"I hope you have a weapon," he said with a grim look on his face.I had been chatting with a poker dealer at the Rio while he was on a cigarette break in the hallway. When I told him about where I had been living, he quickly told me that he too experienced life at the Redneck Riviera. He lived there for two years while he dealt poker at a casino on the Strip.
"Don't leave anything lying around, especially cash. My roommate was robbed twice."
He suggested that most of the robberies in Las Vegas were inside jobs and that I needed to be careful especially if the poorly organized ring of thieves decided that I have something worth stealing. You see Las Vegas is made up of two distinct groups of people; tourists and locals. The locals are divided into three groups of people; professional gamblers, professional losers, and service industry workers.
It's the losers that are desperate and are willing to take any shortcut to get what they want. If they were really hard working folks, they'd wouldn't be broke all the time and could have found monetary success at other ventures in life. Since they bought into the Las Vegas dream and relied upon gambling (mostly at -EV games) as their sole source of income, 99.9% of those degenerate, life-long losers were harshly kicked to the curb by the reality of living in this town. The result was that all of their morals and ethics wilted in the sizzling Nevada sun. What you have left are hordes of empty souls that will smash a brick over the head of an old lady to steal her last $20. Most of those lost souls live in my building complex.
That's why the poker dealer suggested I pick up a weapon. He even recommend a place where I can buy a gun. Just another day at the Reneck Riviera.
Moving on...
Here are the three WSOP tournaments that I'm covering today:
1. Event #12 $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys Final Tale = Black fontFelicia is playing in the Event #14 Stud Hi/Lo event with about 595 other players. The prize pool is $541,450. Cyndy Violette won last year's event. Max Pescatori is playing at the PLO final table today. The prize pool is $1,180,080. There were 212 players today with 395 rebuys. Day two of the $5K event starts at 3pm.
2. Event #13 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Day 2 = Green font
3. Event #14 $1,000 Stud Hi/Lo = Red font
****** Live Blogging Update ******
1:00pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: There are a lot of notable names in this event along with Felicia and Dick Gatewood from Sam's Town. There's plenty of the Full Tilt Crew represented like Rafe Furst, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, and Ted Forrest. I also spotted Marcel Luske (who still is asking about Charlie's status), Doyle, Fossilman, Men the Master, Miami John, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, The Grinder, ESPN announcer Norman Chad, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Barry Greenstein, Scott Fischman, Kathy Liebert, Chip Jett, Paul Darden, Huck Seed, Steve Zolotow, C.K. Hua, Carlos Mortenson, Barny Boatman, and Dutch "Tool" Boyd.
1:59pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Felicia has $700 in chips left. At the same table are Juanada, Fossilman, and Norman Chad.
2:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Here are the final table seating assignments and chip counts:
Seat 1: Erik Seidel (Las Vegas, NV) $67K... He won his 7th WSOP bracelet the other night.I got money on Max Pescatori today in the writer's pool. I took money from Jay yesterday when my main man Freddy Deeb outlasted Marco "Perfect Hair" Traniello. I hope to continue my run at successful prop bets from media row.
Seat 2: Josh Arieh (Atlanta, GA) $229K... 3rd place finisher at last year's WSOP main event.
Seat 3: Max Pescatori (Milan, Itlay) $62K... The Italian Pirate is a good friend of the Tao of Poker.
Seat 4: Tony Sevnsom (Houston, TX) $171K... Nicknamed "Ted."
Seat 5: Ron Graham (Tacoma, WA) $90K... He has won a WSOP bracelet.
Seat 6: Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA) $109K... Winner of 5 gold bracelets and former World Champion. He can slice bananas and pickles with the toss of a card.
Seat 7: Doug Lee (Calgary, Alberta) $160K... Representing Canada, he's a real estate investor nicknamed the "Superbomber."
Seat 8: Arturo Diaz (San Diego, CA) $279K.... Out chipleader is known as "Turi" to his friends. He's from Mexico and is the father of four children.
Seat 9: Dave Colclough (Birmingham, England) $50K... He's a computer consultant who was born in Wales.
