Those dastardly SAEs won’t be allowed to play in the Pikes-only Northwestern homecoming freeroll, that’s for sure.

Pokerati is headed to Chicago for an event you may not know about, nor should you. The awesomely titled “Pike Poker Tourney” takes place at the Best Western-Evanston on Saturday, Oct. 23, after Northwestern’s (5-1) homecoming football game against Michigan State (7-0).

It’s a $1,000+ freeroll for Pi Kappa Alpha alums and actives … with $1k going to first, and 2nd through 4th TBA tomorrow. Economists have confirmed that $1k is still “a shitload” to college students.

I’ll be serving as executive floor honcho, and found out earlier today the original plan called for only 1,000 starting chips.

Gahhh!

Just because this will be a very quick, luck-friendly 3(ish)-hour event doesn’t mean it has to suck! (We can stretch it to 4 hours if necessary, though it shouldn’t be hard to get players to push chips around — health officials confirm that college students still like to drink, as do aging alumni desperately trying to cling to their youth.)

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Recapping the Thursday night action as we start week two of the WSOP with a pair of bracelet events starting this afternoon.

Hellmuth in Contention for Bracelet #12

Day 3 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event has 25 players remaining when play resumes at 2:30pm this afternoon. The current chip leader is Saar Wilf with 1,207,000 followed by 2009 Casino Employees winner Andrew Cohen with 1,025,000. But the name that most will be following today is Phil Hellmuth, 5th with 567,000 in chips, going for his 12th WSOP bracelet. If he made the final table, would a decision be made to stop and hold the final table on Saturday in front of ESPN cameras?

Gelencser Tops in Lowball

Hungarian Peter Gelenscer bested Raphael Zimmerman in heads-up play to take down the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball bracelet along with $180,730. Zimmerman pockets $111,686 for the runner-up finish, while Don McNamara finished third for $73,803. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report can be found at wsop.com.

Play Pauses Prior to Payouts in Pot-Limit

After much discussion, tournament directors decided to halt play with 65 players remaining, two players short of the money in the $1,500 Pot-Limit holdem event. James Dempsey ended the day as the leader with 205,900 in chips. Original November Niner Scott Montgomery is in 2nd with 193,300. Notables in contention: JJ Liu (123,900), Joe Serock (70,400), Melissa Hayden (64,800), and Christian Harder (45,200). Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider is also hanging around with 20,100 in chips. The full list of chip counts is available over at wsop.com.

Mizrachi and Schmelev 1-2 in Stud

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship concluded play after eight levels with the top two finishers in the $50,000 Players’ Championship, Michael Mizrachi (191,900) and Vladimir Schmelev (180,000) 1st and 2nd in chips with 85 players remaining. Plenty of notables are remaining, the full list is at wsop.com. Just 16 will make the money when play resumes at 3:00 this afternoon.

Friday’s Festivities

The third $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event of the WSOP gets underway at 12 noon today with another 2000+ player field expected. For comparison purposes, Mike Eise is the defending champion of this event, besting a field of 2,638 for $639,331.

At 5pm is the $1,500 Limit Holdem event, won last year by Tomas Alenius in a field of 643.

After starting your day off right by reading Pauly’s link dump, here’s the recap of Sunday night at the WSOP:

Dilemma Diverted at Donkament

After all those Tweets, forum posts, and other whinging, Day 1b of the $1,000 NL Donkament were able to finish all ten levels of play with 205 players remaining. The day 1b chip leader is Braxton Dunaway, with 139,000 chips. The full list of survivors is now available over at PokerNews. They’ll join the 276 who survived day 1a at 2:30pm, first bursting the money bubble at 441 players, on their way to a scheduled ten levels of play.

Grinder in Gear at the 50k Players’

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi is the day 3 leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship with just 21 players remaining when play resumes at 3pm as they play down to the final table, which will consist solely of no-limit holdem for ESPN to broadcast later this summer. Mizrachi, in the news for his issues with the IRS and other financial difficulties, will start day 4 with 1,483,000 in chips. Vladimir Schemelev will start in 2nd with 1,432,000, with David Oppenheim 3rd (1,340,000). The chips for the other 18 names not mentioned are now up over at PokerNews.

Omaha 8

Day 1 of the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better finished with under 300 players remaining. As noted in the comments of the day 3 post, Thang Luu wasn’t able to attend after his incident with a dealer last year. Oleg Shamardin is the chip leader with 70,800 when play resumes at 2:30pm Monday. Top 10 notables: 2009 $50k HORSE winner David Bach (39,700), 2009 double bracelet winner Brock Parker (36,700), and Chau Giang (31,300). The entire list can be found at PokerNews here.

