Thursday, July 10, 2008

WSOP Day 42: Main Event Day 3 - Live Blog

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

1,307 players returned for Day 3.

Here's the leaderboard...
Top 10 Chip Counts:
1. Brian Schaedlich (Cleveland, Ohio) - 801,000
2. Peter Biebel (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) - 531,000
3. Alex Outhred (Los Angeles, California) - 486,800
4. Baja Kattamuri (Dallas, Texas) - 411,100
5. Hunter Frey (Houston, Texas) - 397,000
6. Jeremiah Smith (Las Vegas, Nevada) - 386,000
7. Steven Goosen (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) - 362,100
8. Patrick Fortin (Quebec, Canada) - 355,900
9. Reagan Silber (Las Vegas, Nevada) - 355,500
10. Kellen Hunter (Minot, North Dakota) - 354,100
Iggy has 86,700 and looking good... stay tuned for live updates.

* * * * *

12:01pm...

Everyone left in the WSOP is inside the Amazon Ballroom. Nine of these lucky fuckers will go onto the final table.

Lots of prop bets flying in the press box about what time the money bubble will break. The top 666 players will win prize money.

Otis thinks it will be 12:44am. I like that number. Benjo also thought it would be late. A few folks think they money bubble won't break until tomorrow.

Several PokerStars qualifiers are pestering the PokerStars bloggers to get them in the blog. That's such a tough task to do and usually the guys who asked to get covered are the one who will bust early.

So who is left in the mix that you might know? From Team PokerStars... RainKhan, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, Elky, Chris Moneymaker, Noah Boeken, and Victor Ramdin who has a lot of chips. Also in the mix... Phil Hellmuth, Action Bob, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Jen Harman, Allen Cunningham, Patrik Antonius, Mike Matusow, Mandy Baker, Hoyt Corkins, Tex Barch, Bobby Bellande, Chris Bjorin, MrSmokey1, Barny Boatman, Bill Blanda, McLovin, Scott Clements, Dave Colclough, John D'Agostino, Gigabet, Bill Gazes, Chau Giang, Phil Gordon, Andy Griggs, Tony Hachem, Chip Jett, Johnny Bax, Gant, Alezander Kostritsyn, Alex KGB Kostritsyn, Jason Lester, Matt Matros, Nenad Medic, Mike Meredith, Tiffany Michelle, Dag Martin Scandi, Men the Master, Evy Ng, Carmel Petresco, Brandon Schaefer, Thayer Rasmussen, Erik Seidel, Rolf Slotboom, Jason Strasser, Emad Tahtouh, Pearljammer, and SirWatts.

They will play five levels today. Two hour levels. 800/1,600 blinds with a 200 ante.

Cards in the air at 12:04. No frills start today. That's how I like it. Let's just play poker.

* * * * *

1:01pm...

Big Stacks: Brian Schaedlich, Peter Biebel, Alex Outhred, Raja Kattamuri, and Jeremiah Smith

Recent Eliminations: Chris Moneymaker, Jen Harman, Patrik Antonius, Noah Boeken, Giagbet, Arnold Spee, and Russell Rosenblum

Players Remaining: 1,161

Iggy Watch: Down to 76K. He is wearing the Fisherman's hat for good luck.

Within seconds of cards going in the air, a faint cry of "All in and a call!" rang out. Over one hundred players busted out in the first hour.

Rolf arrived to his seat late. Hellmuth was on time and his wife was on the rail sweating him on. Although, Jeff Madsen was AWOL when action began.

One of the floor guys told me that Moneymaker busted... one of the first big names to do so. I caught Hellmuth in the middle of a race. His Big Slick versus a short stack with nines. Hellmuth turned a King and he busted his opponent to add more ammo to his stack.

The secondary featured table included Bobby Bellande. And Johnny Chan is up at the featured TV table.

One fan was super excited to meet Johnny Chan. She was in hysterics in the hallway telling her friends. "Ohmygod! I said hello to Johnny Chan. And he said hi back!"

Another guy in the hallway was doing the walk of shame as he complained about a bad beat.

