By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
They pushed back the starting time one hour... so action for Day 4 will be underway at 1pm Vegas time or 4pm East Coast time.
Stay tuned for live action from the killing floor at the Rio, from the moment cards are in the air until everyone bags up their chips at the end of the night.
For instant text updates to your cell phone, you can follow me on Twitter.
In the meantime, checkout Flipchip's WSOP photos.
Here are some quick stats...
Players Remaining: 474
Total Entrants: 6,844
Top 10 in Chips:
Jeremy Joseph 1458000
Jeremiah Smith 1079500
Mark Ketteringham 950000
Kyle Carlston 932500
Dag Martin Mikkelsen 931000
Alan Jaffray 908500
Owen Crowe 900000
Alexander Kostritsyn 887000
James McManus 875000
Chris Barrile 873500
Notables:
Matt Matros 822500
PearlJammer 726500
Sheiky 724000
Brandon Cantu 710000
Tracey "xTraCEY" Nguyen 476500
Phil Hellmuth 475000
Victor Ramdin 471000
Mark Vos 468000
Hoyt Corkins 439500
Mike Matusow 438500
Evelyn Ng 414500
Thayer Rasmussen 394000
Allen Cunningham 386500
Gus Hansen 355000
Magnus Petersson 352000
Jeff Madsen 349000
Bill Blanda 347000
Hevad Khan 338500
Alex Outhred 326000
Hasan Habib 326000
Chip Jett 318500
Pat Poels 257500
ActionBob 253000
Johnny Chan 252000
Tiffany Michelle 249000
Bertrand Grospellier 181500
Iggy 180K
Kara Scott 171000
Carmel Petresco 158500
12:22pm...
In position. The room has been reconfigured to accommodate ESPN cameras. Entire rows of tables have been eliminated to allow a smoother flow of traffic for floor staff and media. Most of the orange section has disappeared. The space in front of the press box is virtually empty, except for the two massage chairs in there trying to pick up some more clients.
Claudia the dealer is among those who will be flipping over the cards and deciding the fates of several hundred players who will succumb to the killing fields.
About thirty minutes before the restart, players were allowed inside and they slowly trickled inside.
1:22pm...
Iggy Watch: Iggy drew a tough table, but it is in the green section next to the Beast Lounge, which means it will be one of the last tables to break on Day 4. Two to Iggy's right, is the legendary Jeremiah Smith, who is second in chips. On Iggy's right is Las Vegas local Chad Layne. He told me that he's a huge Tao of Poker reader. He has over 780K in career tournament earnings, but he admitted that he's not a pro, not even a semi-pro.
I'll be keep close tabs on that table, along with ActionBob's table. He's sitting right next to Mike Matusow. He should get some TV time as ESPN cameras are naturally draw to the ramblings of the Mouth.
Dealer of the year, Jenna, did the honors... "Shuffle up and deal!"
Cards were in the air at 1:09pm. Five levels today. Two hour levels.
Within fourteen seconds (timed by Vin), there was an all in and a call.
I caught a crazy hand on the featured TV table. Jean-Robert Bellande was all in with As-Qd against 10c-9s. He was mugging for the cameras before the dealer proceeded with the hand.
"Please don't send me home with a ten of diamonds!" he pleaded.
The audience was a mixture of a few hardcore Hellmuth fans and the majority were rabid Bobby Bellande fans for his stint on Survivor. They laughed and cheered and hung on their hero's every word. It was almost as if Hellmuth was invisible. For the first time in a very long time, Hellmuth was overshadowed at the featured table. Hellmuth might be a big swinging dick in poker with
"Please don't send me home with a ten of diamonds!" he pleaded as ESPN cameras followed his every move.
The dealer fanned out Ac-8h-2d.
"No Jacks! No jacks!" he screamed as he stood up.
The crowd laughed. The loved every second of it.
The turn was the 6s.
"Oh shit," said Bellande. "Please, no sevens!!!"
The river was the 7s. In a display of poor sportsmanship, the dejected Bellande threw his hat on the table. The crowd went apeshit. A chorus of "Boos!" rained down from the stands.
"Aw! Sick fuckin' beat!" one guy yelled out. "Just like playing on the internet."
Seriously, the spectator was correct. That was a RiverStars hand.
2:22pm...
Iggy Watch: Iggy is out.
Here's two hands from Iggy... his final two. Iggy was UTG+1 and moved all in for his last 100K. Felix Osterlandin the small blind asked Iggy how much he had. Iggy had been hiding his big chips (the 5K orange ones) behind his bigger stacks. Iggy pulled out his orange chips and Osterlandin peeked at his cards then folded. Jeremiah Smith was in the big blind. He looked at his cards then tanked for a minute before he folded and said something like, "Next time I'll call."
Iggy won the blinds and antes. On the next hand, Iggy insta-shoved from UTG. Action folded around to Jeremiah Smith in the small blind. He looked at his cards and quickly called. Chad Layne folded from the big blind. The dealer yelled, "All in and a call on Green #7!"