Can the $1,500 draw 1500?

Monday has one tournament starting today, the $1,500 No-Limit holdem at noon. With lower than expected numbers for the 1k over the weekend, will the trend continue? The first $1,500 event of the 2009 WSOP (held on a Tuesday) had a field of nearly 2800.

You can find updates during the day at PokerNews and www.wsop.com Make sure to check out Bluff Magazine, Wicked Chops Poker and PokerListings for more content from the WSOP.

Here’s a recap of the Sunday afternoon activities, with issues regarding the 1k NL event coming to a head early Monday morning.

Problems with Payouts?

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of just 1,744 entrants for a total of 4,345 over the weekend. This means that 441 players will make the money, with first place taking down over $625,000. Day 1a ended with 276 making it through the end of level 10. Updates from the PokerNews and WSOP.com sites report that they will either play down to 170 players or to the end of level 10, whichever comes first. There were around 550 players remaining when the field returned from their 90-minute dinner break, so it’ll be intriguing to see how far they’re able to go tonight. In lieu of chip counts for today’s event, read Michael Craig’s blog for the story of a player banned for life for trying to steal an absent player’s chips during the 1k yesterday.

Kostritsyn in Control of Players’ Championship

Full Tilt pro Alexander Kostritsyn is the current chip leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship as they head to their dinner break with approximately 35 players remaining. Kostritsyn, known online as “PostFlopAction”, is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack (1,430,000). Another Russian, Vladimir Schmelev, second with 830,000 in chips and Robert Mizrachi third with 810,000. Other notables: Erik Seidel (720,000), Erik Sagstrom (656,000) and Andy Bloch (604,000). Three more levels are scheduled, although that may change if they near the money, at 16 players.

Late Night Omaha 8

Play started this afternoon in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better missing it’s two-time defending champion Thang Luu. There had been talk during last year’s WSOP about Luu being banned for life for injuring a dealer’s hand in a cash game. Reports now indicate that he was banned for one year. A field of 818 signed up for some split-pot action, with eight levels of play scheduled tonight. 81 players will make the money, with the winner pocketing over $237,000. One very early casualty was Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, his third straight early elimination from a tournament.

With a big thanks to Pauly, here’s my recapping of the Saturday night action, which includes our first bracelet winner at the 2010 WSOP:

A-Hoai to Pham!

Hoai Pham

Hoai Pham, a dealer at the Village Club Card Room in Chula Vista, California, earned the first bracelet of this year’s WSOP in the $500 Casino Employees Event this morning. Pham’s pocket aces on the final hand was more than enough to best Arthur Vea’s pocket fours on the final hand of heads-up play, collecting $71,424 and a prized WSOP bracelet. Vea collected $44,079 for his 2nd place finish, with the rest of the field who made the money here. Pham will return to the Pavilion at 2:20pm today for the bracelet ceremony and to hear the Vietnam national anthem being played in his honor. You can read the tournament report from Nolan Dalla here.

Morrison Moves into First in 50k Players’

Kirk Morrison

Kirk Morrison ended day 2 of the $50,000 Players’ Championship as chip leader with 54 players remaining. Morrison started the day with just 124,800 in chips, below the 150,000 starting stack. Andy Bloch finished the day second in chips (716,500) while day 1 chip leader Erik Sagstron wound up in fifth (656,000). Other notables: Robert Mizrachi (625,500), Michael Mizrachi (439,000), Chris Ferguson (430,500) and David Singer (369,000). Among those without chips: Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu. Play resumes Sunday at 3pm with another six levels of play scheduled as the field gets even closer to the money. Click here to see all who remain.

Day 1a of Donkament Down

Amarillo Slim

Day 1b of the first $1,000 No-Limit Holdem gets underway at noon today, with what could be an intriguing situation for the WSOP staff towards the end of play. Day 1a concluded with 276 remaining from the initial field of 2601, slightly over 10 percent of the field. Poker gadfly Allen Kessler noted on 2+2 of possible problems if too many players get eliminated Sunday. The 2010 payout structures do not appear to be available on the WSOP site. Using the payout structure from 2009, if the numbers are similar for day 1b, they’ll be very close to the money for day 2 on Monday.

Getting back to the action on the table, Terry Fleischer appears to be the day 1a chip leader with 119,300. Nancy Todd Tyner is the only other player with a six-figure chip stack (103,000). Some recognizable names near the top: Lisa Parsons (61,400), Amarillo Slim (58,700), Tommy Vedes (55,700) and Chris Bjorn (39,800).

