By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
Today marks the end of the third week of the WSOP. Wow, after 21 straight days, am I really still here and alive? A couple of friends of mine already had a couple of freak outs and bad days where they contemplated suicide or fire bombing the Rio. The rest of them had a couple days off to keep them sane.
Over the last three summers by this point into the WSOP I had a major freakout. It has a lot to do with your mind and body adjusting to be in Las Vegas for more than a couple of days. Las Vegas is a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here. Too many temptations and too much stimuli. By the third week of living in Las Vegas, the weather starts to bother you (have I mentioned it's so fuckin' hot in Las Vegas in the summer?) and being trapped inside a casino for 12+ hours a day makes me go crazy like Jack Torrance in The Shining.
Redrum. Redrum. Redrum.
I am actually happy to report that there were no major freakouts, just some minor tilt earlier in the week due to tech-issues. That's not to say that a storm isn't a brewin' but I'm feeling good and ready to finish up strong.
I'm a veteran here, like I'm on my second tour of duty in Vietnam. I see rookies making mistakes everyday. I laugh at the ones who blow off my advice and then make the exact errs that I warned them about.
Anyway, I'm back in the pressbox giving off my best "fuck off, I'm busy face" to anyone who dares to pester me today. I have on the headphones and cranked up some Grateful Dead to keep me mellow and inspired as I write. Even with noise reduction headphones, I can still hear the faint clattering of all of the chips in today's donkament.
Back to six events today...
Event #32 $1,500 NL - Final TableHere are today's final tables...
Event #33 $5,000 Stud 8 - Final Table
Event #34 $1,500 PLO with Rebuys - Day 2
Event #35 $1,500 Seven Card Stud - Day 2
Event #36 $1,500 NL - Day 1
Event #37 $10,000 Omaha 8 - Day 1
Event #32 $1,500 NL - Final Table:Some big names in the Stud 8 final table including... Jesus, Annie Duke, Steve Sung, and Marcel Luske. The Flying Dutchman made his second final table this week. After an awful year, he's back and playing some of his best poker in years.
Seat 1: Dean Bui (Seattle, WA) - 211,000
Seat 2: Justin Hoffman (Alpharetta, GA) - 138,000
Seat 3: Jose Luis Velador (Lake Elsinore, CA) - 1,898,000
Seat 4: Dany Georges (Burbank, CA) - 1,082,000
Seat 5: Utsab Saha (Fremont, CA) - 961,000
Seat 6: Jae Chung (Atlanta, GA) - 716,000
Seat 7: Shane Stacey (Hyde Park, VT) - 640,000
Seat 8: Osmin Dardon (West Covina, CA) - 660,000
Seat 9: Anthony Signore (Boynton Beach, FL) - 636,000
Event #33 $5,000 Stud 8 - Final Table:
Seat 1: Bob Lauria (West Haven, CT) - 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske (Amsterdam, Holland) - 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung (Torrance, CA) - 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke (Los Angeles, CA) - 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia (Cuneo, Italy) - 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg (Hamburg, Germany) - 663,000
Seat 7: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) - 434,000
Seat 8: Bob Beveridge (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - 280,000
2:14pm...
The inverse power of sports betting continues to baffle me. I claim to know a lot about college hoops, yet I'm a break even bettor when it comes to March Madness over the last two years. However, my biggest runs in the last year are betting on Swedish premiere league ice hockey and betting on the European soccer championships.
I took down another bet when I took Germany over Portugal. I watched the second half at the Palms sportsbook so I wouldn't run into anyone I knew. Sometimes I want to be anonymous and sweat a bet in silence. The Germans won 3-2 and it was close. They had a 3-1 lead but Portugal scored a late goal. They put on the pressure in extra time and came close a couple of times, but the Germans prevailed.
Just the other day, the odds on Germany jumped from 3/1 to 6/1. I already had them at 3/1 and I put in another bet at 6/1. Now they advanced to the semi-finals. Two more wins for the Germans and I collect a nice wad of cash. A colleague from the UK suggested I take Croatia as a nice hedge since there's great value there. I made a small bet on them. Sunday's match between Spain and Italy should be a great one. I bet on Spain before the championships began. Would love to have two of my teams go to the final four.
By the way, I noticed that the German media are noticeably absent today. I'm sure they watched the game and are celebrating their victory as we speak.
3:19pm...
Yes, back by popular demand...
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...Event #32 $1.5K NL final table: Just as one donkament ends, another begins. Change100 is covering the final table of a 1.5K event while the entire Rio is being used for the new one which started today. The final table is a bunch of unknowns who Change100 said have been showboating for the camera.
1. Kenna James
2. Fossilman
3. Pearljammer
4. Joe Beevers
5. Layne Flack
Event #33 $5K Stud 8: Since action on Day 2 lasted until 7am, the final table will start at 5pm local time. Another stacked final table. Can the Flying Dutchman take it down?
Event #36 $1.5K NL: Another monster field. I can tell the days when there's a donkament by the lack of parking spaces in the parking lot. Harrah's had to seat players in Buzio's even with the Brasilia Room fully operational.
