The final day of the $335 Commerce Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament concluded with a 6-way deal as Richard Bakovic earned the win for a reported $173,500, according to a Tweet from TD Matt Savage.

Notables:
Young Phan – 22nd – $4,770
James Pittman – 23rd – $4,770
Sara Chau – 30th – $4,340
Nam Le – 33rd – $4,340
Archie Karas – 41st – $3,900
Joe Tehan – 46th – $3,470
Tony Ma – 86th – $2,170
“Miami” John Cernuto – 102nd – $1,730
David “the Dragon” Pham – 217th – $750
“Hollywood” Dave Stann – 234th – $750
Eric Mizrachi – 239th – $750
Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri – 259th – $500
Barry Shulman – 300th – $500

Full results can be found at www.commercecasino.com.

The first of five opening days of the Matt Savage-run $335 Commerce Casino Million Dollar Guarantee tournament drew a field of 529 entries Tuesday afternoon, with the final 54 players making the money. Each day 1 will play down to the final 27, with the day 1 survivors returning Sunday afternoon to play down to a winner. If you bust out early, you’re allowed to enter the tournament on another day 1, meaning one could cash in the me tournament up to five times. Notables already playing Sunday include “Miami John” Cernuto, Tony Ma, Young Phan and Shan Jing. The full list of results can be found here. More information, including structure and payout information, can be found at the banner at the top of the page.

UPDATE: For an updated version of the day 2b table draw, click here. The updated table draw only affects those who had another person in their seat.

Day 2a eliminations

Day 2a of the Main Event saw the return of over 2,400 players filling the Amazon and Pavilion rooms at the Rio in Las Vegas, with the field playing four full levels. As can be expected during the Main Event, the eliminations happened at an accelerated pace. Among the notables who won’t return to the Rio with chips on Monday: Mike Sexton, John Hennigan, Tiffany Michelle, Antonio Esfandiari, Eli Elezra, Liz Lieu, Dennis Phillips, Greg Mueller, Sara Underwood, Dutch Boyd, Daniel Alaei, Ted Forrest, Carlos Mortensen and “Miami John” Cernuto, who didn’t return Friday afternoon due to illness and was blinded off.

Day 2a survivors

With play concluding halfway through level nine, a field of 1,200 will enjoy their weekend before returning to join the day 2b survivors as the field will be in the same tournament area for the first time on day 3 at 12pm Monday. The day 2a leader is Boulos Estafanous of Darien, Florida with 340,100 in chips. Other notables with a healthy chip stack include Johnny Chan (281,600), Tony Korfman (275,100), Patrik Antonius (258,600), Sammy Farha (226,500), Annie Duke (176,600), Padraig Parkinson (153,100), Joe Cada (122,400), Chris Moneymaker (104,000), Kathy Liebert (87,000), Scotty Nguyen (67,800), and Matt Savage (54,400). The full list of chip counts can be found at wsop.com, a partial table draw will also be linked here and on my Twitter account.

Saturday at 12pm, over 2,700 players make their way to the Rio for day 2b of the Main Event with half the field expected to be out the door by the time play concludes. Follow the action over at WSOP.com.

WPT Press Conference Saturday

Matt Savage takes advantage of his days off to hold a press conference at 11am at the Bellagio regarding the upcoming season of the WPT. The press conference will also be streamed over the Internet at Ustream.TV here. The first US event of WPT Season IX is the Bellagio Cup VI Main Event, starting Sunday.

A review of Sunday night’s tournament action:

Dutch doubles up on bracelets

Russ “Dutch” Boyd wins his second career WSOP bracelet, defeating Brian Meinders heads-up to win the $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event, collecting $234,065. Meinders earns $144,650 for the runner-up finish. A full list of results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is online at wsop.com.

Chow leads 10k Omaha 8

Day three of the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship will resume at 3pm with Michael Chow, winner of a Omaha 8 bracelet earlier in the WSOP, leading with 600,000 in chips with 23 players remaining. Among the returning players: Sammy Farha (512,000), Eugene Katchalov (463,000 after being down to a single 1,000 chip), Jean-Robert Bellande (314,000), David “Bakes” Baker (283,000) and “Miami John” Cernuto (269,000). The full list of chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Wilkerson leads 1k NL day 1b field

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament concluded with 222 players returning this afternoon at 2:30pm to join the 290 day 1a survivors, with 342 players making the money. The reported chip leader from last night is David Wilkerson with 66,400. Other notables: Eric Froehlich (47,325), Tom Dwan (36,250) and Chad Batista (34,000). A full list of chip counts is at PokerNews.