Trifecta for Thang?

Thang Luu

Besides day 1b of the 1k, the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better tournament gets underway at 5pm today. Thang Luu is the two-time defending champion of this event, finishing 2nd in the $2,000 Omaha 8 event in 2007. The late start may have an effect on the field, as 918 started this event when it started at noon last year. Check out PokerNews and www.wsop.com to follow the updates and other information about what’s happening.

Photos: Rob Gracie/WSOP and Flipchip/PokerNews

The big tournament going on right now is the Mohegan Sun $5k main event … make the the NAPT-Mohegan Sun main event … make that the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event.

To some extent, this was a proof-in-the-pudding tournament for the fledgling-but-promising North American Poker Tour. They pulled off a total hit a couple months ago in Las Vegas at the Venetian … but that was in Las Vegas, where most of the pros live and tourists love to travel to — this is Uncasville, Connecticut! But still … turned out Mohegan Sun has proved that NAPT events can indeed draw enough top-rank talent across the country for a $5k event worthy of televising on ESPN2.

Even Full Tilt showed up — and not just the red pros, but team pro, too, including Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan.

The event set Mohegan Sun records for both attendance and prizepool. They got 716 players … more than 100 of whom will chop up nearly $3.3 million … and top prize is a handsome $750k.

Follow the live updates and chip counts here.

Pauly’s there, too … holy fugk, the event even drew Tao coverage — surely it’s gonna stick!

Click below to see what really does look to be a great payout structure.

P.S. David Williams is winning.

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The Commerce Hold’em Series just got underway yesterday in California. It’s a 2+ week festival with limit, no-limit, and pot-limit hold’em tourneys … most of them in the $200, $300, and $500 range … and some with fun little twists such as knockout bounties and creative payout structures. They got off to a good start with 1,217 entries on Day 1A in their $220 NLH — with a $500k guarantee — and It all culminates in a $2,580 main event (also with a $500k guarantee).

But the event that’s most intriguing to me: Event #15 — a $1,600 “Ironman” tourney, on Wednesday, Sep 23.

The concept, from a Commerce spokesman:

$1600 Ironman Tournament. 10,000 in starting chips. 1 hour levels starting at 25-50, with slow progressions. Includes 50-75, 250-500, 900-1800 blinds. The key is that there are no breaks! We will play from start to finish without interruption. 3 meals provided as long as you are in the tournament. Must play down to one player. Paying only the final table with 50% for first.

Wow. Awesome. Cool. While part of me thinks this might-should be called the Meth-head Invitational, it will be really interesting to see who plays the best under those conditions. Short-stacked smokers at a disadvantage, but hey … them’s the (only) breaks.

UPDATE: Event #1 seems pretty unique, too. Each Day 1 plays down to 27, and 90 players have already made the money. An additional funky caveat — those who have already busted can re-enter on Day 1B or Day 1C. What-the …

UPDATE: Savvas Zenonos is the bad guy.

Actually, a picture of this ethically challenged poker player is available.

Despite Annie Duke’s assertion that “poker players are the most awesome people in the world!”, we all know the truth: you’ve got some bad apples in the mix. That became very apparent in one of the last $1,060 mega-sats for the main event — where 22 players agreed to a chop, but one of them reneged on the virtual handshake and ran off with more money than he was supposed to keep, effectively ganking $2,400 from the prize pool.

Hey, these are tough times. It’s been a long month+ on the poker frontlines … pressures are high, bankrolls tapped, and casualties have mounted. Character-testing times, to be sure … and save for a few multi-bracelet winners, we’ve all had to re-evaluate not just our play but also our purposes in life at some point during this Series. Thus it’s with little shame that Pokerati has decided to get into the business of morally righteous extortion poker collections.

So here’s the deal, dude: You have until the start of Day 3 — roughly 48 hours — to make good and pay up, or we’re going to out you as a shyster and do our best to make sure that anyone googling your name sees the post revealing you as a poker crook. Cool? It’s not libel when it’s true; and just because you told a few people, allegedly, “I’m going to screw you” prior to doing so, that hardly constitutes “fair” warning.

