We’re still waiting for the magic number — as of press time registration is still open for another TK minutes — that will predictably show the WSOP on a continued growth path even without any non-Ironic Full Tilt gear in play, and PokerStars sending supposedly just eight qualifiers. I mean sure they have their pros and a big-time tennis guy, but eight is significantly down from previous Stars-WSOP numbers closer to 2,000. Must be because this year there Snoop Dogg was busy.

So yeah, the WSOP has a list of players advancing from their respective Day 1s onto a Day 2. If they’re on this list they made it. If they’re not, sorry. Bad beat.

Day 1A, Day 1B
Day 1C (coming soon!)

The following people are friends of ours or just pros we like who advanced and are currently being vetted to see if they could become eligible for the brand-new Pokerati patch overlay should they have enough chips once we get near the money.

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La Sengphet took down another one on the WSOP-circuit — winning a $345 NLH at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. for her fourth WSOP-C victory (third in a ring-bearing event) and a $25k payday. Her other half, David Clark, made a final table the day before, and won his second ring just a couple stops earlier at WSOP-Tahoe. Their story is becoming sickeningly charming … perhaps even inspirational … showing that true love and poker success can go hand-in-hand for a couple of old-fashioned rounders making their way across an ever-unpredictable poker landscape.

(That, or … Go Team Pokerati!)

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Oh, almost forgot to tell you … two Pokerati Game players are/were bounties in this weekend’s Epic Poker Pro-Am satellites. Both have far more accomplishments to their Hendon Mob cred than just playing 1/2 NLH/PLO with me, obv … but still, happy to declare that this is plausibly proof that playing in the Pokerati Game at the Palms is key to satellite success.

Kathy played yesterday, and Stacey takes her seat in just a couple hours — so get to the game @PalmsPokerRm ASAP! Today’s event is a $100 NLH with $50 rebuys. More Epic satellite details here.

According to Team Pokerati local femme fave @LasVegasPokers, today is “girls day” in Las Vegas. Currently running is the Ladies event in the Caesars Palace Kickoff Classic (a $130 NL event) … and then at 7pm is a $105 Pink Ladies $1000 guarantee at the new Tropicana poker room. (Yay?)

Today is also the final table of the Epic Poker League’s 8-handed NL event. No woman has yet to cash in an Epic event, save for maybe in a satellite to a $1,500 pro-am. In fact, only one woman two women entered this week’s $20k Epic event (J.J. Liu and Vanessa Selbst) … and only one woman cracks the Global Poker Index’s ranking of the top 150 players in the world (Vanessa Selbst #20). Not sure what that says about the only poker league run by a woman save for maybe Pink Ladies … but listen to Epic Commish Annie Duke’s keynote address last week at the Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, where she speaks to essentially the Vegas-to-LA power poker sister set — a potentially hostile audience considering Annie’s public opposition to Ladies Events in the past.

CORRECTION: Vanessa Selbst also entered Epic’s 8-handed event; she was one of the first players eliminated. ALSO: LIPS and HHPT are poker tours or leagues run by women.

MORE CORRECTIONS: Vanessa Selbst also cashed in the first Epic Pro-Am, making Epic a little less women-dry than suggested above.

(Sexist to say rrreow?)

1. Annie Duke: Women in Poker Hall of Fame ceremony, 2011 – 15:50
2. Jan Fisher, emcee follow-up – 1:50
[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/pokerati-raw/AnnieDuke_wiphof.mp3, https://pokerati.com/podcast/pokerati-raw/JanFisher_wiphof.mp3]

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Druff, Micon, and Drexel are all present for this one, as we return to the airwaves after a 16-day absence.  Tournament grinder Stacey Lynn is our special guest.  We talk about the Tobey Maguire poker bust.  AP founder Phil Tom is back at the WSOP playing Mr. Innocent.  We discuss the rumors that Full Tilt stupidly invested $200 million in a no-name movie company.  Micon continues to obsess over bitcoins.  The June 29th DonkDown Insert Coins Party is announced.  Drexel walks off the show when Micon won’t hang up on Yebsite.  Druff and Micon both deal with illnesses while hosting the episode.  Druff talks about being denied tomatoes on the side at a Subway restaurant.[audio:http://www.donkdown.com/components/com_podcast/itunes/DDRadio-2011_06_22_19_30_00.mp3|titles=DonkDown Radio 06-22-2011|autostart=no]

Shocking… Dan and Dr. Pauly actually watch one of the events from the rail at the WSOP, and Dan actually recognizes a few players.

