What the hell am I doing up before 11am on a Sunday in Las Vegas? Ah, it's the Ladies Event here at the World Series of Poker. Time to put on some clean clothes, slick back the hair, splash on a little cologne, and bust out the camera to take pictures of my favorite female poker players in action. Heck, today is so special even Mike Palle showered.I forgot to tell you that I ran in Duggle Bogey! Yeah, I met me another blogger here at the Rio.
Tanya is playing along with Jen from Poker Wire. I didn't see Shirley yet, but I'm sure I'll spot her. I've spotted Clonie Gowen, Liz Lieu, Cyndy Violette, Kathy Leibert, and NYC's own Karen Janowsky. Yeah, women from all over the world have converged upon Las Vegas in pursuit of a bracelet. This is the first year the event was moved to a No Limit format.
Here is a quick photo gallery of pictures from the Ladies Event courtesy of Flipchip. Don't forget to check out his 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery.
Jen from Poker Wire
Tanya
Shirley the Poker Babe in action
Isabelle "When I dream, I dream of Mean Gene" Mercier
Two-Time WSOP Ladies Champion: Susie Isaacs
Liz Lieu
The Wives: Karina Jett & Cecilia Mortensen
Jen Tilly
Kathy Leibert's side peek
Cyndy Violette
Random Blonde (Editor's note: her name is Lacey!)
OK so today is an insane day. Four tournaments. Three final tables. Mass hysteria. Here is what I'm covering today:
Event #24 $2,500 NL Final TableMan, I'm super swamped today.Event #25 $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em Day 2 = Blue font
Event #26 $1,000 NL Ladies Event = Red font
Event #27 $5,000 PLO w/ Rebuys = Green font
****** Live Blogging Updates ******
12:20pm... Ladies Event update: I'm pretty sure that Jen from Poker Wire is no longer a fan of the Hilton Sisters. She was busted when she a flopped a set with pocket Queens. She ran into someone who flopped a set with pocket aces. Ouch! She's out. Tanya is looking good. She's the table chipleader. With Jd-10d she flopped trips with a board of 10-10-6. She caught a full house on the turn when a Jack fell and a club flush was filled in by the river. She came out betting on the river, got raised, she re-raised, and someone moved all in on her. Tanya happily called and won with a bigger full house. The gal she knocked out had pocket 6's and slow played her flopped boat. Oooomph! Tanya knocked her out.
1:13pm... Ladies Event update: It's break time and Tanya has about $2600 in chips. She said that she was surprised that the field has not been thinned out as much as she anticipated. Alot of weak-tight players out there and everyone seems to be playing tenative. I found Shirley and she's got $6000! She got action on her pocket Kings and moved all in ona flop wit a Queen. KQ and QJ called her. I found out that Clonie Gowen was elimnated early when her KK ran into pocket aces.
1:49pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?
Shirley Rosario: $4700A couple of railbirds saw me walk up to Isabelle to ask for a chipcout. When I walked passed them, they joked, "What happened? No double kiss from Isabelle?" Yeah, they've been reading my blog! Pretty cool, huh? Of course, I'm gonna lie to Otis and tell him that Isabelle gave me multiple double kisses.
Tanya Peck: $3100
Isabelle Mercier: $1600
Isabelle's derriere
2:22pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?
Shirley Rosario: $2800Shriley ran into Patty's pocket Kings and lost a big pot. Tanya doubled up against a friend of hers who sat down at the table with a big stack.
Tanya Peck: $7600
Isabelle Mercier: $1100
Liz Lieu: $3500
2:33pm... Ladies Event update: Last year's ladies event attracted only 201 players. This year we have a whopping 601 participants. I think the NL format got more players in. First place will pay out $158K. Top 54 spots will make the money.So the railbird who read my poker blog is named Kim and she's part of Lips Tour, which is the Ladies International Poker Series. It's a poker tour for women, both online and in live venues.
