Welcome to the gambling ramblings of Pauly... a writer, traveler, and degenerate

 
WSOP Main Event Day 1D

I'm back at the Rio after a couple hours of sleep to cover the final flight of Day 1. There have been rumors that there will be a Day 1E for a fifth day of first round action. This is just a rumor and the few suits I asked looked at me like, "Lay off the crack pipe, kid!"

Then again this is the same corporation that stiffs their dealers and provides shotty security service in the parking lots, so I don't take anything seriously at this point of the WSOP.

As of right now, almost 2,400 lucky fuckers survived the first three days of the WSOP main event. Toay, the last batch of brave fools are jumping into the mix for a shot at $10 million, fame, glory, and 17 virgins.

Here's the top 10 chipcounts from 1C:

1 Adam Jones 123K
2 William Thorson 115K
3 Brenden Lewis 112K
4 Dario Minieri 103K
5 Richard Gryko 100K
6 Per Sjogren 98K
6 Daniel Pelletier 98K
8 Bob Binsky 96.7K
9 Charlie Sewell 95.7K
10 Shannon Shorr 95K
10 Mike Petrillo 95K

Notable Stacks from Day 1C:
Greg Raymer $48K
Daniel Negreanu $85.8K
John Gale $39K
Tom McEvoy $39K
Daniel Larsson $31.7K
Josh Arieh $31.4K
Al Ardebili $29.2K
Melissa Hayden $28K

Playing today are... Joe Hachem, Isabelle Mercier, Chris Moneymaker, Lyle Berman, Barny Boatman,Joe Cassidy, Peter Costa, John D'Agastino, My Main Man Freddy Deeb, Quinn Do, Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Amnon Filipi, Scott Fischman, Ted "Suicide King" Forrest,Jean Gaspard, Alan Goehring, Mike Gracz, Harley Hall, Matt Hilger, Robert Nardi, Chip Reese, Frank Kassela, Michelle Lewis, Erick Lindgren, Marcel Luske, Eric Mizrachi, Cecila Mortensen, Donnacha O'Dea, Stuart "Donator" Paterson, Max Pescatori, Dean Cain, David Plastik, Allie Prescott, Blair Rodman, Matt Savage, Huck Seed, Erick Seidel, Sean Sheikhan, Rodeen Talebi, Robert Varkonyi, Ram Vaswami, Cyndy Violette, Celine Dion's husband, Vince Van Patten, Lennox Lewis, and Hank Azaria.

My buddy from NYC Adam Stormwind is playing along with bloggers Zeem and Lucko21 are also in today's field too.

Stop by PokerStars Blog and check out some of the cntent I've been providing for them particularly a piece called The Post-Modern American Dream: The WSOP. Also for the best 2006 WSOP photos, go ahead and check out Flipchip's hard work.

* * * * * Live Blogging Update * * * *
12:01pm... God himself Jeffrey Pollack introduced "Mosaic" who did an accapella rendition of "Proud to Be an American." They did a good job, but that was a travesty with an international field. I wonder how much they got paid to do that? It could have been used more wisely to provide better security in the parking lots.

12:05pm... Cards are in the air after TD Robert Daly uttered, "Shuffle up and deal!"

12:10pm... First player is out. Not a record. Yesterday the first player was out 3.5 minutes.

12:11pm... Joe Hachem is at the featured TV table.

12:40pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Spent the last twenty minutes snapping photos. Here's a quick dump. Click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Tao of Poker's Pothead of the Day: Stormy


Lucko21


E-Dogg


Zeem


Michelle Lewis and Barny Boatman


Moneymaker


Joe K.


Isabelle Mercier is fashionably late
12:45pm... Media Room Prop Bets: I entered a Hendon Mob Last Longer bet with two Brits. Jen from Blonde Poker has Barny Boatman. Mad from PokerStars Blog has Ram Vaswami. And I have Russ Boatman.

12:50pm... Recent Elimiantion: Sean Sheikhan is out.

1:15pm... 8,778 players entered the 2006 WSOP Championship event. That's several million dollars in dead money.

1:25pm... My buddy Jason from Full Tilt had his Aces cracked by 10-10. Shortstacked, he went all in on consecutive hands with junk and caught back-to-back straights with 10-8o and 7-5o. Moral of the Story: the best starting hand never wins. Jason is always wearing flipflops and a bathrobe today.

1:30pm... Bouncin Round the Media Room: It's feeding time at the Zoo. Harrah's tossed us a few stale sandwiches on the banquet table in the media room. The animals swarmed. Once word is out that there's free food, these cheap and hungry bastards peck at eat other and eat anything in site. Mad is a vegetarian and she asked for some sandwiches without meat products. I'm positive that Harrah's puts chemicals in the food that make you want to donk off chips at the craps table.

2:00pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Here are a few pics from today. Click on them to enlarge.


Jason in his bathrobe


Ace from Calagary Sports Radio


Hat of the Day


Stuart "Donator" Patterson


Isabelle's toes


Moneymaker's cardcapper and pic of his kid


Isabelle
2:15pm... Recent Elimination: Erik Seidel hits the rail. His A-A were cracked by the Hilton Sisters

2:30pm... Screwdriver time. Otis and designated 2:30pm as the time when we start drinking. I'm off to get some cocktails.

2:45pm... Ah, sweet liquor eases the pain.

3:00pm... Joe Hachem busted a guy at the feature table when his A-A held up against Q-Q.

3:15pm... Sleeping with Celine Dion gives you ESP. Rene Angelil folded K-K face up preflop to a huge raise. His opponent showed A-A.

3:30pm... The Post-Modern American Dream: The WSOP has been published over at PokerStars Blog. Take a peek.

3:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Lyle Berman is out. He flopped a straight but his opponent caught a flush on the turn.

4:00pm... Chipcounts: Here are some chipcounts for random folks I've been sweating:

Isabelle Mercier 9.1K
Joe Hachem 18.7K
Chris Fargis 12.2K
Zeem 7.5K
Stormy 11.5K
Lucko21 9.1K
Oliver Tse 18K

4:10pm... Lenox Lewis doubled up with Aces against Cecila Mortensen.

4:12pm... Recent Eliminations: Vince Van Patten is out. He'll be signing autographs at the Hooker Bar shortly. Jason Newitt is also out. He lost a last longer with Joe Sebok and looked pissed. Amnon Filippi is also gone.

4:15pm... According to Nolan Dalla, the number of players is 8,774 (give or take a a dozen or so). The top 873 players will get paid.

4:20pm... Smoke break with Change100.

5:00pm... Recent Elimination: Erick Lindgren busted out when his Jacks ran into A-A.

5:20pm... When I was sweating my buddy Stormy's table, I saw Robert Varkonyi rake a huge pot. He's got 32K.

5:40pm... Chipcounts: Joe K. missed a gutshot straight flush draw. He's got a little under $6K. Here are some chipcounts for random folks I've been sweating:

Glenn $5.6K
Zeem $4.5K
Joe K. $5.8
Isabelle Mercier $7.3K
Stormy $14.5K
Lucko21 $7.7

6:00pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Here are a few I took over the last hour or so.


Vintage Slim


Former Star Trek actor stealing water to feed his Black Tar habit



6:11pm... Recent Elimination: According to CJ reading Bloglines, he noticed that Chris Fargis is out.

6:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Max Pescatori, Sam Grizzle, and Lennox Lewis all hit the rail. Pescatori lost a race. Lennoz Lewis' A-10 ran into Celcia Mortensen's A-Q.

6:45pm... Players are on a dinner break. Time to head out to the Kikted Tilt with the gang for pints of Stella, which I'm told is called "wifebeater beer" in England.


8:00pm... Pimp my book! And if you don't know, DoubleAs finally released his book Pressure Poker.

8:30pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Lennox Lewis


Glenn


Tao of Poker Blonde of the Day: Pokerwire Amanda
9:00pm... Recent Elimination: Dean Cain is out.

9:15pm... Chipcounts Updates: I walked by and saw that Glenn scooped a pot and that Joe K. doubled up. Zeem is on life support. Lucko21 went up to 25K and took a huge hit.

Zeem $2.2K
Stormy $22.3K
Lucko21 $5K
Isabelle Mercier 9.6K
Joe K. $12K
Glenn $9.5K
Joe Hachem $17.2K

9:45pm... Recent Elimination: Bill Edler is out.

10:15pm... Both Robert Varkonyi and Chris Moneymaker are looking strong. They both busted out on Day 1 the year after they won their championship, but are sitting with big stacks. Varkonyi is up to 40K, while Moneymaker has 30K.

10:45pm... Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To:
1. Humberto Brenes
2. Phil Gordon
3. Arnold Spee
4. Freddy Deeb
5. Keith Sexton

11:15pm... Chipcounts Updates: I couldn't find Lucko21 and I hope he is still in and only got moved. Zeem doubled up and Moneymaker took a hit when he ran into A-A with A-Q after he flopped a Queen.

Zeem $5.6K
Stormy $17K
Lucko21 ???
Isabelle Mercier $6.7K
Joe K. $11K
Glenn $8K
Joe Hachem $27K

11:25pm... Recent Elimination: $50K HORSE Champion Chip Reese is out.

11:45pm... Official numbers have been released! 8,773 players bought in which is an obvious record. According to BJ's math, "that should create a prizepool of $82,466,200." The top 873 players are going to get paid prize money.

12:01am... Recent Elimination: Chris Moneymaker and Hank Azaria are both out.

12:25am... Bloggers Update: Zeem was moved tables. He has 3.6K and is sitting at the same table as Marcel Luske and Robert Varkonyi. Both have massive stacks. Isabelle Mercier slipped to 4K. Stormy has 27.5K after he won a race with 8-8.

12:30am... Recent Elimination: Toto Leonidas and Scott Fischman are out.

12:40am... Recent Elimination: Zeem is out. He pushed with a draw and missed. So is Isabelle Mercier. She busted out by a three-outer.

12:50am... Recent Elimination: Johnny Chan is out.

1:00am... "The (poker) monkey is staying in my hotel," Michael Craig recanted to me in the media room.

3:00am... Recent Elimination: Victor Ramdin and Martin DeKniff are both out.
posted by Pauly at 7/31/2006 01:09:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Main Event Day 1C

We're back for flight 3 of Day 1. We're not even halfway through the field and I'm exhausted. About 1,750 players remain from the original 4,300 players who bought in for Day 1A and Day 1B.

Check out Flipchip's WSOP Day 1B photos. And stop by PokerStars Blog to check out coverage of PokerStars qualifers and players.

Eric Sonstegard ended Day 1B as the chipleader according to Poker Wire. Those numbers are unconfirmed and should be taken lightly. Here's the Top 10 chipcount from Day 1B according to Poker Wire:

1 Eric Sonstegard 83,000
2 Theo Tran 82,950
3 Al Barbieri 82,000
4 Allen Cunningham 81,000
5 Nicholas Montuori 80,000
6 Eric Peters 70,000
7 James Crowshaw 69,000
8 Eric Weiner 67,000
9 Ayaz Mahmood 64,000
10 Adam Sweet 63,000

Bloggers Ryan and Tuscaloosa Johnny survived Day 1B and have about 40K in chips a piece.

Several top names busted out on Day 1B including Doyle Brunson, Paul Darden, Phil Hellmuth, Shannon Elizabeth, Gavin Smith, Vanessa Rousso, Carmel Petresco, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Ron Jeremy, Johnny Bax, Howard Lederer, Joe Sebok, Patrik Antonius, Steve Diano, Mel Judah, Bard Garrett, David Singer, Eveyln Ng, Miami John Cernuto, and Barry Shulman.

Day 1C features Lynette Chan, John Gale, Steve Dannemann, Antonio Esfiandari, Mark Gergorich, Sweet Svetlana, Hasan Habib, Melissa Hayden, Dan Heimiller, Greg Raymer, Daniel Larsson, Nam Le, Tuan Le, Mike Matusow, Karin Jett, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Neil Channing, Tony Holden, Tom McEvoy, Robert Mizrachi, Jordan Morgan, David O'Callaghan, Carl Olson, Lacey Jones, Chris Bigler, Jen Harman, TJ CLoutier, Phil Laak, Paul and Keith Sexton, and Steve Z.

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

12:01pm... Penn & Teller did the opening call of "Shuffle up and deal!"

12:05pm... Cards in the air.

12:10pm... Gigli has been issued. First player is out.

12:25pm... Tuan Le nearly doubled up when his J-J held up against K-Qs.

12:30pm... WSOP Pics: Here's a random picture dump. Please click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Jeffrey Pollack with Penn & Teller


Vintage TJ


Carl Olson


Action Bob


Tao of Poker's Blonde of the Day: Lacey Jones


Trish from Toronto


Lynette Chan


Steve Dannemann


Vintage Meehan


Jen Tilly


Fish of the Day


Fossilman


Steve Benton
1:15pm... Recent Elimiantion: Sammy Farha is out after a wicked one outer suckout. On a board with all hearts, Farha flopped a set with 9-9 and his opponent flopped a set of 6s. The turn was another six. All the money went in on the river.

1:30pm... Comedian Louie Anderson was in the bathroom talking on his cellphone. He was issued a ten minute penalty for excessive usage of the word "Fuck."

2:15pm... Recent Elimination: Liz Lieu is out. Her K-K were snapped off by 8-9 when her opponent tripped up on the turn. Too bad. I was hoping to do plenty of Liz Lieu updates throughout the day.





2:45pm... Louie Anderson doubled up with 7-7. He turned a full house as his opponent made his OESD. He's has 17.5K in chips and has been clean mouthed ever since.

3:15pm... Recent Elimiantions: Thomas "Thunder" Keller and Hasan Habib are both out.

3:30pm... WSOP Picture Dump: I had been wandering around looking for Jeff Pulver. I realized that he was sitting right next to Action Bob!! Click on the pics to see an enlarged view.


Action Bob and Jeff Pulver


Fans of the Tao of Poker


Thanks to my sponsor Paradise Poker


Happy Barry
4:00pm... Recent Elimination: Jon Bonetti is out. John Phan busted out when his J-J ran into Jan Sorenson's K-K.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:35pm... Joe Sebok dressed up like Spiderman today. Here's the pic:



5:00pm... Recent Elimination: Jen Tilly and Jeff "Happy" Shulman are out. Tilly went home via a bad beat and Shulman ran into the Hilton Sisters with Big Slick.

5:45pm... Recent Elimination: Mike the Mouth is out. Matusow flopped a set of 7s but a guy with a King high flush draw sucked out on him. Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth is also out. Jen Harman had a tough day. She just busted and had to sit next to that guy who slow rolled a straight flush against her on the feature table. Jordan Morgan is gone also.

6:00pm... Tom McEvoy cracked Aces with a set of Kings when he was all in.

6:05pm... Random Chipcounts: Dario Mineri from Rome, Italy is the chipleader with 56K. Of course CP and Poker Wire don't even have him on the radar. Daniel Negreanu has 40K. We've collected a few chipcounts for PokerStars players over at PokerStars Blog.


Chipleader: Dario Minieri
6:30pm... Recent Elimination: Bob Stupak and Atonion Esfiandari are both gone.

6:40pm... Recent Elimination: Jeff Pulver busted out. His Hilton Sisters ran into Pocket Kings. Action Bob is out. His Pocket Aces were snapped off by K-Qs.

6:45pm... Players are on a dinner break. Tme to head to the Tilted Kilt for pints of Stella as I ogle the kilted clad waitresses.

8:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: On my way back to the media room, CC told me about overhearing Mke Matusow screaming into his cellphone, "Dude, I just signed 100 bobble head dolls in 10 minutes. I get paid three bucks a doll too."

8:20pm... Players are back from a break. We're on Level 4 and will be playing through Level 6.

9:00pm... Recent Elimiantion: Bruno Fitoussi is now out.

9:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: After dinner, the TD's allowed unlimited fans access to the tournament floor. For the first time in three days, the floor is super crowded. Fans are standing six and seven people deep in some areas especially around TJ Cloutier and Daniel Negreanu, snapping photos with their digital cameras and whispering into their cellphones. Here's one of my favorite pics of the 2006 WSOP.


I think Daniel Negreanu is somewhere in this photo
9:30pm... Recent Elimiantion: Poker Hall of Famer TJ Clouiter has left the building.

10:00pm... Action has slowed down and I found out that Steve Benton has about 16K after he lost a pot set over set. "I should have lost my entire stack," he mentioned. Lacey Jones started out having a bad day. Since then she's held on and has about $15.5K.

10:30pm... Michael Craig is holding on as one of the shortest stacks in the tournament. He's got 4K.

11:11pm... Recent Elimination: Jean Robert Bellande is finally out. I incorrectly labeled him as busted several hours ago.


Pimp of the Day
11:30pm... "Are you still drinking?" Mike 'LuckyBlind' Lacey asked. "Last time I saw you, you were knocking back a few this afternoon." Sweet Jesus. You know you have a problem when one of the Irish guys are commenting on your drinking. OK, it's true. I was having a very rough day and decided to drink through the exhaustion. It started out with screwdrives around 1:30PM with Otis. Then it continued through dinner brek with a few Stellas. The booze took the edge off and I was defintely a lot less stressed as the day progressed.

12:10am... Recent Elimiantion: 2005 WSOP runner-up Steve Dannemann hits the rail and does not survive day 1.
posted by Pauly at 7/30/2006 01:17:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Main Event 1B

Yesterday marked the first of four Day 1s and out of 2,138 players Francis Cipriano emerged as the chipleader with $123,200. Ken Jacobs is second with $119K while Irishman Paul McCaffery is third with $110K. Mark Vos and Jeff Lisandro are in the Top 15 in chips.

There are some issues with official chip counts and everywhere I look they have different numbers. This is a clusterfuck. Last year, I'd check Poker Wire but I don't have the same confidence in that site this year. As soon as I can get verified numbers, I'll post them.

Quick Links:

Flipchip's WSOP Day 1 Photos
Wil Wheaton Interview (PokerStars Blog)
Late Night Team PokerStars Update (PokerStars Blog)
Zen Patience and Barry Greenstein (PokerStars Blog)
Serious Business (Fox Sports)

Day 1B kicks off with another 2,000 players including alternates. There are several pros expected to play today such as Billy Baxter, Amanda Baker, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, David Chiu, Mike Caro, Dave Colclough, Allen Cunningham, E-Fro, Thor Hansen, Phil Hellmuth, CK Hua, Phil Ivey, Johnny Bax, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Jason Lester, Paul Maigrel, Morgan Machina, Greg Mueller, Padrig Parkinson, Steven Paul-Ambrose, Pat Poels, Jose Rosenkratz, Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith, Dewey Tomko, Devilfish, Vanessa Rousso, Humberto Brenes, Bill Gazes, Patrik Antonius, Rafe Furst, and Mike Woo.

Bloggers Ryan from Absinthetics, Tuscaloosa Johnny, and Lee Sullivan are also in the mix today. Also, Jan from 50 Outs and Rizen are both playing too.


Lee Sullivan
Stay tuned for semi-live updates and photos and stop by PokerStars Blog to read some of my updates.

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

12:00pm... In a classy move, the suits asked Doyle Brunson to do the famous starting saying, "Shuffle up and deal!" He limped down the center aisle with his solo crutch at his side as the everyone in the room jumped up and gave Texas Dolly a thunderous applause.

12:05pm... Cards are in the air.

12:10pm... Brad Garrett, Dax from Punk'd and Ryan are sitting at the same table.

12:20pm... Recent Elimination: Today's Gigli is Greg Nunley. He had K-K and ran into A-A.

12:30.... Phil "Perfect 10" Hellmuth is at the featured table. Yet in true Hellmthian fashion, he has not shown up yet.

1:45pm... Photos coming. I was on the floor for the past hour snapping pics. I found Shannon Elizabeth and Ron Jeremy. Brandon Shaefer is also playing today.

1:55pm... Doyle Brunson has his A-A cracked by K-K via a four flush. David Williams cracked aces with a set of 10s.

2:00pm... Blogger Update: Ryan is up to 24K and still sitting at the celeb table with Brad Garret and Dax. Tuscaloosa Johnny has 15K in chips after he took a big pot off of Finnish boy toy Patrik Antonius. Johnny turned a set and took about half of his stack.

2:13pm... Hellmuth finally arrives.

2:23pm... Accroding to CJ, Hellmuth took a huge hit. In two hands his JJ ran into QQ and his KK ran into AA.

2:25pm... Recent Elimination: Johnny Bax is out.

3:00pm... WSOP Photo Dump: Feel free to click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Humberto Brenes


Phil Ivey


Brandon Schaefer


Texas Dolly


Joe Sebok: Prop Bet Loser


Tao of Poker's Blonde of the Day: Mandy Baker


The Life of Gavin


Shannon Elizabeth


Ron Jeremy


Pabboo


Louise Francoeur


Vintage Caro


Fabrice's cardcapper


Hat of the Day: Christmas in July


Mattheconq


Paul Azinger
3:15pm... Random Blogger Updates: Tuscaloosa Johnny has 16K. Ryan has 20K. Louise Francouer is someone I met at the Borgata in January. She's friends with Borgata's TD Tab Duchateau and went deep in the Borgata Winter Poker Open. She also made the final table of the Borgata's Ladies Event. She took a hit early today and was down to just 200 in chips. She tripled up and now has 4K.

3:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Tiffany Williamson is out. Last year she was the highest finishing female. This year, she's toast on Day 1B when her 10-10 ran into K-K. Lee Sullivan is also out. She flopped two pair and lost to a straight.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Paul Darden and Phil Hellmuth are both out. CJ told me that a fan was heckling Hellmuth at the featured table when his A-Q lost to 7-7. Hellmuth walked over to him and said, "You got some real class, pal."

4:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Shannon Elizabeth just busted. Gavin Smith is out. He told me to blog about For Peyton.

5:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Carmel Petresco and Greg FBT Mueller are both gone.

5:45pm... Bloggers Update: Tuscaloosa Johnny flopped quads with 2-2. He's got 32K and counting. Ryan has 18K. Jan from 50 Outs has 12K and has been card dead all day. "9-3o is my new favorite hands," he said. He perked up when his wife Katja stopped by to sweat him.


Vanessa Rousso
6:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Alex Prendes and Corey Cheresnick have been busted.

6:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Ron Jeremy is busted, but he banged two Milwaukee's Beast chicks on the way out. Hey, that guy's done more beaver hunting in one afternoon than I have done in my lifetime. Also busted are Steve Diano and Mel Judah.

6:50pm... Players are going on dinner break. Be back at 8:20pm.

8:30pm... Bloggers Update: Tuscaloosa Johnny has 32K in chips and moved to a new table where he's the big stack. Ryan has 28K in chips.

8:35pm... Recent Eliminations: Bard Garrett busted out just before the break.

8:50pm... European Update: My sources on all things British, Snoopy & Jen from Blonde Poker, told me that Askay "groupco" Kumar and Jeff Burke lead the Brits with almost 50K in chips.

9:00pm.... Recent Eliminations: David Singer's K-K ran into pocket rockets. Brad "Yukon" Booth busted out as well.

9:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Evyln Ng busted out when her J-J ran into the Hilton Sisters. Phillipe Rouas is also out.

9:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The hallways are clogged with spectators lining up to get into the Amazon Ballroom. It resembes the lines out in front of various clubs on the Strip like at Jet, Pure, or Tao. A big-ass hulking security guard wearing a shit-stained color shirt doesn't let anyone in until he's given the go ahead. Players who have their main event tickets get inside the big wooden doors. The security guards check every media rep's badge. The hallways are more congested than before, bit that's OK, because walking around inside is much more manageable.

9:30pm... European Update: According to my Irish sources Tom Murphy from antes Up, Niall O'Callaghan is leading at attack of Irish players with 26K. Murphy described O'Callaghan as "one of the best tournament players from Ireland."

9:44pm... Recent Eliminations: Doyle Brunson was eliminated and left the room under a thunderous applause. He had 9-9 but ran into Ks-10s when his opponent flopped trips and slow played them.

9:50pm... Bloggers Update: Brandon Schaefer chopped a pot with A-Ks. He was all in on the flop with Ace high and went up against Big Slick. He has 34K in chips. Fuel55 has $6K. Ryan has $18K in chips.

10:00pm... Askay "groupco" Kumar has 70K right now and is one of the chipleaders.


Askay "groupco" Kumar
10:20pm... Recent Elimination: Miami John Cernuto is out.

11:00pm... Nothing to report. I've been catching up on work and watching Vanessa Rousso play as an assignment for PokerStars. Lucky me. I'm digging her cleavage today.

11:30pm... Recent Elimination: Ryan has 25.7K. Tuscaloosa Johnny has 41K. Brandon Shaefer has 36K. Take a peek at Ryan's blog to read his WSOP updates.

11:40pm... Recent Elimination: According to CJ, Howard Lederer is out. Around 1,250 players remain.

12:00am... Yesterday Minh Nguyen didn't show up and he was blinded off. Today, that distincon goes to Clayton Davis. He's been sitting at Jan's table.



12:11am... Recent Elimination: Vanessa Rousso is out along with Joe Sebok and Barry Shulman. Vanessa had a short stack for most of the time after the dinner break. She was down to a couple of hundred when she pushed all in with A-9 and ran into pocket nines.

12:30am... Here's a few pics I took after Midnight.


The action


Cowboy of the Day


Tao of Poker's Cleavage of the Day
12:45pm... Jan from 50 Outs had his Kings cracked on the river. He had over $30K and now sits with $10K.


Jan-Christoph von Halle
1:00am... Bloggers Update: Tuscaloosa Johnny has $26K.

1:45am... Recent Elimination: Patrik Antonius is out. Men the Master sucked out on the young Fin. With A-Q Antonius flopped top pair but Men the Master caught running Kings to send him to the rail.
posted by Pauly at 7/29/2006 02:38:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Main Event Day 1A

This is the day, we've all been waiting for. The 2006 WSOP Championship is finally here.

12:10pm... The WSOP Championship kicked off with sepcial guest James Garner who uttered the famous words, "Shuffle up and deal." Players start with 10,000 in chips. Levels are 2 hours long. Action will be at least six levels. If there are more than 900 players left at the end of level 6, they will play down to 900 players no matter what.

12:17pm... The frst elimination of the WSOP. I'm sure he's extremely suicidal at this point and back in his room listening to Coldplay after he popped forty valium.


Donkey Hunter
12:45pm... I found the Donkey Hunter (aka fellow blogger David Wong).

1:00pm... I spent the last 45 minutes wandering the floor. Here's the pros and celebs who I've seen: Wil Wheaton, Maureen Feduniak, Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, David Benamyine, Hoyt Corkins, Chip Jett, Katja Thater, Denis Ethier, Dutch "Tool" Boyd, Kristy Gazes, Erica Schoenberg, Mimi Tran, Norm MacDonald, Tobey Maguire, Gus Hansen, Juha Helppi, Minh Ly, Noah Boeken, JJ Lui, Julia Garnder, Jim Betchel, Laura Prepon, Clonie Gowen, Amir Vahedi, Barry Greenstien, Chau Giang, David "The Dragon" Pham, Gordon Dill, Matthew Lillard, Andy Black, Andy Bloch, Action Dan Harrington, Dan Alspach, Gank, David Sklansky, Mickey Applebaum, Richard Brodie, Tony G, Lee Watkinson, The Grinder, Bob Feduniak, Shance Schleger, Isaac Galazan, Roland de Wolfe, Terrance Chan, Perry Freidman, Mike Sexton, Kiril Gerismov, Chris Masterson, Danny Masterson, Matt Matros, and William Rockwell.