"Two cards in the deck. I was a 96% favorite and lost," he said almost in tears.

There is one cash game running right now and the tables in the red sections are quickly breaking.

Gus Hansen was walking around in between hands and talking with Phil Gordon. Sitting down, Gordo is almost taller than Hansen standing up.

Mike Matusow was moved to Jen Harman's table... and that didn't last long. Harman was eliminated. I felt bad for her. She was trying to leave as quickly as possibly and someone stopped her for a photo request. Busting out of the Main Event is the worst feeling of the year for many pros... yet for folks like Harman, they have to remain in cool in the public eye, accommodate the request, and smile as much as they just want to die.

Gaz is sweating cricket legend Shane Warne. "Warney is gonna win this," boasted Gaz.

Borgata's Dale Pinchot started out with 80K but slipped since the day began.

* * * * *

2:02pm...

Big Stacks: Alex Outhred, Jeremiah Smith, Peter Biebel, Dustin Holmes, and Raja Kattamuri

Recent Eliminations: Liv Boeree, YellowSub, Heidi Northcott, Barny Boatman, Anthony Rivera, Scott Clements

Players Remaining: 1,062

Iggy Watch: At 72k the last time I checked...

Jose Canseco's busty girlfriend went busto along with British hottie Liv Boeree.

Shane Warne has 150k and sitting at the same table as Vanessa Rousso.

Brian Schaedlich entered the day as the chipleader, but he lost a massive pot. Alex Outhred is out in front.

"Smells like ass out there," said Snake as he crawled back into the press box.

Players are heading on their first break of the day.

* * * * *

3:03pm...

Big Stacks: Jeff Kimber, Sigurd Eskeland, Jeremiah Smith, Peter Biebel, Raja Kattamuri

Recent Eliminations: Erik Seidel, Paul McKinney

Players Remaining: 974

Iggy Watch: At the break he was down to 70k and said, "Time to get frisky." He won the blinds in one hand and then made a move on John D'Ags. D'Ags raised and Iggy popped him for re-raise. D'Ags tanked and then folded. That hand pushed Iggy close to 100K. He's since then lost some blinds and antes and down to 90K.

Hot Chicas: Carmel Petresco wore all white yesterday. Today? All black. Tiffany Michelle added chips and increased her stack to 145k by the break. She devoured two PizzaHut pizzas at the break next to me in the press box. About thirty minutes into the next level she jumped to 180K. "People just want to give me their chips," she said.

Hellmuth pushed passed the 200K mark, but I must say, it's been rather quiet over there.

I sat down near Iggy's table. I could keep an eye on him and the table across that had Men the Master and Jason Strasser. Behind that table? Carmel Petresco.

* * * * *

4:04pm...

Big Stacks: Jeff Kimber, Sigurd Eskeland, Jeremiah Smith, Geert Jans, Alex Outhred

Recent Eliminations: Mandy Baker, John D'Agostino, Will Durkee, and Matt Sexton

Players Remaining: 900

Iggy Watch: Around 95k right now. Iggy put J-Dags on tilt. Iggy keeps re-popping J-Dags, who looks frustrated. He said, "I'm ready to punch a wall." At the same time Tuscaloosa Johnnny walked by and said, "Iggy looks like he's in pain." Which was sort of odd since J-Dags was the one withering in pain. He recently busted out. A guy with about 350-400K in chips was just moved to Iggy's right.

Hot Chicas: Tiffany Michelle trying to pass the 200K mark.

Eric Morris from Bluff has been hanging on with a shortstack all day. Jeremiah Smith was moved to PearlJammer's table and is in the middle of a massage.

Shane Warne wears pink flip flops. Gank is going cowboy and has been wearing a cowboy hat.

The entire Red Section has been wiped clean. No more tables there as the number of remaining players dipped under 1,000. Less than 300 to go before the money breaks.

I hung out in the Beast Lounge. It was 50% capacity and the only people who were drinking had brought their own six pack of Michelob Ultra and camped out up in the Lounge. No one was reading. On Day 2B, the Lounge was the temporary library.