Kim introdcued me to Lupe who was knocked out after she flopped a full house with the big blind special. She lost to a higher boat on the turn. Anyway, both are great ladies and now I'm giving them a shout out. The following the WSOP circuit and their group participates in all of the ladies events.
2:59pm... Ladies Event update: How about a chip count?
Shirley Rosario: $1000Kathy was just moved to Shirley's table with a monster stack. There are about 199 players remaining.
Tanya Peck: $8400
Isabelle Mercier: $900
Liz Lieu: $3200
Kathy Leibert: $12K
Here's a quote from Felicia: "Go tell Tanya I said to go win this one, then stand up and give a speech about how demeaning women's events are, and how they should be banned!"
3:15pm... Ladies Event update: Tanya was just knocked out by a river suckout. Tanya had about $8000 in chips and I think her KK lost to AQ. The flop was Q-x-x and pocket jacks folded to Tanya and the lady with AQ who moved all in. She caught an ace on the river and in a classless move was hootin' and hollerin' with her railbirds instead of realizing she just let rip a serious suckout. Tanya didn't say anything and quietly leftthe table. She should have went off into a Hellmuthian rant, but she's got class. I don't even think the suckout queen bothered to shake her hand because she was celebrating excessively.
Here's a chip count:
Karina Jett: $3625Shirley's AK doubled up against A-10. Kathy Leibert's big stack took a bad beat when her KK ran into JJ and someone caught a two outer on the river. Isabelle Mercier and her short stack were eliminated.
Shirley Rosario: $3600
Kathy Leibert: $8000
3:35pm... PL Hold'em Day 2 update: Today's action starts with 20 players. I think there's going to be a final table for this event today... which makes 3 final tables that I will be covering. Yikes. Here is who's left: Ashok Surapaneni, Frank Kassela, Hartmann, Unabomber, Mark Muchnik, Stuart Fox, Ivo Donev, Mimi Tran, Jerri Thomas, Humberto Brenes, Richard Harroch, Johnny Chan, Darrel Dicken, T J Eisenman, Michael Keiner, Paul Wolfe, Richard Osborne, Joe Monro, Terrance Chan, and Trang (Tracy) Phan. SOme quality names, eh?
3:40pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: ESPN is taping this event. Here's the final table plus chip counts:
Seat 1: Joe Zappia (Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada) $247KActions tarted a little late. This is virtually a table of no-names.
Seat 2: Larry Watson (Las Vegas, NV) $59K
Seat 3: Glynn Beebe (Ausitn, TX) $242K
Seat 4: Mayen Grigorian (Northridge, CA) $112K
Seat 5: KJ Jordan (Myrtle Beach, SC) $368K
Seat 6: Lars Bonding (Aarhus, Denmark) $818K
Seat 7: Jason "Chip Burner" Tate (Brentwood, TN) $391K
Seat 8: Farzad Bonyadi (Los Angeles, CA) $315K
Seat 9: Robert Doyle (W. Palm Beach, FL) $87K
4:20pm... Ladies Event update: Shirley Roasario was knocked out with pocket tens. The flop was 8-x-x and she ran into pocket eights! She finsihed about 120 place.
4:45pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Larry Watson was the first player eliminated from the final table. Joe Zappia moved all in with A-10 and Larry Watson had pocket 8's. Zappia flopped a ten and his hand held up. Larry Watson was finsihed in 9th place and won $48,575.
5:00pm... $5K PLO w/ Rebuys update: I spotted Phil Hellmuth arriving at least an hour and a half late to his event. He just doubled up. Max Pescatori is out and opted not to rebuy. Scotty Nguyen, David Williams, Eril Seidel, Hassan Habib, and Devilfish are all sitting at the same table about five feet from where I'm sitting with Otis.
5:10pm... $2,500 PLH Day 2 update: We're down to 12 players. Paul Wolfe and Darrel Dicken were both knocked out by Humberto Brenes who now had about $315K.
