Day 3 of the £10,000 + 350 Main Event concluded with 22 players remaining, playing down to the final table starting at 12pm London time Monday afternoon. A reminder, a stream with hole cards (plus 5 hour delay) will be available at ESPN3.com in the US, Latin America, Brazil, New Sealand and Australia. The same stream will be available at WSOP.com for European viewers. The chip leader is Ronald Lee with 922,000 in chips. Other notables returning: Andrew Pantling (Event #1 runner-up to Phil Laak) – 821,000, Viktor Blom – 705,000, Phil Ivey – 657,000, Hoyt Corkins – 566,000, Barny Boatman – 379,000, Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman – 336,000 and Roland de Wolfe – 113,000. Table draw available at WSOP.com .

The £10,000 + 350 High Roller NL Heads-Up event finally has a winner, as Gus Hansen defeated Jim Collopy in the 3rd and deciding match to earn his first WSOP bracelet along with £288,409. Here’s how the final hand played out:

Elsewhere …

PokerStars LAPT Grand Final – Rosario, Argentina :: Martin Sansour defeats Bolivar Palacios, earning $322,280. Matthias Habernig’s bid for back-to-back LAPT wins fell short, finishing 6th. PokerStars Blog has the final table report.

TJ Cloutier Choctaw Poker Classic – Durant, OK :: Cloutier finishes 17th for $3,673, play down to 4-handed. www.roundersradio.com covering the FT action.

PokerStars WCOOP $5,000 Main Event :: 2,443 entries, first pays over $2m, 2nd and 3rd $1m+

The final table has been set at the WSOP Europe Event #3 – £1,000 + 75 NL Holdem as the defending champion, JP Kelly, is in contention to defend his bracelet triumph at last year’s WSOPE. If Kelly won, he would also become the first player to defend a NL holdem bracelet since Johnny Chan back in 1987-88, and the youngest player to win three bracelets. That distinction belongs to Phil Ivey.* Here’s how that final table will be seated when play resumes at 2pm:

Seat 1: Karim Jomeen 109,000
Seat 2: Scott Shelley 148,000
Seat 3: Nicholas Katz 150,000
Seat 4: Paul Ian Pitchford 77,000
Seat 5: Jeppe Bisgaard 171,000
Seat 6: Mehdi Senhaji 369,000
Seat 7: Kaveh Payman 434,000
Seat 8: JP Kelly 242,000
Seat 9: Jack Lyman 55,000

* Credit to Donnie Peters at PokerNews.
Follow along in the updates at PokerNews or WSOP.com

Event #4 will take place at 5pm London time Tuesday, the £10,000 + 350 NL Holdem High Roller Heads-Up event. The field will contain a maximum of 128 players with registration closing when the tournament starts. In case of an unevenly sized field (more than 32, 64, or 128) there will be byes for round 1.

Elsewhere…

WPT Borgata Poker Open – Atlantic City :: Day 2 underway, just over 200 players remaining with the top 100 making the money. A brawl almost takes place just before dinner as described by BJ Nemeth here. Other updates and goings-on here.

Heartland Poker Tour – Black Hawk, Colorado :: The poker tour that people forget keeps chugging along with Mark Dunbar taking down over $180,000 in defeating a field of over 400 players. HeartlandPokerTour.com has the recap.

T.J. Cloutier Choctaw Classic – Durant, OK :: Week-long series of tournaments w/ $1,650 Main Event Sept. 25-26 – Schedule

PokerStars WCOOP :: Jason Mercier and Chad Brown in the top 30 of 1k NL event, winner takes down nearly $500,000. RaiseOnce, allegedly Phil Ivey, takes down $25,000 HU title. PokerStars Blog

With the main event of The River at Winstar underway like right now … (and no real coverage going to follow) … WSOP officials released word of their latest stop on the WSOP Circuit — the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma. Nifty-cool. And it was especially kind of them to schedule it in January, making it very convenient for my personal holiday travel plans — especially while visiting my folks or Gma, who live way more conveniently located near Choctaw than WinStar.

