I live under the thumb of a tyrannical regime. My actions are dictated by the whims of shadowy figures, who move throughout the country, placing their targets under de facto house arrest while they wait for many tortuous hours. Then, just when you we think the danger has past, a doorbell announces their arrival. In other words, I’m having a new oven delivered today and therefore cannot leave my flat. At least the 4 hour delivery estimate I was kindly furnished with gives me plenty of time to scrounge up some exciting news from the Wider World of Poker.

Poker Loses Again

With Thor Hansen’s cancer diagnosis still ringing in our ears, the poker fraternity has been dealt another crushing blow with the news of Nikolay Evdakov’s untimely demise. The Russian pro is most famous for his endeavours at the 2008 World Series, where he set the record for most cashes in a single WSOP by notching up 10 money finishes. It’s a record that stands as a testimony to his legacy. He is survived by his wife and children. [Gipsy Team]

888 Hit the Jackpot 

Time to draw ourselves out of this funk and poker players only know of one way to salve an aching heart: Cash! Online gambling providers 888 have plenty to go around, having announced a 28% uptick in revenue for Q4 2011. The future looks rosy for 888, thanks to their deal with Caesar’s Entertainment. Through subsidiary Dragonfish, they furnish Caesar’s with the official WSOP online poker site. When Nevada finally gives the go ahead to intrastate online poker, chances are 888’s star will continue to rise. [Guardian]

Missives From a Ringer 

Get on a plane to Macau, find the poker table with the most money on it, squint a bit, and you can pretend that it’s 2006 all over again. Poker’s most famous grinders have been gorging themselves on the action in China’s special administrative region for the past few months. Familiar names like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius have all been playing, but have otherwise kept schtum about the game’s details. Not so Gus Hansen, who has been providing daily blog updates on the highs and lows of his multi-million dollar sessions. Yesterday’s entry indicates that – shock! – Hansen has been playing a few too many loose hands, so you might want to get reading before The Great Dane goes busto. [Gus Hansen]

Popstar Becomes a Poker Star 

Hey Americans. Are you aware of laddish popstar Robbie Williams? Back in 2000-ty something he set off for the colonies, hoping to make his fortune, but after becoming addicted to various naughty substances, arrived back on the mainland to rejoin with former cohorts Take That. Now, for the glorious next stage of his career, Robbie has decided to open an online poker site. I expect it to quickly fade into insignificance, but given that it annoyed someone in our nation’s flagship bigotry newspaper, the venture has definitely proven its worth. [Bluff Europe]

I must now return to my eternal vigil. I’ll be back next week, summoning up more poker news than you can possibly handle. Bring a friend.

Computer crashes, flight delays and internet inconsistencies successfully delayed this column once again, but even those pitfalls couldn’t keep this column down for more than a day. I may have failed to put myself in position to appear in this column again, but others won big at the WSOPC’s inaugural trip to Florida, which got underway this week. There was also some serious action in Brazil and a crescendo in the action at the LAPC.

Largest Field in Florida History Fails To Prolong “Year of the Media”
Palm Beach Kennel Club – West Palm Beach, Florida

It’s become increasingly clear that all of the media’s run-good has been usued up for the foreseeable future, as my own personal attempts to cash in on the year of the media have once again failed. I was one of 877 entries over two starting days at the inaugural event of the World Series of Poker event at the Palm Beach Kennel club this week. The $345 event brought together the largest field for a poker tournament in the history of the state of Florida, generating a prize pool of over $250,000 and awarding almost $50,000 to the winner. The biggest names to go deep in this event were former WSOP ME final tablist John Spadavecchia, and Ronnie Bardah, who bubbled the final table in 10th place.

24-year-old Reed Zhao was crowned the champion, the first winner of a circuit ring in the state of Florida. The Lexington, Kentucky native is a high-stakes online cash game grinder, but he’ll likely be playing some more tournaments in the coming weeks to challenge for player of the series and a spot in the Million Dollar Freeroll. Zhao is currently joined atop this list by James Giraldo, who won a $545 event for $43,000 in his first major live tournament, and “Tampa Bay” Ray Del Cueto, who won $28,800 in Ring Event #3.

A Pair of Ladies Hold WPT Invitational in Check
Los Angeles, California
As the longest tournament series outside of the World Series of Poker inches toward its ending, two of the more unique events that the LA Poker Classic has to offer took place. The WPT Celebrity Invitational tournament got underway this week, with boatloads of LA celebrities and poker players rubbing shoulders and doing their thing the red carpet. After playing down to the final six, the two biggest pros remaining are Dan Heimiller and David Kitai, but the story of this table is a pair of chess masters that also happen to be women. Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva are each vying for a top prize of $100,000, which includes a seat to the $25,500 WPT Championship. The final table will be played out on March 2nd, so it can be filmed back-to-back with the $10,000 WPT event.