5:30pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: K.J. Jordan pushed all in with Kd-Qd. Lars Bonding called with pocket fives. On the turn, Jordan picked up a flush draw, but it missed on the river. K.J. Jordan was eliminated in 8th place and won $72,865.
5:47pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Robert Doyle doubled up with AK against Joe Zappia's AQ. On the next hand, Mayen Grigorian doubled up against Lars Bonding.
6:10pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I chatted with Jan Sorensen's manager Klaus, who happens to be Gus Hansen's manager as well. I flat out asked him where the Geat Dane Gus Hansen was hiding. He told me that Gus was not going to show up before the main event and was currently in Denmark playing golf and drinking with his buddies. I wandered over to the Full Tilt hospitality suite, grabbed a free beer, and chatted with Perry Friedman for a while. He told me that his wife was still in the ladies event and that she qualified for a main event seat online via a Full Tilt free roll. Michelle, the lovely PR director, handed me an invite to a Full Tilt bash next week at La Bete (which is at the Wynn). I spotted Clonie Gowen sitting next to Doyle Brunson in the PLO w/ rebuys event.
6:35pm... PLH Final Table update: We've reached a final table after Terrance Chan and Stuart Fox were knocked out. Here are seating assignments and chip counts:
Seat 1: Jerri Thomas (Hamilton, OH) $64KYes, the second final table for today has begun. And Johnny Chan, minus his lucky orange, is gunning for his 10th bracelet. I noticed that Doyle, Johnny, and Chau Giang are all wearing "Doyle's Room" golf shirts.
Seat 2: Tony Hartmann (Minneapolis, MN) $195K
Seat 3: Richard Osborne (Martinez, CA) $55K
Seat 4: Johnny Chan (Las Vegas, NV) $70K
Seat 5: Ivo Donev (Austria) $50K
Seat 6: Frank Kassela (Germantown, TN) $169K
Seat 7: Richard Harrich (San Francisco, CA) $75K
Seat 8: Humberto Brenes (Costa Rica) $127K
Seat 9: Phil Laak (Dublin, Irleand) $83K
Seat 10: Ashok Surapaneni (Las Vegas, NV) $173K
7:20pm... $2,500 NL Final Table: The action slowed down a little bit and Lars Bonding has slowly given away some of his chips, despite the fact he still has more than one million. Jason "Chip Burner" Tate and his J-10 was knocked out by Joe Zappia with As-6s. Zappia ended up winning with ace high. "Chip Burner" was knocked out in 7th place and he won $97,150.8:15pm... Bouncin Round the Room. Aside from the Ladies Event, all three other tournaments are on their dinner break, which were extended so everyone can attend the John Bonetti roast across the hall. Bonetti is Felicia's least favorite player and my only John Bonetti memory was watching Ron Rose rip Bonetti's page out of his book at the WPBT breakfast meet and greet before the first ever blogger's tourney. I hit up the buffet with Jay Greenspan and Dan from Pokerati. I thought the Swedish Meatballs were tasty. They had bacon wrapped scallops, crab stuffed mushrooms, and some sort of gourmet pork chops. I hit the bar and listened to Mike Sexton roast Bonetti. He told a few funny stories. Max Shapiro had a good one about seeing Bonetti playing video poker and cursing, "I'm getting cold decked by a fuckin' video poker machine!"
Clonie Gowen bummed a cigarette off of Dan and I ran over here to blog about the meatballs. On my way back, I spotted Antonio playing in a $25/$50 cash game and he had railbird six deep watching his table. I couldn't get close enough to see who else were there.
Dan told me, "most surreal night at the world series ever."
Yeah, it's been strange. I wish I had a few hits of liquid sunshine. By the way, every time I see Scotty Nguyen, he's with a different girl. "All you can eat!" as Men the Master would say.
