“That’s stupid. Why should I get a job when I’ve got no-limit Texas Hold’em?”

Tom Schneider may have downgraded his status to semi-pro, but that hasn’t kept him from a sickening, multi-bracelet run in Hold’em-Omaha-Razz-Seven-stud-Eight-or-better. And though she’s having a WSOP of her own (with one final table so far), semi-angry Julie jumps on-call to enlighten us about how she’s managing the family bankroll, particularly as degenerate poker urchins gravitate toward her husband, wanting satellite buy-ins but not his advice to “Get a job!”

Meanwhile, Tom advises Andrew on how one might go about moving through the mixed game ranks — which is great and all, but are things going so un-awesomely for Andrew this summer that he’s been relegated to sleeping in his car?

In other-people’s WSOP business … were chips that went missing from a winner’s photo shoot indicative of ubiquitous cheating at the WSOP or just a case of rogue souvenir hunters before tournament officials had a procedure in place to keep better track of photo props? Also the Rio Deepstack fields keep getting more massive. Who knew old-school, underground blind structures and substantive-but-affordable buy-ins would come back in fashion? And secrets to a locals discount that might be one of the best kept secrets at the Rio. And by “best kept secrets” we mean things advertised on billboards, but hey …

It’s EDC weekend — Electric Daisy Carnival — which may or may not bring glowsticks and furry boots to the table. Oh, and don’t forget @KevMath! He’s on this episode, too, at the premiere of Bet Raise Fold afterparty. It’s all so clear now: Andrew hearts Kevmath, Dan hearts Donkeybomber, and Dave’s still lookin’ for a flush-draw to chase.

Vegas Grinders 1.19
[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/VegasGrinders/VG1point19.mp3]

Episode Resources

• Electric Daisy Carnival
• Bet Raise Fold
• Barcelona Gypsies 1, Tom Minus $450

I swear Tom Schneider is really starting to piss me off. He knows full well I have little intention of trying to cover the WSOP this year … but damnit, I came up with that strategy kinda-sorta counting on a lackluster performance by our longtime Team Pokerati ambassador — a near certain result as per performance indicators over the past four or so years! But now, like right now, he’s well on his way to taking down trying hard to take down his second bracelet and/or 6-figure score.

With now only five players left, I’m fairly certain he’s gonna win this one, the way he’s barreling through this final table … Greg Mueller, I’d say, is his only threat, as I’ve seen him beat Tom heads-up before with a lot on the line.

You can watch the WSOP live stream here:

http://www.wsop.com/2013/live-video/default.aspx?TID=12827

Though I don’t know the WSOP statistical lore on this one, it would be a rather amazing feat to win a $1,500 HORSE event, and then the $5,000 HORSE, no? And not to get ahead of anyone, but a repeat POY maybe? OK, I’ll cut with the jinxing as Schneider-Mueller have dropped from 1st/2nd in chips to 3rd/4th with four left in the time it has taken me to write this paragraf.

But the important thing to notice, no matter how this event plays out, is that Tom’s hat (Loudmouth Poker, $25) plays well for the live stream:

UPDATE: Now Tom is short, and FBT is chip leader … while the hat tells pretty much the whole story.

UPDATE: Back and forth back and forth … Tom is dominant chip leader now, with hat, um, re-unreversed?

UPDATE: Final four coming back on Tuesday, with Tom in strong position.

Seat Player Chip Count
1 Greg Mueller 140,000
4 Viatcheslav Ortynsiky 680,000
6 Tom Schneider 2,500,000
7 Benjamin Scholl 600,000

Maybe you’re kinda like me (or not) and just getting into the 2013 Stanley Cup World Series of Poker? It’s a long haul, sure, but know the basics of these stories and you can feel confident about having a pretty good grasp on how the deal has gone down at the WSOP this summer, and at least won’t sound like a total poker dunce while hosting your next weekly homegame and/or podcast.

