A few updates … team captain Tom Schneider is off to a solid start, with a mid-cash and a min cash after four events … playing now in NL 2-7. Still tabulating results from Goldfarb, Ms. Schneider, Noam the Enforcer and a few yet-to-be introduced’s. Harris gives the $1k a second go tomorrow. And even Toothless Bob, bankroll-fortified by his B-squad Vegas alt-tourney wins, played his first ever hands of live PLO in Thursday’s Hard Rock game … and cashed out a small winner.

Fans swarmed all around as the 2-7 triple-draw got to its final two tables, and Pat Poels began to think about his first bracelet in a non-split event.

But so far, getting closest to the WSOP hardware has been Pat Poels, the other 2-bracelet holder on Team Pokerati … who finished 10th in Event #7, $2,500 2-7 Triple-draw for a $13k+ payday. The Casino Arizona host knows he can play, but comes to the 2010 WSOP with cashouts meaning more than they have in previous years and a desire to prove to himself that there’s still room for a player like him to earn a respectable living by outplaying the competition in a wide variety of games.

He says to his Pokerati fans and manager:

My plans are to induce pain, and to collect buy-ins. Bio? Well, I like warm bubble baths and long walks on the beach, and mean people and taxes turn me off. And I’ve had a 3-year gap since my last bracelet. Time to fix that.

Shirt size XL.

Breaking down the Friday afternoon WSOP action:

Hellmuth falls short in quest 12th bracelet

The $1,500 NL Holdem event that started on Wednesday is down to the final table of ten, but Phil Hellmuth is not among them, finishing in 15th for $25,472. The final 10 when they return from their dinner break are:

Pascal LeFrancois – 4,000,000
Kevin Howe – 1,780,000
David Aue– 1,300,000
Max Steinberg – 900,000
Saar Wilf – 855,000
James Andersen – 665,000
Kurt Disessa – 651,000
Jose Gatmaitan – 640,000
Josh Brikis – 375,000
Daniel Wjuniski – 350,000

Follow all the final table action over at PokerNews.

Day 2 of 10k Stud W.C.

Less than 50 remain in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship with Ray Dehkharghani the current chip leader at 275,000. 2009 November Niner Eric Buchman holds down 2nd place with 270,000, while 50k Players’ Championship runner up Vladimir Schmelev is in 3rd with 230,000. Other notables: 50k Players’ Championship winner Michael Mizrachi (165,000), Men Nguyen (155,000), and Brandon Adams (120,000). Six more levels of play awaits the field or the final table of eight, whichever comes first. You can follow the progress of this event over at wsop.com.

Pot-Limit Bubble Pops

The $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event burst its bubble early on day 2, with the field now down to just 25 players. James “Flushy” Dempsey is the current chip leader at 290,000. Other notables: Joe Serock (140,000), JJ Liu (100,000), Melissa Hayden (95,000), and Christian Harder (75,000). Play will end when the final table of nine is established or at the end of ten levels of play. Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider earned $3,352 for his 52nd place finish, his second cash (in three tries) at the WSOP.

$1,500 NL Day 1

A field of 2,563 started at noon in the third $1,500 No-Limit Holdem bracelet event. Less than 800 remain in action at the moment, with Tom Dwan the unofficial chip leader with 56,000. Other notables with healthy stacks include Blair Hinkle (43,000), Shaun Deeb (36,000), Annette Obrestad (25,000), and Liv Boeree (23,000). Less than four levels of play remain for day 1, with the top 270 players cashing, with the winner taking down an impressive $614,248. For the Team Pokerati fanbase, Pat Poels was the lone entry for this event.

$1,500 Limit Holdem Day 1

A field of 625 took to the felt for the $1,500 Limit Holdem event, and around 550 remain as the field takes their dinner break shortly. The duo of Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown are the unofficial top two with Rousso (10,800) holding a slight lead over brown (10,100). For the online poker community, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke is third with 8,500 and other notables such as Jeff Madsen (6,250), Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider (5,600), and Chris Ferguson (5,400). Team Pokerati also has Julie Schneider, Danny Noam, Robert Goldfarb entered in this event. The top 63 players make the money, with first place $189,870 along with a coveted bracelet, follow wsop.com for further updates and chip counts.

