Episode 63: Day 4 Hypertension – With fewer than 1,000 players to go, Dan and Pauly wax on the tension inside the Amazon Ballroom along with the breakdown of the Pavilion. Pauly wonders if Team Pokerati’s last player standing, the Big Randy, in the Main Event is properly patched up as action approaches the money bubble.

Episode 64: Big Head Randy and the Min-Cashers – Dan and Pauly hang out at the Bad Beat bar and wonder if they are coolers? Or if the Big Randy had busted out because he was not wearing a Pokerati patch. Yes, the Big Randy busted before the money bubble. The discussion shifts to the bubble strategy for PokerStars qualifiers who also have a PCA package riding on the line along with the min-cash.

Episode 65: Boo Bubble – Dan was napping in his car as the bubble slowly approached. He woke up during the dinner break and wondered where everyone went. Pauly clued him in and Dan was bummed that he couldn’t record the players groaning in dissent. The Bubble is nigh.

Episode 66: Bubblicious – Pauly and Dan were hanging out in upper level of the Jack Links’ beef jerky lounge keep tabs on the entire Amazon Ballroom from the high ground when the bubble burst. They captured the announcement of Tim McDonald’s 748th place elimination thereby becoming this year’s Bubble Boy (and winning a consolation seat in the 2011 WSOP). They also recorded the jubilant celebration from the players who made the money in the 2010 Main Event.

In what some consider a controversial decision, tournament director Jack Effel decided to stop play with 1:15:44 left in level 16 (2,500/5,000 w/ 500 ante) to have the 751 players remaining (747 make the money) take their 90-minute dinner break. Effel’s explanation was that they needed time to prepare for paying the players who bust out immediately after the bubble bursts. The field had planned to start hand-for-hand play before the announcement. The current leader is Theo Jorgensen with 1,325,000 in chips. Other notables: Matt Affleck (1.26m), Tony Dunst (1.18m), Phil Galfond (1.05m), Adam Levy (840k), Johnny Chan (785k), Jean-Robert Bellande (753k), David Benyamine (630k), Scotty Nguyen (540k) and Eric Baldwin (500k). Also in the field are all 4 Mizrachi brothers: Robert 310k, Michael 118.5k, Donny 115k and Eric 60k.

Gavin Smith and Jason Somerville discuss the decision with Wicked Chops Poker.

Notables who were eliminated earlier today: Matt Savage, Annie Duke, JJ Liu, Hank Azaria, Robert Varkonyi, Dan Harrington, Erica Schoenberg and Barry Greenstein. Team Pokerati’s only remaining hope (?), The Big Randy, was eliminated in early action.
Follow the action on the money bubble with play resuming at 8:30pm at wsop.com.

Yesterday was the beginning of the real tournament, with all players converged into a single field, just with different starting stacks determining how hard a fight they might face, and how much bad-beat insurance they were carrying.

Today is the money bubble day, arguably the most intense day of big-field poker you can find. 7,319 started last week, 1,203 remain … 747 make the money. Tomorrow it will be about who gets to play for “real money”.

Here’s everyone who still has a dream, some more desperate than others, sortable by name, chip count, or table assignment:

2010 WSOP Main Event Day 4 Seat Assignments, Chip Counts

Lots of people worth watching … tons of big-name pros, plenty of rising stars, but the only not-so-pokery celeb being Hank Azaria, of The Simpsons and the voices of Chief Wiggum, Moe, and Apu. Follow the action throughout the day here.

Team Pokerati has just one remaining player, The Big Randy, who went out last year three hands into Day 4, before getting a chance to fight through the money bubble.

• The average chip count should be about 182,500
• Brown has 140,100
• That puts him at 632nd out of the 1,203 remaining players, and 4th out of 4 remaining Browns
• Blinds start tomorrow at 1200/2400 + 300
• That leaves our player with 58 big blinds and an M=22

TBR’s starting table tomorrow has a fellow Texan from Arlington and the shortest-stacked of all remaining Mizrachis. Next to the Grinder is Chris Bjorn … overall looks to be not a bad seat draw, with the biggest stack (5th overall in the tournament) two to TBR’s right:

Table 277, by seat

1. Brian Fite (Arlington, TX) — 151,600
2. John Brown (Dallas, TX) — 140,100
3. James Czarnecki (Edgewater, MD) — 88,400
4. Jan Boye (Harrow, GB) — 213,600
5. Chris Bjorin (London, GB) — 132,200
6. Michael Mizrachi (Miami, FL) — 91,700
7. Samuel Edwards (Las Vegas, NV) — 131,000
8. Jose Tavares (Commerce, CA) — 48,300
9. Max Casal (Burbank, CA) — 687,200

BTW, just proof that Mathers can’t see everything Team Pokerati’s lone remaining player in the Main Event, The Big Randy, is alive at dinner break with 202k. He’s still trying to keep a low profile while chipping up quietly until money time.

