LETS VC YOU AT THE SERIES
WSOP NEWS UPDATES
DAY 5
It’s a big day for the British in the land of the free. The press follow them, people stare and whisper as they pass, and the weight of a lot of money and expectations of millions rests on their shoulders.
Yes, today David Beckham was unveiled to America.
Thousands gathered to witness the arrival of Golden Balls and his Missus; heralded by the American media in a way that could only be matched in the UK if Lord Lucan arrived at Heathrow carrying, in his exhausted arms, the aged body of Elvis Presley.
But not only that, there are seven British players still among the 112 survivors heading into Day 5 of the World Series of Poker.
Despite losing a few yesterday the Bulldog spirit lives on in the loins of Julian Gardner, Willie Tann, Richard Harris, Jon Kalmar, Cory Carroll, David Wells and Paul Kershaw.
Beckham says he can cope with the pressure. Can the surviving Brits do the same…
The average stack is 1,135,357. There is work to be done.
112 left from all over the place…
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - Stavanger, Norway - 3,740,000
Charis Anastasiou - Limassol, Cyprus - 2,672,000
Richard Harris – Wales - 2,662,000
Avi Cohen - Boston, MA - 2,392,000
Jeff Tunkel - Naperville, IL - 2,323,000
Alex Kravchenko - Moscow, Russia - 2,274,000
Hevad Khan - Poughkeepsie, NY - 2,200,000
Dario Minieri - Rome, Italy - 2,200,000
Ryan Elson - Canton, OH - 2,137,000
Paul Spitzberg - Tenafly, NJ - 1,963,000
Daniel Alaei - Las Vegas, NV - 1,219,000
Tom Peterson - La Crosse, WI - 1,200,000
David Tran – California - 1,187,000
Philip Hilm – Cambridge - 1,183,000
Scotty Nguyen - Las Vegas, NV - 1,175,000
Jeff Bryan - Fort Calhoun, NE - 1,152,000
Jerry Yang - Temeula, CA - 1,150,000
Floyd Clark - Littleton, CO - 1,146,000
Humberto Brenes - Costa Rica - 1,140,000
Cody Slaubaugh - Rugby, ND - 1,139,000
Justin Sadauskas - Chicago, IL - 1,115,000
Ray Henson - Houston, TX - 1,111,000
Richard Murnick - Montclair, NJ - 1,092,000
Stig Top-Rasmussen - Köthern, Germany - 1,080,000
Warren Karp - Lake Forest, CA - 1,068,000
Ryan Lawrence - Lethbridge, Canada - 1,046,000
Ed de Haas – Amsterdam - 1,045,000
Michael Zinna - San Antonio, TX - 1,024,000
John Bird - Dade City, FL - 1,018,000
Allan King - San Diego, CA - 1,000,000
Kevin Kim - Los Angeles, CA - 1,000,000
Christian Togsverd - Copenhagen, Denmark - 978,000
Kenny Tran – Arcadia - 958,000
Thierry van den Berg - Almere, Holland - 955,000
Mark Ellerbe - Richmond, TX - 952,000
Mikkel Madsen - Copenhagen, Denmark - 933,000
Willie Tann – London - 912,000
John Armbrust - Austin, TX - 892,000
Bob Slezak - Omaha, NE - 889,000
Maria Ho - Arcadia, CA - 885,000
Francois Safieddine - Denver, CO - 882,000
Kelly Jo McGlothlin - Palmdale, CA - 871,000
Chad Brown - Los Angeles, CA - 860,000
Tommy Le - Orange County, CA - 850,000
Jimmy Blevins - Oakland, NE - 835,000
William Spadea - South Easton, MA - 827,000
Zhuang Han - Smithtown, NY - 820,000
Billy Willis - Edmore, MI - 816,000
Isaac Haxton - Syracuse, NY - 804,000
Hyon Kim - Hillsborough, NJ - 768,000
Steven Garfinkle - Bellingham, WA - 730,000
Robin Bergren - Saskatoon, SK - 725,000
Diego Cordovez - Palo Alto, CA - 712,000
David Wells - Kent, England - 684,000
Senovio Ramirez III - Mercedes, TX - 682,000
Jason Koshi - Los Angeles, CA - 682,000
Paul Kershaw – England - 654,000
Jared Hamby - Henderson, NV - 645,000
Jason Welch - Fort Collins, CO - 618,000
Joe Shield - St. Pete Beach, FL - 586,000
Ayaz Mahmood - Houston, TX - 538,000
Bjorn-Erik Glenne – Norway - 526,000
Lamar Wilkinson - Pacheco, CA - 521,000
Brandon Adams - Cambridge, MA - 498,000
Bill Edler - Las Vegas, NV - 490,000
Dennis Perry - Williamstown, KY - 464,000
Peter Darvill - Vancouver, BC - 441,000
Kenneth Smith - Levittown, NY - 437,000
Naseem Salem - Spring Valley, CA - 411,000