The other unique event at the LAPC this week was the annual Ironman event, where no breaks are given and the tournament is played straight from beginning to end. 68 players signed up for this twisted idea from the mind of Matt Savage, and pro Nikolay Evdakov emerged victorious (and tired). He won $60,630 and a seat in the main event for his victory, which was his second LAPC victory of the week after winning the six-handed Pot Limit Omaha following a three-way chop for almost $35,000. Evdakov is one of four people to own two or more titles at this year’s LAPC and he has thrust himself into the player of the series race there.

Another notable player found victory this week as Owen “owcrowe” Crowe, who won a $1,065 event for over $37,000 in an event that saw Matt Savage’s personal punching bag for the LAPC, Matt Affleck, cash. On several occasions during this series Savage, who is an infamous needler and may or may not have sent yours truly a text message during the AFC Championship game when the Jets were down three touchdowns, has brought up the monster pot that Affleck lost at this year’s WSOP Main Event, once playing it on a giant projector screen for the entire tournament field.

Power Outages Can’t Stop First Chilean LAPT Champion
LAPT Brazil – Sao Paolo, Brazil
Brazilians comprised 60% of the 536 players in this record-breaking LAPT event, and the hometown crowd was hungry to crown the first Brazilian champion in the history of the Latin American Poker Tour on their own turf. They had quite an edge heading into the final table as well, with 5 of the 8 players at the final table coming from Brazil. In fact, all 8 players were from Latin America, and a Latin American nation crowned their first champion, but it was Chilean Alex Manzano emerging as the champion. Manzano satellited in online and turned that small investment into R$ 615,840, roughly $370,000.

Recapping the seven WSOP bracelet events taking place this afternoon:

Tebben defeats McNamara for 1k NL bracelet

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table just concluded with Jeffrey Tebben defeating JD McNamara in heads-up play, winning his first WSOP bracelet. Tebben also earned $503,389, while McNamara earns $310,248. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report will appear later at wsop.com.

Six remain in 2500 NL 6-max

The official final table has been established for the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max final table, returning from dinner break shortly. Joe Baldwin will start as the leader with 2,812,000 in chips. Follow the updates at wsop.com.

Maxwell looking to hammer Stud 8 final table

The final table of the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better final table has also been finalized. Maxwell Troy remains the leader with 755,000 in chips. Notables at the final table include David Levi (565,000), Karina Jett (450,000), and Allen Bari (170,000). Action will resume shortly, follow the split-pot action over at PokerNews.

Cloutier closing in at 2500 PLO

The $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha field has made the money with 50 players remaining. Bryce Yockey is the current chip leader with 293,000, followed by T.J. Cloutier (232,000), Chau Giang (225,000), Michael Greco (150,000), Joe Serock (114,000) and Adam Junglen (95,000). Play is scheduled for six more levels or a final table is reached, whatever comes first, updates available at wsop.com.

More updates on page 2:

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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.

The recap of Tuesday activities…

Lisandro Goes for Bracelet #3

The $2,500 Razz has 13 players remaining with Jeff Lisandro the chip leader (438,000) in his quest for his 3rd bracelet and take first by himself in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Co-leader Ville Wahlbeck (55,000) will have some work to do to catch Lisandro, but it’s razz, anything can happen. Don Zewin, (300,000), Kenna James (284,000), Michael Craig (102,000) and Nikolay Evdakov (88,000) are the notables who also return to conclude the tournament, starting at 2pm.

The Mathematics of Poker = 3 Bracelets

Jerrod Ankenman finally joins co-author Bill Chen as a bracelet winner, taking down the $2,500 8-Game for $241,637 besting Sergey Altbregin in heads-up play. Chris Klodnicki finished in 3rd, Jeff Tims finished 4th, while Jon Turner got his second 5th place finish in mixed game events.

Thomas Tops Seniors

Tom Thomas of Amarillo, Texas is the chip leader (917,000) of the remaining 28 players in the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship when play resumes at 1pm. Notable names are hard to find, but among them are Scott Buller (541,000), Ted McCollum (173,000) and Gioi Luong (100,000) are the most recognizable.

Schlein Spectacular at Split Game

Josh “Sdouble” Schlein will start Day 2 with the chip lead (60,700) with 196 players remaining in the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. Thang Luu (56,200) is in second, Can Kim Hua (38,400), Pat Poels (36,900), Lee Watkinson (27,900), Paul Darden (26,400) and Shannon Shorr (22,400) among the notables returning at 2pm playing down to the final 9 or 3am deadline.

Wednesday’s Tournament

Only one tournament today, the debuting $2,500 Mixed Holdem event at 12 noon, featuring alternating 30-minute periods of no-limit holdem and limit holdem. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 475 today for today’s event, check out www.wsop.com for updates, and more stuff from Pokerati during the day.