Monday’s Tournaments

It’s another doubleheader today, with the 12pm tournament the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event, last year won by Brock Parker in a field of 1,068 for $552,745. The 5pm tournament is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better event, won last year by David Halpern for $159,048 in a field of 466.

A short recap of Thursday’s afternoon action, with congratulations going to Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier, who won the one-table SNG for the final WSOP Tournament of Champions seat, defeating Michael Mizrachi heads-up.

DeWitt leads 5k NL final table

Jason Dewitt (2,600,000) holds a slight chip lead over Jeff Williams (2,550,000) with 8 players remaining in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem final table. David Benefield (1,265,000) and Amit Makhija (720,000) are others looking to take down the title.

Brussard leading 2k limit holdem

The $2,000 Limit Holdem event is down to 48 players, with the money bubble burst when 45 remain. Andrew Brussard leads with 158,000 in chips, followed by Daniel Makowsky (140,000), Matt Matros (80,500), and Joe Serock (71,500) among the notables.

Danzer leads 10k 2-7 Lowball

George Danzer (200,000) leads the 34 remaining players in the $10,000 2-7 No-Limit Lowball World Championship. He’s followed by David “Bakes” Baker (187,000), Eric Cloutier (145,000), Billy Baxter (101,000) and Daniel Negreanu (97,100) among the recognized names returning shortly from dinner break.

$1,500 PLO Day 1

The $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event drew a field of 889, with the top 81 making the money, with a first place prize of $256,919. Half of the field has already been eliminated before the dinner break, with the unofficial chip leader Wade Townsend with 55,000. Jordan Morgan (44,500), Fabrice Soulier (40,000) and “Miami John” Cernuto (32,000) among the names you’ve heard of in the top 10. Four more levels of play are left, with a chance that the money bubble will be burst later tonight.

$1,500 Stud Day 1

A field of 408 started the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event this afternoon, with the last 40 remaining earning more than they paid. In early action, Sorel Mizzi is the unofficial leader with 10,000, followed by Cyndy Violette (8,000), Allen Kessler (7,000) and Humberto Brenes (6,100). The field will play eight levels before calling it a night.

After having what he admitted was his worst year in poker last year, Phil Hellmuth decided some changes were in order. In his blog from February, Hellmuth hired mindset coach Sam Chauhan and had a battery of tests among other changes to get his poker game back to the when he was considered by more than himself as the best player in the world. It appears to be paying off this week, as Hellmuth has made the final table of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Main Event Friday afternoon. Here’s how the rest of the final table will be seated when play resumes around 4pm PT (results come from the Hendon Mob Database):

Seat 1: Hasan Habib – 455,000
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth – 1,433,000
Seat 3: Andy “BKiCe” Seth – 2,164,000
Seat 4: Matt Keikoan – 371,000
Seat 5: Mclean Karr – 1,112,000
Seat 6: Dan O’Brien – 1,129,000

Other big names who missed the final table: Scotty Nguyen (8th), “Miami John” Cernuto (11th), Nick Schulman (13th), Chau Giang (14th), and current WPT Player of the Year leader Faraz Jaka (18th). Live updates will be available from BJ Nemeth and the other good people over at the WorldPokerTour.com site.

In other news related to Hellmuth, Ultimate Bet has decided to cancel the 2010 Aruba Classic as they decided to expand their offerings online, including having a second Ultimate Bet Online Championship series each year.

The North American Poker Tour at the Venetian is coming to its inevitable conclusion with the $5,000 main event final table, scheduled to start at 2pm PT today, with live streaming available at www.napt.com/tv. Here’s how the final table of 8 will look when play resumes:

Seat 1: Daniel Clemente (1,345,000)
Seat 2: Sam Stein (6,145,000)
Seat 3: Thomas Fuller (4,735,000)
Seat 4: “Miami” John Cernuto (1,300,000)
Seat 5: Yunus Jamal (3,940,000)
Seat 6: David Paredes (4,700,000)
Seat 7: Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (2,370,000)
Seat 8: Eric Blair (1,690,000)

On Thursday, the final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Invitational Shootout will play out, also scheduled to start at 2pm PT. Here’s the final table, with the number of $5,000 bounties each collected:

Scott Seiver (6)
Hoyt Corkins (4)
Faraz Jaka (4)
Joe Cassidy (4)
Brett Richey (3)
Peter Eastgate (2)
Ashton Griffin (2)

Each player earned $75,000 for winning their table, with the last man standing on Thursday pocketing $455,000 in the winner-take-all format. All seven players are also eligible to win an additional $100,000 from PokerStars.net for having the most bounties.