Recapping Wednesday night’s WSOP action, starting with the awarding of two more WSOP bracelets:

Daya Takes down $1,000 NL bracelet

The first $1,000 No-Limit Holdem bracelet of this year’s WSOP was awarded to Canadian Aadam Daya defeating Deepak Bhatti in heads-up play. Daya won the sixth-largest live poker tournament in history, besting a field of 4,345 players to earn $625,872. Bhatti picked up $385,106 for the runner-up finish. The full list of results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is available at WSOP.com.

Bansi’s Best for bracelet #2

Praz Bansi picked up his 2nd career WSOP bracelet, winning the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem bracelet, defeating Vincent Jacques heads-up to prevent a Canadian sweep of bracelets on Wednesday. Jacques earned $320,913 for falling just short of a bracelet, the full list of results and Dalla’s report are online here.

Channing, Levi headline Shootout Final Table

The final table of the $5,000 No-Limit Shootout gets underway at 2:30pm this afternoon with these six players, each with the same starting stack of 1,500,000:

Neil Channing
Stuart Rutter
Nicolas Levi
Brent Hanks
Joseph Elpayaa
Joshua Tieman

Triple Draw almost reaches their final table

Play at the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball ended earlier this morning with its final table just out of reach, returning at 4pm this afternoon to determine a winner. Among those who made the money: Team Pokerati’s Pat Poels (10th for $12,232), Ted Forrest (12th for $9,972), Jordan Seigel and Allen Kessler (16th and 17th for $7,663 each). The rest of the results can be found here. Here’s the eight players looking for a bracelet:

David Chiu 436,000
Peter Gelencser 400,000
Don Mcnamara 370,000
Raphael Zimmerman 262,000
Tad Jurgens 223,000
Leonard Martin 195,000
Shunjiro Uchida 173,000
Jameson Painter 127,000

Schlein Leads $1,500 NL for Day 2

Josh Schlein leads the remaining 270 players returning at 2:30pm for day 2 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem with 127,300 in chips. Other notables on the leaderboard: Jean-Robert Bellande (89,200), Phil Hellmuth (84,700), and Amnon Filippi (55,800). The full list of chip counts can be found at PokerNews.

Thursday’s Tournaments

The $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event starts at 12pm today, won last year by John Paul Kelly for over $190,000 in besting a field of 633. A compact field is expected at 5pm today for the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship won by Freddie Ellis last year, winning over $370,000 as the last man standing in a field of 142.

Recapping the Wednesday afternoon action at the Rio, with the reminder that you can follow the live updates over at www.PokerNews.com

$1,000 NL Final Table

Four remain at the $1,000 No-limit Holdem final table, with Gabe Costner (4,300,000) holding the chip lead over Deepak Bhatti (3,400,000), Aadam Daya (2,200,000) and Bart Davis (1,800,000) . Nicholas Mitchell ($154,425), Cory Brown ($116,141), Isaac Settle ($88,025), Dash Dudley ($67,221) and Richard Rice ($51,375) were the first five to exit the final table to collect their winnings.

$1,500 NL Final Table

Eight players are currently seated at the final table of the first $1,500 No-limit Holdem of the WSOP, playing down to a winner tonight. David Tuthill will be the chip leader (2,000,000) when the remaining eight players return from dinner break. Tomer Verda is close behind with 1,822,000 while David Sands (636,000) and Praz Bansi (600,000) towards the back of the pack. Dwyte Pilgrim picked up his first career WSOP cash, finishing 21st for $15,222. Others who fell short of the final table include Yuval Bronshtein (12th for $29,795) and John Myung (17th for $18,809).

Sextet of Six-Seated Shootout Stars Settling

The $5,000 No-Limit Holdem Shootout so far has seen Brent Hanks and Neil Channing the first two winners moving on to Thursday’s final table. Blair Hinkle, John Duthie, Chino Rheem, and Heather Sue Mercer are among the remaining 14 players trying to earn one of the final four seats.

