2011 WSOP - Day 6: Ho-most for Maria Ho and Other Monday Nuggets

By Pauly
Covington, KY

I'm flying back to Vegas shortly after a quick weekend away from the grind. Luckily, my better half stepped in a delivered a sensational guest post. If you haven't read Change100's Apocalypse Now, then what are you waiting for?

Change100 did such a good job I considered skipping out the rest of the preliminaries, going on Phish tour, only to show up for the Main Event...but if I did, I'd piss a lot of people off, my girlfriend included. Alas, I'm sitting in Cincinnati Airport (which is located in Kentucky, which still baffles me) and ready to head back to Las Vegas for the rest of the WSOP.

In previous years, when I take time off from the WSOP, I block everything out and focus on getting R&R. Yesterday was an exception because Maria Ho advanced to the final table of the $5K NL event. I gotta say, I was railing her virtually via updates from WSOP.com as a fan. For the first time, I followed along like mostly everyone else at home, refreshing every few minutes for the slightest news of her deep run. Like many of you, I was bummed she didn't go all the way. Nothing against Allen Bari, but the victory would have done wonders to help boost the number of women playing in open events. We all need role models to look up to and with Phil Ivey ensconced in a legal battle, there's a huge vacuum of potential heroes the poker community would love to put up on pedestal and shower you with benevolence and hit you up for Main Event staking.

While I'm short on time, here's a long-overdue link dump of some WSOP-related items I think you should read.

Let's kick off with Nolan Dalla's final table recaps...

Event #4 $5,000 NL - Allen bari Says I'm the Best, Then Proves It (WSOP.com)

Event #5 $1,500 Stud - Eguene Katchalov Wins 7-Card Stud Championship (WSOP.com)

Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold'em - A Wilder Ride (WSOP.com)

Event #7 $10,00 PLH - Amir Lehavot Wins Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship (WSOP.com)

Change100 and I are writing daily recaps for RISE Poker. She's been holding down the fort while I went out of town. Here's the last few...

Day 5: Eugene Katchalov Wins Stud; Maria Ho in 5K Final Four (RISE Poker)

Day 6: Maria Ho Falls to Allen Bari (RISE Poker)

And here's some other links to masticate on...

Poker Royalty Responds to Rakeback Account Selling Allegations (Bluff Magazine)

BJ shares his early analysis on Phil Ivey vs. Full Tilt. (Sport of Poker)

The Girls of the Rail Photo Dump. (Wicked Chops Poker)

John Katkin wrote an op-ed: Off to a Slow Start. (Pokerati)

One of the early highlight of the 2011 WSOP is knowing that Jesse May is here. He's written two pieces already and is inspiring me to step up my game. Here's Poker Is Going Back to the Wolves and You Sanctimonious Little. (The Poker Farm)

And let's not forget about Shamus' recent gem Angry Poker. (Hard-Boiled Poker)

And here's some self-pimping. If you like music, maybe you'd be interested in reading about my wild weekend in Ohio...

Cleveland Steamer and Dali Blossoms (Cleveland)

Jedi Mind Bends (Cincinnati)

That's it for now. It's time for me to get the hell out of Kentucky and head back to Vegas. Regularly schedule nonsensical rants and inane observations from yours truly will resume later this evening (or early tomorrow).

You know the drill. NGTFOOMO!