LETS VC YOU AT THE SERIES
WSOP NEWS UPDATES
Is it Day 20 already! Five events today and an illustration of why the organisers should be applauded for getting it right. FIVE completely different events…that has to be a record somewhere along the line.
First up will be the Head’s Up Event and the Pot Limit Omaha starting simultaneously at noon local time (8.00pm GMT). With the Omaha being a re-buy event, expect some madness along the way. Rumour has it that Thomas Wahlroos blew $40k on the $5k PLO re-buy event and Phil Ivey blew $50k. Money must be going out of fashion.
AU REVOIR DOGS
Yesterday was a busy day. Vinny Vinh went MIA, the Devil got leery and Patrik Antonius got himself two rub-downs…One from the masseur, and one from Thomas Wahlroos. So nothing new there then!
We didn’t get a chance to run a few all the images we wanted to, so by way of retribution here’s a little slide show with all the fun of the fair.
Still too early for the ‘No electronic devices at the table’ watershed, Jen Harman showed Gavin Griffin a few photos on the phone…
Jen: ”So here’s one of Daniel playing with his pooch…”
With Marcel and Bruce Atkinson at the same table, it was only a matter of time before an impromptu sing-off erupted. The Flying Dutchman is an Englebert Humperdink man (he told me this years ago) and Bruce…well Bruce is an Elvis man. Bruce has been donning the Elvis wig, white cloak and shades for what seems like decades at the WSOP. Now, Bruce isn’t bad but to be fair, we’re not even sure if he’s the best Elvis Impersonator in his house, let alone Vegas Baaaybeh!
Bruce: ”Wise men saaaay….only fools rush in…”
Marcel: ”You humm it shon…I shall sheeng it!”
Talking of Elvis…
Pre Army Elvis! Our favourite!
OH BROTHER!
It’s time for some Pot Limit Omaha at a re-buy pace. $1,500 at a time (though normally $3,000 with the double buys) will ensure that players will last at least three levels, unless they go broke before that. Table draws are random here, though sometimes coincidences do happen. This time it’s Ross and Barney Boatman at the table separated only by the dealer. David Colclough is there as well.
Barney: ”Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world…he has to walk into mine!”
Ross (telepathically): ”I bet he’s quoting Casablanca again!”
FAMILIAR FACES
Re-buy Table 63!
I didn’t see the hand, though Bruno was saying,”You had one card!”
It suddenly dawns on Devilfish that he left the cooker on at home…in Hull!
IT’S A HARD KNOCK LIFE
$1,500 Plot Limit Omaha
In a re-buy event like this you want a nice easy line-up to get your day going. One guy sat down today and found William Thorson, Daniel Alaei, Minh Ly, Michael Mizrachi, John Pham and John D’Agostino looking back at him.
LADIES IN WAITING
$1,500 Plot Limit Omaha
Erick Lindgren came out firing today, ready to get those multiple re-buys going. That may no longer be necessary…
On a flop of… 
Erick was selling quad Queens and managed to find a buyer in Humberto Brenes holding two sevens and the bungalow.
Lindgren suggested it was time to feed that liddle CHAHK of Humberto’s with a re-buy. Humberto said something but even subtitles would have failed him.
THREE WAY
Back to the toughest table in the room (Phan, D’Agostino, Mizrachi, Thorson and Minh Ly). These guys don’t just play, they love to gamble, gamble. gamble too. Mike Sexton is there as well. Though we’re not sure of his ‘gamble, gamble’ status, I’ve noticed lately that Mikey has been playing more aggressively, perhaps growing out of his nitty image.
Mike Matusow was milling about laughing about a ‘beat’ he took. ”Poker, poker it’s all skill, get in with the worst and go uphill!!!” he chanted.
When your nickname is the ‘Mouth’ it is imperative to have fresh breath at all times. Mikey makes sure to do that using breath strips.
At the same time over at the tough table, cheers erupted. Matusow ran over.
”Ship it!” laughed Grinder.
”What’s goin’ on over here, what you got?!?” asked Matusow. All of the hands were turned up and the dealer was trying to figure out who to send the pot to.
”Oh just the nuts, that’s all… SHIP IT!!!” said Mizrachi.