Up in the press box, I was looking out into the field. "Check out that weird looking dude," said Spaceman.

"Which one? There's like a hundred freaks that I can see from here," I said.

Bobby Bellande has been spending more time away from the table on his cell phone or entertaining Survivor fans. One elderly couple wandered over to him to play their respects.

"Is this tougher than being on Survivor?" one of them asked.

"No way. This is way tougher," said Bellande.

* * * * *

4:20pm...

Today's smoke break is sponsored by PokerStars!



* * * * *

5:05pm...

Big Stacks: Sigurd Eskeland, Jeff Kimber, Jeremiah Smith, Karle Wilson, and Sylvain Coeur

Recent Eliminations: Brandon Schaefer, Tony Hachem, Tex Barch, Matt Glantz, Phil Gordon

Players Remaining: 852

Iggy Watch: 60K. Iggy is the last friend I'm sweating since Brandon Schaefer busted out shortly before the break.

Hot Chicas: Tiffany just under 200K. Kara Scott and Carmel both have 220K.

Players recently returned from a break. Hellmuth was posing for photos with his adoring fans in the hallway.

Hundreds of players spilled past the press box. A couple of them carried Stabucks or RedBull. I saw lots of unfamiliar faces so the few pros stood out, like Emad and Gank and Hassan Habib.

200 more eliminations and we make the money. Midnight's under is looking good if they can bust a hundred per level.

Only 40 tables in Orange are being used as the staff started breaking the section in front of us. Which is sad, because that means the Mike Matusow show will be gone as well. he looked super jumpy and speedy after the break. I dunno if his meds kicked in or if they are wearing off.

back by popular demand...
Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Mel Judah
2. Chris Moneymaker
3. Brad Booth
4. Carlos Mortensen
5. Men the Master
* * * * *

6:06pm...

Big Stacks: Sigurd Eskeland, Jeff Kimber, Jeremiah Smith, Karle Wilson, Vito Branciforte

Recent Eliminations: Andy Griggs, Steve Z, Eric Morris, Josh Prager, Dennis Waterman, Juan Maceiras, and Richard Ashby

Players Remaining: 792

Iggy Watch: 77K. It was tough to see Iggy's chips because I stood in a weird angle behind the guy in Seat 2 who had a massive wall of chips stacked 30-35 high. Iggy picked up one small pot while I sweated him.

Jeremiah Smith has built a castle of chips.... stacks on top of stacks. Victor Ramdin was getting a massage and relaxing.

Steve Frezer set the money bubble bursting at 1am. Orange section is down to 25 tables.

There's a guy in a Duke hat sweating Vanessa Rousso. Across from her is Shane Warne who is doing chip tricks.

Men the Master was shortstacked until he woke up with Aces and doubled through Jason Stasser.

The area leading out to the poker kitchen smells like puke. I think someone blew chunks back there.

Benjo told me that the poker kitchen is closing tonight. I went in there and it was bare-bones. They didn't restock a lot of items so I have a feeling Benjo is correct.

The cash game area is very lame. Only a couple of low stakes NL games running. Any middle stakes and high stakes games have shifted over to the Bellagio since they are running Bellagio Cup events.

* * * * *

7:07pm...

Big Stacks: Alberto Font at 773K, Sigurd Eskeland, Jeff Kimber, Jeremiah Smith, and Vito Branciforte

Recent Eliminations: Shane Warne, Toto Leonidas, Anahit Galajian

Players Remaining: 747

Iggy Watch: 115K for Iggy. He flopped top set against one of the Scandis. He bet it hard (with two flush cards) and pushed the kid off the pot. As Iggy left for dinner break, he joked, "I'm gonna fold my way into the money!"

Hot Chicas: Kara Scott at 200K. Tiffany took a hit and slipped to 70K. Carmel is chasing down 300K. Evy Ng at 200+.

Warney went out in a three-way pot. He had a middle pair against overcards (both opponents). He was a head but lost. Gazman was sweating him all day and he left with Warney.

Robert Varnkoyi sighting on the rail. Marcel Luske took a stroll through the press box.

