The gambling ramblings of Pauly -- a writer, traveler, and degenerate

 
Event #32 $5K Omaha 8 or Better -- Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event Day 2 -- Event #30 $1,500 Razz Day 2 -- Event #29 $2K NL Final Table

There are a slew of tiny pre-teen girls here at the Rio Casino for a huge National Dance Competition. They're a cross between Jon Benet Ramsey look-a-likes and those cheerleaders from the ultra-erotic Kirsten Dunst vehicle Bring It On!

Personally Las Vegas is no place for little girls running rampant through the casino. There are deviants on three-day benders stumbling through the corridors who are clutching watered-down glasses of scotch. There are hordes of grizzled gamblers chomping on stogies older than the little ones. There are degenerates with serious cash flow problems roaming the hallways. The situation here is an Amber Alert waiting to happen.

In a groggy haze, I barely made it through the front door to the convention center, only to find myself seconds away from trampling a couple of girls practicing their steps. Just a few days ago, geeky researchers with pocket protectors and starched shirts were bumping into each other and they have been replaced by perky cheerleader-wannabes. I'm positive that's not what Benny Binion envisioned would be occurring right next door to the most prestigious poker tournament in the world.

Moving on...

Insanity continues with four tournaments going on right now, including three final tables. Yeah, there will be three bracelet winners going home tonight. ESPN is scrambling to try to tape some of the Short-handed NL event, especially because there are a ton of top names let over versus the originally scheduled televised $2K NL event which has a bunch of no-names. I feel sorry for them that they are getting blown off by ESPN. They'll get some coverage, but just a few snippets of air time compared to what the suits want to see... which is a possible final table with Jesus and Doyle, who's chasing his 10th bracelet.

Here are the tournaments that I will be covering today:

1. Event #29 $2K NL Final Table
2. Event #30 $1,500 Razz Day 2 = Red font
3. Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event Day 2 = Green font
4. Event #32 $5K Omaha 8 or Better = Blue font

The Razz event started with 291 players. The prize pool is $401,580 and they are down to 24 players. The $2K NL event began with 1072 players two days ago. The prize pool is $1,972,480 and we're down to a final table. The $5K NL Short-handed event began with 301 players. The prize pool is $1,414,700 and action began today with 25 players.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

2:00pm... Razz Day 2 update: Jen Creason (from Poker Wire), Vinny Vinh, Marco Traniello, and Randy Holland are all still left. Jen went on a rush late last night and begins today 12th in chips. Action resumes at 3pm today.

2:45pm... $5K NL Short-handed update: Play began today with 25 players. Kiril Gerasimov, Derek Leforte, John Duthie, Don Mulis, Daniel Larsson, Matt Hawrilenko, John Juanda, John Kabbaj, Evan Soffer, and Ken Lennaard have all been eliminated already today. Here is who is left: Doyle Brunson, Jesus, Johnny World Hennigan, Layne Flack, Jason Lester, Men the Master, Scotty Nguyen, and Minh Ly.

3:30pm... $2K NL FInal Table update: Here's who is at the final table, including chip counts:

Seat 1: Carlo Citrone (Newcastle, England) $151K
Seat 2: Shack Ko (Naperville, IL) $287K
Seat 3: Lawrence Gosney (Leeds, England) $323K
Seat 4: Bjorn Isberg (Stockholm, Sweden) $166K
Seat 5: Tony Rila (Las Vegas, NV) $305K
Seat 6: Dustin Woolf (Los Angeles, CA) $270K
Seat 7: J.C. Tran (Sacramento, CA)$47K
Seat 8: Alan Purdy (England) $165K
Seat 9: Jarl Lindholt (Aarhus, Denmark) $437K

The media table has been moved out to the floor of the Rio while ESPN's second unit is taping the $2K event. The TV table is reserved for the Short-handed event.

4:08pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Bjorn Isberg was elimianted by Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf in 9th place. Isberg was all in with preflop with Big Slick versus Woolf's pocket Jacks. Carlo Citro folded the Hilton Sisters face up which would have won. The board was all rags and Woolf's J-J held up. Isberg won $39,450 for 9th place.

4:13pm... $2K Final Table update: JC Tran doubled up against Shack Ko. JC Tran pushed with Bog Slick and Shack called with 7-7. Shack flopped a set but JC Tran caught a runner runner straight to double up.

4:18pm... $5K Short-handed update: Johnny World Hennigan is in toruble after he doubled up Jesus a while ago and Jason Lester just now. Johnny World had the Hilton Sisters against Lester's A-K. Johnny World was doomed when a King flopped.

4:20pm... $5K Short-handed update: Johnny World hennigan was knocke out in 15th. Al Stonum took 14th place.

4:27pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Carlo Citrone finsihed in 8th place after he was shorts tacked and moved all in with 8-6o. Unfortunately, he ran into Tony Rila's pocket Aces. Citrone won $59,175 for his work.

4:45pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Tony Rila doubled up Shack Ko when he pushed all in on a flop of: 5-3-5. Shack reluctanty called and showed 9-9. He was ahead of Rila's A-J. On the turn Rila picked up a flush draw, but he didn't catch that or any of his overcards.

4:28pm... Razz update: Jen Creason was issued a 10 minute penalty for dropping an "f-bomb" at the table. She was all in against some guy and let "fuck" slip out. Since she didn't get knocked out, the guy who lost the hand wanted a pentaly put on her. During a penalty, a player is not allowed to sit at the table and the deal posts their antes.

4:58pm... $5K Short-handed update: Ferit Gabrielslson was knocked out by Doyle Brunson in 13th place. The action is down to two tables.

5:00pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran and his short stack moved all in with K-5 against Alan Purdy's Ac-8c. JC Tran caught some of the flop when a 5 hit and doubled up against Purdy.

5:05pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Alan Purdy lost another hand to JC Tran. They were both all in preflop. Purdy had A-10 and JC Tran showed A-Q. Purdy won $78,900 for 7th place.

5:05pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Alan Purdy lost another hand to JC Tran. They were both all in preflop. Purdy had A-10 and JC Tran showed A-Q. Purdy won $78,900 for 7th place.

5:11pm... $2K Final Table update: Tony Rila was shortstacked and moved all in with Ah-9h. Lawrence Grosnky called with A-5o. He caugth a 5 on the turn and knocked out Tony Rila in 6th place. He won $98,625 for his efforts.

5:15pm... Razz update: Jen Creason is living every media person's dream. She covers every event for Poker Wire and she almost made a final table at a WSOP event. She was just knocked out in 15th place. Great job, Jen for making it as far as you did!

5:35pm... $5K Short-handed update: Brad Booth raise don the button and Doyle Brunson moved all inf rom the big blind. Booth contemplated a call while the camera crews rushed over. He evntually called and showed 6-6. Doyle flipped over A-8. Doyle flopped top two pair and his hand held up. Doyle doubled up against Booth.

5:40pm... $5K Short-handed update: Brad Booth was eliminated in 12th place when he ran into Paul Kraus's Hilton Sisters.

5:45pm... Bouncin Round the Room: "The female railbirds are getting hotter," one member of the media whispered to me. Indeed. The quality of hotness is increasing every day. By the way, within a 30 foot radius, there are three tournaments going on. Razz and NL Short-handed are down to two tables and the final table of the $2K event is in front of me.

6:00pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran is on a roll. He had A-Q and moved all in preflop. Lars Lindholt called with Ac-Kc. JC Tran flopped a Queen and doubled up. Oliver from Poker News was quoted as saying, "JC Tran with another suckout." Otis blogged, "JC Tran can't lose."

6:06pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran and Big Slick pushed all in against Lawrence Gosney's 6-6. Men the Master came over and told the other railbird that Gosney was a 51.5% favroite to win. Gosney flopped a set, which silenced Tran's boisterous railbirds. Gosney doubled up and it left Tran with next to no chips.

6:10pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran still hangs on after he moved all in and flopped pair.

6:11pm... $5K Short-handed update: Jesus was crippled by Arthur Arzen. Jesus was the chipleader for a while and now he's one of the shortest stacks. Jesus had K-J and Arzen had pushed all in preflop with Q-10. Arzen hit a lucky flop when a Queen spiked. On the other table, Doyle Brunson doubled up with the Hilton Sisters. That event is on a short break.

6:20pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran was dominated and moved all in again and caught a card on the river to double up against Jarl Lindholt. He won't die.

6:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: JC Tran moved all in with A-5 against Lawrence Grosney's Big Slick. Guess what JC Tran flopped? Yes, he flopped trips. An amazing run.

6:33pm... $2K NL Final Table update: The JC Tran show is now over. He had Jarl Lindholt dominated with K-J to K-8. Of course Jarl flopped a flush and knocked out JC Tran in 5th place. JC won $118,350.

6:36pm... $5K NL Short-handed update: Arthur Azen doubled up against chipleader Layne Flack when his pocket aces held up against Layne's K-10. Doyle is now the chipleader. Jesus and his small stack was just busted by Scotty Nguyen. He finished in 11th place.

6:45pm... $5K NL Short-handed update: Paul Kraus was elimianted in 10th place by Doyle Brunson who flopped two pair with K-J and slowplayed them. Action is down to 9 players with Texas Dolly sitting on top of a huge mountain of chips.

7:04pm... $5K NL Short-handed update: I caught a wild hand where Men the Master showed me his hole cards as I was standing behind him. Minh Ly raised all in. Doyle Brunson thought about it for a few seconds and called. Men the Master agonzied over his possible call. "If my hand hits, I win a huge pot," he said to everyone within earshot. He picked up his cards and showed it to both me and Scotty Nguyen who got up from his seat at the adjacent table to sweat. Men the Master counted up all his chips and thought for a minute before he folded Big Slick face up! Minh Ly showed Hilton Sisters and Doyle Brunson flipped over A-J. Minh Ly flopped a set and Doyle's stack took a big hit. And he's down to under $150K.

Scotty Nguyen told me he had about $130K in chips.

7:15pm... $2K NL Final Table update: I found out why Dustin Woolf is nicknamed "Neverwin". He raised preflop and LAwrence Gosney reraised. Neverwin moved all in with K-K and Gosney called with 2-2. The flop was all clubs... and Gosney held the 2 of clubs. He caught a four flush on the turn and doubled up against Neverwin, who's sporting a snazzy jumpsuit with "Neverwin" on the back.

7:20pm... Razz Final Table update: We reached a final table. Here are seating assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Larry Cesareo (Albuquerque, New Mexico) $39,000
Seat 2: Mick Wernick (Birmingham, England) $41K
Seat 3: Bruno Fitoussi (Paris, France) $72.5K
Seat 4: Mike Wattel (Phoenix, AZ) $70K
Seat 5: Hassan Kamoei (India, CA) $11.5K
Seat 6: Al "Sugar Bear" Barbieri South Philly, PA) $70K
Seat 7: Archie Karas (Las Vegas, NV) $79K
Seat 8: O'Neil Longson (Salt Lake City, Utah) $44K

8:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: An hour ago some guy walked up to the media area in the middle of the floor at the Rio and asked me, "How's the Redneck Riviera?" I didn't know him but he reads my blog! Pretty cool, huh? I also met Debbie, who had been reading my blog and a lot of our blogs for almost two years. She's here covering the WSOP starting tomorrow. Always cool to meet fans. She also asked about the Redneck Riviera!

Otis and I decided upon the liquid dinner and hit the bar. In true fashion he hit quads again at the video poker machine. He's the dinner break quads monster.

8:45pm... $5K Short-handed update: Steve Rosen was knocked out in 7th place, Men the Master came in 8th place and Arthur Arzen took 9th place. We've reached a final table which will start at 9:30pm and be taped by ESPN. Here who remains:

Seat 1: Scotty Nguyen (Las Vegas, NV) $254K
Seat 2: Doyle Bruson (Las Vegas, NV) $309K
Seat 3: Minh Ly (Vietnam) $305K
Seat 4: Layne Flack (Las Vegas, NV) $350K
Seat 5: Jason Lester (Miami, FL) $119K
Seat 6: Ayaz Mahmood (Houston, TX) $169K

In case you were wondering, in the writer's pool, I picked last (since I won the last one) and took Scotty Nguyen. Jay Greenspan went with Minh Ly. BJ from Cardplayer has been on a cold streak in 30 events, he has yet to pick a winner. Tonight he likes his chances of winning his first Writer's Pool with his pick, Doyle Brunson.

9:01pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Neverwin just won a pot. He was all in with K-Q against Shack Ko's pocket 8's. I turned to Heather from Poker Wire and said, "I'll bet you $1 that a king or a queen flops." She wouldn't take my action. The flop had both a king and a queen and it was all diamonds. Shack had a 8 of diamonds and had outs, but didn't catch any. So Neverwin sometimes wins.

9:30pm... $2K NL Final Table Update: Neverwin was sent to the rail by Shack Ko. Neverwin could not win with A-K against Shack's 9-9. Dustin "Neverwin" Wolfe won $138,075 for 4th place.

9:45pm... Razz Final Table update: Larry Cesareo was eliminated in 7th place and Hassan Kamoei finished in 8th place.

9:50pm... $5K Omaha Hi/Lo update: I went over to check up on Shirley who's palying in the event. At dinner break she was shortstack. When I went to sweat her, she went all in and won her hand. She's sitting to the left of Minneapolis Jim Meehan. Also at her table is Vinny Vinh and Huck Seed. Daniel Negreanu, Amir Vahedi, Cyndy Violette, and Phil Hellmuth have all been eliminated.

10:00pm... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Action is underway. Doyle Brunson got the loudest applause... it was a standing ovation. He's trying to win his 10th bracelet. There are at least 18 gold bracelets at this final table. Layne Flack's lady friend is sitting in front of me.

10:10pm... Razz update: Mick Wernick was knocked out in 6th place.

10:16pm... $5K NL Final Table update: We had a race between Jason Lester's A-K and Scotty Nguyen's pocket sevens. Lester was still behind, but picked up some more outs with a helpful flop of Q-J-8... all spades. The turn and river did not help Lester and he was the first play elimianted from the final table. He won $67,905 for 6th place. Scotty Nguyen moved into the chip lead.

10:22pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Tonight may be Layne Flack's night. He went heads up with Ayaz Mahmood preflop. Mahmood had the Hilton Sisters while Layne showed pocket aces. Layne flopped an ace and caught qaud Aces on the river to move into the chip lead. Ayaz Mahmood finished in 5th place and won $82,055. On two consecutive hands, two players were eliminated. We're down to 4 players.

10:38pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Doyle Brunson moved into the chiplead after he took a big pot from Layne Flack who flopped top two pair. On a flop of K-J-8, Doyle had A-8 with bottom pair and called Flack's bet. Doyle caught trips on the turn to win the pot.

10:58pm... $5K Final Table update: During a break, Doyle and Layne stayed at the table and played a couple of hands of Chinese Poker.

11:00pm... $2K NL Final Table update: We're down to heads up play after Shack Ko was elimianted by Lawrence Gosney. Shack pushed all in with Ad-5d against Gosney's A-Q. Shack took home $157,800 for 3rd place.

11:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Jarl Lindholt moved all in with 9-8o and Lawrence Gosney called with Ad-Qd. The flop was Js-10d-5d. Gosney had a nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Lindholt had an open ended staright draw. On the river, Gosney caught his Broadway straight to win his first WSOP bracelet. Jarl Lindholt finsihed in second place and $258,000. Lawrence Gosney won $483,195.


2005 $2K NL WSOP Champion: Lawrence Gosney
Congrats Lawrence!

11:45pm... $5K Omaha Hi/Lo update: 90+ players are left. Howard Lederer and Annie Duke are both still alive. Shirley Rosario went on a rush. She had just $200 and built up her stack to over $3K! And all this with Minneapolis Jim Meehan pounding Heineken's while sitting next to her. The following players have been busted: Max Pescatori, Mark Gregorich, Sammy Farha, Captain Tom Franklin, Eskimo, Mel Judah, Toto Leonidas, Thor Hansen, and Chau Giang.

11:50am... Razz Final Table update: Mike Wattel was eliminated in 5th place. He won $24,900 and made his second final table at this year's WSOP.

1:05am... $5K Omaha update: Shirley Rosario is out. She built up her stack to about $7K after she scooped a pot against Howard Lederer. But she missed a couple of big draws and ended up giving away most of her chips to Minneaplois Jim Meehan. She finished somewhere in 75th place. Also elimianted are Annie Duke, Huck Seed, Miami John Cernuto, Eli Elezra, Jesus, Berry Johnston, and Kathy Liebert.

1:17am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Doyle Brunson moved all in with pocket Kings against Layne Flack's A-Q. Doyle flopped a set when a King fell and he caught a full boat on the river to double up against Layne. Doyle Brunson moved into the chip lead.

1:20am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Laybe Flack got some of his chips back when he doubled up with 8-6o against Doyle's A-4. As I said earlier, Layne Flack's girlfriend was sitting inf ront of me and she's been turning around to ask questions like chip counts and pay out structure... all technical stuff. Anyway, Grubby is sitting in the crowd, and I had no idea he was here. I get a text message that read, "Stop flirting and get back to work!" Totally busted.

1:48pm... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Layne Flack moved all in with the HIlton Sisters. Doyle called with A-Q. Layne Flack's Hiltons held up and he doubled up against Doyle.

2:03am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Doyle Brunson raised ont he button and Minh Ly and Layne Flack both called. The flop was 10c-9h-3s and Layne Flack moved all in. Brunson called and Ly folded. Flack showed Kc-10d and Brunson flipped over Kd-9c. Brunson was behind until he caught a 9 on the turn. Layne Flack's hand did not improve and he was eliminated in fourth place, He won $99,030.

2:21am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Archie Karas was shortstacked and was knocked out by O'Neil Longson. Karas won $30,120 for 4th place.

3:22am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Scotty Nguyen was short stacked and moved all in with Q-J against Minh Ly's pocket fives. Scotty didn't catch any cards and he was elimianted in 3rd place. Scotty Nguyen won $106,105. Doyle has almost a $800K chip lead over Minh.

3:50 am... $5K Short-handed Final Table update: Doyle Brunson moved all in. Minh Ly called with K-Q. Doyle showed 10-3. Doyle flopped a 3 and his hand held up. Doyle Brunson won his 10th WSOP bracelet! He won $367,800. For second place Minh Ly won $203,715.


2005 WSOP $5K NL Short-Handed Champion: Doyle Brunson
Doyle Brunson is the fuckin' man. This is just another argument why he's the best damn poker player who ever lived.

That's all I have to say tonight.
posted by Pauly at 6/30/2005 05:30:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event -- Event #30 $1,500 Razz -- Event #29 $2K NL Day 2 -- Event #28 $5K Limit Final Table

I thought someone was trying to break into my apartment. I heard screaming and loud banging up against my front door. I woke up and jumped out of bed. I grabbed the first thing I could find... my laptop... and I was ready to smash it over the head of any intruder who dared entered my sanctuary. When I ran into the living room/kitchen area I didn't see anyone. I put down the laptop and grabbed an empty bottle of beer. I found a new weapon and I was prepped for a possible home invasion.

I heard another loud "Thud!" against my front door. I reluctantly peeked through the blinds and saw a black guy lying on the ground and another guy kicking and punching him. The loud noises where the guy's head getting bashed up against my front door. The noise stopped and I heard the assiliant run away. I thought about calling the front desk to complain. It was 9:04am and I had only been to sleep for a couple of hours. I picked up the phone and told the girl who answered the phone about the fight. They said they would call the police. I tried to go back to sleep. They guy who got his ass kicked had a friend who came by a few minutes later to help him up.

"I'm gotta end this shit now. I can't have people getting a beat down at my parties," he said.

And as the cop car rolled up, they disappeared. I starred at my fake stucco ceiling trying to fall back asleep. Things had been slow at the Redneck Riviera, until last night.

Moving on...

I taped an interview with an Austin radio show called Texas Hold'em Radio, that focuses on poker. Matt Stephans is the host and due to technical problems I only appeared on one segment. It was fun and I'm enjoying doing little side projects, specifically Sean's podcast... the Lord Admiral Card Club.

I'm exhausted and today is going to be a busy day. I'm covering 4 tournaments today including Razz, which features bloggers Felicia Lee and Tanya, along with Jen from Poker Wire and Mike Sexton.

Today's tournaments include:

Event #28 $5K Limit Final Table
Event #29 $2K NL Day 2
Event #30 $1,500 Razz
Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event

There were 269 players in the $5K Limit event with a prize pool of $1,264,300. The prize pool for the $2K NL event is $1,972,480 with 1072 players buying in. Last year's defending Razz champion T.J. Cloutier is playing in a another event. There are 301 players in the $5K NL Short-handed event.

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

2:30pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Joe Sebok (San Francisco, CA) $184K
Seat 2: Annie Duke (Portland, OR) $150K
Seat 3: James Kwon (Chicago, IL) $227K
Seat 4: Gabe Kaplan (Los Angeles, CA)$209K
Seat 5: Dan Schmiech (Houston, TX) $219K
Seat 6: Young Phan (Irvine, CA) $144K
Seat 7: Luke Neely (Austin, TX) $94K
Seat 8: Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV)$38K
Seat 9: Greg "FBT" Mueller (Vancouver, BC) $89K

In the writer's pool.... BJ took Young Phan. I picked Mr. Kotter aka Gabe Kaplan. Heather took Joe Sebok. Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan went with Annie Duke. By the way, Heather is one of the nicest people that I get to work with every day in press row.

3:00pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: 45 players started playing today. Here who is left: Rohit Chopra, Michel Abecassis, Ronnie Jackson, Alan Purdy, Brandon Wong, Jarl Lindholt, J.C. Tran, Benjamin Lin, Morgan Machina, Ryan Larson, Barry Greenstein, Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf, Jeffrey Greenstein, L. Gosney, Marcello Del Grosso, Patrick O'Connor, Hyung "Shack" Ko , Scotty Brown, Humberto Brenes, Kendall Fukumoto, Tony Rila, Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth, Rob Hollink, Chris Karagulleyan, Jim Pedrotti, Warren Karp, Lance Turner, Bjorn Isberg, Mike Johnson, Carlo Citrone, Steven L. Hipes, Michael Barns, Danny Noam, Kathy Kolberg, Jonny Popper, Chad Brown, Henry Kim, Chuck McCormick, Paul Kroh, Devinfish Ulliott, Matthew Piggott, David Rubin, Richard Pace, Brian Gelbano, and Douglas Carli.

3:25pm... Razz update: Not much to report. Tanya has about $2K in chips and she described her game as "Up and down, like a yo-yo. But a good yo-yo." Felicis has about $800 left and Jen from Pokerwire is up to about $1750. Phil Ivey is sitting at the table next to me and he's getting a massage. I spotted Andy Bloch, Ted Forrest, Jean Gaspard, Doyle Brunson, and Cowboy Hoyt Corkins. Felicia ripped into me right away from the first moment I saw her. She is sitting at one of the closest tables to press row. Felicia said she was going to get sick by staring at my bald spot. She's a class act isn't she? I'm tired so I had very little patience today. I put on a hat to appease the poker queen. Now she has no excuses for busting out early.

3:31pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: With a shortstack, Jeff Shulman doubled up with pocket aces against Young Phan's A-3. Shulman now has $80K in chips

4:03pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Greg Mueller was the first player elimianted from the final table. On the flop if Ks-7c-4s, Phan bet out, Mueller raised, Phan reraised, and Mueller called the rest of his chips and he was all in. Phan flipped over 8-8 and Mueller showed 9-9. Mueller was in the lead until Phan caught a runner-runner straight to knock him out. Greg Mueller won $25,285 for 9th place. James Kwon continued to be the chipleader.

4:10pm... Razz update: Phil Ivey is both out. Felicia is down to $500. Tanya now has $3200 and is running over her table.

4:15pm... $5K NL Shorthaned update: Howard Lederer, John D'Agostino, and Daniel Negreanu have been eliminated. Chip Jett is one of the chipleaders. Johnny World, Scotty Nguyen, Jesus, Allen Cunningham, John Juanada, Layne Flack, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, TJ Cloutier, Doyle Brunson, Harry Demetriou, and Phil Hellmuth are still left. I spotted Daniel Negreanu in the cash game area.

4:30pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Mr. Kotter put a wicked bad beat on Young Phan. Gabe Kaplan had 10-3 and flopped bottom pair. Phan had A-3 and flopped bottom pair with a top kicker. The river was a ten, and Mr. Kotter's three outer sent Young Phan home in 8th place. He won $37,930.

4:55pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke and her As-Qs caught a runner runner flush to knock out Jeff Shulman. He flopped top pair with KJ. Jeff Shulman was elimianted in 7th place and won $50,570.

5:00pm... Razz update: Felicia is still short stacked. She started out with A-2-3-4 and caught brick, brick, brick and lost a big pot. Jen Creason is cruising. She has $3300. Tanya had about $3000+. Oliver Tse from Poker News has been elimianted.

5:05pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: The Devilfish, Humberto, and Chad Brown have been eliminated. They are down to 27 players and Barry Greenstein lost a big pot.

6:07pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Welcome Back, Mr. Kotter. Gabe Kaplan doubled up three times in the last fifteen minutes. He survived all in attempts each time and is still alive.

6:40pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok is on a rush. He scopped a big pot and moved into the chip lead.

6:45pm... Razz update: I bumped into Dave Nunley in the hallway while he was on break in his Razz event. I also met his wife who was sweating him. Dave qualified on Full Tilt and I met him a few days ago when he was hanging out with Kim from Lips Tour. He's got $1600 left and had Marcel Luske at his table. Daniel Negreanu is sitting there now. Jen Creason has $3000 in chips. Felicia busted out.

6:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spotted Antion Esfiandari brushing his teeth in the Men's Room. I also have a new list for you guys...

Last 5 Professional Poker Players I Took a Piss Next to...
1. David Williams
2. Tom McEvoy
3. Men the Master
4. Bret "Gank" Jungblutt
5. Phil Gordon

By the way, I'm starting to loathe tourists. They block up the aisle and slow down traffic when I'm trying to run from one side of the poker room to the other.

6:52pm... $5K NL Shorthanded update: Phil Hellmuth, John Bonetti, and TJ Cloutier are all out.

6:55pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Luke Neely was short stacked and busted by Annie Duke. He finished in 6th place and won $63,215.

7:30pm... All tournament players are on a dinner break. I grabbed a double cheeseburger at the deli near the sports book. Yummy. Time for me to catch up on freelance work. Be back soon.

8:55pm... Razz update: Jen Creason is at a crazy table. She has Johnny Chan, Kristy Gazes, and her fiancee Andy Boch there. Before Johnny Chan sat down, Phil Gordon was playing at her table as well.

9:20pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke doubled up on two hands, once against Gabe Kaplan and the other against James Kwon. She had Hiltons on the last one agianst pocket Jacks.

9:25pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok's pocket Kings doubled up against Gabe Kaplan's Big Slick.

9:32pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok was knocked out in 5th place by Annie Duke. Joe had pocket 3's to Annie's K-7. Annie flopped a King and Joe's hand failed to improve. Joe Sebok won $75,860.

So how about some random pictures that Flipchip took today? Don't forget to visit his 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery.


Layne Flack's big stack


Behind the scenes during at the TV table


Minneapolis Jim Meehan agonizes over a call while Tom McEvoy watches


What's on Daniel's iPod?
10:34pm... Razz update: 72 players left. I saw Felicia. She told me that she was knocked out int he bottom 1/3 of the field. She suspected that Tany busted sometime after the second break and before dinner. Jen Creason knocked Johnny Chan out a few minutes ago. Jen might be the first player to knock out a 10 time WSOP bracelet winner.

10:39pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Gabe Kaplan took over the chip lead ($640K) after he won a monster pot from James Kwon who only has $200K remaining.

10:48pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke was shortstacked and moved all in preflop with QJ. Dan Schmiech called with A-2 and his hand held up to eliminate Annnie Duke, who won $88,500 for fourth place.

12:33am... $5K Limit Final Table update: James Kwon moved all in with AJ. Dan Schmiech called with Ah-5h and caught some of the flop with a pair of fives. Kwon's hand did not improve and he was elimianted in 3rd place. He won $113,785. Dan Schmiech has a 2 to 1 chip lead over Gabe Kaplan.

We have reached heads up play.

12:35am... Bouncin Round the Room: I'm tired, exhausted, overworked, eating horribly, drinking too much, and I starting to get a little bummed out about some personal things. During the last break, I went for a walk and on my way back, I found myself in the long corridor connecting the casino to the convention center where the WSOP was being played. The hallway was empty aand I had my head down. At the last moment I looked up and saw the angelic Isabelle Mercier sauntering my way. She cracked a smile and as I caught a wiff of her tantilizing perfume I uttered, "Bon soir."

She said the same thing back to me as her smile widened twofold. I kept walking and all of a sudden forgot about my problems.

12:54am... $5K Short-handed update: Texas Dolly has a huge stack! Look out, kids. Here is who's left: Doyle Brunson, Lane Flack, Jason Lester, John Hennigan, Men "The Master" Nguyen, John Kabbaj, Kiril Gerasimov, Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Chris Ferguson, Chip Reese, and David Singer.

12:56am... $2K NL Day 2 update: We're down to a final table. Here's who will return tomorrow: Carlo Citrone, Hyung Shack Ko, L Gosney, Bjorn Isberg, Tony Rila, Dustin Woolf, J.C. Tran, Alan Purdy, and Jarl Lindholt.

1:00am... $5K Limit Final Table update: We have a winner! Gabe Kaplan was eliminated in second place. He won $222,515. Dan Schmiech won his first bracelet and $404,585.


2005 $5K Limit Hold'em champion: Dan Schmiech
posted by Pauly at 6/29/2005 05:27:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Hump Day Pimp Day: Radio Free Pauly & Other Stuff

I taped my interview with Sean on Saturday live from the Rio for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. If you don't know by now, it's the best podcast dedicated to poker in the universe. Over the last few months, I've become a huge cult figure in Canada. I'm happy to be a part of their amazing show.

Sean and Brent are working hard every week to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

You can download the MP3 of this week's show... Episode 32: Here. (Right click and Save As)
You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 31: Here.

We discuss the third week of WSOP action including my first attempt at a WSOP event and the odds of certain players winning the main event.

The also posted a Golden Nugget, which includes a few mini-excerpts of recordings I did while I was playing in Event #22. You can download those nuggets... Here.

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by their site and download the extra nuggets. Thanks again to Sean and Stacks for having me on.

******

Pimps Up

I've had a fun time chatting with Sherry from Let's Poker. She's a poker novice and provides a fresh account of the WSOP. Check out her stuff.

Dan from Pokerati always has unique content. He's been trying his own version of a podcast. Take a peek.

Otis appears and disappears for hours on end. I assume he's hard at work on his Poker Stars Blog. One of the best things about covering the WSOP is getting to see Otis everyday.

Don't forget to take a peek at Flipchip's 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery. Also the Poker Prof is hard at work at the vast database of 2005 World Series of Poker tournament results. I also like his WSOP Quick Stats.

******

Foxy Pauly

I've also been cranking out a ton of poker articles for Fox Sports. If you haven't read any of them, check them out. Here are the last few:

1. Better Than an Oscar
2. Johnny Chan Wins 10th Bracelet
3. Son Rise
4. A Guy Named Charlie
5. First Impressions

Yeah, my press badge now reads "Fox News" and I get some interesting looks from time to time. I dunno if it's impressive or intimidating. Dan and I considered crossing out what the WSOP media department wrote on our badges and adding "Playboy" or "Rolling Stone" or even "High Times" which would be a fuckin' hoot!

*****

Truckin'

If you are reading this site for the first time, I also publish a monthly literary blog-zine. It's called Truckin' and I just put out the latest issue. If you like short stories, then Truckin' is the blog for you to read. And yeah, my pen name is Tenzin McGrupp.

June 2005, Vol. 4, Issue 6

1. Existentialist Conversations with Strippers, Part III by Tenzin McGrupp
I shrugged my shoulders and looked up into the desert sky. I smiled because I found myself on the bitter end of karmic payback for attending a strip club on Easter Sunday... More

2. Rainy Days and Sunny Ways by Dan Keston
Every time I travel, I come face to face with one eternal truth: getting away from your friends, family, dog, job, and the address where the post office sends your bills is great, but no matter how far you go, there is no place, however distant, that enables you to get away from yourself... More

3. Lap of Luxury by Grubby
Me, f'rinstance. I'm my own mutt, I play by my own rules. I'm a canine Jack Kerouac... More

4. How To Fuck a Donkey by Daddy
Before we go any further I think it is important that everyone know the proper way to fuck a donkey. There are several approaches, but none more efficient than this one. I prefer to call this the "Backdoor Cut" approach, but it is also known in parts of Appalachia as "Slapjacking," "Mule Greasing," and "The Old Rough n' Tumble"... More

5. Timmy by Bob Respert
Becoming the largest bookie in a state where sports betting was illegal wasn't easy. If you start at a young age and immerse yourself in the degenerate lifestyle it helps. More importantly though, you need to make nice-nice with plenty of unsavory people... More

6. Master by Kasia Klyne
I had never felt so uninhibited in my life, and I was amazed at the things I had been willing to do for him...More

Yes, I can't believe but this rag turned three years old this month! This issue represents an excellent collection of writers including two new writers; Kasia Klyne and Dan Keston. Bob Respert returns along Grubby and Daddy who are representing the poker bloggers. And I'm back with Part III of my strippers project.

I ask that if you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along the URL. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list.
posted by Pauly at 6/29/2005 02:39:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #29 $2,000 NL Day 1 -- Event #28 $5,000 Limit Hold'em Day 2 -- Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table

Yesterday was supposed to have a day off but I came in to cover the Final Table of the Ladies Event, which Jen Tilly ended up winning. Oh, be sure to read my recap on Fox Sports called Better Than an Oscar.

Fox Sports has been running a ton of my articles in the last ten days. Good job, guys. If you are reading my blog for the first time, I have been doing live blogging here. I contribute event recaps on Lasvegasvegas.com and Poker Player Newspaper. I also provide the majority of WSOP content for Fox Sports.

Yesterday evening I took off with some fellow media types and bloggers (Jay, Daryn, Foiled Coup, Amy, Jen, John, BJ, Otis, and Dan) to hit happy hour at a local establishment that featured $2 appetizers. For 10 people the tab was only $124 and that included tip and drinks! Man, in NYC that tab would have been over $1K.

Afterwards, Otis and Dan dragged me out to the MGM to play some poker. I wanted to stay in and write, but I sensed Otis wanted to get the hell out of the Rio so I came with. The MGM was crowded with those Red Hat Society ladies who wore purple dresses and red hats. I thought I was tripping after seeing all those weird geriatrics in exotic red hats humping slot machines.

Dan sat in a $1/$2 NL game. I snagged a $4/$8 limit seat and Otis sat down at a very loose $6/$12 table. After I got my ass kicked at $4/8, Otis suggested I sit at his table because some donkey with more tattoos than IQ points was capping bets preflop with junk. I sat down next to him and he'd show me his hands while I waited for the blinds to come around to me. With 10-7s he river'd Otis' pocket Jacks with trip sevens. Ouch. I lost a medium pot to some old lady and won a big one at that table when I flopped a set. When the table broke up, Otis and I were seated at the same $1/2 NL table.

At that table, I scooped a huge pot, worth over $700. I was up about $50 at the time. It was late and I wanted to get home. It was the last hand of the night for me and I found KK UTG. I bet $15 and got 6 callers including Otis. The flop: 7-6-3 with two spades. I fired out $100 and got two callers including an overweight red hat lady and an asian guy with a mole that had a beard which resembled one of ZZ Top's facial hair. Seriosuly, the hair from his mole almost reached the felt. It was scary. Anyway, on the turn an 9 fell and I moved all in for about $150 or the rest of my stack. The lady folded and encouraged mole man to call. That pissed me off and I snapped at her and motioned to the dealer to cut out that crap. The dealer gave her and the rest of the table a warning. I knew he was on a flush draw and I didn't want any callers. He took five minutes and eventually called. I flipped over pocket Kings and he didn't turn over his hand. When the river was a baby rag (no spade), he mucked and the dealer pushed the monster pot my way. I never saw his cards and I assumed he had just a draw. As I stacked up my chips the lady said something like, "You're leaving with all my money?" If she wasn't such an inbred turd with a big mouth, then I might have stayed. That table was filled with big fish. If I lost that pot to a suckout, I would have been livid that she goaded him into calling.

That big pot unstuck me since I arrived in Las Vegas. My cash bankroll took a hit since I moved here. I am now up a cool $100. I'm still down online and overall for the month, but heck, I'll take the nice win at the MGM.

"Aren't you glad you came out?" said Otis while he walked with me to the cashier.

He was right. I had a great time yesterday. I'm starting to enjoy myself more here. When I left Otis was still in that game and Dan was sititng at a blackjack table with a couple of hot chicks.

Moving on...

I just bumped into Hank987 and his lovely wife. He is out here for a few days and came by the Rio to say hi. If you don't know, he's an avid reader of my poker blog and we've hung out at Foxwoods before. He took 3rd in a big Foxwoods NL tournament a few months ago and part of those winning paid for this trip along with his son's summer hockey camp. You can read about his Foxwoods final table: here. He's watching the final table of the PLO w/ Reuys event.

So I shall be covering three tournaments today, including a fun final table.

1. Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table = Green font
2. Event #28 $5,000 Limit Hold'em Day 2 = Blue font
3. Event #29 $2,000 NL Day 1

The final table started with 134 players forking over 229 rebuys and add-ons for a prize pool of $1,765,568.

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

3:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Here who's at today's exciting final table. The suits at ESPN must be jizzing in their pants at this final table. They don't even need Levitra to get an erection for these guys:

1 E.C. Cohen (Paris, France) $130K
2 Robert Williamson III (Dallas, TX) $153K
3 Allen Cunningham (Marina Del Ray, CA) $202K
4 Davood Mehrmand (Germany) $125K
5 Surrinder Sunar (Wolver Hampton, England) $96K
6 Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV) $494K
7 Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, CA) $114K
8 Eddy Scharf (Cologne) $150K
9 Richard St. Peter (Sault Ste. Marie, MI) $162K
10 Sigi Stockinger (Austria) $213K

The action is tough in the writer's pool. We have a record number of 7 participants. The pool is over $700. Just kidding. It's not that high. Some of us are on salary. Here's who has who in today's Media Pool:

Jen = Robert Williamson
Andy = Allen Cuningham
Heather = Davood Mehrman
Pauly = Surinder Sunar
BJ = Phil Hellmuth
Nolan = Eddy Sharf
Jay = Sigi Stockinger

4:15pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Usually final TV tables are 9 handed here at the WSOP. The tables only have 9 hole cameras. Richard St. Peter was the first player was eliminated. Phil Ivey sent him home in 10th place. On a flop of Jc-6c-5s, St. Peter moved all in with Ac-As-7s-3h. Phil Ivey called with Jh-Qc-9h-8h. Ivey was behind and caught two pair when the Qs fell on the turn. St. Peter picked up a flush draw but it didn't hit and he finished in 10th place. Phil Ivey added to his big stack.

4:50pm... PLO w/ Rebuys final table update: Davood Mehrmand knocked out E.C. Cohen. On the flop of: Qh-Jd-2s E.C. COhen moved all in with Jh-9c-6c-2h. Mehrmand called with Ad-As-Qs-3s. Davood Mehrmand caught trip aces on the river and scooped the pot. E.C. Cohen finished in 9th place and won $52,555.

5:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I ran over to the Full Tilt Suite for a free beer, cheese and crackers.

