Badge of Dishonor? Once upon a time the idea of Russ Hamilton wearing the scarlet triangle of Full Tilt Poker seemed laughable.

There seems to be a big gaming conference somewhere in the world every other week. iGaming, iPoker, internet gambling, eGaming … whatever you call it, lots of people seem to want to know how this real-money internet gaming thing is gonna work, or should work — and they apparently have specific questions about online poker.

Thus, a handful of policy-minded pokeraticos are headed to Washington DC next week for the Digital Gaming and Lottery Policy Summit. I’ll be speaking on a panel with Dan Cypra from Pocket 5s and Stephen Davis, CEO of IT GlobalSecure. Our topic (moderated by eGaming broker Sue Schneider):

Cheating:
Assessing and Addressing the Danger

As interactive gaming and gambling products become more sophisticated, so do fraudsters. Here panelists look at cheating in poker (particularly player collusion and the use of poker “bots”), the danger to players and the potential devastation of operators; how fraud is being effectively dealt with; examples of attempts to cheat (both successful and unsuccessful) and how they were detected/why they were not detected.

The basic premise I’ll be addressing is that not all cheating in online poker is the same. Ghosting, multi-accounting, soft-play, superusering, collusion, etc. are all different offenses, and a one-size-fits-all-but-friends approach to bankroll seizure and account suspension probably ain’t gonna cut it moving forward. (At least that’s what I’ll be pushing for various regulator and lawmaker types in attendance to consider.)

Our ole pal Tom Schneider introduced me to the idea back in 2007, when we left the recorder running for a Beyond the Table aftershow. Sorrel Mizzi was the hot name in cheating at the time … but Tom didn’t think his MAing with Chris Vaughan FTW was too terrible a crime, and certainly not the worst of all shenanigans beginning to emerge in online poker. This was shortly before Russ Hamilton had been discovered and subsequently vilified without getting any days in court, and LOL some of the things I say revealing that I still clearly subscribed to the soon-to-be dated belief that online poker could do no wrong.

Beyond the Table (Extra)
December 9, 2007
[audio:https://pokerati.com/podcast/beyond-the-table/12-9-07-cheatingdiscussion2.mp3]

By the time Sorel Mizzi turned 25 on April 16 of this year, he already earned one of the top nods in the poker world as Bluff Magazine’s Player of the Year for 2010. He had also been at the center of several scandalized cheating accusations.

Sorel Mizzi

There is no question that Mizzi is an exception poker player. He placed third at 2010 Aussie Millions ($599,319) and ninth ($108,967) in 2011. More recently he won the FTOPXX leader board challenge. He’s also just qualified for the new Federated Poker League. That Mizzi can play winning poker is obvious. But can he beat nearly half a decade of bad press post-Black Friday?

In an effort toward repairing his tainted public image, Mizzi announced (through a press release) that he has decided to put “his winning ways into philanthropic endeavors.”

More…

February is not a huge month for tournaments, but that doesn’t mean there was a shortage of news. In fact, a very large part of the news this month was of the drama bomb variety, which provides easy cannon fodder for people such as myself and helps greatly in determining who came out ahead and who fell far, far behind. Given the sheer volume of stuff that happened, I have been forced agreed to do two of these a month, one for the first half and one for the second. If you want a weekly version of this, well, there is always my podcast, Rabbit Hunt (it’s a shameless plug but it was my excuse for not doing this every week…for the moment anyway). But enough rambling, let’s get going:

Winners

• Jared Huggins (1) and Pokerstars (1): Thanks for the bait-and-switch Pokerstars! We thought you were a mean, faceless corporation that turned down a homeless poker player just cause and then you say “just kidding!” and he ends up on the show anyway. Jared Huggins is a huge hit over on 2+2, and he is scheduled to appear in the Big Game in the near future. Here’s hoping he not only wins, but wins big. That NAPT Passport (or whatever it is they are going to offer this year) is gonna be huge.

• Matt Savage (1): Another LAPC, another huge Savage-tournament success. Sure the LAPC numbers aren’t where they were yesterday but it’s still pretty good considering there were a number of poker players that essentially said they wouldn’t give the Commerce business until they changed their stance on i-gambling. Although…I’m sure an exception was made for a $10k WPT tournament.