Brian Tracy - St. Louis, MO - 399,000
Alan Keating - Birmingham, AL - 396,000
Chris Lovelace - Brandon, MS - 389,000
Alan Levin - Sante Fe, NM - 377,000
Thomas Koo - Costa Rica - 362,000
Pete de Best - Yorba Linda, CA - 360,000
David Names - San Ramon, CA - 330,000
Andrew Gunderson - Hoboken, NJ - 326,000
Richard Crowell - Scottsdale, AZ - 306,000
Leonard Pruzansky - Richmond, TX - 304,000
Travis Belles - Las Vegas, NV - 274,000
Mickey Seagle - Marion, NC - 242,000
Andreas Krause - Stuttgart, Germany - 95,000
Along the way a few dollars will be distributed as organisers want to reach the 36 player left mark before the close of play.
AND SO IT BEGINS AGAIN
Whilst a tourney organizer jokes with Gus Hansen that, even though he knows Gus, he still needs to see some identification, Ryan Elson tells me, ”I’m so excited. This will change my life forever no matter how the day ends.”
Jack Effel grabs the mic and reminds us about the three basic WSOP rules. ”There are 112 people remaining and we are planning on five levels. We will stop IF we reach twenty-seven participants but we will continue until we have no more than thirty-six remaining. From what we know, getting from twenty-seven to nine can take fifteen hours or more, so we don’t want tomorrow to be longer than it needs be as it already will go well into the morning before we have our final table.”
GUSSY BOY
Gus Hansen called a preflop raise to $60,000 from Jason Koshi. The flop came down…
Koshi led out for $78,000.
Gus thought for about three minutes before matching the $78,000 and adding $100,000 more. Now it was Koshi’s turn to go into the tank. The re-raise counted for almost half of Koshi’s remaining chips. Koshi looked back at a girl on the rail before announcing he was moving all in. The girl held her hands together as she stretched to see what was going on. Gus made the call reluctantly, suspecting he was behind. Gus had Ace-Deuce, but was up against Ace-King.
Gus looked down on the Ace-King he was up against. Time to pray!
Unfortunately for Gus, the turn and river failed to help him. It took Koshi over 5 minutes to stack up his $1,000,000 stack and Gus just 5 seconds to count his remaining $400,000.
LOVE HEARTS
Chad Brown moved all-in on a flop of…
Hoa Nguyen called, showing 
Chad flipped over 
Turn 
River 
All but the obligatory interview to do…
NOT SO SUPER DARIO
Dario Minieri ran into some trouble today. He started the day with over $2,000,000, but it took him less than two hours to go busto.
Dario has a bit of a reputation for stepping on the gas and not letting off no matter what. His final hand was no different when he open shoved for over $1,000,000 on a two-spade board. Dario had a couple of spades and was called by a set of threes. The money went in on the turn, so Dario only had one more pull at the deck and it came a blank. Dario went on a super roller-coaster ride this year, but the fun was over. Those that knew of him before this series know he could’ve won, but it wasn’t meant to be for Dario Minieri.
Dario watches as Scotty helps the dealer figure out if he was covered.
HEY HO, LET’S GO
Isaac Haxton got into a war with Brit, Richard Harris when a nine came on the turn. The nine had paired for Haxton but hit Richard’s up and down draw smack in the face. Isaac out in 94th place. Richard soldiers on.
Richard Harris
THE DETAIL
Chip counts by worldseriesofpoker.com
In the chasing pack…
Lee Watkinson, Ryan Elson, Kenny Tran, Alex Kravchenko, Hick Seed, John Kalmar, Warren Karp, Humberto Brenes, Kirk Morrison, Ed de Haas, Julian Gardener and Daniel Alaei.
Those on under a million but still hanging on in there…
Jared Hamby
Willie Tann (650,000)
Gus Hansen (400,000)
Brandon Adams
Biorn Erik Glenne (400,000)
ON THE MOVE - RYAN ELSON
Ryan Elson arrives on the Gus Hansen and Brandon Adams feature table with over two million in chips.