Max handed out red, white, and green bandanas to some of his friends who came by to support him. It's cool that he made a final TV table. Now everyone can get a glimpse of how good he is as he sits at a table with some big names like Jesus, Erik, and Josh. Heck Doug Lee is no slouch either. This has the chance of being an exciting final table.
2:46pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Max Pescatori doubled up. Josh Arieh raised preflop and Max reraised in the blinds. Doug Lee thought for a while and called. Josh folded. The flop was all clubs: Q-9-4. Max moved all win for the rest of his chips about $6K worth. Doug Lee called. Max flopped a King high flush with Kc-Tc-Kx-4x. Doug Lee was drawing dead with A-K-J-3. Max did exactly what I predicted he would do... doubled up in the first orbit.
3:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Erik Seidel was the first player knocked out at the final table when he was busted by Josh Arieh. Erik won $23,130 and Arieh moved into the chiplead. BJ from Cardplayer was just bounced from the "writer's pool" because he picked Seidel.
3:10pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Colclough doubled up against Arturo Diaz. With a board of 5s-2h-2c-9d, David moved all in on the turn with trip 2s. He held Kh-10s-8d-2s while Diaz reluctantly called with As-Kd-4c-4s. Big hand for the shortstack David Colclough.
3:34pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Doug Lee had a full house but ran into Jesus' higher full house. With Ah-10h-9s-4h, Doug Lee moved all in on the turn with a board of: Ad-4d-4c-9d. Jesus held As-9c-9h-6h and had the bigger boat. The river didn't help Doug Lee and he was eliminated in 8th place. He won $34,690. Josh Arieh is still the chipleader. Max has $129K in chips.
3:47pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: David Colclough was knocked out Josh Arieh who is adding to his big stack. Arieh caught a flush on the turn and beat out Colclough's trip Jacks. Colclough won $46,225 for 7th place.3:56pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: TJ Cloutier's 22 knocked out Hoyt Corkins's Mrs. Slick. There are 53 players remaining.
4:15pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Felicia Lee was knocked out. She had 3-4-5-6 and caught brick, brick, brick. She said that the structure is horrible. The event is geared to those who will catch cards. That's why she suggested I play in this evemt since there's really no skill involved due to how it's set up. Rafe Furst has about $24K in chips and Marcel had about $18K or $19K. Felicia told me that some guy walked up to John Hennigan and cold-cocked him. She said it was a fan. But what kind of a fan would deck their favorite player? I shall investigate this matter further.
4:20pm... Random WSOP Thoughts: How about a fashion update? The Full Tilt team is decked out in basketball jerseys today. Marcel is looking dapper as always in a $3K suit. Chris Bigler is also wearing a suit. He looks sharp compared to the rest of the t-shirt and jeans crowd, but Marcel's choice in suits is a notch above Bigler's. Clonie was wearing a hot pair of black boots. I wish I had a few of my female friends from New York City to tell me the exact designer. I need to outsource my WSOP fashion research.
4:23pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Jesus kncoked out Arturo Diaz in 6th place. Arturo Diaz was all in by the turn. with 10d-5h-Kh-7s. Jesus had 6s-6h-3h-7c and a set of 6s. Yeah! Jesus flopped the Anit-Christ. Diaz returns home to San Diego with $57,820. Josh Arieh is still the chipleader and Max Pescatori is the shortstack.
4:40pm... $1K Stud Hi/Lo update: Dick Gatewood has about $900 in chips. Oliver from Poker Wire has about 800+. He hasn't played a hand past 4th street.
4:48pm... Random WSOP Thoughts: By the way, the shitters here at the Rio have ashtrays in the stalls. You can smoke while you take a dump. Gotta love Vegas. I bumped into Jen Leo from pPlayer.com. She's been hanging out in the media room with Dan from Pokerati. Finally got to meet her. She wants to hit up strip clubs with me next week. Uh oh. She wrote a nice blurb about me called Monopauly.
