Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is going deep in the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo. With 28 players left (out of 424) he’s about 10th in chips. Should be interesting … though he’s cashed a few times this WSOP, his net isn’t too much better than Tom’s for 2009. He knows how to win it — Poels booked his first bracelet in the $1,500 version of this event in 2005, and fortunately it doesn’t look like big money payout differential decisions would come into play until the final 5ish.

CK Hua is the threatening name at near the top of the stack-count, Max Pescatori is hanging on in the relegation zone, and in the middle with Pat, @TheMouthMatusow is alive and growing stronger — and he’s twittering that he’s on a mission to win it … so that threat’s out there.

Click here to follow along.

Recapping the first half of Wednesday’s WSOP:

Lisandro Wins Bracelet #3, Wins Stud Triple Crown

Jeff Lisandro becomes the first player to win three bracelets in one WSOP after Chris Moneymaker initiated the poker boom in 2003, takes down the $2,500 Razz event, good for $188,370. Lisandro has won all three of his bracelets in stud events in each of the three disciplines of stud (Stud high, Stud Hi/Lo and Razz). Lisandro held the chip lead at the beginning of the day and was never seriously threatened. Michael Craig finished in 2nd, good for $116,405. Other notable finishes: Kenna James (6th), Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri (10th), Ville Wahlbeck (12th) and Nikolay Evdakov (13th).

Seniors Six-Pack

Half a dozen players remain in the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship, led by Scott Buller with over 2 million in chips. Michael Morusty, Charles Simon, Dan DeLatorre, Michael Davis and Barry Bounds make up the remaining players.

Thang Flung From Omaha-8

The $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better has 70 players remaining, only 45 get paid. The unofficial chip leader is Frankie O’Dell (109,000), followed by day 1 chip leader Josh Schlien (85,000), Pat Poels (71,500), Marsha Waggoner (54,000), Mike Matusow (38,000), and Max Pescatori (28,000) among the familiar faces. Thang Luu unfortunately was eliminated before the dinner break earlier today.

Brummelhuis Bringing It in Pot-Limit

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship is down to 35 players, only 27 get to cash with day 1 chip leader Michiel Brummelhuis remaining chip leader (570,000). Isaac Haxton (450,000), Eric Baldwin (430,000), Darryll Fish (310,000), Vanessa Rousso (280,000), Sam Simon (173,000), and Eugene Todd (165,000) are among the remaining.

Mixed Holdem Brings Mixed Blessings

The $2,500 Mixed Holdem event drew a field of 527 players, of which just 184 remain. The unofficial chip leader is David Baker (unknown if that’s the one from Michigan or Texas) at 73,000. Eli Elezra (51,000), Marc Naalden (46,000) and Jean-Robert Bellande (42,000) are some well known folks with chips.

More updates during the evening over at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for more Lisandro stuff and other commentary about all things WSOP.

Today’s WSOP festivities will have the chance for 7 bracelet events going on at the same time today, creating what will surely be a fun day for players, tournament staff, media, and other poker enthusiasts.

Let’s start with the two final tables that are known at this time. The $1,000 NL Holdem final table decided to come back at 2pm today to get some exposure on ESPN360 (wsop.pkr.com for the non-US/non-ESPN360 viewer). Here’s how that final table will be seated with players who have earned at least $1,000,000 in tournament earnings occupying the first three seats (as always, tournament stats come courtesy of the Hendon Mob Tournament Database:

Seat 1: Dan Heimiller – 4,155,000
Seat 2: Jeff Oakes – 1,680,000
Seat 3: Nathan Mullen – 1,210,000
Seat 4: Phong Huynh – 1,310,000
Seat 5: James Matz III – 1,885,000
Seat 6: Steve Sung – 3,395,000
Seat 7: Panayote ‘Pete’ Vilandos – 1,940,000
Seat 8: Larry Sidebotham – 1,500,000
Seat 9: Danny Fuhs – 965,000

The other final table that is already known is the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha final table, which also starts at 2pm today, will be made up of:

Seat 1 – An Tran (did not report)
Seat 2 – Jason Mercier (384,400)
Seat 3 – Chris Biondino (182,000)
Seat 4 – Matt Giannetti (311,000)
Seat 5 – Kevin Iacofano (770,000)
Seat 6 – Jonathan Tare (639,000)
Seat 7 – Dario Alioto (315,000)
Seat 8 – Vic Park (341,000)
Seat 9 – Steven Burkholder (263,000)

Day 3 of the $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship returns for their final day today with 11 players remaining at 3am today. Poker veteran Eric Drache is the current chip leader (755,000), with Hasan Habib (593,000), Freddie Ellis (580,000), Jeff Lisandro (524,000) and Ville Wahlbeck (472,000) rounding out the top 5. Tim Phan, Daniel Negreanu, Max Pescatori and Greg “FBT” Mueller help round out the field that will return at 1pm today for the third bracelet that will be awarded today, which will create an extended bracelet ceremony on Thursday afternoon with all the jewelry being passed out.

