The Hard Rock Hotel’s Detox Poker Series, lead by tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage had four tournaments playing down to a winner on Sunday. The tournament that drew a lot of attention to the live streaming at the Detox Poker site featured a popular member of the poker media making the final table, but a former WPT winner who held all the chips in the end.

$350 NL Holdem

The final day of the $100,000 Guarantee $350 NL Holdem started with 18 players quickly making their way to a final table, which featured Bluff/WPT/Poker Beat reporter Jess Welman and 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Championship winner Joe Tehan. Welman took her short stack into an 8th place finish, earning $3,140. Tehan maintained his chip lead until a deal was made three-handed, with Tehan collecting $31,943. The full results of the final table can be found here.

$350 HORSE

Event #3, the $350 HORSE wound up with Benjamin Yu and Colby Pitt making a deal heads-up with Yu earned the victory and $5,930. While Pitt was runner-up, he won more money, collecting $6,168. Full results available here.

$350 NL Bounty

Event #4, the $350 NL Bounty tournament, drew a field of 60 players, each with a $100 bounty on their head. Kent Frampton started heads-up down 5 to 1 in chips against Veerachai Vongxaiburang, eventually picking up the win good for $5,040 while Vongxaiburang earned $2,640. Blake Bluffington finished 3rd for $1,680 and Sam Grizzle finished 4th, earning $1,200. Full results and a winner’s photo here.

$350 7-Game

A field of just 28 participated in event #5, Scott Fischman 7-Game Mix with James Wheatley earning the title for $4,620. Brian Kim was runner-up for $2,520, Ryan Hullerman finished 3rd for $1,260.

Monday’s tournaments

Two more tournaments on the schedule, starting at 1pm with event #6, $350 NL Holdem, while at 5pm it’s Event #7, $350 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better. Be sure to check out DetoxPoker.com for updates, interviews and streaming video.

Saturday was a busy day for the Detox Poker Series, with day 1b of the $335 NL Holdem $100,000 Guarantee, the final table of the $350 Omaha 8 or Better event, and the opening day of the $350 HORSE.

$335 NL Holdem

Day 1b drew a field of 193 entrants, creating a total prize pool of $121,150 with the remaining 18 players Saturday making the money, with the final nine joining the nine survivors from Friday to play down to a winner at 3pm. Joe Tehan leads the field of day 1b survivors with 288,000 in chips. The other notable from day 1b returning this afternoon is Bluff Magazine/World Poker Tour/The Poker Beat Jess Welman, finishing with 75,500 in chips. Here’s how the final two tables will be seated with 19:42 remaining in level 16: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante.

The final 18 are guaranteed at least $1,050, with the winner pocketing $34,440. The full list of payouts and players who cashed can be found here.

$350 Omaha 8 or Better

Frankie O’Dell, winner of two WSOP bracelets in Omaha 8 or Better, added another tournament win to his results as he defeated Mitch Schock heads-up. The pair made a deal with O’Dell earning $6,000 with Schock earning $4,944. The rest of the results are available here.

$350 HORSE

71 players hit the felt for some weekend mixed game action in the $350 HORSE, with the final table making the money. The bubble boy was Frankie O’Dell, unable to parlay his earlier win into back-to-back final tables. The final tablists are guaranteed $682, with the winner pocketing $7,881. Play resumes at the final table with 15:00 left on level 14, playing the 5th hand of Stud 8 or Better, limits at 2,000/4,000 and a 500 ante:

Seat 1: Benjamin Yu 39,500
Seat 2: Alan Miskin 36,000
Seat 3: Mitch Mitchener 45,000
Seat 4: Colby Pitt 64,000
Seat 5: Jeff Szamborski 51,500
Seat 6: JD Newitt 32,000
Seat 7: Kathy Raymond 41,500
Seat 8: Kevin Calenzo 56,500

Sunday’s Tournaments

Two more tournaments get underway today, at 1pm is the $350 NL Holdem Bounty tournament, with $100 bounties on every player’s head. The 5pm tournament is the $350 Scott Fischman 7 Game Mix event, consisting of HORSE, NL Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. Be sure to check out Detox Poker and Quad Jacks for video, updates, interviews, and much, much more.