1:30pm... Recent Eliminations: First named pro out: Chip Jett. First celeb out: Chris Masterson.


Shirtless


Jason Strasser
1:45pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The NGC came down hard on the players and online companies twenty minutes before the main event was scheduled to start. They would not permit anyone to wear something that said "dot com" on it. So players and marketing reps went scrambling for black tape or new shrits or hats. Most guys simply turned their shirts inside out.

2:05pm... WSOP Photo dump: Click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Tao of Poker's Cute Dealer of the Day


Katja


EPT Creator John Duthie


Erica Schoenberg


Tao of Poker's Hat of the Day


Norm MacDonald


Birds on the Rail


James Garner


Laura Prepon


Tao of Poker's Pothead of the Day


Shaniac


Wil looks sexy

2:30pm... Wil Wheaton Update: Wil took a big hit by a jerkoff sitting at his table who clapped in his face whenever he won a pot from Wil. At the break, Wil had 6,100 in chips after he built his stack up to 14K. Wil's top pair ran into a set when he lost a chunk of his stack.

3:00pm... Recent eliminations: JJ Lui and William Rockwell are out.

3:15pm... Sean McCabe and Kristy Gazes have jumped out to an early lead with over 22K each. John Duthie won a pot with quad 5s.

3:30pm... There's no official number yet. I asked a few suits and all I got was "I don't know." I heard that days 2,3, and 4 were sold out which would mean roughly 8,800 players are in the event. As soon as I get an exact number, I'll post it.

3:45pm... The TD allowed spectators back inside the Amazon Room. Since alternates were having a difficult time getting to their tables, the room was cleared of spectators until the alternate peroid was over. I actually enjoyed the space. I could walk through the aisles with ease. Usually it takes a few minutes to walk from one side of the room to the other, but with spectators clogging up the aisles, it takes up to ten minutes.

3:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Amir Vahedi, David Benyamine, and Wil Wheaton are out. Wil had Kh-Jh in the big blind and hit a King high flop. His opponent rivered a set on Wil with 8-8.

4:00pm... Recent Eliminations: James "Maverick" Garner and Eskimo Clark are out.

4:05pm... I posted something over at PokerStars Blog called Pre-Game Interview: Wil Wheaton. Take a peek.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:40pm... Recent Elimination: Jean Gluck is out.


Gavin & Robin
4:45pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I thought I was high when I saw Joe Sebok in a Robin costume. Then I recalled the prop bet he made with Gavin Smith before the WSOP began. Whoever had the least amount of points in the preliminary events had to wear a superhero costume picked out by the winner. Gavin Smith picked Robin.

5:10pm... Back by popular demand.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Tony G
2. David "The Dragon" Pham
3. Humberto Brenes
4. Tex Barch
5. Allen Kessler

5:40pm... Recent Elimiantion: Hilton Sisters 1, Spiderman 0. Tobey Maguire busted out when he flopped top pair with A-10. His opponent had Q-Q and flopped a set. Maguire rivered a 10 but it was too late. Spiderman has left the building.

5:55pm... Recent Elimiantion: Mekhi Phifer is out.

6:15pm... Norm MacDonald was the chipleader for a while after he flopped trip aces. He built up his stack as much as 48K before he had his A-A cracked by Mark Vos' Q-Js. Vos is now the chipleader with almost 80K. MacDonald has around 15K.

6:35pm... WSOP Photo Dump: You can click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


What prop bet did this guy lose?


Tao of Poker's Hat of the Day


Hyde


Minh Ly


No comment


B&W Photo of the Day


Tony G


Andy Black


Tao of Poker's Blonde of the Day


Sister Mary Maggie and Gank

6:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Norm MacDonald, Antonio Tarver, and Clonie Gowen.

7:00pm... Players are on a ninety minute dinner break until 8:30pm.

7:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I took a smoke break and roamed the hallways while all the players went to eat. I bumped into two people who filled me in on some gossip. My unidentified source gigled when she said she saw Shannon Elizabeth and Joe Sebok sucking face last night at the Doyle's Room after-party at Light. Joy mentioned to me how she won $1,500 from Gavin Smith. He offered her $1,500 to make out with another girl. She did and picked up 15 Benjamins.

8:15pm... Bouncin Round the Media Room... Here's what's going on as we speak. Jen from Blonde Poker was so exhausted that she took a nap underneath one of the banquet tables. CJ is getting a massage. Change100 is on tilt after she found out Phil Gordon took off his clothes last night during the World Series of Beer. Otis is... I don't know what the fuck Otis is doing. He's mumbling to himself and making owl noises. Tom from Antes Up is playing an SNG online. Spaceman came in with a Matusow jersey for For Peyton. And the trash keeps piling up.


8:30pm... Action has resumed. We're on Level 4. Blinds are $100/$200 with a $25 ante.

8:45pm... Recent Elimination: Action Dan Harrington is out. He ran into Mike Sexton's Hilton Sisters.

9:00pm... Late Arrivals: Jennicide came in several hours late. She thought she was supposed to play on Saturday. One of her friends called and said that her stack was getting blinded off. She rushed over to the Rio. According to my Irish source Tom Murphy from Antes Up, Andrew Leonard from Dublin came in today to register. He thought he was early and supposed to play on Saturday. They informed him that he was playing today and that the tourney already started. After the dinner break he's got 25K and leading all Irish players. Andy Black has 18.5K. "He seems comfortable at his table. He's grinding out chips," Murphy mentioned.

9:10pm... We have some numbers... 2,138 players entered in today's flight. Around 140 tables or 1,400 players are left. We won't stop playing until 500 more players get busted.

9:15pm... Recent Elimination: Actor Matthew Lillard is out. So is Lee Watkinson.

10:00pm... Ryan and Wil texted me to say that a gas station blew up near downtown. Otis asked if they were stoned. They said no. They were watching the explosion and fire at the top of the Palms. Gordon Dill is on the scene. News at 11.

10:10pm... Mike Ertsling jumped into the chiplead with 84K in chips after he scooped a pot with a K-K.

10:30pm... Shaniac's Hilton Sisters ran into pocket Kings. He slipped to 17K in chips. Andy Bloch cracked pocket aces with 8-7s.

11:11pm... Recent elimination: Luca Pagano and Bill Chen are out. Chen's A-4 ran into A-Q. He had a short stack and moved all in from the blinds.

11:44pm... Recent elimination: Jennicide is out. Her Hilton Sisters ran into pocket 2s.

12:00am... 110 tables left and less han 1,100 remaining. We won't stop until 900 are left.

12:30am... I've been here for 15 hours. I smell bad. I need a shower. Most of the "fair weathered" media have been gone for the last six hours. Only a handful of serious reporters are left including the guys from Wicked Chops Poker, Snoopy & Jen from Blonde Poker, and CC, Otis & CJ.

12:45am... Minh Nguyen was eliminated and neverplayed a hand. For some unknown reason he did not show up. I'm guessing he thought he was playing on Saturday. It took about a full day before he was blinded off.

12:50am... Players are on a break as Level 5 came to a close. There are less than 100 tables remaining which means about 990 or so players are left. We'll play at least one more level. Mike Erstling is the first player to go over 100K in chips. Paul McCaffrey also has 100K and sitting at Andy Black's table. He's from outside Dublin according to Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey.

2:50am... Recent Elimination: Dutch Boyd and Gus Hansen are out.

3:00am... Play is over for the day. Action for Day 1B will resume at Noon on Saturday.
posted by Pauly at 7/28/2006 03:59:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Almost There: On the Cusp of the WSOP Championship

"A fuckin' monkey is not, nor will ever be playing in the World Series of Poker." - Nolan Dalla

A very short Asian woman brought out three huge party trays of sandwiches and placed them on one of the banquet tables in the media room. I picked up a can of soda and noticed it was cold. These were too odd things for me to see in the media room. Over the past five weeks I was used to warm soda and one tray of stale pastries. Since Thursday at the WSOP was media day, Harrah's pulled out all the stops including feeding all of the fresh blood decent food.

The farce continued during the press conference. Last year, it was held near the final table area. This year it was moved to one of the "showrooms." Flipchip described the first hour as an infomercial for Jeffrey Pollack. He was dead on. Pollack also dissed the rich history of the world series calling it a "start-up" for the last 35 years until Harrah's took over.

The Hall of Fame ceremony was rushed. They could have done a better job with that especially when paying homage to two superstars of poker. But I'm happy for Billy Baxter and TJ Cloutier. They both deserved Hall of Fame status. Supposedly when Becky Binion was running the Horseshoe, she lied to TJ on two instances telling him that he'd get included the upcoming year. TJ has won over 100 tournaments and took second twice at the WSOP main event. He's won six bracelets and said that getting into the Hall of Fame was one of his three major goals as a poker player. The other two were winning the WSOP main event and the $50K HORSE.

Billy Baxter spoke slowly in his Georgia drawl during his brief acceptance speech. He's cashed 36 times at the WSOP and won seven bracelets... all in Low Ball. Back in the day, when Baxter crushed anyone who sat at the same Lowball table as him, the other pros in that WSOP event nicknamed it "The Billy Baxter Benefit" since they knew they were there just to donate their entry fees to Baxter.

During the Q&A with Joe Hachem two reporters fucked up completely. I guess they were poker newbies or just plain stupid. One guy incorrectly said that Hachem won his seat by a satellite. Hachem quickly put him in place and told him he needed to get his facts straight and that he bought into last year's championship event with his on money. A second reporter forgot Billy Baxter's name. What a shame.

CC asked the two best questions. And of course, when CC asked Harrah's spin doctor Jeffrey Pollack what he thought the three biggest problems with this year's WSOP was, Pollack dodged the question and in his best Slick Willy imitation talked about three improvements he made this year about the bathrooms, the food, and the smoke filled hallways. He would have been foolish to comment on the pissed off players, the terrible decision by the floor people, the fiasco with the dealers, and that the overall safety at the WSOP was sketchy at best. Players have been robbed both in the parking lot and have had their chips stole from them at the tables. I should have grown a pair of balls and asked those questions myself... but I didn't. I know better than to mouth off to a casino executive in the middle of the desert. One verbal fuckup and I'm buried deep in no man's land somewhere between Barstow and Stateline.

The second half of the press conference involved the newest poker flick Lucky You, which is totally going to bomb. The director Curtis Hason (LA Confidential, The Wonder Boys, 8 Mile) and Drew Barrymore came out to speak. We also got to see a trailer and one scene. Yeah it's totally gonna bomb. The scene they showed was horrible but Sammy Farha stole the show during his three seconds of face time.

Media/Celebrity Event featured some of your favorite C-list celebrities like Shannon Elizabeth, Penn (but not Teller), Dick Van Patten, John Kelley, Brian McFadden, Jim Garner, Robin Telly, Ron Jeremy, Boston Rob, and Cindy Margolis. I caught Cindy Margolis and Change100 chatting about purses at one point when Change100 was moved to her table.

Congrats to Otis who won the blogger last longer and also made the final table finishing in 9th. CJ followed the action on his blog Up for Poker, so take a peek.

* * * * *
Mr. Goss sent me an email and asked me who I thought could win the main event. I don't think a pro is going to win because the numbers are against them. As of Thursday afternoon, 7,630 players were registered. That $76 million prize pool is more than the entire prize pools of the first 38 events (which is around $73M.) First place in the main event will get at least $10M. And the top 12 players will go home with at least $1 million each.

So who do I think has a shot of winning? Here's nine players that I think have a shot this year.

1. Phil Ivey
2. Phil Hellmuth
3. Carl Olson
4. Jeff Madsen
5. David Singer
6. Bill Chen
7. Greg Raymer
8. Joe Hachem
9. Isabelle Mercier

You can't ever go wrong with picking Phil Ivey. During a Full Tilt press conference when they announced tht Gus Hansen was joining Team Full Tilt, someone asked him who he thought was the best Full Tilter. He quickly answered... Phil Ivey.

Hellmuth is coming off a high after winning his 10th bracelet and he'd love to be the first player to get #11.

Carl Olson is just a cool guy and I'd love to see him win. This is the same guy who played beer pong with his friends after finishing 6th and making a final table last weekend.

Jeff Madsen is the 21 year old wonderkid who set a record by being the youngest player to win two bracelets. He's the hottest player at the 2006 WSOP. He's at top of the Player of the Year standings after he made a final table the other day and took 3rd.

You have to consider the other 2006 double bracelet winner Bill Chen also. He's one of the smartest players in the room with a ridiculous IQ.

David Singer had been running well prior to the WSOP. He was always in the hunt in the last few WPT events that I covered him in. He made the final table the year that Moneymaker won. This could be his breakout year.

Greg Raymer is one of the best big field tournament players in the history of poker. If his performance during the last two main events is any indication, he should go deep again this year.

I was impressed with how Joe Hachem played this year. He made two final tables and was cockblocked from winning his second bracelet via two bad beats... from John Gale and Dutch "Tool" Boyd. He had been playing in the biggest NL cash game at the Rio and I was fortunate to watch him play a few times.

I'm picking Isabelle Mercier because know that Otis goes on mega tilt by just reading her name. She made one final table this year when Hellmuth had his first shot at #10.

Alas, I think the winner will be someone we never heard of before. Unless a monkey sneaks into the field... then I got big bucks on the fuckin' chimp.

* * * * *
I had two pieces published recently. Fox Sports ran an article called Serious Business (whch also was on the front page of MSN). Plus I published my first post on PokerStars Blog called The Calm Before the Storm.

Don't forget to check out some of Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos and take a peek at Flipchip's Poker Gaming Lifestyle and Expo photo gallery.
posted by Pauly at 7/28/2006 12:53:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Media Tournament and Poker Lifestyle & Expo Pics

I busted out in the first level of the WSOP Media/Celebrity Event. I flopped trips and slowplayed against the big stack. He sucked out a flush. Oh well. I had Zeem and Matt birding me.

Here are some random pics that I took today. Click on the images to see an enlarged view.


Gus Hansen signs with Full Tilt


Peter Alston signing "Take Me to the River"


Paradise Poker and their roller girls


Models doing pillow fights at the BoDog booth


Elvis at the media event


Jen Leo


Linda flips me the bird


Ali from PokerStars Blog


Jay Greenspan


Luckbox with Stan from Poker Player Newspaper


Stephen from Poker News explains how large Ron Jeremy's cock is...


Oklahoma Johnny Hale


Michael Craig taking notes


Jim Garner and Tom Murphy


Ace and CC


Flipchip's chips


April


Chops


Michalski


Otis


Mad's brownie


Tuscaloosa Johnny


Shannon Elizabeth


James


Dan and Eric


Amy Calistri


Eight Is Enough's Dick Van Patten


Lisa from Poker Listings


Penn


Vintage Snake


Howard Swains from the UK Times


Cindy's cleavage


Shannon peeks at her cards
posted by Pauly at 7/27/2006 10:02:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Media Day and Fullt Tilt Gala

I'm hungover again after another late night party. Last night was the Full Tilt Gala at Pure and all the biggest names in poker were out in force. CJ arrived in town and he joined Change100 and I at the gala along with several folks from the PokerStars Blog like Mad, James, and Howard. Wil snagged me an invite and I'm grateful that he didn't want to go. I hung out with the usual suspects... Friedman, Amy, Jen Leo, Caldwell, and met Howard Lederer and Annie Duke's step-mom who's a big fan of the Tao of Poker.

I only took a few photos and most of them didn't come out. I guess it was one of the ten vodka and red bulls. I saw Chau Giang with a very young woman that I hoped was his daughter. Jose Canseco and Carl Lewis played in the charity tournament and I got blinding drunk with Jay Greenspan and Storms Reback at one of the twelve bars they had in the swanky club. We wanted to do shots with John Juanda! I ran into Liz Lieu who invited me to her birthday party at Pure on Sunday. Pure twice in one week?

I loathe this time at the WSOP. The days before the main event are just brutally awful when hundreds of press come in from out of town (and all over the world) to set up shop all over the Rio. I'm territorial about my space in the media room. Many of us who've been here since the first week (over a month ago) have been discovering that our usually seats in the media room have been taken over by people we've never seen before.

The new media reps are easy to spot versus those of us who've been here for four weeks. We have that agitated look like, "Don't fuckin' talk to me!" on our faces that are marked by dark circles around our eyes from lack of sleep. The newbie media reps are fresh off of flights to McCarran with shiny new press badges. Most of them have never been to the WSOP or a live tournament before. They go ape shit when they see Texas Dolly and rush into the ropes to take photos of the "Hot Pro du Jour."

It's these same media reps who flew in the day before the main event that ruined the future of media coverage at the 2005 WSOP. In some ways, I don't blame Harrah's for placing restrictions on the media after what went down last year. Those of us who had been here for weeks were serious poker reporters and did our best to stay out of the way of the players in the tournaments. But the newbies ruined it for us. They had no experience covering a tournament and used flash photography, pestered players for interviews while they were in the middle of hands, and stood over the tables while the action went on. Even when they were told what they were doing was wrong... the still did it. What did they care? They were in town for a story and were going to get it no matter what.

Harrah's was right in blocking the media's coverage during the main event on the floor last year. It was ridiculous. Gutshot had like twenty guys running around. Internet sites that I never head of before had folks running around taking photos and clogging up the aisles.

Harrah's should have did a little homework this year and found out which folks are the ones who ruined the party. Those asstards who show up the day before the main event and act like idiots should bear the brunt of media restrictions... not vets like Flipchip, BJ, Otis, Amy Calistri, Dan Michalski, Mike Paulle and myself who follow poker year round on various tours like the WSOP circuit events, WPT, EPT, and UPC. It's fucked up that a small group of us that have been here since Day 1 gets punished for the actions of people we've never met before and media reps in flyover states that we'd probably never see again.

Plus those idiots have been taking up all the space in the media room. I had to sit in the hallway on Monday to write because of the lack of power strips in the room. Last year at this time, I was spent and had zero energy. I tried to pace myself this year so when this time came around, I'd have some energy left in reserve to better compete against fresh troops.

Last night I missed an incident in the media room involving Justin from Poker Pages. He's been here since Day 1 and working his ass off like the rest of us. Some woman came into the room and took over his seat without asking. She demanded the space.

"My job is more important than yours," she barked at him.

She works for the suits at Harrah's and that was the first time anyone saw her. She totally blew it too. We're not vultures like the rest of the media. If she simply asked, "Do you mind if I use your space for a few minutes until I get this done?" She would have gotten her way. Instead she was spiteful and disrespectful and throwing her weight around. She belittled the work that so many of us had been doing over the past four plus weeks.

Incidents like this are growing as other media outlets send in teams of media to cover the WSOP. Last year Justin from Card Player got into a scuffle with Jesse May's camera crew. Fights among media reps are not uncommon and some of us that have been sucking down casino oxygen over the past few weeks are ticking time bombs.

Harrah's is not prepared for the throngs of media circling around the tournament area like vultures jacked up on crystal meth ready to pick a part any story that they can find. As a whole, the media are like a gang of roving rapists who will force themselves onto the story even if you scream, "No!"

I suggested to Nolan that the newbies get issued new badges that indicate "I just showed up for the main event" and that they should share their own media space (like in an unairconditioned tent behind the dumpster in the parking lot). It's a shame for some of my friends who had been gutting out in the trenches since Day 1 get stuck working on the floor in the hallway.

Yes, I'm bitter and dealing with it. The WSOP main event is going to start on Friday and I'm going to have to adapt to these new changes in media restrictions and with the hordes of media elbowing each other to get the same fuckin' photo of Phil Ivey. I'm outnumbered and drowning in assholes.

Not to fear. I'll do my best to get the story about the main event. That's why I'm really here. The first four weeks of the WSOP were just foreplay. The main event is when we all get laid. I'm better rested this year and in much better head space. I'm ready to cover the main event for several media outlets including:

PokerStars Blog
Lasvegasvegas.com
Fox Sports and MSN
Poker Player Newspaper
Poker Pro Magazine

On the good news front, later today is the media/celebrity event. Last year I made the final table and took 6th place making the money. Yeah, I have one WSOP final table to my credit. I'm playing for the Charlie Tuttle Foundation... the same charity I played at last year. When I was in Nashville visiting the Spaceman and Mrs. Spaceman, we drove past the hospital on Vanderbilt's campus where the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Clinic is located. That's where my final table winnings went last year. I'm hoping to make another donation in Charlie's name this year.

Yeah, I got super lucky last year and had both Glyph, Tuscaloosa Johnny, and AlCantHang on the rail for me. I won the "last longer bet" between my friends. I found A-A in back-to-back hands and busted four people including Otis. I also cracked Shannon Elizabeth's A-A with J-J and sent her to the rail.

I'll do my best to return to the final table this year. In the two media events I've played in... I made the final table at both. I took 3rd at the LA Poker Classic's media event in January. Babs Enright busted me from a bad beat, one of four she issued to me that day.

Stay tuned for pics and more updates.
posted by Pauly at 7/27/2006 12:44:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Poker Books and Truckin'

Buy these books written by some friends of mine:

1. Take Me to the River
2. Hunting Fish: A Cross-Country Search for America's Worst Poker Players
3. All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker
4. Secrets the Pros Won't Tell You About Winning Hold'em Poker
5. Pressure Poker
6. The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time

One of the cool things about being around the WSOP is that whoever has a book out usually hands me a signed copy. Peter Alston wandered into the media room earlier this week. He's the author of One of a Kind (with Nolan Dalla) and Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie. I like Peter because he's from Brooklyn and he's an exceptional writer. We had a chat about his latest book Take Me to the River, which chronicles his attempt to raise money for his wedding by playing in the WSOP. I haven't finished it yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post a complete review.

Another Brooklyn guy, Jay Greenspan also gave me a copy of his book Hunting Fish: A Cross-Country Search for America's Worst Poker Players. I met Jay at last year's WSOP and he's one of the better writers in the poker community. Jay hit the road and played in games all over the country in search of the largest fish. It's highly entertaining and one of the best poker books I read in a while. Michalski suggested I write a book called Hunting Phish.

I had gotten a copy of Storms Reback's book All In: The (Almost) Entirely True Story of the World Series of Poker a couple of months ago. I recall picking it up and not putting it down until I finsihed it. Another perk for me is getting to talk to these writers everyday. Storms had been writing for Full Tilt over the last few weeks and we've sat next to each other frequently in the media room.

Lou Krieger (who also grew up in Brooklyn... can you sense a theme here between poker writers and Brooklyn?) has a book out called Secrets the Pros Won't Tell You About Winning Hold'em Poker. Take a peek at his latest book especially the chapter on money management.


And if you don't know, DoubleAs finally released his book Pressure Poker. Take a peek at the book that some of your favorite bloggers like Pauly, Otis, and Grubby helped write.

I've gotten to know Michael Craig over the past few weeks and he's got some of the most amazing stories in poker that I've ever heard. His book came Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time came out at last year's WSOP. If you haven't read it... you should.

* * * * *
I finally published the latest issue of Truckin' which features short stories from several bloggers.

1. Memories in a Box by Tenzin McGrupp
The emotional weight of all those photographs combined would equal forty thousand elephants. No person is strong enough to walk through life with such a cumbersome burden on their shoulders... More

2. The Returning by Mella
The room seemed larger at night. The corners receded into black, the walls pressed back by shadows, everything coated in a thin veil of blue-gray moonlight. It spilled in through the sheer curtain, flooding the wooden floor. The air was thick, and it smelled like us; sex and sleep... More

3. Grits by Falstaff
when you're drunk, fearless and hungry, you'll go places where no Yankee has ever gone before, the Birmingham Waffle House at 3AM. And trust me, in Birmingham, being from North Carolina marks me as a Yankee... More

4. JetBlue Judy Greer by Derek McGrupp
As I waited at the gate to board my return flight to New York City, I noticed this girl who looked very familiar to me. I couldn't figure out who she was. It was killing me. Then it hit me. She was an actress... More

5. Flying Shotgun by Matt Robertson
I begin screaming and this seems to agitate the bird who in turn begins flapping harder, slapping the side of my face, and screeching louder. I am swerving all over the road at this point... More

6. Rain by Sean A. Donahue
I heard the fire trucks roll as the lightning flashed and as the thunder rolled across the plains of West Texas, I found myself loving listening to the rain again... More

That's it for now. If you are looking for something to read while on vacation, pick up any of the above books I mentioned or stop by Truckin' and print up a couple of past issues.

Oh and if you are looking for a beach villa to rent in Hilton Head, my buddy has just what you are looking for.
posted by Pauly at 7/27/2006 11:58:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Hellmuth: Poker's First 50/10 Player

"I'm the greatest Hold'em player of all time." - Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth made poker history in 1989, when the 24-year old became the youngest player to win the World Series of Poker main event. He beat out Johnny Chan, who was on his way to winning his third straight WSOP Championship.

Hellmuth dropped out of college at the University of Wisconsin after he realized he could make more money playing poker and moved to Las Vegas. He crushed the local games at school by only playing his "Top 10 Starting Hands." His father, a professor at Wisconsin, was vehemently opposed to his son leaving his academic studies to pursue a career as a professional gambler. The elder Hellmuth eventually warmed up to the idea after his son won the World Series of Poker.

Hellmuth was once quoted as saying, "If luck wasn't a factor, I'd win every time." That makes him an easy target for critics of his overbearing confidence in his own poker acumen. He often draws criticism for the way he berates players who beat him out of pots. Although his behavior has improved over the years, there are moments when he falls into the role of "Poker Brat."

Last year at the 2005 WSOP, I witnessed two Hellmuthian incidents. One was when he kicked his chair across the room after he was busted from a PLO event. And the other was at the featured TV table during the first day of the main event. That's when he uttered one of my favorite Hellmuth lines, "I can dodge bullets, baby!"

Phil Hellmuth might be tied with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson with 10 bracelets each after last night's victory, but Hellmuth is in his own category when he became the first player in the history of the WSOP to win 10 bracelets and cash at least 50 times.

As of today, he has 55 cashes which is also a record. He cahsed six tmes this year, which puts him in second place behind Kiril Gerasimov with 7.

Hellmuth also made an outstanding 36 WSOP final tables in his career. He's cashed every year since 1988 except in 1995. Hellmuth has almost $8 million in career tournament earnings and is 6th all-time on the WSOP money list behind Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Steve Dannennman, Johnny Chan, and TJ Cloutier.