8:20pm... PLH Final Table update: Ivo Donev was eliminated in 10th and he won $11,730. Phil Laak double dup with pocket aces against Ashok Surapaneni's Big Slick. Johnny Chan crippled Humberto Brenes when his AK didn't improve against Chan's 66. Humberton Brenes finished in 9th place after he was busted by Richard Osbourne. Humberto won $19,550. Ashok Surapaneni moved all in with A-10 against Frank Kassela's Hilton Sisters. Surapaneni didn't catch any cards and he was knocked out in 8th place. He won $29,325.8:55pm... PLH Final Table update: With seven players remaining, Frank Kassela is the chipleader. Jay Greenspan and I were amused with Phil Laak's table antics. At one point after he won a pot, he offered to show his cards for $4. Johnny Chan said he would and he flipped over AK. He then pestered Chan for the money. Chan's smallest bill was a five and Laak gave him change. This table is far more exciting than the "taped final table" and I will be shifting my coverage to that. Fuck, if Chan wins his 10th bracelet, I wanna witness it.
9:25pm... $2,500 NL Final Table Update: Joe Zappia was all in preflop against Robert Doyle. Classic conforntation with Zappia's Ac-Kh versus Doyle's JJ. The flop was all rags and Zappia caught an ace on the turn. In dramatic fashion, Doyle spiked a Jack on the river to make a set. He knocked out Joe Zappia in 6th place. He won $121,440.
9:37pm... PLH Final Table update: Robert Osborne likes pocet nines. He moved in with them on two consecutive hands. The first one he was seriously shortstacked and Phil Laak called with 8-7o. He flopped a 7 with an ace high on the board. Laak caught an eight on the turn to take the lead. On the river, an ace fell which paired the board and gave the lead back to Osborne. On the next hand, he double dup against Rich Harrich's Big Slick.
9:41pm... $2,500 NL Final Table Update: Mayen Grigorian's short stack was elimated by Lars Bonding's big stack when he caught a flush on the river. For fith place, Mayen won $145,730. We're down to four players.
9:50pm... Ladies Event update: I'm pretty sure we're almost in the money and we're down to the final six tables. Jen Tilly is still alive.
9:56pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Hellmuth came over to talk smack with Phil Laak and Johnny Chan. He knows that Chan has a shot at his 10th bracelet tonight and was trying to get him on tilt. Phil Laak rushed to Chan's rescue and tooled on Hellmuth. He said, "If it weren't for luck you'd win every time, right Phil?" The folks on the rail burst out with laughter and Phil quietly returned to his game.
10:18pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: Robert Doyle was shortstacked and moved all in with 7-5o. Bonyadi called with Kc-10h. Doyle flopped a pair, but Bonyadi caught a King on the turn to take the lead. DOyle was knocked out when his hand did no timprove on the river. He finised in fourth place and won $170,015.
10:40pm... PLH Final Table update: Is this going to be Johnny Chan's night? Richard Harroch and his short stack moved all in with AJ. Chan called with 44. Harroch outflopped Chan with J-8-5. On the turn, Chan picked up a gutshot straight draw. On the river a 6 spiked and Chan eliminated Harroch in 7th place. On the next hand Richard Osbourne went all in with 22. Johnny Chan called with Kc-10c. Although Chan flopped a King, Osbourne flopped a set. His hand held up and he doubled up against Johnny Chan.10:47pm... PLH Final Table: Phil Laak has his shoes off and his hoodie is half on and half off. He knocked out Tony Hartmann in 6th Place. Laak flopped a set with pocket tens and Hartmann moved all in with the Hilton Sisters. Hartmann's hand failed to improve and he was elimianted. Hartmann won $48,175. Johnny Chan is currently third in chips out of five remaining players.
11:00pm... PLH FInal Table: Phil Laak had a tough decision to make. He was second in chips and Robert Osbourne moved all in. Laak had "The Kournikova" a.k.a. KQo. He eventually called saying, "If I win it's a great call. If I lose, I still have chips."
