By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
Wow, I survived the first week of the WSOP. And guess what? In the last seven days I did three things which I never got to do during the 2007 WSOP...
1. Sleep at least six hours in one night.The odd thing is that since the WSOP began, I have not played one hand of poker (aside from Saturdays with Dr. Pauly, I only played once online) and I have not played any Pai Gow. If I could bet on Celtics games at the Rio, I would have bet them the last two games.
2. Visit the afternoon shift at the Rhino
3. Go to Red Rock Canyon with Friedman
3:20pm...
Head over to Wicked Chops Poker for sultry pics of Lacey Jones. And don't forget about Flipchip's 2008 WSOP pics.
Once again, there are six tournaments today.
Event #7 2K NL - Final TableYes, there will be two bracelets awarded tonight. Here are today's final tables:
Event #8 $10K Mixed Championship - Final Table
Event #9 $1,500 NL Shorthanded - Day 2
Event #10 $2,500 Omaha8/Stud 8 - Day 2
Event #11 $5,000 NL Shootout - Day 1
Event #12 $1,500 Limit - Day 1
Event #7 2K NL:
Seat 1: Matt Keikoan (San Rafael, California) 1,011,000
Seat 2: Theo Tran (Las Vegas, Nevada) 1,884,000
Seat 3: Shannon Shorr (Las Vegas, Nevada) 627,000
Seat 4: Carter Gill (Bali, Indonesia) 652,000
Seat 5: Mihai Manole (Targoviste, Romania) 1,020,000
Seat 6: Chris Bjorin (London, United Kingdom) 205,000
Seat 7: Mike Lisanti (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) 358,000
Seat 8: J.C. Tran (Sacramento, California) 273,000
Seat 9: Alex Bolotin (Brooklyn, New York) 345,000
Event #8 $10K Mixed Championship:
Seat 1: James Mackey (Columbia, Missouri) 742,000
Seat 2: Matt Glantz (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 1,150,000
Seat 3: Sam Farha (Houston, Texas) 374,500
Seat 4: Mike DeMichele (Las Vegas, Nevada) 434,000
Seat 5: Tom Dwan (Edison, New Jersey) 642,000
Seat 6: Eli Elezra (Henderson, Nevada) 76,000
Seat 7: Anthony Rivera (Henderson, Nevada) 274,000
Seat 8: Jeff Madsen (Los Angeles, California) 149,000
4:20pm...
Smoke break. Today's smoke break is brought to you by PokerStars!
Download PokerStars
5:20pm...
I bumped into Lee Jones in the hallway. He recently left PokerStars and took a position with Card Runners. In an industry full of scumsuckers, douchebags, and assholes... there are a few bright souls out there. One of those is Lee Jones and I'm glad that he's gonna be here for a bit. The best thing about hanging with Lee is that we don't talk about poker and just talk endlessly about music.
Speaking about music, my buddies are in Kansas at the Wakrusa music festival. The Joker is live blogging the festival all weekend long at our group music blog... Coventry.
Just before the 5pm event began. Doyle Brunson was in the hallway at the PPA booth posing for pictures and signing autographs. And yeah, the railbirds and tourists and poker fanatics flocked to that end of the hallway like flies on shit.
I wandered over to the sports book to get info on the 2008 European Championships. That's soccer for us Americans and football to everyone else in the world. Last I checked, Germany was the favorite at 3/1. Here's the odds as of last week:
Germany 3/1I have no idea about soccer which means I want to bet ungodly sums of money on the upcoming Czech/Switzerland match. I'll have to consult members of the European press for advice on my picks.
Italy 4/1
Spain 5/1
Portugal 5/1
France 7/1
Holland 7/1
Switzerland 8/1
Coratia 10/1
Czech Republic 12/1
Here's an embarrassing story involving a friend of mine from overseas. He's a non-American covering the WSOP. On one of the breaks, he went to the Poker Kitchen and picked up some candy. He loved them so much that he almost ate the entire roll. He kept raving about them. When asked the name of his new favorite candy, he said, "Rolaids." We had to tell him that they weren't candy and to stop eating them in bulk. Here's the embarrassing part... after eating an entire roll of Rolaids inside of an hour, it fucked up his digestive system so much that he didn't shit for two days.
6:20pm...
Watching the Yankees lose to KC on mlb.tv. I love the fact that David Cone announces Yankees games. I suspect that he used to be a major pothead.
Event #7 final table: Down to 4. Theo Tran has a monster chiplead. Shannon "I jumped off a balcony and cracked my back" Shorr is shortstacked.
Event #8 final table: Change100 is blogging that event. Down to 5. Sam Farha, Jeff Madsen, and Durrr are busto. Matt Glantz is the chipleader.
Benjo and I sat down and crunched the numbers on the opening round of the Euro Championships. Obviously, he's going with France to win it all. I like the Germans but fear the Spaniards!
7:20pm...
Robert Varkonyi sighting at the Rio. He wandered into the Amazon Ballroom with his wife. They stood near the entrance and checked out the action. Either the fans on the rail had no clue who he was, or they simply blew him off. So sad. On the other hand, Hellmuth walked through the crowd and everyone around him got giddy and started taking photos.
"He's much taller in person," one guy said.
Humberto Brenes sat on a bench in the hallway. He was on his cellphone speaking in Spanish to someone. A group of fans stopped and took photos of Humberto, who paused his conversation for a few seconds to accommodate his fans.
Amarillo Slim sighting in the hallway. The legend is sort of ignored by his peers due to his legal issues with underaged girls.
Event #7 final table: Shannon Shorr went from the outhouse to the penthouse in less than two hours. With four to go he was shortstacked. He went on a rush and busted Theo Tran to take over the chiplead.
