Parker casts spell over Negreanu

Brock Parker, a former Magic the Gathering player, knocked off Daniel Negreanu heads-up to take down his first bracelet in the $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event last night.

“Stamdogg” Top Dog in $2,500 NL

Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen bested Angel Guillen to collect over $500,000 and his first bracelet in the $2,500 NL Holdem event.

WSOP, Where Final Tables Actually Happen on Time, Sometimes

The $1,500 7 Card Stud event reached their final table earlier this morning, with action starting at 2pm today. The participants are:

Seat 1: Jeff Lisandro (334,000)
Seat 2: Eric Pardey (217,000)
Seat 3: Nick Frangos (84,000)
Seat 4: John Juanda (287,000)
Seat 5: Mitch Schock (83,000)
Seat 6: Steven Stencil (323,000)
Seat 7: Rod Pardey (245,000)
Seat 8: Daniel Studer (43,000)

Our Pokerati cohort Robert Goldfarb finished 29th for $2,945.

Monday’s other final table will take place later this afternoon in the $5,000 NL Holdem event. Faraz Jaka was the last player eliminated when the clock struck 3am, and with 17 players remaining, Isaac Baron is the chip leader (1,101,000). Other notables remaining: David Pham (880,000), Mike Sowers (583,000), Liya Gerasmova (527,000), Lars Bonding (365,000), Thomas Keller (314,000) and David Benefield (239,000). The players will be returning at 12 noon tomorrow, which didn’t make Bonding or Keller too happy about hearing that news, as this will be streamed on ESPN360 and PKR later this afternoon.

Ladies and Omaha Returnees

The $1,000 Ladles NL Holdem World Championship returns with 146 remaining, of which 117 get paid. The reported chip leader is Tammy Tibbles, with 129,700 in chips. Defending champion Svetlana Gromenkova is in 2nd (62,200). Other notable ladies returning at 2pm today include: Lisa Parsons (46,300), JJ Liu (38,300), Susie Isaacs (32,600), and Maria Ho (24,800).

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship returns with 129 players remaining, 111 of which will leave with nothing. Chris Bjorin is the day 1 chip leader at (134,400) with Scott Clements (130,800), defending champion David Benyamine (94,800) and Phil Hellmuth (83,700) in the top 10. Selected notables include: Phil Ivey, (80,000) Thang Luu (63,400), and Matt Savage (60,100) among the returnees at 2pm today.

Monday: Only One Today

Only one tournament today, the $2,500 NL Holdem 6-max event. Last year, it was won by Dario Minieri in a field of 1,012 for over $528,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event was set at 1,113. With the recent downward trend in tournament entries, take the under expecting just over 1,000 to take to the felt.

That’s all for me, but more stuff can be found at Pokerati during the day.

Highish-stakes pro David Plastik, looking to take down a $330 deep-stack tournament at the Venetian.

The 1st of four Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganzae got underway this week … and sure enough, the chance to play a skill-heavy event (deeper stacks, longer level times) for a low buy-in seems extra appealing (at least value-wise) in the current economic client.

I don’t have too many specifics, but I can say the fields seem to be bigger than last time, or at least are staying in the same ballpark. They definitely haven’t shrunk, relative to the world economy, that’s for sure. At this moment, the Venetian poker room and 30-something extra tables set up on the main casino floor aren’t packed, but they are full. Some familiar faces (on very quick glance) about five levels into today’s $550 NLH include Gobboboy Jimmy Fricke and PokerNews expat John Caldwell.

In a few minutes About an hour ago, the final table from yesterday’s $330 got underway. Bryan Micon from Neverwin was there, along with David Plastik, a couple other solid players, and a couple donks (according to Micon, who has since busted). First place: $28k.

To give you another example of the field sizes the Venetian’s 2009 DSE-1 is drawing, Event #1, on Monday, another $330, saw 447 players and a $129k total prize pool. 36 got paid …

1st – $40,117
2nd – $21,029
3rd – $10,353

Some other familiar faces who have been hanging at the Venetian this week: JJ Liu (she hasn’t missed a day), Kenna James, Susie Isaacs, Daniel Alspach, Adam Schoenfeld, and Lacey Jones. Some bloggers seem to be filtering through here, too … just ran into BWOP, and I hear Grubette is on her way.

UPDATE: Also in the $550 hizzouse — Haley Hintze and Mike Laing. Maybe this sorta turnout is nothing new, but it seems to me these events are being taken much more seriously than previous Deep Stacks.