Hellmuth's 10 Bracelets:
2006 $1K NL w/ Rebuys $631,863
2003 $3K NL Hold'em $410,860
2003 $2,500 Limit Hold'em $171,400
2001 $2K NL $316,550
1997 $3K Pot Limit Hold'em $204,000
1993 $5K Limit $138,000
1993 $2,500 NL $173,000
1993 $1,500 NL Hold'em $161,400
1992 $5K Limit Hold'em $168,000
1989 $10K NL $755,000

A month ago, I predicted that Hellmuth would win his 10th bracelet and become poker's first 50/10 player. He made me look like a genius but it took Hellmuth three chances to do it. If you count the final table he made last year, Hellmuth had four chances to tie Brunson and Chan.

Here's Hellmuth's WSOP history at a glance.

2006 WSOP:
$1K NL w/ Rebuys 1st $ 631,863
$5K NL Short Handed 44th $ 8,340
$3K Omaha Hi/Lo 6th $ 48,576
$5K NL 2nd $ 423,893
$3K Limit Hold'em 13th $ 10,309
$1,500 NL 67th $ 7,578

2005 WSOP:
$5K PLO 8th $ 70,625
$1,500 PLO 10th $ 5,080
$1,500 Limit Hold'em 42nd $ 4,200
$1,500 NL 24th $ 15,905

2004 WSOP:
$3K Pot Limit Hold'em 7th $ 34,880
$2K Pot Limit Hold'em 6th $ 29,800
$2K Omaha Hi-Lo Split 21st $ 2,580
$2,500 Limit Hold'em 26th $ 3,280
$1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 17th $ 4,120

2003 WSOP:
$10K NL 27th $ 45,000
$3K No Limit Hold'em 1st $ 410,860
$3K Limit Hold'em 6th $ 15,040
$1,500 Limit Omaha 3rd $ 15,800
$2,500 Limit Hold'em 1st $ 171,400
$2K H.O.R.S.E. 12th $ 3,160

2002 WSOP:
$2,500 NL Gold Bracelet Match Play 2nd $ 17,000
$1,500 Limit Omaha 8th $ 3,640

2001 WSOP:
$2K NL 1st $ 316,550
$10K NL 5th $ 303,705
$5K Omaha Hi-Lo 2nd $ 103,785
$1,500 Ace to Five Draw Lowball 15th $ 1,850
$2,500 PLO 15th $ 4,910
$3K Limit Hold'em 6th $ 19,555
$1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 9th $ 4,685

2000 WSOP:
$2,500 PLO 4th $ 29,250
$2K Pot Limit Hold'em 6th $ 16,450

1999 WSOP:
$2,500 Omaha 8 5th $ 20,925
$2,500 No Limit 12th $ 9,210

1998 WSOP:
$2,000 Omaha 8 14th $ 4,080
$1,500 PLO 16th $ 3,870

1997 WSOP:
$10K NL 21st $ 21,200
$3K Hold'em Pot Limit 1st $ 204,000

1996 WSOP:
$2,500 Omaha 8 6th $ 12,375

1995 WSOP:
No cashes

1994 WSOP:
$1,500 No Limit 2nd $ 67,500

1993 WSOP:
$5K Limit 1st $ 138,000
$ 2,500 NL 1st $ 173,000
$1,500 NL Hold'em 1st $ 161,400
$5K Deuce to Seven Draw 2nd $ 72,500

1992 WSOP:
$5K Limit Hold'em 1st $ 168,000
$2,500 Hold'em Pot Limit 8th $ 6,700
$2,500 Limit Hold'em 2nd $ 84,000
$5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw 4th $ 26,500
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em 9th $ 5,715

1990 WSOP:
$2,500 No Limit Hold'em 5th $ 32,500

1989 WSOP:
$10K NL Main Event 1st $ 755,000
$2,500 PLO 5th $ 25,300
$1,500 Ace to Five Draw 14th $ 2,985

1988 WSOP:
$10K No Limit Hold'em 33rd $ 7,500
$1,500 Seven-Card Stud Split 5th $ 15,450

In 1993, Hellmuth won three bracelets and nearly took home a fourth but lost heads-up to Billy Baxter in $5K Deuce to Seven Draw. Hellmuth has six second place finishes in his career.

Hellmuth is very serious when he says that he expects to win every tournament he enters. He has been known to show up late to the first day of the World Series of Poker, in an attempt to gain a psychological edge on his opponents. One of his strengths is being able to read players very well. His reputation and physical presence (he's almost six and a half feet tall) can also be an intimidating factor. If Hellmuth has any weaknesses, it's his overflowing self-confidence and his willingness to get into arguments with other players at the table.

If you ask Phil Hellmuth who the best player in the world is, he'll quickly tell you, "Phil Hellmuth." He might be right after becoming the first 50/10 player in poker. After you dismiss all the stories about Phil Hellmuth the Poker Brat, you'll see that his statistics do not lie. He has won tournaments in No Limit, Limit, Omaha Hi/Lo and Seven-card Stud. Phil has won tournaments all over the world, including the world's largest Seven-card Stud tournament in Austria and Late Night Poker in England. He also has five World Poker Tour top ten finishes and has made the TV table twice, including the infamous battle at Foxwoods against Hoyt Corkins. Hellmuth also won the 2005 Heads-Up World Championship after he beat out Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

All of Hellmuth's WSOP bracelets came in a form of Hold'em. He has one PL Hold'em bracelet, three Limit, and six NL bracelets. He's also made the final table in almost every form of poker. Hellmuth is a solid all-around player but makes an argument for himself why he should be considered one of the best Hold'em players of all time.

Sure, Doyle, Chan and Phil Ivey might have more skill as a NL player, but Hellmuth has won more Hold'em bracelets than those three legends. Ivey is stil the best player under 30 years old in the world and in twenty years he might set every single WSOP record as far as number of cashes, bracelets, and career earnings. Ivey looks like the only player who has a shot at the exclusive 50/10 club.

Phil Hellmuth considers himself a family man. Ironically, he married a psychiatrist. His wife is often sitting in the stands cheering on and calming down her husband during final tables. Hellmuth and his wife live in California with their two children.

Hellmuth recently replaced Phil Gordon as the host of Celebrity Poker Showdown. He's the author of a few poker books including Playing Poker Like the Pros. Hellmuth is also a contributing author to Card Player Magazine. Hellmuth's life story was recently optioned to become a feature film and he's currently working on his autobiography. You can often see him wearing hats, jackets, and hockey jerseys sporting the logo of his online site, Ultimate Bet.

All of these photos of Phil Hellmuth are courtesy of Flipchip. Take a peek at his 2006 WSOP Photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/26/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Ninja Midgets, BoDog, and Tao

Phil Hellmuth won his 10th bracelet and I missed it. I decided to go to the BoDog party at Tao instead.

Change100 and I showed up fashionably late to Tao for what's going to be known the best party at this year's WSOP. We walked right in past the velvet red ropes and waited for the elevator up to the night club. A chick with a tight black spandex/latex black tube dress operated the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, we were greeted by of a huge wall that resembled Buddhist shrine... except that a champagne bar sat underneath.



Found our way into the main room and started the flurry of Kettle One and Red Bulls. The DJ played a lot of late 1970s disco and 1980s pop music. Amazingly hot girls in black and red Oriental style dresses with Bodog branding flooded the dance floor and took up space at the bar. Saw the usual suspects... JW, Friedman, Tim, Amy, Jen Leo, Caldwell, Scott Huff, Jay Greenspan and Jason from Paradise Poker.


Gavin gropes Amy


More cleavage
Gavin Smith was the only person in the club wearing a hat. It was a backwards Full Tilt hat of all things. Only Gavin Smith could get around wearing a Full Tilt hat at a BoDog party. Gavin was pretty smashed. He shoved his hand down Amy Calistri's shirt. He also took on The Black Widow in a game of pool. He won, but admitted to me that he cheated.

I spotted random pros wandering around like Clonie Gowen, Josh Arieh, Kenna James, Andy Bloch, and Humberto Brenes. Found the hookah room which had an ice cream sundae station. They had better music in that room, with tons of James Brown sampled hip hop.


Midget ninjas
Hung out in front of the naked girl in a bathtub filled with warm water and rose petals. Saw weird shit that you'd only see in Las Vegas like the midget ninjas. I mistook one for Iggy for a few moments. They stood in line in front of me at the bathroom. It seems that midget ninjas urinate in groups of three. They all ran into the same stall together to rip a few lines of Peruvian snowflake.

Jacked up ninjas and women in lingerie sitting in bird cages... and you wonder why I left the Rio early?

Thanks to the dudes at Wicked Chops Poker for the invite. And congrats to Phil Hellmuth for winning #10.

I wanted to post a video of the party, but You Tube nixed the idea because of the naked chick in the bath tub. Any one brave enough to host this video for me?
posted by Pauly at 7/26/2006 11:33:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Tuesday's WSOP Photos, Random Bloggers, and Hellmuthian Update

Fox Sports published one of my articles called Top 10 Poker Personalities. Take a peek. That was one of the articles I toiled on late last night.

A few of my friends in the media played in today's $1,500 NL event. There were almost 3,000 players and they took alternates again.

As of 4:20pm Vegas time, Spaceman has 4300 in chips. Caldwell has 4K. Otis and Ryan are out. Ryan already posted something about today's event.

Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. John Juanda
2. JC Tran
3. Barry Greenstein
4. David Singer
5. Padrig Parkinson

Here are some pics I took this afternoon. Feel free to click on them to see an enlarged view.


Otis


Spaceman


The pooch is now a Full Tilter


Jen from Blonde Poker


John Caldwell


Isaac Galzan


Jen Tilly


Snoopy from Blonde Poker


Vintage Spaceman
Updates: Spaceman Cometh and Hellmuth's Chasing #10!

4:30pm... Hellmuth lost the lead early after Juha Helpi took a pot from him on the very first hand. Since then Hellmuth busted Ralph Perry (8th place) and David Plastik (7th place). Hellmuth's J-J held up against Perry's 9-9. Then Hellmuth found A-A and knocked out Plastik who had J-J.

4:40pm... With 6 players remaining, Hellmuth has almost 1M in chips and has a 2-1 lead over Daryn Firicano in second place.

5:30pm... Four remain. Hellmuth is still in front.

1 Phil Hellmuth 930K
2 Daryn Firicano 550K
3 John Spadavecchia 520K
4 Juha Helppi 500K

6:20pm... Spaceman is out of his event by a bad beat too. A-9 to A-7. His opponent spiked a 7. Prior to that he lost two races and most of his stack. Spaceman had a good run and finished in about 500th place and just missed the money. I think he won the last longer with Gavin Smith. If Smith busted out before Spaceman, he was gonna donate $750 to For Peyton.

6:40pm... Players are on a dinner break until 7:40pm.

1 Phil Hellmuth 1.315M
2 Daryn Firicano 501K
3 John Spadavecchia 357K
4 Juha Helppi 328K

8:54pm... One after dinner break, Hellmuth is in the lead with 1.185M. With four playes remaining, Juha jumped up to second in chips.

9:40pm... Down to 3 after Hellmuth's A-10 busted John Spadavecchia's Q-8 in 4th place. Hellmuth leads with 1.475M. Juha Helppi 530K and Daryn Firicano 425K trail Hellmuth who has almost a 3 to 1 lead on Juha.

10:20pm... Hellmuth still ahead with 3 to go. I'm done for the night. Heading to Tao with Change100 for the BoDog party. Check Poker Wire for the updates.
posted by Pauly at 7/25/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
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.
posted by Pauly at 7/25/2006 04:12:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Sports Jersey Photo Gallery

I took all of these over the last week.
























posted by Pauly at 7/24/2006 12:40:00 PM | Permalink |

 
I Lost $400 Because Otis Ate 2 Keno Crayons

Here's the video of Otis Eating 2 Keno Crayons. You might have to let it load for a few moments before you start playing.


Wil was having a bad day. I was bored. Our fellow media friends at PokerBlog.com had a staff meeting at the Tilted Kilt. And Otis got yelled at some suits when a rival media outlet complained about him doing his job.

Why spend more time brooding in the media room? With a deadline looming I was in no head space to write. Otis gave me an assignment. I was supposed to "cheer Wil up."

Unfortunately, Wil's not a blow and strippers type of guy so my Plan A was not going to work. We started talking. Then we walked around. His mood was cloudy until we got to the Milwaukee's Best Tent. They have scantily clad women pushing their beer and they all stood outside the tent as we walked in. The tent had a bar, a few chairs, several dart boards, a pool table and a bar bowling game. Michalski sat in the far corner working (and I use that term loosely) as I made a bee-line to the bar and bought Wil a Beast Light.

"I can't drink this shit," he said.

"Suck it up, you pussy ass bitch!" I muttered.

We gravitated to the bowling game in the corner. I played Wil heads up and I got my ass handed to me. Otis played with himself and I won the Over/Under.


Good and Evil
I grabbed a quick cheeseburger at the Kitchen Tent and ate with Snoopy from Blonde Poker. That's when Wil and I decided to drink at every possible bar at the Rio. It was going to be one of those days.

We went to the Hooker bar. Otis hit quads and I drank Greyhounds. We wandered over to the Tilted Kilt. We all flirted with our waitress Kerry and ordered beers. As she rubbed up against Wil, she gave Otis shit about ordering a beer that had a low alcohol percentage.

We spotted Michalski's gang (April, Amy, Change100, Jen Leo, TIm Lavalli, Foiled Coup, Chris Newtown) having a staff meeting on the other side of the room. We ordered 11 SoCo shots... 8 for them and 3 for Wil, Otis, and myself. Our sexy waitress came over and said that there was no more SoCo and they finished the bottle. She was only able to squeeze 8 shots out. We told her to send those 8 shots over to the table.

Wil, Otis, and I had a bet to see how many people would refuse the shot. Otis said zero. I picked two and Wil picked three. At the time three refused. And then they sent us drinks in return. Michalski ordered us pink Zinfandels.

"Motherfuckers," I said to Otis. "We dropped $50 on shots and they send us this week ass shit? Time to chug and show up these asstards."

We pounded the Zinfandels and I wanted to throw my glass at their general direction. I slammed it down on our table and it nearly shattered. That's when a fan wandered over and said, "I love your blog, man!"


At the Hooker Bar
At some point we were back at the Hooker Bar with John Caldwell. Sarah Bilney just busted out of her event. She was having a beer with John Duthie as Otis missed a royal flush on video poker. Michalski ordered me shots of Tuaca. Change100 was stealing cigarettes from a couple of Canucks who won multiple seats in the main event. Spaceman wandered over and we headed across the street to Gold Coast to play Pai Gow.

3:30am is when things got interesting. All of us (Wil, Change100, me, Otis, April & Spaceman) were at the same Pai Gow table. Otis pulled out eight $100 bills out of his poker bankroll and tossed it onto the felt. Flora, out Pai Gow dealer from Vietnam, yelled out something to the pit poss. Otis was betting $800 on a single hand of Pai Gow. My $25 bet wilted in comparison.

Otis pushed twice as I barely paid attention to my cards. I sat right next to him and watched as he unfurled every hand. He won the third hand as the dealer paid him in eight black $100 chips. He took his cash and chips and tossed a green $25 chip into the betting circle.

"I'm still not close to being unstuck. Does that get me steak and eggs for all of my friends?" he screamed at the Pit Boss.

She nodded her head. Spaceman lost $200. April lost about the same while Wil, Change100 and I dropped about $100 each.


The bet!
Otis led the caravan to the cafe. We were quickly seated and I spotted a couple of ratty old Keno crayons. I pulled out four $100 bills out of my poker bankroll and tossed it on the table. I pulled out two Keno crayons and put them on the table as well.

"$400 to eat two Keno crayons. No water until you are done," I said.

Otis didn't even blink as he picked them up at the same time and bit into the crayons simultaneously. Within seconds everyone at our table was in hysterics. Otis had a frown on his face. Eating crayons is not fun and I prayed that he'd puke before he finished.

"I'm an ass," Otis admitted after winning the prop bet.


The humble winner
Otis was stuck $1K playing Pai Gow and needed to chase that loss. We all took pictures and videos. By now, you've seen our antics on You Tube. The people sitting next to us were pissed because we were drunk, rowdy, screaming, and Otis had dark blue Keno crayon shavings spilling out of the sides of his mouth.

I'm a horrible gambler and will bet on almost anything. But for $400, I got a great story out of Otis' lunacy plus my mission had been accomplished. I think we all successfully cheered Wil up after drinks, Pai Gow, and Otis eating Keno crayons.


Otis ready to puke
posted by Pauly at 7/23/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Sunday Pimpage

Jen Leo will be appearing on The Poker Dome tonight at 11pm on FSN. Check your local listings. I sat in the audience for the taping.

Carl Olson made the final table of the $2K NL and Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis cashed in the Razz event and made it to Day 2. Tanya busted near the bubble at 44 around 4:20am. And Brian Mincon from NeverWinPoker fame made the same final table as Carl. Should be an interesting final in the $2K NL event!

Wicked Chops posted their interview with Lacey Jones. Take a peek.

Don't forget about For Peyton.
posted by Pauly at 7/23/2006 02:58:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Saturday's WSOP Pics

I took all of these on Saturday afternoon during the Razz event and 5K PL Hold'em. You can click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Aussie Sarah


The tools of Michael Craig


Richard Brodie (and he's single ladies!)


John Caldwell


Poker Wire Jen


CK Hua and Tanya


Tao of Poker Pothead of the Day: Chau Giang


Patrik Antonius stares down Jen Harman


Michael Craig taking notes


Kathy and Marcel


Humberto Brenes
Don't forget to check out Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/23/2006 02:03:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Saturday Razz

It's Get Kicked in the Junk Day at the WSOP with the Razz event schedule for Saturday. There are quite a number of pros playing in the event along. Poker Wire Jen went deep last year and took 15th place. She's one of my favorites to make the final table. Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis has never played Razz before and was giving it a shot.

Michael Craig got Razz lessons from Huck Seed and Ted Forrest last night. Craig quoted me in his journal this morning about my thoughts on the Razz event. Just walking around the room, I see that Razz snarl on the faces of all the players. Only true junkies and sadists play Razz.

Yesterday Gentleman John Gale won his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 PL Hold'em event. Congrats to John who survived a tough final table that included WPT runner-up Alex Jacob, WSOP Champion Joe Hachem, and Lee Markholt.

Joe Hachem made his second final table at this year's WSOP and would bust out on another suck out. Hachem came form behind to bust Lee Grove in 6th place. At that moment, it looked like Hachem was picking up steam especially after he busted Alex Jacob with the Hilton Sisters. But then he ran into John Gale.

With K-9, Hachem hit a flop of K-3-4. Gale called Hachem's pot-sized bet with A-3. Hachem moved all in on the turn when a rag fell. Gale pondered a call for several minutes. Hachem was reported as muttering, "I've got you beat, you're my friend, please do not call. I do not want you to suck out on me."

Gale knew Hachem was telling the truth but called thinking he still had outs. He caught an ace on the river to send Hachem to the rail. Hachem took down $90,482 for 4th place and busted out of another final table via a suckout. A couple of weeks ago it was Dutch Boyd. On Friday, it was John Gale.

Gale blew a huge edge over Maros Lechman when they battled heads up. Lechman took the lead at one point but Gale battled back. On the final hand, Gale's K-9 prevailed over Lechman's A-6. Gale won $374,849 and his first bracelet then retreated to the Tilted Kilt Pub to celebrate with his friends that included Harry Demetriou, Neil Channing, Mel Judah, Steve Hall, Joe Beevers, and a few other Brits.

Erick Lindgren made the final table of the Short-handed NL event. Phil Gordon, Josh Arieh, and Gavin Smith were sweating him. They seemed more focused on playing Chinese Poker in the bleachers than cheering on Lindgren.

Stephen Noh has an interview with Harry Demetriou. Take a peek.

Otis and I have been playing HORSE in the media room with basketball rules using an empty water bottle. It's tied H-O to H-O. Stay tuned for more details.
posted by Pauly at 7/22/2006 09:40:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Friday's WSOP Photos and Pothead of the Day

Here are nine of the better shots I took on Friday. You can click on the pics to see an enlarged view. Enjoy.


WSOP Shot of the Day


Wil and Darwin


You can't bluff the pooch


Jim McManus (with Poker Stars hat)


Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis


Tao of Poker Pothead of the Day: Swank Gank


Cardcapper of the day


Retro Wil


"I can't quit yew!"
Don't forget to check out Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/22/2006 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Lee Watkinson's Chimps Gone Wild and Ode to Paul McKinney

I get fed stories everyday from players, media reps, dealers, and even the occasional hooker. Most of them are rumors, bad beat stories, and random stuff that I wish I could make up. This morning one of my sources tracked me down in the media room. She told me about what happened when ESPN's crew went to Lee Watkinson's house for a shoot.

Lee has several chimpanzees. One of them was overly friendly and French kissing Lee's wife. Another went "ape shit" and spit at one of the ESPN producers. Yet another one threw power tools such as a saw and even a hammer got hurled at the production crew.

Then one went completely wild and bit one of the female members of ESPN's crew. Poor girl spent the night in the emergency room getting treatment which included shots. I'm pretty sure the trip to the ER was out of pocket for her. I'm confident that ESPN's insurance plan does not cover chimp bites.

Rumor has it that one or more of the chimps were roaming the neighborhood. If you live in the Las Vegas Valley, beware of hammer throwing chimps.

* * * * *
The French film crew were chain smoking outside while one of their team played on Full Tilt in the media room.

Jen from Blonde Poker lived off of cigarettes and diet soda last year. I never saw her without either during the 2005 main event. This year she had been on a water and popcorn diet. Today she upgraded to French fries. She calls them "chips."

She was so tired that she crawled underneath one of the banquent tables in the media room so she could take a cat nap. I considered doing that during the Horse event and chose my car instead.

ESPN's Steve Rosenbloom made his first appearance at this year's WSOP. He told us that he might morph into "grumpy old man" by the middle of the main event because the Rio banned smoking in the hallways. Steve likes a good stogie while he writes and transcribes interviews. I was flattered to hear he'd been following the WSOP via my blog.

I've been feeding Otis music to soothe his soul. The past two days I've been feeding him an "almost Acoustic set" of Jerry Garcia Band and the Pizza Tapes featuring Jerry and David Grisman. Today it's been Galactic, Widespread Panic, The Wood Brothers, Bob Dylan with the Band, and My Morning Jacket.

Michael Craig told me that he was going to play in the Razz event on Saturday. He's never played Razz before and said that Ted Forrest was going to teach him. Ted supposedly loses his cell phone all the time. I wanted to make a prop with Michael Craig... Will Ted Forrest lose his cellphone before Craig busts out of the Razz event?

Storms and I did a prop bet that resulted in a tie. We were doing over the head backwards empty water bottle tosses in the media room. Don't ask. We were bored.

After Wil busted out of today's event he called me. He wanted to go drink. We headed to the Tilted Kilt for a late afternoon session of beers and deep philosophical thought. I realized I've been drinking there more than the Hooker Bar.

By the way, thanks for reading everyone. There's still three hours left in this day (according to my stat tracker which records via EST) and I've hit the highest day of traffic for 2006. I haven't had these many visitors since last year's main event.

* * * * *


2005 WSOP Seniors Champion Paul McKinney
So what's wrong with this picture of Paul McKinney? Think about it while I tell you some background on Paul McKinney.

When he was a GI during WWII, he was being shipped out to the Pacific Theater to fight the Japanese. He boarded a ship in Los Angeles, and by the time the ship docked in Hawaii, McKinney had won enough money that he wired the majority of his poker winnings back home to his parents in Tennessee. They used the money to buy a house that they would live in for the remainder of their lives.

McKinney absolutely crushed the games on his ship. He made a reputation for himself so much so that the Admiral called him into his office.

"Private McKinney," he barked, "I heard that you've won a lot of money playing poker. You aren't cheating are you Private?"

"No sir!" he quickly answered, "I don't have to, sir!"

That's my favorite Paul McKinney story. For years he played in local games. He first caught the attention of the poker world when he made the final table of the 1998 WSOP main event. That was the year that Scotty Nguyen won when he enticed Kevin McBride into calling when he shouted, "You call and it's all over, baby!"

McKinney took 9th place that year. In his official poker career, which began in his 60s, he made six final tables at the WSOP and went deep at the WPT Foxwoods. At the 2005 WSOP, McKinney won the Seniors NL event which made him the oldest player to ever win a bracelet. You will rarely find him without his trademark cigar.

So what's wrong with that picture of Paul McKinney?

In the old days at the WSOP when it was Benny's brain child and held downtown at the Horseshoe, he'd be smoking the cigar. You also would not see all that corporate sponsorship. Let's face it. I was in a fraternity and even us broke and drunken frat boys cringed at the thought of drinking Beast Lite. Yet we have the greatest poker tournament in the world sponsored by one of the shittiest beers on the planet.

On the table you'll notice three logos which is not directed to the players at the table. It's for the people at home watching any portions of the WSOP telecast. The Beast, ESPN, and WSOP want to make sure you catch a glimpse of their logos when you are watching the flop come out.

Amy Calistri, Steve Rosenbloom, and I had a conversation this morning about the big business aspect of poker. She quoted that infamous line in North Dallas Forty... "Everytime I say it's a game you say it's a business. Everytime I say it's a business, you say it's a game."

Poker is big business.
posted by Pauly at 7/21/2006 09:04:00 PM | Permalink |

 
You Should Be Reading...

Today Otis will be following Wil Wheaton's progress in his NL event over at PokerStarsBlog. Also, Champ Joe Hachem made his second final table at this year's WSOP. Before the series began, I questioned Hachem's poker ability. I take that all back. Not only has he been holding his own in the highest NL cash game at the Rio, he's made two final tables and should have won a bracelet if Dutch Boyd didn't sucked out on him.

Storms is crushing the cash games here. He also has a great story about Ellix Powers.

Both Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon discussed the WPT lawsuit on their blogs.

Here are some things I wrote over the past week:

Cyndy Day?
WSOP Broadcast Schedule
Dark Horse: Chip Reese Wins $50K Horse
Hot or Not? A Conversation with Foiled Coup
First Impressions: 2006 WSOP
World Series of Bad Beats, Grubby's Last Supper, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays
2006 WSOP Preview

Flipchip posted more WSOP photos.

Change100 wrote up a hilarious bit called WSOP Fashion Report Today's Winners and Loser.

April has some main event registration advice.

By the way, the main event starts in one week. You have less than that to win your seat online at Poker Stars or over at Full Tilt. Both are still running satellites. So if you want a shot at $10 million and the probablity of getting your picture on the Tao of Poker, here's your last chance.

Lastly, mucho thanks to Aaron Gleeman for linking me up. He's my favorite baseball blogger and I'm praying that he gets a gig working for one of the NYC rags so I can read some competent thoughts about my teams.
posted by Pauly at 7/21/2006 05:14:00 PM | Permalink |

 
For Peyton Silent Auction

Here's something important regarding For Peyton. The auction ends on July 26th so starting your bidding ASAP.

That Bobby Bracelet is quite the guy. He's gone and set up a whole bunch of new items to be auctioned. It won't stop there, either. Look for additions like 2 tickets to Howard and Suzie Lederer's WSOP party, a signed cowboy hat by Kenna James, Matt Savage running your home game, Greg Raymer signed a fossil for some lucky bidder, and even more!