[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/tao/TOP_W11_04_AngryJulie_TeamPokerati.mp3]
2011 WSOP – Episode 4: Team Pokerati Update and the Men the Master/Hollywood Dave’s Fracas (4:58) – Dan and Pauly hang out on the rail of Event #3 $1,500 Omaha 8 after the money bubble bursts. They discuss updates on Angry Julie, a member of Team Pokerati, along with detailing the highlights of argument that almost turned into a brawl when Men the Master (ironically) accused Hollywood Dave of being a cheater.

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati feed.

Haven’t been this interested in actual tournament results since ’06 … but if the run-up to the 2011 WSOP is any indication … everybody’s gonna win! No? Well there were a some notable finishes for a few people starting their summers off right:

Friendly Faces at WSOPC National Championship
Caesars Palace, LAS VEGAS
As far as Pokerati’s concerned, La Sengphet is the player who made the WSOP-Circuit most fun to follow. Whether it be strong-playing “the Hammer” or testing the limits of “the Harris” … not since Dwyte Pilgrim has there been such an engaging minor-league pro story. La criss-crossed the country for months to earn her seat, where she finished 4th for $100k this weekend — staking her claim as the #1 most successful female on the 2010-11 WSOP Circuit. Also notable at the final table was Josh Evans, longtime friend of Pokerati and frequent opponent of La’s back in the Dallas Jackie’s days. He won $135k, finishing 3rd. Television coverage of the WSOP-Circuit leading up to this event event airs on Thursdays on Versus, starting June 2. NOTE: La kept her winning ways alive, chopping an Aria nightly four ways for $1,600 the following day.

Orleans Open Raising
The Orleans, LAS VEGAS
Another strong Pokerati lady player proving she can compete against fields with or without penises, Stacey Nutini had been moneying often in recent months in various small tourneys around town, and even tore up events online post-April 15 to pad her theoretical play-money bankroll. But yesterday, the defending LIPS Grand Champion — who’s probably taken more Maven Training than anyone else — showed she could turn it on with real money on the line. @LasVegasPokers destroyed a 166-player field in the $550 main event at the Orleans Open this weekend for a solid, WSOP-warming $24k score.

Poker Pro Wannabe FTW!
Caesars Palace/the Rio, LAS VEGAS
When not working undercover to confirm the whereabouts of Howard Lederer, new Pokerati on-and-off-the-felter Marie-Lizette admits she still has “the dream” … and to that effort took down an $85 nooner at Caesars for a $1,440 bankroll boost, and then binked a single-table-satellite for a seat in today’s WSOP Event #1, the casino employees event. (Added props to Pokerati alum Kevmath, who won the same Caesars daily the night before.) @MarieLizette to see her excitable tweets from the WSOP.

Elsewhere …

PokerStars, Made in China
Grand Lisboa Casino, MACAU
With the Macau Poker Classic underway this week, PokerStars is essentially saying if they can’t have America, they’ll be in China before Caesars … establishing a foothold where the WSOP can’t by staging their second MPC in three months — complete with three events determining the APPT “Official” Asian Player of the Year. Click here for the latest standings, and remember to divide by 8 for a rough conversion from HK to US dollars.

High Schooler Wins WPT Spanish Championship
Grand Casino, BARCELONA
18-year-old Lukas Berglund from Uppsala, Sweden is the youngest champion in the history of the World Poker Tour after winning the Season X WPT Spanish Championship. Berglund, who graduates from high school this week, scooped €206,000 after crushing the field and knocking out every single player on the final table en route to victory.

pic: David Clark @PLOGrinder

Don’t wanna say too much because, you know, don’t want any cooler-jinx factor in play … but La Sengphet is the chip leader going into today’s action for the WSOP-C National Championship. 97 players started … (three no-shows) … 35 remain. Top 10 ITM, $300k FTW.

We’ll save for later discussion of there being more Pokerati patches in the field than Full Tilt wearers … as well as jokes about Allen Kessler and the EV of a 97-way chop. For now, the story putting at least a few butterflies in stomachs in and around Caesars Palace … from WSOP.com powered by PokerNews:

Headlining today’s field is La Sengphet with an amassed 165,000 mainly courtesy of a huge call with second pair on a four-club board on one of the final hands of the day. Only two other players sit in the six-figure club with Huy Nguyen (122,700) and Jonathon Poche (121,400) snapping at Sengphet’s heels.

