LETS VC YOU AT THE SERIES
WSOP NEWS UPDATES
TICKETS TO RIDE
Good afternoon and welcome back to the Day 23 of the 37th World Series of Poker. It all starts with Event 38 another $1,500 No Limit Hold'em roller-coaster. With this being a Saturday, and with all the extra weekend visitors, expect a huge turn-out for this one. The full schedule today looks like this…
CHIPS AHOY
No, it's not David Benyamine's groceries, this is how the chips are stored up overnight, after they've been bagged up and counted.
AND SO IT BEGINS
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Whilst poker pros like Ireland’s native son Padraig Parkinson and Antonio Esfandiari all score seats from the 300 available tables, countless hundreds of alternates mill about outside waiting for their shot at immortality.
With a $1500 buy-in, they might as well said ”free to the public” because with other WSOP events costing $10,000 and even $50,000, this is one of the cheapest ways to pick up a coveted bracelet in everyone’s favourite format.
It’s not just random scrubs waiting for their moment: Phil ”The Unabomber” Laak and Davood Mehrmand pace about, sensing lost opportunities as new tables are introduced every five minutes or so (indicating ten people busting out in as much time).
$1,500 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
2,780 in today's field, that's a full house according to organisers which includes the 240 alternatives queuing patiently for a seat. It will also make for a nice prize pool for some people here, among them more of the players arriving from far and wide in preparation for the finale in a few weeks time.
LOL DONKAMENTS
With thousands in starting chips and $25 and $50 starting blinds, how does a person get knocked out every thirty seconds or so?
Simple: welcome to the 2007 WSOP where the standard pre-flop play for many is to open-raise to $200, the next guy will make it $800 or $1000, the first will go all-in, and the second will call.
Like Phil Laak shared with us days ago, 2007 is the Year Of The Call and I see people making that initial re-raise and then the call all-in with hands like pocket Threes, Jack-Ten suited, and the Ace-rag offsuit.
Why not? It’s only $1,500 and there’s no reason to leave your fate to your abilities post-flop.
HOURS ONE AND TWO WITH PADRAIG PARKINSON
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
For the first hour of play, Padraig’s at a table destined to be broken around the end of Hour One. Apart from striking up conversation with the players around him, full of stories, his animated hands flailing around in grand showmanship.
The table breaks at about 1pm and I follow him to his next table across the room where he double-takes when he finds a good friend in Vicky Coren sitting across from him.
Vicky Coren
He announces a hello to the table, his super-tight table image from the previous line-up won’t carry over here (he never volunteered to put money into any pot) so outside of Vicky, he’s starting from the first peg once again, assuming his reputation isn’t well-known amongst this new crew.
Padraig continues to fold and even tosses his small blind away after seven limpers.
Someone notices this and comments, ”You folded for $25 with almost everyone in.”
”No … rags … offsuit … bloody …” Padraig answers.
Down to $2,325 in chips from his starting stack of $3,000, about twenty minutes later Padraig raises from the cut-off to $275 against the $50 and $100 blinds. This is the first time he has put money into any pot on any table except for maybe a small blind completing the bet.
Everyone folds except for the big blind who calls.
Pot: $600
Flop: 
The big blind bets out $275 and Padraig makes it $1000 total, leaving himself with $1050. The big blind calls the raise, having another $4000 or so left himself.
Pot: $2,600
The big blind checks the turn… 
Padraig moves all-in.
After two minutes, the big blind folds, despite having the opportunity to eliminate one of the best players in the tourney. After playing just the one hand, Padraig has above his starting point with $3,650.
”Nice hand, sir,” the big blind says as the dealer gets the next hand ready.
TWO GONE
The two hour mark passes and more tournaments get under way. Just four today remember, that's almost a day off.
Anyway. In the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Thomas Wahlroos and Englishman John Gale both headed for the door before the break.
Wahlroos had Aces with the last of his chips in and must have felt some of that Finnish cockiness he displays so easily when his opponent showed Fives. Dammit if two more fives didn't hit the flop.
For Gale it was his Queens against pocket Eights which had tripped up on the flop. All over for Gale.
