.R.S.E. event is only two days away, and players are considering their options:

A. Buy-in directly with $50,000
B. Find backers but face $50,000 in makeup if they don’t cash
C. Sell pieces of themselves if there are enough takers
D. Play the last-minute mega satellites at $2,250 a pop
E. Sit out of one of the most prestigious events in poker

I chatted with David Singer about his choice, and he is no doubt going with A. The bottom line is that he has been doing well of late. Looking at his Hendon Mob results, he has over $400,000 in live tournament winnings this year alone, and that doesn’t count the Full Tilt online heads-up championship that added another $560,000 to that number. In 2007, he won nearly $1.7 million.

David sees no reason to do anything but plunk down the $50,000 to play. When I suggested that he might not hesitate because he finished sixth each of the two past years in this event, he insisted that is not a factor in his decision. He simply has the money for the buy-in and wouldn’t miss the tournament.

How much should a person have in his or her bankroll to buy in to a $50K event? “Lots,” he said, displaying his wry smile. “You can quote me on that. But say you have a $1 million bankroll, $50K for a one-time event leaves you with $950K. That’s not a bad decision.”

It seems that the 2008 WSOP is at the halfway point. If judging by days, we are almost there, but if looking at events, more than half of them have concluded and we’re in the second half.

Thus far, bits of poker history have been made – the first set of siblings to each win a bracelet in the same year and only the second set of brothers to every accomplish the feat, and the fourth largest poker tournament ever held (Event #2). Professional poker players have absolutely dominated the Series, with numerous players like Lindgren and Singer finally taking home the gold. And through the end of the day June 17th, the totals were as follows:

30 WSOP bracelets awarded
28,223 players registered in tournaments
2,705 players finished in the money
$66,514,615 prize pools combined

There is also an interesting and notable change that takes place at the WSOP near the halfway mark.

More…

What’s happened tonight while preferring to watch the Pokerati Bowling Series over PBS every time:

The $3,000 NL Holdem event is down to headsup play with John Phan and Johnny Neckar. There’s been some controversy over where the action has taken place. First, David Singer had an issue with the lighting in the area and requested to be moved to another location. The table they were moved to was in the center of the tournament floor, and the crowd of players in other tournaments, fans, and media were too much for the players. The floor staff would eventually rope off the area to give the combatants some breathing room. Singer eventually finished in 5th place, chip leader Matthew Vengrin would be eliminated in 3rd.

More after the leap:

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