Lowball Leaves Field in Lurch

The $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball field is down to 37, with just 30 making the money this evening. The current chip leader (151,000) is Jordan Siegel, recognizable by most people as the MC for the NBC Heads-Up event at Caesars’ Palace in Las Vegas. Other notables looking to cash: Ted Forrest, Allen Kessler, Greg Mueller, Tony G and Rob Hollink. For Team Pokerati watchers, Pat Poels is hanging in there with 63,000, while Tom Schneider was knocked out in early action.

Another $1,500 Gets Underway

The second $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of 2,341 entrants, with less than 800 returning after their 90-minute dinner break to play the final four levels of day 1 tonight. The 243 finishers get paid, and some of the names to watch for when play resumes: Mark Seif, Jean-Robert Bellande, Shaun Deeb, Barry Shulman and Lee Watkinson.

Recapping the Tuesday night action, with two events finishing earlier this morning:

Grinder chews up competition in 50k

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi overcame a 3-1 chip deficit during heads-up to defeat Vladimir Schemelev and win his first WSOP bracelet along with $1,500,000 in the $50,000 Players’ Championship . Schemelev collects over $960,000 with his runner-up finish. David Oppenheim, who was chip leader when the remaining five players took their dinner break, finished third for $603,348. John Juanda ($436,865) and Robert Mizrachi ($341,429) finished fourth and fifth respectively. You can read Nolan Dalla’s tournament report here.

Chow Main Man in Omaha 8

The other bracelet awarded this morning was the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better event, won by Michael Chow, defeating long-time pro Dan Heimiller in heads-up action. Chow picks up $237,140 for the win, while Heimiller adds $146,505 to his long list of cashes. Full results for this event along with Nolan’s tournament report can be found over at wsop.com.

Final table set in $1,000 NL

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem is down to a final table, resuming at 2:30pm after plans to play to a finish this morning were scuttled. The final table almost had the first father and son to play the same final table, but Irving Rice’s elimination in 10th place meant his son Richard would take up the charge to win a bracelet. Here’s how the final table will be seated, you can follow the live updates this afternoon at PokerNews.com:

Seat 1: Dash Dudley — 1,355,000
Seat 2: Bart Davis — 1,355,000
Seat 3: Nicholas Mitchell — 1,280,000
Seat 4: Deepak Bhatti — 400,000
Seat 5: Gabe Costner — 1,830,000
Seat 6: Richard Rice — 700,000
Seat 7: Aadam Daya — 2,855,000
Seat 8: Isaac Settle — 970,000
Seat 9: Cory Brown — 2,315,000

$1,500 NL down to 23 for Day 3

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event has 23 players remaining when play resumes at 2:30pm this afternoon, playing down to a winner. The chip leader is Vincent Jacques with 1,498,000. Notables remaining include Praz Bansi (616,000), online stars David Sands (628,000) and Yuval Bronshtein (498,000), along with three-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Dwyte Pilgrim (209,000). The full list of remaining players is available at wsop.com.

Shootout Day 2

36 players, each guaranteed $16,607, remain in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem Shootout when play resumes at 2:30 today. The remaining players will be seated at six six-handed tables. Those winners return Thursday for the final table, with the winner earning $441,692. Among the notables who won their table yesterday: Chris Ferguson, John Duthie, Chad Brown, Tom Dwan, Christian Harder, Blair Hinkle and Justin “Boosted J” Smith. The list of survivors can be found here.

Hanna Leads Lowball Enthusiasts

The $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw drew a field of 291 entrants for a 5pm start. After ten levels thet field was reduced to 87, with Salim Hanna the chip leader with 65,400 when play resumes Wednesday at 3pm. Plenty of big names remain including Hoyt Corkins, Allen Kessler, Jeff Lisandro, Scott Seiver, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, and Archie Karas. For Team Pokerati followers, Tom Schneider finished 12th with 43,200 in chips, Pat Poels was 46th with 21,000, while Julie Schneider was eliminated on day 1. A full list of chip counts will be available soon at wsop.com.

More No-Limit On Tap

Wednesday has just one event starting today, the second $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event of the WSOP, with a 12pm start. The second $1,500 of the 2009 WSOP was won by Pete “The Greek” Vilandos, winning over $600,000 in a field of 2,506. PokerNews will have constant updates available throughout the day as the field plays ten one-hour levels.