Another day, another two final tables delayed at the WSOP yesterday. Starting with the $2,000 No Limit Holdem event, 25 players return at noon on Saturday to play down to the winner. The reason for the early start is in the hopes that a final table will be reached around the scheduled 2pm time that the final table would air on ESPN360 (http://wsop.pkr.com for those outside the US). The chip leader when play resumes will be Mike Carlson with 858,000 in chips. Others people may have heard of include Jim Geary (511,000), and Jose Rosenkrantz (187,000).

The other event will definitely have a more intriguing final table, as the $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is down to its final 20 players, all of whom are in the money. Huck Seed will be the chip leader at 645,500. In a father-son battle, it’s Todd Brunson (374,500) with a slight chip lead over Doyle Brunson (335,000). Other notables remaining include Mark Gregorich (266,000), Mike Wattel (210,000), Michael Binger (132,000), Eric Froehlich (102,000) and a mystery person who name and chip count wasn’t reported. They’ll get to return at 1pm, and with the average stack having just 10 big bets, a final table may not be that long in the offing.

In the two final tables that concluded earlier this morning, Ken “Teach” Aldridge schooled the final table to win the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event for $428,259, and Rami Boukai took down the $2,500 PLO/PLH (HA) event, which was worth $244,862.

More tournament news after the jump:

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Phil Hellmuth celebrates his first-round draft pick by Team Pokerati.

The draft just ended … (complete rosters forthcoming) …

1. Phill Hellmuth
2. Robert Mizrachi
3. Men the Master
4. Humberto Brenes
5. Matt Glantz
6. Nikolay Evdakov
7. Dwyte Pilgrim
8. Isaac Baron

All the above players should come find me before any of their events start so I can properly patch them up. (Those are the rules, right?)

UPDATE: Click below to see everyone else’s picks in draft position order — from Gavin Smith (via blackberry), Daniel Negreanu, Gary Wise, Bernard Lee, yours truly, Howard Lederer, Andrew Feldman, Mark Seif, Lance Bradley, Chops, and Joe McGowan (for Dennis Phillips):

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It’s been fun keeping track of the 2008 WSOP by city-nation-state … taught me a lot about something — what exactly, I’m not yet sure. But I did get a clearer picture of just how significant the main event really is compared to all other poker tourneys. Just a little more than a week ago, I wrote:

Unless something really funky happens in the main event, it looks like Nevada has the edge on California when it comes to home base for the best poker players in the world.

Well I guess something funky did happen, because even with the biggest prize-pool distributions TBD, California poker players absolutely dominated in the 2008 main event (93 cashes, 2 final tableists)… while the Nevadans (mostly Las Vegas-based, of course) seemed to be napping, or perhaps just resting on their laurels (49 cashes, 0 final tableists). Regardless, looking at the 55 events that comprised the 2008 WSOP, I think it’s clear that the visitors can stake their claim: California is the Poker Capitol of the World … at least for now.

GREAT DANES: Another big surprise (to me) — apparently the Scandis aren’t so overrated after all. Denmark in particular showed up at the main event ready to play, and not only did they get one of their own on the final table, but also they performed so well in the latter events that they scooched past a bunch of other supposed Europoker powerhouses in the money won. The best non-American players, according to these results, in order: Canadians, Brits, and then the Danes … who actually could move past the Brits come November … and if you add the Danish in with the rest of the Scandis, it’s clear that Scandinavia and the UK are like the California and Nevada of European poker.

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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP, while Wicked Chops Poker is celebrating the good news.

JC Tran takes his name off of the “Best player to never win a bracelet” list, taking down the $1,500 NL Holdem event against Danish pro Rasmus Nielsen. JC, at one point down 3-1 headsup, chipped away at Rasmus until he eventually took the chip lead, winning when his KQ nipped the Dane’s QJ on a Q-high flop. Tran takes home over $631,000 plus 100 WSOP POY points, moving him into 6th in the race with 1 event remaining. Nielsen will be consoled with almost $390,000 to take back to Denmark.

Other tournament happenings on the next page:
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What’s happened tonight at the WSOP:

The two final tables for today are both heads-up. First, the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-handed event is down to Joe Commisso and Richard Lyndaker, having played over 130 hands of heads-up action so far. Commisso at one point had a 7-1 chip lead before Lyndaker clawed his way to having his own chip lead. At this time Joe has retaken the lead, but it’s still going to be hard for him to close the deal.

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Eight or Better tournament is was down to Ryan Hughes and Ron Long. At the moment, Hughes has a 2-1 chip lead, but the chips have been going back and forth quite a bit during heads-up play. Hughes finally defeats Long, taking home the bracelet and $183,000, while Long takes home just over $113,000. This is Hughes’ second bracelet, as he took down the $2,000 Stud Eight or Better event last year. The only other notable name at this final table was 2+2 author David Sklansky, who was the first out at the final table again, finishing in 8th.