• Donkdown Radio (1): They won this month for getting someone whom we are 99.44% certain is Travis Makar. These guys definitely are at the forefront of the “UB Sucks” crowd, and so getting someone that could blow a new hole in the current UB leadership is bound to be the best thing to happen to the show since…well…the last time something happened that was bad for UB I suppose. Of course, swords like this can be double-edged…and I would have simultaneously made these guys losers of the month too. Their saving grace is that it’s too early to tell what is going on in Makar’s head, and we have gotten a few nuggets out of the deal so far, so we will see what develops in the coming weeks. Certainly a good get though.

• @pkrgssp (1): It’s not too often that someone comes out of nowhere, has a simple mission of just reviewing other people’s work, and gets a ton of attention in a short span of time. His blog is 100% worth adding to your list of things to read in a given day, and he has received props from various folks within the industry, so I think I will add my props by making him one of the winners of the month. Did he actually win anything poker-wise? No, but it might be a twitter/blog that many people will follow in the future (and quite possibly could become the critic version of Kevmath).

Losers

• Sorel Mizzi (-1): SHOCKING NEWS ALERT! Sorel has been accused of cheating, this time in a live poker setting, and not because he managed to copy himself, though I think he would have made headlines sooner if he did. No, he loses out this time for being accused of dealing from the bottom of the deck by John Racener (as relayed through Shaun Deeb onto 2+2) which set off a firestorm of angry posts in Sorel’s general direction. Still, it’s he-said…he-said, and who would you believe more, the man perma-banned recently unbanned from Full Tilt for cheating or the 3-time Florida DUI champion?

• The Bellagio Robber (-1: Plus -1 for every year served in prison): You pull off an Oceans 11 style robbery, then completely screw up everything after that. Oh, and he’s the son of a judge. Oh, and he tried selling chips that the Bellagio had changed out months ago. Genius!

• Joe Sebok/Paul Leggett/UB (-1): No matter what the motives are, however, UB is again in the crosshairs, and whenever that happens, Joe Sebok is forced to pick up his cross and defend the site…again. Seriously I hope they are paying him Phil Hellmuth-levels of money, because otherwise Joe has got to be wondering wtf he’s still doing there. As for Paul Leggett, one cannot say “I never offered a bribe” and then have a leaked email that says “I’m offering a bribe.” Yea…context is probably important, but it certain doesnt look good.

• Mer “PeachyMer” Brit (-1) and Pokerstars (0): Speaking of 2+2 controversies, the sleuths over at 2+2 felt like Mer Brit’s Team Pokerstars Pro deal was a little too good to be true…and well it probably was. Even Pokerstars admits that there are occasions that her account was used when she was not in the one operating it, including one where she took 2nd in a WCOOP event. There are enough holes and inconsistencies to make most people wonder what vetting process Pokerstars seems to have. Because I personally think I need to get a pro to take over my account if that’s what it takes to get a deal signed these days.

Coinflips

• Federated Sports + Gaming League (0): Until I see a list of players, I’m not willing to give this league the chance some may say it deserves. They’ve inked a deal with CBS and have a schedule out, but as of right now no one is invited to play and the pro-am idea, while great, is not likely designed to actually get amateurs into their big events (honestly, how many amateurs would/should take their temporary tour cards and drop $20k of their own money into a shark tank?)

• Peter Eastgate’s Retirement (0): On the one hand, I’m not particularly surprised that a young poker player that “retired” from the game has come back. On the other, Peter seemed like one of those people that would have stuck through it.

• Haseeb Qurashi/Ashton Griffin/70-mile runs (0): Personally, I hated the amount of coverage this story got…which is why I spent over 10 minutes out of a 45 minute podcast talking about it, because I’m a hypocrite. Still, I think that while we got a fairly uncensored and in-depth look at some of the insane prop-betting that goes on these days in the poker world, I can’t help but thing we simultaneously saw some darker elements that just gives some ammunition to those that would like to see talk of online poker go away, and quickly.

• Travis Makar (0): Jury is still out on this guy…or at least my jury is. If he has the information he is claiming, this completely longer than necessary leaking of incriminating evidence just feels like a squeeze. Who is he squeezing? No idea, but really if I would in Travis’ shoes, and I was broke, accused of cheating people of millions, and knew of people that had up to this point gotta away with it, maybe I’d do this too. OK…maybe not, but there is something deeper here that we might, as the media, be overlooking for the sake of the initial “ZOMG UB SCANDAL 3.0!” story.