Space is getting tight. Less than 20 tables in the orange section. Nolan Dalla had to get on the mic and gave the "ESPN has right of way speech" and warned media outlets from clogging up the aisles.

Simon told me that there's a Party Poker qualifier who has a big stack. His name? Jim McManus... from Dublin, Ireland. He's not the writer and author from America.

Players just went on a dinner break. Action will resume around 8:30pm.

* * * * *

8:19pm...

Big Stacks: Chipleader is Jeremiah Smith with 766K... Alberto Font, Sigurd Eskeland, Jeff Kimber, Vito Branciforte are out in front.

Recent Eliminations: Nicolas Levi (a couple of hours ago)

Players Remaining: 733

Iggy Watch: 115K... and looking for some help.

Jeremiah took over the chiplead over the break without playing a hand! Actually official chipcounts were released during the dinner break and Jeremiah is out in front.

Benjo told me how Elky had 4K at the dinner break yesterday. In just two levels, he ran it up to 140K. Anything can happen at the WSOP. One guy at Iggy's table started with 2.6k and played three full levels and still has chips.

Players just returned from the dinner break. The room is super quiet. Only three cash game tables running all the way in the back. Only 18 tables are left in the orange section.

* * * * *

9:19pm...

Big Stacks: Chipleader is Sigurd Eskeland with 750K... Jeremiah Smith, Karle Wilson, Alberto Font, Jeff Kimber are out in front.

Recent Eliminations: Alex Kravchenko

Players Remaining: 702

Iggy Watch: Iggy took a small hit and slipped to 85K. "A-K no good again," he said. The average stack is 194K. I asked Iggy what was on his iPod. He said, "Jack Johnson. I want to have his baby."

At least one dealer is rooting for Matusow... because if he makes the final table, he promised that he would buy the dealer a brand new car. Michalski is wishy-washy on that promise. He said, "These are the same dealers who really thought that Jamie Gold was going to tip them $1 million."

Alex KGB walked past the press box six minutes into the level. I assume he was one of the first players to bust out before the break.

Men the Master and Chau Giang are at the same table. Men and another player have been talking smack all day. They got into a raising war and Chau Giang made a move and shoved all in over the top of both of them. Men and the other guy folded and Chau took down the pot without saying a word to men.

Benjo and I saw Bobby Bellande all in with K-K against K-K. He held the Kd and flopped two diamonds but could not suck out.

Carmel has 270K and Kara has about 220K.

* * * * *

10:19pm...

Big Stacks: Jeremiah Smith, Sigurd Eskeland, Alberto Font, Robert Georato, Karle Wilson

Recent Eliminations: Nenad Medic, Josh Prager

Players Remaining: 673

Iggy Watch: Iggy went back up to 115K. Van Nguyen, who is Men the Master's wife, was seated at Iggy's table.

I saw a mother drag her two kids (about 3 and 4 years old) down the hallways and just outside the Amazon Room. She made them stand in front of the door as she snapped a couple of photos with gallons and gallons donkey blood spilling in the background. I always thought Las Vegas and especially the WSOP were not for young children. I had to ask friends who had kids if I was overreacting. I asked Otis if he would ever bring lil Otis to the Amazon Room?

"In here? Never," he quickly said. "I don't even want to bring him to Las Vegas."

Action slowed down when the money bubble approached. The spectators on the rail increased dramatically as the night progressed. After dinner, a new perimeter was established and the railbirds were standing five and six deep. Some areas were so thick you didn't even try to cross that clusterfuck in the middle of the room.

Action has been hand-for-hand for about twenty minutes.

Zeke wandered by the corner by Iggy's table where I was standing with Otis, Mean Gene, ad F Train. "Hmmm, which blogger are you guys sweating?" he asked. I told him it was Daddy from Snailtrax.

Anarchy prevails during hand-for-hand. Players are leaving the tables to run outside to smoke or piss. Others are on their cellphones calling their loved ones and telling them that they are about to make the money. Some players are sweating other tables.