UPDATE: LOL, maybe just semi-low … didn’t realize he had an active twitter account until reading it on WSOP.com. Go team!

Pat Poels went out yesterday. And TBR, relying on the scurrilous poker media’s “reporting” that I am a cooler and getting antsy about making the money today, requested, “Don’t come anywhere near my table today.”

So fine. I didn’t. And in returning the favor, The Big Randy gave me confirmation that people who are superstitious are measurably less likely to win the main event. He had one guy to be really careful of today, sitting to his left, and on the third hand he got it all-in on a race … and lost … QQ < AK. OK, I swear I feel bad. But this really is what today's all about -- the crushing of hopes and dreams. And unless Team Pokerati can sneak up on some remaining big stacks to slap a patch on them -- which I'm pretty sure is near impossible with all the Poker Royalty agents circling healthy-chipped unknowns -- that means it's up to Tom "1-for-20" Schneider to survive past the bubble, go really deep to re-save the family farm his 2009 WSOP, and hopefully make a final table for my personal branding benefit.

Go @DonkeyBomber!

UPDATE: What I meant to say was good game, Randy. You played very well and gave it a valiant effort. Sometimes you just get unlucky. Better luck next year. You always have our encouragement and support. lol.

Day 3 of the Main Event were able to play five full levels yesterday, with 789 players surviving to return at noon Saturday as they crawl their way to the money bubble at 648 players. The only player with a 7-figure chip stack is Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier with 1,380,500. Other notables who are still hanging around: Blair Hinkle (542,000), Dennis Phillips (510,000), Phil Hellmuth (485,000), Kara Scott (456,500), Mike Sexton (414,000), David Benyamine (381,500), Lou Diamond Phillips (359,500), Kelly Kim (346,000), Joe Sebok (297,500), Joe Hachem (239,500), Tom Schneider (231,000), Bobby Baldwin (193,500) and The Big Randy (190,500). The entire list of survivors is available below:

Five more levels of play are scheduled for today, but a prolonged period of bubble play can play havoc, depending on when they start hand for hand play and how much time is added back after the money is reached. In any case, it’ll be a joyous occasion for most who make the money, while the more established players will be looking to abuse the bubble, and take chips off players looking to get out of Vegas with their $21k+ payday.

Follow all the action over at www.wsop.com here and Pokerati for other stuff going on during Saturday.

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.

Cards have gone in the air, and two of our fellas are threatening to go deep. Today is the big day where they’re both starting in comfortable position but still will have to play to determine if they’ll be hanging on for dear ITM life, or making the big push for real money with a few hundred others.

Two tables we’ll be watching a little closer than others, live, on Twitter, and at WSOP.com:

Brasillia 223 — obviously there’re a couple mistakes on this semi-official list, and we (or WSOP floor staff) will correct accordingly … assuming Tom doesn’t get it all-in with Dario Tosin right from the git-go and come up short:

1. Rose, John 33,800
2. @DonkeyBomber123,700
3. Tosin, Dario 129,000
4. Mannino, Giuseppe 65,800
5. Patrick, Julie 31,100
6. Seiter, John 35,400
7. Phan, Tim 82,400
7. Chaplin, Joseph DNR
8. Jacobsen, Allen 60,800
9. Boudreau, Kevin 72,200
9. Brown, Chad 27,800

And Brasillia 219 — FYI to floor: they’ve got a couple empty seats over here if you don’t want to play BR 223 11-handed:

1. McGowan, Joe 96,800
3. DeGreef, Jeremiah 88,900
4. Fletcher, Todd 116,100
5. O’Malley, Patrick 41,200
6. Mueller, Greg 287,300
8. Lucha, Sven 160,800
9. @TheBigRandy 117,800

TBR starts the day with an M=33, Tom with M=34. Tom’s one of two big stacks amidst a bunch of short-ish-but-not-yet-desperate little guys, while TBR’s table has less of a rich-poor gap in the middle — just one guy close to short, and a 2009 bracelet winner as the biggest threat.

Team Pokerati-er @TheBigRandy is doing well in the main event … he started the day in the top 9 percent in chips, and has been tracking his M moreso than his chip count.