Oh yeah, there will be a poker table auctioned off thanks to Bluff Magazine. It will be signed by every pro that Gavin, Spaceman, and Bluff staff can muster. It'll also be signed by the brand spanking new WSOP Main Event Champion. Then of course, Bobby Bracelet will be auctioning that off to one lucky bastard. Better bring your checkbook for that one though, cause it'll go for over 10k.

Here is a rundown of the stuff you will soon find on Ebay and ready for your bids. And by "soon" I mean later today, July 19th.


Two tickets to the Full Tilt Poker Gala Event at the WSOP! There are two tickets available, each one is allowed to bring a guest. This is up already and will end in 5 days because the event is July 26th. It's at Pure nightclub in Caesar's. Check it out, make a bid, meet and marry a celebrity.

LATE ADDITION!

One lucky sob and a guest have a chance to attend Howard and Suzie Lederer's (and Steve Zolotow's) 4th Annual WSOB and Karaoke Championship. Thursday July 27th, from 6pm - ??? at a restaurant off the strip. Many of the top pros will be there, and you never know, possibly a celebrity or two. I can't think of much that would be more entertaining than seeing somebody like Phil Hellmuth belting out Endless love.

Gavin Smith, poker professional and all around great guy, has the tickets and we will get the winning bidder in touch with him to ensure the tickets are in your hand in time.

(Note: this does not mean to imply that Phil Hellmuth will be there. Also: WSOB apparently stands for World Series of Beer. NICE!)


Steve Zolotow has donated a night out at one of his favorite hangouts, a place called Nice Guy Eddie's in New York. Dinner for two, drinks, and whatever sort of poker conversation you'd like to have. Ask questions, listen to stories, get some tips and pointers, or just shoot the breeze. He's a great guy that truly enjoys conversations on a variety of topics.



Robert Mizrachi has offered a 2 Hour Lesson. This will be by phone unless by some chance you can work out a time and place that works for him. With tourneys and travel, chances are you'll have to settle for a phone lesson, but you never know. Doesn't hurt to ask.


Annie Duke sent two signed copies of her book along with 3 DVD's. They were split up into two packages. The first is the hardcover edition with the advanced secrets DVD, while the other is the paperback version with two DVD's, one for beginners and one for women.


Mike Krzyzewski signed a Duke hat. Bobby Bracelet tells me it has taken every ounce of his will not to stomp it into oblivion before setting it on fire. If you're a fan, it's a great Nike fitted hat. If you aren't, buy it for charity and do exactly as Bobby would do in hopes it will work like voodoo on Duke's chances next season.

There is another Card Player package like last time, only this time we have the ability to also add a one year subscription to Card Player Magazine.

There is another Phil Hellmuth DVD package similar to last time, though it will also be joined by a one year subscription to Card Player Magazine.

Go To For Peyton and keep in eye on these items. Should be up today.

Please do Bobby Bracelet a favor and post this on your site. Again, if you'd like to help out, but don't have the means to bid on something, please pass this information along and/or post it on your blog.
posted by Pauly at 7/21/2006 05:05:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Cyndy Day?

With 15 players to go in the $5K Seven-card Stud event, Cyndy Violette is at the front of the pack as the chipleader with 157K. The 5K Stud event is the highest Stud buy-in at the WSOP which means that the winner is considered the Unofficial Stud World Champion.

Since Cyndy Violette is a fine looking woman, her poker game is always overlooked. Sure, she's always mentioned on the list of "best looking female poker player" but she'd rather be recognized for her poker skills that equally (if not surpass) her remarkable beauty. If you've played against Cyndy at the tables over the past two decades, you know first hand that she's not just a pretty face, but one of the toughest poker players around today... male or female. Indeed, Cyndy Violette is a triple threat -- she's smart, good looking, and is an excellent poker player.

Cyndy Violette is a native New Yorker and was born in Queens, NY. She enjoyed playing cards as a child with various relatives at the kitchen table. When she was 12, she moved to Las Vegas, NV with her family. One of her first jobs was dealing blackjack at a casino. She started playing poker when she was 22 years old and pregnant with her daughter. She was looking for something to do in order to kill time. Although she admits she didn't know what she was doing at the time, she quickly discovered that she enjoyed the game immensely.

She dealt poker and blackjack, but it wasn't until she visited Lake Tahoe in 1984 that she took the first big step in becoming a professional poker player. At the time, she was strictly a Seven-card Stud player and she cleaned up in the cash games. She entered a Stud tournament and won the entire thing. First place paid out $74,000, which at the time was the largest purse ever won by a female in the history of poker. Overnight, Cyndy Violette became known in poker circles. She was also the subject of an article in Playboy after her victory and that gave her exposure to a wider audience.

Cyndy soon quit her job as a dealer and decided to play Stud full time. She eventually made her way up in stakes from $15/30 to $30/60 and eventually to $75/150.

When Cyndy Violette met her second husband, she took a brief hiatus from poker, mainly because he didn't want her to play. In those two years, she focused on her family life instead of gambling. On a visit to Caesar's Palace in 1990, she couldn't resist the temptation to sit at a poker table. She entered a tournament and ended up winning it. She made the decision to return to playing on a semi-regular basis and spent time in Southern California and Las Vegas playing cash games and tournaments in various card rooms and casinos.

When Cyndy's relationship with her husband ended 1993, she spent that summer playing at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. She ended up moving there permanently with her daughter. She would return to Las Vegas for a few months every year to play in the World Series of Poker and do the tournament circuit in California.

2005 was a special year for Cyndy Violette. She made three final tables and cashed five times at the World Series of Poker. If it weren't for a bad beat by Erik Seidel, she might have won her second bracelet. She proved that she's an excellent all around player with cashes in Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit Shorthanded, and regular NL Hold'em. She earned her first and only WSOP bracelet in 2004 when she won the Seven-card Stud Hi/Lo event. At this year's WSOP, Cyndy cashed in two NL events.

Cyndy Violette is one of the top seven female money winners of all time. She has made ten (soon to be eleven) final tables over her career at the WSOP. If she never took a hiatus, she might have become the most successful female player of all time. She also used to be strictly a cash game player, but recently began playing more tournaments.


Cyndy at the 2005 WSOP


Cyndy's charms
Cyndy doesn't just focus on poker. She leads a very healthy lifestyle as a vegetarian. She has a personal chef prepare her special foods during the WSOP, which she would often eat at the table during grueling 12-14 hour sessions.

Cyndy also practices yoga and aroma therapy and you can often see some of her lucky charms at the poker table. She keeps several healing stones within close reach.

"You have to have balance in life," she said in an interview. "Poker can be obsessive and then it's not good for you. You have to stay focused at all times; don't get emotionally involved, and don't let it take over your life."

Cyndy is also once of the nicest people you will meet in poker. She always has a warm smile and I've never seen her get angry at another player. She's a true class act and treats everyone with respect, which is rare to see these days.

By the way, the photos in this post were taken by Flipchip. Check out his 2006 WSOP photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/20/2006 06:58:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Thursdays WSOP Photos

Feel free to click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Marcel


Aussie Sarah


Johnny Chan


Gavin says: "Go visit For Peyton!"


Jen Tilly


No farting either...


"Bill Gordon, can I have your autograph?"


A relaxed John Duthie


Richard Brodie: He's single and rich!
posted by Pauly at 7/20/2006 05:39:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Random WSOP Thoughts


The dealers
I had another article published at Fox Sports. This one is called Dark Horse: Chip Reese Wins $50K HORSE. In the last two weeks, I've had two other articles published titled: First Impressions and 2006 WSOP Preview.

Here's why Lacey Jones is cool. I had just walked out of the bathroom and I was picking my nose. She saw me in mid-pick and still said hello.

Harry Demetriou posted about his meeting with WSOP officials over at the Hendon Mob.

Flipchip took photos of the press conference where several professional poker players announced that they just filed a lawsuit against the WPT.

Congrats to CC for his one year blog anniversary. If there was an award to best new blog, Quest of a Closet Poker Player would get my vote.

Storms told me about the $1200 bet that Gavin Smith had with John Juanda regarding throwing an empty canister of Airborne (equivalent to the size of a roll of quarters) into a trash can in the Full Tilt Suite. Gavin said Juanda could not nail it. Juanda took him up on the bet and took several minutes calculating the distance and even rehearsed a throwing motion several times before he made his attempt. Juanda nailed the shot and picked up 12 bills.

Andy Black discussed a hand with me that he played in the $5K Stud event. He wandered over to me at the rail as three tourists whipped out their cell phone cameras to grab a shot of the Irish pro.

"Worst fuckin' move I've seen in poker," Black said shaking his head. "I should know, I've made plenty of bad ones. I told the guy, 'You played that absolutely terrible.'"

Black was caught in the middle of a raising war against two guys with two pair. They kept re-raising each other. One guy had Queens and 10s and the other guy had 10s and 2s. Andy had an ace high flush draw with four clubs in his hand. He bricked up on sixth and seventh street and missed a chance to scoop a monster pot.

Andy has been playing cash games, specifically he can often be found playing the $50 big blind, $25 ante NL ring game with guys like Johnny Chan, Antonio Esfandiari, Danny Alaei, and Carmel Petresco. Andy cashed in two events this year, but has dragged pots in the cash game that were worth more than all of this year's WSOP tournament winnings.

There's a French film crew here recording a reality show or some sort of documentary. They sit around and talk in French in the room, mostly about technical stuff. While they were engrossed in conversation, I blurted out, "English only at the tables please."

Otis did a spit take and shot sugar free Sierra Mist all over his laptop screen.

By the way, Otis compiled a handy list of FAQs for the main event if you have never played at the WSOP before. It's helpful information and a must read if you are an online qualifier playing at the Rio for the first time.

Otis also posted hot picture of Vanessa Rousso's tongue.

He also published the WCOOP schedule which features Razz and HORSE! Yes, it's true PokerStars will be running a Razz and Horse event during the WCOOP.

September 16: Razz ($200+$15) $100,000 guaranteed
September 17: NL Hold 'em ($500+$30) $1,500,000 guaranteed
September 18: PL Omaha (rebuys) ($300+$20) $400,000 guaranteed
September 19: NL Hold 'em Match Play ($200+$15) $300,000 guaranteed
September 20: Limit Omaha High/Low ($500+$30) $300,000 guaranteed
September 21: NL Hold 'em (rebuys) ($200+$15) $1,000,000 guaranteed
September 22: Limit Hold 'em ($200+$15) $200,000 guaranteed
September 23: HORSE ($200+$15) $100,000 guaranteed
September 23: PL Hold 'em ($500+$30) $400,000 guaranteed
September 24: NL Hold 'em ($1,000+ $50) $1,000,000 guaranteed
September 25: Seven Card Stud ($300+$20) $100,000 guaranteed
September 26: PL Omaha8 ($300+$20) $200,000 guaranteed
September 27: PL Hold'em ($300+$20) $400,000 guaranteed
September 28: Seven Card Stud High/Low ($500+$30) $200,000 guaranteed
September 29: PL Omaha ($500+$30) $300,000 guaranteed
September 30: HORSE ($5,000+$200) $100,000 guaranteed
September 30: Limit Hold'em ($1,000+$50) $400,000 guaranteed
October 1: NL Hold 'em ($2,500+$100) $3,000,000 guaranteed

Here's some hilarious fan mail:

Belfast UDA would like to make you a Drug Mule

pauly,

hopefully the fucked up subject got your attention,big fan etc etc all that jazz, but turly sincerely its a blank cheque in terms of praise man. I'm from Belfast in Northern Ireland and really appreciate your writing and fuckin honesty about poker these days, I've only caught it one year now, and in Hicksonian parlance "it is suckin the jism of satan", but you are one of the few respected(yeah get use to it lol) writers(hell thats what you do, whats with this blogger shit, its words, writing for fucks sack, an entire new medium none the less, but who want s to call themselves video artists) who is actually giving a real account of the big satanic jism wave of poker.$.com. I love poker mate, and especially the characters/stories/opinions that comes with it, these fuckers have to understand, NO ONE OWNS POKER, thats the fuckin beauty of the game, its the players moneys that should be on the line, then you get correct/creative play that makes the legends.

"I was'nt in too much trouble but I had a bigger event comin up so I stuck it in with a runner runner draw, actually in the long run it was a profitable bust out, a +EV loss" poker.$.com

Thanks for the email and the kind words. Great to hear that I have friends in Northern Ireland.

Before I go, thanks to the kind souls who sent me the most traffic over the last month.

Top 10 Tao of Poker Referrals:
Poker Prof and Flipchip at Las Vegas and Poker Blog
Chris Fargis
Iggy's Guinness and Poker
Tao of Pauly
CJ, Otis, & G-Rob at Up for Poker
Change100's Pot Committed
Pokerati
Aaron Gleeman
Shirley's Poker Babes
Grubby

posted by Pauly at 7/20/2006 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WPT Lawsuit, Random WSOP Photos, and Event 21-25 Final Table Results

WSOP Champs Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem along with Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, and Annie Duke anounced during a press conference at the Rio that they filed lawsuit in Los Angeles Federal District Court against WPT Enterprises.

The suit is against the World Poker Tour and the partner casinos who they allegedly acted in a conspiracy to eliminate competitin and violated intellectual property rights of the players, specifically usage of their images for marketing purposes. This suit also involves the waiver that the WPT forces all of its players to sign if they want to participate in any WPT events.

I don't know if anything will come out of this aside from some publicity for the player's stance. But it's good to see those seven players stand up and call out WPT and their posse of casinos for their sketchy behavior.

Check out Poker Prof's Las Vegas and Poker Blog for more info on the press conference including photos.

Also there's a WPT Lawsuit site up.

* * * * *
Jen Leo poked my junk at the Hooker Bar last night. She had been knocking back double Lebowskis (White Russians for you non-Lebowski fans) for a few hours before the penis poking incident.

That gives me an idea...

What Does the Poker Media Drink at the Hooker Bar?
1. Otis: Coronas
2. Pauly: Red Stripe
3. Jen Leo: Double Lebowskis
4. Dan Michalski: Scotch
5. Amy Calistri: Red Wine

Good news for all of you Oliver Tse fans... he was not banned and does have a press badge. He's been lutking around the media room.

Here are some photos from today's PL Hold'em event:


Aussie Sarah


The Champion ponders a call


Vanessa stare down


Joe Hachem sports a Johnny Cash look
* * * * *
Here are the results from the last few WSOP events:

Event 25 $2K NL Shootout
Number of Entries: 600
Total Prize Money: $1,092,000
Defending Champion (2005): None

Final Table Results:
1. David "The Dragon" Pham (Cerritos, CA) $240,222
2. Charlie Sewell (Oklahoma City, OK) $124,488
3. Roland DeWolf (London, UK) $65,520
4. Reno Williamson (Mooresville, IN) $49,140
5. Chad Layne (Henderson, NV) $43,680
6. Jason DeWitt (South Bend, IN) $38,220
7. David Bach (Athens, GA) $32,760
8. Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf (Los Angeles, CA) $27,300
9. Adam Kagin (Henderson, NV) $21,840


Event 24 $3K Omaha Hi/Lo
Number of Entries: 352
Total Prize Money: $971,520
Defending Champion (2005): None

Final Table Results:
1. Scott Clements (Mt. Vernon, WA) $301,175
2. Thor Hansen (El Segundo, CA) $155,443
3. Brent Carter (Oak Park, IL) $77,722
4. Martin Corpuz (Mountain View, CA) $68,006
5. Ron Matsuura (San Jose, CA) $58,291
6. Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, CA) $48,576
7. Peter Costa (Las Vegas, NV) $38,861
8. Stephen Ladowski (Toronto, ON Canada) $29,146
9. Alex Limjoco (Orange, CA) $19,430


Event 23 $3K Limit
Number of Entries: 341
Total Prize Money: $941,160
Defending Champion (2005): Andre Boyer

Final Table Results:
1. Ian Johns (Seattle, WA) $291,755
2. Jerrod Ankenmen (Avon, CT) $150,586
3. Javier Torresola (Tempe, AZ) $75,293
4. Theo Tran (Las Vegas, NV) $65,881
5. Mark Newhouse (Chapel Hill, NC) $56,470
6. Tad Jurgens (Chandler, AZ) $47,058
7. Brendan Taylor (Henderson, NV) $37,646
8. Ben Robinson (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) $28,235
9. Fi Tran (Los Angeles, CA) $18,823


Event 22 $2K NL
Number of Entries: 1,579
Total Prize Money: $2,873,780
Defending Champion (2005): Erik Seidel

Final Table Results:
1. Jeff Madsen (Los Angeles, CA) $660,948
2. Paul Sheng (San Francisco, CA) $330,485
3. Julian Gardner (Manchester, UK) $172,427
4. Troy Parkins (Leesburg, VA) $132,194
5. Robert Dylan Cohen (New York, NY) $112,077
6. Robert Bright (Las Vegas, NV) $94,835
7. Michael Chow (Honolulu, HI) $83,340
8. Billy Duarte (Berthold, CO) $71,845
9. John Shipley (Solihull, UK) $60,349


Event 21 $2,500 Short-handed NL
Total Prize Money: $1,702,000
Defending Champion (2005): Isaac Galazan

Final Table Results:
1. William Chen (Lafayette Hill, PA) $442,511
2. Nath Pizzolatto (Houston, TX) $238,280
3. Michael Guttman (Melbourne, Australia) $139,564
4. Dan Hicks (Valrico, FL) $107,226
5. Alex Bolotin (Brooklyn, NY) $78,292
6. Harry Demetriou (London, UK) $58,719
7. Harold Cohen (Los Angeles, CA) $48,507
8. Peter Jetten (Toronto, ON Canada) $43,401
9. Greg Merkow (Plano, TX) $38,295

* * * * *

Here are some more photos from today:


Lacey Jones


Liz




Johnny Bax and Chris Bigler


Deep stacks
posted by Pauly at 7/19/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Hot or Not? A WSOP Conversation with Foiled Coup and 5251

When Sarah Bilney registered for Wednesday's PLO event she asked how many people already bought in for the main event. She told me... 5251.

Foiled Coup and I walked around checking out all the girls that worked the hospitality suites at the WSOP. Here are excerpts from our conversation which I had been secretly recording.

Pauly: I want to know, who has the hottest women working in the online poker room hospitality suites?

Foiled Coup: Why I think they're all 8s out of 10s. But if you like the tall, slim ones, I'd say Ultimate Bet. There's a particular favorite of mine like if you like the continental ones Visit Doyle's Room. They have Russians and a girl from Holland who's my favorite. Full Tilt has some good ones. They all do. They hired models who are taking summer vacation. There's no disappointments there. They're much better than the Sapphire girls who are skanky strippers down the corner.

Pauly: The Ultimate Bet girls are hot but they look like they're 16 or 17 years old.

Foiled Coup: In England, well... that's OK. As long as no one finds out or if they don't have big older brothers with guns or anything, you're OK.

Pauly: Well in America we're civilized. You go to jail for that aberrant behavior. I thought they didn't have any guns in Europe or England for that matter?

Foiled Coup: It's getting worse.



Pauly: The Doyles Room girls wear short jean skirts, cowboys boots and tight white t-shirts that say "Doyle's Room." Do you think Doyle picked out the outfits or personally designed them?

Foiled Coup: He approved them. They're going for the cowgirl image. Although most of those girls look like they've never been near a farm, unless they were having sex in a field late at night or something.

Pauly: You said that Doyles Room has that continental look to them. Don't you think that's an interesting contrast against the cowgirls look?

Foiled Coup: I guess. It's the exotic cowgirl look. I think they're chosen for their legs. They all look good in those short skirts.

Pauly: UB wears dark clothing but they are tall and skinny girls.

Foiled Coup: They're covered up now wearing long sleeves in UB sweatshirts and pants today. They are all very nubile.

Pauly: I heard a rumor that you take ice cream out of the UB suite and bring them to the cow girls in Doyles Room suite?

Foiled Coup: I give it one of the girls in Doyles Room. Yes.

Pauly: Is it because it makes their nipples hard?

Foiled Coup: (Laughs) This one said she was a vegan who didn't drink milk. But she gobbles down an ice cream every afternoon.

Pauly: Maybe she doesn't know there's milk or animal products in ice cream?

Foiled Coup: This one looks pretty smart.



Pauly: What's up with the stuck up girls at BoDog?

Foiled Coup: Hot. I do any of them. Plus Shannon Elizabeth hides out in the suite.

Pauly: Have you seen any cat fights between any of the different chicks? Let's say the Full Tilt girls got into a slap fight with the girls from UB?

Foiled Coup: I wish. If I had any pictures, I would have put them up on my site already.

Pauly: How come PokerStars doesn't have any chicks working the room?

Foiled Coup: I think Otis scared them off. (Laughs)

Pauly: Who needs models when you have Isabelle Mercier?

Foiled Coup: And Vanessa Rousso. She's a hottie.

Pauly: But has she given you a double kiss?

Foiled Coup: Ummm... no.


Photo stolen from Pokerati. Thanks Dan!
Pauly: What's up with the Milwaukee's Best chicks? They rate high on the "skank-o-meter"...

Foiled Coup: They are like porn star hot. Not as nice looking as the girls from Doyle's Room. Maybe some of them used to live at the Redneck Riviera? Do you recognize any of them?

Pauly: The Milwaukee's Beast girls have more teeth than the crack whores who lived in my building complex.

By the way, the above photos were taken by Foiled Coup.

* * * * *
In WSOP news... Chau "Chow" Gaing busted in 3rd place in the PLO with Rebuys while David "The Dragon" Pham and Rafael Perry won bracelets on Tuesday.

I won $20 from Change100 in a prop bet. While standing in the hallway of the Rio convention center (just outside Doyle's Room hospitality suite) I offered to throw an empty bottle of water into a trash can on one side of the hallway while I stood on the other side. She quickly agreed. It was the easiest $20 I won that day.

The guys at Wicked Chops Poker took me to task for tooling on CP's coverage. Read what those geniuses had to say about it. I can't wait for those dudes to show up at the Rio.

The WCP guys also did an excellent interview with Carmel Peteresco. Lucky fuckers. Take a peek at that.

And if you want to get Otis on Mega-Isabelle-Tilt, stop by Poker Stars Blog and look at the photo of Wil and Isabelle then send Otis an email and ask him why there's no pics of him and Isabelle on the blog?

In a drunken stupor at the Hooker Bar, Jen Leo said that I never link to her blog.

By the way, I met Wil's wife today. We were all drinking at the Hooker Bar during dinner break and they stopped by. Otis hit quad Jacks playing video poker, just like Carmen did last week. Sarah Bilney wandered by and she was excited to meet her favorite blogger... Change100.

"I read you everyday!" Sarah said as Change100 blushed beet red.

* * * * *
My buddy TrumpJosh recently recorded a jazz classical album. Take a peek at Cornet Fantasie.

Gavin Smith wanted me to remind you about For Peyton.

Flipchip wrote up a review of Binion's Poker Room. Check that out along with his 2006 WSOP Photos.

If you are a bonus whore, PokerStars has a reload bonus that is only eligible to anyone who plays in the $200 + 15 Sunday Million tournament on July 23rd. The bonus is 50% up to $100. An exclusive bonus code will be mailed to you within 48 hours of playing in the tournament. In order to clear the bonus, you must earn 10 FPPs for each $1 in bonus money. This is valid from July 24th at 12:01 AM ET until July 30th at 11:59 PM ET.

By the way, I think I found a pic that will be my new PokerStars avatar...



posted by Pauly at 7/19/2006 04:02:00 AM | Permalink |

 
NL Traffic Jam, Englbert Spaceman, and WPT Lawsuit

I threw down the gauntlet with Spaceman. Since Grubby's leaving town, I have to take out my prop bet aggression on my friends. I offered Spaceman $100 that he could not sit through an entire Englebert Humperdink concert. He's playing at the Orleans next week. We'll see if Spaceman can get the time off to do the prop.

Amy Calistri discusses the impending WPT lawsuit on her blog.

I can tell when there's a low buy-in NL event at the WSOP based on the number of cars in the parking lot at the Rio. This morning when I pulled in, the lot was packed. The poker valet had filled up by noon and the snooty superstars of poker who showed up late have to park in the lower lots and work up a sweat walking through the lot like the rest of us losers.

I spotted Sarah Bilney in the hallway. She thanked me for linking up her site and blog. She busted out early today. She was talking to Michelle Lewis from Texas who made a final table two weeks ago. Michelle had her A-A snapped off.

I snagged a quick photo of Michalski before he busted out. He knocked out Olga Varkonyi before he was eliminated.

Brandon Schaefer, Carl Olson, Michael Craig, and Blinders are all made the first break. Olson and Schaefer have almost 5K each. Michael Craig is sitting at Perry Friedman and David Skalansky's table.

By the way, Chau "Chow" Giang is the chipleader in the PLO w/ Rebuys event. 18 are left as we begin day two of that event.

Here are some random photos from today:


Tao of Poker Pothead of the Day


JJ Liu playing in the NL Shootout on Monday


Action Dan


Michalski shows off his ladies sunglasses


Blinders


Sleepy Barry and Gentleman John Gale


Brandon Schaefer


Today's NL event


Michael Craig and Perry Friedman


Texas Dolly
posted by Pauly at 7/18/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
World Series of Bad Beats, Grubby's Last Supper, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

We're at the halfway point of the 2006 WSOP and complaining about the lackluster official live coverage at Card Player or moaning about the slew of fuck ups from Harrah's is utterly futile. It's like bitching about a bad beat. Players, fans, dealers, media reps... we all got sucked out on and there's nothing any of us can do about it. I should start charging people $1 to hear their WSOP gripes. I could have bought into the main event by now.

The WSOP is like that crazy girl (or psychotic guy) you should have broken up with several months ago, but you're lonely, desperate, and horny... so you keep seeing her because the sex is outstanding and you lack the self-esteem to walk away. Alas, you have to put up with a ton of baggage and daily malfeasances because that's what happens when you get caught in an abusive relationship. As long as the individual players are addicted to the rush of gambling and have pipe dreams of winning the "big one" and crave the bright lights of the cameras... whoever is running the show can get away with almost anything.

Over the first 25 events, the total prize pool has been over $50 million. If Harrah's takes at least 5% in juice, that means they earned at least $2.5 million and that figure is more close to $3 million. For some events they've taken as much as 8% or 9%. For that much profit including the revenue generated by all the official sponsors (Milwaukee's Beast, Copag, ESPN, Party Poker, CP, Bluff)... you figured that the wealth would be shared with dealers, floor staff, and even among the players. They haven't been asking for much... aside from better communication, more consistent rulings on the floor, and new cards for every tournament.

How much heat would MLB get if they used old balls during the playoffs?

Yesterday was a clusterfuck which I experienced first hand as a player in event #26. When I bought in on Sunday afternoon, the event was PLO without rebuys. Before I went to bed, the event had been changed to PLO with rebuys. When I arrived at the Rio around 11am on Monday, I was told that the event was PLO without rebuys and there would be a new event at 4pm that would be PLO with rebuys. Signs were posted in the Rio, but none of the players knew if that would be a bracelet event or a "second chance" tournament.