1. Chad Holloway Wins

Whoop-whoop all PokerNews-er-ati! Suck it dealers and floor staff! With Chad’s $85k win in Event #1 comes a) proof that just a few years in poker media can make a clean-cut golden boy look disheveled and scruffy … and b) inspiration for many wearing a badge to think that maybe we shouldn’t give up our on-the-felt dreams just quite yet. [ESPN]

More…

Separated at Birth?

Just because I’m onto something new in the podcast realm doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my original partner(s) in quasiradio crime.

Perhaps inspired by the Oscars or maybe just dismayed by sinking TV ratings for recorded poker — no, wait, it can’t be that because that would require Tom to do something at the table worthy of ho-hum recorded poker TV (rimshot, lol!) — it seems like our ole pal Tom, without a tragedy to exploit for YouTube views, is moving from country music to acting. Check it out … here’s word from, um, Ice Tom, regarding his crime-drama debut with a poker-infused episode of Crime Scene Investigation, called “Last Woman Standing”:

I make my acting debut on CSI tomorrow. I may end up on the cutting room floor and they may not show my face at all, but I did deal some poker to David Cassidy, aka Keith Partridge. You might just see me shuffling cards and cheating a guy. Who knows?

If you don’t see my face, but you see some half bitten finger nails and stubby hands doing some magic with cards that’s me. Next up … hand modeling.

Woot. We’ll be looking for it, as Schneider continues to cross items off his bucket list in time for the WSOP!

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.

More…

I want to clear something up that happened during a hand in a $1,500 no limit tournament. I have heard that some are accusing me of using my influence to get a favorable ruling and/or that I took a shot to win a pot.

I’ll let Pokerati readers decide.

On the river, I bet. My opponent calls, to which I announce, “nothing.” My opponent does not turn over his hand, so I table my jack-high. He looks befuddled, picks up one of his cards so only his next-door player can see it. He does NOT table his hand. Only one player sees his one card, which is a queen and would be a winner. He takes his two cards face down and places them on top of the stub of the deck.

The dealer pushes the pot to me. Two seconds go by and everyone is kind of stunned. One guy at the table mutters “sick call” thinking the guy called and couldn’t beat a jack hi.

The dealer does make a little mistake by not mixing all the cards together to make sure that the hand is unidentifiable. Now my opponent looks puzzled and says, “Wait, I had the winning hand.” Yes he did, but he mucked it. Now he’s saying he should get the pot.

We call floor and tell our stories. The floor asks if the hand is identifiable. We all say yes. He leaves and comes back to the table and says that my opponent gets the pot. So I ask, “When is a hand ‘over’? And are you telling me that a player can muck his hand and then get awarded a pot?” He says, “hold on, I’ll be back.”

More…

We still love Donkeybomber ’round these parts; just haven’t written much about the famous author and ’07 WSOP Player of the Year lately because … well, um, how do you put this nicely when his biggest accomplishments since then include not having enough money on Full Tilt to actually lose anything, and maybe getting retweeted by @basebaldy AND Jack Effel? (Sorry Pokeratizens for missing the breaking news … )

Well you’re not gonna believe what our balder, gastronomically larger, bi-braceleted pal is up to now: Country music.

Seriously, have a listen to First 5-Song CD, Created in December 2011, a title he apparently shortened prior to mainstream release on iTunes with the simpler, more memorable “EP”, which some say could be subtle commentary on the plight of a one-time WSOP POY seeking recognition as a real pro by Epic Poker.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/tom-schneider/id435732204

More…

The Epic Poker League still sounded more like a Sugar Bowl sponsor (as FS+G) when yours truly won his seat into their inaugural $1,500 event at the Palms last weekend. Excited to play … but also thinking ’bout selling it, as I’m pretty sure these seats are transferable, and I already had plans that weekend to learn the ways of a seasoned pro by going on a vision quest at the Poker Sweat Lodge with Greg Raymer and Tom Schneider.