Other tournament stuff on the next page:
More…

Yeah, it’s about as exciting as the title of this post.

Some kidding aside, maybe a tournament with only 373 players is a bit of a downer from the massive tournaments at the WSOP this summer. And it should be noted that last year’s attendance at the WPT Legends main event was 485, which makes for a pretty significant drop-off in just one year. Sure, there were a few players who are on their way to Macau for the APT and APPT but not enough to make up the difference. Maybe people are just flat-ass broke from the WSOP.

The vibe at the Bicycle Casino was a positive one, though, as the big names rolled in and seemed genuinely happy to see each other. As Bryan Devonshire said, “It’s like a class reunion!” Most players seemed in good spirits, but more due to the juicy cash games going on at Commerce and possibly Hustler casinos. Freddy Deeb told me that the games were so good at Commerce that he’s been in L.A. for three weeks playing them and hesitated to even come over to the Bike for Legends. (He busted on Day 2 and was excited to get back to his deuce-to-seven single draw game.)

Going into Day 3 today, Adam Weinraub leads the pack of 79 players, after also leading after Day 1A. The name might sound familiar, as he took down the WPT Invitational two years ago at Commerce. He owns a company here in Orange County so doesn’t play on the circuit regularly, but he does like to get in a tournament in L.A. or Vegas when he can. And, I must say, that he is a fantastically friendly and humble guy. Go Adam!

Other big names in the top ten today include Matt Keikoan, Max Pescatori, Mark Seif, and Marco Johnson. Players will hit the money today – top 36 players get paid – and they should be down to 27 by the end of the night.

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!
.
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!

The $5,000 PLO w/rebuy event is down to its final 3, with Phil Galfond the dominating chip leader, David Benyamine is a distant 2nd. Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th and 6th respectively in a short period of time. Johnny Chan was later eliminated in 4th place. The $1,500 NL event finally reached its final table, with Vitaly Lunkin currently the chip leader with 7 left.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

Happenings from last night and the Sunday preview at the WSOP:

The semifinals of the $10,000 Headsup World Championship have now been set, even if it appeared Lyle Berman didn’t want that to happen. His round of 16 match with David Williams would eventually take over 5 hours, before Berman eventually took it down. That match went so long that the tournament staff decided to start the quarterfinal matches unaffected by the outcome. Those winners were Vanessa Selbst, Jonathan Jaffe, and Kenny Tran. Lyle would face Alec Torelli in their quarterfinal match, and true to form, this match would take over 4 hours with Torelli triumphant in the end. So here’s the semifinals that meet the ESPN360 cameras:

Vanessa Selbst v Alec Torelli
Kenny Tran v Jonathan Jaffe

Other action from yesterday at the jump:

More…

Events from the evening part of day 16:

In what is certainly a first (at least I think so), two brothers have won a bracelet in the same World Series of Poker. Blair Hinkle, whose brother Grant won the $1,500 NL event last week, took down his own bracelet in the $2,000 NL event, knocking out Canadian Mark Brockington.

More after the jump:

More…

Happenings at the WSOP while waiting for Thrillist Syracuse to be created:

The $2,500 Pot Limit Holdem/Pot Limit Omaha final table was known shortly after 5:00am today. They get to be under the glare of the ESPN360 cameras today at 3pm with this set of 9:

Seat 1: Max Pescatori 212,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Depa 185,000
Seat 3: Kyle Hegeman 198,000
Seat 4: Kyle Kloeckner 494,000
Seat 5: John Paul Kelly 79,000
Seat 6: Greg Hurst 197,000
Seat 7: Lennart Holtkamp 253,000
Seat 8: Minh Ly 174,000
Seat 9: Allen Cunningham 484,000

The other final table, plus other tournament action after the jump:

More…

UPDATE: Oops, Dario is out in 96th place — for $67,535. He’ll be back, of course. Hevad “Rain” Kahn (not to be confused with Jeff “Mr. Rain” Banghart) is still alive and well, slightly above the middle of the pack.

