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Hello, G’day, Goddag, Bonjour, Nei Ho, Hei, Shalom, Hallo, Dzien’ dobry, Xin chao, Guten Tag, Hej, Hola and Aloha to all our friends around the world. Thanks for looking in… Cup of tea anyone?
Welcome to day 26 of the 37th Annual World Series of Poker… Stay tuned for all the fun of the fair.
THE DETAIL
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E
Players re-drew for seats at the end of play yesterday.
Table 65:
Seat 1: Daniel Negreanu – Canada - 307,000
Seat 2: Joe Tehan – USA - 166,000
Seat 3: David Singer – USA - 332,000
Seat 4: Dewey Tomko – USA - 119,000
Seat 5: John Hanson - USA - 641,000
Seat 6: David Oppenheim – USA - 469,000
Seat 7: Erik Seidel – USA - 194,000
Seat 8: Thomas Weideman – USA - 127,000
Table 66
Seat 1: Freddy Deeb – USA - 357,000
Seat 2: Cyndy Violette – USA - 60,000
Seat 3: Matthew Hawrilenko – USA - 416,000
Seat 4: Toto Leonidas - 621,000
Seat 5: Greg Raymer – USA - 287,000
Seat 6: Andy Bloch – USA - 425,000
Seat 7: Kenny Tran – USA - 544,000
Table 71
Seat 1: Phil Hellmuth – Cloud Eleven - 412,000
Seat 2: Thor Hansen – Norway - 275,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung - USA - 119,000
Seat 4: Bruno Fitoussi – France - 337,000
Seat 5: John Hennigan - 204,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein – USA - 275,000
Seat 7: Chris Reslock – USA - 98,000
Table 72
Seat 1: Pat Pezzin – Canada - 94,000
Seat 2: Isabelle Mercier – Canada - 41,000
Seat 3: Tuan Le – USA - 295,000
Seat 4: Phil Ivey - USA - 436,000
Seat 5: Rob Hollink – Holland - 321,000
Seat 6: Annie Duke – USA - 165,000
Seat 7: Sam Grizzle – USA - 86,000
Seat 8: Amnon Filippi – USA - 429,000
Table 76
Seat 1: Erick Lindgren – USA - 99,000
Seat 2: Tim Phan – USA - 234,000
Seat 3: Greg Mascio – USA - 290,000
Seat 4: Chip Reese – USA - 332,000
Seat 5: Mike Wattel – USA - 250,000
Seat 6: Eli Elezra – USA - 568,000
Seat 7: Stephen Wolff – USA - 251,000
Table 77
Seat 1: Robert Mizrachi – USA - 338,000
Seat 2: John Juanda – USA - 410,000
Seat 3: David Sklansky – USA - 47,000
Seat 4: Allen Cunningham – USA - 549,000
Seat 5: Mark Gregorich – USA - 249,000
Seat 6: Dan Shak – USA - 156,000
Seat 7: Mike Matusow – USA - 456,000
Table 78
Seat 1: Scotty Nguyen - USA - 72,000
Seat 2: Neal Friets – USA - 246,000
Seat 3: David Williams- USA - 203,000
Seat 4: Huck Seed - USA - 278,000
Seat 5: Max Pescatori – Italy - 396,000
Seat 6: Noah Jefferson – USA - 149,000
Seat 7: Justin Bonomo – USA - 508,000
Seat 8: Gabe Kaplan – USA - 186,000
Chip Counts courtesy of wsop.com
The tournament is scheduled to resume at 2.00pm PDT (10.00pm GMT)
I LOVE THE SMELL OF LIMIT IN THE MORNING
$2,000 Limit Hold ‘em
There’s nothing like the excitement of limit: checking and calling to the river if you hit your gutshot since you have pot odds; never needing to make huge lay-downs as you’re often getting twenty-to-one on your money; making thin value-bets on the river because, hey, why not pick up an extra big bet with minimal risk?