BACK ON THEIR SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC
$2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em
Over in the Pot Limit Hold'em, two players, not exactly well known, but spotted often in the European side of the Atlantic. They may both be American but Ray Coburn and Jason Newburger have played numerous EPTs.
Ray Coburn, who normally plays with a bag of sweets in front of him, and played one Dublin EPT with his hair dyed green, tangles with Newburger in a pot that sees both players all in.
Queens for Coburn, Deuces for Newburger, and Coburn now sits behind over 70,000.
THE OTHER NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
The last supper…
The final of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event that began two days ago is under way. Ryan Young leads at the late afternoon stage….
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
$2,000 POT LIMIT HOLD’EM
Richard Ferro leads in the Pot Limit Hold’em with just 35 players remaining…
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
A few notables remain outside the limits of the top five…
Praz Bansi
TJ Cloutier
Ray Coburn
Kevin O’Donnell
Jason Newburger
Daniel Alaei
$1,500 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
Frank Lin ahead of JC Tran. Finn Juha Helppi makes his first appearance of the year towards the top of the leader board also…
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
IT IS A BAD BEAT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED CHANNING PLAY
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Neil ”Bad Beat” Channing requires no introduction. As one of the pre-eminent European players, his poker skills and charming personality are known worldwide.
Whilst many players sit and stare and make every attempt to not give away any information, like a Daniel Negreanu Mr. Channing is animated and talkative, even during a hand as he jokes with a player across from him during a heads-up exchange.
After winning that pot, Neil finds himself with almost $9000 in chips — triple where he started just four hours ago.
After folding his hand three off the big blind, he hops away from the table and makes a dash for the bathroom. He’s back just as what would’ve been his under-the-gun hand is completed, posting his big blind in a slick motion as he sits back in his seat.
While the players limp into the pot, Neil looks around the room, inquisitive but not bored, but at the same time he manages to shoot a look at each person who enters the pot. He’s got an air of not paying attention but you can tell that he’s not missing anything.
He folds his big blind away to a raise without a thought and without a lot of Hollywood time-wasting others would implement.
Time passes when an under-the-gun player raises the $100 and $200 blinds to $700. The player to Neil’s immediate right goes all-in for about $2300. Neil still has well over $8000 in chips but he’s taking a moment, tapping his fist against his teeth whilst thinking about what to do.
Tap-tap-tap.
He looks at the under-the-gun player as well as the all-in player. He looks around the room. He then puts his thumbs behind his pyramid of chips, his fingers wrapping around the stacks, and he slides them all in.
Everyone folds around to the initial pre-flop raiser. He tosses away a suited King-Queen after a few seconds of deliberation as he has a lot of chips but a few less than Neil so he must not want to risk his tournament against a re-raiser and a re-re-raiser with a holding less than stellar.
We have the mythical coin flip scenario: Neil has a suited Ace-King and his opponent has a small pocket pair; Neil gets no help until the river comes a savage King, pushing Neil up to almost $12,000 in chips and sprouting a huge smile beneath his glasses.
HANDS IN TILL
They went down to three tables in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event thanks to Mr Lover Lover Praz Bansi.
With the blinds at 2,000/4,000 Praz bumped it up to 11,000 from the hi-jack. One player, Kelly Garret, made the call from the big blind.
Flop 
Kelly checked, Praz bet 15,000 and Kelly came back over the top for 33,000 all-in. Praz called saying…
”I think I'm in front”
for Kelly
A monster Seven/Deuce for Praz
Another deuce killed it for Kelly Garret and he went out in 28th place and picked up $6,541 for outlasting 571 other players.
THREE’S A CROWD
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em Final
Down to the last three with Ryan Young out in front on well over $5 million and Dustin Dirkson on about $1.5 million, things weren't looking great for Nam Lee. Nam was on the lowest rung with only 850,000 and with the blinds at 30,000/60,000 and a 5,000 ante there wasn't a lot of time to hang around.
Eventually, Nam got it all-in before the flop holding pocket eights only to walk into Dustin's two tens. Nam eliminated in third place will take home $239,230
PRAZ FALLS
Praz Bansi was eliminated in 16th place after betting into a Queen high flop. Yuval Bronshtein re-raised him all-in and Praz called. Top pair for Praz with a Jack kicker. Top pair for Bronshtein with a six.
