2010 WSOP Main Event Day 6 - Semi-Live Blog

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Day 6. 205 to go. Five levels of play scheduled. Let's get down on it...

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Quick Numbers

2010 Main Event Entrants: 7,319
Players Remaining: 205
Payouts: 747
First Place: $8,944,138
Prizepool: $68,798,600
Chipleader: Evan Lamprea - 3.564M

Top 10 Chipcounts:
1 Evan Lamprea - 3.564M
2 Michael Skender - 3.527M
3 Joseph Cheong - 3.357M
4 Duy Le - 3.186M
5 Theo Jorgensen - 3.088M
6 Bryn Kenney - 2.902M
7 Matt Affleck - 2.896M
8 Alexander Kostritsyn - 2.564M
9 Johnny Fucking Chan - 2.559M
10 Sebastian Panny - 2.442M

Click here for a list of 2010 Main Event money winners and payouts.

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And It Begins...

"It's gonna be a hot one, today," said the clerk at 7/11. "Be careful."

He wasn't shitting me. Not that that I actually have to work outdoors, but when the Amazon Ballroom breaks down, it gets a little nipply inside. I arrived minutes before showtime. I had one of those rough mornings after an even rougher day. How bad was yesterday? I went to work without a belt. I simply forgot it. That set the tone for the day as I was constantly pulling up my pants. Today, I vowed to get my shit together -- up at dawn after 90 minutes of slumber, I cranked out one deadline, prepped another, and penned the Day 5 recap. I knew that today was going to be a big day with five potential levels and more than 60% of the field getting wiped out.

The early bird gets the worm and agents arrived early to sign up players at the last possible second. I spotted Tony Dunst wearing a Full Tilt patch. He was wearing that for his ESPN interview. He has a short stack but felt confident, like someone who had nothing to lose.

At this point, the foreign press has an easier job as the number of players they have to cover shrinks. One of the members of the Dutch press told me a crazy story about how they went out last night to celebrate. One of them woke up hungover to all hell with a Big Mac in his lap and with a cellphone message from a hooker quoting a price of $600 for a wild rumpus.

Day 6 is off and running. The crowd is not as dense as yesterday, but it's only noon. Give them a few hours to get soused and then things will get rowdy. The tables are space out better today with plenty of room to navigate, but the outer moat is still in effect. Jess Welman wore high heels today in order to see the action from so far away.

Editor's Note: Due to the extreme length of the live blog, if you're reading this on the front page of Tao of Poker, then you have to click through READ MORE link below to read more.

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Shorties Disappearing; 199 to Go

Within the first twenty minutes of play, several players have already hit the road as the shorties made a stand -- and whiffed. We're now under 200 players for the first time in the tournament.

Recent Eliminations: Joachim Hein, Ken Evanowski, Paul Dlugozima, Julio Saavedra, Paul Kristoffersson, Richard Kirsch, Alexander Dovzhenko, Andrey Danilyuk

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Chan Fucking Crippled

Chan was moved to a new table, sat down in the big blind, and woke up to Kings. He got it all in against Robert Pisano's Aces. He was crippled and knocked down to 737K.

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Basebaldy, Breeze, and Roothless

The secondary feature table by the beef jerky lounge features Roothless, basebaldy, and the last woman standing Breeze Zuckerman. I caught a few hands and Zuckerman lost a few chips on a hand to David Baker.

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TV Table: Affleck, Harder, and Nassif

Matt Affleck and Christian Harder are getting some fave time over at the TV table, along with French pro Gabriel "yellowhat" Nassif who got patched up by FT.

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Memento

Digging the hijinks in the press box. The guy who passed out with a Big Mac in his lap and a hooker texting him, is sorting through his phone, piecing together last night's misadventures by checking the photos on his cellphone and reading through all the drunken text messages. Apparently, he had gotten a call from a working girl at 8:38am.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 1

Recent Eliminations: Matt Keikoan, Claudio Baptista, David Villiard, Gianluca Speranza, Imari Love, Scott Desveaux, Joshua Seigel, Kristijonas Andrulis, and Francis Cagney.

Check out today's list of money winners.

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SNG Prop Betting

Thanks to Lana for pointing out a prop bet among two players who are still in... Bryan "PrimordialAA" Pellegrino and Matt "m_reed05" Reed. Here's what PrimordialAA wrote in a 2+2 thread...