Traction the commenter wonders:

Isn’t pat poels part of team pokerati? Show the love and get a chipcount

Fcuk-yeah, he is. (Especially when he’s got chips!) Not only does PP represent us well, but also Poels has provided a good subplot to the 2009 (Tom) Schneider collapse (and possible main event redemption). He’s faced a similar struggle this year, though he didn’t sink quite as deep hole-wise and has booked a few small cashes to yield thusfar better results climbing out of it.

Though his starting chip stack wasn’t too much bigger than Tom or Randy’s, Poels — a Day 2b guy — began the day at a table quite different from @TBR’s and DonkeyBomber’s:

1. Sykes, Mark 43,800
2. Poels, Pat 139,400
3. Feduniak, Bob 72,700
4. Beddaoui, Younan 25,800
5. Sliwinski, Nicholas 68,400
6. Gurevich, Max 61,700
7. Zeitlin, David 53,400
8. Tomko, Derek 19,000
9. Wilton, Ben 51,300

Honestly, I don’t think he could ask for anything better than Amazon-O72. Phil Ivey’s actually in a similar situation, only slightly more dominatingly, next door at O73. We’ll try to find out what happened, and for more immediate updates (not yet, but later), check in with @pokerati.

UPDATE: Pat has been moved. For now we’ll just assume/hope he ran over it, and that’s why it broke. For rapid-fire updates from around the Rio, follow the official action here. And for the best semi-live sense of what’s really happening on the tables as a whole, here. And of course here.

The final Day 1, as Dan noted is already over 2,500 entrants with players now being registered into Buzio’s. The first three days had players seated at nine-handed tables, but is it possible they’ll have to start today ten-handed to accommodate as many players as possible? There’s still six hours to find out the answer to that question.

Back to Day 1c, 1,106 players will return Wednesday afternoon to join the Day 1d survivors for Day 2b, playing 4 two-hour levels. The day 1c chip leader is Joseph Cada, with 187,225 in chips. Other notables with chips: Jeff Lisandro (146,950), Tuan Le (110,000), Justin Bonomo (103,425), Alex Bolotin (92,500), Pat Poels (87,200), Adam Junglen (80,475), Terrence Chan (67,075), Dennis Phillips (63,325) and Dan Shak (55,200). To see the complete list of chip counts, click on this link.

To see how they squeeze in all those players, check out Pokerati during the day, and be sure to follow the updates from www.wsop.com, Pauly, and Pokerati during the day.

Here’s what’s happened this afternoon at the WSOP:

Tenner Tenuously Leading Omaha 8

Mark Tenner remains the chip leader with 6 players left in the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. Josh Schlein, Fabio Coppola, Derek Raymond, Scott Bohlman, and Sirous Jamshidi round out the remaining field. Mark Gregorich finished in 8th, while Team Pokerati’s own Pat Poels finished in 9th.

Baldwin Looking to Hit a Double

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is the current chip leader with 7 players remaining in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship, returning shortly after 8:30pm PT and streaming at www.bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com. Davidi Kitai, John Kabbaj, J.C. Alvarado, Kirill Gerasimov, Eugene Todd and Jason Lester are the remaining players at that final table.

Kuether in the Mix

Joe Kuether is the current chip leader (296,000) with 28 players remaining in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event as they will end with either a final table of nine or when the clock strikes 3am. Randy Haddox is in second place (290,000) with Ylon Schwartz (245,000), Matt Matros (240,000), Barry Greenstein (227,000), and Gavin Griffin (145,000) in the top 10.

PLO 8, Flopping the Nuts is Great!

A field of 762 entrants started the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event Thursday afternoon. When the players return from their 90-minute dinner break, approximately 270 players remain. No chip leader has been announced, but before the break Brandon Cantu was around 35,000 with Phil Hellmuth at 27,400 followed by Noah Boeken at 25,500.

Check the live updates at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for other stuff during the night.

They’re back in action in 2.5 O8B (bear with me, still experimenting with new abbreviations) … Mike Matusow is out, but with 14 players left Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is climbing back hanging on for dear life. Mark Tenner is the chip-leader, but imho the guy you really have to watch out for is Mark Gregorich. This game caters to his style, and with half-a-table of knockouts to go before the final, fifth chip position is arguably a stronger spot to be in than momentary #1.