The “Eff You, Sir/Madam” Award

Obviously there were enough stories to go around this month, but there is one particular entity that wins special mention, even if, at the moment, we don’t have a confirmation of additional shenanigans:

• UB (-3…because fortunately for them my rules allow for a maximum penalty of -3): I joined the poker media unofficially in early 2010, and have been forced to repeatedly cover the UB scandal in all its various forms, from minute amounts of new evidence to the prior scandal to the encryption  bullshit to Donkdown Radio’s repeated calls for the sites demolition to this. And honestly, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of talking about UB in the present tense, and I’m sick of constantly having to listen to people preach that “THIS IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! THE AVALANCHE IS COMING!” Personally, I hope they do find something huge, and that they find it fast. I hope they find that every non-poker pro employee of UB is guilty of being involved, and that they owe $100 million more to players, or whatever number it will take for the site to go under. Not third-tier site under, under-under. And it’s not even because of any personal hatred toward UB (though I have plenty of that), but because it’s because of their continued existence that we keep having to bring up a shining example of what’s wrong with the poker industry not as a historical lesson, but as a current issue. That said, if all this Makar stuff turns into smoke and mirrors, then UB will be able to continue it’s existence….at least until the next minor change in evidence brings all of this up again. (Writer Note: I’m just tired of covering this, so until UB folds or is found innocent, or whatever, I will likely continue to have this vitriol. If they do go under eventually though, maybe this can be called the “UB-Memorial Eff You, Sir/Madam” award.)

Entity of the Month

A bit short on players this month, so the trophy has been changed to the “Entity of the Month” trophy (you’ll note it looks the same). I’ve done a fair job of limiting myself with those in the winner’s box this month, but I think if you have to have a negative for the story you have to show the positive.

• Donkdown Radio (3): Sorry, this is easily the potentially biggest story of the month at a time where poker pros didn’t even manage to grace the winner’s circle. It’s certainly a case of “right place, right time”, but this could change the face of a scandal that has up to this point just seen a couple people come up with vague suggestions about what “really” happened. If things happen in the exact why the folks at Donkdown hope to see happen, there could be some very hard choices for the pros that are sponsored by the beleaguered site. Not really the site itself…I can’t see them making any “hard” choices necessarily. Either way, you can bet that they will get to the bottom of…whatever bottom they will get to with this.

I know that I didn’t talk about Norm McDonald’s premiere episode of High Stakes Poker, but I feel like everyone needs to see more than one episode of a new host before passing judgment. Come March 15th though…I should definitely have something to say…if there is anything worth saying anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prep for another UB scandal related interview (no joke, unfortunately).

Pokerati just received the following “official statement” via email from John Racener regarding his accusation that Sorel Mizzi slipped himself a joker in a private headsup Chinese Poker match at the PCA.

“Though I stand by my original claims of cheating on Sorel’s part, I feel that it was extremely irresponsible to make statements regarding Sorel’s mental state at the time and immediately following the incident. After much thought, I realize now that taking such matters to a public forum is dangerous and can be detrimental to the person that is being talked about. I also should not have allowed the matter to be addressed by a third party in a public forum. I look forward to putting this incident far behind me. This matter is being dealt with between Sorel and I, and I consider the topic to be closed.”

It appears that we should not be expecting a debut 2p2 post from Racener in the dramabomb Deeb thread after all.

Shaun Deeb created a thread this past Saturday that is destined to test the limits of the 2p2 forum server performance; Deeb titled it -> “Sorel allegedly bottom dealing vs john racener.” Deeb posted this bombshell on behalf of John Racener, asserting that Sorel Mizzi bottom-dealt a joker during a headsup Chinese Poker match in Racener’s room at the PCA. This is directly from his post:

“So sorel and John during pca were doing lots of gambling towards the end of the trip sorel says lets play chinese and says we should also play with a joker. They also did some weird scoring when whoever won most pts/hands every 10 hands the winner gets 5k, sorel had tried to bump up the stakes a few times as well to might higher. So they are rotating the deal and the dealer gets the 14th card in 1 of their hands.

Racener has played a ton of live poker so he tends to know procedure and what to look for. He notices sorels shuffling is leaving the 2 bottom cards in place they haven’t moved from the deck. As he starts to deal he notices the first card he deals himself is the bottom card of the deck. He keeps watching sorel and once he’s done dealing john says hes going take the hand with 14 cards in it sorel goes into a tantrum saying it’s his hand his deal.

