By Pauly
Let's jump out of the gate and post a pic of Liz Lieu.
Photo courtesy of Liz
Very nice selection from a Milan photo shoot. Yummy. Yummy.
Moving on...
$50K Horse was on everyone's mind in the Amazon Ballroom. The staff roped off a special area in order to allow spectators to encircle the pros remaining on Day 2.
Entrants: 148Players who busted out on Day 2 included: Bill Edler, Abe Mosseri, Gavin Smith, Allen Kessler, Kristy Gazes, Alexander Kravchenko, Tony Cousineau, Bill Gazes, Richie Sklar, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Phil Laak, Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Marco Traniello, Darrell Dicken, Howard Lederer, Mickey Appleman, David Grey, Capt. Tom Franklin, Patrik Antonius, TJ Cloutier, Doyle Brunson, Victor Ramdin, Ted Forrest, Ralph Perry, Rafi Amit, Grinder, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Joe Cassidy, Robert Williamson III, Ali Eslami, James Bechtel, Nick Frangos, Bill Chen, Bart Hanson, David Chiu, Maureen Feduniak, Hasan Habib, Chad Brown, John Phan, Thomas "DonkeyBomber" Schneider, Kirk Morrison, John D'Agostino, David Levi, Carlos Mortensen, Ted Lawson, Jennifer Harman, Tony G, John Duthie, Mike Sexton, Jesse Jones, and Brandon Adams.
Payouts: Top 16
Surviving Day 1: 127
Day 1 Chipleader: Eli Elezra
Surviving Day 2: 52
Day 2 Chipleader: John Hanson
Remaining Females: Annie Duke, Cyndy Violette, and Isabelle Mercier
End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts:
John Hanson - 641,000
Toto Leonidas - 621,000
Eli Elezra - 568,000
Allen Cunningham - 549,000
Kenny Tran - 544,000
Justin Bonomo - 508,000
David Oppenheim - 469,000
Mike Matusow - 456,000
Phil Ivey - 436,000
Amnon Filippi - 429,000
Remaining Players Day 2 Chipcounts:
Andy Bloch - 425,000
Matthew Hawrilenko - 416,000
Phil Hellmuth - 412,000
John Juanda - 410,000
Max Pescatori - 396,000
Freddy Deeb - 357,000
Robert Mizrachi - 338,000
Bruno Fitoussi - 337,000
Chip Reese - 332,000
David Singer - 332,000
Rob Hollink - 321,000
Daniel Negreanu - 307,000
Tuan Le - 295,000
Greg Mascio - 290,000
Greg Raymer - 287,000
Huckleberry Seed - 278,000
Barry Greenstein - 275,000
Thor Hansen - 275,000
Stephen Wolff - 251,000
Mike Wattel - 250,000
Mark Gregorich - 249,000
Neal Friets - 246,000
Tim Phan - 234,000
John Hennigan - 204,000
David Williams - 203,000
Erik Seidel - 194,000
Gabe Kaplan - 186,000
Joe Tehan - 166,000
Annie Duke - 165,000
Daniel Shak - 156,000
Noah Jefferson - 149,000
Thomas Weideman - 127,000
Dewey Tomko - 119,000
Steve Sung - 119,000
Erick Lindgren - 99,000
Chris Reslock - 98,000
Patrick Pezzin - 94,000
Sam Grizzle - 86,000
Scotty Nguyen - 72,000
Cyndy Violette - 60,000
David Sklansky - 47,000
Isabelle Mercier - 41,000
The bustouts came pretty quick and it was hard to keep up with them. All the pros in the event are hyper competitive and wanted to see themselves in the Top 5 chip counts on the displays in the Amazon Room. Some complained that they weren't updated constantly. Annie Duke kindly offered up her count when we'd walk by the tables.
Eli Elezra started out as the leader and held the lead for most of the day. He was challenged by Allen Cunningham, Kenny Tran, Matthew Hawrilenko, and Toto Leonidas at some point. Late in Day 2, a new leader emerged... John Hanson.
Eli Elezra drew a few moans when he was moved to a new table. He used his big stack wisely and raised pots blind during Hold'em. He three-bet one time without looking at his cards which drew ire from David Sklanasky. Eli also turned his head so he could not see the flop and then fired out blind. His opponent folded.
Erick Lindgren is the self-appointed Razz Machine. He made up a song that he'd sing during the Omaha levels since Razz was approaching. He was down to 11K and increased his stack to over 110K... all during Razz. "I'm just a razz machine. I'm a razz machine," he'd sing.
Defending Champion... Chip Reese
Photo courtesy of Flipchip
2006 HORSE CHampion Chip Reese finished up Day 2 in 19th place in chips. But you have to keep an eye out for Andy Bloch, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey. Hellmuth wants #12 and has been running good over the last three weeks. Andy Bloch was soooooo close to winning the event last year that he wants redemption. And if the rumors about Phil Ivey are true (betting $2 million that he'd win a bracelet and getting 5-1 odds) then you know Ivey is focused and trying to play his best game ever.