Curious … we all know the regular hubbub over ladies events — are-they-discriminatory-or-not-and-who-cares-oh-look-there’s-a boy-in-a-dress-ok-cards-in-the-air. But am wondering if the ladies honored in this article about their forthcoming induction into the new Women in Poker Hall of Fame might find the CardPlayer hedline offensive. Because you know, Binion’s isn’t even like on the Strip, let alone a place you should expect to see Linda Johnson topless, right?

Over 100 people signed up for the first annual CPPC, and for its inaugural installment, the hosts seemed pleased. Not only were the attendees excited to be there, but they seemed inspired by the speakers – taking notes, asking questions, talking strategy and game tips during breaks. Some of the speakers set up exhibits to sell their books, distribute info about poker lessons and organizations like the PPA, and computers were even provided for the ability to e-mail members of Congress in the ongoing fight for poker rights.

Some key ideas from the day’s speakers:

• “If your only goal is to win pots, you can play and bet every hand, win some of them, and become the world champion of winning pots. But if your object is to make the right decisions, you can be a champion poker player.” – Mike Caro
• George Epstein gives speeches and poker lessons to seniors to sharpen their minds, leading to better overall health and quality of life.
• Lou Krieger gave top-notch poker tips. There’s a reason he has authored 11 poker books.
• Stan Sludikoff, long-time publisher of Poker Player Newspaper, has been speaking to Lyle Berman about a poker television channel. Plans are still being formulated but he insists that it will happen.
• Marsha Waggoner gave the best quote from Vince Lombardi: “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
• Russell Fox is an expert on taxes as they relate to poker players – amateurs and professionals. He knows his laws and seems to be the tax pro to the poker biz.
• John Pappas is extremely dedicated to the PPA. As Executive Director for only a few months, he has recruited numerous members of Congress to sponsor pro-poker legislation. And he bought me lunch.

More…

One of poker’s top female pros, Susie Isaacs will be at the Lake Austin Spa to teach a Texas Hold’em Seminar. I’ve only sped past this spa in my earlier days of wakeboarding but it looks nice and I hear it’s amazing. For those of you or your partner that do the spa thing and have been wanting to learn poker this would be a great opportunity.

Suzie and I played on the same table in the 2007 WSOP ladies event. With so many new ladies to the game, I may have been one of the few to know she had won the ladies event back to back in 1996 and 1997.

From Ms. Poker’s site:

September 6-8 – Lake Austin Spa – I will be teaching a Texas Hold’em Seminar in Texas, Austin to be exact. A fun way to learn the game or improve your game. Packages include being totally pampered all day every day, great food, new friends, and spa treatments. In a word, terrific! Call 1-800-847-5637 for prices.

LAS VEGAS–They’re coloring up the green chips now in the Ladies event … and should be right at the bubble with 130ish players left. But for some unknown reason, only 99 of this 1,286-player field will get paid. Michele is at 31k, similar to Barbara Enright Susie Isaacs, who is also at her table. [NOTE: Husbands do not make the best reporters.] This puts them both at about 15th in chips — pretty much the bottom of the top. Below that, everyone else is pretty short … and getting desperate.

For the longest time, the ladies were not given a clock telling them how much time is left or giving them the necessary info to calculate the average stack. A few Gen-X babes were talking about lodging a formal complaint if the situation wasn’t fixed. But Susie Isaacs, being the grand dame of poker she is, reportedly took care of the matter with floor personnel before it got to that … and the big-screen clock was up and running with about 140 players left.

UPDATE: 130 left, Michele is 8th in chips, and the Ladies event clock is not running anymore. (But all floor people supposedly have synchronized handheld timing devices.)

UPDATE UPDATE: Pokerati friend Suzanne Carpenter just busted out. She got crippled when her Kings lost to “that [beyotch] who keeps getting queens.” The generally jovial Suzanne (right) is not a happy camper right now, having played all day and night to finish 122nd. “It really sucks to be in the top 10 percent and not get paid, you know?”

UPDATE and ANSWER: Michele has lost half her stack … she’s got about 15k with blinds at 600/1200 + 100. The reason this tourney payout structure is different than the rest? According to one of the assistant floor supervisors, “This is a LIPS event, not really a WSOP event. I mean it is a WSOP bracelet. But LIPS sets the structures.”

POSSIBLE UPDATE: According to her husband, she has at least 24k. Garrr!

115 players left. Again, 99 out of 1,286 get paid.

BETTER ANSWER: According to the floor supervisor, why the payout is less than 10 percent … “I’d like to know myself.” He said it had nothing to do with LIPS, and went on to explain that the 6-handed NLH event also paid out similar to the ladies event. “So my bullshit answer is that it’s because it’s only a $1,000 event — the only one, I think. That’s my guess … Let me know if you hear anything different.”