Action was paused while ESPN's cameras scrambled to get into position. Iggy tabled Ac-Js versus Jeremiah's 9s-9h. Classic race. Iggy slid on his shades and tilted his head down to avoid a close up shot. The dealer fanned out the flop of 7c-2d-2s. I stood behind Iggy and could see him breathing heavy as the floor person asked the dealer to pause for a few seconds while ESPN could get into better position.
The turn was the 10c. Iggy needed help. It seemed like five minutes before the river card was dealt. The 8s fell and sealed Iggy's fate. Iggy sighed as Jeremiah stood up to shake Iggy's hand. Iggy took his elimination like a real man and wished Jeremiah good luck. He quietly collected his things and made his way to the payout table. In one eye he looked dejected and in the other he looked relieved.
I dunno the exact place of his elimination. Otis and think it's around 401 or so. Stay tuned for that information.
Within moments of Iggy's elimination, Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot called to give Iggy a shout out. Iggy is his favorite poker player and MMA blogger.
3:22pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph at 2M. Jeremiah Smith, Matt Matros, Owen Crowe, and Raja Kattamuri
Recent Eliminations: Iggy, Johnny Bax, Iwan Jones, Frankie O'Dell,
Players Remaining: 363
Jeremiah Smith opened from early position and tossed out a raise from his massive tiers of stacks. Chad Layne called as did three other players. Smith turned to the table behind him and said, "Do any of you guys want to call to?"Justin Scott from the big blind jammed and it looked like a squeeze play. Smith and Layne folded as did everyone else. Scott tabled Queens and said, "Don't think I'm stealing, Big Chips!"
Otis has been hiding out in the press box because the Devil is still in the tournament. I haven't seen Otis this spooked... ever. Even when he ate Keno crayons, he had a huge smile on his face.
Oliver Tse wanted me to know that he did not rep Fernando Gordo, the guy who didn't show up yesterday and got blinded down. "I don't rep any Argentines," he said.
Pokerati's Pat Poels' Aces held up against AC legend Bill Blanda. Poels a
I hung out with the Poker Shrink and ESPN's crew. I mentioned to the cameraman that I was sweating Action Bob.
"He's sitting right next to Mike Matusow. I feel sorry for him," joked the cameraman.
A slim Thunder Keller was seated at that interesting table as well.
Homer just got great news. After being here for 42 days, his press badge was officially approved.
There's no love for no names by ESPN. One table had an all in and a call. The dealer held up action until an ESPN producer came over to see who was all in. They two players fighting for their tournament lives were unknowns so he told the dealer to proceed since ESPN wasn't interested in filming the action.
The magic number today is 175. Jack Effel told the Poker Shrink that he'll make a decision at the end of level four. If they are close to 175 players, action migtht be suspended. Effel doesn't want to stop action once it gets into level five. So we'll have to wait and see what happens during the first level after the dinner break.
4:20pm...
Today's smoke break is sponsored by PokerStars!
* * * * *
4:27pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph at 2.35M. Jeremiah Smith, Allen Cunningham, Matt Matros, and PearlJammer are all in the lead pack.
Recent Eliminations: Johnny Chan, Elky, Maya Geller-Antonius, Hasan Habib, Bill Blanda, Magnus Petersson, Chris Bjorin
Players Remaining: 324
Johnny Chan is out.... so Hellmuth is the last champion standing. Patrik Antonius' wife is also busto.
Allen Cunningham is making a run. He jumped up to second in chips after crossing over into the 1 million territory. Gus Hansen is over 800K and the Great Dane is gunning for a million in chips. Carmel Petresco has a nice stack and she has chips. Almost 1M!
Hellmuth is under 200K, while Matusow is up to 400K. ActionBob is around 300K and won a pot with Kings.
Chad Layne is in a tough situation. To his right? Jeremiah Smith. To his left? PearlJammer who got moved into Iggy's empty seat. They both have over 1 million in chips to his 300K.
5:29pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph with 2.7M. David Saab, Clint Schafer, William Soffin, Eric Bamer
Recent Eliminations: Pat Poels, Carmel Petresco, Thayer Rasmussen, Jani Vilmunen
Players Remaining: 294
New world order. There's a new batch of chipleaders. Joseph is still out in front, but the pack caught up to Cunningham, Jeremiah, and Pearljammer.
Hellmuth doubled up in the last hour and has 420K. Tiffany Michelle is at 325K. Kara Scott at 285K.
Spectators several deep on the rail most of them have been sweating the area near Hellmuth and Matusow and Hansen... hoping to get glimpses of the few familiar faces in the crowd.
6:30pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph with 2.5M and... David Saab, Allen Cunningham, Suresh Prabhu, Tim Taylor
Recent Eliminations: Dag Martin Scandi, Mike Souza, and Alan Jaffray
Players Remaining: 279
Gus closing in one 1M. Hellmuth started to talk trash with some of his table mates after a relatively quiet start. He chowed down on a couple of PizzaHuts pizzas in between hands.