Grinder says,”Ship it!!!”
”He only play Aces,” said Minh Ly about Grinder.
J’Dags said,”Well I had Aces too, not good enough though.”
William Thorson looked at his hand trying to find something that wasn’t there while J’Dags reached deep into his pockets pulling out four $5,000 chips.
He joked,”Man this was like $180,000 when the day started!” The rest of the table laughed as John re-bought — again.
BET ON BLACK
”What the hell is going on here? I bet on black! I’m supposed to have an edge against you!” cried Gavin Smith in Phil Ivey’s direction.
They’re doing some prop bets and it looks like Gavin’s strategy is not working so well for him right now.
”Hey Phil how much you win putting yesterday?”
”Lost five thousand,” said Phil.
”Oh you must’ve not been playing with the same guy,” said Gavin. Phil does something he often does, just rolled his eyes and fired out a pot sized bet.
RE-BUYS ARE OVER
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
The tournament director told everybody to leave the tournament area after completing their re-buys and add-ons. They’re going on a break, and were advised that it would take a while because all of the re-buy chips had to be collected. D’Agostino doesn’t have too many chips considering he was complaining how expensive it was earlier. As he walked by he was talking to himself, ”So f****** sick!”
As I wandered around watching the dealers count out the chips, there was one table that stood out more than the rest.
”$63,000,” said the dealer to the floorman, who was there to collect the chips.
”Is that a lot?” I asked the dealer.
”Oh yeah, that’s a lot.”
SCORES ON THE DOORS
Here’s what the top ten in the re-buy lottery might look like…
All familiar faces…The top ten unknowns didn’t have the re-buy capacity of these guys. Which begs the question why not have a $20,000 PLO event and be done with it?
Currently out in front, John Juanda
There have been…a few minor casualties…of course…
Sam Farha
Max Pescatori and Padraig Parkinson got all in on a flop of…
Pescatori had a set of aces but he wasn’t very thrilled to see the monster that Padraig turned up…
!
The… 
fell on the turn
Max was in serious trouble. An inconsequential spade came on the river, so the pot was Padraig’s with a straight or flush, take your pick.
Max eliminated…On the upside though…no bandanna!
CHILD’S PLAY
”Now that was a really stupid comment!” yipped Ted Lawson at Rob Hollink.
”No, no he is right,” said Rolf Slotboom to Ted. ”Rob you are right. Because earlier you said the same to him… the same thing,” continued Rolf first looking at Hollink and then back over to Ted.
I didn’t get there in time to see what had happened, but I had a good idea. Rob stood from the table for a moment and I asked him how it went down.
”Sometimes when the hand is over I show my two cards to my friends, the important ones, and the unimportant ones don’t matter I throw them away. That guy over there, he is an idiot, he kept saying ’show all, show all, turn them over.’ So then he showed his friend down there his two cards and then took the four and threw them away like a little kid and made sure they all went into the middle. I said he needs to show all of the cards, then he got mad.”
So cold in here, Rob brought his duvet…
DAVOOD WATCH
Mike Sexton apparently played a hand in a way Davood Mehrmand disagreed with.
”You play so good! Maybe someday I will have a picture with you!” barked Davood.
Seeing the instant opportunity to take a picture of an uncomfortable Mike Sexton next to a crazed German, I said, ”I’ll take a picture right now.” Davood smiled and said, ”Later, later we take it.”
Meanwhile, Sexton celebrated his victory over Davood by trying to start a Mexican Wave.
”Ole!! La cucaracha!!!”
It didn’t catch on
WAHLROOS BLUBBERS!
$5,000 Heads Up Championship
Thomas Wahlroos has beaten his first opponent of the day in the heads up. Fresh from climbing past Patrik Antonius yesterday he advanced into round 6 where he met Steve Sarrafzadeh.
Stumbling early Thomas had the work to do but instead continued to slide, eventually eliminated in 14th place. A few more dollars in consolation to blow on Chinese poker.
HEADS DOWN AT THE HEADS UP
$5,000 Heads Up Championship
The heads up event has been plodding along, as the more volatile re-buy Omaha event went on a few feet away. None of that breed of free-spending here. Players have already survived half a dozen rounds at the mercy of the draw – unless you got a bye in round one that is - no one wants to blow it all at this stage.