My $10,000 vs Skate's $20,000

2,000 games, Starting 6/27/2010, finishing August 15th, 2010

Super Turbos ONLY are counted, stakes $350 + 5, $500 + 6, and $1000 + 11 ONLY

Chops from same time sits (Via FTP chop feature) will be marked via me, w/tourney ID, and discounted from the total, so the first 2000 legitimate games (non-chops) will be counted

I win with a 3.0% ROI or Higher, Skates wins with a 2.99% ROI or lower, 3% ROI is as quoted BEFORE rakeback

At present moment, both players have 1 million.

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Fast Car Gualter

Amazing story about former race car driver from Brazil named Gaulter Salles. I've covered him on the LAPT many times and he's just one of those risk takers who will be a success at enterprises that require a huge amount of cojones.

Anyway, yesterday Salles was down to one 1K chip. A single ante and he fought back to end the day with 900K. Read all about it over at PokerStars Blog.

"He's used to extreme situations," mused Benjo.

Check out this car crash that Salles walked away from with what he described with "just a scratch."



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Jesse Martin Eliminated in 157th Place

Jesse Martin opened and Michael Skender popped gim from the blinds. Martin moved all in and Skender called.. Martin was ahead with pocket queens against the German's Big Slick. Alas, Skender flopped a King and Martin could not catch up.

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Johnny Fucking Chan Eliminated

Chan busted in 156th place when his Jacks ran into Aces. Rough day for Chan. He lost all of his chips on two hands when he ran inferior pocket pairs into A-A. Johny Fucking Chan is fucking busto.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 2

Recent Eliminations: Nicolo Calia, Derek Gibb, Thomas Vinas, Paul Evans, Adam Kagin, Diogo Borges, Paulo Figueiredo, John May, Manig Loeser, Anthony Meeker, Jamie Brown, Jameson Singer, Tony Bracy, Dragan Galic, Greg Schaefer, Brian Horton, Henrik Tollefsen, Rafael Sansrodrigo, and Blake Kelso.

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153 to Go...

We lost 52 players in two hours of play. I posted a list of updated Money Winners and Payout Information.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 3

Recent Eliminations: Jesse Martin, Johnny Chan, Randall Tagawa, Vladislav Varlashin, Brandon Wong, Evan Dahl, Lauri Eramaja, Alan Neubauer, David Liu, Guy Thomas, Francois Binette, Marcelo Dabus, and Russel Rosenblum.

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Chippies

Vente: Robert Pisano, The Grinder, and John Racener

Grande: JP Kelly, Mark Meloche, Gaulter Salles

Tall: Theo Tran

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Expensive Chairs


The staff has been breaking down tables and moving chairs into the service hallways. They have been stacking the chairs. I happened to be having a secret meeting in the back and came across all of these chairs. I realized that each chair was worth $10,000 a piece.

And this is not the only batch. There are four or five more -- and much bigger in size. Empty seats. Broken dreams.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 4

Recent Eliminations: Bryan Pellegrino, Robin Bergren, Chad Wutke, Marius Arnesen, Javed Abrahams, Thomas Denny, Neil Tyler, Farshad Fardad, Joel Benzinou, Craig Savage, Steven Norden, David Liu, and Trevor Roberts.

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Four-Bet Shove

Tony Dunst has Johnny Lodden sitting behind a fortress of chips at his end of the table. Dunst just picked up a decent sized pot without even seeing a flop. Lodden opened, Ryan Eriquezzo three-bet, and Dunst four-bet shoved. Lodden got the fuck out of the hand and Eriquezzo tank-folded. Dunst showed Ad-10d.

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OMG Out

Phil Galfond is out of the Main Event. Expect him to be playing PLO on Full Tilt in T-minus 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

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Dunst Up to 2 Million

Three-way all in with Tony Dunst. He had A-K up against Chuck Norris' A-10 and Ian Gordon's pocket Queens. Dunst flopped a King and he busted a Norris' short stack and doubled through Gordon. Dunst chipped up to 2 million and looking good.

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125 and Counting...

Wow, 80 players wiped out in less than four hours of play.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 5

Recent Eliminations: Michael Maitre, Matthew Pearson, Michael Ferguson, Vazgen Terpogosyan, Phil Galfond, and Patrick Hartnett.

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Not So Breezy

I didn't catch all of the pre-flop action but Adam Levy was in the tank for a few minutes in a hand against the last woman standing, Breeze Zuckerman. She had bet enough to put him all in (presumably all in herself). Levy eventually called and was trailing with J-J against Zuckerman's K-K. Levy caught a lucky flop when a Jack fell. Breeze could not come from behind and Levy won the pot. He doubled up and crippled Zuckerman, who slipped to under 300K.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 6

Recent Eliminations: Christopher George, Kevin Stani, Johan Slutter, Jeffrey Rothstein, Luis Ubiern, Ryan Eriquezzo, Vern Keller, Charles Norris, Tomer Berda, Todd Brick, and David Peters.