With play at this table slow due to the cameras and more Hollywood than normal from some players looking for more TV-time, Ryan has a lot of time between hands to wander about: sometimes talking with friends and family, sometimes just in the darkness between this feature table and the main feature table, and other times over to where I am to give his thoughts.
”Doing great,” I tell him as he approaches. ”So far over the average and you’re playing quite well.”
”What’s funny is that I don’t think the average matters. They take the total chips in the room and divide it by the number of players to give an average stack. But it’s not average and the number is meaningless. What they should do is tell you the median stack, which would be a harder piece of data to provide but would give a more accurate picture of where people are rather than the average which doesn’t matter at all.”
In the next few orbits, whilst most people raise to three or four times the big blind, Ryan has a few opportunities where he open-raises each time for ten times the big blind. The first time he’s asked by the big blind after folding ”why so much?”
”That’s how I got here,” Ryan answers, shrugging his shoulders and smiling. ”Figure I shouldn’t change what’s worked so far.”
The railbirds gathering around the table, despite the two notable pro players, are starting to support Ryan more and more. It’s impossible not to, as his friendly demeanour, constant smile, and joking around between hands is such a refreshing change from the roomful of other players who, despite playing for millions of dollars, often times seem as if they are waiting in the doctor’s office.
GUS HANSEN GOES ALL-IN
With $3000 antes and $12,000 and $24,000 blinds, Brandon Adams open-raises to $75,000 in mid-position.
Ryan Elson, in the cut-off, checks his cards. He pulls pack his Ohio cap, scratches his head, looks at his chips, and decides to make the call.
Gus Hansen views his cards in the small blind and slides all his chips over the line, almost $400,000 worth.
Brandon is tormented, veins in his head bulging, his fingers massaging his temple. He doesn’t know what to do. Somewhere a light clicks in his head a minute later and he folds.
”Mr. Gus, Mr. Gus,” Ryan says, smiling at Hansen. ”I don’t know what to do.”
He smiles, looks around the room, and then leans back in his chair to think for a moment.
And another moment.
”There’s too much in the pot,” he decides (he has to put in another $325,000 against the $600,000 in the middle so it’s a nice price on his tourney chip).
Ryan: 
Gus: 
”Nice hand, Gus,” Ryan says, shaking Gus’ hand. ”I figured I had to call with the pot what it was. Good luck.”
Gus doesn’t reply and just waits for the board, delayed as always by the ESPN cameras which must get into position so they can film this moment for the TV audience months from now.
Flop: 
”Runner-runner straight or flush,” Ryan calls. ”Please, dealer.”
Turn: 
”Nice!”
A dozen or more people in the crowd start chanting: ”Club! Club! Club!” So many people are fans of Gus Hansen and yet many have boarded the Elson train.
is the river.
Many see the black card and scream until they realize it doesn’t help.
”Nice hand again,” Ryan says, shaking Gus’ hand.
So Gus Hansen has more than doubled up and Ryan Elson has lost about 20% of his stack.
Will there be another confrontation?
WHEN SCOTTY MET WILLIE
Willie Tann (BB) calls a 75,000 raise from Scotty Nguyen (Button). The flop comes Ten high. Willie checks, patting the table quietly, with no fuss.
Scotty pushes twenty pink chips into the middle, 500,000… enough to cover Willie.
Willie doesn’t take long, no histrionics, no ‘Chark’, no pantomime. He folds, and shows how easy it is to do so without any fuss.
Scotty throws his 
face-up into the muck.
”I call you any time Baby… No matter what!” says Scotty.
ALL YOU’VE GOT TO DO IS NGUYEN
It’s Scotty’s button, Willie’s big blind. One player has raised it up to 70,000. the player to his left, German, Stig Tap Rassmussen makes the call. Scotty calls, Willie passes and the David Names makes the call. Four players see the flop…
Rassmussen makes it 135,000.
Scotty calls.
David Names moves all-in for another 550,000
The original pre-flop raiser likes the flop… he thinks… and thinks… but folds.
Now it’s on Rassmussen. He REALLY like this flop. He stands to think… and think… Just as he hits the one minute in the tank mark, an announcement comes over the tannoy…
”Players, play out the current hand. After that we are going on a 20 minute break.”