For now, play it by ear …

2011 WSOP – Episode 25: Sit and Go Pro
A group of prolific tweeters play in a satellite to the FS+G Epic Poker League $1500 pro-am — a tournament series taking shape that few know what to make of yet. None other than Bluff correspondent Kevin Mathers shows up to provide a comparative assessment of what he just witnessed — as somehow Dan ends up winning, beating @Alcanthang, @JoeUgly, @Hollywood_Dave, and others with questionable play. A rather large rail developed to hear Kevmath laughing heartily on the inside. Whatev, says Dan, who won a seat, took home some cash, and now apparently thinks he’s a pro.
[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/tao/TOP_W11_25_SNGPro.mp3]
#
For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives or subscribe to the feed .

Ahh, now I get it! Concept behind Federated’s Epic Pro-Am series starting to make sense.

A few interesting things have taken place since the implosion of online poker we’ve been warning you about here at Pokerati for about nine months became a reality.

We’ll save the 9/11 comparisons for later — because no one has died yet — and it’s just kinda coincidental that the DOJ has 9 charges against 11 defendants. But there seems to be a need for people to talk through these matters openly and honestly … and in kinda an organic way, the few truly independent operations (that don’t rely on Stars, Tilt, or UB for their existence) have come together to fill that void.

What began with appearances on an “EMERGENCY EPISODE!!!!” of Donkdown radio has migrated to a 24/7 live podcast put together by @AgentMarco from QuadJacks.

It’s been a rather loose-aggressive media emergence … with old-school cooperation in play. Pokerati has taken part … Tom Schneider, myself were on for the first few hours, Mark Gahagan is on now, and I’m about to rejoin to share some new information. Others that have been on have included Dutch Boyd, Scott Matusow, Micon-Brandon-and-Dandruff from Donkdown, The Maven, Kevmath, Pete the Blunt-smoker, Thomas the Rapper … as well as just regular ole online poker players sharing their stories about how a “little” government action has greatly affected their lives.

Anyhow, blah blah blah to infinity … the podcast that won’t stop is still going on — they’ve been going for 48 hours so far, with no sign of stopping, even if Marco eventually needs a nap. More than 1,000 listeners at this moment, so check out the chat room and keep it on for background music. Here’s the link:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/day-2-qj-live-show

Funny how once the concept of “conversions” stopped mattering, 24/7 poker radio could finally emerge.

NOTE: Over 2,000 players have already registered for day 1c, late registration for day 1d is scheduled to reopen at 4:40pm PT today.

Day 1b of the Main Event brought 1,489 players to the Amazon and Pavilion rooms at the Rio for 9 hours of poker action. Phil Gordon, Rafe Furst, Joe Sebok and other dignitaries took part in the pre-game activities to help promote the Bad Beat on Cancer charity. Tuesday’s “shuffle up and deal” command came from Ashley, named “Dealer of the Year” by the WSOP, to get the tournament into action. Some of the notables who didn’t make it through the day included Annette Obrestad, Joe Sebok, Jamie Gold, Erick Lindgren, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Liv Boeree, Justin Bonomo, Mark Seif, Brandon Adams and former November Niners Darus Suharto, Ivan Demidov and Craig Marquis. For a semi-live view of Tuesday’s action, check out Pauly’s day 1b blog.

After 4 1/2 levels of play, 1,017 players will return Saturday afternoon as part of the day 2b field. The day 1b leader is James Danielson of La Plata, Maryland with 201,050 in chips. Some of the notables with a significant amount of chips: Alexander Kostritsyn (131,800), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (107,100), Gavin Griffin (97,200), Blair Rodman (85,025), Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles (73,475), Brandon Cantu (65,025), Gavin Smith (62,275) Vladimir Shchemelev (53,500), and Phil Laak (40,275). Team Pokerati/Loudmouth Poker pro Tom Schneider finished the day with 22,075 in chips. The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com. For those who made it through day 1a, there is a partial table draw available now here. The day 2b partial table draw is now online here, and on my Twitter when available.

