Recapping some of the afternoon action on Sunday:

Negreanu looking for bracelet #5

The $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max is down to the final three players, with Daniel Negreanu having a dominant chip lead. Brock Parker and Tommi Horkko are the other two left in the field. Finland now has its third top-3 finish in less than a week. You can still watch this final table at the Bluff website or for the international reader the PKR site.

Stammen Stampeding His Foes

The $2,500 NL Holdemevent just got to heads-up with Keven Stammen holding a 2-1 chip lead over Angel Gullen. This looks to be a very fast final table as it took just 70 hands to go from ten players down to two.

Ladies Event Attendance Showing Its Slip

The $1,000 Ladies NL Holdem World Championship drew a field of 1,088 this afternoon. That figure is down from last year’s 1,190, which was lower than 2007’s 1,286 total. 370 ladies remain in the field when they return from dinner break, with Ulrika Tangstrom the reported chip leader at 30,000. Defending champion Svetlana Gromenkova is third in chips (22,200), other notables include Maria Ho (22,100) Anna Wroblewski (14,100) and and Pam Brunson (8,200).

Seven Card Studs Wheeze into the Money

The Ladies’ field had at least one regular not in the field, as Barbara Enright ended a 23-year tradition of playing, as she was still in the field for the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event. The players made it into the money just before their dinner break, with 34 players currently remaining. Fabrice Soulier is the current leader with 120,000 in chips followed close behind by Dutch Boyd at 116,000. Defending champion Michael Rocco is 6th in chips at 75,000, with Enright listed in 7th in with 60,000. Other notables remaining include Thor Hansen (56,000), John Cernuto (40,000) and Pokerati blogger Robert Goldfarb (20,000. The players will now try to beat the 3am deadline to reach a final table, which does look like a possibility for this event.

5k Bubble Play

The $5,000 NL Holdem event has 65 players remaining, just two away from the money. Billy Kopp is the current chip leader at 350,000. Faraz Jaka is in 3rd place (334,000), with online phenoms Isaac Baron (326,000) and Mike Sowers (320,000) close behind. More experienced professionals Kathy Liebert (238,000) and Erik Seidel (225,000) are also in the chase. While Ivan Demidov hasn’t cashed at this year’s WSOP, his girlfriend Liya Gerasimova is on the cusp of doing just that with 215,000 in chips.

Omaha Will Get You Farha

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship brought a field of 179, including Sammy Farha, down 56 from last year. 30,000 in chips and a slow structure means low eliminations so far, but there’s bound to be a few when play ends today at the end of level 8.

To catch the updates for all of these events, head to www.worldseriesofpoker.com to follow all the exciting tournament action.

Ivan Demidov is not able to attend the NBC Heads-Up event at Caesars’ Palace this weekend due to visa issues. Hevad Khan will take his place, which was announced by Mori Eskandani on Gary Wise’s podcast on Rounders Radio.

OK, hmm, some new poker on TV coming in less than a month that I’m actually interested in Tivo-ing watching. ESPN’s first ever production of WSOP Europe. They’re playing 4/8 Hour-Limit episodes (with Reruns and a half-kill?) — promising a different feel-and-vibe, and introducing the mobile hole card-cam.

WSOP Europe 2008: John Juanda vs. Ivan Demidov

Alright, I like the sounds of it! Can’t wait to watch the eps with a hypercritical eye and then haphazardly tear apart the hard work of dozens, if not hundreds of people trying to give the whiners and moaners viewers Pokerati readers what they say they want in poker television.

Though I doubt WSOP Europe on TV will have quite the cultural impact of similar-length miniseries such as V, Shogun, and The Thornbirds … I suspect it can be equally as catching as From G’s to Gents.

More…

I’m about to head over the the Golden Nugget (in an hour or so) … so then I’ll have an official count on who’s playing … but there were some last-minute swaps in play.

Yesterday, both Peter Eastgate and Barry Greenstein were hanging around waiting for an open seat. When Sam Simon decided to call it quits, Greenstein took it … seniority?

David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Ilari Sahamies, Eastgate, and Greenstein supposedly have their seats for today locked up. Eastgate was playing highest-stakes at the Bellagio on Friday in preparation, and lost $100k to Daniel Alaei and some player named “Brinn”. (My phonetical translation of what I heard from Eastgate’s heavy-accent recount.)

Phil Hellmuth was supposed to play today, but he backed out. Likewise for Phil Ivey. Ivan Demidov considered taking one of the empty seats, but ultimately declined. As of late yesterday, Chino Rheem was a probable, and Alaei was a possible.

UPDATE: Just got word from the set … players are late. Start delayed a half-hour.

CORRECTIONS: Tom Dwan took Sam Simon’s seat. Hellmuth was never officially on the sked. But somebody told me he might play. Perhaps he just felt the games on UB were better for him?