4:55pm... PLO w/ Rebuys update: Max Pescatori was eliminated by Josh Arieh in 5th place. Max won $69,385. He was all in on the flop with Q-Q-9-7. The flop read: 9-5-2 and Josh Arieh called with A-3-4-6. Josh caught a straight on the turn when a 6 hit. Max told me, "I'm sorry I disappointed you, Pauly." He knew I picked him in the writer's pool. Damn. I hate losing prop bets. But heck, Max cashed in his third WSOP and was a shortstack for the majrity of the tournamnet yesterday and today. Great job, Max. I still feel that he can and will win his first WSOP bracelet this year. Josh Arieh has a huge chip advantage.
5:10pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 46 players. John Bonetti had around $125K. TJ was not far behind Bonetti. Vinny Napolitano and Liz Lieu both have over $100K in chips. Gavin Smith and Morgan Machina have a little more than $50K. Todd Brunson, Jen Harman, Antonio, and Senthil Kumar are all still alive.
5:15pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: 280 players are left. I just heard that Men the Master had built up a big stack, so he left the table to go eat. I assume that he's going to snag a Corona as well. I have not seen him snarf up beers any so far this year, but we've got another month of poker left to play!
5:20pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: Erin Ness bubbled out in 46th place. Yes, the remaining 45 players have made the money.
5:35pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Tony Sevnsom was knocked out by Josh Arieh. He takes fourth place and $92,510. Josh has a monster chiplead over Jesus and Ron Graham.
5:40pm... Picture update: We now have the capabiltiy of a quick upload of some of Flip Chip's photos. Here are a couple. One is for my buddy Mean Gene.
6:09pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Big hand three handed. Rom Graham moved all in preflop with T-T-8-4. Josh Arieh raised with A-J-T-2. Jesus called with 5-6-7-8. Arieh could have knocked out both players. The flop: 7-7-3. Jesus flopped trips. He hit a full house on the turn when an 8 fell. Only the case Ten would have hurt Jesus. He avoided that one card and knocked out Ron Graham. Arieh doubled up Jesus. We're now heads up. Ron Graham won $115,640 for third place. Jesus has $329K. Josh has $879. When I asked Jesus how he was doing chipcount wise he said, "2.6 to 1." He was almost dead on. The actual math was 2.58 to 1.
We're on a short break while the ESPN crew sets up the table. I took a piss next to Jesus in the bathroom. Some guy in there was telling him to knock out Arieh.
6:35pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: Paul 'X-22' Magriel aka that "quack quack" guy has been knocked out in 44th place. Antonio was KO'd in 43rd lace. We're down to 4 tables.
6:50pm... $5K NL update: TJ Cloutier won a monster pot and knocked out two players in the process. His stack is well over $200K. He sent Chris Bigler and Vinny Napolitano home. Bigler raised preflop to $5K Julian Gardner, TJ, and Vinny called. The flop: 10c-4c-5d. Vinny moved all in with Ac-5c. Gardner folded. Bigler called with JJ and TJ called with a set of 4s The turn: 6h. The river: Qh. TJ scooped the monster pot. Look out, kids. TJ has chips. The last time I checked, Isabelle Mercier had about $40K. Morgan Machina has about $35K left. 36 players are left.
6:55pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: This is a pro-Jesus crowd. In his corner he has the majority of the folks in the grandstand cheering him on, along with his fellow Full Tilter Clonie Gowen and his lovely girlfriend, who are sitting next to each other. For Arieh, it's his wife, Erick Lindgren, and a few friends rooting him on. Jesus won a big hand against Josh. On a flop of A-5-8, Jesus moved all in with a set. Josh called with 3-4-6-9. Jesus showed 8-8-7-2. Does that count as "The Hammer"? He needed a 2 or a 7 to make a straight. Jesus had 2 of his outs. The turn and river didn't help Josh and Jesus won the big pot. Josh lost the ciplead and Jesus is looking good with $785K in chips to Arieh's $420K.
7:15pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're on a dinner break and play will resume at 8:15pm. We're down to 160 players. I don't see Dick Gatewood. I assume he's out. Marcel Luske, Andy Bloch, John Juanada, Norman Chad, Men the Master, and Kathy Liebert are all still alive. Last year's champ Cyndy Violette has been knocked out. Ted Forrest has been knocked out as well. David Sklansky KO'd Kirill Gerasimov just before the break. Amy Calistri told me a funny story about that hand. One of the players at the table said to Sklansky, "Nice hand. You took out a good player in Kirill." To which he responded, "I don't even know who that is."