When one member of the media attempted to attain clarification of the change in format for event #26, the staff attempted to lie and say that they never changed the event and instead added a 4pm event with rebuys. Yes, at the last second a new bracelet was added.

"They're also having a Crazy Pineapple bracelet event starting at Midnight," Tim Lavalli joked.

In consecutive days, management messed with the format of two tournaments. On Sunday, Harry Demetriou flew into a fit of rage and had to be escorted away by security guards. That's the equivalent of getting tossed from a baseball game before the first pitch is thrown because the umpires decided to make the game six innings instead of nine. Even Daniel Negreanu had a heated argument with TD Jack Effel after getting blinded off in a tournament that was going to be 10 or 11 handed when he signed up. Negreanu has vehemently spoken about the subpar live coverage and the Sunday fiasco on his video diary.

Clonie Gowen pointed out a problem with chips in the $2,500 short-handed event in her blog. European players are getting hassled over tax issues. Since the WSOP began, Gavin Smith got caught up in a bad floor decision with missing chips. Both Annie Duke and Andy Bloch made a stand over playing with old and marked cards. Then there's the dealers fiasco. I don't know how many dealers have actually quit, but I suspect their might be a mutiny on Wednesday when they get their next paycheck.

"They don't care about you," is the comment I'm hearing from the gloomy faces I pass in the halls everyday. This is coming from the media, the players, and the dealers.

For the remainder of this series, I have to accept what's going on and move forward even though everyday the situation seems to be getting worse. Despite all the drama behind the scenes, history is being made every day. No names are going to become big stars. Struggling pros are finally getting the recognition and respect they deserve and legends like Chip Reese are showing the entire poker world why they are considered the best at what they do. Those are the stories that I'm gonna try to focus on for the next two weeks.

Here's who won bracelets in the last week:

Event 15 $1,000 Ladies NL Hold'em: Mary Jones $236,094
Event 16 $10,000 PLO: Lee Watkinson $655,746
Event 17 $1,000 NL: Jon Friedberg $526,185
Event 18 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em: Eric Kesselman $311,403
Event 19 $1,000 NL Seniors: Clare Miller $247,814
Event 20 $50,000 HORSE: Chip Reese $1,784,640
Event 21 $2,500 NL Shorthanded: Bill Chen $442,511
Event 22 $2,000 NL: Jeff Madsen $660,948

* * * * *


Since today is Liz Lieu Tuesdays, here's one of my favorite pics of Liz. Thanks to Bill for pointing it out.

* * * * *
Grubby is leaving Las Vegas today and headed to Chicago for his new job. I'm really sad since he's been one of my best friends in this crazy town. I'm gonna miss our trips to free buffets and strip clubs together.

We headed to Ellis Island for Grubby's Last Supper. In honor of the Poker Grub, we went to eat the $4.95 Sirloin special along utilizing a coupon for a 2 for 1 entree. We had to wait twenty minutes and I dropped $20 playing Mr. Cashman slots. In one of those ugly and sad reminders of the dark side of Las Vegas, a mother of four took her kids to dinner at Ellis Island (which is frequented by locals). While they waited for their table, the kids sat in chairs in front of the restaurant, while their mother dropped a few twenties into the nearest video slots machine. When we left, the kids were impatiently waiting by the front door as their mother threw another twenty into a video poker machine.

I'm sad that Grubby's leaving, but extremely happy that the depravity of Sin City that lurks behind every turn of the card or behind every row of slot machines whill no longer prey on his weaknesses. In the shadows underneath the blinding bright lights of the Strip, the nefarious disease of compulsive gambling vacuums every cent of money out of their victims pockets while sucking the bone marrow, blood, and soul out of anyone in its reach.

Sorry about that abrupt tangent, I went to "the dark place" this morning. I can't help it. I'm gonna miss a great friend who desperately needs to leave this city. Grubby left and I have a new roommate now. Change100 just moved into the apartment in Henderson, which means I can't leave the toilet seat up anymore.

Speaking of toilets...

Last 5 Members of the Media I Pissed Next To:
1. Scott Huff
2. Matt Law
3. Otis
4. Spaceman
5. John Caldwell

* * * * *
Here are some random photos that I took over the past week:


Doyle's scooter


David Singer


Evil Otis


Unabomber


"You wanna go Pumpkinhead?"


Lou Krieger and Amy's Boobs


Foiled Coup's jailbait
For more photos stop by check out some of Flipchip's WSOP photos and sign up today and join the Poker Players Alliance.
posted by Pauly at 7/18/2006 02:50:00 AM | Permalink |

 
PLO Snafu

I am playing today after all. Event was pushed back 30 minutes. I'm at Table 144, Seat 4. This event is no rebuys. Harrah's added another event at 4pm with rebuys. This is a clusterfuck. Stay tuned for updates.

12:30pm... I have a last longer with Michael Craig. Cards are in the air. I'm wearing my lucky Steal Your Face hat.

12:45pm... I have Noah Boeken in Seat 1 and Ayaz Mahmood in Seat 9. With A-A-2-3 double suited I raised the pot, got one caller, and a short stacked moved all in for 200 more. We both called and checked it down. I won with Aces up. I had 2025 in chips.

1:20pm... Pauly hits the rail. I just made it to Level 2. Boy do I suck camel testicles or what? With Ax-Ax-Kd-9d I raised the pot preflop. I got two callers. Flop was Jack high with all rags. I bet the pot and Eurodonkey called me. Turn is a baby diamond. I moved all in with a King high flush redraw. He called me with pocket 7s and two diamonds. He was on a Queen high flush draw. He rivered a 7 for a boat which beat my Aces up. I'm out. I outlasted Gavin Smith, Clonie Gowen, and Cyndy Violette.

Thanks to everyone who backed me which includes Grubby & Change100, Senor, Derek, Ryan, John Caldwell, Brandon Schaefer, Seatle John, CBGCs: Kat & Jules, Iakaris, Alan, Miami Don & SinCity Carmen, AlCantHang, Iggy, Joe Speaker, and Big Pirate. I really wanted to go deep for Charlie Tuttle. I'll have to wait until next year.


Photo courtesy of Amy Calistri
Editor's Note: I sent my mother a copy of the pic of me in the PLO event. She wrote me back, "How come you were wearing so much clothes? Isn't it hot there?"
posted by Pauly at 7/17/2006 03:31:00 PM | Permalink |

 
It Was Supposed to Be Charlie Tuttle PLO Day

I lost Grubby's car in a prop bet. We wagered on the second weekend of grosses for Pirates of the Caribbean II. I took the under (at $55 million) and he went with the over. If I won, I would have gotten his couch and his TV. I lost and Grubby won his car back. He's looked very happy.

We had to wait ten minutes to get a seat at the Grand Cafe in Green Valley Ranch. Grubby and I headed there for breakfast and it was busy. During our wait, I went over to a slot machine and won $10 playing Mr. Cashman. That's Grubby, Mrs. Spaceman, and Carmen's favorite slot machine. Mine too since I never play slots and only the occasional video poker machine.

I was supposed to be gambling on Monday when I played in the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha event. I bought into my first 2006 WSOP event at 4:45pm on Sunday afternoon. There were less than 150 entrants registered and Heather from Poker Wire said there would be no more than 400 or 500 tops.

I got an email from Wil an hour or so ago saying that the event was changed to a rebuy event. Since I was bought in by friends and because I don't have the bankroll to play in a rebuy event, I have to sit out on Monday. Instead I will play the $1,500 NL on Tuesday.

Last year, 293 players enetered this same PLO event and Barry Greenstein won a bracelet which he dedicated to Charlie Tuttle. I wanted to play that event specifically for Charlie. Spaceman told me tha Charlie was gonna help guide me the way to the final table. Well that's not going to happen because less than 24 hours before the event was started to kick off, management changed the schedule from a freezeout to rebuys.

I had been hearing hundreds and thousands of complaints about this year's WSOP. You can now dd me to that list after this last minute change. Harry Demetriou was so upset with how Harrah's changed the NL Shootout event on Sunday from 10 or 11 handed to 6 handed, that he went apeshit and security had to escort him from the building. I'm not going to do that, but I'm irked because this event had a special meaning for me and several of my friends.

I can get my money back and I'll buy-in to Tuesdays event. So my backers can feel a little bit better since I'm a better NL Hold'em player than PLO. Actually if I were to rank my best games I'd say... Limit, Stud, NL, and PLO. I should have played a Stud event but I'm an action junkie and NL or PLO is much more fun.

Anyway, Charlie Tuttle Day will have to wait one more day. Hopefully he can guide me through some rough spots on Tuesday. Thanks again to everyone who wanted to back into the PLO event.

Since I'm not playing PLO on Monday, I can watch the final table of the $3K Omaha Hi/Lo at 4pm. Phill Hellmuth made his second final table of this year's WSOP and is chasing his 10th bracelet.

$3K Omaha Hi/Lo Final Table Chipcount (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Scott Clements 244K
2 Phil Hellmuth 158K
3 Ronald Matsuura 120K
4 Alex Limjoco 116K
5 Peter Costa 108K
6 Stephen Ladowsky 97K
7 Thor Hansen 86K
8 Martin Corpuz 76K
9 Brent Carter 49K

* * * * *
Congrats to Ryan and ZeemJR for winning their seats to the WSOP main event on Full Tilt and Poker Stars on Sunday.
posted by Pauly at 7/17/2006 03:25:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Fox Sports Article and Bloggers at the WSOP

I wrote another article for Fox Sports called First Impressions: 2006 WSOP. Take a peek.

Here's where I pimp my fellow bloggers and members of the media who are busting their ass at theis year's WSOP.

Flipchip's WSOP photos at Las Vegas & Poker Blog
Pauly (your hero) at the Tao of Poker
Otis and Wil at PokerStarsBlog
Dan Michalski at Pokerati
BJ Nemeth
PocketFives.com
Justin at Poker Pages
Spaceman at Bluff Radio
Foiled Coup at Pokerfolio
Lou Krieger at Hold'em Radio
Vanouver Jen at Poker Listings
Jen and Snoopy at Blonde Poker
CC at Quest of a Closet Poker Player
Storm and Jay Greenspan at Full Tilt Poker
Jen Leo & Amy Calistri at Breakfast Club Poker
Earl Burton, Steve Lavalli and Stephen Noh at Poker News
Chris Newton, Amy, Jen, Change100, April, Tuscaloosa Johnny at PokerBlog.com

Tao of Poker
blogging on the Fringe at the 2006 WSOP

Here's a list of some pros/semi-pros who have been blogging about their WSOP experiences:

Liz Lieu
Sarah Bilney
Shirley Rosario
Rizen
Brandon Schaefer
Carl Olson
Shaniac
Richard Brodie
Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis
Dave "Donkey Hunter" Wong
DoubleAs
Daniel Negreanu
Paul Phillips
Smaz
Nordberg
Mike Goodman
Max Pescatori.com

Since the official live coverage is sketchy, stop by any of the above links for more WSOP coverage. And don't forget to check out Flipchip's WSOP photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/16/2006 10:32:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Shirley Valentine & Poker Stars WSOP 150

I was passed out from exhaustion and never heard my cell phone beep which indicated a text message. It was from Shirley Rosario (aka Poker Babe) and she wrote:

"Flopped a royal flush on the first hand of the omaha tourney!"

That was at 2:09pm a few minutes after Event #24 $3K Omaha Hi/Lo. If you follow Shirley's jourmal you know that Omaha Hi/Lo is one of her best games and you also know that she's been fighting breast cancer. In fact, she's in the middle of chemo treatments. She's one tough cookie and drove all the way out from LA to play in this event.

So on the first hand of the Omaha Hi/Lo event, Shirley had Ax-4x-Kh-Jh. The flop was Ah-Qh-10h. She and Sam Grizzle checked along with another player. A Jack fell on the turn. The other bet, Grizzle folded, and Shirley smooth called. The river was a Queen and she hoped that her opponent caught Quads or possibly a boat. He ended up mucking his hand when Shirley flipped over her Royal Flush.

"I don't think I've ever hit a Royal before," she said with a giddy smile on her face.


Shirley playing in last year's WSOP
I eventually stumbled into the Rio around 5:30pm. She was moved to a tough table that included Marcel Luske, Daniel Negreanu, and Bret "Gank" Jungblutt. Gank and Shirley sat next to each other. Gank sported a grey NewverWin Poker sweatsuit and told me that he bought an ad on the Tao of Poker.

Shirley had both me and Chris Newton sweating her on the rail. I wanted to make sure I gave her some coverage because she's one of many pros that slipped through the cracks of the "official live updates" team. Most of those interns could not pick Johnny Chan out of a crowd and I noticed that she was absent from the chipcounts and updates.

"You have two members of the media sweating you. And even some international press," as I pointed to Chris Newton.

Chris nicknamed her "Shirley Valentine." I liked that and now I'm gonna beat it to a dead horse, or until Shirley complains about it!

Bobby Bellande sat on the table behind Shirley. He was trying to get attention of the hot models walking around in skimpy outfits. Eventually Shirley was moved to Mike Woo's table along with Allen Cunningham.

Shirley busted out just before the dinner break. She told me that she played well despite the outcome.

"I gave the best that I have," she mentioned.

While we were hanging out in the hallway talking, the Omaha event went on dinner break. Shirley made plans to go eat with Mike Woo and he found us outside.

"Where's the Hoooker Bar?" he asked.

* * * * *


Just a reminder that on Sunday, July 16th at 4:30pm EST, Poker Stars is giving away 150 seats to the WSOP main event. Places 1-150 get to go to the big dance. So why aren't you playing?
posted by Pauly at 7/15/2006 10:35:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Chip Reese Wins $50K HORSE


Photo courtesy of Flipchip

Chip Reese confirmed why he's considered the best pro in the world by his peers. At 9:30am on a Saturday morning, he won the prestigious WSOP $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament at the Rio. After twelve plus hours of play and 7.5 hours of heads-up action against Andy Bloch, Reese came from behind and took down the tournament and won over $1.7 million for first place.

Here are the $50K HORSE final table results:

1 Chip Reese $1,716,000
2 Andy Bloch $1,029,600
3 Phil Ivey $617,760
4 Jim Bechtel $549,120
5 TJ Cloutier $480,480
6 David Singer $411,840
7 Dewey Tomko $343,200
8 Doyle Brunson $274,560
9 Patrik Antonius $205,920

I missed the final hand. I passed out in my car in an attempt to take a nap. Jen Leo called me but I slept through the phone call. After a brutal 20+ hour day on Thursday, I couldn't survive being at the Rio for another 18+ hours.


Chip Reese - 2006 $50K Horse Champion
Congrats to Andy Bloch and Chip Reese.

By the way, you should read Harry Demetriou's post on Blonde Poker's forum called HORSE and Other WSOP Gripes. It's interesting to see a European player's perspective on the way the WSOP is being run.
posted by Pauly at 7/15/2006 02:29:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP $50K Horse Final Table: The Real Heavyweight Championship

After 19 grueling hours the final table is set in the $50,000 buy-in HORSE event. In the longest single day of any poker tournament I have covered, I didn't think it was going to end. 143 players started out on Wednesday and some of the best pros in the world slugged it out until past 9am in one of the strangest days at the Rio that I've experienced as a tournament reporter in the last two years. The day began with several dealers walking out over their paychecks and ended in the early morning hours after a marathon 19 hour poker session.

Nine top players remain as the HORSE format shifts to NL.

$50K HORSE Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Chip Reese 1.756M
2 Doyle Brunson 1.227M
3 Andy Bloch 934K
4 Phil Ivey 885K
5 Jim Bechtel 841K
6 David Singer 745K
7 Dewey Tomko 438K
8 TJ Cloutier 351K
9 Patrik Antonius 13K

Final Table Payouts:
1st $1,716,000
2nd $1,029,600
3rd $617,760
4th $549,120
5th $480,480
6th $411,840
7th $343,200
8th $274,560
9th $205,920

After two hours of sleep, I returned to the Rio. I was in the media room for about twenty minutes when I got a call from Miami Don and SinCity Carmen. They were wandering around the Amazon Room and we met up. Carmen insisted on seeing the Hooker Bar, so off we went.

I made that bar famous. Everyone's been asking me, "Where's the Hooker Bar?"

It's not anything special, except that after midnight, all the freaks and ladies of the night mill around the Hooker Bar looking for action. During dinner breaks, you can find Otis and myself knocking back cocktails. This instance, I drank Red Stripe while I watched Carmen hit quad Jacks on the video poker machine. Grubby stopped by and I got a little sad because it might be the last time we hang out at the Hooker Bar again.

Don and Carmen offered to buy me dinner. On our way to the cafe, we bumped into Falstaff and Mrs. Falstaff and their entourage of twenty or so people. Yikes. When I walked into the cafe, I saw Chris Newton dining with a lovely young woman. It ended up being Sarah Bilney. She was the second highest finishing Aussie at last year's main event. Of course, Joe Hachem was #1 and she ended up #63. She cashed in two events last year and three so far this year.

"I read your blog," she said in her subtle Australian accent. "Can I ask you a question? Is Change100 here? I read her blog too. Absolutely love it."

Sarah also has a blog. Take a peek at Aussie Sarah.

While we ate, the other event went on dinner break and a steady flow of players walked by. I realized how jaded I've become. Annie Duke and Erik Seidel walked by and I didn't even blink. Carmen on the other hand was excited to see the stars of poker.

Moving on...

Tonight's event is more important to me than the main event. In many ways this is the world championship of poker and the final table is loaded with talent.

Here's some background about today's final table players:

Chip Reese entered the final table as the chip leader. He's considered the best all around player in the world and rarely plays tournaments. He's a fixture in the "Big Game" and other high stakes games. He's my favorite to win. Despite not being a tourney player, Reese has two bracelets that he won in 1978 and in 1982. This is his 12th final table at the WSOP.

Doyle Brunson is second in chips and seeking his 11th win. Texas Dolly looked exhausted last night and outlasted me. I took a nap for a while and went back into the Rio while Brunson gutted it out. The guy is a machine. At one point he was 22/24 with just 25K left in chips when he scooped a monster against Patrik Antonius in Razz. He went on a run after that and built up his stack to over $1M.

Andy Bloch is the guy I'm rooting for the most. He's one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He's been on a tear at this year's WSOP after a disappointing run last year. He cashed four times this year and made his second final table.

Phil Ivey is seeking his 6th bracelet. He's won over 6.3 million playing in tournaments and took second last week when he lost to Sammy Farha heads-up in the $5K Omaha Hi/Lo event. Along with Brunson and Reese, Ivey is a regular in the Big Game.

Jim Betchel is a former framer and a high stakes cash game player. He won the main event in 1993. He's cashed 19 times at the WSOP and made seven final tables.

David Singer made two final tables on the last season of the WPT. He finished 7th at the Mirage Poker Showdown a couple of months ago. He's seeking his first bracelet.

Dewey Tomko had retired from poker for almost a decade to stay at home and raise his kids in Florida. Since his return to the tournament circuit, he's been on a roll. He cashed in two events this year and has made an impressive 20 final tables at the WSOP with three bracelets.

TJ Cloutier is the best player that never won a WSOP main event. He has 6 bracelets and won one last year. The state of Texas has both TJ and Doyle Brunson representing them at one of the most difficult final tables in the history of poker.

Patrik Antonius from Finland is probably the best young up and coming poker players in the world. He's definitely one of the best young players to come out of Europe. I first met Antonius at the EPT in Barcelona. He made the final table and held his own against Gus Hansen, Christer Johansson and Jan Boubli. I watched him bring Patrick Martenson, the Swedish Monopoly champion, to his knees when he ran over him at the final table. Whenever Martenson raised, Antonius re-raised. I was impressive with his play and since then Antonius has been on a rush. He won an EPT event, took second in a WPT event, and cashed twice at this year's WSOP. Too bad Antonius has just 13K in chips with 10K/20K blinds.

* * * * * $50K HORSE Final Table Updates * * * * *

9:14pm... The event started late. TV tables always do. The stands are packed with friends and family of the final table players. It's standing room only. Spectators on the rail are ten and fifteen people deep, elbowing their way to catch a glimpse of history. Stephen, an intern at Poker News who wrote a great article about the crappy cards being used at the HORSE event, was booted from the stand by one of the security guards. I was told to leave as well. Without a place to sit, there's really no place to watch the final table.

9:30pm... Nolan Dalla introduced Robert Williamson who introduced the final table players. I found a spot behind the boom camera with Toby and Matt. Toby mentioned that she liked, "Doyle's Johnny Cash look." Texas Dolly is wearing all black including a black stetson. I'd post a picture but that would be against the rules.

9:41pm... Cards are in the air!

9:42pm... Patrik Antonius moved all in and both Andy Bloch and TJ Cloutier checked it down to the river. Antonius tripled up.

9:47pm... Recent Elimination: Patrik Antonius's A-4 was busted in 9th place by Chip Reese's 8-8. Antonius won $205,920.

10:30pm... Dewey Tomko moved all in with the Hilton Sisters and Phil Ivey called with A-10. Tomko's Q-Q held up and he doubled up.

11:00pm... Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Chip Reese 1.8M
2 David Singer 1.4M
3 Andy Bloch 1.1M
4 Phil Ivey 910K
5 Doyle Brunson 780K
6 Jim Bechtel 420K
7 TJ Cloutier 380K
8 Dewey Tomko 290K

11:30pm... I watched an interesting cash game. Andy Black, Danny Alaei, and Johnny Chan are playing that NL table with $50 one BB with $25 antes. People are four or five deep on the rail. I took Wil over there to watch them for a few hands. Miami Don was there sweating Andy Black. The table next to them had Noli Francisco, Brad Berman, Greg Raymer, Eskimo, and David Sklansky playing high stakes Omaha. Wil and I have a final table last longer... I picked Chip Reese and he has Phil Ivey. If he wins, I give him Grubby's car. If I win, he sends me his Stand By Me residual checks.

12:00am... It's the Midnight hour at the Rio. Chip Reese is over 2 millon in chips. He won a big pot from Phil Ivey preflop when he threw out a huge re-raise. Ivey thought about it for a few moments and mucked. Betchel won a race against Andy Bloch and double up.

12:30am... Recent Elimination: Doyle Brunson is out in 8th. TJ Cloutier's 9-9 had doubled through Brunson's K-J and Brunsn lost most of his stack. Two hands later Brunson busted when his J-6 could not beat Jim Bechtel's A-Q. Texas Dolly did not win his 11th bracelet, but won $274,560 for 8th place. Chip Reese is still the man to beat. Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Chip Reese 2.5M
2 Andy Bloch 1.3M
3 Jim Bechtel 900K
4 Phil Ivey 720K
5 David Singer 520K
6 TJ Cloutier 500K
7 Dewey Tomko 400K

12:53am... Recent Elimination: Dewey Tomko is out in 7th place when his 8-8 ran into Andy Bloch's Hilton Sisters. Tomko won $343,200. Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Chip Reese 2.8M
2 Andy Bloch 1.34M
3 Jim Bechtel 1.1M
4 Phil Ivey 685K
5 TJ Cloutier 504K
6 David Singer 283K

1:01am... Recent Elimination: David Singer moved all in with a short stack. He had A-10 but ran into Chip Reese's J-J. The Jacks held up and Singer finished in 6th place. He won $411,840. That pot put Chip Reese over 3 million. With 3.2M he has twice as many chips as Andy Bloch in second place. With five players remaining, TJ Cloutier is the short stack.

1:20am... Recent Elimination: TJ Cloutier is out when his 7-7 ran into Andy Bloch's 10-10. TJ won $480,480 for fifth place. Chip Reese has 3.1M and Phil Ivey is the shortstack with 850K.

1:30am... Recent Elimination: Jim Betchel was sent to the rail by Andy Bloch. Bechtel had 7-7 and Bloch had 10-10. Those were the same hands when Bloch busted TJ Cloutier four hands earlier. Bechtel won $549,120. for fourth place. Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Chip Reese 3.2M
2 Andy Bloch 2.8M
3 Phil Ivey 880K

1:45am... Cash Game Update: I spotted Carmel Petresco sitting at the high stakes NL cash game table playing with Johnny Chan and Andy Black.

2:00am... Recent Elimination: Phil Ivey is out in 3rd place. Ivey had A-7 and Bloch had 4d-5d. The flop had two diamonds. Ivey flopped second pair and re-raised all in. Bloch called with his flush draw and got there when the ace of diamonds fell. Ivey won $617,760. Bloch trailed Reese in chips, but the count was very close to even.

2:45am... Action is slow and methodical. Both these players are very careful and not risking too much of their stacks. Andy Bloch took the lead 3.64m to 3.55m at one point.

3:00am.... Check out some of Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos, like this one of Jen Tilly.


Courtesy of Flipchip

3:15am... Andy Bloch took down a huge pot with 5-5. He had a flush and built his stack to over $5.25M to Reese's $1.9M.

3:30am... Bloch dropped the Hammer... and lost! OK, it was actually 7s-2s and on a board of 7-4-3, Reese check-raised Bloch and moved all in. Bloch called with top pair and Reese had 10c-5c. On the turn, Reese caught his gutshot when a 6 fell. His hand held up and he doubled through Bloch. At that point BLoch's lead slipped. He had $4.4M to Reese's $2.8M.

3:45am... Bloch still leads $4.5M to $2.65M. I know these chip counts see off. But I'm not doing them.

4:00am... Where the fuck is Foiled Coup?

4:20am... Smoke break!

4:30am... The crowd has thinned compared to the packed house at 8:30pm. I can sit in the front row if I want. Flipchips's been here for a few hours. He's waiting to take a winner's photo. Both Tommy and the Mark were hanging out for a while. I set the Over/Under at 6am.

4:40am... Bloch has a 4.8 to 2.4 lead. Minh Ly came over to talk. I stood next to Jen Leo as he asked me about the hand where Reese lost a big pot. "Doesn't matter," Ly said, "Chip's coming back."

4:53am... As I was taking a leak in the bathroom, ESPN announcer Norman Chad walked into one of the stalls to drop a deuce.

5:00am... After three hours of heads-up play, both players are still slugging it out. We're on Hand 170 (for the final table) or something like that which means they've been playing heads-up for 80+ hands. I'm starving. Time to head to the kitchen tent which is open until 7:00am. Thanks to anyone who's still up and following this coverage.

5:30am... Andy Bloch started putting on pressure. A few times players went all in preflop after a button raise. It looks like the exhaustion is setting in.

5:40am... Players are on a break. Andy Bloch is wearing a weird camoflauge hat that he calls his "Brokeback" hat. Chip Reese talked to his sons at the break, who is a very good baseball player and is expected to get drafted. He's not wearing any socks.

Chipcount:
Andy Bloch 5.8M
Chip Reese 1.35M

6:30am... On the brink of elimination, Chip Reese doubled through Andy Bloch. On a board of Kd-Jd-9d, Bloch flopped two pair with K-J and Reese had Ax-10d for a straight flush draw. The turn was the Ace of diamonds which gave Reese the lead. The river was a blank and Reese doubled up. He had 2M to Bloch's 5.2M.