Click below for the official deets according to the WSOPress Release. And check out this video of the fancy-cool new Choctaw poker room (represented by WSOP-Ebay legend TJ Cloutier, btw) as seen by the architects before it opened up:

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Recapping the seven WSOP bracelet events taking place this afternoon:

Tebben defeats McNamara for 1k NL bracelet

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table just concluded with Jeffrey Tebben defeating JD McNamara in heads-up play, winning his first WSOP bracelet. Tebben also earned $503,389, while McNamara earns $310,248. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report will appear later at wsop.com.

Six remain in 2500 NL 6-max

The official final table has been established for the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max final table, returning from dinner break shortly. Joe Baldwin will start as the leader with 2,812,000 in chips. Follow the updates at wsop.com.

Maxwell looking to hammer Stud 8 final table

The final table of the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better final table has also been finalized. Maxwell Troy remains the leader with 755,000 in chips. Notables at the final table include David Levi (565,000), Karina Jett (450,000), and Allen Bari (170,000). Action will resume shortly, follow the split-pot action over at PokerNews.

Cloutier closing in at 2500 PLO

The $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha field has made the money with 50 players remaining. Bryce Yockey is the current chip leader with 293,000, followed by T.J. Cloutier (232,000), Chau Giang (225,000), Michael Greco (150,000), Joe Serock (114,000) and Adam Junglen (95,000). Play is scheduled for six more levels or a final table is reached, whatever comes first, updates available at wsop.com.

More updates on page 2:

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A review of Tuesday’s tournament action at the WSOP, with 3 bracelets to be determined during today’s play:

1k NL final table set

The $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table gets underway this afternoon at 2:30pm with this lineup:

Seat 1: Blake Kelso – 1,166,000
Seat 2: JD McNamara – 2,393,000
Seat 3: Kiet Tran – 2,311,000
Seat 4: Greg Pohler – 1,660,000
Seat 5: David Cai – 844,000
Seat 6: Michael Gross – 535,000
Seat 7: Denis Murphy – 789,999
Seat 8: Jeffrey Tebben – 466,000
Seat 9: John Tolbert – 925,000

Cowley leads final 15 in 2500 NL 6-max

Steve Cowley (1,279,000) leads the remaining 15 players in the $2,500 No-Limit 6-max event when they play down to a winner starting at 3pm. Among the notables with chips: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (641,000) and Erik Cajelais (345,000). The full list of chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Troy leads 1500 Stud 8 on final day

Maxwell Troy (430,000) leads the final 23 players who return at 3pm in the $1,500 Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better event. Among the familiar names looking to get a WSOP bracelet in this event: David Levi (216,000), Karina Jett (187,000), Blair Rodman (117,000) and Brandon Cantu (50,000). The remaining field’s chip counts is online at PokerNews.

Klein leads 2500 PLO after day 1

A field of 596 players started the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event Tuesday afternoon, with 102 returning at 2:30 today. The final 54 players make the money, with the winner collecting $315,311. The leader is Loren Klein with 187,300 in chips. Other notables on the leaderboard: Richard Ashby (137,700), Tex Barch (72,600), T.J. Cloutier (70,400), Chau Giang (59,800), and Scott Clements (58,200). A full list of the survivors will appear soon at wsop.com.

Lisandro leads 10k limit holdem

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship drew a field of 171, with 102 remaining after ten levels of play. The leader is Jeff Lisandro with 130,900 in chips. Other names you’ve heard of: Brett Richey (113,800), Hoyt Corkins (109,900), Shaun Deeb (89,000), Michael Mizrachi (69,800), Doyle Brunson (65,300) and Jennifer Harman (46,300). The full chip counts are online at wsop.com.

Wednesday’s tournaments

Another two bracelet events get underway this afternoon, starting with the fourth full-ring $1,500 No-Limit Holdem starting at 12pm. The defending champion in this event is Eric Baldwin, defeating a field of 2,095 for $521,991. At 5pm it’s the $1,500 HORSE event, with James Van Alstyne defeating a field of 770, earning $247,033.