John says I know what you were doing picks up the 14 card pile and shows the bottom card which is the joker. He tells sorel he’s not paying him whatever amount hes down 5-20k and that he’s a scumbag etc.”

Sorel (“Imper1um”), who just recently got his FTP account “unbanned” after a multi-accounting inquiry, posted a response to the accusation on page 20 of Deeb’s thread, and gives this version of the story:

“We were doing random 50:50 flips and playing Chinese poker freezeouts (whoever was up after 10 hands wins 5k-10k, i think?) with 2 jokers where we would both deal a deck and we take turns having a hand with 14 cards (and get to discard one). I was up 3-1 (effectively 10k) in the Chinese game. Since we didn’t know each other that well we agreed it would be best to settle after every game so we both had chips and cash.

The current game we were playing was for 10k, he had finished setting both of his hands and looked back at the first hand he had set to change it. It’s def against the rules in criss-cross Chinese so I told him it wasn’t allowed. His reaction was super defensive and sensitive, I didn’t think what he did was that big a deal but I just thought I’d point it out to him because most people I play Chinese with know it’s a nono simply because you can set your first hand better with knowledge of what you had in your second hand.

A few hands later he stopped me after the deal and told me that he wanted my 14 card hand. I told him he couldn’t because it was my turn to have the 14 card hand. He grabbed the hand and freaked out when he saw that the joker was around the bottom of the deck (3-6 cards in not first bottom card like Shaun reports). He started going off on how he saw me deal the joker from the bottom of the deck. I yelled back and him and told him he was wrong blah blah blah. Went on for about 5 minutes and then John decided to quit in the middle of our 10k game with me up around 15-20 points after 4-5 hands and demanded I paid him back all the money I won from the trip from all the other stuff we bet on.”

Marco Valerio of QuadJacks.com released an audio interview early this morning where Racener goes fully on-on-on record, verifying all of what Deeb said. This – worth a listen, folks.

In the audio, Racener claims that Sorel attempted to get him drunk at a nightclub before making a move to cheat him. He states Sorel offered him percentage of tourney action to keep quiet, tried to blame a prescription drug problem as an excuse for the alleged incident, “cryingly” (?) begged via multiple phone calls and now-deleted texts to not mention it, and said finally he might kill himself if this incident surfaced. Racener relays that although he would have normally “cold-cocked him (Sorel) right upside the head”, he thought it safer to get away from him in the moment given the scenario.

Racener says he plans on posting a statement himself on the 2p2 within the next 24 hours, after creating an account in order to relate his story personally.

The panelist discuss the new UB and break down 2010 in the latest episode of The Poker Beat.

The Poker Beat: January 4, 2011

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:92]

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• Sorel Mizzi Bluff Magazine POY
• WSOP days will end after 10 levels.
• Annie & Phil part ways with UB.
• Prahlad Friedman to sell out?
• Top Poker Stories of 2010.

Vote vigorously and/or repeatedly for The Poker Beat
for Favorite Web-based Show in Bluff magazine’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.

There are just 12 players left heading into Day 5 of the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, with a short but exciting play down to the final table looming for Monday.

The 28 players that started the day quickly became 27, but after the redraw for the final three tables it would be over two hours before there would be another elimination, with the money bubble looming at 25. After another half hour or so of hand-for-hand play the bubble finally burst.

One of the early eliminations in the money was Gavin Smith, who lost a monster pot to end the previous day and never seemed to get traction on Day 4. Upon his exit, Gavin took quite a bit of the early afternoon rail with him. Josh Arieh, who had a lot of chips entering the day as well, fell victim to some unfortunate luck and was not long for the tournament today either.

Ronnie Bardah, who enjoyed a deep run in this year’s Main Event, got into the Halloween spirit by donning a wig for several hours during play today, which you can see here. He survived on the short stack for quite some time, earning a few double-ups before ultimately succumbing to the blinds.

There are still some big names in contention for this title. The chip leader heading into Day 5 is Tom Marchese with 1,832,000 but there are some heavy hitters chasing him including Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, Hoyt Corkins, Kevin Stammen, and Mohsin Charania.

Play will resume at 12 pm Monday.