I heard that some cheaters are buying the black WSOP chips in the gift shop (retail value = 54 cents) and adding them to their stacks. The floor manager pulled out a few already in the second day of the limit event.

John from Poker News told me he caught a media fight in the hallway between a European film crew and one of the kids at Card Player. Damn, I missed it.

The rumors are over. Gus Hansen has arrived in Las Vegas. Here is proof.

By the way, Tony G is sitting one seat away from me in press row.

5:35pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Johhny Chan's record is safe for now. Phil Hellmuth was elimianted in 8th place. Phil Hellmuth check raised Williamson on a flop of Kh-Qh-7c. Both were all in. Hellmuth had Ah-Kd-Qd-Qs and Williamson showed Kc-Ks-5s-5h. Hellmuth's hand did not improve and he went home in 8th place without his 10th bracelet. He won $70,075.

5:45pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: In the biggest pot of the tournament, Phil Ivey knocked out Sigi Stockinger and Eddy Scharf. All three players moved all in on the flop of Qs-8s-2d. Scharf had a set of twos. Sigi had a set of Queens and Ivey had the nut flush draw. Ivey caught his flush on the turn and kncoked out both players. Phil Ivey now has almost $1 million in chips and has more than twice as much as Williamson. Eduard Scharf went home in 7th with $88,280. Sigi Stockinger was knocked out in 6th Place and won $105,935.

6:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Surinder Sunar was knocked out by Allen Cunningham when Cunningham flopped a straight. My pick Surinder finished in 5th Place and won $122,635.

6:30pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Allen Cuningham's attempt to win his second WSOP bracelet this year came to a halt when he was eliminated by Phil Ivey. On a flop of Qd-10d-4d, Cunningham moved all in with As-Qh-Qs-5h and a set of Queens. Ivey flipped over Ac-Kd-Qc-6d for a flush. His hand held up and Allen Cunningham finished in fourth place. He won $140,150. Three players are left and Phil Ivey is running over the table.

9:03pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I headed over to In & Out Burger with BJ and Jay. I opted to avoid cocktails at dinner since I had been drinking steadily thanks to the folks at the Full Tilt Suite. For the record, the other major online sites do not have a hospitality suite here at the Rio. I'm a whore for free beers (I tip the bartender $1) and free cheese.

I spotted both Felicia and Tanya here. They will be playing in the Razz event tomorrow.

9:10pm... $2K NL Day 1 update: 144 players are left out of 1072 entrants. The Devilfish knocked out Erick Lindgren.

10:07pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Phil IVey blew his 3 to 1 chip advantage as Robert Williamson moved into the chip lead over the last few hours. Action is still three way and momentum has swung Williamson's way.

11:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: While the final table went on a break, I spotted Phil Ivey and one of his friends gambling on whether or not they could toss a piece of rolled up paper into a trash can. They were betting $1K a shot. His friend missed the first. He was way short. Ivey stepped up and he had the distance but missed left.

11:05pm... $5K Limit Hold'em. Mr. Kotter is on a roll after he kncoked out two players. With 17 palyers remaining he's in the middle of the pack. James Kwon is the chipleader. Annie Duke, Amir Vahedi, Gabe Kaplan, Young Phan, Joe Sebok, and Jim Miller are all still left.

11:35pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: After about two more hours of three way play, Williamson coughed up the lead. Phil Ivey got the chip lead back, while Davood Mehrmand quietly jumped into second place.

11:52pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I was in the hallway chatting with Otis and Dan when I spotted Amir Vahedi smoking a cigar. I asked him how many chips he had left.

"Enough," he responded. He asked to see a copy of Card Player Magazine that I had in my hand. He wanted to see the Player of the Year standings. He looked disappointed to see his name in 6th.

"By the end of tonight, I'll be back in the Top 3," he assured me.

1:00am... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Phil Ivey just knocked out Davood Mehrmand in 3rd place. Davood flopped an open ended straight draw and Ivey just had top pair. Davood's hand failed to improve. Mehrmand hung on and played tough for several hours. He was up against two tough players... Robert Williamson is considered one of the best PLO players in the world and Phil Ivey is one of the best cash game players in the world. Davood won $194,210 for his efforts. Phil Ivey has over a $900K chip lead.

1:19am... Erick Lindgren photo of the day... for April.

1:34am... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Robert Williamson just doubled up against Phil Ivey. Williamson's Ace high flush was better than Ivey's King high flush.

1:45pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: After winning a big pot the hand before, Phil Ivey flopped a straight. Robert Williamson was all in and he had only two outs to help him. Unfortunately, he could not catch any of them. Robert won $353,115 for his runner up finish. Phil Ivey won $635,603 and his fifth WSOP bracelet.


2005 $5K PLO w/ Rebuys Champion: Phil Ivey

Congrats Phil!
posted by Pauly at 6/28/2005 05:39:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #28 $5,000 Limit Hold'em -- Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys Day 2 -- Event #26 $1,000 Ladies Event Final Table

I should be sleeping and dreaming about leggy lingerie models downing shots of tequila with me at a beachside bar in Virgin Gorda. Alas, I'm back in press row at the Rio with the rest of media folks ready to cover the conclusion of the Ladies Final Table. The powers to be stopped play around 4:10am earlier this morning and now action resumes at the TV table. ESPN's second unit is taping this for the archives. I dunno when it will be aired.

Monday was supposed to be a blow off day where I was going to try to pick up strippers at the spa are at the Redneck Riviera or catch up on writing. After last night's crazy schedule where I covered four tournaments and three final tables, I was anticipating a day off. Nope. No such luck.

I got about three hours of sleep after staying up until the wee hours crafting two final table updates and an article for Fox Sports while most of you were sleeping or on their way to work. Ah, I'll catch up on sleep after the main event.

To make matters worse, I haven't been reading my favorite poker blogs (I'm an admitted skimmer these days... please for the love of Buddha stop posting hand histories or bad beats) or my daily newspapers or my gossip rags like I'm used to. I've also stopped reading my former internet crush's blog. I haven't seen her nipples in weeks. I've been living in a bubble here. At least I get to leave the Rio. Otis and Jay Greenspan technically live upstairs and I dunno if they have stepped outside in weeks. Plus I'm getting a heavy amount of email from new readers, bloggers, spammers, and shills alike which has been backing up over the last three weeks. If I haven't answered your email... please understand than I have less than twenty minutes a day to sort through it all. Oh and if you have a new blog and want a link up, you'll have to wait until after the WSOP before I can even begin to tweak my blogroll.

However, make sure you go read my brother Derek's poker blog. He's been posting quality content out there since he's gotten back from Vegas. I chatted with Iggy today and he said that Derek is posting his best stuff to date. I agree.

And you have to go visit the blog of the Boy Genius. He has serious self esteem issues and if he doesn't see a spike in traffic, he bitches and moans about it. Yes he's a special needs blogger, so go stop by and stroke his ego on the day after his birthday.

Day 2 of the PLO w/ Rebuys is going on with some big names still alive in that event. Plus Day 1 of the $5K Limit event started. My coverage on both will be light. I'm only here today to cover the Ladies event and to snag a few free cocktails from the Full Tilt Suite.

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

3:41pm... Ladies Event Final Table update: Here's who is left:

Seat 1: Jennifer Tilly (Harbor City, CA) $ 449.6K
Seat 2: Ann Le (California) $ 88.6K
Seat 3: Cecilia de Mortensen (Madrid, Spain) $ 36.3K
Seat 4: Carolyn Ancheta (Washington State) $ 31.5K

4:00pm... Ladies Final Table update: Both Cecilia Mortensen and Carolyn Ancheta doubled up against Jen Tilly in early action.

4:10pm... Ladies Event Final Table update: Cecilia de Mortensen was knocked out by Ann Le in 4th place. Cecilia had 99 but Ann Le flopped the Wheel with A-3 on a board of 4-2-5. Cecilia de Mortensen won $38,220 for her efforts.

4:16pm... Ladies Event Final Table update: Jen Tilly called Carolyn Ancheta's all in bet. Carolyn had KJ and Jen showed A7. The flop was A-8-7 and Carolyn's hand failed to improve. She won $43,680 for third place. We reached heads up play!

Here are some random pictures of today's final table courtesy of Flipchip. Don't forget to go visit his 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery. I have seen plenty of these images posted/stolen/borrowed on other poker blogs and websites without proper credit given to him. The Poker Prof and Flipchip and myself don't mind if you want to use his photos. In fact we're all flattered. But please give Lasvegasvegas.com credit for their hard work and providing many of you free masturbation material.


Carolyn Ancheta and Ann Le


Cecilia de Mortensen and Jen Tilly

Here are some scenes from the PLO Day 2 event:


4:43pm... Ladies Final Table update: Jen Tilly won her first bracelet. She pushed all in with A7 versus Ann Le's KJ. Congrats to Jen. "This is better than an Oscar. I'm hooked on poker. I'm not going to stop playing until I lose all my money," she said during her acceptance speech.


2005 WSOP Ladies Champion: Jen Tilly10:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Day 2 update: Action is down to two tables. Doyle has been knocked out. Here's who remains: Ram Vaswani (chipleader), Toto Leonidas, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, Avi Freedman, Phil Hellmuth, Robert Williamson III, E.C. Cohen, Bruno Jais, Edgar Skjervold, Joel Mick, Sigi Stockinger, Tony G, Ross Boatman, Richard St. Peter, Surinder Sunar, Eddy Scharf, Davood Mehrmand, and Mickey Appleman.

Phil Hellmuth is looking to make his first final table at this year's WSOP.
posted by Pauly at 6/27/2005 06:39:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Congrats to Johnny Chan!!!


While all of you were sleeping, Johnny Chan made history and won his 10th WSOP bracelet. Read all about the long, strange trip below in the Sunday Live Blogging recap along with the four other events I covered.

A full recap was posted over at Fox Sports. Take a peek at the article I wrote called Johnny Chan Makes World Series of Poker History with 10th Bracelet.
posted by Pauly at 6/27/2005 06:21:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP iPod: Phil Hellmuth

I bumped into Phil Hellmuth a few minutes before the John Bonetti roast here at the Rio. Phil is a tough guy to get one-on-one time with. I was going to ask a few other players before Phil, but since he was their, I siezed the moment. I got up the courage and said, "Fuck it!" and stopped Phil

I asked for an interview. He seemed uninterested. I told him it was just a single question interview, specifically, "What's on you iPod?"

He was about to walk away and stopped in his tracks and perked up.

"Sure," he said.

He told me that his 15 year-old son uploaded a lot of rap and hip hop onto his iPod. He likes 1980s music and said he enjoyed some of the rap. I thought he was fucking with me but he insisted that he dug it. He also said he purchases the "Top 100 Songs" from iTunes so he can figure out what people like these days.

What's on Phil Hellmuth's iPod?
1. Jay-Z
2. 50 Cent
3. Jay-Zee with Linkin Park
4. Nirvana
5. Styx
posted by Pauly at 6/27/2005 01:15:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys --- Event #26 $1,000 Ladies Event -- Event #25 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2 -- Event #24 $2,500 NL Final Table

What the hell am I doing up before 11am on a Sunday in Las Vegas? Ah, it's the Ladies Event here at the World Series of Poker. Time to put on some clean clothes, slick back the hair, splash on a little cologne, and bust out the camera to take pictures of my favorite female poker players in action. Heck, today is so special even Mike Palle showered.

I forgot to tell you that I ran in Duggle Bogey! Yeah, I met me another blogger here at the Rio.

Tanya is playing along with Jen from Poker Wire. I didn't see Shirley yet, but I'm sure I'll spot her. I've spotted Clonie Gowen, Liz Lieu, Cyndy Violette, Kathy Leibert, and NYC's own Karen Janowsky. Yeah, women from all over the world have converged upon Las Vegas in pursuit of a bracelet. This is the first year the event was moved to a No Limit format.

Here is a quick photo gallery of pictures from the Ladies Event courtesy of Flipchip. Don't forget to check out his 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery.


Jen from Poker Wire


Tanya


Shirley the Poker Babe in action


Isabelle "When I dream, I dream of Mean Gene" Mercier


Two-Time WSOP Ladies Champion: Susie Isaacs


Liz Lieu


The Wives: Karina Jett & Cecilia Mortensen


Jen Tilly


Kathy Leibert's side peek


Cyndy Violette


Random Blonde (Editor's note: her name is Lacey!)

You can click on the pictures to enlarge. If you want to use any of the images, be sure to give proper credit to Flipchip and Lasvegasvegas.com. Now I need to go grab an eye-opener cocktail and wake up Otis.

OK so today is an insane day. Four tournaments. Three final tables. Mass hysteria. Here is what I'm covering today:

Event #24 $2,500 NL Final Table
Event #25 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2 = Blue font
Event #26 $1,000 NL Ladies Event = Red font
Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys = Green font

Man, I'm super swamped today.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

12:20pm... Ladies Event update: I'm pretty sure that Jen from Poker Wire is no longer a fan of the Hilton Sisters. She was busted when she a flopped a set with pocket Queens. She ran into someone who flopped a set with pocket aces. Ouch! She's out. Tanya is looking good. She's the table chipleader. With Jd-10d she flopped trips with a board of 10-10-6. She caught a full house on the turn when a Jack fell and a club flush was filled in by the river. She came out betting on the river, got raised, she re-raised, and someone moved all in on her. Tanya happily called and won with a bigger full house. The gal she knocked out had pocket 6's and slow played her flopped boat. Oooomph! Tanya knocked her out.

1:13pm... Ladies Event update: It's break time and Tanya has about $2600 in chips. She said that she was surprised that the field has not been thinned out as much as she anticipated. Alot of weak-tight players out there and everyone seems to be playing tenative. I found Shirley and she's got $6000! She got action on her pocket Kings and moved all in ona flop wit a Queen. KQ and QJ called her. I found out that Clonie Gowen was elimnated early when her KK ran into pocket aces.

1:49pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?

Shirley Rosario: $4700
Tanya Peck: $3100
Isabelle Mercier: $1600

A couple of railbirds saw me walk up to Isabelle to ask for a chipcout. When I walked passed them, they joked, "What happened? No double kiss from Isabelle?" Yeah, they've been reading my blog! Pretty cool, huh? Of course, I'm gonna lie to Otis and tell him that Isabelle gave me multiple double kisses.


Isabelle's derriere
2:22pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?

Shirley Rosario: $2800
Tanya Peck: $7600
Isabelle Mercier: $1100
Liz Lieu: $3500

Shriley ran into Patty's pocket Kings and lost a big pot. Tanya doubled up against a friend of hers who sat down at the table with a big stack.

2:33pm... Ladies Event update: Last year's ladies event attracted only 201 players. This year we have a whopping 601 participants. I think the NL format got more players in. First place will pay out $158K. Top 54 spots will make the money.

So the railbird who read my poker blog is named Kim and she's part of Lips Tour, which is the Ladies International Poker Series. It's a poker tour for women, both online and in live venues.

Kim introdcued me to Lupe who was knocked out after she flopped a full house with the big blind special. She lost to a higher boat on the turn. Anyway, both are great ladies and now I'm giving them a shout out. The following the WSOP circuit and their group participates in all of the ladies events.

2:59pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?

Shirley Rosario: $1000
Tanya Peck: $8400
Isabelle Mercier: $900
Liz Lieu: $3200
Kathy Leibert: $12K

Kathy was just moved to Shirley's table with a monster stack. There are about 199 players remaining.

Here's a quote from Felicia: "Go tell Tanya I said to go win this one, then stand up and give a speech about how demeaning women's events are, and how they should be banned!"

3:15pm... Ladies Event update: Tanya was just knocked out by a river suckout. Tanya had about $8000 in chips and I think her KK lost to AQ. The flop was Q-x-x and pocket jacks folded to Tanya and the lady with AQ who moved all in. She caught an ace on the river and in a classless move was hootin' and hollerin' with her railbirds instead of realizing she just let rip a serious suckout. Tanya didn't say anything and quietly leftthe table. She should have went off into a Hellmuthian rant, but she's got class. I don't even think the suckout queen bothered to shake her hand because she was celebrating excessively.

Here's a chip count:

Karina Jett: $3625
Shirley Rosario: $3600
Kathy Leibert: $8000

Shirley's AK doubled up against A-10. Kathy Leibert's big stack took a bad beat when her KK ran into JJ and someone caught a two outer on the river. Isabelle Mercier and her short stack were eliminated.

3:35pm... PL Hold'em Day 2 update: Today's action starts with 20 players. I think there's going to be a final table for this event today... which makes 3 final tables that I will be covering. Yikes. Here is who's left: Ashok Surapaneni, Frank Kassela, Hartmann, Unabomber, Mark Muchnik, Stuart Fox, Ivo Donev, Mimi Tran, Jerri Thomas, Humberto Brenes, Richard Harroch, Johnny Chan, Darrel Dicken, T J Eisenman, Michael Keiner, Paul Wolfe, Richard Osborne, Joe Monro, Terrance Chan, and Trang (Tracy) Phan. SOme quality names, eh?

3:40pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: ESPN is taping this event. Here's the final table plus chip counts:

Seat 1: Joe Zappia (Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada) $247K
Seat 2: Larry Watson (Las Vegas, NV) $59K
Seat 3: Glynn Beebe (Ausitn, TX) $242K
Seat 4: Mayen Grigorian (Northridge, CA) $112K
Seat 5: KJ Jordan (Myrtle Beach, SC) $368K
Seat 6: Lars Bonding (Aarhus, Denmark) $818K
Seat 7: Jason "Chip Burner" Tate (Brentwood, TN) $391K
Seat 8: Farzad Bonyadi (Los Angeles, CA) $315K
Seat 9: Robert Doyle (W. Palm Beach, FL) $87K

Actions tarted a little late. This is virtually a table of no-names.

4:20pm... Ladies Event update: Shirley Roasario was knocked out with pocket tens. The flop was 8-x-x and she ran into pocket eights! She finsihed about 120 place.

4:45pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Larry Watson was the first player eliminated from the final table. Joe Zappia moved all in with A-10 and Larry Watson had pocket 8's. Zappia flopped a ten and his hand held up. Larry Watson was finsihed in 9th place and won $48,575.

5:00pm... $5K PLO w/ Rebuys update: I spotted Phil Hellmuth arriving at least an hour and a half late to his event. He just doubled up. Max Pescatori is out and opted not to rebuy. Scotty Nguyen, David Williams, Eril Seidel, Hassan Habib, and Devilfish are all sitting at the same table about five feet from where I'm sitting with Otis.

5:10pm... $2,500 PLH Day 2 update: We're down to 12 players. Paul Wolfe and Darrel Dicken were both knocked out by Humberto Brenes who now had about $315K.

5:30pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: K.J. Jordan pushed all in with Kd-Qd. Lars Bonding called with pocket fives. On the turn, Jordan picked up a flush draw, but it missed on the river. K.J. Jordan was eliminated in 8th place and won $72,865.

5:47pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Robert Doyle doubled up with AK against Joe Zappia's AQ. On the next hand, Mayen Grigorian doubled up against Lars Bonding.

6:10pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I chatted with Jan Sorensen's manager Klaus, who happens to be Gus Hansen's manager as well. I flat out asked him where the Geat Dane Gus Hansen was hiding. He told me that Gus was not going to show up before the main event and was currently in Denmark playing golf and drinking with his buddies. I wandered over to the Full Tilt hospitality suite, grabbed a free beer, and chatted with Perry Friedman for a while. He told me that his wife was still in the ladies event and that she qualified for a main event seat online via a Full Tilt free roll. Michelle, the lovely PR director, handed me an invite to a Full Tilt bash next week at La Bete (which is at the Wynn). I spotted Clonie Gowen sitting next to Doyle Brunson in the PLO w/ rebuys event.

6:35pm... PLH Final Table update: We've reached a final table after Terrance Chan and Stuart Fox were knocked out. Here are seating assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Jerri Thomas (Hamilton, OH) $64K
Seat 2: Tony Hartmann (Minneapolis, MN) $195K
Seat 3: Richard Osborne (Martinez, CA) $55K
Seat 4: Johnny Chan (Las Vegas, NV) $70K
Seat 5: Ivo Donev (Austria) $50K
Seat 6: Frank Kassela (Germantown, TN) $169K
Seat 7: Richard Harrich (San Francisco, CA) $75K
Seat 8: Humberto Brenes (Costa Rica) $127K
Seat 9: Phil Laak (Dublin, Irleand) $83K
Seat 10: Ashok Surapaneni (Las Vegas, NV) $173K

Yes, the second final table for today has begun. And Johnny Chan, minus his lucky orange, is gunning for his 10th bracelet. I noticed that Doyle, Johnny, and Chau Giang are all wearing "Doyle's Room" golf shirts.

7:20pm... $2,500 NL Final Table: The action slowed down a little bit and Lars Bonding has slowly given away some of his chips, despite the fact he still has more than one million. Jason "Chip Burner" Tate and his J-10 was knocked out by Joe Zappia with As-6s. Zappia ended up winning with ace high. "Chip Burner" was knocked out in 7th place and he won $97,150.

8:15pm... Bouncin Round the Room. Aside from the Ladies Event, all three other tournaments are on their dinner break, which were extended so everyone can attend the John Bonetti roast across the hall. Bonetti is Felicia's least favorite player and my only John Bonetti memory was watching Ron Rose rip Bonetti's page out of his book at the WPBT breakfast meet and greet before the first ever blogger's tourney. I hit up the buffet with Jay Greenspan and Dan from Pokerati. I thought the Swedish Meatballs were tasty. They had bacon wrapped scallops, crab stuffed mushrooms, and some sort of gourmet pork chops. I hit the bar and listened to Mike Sexton roast Bonetti. He told a few funny stories. Max Shapiro had a good one about seeing Bonetti playing video poker and cursing, "I'm getting cold decked by a fuckin' video poker machine!"

Clonie Gowen bummed a cigarette off of Dan and I ran over here to blog about the meatballs. On my way back, I spotted Antonio playing in a $25/$50 cash game and he had railbird six deep watching his table. I couldn't get close enough to see who else were there.

Dan told me, "most surreal night at the world series ever."

Yeah, it's been strange. I wish I had a few hits of liquid sunshine. By the way, every time I see Scotty Nguyen, he's with a different girl. "All you can eat!" as Men the Master would say.

8:20pm... PLH Final Table update: Ivo Donev was eliminated in 10th and he won $11,730. Phil Laak double dup with pocket aces against Ashok Surapaneni's Big Slick. Johnny Chan crippled Humberto Brenes when his AK didn't improve against Chan's 66. Humberton Brenes finished in 9th place after he was busted by Richard Osbourne. Humberto won $19,550. Ashok Surapaneni moved all in with A-10 against Frank Kassela's Hilton Sisters. Surapaneni didn't catch any cards and he was knocked out in 8th place. He won $29,325.

8:55pm... PLH Final Table update: With seven players remaining, Frank Kassela is the chipleader. Jay Greenspan and I were amused with Phil Laak's table antics. At one point after he won a pot, he offered to show his cards for $4. Johnny Chan said he would and he flipped over AK. He then pestered Chan for the money. Chan's smallest bill was a five and Laak gave him change. This table is far more exciting than the "taped final table" and I will be shifting my coverage to that. Fuck, if Chan wins his 10th bracelet, I wanna witness it.

9:25pm... $2,500 NL Final Table Update: Joe Zappia was all in preflop against Robert Doyle. Classic conforntation with Zappia's Ac-Kh versus Doyle's JJ. The flop was all rags and Zappia caught an ace on the turn. In dramatic fashion, Doyle spiked a Jack on the river to make a set. He knocked out Joe Zappia in 6th place. He won $121,440.

9:37pm... PLH Final Table update: Robert Osborne likes pocet nines. He moved in with them on two consecutive hands. The first one he was seriously shortstacked and Phil Laak called with 8-7o. He flopped a 7 with an ace high on the board. Laak caught an eight on the turn to take the lead. On the river, an ace fell which paired the board and gave the lead back to Osborne. On the next hand, he double dup against Rich Harrich's Big Slick.

9:41pm... $2,500 NL Final Table Update: Mayen Grigorian's short stack was elimated by Lars Bonding's big stack when he caught a flush on the river. For fith place, Mayen won $145,730. We're down to four players.

9:50pm... Ladies Event update: I'm pretty sure we're almost in the money and we're down to the final six tables. Jen Tilly is still alive.

9:56pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Hellmuth came over to talk smack with Phil Laak and Johnny Chan. He knows that Chan has a shot at his 10th bracelet tonight and was trying to get him on tilt. Phil Laak rushed to Chan's rescue and tooled on Hellmuth. He said, "If it weren't for luck you'd win every time, right Phil?" The folks on the rail burst out with laughter and Phil quietly returned to his game.

10:18pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Robert Doyle was shortstacked and moved all in with 7-5o. Bonyadi called with Kc-10h. Doyle flopped a pair, but Bonyadi caught a King on the turn to take the lead. DOyle was knocked out when his hand did no timprove on the river. He finised in fourth place and won $170,015.

10:40pm... PLH Final Table update: Is this going to be Johnny Chan's night? Richard Harroch and his short stack moved all in with AJ. Chan called with 44. Harroch outflopped Chan with J-8-5. On the turn, Chan picked up a gutshot straight draw. On the river a 6 spiked and Chan eliminated Harroch in 7th place. On the next hand Richard Osbourne went all in with 22. Johnny Chan called with Kc-10c. Although Chan flopped a King, Osbourne flopped a set. His hand held up and he doubled up against Johnny Chan.

10:47pm... PLH Final Table: Phil Laak has his shoes off and his hoodie is half on and half off. He knocked out Tony Hartmann in 6th Place. Laak flopped a set with pocket tens and Hartmann moved all in with the Hilton Sisters. Hartmann's hand failed to improve and he was elimianted. Hartmann won $48,175. Johnny Chan is currently third in chips out of five remaining players.

11:00pm... PLH FInal Table: Phil Laak had a tough decision to make. He was second in chips and Robert Osbourne moved all in. Laak had "The Kournikova" a.k.a. KQo. He eventually called saying, "If I win it's a great call. If I lose, I still have chips."

Osbounre showed Ah-Th and flopped an ace with two hearts.

"This is what 4% feels like," added Laak to his running commentary of the hand. When another ace fell on the turn, he was drawing dead.

Johnny Chan said, "Zero."

Laak agreed, "This is what zero percent feels like."

11:07pm... PLH Final Table update: Jerri Thomas was eliminated by Richard Osbourne in fifth place. She was shortstack most of the final table and held on. She pushed with A8 and was called by Osbourne's A-10, which held up. Jerri won $58,560. The audience at the final TV table has cleared out. Everyone is watching Johnny Chan try to win his 10th bracelet. He's the best player at his table, but he's only 3rd in chips with 4 players left.

11:10pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Laak won a big hand preflop and he offered to show his hand to the other players for $4. He extended toe offer to the rail. Jon from Pokerlistings.com and I both chipped in $2 each and the Unabomber showed us Ac-Jc. That was the best $2 I spent all day.

11:22pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson stopped by the rail to check on Chan's progress. If Johnny Chan wins, he'll hold the record for most WSOP bracelets. ESPN producers stepped in and sent the players on a break until Midnight. Johnny Chan is chasing history, they would like to televise the moment, especially since the ever voluble Phil Laak (who's an admitted TV whore) is also at the table. Hopefully, the current TV event ($2,500 NL) will end soon since they are down to three players and one with a short stack. I liken this situation to a blowout in a college basketball game and they cut away from the main game to show a more exciting and competitive game. It's also like seeing ABC air a shitty Monday Night Football game because they made the scheulde six months in advance and had no idea that their matchup would not be as interesting as other games. ESPN's hard on for No Limit events fucked them tonight. They almost deserve the headache they have for blowing off a Pot Limit Hold'em event in favor of No Limit. Seriosuly, this is one big clusterfuck. Three final tables. Four tournamnets. A John Bonetti Roast. And I haven't had a cocktail in hours.

11:50pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: We're now heads up after Glynn Beebe was knocked out by Lars Bonding. Beebe has J-9o and Bonding had pocket tens which held up. He takes home $194,305 for third.

12:01am... Ladies Event update: According to Amy Calistri, the Ladies Event is down to 13 players. Jen Tilly is still alive and she's looking pretty good. If you don't know, Jen Tilly and Phil Laak are an item. Yeah, she's Unabomber's gal. How weird would it be if they both made a final table... at the same time?

12:26am... PLH Final Table update: Robert Osbourne raised UTG to $42K. Johnny Chan went over the top for $60K more. The blinds folded and Osbourne thought for a while. He mucked Jacks and showed. Johnny Chan took down a huge pot.

12:30am... PLH Final Table update: Johnny raised preflop. Frank Kassela reraised. Johnny Chan moved all in with the Hilton Sisters. Kassela called with pocket aces. Chan slowly counted out his chips. He was covered by Kassela. The flop was: K-K-Q. The railbirds went a little crazy. I was in shock. The turn and river were were blanks and Johnny Chan cracked aces with the Hiltons! I guess I owe him a Pauly Painting. Johnny Chan moved into the chiplead.

12:34am... PLH Final Table update: Frank Kassela was elminated by Phil Laak in 4th place. Kassela won $68,425. Johnny Chan has a $400K chiplead over Phil Laak.

12:51am... PLH FInal Table update: Phil Laak knocked out Richard Osbourne in 3rd place. Laak raised and Osbourne re-raised all in. Laak took forever to make a decision. He kept running the math over and over in his head. Phil Laak eventually called with K-T. He got no help until the river. He uttered, "This is what 6% feels like." Then a ten spiked. The railbirds went a little crazy. Laak fell on the floor and Osbourne looked shocked. Jen Tilly ran over and gave Laak a kiss. Osbourne won $78,200 for his excellent work at the final table. We reached heads up and Johnny Chan has the chip lead.

1:00am... ESPN made an executive decision to halt the heads up play until the $2,500 NL event is over. They will then move the match to the official TV table so they can get better coverage including the usage of hole cams. Phil Laak and Johnny Chan ae on a break until further notice.

ESPN interviewed Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson. Both guys are still playing in the PLO w/ Rebuys event. Phil was yapping about how he never roots against anyone because he does not believe in negative things and expending negative energy. He spoke for several minutes about his philospohy and the interview took a really deep tone. Doyle just stood there with a shit eating grin on his face. When they asked him what he thought about Chan possibly breaking and setting a record he said, "I'm rooting for Johnny. He's my friend and he's a great player."

On my way over to the store in the casino I spotted a guy runing at full speed toawards me in one of the long hallways leading up to the main casino floor. He looked like the Unabomber and as he got closer, I realized it was him! He was running full out with a bottle of water in his hand. I assumed he was rushing back to sweat his girlfriend Jen Tilly in the Ladies event.

1:30am... Ladies Final Table update: Seven players are left and Jen Tilly has the chip lead. Here's who is also left: Theresa Chan, Angel Wood, Carolyn Ancheta, Cecilia de Mortensen, Ann Lee, and Susan Carpenter. Beth Shak finished in 8th place, Janice Newman took 9th place, and Wendy Rosen was eliminated in 10th place.

1:40am... Bouncin Round the Room: I've been drinking a lot of water today. Alas, I've been pissing a lot too.

Last 5 Professional Poker Players I took a Piss Next to...
1. Jesus Ferguson
2. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer
3. Howard Lederer
4. Paul Darden
5. Hoyt Corkins

1:45am... PLO w/ Rebuys update: I haven't mentioned this event in a while. They are down to 52 players on 6 tables. Scotty Nguyen, Clonie, John Ohan, Devilfish, Hellmuth, Doyle, Lederer, Cyndy Violette, Seidel, Ram Vaswani, Robert Williamson, Evgeny Kafelnikov, and Phil Ivey are still alive.

2:01am... $2,500 NL Final Table update: After two hours of heads up play, we have a winner! Farzad Bonyadi won his third bracelet after he eliminated Lars Bonding's Q-10 in second place with K-6. Bonyadi flopped a King and his hand held up. Bonding won $156,400 for his efforts. Farzad Bonyadi won $303,025. Congrats to Farzad Bonyadi.

Now it's time to see if Johnny Chan can make history.

2:55am... PLH Final Table update: Johnny Chan made history tonight. He won his 10th WSOP bracelet and became the first player in history to achieve the honor. On the 16th hand of heads up play, Phil Laak raised to $30K. Johnny Chan reraised to $92K. Laak agonized over the call and eventually moved all in. He flipped over K-J. Johnny Chan showed... the Hilton Sisters! Although Laak flopped a Jack, his hand did not improve. Johnny Chan embraced his son after he won. His son showed the "lucky orange" which Johnny placed on the table. I got to sit in the front row to witness this amazing feat.


2005 $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em Champion: Johnny Chan
4:20am... Ladies Event Final Table: Here's who is left: Jennifer Tilly $450K, Ann Le $89K, Cecilia de Mortensen $36K, and Carolyn Ancheta $32K. Play will resume at 3pm on Monday on ESPN's TV table. I have no final decision whether or not it will be taped. However, I expect at least the "second unit" to be shooting some footage and if it's at the final table, perhaps the hole cams will be utilized.

Angel Word came in fifth place and won $32,81. Jen Tilly's 77 cracked Teresa Chan's Hilton Sisters when Jen caught a runner-runner straight to bust her. Susan Carpenter finished in 7th place and won $21,840. Her AQ lost to QJ.

ESPN gave the option to the ladies of quitting for the night but some of them declined and wanted to play through. It wasn't until it got 4 way that the remaining players agreed at around 4:15am to stop play and come back Monday afternoon.
posted by Pauly at 6/26/2005 02:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Sound Bite: Pauly & Otis at the WSOP

Go over to CJ's site if you'd like to listen to a sound bite of me and Otis from this past week's action at the WSOP. Thanks CJ for hosting the clip. I'll send you more over the next few weeks.
posted by Pauly at 6/26/2005 12:41:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #25 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em -- Event #24 $2,500 NL Day 2 -- Event #23 $5,000 Stud Final Table

It's Saturday in Las Vegas. I can tell by all the empty crack vials in the parking lot and the torn condom wrappers in the stairwell. Just another late night of fun at the Redneck Riviera. My slovenly neighbors are onto me. They think I'm a CIA spook or something because when Flipchip comes to pick me up, we're always wearing black clothing and sunglasses.

I finished my interview with the Lord Admiral Card Club a few minutes ago, live from the floor here at the Rio. It was almost 25 minutes long and should be posted on Sunday night.

I had a slight headache and thank goodness for Amy Calistri. She hooked me up with some aspirin. And that's not a secret code for horse tranquilizers. But if any of my readers that are coming out to the WSOP in the next two weeks happen to come upon anything of the sort, please seek me out. I'll trade you Isabelle Mercier's cell phone number for a hefty bag of happy pills.

Speaking of sultry poker playing vixens, here are two pictures of Isabelle Mercier for Mean Gene and Boy Genius:


You can click on the pics to enlarge and both were taken by Flipchip. Don't forget to visit his 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery. Speaking of which, the Poker Prof is hard at work at a secret location in the Nevada desert. He's been working on cool stuff like the 2005 World Series of Poker tournament results page in addition to 2005 WSOP Stats page with quick random stats for all you number junkies. And here's my favorite link: 2005 WSOP schedule.

I'm covering three final tables today, but since it's Saturday, I'm going to be giving you half-assed coverage. I have an article due so I'm going to be seriously multi-tasking... writing that and doing live blogging.

Here are today's tournaments:

1. Event #23 $5,000 Stud Final Table = Red font
2. Event #24 $2,500 NL Day 2
3. Event #25 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em = Blue font

The Stud event started with 192 players. The prize pool is $902,400. We're down to 8. The $2,500 NL event started with 1,056 yesterday and the prize pool is $2,438,800. I'll get the stats on today's event as soon as I get a cocktail. Today feels like a vodka and tonic kind of day.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

3:00pm... Stud Final Table update: ESPN is taping the event, so it always starts late. Because it's a Stud event, the cameramen are taking extra time to get more of the poker table in their shots to show more coverage of the cards. Joe Awada is last year's champ and will try to defend his title with about six pictures of his kids on the rail.

3:10pm... Stud Final Table update: Here is today's final table including starting chip counts:

1 John Phan (Los Angeles, CA) $198K
2 Gerard Rechnitzer (Beverly Hills, CA) $71K
3 Keith Sexton (Dayton, Ohio) $135K
4 Joe Awada (Las Vegas, NV) $126.5K
5 Steven S. Diano (Las Vegas, NV) $58.5K
6 Chip Jett (Las Vegas, NV) $206K
7 Jan Sorensen (Odewse, Denmark) $140K
8 Tom McCormick (Fargo, ND) $25K

Like I said, Joe Awada is the defending champion in this event.

In the writer's pool here's the break down:

Nolan Dalla: Jan Sorenson
Jay "I love unicorns" Greenspan: John Phan
BJ: Joe Awada
Earl: Keith Sexton
Pauly: Gerard Rehnitzer

I won the yesterday's pool with my pick Mark Seif, so I got to pick last today. Nolan went with Amy's guy... Jan. She has a fetish for Danish men.

3:45pm... Stud Final Table update: We have our first bust out at the final table. Joe Awada knocked out Tom McCormick who was short stacked. By fourth street McCormick had a King high with three clubs and he was drawing dead by the time Awada picked up a full house on fifth street. Tom McCormick finished in 8th place and won $27,070.

4:40pm... Stud Final Table update: Joe Awada knocked out Gerard Rechnitzer. SO it looks like I'm out of the writer's pool. Joe Awada's two pair Kings & Jacks were better than Gerard Rechnitzer's fives & sixes. Gerard Rechnitzer finished in 7th place and won $36,095.

5:20pm... The action has slowed down at the final table so as soon as Johnny Grooms announced a short break at the final table, I bolted for the shop in the casino that sold fifth's of liquor. Saturday is Stoli day here at the Rio and Otis and I started our bender early today with a few screwdrivers. It's a matter of time I'm banned from media row due to my incorrigible drinking habits.

6:25pm... Stud Final Table update: John Phan knocked out Steven Diano in 6th place. By sixth street, Phan was ahead with two pair (aces up) and Diano only had two jacks and a gutshot draw. He missed it on the river ad Phan scooped the pot. Diano finished in 6th place and won $58,655.

6:30pm... Phil Gordon picture of the day... for the April Sisters.

8:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I went on dinner break and found myself hanging out with some of the ESPN crew at the sports book. Senor called me from back east and I was disappointed to see that the god dammed Yankees lost to the Mets. I realized that I call too many people, "Sweetie." Dan Michalski brought in a bottle of scotch and a sixer or Shiner Bock... which is some fine Tejas amber beverage. It's sitting on ice in the media room. If we can only keep the vultures away, we'll have some fun late night.

8:30pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Phil Hellmuth was just busted. Jeremy from Love & Casino War was knocked out in 90th place in his event. He was shortstacked before the dinner break. Here's what he said in his blog about us:

I'm out in Vegas at the WSOP this weekend. I had the distinct pleasure of hanging with Dan, Otis, and Pauly last night, and let me tell you, I take back everything I said about these guys. They are not hard working at all! Through a sophisticated combination of text generators, blow-up dolls and mirrors, they create the illusion of activity while they really are just lounging in the press box, drinking Singapore Slings and cavorting with women of dubious moral value. I don't think Dan has ever even played a hand of poker; he asked me last night what the difference between "Texas hold them" and "Omeeha" is.

He's a good egg and it's always good to meet one of the "original poker bloggers." His story about meeting Rita from Taxicab Confessions is priceless. Take a peek at his blog.