Charles ‘Woody” Moore (95,100), Curt Kohlberg (94,600), Doug ‘Rico’ Carli (72,800), Bernard Lee (70,900), Dwyte Pilgrim (36,300) and Allen Kessler (23,100) are just a handful of notables still in contention for capturing the $300,000 first prize and coveted gold bracelet.

Traci Brown (the only other woman to qualify for this event) and Pokerati pal Josh Evans are also still alive — though both small-stacked with about 33,000 chips and a chair.

Blinds are 600/1,200 + 200 as play gets underway right about now 20 minutes ago!

They play down today to a final table of 9. Follow along here.

I have a feeling the inaugural WSOP million-dollar freeroll might feature some of the best poker we’ll see throughout the WSOP. The unofficial kick-off for the 2011 WSOP activities — and perhaps opening testament to the dramatically reduced relevance of typical patch players this year — gets underway this Friday.

Below is the official list of who gets to play — final save for point and money totals on the nine players who locked up seats yesterday and played (or are still playing) the Southern regional championship at Harrah’s New Orleans today.

NOTABLE:

Plenty of interesting names qualified for 1 of 100 seats over the course of the ever-expansive WSOP-circuit 2010/11 season. And I’m sure some of the best stories come from winners we’ve never heard of … but regardless, several well-known players and a few special-to-Pokerati players will be fighting for 10 payouts ranging from $27,500 to $300,000, including …

La Sengphet (one of only two women who qualified)
David Clark
Josh Evans
Charles “Woody” Moore
Dwight Pilgrim
Allie Prescott
Allen Kessler
Tim West
Bernard Lee
Ali Eslami
Traci Brown (the other female qualifier, also from Texas)
Brandon Adams
Shannon Shorr
Andy Frankenberger

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UPDATE: It’s official, both La n DC qualified! For the inaugural minor-league Champions League NIT 2011 WSOP-Freeroll World Championship. Whatever it turns out that people end up calling it … we can only hope here at Pokerati for a high-stakes poker lovers’ quarrel at the final table.

La N Dc
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! Finally heading HOME! After 3wks of grinding I am happy and proud to say my Baby has successfully crawled his way into the 10k seat freeroll. Great job Baby, so proud of you!! 😀 We now have 2shots at 300k 🙂

For at least a few players, today is a day kinda like when high-school kids wait to get their college acceptance/rejection letters … waiting to see the final points tally to be official, so they know whether or not they qualified for the WSOP-Circuit National Championship — the $1 million freeroll that will kick off the 2011 WSOP.

Click here for the national leaderboard to see who’s got a seat for sure, and who looks likely as we wait for WSOP officials to turn orange squares into red

Team Pokerati’s La Sengphet is a lock (8th among non automatic qualifiers with 155 points, 2 rings, 7 cashes, $67k) … yay La! You go girl! … and, of course, she also won a non-points pendant for her 1st place finish in the WSOP-Caesars ladies event. And it looks like her other half, David Clark, also will make the cut but just barely (112.5 pts – 1 ring, 9 cashes, $59.5k) … DC made a final table in a non-ring PLO/8 event at WSOP-NOLA for good measure without the points … and he finishes just ahead of Steve Zolotow, who qualifies with the same point total, no rings, just 3 cashes, and $43k in earnings to give you an idea who got in at the bottom of the field.

At the very bottom, interestingly enough, with 100 points, is John Riordan, who won a ring and $210k in Florida. But he will not get a seat this year because he is not yet 21. Will be curious to see how the WSOP handles this case … will he simply get a rain check for when he comes of age? Because if so, when will we see bona fide WSOP-Teen events?!? You know, of course, that I am in the minority willing to admit that I think poker is good for kids.

Another late qualifier is longtime friend of Pokerati’s Josh Evans … who finished 3rd in the WSOP Southern Regional championship last week at Harrah’s New Orleans. Thrilled about that, as it gives us another excuse to re-run that highly acclaimed but not quite award-winning film we created about Josh as he got 6-figure deep in the ’07 main event:

[CORRECTION: Josh got 3rd in the WSOP-NOLA $1,600 main event … which still gives him enough to qualify (140ish pts, 7 cashes $81k) but did not give him the guaranteed seat as just making a Regional Championship final table does.]