6:55am... After 160 hands+ of heads-up play, Chip Reese doubled up with K-K against Andy Bloch's 9-9. Reese pulled near even to Bloch with 3.7M to 3.45M. After he won that hand Reese walked over to his sons and said, "We're back in the game, boys!" After nearly five hours of heads up play, both players are close to even in chips.

7:30am... Players are on a break. Both guys are even. Snoopy from Blonde Poker took a pic of me passed out in the media room. Jen Leo posted that pic over at Breakfast Club Poker.

7:45am... Chip Reese is ahead 4.2M to 3M.

8:30am... At Hand 316, Andy Bloch and Chip Reese were still going at it. Bloch pulled even, then retook the chiplead. He leads 4.3M to Reese's 2.85M. Jen Leo mentioned, "This is going to go until Noon."

9:01am... We're reaching the 7th hour of heads-up play. Someone shoot me and put me out of my misery like Bambi's mother.

9:30am... Recent Elimination: Andy Bloch took second place. He won $1,029,600. Chip Reese is the HORSE champion winning $1.716,000. On the 354th hand of the entire final table, Bloch pushed all in with 8-9o and Reese called with A-Q. Reese ended up winning the final hand with just ace high.
posted by Pauly at 7/14/2006 11:24:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Rumors: Rebel Dealers and Andy Black's Hammer

The dealers started a rebellion on Thursday at the WSOP. Sort of. Check out Tim Lavalli's article called What's the Deal? Here's a bit of the latest drama at the Rio as told by Tim:

"After a survey of multiple dealers, the following information seems consistent, and accurate. According to the dealers, they got a check for the first week of the WSOP for a certain amount, however they were told at that time that this first check only included the tokes from one event and that was the Casino Employee event (#1). Last night when checks came out the hourly wage worked out to less than they got the first week. In addition, they were told that the first check had included not one but four events. Had the dealers been told that last week then we probably would have had this "walkout" back then.

I heard rumors that 70 dealers walked out last week when they got their first paycheck. They never came back. On Thursday morning, 40-60 dealers walked off the job in protest over their wages. I overheard several dealers bitching about their awful pay. Supposedly they got shorted and were livid. Dealers were paid by the hour instead of by the "down" which is the slang for the time a dealer is action dealing at a table.

Just like Tim said in his article, the $2,500 NL event that DoubleAs played in was delayed almost an hour as the staff scrambled to find enough dealers for Thursday's scheduled events including Day 2 of the $50K Horse tournament. When I walked into the Amazon Room, I noticed that the cash game tables were cut down to only a handful and the names of the wait list were 50-60 players deep.

At some point around 4:20pm, the folks in charge made a major change. Instead of getting paid by the hour, dealers would get paid by the down.

Some of the dealers are not as good as last year's crop. Just ask Gavin Smith who had an awful experience during the first week of play when a dealer made a huge error. Players and pros have been telling me horrible stories about the dealers in the satellites, cash games, and even in WSOP events. But the players are not complaining about the dealers as much as they are complaining about the inconsistency of the floor people.

On Shaniac's blog he mentioned how players are getting different rulings from different floor people. Here's a bit:

The management still hasn't gotten down basic functions, like announcing the number of entrants/prize pool in a reasonable amount of time. Each floorman seem to be working with his own rulebook, and I've heard of a number of terrible or inconsistent rulings. Worse yet, the floormen act as if they are hosting a game show and seem to be as star-struck by, for instance, Daniel Negreanu as his audience is. The tournament floor at the Rio has this distinctly Hee-Haw-ish vibe. Give me the Bellagio staff any day. Since last year's WSOP was my first, it's all I have to go by, but Johnny Grooms did a much better job of making the Series feel like a tournament should, a serious undertaking.

I understand how difficult it is to run a tournament, but when employees are paid low wages, the quality of the work suffers. I heard a rumor that WSOP interns for different organizations are getting paid $10/hr which is the same as the floor people (who also get a share of the tips at the end of the WSOP).

Take In & Out Burger for example. They are the highest paid fast food employees in America. Starting salary is much more than assistant managers get at McDs. Because the workers are paid better, they work harder and actually have smiles on their faces. The next time you are at In & Out take a peek at the kitchen. They are busting ass working hard. Then compare that to McDs. It's much slower paced. And this is just over $2 an hour difference in pay.

Pay the dealers and floor people more and the overall quality of work will improve. I'm not writing this to trash dealers and the floor staff. The majority of them are busting their asses. I've seen how horrible they get treated by other staff and the players. I would never subject myself to the abuse that they must endure. But a lot of them have to because they need the job to support families and pay bills. It's a shame that the overall quality of the WSOP suffered as a result of lower dealer pay.

Linda was explaining to me the other night over dinner why there was never a union for dealers, since a strike would cripple the casinos. We'll see if any more dealers jump ship after their next paycheck. With so much cash flowing in and out of the Rio, you would think they'd keep the folks who deal the cards happy?

None of this would be happening if Johnny Grooms was at the helm or if Matt Savage was running things. Even Paul Phillips agreed that almost every pro wished that Savage ran the WSOP like he used to.

"I love Matt Savage like a man should not love another man, except in ancient Rome," Phillips said.

* * * * *
I've been watching various high stakes cash games going on at the Rio. The other day, Andy Black told Friedman and I about a specific hand he had in a cash game. The Irish Buddhist apparently dropped The Hammer in one of the NL cash games with $25 antes with one $50 big blind. Players have several thousand in front of them. Andy found 7-2o and raised it up. He flopped a 2 for bottom pair. He bet out and his opponent called. Black put out a huge bet about $15K or so on the turn when an ace fell.

"He had almost a quarter of a fuckin' million in front of him," Black explained. "And all I had was seven fuckin' two."

His opponent thought for several minutes before folding. Andy jubilantly flipped over The Hammer and collected $200 from every player. There's an ongoing prop that if you win a pot with 7-2o, then you collect $200 from every player at the table.

On Wednesday, Antonio Esfandiari was bluffed out of a huge pot. He raised preflop and missed the flop with A-Q. On the turn his opponent moved all in for $50K and Antonio folded. His opponent showed a junk hand... just 8 high.

Later that day, Chris Newton told me about a hand at that same cash table. Antonio was playing with Joe Hachem and Andy Black. There were several limpers into the pot. On a flop of Q-10-3, Antonio raised to 200. Black re-raised to 600 and Antonio fired a 10K re-raise into the pot. Black quickly shoved the rest of his stack all in... for 29K. Antonio called with Q-3. Black showed Q-10 for a higher two pair. Black took down a pot worth over $60K. That's the largest pot he's ever won in a cash game.

Instead of watching the last bit of Day 2 of the $50K HORSE final, I hung out with tourists who stood three and four people deep on the cash game rail where Antonio Esfiandari, Joe Hachem, and Andy Black all played in the same NL cash game with four other players I never saw before. That table was far more exciting.

* * * * *
I get stopped very frequently in the hallways from players, staff, and spectators who tell me that they enjoy reading the Tao of Poker. I'm also asked several of the same questions or hear the same things. Here's a sample...

Top 5 Things Fans Say to Me After They Stop Me in the Hallway:
1. "I read you everyday."
2. "Where's the Hooker Bar?"
3. "What's Liz Lieu really like?"
4. "Is Change100 here?"
5. "Do you have any weed?"

* * * * *
By the way, Full Tilt is giving away 100 seats to the main event this Sunday at 6pm EST. What are you waiting for? This is your last chance to win a seat into the WSOP main event!
posted by Pauly at 7/14/2006 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP $50K HORSE Day 1 Update, Mexican Wedding Crashers, and How I Won Grubby's Car

It had been a good few days for me on the gambling front. And I'm not talking about donking off a buy-in at the PLO tables on Party Poker when my baby boat ran into a bigger boat. With all the bloggers in town this past weekend, I expected to piss away chips at the tables with Hammer and SMTL bluffs. Instead I saved a few bucks and drank heavily instead. I found myself giving my money away at the blackjack and Pai Gow tables. The only place I won was at the craps tables, where I doubled up in ten minutes and left.

I had been betting France heavily in the World Cup coming into the final match against Italy. I saw how awful the Italians played against the Americans, yet they shutdown every other team they played. The logical choice was to bet the Italians. And on the same day as Max Pescatori won his first WSOP bracelet in $2,500 NL, the Italians came through in the clutch for me in the form of penalty kicks.

I overheard that members of the French poker media moaning about the loss in the media room. The Brits like Jen from Blonde Poker were loving every second of their misery. All of England rooted for the Italians I was told. Makes sense to me.

Two days after Italy won, I caught a break when I hit a parlay in the All Star Game. I took the American League and the UNDER which was set at 10.5. Thanks to Joaquin's buddy Michael Young's two-out triple in the top of the ninth, the American League jumped ahead 3-2. Yankees closer Mo Rivera took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory. Turning two bills into two dimes in two weeks make me feel like Balco Barry.... I can hit anything thrown at me for a homerun. Of course, I got slaughtered in the earlier rounds of the World Cup and my ass was brutally kicked during March Madness. I'm still stuck for the year sports betting.

On Wednesday I discovered that I won the mother of all prop bets with Grubby. I bet him that Pirates of the Caribbean II would gross more in its opening weekend than Spiderman. The results were in. Pirates 132m, Spiderman 114m.

The prize? Grubby's car.

I'm now the owner of a 1991 baby blue Geo Metro. It's got 120K miles and the AC is shotty. It has a tape deck and comes with jumper cables, a free gift courtesy of one of the Station Casinos. I'll be picking up "mad skirts" with Grubby's pimpmobile after I turn in my convertible for the Geo Metro.

On Wednesday, I ate dinner with Otis, Wil, and Michalski at the Tilted Kilt, a Scottish Pub at the Rio. We drank pints and gambled on commercials that were on the numerous plasma TVs. We'd bet on what commercial would appear after the break. I picked food. Otis had soft drinks and Wil had cars. I had no idea what Michalski was picking. I left dinner up from wagering on whether or not the first thing you see in a commercial is a human, animal, machine, or an establishing shot.

Normally I like the waitresses at the Tilted Kilt since they were very short kilts and tight white shirts. They almost look like Catholic high school girls which is a devastating turn on. Our waitress had a pot belly the size of mine and was a let down. Her boobs were the size of globes but that couldn't make up for the exposed stretch marks on the sides of her waist.

Those pre-teen dance girls have ended their annual dance competition. It was always surreal to see eight and ten year olds dressed up like 17 year olds in very skimpy outfits and make up caked on their faces like a paint on a Van Gogh canvas. I said it last year... "with all these degenerate gamblers lurking in the hallways with the dance competition going on simultaneously, its and Amber Alert waiting to happen."

The dancers have been replaced by conventioneers. The RV convention is in town and I thought about taking a nap in one of the floor samples. I also spotted a Mariachi band standing around in the hallway. Whenever I see Mariachi band I think one thing.... "Mexican wedding." I crashed the Ochoa/Galvez wedding on Tuesday when I snuck in a side door. I ate some dessert and posed for pictures with several inebriated members of the grooms' family. Michalski and I will be starring in a new indie film called, "Las Vegas Wedding and Bar Mitzvah Crashers."

Speaking of pree-teens.... have you seen the girls that are working the Ultimate Bet hospitality suite? Where did they get these high school girls? At the mall? They barely look 16. When I brought this up to a fellow member of the media, he/she said with a wry grin, "Scotty Nguyen likes them young."

* * * * *
The tournament of tournaments began on Wednesday at the WSOP. The $50K HORSE event was considered by some poker purists to be the unofficial world championship where for two days the world's best players would engage in rotating levels of different games while finishing off the final table on Day 3 in a NL Hold'em format. Without a doubt, the winner of the $50 HORSE event will be known as poker's best all around player.

With 50K in chips in play per person, this was the "big stack" tournament at this year's WSOP. 143 players entered. Word on the street was about 150-160 players would show up. I have no idea how many players won satellites to get in.

When play was completed on Day 1, only 14 players were eliminated, which means it's going to be an extremely long Day 2. Action will not end until we have 9 players left standing.

Blogger Dave Wong (aka Donkey Hunter) is still in the hunt. Check out his mini-update of the Horse event.

When action began on Wednesday, there were some tough tables where each table had multiple bracelet winners. Would you like to be seated at any of these tables? Here's an example:

Table 133: Phil Hellmuth, Jen Harman, Kristy Gazes, Steve Z, Victor Ramdin
Table 137: Greg Raymer, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Cyndy Violette
Table 138: Layne Flack, Gabe Kaplan, Johnny Chan, Dewey Tomko, Robert Williamson, Mike Caro, Chad Brown
Table 139: Daniel Negreanu, Allen Kessler, Carlos Mortensen, TJ Cloutier, David Benyamine
Table 140: Todd Brunson, Erick Lindgren, Rodeen Talebi
Table 141: David Sklansky, Mickey Appleman, Brian Haveson, Bill Edler
Table 142: David Oppenheim, John D'Agostino, Howard Lederer, David Levi
Table 143: Jim Bechtel, Brett Jungblut, Nick Schulman, The Grinder, Ram Vaswani, Bob Feduniak
Table 144: James Van Alstyne, Chip Jett, Minh Ly, David Williams, Josh Arieh
Table 145: Jeff Lisandro. David Chiu, Huck Seed, Tuan Le, My Main Man Freddy Deeb
Table 148: Tony G, Patrik Antonius, Maureen Feduniak, Sam Farha
Table 149: Annie Duke, Erik Seidel,Thor Hansen, Devil Fish Ulliott, Gavin Smith
Table 150: Doyle Brunson, Scott Fischman, John Hennigan, Joe Awada, Paul Phillips
Table 151: Max Pescatori, Bill Chen, David Grey, Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstein, Chris Ferguson
Table 152: Mike Matusow, Mike Sextonm Jan Sorensen, Frank Kassela, Ralph Perry, Marcel Luske
Table 153: Ted Forrest, David Singer, Blair Rodman, Mike Wattel, Miami John Cernuto, Tim Phan, Joe Cassidy
Table 154: Rob Hollink, Dutch "Tool" Boyd, Toto Leonidas, Tony Bloom
Table 155: Shawn Sheikhan, Capt. Tom Franklin, Farzad Bonyadi, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, Scotty Nguyen
Table 156: Dave Wong, Mark Gregorich, Ted Lawson, Chau Giang, Greg Mascio, Aaron Katz, Chip Reese

Elimianted on Day 1 were: Tim Phan, Farzad Bonyadi, Tad Jurgens, Bill Chen, Bob Feduniak, Tony G, Evan Sofer, Steve Diano, Hassan Habib, Scott Fischman, Tim Jackson, Layne Flack, and Arturo Diaz. The first player busted was Arturo Diaz.

Here are the Top 10 End of Day 1 chipcounts. Young guns Joe Cassiday and Patrik Antonius are at the topof the heap. Since I do not trust the stuck-up $10/hour interns doing the "official" live updates, these are unconfirmed and are probably be wrong. Alas, this is what I have:

Top 10 in Chips:
1 Joe Cassidy 168,700
2 Patrik Antonius136,200
3 Capt. Tom Franklin 125,000
4 Allen Cunningham 122,400
5 Matthew Glantz 119,300
6 Andy Bloch 113,200
7 Minh Ly 110,900
8 My Main Man Freddy Deeb 110,600
9 Chad Brown 110,100
10 Ram Vaswani 107,400

Notable Chipcounts:
11 Victor Ramdin 106,900
22 Ted Forrest 86,600
23 Mike Matusow 86,200
25 Chip Reese 84,100
27 Annie Duke 81,800
30 Jennifer Harman 79,800
34 GANK 72,900
37 John Juanda 70,500
38 Todd Brunson 70,000
42 David Williams 65,800
43 Phil Ivey 65,000
44 Max Pescatori 64,800
45 Jesus 64,100
48 Gavin Smith 62,100
49 Erick Lindgren 62,00
50 Erik Seidel 61,500
52 T.J. Cloutier 60,200
55 Gabe Kaplan 58,700
56 Mike Sexton 57,500
57 Phil Hellmuth 57,100
60 Doyle Brunson 54,000
61 Greg Raymer 53,300
66 Carlos Mortensen 51,000
78 Johnny Chan 42,900
87 Howard Lederer 37,500
94 Aaron Katz 34,000
95 Gus Hansen 32,500
96 Mike Caro 30,700
98 David Sklansky 30,200
101 Chau Giang 29,400
103 Sam Farha 27,700
110 Daniel Negreanu 25,100
112 Barry Greenstein 23,600
113 Paul Phillips 23,200
123 David Wong 13,200

Action resumes at Noon today at the Rio. Since I cannot do "live updates" I will post hourly updates on Day 2 of this event. I'm rooting for Carlos Mortensen. I picked him to win this before the 2006 WSOP began. He's already made two final tables. Let's hope he can make me look smart. Stay tuned.

* * * * *
You should be reading Poker Stars Blog featuring Otis and Wil Wheaton. Yes, Wil has been posting some of his best poker related material on the Poker Stars Blog since he penned Lying in Odessa. Take a peek.

* * * * *
$50K HORSE Updates

4:00pm... Recent Eliminations: David "Donkey Hunter" Wong is out. So is Johnny D'Ags when his A-10 lost to A-3. Gavin Smith and his K-J outflopped Miami John Cernuto's A-J who busted out.Also gone are: Jeff Freidman, Avi Freeman, 2005 WSOP bracelet winner Rafi Amit, Rob Hollnik, Tony Bloom, Eli Elezra, Sam Farha, Aaron Katz, Johnny Cham, David Grey, and Chau Giang.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:45pm... Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To:
1. David Singer
2. John D'Agostino
3. Huck Seed
4. Eskimo
5. Gus Hansen

5:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Nam Le, Cyndy Violette, Huck Seed and Daniel Negreanu are all out. Patrik Antonius jumped into the chip lead with 230K. Joe Cassidy is second with 188K. 103 players remain.

7:30pm... One of the perks of being Grubby's roommate is getting to partake in the free comps and fancy treatment at various Diamond Lounges in Las Vegas. They have one at the Rio and Grubby is a member. They have a private elevator roped off in a high limit slots area. Once they wave you by, you go up to the hidden Diamon Lounge where they serve free food and drinks. I ate a ham & cheese wrap, potato salad, pepper jack cheese with crackers, and several buffalo chicken wings. I'm on a diet and skipped dessert.

8:15pm... Instead of going to the Hooker Bar, I met Wil and Double As at the Tilted Kilt Pub. I watched them eat chicken wings as I knocked back SoCo. Paul Phillips joined us after he busted out of the Horse event. He's been playing Chinese Poker for $1K a point. Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstien's girlfriend and Phil Hellmuth were all playing Chinese Poker recently. Anyway, Phillips told me a great story about folding A-Qs to an UTG raise from Finnish boy-toy Patrik Antonious. Tuan Le three bet from the button. The flop was all rags but the turn was a Jack. The way Antonius had been betting tipped Phillips off that he had a set of Jacks. On the river Tuan Le three bet again. Antonius tought he had a junk hand and hit a gutshot straight with 6-8o or something like that. Tuan Le flipped over Ac-10c. He thought he had a flush but the turn was the Jack of spades... not the Jack of clubs like he thought. Tuan Le misread his hand and lost close to 25K on that pot.

9:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Paul Phillips, John Juanda, Ali Eslami, Shawn Sheikhan, Daniel Shak, Ray Dehkharghani, The Grinder, Phil Hellmuth, David Rheem, Gus Hansen, and Mike Caro. 66 players left with patrik Antonius the chipleader with over 300K.

11:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Matt Glantz, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Tony Cousineau, Ram Vaswani, Abe Mosseri, Mike Sexton, James Van Alstyne, Mark Gregorich, Allen Kessler, Nick Schulman, Mickey Appleman, David Benyamine, and Jen Harman. Ted Forrest jumped into the chiplead with Texas Dolly in 4th place.

12:00am... Recent Eliminations: Annie Duke, Chrs Smith, and Chris Reslock are out. David Singer and Gavin Smith are 1 and 2 in chips.

Updated chipcount:
1 David Singer 400K
2 Gavin Smith 375K
3 Ted Forrest 37K
4 Patrick Antonius 322K
5 John Hanson 250K
5 Joe Cassidy 250K
5 Doyle Brunson 250K
5 Minh Ly 250K
9 Cong Do 240K
10 Allen Cunningham 233K
11 TJ Cloutier 230K
12 Chip Reese 225K
12 Phil Ivey 225K
12 Jim Bechtel 225K
15 Howard Lederer 205K
16 Rafael Perry 200K
17 Thor Hansen 190K
18 Roger McDow 180K
19 Matt Hawrilenko 176K
20 Robert Williamson 175K
20 Blair Rodman 175K
22 David Levi 160K
22 Roy Thung 160K
24 Annand Ramdin 155K
25 Erik Seidel 143K
26 Illya Trincher 135K
27 Josh Arieh 125K
28 Dewey Tomko 121K
29 Andy Bloch 115K
30 Capt. Tom Franklin 97K
31 Tom Hufnagle 90K
32 Kassem Deeb 85K
33 Tom Weideman 80K
34 Erick Lindgren 70K
35 Chad Brown 64K
36 Greg Mascio 57K
37 Barry Greenstein 55K
38 Rep Porter 50K
39 Sherkhan Farnood 48K
40 Tuan Le 40K
41 Frank Kassela 34K

12:30am... Recent Eliminations: Frank Kassella and Chad Brown. 38 left and David Singer is the chipleader.

1:20am... Smoke break. It's 4:20 on the East Coast.

1:40am... Recent Eliminations: Howard Lederer, Victor Ramdin, and Erick Lindgren are all out. 34 players remain and I'm still at the Rio! Patrik Antonius is still in the lead with over 600K. Doyle Brunson is in last place and the short stack with 25K. He's got cameras and mics on him ready to record his bust out hand.

1:45am... Congrats to Clare Miller! She won event #19 $1K NL Seniors event. She took home $247,814 for first place and a bracelet. In last year's Seniors event, Paul McKinney became the oldest player to ever win a bracelet.

1:55am... Recent Eliminations: Josh Arieh, John Hanson, and Tom Weideman.

2:05am... Doyle Brunson made a run and won a $140K pot from Patrik Antonius in Razz. There are thirty players remaining as the tournament has reached its 12th hour of the day. We have a new chipleader... Chip Reese.

Top 5 chipcount:
1 Chip Reese 560K
1 Patrik Antonius 560K
3 David Singer 520K
4 David Levi 435K
5 Barry Greenstein 375K

2:45am... Recent Eliminations: My Main Man Freddy Deeb, Capt. Tom Franklin, and Rep Porter are gone. 27 players remain while David Singer & Chip Reese are the chipleaders.


Chip Reese
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip's 2006 WSOP Photos)
3:15am... Recent Eliminations: Tuan Le, Greg Mascio, and Thor Hansen. 23 players remain. Several members of the "Big Game" are still alive including chipleader Chip Reese, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstien, Phil Ivey, and Ted Forrest.

4:00am... Recent Eliminations: Erik Seidel is out and I can barely keep my eyes open. Roy Thung and Roger McDow were sent to the rail via a bad beat from Gavin Smith. His two pair with 9-8o beat out A-J and K-J. Gavin leaped into third palce in chips behind Jim Betchel and David Singer.

4:20am... Smoke break.

4:45am... Good morning East Coasters! Some of my friends are popping onto IM before they go to work or while they are at work. Right now, there are 18 players left. Jim Betchel is the chipleader as Gavin Smith jumped ahead to second place. Phil Ivey was on life support and won a few pots. He's 12/18 at this point.

Top 5 Chipcounts:
1 Jim Bechtel 890K
2 Gavin Smith 750K
3 David Singer 745K
4 Patrik Antonius 500K
5 Chip Reese 485K

5:20am... We're on Level 33 and playing Razz with 15K/30K blinds. Antes are 4K and bring in is 6K. Doesn't that make you want to shoot yourself? Allen Cunningham has been holding onto a short stack while Jim Betchel flirted with $1M in chip.

6:00am... Recent Elimination: Allen Cunningham came in 18th place.

7:30am... Recent Elimination: Sorry for the lack of updates. I fell asleep in my car. Bad idea. It was like sleeping in an oven. While I was passed out asweating my balls off, Matt Hawrilenko (17th) and Cuong Do (16th place) both busted out. Jim Betchel is the chipleader with 1.1M. 15 players remain. Been at the Rio for 19 hours. Someone shoot me. Is anyone still reading this?

8:00am.... Recent Elimination: Joe Cassidy and Ralph Perry are out.

8:45am... Recent Elimination: Barry Greenstien was busted by his buddy Chip Reese. Gavin Smith headed to the rail when he ran into Dewey Tomko's A-A. My friends in NYC are going to lunch now, while I'm still at work. Doyle jumped up to thirs with over 1M. Chip Reese is back in the chip lead with 1.5M.

9:20am... Recent Elimination: After 19 hours of play in the longest day of a poker tournament that I ever experienced, Robert Williamson busted out in 10th place. He's the TV bubble boy. The remaining layers look exhasuted. I dunnp how Texas Dolly held up. He's the man. I needed a nap. I wonder if he caught some ZZZZs at the table?

$50K HORSE Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Chip Reese 1.756M
2 Doyle Brunson 1.227M
3 Andy Bloch 934K
4 Phil Ivey 885K
5 Jim Bechtel 841K
6 David Singer 745K
7 Dewey Tomko 438K
8 TJ Cloutier 351K
9 Patrik Antonius 13K

Final Table Payouts:
1st $1,716,000
2nd $1,029,600
3rd $617,760
4th $549,120
5th $480,480
6th $411,840
7th $343,200
8th $274,560
9th $205,920

So Chip Reese is the chipleader with Patrik Antonius the short stack after he got crippled by Chip Reese. What a final table, eh? The players will return at 9pm to find out who's the best all around player at the 2006 WSOP. See you then. After almost 22 hours after I arrived at the Rio, I'm ready to go home.
posted by Pauly at 7/13/2006 02:32:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Funny Shit: Bobby Blackjack and Beetlejuice

Go read the two best WPBT Vegas trip reports that I've read so far from... Derek and Dawn.

Dawn wrote this lovely gem:

Pauly wins the Beetlejuice award of the trip. Say his name and poof -- the pimp daddy of poker bloggers appears before you with a stylish blazer and notepad in hand. I'm not kidding. Try it. Actually, I'd like to see a couple of people in two different states try it at once... More

And Derek had me in stitches with this:

I started to smell something out of the ordinary. It was a great smell too. It was almost orgasmic. I looked a few rows back and noticed someone was cooking bacon of all things. And it was Gavin Smith! What's going on??

I heard some commotion going on up front and turned my attention to it. I saw Bobby Bracelet playing Chau Giang heads up in a high stakes Blackjack game.

Bobby had a t-shirt that said Bobby Blackjack on it. Chau was cursing in another language when I noticed his shirt. On the front, it said "CHOW GANG" and on the back it said "Pimpin' ain't easy."