Check out today's list of money winners.

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Aces Snapped

Tony Dunst had his Aces snapped off by A-Q. Yep, good old trip queens did him in. His opponent doubled up and Dunst lost almost half his stack, but still has $1 million.

"It's still more than I started with," said Dunst as he shook off the bad beat.

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123 and Counting

123 players are now on break. The Grinder is one of the chipleaders.

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Breeze Zuckerman Eliminated in 121st Place

She was crippled after Levy outflopped her Kings, but couldn't muster up a comeback when Basebaldy took her out when his Aces held up. She made an exit in 121st place as the Last Woman Standing. 120 men remain. Well, at least one might be an alien.

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Italian Wins Pot, Goes Apeshit

I didn't see the hand, but I heard it. A player at a table near the press box unleashed a roar then a war cry.

"Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Otis perked up. He was covering the PokerStars player in the hand with the Italian, Filippo Candio.

"In case you didn't know... he won," Otis deadpanned.

TImtern pulled a yellow piece of paper off of his pad and held it up, indicating a yellow card. The Italian yelled. Again. Charlie the floor guy issued him a penalty and the talian apologized.

"Just in case you're not sure," mused Otis, "he won."

Well, at least for the first time today there was some sort of emotion going on. It's been rather -- flacid aside from the verbal lashing from Bobby Bellande.

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Go Irish

Here's the update on the only Irish player remaining -- James Fennell chipped up to over 4 million now and he's in the Top 10.

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Salles Spins Out

Gaulter Salles, who went from a chip and a chair to almost 1 million, had just busted.

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Feature Mizrachis

Both of the featured tables were swicthed up, and the Mizrachi's were moved to one each. Robert didn't spend too much time underneath the bright lights before he busted out. The Grinder won the Mizrachi last longer. The Grinder is also one of the big stacks. If he's not leading he's definitely 2nd or 3rd.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 7

Recent Eliminations: Breeze Zuckerman, Mozheng Guan, Binh Nguyen, Olivier Daeninckx, Karga Holt, Gualter Salles, Sebastian Panny, and Michael Pettit.

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Slow Down; Random Wandering Around Thoughts to Ponder

I was watching Jose Nadal's table before he busted. The pride of Mexico City was the last Mexican player standing. JC Alvarado was sweating him on the rail -- until his demise. Nadal had a short stack at a table with Jan Randomsen and Jesper Hougaard.

Bobby Bellande does not wear socks, but he has on a light wool hat with a PokerStars logo plastered on it.

Dan Druff and Benyamine are at the same table. Benyamine pushed his stack over 1 Million, but he didn't play any hands while I was there, and I was dissapointed that I didn't see any empty Pizza Hut boxes under his chair.

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Last British Hope? JP Kelly Eliminated

Missed the hand, but Snoopy's buddy JP Kelly hit the road. He won 2 bracelets (one at the WSOPE and WSOP) but couldn't win another British bracelet this summer.

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Scandi Down - Hougaard Busto

Jesper Hougaard just went out. You figure when a Scandi gets it all in with K-&, that he'd ship the pot, eh?

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Recently Departed, Vol. 8

Recent Eliminations: JP Kelly, Jimmy Tran, Tristan Wade, Jose Nadal, Pavel Milanov, Robert Mizrachi, Gualter Salles, Karga Holt, Michael Pettit, Sebastian Panny, Matthew Schreiber, Jesper Hougaard, Garrett Beckman, Dan Lu, Theo Tran, Nicholas Rainey and Benjamin Straate.

Check today's payouts and money winners.

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Dinner Break

103 players just went on dinner break. Play resumes at 8:30pm local time. If you are bored, check out the Tao of Pokerati podcasts.

By the way, John Racener is the chipleader with over 6M. One of the dealers told me he used to see him playing cash games all the time this summer. The Grinder is second in chips.

Dinner Break Chippies - Top 3:
John Racener - 6.27M
Grinder - 5.65M
Joseph Cheong - 5.23M

Random Notables:
Alexander Kostritsyn - 4.83M
Theo Jorgensen - 4.3M
Matt Affleck - 3.75M
Fokke Beukers - 3.5M
William Thorson - 2.85M
Sergey Rybachenko - 2.36M
Scott Clements - 2.2M
Adam Levy - 1.6M
Gabriel Nassif - 1.06M
DanDruff - 1M
David Benyamine - 950K
Tony Dunst - 930K
Jean-Robert Bellande - 870K
Johnny Lodden - 620K

Yeah enjoy the rarity because I never do chip counts.