For those looking to follow the action, check out www.pokerstarsblog.com w/ ShortStack Shamus, Jennifer Newell and Otis, or the live reporting over at PokerNews.

Since the last time we wrote about him he was keeling over at the table, it’s our pleasure to show a better, more-capacitated view of Miami John Cernuto — talking to Matt Savage after being the technical winner (he chopped) of the LAPC’s Event #28, $545 Limit Hold’em.

It was one of the few disappointing field sizes at the LAPC: 71 players, 9 paid.

In this winner’s video, Cernuto and 2nd place finisher Edwin Smith discuss not the $18,000 they split up, but limit vs. no-limit and whether or not you’ll see a resurgence (or the continued decline) of tournaments with far fewer all-ins:

Also: kudos to Tom Schneider for taking 6th and an $1,870 prize. That’s almost enough for a rebuy in a real 21st century poker event, lol.

I’ll Bet: This field probably provided fewer tweets from the felt than any other event at the LAPC.

The first three levels of the Main Event have seen over 900 players already hit the rail, leaving around 1,100 players returning from dinner break. The unofficial chip leaders are Brian Hanson and James Akenhead with 625,000 in chips. Other notables with an above average stack (currently around 170,000): Owen Crowe (555,000), Bertrand Grospellier (520,000), Sorel Mizzi (445,000), David Benyamine (402,000), Phil Hellmuth (390,000), Phil Ivey (360,000), Lou Diamond Phillips (345,000), Mike Sexton (297,000), Dennis Phillips (240,000), Tom Schneider (230,000), 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro (211,000) and Jason Alexander (190,000).

Notables who hit the rail:

Erik Seidel, Raymond Rahme, Jimmy Fricke, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Edler, Darus Suharto, Ville Wahlbeck, “Miami John” Cernuto, Bryan Micon, Roland de Wolfe and Sam Farha.

More stuff from Pokerati later this evening as the money bubble may be reached tonight, depending on how fast the eliminations go after dinner.

Interesting evening at the Rio tonight…

“Miami” John Cernuto was spotted at the Rio today after being released from the hospital just days ago. When I finally caught up to him tonight, he said that he’s been playing cash games today but is not in tournament shape yet. He still holds out hope that he’ll feel well enough to play the main event, but he’s not sure.

As a side note, John appreciated the concern for his health in our Pokerati posts. Our message to John? Don’t collapse anymore, please! The controversy that ensues is interesting but…

In other news, a random walk down the hallway of the Rio found my favorite stalkee Nelly and friends leaving the cash games and being confronted by a group of drunk? people that struck up a conversation with the rap star. Someone challenged someone to a foot race, but after Nelly threw out betting numbers in the $20K range, talks quickly fell apart as Nelly got annoyed with the ridiculousness of the bet. With that, Nelly and his crew left the building through the back door.

For those who missed it live … here’s this week’s episode of The Poker Beat, where the topics of the day include Jeff Lisandro, the Lindgreanu / Greensandro bet, National Poker Week, and Miami John coverage.

on PokerRoad

The Poker Beat
Huff, Nemeth, Wise, Michalski, Stapleton
6/25/09

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/upload/radio/23/audio/TPB_06_25_09.mp3]

Just earlier today, Benjo was delivering his Angriest Frenchman scorn, telling me essentially to suck-it, because “You are never in zee bahd mood, Dahn Meehowskee!” But that was before Miami John Cernuto suffered a medical emergency in the $2,500 Razz tourney (he’s mostly OK now, or at least in stable condition), and yours truly tried to cover it Pokerati-style … only to end up in a scuffle with security. Major tiltage ensued, and Pauly, of course, is right there to capture my fiery journo-righteous ire as I totally misidentify my antagonist, and Dr. P, not on tilt, reports truer facts of this unusual tournament situation.

presented by:

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.18: The Angry Michalski Episode
5:00
[audio:tao/TaoPokerati_WSOP_MiamiJohn.mp3]

Oh, and … brought to you by Dream Team Poker.