8:40pm... Stud Final Table update: Joe Awada was knocked out in 5th place. Joe Awada moved all in and lost to John Phan who caught a straight. Last year's champ, Joe Awada won $58,655 for fifth place. Jan Sorensen is the chip leader. Chip Jett is the small stack.

10:10pm... Stud Final Table update: John Phan was knocked out in 4th place by Keith Sexton. John Phan won $72,190 for 4th. Keith Sexton moved into a hige chip lead.

10:20pm... Stud Final Table update: Chip Jett was eliminated in 3rd place by Keith Sexton. Jett pushed all in with a pair of sixes while Sexton showed a pair of Queens, which was good enough to win. Chip Jett won $99,265 for third place. We reached heads up play between Keith and Jan Sorensen.

11:00pm... $2,500 NL Day 2 update: Play has been suspended for the day and action will resule at 2pm for the final table which will be taped by ESPN. Here is who is left: Joe Zappia, Larry Watson, Glynn Beebe, Mayen Grigorian, KJ Jordan, Lars Bonding, Jason Tate, Farzad Bonyadi, and Robert Doyle.

12:51am... Stud Final Table update: After 2.5 hours of heads up play Jan Sorensen slugged it out with Keith Sexton. Jan made a final table two years ago and finally broke through this year to win his first WSOP bracelet. Keith Sexton won $162,430 for second place and Jan Sorensen won $293,275 for first.


2005 $5K Stud Champion: Jan SorensenSee everyone tomorrow. It's the Ladies Event and I'll be here at 11am.
posted by Pauly at 6/25/2005 05:09:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #24 $2,500 NL -- Event #23 $5,000 Stud -- Event #22 $1,500 NL Final Table

I hocked up a loogey the size of Paris Hilton's dog only a few moments after I woke up to the sound of grinding garbage trucks. Flipchip told me that I got the "cough" and it's common among most non-Nevadans after living here for a few weeks. I have a feeling that it's going to linger like a bad case of the clap.

I walked across the street to Wild Wild West casino. Mrs. Flipchip said they have good breakfast specials. I only eat two meals a day and I needed to expand the base of my first meal of the day beyond Wendy's, In & Out Burger, and Subway. It's bad enough I eat the same shit here at the Rio so finding something inexpensive and only a few minutes from the Redneck Riviera was a godsend. I'm slowly morphing into that dude from Supersize Me. My kidneys are starting to throb with all that fast food grease slushing around in there.

What did I eat this morning? French Toast, bacon, hashbrowns, and an iced tea with lemon.

Wild Wild West is a locals casino and it's part of the depressing side of Las Vegas. It's like walking into a time machine and zapping yourself back to 1981. It's about the same size of my fraternity house back in Atlanta except it has people older than Bob Hope sitting at the bar drinking $1.49 draft beer specials and old ladies shoving quarters into slot machine in between puffs on those see-through tubes leading to bulky oxygen tanks, which are attached to the back of their wheelchairs.


I'm sure my waitress shit an eggroll when I left her a $3 tip on a $9 meal.

There is a big researchers convention here at the Rio. So there are a lot of dorky looking middle-aged guys wearing khaki Dockers and bumping into each other because they're spending more time on their Blackberries and less time watching out where they are walking.

The parking lot was packed and there were no close spots available. While we were circling for a spot, I spotted Doyle Brunson in his big white Stetson hat sputtering along in his motorized wheelchair. Here's the greatest poker player who ever lived and his parking in the boondocks like the rest of the masses. Our parking spot was just two or three down from his and I watched as he got up with the help of a crutch and loaded up his chair into his Cadillac.

"Big win for Todd yesterday?" I said.

"You bet!" he said with a proud smile.

"Hot enough for you?" he joked.

Texas Dolly and Flipchip commiserated about having to park so far away from the entrance to the Rio's convention center. Dolly suggested that they need a security guard back in the parking lot keeping an eye on things. I wondered how many $100 bills he had rolled up in his front pocket?

I hadn't even arrived at work, and I bumped into the man, the myth, and the legend himself... Doyle Brunson.

Fox Sports picked up my recap of last night's win by Todd Brunson. They titled it Son Rise. Take a peek. They included a great pic of Texas Dolly taken by Flipchip of course.

I'm covering three tournaments today, including a final TV table:

1. Event $22 $1500 NL Final Table = Green font
2. Event #23 $5K Stud Day 2 = Red font
3. Event #24 $2,500 NL Day 1

Yeah ESPN is taping the final table of the one I played in on Wednesday. It started with 2013 players and the prize pool is $2,777,940. The $5K Stud event began with 192 players who are competing for a prize pool of $902,400. We started play with 37 players. Stay tuned for more info on today's NL event.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

1:05pm... $2,500 NL Day 1 update: I arrived in press row early and I was the first one here. I'm watching ESPN set up for the final table. The Rio is packed today which happens with the lower buy in NL events. Liz Leui and Jen Harman are sitting at tables next to media row. Jen is adoarble. She's usually wearing a hoodie underneath a jean jacket. She sits perched up on her seat, sometimes on her knees, and listens to her iPod.

1:45pm... Isabelle Mercier picture of the day... for Mean Gene.

2:30pm... $5K Stud Day 2 update: 37 players began today. Barry Greenstein, Thor Hansen, Joe Awada, Denis Ethier, Mike Wattel, John Phan, Chip Jett, and Dave Colclough are all still left. Sam Silverman began the day as the chip leader.

2:45pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: The final table started a little late, which usually happens during taped events. Here is the breakdown of the final table including chip counts.

1 Minh Nguyen (Lake Elsinore) $378K
2 Devilfish Ulliot (Hull, England) $338K
3 Steve Rassi (Morton, IL) $325K
4 Webber Kang (Dallas, TX) $166K
5 James Carter (Frisco, TX) $263K
6 Bill Gazes (181K) $181K
7 Peter Lee (Queens, NY) $461K
8 Greg Raymer (Stonington, CT) $613K
9 Mark Seif (Incline Billage, NV) $305K

In the writers pool, we have strict rules. No one can pick the chipleader. BJ from Card Player took Devilfish. Jay Greenspan picked Minh Nguyen. Heather from Pokerwire took Peter Lee. I gut stuck with Mark Seif. And Otis went with Steve Rassi. Fossilman begins today as the chipleader. The best part about having Otis here now, is that I get to sit next to him everyday.

3:00pm... Evelyn Ng picture of the day... for F Train.

3:39pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: The Devilfish is no more. He was the first player to be knocked out at the final table courtesy of Webber Kang. Devilfish pushed all in on the button with A7 and Kang called with AQ. On the turn, Kang caught a Broadway straight. Devilfish won $47,225. BJ's pick is done.

4:00pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Peter Lee flopped quads with 55. He won some of his chips back from Mark Seif who took them in a big pot a few minutes earlier.

4:11pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Steve Rassi was elimianted in 8th place by Webber Kang. Rassi moved all in preflop wih 88. Kang called with AK. Rassi was ahead on the flop and Kang caught a King on the turn to send Rassi him on 8th. He won $63,895. Otis' pick is done and he has been knocked out of the Writer's Pool. It's down to me, Heather, and Jay.

4:40pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Otis and I are drinking on the job. During the break, I bolted over to a tiny shop that sells ciggies and beers. I picked up a 24 oz. MGD for $4. On my walk back, I found Scotty Nguyen walking towards me with a girl wrapped around him.

5:00pm $1,500 NL Final Table update: Peter Lee took a hit from Minh Nguyen. His 99 lost to A7s when Nguyen rivered a flush on him.

5:20pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Steve Carter was eliminated in 7th place by Bill Gazes. Both had short stacked and moved all in on the flop: K-6-7. Bill Gazes caught some of the flop with 10-6. Steve showed 8-3o or the Canadian Hammer. Steve caught a three on the turn, but the river was no help. Steve Carter finishes in 7th and wins $91,670 for his efforts.

5:38pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Bill Gazes and his Big Slick doubled up against Greg Raymer's 77. Gazes caught an Ace on the turn and a King on the river to prevail.

5:43pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: With a shortstack, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer moved all in with 33. Webber Kang called with AJ and flopped a Jack to take the lead. Raymer's hand didn't improve and he was knocked out in 6th place. He won $119,450.

5:47pm... Bouncin Around the Room: I ran over to the Full Tilt Suite and sweet talked with the lovely Sky for a few moments before I snagged two Corona's from the free bar. They had chips and salsa today. I also grabbed a candy bar. I'm now eating chocolate like the pros. I tipped the bartender $3 and ran back to press row with Corona's and lime in tow. Otis and I are drinking beers out of coffee cups. I think that I am finally having fun here at the WSOP.

5:58pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Peter Lee moved all in with 99 and Bill Gazes called with AJ. The flop was 3-5-7. The river was another seven and Gazes was down to six outs. A Queen fell on the river and Peter Lee doubled up against Gazes.

6:08pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Peter Lee was eliminated in 5th place by Mark Seif. He flopped top pair, top kicker with A7 and Seif had an open ended straigth draw with two overcards. Seif caught one of them on the turn and he knocked out Peter Lee, who returns to NYC with $147,230. Mark Seif has almost $1.5 million in chips.

6:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spotted Tanya and she's playing over at the satellite area. Shirley Rosario is playing in the $2,500 NL event and she's hanging on at a tough table that includes John Juanda and Lee Watkinson. Jeremy from Love and Casino War is in town and I finally got to meet one of the original poker bloggers. Dan from Pokerati is back in town and he's going to get me into trouble by the end of the WSOP. I went back to the Full Tilt hospitality suite and grabbed some nachos and veggies during a quick break. Michelle, the PR director, told me she knocked HDouble out of a tournament.

7:00pm... $5K Stud Day 2 update: 17 players are left during a dinner break. Here a few players who are left: Jan Sorensen, John Phan, Leandro Alvarez, Jon Brody, Joe Awada, Steve Diano, Chip Jett, Tony Cousineau, John Agialoro, Yuebin Guo, Dave Colclough, and Barry Greenstein.

9:15pm... Bouncin Round the Room: During dinner break I hit the Masquerade Bar with Dan, Otis, and Amy. The skanks were out in numbers. It's Friday night at the Rio and there are a high number of lovely ladies wearing white pants. What's the deal with that?

9:40pm... $1,500 NL Final Table update: Webber Kang didn't look good when he was all in preflop with A6o against Minh Nguyen's ATs. Fortunate for him he chopped the pot with a board of A-Q-4-4-9.

10:24pm... $1500 NL Final Table update: Insanity has broken out when three players moved all in preflop. Bill Gazes had AK, Webber Kang pushed with pocket tens, and Minh Ngyen moved all in with JJ. Railbirds flocked from all over the room to catch a glimpse of the hugest hand of the tournament. Players in other events left their seats to catch the action. The flop was J-10-6 and the room exploded. Minh was ahead but Bill Gazes had a gutshot. The turn and river didn't help anyone and Minh Nguyen won a monster pot in one of the most exciting hands I have seen so far at this year's WSOP. Webber Kang was eliminated in 4th place. He won $175,010. Bill Gazes was left with only 55K in chips. Although Minh Nguyen accumulated over $1 million in chips on that hand, Mark Sief was the chipleader, "Seif is safe," Andy Bloch mentioned.

10:33pm... $1500 NL Final Table update: Bill Gazes and his short stack was elimianted by Minh Nguyen in 3rd place. Bill won $202,790 for his efforts. We have reached heads up play.

10:50pm... $1500 NL Final Table update: In the first big hand heads up, Mark Seif Mark Seif raised to 100k and Minh Nguyen re-raised to 400k. Seif went over the top and Minh Nguyen folded. Mark Seif's big pot gave him over $2 million in chips.

11:00pm... $1500 NL Final Table update: Minh Nguyen got some of his chips back when he caught quad nines. Shirley Rosario is on the rail cheering on her friend, Mark Seif who is trying to win his secomd bracelet in a week. This is actually his first tournament since his victory last Friday.

11:45pm... $1500 N: Final Table update: Mark Seif just won his second bracelet in the past week when he beat out Minh Nguyen. Seif's KK held up against Minh's A-10. Seif flopped a set to clinch the win. Minh Nguyen won $329,975 for second place and Seif won $611,145 for first.


2005 Two-time bracelet winner Mark SeifCongrats again to Mark who picked up another bracelet.
posted by Pauly at 6/24/2005 03:58:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Friday Pimp Day

Sean posted a weekday nugget on his Lord Admiral Card Club podcast called TJ Cloutier Interview. Check it out. This was a bit I helped him tape. It's excerpts of an interview with TJ Cloutier a few minutes after he won the WSOP. I didn't conduct the interview. Nollan Dalla did, but I was able to put my voice recorder on the final table during the interview. It's the first time I used the recorder so the sound quality isn't great. But check it out nonetheless.

My brother Derek posted a hilarious recap of his trip to a card room in Chinatown back home in New York City. I'm bummed out that I missed all the fun and hijinks that he had last weekend with F Train, Joaquin, Bobby Bracelet, Sox Lover, and Ferrari! Make sure you read: NYC Card Rooms, No Rake, the Rooster and Razz. Here's a bit:

Chinatown is a crazy place to be. The smell down there is also quite lovely especially after years of selling seafood, fireworks, assorted "other" meats and not being able to contain stumbling drunks from pissing on the streets. See, OTB isn't the only place that has it's problems!

I was surrounded by criminals, tourists, bloggers, Tony Soprano wannabees, and a bunch of old Chinese ladies sitting on a stoop, yet our waiter Roberto was the sketchiest person around. He had that Scientology look. Know what I mean? lol. After our meal, Roberto almost tackled us while we were walking down the street. He was yelling something about us signing the wrong receipts. I thought SoxLover was going to punch him!... More

If you think I work a lot, you've never met my brother. He's logging long ass hours down in the trenches on Wall Street. If he had more free time, he'd post more, but I know he's doing his best. He's been blogging some great shit on his blog since he's been back from Vegas, so don't miss out. He's also had the fine distinction of being mentioned on Oddjack twice in the last two weeks.

Amy Calistri got in trouble because she was linking up fellow bloggers here at the WSOP. She got a slap onthe wrist. It sucks that her boss is a mean witch who has her panties wedged so far up her butt she doesn't understand what a blog really is all about. Bloggers link each other up, that's we do. Amy is one of the coolest folks I met here so far and it's sad that she must blog under such Draconian measures. My day is not right until I see her and get the latest gossip. I feel sorry for her and Steve and Charla. They are working their asses off. I was going to protest and not link up Poker Pages anymore but I'm above that petty shit. In the end, the smug owners of Poker Pages are super bitter that we've been kicking their ass in WSOP coverage with my poker blog and that's why they really brought the hammer down on Amy.

Lastly, congrats to Wil Wheaton. He'll be playing in the main event here at the WSOP. Check out what Otis had to say about Wil and Team Poker Stars. Coming soon... the Wil Series of Poker. Stay tuned.

Don't forget to visit Flipchip's World Series of Poker photo gallery. And if you want the latest World Series of Poker News, I am posting recaps of every final event over at Lasvegasvegas.com. Don't forget to check out the Poker Prof's hard work on his World Series of Poker tournament results page.
posted by Pauly at 6/24/2005 04:30:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event # 23 $5,00 Stud -- Event #22 $1,500 NL Day 2 -- Event #21 $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table

My apartment complex at the Redneck Riviera is an episode of COPS waiting to happen. The other night I heard a loud "Bang" and I simply assumed it was a gunshot. I rolled over and went back to sleep until I heard a follow up sound a few minutes later. It was just a rare thunder and lightening storm.

There is someone who drives around with a booming stereo in his car that rivals the sound system of a trendy club in South Beach. The rap music echoes as soon as he turns into the complex. I expected a big black guy looking like Biggie to get out of the pimp mobile. Instead, a skinny cracker who resembled a cross between Tom Green and that inbred cross-eyed kid playing the banjo from Deliverance stepped out of the car with a gold chain around his neck the size of an anaconda.

Only in Las Vegas.

Moving on...

I'll be covering three tournaments today. I feel like a monkey some days. But at least monkey's get laid once in a while. Here's today's action:

1. Event #21 $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table
2. Event #22 $1,500 NL Day 2 = green
3. Event # 23 $5,000 Stud = red

The Omaha event started with 359 players who are competeing for a prize pool of $825,700. The $1500 NL event started yesterday with 2013 players. The prize pool is over $2.7 million. Yikes. I don't have official numbers on the $5K stud event yet.

***** Live Blogging Updates ******

3:00pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Here's a list of players at the final table including chipcounts:

Seat 1: Larry Reynolds (W. Hollyweird, CA) $247K
Seat 2: Nat "King" Koe (Irvine, CA) $27K
Seat 3: Ben Lang (San Diego, CA) $56K
Seat 4: Allen Kessler ( Hundington valley, PA) $68K
Seat 5: Todd Brunson (Las Vegas, NV) $177K
Seat 6: Glenn Cozen (South Pasadena, CA) $68K
Seat 7: Tom Fischer(Las Vegas, NV) $86K
Seat 8: Allyn Jaffrey Shulman (Laguana Niguel, CA) $76K
Seat 9: Manelic Minaya (Tampa, FL) $94K

Yeah, more than half of the final table is from Southern California.

4:00pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Nat Koe is the first player knocked out at the final table. Todd Brunson put Nat Koe all in preflop. Brunson flopped a set and caught runner-runner for a full boat. He scooped the entire pot and Nat "King" Koe was knocked out in 9th place. Nat won $16,155.

4:20pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Todd Brunson added more chips to his stack when he knocked out Ben Lang. Todd had A-Q-7-2 and scooped the pot winning both the high (with aces up) and the low with A-2-4-6-7. Ben finished in 8th place and won $24,770.

4:45pm... $1,500 NL Day 2 update: Action began today with 77 players. Amazing that a field of 2,103 (including yours truly) was sheared down to 77 players. Mark Seif is the chipleader. Staffan Rydin from Sweden is a guy I've been alking to alot. He's part of the media and works for Poker Listings. He told me he wa sjust KO'd by Devilfish who put abad beat on him when he sucked out a straight on him. Staffan has two cashes at this year's WSOP. There are about 35 players left including Fossilman, Jesus, and a gal from New York City named Karen Janowsz. There's a pic of her on the right. She has a cool card capper which is her lucky frog.

5:00pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Allen Kessler's ace high flush for the nuts was good enough to send Glen Cozen to the rail. Glen Cozen was eliminated in in 7th place and won $33,030.

5:05pm... $5K Stud update: Isabelle Mercier is waering funky jeans again with cool designs on the back so you cannot help but stare at her ass. Flipchip told me he overhead T.J. Cloutier with a notable quote, "Razz is the most frustrating game in the history of poker."

I also just heard that Steve Diano eliminated Huck Seed and Scotty Nguyen in the same hand. Diano had a full boat while Scotty Nguyen's rolled up 9's were no good, baby. Seed mucked his hand and walked away with a depressing look on his face.

5:15pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Usually split games are brutal to cover, but the action has been moving along with a good pace. Another played was just busted. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman moved all in with her short stack against Todd Brunson. Allyn had Ks-Qh-9s-9c and Todd had Ah-Jh-4h-Qd. Todd flopped two pair and scooped the entire pot. Allyn was knocked out in 6th place. She won $41,285.

6:00pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Larry Reynolds was eliminated in 5th place when Tom Fischer scooped the pot with a Broadway straight. Larry Reynolds home in 5th place and won $49,540. Four players are left. Tom Fischer is the chipleader.

6:05pm... $1,500 NL Day 2 update: New Yorker Karen Janowsz was knocked out in 30th place when her pocket kings ran into Minh Nguyen's AJ.

8:35pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Manelic Minaya was knocked out in 4th Place when he moved all in preflop with Ad-6d-6h-4h. Todd Brunson caled with Ac-Kh-Qh-3h. Todd flopped two pair and it was good enough to win. Manelic Minaya won $57,800 for 4th place. Allen Kessler remained the chipleader until Brunson scooped a pot a few hands later.

9:00pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Tom Fischer was knocked out in 3rd place. He moved all in preflop with Jd-8d-8h-3h. Todd Brunson showed As-Ac-10s-6c. Fischer had plenty of outs and missed a flush and straight draw. Todd elimianted him in third place. Tom Fischer won $66,055. We've reached heads up play!

10:26pm... Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table update: Todd Brunson needed less than ninety minutes of heads up play to win his first bracelet. He also made history when he became part of the first father-son duo to win bracelets. Allen Kessler came in second place and won $132,110 for his efforts. Todd won $255,945.


2005 Omaha Hi/Lo Champion: Todd Brunson
Congrats to Todd for a major accomplishment.

10:45pm... $1500 NL Day 2 update: We're down to 11. Fossilman, Mark Seif, Minh Nguyen, Bill Gazes, and Devilfish are all left.

12:45am... $1500 NL Day 2 update: Paly stopped for the day once we reached 9 players. The final table will begin at 2pm on Friday and will be taped for ESPN. Here's who is left: Fossilman, Peter Lee, Minh Nguyen, Devilfish, Steve Rassi, Mark Seif, James Carter, Bill Gazes, and Webber Kang. Fossilman is the chip leader.

1:02am... $5K Stud update: 41 players left. Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortenson, John Hennigan, Steve Zolotow, David Levi, Andy Bloch, Eskimo and Peter Costa are all eliminated.

That's it for tonight. See ya tomorrow for three more tournaments.
posted by Pauly at 6/23/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
A Guy Named Charlie....

By now you have all heard that Charlie passed away. Spaceman has a touching tribute over on his blog. I suggest you take a peek at that.

I wrote a piece on Fox Sports about Barry Greenstein winning his WSOP bracelet for Charlie. If you had not seen it yet, stop by a take a look. Charlie Tuttle has impacted more lives than you can imagine. It is hard to describe the intense feelings that I am experiencing about someone I have never met. Bad beats and personal problems all seem to evaporate when you think about what Charlie, Spaceman, and their families have been enduring. My best wishes and thoughts go out to everyone involved.

And on a personal note to Spaceman... if there's anything you need.... simply ask. I know you lost your best friend, but you have a community of your peers and friends here to help you out over the next days, weeks, and months to come. We're all here for you.
posted by Pauly at 6/23/2005 01:36:00 PM | Permalink |

 
World Series of Poker Pictures

Most of these were taken yesterday by Flipchip. Make sure you stop by and visit his World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. You can click on the photos below to enlarge them.


I found a new "Bio" photo


Jamming to some Dead at the WSOP


Shuffling some chips


A few minutes after the tourney started


A glimpse of $4 pizza slices


Otis hit quad aces atthe bar last night

I took the pizza pic and the one of Otis' quad aces. Stop by Lasvegasvegas.com to read Flipchip's recap. If you don't know, I was knocked out in 1320th place out of 2013 players and outlasted several pros like Marcel Luske and Daniel Negreanu. The total prize pool was over $2.7 million in the 3rd largest tournament ever played in WSOP history. First place is going to get $611,000! Top 200 places paid. And if I made the final table, it would have been aired on ESPN on my birthday.
posted by Pauly at 6/23/2005 06:32:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #22 $1,500 NL a.k.a. My First WSOP Event

I never thought I'd get to play in the World Series of Poker. And here I am, ready to go fling chips around with the top names in poker. Today I get to piss in the tall weeds with the big dogs. I just hope I don't pee on myself.

My first ever WSOP event begins today at Noon local time. The buy in is $1500 and 20 of my friends including my brother all chipped in and paid my entry fee. I am now entitled to give them 50% of my profits. Pretty cool, eh?

By the way, thanks to: Maudie, Al CantHang, Tanya, Derek, Briana, Otis, Senor, Iggy, Joaquin, Human Head, Obie, Joe Speaker, Wil, Spaceman, Sean & Brent from Lord Admiral Radio, Chad, Halverson, Gracie, April H., and Poker Prof & Flipchip. They all get a cut of my winnings.

My friend Felicia, who is a professional poker player, said that I was "dead money" and that's the reason she didn't want to back me. No confidence? She's right. However, she and her husband Glenn (who is a poker dealer and a solid NL player) gave me some great advice. In fact, I asked some pros about advice. A lot of what they said contradicts each other and that's part of the charm of poker... there's no set way of how to play and people's playing styles vary.

My buddy Otis played in a similar WSOP event two weeks ago and he had some tips for me. I'm sure I'll be nervous but I'm not going to be as intimidated than most newbies. I've spent over two weeks here at the Rio and I'm used to the surroundings and seeing top notch pros all over the place. I'm no longer star struck. I hope that I'll be comfortable.

My strategy is to play smart and avoid mistakes. Easier said than done right? This will be a three day event. My goal for day 1 is to make it to day 2. The final day will consist of the final table which will be aired on ESPN in September on my birthday of all days. How about that? There is a small chance, very small like micro-penis small, in an almost impossible chance that I'll make it that far. I'll have to catch a lot of cards and I'll have to play flawless poker for 12-14 hours today if I want to advance to day 2.

They are expecting about 1500 players in today's WSOP event with a prize pool of well over $2.2 million. First place should get paid over a half a million dollars. Yes, this is the biggest tournament I ever played in.

I once won a 150 person tournament on Party Poker and took 3rd in two others. But those were smaller tournaments. The two biggest tourneys I ever played in before today were both online satellites at Party Poker. One was in April 2004 and the top three finishers won a seat in the $25K World Poker Tour Championships at the Bellagio. I took 12th out of 150. In January of this year, I was trying to win a seat in the Aussie Million a.k.a. the Australian Poker Championships and the winner won a seat in event and won a prize package which included hotel & airfare for two plus spending money. I played in two of those tournaments and got my ass kicked in both. I played tentative, like a pussy, in one and the other I just didn't see any good hands.

Very shortly, I'll be taking my seat at table 44 and sliding on my headphones. I'm bringing my iPod with me and can't wait to fire up some Grateful Dead during my first WSOP event. This will also be my first day off in 16 days since I started working. I'm pumped and ready!

If you want to check on my progress, I will try to update here as much as possible. However, I suggest you follow Poker Wire. The girls who run the site, Jen and Heather, promised me that they will include my name in "notable chip counts" updates (the event is #22 $1500 No Limit Hold'em), so stop by their site anytime after 3pm ET or Noon Vegas time and take a peek.

Thanks again to everyone who helped bankroll me and to everyone who responded that I had to turn away.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

11:35am... I got my computer set up in media row, ready to do as much live blogging as possible. The hallway was super packed. I haven't seen a crowd like this since Event #2. Looks like every table is going to be filled. To quote Phil Gordon, "I have never seen so much dead money in my life."

Thanks to Maudie and Jeff for the phone call! Flipchip's stellar advice, "Don't be the first one out."

11:40am... Fox Sports just published my article about Charlie. I originally titled it A Guy Named Charlie, but Fox changed the title. Anyway, FOX Sports broke this amazing story about Vegas pros rallying behind Charlie Tuttle.

As I typed this I found out from BG that Charlie passed away early this morning.

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Am I inspired this morning? Hell ya. This one is for you, Charlie.

2:00pm... $1500 NL update: Piss break. I think there were 2100+ in the tournament. They said it was the 3rd largest field ever at a WSOP event. There are 1600 left. I got $2450 and I'm feeling good. My first table only had 4 players at first. I found AJ on my first hand and won the pot. After the first orbit, some chick sat down to make it five and it stayed that way until my table was broken up halfway in Level 2. We joked that Phil Hellmuth would be at our table since he's always fashionably late. SPotted Eirk Seidel walking towards my table and I got a little queasy. He sat down at the table behind me. Five seconds later, Evelyn Ng sauntered my way. I took a deep breath and she sat down at Eirk's table. I was sitting right behind Evy so if I turned around I could try to figure out what color underwear she had on. I knocked one guy out at my table when he moved all in with a shortstack and K9s. I had JJ and that was the last hand before I got moved.

At my new table, I was the youngest among 8 middle aged guys. I found AA UTG and limped. One guy in LP raised and I went over the top of hima nd scooped the pot. So far, so good.

3:20pm... I got busted. Bad beat too. My AK lost to A-10. The blinds were $50/100. He limped UTG. I raised to $400. Button called and the UTG called. The flop: A-4-x. UTG guy bet $500, I moved all in. Button folded and UTG called, showing A-10. Guess what spiked on the river? Yes, a ten. I snapped, "What? You didn't think you were outkicked?" Felicia told me I played it right. After he turned over A-10 I figured I was looking great with 5K in chips. No such luck. I was out around 1320 or so and outlatsed Marcel Luske and Daniel Negreanu. So much for my day off. Donkeys 1, Pauly 0.

As my brother said to me after I was busted, "At least it wasn't your money."

Sorry that I let everyone down. I was hoping to make it to the dinner break. If I won that pot, I'm pretty sure I would have just folded the rest of the afternoon. Oh well. Thanks to Maudie and Senor for phone calls.

4:20pm... PLH Final Table update: We're down to 8. Brian Wilson is the chipleader. Burt Boutin finished in 9th. Here are the final table seating assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Joe Sebok $159K
Seat 2: Cyndy Violette $206K
Seat 3: Steven "Lucky" Liu $193.5K
Seat 4: Brian Wilson $193K
Seat 5: Derek Lefote $36.5K
Seat 6: Allen Cunningham $131.5K
Seat 7: John Gale $64.5K
Seat 8: Anthony Cousineau $99.5K
Seat 9: Burt Boutin $11K

4:45pm... Random Thoughts: I always wondered when Isabelle Mercier and Otis greeted each other if they did the doublecheek kiss or the elusive and rare triplecheek kiss? Sorry, don't mean to get Otis in trouble with Mrs. Otis or anything. Just a half-baked thought here. And for the record, I think Otis is just too shy to approach Isabelle. I have no shame. My goal for the remainder of the WSOP is to get a doublecheek kiss from Isabelle.

5:10pm... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Max Pescatori was knocked out in 19th place. This is his 4th cash this year.

5:44pm... PLH Final Table update: Brian Wilson's AK knocked out Joe Sebok's AJ in 8th place. Joe Sebok won $33,700.

5:50pm... PLH Final Table update: Cyndy Violette's A3s lost to Allen unningahms' Q8. On the turn Allen had trips and Cyndy had a flush draw. She didn't catch it and finished in 7th place. She won $44,930 at her second fnal table at this year's WSOP.

6:15pm... PLH Final Table update: John Gale knocked out Steven "Lucky" Liu. Lucky had QJs and Gale Had A3s. The flop was K-10-J and two spades. Lucky bet and Gale reraised him all in. Gale had the nut flush draw and caught it on the turn. Steven Lucky Liu was knocked out in 6th place and won $56,165.

7:24pm... PLH Final Table update: Allen Cunningham caught a four flush on the river with K-10 to knock out Tony Cousineau's A-10 in 5th place. Tony won $67,400. Brain Wilson is the chipleader.

7:59pm... Random Thought of the Hour: "If you wear pants that white, you're gonna see bush," deadpanned Otis. After hours of deliberation, we decided that Evy was wearing a thong.

9:40pm... Bouncin' Round the Room: Dinner breaks are fun time here a the WSOP. That's when I can I hit the closest bar. Today's guests were Otis and Jay Greenspan. Otis played video poker and hit quad aces which paid out 800 credits or $200. Lucky fucker. We also had a toast to Charlie and attempted to call Al Cant Hang for a dial-a-shot. We were able to get Joanne on the phone.

10:20pm... PLH Final Table update: Brian Wilson eliminated Allen Cunningham. Allenraised preflop and Wlson called. The flop was: 10-4-10 and a re-rasing war broke out. Wilson bet 30k. Cunningham re-raised and Wilson came over the top. Cunningham pushed in with K3s. Wilson waslled with 5-4. Cunningham caught a pair of 3s on the tuen but the river was no help. Allen Cunningham finished in 4th and won $89,865.

10:40pm... PLH Final Table update: Brian Wilson knocked out Derek Leforte. They were both all in preflop. Wilson had A6s and Leforte showed K9. No one paired a board full of rags and Wilson won with ace high. Derek Leforte finished in 3rd place and won $112,330.

11:18pm... PLH Final Table update: John Gale and Brian Wilson were involved in a huge hand. They were both all in preflop. Gale had AJ and Wilson showed 66. The flop: 4-7-8. Gale caught a jack on the turn to take the lead. But Brian Wilson caught his gutshot on the river when a five spiked. Wilson doubled up but Gale still held a $500K cip lead.

11:20pm... PLH Final Table update: On the next hand, both players were all in preflop once again. Gale showed pocket tens and Wilson had 44. Gale got kicked in the junk when a 4 flopped. His hand did not improve and Wilson doubled up on Gale in consecutive hands. Wilson went from almost dead to the chip lead.

12:01am... PLH Final Table Update: With Devilfish n the rail, cheering on his fellow countryman, John Gale failed in his attempt to win a WSOP bracelet and WPT event in the same year. After about 90 minutes of heads up play, Brian Wilson beat John Gale. Wilson's AQ was good enough to take down Gale's KJ. Gale won $204,440 for second place. Brian Wilson won his first bracelet and took home $370,685.
posted by Pauly at 6/22/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #21 $2500 Omaha Hi-Lo Day 1 and Event #20 $5000 Pot Limit Hold'em Day 2

Today was a half day for me. I'm finally well rested. I got eight hours of sleep in. Actually it was five hours and then I went back to sleep for three more. Lucky for me the room next door to me at the Redneck Riviera has not been rented out yet. They are still wiping down the walls from the last tenants.

I'm glad that Steve and Amy at Poker Pages dug my last rambling entry about the "inbred pot-bellied kids" by the pool. I wish I could say more about the rambunctious little ones that populate my dwellings that hasn't already been said before. It's been a slow day at my apartment complex. In the last two days, I only saw one police cruiser and was disappointed that only two crack whores solicited their damanged goods my way. Few things in this world are more sobering that crack whores in G-strings.

I played in a $100 MTT on Party Poker this afternoon. Out of 130, I came in 86th place when my AA was cracked by a donkey's KQo. I ran into Glenn and he said he had AA cracked twice today in satellites here at the Rio. Even Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan had his AA cracked by KQ in a satellite as well. Pocket aces are not holding up today. My advice to you: fold the fuckers.

Moving on...

Today is a half day like I said. Flipchip had to go to the doctor and I'm playing in the $1500 NL event tomorrow, so we're taking a lax approach towards today's coverage. I'm gonna focus less on chip counts today that some behind the scenes stuff that goes on here at the World Series of Poker.

There are two events going on today that I'm going to provide minimal coverage on:

1. $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Day 1
2. $5,000 PLH Day 2 Day 2

There are 239 players who bought into the $5K PLH event. There are 259 in the Omaha Hi/Lo event.

Here are some picture of places where I spend a lot of time here at the Rio. Note that I can't take pictures of the closest bar, because I might get some of my fellow writers, photographers, and media types in trouble from their employers.


Empty Media Row


Beverage Table in the Media Room

The first picture is ESPN's TV set. Most of the final tables are played there, especially the ones ESPN tapes. It's empty because most there's no final table to cover today.

The second picture is my favorite sight here at the Rio. I wish they handed out free booze to us, but water is almost as important as liquor. I was pumped to find a Dr. Pepper in the mix. I don't drink soda, but I've been digging Dr. Pepper so I snag one whenever it appears.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

8:30pm... PLH Day 2 update: We're in the money. Howard Lederer and Ted Lawson were just busted. Devilfish walked up to Steve Hall and said he was going to switch gears since there's no major monetary difference in between 18th and 10th place ($15K to $10K). Beware the Devilfish. He'll be bullying everyone around the next few hands. Allen Cunnigham, Erik Seidel, Eli Elezra, John Gale and Cyndy Violette are all still alive. (Thanks Heafy!)

9:45pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The chick on the loudspeaker is calling "Otis, your 10-20 seat is ready. Otis." Funny thing is, that seat is not for Otis. He uses his real initials. I ran over to the deli by the sports book for some chili with extra cheese and onions. I also had a bunch of curly fries. The chili surpassed expectations. I spotted Humerto Brenes, Carl Frommer, and Peter Alston playing in the satellite area. I chatted with Felicia who was sweating Max Pescatori and Ted Forrest in the Omaha Hi/Lo event. I then went over and made fun of Otis for five minutes, which is always fun. Have I told that one of the cool things about my job is now getting sit next to Otis in press row?

10:00pm... PLH Day 2 update: We're down to 9 players and action was suspended until tomorrow. The final TV table will be taped by ESPN and start at 2pm. Here who's going to be playing tomorrow: Cyndy Violette, Steven "Lucky" Lui, Brian Wilson, Joe Sebok, Allen Cunningham, Tony Cousineau, Burt Boutin, John Gale, and Derek Leforte.
posted by Pauly at 6/21/2005 07:52:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Thanks Again, Barry



I'd like to thank Barry Greenstein for winning last night's WSOP event for Charlie Tuttle. And thanks to all the pros like Marcel Luske, Max Pescatori, and John Juanda who stepped up and called Charlie. Special thanks to Felicia Lee who stepped up her efforts to get pros to help out.

Here a recap of last night's event that I wrote called Barry Greenstein Wins Event #19 for Charlie Tuttle. It appeared on Lasvegasvegas.com.

Also, check out Nolan Dalla's official report called: This One's for Charlie.

All my best thoughts and wishes go out to Charlie, his family, and Jason Spaceman.
posted by Pauly at 6/21/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #20 $5000 Pot Limit Hold'em -- Event #19 $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table -- Event #18 $2000 Stud Hi/Lo Day 2

At the Redneck Riviera there is a pool and a spa near by. I don't go to either. The pool is cluttered with inbred kids with pot bellies and their half-baked parents who let them dive into the shallow end with the recklessness of a Hawaiian pearl diver.

The spa is much smaller and is secluded with fake rocks and palm trees. I decided to spend some more time there. Why? Because that's where the strippers hang out. I spotted Candi, one of my upstairs neighbors, sitting in the mini pool and sipping a cocktail. I stopped by to chat for a few moments. She asked me about my work at the Rio. A lot of poker players have been coming into her club. The drool was hanging off of my chin as I starred at her bowling ball sized breasts. At that moment, two kids ran into the spa area shouting, "Mommy!" Candi said she was 19 and looked it. She also had two small children.

Moving on...

Oddjack pimped both me and my brother Derek today. Thanks guys! Here's what they said about me in a post called Tao of Poker Continues His WSOP Ubiquity:

One of the most fascinating stories about the WSOP so far has got to be the fact that it seems one man is completely outreporting everybody else in terms of match-recaps, anecdotal lunacy, and his own personal impressions. Paul McGuire(aka Pauly/Tao of Poker) takes time away from his Las Vegas and Poker Blogging, his Poker Player Newspaper reporting, his own personal blog, to write a story for Fox News about his impressions after the first two weeks of the WSOP. We're assuming that he either wrote this story in the shower or while he was sleeping because it doesn't seem humanly possible for a man to churn out as much hardline information as this. Maybe he just types with his feet? Regardless, color us completely impressed.

Thanks for the pimpage again guys. I'm impressed that I impressed the Oddjack junta.

By the way, Steve Hall is my fuckin' hero. Here is proof.

It's Monday. Today marks the 15th day of straight WSOP coverage. Just yesterday it seemed that I walked in here an eager beaver in awe of every pro I set my sights on. Now, I'm totally jaded. I don't even flinch when I'm taking a piss next to Howard Lederer.

Today I'm covering three tournaments. We got a final table, a day two, and a day one. Sounds like another busy day, eh? I have to warn you and let you know that I'm on some serious cold medication. I feel something coming on and a lot of the staff has gotten sick the last few days. I'm loopy. Beware.