As mentioned above, over 2,000 players have already signed up for day 1c, and today also brings the annual circus of Phil Hellmuth’s grand entrance, scheduled for 1:30. This year, he’s dressing up as an MMA fighter with Wanderlei Silva expected to be part of his entourage and UFC announcer Bruce Buffer introducing him. Daniel Negreanu has jokingly tweeted his own plans about making his entrance today as Rocky Balboa. The rest of the field will make their entrance the usual way, by walking into the Rio without making a spectacle of themselves. See what transpires during the day at wsop.com.

More episodes coming your way … because really, is there a better way to enjoy the full WSOP experience without being in Las Vegas? (Well I mean other than following Mathers here, on 2+2, Poker Road, and twitter …)

Of course you’ve known for years that I’m nowhere near so prolific as Pauly. That’s why he has a book coming out — I think like today! — and I’ve got just overlapping outlines, partial sample chapters … and now the occasional TOP episode previously unpublished here, but of course always available in the complete Tao of Pokerati archives for the chronologically demanding.

Episode 42: Donkament Bomber

Dan and Pauly keep a bird eye’s view on DonkeyBomber’s run during Day 2 of a donkament from the press box and find the easiest way to spot him is by his pants. They also chat about another Pokerati player — Toothless Bob — who was running great but suddenly went AWOL, as various types are known to do as we all get deep into the WSOP.

Episode 43: Bad Beat Bar WTF!

What do Benjo and 7 Mexicans have in common with a flaring mob of Americans and Africans demanding someone at Harrah’s change the channel? Bad beat, obv. We’ve all heard stories, but Dan takes Pauly to the Bad Beat Bar itself, a comfortable but sparsely populated spot in a Rio Convention Center spillover area that feels more like a university commons than sports bar.

WSOP 2010 Insta-flashback …

The World Series had just gotten underway and Pauly, Dan, and Benjo preview the upcoming World Cup …

Episode 20: Benjo’s Bets and Conspiracy Theories

Benjo explains his bets and talks about rigged-game conspiracy theories that our favorite Bulgarian bartender shared with him. Pauly and Dan pontificate on the gross discrepancies in World Cup lines between Harrah’s properties and off-Strip sports books.

As much as I’ve noted Team Pokerati’s struggles on the felt this summer, it’s not like our players don’t know their way to the WSOP payout window. Here’s a rundown of the team’s representative real-money scores so far:

(Click below for the Team Chauhan comparative results.)

Tom to La, after Team Pokerati’s first and only FT of 2010: “Congrats, you really played great. If I don’t bink a tourney soon, think you might be able to float me some scratch?”

Tom Schneider
$4,348 – 128th – $1.5k NLH
$22,085 – 14th – $1k NLH/Seniors
$3,352 – 52nd – $1.5k PLH
$6,128 – 32nd – $1.5k Omaha Hi/Lo

La Sengphet
$22,728 – 7th -$1k NLH/Ladies

Pat Poels
$13,232 – 10th – $2.5k Limit 2-7 3x

Robert Goldfarb
$6,128 – 29th – $1.5k Omaha Hi/Lo

The Big Randy
$3,428 – 196th – $1.5k NLH

Toothless Bob
$3,080 – 2nd place – $150 NLH (Binion’s Poker Classic)
$1,240 – 1st place – $65 NLH (Sahara nightly)
$355 – 4th place – $65 NLH (Sahara nightly)

John Harris (85Nutz)
TBD – first 2010 WSOP day 2 – $1k NLH

More…

Will La Sengphet be the only player to have repped the upside-down spade at a final table this year?

Though we’ve had a handful of cashes and a couple deep scores (in non-open events), Pokerati’s crew of patch-wearing competitors have admittedly struggled. Now, more than a month into the 2010 WSOP, we know it’s not gonna be about who can rack up the most bracelets (and pieces of Pokerati) in pursuit of Player of the Year, but who can pull out a big save … preferably before the main event!

Toothless Bob is still alive, btw — I mean in life, not any tournament — for those who were concerned. Turns out he just lost his phone and needed to wander aimlessly for a few days to shake off his early departure from the Seniors event after reportedly flopping Aces-full and running into flopped quads.