I realized I was dreaming when I saw Phil Ivey prop betting with old ladies near the toilets. They were playing Roshambo for $100 a pop... More

My brother doesn't write much, but when he does... it's hilarious. He left out the part where both GMoney and StB went around saying that they were Chaka from Land of the Lost.

posted by Pauly at 7/13/2006 04:20:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Pieces of Pauly: PLO

Editor's Note: I'm currently sold out. I got over $4900 on pledges. Thanks to everyone who wrote me and offered their monetary support.

I want to play in the WSOP $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event on Monday July 18th. I'm too cheap to buy in myself and just like last summer, I'm selling pieces of myself on the Tao of Poker. Here's your opportunity to buy me into a 2006 WSOP event.

I'm looking for 15 bloggers who are willing to put up $100 each to buy one of 15 shares. I have a couple sold off already.

Pieces of Pauly PLO Backers:
1. Grubby & Change100
2. Senor
3. Derek
4. Ryan
5. John Caldwell
6. Brandon Schaefer
7. Seatle John
8. CBGCs: Kat & Jules
9. Iakaris
10. Alan
11. Miami Don & SinCity Carmen
12. AlCantHang
13. Iggy
14. Joe Speaker
15. Big Pirate

If you have a blog and are interested, shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you more information including payment info and if I actually cash... payout details. You can also buy more than one share. But each share will be $100.

At the least... I'll mention your name and thank you in my Las Vegas book. At the best, you'll win a percentage of my earnings.

Thanks for your help and support especially since you guys know I'm dead money and all those Euro-sharks are going to feast on your donations.
posted by Pauly at 7/12/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
FOR PEYTON CHARITY AUCTION HAS GONE LIVE!!!

As many of you know, Bobby Bracelet has been on a mission to help a young girl named Peyton, whose mother passed away recently from small cell ovarian cancer. If you are not familair with this charity, visit the webiste For Peyton.

Many people have stepped up during this process to lend support. Gavin Smith, WPT Player of the Year, has worked very hard to generate a buzz within the poker community. Gavin has gone above and beyond the call of duty, even spending enough quality time with Phil Hellmuth to persuade him to donate. That is what I call dedication.

Spaceman has used his connections in the media to gather donations and turn Card Player Magazine on to our exploits.

Shelly Hokanson designed, and continues to manage, ForPeyton.com. She has the worst job since Bobby Bracelet is a prima donna who can't seem to ever make up his mind about things. I could continue on, but needless to say there have been many more who have helped along the way.

Currently there are a bunch of items up for bid. Items are available through Ebay. You can go to the sight and click from each item in the "Silent Auction" section to be taken right to its page on Ebay. We have some amazing things coming up in our second wave of items. Keep coming back to see us auction another lesson from a professional, tickets to an exclusive party held by the Lederers at the WSOP, and much more!

If you have a blog (any blog), then please post about this on your website and help Bobby Bracelet get the word out.

Phil Gordon - One Hour Lesson with Phil!

Card Player - Card Player Package!

Hellmuth and dummies - Phil Hellmuth DVD!

Hachem - Joe Hachem signed photo!

Mercier - Isabelle Mercier signed photo!

Ivey jersey - Phil Ivey signed jersey!

Smith jersey - Gavin Smith singed jersey!

Seif jersey - Mark Seif singed jersey!

Grinder hat - Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi signed hat!

Negreanu package - Daniel Negreanu items!

Fischman package - Scott Fischman items!

posted by Pauly at 7/12/2006 04:11:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Bloggers at the WSOP and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of updates. So many amazing things happened over the past week here at the Rio and I have not yet had the opportunity to write about all of it. One of my favorite players, the Italian Pirate Max Pescatori won a bracelet only a few hours after his home team Italy won the World Cup in a shootout.

Other notables won over the past week. Sammy Farha, Bill Chen, Allen Cunningham, and David Williams took home bracelets. Then on Sunday the Rio hosted the largest ever Ladies Only event. I'll write up a review of the past week of action in a day or so. I have three looming deadlines this week for Fox Sports, Poker Player Newspaper, and Poker Pro and those take priority.

With 100+ poker bloggers invading Vegas this past weekend (and several still in town) along with the $50K Horse event starting on Wednesday, I have very little time to do catch up work.

So I'll make it up to you with a "never-seen-before" pic of Liz Lieu. After all, it's Tuesday at the Tao of Poker which is Liz Lieu day!


Liz Lieu
(Click to enlarge)

* * * * *
OK my liver is killing me. I call that the AlCantHang effect. With all the bloggers in town, I drink and party more than I should. Last June during our get together, I held back and didn't have as much fun. This year I didn't hold back. I was so exhausted at one point I fell asleep at a Pai Gow table.

But I managed to take a handful of bloggers to the Hooker Bar with me and Otis on Monday night. Wil and Iggy joined us too.

"I love seeing Aunt Maudie sitting at the Hooker Bar," Michalski said as he walked over.

Some more random thoughts on the bloggers...

Congrats again to F Train for winning Saturday's epic tournament. I always said that he was the best player in the Blue Parrot homegame in NYC and this confirms it. I heard he lost half his winnings at the craps table.

On Sunday, I watched a taping of the Poker Dome featuring Jen Leo. About twenty Jen Leo fans packed the studio audience to root her on. I can't say how she did, but if you tune in on July 23rd you can see what went down. It was a ton of fun and thanks to Jen and John for inviting me.

By the way, I have to mention the CBGCs. That's an acronym for Canadian Butt Grabbing Chicks. They (Kat & Jules) were out in full force on Friday night as the dynamic duo whipped up a frenzy of drunken gropery. Poor innocent Garth was subjected to the CBGC tag team at the bar in the sports book at MGM. I haven't witnessed such horrifying sexual abuse since Jodie Foster's rape scene on the pinball machine in The Accused. I got caught up in their maelstrom of ass assault as well and survived unscathed. I enjoyed every second of it and definitely popped a half-wood. You're not officially famous until you have had both your junk and ass grabbed in the same bar in Las Vegas. I have arrived.

The CBGCs magical powers must have infected other female bloggers. At one point, my buttocks were groped by Maigrey, April, Veneno, Aunt Maudie and Change100. Dan Michalski copped a feel too, but we'll talk about that in a future post. And yes, I popped a wood that time too.

Amy Calistri has the best cleavage in poker. Nuff said.

Grubette made her first appearance at a blogger's event. She charmed everyone that met her. Just ask Michalski who got bluffed out of a pot from Grubette when she pushed all in with the Hammer. She's equally as cool as Grubby and they are my favorite brother-sister gambling duo.

Iggy puked in a garbage can at the Castle. I wish we had a pic. Chad Pukearama didn't puke this trip like he did after the Playboy Mansion.

I lost all the money I won off of Mrs. Head playing Roshambo. She's a shark and should be avoided at all costs. She let me win the first two then suckered me in for the rest of my Roshambo bankroll. I started doing "coinflips for a buck" with her and went 1 for 152. Man oh man. She's the prop bet queen.

Human Head had us in stitches after he told us the story about getting yelled at by his drill Sergeant during his stint in the Army. His head was too big so they couldn't find a field cap for him so it was on back order for three weeks. Every morning he got chewed out.

Sgt: "Why don't you have your field cap on, private?!?!"
Head: "Sir, because my head's too big, sir!"

DoubleAs would tell people that he was in town for the RV convention. I thought he was making that up, then I just walked past one of the other convention spaces here at the Rio and saw that there was indeed an RV convention in town.

I hung out with Brent Stacks and Sean from Lord Admiral at the Sherwood Forrest Bar. I've never met those guys but feel so close to them. Good to have imported beers with some of my favorite canucks. Whenever I mentioned a Canuck beer that I liked they rolled their eyes. I thought Moosehead was a Canadian favorite?

Sox Lover and I played Pai Gow at the Castle on Sunday night. We had a crazy Eastern European dealer who talked smack the entire time. He looked like Kevin Spacey (ala Lex Luthor with glasses) and made fun of you when you lost. He and Sox Lover were jawing back and forth. Whenever we'd win, we yell, "Ship it, bitch!"

Thanks again to April for setting this amazing event up.

Check out Flipchip and SpecialK's WPBT Photo Gallery.

* * * * *
Here are some pics from Monday's $1K NL event featuring some of your favorite bloggers like Brandon Schaefer, Gracie, Wil Wheaton, Chicago Jason, and Double As. You can click on the photos to see an enlarged view.


Gracie playing in the WSOP


Smiling Gracie


Isabelle


Yesterday's event #19


DoubleAs author of Pressure Poker


DoubleAs flips me the bird


Chicago Jason


Lynette Chan


Wil


Lonnie


Brandon Schaefer


Gracie's card capper


The Mark


Wil lost in thought
Don't forget to check out Flipchip and SpecialK's WPBT Photo Gallery.
posted by Pauly at 7/11/2006 04:20:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Ladies Event

We had a record number of participants in the $1K NL Ladies Event. Instead of $1K in chips, the ladies got $1,500. A few of my friends played including Maudie, facty, Mrs. Spaceman, Toby Leah Bochan, and Lacey Jones.

Here are some random pics from Sunday's Ladies Event:


Lacey Jones


Maudie glaring down the opposition


Mrs. Spaceman and Toby Leah Bochan


Happy facty


WPT hostess Sabina Gadecki (right)


Random hot chick


Tiffany Williamson
For more photos of the Ladies event, check out Flip Chip's WSOP Ladies photos and stop by and check out some in Toby's About.com gallery taken by Matt Law.
posted by Pauly at 7/10/2006 04:58:00 PM | Permalink |

 
F Train Rules and Hookers & Mashed Potatoes: Bloggers in Vegas Update

Congrats to F Train who won the blogger's tournament at Caesar's Palace on Saturday.


WPBT Summer Classic Champion: F Train

We had Jay Greenspan, Phil Gordon, Michael Craig, and Howard Lederer talk to us before the event. We also had a charity Roshambo tourney. I lost in the first round to Michalski.

I took 19th place out of 120+ and had a tough table for the entire tournament. Here's my starting table:

Seat 1: Brent Stacks from Lord Admiral
Seat 2: Your Hero
Seat 3: Matt from Wired Paint then Bill RIni
Seat 4: Shane Nickerson
Seat 5: Double As
Seat 6: Emily (Glyph's girlfriend)
Seat 7: AlCantHang
Seat 8: Sommer (Batfaces.com) then Jay Greenspan
Seat 9: Change100
Seat 10: Dan from PokerKats

Spaceman won the Gigli prize after he busted out first by Michael Craig.

I had aces twice and let DoubleAs bully me out of a pot. I also got AlCantHang to fold 10-10 to my 9-9 preflop.

Our dealer said that he's dealt tournament all over Las Vegas for decades, but never had a funnier table. I think he pissed his pants during the table's "hookers & mashed potatoes" routine. We were talking about finding discount coupons in the back of "What's On" magazine (you'll find it in every hotel in Vegas) that included a 20% off coupon for a hooker that also included a free side dish.

Grubbette moved all in with the Hammer and bluffed Dan Michalski. I heard that Hoyazo cracked Michael Craig's A-A.

That's it for now... I have to do a few hours of work covering the WSOP Ladies Event at the Rio. I'll have a full trip report soon. Stay tuned.

Here's a random photo dump:
Amy Calistri












Garth's card capper


I love Bobby's penis too






Gigli


Statik






Howard speaks


Donkey?


Grubby's card capper


Iggy's first place trophy
posted by Pauly at 7/09/2006 01:27:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Bloggers in Vegas: Sorta Update

Mostly everyone arrived on Thursday while I was at the Rio covering the final table for the $5K NL event. I eventually ran out a few moments after Hellmuth choked in an attempt to win bracelet #10. I headed right to the Sherwood Forest Bar where AlCantHang was holding court.

I met Garth. He's the dude with the Australian accent. I still think he's a fake and really from Ohio.

I also met Bill Rini's dad who's a dead ringer for Papa Hemmingway.

I offered Mrs. Head a proposition, "You wanna make $14 the hard way?"

We settled on one hand of Roshambo. I knew she knew that I was gonna go rock, which mean she was going paper. Guess what? She went paper and I went scissors. I won $14. Pauly 1, Mrs. Head 0.

Later that night/early morning Iggy and F Train were doing Roshambo throws for $100 a pop.

On Saturday, I played poker at the Castle. We had a blogger table that included Maudie, Derek, Joe Speaker, Hoyazo, Change100, Joaquin, and Zeem. I might be missing someone in there. Chad was sweating me on the rail and I showed him my hands via the Pauly cam. Derek cracked Change100's A-A with 2-2 and she spun the wheel.

Went to dinner At Ferrara's with Derek, Iggy, StB, and Change100. We ate gelato. On our way out, I got to use Grubby's Diamond card which put us to the front of the crowded taxi line. We headed to the MGM for mixed games. I got my ass squeezed by Veneno and Jules. I think Kat copped a feel too.

Then SirWaffle showed up. He asked me, "How do you spot the hookers?"

I met for the first time: Miami Don, Carmen, Tokyo James, Mattazuma, Blinders, Poker Gnome, Jules, and Kat.

Grubbette arrived and I hung out at the bar and drank by the sports book. I had another round of Roshambo with Mrs. Head. I went rock. She went scissors.

"Ship it!" I screamed.

Pauly 2, Mrs. Head 0.

That's it for now...
posted by Pauly at 7/08/2006 11:34:00 AM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Event #9 $5K NL Final Table: Hellmuth, Mercier, Luske, and Vinnie Vinh

I arrived early at the Rio to get ready for one of the toughest final tables at the WSOP in recent memory. 622 players entered event #9 with a prize pool of over $2.9 million. Phil Hellmuth is chasing his tenth bracelet and Isabelle, Marcel, and Vinnie Vinh are looking for #1. And ESPN dropped the ball. They will not have a full crew at this event, which is a shame. As Otis said, "This final table would have made the best TV out of any other tournament at this year's WSOP."

Event #9 $5K NL Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Vinnie Vinh (Hosuton, TX) 784K
2 Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, CA) 461K
3 Marcel Luske (Amsterdam, Holland) 458K
4 Isabelle Mercier (Montreal, Quebec) 301K
5 Jeff Cabanillas (East L.A., CA) 275K
6 Doug Carli (Alliance, OH) 273K
7 Eugene Todd (Brooklyn, NY) 240K
8 Thomas Schreiber (Danielson, CT) 200K
9 Dan Smith (Folsom, CA) 117K

Today's Payouts:
1. $818,546
2. $423,893
3. $233,872
4. $204,638
5. $175,404
6. $146,170
7. $116,936
8. $87,702
9. $58,468

On the way in, I found Shirley Rosario a.k.a. Poker Babe in the hallway. Despite being in the middle of chemo treatments, she's playing in Event #12 Omaha Hi-low Split $5,000 and is looking as beautiful as she always is. She's a tough online Omaha player and this is by far her best event. I'll be pulling for her today. It would be awesome if she made the final table and went on to win a bracelet. That would be one of the biggest stories at this year's WSOP.

* * * * *
1:42pm... I ran into Earl Burton from Poker News. He has two pens for today. He's hardcore. He knows how important today is.

1:45pm... Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu were discussing a hand in the hallway. Negreanu had a monster and two players in the hand with him folded and didn't pay him off. The discussion got too long as Matusow bolted for the bathroom, where I had just walked into. Negreanu kept rambling on and on as Matusow ducked into one of the shitters. Negreanu finished his story then walked out.

1:54pm... Isabelle made her way to the final table wearing designer jeans and open-toed sandals. She carried a large pink bag and smiled as she crosse dover the ropes. Her silky hair cascaded down her small frame as she put on a beige Poker Stars hat.

1:56pm... Marcel Luske signed an autograph for a woman sitting next to me. I'm situated in the front row with Earl from Poker News.

2:00pm... All the stars are out to catch this event. In the crowd I spotted John Bonetti, JJ Lui, Erick Lindgren, Johnny Chan, and TJ Cloutier.

2:18pm... During the announcements, Isabelle looked nervous and stood up. She walked over to the side and eagerly waited for Nolan Dalla to introduce some suits. Hellmuth walked over to his wife who sat in the row behind us. He's sporting a black & yellow UB hockey jersey. It looks like a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey.


Heather & Amanda in the media room

2:21pm... Cards are in the air.

2:22pm.... Hellmuth won the first pot.

2:30pm... On a board of Q-J-9, Hellmuth took several minutes to call a bet from Jeff Cabanillas. He also checked-called the turn when an Ace fell. I put Hellmuth on K-10 and Earl agreed. The river was a Jack and Hellmuth bet out. Cabanillas folded. Hellmuth won a $200K pot.

2:39pm... Hellmuth doubled up Cabanillas. With A-Q Hellmuth called Cabanillas' all in. Cabanillas had a short stack and pushed with K-10. He flopped a King and doubled through Hellmuth. The pot was worth 130K.

2:45pm... Level is over. Players are on a break.

3:04pm... Isabelle Mercier moved all in. Otis turned to me and said, She's got Queens or A-K." Marcel Luske pondered a call. He took three or four minutes before he decided to fold.

3:08pm... Marcel Luske and Vinnie Vinh rumbled. Marcel moved all in with A-K and Vinh called with A-J. Marcel turned a King and doubled up. He has over 700K in chips while Vinh dropped to 4330K.

3:15pm... I ran into Mike one of the floor guys who is a fan of the Tao and reads plenty of other blogs. He asked me if AlCantHang will be here at all during the WSOP.

3:18pm... I got yelled at by one of the suits from the media company that works for Harrah's. I was sitting in the stands taking notes and later standing in an "unauthorized area." Earl got nailed for that too

3:19pm... "It's pretty useless having credentials here," Michalski said to me in the media room.

3:20pm... Nolan Dalla is the shit. He cleared up the media headache for us. He said it was a misunderstanding. I'm lucky he's a fan and on our side. We're now cleared allowed to sit in the stands and take notes. It's weird that they would not allow us to do that. Like I said before, a spectator has a better chance to do better coverage than us. There's a "media row" that is reserved for the "official live updates" crew but no space for the remainder of the media. We have to find spots in the bleachers if we want to cover this event.

3:30pm... Jeff Cabanillas doubled up against Vinnie Vinh. Jeff's K-K held up against Vinh's 6-6. Vinh went from the chipleader to 7th place. Marcel Luske is the new chipleader.

3:40pm... Recent Elimination: Dan Smith was the first player busted out in 9th place. Hellmuth won with King high. Smith won $58,468.

3:41pm... Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Marcel Luske 805K
2 Phil Hellmuth 590K
3 Isabelle Mercier 410K
4 Eugene Todd 390K
5 Jeff Cabanillas 305K
6 Vinnie Vinh 225K
7 Doug Carli 177K
8 Thomas Schreiber 165K

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:31pm... Recent Elimination: Vinnie Vinh is out in 8th place. He started the day as the chipleader and doubled up players when he was dominated (KK vs 66 and AK vs AJ). This instance he was all in with Kd-Qd versus Hellmuth's A-10. Hellmuth flopped an ace and busted his second player of the final table Vinh won $87,702 for 8th place. Marcel Luske is still the chipleader with 800K but Hellmuth is close behind wuth 750K. Isabelle is third with just under 500K. Brooklyn's Gene Todd has 325K and is in 4th place.

4:35pm... Recent Elimination: Jeff Cabanillas pushed all in from the small blind with Q-8 and Doug Carli called with the Jaxia... aka J-9o. Cabanillas was ahead but sealed Carli's fate when he rivered a Queen. Carli won $116,936 for 7th place.

4:45pm... Players went on a break. With 6 remaining, one shark (and Day 2 chipleader Vinnie Vinh) has already been busted. Hellmuth, Marcel, and Mercier are currently 1-2-3 in chips.

1. Phil Hellmuth 990K
2. Marcel Luske 719K
3. Isabelle Mercier 557K
4. Gene Todd 311K
5. Jeff Cabanillas 302K
6. Tom Schreiber 95K

5:10pm... Shirley Rosario Omaha 8 Update: Shirley has 3K in chips and she's hanging in there. She's sandwiched in between Patrik Antonius and Perry Friedman who has not stopped talking since he sat down. Perry wanted me to send a message to all final table players in the $5K NL event... "I'm putting a 35 cent bounty on Hellmuth," Perry said. That event is loaded with talent. I spotted Ted Forrest, Annie Duke, Capt. Tom Franklin, Andy Bloch, Sammy Farha, Amir Vahedi, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, Texas Dolly, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, Max Pescatori, Gavin Smith, Steve Badger, Mike Gracz, Joe Hachem, and Minneapolis Jim Meehan.

5:25pm... Recent Elimination: Thomas Schreiber doubled up against Phil Hellmuth to stay alive, but a few orbits later he busted out in 6th place. Schreiber moved all in with 7-7 and Jeff Cabanillas called from the big blind with Big Slick. It was a classic race. Cabanillas picked up more outs with gut shot when a Queen and Ten flopped. He promptly rivered the Broadway straight when a Jack spiked to win the race. Schreiber won $146,170. Then there were five. Hellmuth leads the pack with 950K. Isabelle slid into second and Marcel is third in chips.

5:35pm... Back by popular demand! I saw Negreanu in the bathroom moments after he busted from the $5K Omaha 8 event.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Johnny Bax
2. Daniel Negreanu
3. Bill Gazes
4. Victor Ramdin
5. Chau Giang

6:15pm... Recent Elimination: Isabelle Mercier lost a big pot to Phil Hellmuth. He sniffed out a bluff from the beauty and scooped a pot with just King high. I'm sure Hellmuth peeked into her soul and saw that she had a busted draw. A few hands later, Isabelle Mercier finished in 5th place. Her K-3 was run down by Jeff Cabanillas' 8-8. Isabelle won $175,404 in the second largest NL buy-in event at this year's WSOP. I know she's bummed out that she didn't win her first bracelet, but she played magnificently for three long days.

6:20pm... Players are on dinner break until 7:40pm. Hellmuth is way ahead with almost 2x as many chips as Gene Todd. Here's an updated chipcount:

1 Phil Hellmuth 1.29M
2 Gene Todd 630K
3 Jeff Cabanillas 590K
4 Marcel Luske 490K

6:45pm... Shirley Rosario is out of the Omaha 8 event. She said she played good though. More to come.

6:55pm... Pimp Chau Giang's Ride: Coming back from the parking lot, I saw Chau Giang in his Mercedes. He's got a 500 series and my boy was pimping hardcore.

7:15pm... Recent Elimination: Marcel Luske is out in 4th place after he was busted by Phil Hellmuth. Luske had Q-J and lost to Hellmuth's K-10. The Flying Dutchman won $204,638 for 4th place. With three players remaining, Hellmuth is ahead with 1.62M with Jeff Cabanillas in second with 1M and Gene Todd trailing with 480K.

7:20pm... Stud Update aka Johnny Chan Watch: We're on the final table bubble in the $1500 Stud event. There are nine players left. Final tables for Stud are 8 handed. Miami John Vernuto, David Williams, and Johnny Chan are all left in the mix. Chan is seeking bracelet #11.

7:25pm... Recent Elimination: Gene Todd is out in 3rd place. He won $233,872. Jeff Cabanillas's 10-10 held up against Todd's K-8. Cabanillas has 1.65M in chips to Hellmuth's 1.5M.

8:30pm... Hellmuth is trailing Cabanillas. Hellmuth has 1.2M to Cabanillas' 1.9M. The area around the final table is packed with railbirds including one very drunk guy sitting next to me. He screamed, "Suck my dick!"

10:04pm... Hellmuth is back on top with a 1.8M to 1.3M lead. The Quiet Lion (aka Richard Brodie) described the final table as, "Tonight history or a hissyfit will be made."

10:35pm... After two hours of heads up play and Hellmuth is up 1.9M to 1.2M. His stack reached over 2M at one point. This kid from East LA is hanging on tough against one of the legends of poker. He's not going to let Hellmuth win his 10th without a fight.

10:40pm... Here are the chipcounts courtesy of Michalski from Pokerati:

Hellmuth 24
Cabanillas 7

These counts are not accurate in real life, but in Michalski's warped mind... they make sense.

10:50pm... There's a Dutch Boyd sighting near the final table. He's showing off his new bracelet and charging fans $5 just to touch it.

11:00pm... Hellmuth and Cabanillas pulled even. The unknown kid who is playing in his first tournament was jawing back at Hellmuth after Hellmuth attempted to tilt him with his verbal abuse. Here's a sample of the exchange:

Hellmuth: "I can't believe you called with K-J."
Cabanillas: "I did and I also called with a pair of fives and they held up."

11:15pm... Players went on a break and Hellmuth is on the verge of mega-tilt unless he calms himself down and does some yoga in the hallway. Hellmuth admitted, "This kid is good. he's good." He's down 1.85M to 1.25M.

11:30pm... I miss BJ doing live updates. He was good. He was the best. He would record every fuckin' hand!! Not the new guys.

11:45pm... Sitting in the front row are Texas Dolly, Johnny Chan, and Shannon Elizabeth.

12:01am... Hellmuth was seriously outchipped 2.5M to 500K. He doubled up when he was on the brink of elimination when he caught a lucky river. On a board of 8-6-5 with two spades Hellmuth moved all in with As-5s. Cabanillas called with 10-8 and turned two pair when a 10 hit. The river was the Jack of spades and the crowd erupted. Hellmuth pumped his fist as railbirds shouted, "Come on, Phil!!"

12:20am... After almost four hours of heads up play, we have a winner... Jeff Cabanillas took down Phil Hellmuth. Minutes before Jeff's railbirds were chanting, "Phil's on tilt! Phil's on tilt!"and the TD had to ask them to calm down. Thanks to Jorgen for that bit of info. Congrats to Jeff Cabanillas for an amazing job at the final table.
posted by Pauly at 7/06/2006 04:30:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Bon Chance, Isabelle!

Sometimes at the WSOP, ordinary days become spectacular ones. Take today for instance. It was supposed to be a lazy Wednesday at the Rio, but that was not the case as the tournament and media rooms buzzed with anticpation.

The lovely Isabelle Mercier began day 2 of Event #9 $5K NL as one of the short stacks. She was on the verge of being eliminated but doubled up twice early (Ace-rag vs. K-J and then K-Q vs. A-rag) to build up a decent stack.

The French-Canadian vixen fought her way to the final table. Also in the mix was Phil Hellmuth who chased bracelet #10. He made the money in his record-setting 51st event but would not rest until he slaps his tenth bracelet wround his wrist. The always entertaining Marcel Luske lurked in the background along with Vinnie Vinh.

Here are some semi-live updates:

10:30pm... Sweet Sweet Isabelle Mercier is currently in 4th place. There's 11 players remaining after she eliminated someone when her Hilton Sisters held up against 2-2. Phil Hellmuth is second in chips while the Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske is 8th in chips. Check out some pics of Isabelle over at PokerStars Blog.

11:15pm... The action is ten handed and the players redrew for seats. They will play until one more player is eliminated since the final tables at the WSOP are nine-handed. Vinnie Vinh is the chipleader. Isabelle slipped to 7th in chips. Marcel jumped up to 6th and Hellmuth is second in chips. ESPN's crew was given the weekend off. They were not scheduled to televise this event. I made a bet with Michalski who thinks that ESPN is going to bring the crew back to tape the epic final table where Hellmuth (possibly) wins #10. I don't think they will. Time will tell. Regardless, the suits at ESPN are icing their testicles after they kicked themselves in the junk after dropping the $5K event from their TV schedule.