Click below for the breakdown of how this main event satellite finished up and a good chop went awry — leaving several players, including DonkeyBomber, coming up short when it came time for payouts:
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Finishing up Saturday’s action from the WSOP…

Lisandro Pulls the Triple Double at the Rio

Jeff Lisandro became the third double bracelet winner of this year’s 2009 WSOP when he took down the $10,000 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship a couple hours ago defeated Farzad Rouhani at about 4am Vegas time. Lisandro pockets over $430,000 for his victory as well as several hours sleep before he comes back to the Rio Sunday to hear Italy’s national anthem this afternoon. When he won his first bracelet two weeks ago in the $1,500 7 Card Stud event, the Australian national anthem was played, making him the first to have two anthems played. This is also the first time more than two players have won multiple bracelets since when six players (Chan, Ferguson, Juanda, Hellmuth, Flack, and Men Nguyen) won bracelets in 2003. His second bracelet also moves him into a tie for first in the red-hot WSOP Player of the Year Race.

Texan Tops in NL Holdem

Jordan Smith from College Station, Texas took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event, pocketing $586,212 after defeating Ken Lennaard heads-up to take home a bracelet. From Nolan Dalla’s tournament report, Smith had this to add about legalizing poker in Texas:

“I think poker definitely needs to be legalized and regulated. Legalize it. Tax it. Regulate it. I don’t think it’s the government’s job to tell me what to do or how to spend my money – even though they sure want a cut of this (taxes) whenever I win it.”

This was event #36 of the WSOP, and after only one woman (Annie Duke) had made a previous final table, there were two at this one. Almira Skripchenko who is more well known for her successes in chess, being an FIDE Woman Grandmaster, finished in 7th place, good for $78,644. Laurence Grondin from Montreal, Quebec, Canada finished in 3rd for $237,537.

Obligatory Limit Holdem Final Table Mention

The final table of the $2,000 Limit Holdem consists of:

Seat 1: Jared O’Dell 189,000
Seat 2: Danny Qutami 323,000
Seat 3: Ian Johns 113,000
Seat 4: Marc Naalden 755,000
Seat 5: Tommy Hang 202,000
Seat 6: Steven Cowley 322,000
Seat 7: Rep Porter 287,000
Seat 8: Jameson Painter 205,000
Seat 9: Alex Keating 284,000

O’Dell, Johns, Hang and Porter list Washington state on their bio sheet, which may be the first time Washington state has represented so strongly at a WSOP final table.

Charania in Charge

Moshin Charania finished day 1 of the $1,500 NL Holdem event the leader with 144,100 in chips with 327 players remaining, of which 270 make the money. Brandon Cantu (86,600), Grant Hinkle (85,800), Jeff Williams (66,200), Eric Baldwin (63,400) and Shane Schleger (63,000) are some of the players who won’t be playing the Sunday tournaments online, as they’ll be returning to the Amazon room at 2pm.

Nate is Great in PLO

Nate Lindsay from San Francisco is the chip leader (482,200) at the end of day 1 in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship with 116 players remaining, only 27 getting paid. Noah Schwartz (292,600), Ilari “Ziigmund” Saharies (229,400), David Williams (223,000), and Josh Arieh (220,600) round out the top five. Steve Zolotow (220,200), Ben Grundy (191,000), Tom McEvoy (142,800), Erick Lindgren (120,900) and Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke (108,000) are just some other notables back for more action at 2pm as they attempt to make the final table.

Sunday’s Tournaments

The 12pm tournament day is the $5,000 NL Holdem Shootout which was won by Phillip Tom in a field of 360 for over $475,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 396 for this event, but if it’s slightly above that, it could cause a bit of a problem for tournament staff. The payout structure for the shootout event pays 40 spots if the field is between 378 and 420, which would create 11-player tables for the first round if the field size is in the 401-420 range. The 5pm tournament is the debut of the $2,500 8-Game event which consists of HORSE, NL holdem, PLO and 2-7 triple draw, with a projected field size of 250.

More updates during the day at Pokerati and follow the WSOP at WSOP.com

When the security guys came out with the money in silvery aluminum briefcases — 9 million semi-real American dollars — a few of us in media row joked about telling the story that the guys left at the final table had decided to chop up the remaining prize pool and play for it Deal or Ne Deal style. (Ha ha, we are so damn funny.) But on this episode of Tao of Pokerati, Pauly and I take the issue a bit more seriously, and break down what’s really at stake for Ivan and Peter — who became friends recently playing on the EPT on PokerStars’ dime — beyond just the $3.34 million in prize differential between 1st and 2nd.*

Book 4: WSOP Final Table
Episode 4.11: Deal or No Deal? 5:33

[audio:tao/TOP-4-11.mp3]

*I don’t care what anyone says … that’s not enough money to justify an even chop, I don’t believe. And kudos to tourney organizers for breaking down the prize pool in such a way that it mathematically would mathematically make little sense (on the surface, at least).

