Friday, February 17, 2006

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 2


I'm late to work. Caught in traffic. I spotted two old ladies smoking on a blunt on I-5. I had to do a doubletake to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I'm sure it was medicinal.

Well we're back for action for day two of the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. Alan Goehring ended the first day as the chipleader with $128,375. There are 379 players out of 693 remaining and they are all slugging it out to survive the second day of action. $2.3 million first place prize is on the line along with a seat to the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April.

Here are some notable bustouts from Day 1: David Williams, Gavin Smith, Shirley Rosario, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey, Eugene Todd, Bill Edler, Bret Jungblutt, Quinn Do, Ted Forrest, John Duthie, Jen Tilly, Tex Barch, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Tony G, James Van Alstyne, Lee Watkinson, Cyndy Violette, Robert Varkonyi, Steve Zolotow, Amnon Filippi, Todd Brunson, Denis Ethier, Jerri Thomas, Victor Ramdin, Dewey Tomko, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, "My Main Man" Freddy Deeb, David Levi, Anthony Reategui, Jean Gaspard, Barry Shulman, Harry Demetriou, Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Mike Gracz, The Grinder, Oliver Hudson, Ryan Kallberg, Patrik Antonius, Kenna James, Scott Fischman, Dan Alspach, Chau Giang, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, Tuan Le, Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Layne Flack, John D'Agostino, Josh Arieh, John Juanda, Mimi Tran, Kristy Gazes, Maria Ho, and Carmel Petresco.

Here are some notable players who survived the Day 1: Alan Goehring, Bill Gazes, Hasan Habib, li Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Edward Moncada, Melissa Hayden, David Daneshgar, T.J. Cloutier, Lyle Berman, Chip Jett, Blair Rodman, Shawn Sheikhan, Dutch Boyd, Amir Vahedi, Chip Reese, Chris Bigler, Young Phan, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, An Tran, Antonio Esfandiari, Scotty Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Minh Ly, Jean Robert Bellande, James Woods, Carl Olson, Huck Seed, Gentleman John Gale, Donnacha O'Dea, Harley Hall, Mike Matusow, Capt. Tom Franklin, Mike Wattel, Miami John Cernuto, William Rockwell, Randy Holland, Juha Helppi, Phil Laak, Jerry Buss, Jason Lester, Peter Costa, Allen Cunningham, John Myung, Matt Matros, Gabe Kaplan, Keith Sexton, Olga Varkonyi, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Brecher, Erik Seidel, Thor Hansen, Gus Hansen, David Singer, Davood Mehrmand, Men the Master, and Joe Awada.

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

3:35pm... Cards were in the air! We're on Level 7. There was a mistake with the end of Day 1 chipcounts. Here are the top 10 counts at the start of today:
1 Alan Goehring $128,375
2 Bill Gazes $123,750
3 Ali Eslami $122,300
4 Brian McCann $119,875
5 Hasan Habib $113,550
6 Abraham Bergis $105,450
7 Jon Luu $102,200
8 Jeff Rine $100,375
9 Albert Alshamn $99,900
10 Eli Elezra $96,300
3:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Frenchman and WPT champion David Benyamine was eliminated when his 5-5 lost to 10-10. Bruce Buffer, the brother of Michael "Let's Ready for Rumble" Buffer was busted.

4:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: There's a weird silence in the room as the remaining players are locked in and focused. You can hear the clatter of chips in the background. Most of the noise is coming from media row which takes up five banquet tables and three poker tables that are being used as desks for everyone.

4:15pm... Recent Eliminations: L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss is out.

4:20pm... It appears that Shannon Elizabeth is a no-show today. Most likely she was caught in traffic as well.

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: All you can eat baby, as long as it's on the rail. Men the Master has left the building after he was busted by Max Pescatori's A-A. He started the day as one of the shortstacks and doubled up but just got bounced. Ray Pardley Jr. is also out when his 10-10 ran into pocket aces.

4:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Brandon Adams and Morgan machina are both out.