No easy task facing the 32 who started.
WPT Championship runner up Kirk Morrison from New Zealand was out first, thanks to Jason Glass. There were slightly better conditions for the girl in the sequinned hat Carmel Petresco, who eliminated John Kabbaj before facing Shannon Shorr. The road ended there though. ‘Brokeback’ Shorr, was to advance, with Carmel out in 12th place.
Joining Carmel was Robert Cheung, sent on his way with a tune by Kevin Song. Phil Gordon was also out, 25th place for him at the hands of Jared Davis.
Play continues until they reach the ‘Quarter Final’ stage and eight players remain.
$2,500 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM 6-HANDED
Event 30 seemed to belong to Hoyt Corkins from the start. The chip lead on day one, the chip lead on day two and the same when no other player was left to challenge him.
It came down to a battle between him and Terrence Chan. After just over an hour of heads up play the bracelet went to the Texan whose chip lead stayed with him all the way.
BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS
There are 13 lucky players left in the 7 card stud tournament. They’re supposedly going to play down to a winner tonight, but it’s already past midnight. There appears to be no end in sight.
The final couple of tables are pretty stacked with: Jeff Lisandro, Howard Lederer, Nick Frangos, Mel Judah, David Chiu, Nick Frangos, Greg Pappas, and Daniel Negreanu. In the past, the players have been offered to push back the final table until the third day, but it has to be unanimous. Lisandro has already made it clear that he has every intention of playing this thing through til the end.
PADRAIG SAYS SOMETHING INTELLIGIBLE
Padraig Parkinson loves to talk, and he’s very funny, but the combination of being too far away from the table with the fact that he talks as like he has a couple of wasps in his mouth that he doesn’t want to let out, makes him very difficult to understand (If you’re American). He’s at a table with Robert Williamson III who is trying his hardest. He’s been all in multiple times only to have his hands hold up, or suck out.
Padraig looked over to him and said,”If they gave you points for trying, you’d be king of the world Robert! Unfortunately they don’t. It’s not gonna happen Robert.” Looks like Padraig has no faith.
The rest of the tournament is rich with players. Andreas Kraus is still in, as are David Colclough, Devilfish, Julian Gardner, Joe Hachem, Ralph ‘Bring on the Russians’ Perry, Eli Elezra, and Ram Vaswani are all just a few of those that remain in contention.
$5,000 HEADS UP CHAMPIONSHIP
We’ve reached the last eight in the Heads-Up Championship, with 24 players eliminated in rounds 6 and 7 today.
They will line up as follows when play starts at 2pm local time…
Steve Sarrafzadeh vs Keith Block
Toto Leonidas vs Daniel Schreiber
Mark Muchnik vs Jared Davis
Shannon Shorr vs Vanessa Selbst
Cars waiting for the 24 players who will go no further…
Paul Wasicka
Jason Glass
Michael Pickett
Carmel Petresco
Curt Kohlberg
Steve Sarrafzadeh
Kevin Song
Jonah Rogers
Scotty Nguyen
Aaron Been
Ron Faltinsky
Nick Niergarth
Jean Kabbaj
Robert Cheung
Peter Jetten
Kyle Wilson
Phil Gordon
Alex Bolotin
Roman Paradiso
Shae Drobushevich
Michael Judge
Carl Olson
Kirk Morrison
COMMON SENSE
Jeff Lisandro was preparing for the final table before even reaching it. He made it well known that he planned on playing it through. Once they reached the final table, the tournament director asked the players if they were willing to postpone the final table until the next day. Once the final table was reached, every person except for Lisandro wanted to postpone the match until tomorrow.
Jeff wasn’t trying to be stubborn without reason. He just wanted to play the event that started tomorrow at 5pm tomorrow. He finally said that if everybody agreed to start at 1 pm rather than the scheduled 2 pm, he would probably have enough time to play in the tournament at 5 pm. It seemed reasonable enough, and the other players all agreed that they would meet across the felt at 1pm.
$2,000 SEVEN CARD STUD
So what will that final look like tomorrow..?
