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Today’s Boxscore

Kai Chang $1,138,350 – Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event
Nick Schulman $270,480 – Bay 101 Shooting Star High Roller

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Another big WPT event finished up, this time in North Cali at the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. The price reduction from $10,000 buyin to $7,500 had a double positive impact with both an increased field and prizepool. Paul “paulgees81” Volpe (West Chester, PA represent) continued his hot streak with his 2nd straight WPT final table and 3rd place finish for $435,610. That puts him just over $1,000,000 in tournament earnings for $17,500 worth of buyins for the last two WPT events, not a bad ROI.

Kai Chang won the tournament for $1,138,350 plus a seat in the WPT Championship for topping the 643 entrants. No word on how many bounties he collected during the event but it probably was a decent addition as well.

Some big results expected in the next few days from the Heartland Poker Tour and WSOP-C. The HPT had another successful event at Black Hawk with over a $1,000,000 prizepool and the WSOP-C Caeasers Atlantic City Main Event will give away another ring within days.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Euro-Schecky tweets from the completely spontaneous, not-at-all corporate set up, Full Tilt Poker versus PokerStars Heads Up competition. Rumor has it PokerStars stars won the day.

The winners are Tweeting!Spot the guy who didn’t win… #TiltVsStars twitter.com/ScheckTwit/sta…

— John Caldwell (@ScheckTwit) March 10, 2013

My Choice Center Experience – Daniel Negreanu responds to the article from Bryan Micon about the Choice Center. It’s totally not a cult and completely legit, guys, because he said so. I was finally convinced after he also told me I inherited a million dollars from some guy in Nigerian.

Illinois Bill Would Legalize Online Poker – Another state trying to get into the online poker business. Keep expanding and maybe we’ll all be back in business before too long.

As States Embrace Online Gambling, Questions Arise – But somebody has to be Chicken Little during the online poker discussion and NPR presents their “questions” in a short, relatively benign article.

Dusk Till Dawn to Guarantee €1 Million to the Winner of ISPT Wembley! – More news from the International Stadiums Poker Tour, now with a €1,000,000 guarantee for first place. Points taken away from PokerNews by our impartial judges for using @#$^@$ exclamation point in a headline.

Poker Terms IRL-London Edition – PokerNews and Sarah Grant with a fun video from the EPT London.

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Viacheslav Zhukov $330,277 – Event #58 $3,000 PLO/8
Dominik Nitsche $654,797 – Event #59 $1,000 NLHE
Nick Schulman $294,321 – Event #60 2-7 NL Lowball

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Things are underway in the WSOP Main Event when players rolled into the Amazon and Pavilion Rooms on Saturday for Day 1A. We witnessed the usual crush of players standing just outside the locked doors begging security to let them in, especially when they saw me sneak in with WhoJedi. The smart veteran stays out of the way as the mass of dead money run toward their tables with 15 minutes, and a Jack Effel speech, before the cards actually fly.

1,066 players registered for Day 1A, and while the WSOP staff played it up like an increase, those numbers are skewed when you take one less starting day into account. I was surprised when I walked into the Pavilion and found it void of Main Event players and only one section in Brasilia in use. Fully expect the next two days to pick the numbers back up with Day 1B already showing more players and Day 1C will be even bigger.

Doubtful this year will top the 6,865 players in the 2011 Main Event, but 6k will be a nice number one year after the DoJ indictments and online poker shutdown.

The biggest surprise of the day was Phil Hellmuth showing up practically on time without his normal, ridiculous spectacle entry. A few hours later, Phil Hellmuth was also quietly walking out of the Amazon Room after busting.

 
In other WSOP news, Nick Schulman won his 2nd WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 2-7 Lowball No Limit tournament (both of his bracelets coming in the same event, first in 2009) over an impressive final table. John Juanda seems to like the game as well, making the final table of this event for the 4th year in a row. Schulman beat Mike Wattel heads up for the win and $294,321.

You can file the last $1,000 NLH event of the summer under “Something New Every Day”. Usually events go longer than the schedule due to hard stop times and exhaustion. This $1k had multiple starting days and was schedule to play down to the final table Saturday evening with the players returning Sunday for the final table. Instead the 50 other players managed to dust off their stacks to German Dominik Nitsche a full day early. The young pro picked up $654,797 and the final bracelet before the November Nine.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Ashton Griffin states something in 140 characters that a lot of poker players don’t understand.

The hardest part about poker is detaching yourself from the value of money without becoming a sociopath away from the table.

— Ashton Griffin (@arfarfhowl) July 7, 2012

Kevin Pollak Talks About Playing in the 2012 WSOP – Actor Kevin Pollach took his seat on Day 1A of the Main Event and Julio Rodriguez caught up with him for an interview. No word if he did the entire interview using the voice of Christopher Walken.

Scandal just part of the deal at WSOP – The most annoying WSOP article I’ve read this summer. Not sure if the author understands the WSOP or has spent much time around the Rio. I certainly know a lot of players interested in the ongoing FTP/Stars/UB saga.