SIX on the turn… All over for Praz…$8,721 will be a disappointment after getting so close to another final table.
ARE THE BREAKS BROKEN?
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Players are told at 6:45pm local time that there will be a fifteen minute break and to be back by seven o’clock.
After they come back, another announcement is made: dinner will be from 7:30-9:00pm.
The question on many minds: why give a fifteen minute break only to have everyone come back for a half hour and then leave for an hour and a half?
One player doesn’t have this question — or, if he does, it doesn’t distract him — and that’s poker wunderkind Alex ”AJo Go All In” Jacob. He sits down at seven on the button and, in traditional methodical fashion, slides $1900 in chips off his big stack to pick up the $75 antes and $300 and $600 blinds.
Perhaps the blinds were intimidated by his knee bopping away under the table or his shock of hair begging to be fondled.
This mammoth NLH event’s participants are off to dinner.
A NASTY BUSINESS
$1,500 No Limit Hold’em - Day 1
Anna Wroblewski was holding top pair on a ten high flop (10/2/6), her opponent had flopped a set of deuces. A ten on the turn improved both hands but the cruel six on the river got Anna across the finish line, albeit by default.
There are still a LOT of players left in this event. A random selection of counts might look like this…
NOTHING BEATS ACES - NOTHING - OKAY, NOT REALLY
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Look at how pretty Canada’s Sorel ”Imper1ium” Mizzi’s pocket Aces are. Lovely!
Not so lovely when your opponent donks all his chips in the pot with pocket Nines and cracks them.
Ooops! Fold them rockets next time, Sorel.
TWO MEN - ONE STORY - ONE DESTINY
$1500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Noah Boeken is a terrific player, however, after suffering a horrific bad beat to a runner-runner mess on the hand right before the break, he isn’t the model of a terrific loser.
Counting out his remaining chips — all of about $2,000, a small percentage of what was a growing arsenal — he asks the player who crippled him, ”You have a lot of chips now, no? They nice?”
He storms away from the table in disgust.
Twenty minutes is spent colouring up the chips with dealers and floormen double and triple-checking the math so no problems from previous years are replicated. When we come back we’ll be at $100 antes with $600 and $1200 blinds with 335 remaining players.
Poker commentator extraordinaire David Tuchman finds me lingering around the colour-up table, waiting for time to pass. ”Down to only seven-K,” he says. ”Right at the start of the tourney I was down to $250 and grinded it up to $12,000. Now I’m starting in the small blind and I’ve got just enough, even if I fold out the small blind, that I can push and maybe get a big blind to fold and pick up the blinds and antes.”
”If I can double up once,” he continues, ”I’m gonna win this damn thing. Maybe that makes me an eternal optimist or an idiot but I’m gonna win this damn thing, especially after Bart (Hanson) came in 8th in the Omaha High-Low.”
Within a half hour after coming back from the break, Noah Boaken manages to go all-in three times and come out alive every time, causing celebration from many onlookers as his meager $2000 builds up to over $20,000. Juha Helppi congratulates him and Noah’s mood has changed from disgust after losing an almost-lock to coming back into his own after being almost a sure thing to be anted or blinded off.
David comes up to me after folding and reminds me: ”I’m gonna win this damn thing. Bank on it.”
Will these two collide at some point?
Or are they the inevitable final confrontation on the final table.
We’ll find out.
$1,500 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM FINAL
Victory for Ryan Young in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em. In a final lasting a little over five hours, the 23 year old took $615,955 for first place which should ease the burden for the Californian who has worked various jobs.
(picture of Ryan Young courtesy of imagemasters)
MY NAME IS… MY NAME IS…
$5,000 Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better
The World Championship Omaha Hi/Low Split 8 or Better event came to a close today cutting the hours in half of anyone who has to write that out several times each day.
John Guth, a 26 year old pro from Vancouver, took the bracelet in what he calls his speciality game. Apparently Guth plays nothing but Omaha Hi/Low.
He and the 20 or so friends appearing in the winner’s photo will have more than usual to spend in celebration… It’s a record payout in WSOP for any Omaha Hi/Low event.