Cyndy Violette was down to 5.5K and got up to over 250K before she slipped. She's one of the short stacks and will have to double up early or she'll be in trouble.
"Tim to separate the men from the boys before we go to bed," is what Mike Matusow described the thinning field around Midnight.
There's still plenty of play left and anything can happen in a poker tournament. Pros are just one turn of the card away from going busto, heading into tiltdom, or picking up a wave of confidence that could carry them to the final table.
I'll be covering Day 3 of HORSE over at PokerNews.com. Click here to follow the live updates of HORSE.
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 25
Congrats to Erica Schoenberg for taking third in Event #38. I was rooting for her to win it all. Robert Cheung from Vancouver took it down. Fuel55 has played with him before and gave me a tip that I hoped to use if I had more chips and got involved in a big pot with Cheung. I played two pots with him. I let him steal my big blind and he said he had a hand since he knew I was short-stacked and would push with anything marginal. The second was when I flopped a set of Aces in a three-way pot with Men the Master and him.
David Williams told me he thought my bit about CK Hua's bag was funny. When I asked him what he thought CK kept in his bag, Williams said... "Afro-sheen."
Change100 wrote about what railbirding me in Event #38 was like. Some great observations in a piece called The Sweat. Take a peek.
One of our reporters for PokerNews is Tom Sexton. You might know his brother. Anyway, Tom gets some of the best color commentary since he's buddies with a lot of the pros and hangs out with them on breaks. The best story he told me on Day 2 was about Richie Sklar. He's golf buddies with Mike Sexton and has won a fistful of cash on the golf course. Sklar chopped a HORSE satellite and had half of his buy-in. He went into the VIP lounge and picked up 12K in less than ten minutes on their putting green. He was wagering with some of the heavy hitters and secured 3/4 of his buy-in. When he walked back into the hallway, he bumped into an old friend who bought 1/4 of a piece of him. Within one hour, Sklar had his buy-in to the #50K Horse event. As soon as he busted out of HORSE, he said "I'm heading to the lounge to win my buy-in to the main event."
Snoopy and Jen from Blonde Poker have arrived and it took less than an hour before I won my first prop bet with Snoopy. At dinner break of Day 1 of HORSE, we bet on how many pros were wearing baseball hats... not a skull cap like Max Pescatori wears or a weirdo hat that Andy Bloch wears or Doyle's Stetson.... but traditional baseball hats. The line was set at 16, and I took the over. He started counting and stopped after he got through four or five tables. He gave up. I counted 23... Ship it!
Michael Craig made the final table of Mixed Hold'em. Congrats to MC. Maybe he can pull a Jim McManus?
Three WSOP main event champions advanced to Day 2 of the Seniors NL event... Tom McEvoy (1983), Amarillo Slim (1972), and Brad Daugherty (1991). I was not even born yet when Slim won his title. But it was great to see him playing.
There was a rumor that Jimmy Chagra was playing in the Seniors event. At one point he was the largest marijuana trafficker in the Southwest. In the 1970s, you couldn't toke a joint in Las Vegas from a crop of pot that Chagra probably had brought in from Mexico via El Paso. He supposedly hired Woody Harrelson's father to whack the judge who threw the book at him. Today's 4:20 break is brought to you by... Jimmy Chagra.
Kristy Gazes and Bill Gazes were seated at the same starting table for Day 2 of HORSE. They had not been at the same table since they divorced several years ago. It was not the cause of any stress, according to Kristy since they are close friends. Sadly, they both busted out and failed to advance to Day 3.
Seven players busted out of HORSE early and made their way over to the Poker Freezer to play in PLO8. It used to be called the Poker Sauna, but ever since they installed a new AC system, it's a freezer. Chau Giang was shivering around Midnight. When Flipchip walked in to take photos, he said, "Fuck man, can you turn this thing down." We love it when Chau Giang says fuck. And I betcha Chau's nipples were rock hard.
PLO8 featured Drizz playing in his first WSOP event! I got to wish him luck on one of my breaks since I covered Horse. Change100 got to cover his event that also featured Andrew Webking, Jay Greenspan, Tony G, George Danzer, Gank, and Amy Calistri. Yes, Amy played and took a bad beat before she sat down. She ripped her jeans and we could see her ass. Of course, Amy was free-balling and not wearing any underwear. That's how Calistri rolls.
Tilted Kilt Stella Count: 35
Last 5 Pros Who Told Me They Read the Tao of Poker...
1. Erica Schoenberg
2. David Williams
3. Allen Cunningham
4. Melissa Hayden
5. George Danzer
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Chad Brown
2. Thomas Wahlroos
3. Max Pescatori
4. Amarillo Slim
5. Victor Ramdin
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.
And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.
For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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