7:45pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Josh Arieh yelled over to the rail where Mike Matusow was chatting with his wife. "Keep your hands off my wife," Arieh snapped.
7:53pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Jesus won a big pot heads up. On a flop of Qx-8d-3d, Jesus moved all in with Qx-Jx-6d-5d. Jesus had top pair with a flush draw. Josh reluctantly called and figured he was beat. He actually had the best hand at the time with K-Q-6-4. He had no flush draws. Jesus caught the Ten of diamonds on the turn and Arieh was drawing dead. Jesus doubled up.
2005 WSOP PLO w/ Rebuys Champion: Josh Arieh
8:00pm... PLO w/ Rebuys Final Table update: Josh Arieh just knocked out Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Jesus had the better hand preflop with K-T-9-3 to K-9-3-2. Josh flopped a 2 and Jesus could not improve his hand. Josh won his second WSOP bracelet and $381,600. Jesus left with $210,460 for second place. I spotted Arieh in the bathroom two minutes after he won. He was on the phone and was so excited that he won that he forgot to wash his hands.
10:40pm... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to 98 players. Marcel has a couple of huge stacks of $25 chips.
10:45pm... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 23 players. Isabelle Mercier, Morgan Machina, Reza Payvar, and Senthil Kumar have all been eliminated. Neal Wang has a huge stack $345K in chips. TJ Coutier is second with over $200K. Jen Harman, Todd Bruson, and John Bonetti all have decent sized stacks.
12:03am... $5K NL Day 2 update: We're down to 20 players. Neal Wang has almost a 2 to 1 chiplead over TJ CLoutier who's second in chips! Here's who is left: Neal Wang, TJ Cloutier, John Bonetti, Shae Drubosevich, Julian Gardner, Robbie Frank, Todd Brunson, John Henningan, Liz Lieu, Jen Harman, Jon Brody, Gavin Smith, Steve Zoin, Dustin "Neverwin"Woolf, Tony Ma, Jesus Oquendo, Sean McCabe, Jason Berilgen, Ben Johnson, and Meng La.
12:12am... Stud Hi/Lo update: We're down to 52 players. Marcel Luske was just eliminated. Todd Dakake appears to be the chipleader with over $20K. Barry Greenstein is still playing.
1:30am... $5K NL update: Jen Harman was knocked out when her AK lost to Neal Wang's TT. Shae Drobushevich found AA on the button and knocked out Jon Brody in 15th place. Down to 14 players. Wang has a huge chip lead over Jon Bonetti in second. Shae is looking good with almost $200K in chips and is trying to make his second final table in this year's WSOP.
1:55am... Stud Hi/Lo update: Action has been suspended and will resume at 2pm on Thursday. 33 Players are left. Steve Hohn is the chipleader with $51,900. Here's who is left: Men The Master, Paul Darden, John McCaffery, Giacomo D'Agostino, Russell Salzer, Melissa Hayden, Brad Daugherty, Josh Kerrigan, Al Ruck, Bo Toft, Huck Seed, Vipul Kothari,Jim Hagan, Bonnie Rossi, Hoang Ta, Daniel Espirity, Asle Gjesteland, Dan Price, and Todd Bourgault
2:30am... $5K NL update: We're down to 11. TJ Cloutier booted Julian Gardner. TJ Cloutier had A7 and Julian showed A8. TJ flopped a 7. Ouch. Liz Lieu's 66 knocked out Meng La's AT. Tony Ma just knocked out Liz Lieu. Damn, I wanted to see Liz and Jen harman at the final table!
3:24am... $5K NL update: The decision was made to play down until 10 and have them make the final TV table. Usually it's 9 players. I was secretly rooting for Shae and was bummed when he lost a big hands. His AJ was dominated by Gavin Smith's AQ. He was busted soon after by John Hennigan. Neal Wang is still the chipleader. Also making the final table are: John Henningan, TJ Cloutier, John Bonetti, Dustin Woolf, Steve Zoine, Jason "Doc" Berilgen, Gavin Smith, Tony Ma, and Todd Brunson. Play will resume at 3pm today.
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