Tao of Poker

Event #12 $2K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys and Event #11 $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2

I've been covering the WSOP for a week straight without any days off. The schedule is brutal and the work load is like getting kicked in the junk every few hours. At least I have my apartment complex to keep my mind off of poker during what little time I have away from the Rio.

I've lived in some sketchy areas in my life. My flat in Las Vegas certainly is not the worst place where I've shacked up, but I really have to be alert when I'm walking around at odd hours. I'm afraid that I might shanked by a shirtless tweaker on my way to the am/pm to buy a Gatorade.

I decided that I want to get to know the miscreants that live in my building unit. After all, they are people too. They are simply misguided souls, which directly stems from unhappy childhoods. Besides, you never know when you might have the urge to score some Oxycontin. I hear that Julio upstairs gets the best shit, at least that's what I overheard last night.

The Redneck Riviera is broken down in 12 buildings. The architects designate letters to differentiate each unit. I live in building "F" and yes, F is for freaks. The family two doors down leaves their door wide open. Usually six kids dressed only in their underwear are arguing and wrestling each over videogames, while their Mom chain smokes a pack of Reds and pisses away her alimony checks at the Monte Carlo's slot machines. I call room 1071 "Michael Jackson's wet dream."

I forgot to tell you about all the random animals that people let roam around outside... dogs, cats, and even small sun-burnt children running around without shoes. I'd like to take pictures of this insanity, but I'd make myself a target. I'm afraid I'd never wake up and the local authorities will find my throat slashed with my iPod and WSOP press badge traded for a hand job behind Wendy's by one of the many skeevy crack whores that work Tropicana Road after midnight.

But enough about me... I'm getting paid to write about poker, right?

Here are the events that I am covering today:

1. Event #11 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em (Day 2) = Red font
2. Event #12 $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys (Day 1) = Black font

Event #12 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys (PLO is what I'll refer to it) started with 212 players. The prize pool is $1,180,000.

Event #11 Pot-Limit Hold'em started with 542 players. Today's action starts with 20 players remaining. We'll play down to 9 and the final table will go down at 2pm on Tuesday.

****** Live Blogging Update *****

2:23pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2: I guess I should start with who's left and the chip counts, courtesy of the fine folks over at Poker Wire.

1 Marco Traniello $124K
2 Steven Hudak $114K
3 David Cossio $113K
4 Edward Moncada $77.5K
5 Steve Leveson $74K
6 Garry Bush $63K
7 Elia Ahmadian $62.5K
8 Pete Lawson $55.5K
9 Yoshitaka Oku $52.5K
10 Mike Sexton $52K
11 Steve Zolotow $46K
12 Shargel Koumi $40K
13 Freddy Deeb $34K
14 Bobby Firestone $33K
15 Tony Le $31K
16 Ajay Shah $29K
17 Ivo Donev $25K
18 Berry Johnston $23K
19 Matthew Hilger $22K
20 Jared Davis $7K

Yeah, noted author Matt Hilger is still alive along with Mike Sexton, my main man Freddy Deeb, and Barry Johnston who's been battling Phil Hellmuth for the most record career cashes at the WSOP.

4:20pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2: Barry Johnston was knocked out in 15th place. He cashed in another tourney. Matthew Hilger was eliminated in 12th when his 99 ran into the Hilton Sisters.

5:01pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2: My main man Freddy Deeb knocked out Mike Sexton. Our favroite WPT announcer went over the top of Freddy Deeb and moved all in with 99. Deeb called with the Hilton Sisters. Didn't we already see the same thing on a different table? Mike Sexton ended up in 10th place. He won $10,935. We were down to 9 players so action was done for the day. Yeah! A short day for me. Play will resume at 2pm on Tuesday. The final table will be taped for ESPN. Ajay Shah is the chipleader with $207K. Freddy Deeb has 4127K.

8:13pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: I have been neglecting this event while I covered the Pot-Limit Day 2. Anyway, the players are on a break right now. 78 left. A lot of knock outs so far. Clonie Gowen, Jeff Shulman, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Jen Harman, and Dewey Tomko have been booted. Devilfish is killing the field. He's got $52K in chips. Phil ivey is looking healthy. Some of your favorite pros are still alive like 2005 WSOp bracelet winners Erik Seidel and Allen Cunningham. Hoyt Corkins, Howad Lederer, The Grinder, Jesus, Marcel Luske, Ram Vaswani, Ted Forrest Richard Brodie, and Erck Lindgren are still playing.