LAS VEGAS–Loyal readers have heard me yammer on and on for the better part of 2007 about how this is going to be the Year of the Europeans. So far I’ve been kinda right … while they haven’t dominated this WSOP, they have been a ubiquitous presence deep in just about every event. But the real “Year of” players this year have been the internet kids. Not internet people like Chris Moneymaker … but internet kids. Think about it. The poker boom exploded in 2003. And thus, in 2007, a lot of guys who got their start right around then have just turned 21 — making quite the impression on players at the tables and poker insiders off.

Throughout this World Series, friends and colleagues have been coming up to me saying things like, “You mean you don’t know who RamSquad64 is? Dude.” Or, “JohnnyVoltron, man, JohnnyVoltron!” OK, he sounds familiar. What has he done? But otherwise, sorry, I haven’t really been following the shenanigans on PocketFives. But it seems like soon we might have to. One of the most fascinating stories — Pokerati’s correspondent-on-loan Chris Hanel is all over this one — is a guy named Hevad “Rain” Kahn. This upstate New Yorker was supposedly banned from PokerStars because they thought he was a bot, playing up to 40 sit-n-gos at a time. Kahn then shot a YouTube video to show him playing 26 tables at a time and had his account re-opened. Wow, no? (For some reason I can’t find the vid on YouTube. If anyone else can, please post a link!)

But the kid everyone is really talking about is Dario Minieri (pictured).

More…

LAS VEGAS–It’s gettin’ kinda funky in here. As the intensity of the on-the-table action ramps up, everything else is dying down. They’re tearing down the tables in the tent and throughout the Amazon rooms, the cash games hearken back to a low-rent poker room (with just a few smallish stakes games going), the Lewis family is headed back to Houston … just a couple hours ago a guy from Pokerwire was being staked 60-40 for some online play by some online pro — I have no idea who, but he reportedly has had as much as 141k in his Full Tilt account.

“Don’t worry if you lose the first thousand,” he said. “I can keep giving it to you $1,000 at a time.”

Meanwhile, at “the crossroads” right outside the Amazon Room, Max Pescatori was talking to Jason from Full Tilt about a potential endorsement deal for an online phenom named Dario. (He’s the kid who bought a Porsche with his PokerStars points.) And we have new security guards on duty. One of them was advising (in a whisper) some Germans to go to “The Green Door” — a Las Vegas swingers club — and his replacement is talking WWII history to anyone who will listen.

Should be even more different as Day 5 moves on. Speaking of … with 112 players remaining, Josh Evans enters Day 5 with exactly 1,792,000 chips — enough to put him in the top 20. Everyone redrew for tables, and an exact map of who’s sitting where is forthcoming. But I looked at the bagged chips on his table, and while he’s not the chip leader, he should be relatively comfortable, with only three others in his chip vicinity.

DALLAS–It’s effectively Super Bowl week for me. While I will be there for the main event as well, this week marks our second annual pilgrimage to the WSOP (and fourth poker adventure). Tiny B Tulsa and Gentle Shane are heading out tomorrow, and I will be there by Thursday morning. All of us (assuming Shane can find a backer) plan on rolling the dice in Thursday’s $1,500 No Limit Uberdonkfest.

We’re all still basically dead money, though, collectively, we have been playing poker and tournament poker for several years, and each of us has made a final table in an event with a buy-in of $500 or more. Also, we’ve all played in the WSOP before, and for some of us, this will be at least our fourth event.

Last year, we had several batfaces in the $2,500 NL event (won by Max Pescatori), and our own Zac “Son of Sue” Ballenger cashed fairly deep, finishing 50th out of 1200 (and he probably would have gone deeper if he hadn’t given most of his chips to Scott Fischman).

This year, though we won’t have our tourney ace Son of S. in tow, I think we have another real good chance to send someone deep. The following are my off-the-top-of-my-head odds on how we’ll do:

Make it through Day 1: Only ten percent of the field will survive Day 1. If I were to average what I think each of our individual chances are to survive Day 1, it’s probably somewhere between 7 and 8 to 1. Mathematically, I think that means we have about a 66% chance of someone from our group surviving Day 1.

Make it to final table: Somewhere around 15 to 1.

Final 3: 40 to 1

Bracelet: 100 to 1.