Because of this frenzy of poker-at-its-finest, many of the game’s finest have stepped into the limit squared circle, including:
Humberto Brenes
Thomas Wahlroos
Marcus Golser
Ryan Nathan
Mike Schneider
Mark “I Want My Money, Brandi, Forshizzle” Newhouse
Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Noah Boaken
You’re seeing that right: Laak and Boaken are not only on the same table but situated next to each other—drama bomb ahoy!
Also, since this is limit, that means all the lovely ladies come, like Lacey Jones:
THE HORROR…THE HORROR
After 90 minutes we have Captain Tom Franklyn and Fin, Thomas Wahlroos sharing the early bird chip lead on 5,700 a piece. A random run through the field brings forth the following stacks (Don’t forget, they started with 4,000).
PHIL LAAK - HIS OWN PRISON
$2,000 Limit Hold ‘em
Laak & Boeken…
Whilst Phil Laak is waiting for his turn to act, he tells a story to neighbour Noah Boeken: “So this guy the other night in this big limit game calls me down on a board of Ace-Queen-Nine—that was the flop and I’ve got Jack-Ten—and there’s no flush draw. So I’m drawing to my straight and I bet the flop and he calls. The turn and the river are like Seven and Six or a Five or whatever and there’s no flush and I bet the whole way and he calls me down the whole way. I flip up my hand at the end and he has King-Three and takes it down with King-high.”
“Why did he do that?” Noah asks.
“He said something like he wanted to see how I play and that he wouldn’t be bullied. Oh, is it my turn?” Phil asks the dealer. “I raise.” There are two limpers for $50 apiece yet Phil rockets out five black $100 chips.
“Sir, the raise is to $100,” the dealer says, pushing back the difference.
“Oh, sorry, kid, I get so confused with this game.”
A player cold-calls Phil in late position, the blinds fold, but the limpers call.
The dealer slams down the flop of 
.
The two limpers check, Phil bets, the guy in position calls, and the limpers fold.
“You’re calling me, kid?” Phil asks. “Got a little Nine or Ten brewing under there? C’mon, dealer, Nine or Ten ball for my man.”
Turn: 
“I gotta bet, kid,” Phil says and does so. His opponent raises. “Woah! What are you doing? Think that flush is coming with your Nine or Ten?”
“I don’t need any of that,” his opponent says. “I’m already set.”
“Sure you are. Three-bets.”
The guy calls.
“Bet in the dark,” Phil says. “After that speech, how can I not?” Whilst waiting for his opponent to call, Phil extends his hand with cards out towards the muck, inching closer and closer. “Just fold, kid, you know you’re beat. Next hand, all right? This is like a scene from ‘The Prisoner’ when they’re trying to escape just to see something new even though there’s nothing but nothing and you cannot get out so it’s better to just give up so you should fold.”
His opponent calls after the 
river and Phil’s set of Sevens for Sevens-full is good.
BROUHAHA
A real hullabaloo erupted at table 212. Apparently a dealer had accidentally exposed the river too soon. One of the players said she hadn’t acted yet and still should have her option. For some reason there was lots of confusion and everybody began talking at the same time.
As the players bickered, the floorman’s head looked like it might spin off his shoulders. The funny thing was that half of the table was from New York or New Jersey, and the accents were fast and furious. All the table needed was a few bowls of pasta and bottles of wine and it might’ve looked like a family gathering in Little Italy.
”Everybody stop talking! Dealer stop talking I already heard enough!” said the floorman.
Men the Master watches on, ”Whaa happenin?”
One of the players at the table who was having a great time watching the drama unfold, points both his fingers at the floorman while he tries to control the table, ”You DA MAN!!!”
The dealer ruled that the river card would be shuffled back into the deck and rerun. The original river was the six of spades. The dealer took the card and reintroduced it into the deck.
”I hope it’s the six of spades again, it’s going to be the six of spades,” said one of the players at the table that wasn’t in the hand. The dealer knocked the table and flipped over — the six of spades! The table went nuts as did all the surrounding tables, who had already tuned in to see what was going on. What should have been a thirty second ruling ended up taking about five minutes, though what a five minutes it was.