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Meet the New Chip, Same As the Old Chip

Let's say hello to our new chip denomination...


Shamus insists they are lavender, while Ramhole suggested periwinkle. FTrain refused to comment for fear of a #gayftrainjoke reference on Twitter.

How about a "dainty shade of light purple"?

Regardless, 100K chip is now in play. Thanks to Merchdawg for the photo.

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Another Double for Dunst

I caught the hand on the flop of 7-x-x. Dunst was all in with 9h-9d against his opponent's Jh-7h. Dunst's over pair held up and he doubled up to over 1.8M. He has Johnny Lodden across the table from him, and the Godfather of Scandi poker, Thor Hansen, was nearby keeping a watchful eye on the young Norwegian.

Dunst's table broke and he quickly went to work at his new table taking a600K pot off of Spanish player Javier Martinez.

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Eyes Closed, Ups & Down

I caught the end of the hand. Jesse Martin and Ray Henson were on the rail sweating David 'NotBakes' Baker. They pointed out that Baker doubled through Eric "Basebaldy" Baldwin. On the very next hand in the battle of the blinds, Basebaldy doubled up with Kc-Jc versus A-rag. He improved to 720K. After the hand, it looked as though Basebaldy went into a trance. He closed his eyes and was in deep meditation, almost like in a trance like state. Wonder if he was trying to refocus himself or if the Devil had wandered by and possessed his soul.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 9

Recent Eliminations: Arie Kliper, Desmond Portano, Christian Harder, Getty Mattingsley, Martijn Schirp, and Daniel Chamberlain

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Last Level of the Night

Day 6 was scheduled to be 5 levels or 10 hours of play. However, we got word that today will feature 4.5 levels or 9 hours of play due to the rapid pace of eliminations. That stoppage is subject to chance. If the field happens to bust faster than expected over the next hour or so, they will suspend play.

Anyway, for now, two more hours of the poker.

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The End of the World As We Know It; Fokke Beukers Eliminated

There's goes three months of inside pot and fucking jokes. The Dutch pro Fokke Buekers is out, much to the dismay of the Dutchies and myself of course. Benjo is totally demoralized.

Anyway, on a related note, listen to the podcast we recorded last night...

Episode 68: Fun with Names: Fokkin Bonkers with Benjo - After realizing that Dutch pro Fokke Beukers has the best name left in the Main Event, Benjo and Pauly search the remaining players list and attempt to pronounce the truly obscure and difficult names.

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Recently Departed, Vol. 10

Recent Eliminations: Other recent eliminations: DanDruff, Matthew Reed, Javier Martinez, Brian Jensen, Jeffrey Fielder, Jean Pasqualini, James Carroll, and Josue Sauvagea.

The bustouts keep coming.

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Grinder = Big Draw

The Grinder is seated at the featured TV table. Over the last two days, the area has never been "packed" and at best it was 75% full. However, all of that changed with the Grinder's appearance. His friends and family filled seats, along with casual spectators who filled the rest. The Grinder is a big draw, and especially his table which also includes Petter Jetten, chipleader Theo Jorgenson, and Russian Alexander Kostritsyn. The featured TV table contains three of the biggest stacks in the room.

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Rail Chatter: Drunks and Loud Drunks

"Roll Tide!" she screamed, not once but thrice.

I detected a slight Alabama drawl. The Tide reference was an obviously giveaway. She wore a hispter hat and tight jeans. She was a little too well dressed to be a piece of trailer park ass, but was definitely to shitfaced to be a Southern Debutante. I put her somewhere in the middle. She snuck into the moat area with a dozen or so other spectators.

"Roll Tide!" she screamed again before I left the area.

Over on the other side of the rail, one spectator went berserk when his buddy outflopped 10-10 with a set of nines.

"Let's show 'em how we do it!" the drunk screamed and high-fived his buddy. If the rail didn't separate the too, they probably would have embraced and did a chest bump. Loud railbirds, as per usual. The louder the railbird, the broker they are. Well, that's just my theory.

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Day 6 Complete; 81 Players Remain

Bag it. Tag it. Sell it to the butcher in the store. 78 players remain. Theo Joregensen was the chipleader with over 9 million

I posted a list of players who cashed and overall Main Event money winners.

Day 7 resumes on Friday at noon. We're playing down to 27 and on Saturday, we play from 27 to the final nine.

Here's the Top 5 chip count...

Theo Jorgensen - 9,300,000
The Grinder - 7,535,000
John Racener - 7,200,000
Jonathan Driscoll - 6,570,000
William Thorson - 6,525,000

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