The delay of the WSOP main event final table allowed Harrah’s to invest the final table prize money, with the exception of $900,670 paid to each player in July, in a money market account to accumulate interest in the months leading up to the final table action. That was an excellent idea…until the market tanked. Minor detail.

Regardless, there is now an extra $98,179 added to the payouts. Harrah’s invested the $24,527,416 into a Fidelity Institutional Money Market Fund – Treasury Only Portfolio on July 14th and withdrew it on November 5th. With a variable rate returning .9%, there is now a little extra spending money in the pool for the top eight finishers. The guy who finishes in ninth place gets nothing more – nada, zippo, not even a few bucks for the valet – than the $900,670 he already won. The new payouts for the final table are as follows:

1st place: $9,152,416 ($32,899 added)
2nd place: $5,809,595 ($19,571 added)
3rd place: $4,517,773 ($14,421 added)
4th place: $3,774,974 ($11,459 added)
5th place: $3,096,768 ($8,756 added)
6th place: $2,418,562 ($6,052 added)
7th place: $1,772,650 ($3,476 added)
8th place: $1,288,217 ($1,545 added)
9th place: $900,670

This brings the updated total main event prize pool to $64,431,779.

What’s happening today at the WSOP while UB issues an update regarding the NioNio scandal (with more user names involved):

The complete Main Event payouts have finally been officially released, here’s what the November Nine will be looking forward to earning. (Note: The November Nine will each get 9th place money with the remaining prize pool, about $24.5m, to be placed in an interest bearing account):

1: $9,119,517
2: $5,790,024
3: $4,503,352
4: $3,763,515
5: $3,088,012
6: $2,412,510
7: $1,769,174
8: $1,286,672
9: $900,670

The rest of the payouts are on page 2:
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The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived… The official number of entrants in the 2008 WSOP $10K NLHE main event is 6,844. Second largest field ever.

When it was announced that the final 666 players will be in the money, a collective groan came from the tables. Oooh – 666. Superstitious crowd, eh? I will only be creeped out if the 666th finisher is named Damien…

The first prize is a whopping $9,119,517. Whew! I may have heard a collective sigh of relief from Harrah’s staff members, as they now know that the event grew from last year – 486 more players – and the big first prize is one they can truly brag about. Actually, that same sense of relief may have resonated through the poker media as well. Good numbers, good sign that poker is experiencing some growth amidst tough economic times.

Full payout list will be listed when we get it in our hot little hands.

What’s happening at this moment while reading Gary Wise’s latest entry about what’s “good for poker” is really good for poker.

Today brings another two tournaments to the starting line, first at noon is the $2,000 NL holdem event and another large field is expected. The event the pros may be swooning over is the $10,000 Mixed Event “World Championship”. This tournament will have it all for the big cash game specialists as they throw eight games into the mix. This grouping of players will play Triple Draw lowball Deuce to Seven, Limit Holdem, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha; playing each game for 8 hands before moving on to the next game in the rotation. Hopefully there won’t be many mixups between the players, dealers, and floor and this becomes a staple of the WSOP schedule.

Play finally finished earlier this morning in the marathon that was event #2, $1,500 NL Holdem. After over two hours of headsup play, Grant Hinkle made an aggressive move, raising and eventually going all in with 10d-4d against James Akenhead’s Ac-Kh. Things were looking good for James, but his was truly aching after the flop came down 10-4-10. A fourth 10 hit the turn and it was over, as Hinkle took the bracelet and over $800,000 in victory. Chris Ferguson finished 3rd, the full results can be found over at Pokernews.

What else happened yesterday:
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What’s happening around the WSOP while the world’s #1 Limit Holdem player is waiting for you.

It’s almost 6:00am and play finished at 18 in the $1,500 NL event. They’ll be coming back at 1:30pm today to eventually get to a final table, broadcast for ESPN. Theo Tran appears to be the chip leader, while Chris Ferguson, Minh Nguyen, David Bach, and Perry Friedman are still in the mix.

Two new events go underway today, but expect more attention being paid to the $1,000 NL holdem w/rebuys event, starting at 12 noon. The two NL w/rebuys events averaged a combined 3,000 entries/rebuys, expect more of the same today. Daniel Negreanu has not had a good Series so far, expect him to be rebuying heavily today. For the non-holdem fan, the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better tournament will start at 5:00pm.

What happened yesterday:
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