ROWDY SENIORS
Over in the seniors event, some of the tables are getting a little heated. ”Son of a… ! SON OF A…!!!” screamed some guy. He then left the table, got onto his scooter, and began rolling out of the room.
Captain Tom looked up from his plate of fries and yelled over from the limit event, ”What, is that the first time you’ve taken a beat before?” The old man either didn’t hear, or chose to ignore the Captain and rolled off into the sunset.
VINNIE BARBARINO WHERE ARE YOU???
Gabe Kaplan may well be playing in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event but you can’t help wondering whether he’d rather be in Buchanan High with his old mucka John Travolta when you look at him in this photograph. To be fair, the shot is a bit misleading as Gabe is having a lot of fun at the table. That of course may have something to do with him moving way up the ladder into third place on 700,000.
Kenny Tran currently leads the way on 930,000 with Justin Bonomo just behind him on 820,000. Annie Duke and Cyndy Violette have both been eliminated leaving Isabelle Mercier to stand alone as the last woman in the tournament with 300,000. Reigning H.O.R.S.E Champion Chip Reese went out in 47 place.
A few random counts from the 39 remaining players would look like this…
Chip counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com
And a few other hopefuls who ended up in the cab line outside…
Matthew Hawrilenko
Neal Friets
Joe Tehan
Phil Ivey
John Hennigan
Erik Seidel
Scotty Nguyen
David Williams
Greg Mascio
David Sklansky
NO MERCY
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E – Seven Stud High-low
Isabelle Mercier was all in by fourth street with a spade draw. Gabe Kaplan (yes him again) showed three sixes. Gabe had housed up by card six and Isa had no low. Mercier out in 31st place.
A few more have bitten the dust…
Andy Bloch
Robert Mizrachi
Erick Lindgren
David Oppenheim
Allen Cunningham
Thomas Weidman
LADIES AND GENTS, INTRODUCING
$2000 Limit Hold ‘em
”Do your readers know about me?” a cuddly gentleman asks me.
”I’m not sure,” I reply.
”Don’t you think they should? I am the greatest cash game player of all time.”
”That sounds like someone they should know about.”
”True dat. Name’s Teddy Monroe, but everyone calls me VerSlick.”
Consider yourself informed.
SOME WAVING, SOME DROWNING
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E
Having lost Mike Wattel, Huck Seed, Tuan Lee, Eli Elezra, John Juanda and Steve Sung, they’re down to 24 players and there’s been a re-draw for seats.
Seat 1: Bruno Fitoussi
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu
Seat 3: Justin Bonomo
Seat 4: Greg Raymer
Seat 5: Amnon Filippi
Seat 6: Mike Matusow
Seat 7: Dewey Tomko
Seat 8: Max Pescatori
Seat 1: Mark Gregorich
Seat 2: Pat Pezzin
Seat 3: Steve Wolff
Seat 4: Kenny Tran
Seat 5: Chris Reslock
Seat 6: Phil Hellmuth
Seat 7: David Singer
Seat 8: Rob Hollink
Seat 1: Tim Phan
Seat 2: Noah Jefferson
Seat 3: Toto Leonidas
Seat 4: Gabe Kaplan
Seat 5: Barry Greenstein
Seat 6: Freddy Deeb
Seat 7: Thor Hansen
Seat 8: John Hanson
CHAMPS AND CHUMPS
$1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em
The Senior event; easy prey for mockery about nap times and medication, has thrown together some of yester-years notables.
Whilst Amarillo Slim lead earlier, he was forced to mosey on out to the rail after an hour or so of play, when his Tens ran up against the Aces of Hassan Kamoei. A round of applause for Preston from all in the Amazon Room; he went out with a few grand.
Tom McEvoy, not the first man you’d consider to be yester-year, despite the grey hair, battled on as one of two World Champions still in running.