11:55pm... We have a final table! Dang Trinh busted out in 10th place. Action resumes tomorrow at 2pm. We'll find out if Isabelle can go all the way or if Hellmuth wins #10. Here's the final table chipcount courtesy of Poker Wire:

Event #9 $5K NL Final Table:
1 Vinnie Vinh 784K
2 Phil Hellmuth 461K
3 Marcel Luske 458K
4 Isabelle Mercier 301K
5 Jeff Cabanillas 275K
6 Doug Carli 273K
7 Eugene Todd 240K
8 Thomas Schreiber 200K
9 Dan Smith 117K

* * * * *


Isabelle at the 2005 WSOP
(photo by Flipchip)
This is one of the best final tables I have seen in the past year of covering poker tournaments. I'm not missing any of it. Hellmuth. Marcel. Mercier. Vinnie Vinh. And Gene Todd is no slouch either.

Isabelle cashed in the $1,500 NL event last week and has three other career WSOP cashes, all of those coming last year. She took 33rd in the $5K NL event in 2005. Earlier this year, Isabelle also made an EPT final table at Deauville, France. Can she win her first bracelet on Thursday? Or will Hellmuth tie Texas Dolly and Johnny Chan who have 10 bracelets each? Or can Marcel Luske or Vinnie Vinh win his first WSOP bracelet? Will ESPN be taping the event? Will Otis get a double-kiss from Isabelle?

Stay tuned to find out.

Last summer I watched both Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson win their 10th bracelet. If Hellmuth does it on Thursday, I want to be there. And if Marcel or Isabelle win their first bracelet, I want to be sitting in the front row.

Oh, and I predicted that Hellmuth was going to win bracelet #10 a few days ago. I was shit-talking more than anything else and trying to kiss Hellmuth's ass. Well, if he does win #10... you heard it here first.
posted by Pauly at 7/06/2006 02:04:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Bouncin' Round the Room and Bathwater Surprise

"Strip clubs are homes for troubled girls," Michalski nonchalantly said as he sipped his Lite beer.

He would know. He runs tournaments at the Lodge, an infamous Gentleman's club in Dallas where naked women deal in his weekly tournament. If there's one guy I'm jealous of, it's Dan Michalski from Pokerati fame. The lucky bastard gets to train strippers on the finer art of dealing tournaments while he surrounds himself with semi-naked women on a weekly basis. Plus he's a real journalist. Not like the other hacks here at the WSOP, some of which cannot even spell Jen Harman's name right.

On Tuesday night, we were just two off-duty WSOP reporters sitting in the lounge at the Excalibur several miles away from the action at the Rio, while a horrible second-rate bar band cranked out Clash and No Doubt covers. We reflected on the first week of action at the WSOP as true veterans. This is my second WSOP and Michalski's third. We agreed that the big story so far has not been Dutch "Bipolar" Boyd winning a bracelet or Carlos Mortensen making two final tables. The big story has been the restrictions placed upon the media this year by the suits at Harrah's. And their decision to limit "live updates" has been hurting every party involved.

The folks at home are getting crappy WSOP coverage. The companies that spent a gajillion dollars on exclusive rights on updates are realizing they overpaid for the product. And the players are not getting the proper publicity that they deserve due to the spotty updates. I'm willing to give it another week or so and hope this clusterfuck improves, but as of today, the system that is in place is not working. Even the Poker Wire girls look frustrated and perplexed.

"We can't do what we used to doing," one admitted. "And the coverage is suffering."

It's sad when railbirds and tourists are in a better position to provide more in depth coverage than the rest of us with press badges. I'll save that bitter discussion for a later post. For now, I'm taking it easy at the WSOP. I had an amazing weekend in Hollyweird seeing two Widespread Panic shows. Now my brother is in town for a week and a slew of friends are coming into town over the next few days. I'm not working too hard this week and I'm saving up all of my energies for the main event. I'm just getting used to the new rules and restrictions while doing my best to stay out of trouble. I expect my coverage to evolve over the next few weeks and I'll finally find some sort of routine and rhythm.

The other big story of the first week of the 2006 WSOP has been the whorish nature of this year's WSOP. I'm a participant and just as guilty. Everyone is cashing in on the WSOP's success and popularity. That's why the halls are laced with Milwaukee's Beast large display cans. That's why you'll see a Party Poker logo on the felt of every single table. That's why Image Masters is selling their photos to the players (when Flipchip will give you better quality ones for free). That's why every major online poker room has a hospitality suite because they are hoping that free drinks and free hats will entice players to run home and open up an account.

They should change the name of this event to the World Series of Pimping. Between all the bad beats in the Amazon room and all the exploitation going on in the hallways, everyone is pretty much getting fucked. And not in a good way. I'm sure that if Benny Binion would have been around today, he would have cashed in on the popularity, but he would have continued to share the wealth. Back in the day he gave media reps free rooms and food. I'm lucky that Harrah's hasn't charged me for water bottles in the media room.

Even bad beat stories have risen in prices. There was a time when you could tell a bad beat story for free. Now you have to play $2. I've already heard about ninety or so and haven't wanted to slit my wrists during 82% of the stories. Ninety bad beat stories, and it's not even event #10 since I've been skipping a lot of the action.

* * * * *
I spotted John D'Agostino, Layne Flack, and Bob Stupak playing NL cash games with tourists that hid behind sunglasses, baseball hats, and iPods. Everyday a new punk rolls into town and puts his bankroll on the line at the Rio. They play too many pots and get destroyed post flop against savvy vets like Layne Flack. But the young guns will bluff and slowplay their way into a "story of a lifetime" that they will take back home and tell to their friends at the water cooler or in their homegames.

Annie Duke was sporting the Fidel Castro look at the Rio on Tuesday. Phil Hellmuth was decked out in an ugly black and yellow UB hockey jersey. And Mickey Applebaum looks like he always does... like he just woke up from sleeping in his car after a three day Jim Beam and cough syrup bender.

* * * * *
"I would totally drink his bathwater," one female admirer of Finnish boy-toy Patrik Antonius said out loud to no one in particular.

"Where's that hawwwwwwt French chick?" an overweight guy with a thick New England accent sporting a Red Sox cap said as he fumbled with his digital camera to get a picture of Evelyn Ng.

"Oooh, there's Bill Hellmuth," one guy with a bad sunburn in a sleeveless Harley Davidson shirt said as he pointed out Hellmuth to his wife. "He's the host of my favorite show Celebrity Poker Showdown."

"Where's Gus Hansen?" one guy wearing an 'I'm all in!' t-shirt stopped and asked me. "I heard he lost all his money in the big game."

The last rumor I heard, Gus was stuck $3 million last December which he owed to the Bellagio. He apparently lost that much in the Big Game that he needed a line of credit from the Bellagio. Knowing Gus, he probably won most of it back a few days later flopping a straight with 5-8s.

* * * * *
Derek and I ate lunch at Red Rock Casino before we sat in the sports book with Grubby and watched France's 1-0 victory over Portugal. I had money on the French the last two games. It comes down to an Italy-France final on Sunday. And I got the Italians to go all the way.

I just bumped into Jan from 50 Outs. He's a pro from Germany. I noticed that his wife Katja was playing in the Seven-card Stud event. Stop by and read their recaps from the WSOP.

Actually I didn't bump into Jan. I was sitting in the hallway outside the media room and he walked by. Several people including Otis, Michalski, and Friedman asked me, "What the hell are you doing out here?"

The short answer is that the marble floor is super cool and keeps my sperm count low. The long answer is that the wifi access is slightly faster out here.

Nolan Dalla walked by and joked, "You're a weird guy, Pauly. It must be a New York thing. You're always gonna do things your way."

* * * * *
Make sure you check out some of Flipchip's WSOP photos, like the one below.


Mike Sexton deep in thought
posted by Pauly at 7/05/2006 11:32:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Tragedy

I just had one of those instances when I was hit in the face with reality. Poker is just a game while life is fragile and precious.

My buddy Obie lost his son on Monday in an accident.

Alexander Nathaniel "Alex" Overby, 14, of Stafford County Virginia, died Monday, July 3, 2006. Hit by a car walking beside the road. Alex had just completed 8th grade at Gayle Middle School where he participated in chorus and drama. He had played SRSL soccer for several years and enjoyed skateboarding, computer games, and playing poker.

Survivors include his parents, Lowen A. and Kristina K. Overby; one sister, Isabella Nicole Overby; two half-brothers, Lowen Aaron Collins and Matthew Edward Collins.

A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11 at Covenant Funeral H\Service, 4801 Jefferson Davis Highway, Fredericksburg, VA 22408. Burial will follow at noon in Quantico national Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6 to 9 p.m. o Monday, July 10 at the funeral home.

Memorials may be made to Gayle Middle School for use by the chorus, 100 Panther Drive, Fredericksburg, VA 22405.

Alex's memorial Web site
Funeral Service Online Guestbook

Hang in there, Obie. My best wishes go out to you and your family.
posted by Pauly at 7/05/2006 01:21:00 PM | Permalink |

 
WSOP Fashionistas

Tuesdays at the 2006 WSOP will be dedicated to Liz Lieu the Poker Diva. When I was a kid growing up in my neighborhood in the Bronx, Wednesdays were known "Prince spaghetti day." Here at the Tao of Poker, Tuesdays will be Liz Lieu Day. It just so happens that poker's elite fashionista shares today's special pimpage with America's birthday.

I got a record seven straight hours of sleep thanks to the Xanax I popped around 1am. I woke up refreshed after a long weekend in Hollyweird. I picked up my brother at the airport with Grubby and we headed to Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. Grubby had free coupons for Fatburger and we pigged out as we showed Derek around GVR. We watched the end of the Italy-Germany semi-final World Cup match. I had money on the Italians. Afterwards we headed to the Rio. As soon as we entered the convention center, we saw Liz Lieu sauntering by.

Liz busted out of the Event #9 $5,000 NL. She had K-K on the button and reraised. The small blind moved all in for a few thousand more. She figured it was a coinflip. She put the small blind on A-A or Q-Q. She called, praying to see her opponent flip over Queens but he had A-A. Her stack got crippled and was out soon after.

Liz has had a rough 2006 WSOP and she's had her aces cracked twice by K-K in two WPT events (Mandalay Bay and the WPT Championships at the Bellagio). She's ready to bounce back. I expect her to make at least one final table this year and go deep in the main event.

Liz was thrilled that I mentioned her in my Fox Sports article and even dropped my name in her blog. She also blogged that she's giving away a few free tickets to her VIP party at Tryst in a couple of weeks. You have to be a WSOP blogger and write some quality stuff about her to be eligible to attend that special party. That sounds like something right up my alley.

She said she didn't want me to say something nicey nice just to say it. I don't have to because Liz is one of the brightest souls on the tournament circuit. A lot of poker fans idolize other players in iconic rockstar fashion. Most of those "stars" are assholes and scumbags that would slit their mother's throats and drown a sack filled with puppies for a buy-in to the main event.

Liz is sincere and honest. When friends ask me who's the nicest player or who is my favorite pro... Liz Lieu is always at the top of my list.

All my female friends who know nothing about poker but have seen pictures of Liz on my blogs and think that she's got amazing taste in clothing. When I mentioned the Roberto Cavalli dress which Liz had talked about buying on her blog, my friends' jaws dropped. Mine did too when I heard how much a Cavalli cost.

If you are a straight guy or know zip about fashion, Roberto Cavalli is like the Phil Ivey or Tiger Woods of designers. Change100 gave me a crash course in fashion designers and that's why I know about Cavalli. He's most know for creating the infamous J. Lo Oscars' dress a few years back.

Just looking around the tournament area at the Rio, you can see hundreds and thousands of fashion faux pas. I have a ton of respect for Greg Raymer, but I have to question his choice to wear socks with tevas. Most guys are wearing jeans, sweatpants, t-shirts, and hats from online poker rooms that haven't been washed since Moneymaker won the WSOP main event. It's a pleasure to see someone wear something classy and different. This is another reason why Liz Lieu the beauty stands out from the rest of the pack of beasts.

As we said good-bye I asked her where she was headed, "I'm going to play cash games. Probably 3-6."

Of course she means 300-600 Limit at the Bellagio. When I say I'm playing 3-6, I mean the 3-6 donkfest on Party Poker.

* * * * *
Norm MacDonald posed for pictures and signed autographs in the swanky PokerStars suite. They have free booze, but no Red Stripe. That did not deter me from knocking back a few cold ones. If you don't know PokerStars is buying Norm into several events at this year's WSOP.

Plus Barry Greenstien inked an endorsement deal as he became a new member of Team PokerStars. In the last week, Stars signed up Victor Ramdin and Greenstein. In the first two weeks of the WSOP, PokerStars has aggressively picked up one of the greatest players around in Greenstein and signed one of the best up and coming NL tournament players in Victor Ramdin.

* * * * *
Derek said he caught a funny situation involving Doyle Brunson and a gaggle of fans. Doyle wheeled out of the Doyle's Room hospitality suite in his pimped-up scooter with a big ass goomba bodyguard at his side. Three autograph vultures swooped in and surrounded the poker legend. Alas, one of them had pens. Doyle looked frustrated with their lack of preparation. But in true fashion, he flashed his epic smile and dug into his pants. He pulled out a sharpie and took the time to sign everyone an autograph. Texas Dolly is always a class act even when autograph whores don't have their shit together.

Derek wandered off while I bullshitted with Dan from Pokerati and Nolan Dalla in the media room. Derek bumped into Friedman in the hallway. Friedman took him over to the Full Tilt Maxim party over in their hospitality suite. Derek described the event as "Almost like a real party with music. I drank two beers. They had all these hot chicks dancing around."

* * * * *
The next three WSOP events are:

7.5.06 #10 Seven Card Stud $1,500 (3 day event)
7.6.06 #11 Limit Hold'em $1,500 (3 day event)
7.6.06 #12 Omaha Hi-low Split $5,000 (2 day event)

Check out Nolan Dalla's recap of Event #5, the one where Dutch Boyd won his bracelet.
posted by Pauly at 7/04/2006 11:50:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Bloggers in Vegas: Tips and a Video

The bi-annual gathering of the poker bloggers is only a few days away. If you attended the last one in December or will be attending this event, you should check out the video I spliced together called... Bloggers in Vegas: Dec. 2005.

The video is six minutes long and features video clips and photos from that epic weekend and from the blogger tournament at Imperial Palace. The video on YouTube plays faster than it streams so you might have to pause it to allow it to "catch up."

If you have never been to Las Vegas before and are looking for some advice, you should read this old post called: Bloggers Invading Las Vegas Tips 3.0.

My overall advice is to drink lots of water, pace yourselves, and try not to get arrested or rolled by a hooker.

* * * * *
Here are some of the other videos I recently uploaded:

Grubby's Secret Drawer
Widespread Panic at Red Rocks
Bonnaroo Part I
Bonnaroo Part II

posted by Pauly at 7/04/2006 03:01:00 AM | Permalink |

 
Rafe First, Dutch "Bi-Polar" Boyd, and Hellmuth's 50

I met Rafe Furst during the first week of the 2005 WSOP. Andy Bloch introduced us. I asked him, "Are you the dude who ate the crayon for $1?"

"No. That would be Perry. And it was a Keno crayon."

"Far out," I said.

Furst was intrigued that I had a blog. During the rest of the 2005 WSOP, he would joke around and would utter thing like, "That's not very Tao of Poker of you."

I first read about Rafe's exploits as a Tiltboy along with the likes of his good friends Perry Friedman and Phil Gordon. If you haven't read the book Tales from the Tiltboys, you are missing out on some funny shit in a collection of their wild antics over the years. Last year, Gordon and Friedman both made final tables at the WSOP but Furst struggled. Last summer was not a total waste for Furst who managed to win a televised event for the Ultimate Poker Challenge at the Plaza.

Furst graduated from Stanford and is currently a Chief Technical Officer in Los Angeles. He's most infamous for being the first guy busted out of the 2003 WSOP. He also has a Roshambo world championship title and is the co-founder of "Put a Bad Beat on Cancer" with Phil Gordon.

A couple of nights ago, Rafe finally had a breakthrough moment in his poker career when he won his first bracelet. Here's what Phil Gordon wrote:

"It's a life-changing event for Rafe. But it's not about the money. He's been a great player for a long time, and totally unrecognized for it. This totally confirmed everything both he and I knew about the level of his game.

I was a complete emotional wreck as I watched. I think I peed in my pants three times. If I had been at the table playing those hands it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting. But over here, rooting for my man - it was exhausting.

It's great day Rafe, it's a great day for Full Tilt, and it's a great day for me. My best friend just won a bracelet."

Furst not only picked up his first bracelet, he did so in a record-setting event, winning the largest ever Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament at the WSOP. The three day long event included a field of 1,102 entrants compared to 1,071 in 2005. Furst also outlasted a difficult final table that included the cagey C.K. Hua (with over $2 million in tournament winnings over his career) and fellow Full Tilter John Juanda seeking his 4th bracelet.

Here's the final table chip counts for Event #3:
1. Eric "Rizen" Lynch (Olathe, KS) $455K
2. Rocky Enciso (Glendale, CA) $247K
3. Rafe Furst (Los Angeles, CA) $222K
4. John Juanda (Las Vegas, NV) $147K
5. Burt Boutin (Las Vegas, NV) $140K
6. Can Hua (Rosemead, CA) $122K
7. Rick Chase (Malibu, CA) $95K
8. Alan Gilbert (Murrieta, CA) $88K
9. George Bronstein (Tampa, FL) $15.7K

Here are the final table payouts for Event #3:
1 $345,984
2 $180,508
3 $104,544
4 $75,252
5 $60,169
6 $52,648
7 $45,127
8 $37,606
9 $33,854

Eric "Rizen" Lynch started the final table as the chipleader. He's one of the scariest sharks lurking around the online waters of Poker Stars after he recently won the $1 Million Guaranteed on Stars. Six out of the nine final table players were from California including Alan Gilbert a software engineer from Murrieta and Rick Chase a TV producer from Malibu.

John Juanda's presence rattled most of the players at the final table. After all, Juanda was the most experienced player at the final table which automatically made him one of the favorites. He busted out in 8th place when his Q-Q lost to C.K. Hua's A-K after Hua flopped a King. Juanda failed in his bid for his fourth bracelet and won $37,606.

With Juanda out, the 1,500 PL Hold'em bracelet was up for grabs as C.K. Hua snagged the chiplead. Furst would add to his stack with a little help from a lucky river card. With A-A he was up against C.K. Hua's 7-2o a.k.a. The Hammer. Furst was behind after a "Hammer Friendly" flop of Q-7-7. When a 3 fell on the turn, Furst teetered brink of elimination. Down to a handful of outs, the eerily calm Furst caught a miracle when an ace spiked on the river.

Hua doubled up Furst and would eventually bust out in 6th place. He won $52,648. With three players remaining, in another decisive hand Furst found some more luck when he re-raised all in with A-8s. Furst wasn't pleased to see Eric Lynch call with Big Slick. Furst didn't suckout, but got the next best thing... a chopped pot on a board of J-10-6-J-6.

Furst held a 3 to 1 chiplead over Lynch who lost the final table chiplead when he went card dead. Furst also almost 6 to 1 edge over Rocky Enciso.

In one of the biggest hands of the tournament, Enciso raised and Lynch re-raised all in, as Furst and Enciso both called. Furst's Big Slick was ahead of Lynch's A-7 and Enciso's K-Q. When a King flopped, all of Furst's vocal railbirds, including his buddy Phil Gordon, went bonkers. Their celebration was short-lived when they grimaced as a Queen fell on the turn to give Enciso the lead. The river didn't help Furst and when the dust settled, Enciso had tripled up. Furst won a few chips in the side pot against Eric "Rizen" Lynch who finished in 3rd place and won $104,544.

Furst found himself heads-up against a tough pro in Rocky Enciso, who plays a lot of tournaments at the L.A. area casinos. Furst had over $1 million in chips to Enciso's 630K. The heads-up battle lasted only one hand. Just before the action resumed, Furst had a brief discussion with Phil Gordon. Here's how he described their conversation:

"Before we played head's up, I had a little powwow with Phil Gordon. He'd been tracking how everyone played and was helping me analyze what strategies would work well. He said something really helpful. He said Rocky makes most of his mistakes post-flop, so I should try and play a lot of pots with him."

On the first hand, Furst found 8-4s and flopped two pair. Although the board paired when a 10 fell on the turn, Furst felt he was still ahead. That's when all the money went into the pot. Enciso was behind with J-4 and the river didn't help him. Enciso won $180,508 for second place, while Furst won $345,984 and his first bracelet. Despite a couple of lucky river cards at the final table, Furst played amazing poker for three straight days. He managed to stay focus and appear cool and calm the entire time.

In an interview with Jay Greenspan, Furst admitted, "There were a lot of miracle cards and they probably have to show that on TV. But it's okay. I feel good about how I played and I'm glad I got the bracelet."

Congrats to Rafe on a special victory. Since both Perry Friedman and Rafe Furst have won WSOP bracelets, fellow Tiltboy Phil Gordon is more hungrier than ever to win his first. We'll see if he can match his best friend's performance.

* * * * *
Oliver Tse is a walking encyclopedia of poker (and other things). Just talking to him for ten minutes will make anyone smarter. I like having him around in the media room because he always has an answer to your questions. He's at the 2006 WSOP playing in a few events along with covering the WSOP for PokerBiz411.com.

Here's an interesting letter/email that he sent to the suits at ESPN. He was giving them a hard time about sugar-coating Dutch Boyd's checkered past. ESPN has never once discussed his shady business practices.

ATTN: Matt Maranz, Executive Producer
441 Productions
New York, New York

Dear Matt:

Controversial poker pro Russell "Dutch" Boyd has made the ESPN TV final table of the $2500 6-Handed No Limit Hold'em World Series of Poker (WSOP) event on Sunday July 2 with a substantial chip lead.

While ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE)/441 Productions had always glorified Mr. Boyd as the leader of the "Crew", many people, including myself, have been disappointed that EOE/441 had ignored Mr. Boyd's checkered past in all past episodes of the WSOP on ESPN in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

During the Dot-Com era of the late 1990's, Mr. Boyd ran a startup online poker business PokerSpot.com which failed miserably.

Mr. Boyd commingled the deposits of online poker players with operating funds of PokerSpot.com. Ultimately, PokerSpot.com was unable to honor fund withdrawal requests before Mr. Boyd shut down PokerSpot.com, leaving many online poker players with substantial losses of their poker bankrolls.

In several interviews with smaller online poker websites since PokerSpot.com failed, Mr. Boyd had indicated that he would refund those players' deposits if he were ever in a finacial position to do so.

Needless to say, many players in the internet poker community are still very skeptical of Mr. Boyd's claim given that Mr. Boyd had never refunded a single penny to PokerSpot.com customers who lost their deposits despite Mr. Boyd's recent success as a tournament poker pro starting with his 12th place finish at the 2003 WSOP Main Event.

While Mr. Boyd is under no legal obligation to issue refunds to PokerSpot.com customers in the US because PokerSpot.com was located offshore, another poker pro who was involved in a similar situation, the legendary Doyle Brunson, used his own personal funds to refund customer deposits of a failed online poker room which he had endorsed.

I would like to know what, if anything, EOE/441 Productions will do to address the Dutch Boyd/PokerSpot.com issue in the WSOP episode that is scheduled to air on October 10.

Thank you.

Oliver Tse
Contributing Poker Business Reporter, PokerBiz411.com
olivert@oliver-tse.com

cc: George Tobias, Editor-in-chief, PokerBiz411.com
Jamie Horowitz, Supervising Producer, ESPN Original Entertainment
George Solomon, Ombudsman, ESPN
Bob Ley, Host, ESPN Outside The Lines

The one thing that stands out the most in Oliver's email is the part about how Doyle Brunson had a situation in the past where players lost their money in a site that he endorsed. He paid every player back their lost money, which came out of his own pocket. That tells you a lot about Texas Dolly. He's a man of integrity.

Let's see how ESPN spins Dutch "Bi-Polar" Boyd's win.

* * * * *
The other night, Phil Hellmuth cashed in his 50th event which gave him the out right lead for Most WSOP Cashes. It also was a milestone for Hellmuth who became the first player to ever cash 50 times at the WSOP. Last year, he failed in his quest to become the first player with 10 bracelets. Johnny Chan reached the highpoint first. Then one week later, Doyle Brunson followed with his 10th. Hellmuth now needs at least two more bracelets if he wants to pass both legends as the all time WSOP bracelet winner.

Top 10 WSOP Career Cashes:
1. Phil Hellmuth 50
2. Men Nguyen 49
3. T.J. Cloutier 48
3. Berry Johnston 48
5. Chris Ferguson 43
6. Erik Seidel 41
7. Humberto Brenes 38
7. An Tran 38
7. Ken Flaton 38
10. Mike Sexton 37

Top 10 (er... 15) WSOP Bracelet Winners:
1. Johnny Chan 10
1. Doyle Brunson 10
3. Phil Hellmuth 9
3. Johnny Moss 9
5. Erik Seidel 7
5. Billy Baxter 7
7. T.J. Cloutier 6
7. Men Nguyen 6
7. Jay Heimowitz 6
10. Phil Ivey 5
10. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson 5
10. Ted Forrest 5
10. Layne Flack 5
10. Stu Ungar 5
10. Berry Johnston 5

With the exception of Phil Ivey and possibly Erik Seidel, I don't think any player in the next ten years will ever win more bracelets or cash more times in the history of the WSOP than Phil Hellmuth. I hope that he reads this because, Hellmuth complains all the time that he doesn't get enough respect. But I tell you what, Hellmuth is going to die trying to become the first 50-10 player... that's the first person to cash 50 times and win 10 bracelets at the WSOP. He needs just one more bracelet to achieve that epic 50-10 category that I just created specifically or Hellmuth.

* * * * *
You should be reading... Pokerati and checking out Flipchip's WSOP Photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/03/2006 09:36:00 PM | Permalink |

 
Dutch Boyd Is Getting Laid Tonight!

It's true. Dutch Boyd just won a bracelet. And I missed it, dammit! I'm still in Hollyweird for one more day and followed the final table via Otis' kick ass coverage of the final event on Poker Stars Blog. Joe Hachem almost won his second bracelet as he proved he's not a fluke and made a final table in just the first week of action at the WSOP.

The event was one of my favorites at the WSOP... Short-handed NL with 6-max tables and Dutch Boyd battled Joe Hachem heads-up. Read all about the final table for Event #5 on Otis' Poker Stars Blog.

Congrats to Dutch Boyd and to Rafe Furst who picked up a bracelet on Friday night. I'll write more about both epic victories when I get back into Las Vegas tomorrow.

Don't forget to check out Flipchip's WSOP Photos.
posted by Pauly at 7/02/2006 11:09:00 PM | Permalink |