Tao of Poker

WSOP Safety, PokerStars Blog, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

The rumors are true... I'll be writing for the PokerStars Blog.

When the main event starts on Friday, I'm contributing roughly three posts per day. The cool part of this gig is that I get to work with Otis and Wil and a few other special guests.

I'll still be posting at the Tao of Poker for the remainder of the WSOP. This is my primary blog and all the juicy stuff and pics will be found here. PokerStars will be getting a few updates everyday from me, so stop by the PokerStars Blog from time to time during the main event.

I also expect to be contributing to Poker Player Newspaper, Lasvegasvegas.com, and Fox Sports during the main event as well. I wasn't planning to sleep over the next two weeks, so I'll have the time to write for five different outlets. Just a few days before I left for Las Vegas, I was ready to pay my expenses out of pocket and cover the WSOP for just the Tao of Poker and Lasvegasvegas.com. Since then, I picked up a sponsor in Paradise Poker and got picked up by both Fox Sports and PokerStars.

By the way, if you don't know... the main event is 6,100 players and counting. Over 1,500 of those players are from PokerStars.

* * * * *
Spaceman posted about The Grinder's brother and wife getting robbed from gunpoint in the parking lot at the Rio. His statement sums it all up:

Just as it's your responsibility to protect your cards at the table, Harrah's is making it your responsibility not to get shot while in its parking lots.

Allie Prescott told me about guys who are getting bricks of cash stolen from them at the NL cash game tables. The two-bit thieves wait to they go to the bathroom, then do a grab and run.

I heard about one guy who got his laptop stolen from one of the hospitality suites.

The bottom line is this... be careful out there. Harrah's just wants your money and has been doing a piss poor job about beefing up security during the 2006 WSOP. Don't carry around a lot of cash. Travel in numbers. And don't assume that the eye in the sky is going to protect you.

They experienced similar problems last year. Mike Lacey got his laptop stolen from the media room. Players were robbed in the parking lot. Players returned from breaks missing parts of their stacks. Cash game players had chips stolen from the table when they went to take a piss.

* * * * *
Been bogged down writing a couple of articles for Fox. Deadlines suck the life out of me. Anyway, the guys from Wicked Chops Poker are in town. They invited me to the BoDog party at Tao on Tuesday. Wil scored me an invite to the Full Tilt bash on Wednesday. Yes, party season is in full swing at the WSOP.

The WSOP parties officially kicked off on Sunday with Liz Lieu's surprise birthday bash at Pure. It was thrown by John Phan and I was on the guest list listed simply as Pauly + 1. And yes, Change100 was my "+1" for the night.


I arrived at Pure there late because I was hanging out at "The House of Cards" watching Jen Leo's episode on the Poker Dome. She shares a house with 8 other people including Brandon Schaefer and Carl Olson. They have a pool, a beach volleyball court and a par three golf course in their backyard. Sickness. Next year, Michalski and I are going to rent a similar house.

On Sunday, Carl finished in 6th place in the NL event. He celebrated by coming home and playing beer pong with his housemates.

* * * * *
Here's some results from six events from last week:

Event 26A $1,500 PLO
Number of Entries: 525
Total Prize Money: $716,625

Final Table Results:
1. Ralph Perry (Las Vegas, NV) $207,817
2. George Abdallah (Houston, TX) $109,644
3. Brian Kocur (Baltimore, MD) $57,330
4. Luzhe Zhang (Vienna, Austria) $50,164
5. Ray Lynn (Alexandria) VA, $42,998
6. Spiro Mitroksotas (W. Yarmouth, MA) $35,831
7. Frank Henderson (Houston, TX) $28,665
8. Jason Newburger (Vernon Hills, IL) $21,499
9. Russell Salzer (Hollywood, FL) $14,333

Event 26B $1,500 PLO with Rebuys
Number of Entries: 158
Number of Re-Buys: 472
Total Prize Money: $908,100

Final Table Results:
1. Eric "E-Fro" Froehlich (Washington, DC) $299,675
2. Sherkhan Farnood (Kabul, Afghanistan) $165,274
3. Chau Giang (Las Vegas, NV) $90,810
4. Kevin O'Donnell (Scottsdale, AZ) $72,648
5. Bruno Fitoussi (Paris, France) $54,486
6. Matt Overstreet (Henderson, NV) $45,405
7. Richard Freire (Miami, FL) $36,324
8. Rafi Amit (Holon, Israel) $27,243
9. Ayaz Mahmood (Houston, TX) $18,162