We were just telling you how well La Sengphet was playing … when boyfriend David Clark gave me a buzz to let me know, yo dude, don’t hate on the short bus! But lest he start thinking he could keep up with his better half … yesterday she took down her second WSOP-circuit ring of the season — winning the last event of WSOP-St. Louis, a $345 NLH.

Not sure on the number of players or payout yet … we’ll of course let you know. And pretty sure that’s another 50 circuit championship points, too, which would put her 4th in the pool of 34 potential non-automatic qualifiers. And depending on the other deep runners in her event and the main … it looks like she may well have won the crown for Harrah’s St. Louis “casino champion” … which would guarantee her a seat in the WSOP’s million-dollar circuit freeroll in late May.

Meanwhile, they are celebrating La’s victory all across Laos … though we did just learn they aren’t doing this all for La … it also happens to be Laotian New Year all week.

Greetings from sunny Southern Florida. I’ve finally thawed myself out from the permafrost of this New York winter, and I’m looking forward to the WSOPC’s first stop down in Florida. In the meantime, let’s look at what’s happened this week.

Vinnie Vinh Makes Day 2, Shows Up, Wins
LAPC – Los Angeles, California
Vinny Vinh is an enigma in the poker world over the last several years, and rumored debts and drug issues have caused some well-publicized incidents at the World Series of Poker. On two separate occasions, Vinh made Day 2 of a WSOP event, only to no-show under mysterious circumstances. This year’s LAPC is a different story, though, as Vinh decided playing a tournament to completion might be a novel idea, and it worked out pretty well for him. Vinh took down Event 29 last week for a cool $12,000. If you still don’t believe that Vinnie Vinh is anything beyond a figment of your imagination, here he is taking with the great Matt Savage.

In other LAPC news, Tony Ma took down the Tag Team Championship with Restituto Bagaygay, defeating the Road Warriors with a double powerbomb 82 other teams in the process. Jamie Shaevel is on fire, winning three different events at LAPC to lead the Player of the Series race, overtaking Brian Brubaker and David Levi, who won a PLO8 event this week, at two wins each.

Pokerati Player Gets a Ring, too … Circuit Ring, That Is
WSOP Circuit – Tunica, Mississippi
Team Pokerati juggernaut La Sengphet got matching rings this Valentine’s Day weekend, but La earned it on the felt. After her boyfriend David Clark won a WSOP Circuit event in Choctaw a few weeks ago, La won Ring Event #8 in Tunica, pocketing more than $30,000 and becoming the first woman in nine months to win an open WSOPC ring event. La also ran deep in the Tunica main event, finishing 10th — just a bad beat away (A10 < K10) from another final table and a chance to lock up her seat in the WSOPC million-dollar freeroll. Fossilman Beats DC Politicos
Washington, D.C.
Most of the attention that Greg Raymer has received in the last few weeks has been about his departure from PokerStars, but it hasn’t stopped him from continuing the cause for the legalization of online poker. At last week’s CPAC conference, the PPA ran a charity event to help raise awareness and preach limited government to conservatives. It remains to be seen how effective this message was, but Raymer, as per usual, just seems to keep on winning, no matter what he plays.

Gareth Walker Steals From Rich, Gives to Self in Nottingham
UKIPT – Nottingham, England
This UKIPT £500 Main Event set a record with 1,058 players, the biggest field ever for a tournament on British shores. There were no Robin Hood sightings, but there was quite a bounty for Gareth Walker, who walked away with £109,000, the biggest prize in the history of the UKIPT.

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza Draws Big Names
Las Vegas, Nevada
At the moment, the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza is the biggest game in town when it comes to tournaments, and some big names have made some deep runs in these events. James Van Alstyne finished second in a $1,000 event for just under $20,000, with Dennis Phillips finishing in the money in 13th place in the same event. Joanne “JJ” Liu seems to cash wherever she goes, finishing third in an Omaha 8//b event for over $4,000.

{democracy:68}

Is it too early to call La n DC the Dwyte Pilgrim of poker couples? Don’t wanna jinx anyone … but Team Pokeratiers La Sengphet and David Clark … I’m tellin’ ya … players to watch.

While DC won the first WSOP-circuit ring of 2011 (and $51k) at WSOP-Choctaw, La followed suit at the next circuit stop — Harrah’s Tunica — becoming the first female to win a ring this year. A Pokerati fave from back in the Dallas days, she won a $555 event with 278 players yesterday — paying her $32k. La, of course, finished 7th in the major-league WSOP ladies event this past summer (making her Team Pokerati’s 2010 WSOP MVP), and took 2nd in a non-bling-added ladies event at Choctaw two days after David’s victory.