(picture courtesy of imagemasters)
$2,000 POT LIMIT HOLD’EM
When Jordan Smith went out in tenth place it set up a final table. Mentioned earlier both Ray Coburn and Jason Newburger made it to the final, although they will have work to do if they are to catch chip leader Yuval Bronshtein.
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
We lost a few though as the day went on…
T.J. Cloutier
Scott Pendergrast
Kevin O’Donnell
Praz Bansi
Daniel Alaei
William Thorsson
Robert McLaughlin
Devin Porter
Michael Keiner
Kelly Garrett
INTO THE MONEY
$1,500 No Limit Hold’em
With over 2,700 entries the latest $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event perched on the money for what seemed like an age. The larger the field the more significant these moments are and hand-for-hand meant a quick fold and a wait for several minutes to see if anyone on any of the remaining tables had unsuccessfully gone all-in.
It took a while but one poor soul left empty handed, to a modest cheer not necessarily meant personally. Anyone eliminated now will receive cash compensation, with play due to stop at 2am local time.
$1,500 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
Play ends on day 1 of the monster $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. 2,778 players started today; all but 236 were dispatched without ceremony.
Tim Dolan has the lead over John Kranyak, whilst the ladies follow in pursuit. Kathy Leibert and Erica Schoenberg are close to the lead, with Anna Wroblowski not far behind.
Others still in the running…
Marcel Luske
Ted Williams
Robert Cheung
Eric Herschler
Minh Nguyen
Ryan Daut
Burt Boutin
Sorel Mizzi
Mark Arum
Dan Bokesch
Eric ”Rizen” Lynch
Shane Schleger
Bruce Musick
Steve Billirakis
Men ”The Master” Nguyen
Alex Jacob
Frank Lin
Robert Goldfarb
Chris ”Jesus” Ferguson
Jon Friedberg
Paul ”Dr. Pauly” McGuire
Ron Faltinsky
Don Zewin
Noah Boeken
Eugene Todd
Sam Khouiss
Rick Fuller
Warren Karp
Alas, not everyone made it…
Juha Helppi
J.C. Tran
Rene Angelil
Bryan Devonshire
Fabrice Soulier
Young Pham
”Miami” John Cernuto
C.K. Hua
Dave Colclough
Blair Rodman
Melissa Hayden
Joe Tehan
Ray Davis
James Van Alstyne
Michael Binger
Joe Awada
Rolf Slotboom
Clonie Gowen
Jerry Buss
Jennifer Tilly
David ”The Dragon” Pham
Lee Watkinson
Vanessa Selbst
Michael Mizrachi
Jason Strasser
Joe Hachem
Berry Johnston
Hasan Habib
Joe Sebok
Kenna James
Phil Laak
Jared Hamby
Phil Hellmuth, Jr.
Antonio Esfandiari
Vanessa Rousso
David Plastik
Bertrand ”ElkY” Grospellier
Mimi Tran
Amir Vahedi
Davidson Matthew
Thomas Wahlroos
Phil Gordon
Dutch Boyd
John Gale
J.J. Liu
Amnon Filippi
Mark Seif
Shannon Elizabeth
ALL ELIMINATED…
PLAY CONCLUDES
Four tournaments today, two bracelets, a wedding and another final tomorrow, it's still all go at the Rio. Just kidding about the wedding.
Ryan Young and John Guth both got that heavy feeling around their wrist today as they won the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em and Championship Omaha Hi/Low respectively.
Meanwhile in the Pot Limit Hold'em the final nine have escaped for the night for sleep thoughts of what could be before returning at 2pm tomorrow.
The latest $1,500 No Limit Hold'em played its Day 1, reaching the money before the close of play. Over 200 players will return tomorrow afternoon.
Those events aside the anticipation right now centres not on any tournament still in- running but in the big one starting tomorrow. For the second time ever a $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event will start; one of the highlights of the Series, and it's just a few hours away.
Last year saw the biggest and best play three days of the most intense poker ever seen. Chip Reece was the eventual winner and despite the result Jamie Gold had in the main event, many deemed Reese to be the true World Champion of Poker. Few disagree.
It all starts tomorrow at Noon, 8pm GMT.