Other tournament action on the next page:
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What’s happening tonight at the WSOP:

The $1,000 NL Holdem with rebuys event has a winner, Canadian Max Greenwood took down the bracelet, making a remarkable comeback from being shortstacked 3-handed to take down the bracelet and almost $700,000. Rene Mouritsen of Aarhus, Denmark finished in 2nd (for the 3rd time at a WSOP event the past two years) to win just over $445,000. Fellow Aarhus resident Albert Iversen finished in 3rd. Greenwood was down to just over 400,000 when he went allin with a pair of 5’s against Mouritsen’s AJ. Another ace hit the flop, and a brick on the turn meant that Greenwood was down to two outs. Miraculously, Max hit that 5, doubling up twice more off Mouritsen to take the chip lead before Mouritsen would take it back when Iversen’s set of 5’s was run down by Mouritsen’s turned flush. After just over 30 hands of head-up play (and boisterous rooting from both player’s friends), all the money went in on a Jack high flop with Max’s AJ ahead of Mouritsen’s KJ. No help came and Greenwood completes the remarkable comeback.

The only tournament to start today, the $2,000 NL Holdem event, drew a field of 2,317, with just under 400 remaining with a couple more levels remaining in the day. Notable names at the top of the leaderboard: Erik Cajelais, Marco Johnson, Erica Schoenberg, Blair Rodman (who won this tournament last year), David Pham and Chau Giang.

Other tournament action today on the next page:
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Recapping the Friday action and a preview for today:

The $1,500 7 Card Stud winner turned out to be Mike Rocco, who endured the barbs of Al Barbieri to take down his first bracelet and about $135,000.

The $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship stopped play with 18 left, they get to return at 3pm to determine their winner. The final two tables have plenty of notable names remaining, which consist of:

Table 14

1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000

Table 15

1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu “Tony” Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000

The ESPN360 final table for today on the next page…

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What’s happening at the WSOP tonight:

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys event just concluded with a winner, and it’s Layne Flack who put on a dominant performance at the final table, taking an overwhelming chip lead that no one would be able to catch him. Layne wins his 6th WSOP bracelet, putting him in some elite company as one of 10 poker players who have won at least 6 bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan, D. Brunson, Seidel, Cloutier, Moss, Baxter, Heimowitz, M. Nguyen are the others). Daniel Makowsky finished in 2nd, and Ted Forrest will have to try yet again to get his 6th bracelet, as he finished in 5th. Dario Alioto finished in 4th for those following the Italian contingency.

Other action from today after the jump:

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After 33 of 55 events …

California is making a real run at Nevada as the most powerful poker region in the world.

In the second tier of American poker (below Canada), Texas can’t seem to keep up with Florida in terms of kizzash, nor New York when it comes to sealing the winning deal. It seems only a matter of time before the Russians catch up, as Nikolay Evdakov and his comrades keep going deep.

New countries in the WSOP money: Spain, Belarus, Greece, and New Zealand … Welcome! Spanish players (sorry Greece) take comfort in knowing at least a few TVs are showing the Euro Cup in the Amazon Room.

Also making its first appearance on the 2008 WSOP money list: Vermont! It’s official: All American states and territories that have petitioned to become one have cashed in the World Series. (And Vermont didn’t just eek past the bubble — Shane Stacey from Hyde Park made a final table … finishing 5th to bank a $166k payday.

Point of order … Shannon Shorr’s latest cash — 32nd Place in the $2,500 6-handed NLH — is credited under Alabama, not Nevada. (The Euros also cashed big in this event — go figure, they seem to like 6-handed action.) While we did decide to make Tony G’s Lithuania finish into an Australia (he moved Down Under at age 11), we couldn’t bring ourselves to put Shorr in potential tax trouble — at least not in a way that messed up all our other numbers on the spreadsheet — as he was the one who presumably declared himself residing in Nevada for his $350k bracelet in Event #7. Surely that won’t be relevant in our contrived little Cali vs. NV race, right?

Two homeless moneymakers: If anyone knows where Larry Jafee (sp?) or Larry Michaels is from, please let us know. And don’t go saying Hungary just so they can move past Wyoming and New Brunswick.

Speaking of the Hungarians … Richard Toth scored again for his proud Eastern Euro nation’s 4th ITM finish. Still not enough to move past Wyoming, but keeping pace …

Click below to see the full rundown of poker across political borders:

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Happenings for this evening as I found out from Jen I’ve become a member of the WPA all over again:

The $5,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship is down to the final 3, with Team Full Tilt Pro Chris Ferguson the dominate chip leader. Marcel Luske finished in 4th, Annie Duke finished 5th, you can catch all the action at the WSOP site here.

The other final table for today already has its champion, to find out who it was, click on the jump:

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