Adding to the niftiness of this final table … Andy Nguyen, the second-place finisher, is a good friend of La n DC’s and drove with them to the tournament from Dallas to Tunica for his $20k score. The lucky threesome (La does credit hitting a gutshot as a key hand in her victory) say they’re headed to Florida next for the inaugural WSOP-circuit stop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club.

Click here for official deets from the final table.

Pokerati Flashback:
Tao of Pokerati at the 2010 WSOP
Episode 26: La La FTW!

In semi-related news …

Caesars Palace to hold Valentine couples tourney on Sunday

Coincidence that they announced this special tournament yesterday, about 30 minutes into La’s heads-up match? Probably so … but seems like it should be a fun event for poker lovers … not to be confused with far more common poker-lovers.

Tomorrow — Sunday, 13 Feb 2011, starting at 1 pm. Buy-in is $160 per couple … 7,500 starting chips. Caesars Poker management explains:

This tournament will feature a structure where you and your partner will switch every 15 minutes playing 30 minute blind levels. At the final table couples will switch every 20 minutes playing 40 minute blind levels.

Hmm, sounds like a PR email I got for Las Vegas Swingers Ball during AVN …

No word on whether or not Caesars expects a rash of gay commitment ceremonies among local Vegas grinders — nowhere else to be on Valentine’s weekend, obv — who might see a competitive advantage for any two dudes willing to hold each other’s hand while sharing chipstacks.

A while back we were hearing that some 60 million Americans played poker. We have since learned about 36 million of those are really just playing on Facebook. But here in Vegas, some 20 a month are learning to play better anyway. Doing the really loosely conservative math (is that an oxymoron?) that makes for about 1 player out of a million taking the active steps to become a winning (or more-winning) player … as apparently just reading a book doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

David Chicotsky’s and Ari Engel’s next 3-day boot camp is March 4-6. I really hope a few Pokeratizens sign up … because a) both guys are good Pokerati people; and b) the more who do, the more shit I can give “the maven” about putting the one guy wearing Ed Hardy as the frozen-screen image on his YouTube commercial.

Click here for more info on what The Maven Training entails … or, since most of you already know the basics of what that’s all about (his alumni can already claim more than $2 million in tournament winnings — an average of nearly $20k per student), you can just go here to make a deposit and reserve your seat for the March sessions.

Rising poker couple: DC n La ring in the new year with a WSOP bang to confirm their his-and-her badass status.

Move over Tom and Julie Schneider … you two were like so ’07-’09. The new, reigning king-and-queen power couple of Team Pokerati are DC n La. Sure, DC wasn’t wearing a Pokerati patch when he took down the first ring event of the inaugural WSOP-Choctaw … but hey, that’s never stopped us before from taking claim to a player with lots of chips after putting up a big win. (And of the 8 patches we have left, only three of those still have glue!)

Two days after David Clark‘s win in Durant, Oklahoma (the closest thing to the Dallas market the WSOP could find), his girlfriend, La Sengphet, got 2nd place in the $235 Ladies Event for a $5k payday. La, of course, was Team Pokerati’s 2010 WSOP MVP — making the final table of the ladies event (7th place, $22k) to add to her previous big scores in an ’09 Venetian Deep Stack (2nd, $31k) and Caesars Mega Stack (1st, $12k). (She’s Asian, too, btw.)

Check it out here, for how DC took down the $345 NLH event, with 935 players, for a first-place payout of $50,921 and proof to his girlfriend that he has indeed been paying attention during pillow talk.

Also at the final table in Oklahoma with DC was friend o’ Pokerati Josh Evans, who finished 6th for $10k. You may remember Josh for tearing up a second-chance tourney at the ’07 WSOP before making a deep run in the main event where he made his video debut in this fine poker film, which has since become an “underground” cult classic:

Wish I coulda been there. Great to see players I grew up with (poker-wise) in the Dallas boomtime poker rooms represent! Also it’s kinda a reminder why these sorts of “small” events matter to skillful grinders, even without online sponsorship in play. (After all, where else can you expect to find the next Dwyte Pilgrim?) Also cool to see Choctaw, with its brand spankin’ new casino-resort built by Dallas poker money, able to ship some cash back to Texas.

Click below to see more of DC n La in recent Pokerati-branded action:

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