Time for a recap of the Tuesday night tournament action:

Kassela bests Kessler at Stud 8

Frank Kassela outlasted Allen Kessler and the rest of a stacked final table to win the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or better World Championship along with $447,446. Jennifer Harman, Steve Zolotow, and John Juanda finished third, fourth and fifth respectively. A full list of the results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report can be found at wsop.com or read what Pauly wrote about the final table here.

Baker leads 1k final table

Veteran pro David Baker leads the final table of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem final table when play resumes at 2:30pm. Here’s how the rest of that table will be seated, with the winner pocketing $472,479:

Seat 1: Jared Hamby – 423,000
Seat 2: Daniel Thomas – 602,000
Seat 3: Matthew Vance – 1,731,000
Seat 4: Jeffrey Gross – 281,000
Seat 5: Mats Gavatin – 393,000
Seat 6: Nicholas Heather – 993,000
Seat 7: David Baker – 2,553,000
Seat 8: Kyung Han – 613,000
Seat 9: Steven Gee – 1,540,000

Phillips leads Day 3 of $1,500 6-max

Carter Phillips (922,000) leads the remaining 16 players who’ll return at 2:30pm to determine the winner of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event. Other notables returning include Mark Flowers (545,000), and Jimmy Tran (219,000). The full list of players remaining are at PokerNews.com.

Goosen Leads 5k NL Day 2

Steven Goosen (229,000) leads the 202 players who made it through the first ten levels of the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem who return at 2:30pm. Other notables also returning: Chino Rheem (185,800), James Dempsey (165,800), Michael Gracz (131,800), Tony G (98,500), Joe Sebok (88,100), Phil Hellmuth (82,100), and TJ Cloutier (77,200). The full list of chip counts is now online at PokerNews.

Wednesday’s Tournaments

The doubleheader returns to the WSOP this afternoon, first is the $2,000 Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm. Dutch pro Marc Naalden won this event last year in a field of 446 for $190,770. At 5pm is the $10,000No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Single Draw World Championship, last year won by Nick Schulman for $279,751 in a field of 96. This event starts you out with 7,500 in chips with three additional “rebuy” chips, each good for 7,500 in chips to be added to your stack anytime during the first four hours.

Follow along at home starting at high noon over at PokerNews or www.wsop.com

New show coming soon … “The Champions of Poker Commentary” — essentially a Best Damn Sports Show knock-off, but using poker pros not affiliated with online sites to shoot the real shit about the poker world for people who may or may not think poker hasn’t changed since that most recent rerun of WSOP 2003.

You know me, I want to lambast and ridicule any Tom Schneider endeavor — because that’s how we show our friends we care — but gotta say, this is pretty damn good. Very different:

According to Eric Ulis, the host of this in-development show, the current poker-on-TV offerings are a bit “stuffy” … and that’s where they supposedly come in — to talk about the poker news of the day in a different way. It’s all part of a derivative of Ulis’ Continental Poker Championship, and the plan is to film it regularly with this crew of Arizona high stakes pros — Tom Schneider, Hooman Nikzad, and Jesse McGinty — at the Gila River Casino Wild Horse Pass, just outside of Phoenix.

A sign of how things change … back in 2005 the already legendary TJ Cloutier was still tearing it up. But in 2010, the WSOP bracelet he won in the 2005 $5k NLHE is now for sale on eBay. I guess he didn’t cash big enough via the sale of PokerPages to buy it back Bummer, dude. We feel ya. Not sure where the big fields are coming from in LA, AC, Australia, and France … everybody seems broke. But either way, you get the sense that those who are playing are doing so with far more seriousness than the fields were back in the day when TJ won this:

The seller is Plano Pawn Shop (“specializing in fine jewelry and firearms”), who has a 100 percent positive feedback rating after 314 eBay sales. Plano, of course, is the suburb next door to TJ’s home in Richardson … and on the way to the Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma, not to mention some of the bigger private games in the Dallas area.

UPDATE: His bracelet from the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV is also up for sale.

Via Bluff Magazine.