Event 27 $1,500 NL
Number of Entries: 2,126
Total Prize Money: $2,901,990

Final Table Results:
1. Mats Rahmn (Stockholm, Sweden) $655,141
2. Richard Toth (Budapest, Hungary) $333,729
3. Padraig Parkinson (Dublin, Ireland) $203,139
4. Chris Birchby (Hollywood, CA) $145,100
5. James Sileo (Burbank, CA) $116,080
6. Michael Binger (Atherton, CA) $101,570
7. Jordan Morgan (Norman, OK) $87,060
8. Ashwin Sarin (Redmond, WA) $72,550
9. Billy Duarte (Berthoud, CO) $58,040

Event 28 5K Seven-card Stud
Number of Entries: 182
Total Prize Money: $855,400

Final Table Results:
1. William Lin (Rockville, MD) $256,620
2. Sean Sheikhan (Las Vegas, NV) $171,080
3. Cyndy Violette (Los Angeles, CA) $102,648
4. Allen Kessler (Huntington Valley, PA) $76,986
5. "Miami" John Cernuto (Miami, FL) $55,601
6. Patrick Bueno (Paris, France) $38,493
7. Lupe Munquia (Odessa, TX) $29,939
8. Mike Caro (Shell Knob, MO) $21,385

Event 29 $2,500 PL Hold'em
Number of Entries: 562
Total Prize Money: $1,292,600

Final Table Results:
1. John Gale (Bushey, UK) $374,849
2. Maros Lechman (Columbia Station, OH) $197,768
3. Kevin Ho (Gainesville, FL) $103,408
4. Joe Hachem (Melbourne, Australia) $90,482
5. Alex Jacob (Parkland, FL) $77,556
6. Lee Grove (Superior, NE) $64,630
7. Jeffrey Roberson (Rolla, MO) $51,704
8. Lee Markholt (Eatonville, WA) $38,778
9. Greg Alston (Miami Beach, FL) $25,852

Event 30 $5K NL Short-handed
Number of Entries: 507
Total Prize Money: $2,382,900

Final Table Results:
1. Jeff Madsen (Los Angeles, CA) $643,381
2. Eric Lindgren (Las Vegas, NV) $357,435
3. Tom Franklin (Gulfport, MS) $214,461
4. Tony Woods (Murrieta, CA) $150,123
5. Jonathan Gaskell (Wigan, UK) $119,145
6. Paul Foltyn (Doncaster, UK) $83,402
7. Cliff Cantor (Hollywood, CA) $69,104
8. Vanessa Rousso (Las Vegas, NV) $61,955
9. Jenny Kang (Portland, OR) $54,807

That kid Jeff Madsen won his second bracelet of the 2006 WSOP. Bill Chen also won two, but he'd been around the block a few times. Madsen came out of nowhere. He's leading the ESPN Player of the Year standings:

ESPN Player of the Year:
1 Jeff Madsen 1,401,881 Pts
2 Justin Scott 842,262 Pts
3 Jeff Cabanillas 818,546 Pts
4 William Chen 810,740 Pts
5 Mark Vos 803,274 Pts

Phil Hellmuth made his third final table of the 2006 WSOP. He still seeking bracelet #10. He's entering the final table as the chipleader. We'll see if Hellmuth can make a run. With my luck, I'll be at the BoDog party as he wins his 10th.

$1K NL With Rebuys Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Phil Hellmuth 768K
2 Daryn Firicano 450K
3 Juha Helppi 436K
4 Ralph Perry 235K
5 Terris Preston 164K
6 John Spadavecchia 122K
7 David Plastik 121K
8 Elio Cabrera 95K
9 Tony G 77K

Stay tuned for Hellmuthian updates. Blogger has been "acting up" over the last two days. It seems to be fine now.

My brother Derek has a WWdN tournament named after him, taking place tonight at 8:30 EST or 5:30 PCT on PokerStars. Check under the Private Tourney Tab. The tourney is called The Hermwarfare Invitational. Password is monkey. I'll do my best to play in this event.