Click here to follow.

UPDATE: 13 left now. Pat in 11th chip position. Needs a scoop something fierce …

UPDATE: 12 left … but Poels involved negatively in the three-way-action scooped pot that knocked out Patrice Boudet. OK, now 11 left … Pat still near the bottom, but with more relative chips. 8th overall — and that’s with having just lost a pot. At the same time, even a double-up right now would still leave him in 8th place.

Here’s what they’re playing for when they get down near the final table bubble in this sort lower-middle buy-in split-game event. Obviously the $229k for the bracelet is nice, but for the non-winners, where exactly they finish could make the difference on whether or not they have a wave a winning or losing World Series:

1 $ 229,192
2 $ 141,647
3 $ 93,199
4 $ 65,094
5 $ 48,028
6 $ 37,350
7 $ 30,562
8 $ 26,213
9 $ 23,541
10 $ 17,007
11 $ 17,007

UPDATE: Poels = 9th. Nice-ish.

Recapping the late-night Wednesday action…

Michael T. Davis Goes ShronkDaddy on Seniors

Michael T. Davis became the second player to take down a WSOP bracelet this year wearing a PokerRoad t-shirt, winning the $1,000 Seniors NL Holdem World Championship. Davis, 58, from Dubuque, Iowa, had just sold his home inspection business last week, and was looking to move to a warmer location. The $437,358 and gold bracelet for his win will surely help with the moving expenses. Like Brian Lemke earlier this month, Justin Shronk was in the winner’s thoughts. From Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

“Justin gave me this shirt,” Davis said afterward. “A lot of people miss Justin. He was very good for the poker community.”

Davis never held the chip lead until the first hand of heads-up, when he doubled through runner-up Scott Buller with pocket aces against Buller’s pocket nines. The final hand had Davis’ A-9 best Buller’s A-J when another 9 came on the turn.

Kabbaj Dominating Pot-Limit

John Kabbaj is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack, holding over 2.2m in chips with 14 players remaining in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship which resumes at 1pm today. Here’s how the remaining players will be seated:

(Table 154)
Seat 2: JC Alvarado – 924000
Seat 3: Eric ‘basebaldy’ Baldwin – 713000
Seat 4: Davidi Kitai – 581000
Seat 5: Mohsin Charania – 224000
Seat 6: Jason Lester – 240000
Seat 7: Darryll Fish – 368000
Seat 8: Kirill Gerasimov – 550000

(Table 154)
Seat 1: Billy Kopp – 772000
Seat 2: Eugene Todd – 351000
Seat 3: Thomas Pettersson – 121000
Seat 5: John Kabbaj – 2226000
Seat 6: Isaac Haxton – 660000
Seat 7: Ken Lennaard – 467000
Seat 8: Michael Kamran – 261000

When the final table is reached, streaming will be available at bluffmagazine.com and wsop.pkr.com

Tenner Looking to be a Winner in Omaha-8

Play also resumes at 1pm in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better event with 23 players remaining, with Mark Tenner leading the field at 285,000. John Monnette (237,000), C.K. Hua (225,000), Day 1 chip leader Josh Schlein (201,000) Frankie O’Dell (194,000), Mark Gregorich (108,000), Pat Poels (89,000) and Mike Matusow (63,000) are the notables looking to pass the Omaha-8 author.

Greenstein Leader in Mixed Holdem

Barry Greenstein (177,200) will lead the remaining 67 players in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event when play resumes at 2pm. Notables also making a return on Thursday include: Hasan Habib (165,000), Daniel Negreanu (101,000), Amnon Filippi (98,000), Mimi Tran (65,300) and Gavin Griffin (46,600) with 54 players making the money.

Thursday’s tournament

Only one tournament this afternoon, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, won last year by Martin Klaser winning over $210,000 in a field of 720. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 756 for this event, and expect less than 20% of the field when play concludes at the end of level 10.

Follow along at www.wsop.com for updates starting at noon PT, and Pokerati will have more stuff from around the poker community during the day.

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.

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.