There’s a little brouhaha I think outta Costa Rica that I’m not really following, but there might be something there. It involves PICClub … one of those loophole-based payment processing alternatives that has found itself embroiled in a 6-figure payment dispute with a network of smaller online poker sites (Carbon Poker, Reefer Poker, ACED, GR88.com, Felt Stars, StinkyFish Poker, and more than a dozen others).

Apparently someone’s ripping off someone, and flaming fingers are starting to point all willy-nilly in a world of folks trying to play as legit as they can providing a service that the US government would prefer they not.

I first learned about PICClub about a year ago … heard about it from one of my old cronies in the Dallas underground, and TJ Cloutier was apparently involved. Though I had decided it was not quite my thing, I wanted a second opinion, so I sought the counsel of a trusted friend and colleague semi-involved in the poker bidness:

On Dec 3, 2008, at 9:22 AM, [name removed] wrote:

[Name removed] told me about it. But I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to steer clear of shady, 4-year-late concepts that are audibly mistaken for porn sites.

LOL, right, exactly …

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photo: @cgowen

Considering that Texas poker players helped build the third-largest friggin’ casino in the world (literally under a tent in Thackerville, OK) we can take some pleasure in knowing a bunch of Texans kicked butt in The River tourney this weekend and will be sending back home some riches made in El Norte.

WinStar reportedly threw in a $580,000 overlay to make their $3 million guarantee. Not sure about the buy-in details — I think they upped it to $2k? — nor overall results. The best “coverage” has come via 2+2 here, mixed in with some Facebook, Twitter, and direct txt msg buzz. (Thanks KevMath and Harris, as always, for the info!)

1,210 players overall.

The winner: Bobby Hempkins, aka “Shooter” in the Dallas poker boom days. (And now your source for residential real estate in the North Texas area.) $710k win. Nice!

5th place finisher Brian @ZBTHorton provided regular updates from the final table, such as:

8 left, these people suck (4pm)

Apparently tax issues may or may not have complicated chop discussions — though sounds to me that the Chickasaw nation is under similar corporate-legal restrictions as the WSOP.

7th place reportedly went to a guy named Lance. Paid $95k. Sounds like a nice prize distribution (at the final table, at least). Not too flat, not too steep.

Blind structure was supposedly relatively fast, however.

Pros who made the trek for this event included: Clonie Gowen, TJ Cloutier, Michael Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Terrence Chan, Michael Binger, Men the Master, Allen Kessler, and Dmitri Nobles. The real @EskimoClark was also supposedly milling around.

pic: @EWeE420

Some people you may recognize not playing in the main event, much to their own surprise after showing up in some cases a good 15 minutes before cards went in the air! (mostly from Feldman at ESPN.com):

Tom Franklin (head of WPA)
TJ Cloutier (legendary+PAC member+craps)
Mickey Appleman (breaking 30-year streak of main events)
Minh Ly (Doyle pal)
Brandon Adams (Full Tilt Red Pro)
Melissa Hayden
Random Australian guy screaming about desire to sue

(Let me know if there are others to add to the list.)

Official number will be available soon … but we’re looking at close to 3,000 for today (including @TheBigRandy and @RobertGoldfarb).

Final numbers for the 2009 main event coming soon …

Via @taopauly:

Several big names shut out: Brandon Adams, TJ CLoutier, Patrik Antonius & Sully Erna

Chagrined non-players, via Otis:

Two final tables are underway, with the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event down to their final 3 players. Ken “Teach” Aldridge is the current chip leader in a big hand that went down just after the dinner break. You can follow the streaming final table coverage on the Bluff Magazine website or at wsop.pkr.com. The $2,500 PLH/PLO event is down to their final 6 players. Cornel Cimpan, WPT LA Poker Classic winner in February, is the current chip leader, with Ben Grundy and Paul Parker the other notables left at the table.

The $2,000 NL Holdem event is now in the money with about 100 players remaining. Phil Hellmuth added to his WSOP record with his 70th cash, and is still going strong as the players return to their dinner break soon. Jason Mercier, T.J. Cloutier, Tom McEvoy and Tom Franklin are some of the bracelet winners who are still in the field. When the players return, they’ll be playing beat the clock to get to a final table before the 3am deadline.