Otis sent me a text that Oliver was spotted sleeping in the hallway. Poor Oliver was working so hard that he fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, sitting down, with his laptop on his lap.

* * * * *

11:21pm...

Big Stacks: Jeremiah Smith = 1 Million

Players Remaining: 666 .... Money Bubble Bitches!

Iggy Watch: He's giddy on the verge of making the money.

The hand-for-hand process was long and drawn out. Level 14 ended in the middle of it, but Jack Effel freezed the blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 400 ante until the bubble broke. Once everyone was in the money, he sent everyone on a thirty minute break where they colored up the 100 chips.

What do media reps do during hand-for-hand? Some stew on the sidelines and bitch and moan that they can't get inside the ropes. Others hang out and bullshit with other media reps. The Wicked Chops Poker guys take photos of hot railbirds. Otis thinks about sad stories to write, Michalski disappears and does who knows what. Benjo runs around and tries to get pictures of his Frenchies (or of Oliver passed out in the hallway). Ian is playing old school video games on his laptop, while 76.3% of the reps in the media room are playing online poker. I wonder if any horny and enterprising guys went to the hooker bar and nailed a working girl during the lengthy hand-for-hand process.

Steve Chung = Bubble Boy.

That's it... we're in the money! Congrats to Iggy. He won at least... $21,230.

Juan told us about one guy who cashed today... but did not show up. Fernando Gordo from Buenos Ares, Argentina started Day 3 with 137,900. He was blinded off all day and still made the money! Unreal. Luckiest guy in Vegas. I wonder where he is? Michalski thinks he is one of the players that Oliver represents.

You can listen to the excitement on the bubble in the latest episode of Tao of Pokerati called Bubbilicious.

* * * * *

12:21am...

Players Remaining: 607

I put Otis on lime tossing tilt. We played our new version called In Between the Limes. There are five zones... two $20, two $80, and one $150 zone. Otis threw first and nailed the $80 one. I stepped up and dropped the lime in the $150 zone. It bounced once and stayed in.

"Fuck!" screamed Otis. I knew right away he was on lime tilt. Mega lime tilt. He tried to get his money back right away by going double or nothing. I could smell the desperation in his eyes. I couldn't take any more money from the guy. He had been getting kicked in the junk all day with prop bets so I gave him some mercy. I took the lime money and ran.

Pauly 150, Otis 80. Final. Overall +70.

Oh and there's the WSOP still going on, but we stopped watching it to drink Corona and lime toss. Iggy is still in.

* * * * *

1:22am...

Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, Jeremiah Smith, Mark Ketteringham, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Sarkis Akopyan

Recent Eliminations: Men the Master, Bill Gazes, Brandon Adams, Vanessa Rousso, Emad Tahtouh, Thor Hansen

Players Remaining: 536

Iggy Watch: He's up to 160K. He just got moved tables.

Hot Chicas: Tiffany up to 194K after her Kings held up. I think I'm falling for Kara Scott. She's rockin the WSOP hoodie because it's so cold in the room.

As soon as players returned from the break, the flurry of bustouts began. Shortstacks shoved and many of them became statistics. Over one hundred players were eliminated in the first hour after the bubble burst.

* * * * *

2:22am...

Big Stacks: Jeremy Joseph, Jeremiah Smith, Owen Crowe, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Dag Martin Mikkelsen

Recent Eliminations: Chau Giang, Farzad Rouhani

Players Remaining: 474

Iggy Watch: 180K or so to end the night.

Hot Chicas: Tiffany Michele, Carmel Petresco, Evlyn Ng, and Kara Scott all advanced to Day 4.

Tables started breaking in the Blue section. One kid with a several racks of orange chips walked past Mike Matusow's table. The Mouth stopped him and said, "Ho wdid you get all those fuckin' chips? Playing good or just fuckin' lucky?"

The last hour of play was fast paced with cries of "All in and a call" going dwn about every other minute. The field raced to get under 500. And when it was over, around 474 players remained.

Play is over for today. Day 4 will begin Friday at 1pm local time.

Thanks for following along. See ya 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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