Osbounre showed Ah-Th and flopped an ace with two hearts.
"This is what 4% feels like," added Laak to his running commentary of the hand. When another ace fell on the turn, he was drawing dead.
Johnny Chan said, "Zero."
Laak agreed, "This is what zero percent feels like."
11:07pm... PLH Final Table update: Jerri Thomas was eliminated by Richard Osbourne in fifth place. She was shortstack most of the final table and held on. She pushed with A8 and was called by Osbourne's A-10, which held up. Jerri won $58,560. The audience at the final TV table has cleared out. Everyone is watching Johnny Chan try to win his 10th bracelet. He's the best player at his table, but he's only 3rd in chips with 4 players left.
11:10pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Laak won a big hand preflop and he offered to show his hand to the other players for $4. He extended toe offer to the rail. Jon from Pokerlistings.com and I both chipped in $2 each and the Unabomber showed us Ac-Jc. That was the best $2 I spent all day.
11:22pm... PLH Final Table update: Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson stopped by the rail to check on Chan's progress. If Johnny Chan wins, he'll hold the record for most WSOP bracelets. ESPN producers stepped in and sent the players on a break until Midnight. Johnny Chan is chasing history, they would like to televise the moment, especially since the ever voluble Phil Laak (who's an admitted TV whore) is also at the table. Hopefully, the current TV event ($2,500 NL) will end soon since they are down to three players and one with a short stack. I liken this situation to a blowout in a college basketball game and they cut away from the main game to show a more exciting and competitive game. It's also like seeing ABC air a shitty Monday Night Football game because they made the scheulde six months in advance and had no idea that their matchup would not be as interesting as other games. ESPN's hard on for No Limit events fucked them tonight. They almost deserve the headache they have for blowing off a Pot Limit Hold'em event in favor of No Limit. Seriosuly, this is one big clusterfuck. Three final tables. Four tournamnets. A John Bonetti Roast. And I haven't had a cocktail in hours.
11:50pm... $2,500 NL Final Table update: We're now heads up after Glynn Beebe was knocked out by Lars Bonding. Beebe has J-9o and Bonding had pocket tens which held up. He takes home $194,305 for third.
12:01am... Ladies Event update: According to Amy Calistri, the Ladies Event is down to 13 players. Jen Tilly is still alive and she's looking pretty good. If you don't know, Jen Tilly and Phil Laak are an item. Yeah, she's Unabomber's gal. How weird would it be if they both made a final table... at the same time?
12:26am... PLH Final Table update: Robert Osbourne raised UTG to $42K. Johnny Chan went over the top for $60K more. The blinds folded and Osbourne thought for a while. He mucked Jacks and showed. Johnny Chan took down a huge pot.
12:30am... PLH Final Table update: Johnny raised preflop. Frank Kassela reraised. Johnny Chan moved all in with the Hilton Sisters. Kassela called with pocket aces. Chan slowly counted out his chips. He was covered by Kassela. The flop was: K-K-Q. The railbirds went a little crazy. I was in shock. The turn and river were were blanks and Johnny Chan cracked aces with the Hiltons! I guess I owe him a Pauly Painting. Johnny Chan moved into the chiplead.
12:34am... PLH Final Table update: Frank Kassela was elminated by Phil Laak in 4th place. Kassela won $68,425. Johnny Chan has a $400K chiplead over Phil Laak.12:51am... PLH FInal Table update: Phil Laak knocked out Richard Osbourne in 3rd place. Laak raised and Osbourne re-raised all in. Laak took forever to make a decision. He kept running the math over and over in his head. Phil Laak eventually called with K-T. He got no help until the river. He uttered, "This is what 6% feels like." Then a ten spiked. The railbirds went a little crazy. Laak fell on the floor and Osbourne looked shocked. Jen Tilly ran over and gave Laak a kiss. Osbourne won $78,200 for his excellent work at the final table. We reached heads up and Johnny Chan has the chip lead.