A recap of Friday night’s action:

10k HORSE down to final 9

The $10,000 HORSE World Championship is down to an unofficial final table of 9, full of big name players. Here’s how they’re currently seated:

Seat 1: Richard Ashby – 300,000
Seat 2: Nick Schulman – 385,000
Seat 3: Matt Glantz – 1,400,000
Seat 4: Eugene Katchalov – 870,000
Seat 5: Carlos Mortensen – 780,000
Seat 6: Marco Johnson – 1,680,000
Seat 7: Marco Traniello – 90,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman – 515,000
Seat 9: Ian Gordon – 1,050,000

Follow the action as they play down to a winner at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL down to 12

The final day of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem has just 12 players remaining as they return from dinner break. The chip leader is Niccolo Caramatti with 2,365,000. He’s followed by Aaron Gustavson (1,475,000), Dean Hamrick (1,450,000), and UFC fighter Mike Swick (405,000). More updates and chip counts during the evening at wsop.com.

Finne fine during day 2 of mixed holdem

27 players remain in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event, as they play down to a final table this evening. Timothy Finne holds the chip lead with 316,000, followed by 2010 bracelet winner Steven Kelly (250,000), Dwyte Pilgrim (175,000), another 2010 bracelet winner Valdemar Kwaysser (170,000), Gavin Smith (108,000) and Randy “nanonoko” Lew (90,000). Updates and more at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL Day 1

A field of over 3,000 took part in Friday’s $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event, with less than half remaining as they take return shortly from their dinner break. The early chip leader is Alex Outhred with 63,000, followed by notables such as Alex Bolotin (48,000), Chino Rheem (32,000), Adam Junglen (21,000) and Dan Heimiller (10,300). More updates during the last four hours of play at PokerNews.

$5,000 PLO 8

A field of over 280 started the evening’s tournament, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better, almost 90 more than last year. Players start with 3,000 in chips, then receive three more “rebuy” chips, each good for 4,000 chips. The early chip leader is Robert Mizrachi with 33,000, followed by Robin Keston (30,000), recent bracelet winner Steve Jelinek (13,500) and David Benyamine (11,000). The tournament just entered its third hour, so find more split-pot action during the evening at wsop.com.

Going over what’s happened so far this Tuesday at the WSOP:

10k Stud 8 Final Table Set

The final table of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better final table has been set, with plenty of big names looking to take down a bracelet this evening. Here’s how the final table will look when play resumed at 9pm:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman – 861,000
Seat 2: Steve Zolotow – 684,000
Seat 3: Frank Kassela – 800,000
Seat 4: John Juanda – 787,000
Seat 5: Vladimir Schmelev – 304,000
Seat 6: Kirill Rabtsov – 882,000
Seat 7: Allen Kessler – 467,000
Seat 8: Dario Minieri – 316,000

Follow the split-pot action at PokerNews.

Vance Still Best in $1k NL

Matt Vance remains the chip leader (1,100,000) with 19 remaining on day 3 of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event. David Baker, no relation to 50k Player’s Championship final tablist David “Bakes” Baker, has 990,000. It was hoped that they would play down to a finish, but that looks unlikely at this time, so they’ll stop when they reach the final 9. See what does happen by following over at PokerNews.

$1,500 NL 6-max Day 2

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max has under 50 players remaining, with Michael Myers the current chip leader with 385,000. Other notables include Ray Henson (329,000), Jordan Morgan (240,000), and Mark Seif (200,000). Follow the updates and results over at wsop.com.

$5,000 NL Day 1

The only tournament to start this afternoon, the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of 792 players, up over 100 from last year’s edition. Under 500 remain after the dinner break at the end of level 6 with Amit Makhija currently in front with 83,000 in chips. Other notables near the top: Chino Rheem (60,000), Perry Friedman (55,000), Scott Fischman (53,000) and defending champion Brian Lemke (48,900). More updates and chip counts are available at wsop.com.

Nice! Used to be people thought of Pokerati only as a place for news, analysis, and mistakes … but now they’re thinking about us, well, maybe for the exact same reasons (lol?) when it comes to quality low-stakes Vegas poker.