Here are the tournaments that I'm covering today:

1. Event #20 $5000 Pot Limit Hold'em
2. Event #19 $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table = Green font
3. Event #18 $2000 Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 = Red font

The PLO event started with 291 players. We're down to 9 and those guys are fighting for $523,405 prize pool. The Stud Hi/Lo event began with 279 players competing for a prize pool of $513,360. 239 players are playing in the Pot Limit Hold'em. The prize pool in that is $1,123,300. Both Jesus and Barry Greenstein are two-tabling it today. They made the final table of the PLO event and are playing in the PLH event as well.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

2:44pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: We started with 31 players. Mehdi Vatan is the chipleader with almost 52K in chips. Howard Lederer, Mel Judah, and Erik Seidel are all still alive. Gavin Smith just busted out.

3:30pm... PLO Final Table update: For an unknown reason the event was postponed until 4pm instead of 2pm. I will consult my sources and get back to you.

3:50pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: Mel Judah was knocked out in 21st place.

4:20pm... PLO Final Table update: Action has finally began. There was a computer error in the payout structure and some of the players who cashed yesterday got more than they should have. The error has been corrected. I heard a rumor that the WSOP fucked up last year and paid out an extra $500,000 to players due to accounting errors and computer glitches. Here's the final table players and chip counts:

Seat 1 Chris "Jebus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) $16K
Seat 2: Sam Silverman (Las Vegas, NV) $39.5K
Seat 3: Paul Vinci(Shell Beach, CA) $54K
Seat 4: Paul Maxfield (Stroke-On-Trent, England) $67K
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein (RPV, CA) $92K
Seat 6: Tim Martz (Butte, MT) $72.5K
Seat 7: Toto Leonidas (Los Angeles, CA) $45K
Seat 8: Eric "My Boy Blue" Bloore (North Hollywood, CA) $16K
Seat 9: Chris Lindermayer (Pickerington, OH) $35.5K

In the writer's pool, we have some serious action on this event. Mike Palle took Paul Vinci. I took Toto "Tito" Leonidas. BJ went with Paul Maxfield. Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan has Jebus all the way. And Daryn from Poker Pages went with his buddy Sam Silverman.

4:30pm... PLO Final Table update: We have our first elimination. Barry Greenstein knocked out Eric "My Boy Blue" Bloore. Barry Greenstein raised preflop to 6k. My Boy Blue reraised all in for 10k more. Barry called with As-5s-2s-2h. My Boy Blue had Ac-Kc-10h-9h. Barry caught a boat on the river on a board of Kh-6c-3s-6s-2c. Eric "My Boy Blue" Bloore finished in 9th place. He won $8,030.

5:00pm... PLO Final Table update: Sam Silverman was just knocked out in 8th place. Silverman moved all in on the flop of 2d-8c-8h when he flopped trips with 5s-6c-7d-8d. Paul Vinci showed 7s-7c-As-Ad. Silverman lost the leadwhen an ace spiked on rhe turn. His boat was good enough to win. Sam Silverman won $12,045 for 8th place. We're down to 7. Dayrn's pick has been eliminated.

5:11pm... PLO Final Table update: Jay Greenspan's pick was just busted. Chris Jebus Ferguson is being consoled by his girlfriend after he was knocked out in 7th place by Chris Lindenmayer. Jesus missed his flush draw and Chris flopped two pair. Jesus won $16,065 for his efforts. Barry Greenstien is the cipleader.

5:15pm... PLH update: TJ Cloutier was in the middle of a massage when he was busted. Perry Freidman was knocked out as well. In true Hellmuthian fashion, Phil Hellmuth showed up late. He doubled up quickly with pocket Hellmuths (KK) versus Big Slick. There are 124 player remaining.

5:20pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to two table of 18 players. Chad Brown appears to be the chipleader. Hward Lederer and Jen Harman are still playing, althought Jen has a short stack.

5:50pm... PLH update: Juha Helppi looks like the chipleader with over $30K. John Phan, Devilfish, Eli Elezra, Cyndy Violette, Daniel Negreanu, The Grinder, Todd Brunson, Gabriel Thaler, Minh Nguyen, and Amir Vahedi are still in it.

6:20pm... PLO Final Table update: In the battle of the Paul's... Paul Maxfield was knocked out in 6th place by Paul Vinci. Maxfield moved all in preflop with As-Ks-10d-6d. He was called by Vinci's Ac-Qd-3d-7c. Maxfield flopped a pair but Vinci caught running clubs to spike the nut flush on the river. Paul Maxfield won $20,080 for 6th place.

6:40pm... PLH Update: I was hanging out at table that included a very sun burnt The Grinder, a very sleepy Erik Seidel, and a very chatty Eli Elezra. Cyndy Violette, Clonie Gowen, and John Juanada are all still playing.

6:48pm... Stud Hi/Lo: Howard Lederer was knocked out in 14th place. We're down to 8 players. Everyone just went on a break. Chad Brown is the chip leader. Jen Harman made the final table. Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman (Las Vegas, NV) $50K
Seat 2: T. Fu $110K
Seat 3: Chad Brown (Los Angeles, CA) $140K
Seat 4: Tom McCormick $21K
Seat 5: Bonnie Rossi (Hemet, CA) $70K
Seat 6: Lance Edelman (Las Vegas, NV) $45K
Seat 7: Phillip Penn Sr. (Norwalk, CA) $62K
Seat 8: Denis Ethier North Carolina) $85K

Play will resume at 8:15pm.

7:50pm... Tournament Director Jack Effel is scavenging media row for food. He's starving.

8:01pm... PLO Final Table update: Toto Leonidas has been on a mini rush. He caught several cards on the river to double up a couple of times. He knocked out Tim Martz in 5th place. Marz won $24,095.

8:17pm... PLO Final Table Update: Big hand here at the final table. On a flop of 4d-2d-7c, Barry Greenstein moved all in with a pair a kings and a flush draw. He had Kx-Kd-Td-4x. Toto Leonidas called with top pair and a straight draw. Barry caught his diamond on the turn and doubled up against Toto.

8:23pm... PLO Final Table update: Barry Greenstein took down another huge pot from Toto. The flop was Js-9d-4s, Greenstein bet $15K and Toto called. The turn was the 3d and Greenstein checked. Toto bet the pot about $54K and Greenstein moved all in with Kc-Jd-Jh-6c. Toto called with Kd-Qd-Qs-3c. He had a flush and a gutshot draw. He missed both on the river. Greenstein's flopped set of Jacks was good enough to win. Toto Leonidas was eliminated in 4th and he won $28,110. Barry moved into the chip lead.

8:38pm... PLO Final Table update: Chris Lindenmayer was knocked out in 3rd place by Paul Vinci. Here's what happened. Both players checked on the flop of Kd-Qs-5s. Lindenmayer bet $26K on the turn when the 6c hit. Paul Vinci called. The river card paired the board with the Kh. Lindenmayer bet $20K, Vinci raised, and Lindenmayer moved all in. Lindenmayer showed Qd-Qh-7s-4d for a full house Queens full of Kings. Paul Vinci showed Kc-6s-Ac-9c and a bigger boat with Kings full of Sixes to win the pot. Chris Lindenmayer was knocked out and he won $36,140 for his efforts. We've reached heads up play and the chip counts are about even.

8:40pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We have our first player eliminated. Tom McCormick's two pair, aces and queens, lost to Chad Brown's flush and a 7 low. He scooped the entire pot. Tom McCormick was eliminated in 8th and won $14,374.

8:45pm... PLH update: Play was suspended while the tape was being reviewed to figure out what happened to Todd Brunson's missing chips. During the break a drink was spilled and Brunson's chip stack was knocked over in the process. When he came back, he noticed that his stack was light about $5K.

9:05pm... PLO Final Table update: On the 16th hand of heads up play, Barry won a huge pot when he caught a Wheel straight on the river. Barry held a $400K to $43K chip lead.

9:10pm... Stud Hi/Lo Final Table update: Phillip Penn was knocked out in 7th Place. Penn was shortstacked and had a pair of aces. He ran into a full house. He won $20,021.

9:35pm... PLO Final Table update: During one of the mini breaks, I walked up to Barry Greenstein and thanked him for calling Charlie Tuttle, who's been battling cancer. He told me that he was going to dedicate the win to Charlie. At the time he was in the middle of the pack in chips and right away I began to root for Barry. He came back and won two big pots off Toto Leonidas and then beat out Paul Vinci to win this year's event. It was special because he was doing it for Charlie. He told the auidence that he did it all for Charlie. He couldn't really speak much more because he was playing in the other Pot-Limit Hold'em event and he was overhwelmed with emotions. I think a lot of us were. I had to excuse myself and go into the hallway because I was teary eyed. I want to write more and I will, but for now, this is all a little emotional for me.


2005 WSOP $2500 PLO Champion: Barry Greenstein
11:00pm... OK, I'm back after a tough interview with Nolan Dalla. He wanted some more information on one of the biggest stories at this year's WSOP... the affect Charlie has made on the poker community. I also finished up my recap from tonight which will be posted on Lasvegasvegas.com and Poker Player Newspaper on Tuesday morning. I wanted it to be one of the best I have written but I'm afraid I came up a little short because I was too worked up to write clearly. At any rate, I headed to the bar and downed a few doubles of SoCo to numb the pain so I could get back to work. I still have the final table of the Stud event to work on.

12:01am... Stud Hi/Lo update: Jen Harman was busted in 3rd place. We're down to two.

12:50am... PLH update: We're down to 45 players. Cyndy Violette just knocked out Kathy Liebert. Amir Vahedi knocked out Billy baxter. Huck Seed was knocked out by John Gale. Devilfish, Barry Greenstein, Clonie Gowen, Erik Seidel, Allen Cunningham, Hasan Habib, Al Krux, Juha Helppi, and Eli Elezra are all still alive. Joe Sebok os the chipleader. Play will resume at 2pm on Tuesday.

3:05am... Stud Hi/Lo Final Tale update: After three hours of heads up play, we have a winner! Denis Ethier came from behind to beat out Chad Brown to win the 2005 WSOP $2,000 Stud Hi/Lo championship. Denis wins $160,682. Chad takes home $89,838 for second place. Congrats to Denis!
posted by Pauly at 6/20/2005 06:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Monday Big Pimpin' and Radio Free Pauly

"Play perfectly all night and get beat in four hands by some donkey who can't spell the game!" - Phil Hellmuth while he kicked over a chair after a suckout

In case you went to bed early, you missed a Hellmuthian tantrum last night. Make sure you read last night's updates because his antics were classic Hellmuth. Too bad ESPN wasn't taping the event.

Go read my article on Fox Sports called WSOP: First Impressions.

Thanks to Amy for the shoutout yesterday in her blog. While I was covering the final table last night, she was giving me shit about my penchant for malcontent blondes.

My best thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Iggy and his family today.

Go read my brother Derek's blog. He posted one of the funniest recaps of the blogger Vegas trip from three weekends ago.

Stop by Charlie's blog and send him your best wishes. I am overwhelmed by the response from Las Vegas pros who are constantly asking me how Charlie is doing.

Go visit Flip Chip's World Series of Poker photo gallery. Some of his pictures also appear on Fox Sports. By the way, Mrs. Flipchip hit a royal flush in video poker at the Rio. She felt bad that I was working so hard that she gave me a cut of her winnings!

Thanks to everyone who helped back me in the Wednesday $1500 event! 20 of my friends hooked me up. Thanks to: Maudie, Al CantHang, Tanya, Derek, Briana, Otis, Senor, Iggy, Joaquin, Human Head, Obie, Joe Speaker, Wil, Spaceman, Sean & Brent from Lord Admiral Radio, Chad, Halverson, Gracie, April H., and Poker Prof & Flipchip. They all get a cut of my winnings.


Radio Free Pauly

I taped my interview with Sean on early on Saturday morning for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. If you don't know by now, it's the best podcast dedicated to poker in the universe. Over the last few months, I've become a huge cult figure in Canada. I'm happy to be a part of their amazing show.

Sean and Brent are working hard every week to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

You can download the MP3 of this week's show... Episode 31: Here.
You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 30: Here.
You can read this week's shows notes... Here.

My interview starts at 26:30. We talk about the second week of WSOP action.

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by their site and download the extra nuggets. Thanks again to Sean and Stacks for having me on.
posted by Pauly at 6/20/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #19 $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha -- Event #18 $2000 Stud Hi/Lo -- Event #17 $2,500 Limit Hold'em Day 2

I wrote one of my best pieces to date about the World Series of Poker. It's called WSOP: First Impressions and it appears on Fox Sports in their poker section.

It looks like Fox finally got their act together and is adding WSOP coverage from me and Nolan Dalla. They also included Flip Chip's World Series of Poker photo gallery. Check it out. He's got some of the best WSOP photos on the web. Make sure you take a peek at the WSOP Top Money Finishers.

I finally got some sleep, although it was not as much as I would have liked. I was up until dawn again last night and I wish I could say that I was partying it up. Instead, I spent a lonely night at my apartment in the Redneck Riviera working on some articles. I'm taking a semi-half day off today and just finished up some more writing and doing my laundry. I also won an SNG on Noble Poker and also on Full Tilt. The deck was hitting me in the face on Full Tilt. I got AA, KK, JJ, and AQs in four consecutive hands. And yes, I know how lame it is to be playing online while I'm living in Las Vegas. I felt like such a loser last night while I was working and my buddies were in the cash game area playing with drunken tourists. At least I got to bump into Tanya who was playing satellites. She's hilarious!

HDouble, Otis, and Wil all told me that I need to slow down and pace myself. I would love to take their advice. My problem is that I only operate on one speed. I party hard and I work even harder. Its dfficult for me to slow down when I'm doing anything writing related. If I commit to something, I go all out.

Enough about me...

There are three tournaments going on today. This is the first day when two tournaments begin on the same day. The PLO began at noon and the Stud/Hi Low started at 2pm. The second day of the Limit event is also resuming action at 2pm.

Here are the tournaments I'm supposed to be covering today:

1. Event #17 $2,500 Limit Hold'em Day 2
2. Event #18 $2000 Stud Hi/Lo
3. Event #19 $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha

The prize pool for the Limit event is $857,900 and 373 players signed up. For the PLO event, there are 291 players competing for a prize pool of $423,405. And if you really dig Stud Hi/Lo, you will be happy to know that there are 279 players gunning for a prize pool of $513,360.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

6:30pm... Limit Hold'em Day 2 update: We started with 20 players today and now we're down to 10 and a final table. Here are seat positions and chip counts:

Seat 1: Noah Boeken $20K
Seat 2: Quinn Do $77K
Seat 3: Sammy Arzoin $61K
Seat 4: Rodeen Talebi $171K
Seat 5: Greg Debora $44K
Seat 6: Mike Davis $87K
Seat 7: Spencer "Here Comes the" Sun $115K
Seat 8: Chi Chang $212K
Seat 9: "Captain" Tom Franklin $124K
Seat 10: TNT Nasr $33K

Carlos Mortenson and Mark Gregorich were both knocked out today.

6:50pm... PLO Update: Players are on a dinner break. There are 44 left and John Juanda appears to be the chipleader.

8:50pm... Limit Hold'em Final Table: Players on a break and I'm sitting next to Otis who is blogging for his outfit. When players go on a break, the dealers are required to sit at the tables and watch the chips. It's an easy down for them. There's a dealer at one of the tables nearby who's talking smack about going to the first Woodstock. He's shouting across the room to another dealer and telling him about the weed he used to buy. He said four fingers worth of weed cost $20. Damn. I wish I lived in the 1960s.

9:20pm... Stud Hi/Lo: 135 players are left on 17 tables. Jen Harman, Fossilman, Kristy Gazes, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Kirill Gerasimov, Howard Lederer, and Chris Gregorian.

Here are some photos that Flipchip snapped a few moments ago:


Fossilman ponders a call


"All you can eat, baby!"


Mike Sexton minus VVP


God and Jesus


Barry was cool enough to call Charlie


Liz Lieu and Evlyn Ng

9:50pm... PLO Update: Paul Maxfield and Barry Greenstein are among the chipleaders. We're down to 31.

11:10pm... Limit Hold'em update: Noah Boeken was knocked out by Quin Do in 9th place. Boeken was shortstacked and moved all in with AQ. Quin Do had A8 and flopped an ace. Quin D0 is now the chipleader.

11:37pm... Limit Hold'em update: Quin Do is en fuego. He went from one of the short stacks to the chipleader. He added to his stack when he knocked out Spencer "Here Comes the Sun" Sun in 8th place. He wins $25,735.

11:54pm... PLO update: We're down to 16 players and we've been in the money. Phil Hellmuth just tied Barry Johnston's record for most cashes at the WSOP. Toto Leonidas, Barry Greenstein, Chris "Jebus" Ferguson, Julian Gadiner, and Phil Hellmuth are all still alive.

12:01am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Capt. Tom Franklin just knocked out Rodeen Talebi in 7th place. Rodeen wins a set of steak knives and $42,895.

12:20am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Quinn Do knocked out another player. This time it was Sammy Arzoin who was shortstacked. Arzoin finished in 6th place with $42,895 and he also won a set of steak knives.

12:25am... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to about 64 players. Jen Harman looks like she's the chipleader.

12:31am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Capt. Tom Franklin was just knocked out. He had A4s and flopped an ace against Quin Do's pocket tens. The poker gods have been smiling on Quin Do all night long. He caught a set on the turn and sent Capt. Tom home in 5th place. He won $51,475 for his hard work.

12:45am... Random Thoughts: I saw Minneaplois Jim Meehan in the bathroom. He was taking a piss and smoking a cigarette at the same time while balancing a Heinekin on the urinal.

1:02am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Chi Chang knocked out Tony Nasr in 4th place. He moved all in blind with his shortstack and Chi Chang flopped a set with 99. Tony won $60,055 for 4th place.

1:17am... Bouncin Round the Room: The advantages of wi-fi and a decent battery ... I am sitting in the stands next to Grubby and we're talking about MTTs on the Strip. I was sitting next to Otis in press row. So it's a mini-bloggers convention. I'm going to walk over and sweat Phil "God" Hellmuth in the PLO final two tables.

1:22am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Tom Davis was kncoked out Quin Do. Davis won $68,630 for third place. We have reached heads up play, which in Limit poker could take for hours to crown a new champion.

1:55am... PLO update: We're down to 12 players and Phil Hellmuth is bouncing back and forth betweenn almost tilt and tilt. I caught him jawing with one of the players at his table.

1:57am... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to 38. Jean-Robert Bellande is the chipleader with about $37K in chips. Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Gavin Smith, Mel Judah, and Erik Seidel are still alive.

2:09am... PLO update: We're down to nine and I witnessed my first live "Hellmuthian Blowup."

"Have you ever played this game?" Phil Hellmuth yelled at Tim Martz who called his raise and busted him when he ccaught runner-runner for a flush. In true fashion, he threw a temper tantrum after he was knocked out. He was cussing up a storm and even kicked a chair. I wish I had video footage of that. He really wanted to make the final table. On his way to the payout table, Hellmuth was bitching about losing to a guy who called his raise with 9JJK.

"Play perfectly all night and get beat in four hands by some donkey who can't spell the game," he said to members of the press. Play at the final table will start on Monday at 3pm.

2:40am... Stud Hi/Lo update: Play is done for the night. There are 32 players left and play will resume at 2pm.

2005 WSOP $2,500 Limit Hold'em Winner: Quinn Do
3:15am... Limit Hold'em Final Table update: After about ninety minutes of play, we had a new champion. On the winning hand, "The Mighty" Quinn Do flopped the nut flush with A7s against Chang's J9o. He won $137,265 for his efforts. Quinn Do won his first bracelet and won $265,975. Congrats to Quinn.

For a complete recap written by yours truly, visit 2005 World Series of Poker News. Three tournaments will be going on tomorrow, so check back here for more living blogging updates.
posted by Pauly at 6/19/2005 05:41:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #17 $2,500 Limit Hold'em and Event #16 NL Shootout Day 2

It's Saturday morning in Las Vegas. The harsh Nevada sun is blazing and a roach the size of a small poodle scurried underneath my front door. I woke up early to tape a radio interview with the Lord Admiral Card Club. Man, was I tired. Sean even told me how bad I sounded. It was another late night here at the Rio. The final table for the Limit Shootout lasted until 4:20am. The media folks still left covering the event went a little stir crazy around 3am. For the last hour and a half we were just plain silly. I'm fortunate I work along side people with tremendous senses of humor. Thank God that the two final players cut a deal, otherwise I think I might still be covering that final table.

Thanks for everyone's concern about my depressing morning yesterday. I lost my shit. A lot of it had to do with my girl Katie Holmes converting to Scientology and getting engaged to Tom "TC Cheese" Cruise. Losing my mind happens from time to time. I'm a stranger in a strange land. I've never lived in a desert climate before. The gambling demons are haunting me at every turn.

Good news is that I usually snap out of any sad funk in a day or so. A long talk with Otis really cheered me up. Sometimes I question all this hard work that I'm pouring out and feel that it's going to get me nowhere. Every few hours or so I look up and say, "What the fuck am I doing here?"

This is not easy work. I know most of you couldn't handle two days here. But that's why I get paid the big bucks to blog live from the World Series of Poker.

When I see Texas Dolly sitting a few tables away, I quickly remind myself that I need to appreciate this moment for what it is. I'm at the World Fuckin' Series of Poker. This is the chance of a lifetime, so I better start enjoying myself before it's over and I'm back to low-limit grinding with the masses of idiots, donkeys, and fish on Party Poker or Poker Stars.

Today I get to cover only two events. Very nice. Here they are:

1. Event #16 $1,500 NL Shootout Day 2 = Green font
2. Event #17 $2,500 Limit Hold'em Day 1

There are 373 players in the $2,500 Limit event competing for a prize pool of $857,900. The No Limit Shooutout starts today with 13 players, down from 780 who began yesterday. The prize pool for the shootout has a prize pool of $1,076,400. We shout begin the final table around dinner time.

Alas, I couldn't sleep and was craving wi-fi access so I hopped in a cab which arrived only five minutes late, and headed to the Rio.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

3:01pm... Limit Hold'em update: There are 308 players left. Daniel Negreanu is the chip leader. Annie, Duke and Marcel have been knocked out. As soon as I arrived at press row, I was greeted by Max Pescatori. He might be one of my favorite professional players that mainstream media has no clue about. That will change after he wins his first bracelet this year. Anyway, Max was bummed out that he was already eliminated from the Limit event. I thanked him for calling Charlie and we spoke for a few minutes about that.

Thanks to Felicia by the way. She got Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, and Max to call Charlie at home. Seriosuly, these are amazing people and they did not do it for publicity. They did it because they cared. When I bumped into Marcel Luske in the hallway, I asked about how he played today. He was knocked out already and he didn't want to talk about poker. He quickly asked about Charlie. Here's a guy that Marcel never met before and he's in the hallway of the WSOP discussing Charlie's situation with intense concern on his face like he was one of his family members. If there's one thing I've taken away from covering the WSOP so far, is that despite being sharks, a lot of these guys have big hearts full of compassion.

Amyway, at the table to my left here at media row, Howard Lederer is sporting a red Full Tilt cap and a hockey jersey. He's sitting in seat 8 with his back to me. By the way, when are the guys at Full Tilt (Hank and Franklin) going to hook me up with a FT hoops jersey with "Dr. Pauly" on the back? Daniel Negreanu has been moved to Lederer's table. He took seat 1 and has not stopedp talking since he arrived. He's currently getting a massage while he yaps.

3:20pm... NL Shootout Day 2 update: We started with 13 players and our first player has been knocked out. Anthony Reategui eliminated Alan Goehring in 13th place. Goehring had a set of Kings but they did not hold up to Reategui's flush. Geohring won $9,690 for 13th place. We are down to 12 if you those of you who are mathematically challenged. Anthony Reategui is the chipleader.

4:20pm... NL Shootout Day 2 update: Bret Jungblut was knocked out by Allen Goldstein in 12th place. He had his stack crippled the previous hand when his AK ran into Chris McCormack's AA. Jungblut won $11,840 for 12th place.

5:00pm... Limit Hold'em update: We're down to 220 players. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is the current chipleader.

6:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room update: I bumped into HDouble who came up for the weekeend. Felicia and Glenn said they would be back later tonight. Otis is wandering around doing his own thing. It's like a damn bloggers convention. Today the crowds swelled. It's the weekend which means gawking tourists. They are kind of annoying. I know they are excited about seeing their favorite pros, but these folks are at work for fuck's sake. Have a little respect and don't demand that they give autographs and pictures while they're in the heat of battle.

6:05pm... Limit Hold'em update: How about this "fun" table.... Huck Seed and Todd Brunson were moved to Daniel Negreanu and Howard Lederer's table. Within a few hands Brunson was knocked out. Andy Bloch, Jen Harman, and Josh Arieh have been busted. Jen Harman is so tiny that I tower over her.

6:10pm... NL Shootout Day 2 update: I hung out at the final two tables for about twenty minutes. I saw some intersting hands. Young Pham re-raised $20K on the button. When his opponent Allen Goldstein folded AQ, he almost fell out of his chair. At that point I put him on AA. Pham told the dealer to let him turn over any of the tow cards. It was an ace of clubs. Pham said he had the other black ace as well. Ted Lawson is sitting in seat one with his shoes off. He took a big pot off of Pham when his JJ held up against AK.

Jay Greenspan told about about a huge hand where Erick Lindgren caught a runner runner nut flush on the river and Anthony Reategui called a hug ebet on the river with bottom pair. Interesting, eh? Anthony Reategui is still the chipleader.

Chris McCormack was just knocked out in 11th place by Allen Goldstein. We're down to 10. Players are on a dinner break.

6:15pm... Random Thoughts: Just read an encouraging email from Wil, who gave me some great advice:

Remember to take care of you, or the Redneck Riviera will suck your soul right out of your body and feed it to a crack baby.

Thanks for reading, buddy!

7:00pm... Limit Hold'em Day 1 update: Toto Leonidas is the chipleader. There are 119 player remaining and they are all going on a dinner break.

7:15pm... Dinner Break: On the advice of Wil, I took full advantage of my dinner break. I headed over to the Full Tilt hospitality suite. I chatted with John Juanda for a few minutes. The bartender recognized me from many other visits. I'm a big tipper and he remembered what I usually drink. I also noshed on some cheese and crackers. Without fail, in came Amy Calistri and she had a glass of wine. I headed off to the deli by the sports book for some curly fries. I'm addicted to them. On my way back to the convention area, I bumped into Otis. We ran into HDouble and Mrs. Double, who had dropped a few bucks on the slots.

7:30pm... NL Shootout Final Table Update: Here is who made the final table:

Seat 1: Erick Lindgren $80K
Seat 2:Kenny Robbins $116.2K
Seat 3: Keith Quilty $35,200
Seat 4: Dariush Imani $70K
Seat 5: Young Phan $79.5K
Seat 6: Allen Goldstein $410K
Seat 7: Ted Lawson (Plantation, FL) $35.4K
Seat 8: Paul Kroh $70K
Seat 9: Anthony Reategui $284.9K
Seat 10: Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon (El Paso, TX) $84.4K

7:50pm... NL Shootout Final Table Update: Keith Quilty was knocked out in 10th Place. Quilty raised all in and Kroh called. Quilty's A-6 was about a 3 to 2 favorite over Kroh's K-Q. Kroh caught a King on the river card and Keith Quilty was knocked out in 10th place. He won $16,145.

7:55pm... NL Shootout Final Table Update: Ted Lawson moved all in with 66. Young Pham called him with 99 and was looking good until the river when a 6 spiked. He turned around to press row and said, "When is this going to stop happening to me?" Lawson doubled up.

8:25pm... NL Shootout Final Table Update: Tournamnet Director Johnny Grooms is awake now after the coktail waitress brought him a cup of coffee. Allen Goldstein, who is wearing Birkensstocks, is chugging a Corona, he official beer of Men the Master.

8:45pm...Limit Hold'em Day 1 update: Jesus, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and John D'Agostino are all out. 99 players remaining.

8:51pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Josh Arieh, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu are sitting down in front of me to sweat Erick Lindgren. Johnny Grooms is busting on the conversation between Negreanu and Hellmuth, "Those two are discussing who's the greatest player in the world."

Negreanu is chugging a Heinekin and telling Hellmuth about his heads up match against Barry Greenstein at the Wynn, specifially how Greenstein kept raising him on a certain hand. Hellmuth talked about going to Montreal for a UB event and skipping an event to attend his son's graduation. Hellmuth is considering blowing off the PLO event tomorrow to watch golf. Negreanu quickly added, "It's without any rebuys."

If they found out I was blogging their conversation, they'd probably kick my ass. Ah, who am I kidding. I can take both of them! Hellmuth is telling a story about drinking $2,000 bottle of rum with Phil Ivey and losing $84K playing Chinese Poker. He also ragging on Phil Ivey's poor golf skills. When Hellmuth's wife called, he bailed. As soon as the waitress came by, Negreanu ordered another beer. And he's back to talking about playing heads up with Barry Greenstein. When the waitress came back, Negreanu tipped her $20 for 4 beers.

9:20pm... Limit Hold'em update: Howard Lederer, Mike Gracz, Ram Vaswani, Barry Greenstein have both been knocked out. 75 players are left.

9:50pm... Bouncin' Round the Room: The final table went on a 15 minute break. I wandered over to the 20/40 tables and found HDouble. He was down a little and now he's even, just in case you wanted a chip count on HDouble. Across from him I noticed an interesting cash game: TOES. It's a rotation game with Triple Draw Duece to Seven Lowball, Omaha 8 or Better, and Seven-card Stud. Seat 1 = Mickey Applebaum. Seat 2 = Greg Raymer. Seat 6 = John Murphy. Seat 7 = Dr. Mark Burtman. Raymer was skeptical about playing but sat down anyway.

10:00pm... NL Shootout Final Table update: EDog was put to sleep. Erick Lindgren was eliminated when his A7 ran into Anthony Reategui's QTs. Reatgui flopped a Queen and Erick's hand did not improve.

10:50pm... NL Shootout Final Table update: After what seemed to be a final table that could possible last until 4am again, inside of three hands two players were busted. Allen Goldstein was kncoked out in eighth place and won $25,835 when he reraised all in with 99 against Anthony Reategui's Hilton Sisters. It was an interesting move. Earlier Goldstein cracked AA with a set of 7s.

On the second hand, Phil Gordon moved all in with K4s. He was called by Dariush Imani who had Phil dominated with KT. The flop and turn didn't help Gordon. The expression on his face didn't change throughout the hand. He deadpanned, "There's still a four in the deck." On the river, a four spiked and Phil knocked out Imani in 7th place. He won $32,290.

11:00pm... NL Shootout Final Table update: The action is insane and fast. Anthony Reategui knocked out Kenny Robbins and Ted Lawson on the same hand. Reategui had 99. Kenny Robbins had KK and Ted Lawson had JJ. On the turn, Reategui caught a 9 to make his set. The river didn't help the other guys and Reategui knocked them both out and added to his massive chipstack. On his way out Kenny Robbins turned to me and muttered, "Reategui is the worst player I have ever seen." He's definitely got lucky. Inside of 15 minutes, several players were busted. Ted Lawson came in 6th place and won $43,055. Kenny Robbins won $53,820 for 5th place. This is like an online tournament.

11:05pm... NL Shootout Final Table update: Anthony Reategui has a horseshoe wedged up his ass. He knocked out Young Pham when his KQ was better than Pham's A9. He hit a four flush on the river. Young Pham finished in fourth place and won $64,585. Reategui has almost a $1M chiplead.

Phil Gordon walked over to me and said, "I've never been so card dead ever at a final table. I haven't seen any pocket pairs." Poor Phil.

11:18pm... Limit Hold'em Day 1 update: Carlos Mortensen eliminated John Juanda.

11:35pm... Phil Gordon was eliminated in 3rd place. He really wanted to win a bracelet this year. You could see the frustration on his face when he went card dead and couldn't make any moves. He won $75,350 and made his second final table at this year's WSOP.


2005 WSOP NL Shootout Champion: Anthony Reategui
12:05am... We have a winner. Anthony Reategui knocked out Paul Kroh in second place. Paul won $146,380 for his efforts. Reategui won $269,100 for first place and won his first WSOP bracelet. Congrats to Anthony!

1:25am... Limit Hold'em update: We made the money and we're down to 29 players.

1:30am... I live an amazing life, right? Not right now. Otis is playing 10/20 and HDouble is playing 20/40. What am I doing? Writing a recap of today's final table on a Saturday night in Las Vegas. This is the part of the job that sucks.
posted by Pauly at 6/18/2005 05:33:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #16 NL Shootout Day 1 -- Event #15 Limit Shootout Final Table -- Event #14 $1K Stud Hi/Lo Final Table

I needed to take the first part of today off to preserve my sanity. You can read all about my shitty day in the post after this one. I shall apologize to any readers who were looking to follow the progress of one of their friends or loved ones if they were playing in any of the final tables. Don't forget that I'm working almost everyday between now and the Final Event. I need to blow off a few half days if I want to be fresh once the Big One hits in mid-July. There will be very little specific hand-to-hand updates. I will be floating around a lot this afternoon and tonight. My goal is to spend more time out on the floor than in front of the computer.

I got paid today. Yep, the Poker Prof gave me my first payment of this year's WSOP. And what did I do with the money? I hit the craps able with TJ Cloutier. Ah, just kidding. But I did hit the bar with Otis and Amy during the dinner break. Damn, I love watching those hot waitresses shake their ass on the mini-stage. Amy Calistri and I have been getting into a bad habit... having cocktails during dinner break. But heck, I'm here to get some great stories and Amy is full with them. She is the WSOP Gossip Queen.

Otis gave me a good talking to about covering poker tournaments. It was refreshing to get some of his advice, especially on pacing myself.

Flipchip took me to Smith's which is the local grocery store chain. And yes, they have slot machines in the super market. In New Orleans, you can buy hard liquor in supermarkets. In Vegas you can piss away your grocery money. I had to buy laundry detergent ($3.09) and a new notebook.

Anyway, here are the events I was supposed to be covering today:

1. Event #14 $1,000 Stud Hi/Lo Final Table = Red font
2. Event #15 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout
3. Event #16 $1,500 NL Shootout = Green font

The Stud Hi/Lo event started with 595 players who are competing for a prize pool of $541,450. The Limit Hold'em Shootout started with 450 players and they are gunning for a prize pool of $621,000. Kathy Leibert is the defending champion in this event. She made the final table and is looking to repeat. 780 players signed up for the NL shootout.

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

8:15pm... Stud Hi/Lo Final Table update: We started with 8 players today. Here they are with chipcounts:

Seat 1: Sheila Gralak $37.5K
Seat 2:Giacomo D'Agostino $17.5K
Seat 3: Men The Master $46K
Seat 4: Steve Hohn $53.5K
Seat 5: Mike Wattel $155.5K
Seat 6: Peter Phillips $74K
Seat 7: Jonathan Paul $151K
Seat 8: Al Ruck $61.5K

Giacomo D'Agostino was knocked out first in 8th place. Men the Master was next in 7th place. Marie St. Michael took 6th place. Peter Phillips finished in 5th place. Jonathan Paul came in 4th. In 3rd place, it is Al Ruck. We're now heads up between Mike Wattel and Steve Hohn.

8:35pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout update: Here are the seat assignments. All the players start with the same amount of chips... $75K.

Seat 1: Aram Zerounian
Seat 2: M.J. Partin
Seat 3: Quinn Do
Seat 4: Robert Mizrachi
Seat 5: Sam Siharath
Seat 6: Bill Shaw
Seat 7: Kathy Liebert
Seat 8: Mark Seif
Seat 9: Alex Borteh

On hand 72, M.J. Partin was knocked out in 9th Place. He collected $12,420. Samrane Siharath was knocked out by Mark Seif's AA. He took 8th place and won $18,630.

9:30pm... NL Shootout update: We started with 780 and each table played down until one person had all the chips. Here's a list of players who won their table and survived the first round: Erick Lindgren, Scott Jones, Ted Lawson, Greg Stein, Anthony Piscato, Paul Wolfe, Robert Yong, Ezra Teitellbaum, John Myung, The Grinder, Annie Duke, Marco Traniello, Allan Dvorkis, Alan Groehing, John Juanda, Johan Storkers, Rodeen Talebi, Chris Massicot, Jim Worth, Joseph Haddad, Jay Heimowitz, Richard Hayden, Syracuse Chris Tsiprailidis, Raoul Paez, Greg Alston, Bret Jungblut, Andrew Krivenko, Charlie Sewell, Cecilia Reyes, Theodore Grose, Phil Gordon, Chris McCormack, Brian Mogelefsky, Lauery Aamer, Sam Arzoin, Michael Gambong, Young Phan, Hoan Ly, Anthony Reategui, Michael Sgrai, Tomer Bebvenisti, Yubia Tao, William Vechnak, Andrew Barret, Joseph Boldstein, Clint Baker, Kenneth Robbins, Noah Boeken, Darrin Fogel, Mike Davis, Peter Alson, William Jenson, Melissa Hayden, Jack Rosenfeld, Peter Costa, Joseph Golins, Paul Kroh, Nash Rizk, Richard Phillips, David Pham, Matthew Bates, Jesse James, Bobby Sanchez, Kenneth Berg, Justin Tran, Eugeny Kafelnikov, Jeff Camprell, Joe Chang, Gabriel Robles, Lee Wilson, Donald Barton, Keith Quilty, Randy Lorensen, Minh Nguyen, John Monnette, Dariush Imani, Frank Miceli, and Kirill Gerasimov.

10:00pm... NL Shootout update: A couple of big names have been knocked out of Round 2: John Juanda, Annie Duke, The Grinder, Minh Nguyen, David Pham, and Melissa Hayden. Phil Gordon has a huge chiplead.

10:21pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout: Have I mentioned how boring Limit events are to cover?

11:10pm... Bouncin' Around the Room Update: I chatted with Felicia's friend Jean Gaspard. He told me that his AK ran into JJ and he was KO'd of the NL Shootout. I also talked to Shirley for a while too. She lost heads up to "Brett Favre" at her table. She tried to slow play JJ and ran into K3 when Favre flopped trips.

11:16pm... Limit Shootout Final table update: Kathy Liebert was elimianted in 7th place. She collected $24,480 for her work. I was rooting for Kathy to repeat this year!

11:30pm... Bouncin' Around the Room update: I hung out and chatted with Nolan Dalla for a few minutes in the media room. He recanted tales about his first job out of college, when he was selling insurance in Fort Worth, Texas.

Modnight Update... I have nothing to report. The Stud event is still heads up. Nothing to report at the Limit final table. It's official, we have lost it here in press row. Flipchip is making Levitra jokes.

12:10am... NL Shootout update: Round 2 is complete. We started with 13 tables and we have 13 winners. Here is who advanced: Allen Goldstein, Kenny Robbins, Paul Kroh, Erick Lindgren, Phil Gordon, Alan Goehring, Bret Jungblut, Anthony Reatgul, Ted Lawson, Young Phan, Dariush Imami, Chris McCormack, and Keith Quilty. Play will resume at 2pm on Saturday.

1:00am... Stud Hi/Lo update... We have a winner! After five hours of heads up play, Steve Hohn eliminated Mike Wattel to win his first WSOP bracelet. Wattel won $88,800 for second place. Steven Hohn won $156,985.