Chip Counts:

1. Tom Marchese 1,832,000
2. Jeff Forrest 979,000
3. Sorel Mizzi 789,000
4. Nikolai Yakovenko 690,000
5. Chris Bonita 610,000
6. Besnik Ziba 500,000
7. Keven Stammen 400,000
8. Hoyt Corkins 335,000
9. David Inselberg 331,000
10. Jason Mercier 322,000
11. Mohsin Charania 283,000
12. Ben Klier 269,000

Average Stack: 605,000

For more information on today’s action as well as live updates throughout the rest of the tournament visit foxwoodslive.com and worldpokertour.com.

With the £10,000 + 350 Main Event scheduled to start at 12pm London time Thursday, the final prelim event, £10,000 + 350 High Roller No-Limit Holdem Heads-Up will come to its conclusion at 3pm. Four players remain with the two winners playing a best-of-three final shortly after both matches are completed.

Gus Hansen v Andrew Feldman
Jim Collopy v Ram Vaswani

For results from day 2, check out PokerNews or WSOP.com.

Elsewhere …

WPT Borgata Poker Open – 10 players, including Dwyte Pilgrim and Lee Childs, remain as they play down to the TV final table. Defending champion Olivier Busquet finishes 25th, Mike Sexton finishes 20th. WPT Live Updates

UPDATE: Here’s the final table, starting at 4pm ET Thursday:

Seat 1. Kia Mohajeri – 4,225,000
Seat 2. Benjamin Klier – 6,125,000
Seat 3. Ofir Mor – 7,300,000
Seat 4. Brandon Novena – 5,125,000
Seat 5. Dwyte Pilgrim – 4,800,000
Seat 6. Daniel Makowsky – 3,300,000

PokerStars LAPT Grande Final – Rosario, Argentina :: Final stop of season 3 features a $5,000 Main Event. Can Jose “Nacho” Barbero win his 3rd LAPT event this season? PokerNews and the PokerStars Blog provide updates throughout the tournament.

November Niner Matt Jarvis tweeted over the weekend that Sorel Mizzi would coach him in preparation for the WSOP ME final table.

Wrapping up Friday night’s action, with two bracelets awarded in the overnight hours:

“Bakes” wins $10,000 2-7 NL Lowball

David “Bakes” Baker earned up his first bracelet, along with $294,314, in winning the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball World Championship defeating Eric Cloutier heads-up. The event drew a field of 101 players, but over 40 had already won a WSOP bracelet, what should be the highest bracelet/entrant ratio of the WSOP this year. The full list of results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report is available at wsop.com.

Buchman’s best in $2,000 Limit, Bracelt for ’09 November Niner

2009 November Niner final tablist Eric Buchman defeated Brent Courson heads-up in the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, earning $203,607. Full results and Dalla’s tournament report are up at wsop.com.

Ladies’ Championship moves to day 2

Day 2 of the $1,000 Ladies’ No-Limit Holdem Championship concluded after 10 levels with 136 remaining, with 117 making the money. The leader when play resumes at 2:30pm is La Sengphet with 148,500 in chips. Notables also returning include Linda Johnson (64,400), Liv Boeree (57,700), Evelyn Ng (55,200), Jess Welman (25,500), Maria Ho (21,500), Lacey Jones (15,500) and Michele Lewis (13,700). The full list of chip counts is now online at PokerNews. For those who wish tor real Pauly’s take, click here.

Queen Leads limit holdem 6-max

The $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event drew a field of 384 entrants, with 122 returning at 2:30pm for day 2. The top 36 will make the money with the winner on Sunday collecting $234,065. The chip leader is Alexander Queen at 74,400. Other notables near the top: Justin Bonomo (56,900), David “Not Bakes” Baker (51,200), JJ Liu (45,600), JC Tran (41,700), Vitaly Lunkin (31,200), and Andy Bloch (26,900). The full list of returning players is now available at PokerNews.

Medic looming large at PLO final table

The first of two final tables gets underway at 2:30pm Saturday with the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha final table:

Seat 1: Trai Dang – 500,000
Seat 2: Nenad Medic – 1,504,000
Seat 3: John “Tex” Barch – 546,000
Seat 4: Ashkan Razavi – 294,000
Seat 5: Tyler Patterson – 139,000
Seat 6: Blair Rodman – 272,000
Seat 7: Chris Hyong Chang – 195,000
Seat 8: Denton Pfister – 167,000
Seat 9: Klinghammer Thibaut – 366,000

Sorel soars to lead for stud final table

The $1,500 Seven Card Stud final table gets underway at 3pm, with this lineup:

Seat 1: Christine Pietsch – 194,000
Seat 2: Richard Ashby – 276,000
Seat 3: Pat Pezzin – 211,000
Seat 4: Dan Heimiller – 241,000
Seat 5: Jon Turner – 83,000
Seat 6: Sorel Mizzi – 435,000
Seat 7: Darren Shebell – 320,000
Seat 8: Owais Ahmed – 78,000

Saturday’s tournaments

The third $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament gets underway at 12pm with another 3,000+ expected over the two day 1’s. At 5pm is the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better World Championship, won last year by Daniel Alaei for $445,898 in defeating a field of 179.