Main Event Snapshot with Tatjana Pasalic – Tatjana showed up in a cat suit costume for Day 1A, to the delight of her tablemates and every photographer in the room. Ray Ramona just doesn’t generate that kind of buzz. Or SEO value.

Some may recognize me from Twitter, a few may have cracked my aces a time or two, and it’s possible that some of you were smart enough to jot down that number I left on the bathroom wall. If you don’t recognize me AT ALL, then you’re part of an exclusive group called “Almost Everyone”.

My name is Kim Shannon, and I’m all up in everyone’s bidness… which is why Pokerati invited me to share with you the poker gossip and celebrity “news”. My initial response was “I’d rather drink a thumbtack-and-jalapeno smoothie”, but then Dan reminded me that I still owe him a beej from a prop bet I lost… so here I am.

Let’s skip the gristle and get right to the bone, shall we, with what’s buzzing in poker … or wait, is that coming from my purse?

Clock Blocked

Word from the felt is that Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Robl have kissed and made up in the wake of a spat over last week’s episode of “The Big Game”, in which Negreanu & Tony G were poster children for fucked up poker etiquette. Poker bitching about implied collusion aside, I hadn’t seen so much high-fiving and snickering since I last got “Eiffel Towered” in a drunken MFM.

After the broadcast, Tony G redeemed himself by posting a quasi-apology, but Daniel kept the drama going with a post of his own expounding on Robl’s nittiness. I was in the middle of reading Robl’s rebuttal when I realized that I had been punching myself in the face the whole time over the pettiness of it all. However, I do feel the need to give Daniel a special award for managing to refrain from calling Robl a “cunt”.  Then, just as I was about to start placing bets on who would blow a gasket and sprain their vagina first, Negreanu ruined my fun by saying he has since called Robl and smoothed things over.

A-Rod’s Poker

Alex Rodriguez was in the Ivey Room at Aria with Jean-Robert Bellande last week — supposedly playing 50-100 NL with a couple non-pro Aria regulars. Tweeting from Haze Nightclub, @BrokeLivingJRB reported that A-Rod “won 3k” in the game, which sounds to me more like 5-10 without steroids — hardly enough for new pair of Yankee-caliber starter tits. Dealers say A-Rod tipped adequately, btw, tossing “like $36 in gravel” before leaving the game. Not one to hit-and-run, he was back at the tables a couple days later, playing 10-20 NL at Bellagio. John Kim snapped a pic. Orel Hersheiser (great first name, terrible last) also joined the action somewhere along the way.

More…

Pokerati’s pirate feed is back … and to celebrate, the amazing Joey Stapleton from PokerStars’ The Big Game joins Huff, Sirius XM’s “fantasy guy”, in studio as Gary is off getting married and BJ leaves Jess to work the floor of WPT-Bellagio/Festa (unprotected from knife-wielding bandits!) so he and an angry Wolfman can tell you 2/6ths of everything there is to know about:

The Poker Beat: October 17, 2010

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:85]

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• Rush Poker in your pocket – and the perks of Full Tilt’s Black Card
• Russian spy Anna Chapman – and the wisdom of a poker dalliance with black ops
• Nick Schulman on MTV’s World of Jenks
• Weeds poker TV
• Regional COOPing in the USA
• WPT-Festa al Lago and WSOP-Indiana
• WSOPC on Versus TV

Time for a recap of the Tuesday night tournament action:

Kassela bests Kessler at Stud 8

Frank Kassela outlasted Allen Kessler and the rest of a stacked final table to win the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or better World Championship along with $447,446. Jennifer Harman, Steve Zolotow, and John Juanda finished third, fourth and fifth respectively. A full list of the results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report can be found at wsop.com or read what Pauly wrote about the final table here.

Baker leads 1k final table

Veteran pro David Baker leads the final table of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table when play resumes at 2:30pm. Here’s how the rest of that table will be seated, with the winner pocketing $472,479:

Seat 1: Jared Hamby – 423,000
Seat 2: Daniel Thomas – 602,000
Seat 3: Matthew Vance – 1,731,000
Seat 4: Jeffrey Gross – 281,000
Seat 5: Mats Gavatin – 393,000
Seat 6: Nicholas Heather – 993,000
Seat 7: David Baker – 2,553,000
Seat 8: Kyung Han – 613,000
Seat 9: Steven Gee – 1,540,000

Phillips leads Day 3 of $1,500 6-max

Carter Phillips (922,000) leads the remaining 16 players who’ll return at 2:30pm to determine the winner of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event. Other notables returning include Mark Flowers (545,000), and Jimmy Tran (219,000). The full list of players remaining are at PokerNews.com.