TBR started the day with an M=73, dropped to M=55 after the first two levels, then down to M=46 after dinner break … but has since bounced back. With an hour-and-a-half left to play and blinds at 500/1000 + 100, his M is now back up to 63.

The goal, of course, is to get his M=∞.

As action gets underway on day 2B, we’ve got a few players you may or may not know that we’ll be paying a little extra attention to. Be sure to check in with CSR for some chip reports from and about:

Whit Blanton — He’s a wannabe semi-pro from Dallas, who’s almost made enough money in poker to quit his job. He sat at the same table as Pokerati teammate (P-mates?) Tom Schneider on Day 1, and took a little extra pleasure in reclaiming the chips that Tom had given to Mark Newhouse … particularly doing so by cracking Newhizzle’s aces with a skillfully played 68s. Whit starts the day in strong chip position with 101,450. The question to him on Day 2 is how he will wield it, especially when fueled by the boost of confidence a near-double-up at the end of Day 1 provided.

Pat Poels — He’s a two-time bracelet-winner and host at Casino Arizona who’s had an “OK” WSOP. He’s made more money than most of his buddies this year, but hasn’t yet had the big score to make his 2008 WSOP highly profitable. He had some stretches of really good cards in Day 1, which forced him to make some really big/frustrating/difficult laydowns. He goes into Day 2 with 64,650 chips.

Jerry Randack — Jerry’s a well-rounded player who burst onto the scene with a strong 2nd-place finish in the 2007 Pokerati Invitational, and has since found much success at the small-tourney tables. He cashed in a NLH event at the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge III, took 2nd in Triple-Draw Lowball in the Oklahoma State Poker Championship, and final tabled earlier this summer in a Binion’s Poker Classic PLO event. We’ll find out how he handles the Day 2 pressure of a short-ish stack — 29,700 — with blinds beginning to rise.

The Big Randy — TBR played comfortably throughout Day 1, and though he starts with a below-average stack — 27,100 — the self-proclaimed top-ranked all-around Batface (cash-game and tournament results) really likes the structure and recognizes the deep-stack nature of this tourney is still in play. “Feels like ’05,” he says, referring to his first main event where he nursed a much shorter stack for four day before cashing for $40k.

Robert Goldfarb — After “Goldfarbing” his way into the main event, he sits with 21,025 chips and has just been playing his game … though the cards haven’t yet come and he hasn’t yet gained any real traction. How the start of Day 2 goes for him, I think will be critical.

In the WSOP-Caesar’s main event:

Troy “Darling” Phillips has been sitting on a comfortable stack all day. He’s currently got about 20k in chips, which puts him well above average.

TBR has been playing short-stack poker all day, hardly getting above the starting 10k in chips. With blinds currently 100-200+25, he’s got about 4k in chips.

UPDATE: Pictures taken shortly before the dinner break …

TBR, currently running on less than fumes.

This chair got its aces cracked.

That’s really all there is to it. He got some chips and then lost them. “You gotta win your races,” he said.

UPDATE: They are down to about 100 players, and Merkow, Randack, and Sanbob all appear to be out, too. Vandy Krouch is still alive but nursing a tiny stack.

One player still alive with about 20k I know I know but I can’t seem to place his name. He keeps saying, “Hi Dan,” when I walk by and asks me how “our guys” are doing.

“Dude, you’re the last man standing. Dude.”

Feel semi-assy for not knowing. And though I’m sure he’ll be only minorly bummed when he doesn’t see his name on the internet, I don’t want to disturb his game by saying, “Sorry, man … you look familiar, but no clue about your name … I used to smoke a lot of pot.”

For the record, by the way, it’s really tough to live-blog without the internet!

UPDATE: La Sengphat and her “honey” DC both busted out early today. Flopping two-pair to a set repeatedly can do that to you. Dallas poker seems to be getting its ass KICKED today!

LAS VEGAS–OK, this will probably be my last update of the night, because I have TWO parties I HAVE to get to. One is with my old-good-good-ole friends at PartyPoker, and the other is a bikini party at a pool. So I am sure you understand.

Clonie Gowen is out. Not happy.

Chris Como is holding together nicely, with about 33,000. UPDATE: Just took a hit and looks a little bummed. But now with about 24,000, he still has almost as many chips as Tom Schneider.

Randy Brown, whom you all know as “The Big Randy” is in the top 10 or 20 in chips for the day, with at least 115,000.

Um, Go Batfaces/Watch out Arizona Posse!?! Sorry folks … yes, I’ve got pictures, but they are going to have to wait. Enjoy what’s in the Pokerati Flickr files in the meantime.