Check out wsop.com and PokerNews to get updates, chip counts, videos and more from the WSOP.

A review of this afternoon’s WSOP action:

Phillips builds chip lead in youngster $1,500 NL 6-max

The $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max final table was reached this afternoon, and thanks to the research of Jess Welman and F-Train, the six who made up the final table was the youngest (or second-youngest) in WSOP history*, with an average age of 22.8.

Carter Phillips 3,175,000
Craig Bergeron 1,214,000
Russell Thomas 1,075,000
Samuel Gerber 1,057,000
David Diaz 490,000
Hugo Perez 485,000

Perez ($124,690) Thomas ($84,256) and Diaz ($58,483) were the first to leave the final table, while the remaining three playing down to a winner. Phillips (3,615,000) has maintained his chip lead, followed by Bergeron (2,200,000) and Gerber (1,700,000). Find out which young gun takes the tournament down at PokerNews.

Gee vs Vance for 1k NL bracelet

The final table of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table is down to two players, with Steven Gee (7,450,000) holding a chip lead over Matt Vance (1,550,000) battling for over $470,000 and the prized WSOP bracelet. David Baker, the leader at the start of the final table, finished in 3rd, good for $206,813. Updates and the rest of the final table results are at wsop.com.

Williams leads 5k NL

Day 2 of the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem returns from their dinner break with under 85 players remaining, 72 making the money. The current chip leader is Jeff Williams with 367,000 in chips. Other notables remaining: Peter Jetten (350,000), Day 1 leader Steven Goosen (295,000), Antonio Esfandiari (250,000) and Vivek Rajkumar (170,000). The field will play six more levels or to the final table, whichever comes first. See who makes the money, who’s the unfortunate bubble boy, and who breaks out of the pack at PokerNews.

Matts 1-2 in Limit Holdem

The $2,000 Limit Holdem event got underway at noon today to eventually draw a field of 476 entrants. After six levels of play, the field is already under 300, with Matt Glantz (24,500) and Matt Matros (22,800) reported as the top two in chips. Other notables: Sorel Mizzi (18,000), Maria Ho (17,000), John Phan (13,000) and defending champion Marc Naalden (10,000). Follow the raise, 3-bet and 4-bet action over at wsop.com.

NL 2-7 Lowball Underway

A field of 101 started at 5pm for the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball World Championship and only Dario Minieri has been eliminated in the first three hours. Among the dozens of notables in the field: Tom Dwan, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Tom Schneider, Yan Chen, Archie Karas and Doyle Brunson. Follow the pat wheels, drawing two, and breaking of good hands over at PokerNews.

* The 2009 $5,000 No-Limit Holdem Shootout final table had an average age of 22.2. However, that was a five-handed final table, and after consultation with BJ Nemeth, that was considered to not be a standard final table.

Voting for the WSOP Tournament of Champions closes on June 15, and the final seat in the 27-player field will be determined in a nine-person tournament on June 10th. The nine players taking part in the tournament June 10, with the winner playing the $1,000,000 TOC June 27 are:

Tom Dwan
Andy Bloch
Michael Mizrachi
Sorel Mizzi
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
Liv Boeree
Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen
Don Cheadle

The tournament will be filmed for the online version of WSOP Academy, with commentary provided by Ali Nejad and Phil Hellmuth. You can also follow the action as it happens on WSOP Academy’s Twitter. More information can be found at WSOP.com.

The first three levels of the Main Event have seen over 900 players already hit the rail, leaving around 1,100 players returning from dinner break. The unofficial chip leaders are Brian Hanson and James Akenhead with 625,000 in chips. Other notables with an above average stack (currently around 170,000): Owen Crowe (555,000), Bertrand Grospellier (520,000), Sorel Mizzi (445,000), David Benyamine (402,000), Phil Hellmuth (390,000), Phil Ivey (360,000), Lou Diamond Phillips (345,000), Mike Sexton (297,000), Dennis Phillips (240,000), Tom Schneider (230,000), 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro (211,000) and Jason Alexander (190,000).