1:07am... Limit Shootout Final Table: It had been two hours since we had someone knocked out. Arman Zerounian was knocked out in 6th place. He won $28,255 for his efforts. We're down to 5 players and it looks like we're going to be playing until dawn.

1:47am... Limit Shootout Final Table: Tournament Director Johnny Grooms put the Over/Under for the completion of the final table at 4:30am. I'm guessing it will be 6am. Anyway, we have another player eliminated. Quinn Do was kncoked out in 5th place. He wins $34,465.

2:20am... Bouncin Around the Room: I needed to go on a walk to clear my head. I wandered over to the deli near the sports book. They have great curly fries. It was so yummy and tasty. I was yapping with Joanne on the phone while I walked through the casino. Damn, the Rio was hopping for a Friday night!! I've been living in this surreal bubble called the WSOP and I forgot that I work in a freakin' casino. Man, some of the chicks were dressed up and looked smoking hot. I grabbed a bottle of water in the gift shop and told Joanne that they had Corona's in a can. She refused to believe me. I noticed a young, nubile black woman wearing a short short skirt. It was so short you could almost see beaver. Anyway, she stood in line in front of me but I didn't see any items in her hands that she was buying. It turned out that she was with the guy in front of her. He was your typical middle-aged tourist with a beer guy, a nice $200 watch, and a golf shirt. He was buying condoms. Yeah, she was a "pro" and my man was just ten minutes away from getting his "Jimmy waxed." Yes, I've definitely lost it. I'm blogging about hookers at the Rio. Flipchip told me that they bus hookers in for the WSOP and that they come from all over. Hey, even Jen at Poker Wire is completely bored. She's shopping for shoes online. BJ was explaining the origins of his name and it has nothing to do with fellatio.

2:30am... Limit Shootout Final Table: Robert Mizrachi (aka The Grinder's brother) was finally knocked out by Mark Seif. His railbirds were not cool. The Grinder was OK, but the other people in his group were blantantly ignoring Johnny Groom's pleas to not step onto the platform area while hands were in progress. It is media access only and it was difficult to see the action while they crowded the table. I've been covering final tables for almost two weeks now, and they were the most annoying by far. I was glad to come back and see them gone. Mizrachi won $40,675 for fourth place. Mark Seif, who is friends with Shirley Rosario, is the chipleader. She's on the rail rooting her good friend on.

2:35am... Limit Shootout Final Table update: Alex Borteh was knocked out in 3rd place. He won $51,440 for his efforts.


2005 WSOP Limit Shootout Champion: Mark Seif
4:20am... Limit Shootout Final Table update: Both players played heads up for about ninety minutes before they took a short break to discuss a deal. When they came back, Mark Seif won his first bracelet. William Shaw took second place. He won $93,770. Mark Seif took down $181,330 for the victory.
posted by Pauly at 6/17/2005 11:12:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Me and TJ



Flip Chip took this picture yesterday. Make sure you stop by his kick ass 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery.
posted by Pauly at 6/17/2005 10:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
A Really Bad Vegas Day

I didn't get to sleep until 6am. I was working on a few things. If I had two days off and worked 48 straight hours, I still wouldn't catch up on all my email and other writing assignments. I'm swamped over here. I'm in the craziest city in the world and I have been to exactly zero strip clubs and have played live poker only twice for a total of three hours since I started working.

I decided that today would be a well-deserved half a day for me. I'm hitting the wall over here. I don't have an army of people helping me cover the WSOP like other organizations. It's just me, Flip Chip, and the Poker Prof. I was not scheduled to head to work until after 4pm and closer to 5pm. The plan was to go to bed early, catch up on sleep, get up early and play in a NL tournament on the Strip somewhere to prepare for my WSOP event next week. I stayed up much later than I wanted and woke up just as tired as I had been all week. Yep, I fucked up right there. What good is a half-a-day off if I don't catch up on sleep?

I called for a cab and jumped in the shower. She said 15-20 minutes so I assumed that meant 30 minutes. In NYC all I have to do is walk outside and flag down a taxi. It's pretty simple and convenient. Snagging a Vegas cab sucks donkey balls. It's against the law to flag one down in the street. You have to be at a taxi stand at a casino or call for one. Either way, you have to wait a long ass time.

I called when my cab was late. I was supposed to play at noon and figured calling one hour before would be sufficient time for them to send one over. No such luck. By the third time I called to ask where my ride was, the dispatcher told me it was still going to be 15 minutes. At this point it was 10 minutes until noon and I was standing outside waiting for a cab that never showed up. Even when I bitched at her it was my third time calling and I was going to miss a poker tournament at noon, she said "Five minutes."

The heartless cunt was fucking lying to me. I didn't call her bluff. I simply folded. Nothing more I could do so I hung up and looked for a wall to punch my fist into. Today was the first time I had off in a very long time and how did I spend it? Not playing in a casino that's for sure.

I grabbed a quick lunch at Wendy's, then wandered back to the Redneck Riviera and logged onto Party Poker using dial up. I know it sucks after being used to Wi-Fi at the Rio. I'm such a loser. I'm playing online poker in Las Vegas. I signed up for a $100 NL tournament with 210 players. I liked my chances in that field but my stack was crippled when my pocket kings ran into AJ. I finished in 161st place. Unimpressive.

Depression of the Sylvia Plath nature began to sink in. I considered turning on the oven and sealing my windows.

Laundry quickly came to mind. I'm out of clean underwear so I loaded up all my dirty clothes and headed for the laundry room. I have no detergent and figured I'd buy some from a vending machine in the laundry room. No such luck. I went to the front desk and asked them where I can score some detergent. They told me at the gas station. With my laundry flung behind my back, I walked three blocks in the hot Nevada sun to find out that the lady behind the counter at the gas station can barely speak English and has no clue what I'm looking for. I searched the aisles franticly and found nothing. I walked back to the laundry room in hopes of borrowing some detergent from my friendly neighbors. I found one overweight woman in the laundry room folding her oversized panties and told her my sad story. She offered to sell me some of her detergent for $20!

What the fuck? $20 for a cup of liquid Tide? I can score a bag of ditch weed for $20. I can get a crappy handjob from one of the crack whores in the building next door for $20. I told her, "Piss off."

I'll be wearing dirty boxers for one more day.

No sleep. No cab. No tournament win. No detergent. No clean clothes. My half a day off is ruined. Yeah, I'm having my worst day in Las Vegas since I moved here.
posted by Pauly at 6/17/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #15 Limit Shootout -- Event #14 $1K Stud Hi/Lo Day 2-- Event #13 $5K NL Final Table

The left handed cop had horrible handwriting. He scribbled down in his notebook a couple of things that I told him about the early morning shouting sessions and slap fights from the trouble-makers next door. Earlier this morning I was not woken up by my screaming neighbors. Instead there was a Las Vegas Metro police officer knocking loudly on my front door. He wanted the skinny on my neighbors.

"Does this have anything to do with the shooting yesterday?" I asked.

He ignored my question. I heard rumors that someone was shot in an adjacent building unit. Supposedly it was a drug deal gone bad and a trigger-happy speed freak shot up the place. His getaway vehicle was a bicycle that he stole from one of the hundreds of mullet-clad redneck kids who populated the complex. At least that what's the old lady in the wheelchair told me. Agnes lived at the end of the hall and spit sunflower seeds out her window. She had one glass eye and was the Redneck Riviera's version of the National Inquirer. She had been pumping me for information about myself. I told her nothing. Less is more. Especially in Las Vegas.

In my walk over to grab a Gatorade and a donut at the am/pm, I spotted Agnes in her usual spot. I told her about my morning wake up call from the police. That when she spilled the beans. The guy next door to me beat the shit out of one of his girlfriend's kids. This all went down while I was covering the Pot-Limit Hold'em final table yesterday afternoon. When the girlfriend confronted him, he wigged out and broke her jaw. He quickly took off by stealing her car. He hasn't been seen since. On my way back to my room I noticed that two maids and the assistant manager were cleaning out the room. They were hauling out garbage in several huge trash bags and wiping down the walls.

Moving on...

Flip Chip won a satellite yesterday. He took a break from shooting the best damn 2005 WSOP Photos available to play a single table tournament. Good job. I'm too damn busy to play any today. Maybe over the weekend. I need to get my NL skills sharp before I play in my first WSOP event next Wednesday.

Jen Leo from pPlayer is back in town and we finally met for the first time. She wrote a nice bit about me called Monopauly.

Here are the tournaments that I will be covering today:

1. Event #13 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Final Table = Green font
2. Event #14 $1,000 Stud Hi/Lo Day 2= Red font
3. Event #15 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout

Today's $5K NL final table started with 466 players and had a prize pool of $2,190,200. The Stud/Hi Lo event started with 595 and we're down to 33 players. That prize pool is $541,450.

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

2:30pm... Limit Shootout update: People have been asking me about the Shootout. Here's the deal. There are 450 players on 45 tables. You advance after you knock out the other 9 at the table. When that happens you play at a table with other winners. You get the drift. There are alot of big names in this event. They will be having 9 tables with 5 players at each table for Round 2.

3:00pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Here is the final table line up and chip counts:

Seat 1: Dustin Woolf (Los Angeles, CA) $233K... His nickname is "Neverwin."
Seat 2: Todd Brunson (Las Vegas, NV) $16K... Todd is a professional poker player and the son of Texas Dolly.
Seat 3: Jason "Doc" Berilgen (Houston, TX) $159K... Doc is an oncologist who's trying to make a name for himself.
Seat 4: Gavin Smith (Las Vegas, NV) $142K... Originally from Ontario, Canada, this is Gavin's second final table this year.
Seat 5: Neal Wang (Los Angeles, CA) $630.5K... He's self-employed and is the chipleader.
Seat 6: TJ Cloutier (Richardson, TX) $281.5K... TJ has 46 cashes at WSOP with 5 gold bracelets.
Seat 7: John Hennigan (Philadelphia, PA) $$363.5K... Johnny World won a bracelet last year.
Seat 8: Hieu Tony Ma (South El Monte) $61K... Born in Vietnam, he's nicknamed "TTT" and won one WSOP bracelet.
Seat 9: John Bonetti (Houston, TX) $248K... Originally from Brooklyn, NY, John is retired. He has 3 gold bracelets.
Seat 10: Steven Zoine (Merrick, NY) $194.5K... Steven is contractor and married with two kids.

In the writer's pool, I got TJ Cloutier. Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan has Johnny World. Heather from Poker Wire took Gavin and BJ from Cardplayer has Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf, even after I mentioned to him his nickname. Yeah, I'm rooting for TJ today. I think a lot of his backers are pulling for him too. The pic to the right was taken in the trenches at media row. You caught a glimpse of what I see everyday.

3:34pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Todd Brunson moved all in with a shortstack and A-10. Dustin Woolf called with 77. Brunson flopped a ten and doubled up.

3:45pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Todd Brunson moved all in again, this time with pocket aces. Neal Wang called with AQ. The flop looked harmless: 10-2-3. When a 5 hit the turn, it started to look bad. If a four spiked, then both players would chop. And yeah, a four fell and both players chopped the pot.

3:54pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: 29 players remain after Pescal Perrault, Daniel Espiritu, Todd Bourgault, and Ta Hoang were knocked out.

3:55pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Gavin Smith and Johnny World were all in preflop. Gavin had the Hilton Sisters and Johnny showed JJ. Gavin caught a Queen on the turn but that gave Johnny a gutshot straight draw. He didn't catch it and Gavin doubled up.

4:00pm... Limit Shootout update: David Williams, Marcel Luske, Mike Matusow, and The Grinder are all out.

4:12pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Mike Matusow walked over to the rail and shouted, "Todd, you might be my idol."

4:35pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: 26 players remain. Asle Gjesteland, Vipul Kothari, and Earl Odom have been busted.

4:45pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Gavin Smith's AQ ran into Johnny World's Big Slick. Gavin took a big hit. A few of us on media row began debating whether or not Todd Brunson had a mullet. Jay did some research and we categorized his haircut as the "ultimullet." God bless wi-fi access.

4:53pm... Random Thoughts on Cash Games: Jay Greenspan spotted Eskimo Clark playing in a Pot-Limit Omaha game with some dudes with deep pockets. There was at least $10K on that table. The lady on the loud speaker is calling names for $400/$800 Triple Draw. Damn, talk about one tough game.

5:00pm $5K NL Final Table update: Gavin Smith 10-7 was eliminated by TJ Cloutier's 10-8s, when TJ flopped an 8. Gavin finsihes in 10th place and won $24,090 for his efforts. Heather is now out of the pool. She picked Gavin.

5:05pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Doc Berilgen's pocket Kings doubled up against Todd Bruson's Big Slick. Doc now has about $230K.

5:09pm... $5K NL Final Table update: John Bonetti's 44 doubled up Todd Brunson's 99.

5:13pm... $5K NL Final Table update: TJ Cloutier flopped a set and eliminated Tony Ma in 9th place. Tony collected $43,805 for his efforts. I need to clone myself so I can cover three tournaments at once. Or I have to ask to be paid in crystal meth.

5:14pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout update: Ted Forrest and John Juanda have been eliminated.

5:16pm... $5K NL Final Table update: TJ Cloutier reraised all in with pocket Tens. Steven Zoine called with pocket Kings and he ended up doubling up against TJ. On the very next hand Todd Brunson was eliminated in 8th place. He takes home $65,705.

5:30pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 Update: We're down to 19 players. Michael Lemkin, Melissa Hayden, Bonnie Rossi, Jess Price, Joshua Kerrigan, Bo Toft, and Howard Hu have all been knocked out.

5:50pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Steven Zoine eliminated Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf in 7th place. Woolf won $87,610. BJ's pick was now knocked out, so it's down to me and Jay in the writer's pool.

6:00pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: Russell Salzer is our chipeader with 18 player left. Howard Hu, Robert Toft, and Full Tilter Rafe Furst have all been eliminated.

6:03pm... $5K NL Final Table update: TJ doubled up against Neal Wang. TJ had AQ and Neal Wang showed 99. TJ caught a Queen on the river to double up against Neal Wang. That was a huge hand for TJ and he almost moved into the chip lead.

6:24pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Players went on a 15 minute break and I grabbed a $7 "seasonal" fruit salad because Aunt Maudie was concerned that I was not eating enough fruits and vegetables.

Anyway, Nolan Dalla sat down in front of me and was laughing at John Bonetti. "It's like watching a car wreck," he said. Everytime Bonetti looks at his hole cards and sees shit, the expressions on his face are priceless. I can't wait to see what ESPN does with him. I suggested that they have a camera on him at all times. He curses under his breath is his misses a flop and all of this is not an act for the TV crew.

6:30pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: 16 players are left. Stephen Flicker and David Tahajian have been elimianted.

6:31pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout update: There are several heads up matches still going on. I know that Evelyn Ng is still playing. Here are some of the winners of their tables: Humberto Brenes, William Shaw, David Belfiore, Mack Lee, Steven Dunning, Jeff Shulman, David Luttbeg, Hoan Ly, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Tom McEvoy, Patty Galagher, Mario Esquerra, Alexandra Vuong, Frank Kassela, Samrane Siharath, and James Davidson.

6:51pm... $5K NL Final Table update: John Hennigan doubled up John Bonetti when his pocket sixes lost to Bonetti's 10-6.

7:00pm... $5K NL Final Table update: TJ Cloutier moved all in with AA against John Hennigan's ATs. TJ's aces held up and Johnny World Hennigan finished in 6th place. He won $109,510 for his efforts. TJ is second in chips with $635K. Steven Zoine is the chipleader with $923K. Jay Greenspan picked Johnny World which means that my pick, TJ, won the writer's pool! Yep, that's another victory for me in random bets here in media row.

7:18pm... $5K NL Final Table update: John Bonetti knocked out Jason "Doc" Berilgen. Bonetti had KK and Doc pushed with 66. He picked up a flush draw on the turn but could not coonvert. Doc Berilgen won $131,410 for 5th place.

7:25pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: Players are on a dinner break with 15 players remaining. Steve Hohn is the chipleader.

7:52pm... Random Update: Dinner break at the final table. I have officially hit "the wall." I am so tired right now. This tournament has slowed down a bit. The crowd at the final table is much more quiet than the last few. I think I need to have a few cocktails at dinner to make the rest of the night interesting.

9:10pm... Random Update: I finally took a full hour off and walked away from my laptop. Amy Calistri and I headed out to the casino and hit the bar. we chatted about some interesting and non-blogworthy things. I oggled at those scantly clad girls who dance on the mini-stage and watched a few minutes of the NBA Finals.

I grabbed some quality grub in the media room. Some one brought in steak, mashed potatoes, and Chilean sea bass. My dessert was Crispy M&Ms. I shot the shit with Shirley from Poker Babes in the hallway. She'll be playing in the NL shootout tomorrow. I also found Otis. Yes, Otis has arrived in Las Vegas. I heard that Isabelle Mercier was hitting on him. I can neither confirm, nor deny that rumor. The beer buzz is wearing off, but at least I'm not bored anymore.

9:20pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: We're down to 10. Paul Darden and Huck Seed were both busted. I heard a funny story about Huck Seed hitting on a cocktail waitress and he didn't know his girlfriend was standing behind him.

9:29pm... $5K NL Final Table: Neal Wang was knocked out by Steven Zoine. Neal Wang had him dominated K9s to K5s, but Zoine caught a 5 on the river to send Wang home. Wang won $153,315. Steven Zoine now has over $1M in chips.

9:30pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout: We've finally reached Round 2. Damn. It's true that the first round lasted almost 8 hours. That's why they changed the format. Instead of five tables of 9 players, there will be nine tables with 5 players each to speed up the action. Limit tournaments are a pain in the ass to cover.

9:46pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Battle of the old men. TJ pushed all in with the Hilton Sisters. John Bonetti, dressed all in black, called with Big Slick. The flop: 2-2-4. The turn: J. Bonetti had six outs left. On the river, a ten of clubs spiked and TJ Cloutier's Hiltons held up. Bonetti was knocked out in 3rd place. He won $175,215. TJ is down by about $400K to Zoine.

When the cocktail waitress came over to the final table to drop off drinks, TJ tipped her $2. It looks like he's drinking a coke. I'm sure a few decades ago, TJ would be drinking Jack Daniels and coke. These days, it's plain old soda. Last night while sweating TJ, I spotted a couple of pills sitting on the rail of his table. One looked like a vitamin and the other some sort of medication.

10:16pm... $5K NL Final Table update: The flop was: 10-9-7 and TJ check-raised Zoine who called. The turn was a 6 and TJ bet out and Zoine raised. TJ moved all in and Zoine called. TJ flopped the nut straight, but Zoine still had outs if he could pair the board. The river was a blank and TJ won a monster pot worth almost $2 million. Flip Chip turned to me and said, "That's the tournament right there." TJ has a $1.8M to Zoine's $500K.

10:46pm... $5K NL Final Table update: Steve Zoine doubled up against TJ. Both players were all in preflop. TJ had KK and Zoine had AJ. TJ still lead after the flop, but an ace fell on the turn. Zoine caught one of his six outs to double up.

11:19pm... $5K NL Final update: TJ Cloutier just won his 6th bracelet. He reraised preflop about $250K and Zoine went over the top all in. TJ who was pot-committed called. TJ had A5 and Zoine had AK. The flop was: 6-8-9. The turn: J. TJ had seven outs... and a 7 spiked on the river for a straight. Steve Zonie won $352,620 for second place. He played amazing poker for three days and it took a suckout to prevent him fromw inning his first WSOP bracelet. TJ won $657,100.


2005 WSOP $5K NL Champion: T.J. Cloutier
"I sucked out on him in a big pot. I'm embarassed," TJ said to his wife on his cell phone a minute after he won.

11:30pm... Stud Hi/Lo Day 2 update: We're down to 8 players. The final table will resume Friday at 2pm. Here are the remaining players: Mike Wattel (chipleader), Jonathan Paul, Peter Phillips, Al Ruck, Steve Hohn, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Sheila Gralak, and Giacomo D'Agostino.

11:53pm... Limit Hold'em Shootout: Evelyn Ng has been knocked out. We're down to 36.

2:01am... Limit Hold'em Shootout: We're down to the final nine players. Humberto Brenes, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Tom McEvoy, Young Phan, and Brett Jungblut have all been eliminated. Here are the players who made the final table: Alex Borteh, Samrane Siharath, Kathy Liebert, Quinn Do, William Shaw, Mark Seif, MJ Partin, Robert Mizrachi, and Aram Zerounian. All players will begin with the same amount of chips.

See ya tomorrow. There are three tournaments again. Two final tables (Stud and Limit Hold'em) and the first day of the NL Hold'em Shootout. That should be fun.

For a recap of today's final table, you can visit Poker Player Newspaper. For compelte results, visit the Poker Prof's 2005 WSOP Tournament Results page. Don't forget to check out some of Flip Chip's pictures at the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. And for all your 2005 WSOP News, make sure you stop by Lasvegasvegas.com.
posted by Pauly at 6/16/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP iPod: Clonie Gowen

I'll be posting a new feature on my blogs called: WSOP iPod. A lot of poker players listen to music while at the table, especially during lengthy tournaments. I decided that I was going to ask different pros what they were listening to.

First up is Clonie Gowen. When I asked her about her iPod two days ago, she said she didn't own one. The one I saw her with was borrowed from her boyfriend. However, she assured me that she was going to buy one the very next day. Sure enough when I spotted her on Wednesday, she had her brand new iPod... pink of course. I tracked her down and asked her to tell me what show me what she was listening to. She likes to listen to a lot of oldies.

What's on Clonie's iPod?
1. The Drifters
2. Guns and Roses
3. Eagles
4. The Supremes
5. ABBA
6. Aretha Franklin
7. Bob Dylan
8. Brooks & Dunn
9. Toby Keith
10. Van Morrison
11. The Rolling Stones

Check back soon for the next installment of WSOP iPod.
posted by Pauly at 6/16/2005 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #14 $1K Stud Hi/Lo -- Event #13 $5K NL Day 2 -- Event #12 $2K PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table

"I hope you have a weapon," he said with a grim look on his face.

I had been chatting with a poker dealer at the Rio while he was on a cigarette break in the hallway. When I told him about where I had been living, he quickly told me that he too experienced life at the Redneck Riviera. He lived there for two years while he dealt poker at a casino on the Strip.

"Don't leave anything lying around, especially cash. My roommate was robbed twice."

He suggested that most of the robberies in Las Vegas were inside jobs and that I needed to be careful especially if the poorly organized ring of thieves decided that I have something worth stealing. You see Las Vegas is made up of two distinct groups of people; tourists and locals. The locals are divided into three groups of people; professional gamblers, professional losers, and service industry workers.

It's the losers that are desperate and are willing to take any shortcut to get what they want. If they were really hard working folks, they'd wouldn't be broke all the time and could have found monetary success at other ventures in life. Since they bought into the Las Vegas dream and relied upon gambling (mostly at -EV games) as their sole source of income, 99.9% of those degenerate, life-long losers were harshly kicked to the curb by the reality of living in this town. The result was that all of their morals and ethics wilted in the sizzling Nevada sun. What you have left are hordes of empty souls that will smash a brick over the head of an old lady to steal her last $20. Most of those lost souls live in my building complex.

That's why the poker dealer suggested I pick up a weapon. He even recommend a place where I can buy a gun. Just another day at the Reneck Riviera.

Moving on...

Here are the three WSOP tournaments that I'm covering today:

1. Event #12 $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys Final Tale = Black font
2. Event #13 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 2 = Green font
3. Event #14 $1,000 Stud Hi/Lo = Red font

Felicia is playing in the Event #14 Stud Hi/Lo event with about 595 other players. The prize pool is $541,450. Cyndy Violette won last year's event. Max Pescatori is playing at the PLO final table today. The prize pool is $1,180,080. There were 212 players today with 395 rebuys. Day two of the $5K event starts at 3pm.

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

1:00pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: There are a lot of notable names in this event along with Felicia and Dick Gatewood from Sam's Town. There's plenty of the Full Tilt Crew represented like Rafe Furst, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, and Ted Forrest. I also spotted Marcel Luske (who still is asking about Charlie's status), Doyle, Fossilman, Men the Master, Miami John, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, The Grinder, ESPN announcer Norman Chad, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Barry Greenstein, Scott Fischman, Kathy Liebert, Chip Jett, Paul Darden, Huck Seed, Steve Zolotow, C.K. Hua, Carlos Mortenson, Barny Boatman, and Dutch "Tool" Boyd.

1:59pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Felicia has $700 in chips left. At the same table are Juanada, Fossilman, and Norman Chad.

2:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Here are the final table seating assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Erik Seidel (Las Vegas, NV) $67K... He won his 7th WSOP bracelet the other night.

Seat 2: Josh Arieh (Atlanta, GA) $229K... 3rd place finisher at last year's WSOP main event.

Seat 3: Max Pescatori (Milan, Itlay) $62K... The Italian Pirate is a good friend of the Tao of Poker.

Seat 4: Tony Sevnsom (Houston, TX) $171K... Nicknamed "Ted."

Seat 5: Ron Graham (Tacoma, WA) $90K... He has won a WSOP bracelet.

Seat 6: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) $109K... Winner of 5 gold bracelets and former World Champion. He can slice bananas and pickles with the toss of a card.

Seat 7: Doug Lee (Calgary, Alberta) $160K... Representing Canada, he's a real estate investor nicknamed the "Superbomber."

Seat 8: Arturo Diaz (San Diego, CA) $279K.... Out chipleader is known as "Turi" to his friends. He's from Mexico and is the father of four children.

Seat 9: Dave Colclough (Birmingham, England) $50K... He's a computer consultant who was born in Wales.

I got money on Max Pescatori today in the writer's pool. I took money from Jay yesterday when my main man Freddy Deeb outlasted Marco "Perfect Hair" Traniello. I hope to continue my run at successful prop bets from media row.

Max handed out red, white, and green bandanas to some of his friends who came by to support him. It's cool that he made a final TV table. Now everyone can get a glimpse of how good he is as he sits at a table with some big names like Jesus, Erik, and Josh. Heck Doug Lee is no slouch either. This has the chance of being an exciting final table.

2:46pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Max Pescatori doubled up. Josh Arieh raised preflop and Max reraised in the blinds. Doug Lee thought for a while and called. Josh folded. The flop was all clubs: Q-9-4. Max moved all win for the rest of his chips about $6K worth. Doug Lee called. Max flopped a King high flush with Kc-Tc-Kx-4x. Doug Lee was drawing dead with A-K-J-3. Max did exactly what I predicted he would do... doubled up in the first orbit.

3:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Erik Seidel was the first player knocked out at the final table when he was busted by Josh Arieh. Erik won $23,130 and Arieh moved into the chiplead. BJ from Cardplayer was just bounced from the "writer's pool" because he picked Seidel.

3:10pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Colclough doubled up against Arturo Diaz. With a board of 5s-2h-2c-9d, David moved all in on the turn with trip 2s. He held Kh-10s-8d-2s while Diaz reluctantly called with As-Kd-4c-4s. Big hand for the shortstack David Colclough.

3:34pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Doug Lee had a full house but ran into Jesus' higher full house. With Ah-10h-9s-4h, Doug Lee moved all in on the turn with a board of: Ad-4d-4c-9d. Jesus held As-9c-9h-6h and had the bigger boat. The river didn't help Doug Lee and he was eliminated in 8th place. He won $34,690. Josh Arieh is still the chipleader. Max has $129K in chips.

3:47pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Colclough was knocked out Josh Arieh who is adding to his big stack. Arieh caught a flush on the turn and beat out Colclough's trip Jacks. Colclough won $46,225 for 7th place.

3:56pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: TJ Cloutier's 22 knocked out Hoyt Corkins's Mrs. Slick. There are 53 players remaining.

4:15pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Felicia Lee was knocked out. She had 3-4-5-6 and caught brick, brick, brick. She said that the structure is horrible. The event is geared to those who will catch cards. That's why she suggested I play in this evemt since there's really no skill involved due to how it's set up. Rafe Furst has about $24K in chips and Marcel had about $18K or $19K. Felicia told me that some guy walked up to John Hennigan and cold-cocked him. She said it was a fan. But what kind of a fan would deck their favorite player? I shall investigate this matter further.

4:20pm... Random WSOP Thoughts: How about a fashion update? The Full Tilt team is decked out in basketball jerseys today. Marcel is looking dapper as always in a $3K suit. Chris Bigler is also wearing a suit. He looks sharp compared to the rest of the t-shirt and jeans crowd, but Marcel's choice in suits is a notch above Bigler's. Clonie was wearing a hot pair of black boots. I wish I had a few of my female friends from New York City to tell me the exact designer. I need to outsource my WSOP fashion research.

4:23pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Jesus kncoked out Arturo Diaz in 6th place. Arturo Diaz was all in by the turn. with 10d-5h-Kh-7s. Jesus had 6s-6h-3h-7c and a set of 6s. Yeah! Jesus flopped the Anit-Christ. Diaz returns home to San Diego with $57,820. Josh Arieh is still the chipleader and Max Pescatori is the shortstack.

4:40pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Dick Gatewood has about $900 in chips. Oliver from Poker Wire has about 800+. He hasn't played a hand past 4th street.

4:48pm... Random WSOP Thoughts: By the way, the shitters here at the Rio have ashtrays in the stalls. You can smoke while you take a dump. Gotta love Vegas. I bumped into Jen Leo from pPlayer.com. She's been hanging out in the media room with Dan from Pokerati. Finally got to meet her. She wants to hit up strip clubs with me next week. Uh oh. She wrote a nice blurb about me called Monopauly.

4:55pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Max Pescatori was eliminated by Josh Arieh in 5th place. Max won $69,385. He was all in on the flop with Q-Q-9-7. The flop read: 9-5-2 and Josh Arieh called with A-3-4-6. Josh caught a straight on the turn when a 6 hit. Max told me, "I'm sorry I disappointed you, Pauly." He knew I picked him in the writer's pool. Damn. I hate losing prop bets. But heck, Max cashed in his third WSOP and was a shortstack for the majrity of the tournamnet yesterday and today. Great job, Max. I still feel that he can and will win his first WSOP bracelet this year. Josh Arieh has a huge chip advantage.

5:10pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 46 players. John Bonetti had around $125K. TJ was not far behind Bonetti. Vinny Napolitano and Liz Lieu both have over $100K in chips. Gavin Smith and Morgan Machina have a little more than $50K. Todd Brunson, Jen Harman, Antonio, and Senthil Kumar are all still alive.

5:15pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: 280 players are left. I just heard that Men the Master had built up a big stack, so he left the table to go eat. I assume that he's going to snag a Corona as well. I have not seen him snarf up beers any so far this year, but we've got another month of poker left to play!

5:20pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: Erin Ness bubbled out in 46th place. Yes, the remaining 45 players have made the money.

5:35pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Tony Sevnsom was knocked out by Josh Arieh. He takes fourth place and $92,510. Josh has a monster chiplead over Jesus and Ron Graham.

5:40pm... Picture update: We now have the capabiltiy of a quick upload of some of Flip Chip's photos. Here are a couple. One is for my buddy Mean Gene.






6:09pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Big hand three handed. Rom Graham moved all in preflop with T-T-8-4. Josh Arieh raised with A-J-T-2. Jesus called with 5-6-7-8. Arieh could have knocked out both players. The flop: 7-7-3. Jesus flopped trips. He hit a full house on the turn when an 8 fell. Only the case Ten would have hurt Jesus. He avoided that one card and knocked out Ron Graham. Arieh doubled up Jesus. We're now heads up. Ron Graham won $115,640 for third place. Jesus has $329K. Josh has $879. When I asked Jesus how he was doing chipcount wise he said, "2.6 to 1." He was almost dead on. The actual math was 2.58 to 1.

We're on a short break while the ESPN crew sets up the table. I took a piss next to Jesus in the bathroom. Some guy in there was telling him to knock out Arieh.

6:35pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: Paul 'X-22' Magriel aka that "quack quack" guy has been knocked out in 44th place. Antonio was KO'd in 43rd lace. We're down to 4 tables.

6:50pm... $5K NL update: TJ Cloutier won a monster pot and knocked out two players in the process. His stack is well over $200K. He sent Chris Bigler and Vinny Napolitano home. Bigler raised preflop to $5K Julian Gardner, TJ, and Vinny called. The flop: 10c-4c-5d. Vinny moved all in with Ac-5c. Gardner folded. Bigler called with JJ and TJ called with a set of 4s The turn: 6h. The river: Qh. TJ scooped the monster pot. Look out, kids. TJ has chips. The last time I checked, Isabelle Mercier had about $40K. Morgan Machina has about $35K left. 36 players are left.

6:55pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: This is a pro-Jesus crowd. In his corner he has the majority of the folks in the grandstand cheering him on, along with his fellow Full Tilter Clonie Gowen and his lovely girlfriend, who are sitting next to each other. For Arieh, it's his wife, Erick Lindgren, and a few friends rooting him on. Jesus won a big hand against Josh. On a flop of A-5-8, Jesus moved all in with a set. Josh called with 3-4-6-9. Jesus showed 8-8-7-2. Does that count as "The Hammer"? He needed a 2 or a 7 to make a straight. Jesus had 2 of his outs. The turn and river didn't help Josh and Jesus won the big pot. Josh lost the ciplead and Jesus is looking good with $785K in chips to Arieh's $420K.

7:15pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're on a dinner break and play will resume at 8:15pm. We're down to 160 players. I don't see Dick Gatewood. I assume he's out. Marcel Luske, Andy Bloch, John Juanada, Norman Chad, Men the Master, and Kathy Liebert are all still alive. Last year's champ Cyndy Violette has been knocked out. Ted Forrest has been knocked out as well. David Sklansky KO'd Kirill Gerasimov just before the break. Amy Calistri told me a funny story about that hand. One of the players at the table said to Sklansky, "Nice hand. You took out a good player in Kirill." To which he responded, "I don't even know who that is."

7:45pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Josh Arieh yelled over to the rail where Mike Matusow was chatting with his wife. "Keep your hands off my wife," Arieh snapped.

7:53pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Jesus won a big pot heads up. On a flop of Qx-8d-3d, Jesus moved all in with Qx-Jx-6d-5d. Jesus had top pair with a flush draw. Josh reluctantly called and figured he was beat. He actually had the best hand at the time with K-Q-6-4. He had no flush draws. Jesus caught the Ten of diamonds on the turn and Arieh was drawing dead. Jesus doubled up.


2005 WSOP PLO w/ Rebuys Champion: Josh Arieh
8:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Josh Arieh just knocked out Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Jesus had the better hand preflop with K-T-9-3 to K-9-3-2. Josh flopped a 2 and Jesus could not improve his hand. Josh won his second WSOP bracelet and $381,600. Jesus left with $210,460 for second place. I spotted Arieh in the bathroom two minutes after he won. He was on the phone and was so excited that he won that he forgot to wash his hands.

10:40pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to 98 players. Marcel has a couple of huge stacks of $25 chips.

10:45pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 23 players. Isabelle Mercier, Morgan Machina, Reza Payvar, and Senthil Kumar have all been eliminated. Neal Wang has a huge stack $345K in chips. TJ Coutier is second with over $200K. Jen Harman, Todd Bruson, and John Bonetti all have decent sized stacks.

12:03am... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 20 players. Neal Wang has almost a 2 to 1 chiplead over TJ CLoutier who's second in chips! Here's who is left: Neal Wang, TJ Cloutier, John Bonetti, Shae Drubosevich, Julian Gardner, Robbie Frank, Todd Brunson, John Henningan, Liz Lieu, Jen Harman, Jon Brody, Gavin Smith, Steve Zoin, Dustin "Neverwin"Woolf, Tony Ma, Jesus Oquendo, Sean McCabe, Jason Berilgen, Ben Johnson, and Meng La.

12:12am... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to 52 players. Marcel Luske was just eliminated. Todd Dakake appears to be the chipleader with over $20K. Barry Greenstein is still playing.

1:30am... $5K NL update: Jen Harman was knocked out when her AK lost to Neal Wang's TT. Shae Drobushevich found AA on the button and knocked out Jon Brody in 15th place. Down to 14 players. Wang has a huge chip lead over Jon Bonetti in second. Shae is looking good with almost $200K in chips and is trying to make his second final table in this year's WSOP.

1:55am... Stud Hi/Lo update: Action has been suspended and will resume at 2pm on Thursday. 33 Players are left. Steve Hohn is the chipleader with $51,900. Here's who is left: Men The Master, Paul Darden, John McCaffery, Giacomo D'Agostino, Russell Salzer, Melissa Hayden, Brad Daugherty, Josh Kerrigan, Al Ruck, Bo Toft, Huck Seed, Vipul Kothari,Jim Hagan, Bonnie Rossi, Hoang Ta, Daniel Espirity, Asle Gjesteland, Dan Price, and Todd Bourgault

2:30am... $5K NL update: We're down to 11. TJ Cloutier booted Julian Gardner. TJ Cloutier had A7 and Julian showed A8. TJ flopped a 7. Ouch. Liz Lieu's 66 knocked out Meng La's AT. Tony Ma just knocked out Liz Lieu. Damn, I wanted to see Liz and Jen harman at the final table!

3:24am... $5K NL update: The decision was made to play down until 10 and have them make the final TV table. Usually it's 9 players. I was secretly rooting for Shae and was bummed when he lost a big hands. His AJ was dominated by Gavin Smith's AQ. He was busted soon after by John Hennigan. Neal Wang is still the chipleader. Also making the final table are: John Henningan, TJ Cloutier, John Bonetti, Dustin Woolf, Steve Zoine, Jason "Doc" Berilgen, Gavin Smith, Tony Ma, and Todd Brunson. Play will resume at 3pm today.
posted by Pauly at 6/15/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Radio Free Pauly and Hump Day Pimp Day

I taped my interview with Sean on early on Saturday aternoon for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. If you don't know by now, it's the best podcast dedicated to poker in the universe. Over the last few weeks, I've become a huge cult figure in Canada. I'm happy to be a part of their amazing show.

Sean and Brent are working hard every week to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

You can download the MP3 of this week's show... Episode 30: Here.
You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 29: Here.
You can read this week's shows notes... Here.

My interview starts at 18:55. We talk about the first week of WSOP action.

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by their site and download the extra nuggets. Thanks again to Sean and Stacks for having me on.


Big Pimpin'

My buddy Spaceman wrote his first article for Poker Player Newspaper. Check it out here.

My brother Derek was mentioned on Oddjack today. They loved his OTB Pissing entry.

I've met some interesting folks covering the World Series of Poker. It's time I pimp their shit. First of all, the Poker Prof is hard at work behind the scenes. We keep him hidden in a secure, non-disclosed location (somewhere near Area 51) where he's been writing code and creating programs that will help provide some of the best WSOP information on the internet. Make sure you check out his oustanding work on WSOP standings and total prize winners. He's also been creating a kick ass database of WSOP Tournament Results.

Dan from Pokerati has some of the best behind the scenes coverage of the WSOP. Read his latest post called We interrupt this broadcat...

Jay Greenspan has the best final table recaps out there with his Daily WSOP Report. I have the pleasure of sitting next to Jay during every final table and we keep things interesting with random prop bets.

Over at Poker Pages, Amy Calistri is writing great stuff everyday on her blog including beaver stroking. She's also been trying to seduce World Champions when she can.

Jen, Heather, and the folks over at Poker Wire are providing the best up to date chip counts.

Steve aka Foiled Coup has snapped some good photos, especially of Liz Liu.

BJ is working his ass off for Card Player providing hand by hand coverage of final tables.