The $10,000 Mixed Event World Championship is down to about 55 players remaining, with Soheil Shamseddin the leader, with Robert Mizrachi, Steve Sung, Huck Seed and Hasan Habib remaining as they’ll also attempt to get to the final table of eight by the 3am deadline.

The 12pm tournament today, $2,500 NL holdem drew a smaller than expected field of 1,088, some possibly took the day off before the $5,000 NL Holdem event tomorrow at noon. The usual rapid decimation of the field still took place, as less than 450 players returning when the 90-minute dinner break began. Alan Goehring appears to be the chip leader, with the winner taking just over $500,000 and 116 others pick up some cash.

The 5pm tournament, $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max, looks to have drawn a field of about 360. No clear leaders have been established, but check out www.worldseriesofpoker.com for updates from all six events this evening. Please.

Two players won a WSOP bracelet earlier this morning, but the vast majority of the discussion will be on Phil Ivey, who took down his 6th WSOP bracelet in Event #8 $2,500 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball. While he collected under $100,000 from this event, he surely picked up a few million in bracelet bets with his fellow poker players, recouping some of those millions he had lost last year when he made similar bracelet bet wagers. John Monnette was looking for his first WSOP title, and he did not go down quietly, as the pair were heads-up for over 3 hours. Both had each other on the ropes, but Monnette was able to double up twice to take a huge chip advantage, but Ivey battled back like he had a few million dollars riding on the result. Several pros were on the rail watching the action, more than a few hoping that the professional from San Diego, California would knock off Ivey. Unfortunately for them, Phil would double up himself to retake the chip lead, finally eliminating Monnette when his 7-6 low crushed them pocket 7’s of Monnette. You can follow all the action as it transpired last night over at Pokernews, where I also wrote the recap that will appear later this morning.

Joining Phil Ivey at the bracelet ceremony today will be Travis Johnson who took down the $1,500 NL Holdem event a few hours ago taking over $666,000 in what appears to be his first tournament cash. Might as well make your first cash include a WSOP bracelet.

Two events that weren’t able to make their final table by the 3am deadline will both return at 1pm today to play down to a champion. The scheduled event for streaming on the Bluff Magazine website is the $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event, which is down to their final 8, who’ll be seated as listed:

Table 154:
Seat 1: Carman Cavella 1,059,000
Seat 3: Charles Furey 1,169,000
Seat 4: Bryce Yockey 1,489,000
Seat 6: Bryn Kenney 656,000

Table 155:
Seat 2: Manny Minaya 339,000
Seat 3: Praz Bansi 630,000
Seat 5: Ken Aldridge 411,000
Seat 6: Peter Gould 780,000

Page 2 for more tournament activities today:
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We knew it was only a matter of time, right? TJ Cloutier reportedly had quite the emphatic conversation with Jeffrey Pollack while the two were watching Phil Ivey’s final table — about a recurring rule violation that may or may not be getting out of control. The issue: Twittering at the table.

TJ’s beef (as told to me secondhand) was that even when players are not in a hand, they are violating tournament rules when they are texting under the table, in their laps.

Here’s the rule in question:

87. Cell Phone Rule: All cell phones and other voice-enabled and “ringing” electronic devices must be silenced during Tournament play. A player who wants to use a cell phone to talk, text, or email must step away from their assigned table or be subject to penalty. Any player using a cellular phone while in a hand with no action pending (player has gone all-in) will receive a missed hand penalty to be assessed on the next hand. No cell phones or other electronic communication device can be placed on a poker table.

Hmm, I dunno. I think it’s subject to interpretation — and frankly, imho, these are the problems with rules written (or approved) by lawyers, as opposed to writer-players. But what really surprises me in the above-described situation is that @JeffreyPollack didn’t twitter about it.

Just remember, whether you’re breaking a rule or not, you can follow all the peeps we’re following in the Pokerati Twitterverse here.