The Poker Shrink has been hovering over Matusow's table. He told me, "Mikey is a little off today."
Matusow made a questionable call on one hand and lost some chips. That fire dhim up and he started grinding away and moved back up to 350K. He started trash talking a bit with one player.
"You knew Scotty told that guy 'If you call it's all over baby?' Well I'm not saying that..." snapped Matusow. He got his opponent to call and won that pot. Shrink mentioned that Matusow was one of those players who played better when they were behind. Mikey loves being the underdog.
Shrink mentioned that Action Bob was "absolutely quiet over the last level." ActionBob has been waiting to strike.
Brandon Cantu has been dominating his table. he has several towers of chips.
The agents have been swarming. Tiffanny Michelle was gobbled up on one of the breaks.
7:30pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, David Saab, Keoni Schwartz, Lanini Davor, Mark Ketteringham
Recent Eliminations: RainKhan, Tino Lechich, Van Nguyen
Players Remaining: 239
Matt Matros took a hit and slipped under 1M.
Hung out at Matusow and ActionBob's table. Bob is past 350K. I caught a hand where Matusow pushed all in on the flop on a nine high board with two diamonds. His opponent Thomas Keller had Matusow covered and tanked for several minutes. Not one, but two ESPN cameras captured the action as two boom mikes crossed streams high above the table. At that point there were three "all in and a call" on adjacent tables. The crowd around the table got bigger and bigger. Players from other tables walked over to check out the action. Whenever a large cluster developed on the floor, it attracted more and more curious people. A thick wall of people surrounded Matusow's table and somehow Gus Hansen snuck in there as well and stood behind the dealer.
The spectators on the rail elbowed each other for position. A few stood up on their toes to get a better view. A couple of people tried to snap photos from a far.
"All in on table 33!" a dealer yelled. That was the fourth table to have an all in since the hand began.
Matusow sat still and barely breathed. He didn't move at all. Keller finally called and Matusow quickly tabled Aces.
"Do you have Queens?" asked Matusow
Keller flipped over tens and Matusow jumped out of his chair and pumped his fist.
The turn was the King of hearts on a board of K-9-8-2.
"A Jack would have made things more interesting for me, the passerby," joked Gus Hansen as he walked away from the table knowing that Matusow would double up.
Over at the featured table... is now Victor Ramdin along. The secondary table is Iggy's old table with Chad Layne, PearlJammer, and Jeremiah Smith. Layne busted one player and Smith lost 600K in the previous level and got flustered. He regained his composure at the break and got some of his chips back.
Hellmuth slipping into tilt. He lost a pot and went ballistic. "Idiot from Northern Europe calls a raise with 5-7!" he screamed then stormed off. "Idiot can't even spell P-O-K-E-R. Calls a raise with 5-7?"
Tiffany Michele busted RainKhan. he shoved on the flop. She had top pair and it held up. The ESPN cameras caught the hand and definitely will broadcast that bust out.
Sheiky still in. He kicked an empty water bottle at me. He didn't apologize and I gave him the evil eye.
9:31pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, Brandon Cantu, Keoni Schwartz, David Saab, Nikolay Losev
Recent Eliminations: PearlJammer, Evelyn Ng, Thierry van den Berg, Tracey Nguyen
Players Remaining: 216
Before dinner break, Jeremy Joseph was the big stack with Brandon Cantu not far behind.
ActionBob wandered over, "Do you think I got a tough table?"
Gus Hansen was moved into the nine seat. Action Bob had Matusow to his direct right and Thunder Keller. The rest of Bob's table was solid and everyone wondered if they would get moved to the featured TV table.
Players just returned from dinner break.
There will be one more level of play tonight.
10:31pm...
Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, Andrew Rosskamm, Brandon Cantu, Geoffrey Herzog, Alfredo Fernandez
Players Remaining: 197
Chip
ActionBob flopped a set of sixes and cracked Aces. He's up to 650K. He's gonna need lots of bullets if he's gonna play against The Camel, Gus Hansen, The Mouth, and Thunder Keller.
Gus Hansen has a tough time keeping still. He hasn't been playing too many hands and after he folds, he floats around and checks out the action on adjoining tables.
Mark Vos and the crew on Table #1 are the loudest in the room.
Bond18 and his lady stopped by the press box. I told them about Vos' latest hijinks.
"Vos is still left? That douchebag!" said Bond18.
"Shhh! Everyone can hear you. Someone will write what you said," said his girlfriend Celina.
"I'm not saying anything everyone knows. We're good friends and he'll be the first to admit that he's a douchebag."
That got a hearty chuckle from the press box.
One more hour of play left tonight.
11:00pm...
Total shocker. Play was suspended with 189 players to go. No explanation. There was 40 minutes left in the level and I assumed we were playing it down. I'm a little surprised.
"We really should have played it down," said Nolan Dalla.
Even though I'm sick as a dog and wanna get out of here, I think they should have played five full levels instead of 3.5+ levels.
Anyway, action resumes at noon on Saturday. Jeremy Joseph is still the chipleader.
Thanks for following along!
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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