Staffan from Sweden works at Poker Listings and they have good interviews.

Jon from Poker Trails is hard at work in the trenches along with Oliver at Poker News.

Nolan Dalla has excellent reports on every final table.

Phil Gordon's podcast is good shit.

I have been providing final table recaps over at Poker Player Newspaper.

Finally, go look at Flip Chip's 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery.
posted by Pauly at 6/15/2005 02:45:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #13 $5K NL -- Event #12 $2K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys Day 2-- Event #11 $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table

I don't have to set my alarm clock on days I have to get up early. The folks next door are kind enough to shout at each at the top of their lungs. I could not ask for a better wake up call. I couldn't tell if their drugs were kicking in or wearing off. Or both.

"I hate your fuckin' kids," the male's voice boomed. "If they were mine, I would have disowned them years ago."

I heard a few thuds and crashing sounds. I was going to investigate the ruckus, but Dawson's Creek was on. Priorities, man.

Make sure you read a touching post from me that appears right after this one. It's called Marcel and a Guy Named Charlie.

And Dan from Pokerati posted some pics from my satellite last night. Take a peek at his entry called: The Tao of Satellites.

Moving on...

Today is another one of those wild and wacky days at the World Series of Poker. There are three tournaments going on and I will be busting my ass covering all of them. Flip chip will be in action snapping the best photos around. Be sure to stop by and checkout his 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery.

Here are the events that I am covering today:

1. Event #11 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Final table = Red font
2. Event #12 $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys (Day 2) = Black font
3. Event #13 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 1 = Green font

For the final table of Event #11, 540 players started two days ago with a total prize pool of $993,600. Event #12 PLO w/ Rebuys started with 212 players. There were 395 rebuys with a total prize pool of $1,180,080. We will start with 18 players today and play down to a nine today.

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

1:58p... $5K NL update: All the bggest nams are here for the $5K buy in event. I spotted Todd Bruson, Chip Reese, Devilfish, Vince Van Patten, Tobey Maguire, Johnny Chan, Gavin Smith, and Phil Gordon from my seat in media row. Chau Giang doubled up. Phil Ivey has already been busted. Tobey and Chip Reese are at the same table.

2:00pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Did you know that Mike Sexton bubbled out of this event last night? He missed the final table by one spot. Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

1 Steve Hudak (Baltimore, MD) $125K... He's a University of Maryland dropout who's a professional poker player.
2 Edward "Boliva" Moncada (No Known Address) $125K... Born in Schenectady, NY, he's a part-time janitor and part-time poker player. He earned an engineering degree from UC Berkeley.
3 Yoshitaka Oku (Tokyo, Japan) $155K... Known as "Yo" to his freinds, he's a computer engineer.
4 Elia Ahmadian (Washington, DC) $74K... The VA Tech grad and car dealership owner is nicknamed "Danger."
5 Marco Traniello (Las Vegas, NC) $120K... He's not just Jen Harman's husband, Marco is also the current leader in money cashes at this years WSOP with four.
6 Freddy Deeb (Las Vegas, NV) $127K... The cash game specialist is the only WSOP bracelet winner at the final table. His favorite hobby is water skiing.
7 Shah Ajay (Belgium) $207K... He's a businessman originally from Bombay, India.
8 Shargel Koumi (Birmingham, England) $120K... He was born in Cyprus and is currently a retired businessman with three kids.
9 David Cossio (El Paso, TX) $166K... He's a math professor at UTEP.

I walked over to my main man Freddy Deeb and told him that I got money on him in the media writer's pool.

2:10pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Day 2: We're down to 18 players and play is underway. Here's the chip counts entering today:

1 Arturo Diaz $201.5K
2 Doug Lee $118K
3 Ron Graham $116.5K
4 Erik Seidel $87.5K
5 John Juanda $77K
6 Jim Bechtel $73K
7 Josh Arieh $71.5K
8 Ari Abramowitz $70.5K
9 Dave Colclough $59.5K
10 Jesus $58.5K
11 Daniel Alaei $56K
12 Lukasz Dumanski $56K
13 Tony Sevnsom $49.5K
14 Max Pescatori $35.5K
15 The Grinder $31.5K
16 Joe Beevers $23.5K
17 Casey Kastle $18K
18 Tony Cousineau $14.5K

I'm rooting for Max Pescatori. I'm hoping he can win his first WSOP bracelet. The Grinder is two tabling it today. He's my hero. Take note of the many European names you'll see in the final two tables. PLO is much bigger overseas than in America.

2:31pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: We have our first bust out. Yoshitaka Oku moved all in with KK. Edward Moncada called with A8. The flop was: 8-8-3. Ouch. Yoshi was knocked out in 9th place when his hand did not improve. He won $19,870 for his efforts.

2:55pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Marco Traniello's pocket sevens doubled up against Edward Moncada's A-10. He flopped a seven too.

3:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Day 2 update: Casey Kastle was knocked out by The Grinder in 18th place.

3:30pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: My main Man Freddy Deeb is the chipleader wih 235K and 8 players remaining.

3:35pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Elia Ahmadian doubled up against Freddy Deeb. Elia had K6s and flopped a king agianst Freddy's Mrs. Slick.

3:40pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: John Juanda was knocked out bu Josh Arieh in 17th place.

3:46pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Elia doubled up with AK against Edward Moncada's KTs. He's now got 49K in chips. He turned to his railbirds and said, "We're going shopping now!" His friends told me that he won the Party Poker Million around four months ago for a cool $290K.

4:15pm... $5K NL update: I spotted Shirley Rosario aka Poker Babe. She just lost a big pot but she assured me that she'll be fine working with a short stack.

4:18pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're down to 13 players. Lukasz Dumanski, The Grinder, and Joe Beevers have all been busted. I just got word that Doug Lee eliminated Daniel Alaei. The Grinder can go back to playing in the $5K NL event. Max Pescatori is looking good with $83K in chips. He told me, "It's still early."

4:20pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: David Cassio's KK knocked out Elia Ahmadian's 77 in 8th place. Elia won $29,810. Freddy Deeb is still the chipleader. I got Freddy in a last longer bet with Jay Greenspan, who picked Marco. We're action junkies on the sideline here!

4:39pm... Pot-Limit Omaha update: Tony Cousineau was rivered by Josh Arieh. Tony is knocked out in 12th place.

4:43pm... $5K NL update: Scott Fischman and David Williams are looking healthy with over $20K in chips each. Daniel Negreanu has been eliminated. I heard a rumor that he bolted for the Wynn to play heads up Stud with Barry Greenstein. Speaking of Stud, Felicia and Glenn are here. Felicia is looking to win enough money in cash games to fund her buy in to tomorrow's Stud 8 event.

4:48pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Shar's 88 doubled up against Freddy Deeb's KQ. Have I mentioned that my buddy F Train from NYC calls KQo the "Kournikova"? Why? KQo looks nice, but never wins... just like Anna Kournikova.

4:54pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Freddy Deeb was about to double up another player. This time it was Marco. Freddy had 55 and Marco had A-T. Marco flopped an ace and looked like he was going to double up. Freddy had two outs and hit one of them on the river when a five spiked on the river. Marco was knocked out in 7th place. He won $39,745. Jay Greenspan quickly paid me for our last longer bet. My main man Freddy Deeb is back in the hunt for his second gold bracelet. Regarding Marco, Jay commented, "Have you ever seen a better head of hair?"

5:08pm... $2K PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're down to 10 players. Erik Seidel kncoked out Ari Abramowitz in 11th place. Josh Arieh is still the chipleader.

5:26pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Shargel Koumi was knocked out by Shah Ajay in 6th place. He won $49,680.

5:30pm... $2K NL update: Shirley is back to even with $5K. I spotted Isabelle Mercier sitting next to Kathy Leibert. 210 players are left.

6:00pm... All the players (except the PLO W/ Rebuys) went on a 15 min. break. I spotted Dan chatting with Clonie in the hallway. She said she'd give me an interview later in the week. I also talked to Shirley Rosario for a few minutes in the hallway. She's shortstacked but feels she's playing very well.

6:15pm... $5K NL update: David Williams is looking strong along with Johnny Bax and Liz Lui. 199 players are left. Dan Harrington is sitting at the table next to me.

6:28pm... Pot-Limit Holdem Final Table update: We have one of the most boisterous crowds to date here at the final table. Steven Hudak and Edward Moncada were heads up after both players moved all in. It was an exact coin flip with Moncada's A9 versus Hudak's QJs. Both guys have railbirds hooting and hollering. When Moncada flopped a 9, the crowd exploded. It was the loudest I heard them cheer since I began covering this event. Moncada doubled up.

6:30pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're still at ten players. Max Pescatori was short stacked and he moved all in when Josh Arieh tried for a steal. Max had AKK5 to Arieh's J943. Max is still alive. It would be awesome if he made the ESPN taped table tomorrow.

6:50pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: We're down to 9 players. Arturo Diaz knocked out Jim Bechtel. Action will resume on Wednesday at 2pm. Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori made it to the TV table. Best of luck to Max in his quest for his first WSOP bracelet. Arturo is the chipleader with $279K. Max is the second short stack. He's not looking great, however, anything can happen at the final table!

6:55pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em update: We're down to four players after my main man Freddy Deeb was knocked out in fifth place. His KQ lost to David Cassio's set of 6s. Freddy wins $59,615. Cassio is the chipleader with $386K.

7:08pm... Pot-Limit Holdem update: Steven Hudak's 77 doubled up against David Cassio's AQs.

8:30pm... All players are on a dinner break. During the breaks, dealers are required to sit at the tables to make sure no one fools with chip stacks. One dealer is singing Phish lyrics, "Won't you step into the freezer."

So what do I do during dinner break? I catch up on my email and grab a quick bite to eat. $4 slices of mediocre pizza. Dan and I go over to the skanky girls working the cigar booth. Eventually we'll get them to come out and party with us.

9:00pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: We're back from a dinner break with four players. Edward Moncada is the chipleader. Steve Hudak is the short stack.

9:15pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Steve Hudak's A8 just doubled up against Shah Ajay's K5. He now is second in chips.

9:23pm...Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Another heads up fight between Steve Hudak and Shah Ajay. Steve had JJ and Ajay showed AQ. Steve's Jacks held up and he knocked out Ajay in 4th place. Ajay collected $69,550 for his efforts.

9:35pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Both players moved all in on the turn. The board read: 2-4-5-7. David Cassio held two overcards with AQ. Steve Hudak called with 3-4o and just a pair with an open-ended straight draw. The river was an ace which gave Hudak the Wheel. David Cassio was knocked out in 3rd place. He goes back to El Paso with $79,490 in prize money.

10:03pm... Pot-Limit Hold'em Final Table update: Heads-up action. Edward Moncada took a commanding chiplead when he won a huge pot from Steve Hudak. On a flop of J-8-5, Moncada pushed all in. Steve Hudak eventually called with pocket 99s. Moncada showed Jackson Five! Steve Hudak was crippled. Moncada had about $864K in chips to Steve Hudak's 136K

10:09pm... Pot-Limit Holdem Final Table update: Steve Hudak's KT doubled up against Edward Moncada's J7s. Moncada flopped a flush draw but couldn't catch any hearts. Moncada's chiplead is now just a 2 to 1 difference.

10:23pm... Pot-Limit Holdem Final Table update: We have a winner. Edward Moncada pushed all in preflop with 88. Steve Hudak called with A8. He did not catch an ace and Edward Moncada won his first WSOP bracelet. For second place, Steve Hudak won $159,970 for his efforts.


2005 WSOP Pot-Limit Hold'em Champion: Edward Moncada
Edward Moncada picked up $298,070 and his first bracelet. Congrats Edward!

10:46pm... $5K NL update: I heard that Erin Ness cracked AA with pocket tens. She has 36K in chips. Scott Fischman and Antonio are both cruising. David Williams was knocked out a while ago. 100 players are left on 10 tables.

2:30am... $5K NL update: Chip Jett and Scott Fischman have been booted. Play is done for the day. There are 58 players left and action will resume at 2pm on Wednesday. Patrik Antonius is the chipleader. Here's who's remaining... Chris Bigler, TJ Cloutier, Liz Lieu, Reza Payvar, Eric Ford, Morgan Machina, Bill Blanda, Hoyt Corkins, Vinny Napolitano, Meng La, Sean McCabe, Senthil Kumar, Robbie Frank, Neal Wang, Steven Zoine, Gregg Turk, Dustin Woolf, Tony Ma, Jen Harman, Marc Aubin, Jon Brody, Jesus Moquendo, Kevin Song, Louis Asmo, Julian Gardner, Joseph Bartholdi, Antonio Esfardiani, Gavin Griffin, AJ Kelsall, Haralabos Voulgaris, Shane Schleger, Todd Brunson, John Hennigan, Don Mullis, Paul "X-22" Magriel, Isabelle Mercier, Billy Duarte, Matt Glantz, Steven Jacobs, Chad Layne, Gavin Smith, Mike Manttan, Steven Metzger, Johan Storakers, Kevin Saul, Shae Drobushevich, Jason Berilgen, Paul "The Hammer" Sexton, Benjamin Roberts, Erin Ness, Steve Eddson, Mickey Appleton, "Syracuse" Chris Tsiprailidis, Ben Johnson, Ivo Donev, and Dani Awad.

That's it for now. Time for me to write until sun up. See ya tomorrow afternoon.

For a complete recap written by yours truly, visit 2005 World Series of Poker News. For complete standings visit the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results. And for all your picture needs, make sure you hit up Flip Chip's 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery, which in my opinion is the best photo coverage available.
posted by Pauly at 6/14/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Marcel and a Guy Named Charlie

I never met Charlie. He's best friends with my friend Spaceman. My only real connection with Charlie was issuing him a wicked bad beat in a WPBT online tournament several months ago. It was the infamous hand where I cracked both AA and KK with 27o, aka The Hammer. He was a good sport about the entire thing and said he felt honored to have been on that end of a bad beat from me. Charlie's been battling cancer over the past year and over the weekend he was hospitalized. Two tumors in his lung were pressing up against his heart. I don't have to tell you how serious his condition is.

Charlie's favorite poker player is Marcel Luske. Great choice. Over the weekend, Spaceman asked me and the Poker Prof is we could get Marcel to call Charlie. He knew that a phone call from Marcel would lift his spirits. Flipchip is chummy with Marcel so he was on a mission to find him.

When Marcel was finally tracked down, I ran outside in the hallway while dialing Charlie's mom's cellphone. I was in the middle of covering the final table of one of the WSOP events, but getting Charlie on the phone with Marcel seemed to be the most important thing in the world to me at that time. Charlie's Mom handed the phone to Charlie who was lying in his hospital bed. I spoke for three seconds and told him that Marcel wanted to say a few words with him. I handed Marcel my phone and he walked away down the hall. They spoke for 10 minutes while I bolted back to the final table for my live blogging duties.

Afterwards, Spaceman said that Charlie was laughing for the first time in ages. When Marcel returned my phone I was overwhelmed with emotion. I had to step away for a few minutes to collect myself. I couldn't stop from thinking how awful Charlie must have been felt and the intense pain he's been enduring. I was also blown away by how amazing a person Marcel was to take time out of his busy schedule to speak to Charlie. In that swift moment, Marcel jumped to the top of the list of my favorite professional poker players, heck Marcel jumped to the top of my list of my favorite people of all time. Yesterday, while in the middle of a tournament, Marcel even stopped me to ask how Charlie's been doing.

Spaceman is trying to give me credit for making this happen. I cannot accept any of that. All I did was dial the number. Marcel and Charlie should get all the credit and respect. It wasn't an easy phone call for Marcel but he knew it would mean the world for Charlie. Marcel told me that Charlie was "laughing his head off," while he sung him a song.

You might hear a lot of bad things about gamblers and poker players. Las Vegas is a dark city where evil lurks behind every turn of the card. That's why it's refreshing to see a random act of goodness ripple through the cosmos. From the Nevada desert to a hospital room in Tennessee, karmic payback is coming Marcel's way. And the good news is that Charlie is doing a lot better and he can be transferred to a hospital closer to home.

Charlie was shortstacked and it looks like he just doubled up.
posted by Pauly at 6/14/2005 04:18:00 PM | Permalink |

 
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.
posted by Pauly at 6/13/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Pieces of Pauly: WSOP

I'm going crazy logging these long ass days. I have played two hours of poker since I've started working. I'm jonesin' to play. I need a break from this intense grind, so I decided that I want to play in the $1500 NL event on June 22nd. It would be an amazing experience as both a writer and a poker player. In addition, it's great publicity.

I'm itching to play and sitting on the sidelines is driving me crazy. I already talked about it with Felicia and she suggested that I play in a few satellites this upcoming week. I heard from several sources that the sats are super soft. At any rate, in case I don't win any tournament chips in the satellites, I decided to sell shares of myself for the June 22nd WSOP event. If you are interested in purchasing a piece of Pauly for the $1500 NL event, then please shoot me an email and we can discuss the details.

If 15 of my friends, readers, and fellow bloggers gave me $100 a piece, then I could have a nice day off from all this work that's been kicking my ass. Don't forget that you get this WSOP coverage for free. I'm not having as much fun as I would like. Getting to play in an real WSOP event that is not the Media Event would make my time here in Vegas a litte more enjoyable.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thanks for reading.

******

UPDATE: I have to close the fire sale of my action. I've gotten an overhwelming response in less than 10 hours. So if you are just reading this for the first time, you missed out. As of now I am sold out. I will contact everyone shortly to tell you who made the list of investors and how to send me the $$$$. I am afraid that I will have to turn down offers from generous readers who want to back me. I feel it would be unethical to over-sell myself so please do not take it personally if I decline your offer to stake me. I'm touched and blown away by this repsonse! Perhaps in a future event down the road you can bankroll me.

As of now, it looks like I'm selling myself off in 15 shares of $100 per share. I have 10 bloggers/friends willing to buy a full $100 share and 10 bloggers will get a half a share for $50. Stay tuned for more details. Thanks again
posted by Pauly at 6/13/2005 09:12:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Event #11 $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em -- Event #10 $2K Limit Day 2 -- Event #9 $2K NL Final Table

First of all, Bobby Bracelet has been hanging out with my brother Derek back home in New York City. Derek took Bobby Bracelet to a poker room in Chinatown. Hijinks ensued. Stop by Derek's blog to read all about their wild adventures. Here's a bit:

We hit a card room in the Chinatown area (our dealer was Asian too). The guys at our NL table were horrible poker players. If we had more time to play, we would've cleaned up. The term "loose" doesn't properly capture or describe the play at our table. I saw one guy move all in with K7o. Another guy was raising in EP with 85o. There were way too many bad hands shown down to the river. I have a feeling that Bob and I were the only ones folding hands with one A or one paint. It was that bad.

Bob moved all in on the flop with AJ and lost his stack to K-medium. I won a big pot with the Hiltons against Q4o (yes, you read that correctly . . . Q4o). After I raised preflop, some clown reraised me and I moved all in. He thinks for a little bit and in all seriousness, he looks over at me and asks if I want action. lol. I looked back and said, "Yes and no." The idiot called and doubled me up. In the very next hand, I lost my entire stack. I was on the button and it was 3 handed. I raised and got one caller. I bet to a check on the flop and got reraised. I knew the guy was trying to steal the pot because he bitched about me blind stealing when I raised preflop. I moved all in on the flop with nothing. I had J8. The guy called and flipped over J7. Unfortunately, I lost when a 7 hit the board. I was hoping to re-steal the pot but he had me covered and called. Ouch. Our table broke up and most people took off for the night. Bob and I both lost our buy ins tonight but at least we got to piss in a building stairwell before the night was over.

The image of the last line is what had me cracking up all day yesterday. By the way, check out what a local newspaper had to say about Bobby Bracelet's attempt to win the $1500 NL Event #2.

Sunday is going to be another busy day. Three tournaments, two final tables, and the Roshambo Final will be on my plate today. Thank God I went to bed before sunrise last night because I'm going to be logging another 16+ hour work day. Yesterday was Saturday night in Las Vegas and Dan and I decided to party it up, drink heavily, and pick up nefarious high school girls like writers are supposed to do while on assignment.

Dan was disappointed about the lack of liquor in the media room. He said he's gonna bring in a bottle of hooch in one day and then we can do some live drunk blogging. Aside from Minneapolis Jim Meehan's penchant for Heinekens and Men the Master's addiction to Coronas, most of the players are relatively sober during the WSOP. I'm sure a few are popping trucker's speed, but the new breed of poker player is doing everything possible to keep his/her head on straight. Coffee and Red Bull seem to be the vice of choice. Last night, Mrs. Flipchip said some wasted guy offered to sell her some ecstacy. My immediate response was, "How much?" And I quickly followed that up with, "Did you score me any?"

By the way, everyday Flipchip and the Poker Prof are updating the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. Check it out.

Here are the tournaments that I'll be covering today.

1. Event #9 $2,000 NL Final Table (Day 3) = Green Font
2. Event #10 $2,000 Limit (Day 2) = Black Font
3. Event #11 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em (Day 1) = Red Font
4. Roshambo Final Four = Blue Font

Event #10 Limit has 569 entrants with a total prize pool of $1,046,940. We're down to 22.
Event #9 NL started with 1403 with a prize pool of $2,581,520.
Event #11 Pot-Limit Hold'em has 542 players.

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

1:08pm PCT... Pot-Limit update: I am seated right in front of Table #118. I spotted Dan Harrington for the first time at this year's WSOP. He's at the same table as Humberto Brenes. Action Dan was getting a massage and now Humberto is getting one. I think I'll definitely need a 15 minute rub-down later this afternoon. TJ Cloutier is in the house. Flipchip mentioned to me that he thought TJ was the best Pot-Limit Omaha player in the world. Max Pescatori and Phil Gordon are playing at the same table. David Grey, Sammy Farha, and Kristy Gazes were seated at the same table when I walked by. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Kathy Liebert are also at the same table.

1:54pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: Here are the chip counts at the end of Day 1.

1 Reza Payvar $173K
2 John Myung $91K
3 Toto Leonidas $81K
4 Robert 'Chuck' Schulze $79K
5 Rodeen Talebi $74K
6 Michael Chow $73K
7 Sam Chang $69K
8 Vince Palma $57K
9 Barny Boatman $55K
10 "Miami" John Cernuto $50K
11 Tommy Garza $47K
12 Kelly Harmon $44K
13 Greg 'FBT' Mueller $39K
14 David Blatte $38K
15 Jay Helfert $29K
16 Charlie Brahmi $29K
17 Mimi Tran $25K
18 Daniel Clegg $24K
19 Eric Liebeler $21K
20 Theodore Park $20K
21 Tony 'TNT' Nasr $11K
22 Donny Carlton $9K

1:59pm... Roshambo Final Table update: ESPN is taping the Roshambo Final Table. What the fuck is Roshambo? It's Rock, Paper, Scissors. And yes, you can gamble on it.

Four players are left after a series of matches that went on the last few days. There were 64 players forking up $200 each. $5K of the pool went to the Cancer Prevention Fund. The winner will win a seat in the $10K main event.

Jay Greenspan told me that Rafe Furst is a Roshambo World Champion. Dutch Boyd and Scott Fischman are siting in front of me checking out the event. Scott mentioned that he wished Annie Duke would lose. "I went paper against her every time and lost," he said. Annie wants to win pretty badly, "This means more to me than the Championship event."

1:59pm... Roshambo Final Table update: Best 4 out of 7. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon is the announcer and he's hamming it up. The world champion Rafe Furst lost to Bobby Boyd by the score of 4-2 in the first semi-final. Annie Duke used a lucky dollar bill to randomnize her selections. She and her "system" lost to Kevin Keller by the score of 4-2. Kevin Keller and Bobby Boyd will be playing for the Championship.

2:22pm... Roshambo Final Table update: Bobby Boyd came from behind down 3-1 to win it all against Kevin Keller. He won a $10K seat in the main event.

2:40pm... Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

Event #9 $2K NL Final Table
1 Chris Wunderlich $110K (Higley, AZ)... cashed in 3 WSOP events in his career.
2 Cyndy Violette $305K (Atlantic City, NJ)... won her first bracelet last year.
3 Erik Seidel $354K (Las Vegas, NV)... 6 time bracelet winner and the 1987 runner-up.
4 Soulier Fabrice $224K (Paris, France)... TV director who won several tournaments in Europe.
5 Perry Friedman $219K (San Marcos, CA)... he has one WSOP bracelet (2002) and 4 final tables.
6 Morgan Machina $1.05M (Mission Viejo, CA)... second WSOP final table and our chipleader.
7 Paul Sexton $362K (San Diego, CA)... student at University of San Diego. He dropped The Hammer yesterday!
8 Bill Blanda $46K (Houston, TX)... first WSOP final table.
9 Harry Demetriou $184K (London, England)... second final table in the past week.

I like Erik Seidel today, although Morgan Machina has a huge chiplead. I asked him for a quick quote about today's final table before he sat down. He said, "It's gonna be fun."

3:09pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Bill Blanda is the first one eliminated. Bill pushed all in preflop with A4. Perry Friedman called with 99 and hit a full house. Bill won $51,630 for ninth place.

3:10pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We're down to 18 players. Donny Carlton, Mimi Tran, Tony "TNT" Nasr, and Daniel Clegg have all been knocked out. Mimi's AQ ran into Toto Leoniads' AJ. The flop: Q-J-J. Yikes.

3:22pm... $2K NL Final Table update: A lot of us in press row have been working our asses off covering the event so we haven't been able to gamble as much as we'd like. In order to satisfy those urges, we've been engaging in random side and prop bets to keep things interesting during these long days and nights. I've been betting with BJ from Cardplayer and Jay from Poker Wire on various things like the Over/Under on what time the final table will finish (I said 11:30pm). We're betting on what Erik Seidel's hole cards were on a particular hand where everyone folded to his all-in bet with 4-7-7 on the board. We'll have to wait until ESPN airs this taped event to find out what they were. I also have another bet saying that ESPN won't air that hand that we originally bet on. We're action junkies.

3:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Chris Wunderlich moved all in preflop with AK and Paul "The Hammer" Sexton called with JJ. The flop: 7-7-J. Chris was bounced in 8th place. He won $77,445. Soulier Fabrice is the shortstack with $160K. Morgan is still the leader with over $1M in chips.

3:47pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Soulier Fabrice raised and Perry Friedman went over the top. Fabrice looked like he knew he was behind yet called anyway. He showed A-10 to Perry's A-J. Fabrcie's Frenchy railbirds were calling out "Dix! Dix!" They wanted a ten. His hand did not improve and he went out in 7th place. Fabrcie won $103,260 for his efforts. Cyndy Violette is now the shortstack with $173K. Perry is adding to his stack and has over $425K. I saw him drawing on his hand before the final table began. I think he wanted to do a hand puppet show for the "hole cams." Here's what HDouble told me about Perry's hands:

Perry Friedman has little "faces" drawn on his two hands, so he can talk to them (and they can talk to the hole cams) while he plays. Apparently, one of the hands is "evil," while the other is "good." It'll be interesting to see which hand gives him better advice at the final table.

3:59pm... $2K Final Table update: Someone from the crowd yelled out: "I love you Perry Freidman. You make me moist!" It was a guy's voice. If you don't know Erik Seidel and Perry are mentioned in a book coming out next month called "Tales from the Tiltboys." Johnny Grooms, tournament director and announcer, read a quick exceprt from the book. It was about how Perry once flushed his own head in a toilet for $10. Aso, in a recent tournament, Perry would not stop yapping and it was bugging out Seidel. So Seidel bet Perry $1K that he could not stop talking for five minutes. Perry did not take that action!

4:01pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman raised preflop. Cyndy and her shortstack moved all in with KK. Perry called with 55. Cyndy doubled up. Felicia and made a last longer bet. I have Sediel. She has Cyndy. By the way, Felicia wanted me to quote her saying, "I hate Perry!"

4:08pm...$2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: there are 240 players on 24 tables. Jesus, David Grey, and Annie Duke have all been eliminated. Mike Sexton is the chipleader with over $13K in chips. James Woods is also playing. What event has he not played in this year? I can see Clonie Gowen from where I am sitting. She has sexy shoulders.

4:20pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We're down to 12 players. David Blatte, Barney Boatman, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Kelly Harman, Juijen Chang, and Vincent Palama have all been knocked out. Reza Payvay is still the chipleader with Jon Muyung not too far behind.

5:03pm... $2K NL Final Table: Harry D. moved all in preflop with QJ. Perry Friedman called with AK. The flop: A-Q-2. The turn was a King and that gave Harry a few more outs. The river was a blank and Harry was knocked out in 6th place. He won $123,915 for his efforts. Cyndy Violette is the short stack. And Morgan has a $1M chip lead over anyone else.

5:08pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We have reached a final table. There are nine players remainig. Theodore Park went out in 12th place. Charlie Brahmi and Mike Chow were just eliminated. Reza Payvar is the chipleader.

5:18pm... $2K NL Final Table: Cyndy Violette reraised all in with KK. Morgan called with A8 and he did not catch any cards. Cyndy doubled up.

5:20pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em: 2005 Bracelet winner Mike Gracz was just eliminated. Dewey Tomko is also out. Mike Sexton has over $15K in chips. Jeff Shulman and TJ Cloutier also have about $10K. Andy Bloch has $9K. Clonie, Humberto, and James Woods are still alive. Clonie is wearing a stunning black cocktail dress. Hubba hubba.

5:45pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Paul Sexton (no relation to Mike Sexton) doubled up against Morgan Machina. It appears that Erik Sediel is the new chipleader. Actually I'm wrong. Johnny Grooms, the kick ass WSOP announcer and Tournament Director, hooked me up with the chip count. Paul "The Hammer" Sexton is now our new chipleader with $870K. Cyndy is hanging on barely with $180K. Paul Wolfe, Annie Duke, and Gavin Smith are in the stands watching the final table. Annie is wearing pink Converse Chuck Taylor's. That concludes my second and final fashion update today.

6:08pm... $2K NL Final Table update: We are currently on a delay. Perry Friedman told me that they didn't know who failed to ante on the last hand. Johnny Grooms stopped play. They are in the ESPN room reviewing tape. What would they have done if this event wasn't taped?

6:35pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy was shortstacked and moved all in preflop with 10d-8d. Morgan called with KT. The flop: Ad-Q-2. Cyndy needed an 8 or running diamonds to catch a backdoor flush draw. The river was a 4d. She needed a diamond or an 8. The river was an 8 and Cyndy doubled up. She's still alive. On the very next hand, she moved all in with AQ. Paul "The Hammer" Sexton called with K9. She flopped an ace and won with two pair. She doubled up again. Cyndy has chips, baby!

6:40pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: The players are on a dinner break. There are 107 players left. Ron Jackson appears to be the chipleader with $35K.

6:41pm... $2K Limit Final Table update: The players are on a break with 7 left. Reza Payvar has over $360K in chips. Chuck Schulze was knocked out in 8th and Eric Liebeler was booted in 9th. Reza Payvar is still the chipleader. Rodeen Talebi is the short stack.

6:42pm... $2K NL Final Table update: The players are on a dinner break until 8pm. Paul Sexton is the chipleader and Cyndy is still the smallest stack although she isn't that far off from the rest of the pack. Time for me to take a break myself. I'm going to hit the head for a well-needed piss, grab a beer, hit on some of those skanky cigar booth shicks camped out in the hallway, eat a $4 slice of pizza and then try to snag an interview with my main man Freddy Deeb. See you at 8pm.

8:01pm... Dinner break is over. All three tournaments resumed. I wandered into the Full Tilt hospitality suite and bumped into Poker Pages photographer Steve. He's British and had been giving me shit that I had not been living up to the "Dr. Pauly" reputation since I've started covering the WSOP.

"Where's the booze and the nubile 17-year olds?" he mentioned.

I headed straight for the "free bar" and ordered a beer and noshed on some cheese, crackers, raisin bread, and fruit. The melon was ripe and the bread was tasty. I wandered back over to the main hallway to make nice with the skanky cigar girls. One of them said she was tired from "dancing" last night. She was referring to the type of dancing one would do with a pole. Yeah, they hired strippers to pimp cigars. I must take a picture. I keep forgetting to do so. I bought a $4 slice of pizza and grabbed another beer back at the Full Tilt bar. That's when I realized I had 40 minutes left. Amy Calistri was interviewing/seducing Gerg "Fossilman" Raymer in the hallway so I decided to fire up Party Poker. I found my brother playing and sweated him for a bit. I sat down at a $3/6 table and won $26 on two hands: JJ and the Hilton Sisters. Sad, right? I'm covering the WSOP and the only poker I played in the last few days has been on Party Poker.

8:25pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy Violette moved all in with JJ. Morgan Machina called with AK. Cyndy won the race and doubled up. She's on fire! She is now second in chips with $760K. Erik Seidel is the chipleader and Morgan is not the shortstack.

8:33pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman's TT cracked Paul "The Hammer" Sexton's pocket rockets. Perry flopped a ten. He's now the chipleader.

8:35pm... $2K Limit Final Table update: Jay Helfert's AQ was knocked out by John Muyung's TT. Jay took 7th place. Reza Payvar has over $410K in chips.

8:41pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Max Pescatori was knocked out by Phil Gordon just before the break. Layne Flack was booted just after the dinner break. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon won a monsterpot with KK. He cracked the Hilton Sisters. TJ CLoutier was moved to Phil's table. And Mike Sexton (decked out in Party Poker gear) was moved to Humberto Brenes' table.

8:44pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Erik Seidel knocked out Paul Sexton who moved all in preflop with the shortstack. Erik called with 33 and hit a set on the flop to take down Paul's K9s. There are four players left. Erik Seidel and Cyndy Violette are about even in chips. Paul Sexton won $147,145. Annie Duke walked over to Erik Seidel and said, "Nice flop, eh?"

8:52pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Call this the Cyndy Violette Show. She called Morgan Machina's all in bet. Morgan showed K8 and Cyndy had AQ again! Morgan flopped a King but Cyndy caught an Ace in the turn and a Queen spiked on the river. She knocked out Morgan in 4th place. Morgan won $170,380. Cyndy is the chipleader. She made an amazing comeback after being on the brink of elimination. She caught a ton of cards over the last few hours. When I asked Perry about his thoughts as the action got down to three players, he said, "It's close."

9:14pm... $2K NL Final Table update: The players went on a 10 minute "unscheduled" break. Felicia suggested to me in an IM that the players were cutting a deal. They waited until the lesser experienced players were out before they chopped the remaining prize pool and play out for the bracelet. It happens all the time but we never see it or hear about it. I cannot confirm nor deny these accusations. I report what I see and I didn't see any of them talking to each other during the break. I was quick to point out to Felicia that on the TV tables, ESPN often controls the action. There are breaks for a few reasons. The first is that ESPN workers are unionized. They are entitled to short breaks by contract. Secondly, the cameras need to change tapes. This definitely slows down the action, but allows me to run off to the bathroom. This is part of the behind the scenes action that I never got to see when I watched poker on TV from the comforts of home. The dealers hold off on dealing turn and river cards until the cameras can get into position. Seriously, the ESPN crew works their ass off. I have a lot of respect for those guys.

9:30pm... $2K Limit Final Table Update: Miami John was knocked out by Toto Leonidas. Rodeen Talebi and Tommy Graza were both booted. Three players remain.

9:37pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman was all in preflop with the Hilton Sisters. Erik Seidel quickly called with pocket aces. From the rail, Phil Gordon yelled out, "Come on Perry! Suckout!" Perry's hand did not improve and he came in third place and won $196,455 for his efforts. Erik has almost a 2 to 1 chip lead over Cyndy. Wow, I made a bet with Felicia hours ago. I picked Erik Seidel and she took Cyndy Violette. It's going down to the wire.

10:05pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Phil Gordon is the chipleader and TJ Cloutier is not far behind. Mike Sexton and Richad Brodie are still alive. Chau Giang was just knocked out by a bad beat AQ vs. KQ. Mike Sexton knocked out Humberto Brenes. Sexton had Big Slick and Humberto had Mrs. Slick. Does that make Mike Sexton a wifebeater?

10:37pm... I am bored outta my tits. The Limit event has been playing three way for an hour. Cyndy and Erik have been heads up for an hour as well. By the way, if you click on the photos that appear in this post, they will enlarge. Just in case you horny guys wanna get a closer look at Clonie or if you want to try to count Mike Sexton's chips. By the way, I fuckin' love this photo of Perry Freidman with Clonie and Tara Ried.

10:40pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy took her shoes off and she's playing barefoot. Am I hunting for material or what? Did you know that Erik Seidel has 6 WSOP bracelets? He's trying to win his 7th. Cyndy is looking for her second.

11:06pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: I'm gonna call this the Phil Gordon update in honor of the April Sisters. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon doubled up with pocket aces. Yesterday he had his aces cracked by David Pham's TT. This time they hold up.

11:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: We have a winner. Erik Seidel won. Cyndy pushed all in preflop with 99. Erik called with 88. The flop: 5-5-8. The pro-Cyndy crowd seemed dejected. Cyndy didn't catch anything to help her and Siedel won. Congrats to Erik and Cyndy for almost two hours of intense heads up action. Cyndy takes home $295,970. Erik won $611,795 and his 7th WSOP bracelet.


2005 WSOP $2K NL Champion: Erik Seidel
After Erik won, his wife brought over a cellphone and he called his daughter to tell her that he won. It was a touching moment and I guess he didn't realize he was talking to her right in front of me. I asked his wife if she thought he had a shot at a bracelet this year. She honestly said, "I never thought he'd make another final table ever again with so many more people playing every year."

12:02am... As I was walking around stretching my legs I spotted an interesting $25/$50 NL cash game involving Clonie Gowen, Jen Tilly, Phil Laak, and Antonio Esfandiari.

12:04am... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Mike Sexton and my main man Freddy Deeb are sitting at the same table. TJ Cloutier is out.

12:05am... $2K Limit Hold'em update: Still three way. This can and will go until dawn.

1:45am... $2K Pot-Limit update: Phil Gordon was knocked out in 27th place when Marco Traniello flopped the nuts against him. 26 players left.

2:00am... $2K Limit Final Table update: They have been playing three way for five hours. John Myung, Toto Leonidas, and Reza Payvar are not going anywhere it seems. Reza has a huge chiplead. As Andy Bloch commented, "This is a race for second place."

2:16am... $2K Limit Final Table update: We're down to heads up! Thank fuckin' God. John Myung got bad beated too, which sucks for him. I was rooting for him. Toto Leonidas played 7-3o and won with a pair of threes, beating Myung's A9. John Myung won $83,755 for third place. We're heads up.

2:55am... $2K Pot-Limit update: We're down to 20 players. Thor Hansen was KO'd. Play will resume at 2pm tomorrow when they will play down to 9. The final table will be taped by ESPN on Tuesday.

For complete results check out the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results. Don't forget to chuck out Flipchip's 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery. Some of the pics you see in this blog come from Flip Chip. I will be writing recaps for Poker Player Newspaper. Take a peek at that.
posted by Pauly at 6/12/2005 03:59:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Event #10 $2K Limit Hold'em and Event #9 $2K NL Day 2

"Are you one of them dealers on the World Poker Tour?" one of the guys shouted at me as locked up my front door to go to work yesterday.

He lazily stood in the middle of a gaggle of disheveled rednecks and spoke with a slight drawl. He noticed that Flip Chip and I were wearing all black and had badges dangling around our necks. It was a valid question. We looked like we could have been dealers. We wear black clothing during all final table events that are taped on TV as per requests of the production crew. I was impressed with my neighbor's keen observation skills.