He didn’t count on Hassan Kamoei sending two former World Champs to the rail. Following a raise, Kamoei moved all in, prompting Tom to call for the last of his chips. Just the two of them saw the flop.
for Hassan
for Tom
What followed should only be witnessed by men of a certain age. The flop came…
McEvoy could be forgiven for feeling comfortable at this stage. He held the Diamond King and only the Ten of hearts would save Hassan and send McEvoy to the rail, and that would only come with astonishing bad karma.
Perhaps McEvoy parked in a disabled spot on the way in, or ran over an old lady, but said karma deserted him. That very Ten hit the turn. There was no help on the River and McEvoy was out.
KRAVCHENKO NO HAPPY
Alex Kravchenko is not a man of many words, though if he spoke English better he might have more to say. During one of the hands in Limit tournament, Alex got a little confused following the action. He was wearing headphones and didn’t realize that the dealer was trying to catch his attention. He took them off and the issue was resolved, but someone at the table had something to say about it.
”You know, you shouldn’t wear those headphones. You’re going to get lost in the action again and it might cost you a lot of chips,” said the guy.
”Are you saying it’s prohibited for me to wear headphones?” said Kravchenko, obviously ready to get into something.
”No, it’s not prohibited, I’m just saying you suck at it!” said the other guy. This statement froze Kravchenko up, he probably knew what he wanted to say, just didn’t know how to say it. It looked like he was deciding between jumping across the table, or just giving him a strong Russian staredown. He went with the staredown.
LAST OF THE SUNSHINE BOYS
$1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em
He won the main event in 1991 so he knows a thing or two…
Brad Daugherty a winner from the black and white days of poker before television; in a combination of cunning and experience, doubled up with Ace-Queen when called by Ace-King. The Queen on the flop breathed life back into the old lag’s stack.
He then hung on for a further three hours before luck, or wisdom or something ran out. In a classic race, he was eliminated with King-Queen against Sevens - the last of the former World Champions was out and 27 players remain going into the dinner break.
A COUPLE OF HOURS WITH GEORGE DANZER
Omaha High-Low
With twenty-eight players remaining, we’re one elimination away from condensing down to three tables.
George Danzer is at one of the four current tables and is one of the tightest players in the line-up, not volunteering to put money into pots often.
Because of this, whilst we’re yet to break to three tables, seeing three limpers attack his small blind, George raises the pot and gets the big blind plus the three limpers to dump their hands, adding a few rounds of blinds to his arsenal.
I spoke to an Englishman rail-birding who told me why Europeans are so much better at PLO than their American counterparts: ”It’s simple, really: we play it so much it comes easy to us.”
Sitting atop his right leg that he has bent beneath him, George is patient, folding hand after hand as we have encounter after encounter that could lead to elimination yet fall short with a chop, its participants surviving.
”He shouldn’t have called that hand,” Tony G comments about a player who cold-called another’s all-in. ”He was lucky to chop the pot.”
Tony isn’t in this event so he wanders away after voicing his opinion.
George continues to fold.
A player is eliminated so we’re down to twenty-seven players on three tables.
Facing a new line-up including the Internet infamous Chad Brown, George adopts the same strategy, waiting for a hand, knowing a new opportunity is just a few moments — and a few shuffles — away.
TWO TRIBES
$1,500 Omaha Hi/Low
18 left in the Omaha Hi/Low where George Danzer carries the hopes of European poker against the mighty American Goliath…
1. Tobi Clark
2. Dario Alioto
3. Orlando Romero
4. Alan Aberg
5. George Danzer
6. Gene Timberlake
7. Mark Wilds
8. David Bach
9. Lukasz Dumanski
1. Mike Sexton
2. Dustin Cole
3. A.J. Kelsall
4. Thomas Hant
5. James Tolley
6. Chad Brown
7. Senovio Ramirez III
8. Michael Watson
9. Jean-Philippe Piquette
HOME ON THE RANGE
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E Seven Stud High
We’re down to 21 and done for the day after Holland’s Rob Hollink and Toto Leonidas were eliminated in the space of five minutes. Rob was all-in with two small pair on
fourth street
…Mark Gregorich had better. Toto went out with two big hands, both of them against his nemesis for the day, Freddie Deeb.