8:45pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Jesus knocked out Howard Lederer in the furst hand afer the dinner break. Jesus is sitting at a scary table with Ted Forrest, John Juanda, Ali Sarkeshik, and Erik Seidel. Jen Harman and Scott Fischman were both sitting there before and were booted. That might be my nightmare table.

9:15pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Phil Ivey sent Allen Cunningham home packing. Talk about another scary table... Phil, Hoyt, Arieh, and Bob Ciaffone.

10:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Josh Arieh knocked out Hoyt Corkins. Bob Ciaffone is out also. Max Pescatori is still alive with about 10K.

10:20pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Ali Sarkeshik, Lee Watkinson, the Quiet Lion, and Ram Vaswani out. Phil Ivey appears to be the chipleader with $64K. Marcel Luske is still alive with $17K. 50 players are left.

12:15am... $125 NL satellite: I played in my first satellite here at the Rio. Thanks to Dan from Pokerati for the pic of me playing. $125 buy in with the winner geting two $500 tourney chips and some cash. If I won, I was going to buy into the Stud 8 event with Felicia. I also got into a last longer bet with 8 of the guys for $20. On the second hand with the blinds $25/$25, I found the Hilton Sisters. I called a $75 raise. The button moved all in. I thought about it and that little voice in my head said, "Call because you got that nimrod beat." I called and he showed 99. I doubled up on the second hand. In the second level, I lost a few chips to a guy who played 2-4 and flopped a full house. He said he was from Cambodia and he dressed like a member of the Khmer Rouge. I folded crappy hands and was blinded down until it got 4 ways. One old Greek guy popped a Viagra pill a level earlier and was pushing all in with junk. He bad beat one kid who had the Hiltons when he flopped a straight with middle connectors. Shit, they weren't even suited. We were joking that he had a hot date with a hooker since who the hell would honestly want to fuck a guy who pushed with junk? He pushed all in UTG with 78o. I had JJ and called. I doubled up. Then I fucked up on the next hand. I limped in from the LB and he played his big blind blind. He checked in the dark before the flop and I moved all in with a draw. He hit a part of the flop and my hand did not improve. Big mistake by me. I should have bet the pot and make him look at his cards. Out in 4th. At least I chopped some of the last longer bet, so my net loss was just $85.

12:20am... PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're down to 30 players. Phil Ivey was knocked out by Jesus. Marcel Luske and John D'Agastino are out. Dewey Tomko is out. Josh Areih is the chipleader. Max Pescatori is still in and holding on to a small stack.

1:04am... PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're down to 27 players. Josh Arieh and Aturo Diaz are at the top of the chip lead. Max Pescatori has $41K in chips. Top 18 places pay. Visit Poker Wire to read the chip counts as compiled by Jen.

1:44am... PLO w/ Rebuys update... We're down to 23. Arturo Diaz knocked out Erick Lindgren and Robert Williamson on the same hand. I just watched Max Pescatori win a good sized pot off of Jesus. Devilfish took a big hit from Ari Abramowitz.

2:20am... PLO w/ Rebuys update... Devilfish is out. We're down to 20 players. Arturo Diaz is the chipleader by almost 2 to 1 over second place Josh Arieh. Max Pescatori, Jesus, Juanda, and Seidel are all still alive. Seidel, fresh off his bracelet win last night looks extremely tired. I caught him napping in between hands. He's 4th in chips.

2:45am... PLO w/ Rebuys update... We're down to 18. Robbin Keston is the bubble boy. Max Pesatori made the money in his third event this year. Congrats Max! Play will resume on Tuesday at 2pm. Arturo is the chipleader. Here is who is left: Doug Lee, Ron Graham, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Jim Bechtel, Josh Arieh, Ari Abramowitz, Dave Colclough, Jesus, Daniel Alaei, Lukasz Dumanski, Tony Sevnsom, Max Pescatori, The Grinder, Joe Beevers, Casey Kastle, and Tony Cousineau.

There will be three tourneys on Tuesday including one final table and the $5K NL event. Fun. Fun. Fun. No satellites for me, that's for sure.