Note to self: Never underestimate the intelligence of people with less than nine teeth.

Ah, who the hell am I kidding? He's a shirtless inbred nitwit who drinks Mike's Hard Lemonade for breakfast. His beer gut hung over his waistband by three and a half inches and he happily sported a tattoo that read "Fuck Osamma" on his left arm. I wanted to point out the spelling error but I was in a rush. I wondered if in a dark cave somewhere in Western Pakistan, there was an Al Qaeda fighter who had a tattoo that read "Fuck Billy Boob!"

Yesterday was an insane day where I found myself covering three different tournaments and two final tables. I was up until 7am writing different recaps and articles. Flip Chip shot 1Gbs worth of photos for the 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery. I also had to get up by noon to tape an interview with Sean for the Lord Admiral Card Club poker podcast. I'm swamped with work and I seriously need an intern.

Moving on... back to the Rio.

I consider the poker room at the Rio "my office." In my life I have worked in some pretty historic places and I can add the Rio to that list. For my first job on Wall Street, I worked on the trading floor of the New York Commodities Exchange, which used to be located on the 8th floor of the World Trade Center. I also worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. talk how two famous institutions. Alas, both jobs seemed like lifetimes ago. Today, my day job is at the Rio along with hundreds and thousands of seasoned professionals who are all gunning for a shot at a WSOP bracelet.

I wish I was in their seats flinging chips around instead of being the monkey on the laptop in the corner writing about bad beats and chip counts. I can't. I'm not a strong enough player and I have to work. But hey, I can't complain. I'm getting paid the big bucks to write everyday and blog live from the floor of the Rio plus I get free accommodations at the lovely Red Neck Riviera.

Today's Tournaments:
1. Event #9 $2000 NL Day 2 (follow the action in green font)
2. Event #10 $2000 Limit Hold'em Day 1

There 43 players left at the start of the $2K NL Day 2. It started yesterday with 1403 players. The prize pool is $2,581,520.

The second Limit event at the WSOP began today at noon. Buy in was $2K with 569 entrants and a prize pool of $1,046,940. Not too bad for a Limit event, eh? Daniel Negreanu won last year's $2K limit event.

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

1:59pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: Perry Friedman begins today as the chipleader with $154K.

4:20pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: John Bonetti, The Grinder, and Dutch Boyd were recently knocked out. The Grinder's KQ ran into Marcel Luske's pocket Jacks and did not improve.

5:01pm... $2K Limit update: Sorry that I haven't been covering much of the Limit event. I've been gawking at the prime real estate by the pool and trying to hit on those slutty girls who work the cigar booth in the hallway. There are 250 players remaining. here are some chip counts courtesy of Poker Wire:

Notable Players
Carlos Mortensen $13K
Alan Goehring $11K
Daniel Negreanu $10K
Toby Maguire $8K
Barry Greenstein $8K
Mimi Tran $7K
Toto Leonidas $7K
Mike Gracz $6.4K
Howard Lederer $6K
Miami John Cernuto $5K
Andy Bloch $4.5K
Max Pescatori $4K
James Woods $3K
Thor Hansen $3K
Erick Lindgren $2.9K
Chris Ferguson $2.9K
Men "The Master" $2.5K
Matt Matros $2.5K
Ram Vaswani $2.3K

6:05pm... $2K NL Day 2: We're down to 22 players. Nicholas Finamore and Ray Foley were the last two knocked out. Also sent home today were Joe Awada, Chau Giang, Ezra Udoff, and David Plastik. Perry Friedman is still the chipleader with about $240K.

6:09pm... $2K NL Day 2: Marcel Luske was just knocked out by a bad beat from Morgan Machina. Marcel moved all in with JJ. Morgan called with 99 and flopped a set. Marcel went 1 for 2 with JJ today.

7:30pm... $2K NL Day 2: We're down to two tables and 17 players. Kenny Robbins, Mark Owens, and Dalton McCulley have been knocked out. Here's a quick chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

$2K NL Day 2
1 Cyndy Violette $ 450K
2 Morgan Machina $ 285K
3 Ken James $ 265K
4 Soulier Fabrice $ 250K
5 Chris De Maci $ 225K
6 Harry Demetriou $190K
7 Paul Sexton $155K
8 Perry Friedman $140K
9 Bill Blanda $125K
10 Kevin Fox $110K
11 Erik Seidel $100K
12 Mark Ketteringham $100K
13 Dani Awad $95K
14 Ayaz Mahmood $80K
15 Chris Won $70K
16 Francious Safieddine $50K
17 Joel Chang $20K

7:38pm... The ESPN crew is right in front of me taping Antonio doing chip tricks using the final tv table set. I caught a glimpse of Fossilman by the cashier talking to a couple of guys. I like Greg Raymer, but I'm always skeptical of guys who wear socks with Tevas. Then again, sometimes it gets fuckin' cold here at the Rio. So I'll let Fossilman slide with this one. When you are the WSOP Champion, you can get away with a few fashion faux pas.

7:40pm... $2K Limit update: There are 148 players left. It's dinner break and play will resume in 20 minutes. I bumped into Max Pescatori. He's got about $14K in chips. When I asked him about the quality of players at his table, he said, "Everyone forgot how to play Limit."

8:15pm... I've been getting random calls from friends today letting me know that they are digging my coverage. Thanks guys (Bad Blood, Daddy & Joaquin) because I'm flattered. My brother and Bobby Bracelet are in NYC right now and they've been betting on the ponies this afternoon, specifically the Belmont Stakes. Afleet-fuckin'-Alex won. Oh well.

8:45pm... $2K Limit update: Peter Tran had the chiplead last time I checked. I took a stroll through the Limit event tables area. There are 115 players left on 12 tables. Howard Lederer with about $10K in chips was eating a power bar. Daniel Negreanu is still alive. Max Pescatori has about $13K in chips (and he also asked about Felicia). Max was moved to Tobey Maguire's table. He's listening to an iPod and he has about $4K in chips.

9:18pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: Erik Seidel caught a huge card on the river. He moved all in preflop with AJ. Chris De Maci called with Big Slick. Seidel spiked a Jack on the turn and doubled up. By the way, I saw that Erik was holding a copy of Charlie Shoten's book No Limit Life as he made his way back to the table after a break.

9:20pm... $2K Limit update: There are 108 players left. I heard Daniel Negreanu yelling out to no one in particular, "You're going down! I'm still here and you're going down!"

9:40pm... $2K Limit update: Howard Lederer was elimianted. Tobey Maguire busted out with a short stack. He had 88 and lost to AK.

10:01pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: I witnessed the first Hammer drop at the WSOP! It was an amazing hand. In the LB, Paul Sexton tried for a steal with one of the bigger stacks at the table. Chris Wunderlich was short stacked in the BB and moved all in. Paul thought about it for a long time. ESPN's mobile camera crew caght the action. Paul started smirking. On the other end of the table Harry Demetriou and the other guys were trying to put Paul on a hand. They all knew he got caught making a steal. Paul counted out a few more chips and nonchalantly tossed them into the pot. Chris Flipped over A-10. Paul sheepishly turned over... 2-7o... aka The Hammer!!! Grubby and all my blogger pals would be happy. Now here's where it gets interesting. The flop: 7-8-9. Wow. Paul caught a bit of the flop. On the turn a 6 fell and Chris caught his open ended straight draw. The river was a ten and both players chopped a pot. Paul was super embarassed and hs face flushed several shades of red.

Harry said out loud, "Now that's a bad beat."

I interjected, "Behold the power of The Hammer!"

The best part about the hand was it was captured by ESPN crews. I hope they caught my commentary. Tournament Director Johnny Grooms turned to me and said, "Nothing like capturing a steal on ESPN."

Seriously, congrats to Paul Sexton. He's my new favorite player for dropping The Hammer!

10:30pm... $2K NL Update Day 2: There are 12 players left. Morgan Machina is the chip leader with $380K. Erik Seidel and Cyndy Violette are not far behind Erik.

10:33pm... $2K NL Update Day 2: Morgan Machina knocked out Chris De Maci in 12th place. Cyndy Violette caught runner-runner for a Royal Straight Flush in spades. Cyndy knocked out Hani Awad in 11th place. He had Big Slick and she had Ks-9x. She's on a roll. At this point she's looking like she might win it all. We have ten players remaining and the players had to redraw for seats. Cyndy Violette is the chipleader. As soon as one more player is busted we will break until tomorrow.

10:50pm... $2K NL Update Day 2: I just saw the Hilton Sisters get cracked by K8. Mark Ketteringham moved all-in preflop with K8. Bill Blanda quickly called with the Hiltons. There was a King ont he flop and Mark doubled up.

11:11pm... $2K NL Update Day 2: Morgan Machina AQ knocked out Mark Ketteringham's AK. Morgan caught a Broadway straight. We have nine players left. Play will resume tomororw at 2:30pm. The event will be televised on ESPN in late August. The chipleader is Morgan Machina with over $1M in chips. Bill Blanda is the short stack with $46K.

11:15pm... $2K Limit update: 69 players are left on 7 tables. Vince Palma is the chipleader with $50K. Barny Boatman has around $30K. Max Pescatori is near the top with $22K. And Daniel Negreanu has about $20K. Matt Hilger is still alive.

11:40pm... I bought an iced tea at the gift shop here. It cost me $2.50. The only highlight was meeting John Wayne's nephew in there. He was a dead ringer for the Duke. He even did "the voice." On my way back to the media room, I saw John D'Agostino and Phil Laak playing in a $25/$50 NL cash game. I realized that I have been neglecting my cash game sideline reporting. In the future I promise I will bring you more stories about that. Dan from Pokerati saw Greg Raymer sitting in that game earlier in the evening. I saw Barry Greenstein wandering around hanging out advance copies of my book. I missed my shot at getting a copy.

12:03am... $2K Limit update: We're near the money. We're playing hand to hand. Gary Lent is the chipleader.

12:20am... $2K Limit update: We made the money. Max was shortstacked and hung on to squeeze into the money. He finished in 53rd place and cashed in two consecutive tournaments. He netted $600. "Minus $100 for the massages," he said.

3:01am... $2K Limit update: We're down to 22 players and the action is stopped for toady. Play will resume at 2pm. Matthew Hilger, Alan Goehring, and Daniel Negreanu were all knocked out. Reza Payvar is the chipleader with $173K

Sunday is going to be tough with three tourneys to cover in addition to two final tables.
posted by Pauly at 6/11/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #9 $2000 NL Day 1 -- Event #8 $1500 Seven-card Stud Day 2 -- Event #7 $1000 NL w/ Rebuys Day 3: Final Table

Quick thanks to Wil Wheaton who linked me up today. He's been hanging on my every word. Thanks, man! And thanks to all my fellow bloggers who have been mentioning us on their blogs, specifically my live WSOP blogging, Poker Prof's 2005 WSOP Tournament News, and Flip Chip's 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. It is much appreciated by all of us. Thanks again.

I left the Rio before sun up last night. Weeeeee! I've been logging some long ass nights. I haven't played any poker since this weekend when my only highlight was cashing in a tournament at the Plaza. I was worried when I took this job covering the WSOP that I'd be out at all hours boozing hard and playing poker until my bankroll evaporated. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to do either.

Yesterday, I played some poker in a casino. It was my first session as a "local." I played NL and lost $35. I should have dropped more, but the players are so bad that I got away with a few mistakes. Tourists are the ultimate fish. Their skill level is far from the pros I get to see everyday. The short day on Thursday allowed me to get a chance to write for myself, talk to my brother, and catch up on well-needed sleep.

Whenever I arrive to work, I always recant the sordid tales from my apartment complex that went down the previous night. One of my fellow writers at the WSOP, Jay Greenspan mentioned me, "Doc, get the hell out of there!"

He's lucky and gets to stay at the Rio for free. He told me about the chicks commingling at the pool. Smoking. Hot. Damn. I have to stop by and do a little drooling. Jay's the man. Go read his kick ass reports over at Poker Wire. He has first class accommodations at the Rio while I'm staying at the Red Neck Riviera, which I'm positive I saw on a previous episode of COPS. You know the episode I'm talking about, the one where the naked guy sprints through the parking lot and a cop the size of Mean Joe Green tackles him to the pavement.

I can't leave my apartment. I dig it. Lots of material for me. Plus, I found out there are a couple of strippers who live upstairs. Last night, I was about to introduce myself before they got into a fight in front of my door.

"Why didn't you fuckin' wait for me?" one yelled.

"I didn't know you wanted me to?"

"Stupid bitch! I told you when we were in the bathroom!"

"No you didn't. You're fucked up, coke slut!!"

"Fuck you, bitch!"

"You always get fucked up and think you said things when you didn't!"

"Shut the fuck up or I'll drag your ass down the stairs."

I wish I was making this stuff up. I wanted to invite them inside to my place to drink malt liquor and watch The OC. Maybe next time.

Let's get to the poker. There are three poker tournaments going on today here at the Rio.

1. Event #7 $1000 NL w/ Rebuys
2. Event #8 $1500 Seven-card Stud
3. Event #9 $2000 NL

In the live blog updates I will try to use color coding to distinguish the three different tourneys that are going on. Red = Stud Day 2 event #8 and Green = $2K NL event #9. The final table for Event #7 is being taped for ESPN and will be aired on August 30, 2005 at 8:00 PM. Event #8 is in the second day. We're down to two tables. Event #9 is underway with 1404 players. Everyone seems to be playing in that huge NL event.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

1:50pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: It's fascinating watching the ESPN crew set up the TV table for the NL Rebuys event. These are some professional guys. It's cool to see them it action. Here are the seat assignments and chip counts for today's final table:

Event # 7 $1000 NL Rebuy
Seat 1: David "The Dragon" Pham $323K... He's won Card Player Mag's Player of the Year.

Seat 2: Shae Drobushevich $248K... He's from Moline, Illinois and brought his wife and kids here.

Seat 3: Phil "Tilt Boy" Gordon $91K... The host of Celebrity Poker Showdown is the tallest person at the final table.

Seat 4: CT Law $516K... He's originally from Hong Kong and lives in London where he owns a restaurant.

Seat 5: Mike Gracz $173K... He's a professional player from Raleigh, NC and he's friends with Chip & Karina Jett. He won $1.5 million on the Party Poker Million Cruise a few months ago.

Seat 6: Shane Schleger $134K... Shane is a semi-pro from NYC who's former jobs include various ditch digging duties.

Seat 7: Pascal Perrault $225K... Pascal is a pharmacist from Paris, France.

Seat 8: Chuck Thompson $544K... He's a writer for Card Player and a member of the Senior's Poker Hall of Fame.

Seat 9: Meng La $71K... From Torrance, CA, Meng La won a WSOP bracelet in 2002.

2:27pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: The players are sitting down as we speak. I just shook David Pham's hand. He's got a cool shirt on with a "dragon logo." Where can I get one?

Here's the payout structure.

Event #7 NL w/ Rebuys Payouts:
1 $594,460
2 $311,555
3 $176,145
4 $154,125
5 $132,110
6 $110,090
7 $88,070
8 $66,055
9 $44,035

Total Prize Pool: $2,201,810
Total Rebuys: $1,495,000
Total Entrants: 826

2:51pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: The blinds are $3K/$6K with $1K antes. Phil Gordon moved all in preflop and got no action. He picked up the blinds and antes.

3:11pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: The board read: 2-7-8-K. Phil Gordon moved all in with KQ. TC Law called with KTs. The river was a 4 and Phil Gordon doubled up.

3:15pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: We have our first bust out. Ming La moved all preflop in with KQ. CT Law called with A8s. CT flopped an 8 and hit another 8 on the turn and filled in a full house when an ace spiked on the river. Ming La won $44,035 for 9th place.

3:28pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: We have our second player busted. David Pham raised and Phil Gordon pushed all in preflop with AA. David Pham called with TT. The flop: J-3-2. Gordon was looking good until a Ten hit on the turn. A slew of "ooohs" and "aaaahs" fell over the crowd. Phil had two more outs but they didn't hit. He was out in 8th place and won $66,055 for his efforts. David Pham is now the chipleader with $528K. Chuck Thompson is second with $512K. The short stack is Shane Schleger with $155K in chips.

3:33pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Flip Chip turned to me and said "Pham has chips and is steaming rolling over the table." Yeah, before we started today Flip Chip said that Pham was the favorite to win. Chip Jett is sitting in front of me sweating Mike Gracz. Chip brought him a bottle of water. After Mike Gracz downed it, he tossed the empty bottle back over to Chip. Karina Jett is also sitting in front of me.

3:39pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Day 2: Hugo Mejia was the first player eliminated today. He finished in 20th place. David Levi was just knocked out in 19th.

3:45pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: On a flop of 8-3-2, Chuck Thompson moved all in. David Pham though about it for a while then folded. Pham mucked his cards face up and showed A8. Chuck flipped over 8-3 for two pair. Good laydown by Pham. Top pair with top kicker is a hand that pros can and will fold.

4:12pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Gracz made an amazing call on the river with 99. Pham raised $25K preflop and Gracz called. The flop: K-7-4. Both players checked. When a 5 fell on the turn, Pham bet out about half the pot. Gracz called. The river was an ace and Pham bet about $70K which would put Gracz all in. He sniffed out a bluff and called with pocket nines. Pham showed QT.

4:20pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We're down to two tables.

4:21pm PCT... $2K NL update: 1404 players signed up today. Scotty Nguyen was knocked out when his Mrs. Slick lost to Victor Ramdin's AK. There are 800 players left and players are getting eliminated so fast it's hard to keep up. Man, It's tough trying to cover three tournaments at once. I need an intern, dammit! According to Poker Wire, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi has over $11K in chips.

4:28pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: In late position, David Pham raised it up to $24K. Shane Schleger raised $63K, he was all in with 66. Pham called with 22. Pham did not catch any cards and he doubled up Shane. Curently, Chuck Thompson is the chipleader with $650K. CT Law has almost $500K.

4:40pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Players are on 15 minute break. I bumped into Jesus in the bathroom. Where else can I get away with saying that? Here are the quick chip counts:

David Pham = 190K
Shae Drobushevich = 321K
CT Law = 496K
Mike Gracz = 160K
Shane Schleger = 191K
Pacsal Perrault = 306K
Chuck Thompson = 657K

Players are returning soon. I saw Phil Gordon interviewing Phil Hellmuth for his podcast.

4:50pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Here's a chip count, courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Minh Nguyen $105K
2 Greg Mascio $80K
3 Abe Almalhi $63K
4 Robert Glenn $61K
5 Kirill Gerasimov $60K
6 Murray Reinhart $51K
7 Leandro Alvarez $45K
8 Glenn J. Engelbert $42K
9 Evgeny Kafelnikov $35K
10 Dr. Mark Burtman $32K
11 Rydell Willis $30K
12 Richard Tatalovich $28K
13 Cliff Josephy $25K
14 Randy Holland $16K
15 Thor Hansen $14K

4:58pm PCT... $2K NL update: I spotted Toby Maguire playing in the 2K event. I can see him from my seat here. 550 players are left.

5:09pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Evgeny Kafelnikov eliminated Randy Holland in 16th place. Holland was all in with trip 8s but Kafelnikov rivered a 10 to win with trip 10s. Kafelnikov is en feugo after he knocked out Robert Glenn in 14th place.

5:11pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Still have seven players. The blinds are $6K/$12K with $2K antes.

5:20pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Shae Drobushevich raised preflop and CT Law called. The flop was: Qd-5h-2c. Shae D check-called CT Law's $25K bet. When a King hit the turn, both players checked. On the river, a ten hit and Shae bet out about $40K. CT Law called and showed AT. Shae had pocket 8s and got rivered.

5:26pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: On an all diamond flop of 8-6-4, Pascal Perrault moved all in over the top of Mike Gracz. CT Law called with Ad-2d and Gracz folded. CT Law flopped the nut flush. Pascal had 8-5o and finished in 7th place. He won $88,070.

Quick Chip Counts:
1. CT Law $900K
2. Chuck Thompson $715K
3. David Pham $225K
4. Shane Schleger $158K
5. Mike Gracz $157
6. Shae Drobushevich $135K

CT Law took the chip lead.

4:37pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Shae D was just knocked out in 6th place. Shae was the shortstack and pushed all in prelfop with A6. CT Law called with AQs. CT Law flopped a queen and Shae's hand did not improve. He takes home over $110,090 for his work. CT Law now has over $1 million in chips.

5:46pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We're down to 11 players. Richard Tatalovich was just knocked out in 12th place. Thor Hansen was eliminted in 12th place. Minh Nguyen is the chipleader with over $112K.

5:47pm PCT... $2K NL update: Richard "The Quiet Lion" Brodie was knocked out when his Big Slick did not improve against pocket kings. "The Grinder" has over $22K in chips and he is at the top of the chip count of notable players (thanks to Card Player). Harry Demetriou has about $20K. Erick Seidel has about $14K. Jesus is hanging on with a shortstack. Tobey Maguire has roughly $6K in chips.

6:01pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Shane Schleger was just knocked out by Mike Gracz. Shane won $132,110 for fifth place. Shane raised preflop to $36K and Gracz called. The flop: 8-7-3 rainbow. Both players checked. On the turn, a 7 fell. Gracz checked and Shane moved all in for $121K. Mike Gracz eventually made the call with AT... and just an ace high. Talk about one helluva read! Shane showed KJs. He didn't hit any of his outs and Gracz even hit a ten on the river. Four players are left.

6:08pm PCT... $2K NL update: There are 386 players remaining.

6:18pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Karina Jett turned around and asked me and Flip Chip if the table in the corner with a stack of prize money was real. "Yes, it is," I assured her. She suggested it was a bad idea to televise the huge stacks of money because it would encourage a gang of thieves to rob the joint. I'd love to see Danny Ocean and his crew try to knock over the Rio during the WSOP. That could be the plot line for Ocean's Thirteen. Personally, I think I'm working in one of the most secure places in Las Vegas. I'm not worried. But there has been a rash of pick-pocket incidents at the Rio due to the high volume of crowds. So if you are coming out here for the first time at all over the next few weeks, be careful where you hold your bankroll and wallets.

6:20pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Chuck Thompson raised to $36K on the button. CT Law called. The flop: K-10-3. Both guys checked. When a two fell on the turn, CT and Chuck checked again. When an ace spiked on the river, Chuck bet around $30K. CT Law called. They both had aces, but CT Law's A9 outkicked Chuck's A6. CT Law added more chips to his monster stack.

6:37pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Pham's was just knocked out by CT Law who flopped a set with 88. The flop was A-Q-8. David Pham had A5 and his top pair was not good enough to win. He finished in 4th place and wins $154,125. Here's a quick chip count:

CT Law $1.5M
David Gracz $428K
Chuck Thompson $381K

The players are on a dinner break until 7:45pm PCT.

7:00pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Day 2 update: Leo Alvarez was knocked out in 11th place. We have 10 players remaining. Murray Reinhart won a monster pot worth about $35K against Minh Nguyen. Murray showed trip kings.

7:15pm PCT... $2K NL update: The Grinder has been accumulating chips over the last few hours. He's got a little under $50K right now. Minneapolis Jim Meehan is looking strong. There are 298 players remaining on 30 tables.

8:00pm PCT... Dinner break is over for all three events.

8:05pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: The blinds are 8K/16K with 2K antes. Chuck Thompson was just knocked out in 3rd place by Mike Gracz. Chuck raised $80K. Mike pushed all in. Chuck thought about it for a while and called with AJ. Mike showed 88. They were both all in preflop. The flop: A-K-8. Yeah, Mike flopped a set. But Chuck still had some outs. The turn was a king and Mike's railbirds including Chip and Karina Jett were rooting him on. The river was a blank and Mike's full house stood up. Chuck Thompson won $176,145 for third place. Currently, CT Law has a little under $1.5M in chips. Mike Gracz has $847K. We're now heads up!

8:24pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Day 2 Update: Glenn Engelbert was eliminated in 10th place. Evgeny Kafelnikov was booted in 9th place by Abe Almalhi. Kafelnikov rivered a flush but Almalhi caught a full boat on the river to improve his hand as well. The players have redrawn for seats at the final table. Here are the chip leaders:

Seven-card Stud Final Table Chip Count:
1 Abe Almalhi $137K
2 Cliff Josephy $130K
3 Greg Mascio $122K
4 Murray Reinhart $86K
5 Kirill Gerasimov $84K
6 Minh Nguyen $60K
7 Ardell Willis $58K
8 Dr. Mark Burtman $33K

Entrants: 472 Players
Total Prize Pool: $651,360

8:37pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: ESPN had to set up the final table and it seemed like it took forever for them to get their shit together. They brought all the cash over to the final table and had the players shift their seats in order for a better camera shot. Mike Gracz won the first hand when he raised on the button to about $50K. CT Law reraised him to $216K and Gracz called. The flop: K-J-10 rainbow. Both players checked the flop. An ace fell on the turn and Mike Gracz bet $100K. CT Law thought for a minute and folded. Mike took down a huge pot in the first heads up hand. Mike Gracz closed the gap considerably. CT Law's chip lead is now only $200K.

8:53pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Monster hand that Mike Gracz just won. He had A5 and rivered The Wheel on CT Law. On the button CT Law raised $40K with Big Slick. Mike Gracz called. The flop: A-2-7. CT Law bet $50K and Mike Gracz called. The turn was a 3. Mike Gracz check-called $200K. The river: 4. When CT Law bet $200K on the river, Mike Gracz check-raised him $430K. CT Law reluctantly called and showed AK. Mike Gracz caught a huge card on the river to win a pot worth over a million and he crippled CT Law's spirit and stack in the process. CT Law has $600K and Mike Gracz has $1.7M.

9:07pm PCT... $2K NL update: There are 207 players left. The Grinder is still picking up pots. On a flop of J-6-8, his opponent moved all in. The Grinder made a great call with 10-8s. His opponent showed 8-7s and The Grinder ended up hitting two pair on the river, although he didn't need the help since he had him outkicked on the flop. The Grinder has over $73K in chips. Harry Demetriou has about $36K and Marcel Luske is still in it with $23K. Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel, Freddy Deeb, Kristy Gazes, Phil Laak, and Perry Friedman are all still playing.

9:27pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: A few minutes after he doubled up Kirill Gerasimov, Minh Nguyen's flush knocked Murray Reinhart in 8th place. Murray won $17,585.

9:36pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table Update: On the board of: 2-2-5-6, Mike Gracz bet $60K and CT Law came over the top for $120K. Mike Gracz re-raised all in. CT Law took his time to think about the call. The crowd was a little tense. One writer in media row was hoping for a call because he had dinner reservations. CT Law finally called and flipped over 3-6. He had top pair. Mike Gracz showed J-5. He had a gutshot draw with a few more outs if he caught another 5 or a jack. His hand did not improve and CT Law doubled up.

9:59pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table Update: According to BJ from Card Player, here are the approximate chip counts: C.T. Law = $1.53M and Michael Gracz = $795K.

10:00pm PCT... $2K NL update: There are 160 players remaining. The top 140 pay. Phil Laak is standing behind me talking to Andy Bloch and said he had $23K. I just took a stroll through that area and saw that Minneapolis Jim Meehan had a healthy stack along with Cindy Violette, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Freddy Deeb. The Grinder is still looking powerful with a big stack.

10:11pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: The young Russian Kirill Gerasimov won two huge pots off of Abe Almalhi. He won one pot with a better two pair... Aces and Jacks over Abe's Tens and Kings and won another when his trip sevens beat out Abe's pair of Kings. Abe is now the shortstack. Here's a quick chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

1. Cliff Josephy $254K
2 Kirill Gerasimov $143K
3 Minh Nguyen $104K
4 Greg Mascio $78K
5 Ardell Willis $60K
6 Dr. Mark Burtman $53K
7 Abe Almalhi $ 24K

10:30pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Table Update: This could have been a hig hand but the players ended up chopping it. On a board of 5-6-5-J CT Law pushed all in on the turn with 8-7 and an open ended straight draw. Mike Gracz called with 22. The river was a 6, which hurt Mike and both players ended up "playing the board" to chop the pot.

10:43pm PCT... NL w/ Rebuys Final Update: After two hours of heads up play, we have a new winner. Mike Gracz won his first WSOP bracelet when he took down TC Law. On a flop of 8-5-J he moved all in. TC Law took a few minutes to ponder his decision. He finally called and showed QJ. Mike Gracz had Q8s. One of his friends on the rail asked for an 8. He certainly got it. An 8 spiked on the turn and the river was a 6. TC Law played great yesterday and he got outdrawn on that big hand. He finished in second place and takes home $311,555. Mike Gracz won $594,460.


2005 WSOP $1,000 NL w/ Rebuys Champion: Mike Gracz

Congrats to Mike. For complete results and a list of money winners in this event visit the 2005 WSOP Tournament Results page courtesy of Poker Player Newspaper.

One final table down, one more to go.

11:00pm PCT... $2K NL update: 140 players remaining. We're in the money. Cindy Violette is doing very well with $55K in chips. Erik Seidel has $42K. My main man Freddy Deeb has $41K. The Grinder and Marcel Luske both have around $40K. The tournament director annouced that players are not allowed to used head phones and listen to music once they get into the money. I asked Johnny Grooms, WSOP tournament director, to clarify the rule and he said that some players can plug head phones into cell phones and get messages from friends on the rail. In order to avoid any controversy, the WSOP outlawed cell phones at the table and the use of musical devices (iPOds and CD players) with headphones once players make the money.

11:15pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: Minh Nguyen has been eliminated by Cliff Josephy in 7th place. He won $24,750 for his efforts. We're down to 6.

11:25pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: Ardell Willis was knocked out by Dr. Mark Burtman. Willis finished in 6th place and he won $31,265. And a few minutes later, Kirill Gerasimov knocked out a short stacked Abe Almalhi in 5th place. Yeah, we're down to 4.

11:50pm PCT... $2K NL update: I heard that John Bonetti had over $100K in chips. Cindy Violette was looking strong with $69K.

12:01am PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: Greg Mascio doubled up twice against the young Russian Kirill Gerasimov. Amy Calistri remarked that she was impressed with Kirill's Stud skills.

12:15am PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: Cliff Josephy eliminated Greg Mascio in 4th place. He won $48,200.

12:40pm PCT... Seven-card Stud Final Table update: The players are on a short break. Cliff Josephy is the chipleader with $520K. Dr. Mark Burtman has $130K. Kirill Gerasimov is the short stack with $64K.

1:04pm PCT... $2K NL update: There are 79 players left on 8 tables. Minneapolis Jim Meehan was cracking me up while he was getting his slip before he cashed out. The line was pretty long and he wanted to skip it. He held a half-empty bottle of beer. Seriously, he's probably the funniest poker pro I've observed at this year's WSOP.

1:20pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We're heads up. Dr. Mark Burtman from Columbus, Mississippi (also a noted author) was knocked out by Cliff Josephy in 3rd place. He won $63,180.

I got to interview Dr. Mark and I realized that his publicist had sent me an advanced copy of his book about a month ago. By far, he was my best interview of the WSOP. We spoke for about 15 minutes about a few topics ranging from enduring bad streaks to the similarities between being a doctor and being a poker player.

"As a physician you have to evalute risk," he said, "and the same principles apply to poker."

He also spoke about how in poker you can take a gamble on something which you are only 50% sure of, however, it is something you cannot afford to do in medicine especially when you are risking patient's lives.

1:30am PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Cliff has a nice chip lead over Kirill.

1:59am PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We have a winner. Cliff "Johhny Bax" Josephy knocked out Kirill Gerasimov. Kirilli's pair of 5s did not improve and lost to Cliff's pair of aces. The young Russian won $108,775 for second place and Cliff took home $192,150 and a gold bracelet. Congrats to Cliff!

For complete results and a list of money winners in this event visit 2005 WSOP Tournament Results.

2:59am PCT... $2K NL update: Play has stopped for today and will resume on Saturday at 2pm. There are 43 players left. Toby Maguire was knocked out in 54th place when his A7 lost to pocket aces. Perry is kicking ass. Marcel is still alive. Here's a chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

End of Day 1 Notable Chip Counts:
1 Perry Friedman $ 154,000
2 Cyndy Violette $ 133,000
3 Morgan Machina $ 123,100
4 Francois Saffiedine $ 110,500
5 Nicholas Finamore $ 104,900
6 Christopher DeMaci $ 102,800
7 Ezra Udoff $ 92,200
8 Mark Owens $ 84,100
9 John Kabbaj $ 80,300
10 Chau Giang $ 77,900
11 Ayaz Mahmood $ 72,600
12 Percy Regimbal $ 69,000
13 Ray Foley $ 67,300
14 J. Dalton McCulley $ 67,100
15 Kenny Robbins $ 67,100
16 Dutch Boyd $ 63,500
17 Paul Sexton $ 63,500
18 Mike Carson $ 61,600
19 Erik Seidel $ 60,800
20 Joel Chang $ 60,500
21 Mark Ketteringham $ 59,500
22 Bill Blanda $ 59,100
23 Andy Church $ 52,600
24 Harry Demetriou $ 52,300
25 The Grinder $ 48,400
26 Kevin Fox $ 48,400
27 Ray Morgan $ 46,900
28 Danny Fuhs $ 46,200
29 Dani Awad $ 45,300
30 Tom Galella $ 43,600
31 Ken James $ 42,700
32 Chris Wunderlich $ 41,200
33 John Bonetti $ 38,700
34 Bill Gazes $ 38,200
35 Joe Awada $ 37,300
36 Joe DeNiro $ 35,600
37 Marcel Luske $ 35,500
38 Fred Berger $ 35,400
39 Ashok Surapaneni $ 34,400
40 Richard Grijalva $ 32,800
41 Edgar Henry $ 31,900
42 Paul Vinci $ 31,000
43 Jan A. Bloxham $ 31,000
44 David Plastik $ 30,100
45 Soulier Fabrice $ 27,900
46 Steve Dunning $ 25,900
47 Atlani Maurice $ 22,600
48 Lee Markholt $ 21,000
49 Matt Lefkowitz $ 16,300

See ya tomorrow. The Limit Hold'em event n Saturday is going to drive me nuts.
posted by Pauly at 6/10/2005 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Event #7 $1000 NL w/ Rebuys Day 2 and Event #8 $1500 Seven-card Stud

It's Thursday but I really wouldn't know it. I have lost all concept of time. Living in Vegas does that to you. Did I happen to mention that I'm positive that I have a drug dealer and a hooker living a few doors down? I wonder if I can get a package deal?

I also have a white trash family of 18 living in a one bedroom apartment next door to me. Every morning at 10am is "Red Neck Family Hour" in my complex, which is complete with drunken arguments, a slap fight, and several malnourished kids running rampant in front of my window. Yeah, my apartment is in a flavorful place. I have this freaky feeling that someone's homemade meth lab in the adjacent building unit is going to blow up and all my WSOP notes will be destroyed.

But enough about me...

The first Seven-card Stud event of this year's WSOP begins today. The buy in is $1500 and there are 473 players registered. The prize pool is over $651,360. I suspected that my friend Felicia Lee would be playing, but she was not feeling well enough to grind it out in a tournament. I hope that her health improves soon! She said she'll wait until next weekend to take all of Ted Forrest's money. Ted won the event last year.

Event #7 the $1000 NL with Rebuys continues today as well. Last night they played down to 43 players. 826 originally signed up to play on Tuesday. The prize pool is a monster $2.2 million with $1.4 million in rebuys! Yes, there were 1495 rebuys and all but seven of them were from Daniel Negreanu. OK, that's a bad joke. Daniel actually had 10 rebuys and 2 add-ons yesterday. Poor Daniel. He bubbled out! Here's the chip count (courtesy of Poker Wire) as the players sat down for Day 2:

$1000 NL w/ Rebuys Chip Count
1 Shane Schleger $ 250,300
2 David "The Dragon" Pham $ 199,800
3 CT Law $ 155,700
4 Meng La $ 127,900
5 Ram Vaswani $ 115,900
6 Marlon Santos $ 105,600
7 Gavin Smith $ 99,600
8 Frank Vizza $ 98,200
9 Mike Gracz $ 91,100
10 John Pellak $ 71,200
11 Hoyt Corkins $ 62,800
12 Shae Drobushevich $ 59,400
13 Robert Mizrachi $ 58,300
14 William H. Cole $ 57,200
15 Tony Cousineau $ 54,300
16 Pascal Perrault $ 53,800
17 Tim Whaley $ 53,500
18 Matt McManus $ 52,800
19 Nam Le $ 47,300
20 Marc Aubin $ 46,500
21 Christoffer Stahle $ 43,100
22 Jack Mahalingay $ 42,400
23 Randy Thompson $ 39,900
24 Richard Howard $ 39,600
25 Barry Greenstein $ 37,100
26 Phil Gordon $ 35,800
27 Eli Elezra $ 34,400
28 Marco Traniello $ 31,200
29 Frank Sinopoli $ 30,100
30 David Williams $ 29,700
31 Annie Duke $ 28,200
32 Chuck Thompson $ 26,700
33 David Lewis $ 26,100
34 Bob Kirkeby $ 26,000

Yeah, there are some big names still left when action resumes at 2pm.

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

3:29pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: David Williams was the first player to be knocked out today. He came in 34th place when he flopped an ace with A6. He was outkicked by Ram Vaswami's Mrs. Slick. Annie Duke's AJ lost to Big Slick and she was eliminated in 32nd place. I thought she had a shot yesterday when I looked over and saw she had a nice sized stack.

3:50pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: Phil "Tilt Boy" Gordon doubled up with pocket tens against Hoyt Corkins. CT Law is looking strong. He knocked out two or three players already today and has amassed almost $300K in chips by the break.

4:00pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: The big stack has been doubling up little stacks. CT Law doubled up Eli Elezra, Marco Traniello, and Anthony Cousineau. CT Law pissed away at least $100K in three hands.

4:10pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: Hoyt Corkins is knocked out in 22nd place. Ram Vaswani had a tough time with the Hilton Sisters. He lost to a weak ace and on the very next hand was knocked out in 21st. Barry Greenstein was knocked out in 20th place when he ran into quads!

4:20pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Chau Giang is looking strong with over $4K in chips. There are 275 players left.

5:20pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We're down to 183 players. Chris Grigorian is the chipleader with about 12K in chips. Last year's bracelet winner Ted Forrest has about 5K in chips.

5:36pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: We are down to two tables. 13 players remain. CT Law regained the chiplead. Robert Mizrachi was just knocked out. One of my fellow writers covering the event mentioned to me just now that, "We are enterianment writer hacks. We are at the bottom of the food chain."

4:59pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: Jeff Duvall busted out... Currently, CT Law is the chipleader with $650K. Phil Gordon has about $125K remaining. The players took a 15 minute break to color up.

5:25pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Max Pescatori is in the chip lead with $9K.

5:30pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Phil Ivey was knocked out. I overheard on the speaker, "Secruity on Table 118! Security on Table 118!" Here's what Jen from Poker Wire had to say about the incident. She was standing nearby when it happened:

"David Levi was in a hand when his opponent stuck his thumb up to indicate a raise. He then proceeded to make a string bet. Levi asked what the thumb ment, saying that where's he's from it means the same as flashing the middle finger. His opponent then indicated that the middle finger means the f-word, and both players repeated the word several times. Both Levi and his opponent got a 10-minute time out.

Then, much to everyone's astonishment, Syracuse Chris Tsiprailidis got up from the table to confront the opponent and he ended up in a full-on confrontation with Paul Darden who was between the opponent and Syracuse Chris. The floorman called security and Darden's buddy Cody calmed him down. Syracuse Chris left the room."