The top ten look like this…
Daniel Negreanu, having just a few hours ago been on over $1.2 million is now second to last on less than 150,000, whereas Thor Hansen, Greg Raymer and Chris Reslock are all well up there in the chasing pack with a shot.
Play resumes in the H.O.R.S.E at 2.00pm EDT (10.00pm GMT)
$1,500 MIXED HOLD’EM
The $1,500 Mixed Hold’em came to its merry end earlier today when Fred Goldberg took the bracelet and over $205,000.
After five hours Goldberg beat Rene Mouritsen at the heads-up stage to win his first WSOP bracelet. It will be some consolation for missing out on the main event last year, where Goldberg finished tenth.
Typical in these moments it emerges that Goldberg, a No Limit player, had never played live Limit before this event. It was his fourth cash this year so at least he’s used to that.
Fred Goldberg (photo courtesy of imagemasters)
$1,000 SENIORS NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
The Seniors event has reached its final nine. Champion killer Hassan Kamoei narrowly missed out on the final, eliminated in tenth place. That leaves…
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
Also out earlier were…
Myron ”David” Icke
Ronald Matusek
Vince Burgio
Ted Smith
William Starr
Roy Upshaw
Mark Abrahams
Mickey Wernick
Tom McEvoy
Brad Daugherty
Joe Petro
Ronnie Williams
Tom ”The Shamrock Kid” McCormick
Steve Wise
Nick Baxter
Bill Davis
Richard Harris
Robert Hoffman
Amarillo Slim Preston
Steven Schwartz
$1,500 OMAHA HI/LOW
Another final ready to play tomorrow is the Omaha Hi/Low, which features among others George Danzer, the man in the scarf in sixth place. That still leaves some work to do to catch chip leader David Bach…
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
$2,000 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
More events started today, including number 43, the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em. At the head of the field at the end of the first day…
(chips counted by worldseriesofpoker.com)
Other notables include…
David Ventura
Rehne Pedersen
Timothy Kasparoff
Roger Gold
William Jensen
Steve Buchanan
Ayaz Mahmood
Richard Redmond
Joe Sebok
Terrence Chan
Rick Fuller
Ryan Nathan
Rohan Long
Bob Van Horne
Mario Esquerra
James Bach
Anahit Galajian
Warren Karp
David Zucker
That leaves a big number in line for a way out of here…
Tom Schneider
Russell Hudson
Sabyl Cohen
Thomas Wahlroos
Juha Helppi
Chris ”Jesus” Ferguson
Men ”The Master” Nguyen
Eric ”Rizen” Lynch
Al ”Sugar Bear” Barbieri
Clonie Gowen
Kathy Liebert
JC Tran
Alexander Kravchenko
Scott Clements
Jared Hamby
Howard Lederer
Jeffrey Lisandro
Phil Laak
David Chiu
Melissa Hayden
Humberto Brenes
Captain Tom Franklin
Victor Ramdin
Bryan Devonshire
Michael Mizrachi
Kenna James
Jerry Buss
Paul Darden Jr
Miami John Cernuto
John ”The Razor” Phan
PLAY CONCLUDES…
Another day another dollar. A bracelet today went to Fred Goldberg, easing the pain he may still feel over missing the final table of the main event last year.
In addition we have two final tables in place for tomorrow. The Seniors Hold’em final starts at 2pm, whilst the Omaha Hi/Low kicks off at 3pm.
The H.O.R.S.E. event trots into Day 4 tomorrow, where the remaining 21 players will fight it out until just only nine remain. They start at 2pm, as does the second day of the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em.
Of course there’s always room for one more. Event 44 starts at Noon tomorrow, the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Low Split event.
That’s Day 27 to look forward to. Coverage starts at 8pm GMT.