Notables who hit the rail:

Erik Seidel, Raymond Rahme, Jimmy Fricke, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Edler, Darus Suharto, Ville Wahlbeck, “Miami John” Cernuto, Bryan Micon, Roland de Wolfe and Sam Farha.

More stuff from Pokerati later this evening as the money bubble may be reached tonight, depending on how fast the eliminations go after dinner.

It’s something that wasn’t written about in Super/System … yet everyone has to consider it. Barry Greenstein has a good vlog post up about what goes into making a decision about which day to start in the WSOP main event, where he gives his thoughts on why day 1c may be the toughest field to wade through — with input from Justin Bonomo, Roland deWolfe, and Sorrel Mizzi. Check it out here.

Finishing the Sunday tournaments plus a preview of the Monday doubleheader and a reminder that Sen. Al D’Amato and Rep. Shelley Berkeley will be at the Rio to announce National Poker Week, also be sure to go to www.pokerpetition.com and add your name.

Iacavone In Control

Michael Iacavone is the reported chip leader (1,605,200) when play resumes in the $1,500 NL Holdem as the remaining 26 players come back at 2pm to play down to a winner. Joe Bartholdi (1,040,000), Nam Le (500,100), Mohsin Charania (471,000), Alex Jacob (433,000), and Raymond Davis (401,000) are the notable names also returning to capture a bracelet.

Schwartz Still Swinging a Big Stack

Another field with a long day on Monday will be the remaining 25 players left in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship who return at 1pm today as they’ll eventually be streamed over the Internet on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Noah Schwartz (1,220,000) remains the chip leader, with Markus Golser (621,000) and Robin Keston (606,000) leading their respective tables. Recognizable names returning include: Matt Graham (586,000), Barry Greenstein (467,000), Josh Arieh (356,000), Richard Austin (331,000), Howard Lederer (326,000), Padraig Parkinson (259,000), and Vitaly Lunkin (220,000).

More Shooting at the Rio

Some more names that won their first table in the $5,000 NL Holdem Shootout: Danny Wong, Davidi Kitai, Amit Makhija, Roland Isra and David Pham. The remaining 30 players return at 2pm for the second round with the final five winners returning Tuesday for a five player final table.

Filippi 8-Game Leader

153 players return at 2pm Monday for day 2 of the $2,500 Mixed Game event with Amnon Filippi the chip leader with 90,000 in chips. Other notables with chips: Andy Black (58,000), Thayer Rasmussen (48,425), Jon Turner (41,725), Sorel Mizzi (39,525), and JC Tran (34,700).

Monday’s Tournaments

Today’s a pair of events for the 50+ crowd, with the $1,000 Senior’s NL Holdem World Championship, won last year by Dan Lacourse for $368,832 in a field of 2,218. The 5pm tournament is the debut of the $2,500 Razz event. The WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 2,440 for the Seniors’ event, and a field of 300 projected for the Razz event.

More updates during the day at www.wsop.com and Pokerati should have some new stuff during the day, check back often.

Event 35 was won this evening by Dick Richard Austin. And evidently, that’s all he really wanted to be said about that. Therefore, there will be no bracelet ceremony or information released about him…or his bracelet…or his poker accomplishment. (Gotta twist the knife even more for 2nd place Sorel Mizzi and 3rd place Cliff Josephy, wouldn’t ya think?) The media release about the event read:

Following Austin’s victory, he declined to be interviewed. Furthermore, Austin refuses to participate in the traditional WSOP gold bracelet ceremony. This means there will be no gold bracelet ceremony held on Saturday, June 20th.

Austin is the first WSOP winner to decline participation in post-tournament activities. All other 34 gold bracelet winners this year have agreed to participate in interviews and festivities.

The WSOP Media and Pubic Relations makes every effort to provide as much background information about the winner as possible. However, coverage of this tournament (Event 35) is, by necessity, limited to facts and figures about the event, rather than the winner.

· Austin collected $409,484 for first place. He was also awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet.

· According to the official records, Austin now has 1 win, 1 final table appearance, and 1 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP. He has $409,484 in career WSOP winnings.