Event #7 final table: Matt Keikoan and Shannon Shorr are heads up for the bracelet. Shorr had a tough 2007 WSOP and was in pain for most of it. Remember how Shorr was in a brace last year after breaking his back? Well here's how he did it...
Event #8 final table: Down to three. Mig.com is the shortstack.
Event #9 Shorthanded: Down to 14. German Jan von Halle is among the chipleaders. Von Halle checked a royal flush in event #1 and now he's trying to make another WSOP final table. He made one last year and his wife Katja Thater won a bracelet in Razz. This might be the year of the Germans. That's why I bet on Germany to win the European Championships. I bet them at 3/1. Benjo bet France at 7/1. That's a sucker bet.
"That's not a sucker bet," said Benjo. As he explained many times before, France was not favored to win the World Cup... and they did.
On the way back from the sports book, I saw Devilfish. He had his arms around a busty blonde as they strolled down the corridor.
Event #11 $5k Shootout: That event started today with 360 players (or 36 tables worth). E-Fro, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Joe Sebok, TonyG, and TMay420 all won their respective tables and advanced to the next round.
Event #12 $1.5K Limit: Terrence Chan and Michael Craig have decent stacks. Anna Wroblewski and DonkeyBomber are still in. Marcel Luske also has chips. The Flying Dutchman is trying to turn around his luck after an awful 2007.
9:23pm...
Event #12 Limit: This is as crowded that I've seen the Amazon Ballroom this late into the evening. Part of that is due to the 881 player field in the Limit Hold'em event. The event started at 5pm and is still in the early stages so not to many people have busted. By this time in the evening, I'm used to seeing several empty tables in front of me or some sort of second chance tournament going on. Nope. The room is jam packed.
From the elevated view in the press box, I could see out into the field in Event #12. Shaun Deeb, DonkeyBomber, and Victor Ramdin are all within eye shot. I spotted an agent scurrying through the crowd checking up on his client, while an older waitress lugged a large tray of water and energy drinks out to the middle of the floor. A guy in a track suit jumped up from his table to make a call stood in the corner and whined about a bad beat.
For the first time ever, I spotted CK Hua without his bag. Seriously. No bag.
At the Sapphire Pool booth, there's a hot skank standing around. I must have passed her about a dozen times today and every time there was a different guy hitting on her. One guy was so bold to pull out his bankroll in a weak attempt to get the stripper to give him a handjob behind the Poker Kitchen.
10:24pm...
We have two new WSOP barcelet winners... Anthony Rivera (aka the Grubby look-a-like) won Event #8 10K Mixed Championship. Mig.com took second. Over in Event #7 2K NL, Matt Keikoan won his first bracelet when he beat Shannon Shorr heads up.
It's now time for... Benjofish Transaltions. Benjo wrote:
Pauly a démarré une nouvelle rubrique sur son Tao of Poker. Ca s’appelle Tao of Five, c'est une série de cinq questions posées à ses amis des médias. Le premier invité a passer sous le feu roulant des questions de Pauly est votre serviteur... On a enregistré l’interview autour d’un sandwich dans la cantine des joueurs. Pauly n’a pas édité mes réponses, recopiant brut de pomme mes élucubrations proférées dans un mauvais anglais.
After we ran it through Babblefish...
Pauly started a new heading on its Tao of Poker. Tao is called off Tao Five, c' is a series of five questions put to his/her friends of the media. The first guest has to pass under the fire rolling of the questions of Pauly is your servant... One recorded the interview around a sandwich in the canteen of the players. Pauly did not publish my answers, recopying gross apple my wild imaginings uttered in bad English.
11:24pm...
Event #9 Shorthanded: The final table of six is set... John Conkright, Michiel Brummelhuis, Rep Porter, Nathan Templeton, Anatoly Shilyuk, and Devin Porter. Two Porters in the final six. Who would have thunk it?
Event #10 O8/Stud8: They're in the money and down to 33. Action has been slow and will continue to be very slow into the night as all split-pot games do at the WSOP. I feel bad for Snoopy and Dana who have to cover that arduous event. The Grinder is among the chipleader and Barbara Enright is still hanging in there with a short stack.
Event #11 5K Shootout: They had a marathon battle at one table. Gregg Turk and Matt Sterling played heads-up for 4.5 hours before Turk finally took him out.
Event #12 Limit: 440 left out of 881. Michael Craig is among the chipleaders with the Donkey Bomber, the Flying Dutchman, and the Viet Hottie. Vinnie Vinh sighting playing in Limit event. He has two oranges in front of him. Vinnie gave Lance some Skittles and said he's doing fine.
12:40am...
Event #10 08/Stud8:20 players left. Barbara Enright busted out in 26th place, Allen Cunningham in 22nd.
Event #12: 300+ players remaining. DonkeyBomber and Robert Goldfarb of Pokerati.com fame are both still in. Goldfarb is sitting at the same table as Vinnie Vinh. Yes, Vinh is still alive. Viet Hottie is still around along with Michael Craig, Daniel Negreanu, Terrence Chan, and Bill Chen. Recent bustouts include Jesus, JC Tran, Humberto Brenes and Chad Brown.
I just got back from the secret bar with Benjo. As we walked past the Hooker Bar we spotted two hookers. On our way back to the Amazon Room, three working girls were huddled in a circle.
"What is that some sort of fraternity?" wondered Benjo.
1:48am...
Event #12: Bill Chen and Michael Craig are busto.
By the way, I published the latest issue of Truckin'. Check it out...
Tell your friends about your favorite stories. The writer's write for free and appreciate the support. Thanks again for wasting your time with Truckin'.
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Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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