From an email from GSN:

GSN’S ‘HIGH STAKES POKER™’ HEADS BACK TO THE GOLDEN NUGGET HOTEL & CASINO WITH LARGEST EVER BUY-IN FOR ENTIRE RUN OF A TELEVISION SERIES

WHAT: GSN invites press to come watch the exclusive taping of the highly-anticipated fifth season of HIGH STAKES POKER™. The new season features the returns of poker stars Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson and Eli Elezra, along with players new to HIGH STAKES POKER such as Tom Dwan and reigning World Champion Peter Eastgate, and recreational players like “The Simpsons” creator Sam Simon, Bob Safai and film director Nick Cassavetes. The stakes have never been higher for the players as the minimum cash buy-in of $200,000 is the largest buy-in for an entire run of a television series. The show returns to the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV where HIGH STAKES POKER SEASON ONE took place. Please see below for a preliminary list of players scheduled to appear.
More…

Now that we’ve finished with the 2008 WSOP, and made our various criticisms of the November Nine, it’s time to plan for next year’s WSOP. Most people who watched the final table found it a bit lacking, especially the heads-up play between Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov, as 105 hands of headsup play lasted 2 hands on ESPN.

Here’s my suggestion for next year: I suggest a shorter delay from when the final table is established to when we find out who is the winner. Move the start of the WSOP back one week, and with whatever schedule they choose to make up with the last tournament being the Main Event. ESPN starts televising the Main Event July 21, 2009 with the same nine weeks of coverage as this year. You can still do the Final Table preview show September 22, with the final table scheduled for September 27. The other big twist, instead of nine players making the final table, you play it down to six. This way, one-third less players helps increases exposure and sponsorship opportunities to those remaining. You even get an alliterative nickname for the final table:

The September Six

Schedule the final table for September 27th, 2009 with the ESPN final table broadcast on September 29. Having only 6 players should also reduce the stress the production team has in editing the final table and gives you the opportunity to show more creative hands to help show the flow of the final table. The idea that you start the heads-up play at a late hour so that the newspapers won’t be able to let their readers know who won didn’t work exactly as hoped. If this idea was tried pre-Internet it would work better, but when the network that’s showing the final table repeatedly lets its viewers know who won, it completely defeats the purpose. Start the final table at a reasonable hour on Monday afternoon and play it out. If heads-up is a great back and forth battle, maybe you can dedicate the last 30 minutes to the action instead of two hands where it looks like Eastgate held over Demidov the whole way.

Anyways, it’s just a thought that I’m sure people can pick apart, but I’d still suggest Karridy to start buying up those September Six domains.

I’m curious what y’all thought about the big-hype show last night. I enjoyed the hands we did see — because really, this final table probably featured some of the best pure poker of any main event sit-n-go I’ve seen since I started following poker five years ago. Not sure how well that came across.

The Craig Marquis bustout hand really was incredible … that woulda been a good time for ESPN to show the audience, not just the players … because really, the whole audience was on pins-and-needles. Even we cynical media types temporarily forgot about our jobs and became true fanboys, just waiting for that devestating river card. (To some extent, poker fans are a little bit like NASCAR viewers, not wanting to see but kinda sorta waiting for an amazing crash.)

Overall, I thought ESPN did a better job covering the whole of the World Series better than any year prior. But the final table was a little disappointing … I give it a B-. But hey, I’m always very forgiving the first go-round … you learn so much from doing something once. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year.

A few more random thoughts about the whole experience:

• Penn & Teller Theater was an awesome venue. Woulda been a better experience, however, had the whole set-up been rotated 90 degrees, so the MBL Lounge wasn’t blocking so much of the view.
• ESPN seemed to have difficult lighting the crowd for such shots. I will give them my secret for free: set your cameras to “Auto”.
• Two hours was not long enough for the show. Had they made it three or four hours — or fuck, the whole shebang on pay-per-view — it woulda been more interesting and more of an event. The promotion woulda been easier, too, because it woulda stood out as something different … but two hours? That’s just an NBA game. What’s special about that?

More…

A champion is in our midst, and he is the youngest WSOP main event champion ever. Congratulations, Peter Eastgate from Odense, Denmark!

Both players got in cheap to see the flop of 2d-Ks-3h. It was Eastgate who bet out, and Demidov check-called. The 4c hit on the turn, which prompted another check from Demidov. Eastgate bet again, and Demidov then raised to 6 million. Eastgate called, and when the 7s came on the turn, Demidov pushed all-in. Eastgate called instantly with Ad-5s for the wheel. Demidov’s 4h-2h wasn’t good enough, and he was out in second place with $5,809,595 in prize money.

Peter Eastgate became the 2008 WSOP main event champion at only 22-years old, breaking Phil Hellmuth’s record to become the youngest champion ever. He was subsequently awarded the WSOP bracelet and the $9,152,416 that accompanied it.

But hey, let’s keep this on the down-low, huh? Since this is semi-live and will be aired on ESPN in less than 24 hours, keep this to yourselves until it the TV broadcasts the news. Thanks!

More than two hours into heads-up play, most of the crowd remains in their seats, despite discovering how slow and uneventful live poker can be at times. Some other points of interest:

~From the time the final table began yesterday, this just turned into the longest WSOP main event final table in history, beating out the 14-hour 2005 table which went to Joe Hachem.