And Tom hasn’t gone totally broke yet — though he might be coming to believe those high buy-in mixed-game events (you know, the ones where every table has multiple world-class pros) might not be the best use of bankroll compared to low-cost no-limit events.

For Harris, a former WSOP dealer now working as both dealer and floor guy at the Venetian, it’s been all about low-cost no-limit events … and so far he’s gone 0-for-3. And while that’s just mathematically how these donkuli sometimes work, I’m not so sure @85Nutz was necessarily expecting the ill effects of regularly repeated run-bad on a not-yet super-accomplished player’s psyche.

It’s the kinda thing that can really shake a player’s confidence in his game. However, this weekend, armed with pre-game leak advice from The Maven (who happened to play at his table in a previous $1k) and a poker counseling session with DonkeyBomber on big-field strategy, Team Pokerati’s weekend warrior made his first Day 2 of 2010 … not necessarily in great shape, but a successful grind to get him to a point from where he’s propelled himself to a final table before.

Here’s the note he sent his WSOP backers, who are all petulantly waiting for a return on their money enthusiastically cheering him on:

I’m sorry for the late update, my phone died right as we finished for the night. Here are the stats going into tomorrow.

Total Entries: 3128
Players Left: 446
My Chip Count: 12,425
Avg Chip Count: 21,040
Blinds: Level 9 – 300/600 w75 ante (15 minutes left in level 9)
Places in Money: 324
324th: $1,886
1st: $485,642

We restart tomorrow at 2:30 Vegas time. We will be moving into the famous Amazon Room to table 334, seat 6. I’m off to get some rest after a long day.

You can follow the run-up to cash in the latest weekly $1k and other events here. Many Pokeratizens know Richard Ferro; he goes into Day 2 fourth in chips.

Other notables positioning themselves to avoid and/or absorb bad beats as the field races toward the bubble and beyond include Jeff Madsen (23rd, 42k) and Chris Moneymaker (24th, 41k).

Mickey Appleman, David Levi, David Sklansky, Terrence Chan, Lyle Berman, Antonio Esfandiari, and JJ Liu all have slightly above average stacks.

Recapping Saturday night’s action, with the list of great players without a bracelet had another named crossed off the list.

Ole G Smith wins mixed holdem bracelet

Gavin Smith, one of the most popular players on the tournament circuit, finally won his first WSOP bracelet this morning, defeating Danny Hannawa heads-up to win the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event along with winning $268,238. Full results at wsop.com

Tournament of Champions starts today

The WSOP Tournament of Champions gets underway at 12pm today, as the 27 participants will play four one-hour levels today and Monday, with the survivors returning on July 4 to determine the winner. Besides being filmed to air on ESPN later this year, ESPN3 will be streaming a feature table both days. Here’s the feature table when play starts today:

Doyle Brunson
Daniel Negreanu
Annie Duke
Howard Lederer
Joe Hachem
T.J. Cloutier
Antonio Esfandiari
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Scotty Nguyen

Trickett on top final day of $1,500 NL

Day three of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem returns at 3:00pm with Sam Trickett (922,000) leading the 35 players remaining as they play down to a winner. Other notables in the hunt include: Dutch Boyd (619,000), Ray “ExitOnly” Rayburn (560,000), Paul Magriel (460,000), Alex Outhred (444,000), and Zachary Clark (176,000). Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider finished 128th, good for $4,348. Full chip counts available at PokerNews.

Altbregin ascends to 5k PLO 8 lead

Day 3 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better resumes at 3pm with Sergey Altbregin (486,000) holding the chip lead with 21 players remaining. Other notables returning: David “Devilfish” Ulliott (415,000), Perry Green (367,000), Dan Shak (331,000), Dan Heimiller (247,000), Allen Kessler (117,000), Andy Black (100,000) and Erik Seidel (65,000). Full chip counts and updates available at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-46/“>PokerNews.