5:00pm... Prop Bet Woes: I'm getting slaughtered gambling on the Olympics. My buddy from Norway pooled his money together with friends of his from Oslo to take me on for random prop bets during the Torino Olympics. mirroring Andy Beal vs. the Corporation, there are 12 Norwegians taking on me and one week into the Olympics, I've been seriously humbled. The US women's curling team took another loss, this time to Sweden. And my sure thing Lindsey Jacobellis fell and took second int he snowboard cross. It's been an unlucky day for me for sure. I might have to go hit the tables to make up some of my losses!

5:05pm... In true Hellmuthian fashion, Shannon Elizabeth arrived 90 minutes late.

5:06pm... Recent Eliminations: I spoke too soon. Shannon Elizabeth has been eliminated by Bill Gazes who turned two pair with A-9. David Singer is also out. He was sent to the rail by David "Quackpot" Jones.

5:25pm... Recent Elimination: Gus Hansen is out when his K-8 rand into K-K. Also out are Tony Grand, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, John Myung, Davood Mehrmand, and Dan Schmiech.

5:30pm... Players just returned from a break. We're on Level 8. Blinds are $400/800 with a $100 ante. I spotted Shannon Elizabeth and Amber from Survivor buying hats out in the hallway.

5:50pm... Alan Goehring now has over 227K. James Woods cracked Hiltons with A-10 when he flopped an ace. There are 31 tables left with about 278 players remaining.

6:00pm... One of my favorite players to sweat is TJ Cloutier. He lost a big pot a few hands earlier when his Q-Q lost to K-K. In the hand I watched, Cloutier moved all in in early position with 7-7. One player in late position called with 9-9 and another called with A-Q. Cloutier flopped a set. By the turn there were four clubs on the board but lucky for Cloutier none of his opponents held a club. He tripled up and is looking good after winning a pot worth almost 50K.

6:05pm... James Woods doubled up with A-A against K-10. He now has over 120K.

6:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Boston Rob from Survivor has been knocked off the island. Jen Harman and An Tran are also out. Tran got busted by Antonio Esfandiari. Daid Grey was knocked out by David Daneshgar.

6:20pm... Steve Rosenbloom from ESPN is here in press row. He's always entertaining and he's the ony real sportswriter here.

"Yo Steve! How come you're not in Torino?"

"I did the last two winter Olympics. I skipped Italy. But shit, if there was a place I could get laid, it would be in Italy. I mean Nagano and Salt Lake City? No chance for action there."

At that point he launched into a rant about the lackluster strip clubs in Utah that he experienced during the 2002 Olympics.

"There's a three feet rule. The strippers have to saty three feet away from you. And they wear pasties over their tits. You're better off going to Hooters."

6:30pm... I have to step away for a while. In the meantime, check Poker Wire for chipcounts and be sure to stop by and read Spaceman's updates over at Bluff.

7:15pm... Random Photo Dump:


Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori getting a massage


TJ Cloutier


Paul "The Truth" Darden


Seidel & Lindgren


William Rockwell

7:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Harley Hall, Eric Mizrachi, Loi Phan, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Erik Seidel, Dutch Boyd, Barry Greenstien, Minh Ly, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, Dewey Tomko, Mike Matusow, William Rockwell, Capt. Tom Franklin, Jim 'Krazy Kanuck' Worth, and Glyn Banks are all out.

8:00pm... Players are on a dinner break. James Woods has over 220K.

9:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Goodbye Mr. Kotter. Gabe Kaplan was busted when his 9-9 lost to Gabe Thaler's 2-2 when a 2 flopped. Erick Lindgren, Chris Karagulleyan, and Keith Sexton are all out.

10:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Lyle Berman and Jean-Robert Bellande are both out.

11:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Minneapolis Jim Meehan was busted by Juha Helppi. Meehan's Q-Q lost to Helppi's 10-10 when he rivered a 10. Also sent to the rail were Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Philippe Rouas, and Miami John Cernuto.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Eli Elezra is out.

12:05am... Alan Goehring is the chipleader with 400K.

12:30am... 131 players left!

2:30am... Recent Eliminations: Ralph Perry, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Melissa Hayden, Dustin Wolf, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori are all out.

2:35am... Play is over for today and will resume at 3:30pm on Saturday!

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