4:20pm...
Today's smoke break is brought to you by Ladbrokes.
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5:23pm...
Event #32 $1.5K NL final table: Down to 5. Jose Luis Velador has a monster lead.
Event #33 $5K Stud 8: Final table just started. They announced the final table players. Gonna be lurking around that... in a few hours. Split pot games will go into the wee hours. I might not start following that until Midnight.
Event #34 $1.5K PLO Rebuys: Down to 37 and the money bubble. Jerrod Ankenman, the Suicide King, and the Eggman are among the chipleaders.
Event #35 $1.5K Stud: 48 to go. Chip Jett is at top of the leader board. Jerry Buss is out. Wicked Chops Poker has some good pics of Jerry Buss' young and exotic bitty...
Event #36 $1.5K NL: 900 players left. Michael Craig busted out in the first 30 minutes. He ran Kings into Aces. "At least I had a half hour of entertainment," joked Craig. He mentioned that the satellite are in the Tropical Room was "the lost City of Gold." Supposedly the satellites are super soft and filled with a rare donkey-fish hybrid. "The players are really weird and they play really weird," mentioned Michael Craig. Go fleece them while they are still fresh. Seriously, that's the room where all the newbies in town, bad players, or totally broke pros start their day. Plenty of dead money in there... if you can survive the suckouts and badbeats.
Right Now in the Pressbox: The chick doing the WSOP videos is struggling through a stand up shot in press row. She obviously doesn't know poker and is reading stuff off of cue cards. Man, makes me miss Shana Hiatt. Down below on the bottom tier of the pressbox, one of the guys doing the French translations for Poker News is more focused on playing on Full Tilt. He's multi-tabling and has eight screens up. Meanwhile, the Germans arrived and one guy is playing chess on his computer. And of course the hombres at Wicked Chops Poker are scanning the room looking for a hot railbird to take a paparazzi style photo of.
7:33pm...
Intertubes on the fritz. Damn ingrates.
Event #33 $5K Stud 8: I wandered over to the final table of Event #32 on the feature stage. It's being taped by ESPN360. The crowd was almost empty aside from a few family members of the people playing. All of the railbirds were outside on the rail of Event #33. Jesus is sitting on the rail and the spectators are four and five deep. Marcel Luske and Annie Duke are also left in the field. Those three are among the most recognizable pros in poker. Jesus is wearing his trademarked getup while the always dapper Marcel Luske is wearing a suit.
Annie Duke took a subtle fashion approach this year. She had been the constant target of Change100's fashion reports over the last couple of years... and rightly so. Annie went for an "all dressed in black" look. It works especially since she's all logoed up and her patches look better on camera against a black background. Stylish and practical. While Annie was not in a hand, she signed an autograph for a fan on the rail. The women held out a Sharpie and the Ace of spades.
"I'm enjoying this final table with some great players," said Tony G.
I hung out with the G on the rail. He was sweating Marcel Luske and the two would joke around in between hands. Luske is looking and acting as jovial as ever. When I saw him at the end of last year, he looked and sounded miserable. When you are in the middle of a down cycle that happens.
I caught one hand where Luske doubled up and scooped a pot against Jesus. The dealer was a super cutie chick with brown hair. He down was over and Marcel begged her not to leave. By the way, Jesus is the chipleader and passed the 1M mark. Marcel jumped up to third in chips, while Annie slipped to the shortstack.
8:42pm...
Event #32 $1.5K NL final table: Luis Velador won his first bracelet. He's from LA and according to my buddy Ryan, he's a regular at Commerce and leading in their player of the year race. Looks like the best player at the final table won.
Event #33 $5K Stud 8: Down to 3. Annie Duke busted out in 5th, while Marcel Luske went out in 4th place. Jesus is the chipleader.
10:24pm...
Event #34 $1.5K PLO Rebuys: Down to 12. Ted Forrest, Layne Flack, and TMay420 are all left in the hunt for the final table. The Eggman Thomas Wahlroos busted out in 14th.
Event #35 $1.5K Stud: Down to 21. Sabyl Landrum (nee Cohen) and DeVo are among the chipleaders.
Event #37 $10K Omaha 8: Shortly before he busted, I saw Gobboboy getting a massage from one of the hottest masseuses in the room. Sadly, Gobbo is busto. Annie Duke is among the chipleader. O8 is definitely one of her best events. And how about Gank? He's near the top of the leaderboard.
1:13am...
Event #34 $1.5K PLO Rebuys: Kevin O'Donnell bubbled off the final table. Ted Forrest, Layne Flack, and TMay420 will come back tomorrow and play out for a bracelet.
Event #33 $5K Stud 8 final table: Heads up for the bracelet. Jesus has been up and down and ahead and behind and then tied it up before he regained the lead. Right now he has Sebastian Ruthenberg on the ropes.
2:23pm...
Event #33 $5K Stud 8 final table: Sebastian Ruthenberg comes from behind to beat Jesus and win a bracelet. Yep, Jesus adds his name to the long list of guys who almost won bracelets this year.
And with that event complete, I am out of here. Three weeks down almost four more to go. See you tomorrow.
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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