Brickner blasts his way into day 1a 1k NL lead

The next to last $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event of the WSOP drew a field of 1,759 entries for day 1a Saturday afternoon. That field was whittled down to around 300 players when they return on Monday afternoon, and the reported leader is Justin Brickner with 86,000 in chips. Other notables include Antonio Esfandiari (35,000), Scott Montgomery (30,000), Matt Glantz (28,000) and Carter King (17,000). Full chip counts along with updates for Sunday’s day 1b action available at wsop.com.

Jaffee leading $2,500 8-Game

Day one of the $2,500 Mixed Event brought 453 players to the Rio Saturday afternoon, with 162 returning at 4:10pm today. The reported chip leader is Jared Jaffee with 71,125. Some of the notables returning include: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (58,225), Michael Mizrachi (56,875), Brandon Cantu (41,000), Scott Seiver (37,350), Dario Minieri (32,175) and Gavin Griffin (29,150). Team Pokerati’s Julie Schneider returns with 18,975 in chips. Other chip counts and updates at wsop.com.

Two more WSOP bracelets were awarded this morning, plus the first of this year’s final tables will be streamed online this afternoon., so here’s the info:

Hamrick wins $1500 NL

Dean Hamrick, who bubbled the 2008 WSOP final table, earned his first WSOP bracelet as he defeated Thomas O’Neal heads-up in event #42: $1,500 No-Limit Holdem winning $604,222 and his first WSOP bracelet. O’Neal earned $375,627 for finishing 2nd, while UFC fighter Mike Swick finished in 10th. Full results online at wsop.com.

Gordon grooves to 10k HORSE bracelet

With nine players remaining, Ian Gordon was the least-known name of a star-studded final table in the $10,000 HORSE World Championship. That face didn’t stop him as he was the last player with chips on a lengthy final day, denying Richard Ashby his second WSOP bracelet, winning $611,666 and a coveted WSOP gold bracelet. Ashby earned $378,027 for finishing 2nd, while Eugene Katchalov finished 3rd for $248,831. Full results at wsop.com.

Ole G Smith, Pilgrim feature attractions at Mixed Holdem FT

The $2,500 Mixed Holdem final table will be the first at this year’s WSOP streamed online at ESPN3.com (check your local cable system for availability). Here’s how they’ll be seated when play resumes at 2:30pm:

Seat 1: Michael Michnik – 527,000
Seat 2: Jamie Rosen – 300,000
Seat 3: Dwyte Pilgrim – 196,000
Seat 4: Gavin Smith – 745,000
Seat 5: Jarred Solomon – 748,000
Seat 6: Daniel Idema – 237,000
Seat 7: Michael Santoro – 179,000
Seat 8: Danny Hannawa – 542,000
Seat 9: Timothy Finne – 331,000

Failla leads $1,500 NL

Day 1 of Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Holdem completed their first 10 hours with less than 400 players remaining, with the final 324 in the field making the money, while the winner adds $721,373. The reported leader is Will Failla with 156,000 in chips. Other notables returning at 2:30 include Veronica Dabul (70,000), Alex Outhred (65,000), John Phan (58,500), Amnon Filippi (47,000), Lauren Kling (29,000) and Team Pokerati/Loudmouth Poker pro Tom Schneider (25,900). Full chip counts available at PokerNews.

Burton leads 5k PLO 8 M

Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better resumes at 3pm with 130 of the 284 players who started remaining. The chip leader is Colin Burton with 91,700. Other notables include James Dempsey (88,900), Mike Matusow (63,100), Scott Seiver (44,000), Annie Duke (39,900), Dave Ulliott (36,000), Tony Cousineau (29,000), and Annie Duke (23,000). Full chip counts available at PokerNews.

Saturday’s tournaments

The 12pm tournament is day 1a of the fifth $1,000 No-Limit Holdem with the usual throng of thousands expected to turn up. The 5pm tournament today is the $2,500 Mixed Event, consisting of HORSE, No-Limit Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball and Pot-Limit Omaha. Last year’s winner of this event was Jerrod Ankenman defeating a field of 412, earning $241,637.