Check out PokerNews’s pimp-out for our version of 1/2 NL/PLO @HardRockPoker here. (Still can’t get the Hard Rock, however, to get behind the rule I’m pushing to allow me personally to use three hole cards instead of two in Omaha. Assholes. They also denied my suggestion to have at least two of our regular dealers pitch the cards topless.)

Anyhow, It seems PokerNews wants to cut in on ride along with our action, and thus they’ve added their own special games to the Hard Rock poker menu:

Wednesday night, PokerNews will host the PokerNews half-kill cash game, which will run weekly throughout the WSOP. This will be a limit hold’em game with a half-kill, with stakes at the behest of the players. Like all the games at the Hard Rock, it’s not limited to Wednesday nights and can be played upon request. Players who log the most PokerNews half-kill hours at the Hard Rock will receive a brand new iPad.

Sundays will be all about sit-n-go’s with PokerNews’ Sit-n-Go Sunday at the Hard Rock. Unlike the PokerNews half-kill, which will reward stamina, Sit-n-Go Sunday will reward results. Players with the most impressive sit-n-go results over the course of the WSOP will also be rewarded with an iPad.

IPads, plural? Great, now I get to listen to my players bitching about “why don’t we get an iPad?” Just friggin zip it, Rex. I give all of you one every time I get it in drawing to two outs for a chop.

You’ll be hearing about more Hard Rock action here throughout the WSOP, as well as a whole litany of special World Series promotions. I’m still trying to learn what they all are … but the coolest one that I know off the top of my head: they’ll be spreading rake-free satellites before each WSOP event. Boo-yah, no?

Also, for you mixed-game posers specialists, Scott Fischman hosts his 7-game mix there regularly. I’d like to play, but I’m scared …

Hard Rock will be running shuttles between their joint on Harmon and the Rio throughout the summer.

As the California State Poker Championship rages on at the Commerce (with cool trophies, gotta say), tournament director Matt Savage’s return to Vegas for an LV Poker Series at the Hard Rock has taken final shape. The series itself will now be called the Detox Poker Series. And Event #12 will be Pokerati NL/PLO.

click to view the whole schedule

It’s a $230 no-limit hold’em / pot-limit omaha event, with a single $200 rebuy. Gee, sounds like a typical night for yours truly at the Pokerati game.

Takes place at 5 pm on Wednesday, August 18.

The 1 pm that day, btw, is a $230 NL … with no rebuys but a $50,000 guarantee. (A Matt Savage guarantee, mind you, not an old-way Hard Rock guarantee … seriously, the new bosses there really seem to have turned things around, and intend to prove their stuff during the WSOP.)

The Pokerati NL/PLO event will qualify for CardPlayer Player of the Year standings, too. (As will all the events in the Detox Poker Series.)

More…

Scott Fischman seeking help from Phil Hellmuth:

Creative cred to texcoast44.

People have been wondering how Harrah’s et al will market the November Nine, and what will be done to promote them. Ivan Demidov earned himself a bit of promotion as he just made the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event, which also includes multiple bracelet winners John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, and Scott Fischman. Demidov, currently 2nd in chips for the final table in Las Vegas, become the first to final table both the WSOP and WSOPE final tables (of course, being only the 2nd WSOPE main event final table narrows the possibilities of it happening, it’s impressive nonetheless). ESPN360.com will start final table coverage at 8 am ET tomorrow, those who don’t have the service may be able to see the final table over at http://wsope.betfair.com/live-video/live-video.html. Here’s how the rest of the final table looks:

More…

I’m just askin’ … watchin’ a little WSOP, and after an hour-and-a-half of ZeeJustin, I see a dude who’s good — really good — and possibly due for an ass-kicking.

UPDATE: Erick Lindgren says Bonomo is “the future of poker.”

The Fontana Room Race for the gold continues as the field of 639 players has now been reduced to 27 lucky little devils skilled men.

David Levi ended the first day without increasing his starting stack while Scott Fischman was in worse condition ending with only 17k in chips. Yet, Scott and David stepped up to bat on day two and hit several home runs placing them currently in 8th and 9th.

But they better not slack tomorrow because Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Paul Wasicka, Roland De Wolfe & Paul Lee are apparently wanting to win this little tournament.

Today’s notable eliminations were Lyle Berman (WPT Chairman of the board), Justin Bonomo and Dan’s crush.