Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi wins the Poker Players Championship
Photo: Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum

Today’s WSOP Bracelet Boxscore

Henry Lu $654,380 – Event #43 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
Rocco Palumbo $464,464 – Event #44 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
Michael Mizrazchi $1,451,527 – Event #45 $50,000 Players Championship
Joey Weissman $694,609 – Event #46 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em

It was a good day to be a grinder, or The Grinder.

Thursday’s noon tournament was a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event which drew a fat number of 1,001 players for an increase of 15% over last year. First place will nab just south of seven figures and the winner will have to get through a very deep field. 2011 November Niner Matt Giannetti was the early leader on dinner break. Fun table of Day 1 included Brandon Meyers, Peter Eastgate, Noah Schwartz, Eric Froehlich, Darryll Fish, Allen Kessler, and Layne Flack. It was a battle to just get a word in.

Probably the toughest field each year is on display during the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. 108 players entered the event five long days ago and it was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi who would become the first two-time winner of the Chip Reese Trophy. The field didn’t make it into the money until late on Day 4 with Benjamin Yu as the unfortunate bubble boy (after torturing Phil Hellmuth all of Day 3).

The Grinder beat Chris Klodnicki heads up and grabbed just $1,451,527 for his win. There will be some happy club owners tonight.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) of the Day – It’s not often I find myself agreeing 100% with Negreanu, but this is a no brainer. I always agree with Maridu, so I tacked on an earlier tweet so it will be stuck in your head next time you walk outside in the hot, Vegas wind.

Also if you are a male considering playing the WSOP ladies event on Friday please know you are a douchebag and I hope you end up homeless.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) June 26, 2012

Enough. Either you get it or you don’t. If you’re female you play the ladies event, if you’re male you don’t. If you’re a male douche you do — Maria Mayrinck (@Maridu) June 26, 2012

103degrees yesterday, 104 today. It’s supposed to be 110 on tuesday. The night breeze is like a dragon farting in your face. #ILOVEIT! — Maria Mayrinck (@Maridu) June 18, 2012

Should Men Be Allowed to Play in the Ladies Event? – I guess that question has to be asked, even though the answer is pretty obvious to most civilized folk. BLUFF asked the question and everyone agreed. But I suspected we’ll be publishing a list of tools who did it anyway. Don’t be a douche.

$25k WSOP Fantasy Update – PokerListing has your $25k WSOP Fantasy Update so you can sweat the action of team who can throw around $25k like they are singles at a G-Vegas strip club. Jason Mercier’s team has the lead but Robert Mizrachi will make a big jump with The Grinder’s win.

EU Event Discusses Online Gaming – Great news for online poker in Europe, meanwhile we’re still at the mercy of our nanny state to keep us away from the great evil of online gaming.

QuadJacks: Women in PokerPoker player and chess master (plus a good South Philly girl) Jennifer Shahade sat down with QuadJack to discuss women in poker.

Be sure to check out our new sponsors at Face Up Gaming. Legal, subscription-based online poker with plenty of great prizes including cash, WSOP seats, and poker trips. Sign up with Bonus Code pokerati.

Ronnie Bardah
Photo: WSOP.com

Today’s WSOP Bracelet Boxscore

Ronnie Bardah $182,088 – Event #40 $2,500 LHE 6-Handed
Greg Ostrander $742,072 – Event #41 $3,000 NLHE
Oleksii Kovalchuk $228,014 – Event #42 Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo

Each summer the “poker media” likes to slap labels on the WSOP a few weeks into the summer, perhaps a lazy way to summarize the series in 4 words. Year of the Pro, Year of the Women, Year of the Amateur, etc, etc, ad nauseum. This year has seen a little bit of everything with top pros picking up bracelets, with the good guys, long suffering, and ladies also getting in the act.

There was a little debate whether Allyn Jaffrey Shulman’s win broke the four year streak of all male bracelet winners (aside from the Ladies Championship) since it occurred in the Seniors Championship. Jackie Glazier almost erased that question. The Australian poker player has plenty of results on her resume but came to the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em final table with the chip lead and her eye on the title.

After a long evening, she found herself heads up with Greg Ostrander for the bracelet with a significant chiplead when the hard stop time rolled around. Ostrander opted to pause play for the day and that seemed to kill Glazier momentum and she settled for a second place finish.

Glazier was the 10th women to make a final table this summer and scored the 5th highest payout for a woman player in WSOP history.

Link Dump

Tweet(s) o’ the Day – It would have been pretty unthinkable just a few years ago that Doyle Brunson would miss the $50,000 Players Championship. While his WSOP schedule has been cut way back, the 10-time bracelet winner is still out there crushing big cash games. In the end, Texas Dolly was in his seat at the start of play.

Supposed to be a giant cash game today. Thinking about skipping 50K tourney. #whattodo?

— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 24, 2012

@TexDolly If you do not play in the WSOP 50K Players, you will be sorely missed…Get in there + show @ToddBrunson how it’s done!! — phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) June 24, 2012

WSOP Player of the Year Update – The Player of the Year list is up to date through the latest events and Phil Ivey continues to lead over John Monnette, Andy Frankenberger, Phil Hellmuth, and newly crowned bracelet winner Jan-Peter Jachtmann. Still plenty of time and some big money events for others to make up ground. For anyone wondering, Allen “Complainsaw” Kessler is not in the Top 500.

It’s time for civil behavior from the pokerati – Norman Chad (your 6th place finisher in the Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo event) has his latest piece for the Washington Post where he talks about civility in poker. While I think a lot of the top young pros are doing a good job of expanding their horizons, there is still something rotten in the soft nougat center. Also, wash your damn hands!