~Dennis Phillips and Darus Suharto are in the audience to sweat their former opponents and see this thing come to a conclusion.

~Reportedly, Erick Lindgren’s name was misspelled on his engraved Harley.

~Demidov came on strong tonight by evening up the chip stacks, but within the last hour, Eastgate not only regained his lead but became the first player to leap over the 100 million chip mark. Demidov just dipped below the 30 million mark and can’t seem to find a spot to make a comeback…yet.

When the security guys came out with the money in silvery aluminum briefcases — 9 million semi-real American dollars — a few of us in media row joked about telling the story that the guys left at the final table had decided to chop up the remaining prize pool and play for it Deal or Ne Deal style. (Ha ha, we are so damn funny.) But on this episode of Tao of Pokerati, Pauly and I take the issue a bit more seriously, and break down what’s really at stake for Ivan and Peter — who became friends recently playing on the EPT on PokerStars’ dime — beyond just the $3.34 million in prize differential between 1st and 2nd.*

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.11: Deal or No Deal? 5:33

[audio:tao/TOP-4-11.mp3]

*I don’t care what anyone says … that’s not enough money to justify an even chop, I don’t believe. And kudos to tourney organizers for breaking down the prize pool in such a way that it mathematically would mathematically make little sense (on the surface, at least).

Either that or Peter Hellmuth. As we wind down the day yesterday and look forward to tonight’s action, that’s what’s at stake — either we’ll have a new youngest main event champion ever, or the Ruskies will have a new national hero. Meanwhile, Dan gets his facts wrong, but does Pauly even care when he can’t see the final f-in table?

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.10: Ivan Moneymaker 3:29

[audio:tao/TOP-4-10.mp3]

… are here in (small) force, supporting their man Ivan Demidov:

At this moment, Dennis Phillips is drawing dead with one card to come. That will be 3rd place for him — his boisterous crowd and his Red Hat Brigade are honoring him the way friends of someone who has just won $4.5 million should. (That’s Greg Raymer money.) Lots of applause.

Heads-up will be Ivan Demidov vs. Peter Eastgate (who stands to be the youngest player ever to win the main event).

Year of the European Young Guns, it turns out to be.

Most of the under bets, by the way, regarding time, win … except for Jen, who took the under on 10 pm. (What was she thinking!)

Chip Counts

Peter Eastgate – 79,425,000
Ivan Demidov – 57,800,000

Clearly anybody’s game. Russians vs. Scandis. I’m going with Demidov, though. As we know, the Russians were the ones that really made a showing at the 2008 WSOP, regardless of how tomorrow turns out. Scandis were like so 2007.

Dallas-to-Vegas transplant Linda Tran is one of five dealers dealing the final table. While there’s a wee-bit of hubbub from the usual featured-table dealers who weren’t invited to pitch … I know Linda is one of the best dealers I’ve ever sat/worked with, whether that was at charity tourneys in Dallas, or as a player in WSOP cash games in previous years. Kinda exciting to see her throwing Kems in such a big game — she’s earned it, imho.

She was at the Rio last night working with the TV table felt — something about the grain affecting the speed of the slide … and think about it, if she messes up here, sure, flipped cards and the like are part of the game, but still … can you imagine working on stage, in the spotlight, knowing if you make one of those mistakes that is inevitable … it potentially affects a player’s personal outcome by a million dollars or more? No pressure. 🙂

NOTE: She’s on the felt now, and kept Ivan Demidov alive by not cracking his pocket kings (despite flopping a nut-flush draw for his opponent, who I believe was Scott Montgomery). Meanwhile, in the crowd, Dennis Phillips’ fans have started chanting college-hoops style: “Let’s – Go – Den – Nis – [clap] – [clap] -[clap][clap][clap]!”

UPDATE: Whoa!!!! A one outer-on the river, compliments of Linda, to knock out Scott Montgomery in 5th place. $3,096,768. (Still pretty good money — more than Moneymaker won.)

CURRENT CHIP COUNTS

Ivan Demidov — 49,100,000
Peter Eastgate – 47,635,000
Ylon Schwartz — 22,175,000
Dennis Phillips – 17,325,000

Players are off on dinner break … and the chip counts are nicely on display for all to see:

Ivan Demidov: 30,725,000
Peter Eastgate: 27,175,000
Dennis Phillips: 26,950,000
Ylon Schwartz: 20,475,000
Scott Montgomery: 20,300,000
Darus Suharto: 10,600,000

Damn, that’s tight poker. And I don’t mean tight tight … I mean close-tight.

Before dinner break, btw, Phil Hellmuth introduced Johnny Chan, and Hellmuth got more boos than Tiffany Michelle. He said, that’s OK, boo all you want … and the crowd that is at this point tired-drinky (think post-football game tailgate in college) obliged.

They were announcing a multi-year deal between the WSOP and ALL IN energy drink. Oy, I guess all I can say for now is that after going through my bajillion cases … I didn’t rebuy.