Miami John Cernuto reached out to Nolan Dalla this evening to let everyone know that he is hospitalized but okay after collapsing during Day 2 of Event 44 ($2,500 Seven Card Razz). The hospital staff determined that he had internal bleeding and will require more tests in the coming days to pinpoint the exact problem and resolve it. However, he is conscious, surrounded by family/friends, and comfortable (as one can be) in the hospital.

Funny that his first question to Nolan was about the razz hand he was in at the time of his collapse. He remembered that he looked down at some babies in his hand and wanted to know if Nolan could find out if he would have won the hand. With a laugh, Nolan responded that he did not know.

More updates to come as they are available. Best wishes to John on a speedy recovery!

Recapping the Tuesday afternoon activities, with the hope that Miami John Cernuto has a speedy recovery.

Hungary Hungary Bracelets

Peter Traply captured the first WSOP bracelet for Hungary, taking down the $5,000 NL Holdem Shootout , winning $348,728. Andrew Lichtenbergerfinished in second, good for $215,403. Lichtenberger thought he had the tournament won when his A-K flopped another ace against Traply’s pocket sixes. Another six on the turn doubled Traply up, leaving Lichtenberger with just 250,000 in chips out of the 7.5 million in play. Lichtenberger would double up several times, eventually regaining the chip lead. But Traply would be too much, finally knocking out Lichtenberger when his A-K dominated Lichtenberger’s A-J to the delight of his Hungarian railbirds.

Jerrod Jamming in 8-Game

Jerrod Ankenman, co-author with Bill Chen of The Mathematics of Poker is the current chip leader (1,230,000) of the $2,500 8-Game event. Earlier eliminations included Players to Watch Layne Flack (7th) and Rami Boukai (13th) Online favorite Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke finished in 9th place to bubble the official final table. Jon Turner (another Player to Watch) is currently in second place (822,000), as he continues to impress in mixed-game tournaments.

Sweating to the Seniors

The $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship has about 120 players remaining as they’ll try to get as close to a final table as possible before the 3 am deadline. The current leader is Tony Brenner (315,000). Barbara Enright (85,000) and Eric Hershler make up a couple of the notable names remaining. Meanwhile, Players to Watch Lloyd Shinn (130th) and Berry Johnston (185th) did make the money.

The Author, The Cowboy and a Guy Named Warwick

The $2,500 Razz event has author Michael Craig (126,000) the chip leader, followed by “Cowboy” Kenna James (125,000) right behind him, followed by Day 1 chip leader Warwick Mirzikinian (98,000) with 43 players remaining, only 32 getting paid. Other notables remaining include Jeff Lisandro (59,000), Player to Watch Ville Wahlbeck (47,000), and James Van Alstyne (45,000), all involved in the thrilling WSOP Player of the Year race.They will also attempt to have a final table established by the 3am deadline.

Pot-Limit Holdem Boiling Over

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship drew a field of 275 entrants, 162 of which will return from their dinner break. The unofficial chip leader is David Singer (132,000), with David Stiecke (95,000), Vanessa Rousso (93,500), Bill Edler (67,500), Eric Baldwin (56,000), and Jason Mercier (51,000) just some of the notables remaining. Four more levels remain in their day before returning at 2pm tomorrow.

Omaha, Ha Ha!

The $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event began with a field of close to 400 entries. No official chip leader has emerged, but the final Player to Watch that hasn’t been mentioned today, Daniel Negreanu is now working on his third tournament of the day, as he has already been eliminated from the Razz and Pot-Limit Holdem events. Could he go 0 for three? Check out the updates over at www.wsop.com or my morning update and find out.

photo: LasVegasVegas

The $2,500 Razz event came to an abrupt halt today when Miami John Cernuto collapsed at the table. Apparently action was on him, at first people thought he was asleep, and then someone said I don’t think he’s breathing … at which point they kinda poked him, and he fell to the ground felt.

Tournament officials stopped the clock and cleared the area while paramedics rushed to attend to him. No official medical report yet, but it appeared to be a heart attack. However, in the end, about 40 minutes later, he appeared to be OK. Like an injured athlete being carried off the field of play, Cernuto waved to the crowd and received an ovation as he left the Brasilia room and was calling someone on his cell phone en route to the hospital.

Pokerati was there to try to show how a major tournament handles such incidents — and though we know this matter isn’t about “us”, we apologize for the unclear photographs snapped before being expelled from the premises for trying to bring you the story:

More…