Daniel Negreanu and Mel Judah
Along the way we lost a few notables…
Howard Lederer
Mel Judah
David Chiu
Cory Zeidman
Tam Nguyen
Mohammed Hosseini
Ed Margolin
Marcel Luske
James Moutsatsos
Bruce Atkinson
Cyndy Violette
Scott Epstein
Brad Berman
Chris Reslock
Darrell Dicken
Steve Weiss
Miami John Cernuto
David Bradley
Donna Varlotte
Chip Reese
Skip Wilson
Frank Armas
Kirill Garasimov
Chris ”Jesus” Ferguson
Jim Nelson
Minh Nguyen
Paul Darden
Theo Jorgensen
Jan Sorensen
Alex Kravchenko
$1,500 POT LIMIT OMAHA WITH RE-BUYS
The Pot Limit Omaha with re-buys, or wallets, has completed its first day with 49 players remaining. The top ten, lead by Matt Glantz, look like this…
(Chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
Among the list of notable still in there…
Allen Cunningham
Padraig Parkinson
Johnny Chan
Rick Ellerman
Joseph Hachem
Ralph Perry
Sonny Nijran
Marc Goodwin
Chau Giang
Bradley Berman
Rafi Amit
Dave Colclough
Tim West
David ”Devilfish” Ulliott
Rick Fuller
Mike Sexton
Dewey Tomko
Rolf Slotboom
Alan Smurfit
Jim Sachinidas
Robert Williamson III
An honourable mention in ‘dispatched’ for…
Clonie Gowen
John D’Agostino
Josh Arieh
Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi
Burt Boutin
Tony G
Blair Rodman
John Juanda
David Grey
Barny Boatman
Captain Tom Franklin
Andy Black
Barry Greenstein
Lee Watkinson
Sherkhan Farnood
Andy Bloch
Eric Froehlich
Kirk Morrison
Daniel Alaei
Berry Johnston
John ‘The Razor’ Phan
Surinder Sunar
Gavin Smith
Hasan Habib
Chris ”Jesus” Ferguson
Juha Helppi
Phil Ivey
Scott Clements
Greg Raymer
William Thorson
Mike Matusow
Scott Fischman
Erik Seidel
Leif Force
Bill Gazes
Noah Boeken
Mickey Appleman
Max Pescatori
Ted Lawson
Minh Ly
Sammy Farha
ALL ELIMINATED…
$3,000 LIMIT HOLD’EM
Meanwhile, in the quiet drafts of the outdoor Pavilion, the $3,000 Limit Hold’em finished its first day with Alexander Borteh ahead of Greg Mueller and JC Tran. 110 of the 296 who started will be back at 3pm local time tomorrow (11pm GMT).
Other notables still in contention include…
Marco Traniello
Phil Hellmuth
Ted Forrest
Annie Duke
J.J. Liu
Richard Brodie
Gary Leibovitz
Michael Davis
Jason Newburger
Chad Brown
Max Casal
Ryan Jones
Kenna James
Minh Ly
Alex Kravchenko
Theo Jorgensen
Jan Sjavik
Thor Hansen
Bryan Devonshire
Barry Greenstein
Justin St. John
Dan Alspach
David Plastik
Phil Cordano
David ‘The Dragon’ Pham
Matt Matros
Among those looking for the way out…
Scott Fischman
Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson
Miami John Cernuto
Dutch Boyd
Jerrod Ankenman
Mickey Appleman
Joe Sebok
Ted Lawson
J.C. Alvarado
Erik Seidel
Bill Chen
Chris Grigorian
David Sklansky
Amir Vahedi
Melissa Hayden
Flaminio Malaguti
PLAY CONCLUDES
Day 20 comes to an end. But day 21 is just hours away!
Coming up tomorrow…
At Noon another event gets underway when Event 35, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament begins.
An hour later the Seven Card Stud starts its final table with Jeff Lisandro hoping to have that one wrapped up in the four hours before 5pm, when Event 36, the World Championship Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better event kicks off.
Before that at 2pm The Heads Up event reaches its climax with the last eight in action; and the Pot Limit Omaha tournament pushes on with its second day.
What does that leave? Ah yes. The Limit Hold’em, shoehorned nicely in between, will start its Day 2 at 3pm. Add eight hours for GMT and you’re all set.
Did we forget anything? Until then…