Syracuse Chris even asked Paul Darden to "step outside" into the hallway to settle their differences. He declined. It's never a dull day at the WSOP with F-bombs and multiple obscene finger gestures.

6:10pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: Mike Gracz's TT won a race against Frank Sinopoli's Big Slick. Frank finished in 12th place.

6:50pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: All remaining players are on a break. Jesus, Erik Seidel, The Grinder, and Daniel Negreanu are still alive.

6:55pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: Chuck Thompson is on fire. First, he eliminated Tony Cousineau. Chuck had AA and Tony showed AKs. Tony flopped a royal flush draw. His hand did not improve and he was out in 12th place. Then Chuck T knocked out Nam Le. His Hilton Sisters held up against Le's Big Slick. Le took 11th place.

7:01pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: There are ten players left and they redrew for seat assignments. They will play down to 9 and then break until tomorrow. The final table will be televised by ESPN. Here are the seat assignments:

Seat 1: David "The Dragon" Pham $ 300K
Seat 2: Shae Drobushevich $205K
Seat 3: Eli Elezra $45K
Seat 4: Phil Gordon $135K
Seat 5: CT Law $480K
Seat 6: Mike Gracz $315K
Seat 7: Shane Schleger $140K
Seat 8: Pascal Perrault $230K
Seat 9: Chuck Thompson $480K
Seat 10: Meng La $110K

Chuck T and CT Law both have the same amount of chips.

7:19pm PCT... NL Rebuy Day 2 update: CT Law just knocked out Eli Elezra. Eli moved all in with 88. CT Law only had to call a llittle more and did so with 10-9. He flopped a ten and Eli's hand did not improve. Eli won $24,220 for his efforts. Chuck Thompson is the chipleader with $544K. Meng La is the shortstack with $71K. Action for the NL w/ Rebuys is over for today and will resume at 2pm on Friday.

8:15pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: The players are back from their dinner break. When I was covering the NL rebuy event, I sat down at an empty poker table right next to the two final tables. The table behind me had Ted Forrest seated there. Felicia was IMing me asking me for Ted's chip count and to cheer him on. Then my battery on my laptop went low so I had to run back over to "press row" to charge up. I had to sprint back and forth to blog and take notes on the final table. Now that it's over for tonight, I'm back in press row. From my seat I can see Daniel Negreanu and Jesus Ferguson playing in the Stud event.

8:30pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: I wandered over to Max Pescatori's table. Chip Jett was sitting there. Max was heads up with some guy. Max showed: xx/As-Ks-9s-8h. The other guy had just a King and Jack high showing. It was a huge pot and Max bet $600 on sixth street. His opponent mucked and he took down a big pot.

11:57pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: 48 players left Chau Giang was crippled when he lost a monster pot to Jesus Ferguson. Lots of big names have been eliminated; Ted Forrest, Daniel Negranu, David Sklansky, Huck Seed, The Grinder, Paul Darden, and Tom McEvoy. Abe Almahi has been on a role and held the chiplead for a while.

11:59pm PCT... Seven-card Stud update: John Juanda is out. Also there was an interesting hand involving a cellphone. I knew an incident like this was bound to happen. The hand in question involved John Phan heads up with some guy who I don't his exact name. Phan moved all in with a 9 for his door card. After he pushed all his chips in, his cell phone rang. He answered and the floorman declared that his hand was dead. He violated a rule. However, all of his money was in the pot, therefore the phone call could not affect his decision... since there was none to be made. Phan offered to allow his hand to be declared dead. The tournament directors decided that Phan's hand is good. Phan's opponent wasn't thrilled with the ruling and implied that there could be a bigger controversy brewing if he loses the hand to Phan. In the end, Phan's two pair loses to a higher two pair. Controversy averted. WSOP Lesson of the Day: Turn off your cellphones.

12:12am PCT... Seven-card Stud update: We're in the money with 40 players remaining.

3:20am PCT... Seven-card Stud update: Max Pescatori is out in 25th. He wins $2,650. Max is a good guy. He gave me some tips. I met him once last December and he remembered my name when I came by to sweat him for a while earlier in the day. I'm trying to be impartial, but shit... I was rooting for Max to win a bracelet this year! He's really a good guy. Visit his blog. Jesus Ferguson was eliminated as well in 31st place.

4:20am PCT... Seven-cad Stud update... We're down to 20 and the players willr esume play at 3pm on Friday. Here are the chip counts courtesy of Poker Wire. Their staff is pretty cool and by far my favorite people that I've met in the last few days.

Event #8 Seven-card Stud - End of Day 1 Chip Count:
1 Abe Almalhi $ 86,100
2 Minh Nguyen $ 80,100
3 Dr. Mark Burtman $ 70,900
4 Robert Glenn $ 63,500
5 Kirill Gerasimov $ 50,800
6 Cliff Josephy $ 50,800
7 Greg Mascio $ 47,700
8 Glenn J. Engelbert $ 47,600
9 Rydell Willis $ 47,400
10 Randy Holland $ 32,000
11 Leandro Alvarez $ 28,500
12 Murray Reinhart $ 28,300
13 Evgeny Kafelnikov $ 24,600
14 Thor Hansen $ 17,800
15 Carl Brucker $ 15,100
16 Lawrence Budenz $ 14,200
17 Richard Tatalovich $ 13,000
18 David Levi $ 6,400
19 Hugo Mejia $ 3,100
20 George Rechnitzer $ 2,800

Looks like there will be two final tables on Friday!

For complete results visit the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results page. Make sure you visit the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. For recaps and other tidits, check out 2005 World Series of Poker News.
posted by Pauly at 6/09/2005 06:41:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Some Blogger Pimpage

First of all, thanks to the guys over at Odd Jack for linking up my WSOP recaps from the Tao of Poker and Lasvegasvegas.com. You guys rule.

This next comment is directed at my fellow bloggers... if you can, please mention on your sites that I am the guy behind the WSOP Live Blog. I'm busting my butt over here. It's just me writing and Flipchip snapping kick ass pics for the WSOP Photo Gallery, like the one to the left. I haven't gotten up enough courage to ask Jen what she's listening to!

If you can, link up the Poker Prof's site (www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog) under 2005 World Series of Poker News. He'll certainly appreciate it!

Other rival poker organizations have as many as 20-30 people covering it for one single website. I'm covering the WSOP for several sites including Poker Player Newspaper, and it's just me and Flip Chip. You can imagine how much work this is, even for me. I love a good challenge though, but I could also use your help getting the word out that I'm going to be doing as much live blogging as I can about the WSOP from the Rio. The more pimpage I can get will only be more beneficial for all of us. Trickle down blogonomics. Thanks again.

Next, I'd like to point you to some amazing Vegas trip reports. If you are visiting my blog for the first time, about 70 or so bloggers hit Vegas last weekend for a mini-convention and blogger tournament. These are some of the best folks I've come across in my life. Feel free to stop by their blogs and read their tip reports. I stole this line-up from Iggy's blog. Thanks dude.

Poker in the Weeds (My brother's blog)
Otis, GRob and CJ - Up for Poker
Tanya - MissT74
Whiskey Town
Maudie - Poker Perspectives
Boy Genius - Gambling Blues
Chris Halverson
Human Head
Drizz - Nickle and Dimes
Chad - Pokeramarama
BadBlood on Poker
Tao of Poker
Gracie - SheVerb
AlCanHang - Dead Money
Bobby Bracelet - One Too Many
HDouble - Cards Speak
Poker Grub
Bill Rini
Fool and His Money
Marty - JMC Automatic
The Fat Guy
Poker Geek
Mr. Subliminal
Poker Nerd
Chilly
April - This is not a poker blog
April - Feeding the Addiction
Sideways Poker
Hel1xx - STFU
Playing Poker & Teaching Science
Sound of a Suckout
John-Paul
Geek and Proud
tp's poker talk
Royal Poker
The Obituarium
My Little Poker Blog
Beer City Poker
Hella Hold'em
Res Ipsa Poker
a moment with
Poker Princess
The Tsunami Hitchhiker
Mike's Poker Blog
Nickerblog
Obie's VIP
Felicia
The Big Pirate
Catching the Antichrist
The Poker Prof

I'm sory that I didn't have the time to do a full trip report. I want to write about so much stuff, but I had to start work right away. Maybe I'll get to it. For now go read everyone else's trip reports. I have to go to work!
posted by Pauly at 6/09/2005 03:16:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Event #6 Shorthanded 6-Max NL Day 2 and Event #7 $1000 NL w/ Rebuys Day 1

Today is my third day on the job and I'm exhausted after another late night covering a final table. The last two bracelet winners... Efro and Pat Poels... won around 4am and 3:30am respectively. I stay up a good two or three hours after the bracelet presentation finishing up my work. Please forgive me for any typos or errors you see here. I will do my best to publish accurate information. Sometimes the lack of sleep and time constraints causes me to make mistakes. If you see anything wrong, feel free to drop me an email and tell me where I messed up. You can read my recap of Event #5 over at Poker Player Newspaper.

Moving on...

Wednesday begins with two NL tourneys going down. There are 13 players left on 3 tables for the second day of the $2500 Shorthanded 6-Max NL event #6. It started yesterday with 548 players. The prize pool is worth over $1.2 million. If you are wondering about this event, there are only 6 players per table in this tournament so the action is much faster than a regular full tournament table of ten players. You can't wait for good hands when you play shorthanded. You must play a lot looser or you will get blinded down. The structure makes this tournament a lot more interesting and I'm positive I won't be sitting around until 4am waiting for this one to finish.

Andrew Black started Day 2 as the chipleader in the 6-max event. Alex Prendes is the shortstack with $16,700. The blinds will start out at $1500/$3000 with $500 antes.

Event #7 begins today as well. It's a $1000 buyin NL tournament with rebuys. There is a single or double add-on at the end of Level 3. The prize pool in this event should be very juicy because some of the pros can dig deep into their pockets. In 2004, Daniel Negreanu engaged in a ridiculous amount of rebuys with 27. That's a record, I think. Daniel took third and Gerald Drehobl ended up winning $365,900 and a bracelet in last year's event.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

1:00pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: You cannot walk around for a minute without hearing someone shout, "Rebuy!!" Chip runners are going to be earning their keep today. By the first hour, there were 420 rebuys. Daniel Negreanu already is up to his 10th rebuy.

1:54pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: Someone moved all in with The Hammer!! You gotta love rebuy tourneys. Where else can someone push with 7-2o?

2:30pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: It's break time. The rebuy period is over. When the players return they have an option of one last single rebuy or a double rebuy. Without fail, Daniel Negreanu had 10 rebuys and 2 add-ons. Other notables digging deep into their pockets included Erick Lindgren and Gavin Smith with 8 each.

3:01pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: I saw a huge crowd gathered around one table. I call it a power table... one with a bunch of notable pros like Andy Bloch, Fossil Man, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, and Barry Greenstein. I would not want to be sitting there!

3:20pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Alex Prendes was knocked out in 13th place. He won $10,085.

4:00pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Mel Judah was knocked out by Antonio Esfandiari in 11th place. Abe Almalhi had pocket aces and he doubled up against Antonio. His stack took a big hit. As of now, there are seven players remaining. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $374K. Antonio is the shortstack with a bit under $8K in chips.

4:01pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: 526 players are left.

4:20pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Tommy Grimes knocked out Abe Almalhi in 7th place. We reached the final table. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader. Antonio is the short stack. Here they are:

Seat 1: David Barnes (England) $148K
Seat 2: David Singer (Brooklyn) $122K
Seat 3: Isaac Galazan (Miami) $285K
Seat 4: Harry Demetriou (England) $453K
Seat 5: Tommy Grimes (Houston) $278K
Seat 6: Antonio Esfandiari (San Francisco) $86K

4:35pm PCT... David Barnes moved all in with Ah-Jh. Isaac G called him with pocket tens. The flop was 7-4-3 with two hearts. David flopped the nut flush draw and two overcards. His hand did not improve and he was booted in 6th place. He won $50,415.

4:36pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Harry Demetriou and Antonio Esfandiari went heads up preflop. Harry had pocket 8s and Antonio showed KJo. Harry won the race and Antonio was knocked out in fifth place. He won $63,020. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $515K. Isaac G is second with $435K. Tommy Grimes is third with $270K. David Singer is the short stack with $125K.

4:37pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Tourney announcer Johnny Grooms said that there was gum underneath the table at Seat 2. The victim in this incident was David Singer. He stopped the action to remove the glutinous obstruction. Nolan Dalla, the WSOP media director, turned around to me and said, "That's blogworthy." So here it is. We're one week into the tournament and one of the best poker players in the world discarded their gum the old fashioned way. Although we do not know who is the culprit, we do have a list of unusual suspects.

5:02pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: There are 340 players remaining. At the power table... Andy Bloch, John Juanda, and Greg Raymer were all eliminated. Jesus Ferguson was also knocked out, but at a different table. Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi doubled up Daniel Negreanu. The Grinder moved all in after the flop with 10-8s. He had an open ended straight draw along with a flush draw, but missed all of his outs. Daniel's Hilton Sisters held up.

5:30pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Four players still remain. The blinds are now $3K/$6K. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $542K. Isaac G is in second with $416K. Tommy Grimes is third with $258K. David Singer is the short stack with $128K.

5:33pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: David Singer's K9 doubled through against Isaac G's pocket Jacks. David flopped a King and his hand held up.

5:37pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: Mike Matusow, Clonie Gowen, and Carlos Mortenson have all been knocked out. Clonie had JJ and ran into the Hilton Sisters. Mike Matusow's Big Slick ran into the Hiltons as well.

5:58pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: Four players still. Harry Demetriou almost has a 2 to 1 chiplead over the rest of the players. Only $90K separates Tommy Grimes, Isaac G, and David Singer. Can Harry win his first WSOP bracelet?

6:31pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: David Singer moved all in on the river with pocket nines. There was an ace on the board and another overcard showing on the board. Harry Demetriou held a weak ace and thought about calling for a while. He wondered whether or not he'd be outkicked. He finally called and showed A4. His top pair was enough to knock out David Singer in fourth place. David won $75,625 for his efforts. Harry is still the chip leader with 3 players left.

6:39pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: 230 players are left. Mimi Tran had a nice sized stack along with Chip Jett. They counted all the rebuys: $1,495,000. It had to be physically counted a few times. That's a lot of $100 bills! The prize pool for the NL Rebuy tourney is about $2.2 million.

7:00pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: We've reached the dinner break. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $750K. Issac G is second with $417K. Tommy Grimes is the shortstack with $118K.

8:00pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: 210 players are left at the dinner break. Freddy Deeb has $38K. David Williams is sitting on $33K. Mimi Tran has $32K.

8:15pm PCT... Dinner break is over for both events.

8:21pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: On a flop of Q-J-7, Tommy Grimes moved all in with J8. Isaac G called with Q9. A king fell on the turn and a three came on the river. Isaac G won the pot and Tommy Grimes was knocked out in 3rd place. He won $85,705. We are now heads up. Harry has over $850K in chips. Isaac has about $500K.

8:32pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: Daniel Negreanu is currently getting a massage at his table. Scotty Nguyen walked over and joked around with him.

8:38pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: In a weird hand, Harry Demetriou called and all in bet from Isaac G. The flop read: 2-5-6. Harry had 6-4... top pair with a gutshot draw. Isaac had pocket nines. The turn was a king and the river a nine. A lot of folks in press row wondered why exactly Harry called that all in bet, me included.

8:41pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Severely outchipped by Isaac G. Harry moved all-in preflop with Q9. Isaac called with KJ. The flop: 4-5-8. The turn: 5. At that point Isaac motioned to the female dealer and said, "One more, Love!" Harry had six outs. Isaac began making kissing sounds as the dealer burned one card then flipped over the river. It was a 2 and Isaac won with King high. By far he was the most junilant winner that I've seen since I began covering the final tables. Harry Demetriou finished in second and collected $163,850 for his efforts.


Isaac Galazan the new 2005 Short Handed 6-Max WSOP Champion
Issac won $315,125 and a gold bracelet. He wasn't even going to play in this event. But he couldn't wait until Friday to play, so he bought in. He lives in Thailand where gambling is illegal so there are no casino there for him to play. Another amazing story. Congrats again to Isaac.

You can read a full recap of the event on Poker Player Newspaper and Lasvegasvegas.com.

Don't forget to check out pictures of your favorite pros in the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery.

2:22am PCT... NL Rebuys update: We are "in the money." 42 players are left. Jen Harman was just knocked out. Freddy Deeb and Scott Fischman have also been eliminated. Daniel Negreanu bubbled out when his top pair, weak kicker was beat out by a straight.
posted by Pauly at 6/08/2005 05:13:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Back to Work: Omaha Hi/Lo Event #5 Final Table and Short-Handed 6-Max NL Event #6

Man, I'm exhausted after last night's marathon event. I didn't leave the Rio until almost 5am. I wrote for a couple of hours before I crashed. The final table started today at noon for the Omaha Hi/Lo event #5. It is the largest Omaha Hi/Lo tournament ever played with 699 players. Darrell Dicken started the day as the chipleader. We're down to 8 players. Currently, Minneapolis Jim Meehan has the most chips at the final table.

I was surprised to see that only 548 players signed up for the 6-handed NL $2500 event #6. I figured we'd hit at least 1000 or even possibly 1500. The prize pool is still well over $1 million. The current chip leader is Isaac Galazan.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

8:01pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo Update: The Final Table is still on their dinner break. There are eight players remaining. Minneapolis Jim Meehan is the chip leader with $191K. I saw him eating a slice of $5 pizza in the hallway a few minutes ago. Boris Shats is the short stack with $17K. Players will return at 9pm local time. I'm praying that this event ends by 2 or 3am so I can get some rest!

8:15pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: I just watched a huge hand at a table with Humberto Brenes and Mel Judah. Humberto raised UTG to $1200. Mel Judah, who sat to the left of Humberto, re-raised him to $3000. Everyone folded, including the blinds. Humberto thought about his decision for several minutes. I was positioned right behind both players and I could see that Mel Judah breathing very heavily. Humberto passively made his trademark gesture and motioned that he was moving all in. As he stood up, he sighed. Mel Judah thought about it for a while. Then he mucked. I caught a glimpse at one of his cards but I dunno how ethical it would be for me to mention it here.

8:30pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Mike Matusow was knocked out by Minh Ly. Antonio Esfandiari just won a monster pot and quadrupled up when pushed all in with two pair and filled up a boat on the river. Philip Hilm and Alex Prendes were all in on that flop of 10-9-4. Antonio held 10-9. 72 players are left on 12 tables.

9:06pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Before the players returned to action, Nolan Dalla spoke for a few minutes about the 2004 WSOP Omaha Hi/Lo Champion Curtis Bibb. He died two months ago and Nolan asked the crowd for a moment of silence. Click here to check out a photo of Curtis Bibb from last year's WSOP.

9:33pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Boris Shats was eliminated in 8th place by Dan Heimiller. Boris won $28,940.

9:34pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: We reached the money with 66 players remaining on 11 tables. Stan Jablonski bubbled out in 67th place. Eli Elezra is the current chipleader.

10:14pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: John Ward moved all in with the Hilton Sisters and ran into pocket aces! If he cracked them, he would have won a Pauly Painting! There are 54 players remaining.

10:38pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: The players are on a break. Pat Poels is the chipleader with $229K. John Lukas has $221 in second place. Jeff Duvall is next with $190K, then Dan Heimiller with $151K, followed by Jim Meehan $92K and Bahram Kianfar $91K. Darrell Dicken is the shortstack with $80K.

10:56pm PCT... Andy Bloch has been sitting next to me in media row the last few hours. He's been writing code for Poker Wire. We've both been sweating Jason Spaceman who's been playing a free roll on Party Poker.

11:12pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Darrell Dicken was knocked out in 7th place by Jim Meehan's pair of nines. He won $38,585 in prize money. Two drunken female railirds showed up to cheer on Dan Heimiller. Pat Poels is the chipleader with $230K.

11:28pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: 41 players left on 7 tables. David Singer has over $100K in chips. Antonio Esfandiari is looking strong with $88K along with three or four smoking hot women coming by to sweat him. Cindy Violette is still in and she has $28K. Looks like she'll cash in two WSOP events this week.

11:50pm PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Jeff Duvall is the chipleader with $240K and Jim Meehan is the shortstack with $65K. 7 players still remain.

11:53pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Humberto Brenes was knocked out by Martin Green from England. Humberto's Big Slick lost to Green's A9. They both flopped an ace, but a 9 spiked on the turn. Great Britain 1, Costa Rica 0. There are 37 players left.

12:20am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Pat Poels is the chipleader with $295K.

12:55am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: At the break, Pat Poels still held onto the chiplead with $340K. Minneapolis Jim Meehan and Dan Heimiller are both shortstacked. I chatted with Dan at the break. He's won a WSOP bracelet in 2002 and this is his 11th final table at the WSOP. By far he has the most vocal railbirds.

1:00am PCT... 6-Handed NL update: We're down to 24. Tommy Grimes is the chipleader with $128K. Antonio Esfandiari has $98K. Cindy Violette is the shortstack.

1:03am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Minneapolis Jim Meehan was quoted saying, "I'm so good, I send chills up and down my own spine."

I saw Felicia. She came up to play stud at the Bellagio and for the Thursday Stud WSOP event. She introduced me to Chris from Twenty-one Outs Twice and he introduced me to Matt Matros. I also met Mike Sexton.

1:15am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Minneapolis Jim Meehan was knocked out in 6th place by Jeff Duvall. He won $48,230. On the next hand Dan Heimiller finished in 5th place. He won $57,875.

1:22am PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Cindy Violette had a severe shortstack. She doubled up twice and now she has some chips. With Mike Sexton on the rail sweating her, he shouted out, "Make me proud!"

2:04am PCT... 6-Handed NL update: We are down to 18 players and three tables. Cindy Violette was knocked out in 20th place.

2:20am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Jeff Duvall eliminated Bahram Kianfar in 4th place. He won $67,525. The players are currently on a 15 minute break. Pat Poels continues to add to his massive stack with $655K in chips. Jeff Duvall is second with $185K. John Lukas is last with $105K. During the break he walked over and told me, "I can't hit a hand."

2:30am PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Antonio Esfandiari knocked out two players on one hand. Martin Green was all-in preflop and John Juanda re-raised all in. Antonio called with 55. Juanda showed KK. Green had 66 and Antonio was way behind with 55. On the river, he spiked a 5 to scoop the pot with a set. Miami John Cernuto was just knocked out as well.

2:43am PCT... 6-Handed NL update: There are 13 players left. Play stopped for the night. David Singer is the chipleader. Here are the remaining player chip counts courtesy of Jen and Michelle from Poker Wire:

1. Andrew Black $197,500
2. David Singer $191,000
3. Antonio Esfandiari $173,000
4. Harry Demetriou $160,400
5. Isaac Galazan $154,000
6. Del Toledo $103,900
7. Tommy Grimes $85,600
8. Luis Santoni $74,200
9. Abe Almahi $72,800
10. David Barnes $59,500
11. Randy Holland $51,000
12. Mel Judah $31,600
13. Alex Prendes $16,700

Play for the 6-max NL event will resume at 2pm PCT on Wednesday.

2:50am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: Jeff Duvall from England was eliminated in 3rd place. He wins $77,170 for his efforts. Pat Poels leads with $675K. John Lukas has $380K.


Pat Poels is the 2005 WSOP Omaha Hi/Lo Champ

3:31am PCT... Omaha Hi/Lo update: John Lukas finished in second place when he was knocked out by Pat Poels. John Lukas won $139,870 for being the runner up. Pat Poels collected $270,100 for first place and added a gold bracelet to his collection. Congrats to Pat Poels and John Lukas.

For complete results visit the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results page. Make sure you visit the World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. For recaps and other tidits, check out 2005 World Series of Poker News.
posted by Pauly at 6/07/2005 09:26:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Recent Articles, Vegas Pictures and Radio Free Pauly

Feel free to read my articles about last night's WSOP event on Poker Player Newspaper and Lasvegasvegas.com.

If you want to see some random pics from Las Vegas and a glimpse of my apartment, head over to the Tao of Pauly for those pictures!

I taped my interview with Sean on Saturday aternoon during the poker bloggers event for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. If you don't know by now, it's the best podcast dedicated to poker in the universe. It seems like overnight I've become a huge cult figure in Canada. I'm happy to be a part of their amazing entity.

Sean and Brent are working hard every week to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

You can download the MP3 of this week's show... Episode 29: Here.
You can download last week's show... Episode 28: Here.

I was very drunk on this week's episode. I had gotten knocked out of the tournament and headed for the bar with Al Cant Hang and Little Willie.

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by their site and download the extra nuggets. Thanks again to Sean and Stacks for having me on.
posted by Pauly at 6/07/2005 08:53:00 PM | Permalink |

 
After Midnight: First Thoughts About My New Job

I'm exhausted. A four day bender in Vegas with seasoned alcoholics was probably not the best thing for me immediately before I begin a job with no days off for the next six weeks.

I moved into my apartment. I'm staying at the Budget Suites just a few blocks west of The Strip. I'm a few blocks away from The Orleans casino. I live walking distance from a Wendy's and an In and Out Burger. I'm pretty excited. There are no Wendy's where I used to live in NYC.

Having a media pass is pretty fuckin' cool. I have access to so many areas that the normal public does not have. I've already met a dozen pros. For you non-poker enthusiasts, imagine you being able to be able to walk up to talk to your favorite baseball player or your favorite actor while they are working.

The Rio has set up Wi-Fi internet access and I can blog and surf websites during my down time. In fact, I have my computer set up a few feet away from where ESPN is taping the "final table" of this particular tournament. There's a heavily armed security guard standing over the cash prize money a few feet away from me.

It's amazing to think how much cash is in this huge ballroom. I tried to figure out exactly the average cash stash in the pockets of all the players combined.

Derek stopped by the Rio to say good-bye before he caught his flight home. He sat in the stands for a little bit and watched the final table. During one of his breaks he mentioned that he noticed I was "working pretty hard."

I'm on a break now. There are four players left at this final table and I took some time to jot down these thoughts about my first day on the job.

Feel free to read my articles about last night's event on Poker Player Newspaper and Lasvegasvegas.com.
posted by Pauly at 6/07/2005 09:02:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Event #4 Limit Hold'em

The final table for the World Series of Poker Limit Hold'em event began around 8:30pm PCT. 1,049 players started the tournament on Sunday. Action resumed on Monday with 33 players remaining. First place paid out $361,910 to Eric "Efro" Froehlich won his first WSOP bracelet. History was made when he became the youngest player ever to win a WSOP event.

Here are the players who made the final table with their chip counts:

Final Table - Event #4 Limit Hold'em:

Seat 1: Wing Wong $54,000... Wing Wong has made eight final tables at the WSOP. He started the final table as the short stack.

Seat 2: Eric "Efro" Froehlich $192,000... Originally from Virginia, "Efro" currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. The 21 year old is good friends with David Williams. Efro once predicted that when he turned 21, he would win a WSOP bracelet. This is his first WSOP event.

Seat 3: Jason Steinhorn $207,000... This is the first final table for the California native. He started the final table third in chips.

Seat 4: Christian Van Hees $171,000... The 1995 WSOP Limit Hold'em champion from Seattle is looking for his second bracelet.

Seat 5: Brian Mogelefsky $61,000... Brian placed 6th at the WSOP Circuit event in Atlantic City.

Seat 6: Todd Witteles $134,000... Todd is a professional player from Las Vegas.

Seat 7: Peter Costa $153,000... The gentleman from Liverpool, England won the 2003 No Limit Australian Poker Championship.

Seat 8: Zelong "Freeman" Dong $166,000... Born in China, "Freeman" currently lives in Alabama.

Seat 9: Devin Armstrong $209,000... He's a TV camera operator from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and took 5th in the Canadian Poker Championships.

Seat 10: Adam Hersh $248,000... Adam is a 22 year old UNLV student. He has the biggest cheering section at the final table.

I'm sitting at the media section about twenty feet from the final table. ESPN is taping this event for TV. David Williams sat down in front of me and asked if I was on Wi-Fi internet access.

8:30pm PCT... In the first hand at the final table, Eric "Efro" Froehlich flopped a full house with AJ. He took down a huge pot over 175k and won a decent size chunk of Freeman Dong's stack.

8:38pm PCT... With Ad-5d, Todd Witteles rivered the nut flush. He took another huge pot from Freeman Dong who flopped a set with the Hilton Sisters.

8:41pm PCT... Freeman Dong was knocked out by Peter Costa. He took home $15,925 for 10th place.

9:46pm PCT... Brian Mogelefsky finished in 9th place after he was knocked out by Jason. Brian's KK lost to Jason's TT when a ten spiked on the turn. Brian won $23,950.

10:03pm PCT... At the break, Eric "Efro" Froehlich was the chip leader with 350K in chips. Todd Witteles was in second place with 306K. Wing Wong still had the short stack.

10:13pm PCT... Wing Wong bet his entire short stack preflop with J9. Adam Hersh called with 10c-3c and flopped two pair. Wing was knocked out in 8th place and won $43,430 for his valiant effort.

10:18pm PCT... Peter Costa moved all in preflop with 98o. Todd Witteles called with KJ. The flop: 9-6-K. Peter's hand did not improve and he finished in 7th place and won $57,905. Todd was the chipleader with 341K. Christian Van Hees was second in chips with 300k. Devin Armstrong was the short stack with 132K.

10:44pm PCT... Devin Armstrong was knocked out in 6th place by Eric "Efro" Froehlich. With pocket twos, Devin ran into Efro's pocket aces in a pot that was capped preflop. Devin won $72,380. Efro jumped into the chiplead with over 440K. Jason Steinhorn was the short stack.

11:41pm PCT... Christian Van Ness went all in preflop with J9. Todd Witteles called with A6 and flopped and ace. Christian finished in 5th place. He won $86,855.

12:26am PCT... When the players returned from their break, Efro held the chiplead with 625K. Jason Steinhorn was in second place with 440K and Todd Witteles was in third with 340K. Adam Hersh was the short stack with 17.5K.

12:29am PCT... Efro knocked out Adam Hersh when he flopped top pair with J9. Adam ended up getting all his chips in the pot by the turn with pocket fives. His hand failed to improve. Adam Hersh was bounced in 4th place. Adam won $101,335 in prize money. Efro's big stack topped almost 900K.

12:51am PCT... Efro accumulated more than $1M in chips and added to his massive chiplead.

1:12am PCT... With three players remaining, the play slowed down to a turtle's crawl. Man, limit tournaments are boring and can drive you insane.

1:17am PCT... The flop: Q-9-K. Todd got all his chips in with A9. Efro called with AK and knocked out Todd in third place. He won $115,810 in prize money. Efro had well over $1 million in chips with almost a 2 to 1 chip lead over Jason Steinhorn.

1:58am PCT... After a slow heads up battle, David Williams caught Efro's attention and sarcastically said, "Loosen up, bro."

2:08am PCT... Jason stormed back and picked up several pots to pull even with Efro.

2:29am PCT... I nodded off for a few seconds as the heads up play between Efro and Jason. Did I mention how boring limit tournaments are?

2:49am PCT... Efro recaptured the 2 to 1 chip lead and I grabbed some much needed coffee with Flip Chip. He joked that this heads up match could last months.

3:07am PCT... Efro lost the chip lead. Jason flopped a set with pocket tens. He almost had $1 million in chips.

3:22am PCT... The heads up match reached over two hours in length. Jen over at Poker Wire mentioned, "Go get your sleeping bag... looks like we'll be here for the night."

3:33am PCT... Jason built up his largest chip lead of the marathon heads up battle.

3:41pm PCT... Efro recaptured the chip lead in the tournament that wouldn't end.

4:02pm PCT... Efro rivered a flush with K4s and won his first WSOP bracelet and $361,910. Jason took second place and won $182,040.

"This win basically justifies my whole life," Efro said in his interview with Norman Chad.

That's it for now from the floor of the Rio. This was a marathon heads up battle and both guys hung in there especially when they found themselves outchipped. Congrats to Eric "Efro" Froehlich. He said he was going to win a bracelet when he turned 21 and he certainly did making WSOP history in the process.

******

For complete results visit the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results page. Make sure you visit the World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. For recaps and other tidits, check out 2005 World Series of Poker News.
posted by Pauly at 6/07/2005 12:04:00 AM | Permalink |

 
First WSOP Live Update: Event #4 Limit and Event #5 Omaha Hi/Lo

Wow, I'm sitting in the media room at the Rio. I finally met Amy Calistri, who works for Poker Pages. She's a big fan of my blogs. She just introduced me to Lou Krieger. I called him "Mr. Krieger" and he said, "What's this Mr. stuff?"

If you don't know, Allen Cunnigham beat out Scott Fischman to win Event #2 late last night to win the $1500 NL event. Check out Poker Player Newspaper for more info.

Currently, Day 2 of the Limit event (the last three tables) is underway. Event #5 $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo just started.

***** ***** *****

Update 1 @ 4:20pm PCT: I watched Lou Krieger get KO'd out of the Omaha event. He's a nice guy and said he'd be available for an interview later this week. This is the only event he's playing in until July.

The Limit event is down to two tables with Wing Wong as the chip leader. Annie Duke was knocked out in 16th place.

I'm in the media room hanging out with Dan from Pokerati and we're talking shop. Glad he's here to shoot the shit with. Can't wait for Otis to arrive!

Update 2 @ 5:38pm PCT: Charlie Shoten was just knocked out of the Omaha Hi/Lo event. Ted Forrest and Minneapolis Jim Mehan are still in. For the Limit event, we're down to 11 players and Adam Hersh is the chip leader.

Update 3 @ 6:36pm PCT: Chatted with Nolan Dalla about the Stu Ungar book. He's a great guy and a damn good writer. Bumped into Jay Greenspan and we chatted about his upcoming book. I saw Scotty Nguyen fixing his hair in the bathroom.

"What's up Scotty?" I said.

"What's up, Baby?!" he replied.

The Limit event is down to 10 players. ESPN is conducting interviews and we'll be playing again at 8pm PCT. Adam Hersh is still the chip leader.

The Omaha event started with 699 players. We have 210 left on 21 tables. Daniel Negraenu busted out a few hours ago. I caught a glimpse of Shirley from Poker Babes. She's still alive. Phil Ivey sat at a table across the way. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is in the chip lead. Josh Arieh is second and Thor Hansen in third.
posted by Pauly at 6/06/2005 05:39:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Vegas Updates: Late Night Suite SNGs and Sunday Mayhem

"I'm the only one on this room who actually works." - Derek to me, Grubby, Iggy, and the Poker Geek

I watched the sun rise for the fourth consecutive day as it slowly crept over the mountains. We played a few SNGs in our swanky suite late night Saturday/early Sunday morning. The first one was a six-handed. The second one was nine-handed and lasted 3.5 hours!

Suite SNG #1
Seat 1: Human Head
Seat 2: Chris Halverson
Seat 3: Pauly
Seat 4: Derek
Seat 5: Mrs. Head
Seat 6: Spaceman

Spaceman and Derek chopped. I was the first one KO'd, by Derek of all people. We hosted a late night SNG which took forever, Halverson was hitting the SoCo very hard and we were all pretty trashed.

Suite SNG #2
Seat 1: Iggy
Seat 2: Gracie
Seat 3: Halverson
Seat 4: Chad
Seat 5: Spaceman
Seat 6: Pablo
Seat 7: Pauly
Seat 8: Derek
Seat 9: Maudie

The best part was having Drizz hang out and play Full Tilt on my laptop! During a rare lull in the conversation during the game, I heard Drizz bark at the computer screen, "Why the fuck are you calling my raise?" Maudie came from behind to take down Iggy while the Poker Geek played a $20 SNG on my laptop.

On Sunday we played in the noon tourney. We all had pieces of the Poker Geek. Bobby Bracelet, Derek, BG, Spaceman, and myself each backed the Geek in the tourney. He took 9th place and made the final table, only to miss the money by two places.... As sucked out by A2. Read his blog later for the sordid details. He knocked me out when my 66 lost to Geek's AK when he caught an ace on the river. Drizz bought 20% of my action. Too bad I couldn't cash in my second ever Plaza tourney. Derek blew a huge chip lead early and was KOd as well. BG's friend Nate took first place in an impressive effort.

The rest of the afternoon included blackjack, craps with Joaquin, a few bets on the ponies, and more poker included dealer's choice mixed games. The Fat Guy refused to play.

Here are some random pics including the lovely Mrs.Royal who "fell asleep" on the rail watching Royal play. Yes... more passed out bloggers!


Mrs. Royal "sleeping" while Royal played at the Plaza.


Metal Head Bloggers.


Derek and Maudie during the Suite SNG


Shots of SoCo


Poker Geek passed out on my couch.
Well that's it for now. Thanks to CJ for organizing the event and special thanks to everyone for showing up. It was truly one of the highlights of my blogging career to be a part of this amazing weekend. Shit, I got to meet a bunch of Canadian bloggers. Pretty cool, eh? I'm sure I'll post some more trip reports in the future.

I must say one last thing... the blogger wives were a cool bunch of folks. Shit, those chicks can sure party. Very impressed with them.

I have to crash now. I start my first day of work in a few hours. Most of the bloggers have already left and the few remaining are bailing soon. Not me. I get to stay behind. I guess I'm finally a local. Expect one of my next updates to be full of WSOP content.

Check out this post from Lasvegasvegas.com which incldes some pictures of your favorite bloggers.
posted by Pauly at 6/06/2005 05:58:00 AM | Permalink |

 
From Gigli to WPBT Champion

Congrats to Bill Rini. Just two days ago, Bill was passed out in my room and now he's the next champion on the WPBT. He beat CJ heads up to win it all. I'll have more specific tourney recaps later. I came in 45th place when my TT were cracked Chad's 99. I put a wicked bad beat on Chris Halverson when my AK beat his KK.

But for now, check out this photo gallery and pay special attention to Mrs. Otis hanging in our suite with a bottle of SoCo. I never thought I'd hear a fine southern woman utter the word super cunt twice inside of thirty seconds. She was cracking me up with her advice on women and her thougths on Otis' gambling.


"Roll them dice, Otis! It's soooo hot!"


Al and the Fat Guy playing video poker


My Bounty courtesy of Al Cant Hang


Poker Geek minus the light saber.


Miss T74's card cappers


The Poker Prof moves all in...


Joaquin flexes while Spaceman calculates pot odds


Flip Chip in action


The Final Two: G-Vegas vs. LA


The New Gigli


Al does a huge shot.


Bobby Bracelet's shirt


Al wears Heather's tiaraStay tuned for more updates.

Update #1: Currently turning a six person SNG in our suite with Derek, Halverson, Spaceman, Human Head and Mrs. Head. Derek knocked me out when I slowplayed top pair. He slowplayed a set and I was knocked out.
posted by Pauly at 6/04/2005 11:47:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Vegas Update 3: WSOP Event # 2 and Other Things Degenerates Do in Vegas at 4am

First of all, I made the money in a tourney today. I took fourth place at the noon NL tourney at the Plaza. Buy in was $110 and I made the final table with Maudie, Bad Blood, and Mrs. Blood. Wait, did you say Mrs. Blood? Yes, I did. She was running all over her table and was talking smack to me! She played great and I was very impressed with her skills. Bad Blood taught her well.

I think I knocked out Bad Blood. It's 4am, I'm shitfaced, and I'm too lazy too look at