Goosen Leads 5k NL Day 2

Steven Goosen (229,000) leads the 202 players who made it through the first ten levels of the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem who return at 2:30pm. Other notables also returning: Chino Rheem (185,800), James Dempsey (165,800), Michael Gracz (131,800), Tony G (98,500), Joe Sebok (88,100), Phil Hellmuth (82,100), and TJ Cloutier (77,200). The full list of chip counts is now online at PokerNews.

Wednesday’s Tournaments

The doubleheader returns to the WSOP this afternoon, first is the $2,000 Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm. Dutch pro Marc Naalden won this event last year in a field of 446 for $190,770. At 5pm is the $10,000No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Single Draw World Championship, last year won by Nick Schulman for $279,751 in a field of 96. This event starts you out with 7,500 in chips with three additional “rebuy” chips, each good for 7,500 in chips to be added to your stack anytime during the first four hours.

Follow along at home starting at high noon over at PokerNews or www.wsop.com

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.

Recapping the conclusion of Thursday’s action at the WSOP…

Baldwin Hits a Grand Slam with Bracelet

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin a member of the 2005 NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team, took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event early Friday morning, besting Dane Jonas Klausen in heads-up play to take home over $520,000 in winnings and his first career bracelet. Baldwin picks up his second major tournament victory of the year, he won the $2,500 NL Holdem main event at the Venetian Deep Stacks Extravaganza II in April.

Mizzi Mastering PLO

Sorel Mizzi leads the final 11 when day 3 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event when play resumes at 1pm today, with the hope of having a final table of nine ready for the 2pm internet broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are currently seated:

Seat 1: Rifat Palevic (949,000)
Seat 3: Samuel Ngai (207,000)
Seat 4: Dan Hindin (342,000)
Seat 5: Felipe Ramos (323,000)
Seat 7: Richard Austin (537,000)

Seat 1: Van Marcus (482,000)
Seat 2: Peter Jetten (370,000)
Seat 3: Jeppe Nielsen (242,000)
Seat 5: Sorel Mizzi (969,000)
Seat 7: Cliff Josephy (805,000)
Seat 8: Isaac Baron (170,000)

Corwin Cole Claims Cardinal Condition

Corwin Cole is the chip leader at 185,700 when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event resumes at 2pm today with 213 players remaining, 171 making the money. Other notables returning include: Dustin Dirksen (145,000), Shaun Deeb (88,500), Chino Rheem (74,600), Rob Hollink (53,500), and Eugene Todd (48,500).

Tuan Top Stud

Tuan Le is the reported chip leader of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship when play resumes at 2pm today with 110 players remaining, 16 getting paid. Le has 234,000, with Los Angeles Lakers CEO Frank Mariani in second place with 111,300. Tom Schneider is among the returnees with 83,300, good for 8th place. Dario Minieri (81,500), Nick Schulman (73,000), Jerry Buss (67,800), David Benyamine (65,400), and Mike Sexton (53,400) are some of the other notables hoping to play on Saturday’s final table.

Friday’s Tournament

Only one tournament kicks off today, the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by Daniel Negreanu in a field of 479, good for just over $200,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event is 480, but don’t be surprised if just over 500 take to the felt today.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati, and catch the live updates over at www.wsop.com

Ville or Won’t He?

The $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball World Championship just concluded with Nick Schulman eliminating Ville Wahlbeck in heads-up play to take down his first WSOP bracelet and $279,750.

Six Guns Left in Shootout

With six players left in the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout, Jeffrey Carris is the current chip leader, with Andrew Margolis, Jason Somerville, Joseph Cutler, Brandon Wong and Christopher Moore the other players remaining.

Battle of the Poker Media Stars

Less than 80 players remain in the $1,500 NL Holdem event, playing down to a final table, maybe. The current chip leader is Brian Fitzpatrick with 450,000 in chips. Some of the notables remaining: “Pete the Greek” Valindos (320,000), Dean Hamrick (318,000), PokerListings’ Martin Derbyshire (170,000), EPT’s Kara Scott (103,700), and PokerNews’ Anthony Yeh (32,000)

Eight Tables left in Omaha 8/Stud 8 event

64 players remain in the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 event, with 40 making the money. Phil Ivey is the current chip leader with 135,000. Others looking to avoid being quartered include: Chau Giang (70,000), Pat Pezzin (65,000), Blair Rodman (40,000), Bart Hanson (32,000) and Chip Jett (12,000).

Limiting Your Losses

The $1,500 Limit Holdem event drew a field of 643, down 240 from last year. About 300 players remain when the players returned from their dinner break. The average stack is about 14 big bets, so the money may be reached (63 will make money) by the end of level 10 tonight.

Pea Ell Oh, Hate or Bettor

The debut of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event saw a better than expected field of 198 players take their seats, of which only 18 will be paid. 22 of those who started have already gone from the tournament, with many more expected by the end of the eighth level. One of those players is Scotty Nguyen, still at zero on his goal of winning $4,000,000 at the WSOP or “retiring from poker”.

For more updates, check out www.wsop.com and Pokerati during the rest of your Friday evening.