1:00am... ESPN made an executive decision to halt the heads up play until the $2,500 NL event is over. They will then move the match to the official TV table so they can get better coverage including the usage of hole cams. Phil Laak and Johnny Chan ae on a break until further notice.
ESPN interviewed Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson. Both guys are still playing in the PLO w/ Rebuys event. Phil was yapping about how he never roots against anyone because he does not believe in negative things and expending negative energy. He spoke for several minutes about his philospohy and the interview took a really deep tone. Doyle just stood there with a shit eating grin on his face. When they asked him what he thought about Chan possibly breaking and setting a record he said, "I'm rooting for Johnny. He's my friend and he's a great player."
On my way over to the store in the casino I spotted a guy runing at full speed toawards me in one of the long hallways leading up to the main casino floor. He looked like the Unabomber and as he got closer, I realized it was him! He was running full out with a bottle of water in his hand. I assumed he was rushing back to sweat his girlfriend Jen Tilly in the Ladies event.
1:30am... Ladies Final Table update: Seven players are left and Jen Tilly has the chip lead. Here's who is also left: Theresa Chan, Angel Wood, Carolyn Ancheta, Cecilia de Mortensen, Ann Lee, and Susan Carpenter. Beth Shak finished in 8th place, Janice Newman took 9th place, and Wendy Rosen was eliminated in 10th place.
1:40am... Bouncin Round the Room: I've been drinking a lot of water today. Alas, I've been pissing a lot too.
Last 5 Professional Poker Players I took a Piss Next to...1:45am... PLO w/ Rebuys update: I haven't mentioned this event in a while. They are down to 52 players on 6 tables. Scotty Nguyen, Clonie, John Ohan, Devilfish, Hellmuth, Doyle, Lederer, Cyndy Violette, Seidel, Ram Vaswani, Robert Williamson, Evgeny Kafelnikov, and Phil Ivey are still alive.
1. Jesus Ferguson
2. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer
3. Howard Lederer
4. Paul Darden
5. Hoyt Corkins
2:01am... $2,500 NL Final Table update: After two hours of heads up play, we have a winner! Farzad Bonyadi won his third bracelet after he eliminated Lars Bonding's Q-10 in second place with K-6. Bonyadi flopped a King and his hand held up. Bonding won $156,400 for his efforts. Farzad Bonyadi won $303,025. Congrats to Farzad Bonyadi.
Now it's time to see if Johnny Chan can make history.
2:55am... PLH Final Table update: Johnny Chan made history tonight. He won his 10th WSOP bracelet and became the first player in history to achieve the honor. On the 16th hand of heads up play, Phil Laak raised to $30K. Johnny Chan reraised to $92K. Laak agonized over the call and eventually moved all in. He flipped over K-J. Johnny Chan showed... the Hilton Sisters! Although Laak flopped a Jack, his hand did not improve. Johnny Chan embraced his son after he won. His son showed the "lucky orange" which Johnny placed on the table. I got to sit in the front row to witness this amazing feat.
2005 $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em Champion: Johnny Chan
4:20am... Ladies Event Final Table: Here's who is left: Jennifer Tilly $450K, Ann Le $89K, Cecilia de Mortensen $36K, and Carolyn Ancheta $32K. Play will resume at 3pm on Monday on ESPN's TV table. I have no final decision whether or not it will be taped. However, I expect at least the "second unit" to be shooting some footage and if it's at the final table, perhaps the hole cams will be utilized.
Angel Word came in fifth place and won $32,81. Jen Tilly's 77 cracked Teresa Chan's Hilton Sisters when Jen caught a runner-runner straight to bust her. Susan Carpenter finished in 7th place and won $21,840. Her AQ lost to QJ.
ESPN gave the option to the ladies of quitting for the night but some of them declined and wanted to play through. It wasn't until it got 4 way that the remaining players agreed at around 4:15am to stop play and come back Monday afternoon.
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