$50k Players Championship Decline – While it wasn’t the smallest field in the short history of the $50k Players Championship, the 108 player field only missed that number by 13. There are plenty of reasons to speculate and Julio Rodriguez at CardPlayer has his ideas. Also, for the first time in history, no women entered the Players Championship.

WSOP Week #3 Behind the Scenes – Perhaps a little behind the times but who doesn’t like to watch Kristy Arnett report about odd ball things around the Rio?

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.

Here’s some of what’s been happening on Saturday:

Donkament Disappointing?

Day 1a of the Event #3 – $1,000 No-limit Holdem tournament drew a field of 2,601 entries today, a disappointment for those expecting a field of over 7,000 battling for this bracelet over the weekend. The 788 players who made it to the dinner break are returning shortly for another four levels of play. The unofficial chip leader is PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok with 27,000 chips. Other notable chip counts: Amarillo Slim (21,000), Chris Bjorin (20,000) and Bryan Devonshire, (17,500). Track the action for this event over at PokerNews.

First bracelet winner to be determined tonight

Just 18 players remain in the first WSOP bracelet event the $500 Casino Employees Event have returned from their dinner break, with Kent Washington maintaining the chip lead at 332,000 in chips. You can follow the action for this event over at PokerNews.com.

Players’ Championship Day 2

The $50,000 Players’ Championship field is currently on their one-hour dinner break at the conclusion of level eight with 90 players remaining. The current chip leader appears to be Steve Zolotow, with 420,000 in chips. Some of the fallen who may be looking to watch UFC 114 include: Phil Galfond, Tony G, and Todd Brunson. When play resumes, the field will play another three levels before the bag up their chips, sign their name, and hopefully don’t be recorded as busted when they decided not to report their chip counts. To catch the action of this event over at PokerNews, head here.

Saturday at noon is the first of six $1,000 No-limit holdem events, each having two day 1’s and fields of at least 5,000 expected. Last year’s “Stimulus Special”, won by Steve Sung for over $770,000, drew out all kinds of people, as Pauly noted in his Nostrum Donkulus post. After reading that, check out his morning link dump.

Time for some Friday recapping:

Casino Employees Cashing

The first bracelet event, $500 Casino Employees , finished play at the end of level 10 with 53 players remaining. The chip leader is Kent Washington, from Oakland, California with 168,300 in chips. Jonathan Kotula, who won this event in 2008, is in 2nd (108,700). The only other recognizable name remaining is Bellagio tournament director Jack McClleland (19,700). The tournament is scheduled to resume at 2:30pm today, although the 1k donkament may delay that start. The schedule notes they’re playing down to a winner today, but circumstances may prevent that. If they play down to a winner today, it may put a damper on the plans looking to take part in Bluff’s Streak 2 Seven contest to win a 2010 or 2011 WSOP me seat, as mentioned on this week’s episode of the award-winning Poker Beat.

Players’ Championship Moves to Day 2

Day 1 of the $50,000 Players’ Championship concluded earlier this morning with 105 of the 116 players remaining. Chip counts haven’t been finalized, but it appears Erik Sagstrom will be the chip leader at 329,100. Other notables in the top 10: David Oppenheim (313,800), “Miami John” Cernuto and Joe Serock (265,000), Justin Bonomo (255,000), Barry Greenstein (240,100), and early chip leader Daniel Kelly (223,000). Tom Dwan, Brian Townsend, and 2009 dual bracelet winner Greg Mueller started off down $50,000 at the WSOP, eliminated on Friday. The remaining field will return at 3pm today as the field is scheduled to play six 90-minute levels.

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

For those who get eliminated early enough, you can watch guys trying to beat the shit out of each other at the MGM Grand Garden area for UFC 114 tonight. The highly anticipated main event features Rashad Evans v Quinton “Rampage” Jackson topping an 11-fight card. For those looking for a preview of the fights, or looking for some good betting tips, check out www.mmafix.com and www.rawvegas.tv.

More later today, but in the meantime be sure to check Pokerati, on Twitter and hit up the official WSOP site over at www.wsop.com

The first bracelet event, the $500 Casino Employees NL Holdem event drew a field of 721 entrants, with the final 72 hitting the pay window, the winner getting just over $70,000. Although Team Pokerati’s John Harris was unable to take part, Shaun Harris from Las Vegas is the current chip leader (105,200) with about 90 players remaining. At the time of posting, they’re currently at level 9 and play will conclude at the end of level 10 or the final table, whichever comes first.

The $50,000 Players’ Championship drew a smaller than expected field of 116 players. First place will get about $1,560,000. The early chip leader is Daniel “djk123” Kelly (285,000) eliminated Dan Shak. You can follow the action in both events over at www.wsop.com, where the full entrant list should be online shortly.

I’ll be back in the morning with the preview of tomorrow’s first 1k NL event, with over 3,000 players registered already. And for those with Twitter, be sure to follow @pokerati, @taopauly, @wsop, and @pokernews_live for updates.

After a delay when an original schedule was “leaked”, the 2010 WSOP Schedule is now online with 57 bracelet events. The WSOP starts with a doubleheader on Friday, May 28th with the $500 Casino Employees Event starting at 12 noon, followed by the $50,000 Players’ Championship, which will be an 8-game mix (HORSE, NL Holdem, Pot-limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw). The final table will consist of No-Limit holdem only.

The full schedule, with structure sheets are now online at the wsop.com site.

For other details regarding the 2010 WSOP:

More…