Recapping the Tuesday night activities as we begin week four of the WSOP…

Van Alstyne Back in the Saddle with HORSE Triumph

James Van Alstyne, who finished second in the $3,000 HORSE event last week after holding the chip lead, came back in the $1,500 HORSE event to take down his first WSOP bracelet along with the $247,003 winnings. Tad Jurgens was runnerup, Mitch Schock finished third, and Bryan Micon, named one of poker’s “true anarchists” in Nolan Dalla’s final table report, finished fourth.

Boyes Buoyed by Chip Lead

The $2,000 NL Holdem event starts day 3 with 19 players remaining as they play down to a bracelet winner with Jason Boyes the current chip leader at 976,000. Finland’s Mika Paasonen is in 2nd place to try to be the 2nd Finn with a WSOP bracelet this year. Angel Guillen (496,000) and Peter “Nordberg” Feldma (486,000), and Daniel Makowsky (177,000) appear to be the most notable players remaining.

Limit Holdem Left with a Not So Dirty Dozen

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship has twelve players remaining as they resume at 1pm today to reach the final table for a scheduled 2pm broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are seated with plenty of familiar names for the poker viewer:

Seat 1: Maria Ho – 228000
Seat 3: Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller – 485000
Seat 4: Pat Pezzin – 300000
Seat 5: Kenny Hsiung – 831000
Seat 6: Soheil Shamseddin – 385000
Seat 9: Jennifer Harman – 126000

Seat 1: Matt Glantz – 483000
Seat 4: Chad Brown – 545000
Seat 5: Matt Hawrilenko – 601000
Seat 7: Michiel Brummelhuis – 687000
Seat 8: Mark Klecan – 603000
Seat 9: Daniel Alaei – 330000

Unfortunately, Ville Wahlbeck finished outside the money, but maintains his WSOP Player of the Year lead.

The Pros Strike Back Against the Donks

The $1,500 NL Holdem event returns at 2pm with 240 players remaining, only 216 get paid. James Taylor, unfortunately not this James Taylor has the chip lead with 174,400. More notable names are near the top of the leaderboard include: Eugene Katchalov (90,600), Roberto Romanello (89,400), Phil Hellmuth (88,100), Pat Poels (84,500), Quinn Do (80,600), Roland de Wolfe (61,300), and Allen Cunningham (60,200).

Wednesday’s Tournament

Only one event again on the calendar today, with the debut of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. This event usually is played with rebuys, but their elimination this year makes this a new event. As usual, players will start with 5,000 in chips followed by two “free rebuy” chips to add to their stacks at any time in the first three levels. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 250, but expect closer to 400 when play starts at noon this afternoon. Follow along with the action at www.wsop.com and return to Pokerati during the day for other stuff.

The face of a Team Pokerati player about to lose all his chips, just in time for the cameras.

So Pat Poels (aka “Patch” Poels) heads over to the press box — a long walk from the Brasilia Room — to let me know he’s in the money in $3,000 HORSE and to get a new patch for his presumed run to the final table …

A few minutes later, I walk over that way to buy Benjo a drink to grab a picture of our latest Team Pokerati money player, and I stumbled onto a hand that looks to be getting big. Sure enough, they’re playing 7cs-hi-lo, and Poels is about to be all-in with the nut-flush and nut-low draw, and two cards to come. His opponent has trips … Pat goes blank-blank … and just like that he’s out — in 47th place, for a $5,277 payday.

Just coincidence, for sure … but it did remind me of patching up Gregg Merkow the other day. Without a doubt, it was a thrill on my end to have a player representin’ at a final table. And by all means, with 9 left, and him in 4th or 5th chip position, I think we all were thinkin’ … yeah, bracelet. Actually, when I went to give him his patch, another player at the table asked for one, too. I denied him, saying we don’t work that way — being a Pokerati preferred player is too big an honor to just give away willy-nilly. In the $2,500 NLH, that player went on to take 3rd place. Merkow …

Gregg Merkow busted out in 9th place, fewer than five minutes after posing for a picture with his new Team Pokerati patch.

UPDATE: @donkeybomber just busted out of his second tournament of the day — $10k 2-7 NL-1D. He’s still 0-fer, and has yet to go deep enough to display his ‘ati affiliation.