Wicked Chops reported today that Jeff Shulman, who is still in the top ten in chips on the final day of the summer WSOP, would throw away the WSOP Main Event bracelet if he happened to win it. Throw away…as in the trash…as in one of the most ridiculous stunts should he actually go through with it.

Shulman reportedly believes the selling of WSOP media rights is unfair and that the coverage now is unacceptable.

That is interesting. Let’s think back for a moment to the time, only two years ago, when the World Poker Tour sold the live tournament reporting rights to, ummm, CardPlayer! And didn’t CardPlayer provide its own mediocre coverage of the WSOP about three years ago? The Shulmans and their poker company seemed to have no aversion to buying exclusive media rights coverage until they were outbid and outdone by other companies.

Throw the bracelet in the trash can? Methinks that says more about the intended thrower than the WSOP.

The moment the poker world has been waiting for nearly two weeks comes to a climax this afternoon with the final 27 players in the Main Event playing down to the November Nine. Here’s how the final three tables will look when play kicks off around 12 noon (database results courtesy of The Hendon Mob):

(Table 1)
Seat 1: Jesse Haabak – 2,750,000
Seat 2: Ian Tavelli – 4,385,000
Seat 3: James Calderaro – 6,475,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Tamayo – 3,300,000
Seat 5: Warren Zackey – 5,485,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman – 10,005,000
Seat 7: Leo Margets – 1,530,000
Seat 8: Tommy Vedes – 5,070,000
Seat 9: James Akenhead – 8,615,000

(Table 2)
Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 11,350,000
Seat 2: Jeff Shulman – 10,170,000
Seat 3: George Caragiorgas – 1,615,000
Seat 4: Nick Maimone – 1,545,000
Seat 5: Andrew Lichtenberger – 5,625,000
Seat 6: Marco Mattes – 5,285,000
Seat 7: Joseph Cada – 6,565,000
Seat 8: Darvin Moon – 20,160,000
Seat 9: Jordan Smith – 4,510,000

(Table 3)
Seat 1: Jamie Robbins – 9,795,000
Seat 2: Antonio Esfandiari – 4,470,000
Seat 3: Francois Balmigere – 1,440,000
Seat 4: Ludovic Lacay – 5,610,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter – 11,885,000
Seat 6: Ben Lamb – 9,410,000
Seat 7: Antoine Saout – 11,135,000
Seat 8: Kevin Schaffel – 11,245,000
Seat 9: Billy Kopp – 15,970,000

When play resumes, there will be 7:17 left in the 50,000/100,000/10,000 level, moving to 60,000/120,000/15,000. For Amy and The Shrink, there’s an extra 580,000 in chips spread out among the remaining field.

Here’s the chart of the players that made the money:

Updates resume starting at noon over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati will have other news during the day, so come back later, please.

Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

More…

After the remaining 29 players in the Main Event returned from dinner break, it took nearly a full level to get down to 27 players. Darvin Moon will return Wednesday at noon the chip leader with over 20,000,000 in chips. Billy Kopp will be in 2nd with nearly 16,000,000 chips. Phil Ivey will be in 4th place with just over 11,000,000 in chips. The remaining notables: Jeff Shulman (10,170,000), James Akenhead (8,600,000), Ludovic Lacay (5,6100,000) and Antonio Esfandiari (4,400,000).

Chip counts and the table draw will be available later today, check out wsop.com or Pokerati for further news.

Today is finally the Big Money Day — where the remaining field is competing for the bankroll-relevant cash. (Save for maybe Phil Ivey, who needs to get pretty close to the final table for that.) Shamus has a good write-up of his day at work yesterday, and the relevance of the action today (particularly as it relates to the blinds).

The 64 Player Question

Good explanation of why it’s been kinda a bummer to see Tom Schneider, Joe Sebok, and Dennis Phillips go down early today, too. Media-friendly “good guys”.

So of course now we (as in everybody) still have Ivey — really, does anyone see him not making the final table at this point? — and Antonio Esfandiari (Go Iran!) … and a handful of non-American countries have their remaining players of choice to root for.

Kinda surprising kinda not that there seems to be no groundswell of support (from the media or online poker sites) for the 420-loving CardPlayer heir/editor Jeff “Happy” Shulman, who’s currently 11th in chips.

But beyond that, we don’t really know yet who’s who, and who will be remembered for anything more than just “going deep” or maybe “really deep”. That, of course, is what tomorrow will be all about.

Currently 29 players left. Playing down to 27. All the action, chip counts, and prize payouts at WSOP.com.