Rassmussen takes this as a sign and pushes his cards toward the dealer…
Now it’s on Scotty… he calls.
for Scotty Nguyen
for David Names
The ten of spades came on the turn, putting Scotty in front.
”WAIT, WAIT!” says Scotty, ”IS HIS WIFE HERE?”
Names says ”No…but my girlfriend…”
”PUT A NINE OUT THERE FOR HIS GIRLFRIEND!” says Scotty, playing to the back rows.
Of course, the nine doesn’t come and Names goes.
David Names takes the hugs from his cheering section.
Then, one last look back at what might have been…
HUCK LOW
It folded over to the button who made the obligatory button raise. Huck Seed reraised and the big blind stepped aside. The button thought for just a few seconds before announcing that he was all in. It was now up to Huck to do some thinking. He asked the dealer to spread the pot. The dealer must have been feeling pretty friendly today, he spread the pot and said to Huck,”You guys each put in $285,000 already.”
”Oh man,” muttered Huck under his breath. He was leaving himself with about $750,000 if he folded. Huck rechecked his cards and thought a few more seconds. ”Alright you got it,” said Huck. His opponent flashed Huck his pocket queens before tossing them in the muck.
FALLING LIKE FLIES FALLING
Hemmed in by the bigger stacks for the last few hours, Willie Tann has been nursing a low stack looking for a good spot to get his chips into the middle. When he decided to make his move, it was all in from the button with Queen-Nine off-suit and was called like a shot by Ace-Queen of spades out of the small blind. No help came for Ole’ Willie and his run at the 2007 WSOP was officially over. Out in 77th.
THIS & THAT
John Kalmar: ”I just swapped a percentage with Julian (Gardener) and a minute later, he’s eliminated!”
Julian gone…
Bill Spadea had raised it up to 140,000 from the small blind. Julian had re-popped from the big blind, moving all-in for over a million. King Ten for Julian, Ace King off-suit for Spadea, No help for Julian on the turn and river. Out in 64th place.
John is currently down to 900,000… ”I’m not worried… I’m gonna win it!”
Aso eliminated…
Ed de Haas
and
Bjorn Erik Glenne
The Scotty Nguyen table has been broken… Scotty chips are brought over to Gus Hansen’s table in a small truck…
Gus goes ”WOAH!”
Bling and Chips
DID YOU FOLD KINGS?
Ray Henson made a raise from the button and was reraised by Scott Freeman. The bet was $800,000 more over to Ray and the torture began.
While Ray thought, Scott slowly moved forward four stacks 40 high of $5,000 chips. New Yorker Ray agonized over his decision counting out his chips over and over again while he tried to study Scott. Scott was giving nothing up, he cupped his hands over his mouth and stared at the felt. Ray finally decided to err on the side of caution and gave up the hand.
”Give us a show,” begged one of the players of Scott.
”No, no, no don’t show! I’ll have nightmares for years,” said Ray.
”Did you fold pocket kings?” asked a different player of Ray.
”If I had pocket kings, I would still be thinking about it!” said Ray.
WILLING TO TRY ANYTHING
It’s the part of the tournament where players are willing to try anything to get an edge. One of the players decided to try to summon the power of the pocket aces…
As I walked by a little bit later, he said,”Hell, I’ll take Ace-King too!”
CHIPS AHOY
Fifty one players remain, 46th place will be the next bubble, 45th getting paid $237,865 all the way down to 37th place.
We lost another Brit when Richard Harris moved all-in after Lee Childs had made the standard pre-flop raise and Maria Ho had limp called. Unfortunately for Richard, Lee Childs had the Aces, ready and waiting. Richards Queen /Six off wasn’t up to the job.
Gus Hansen raised it up to 90,000 pre-flop and Ryan Elson moved all-in for around 700,000. Gus called and showed Ace/King… Ryan had pocket Jacks… the Jacks held, leaving Gus with a paltry 100,000 and he was out with a whimper minutes later.
Taxis also for John Spadavecchia, Kirk Morrisson and Paul Kershaw.
DRINKING BUDDIES?
Stig Tap Rasmussen raised it up preflop and England’s own John Kalmar, who was a bit short, moved all in. Stig went into the tank mumbling to himself a little bit.
”I know this is a bad lay down, but I’m folding,” said Stig throwing away his cards.
Someone at the table said to John,”Show your cards! Don’t be a chicken! Buck, buck, buck!” John is no chicken, so he showed his cards — Ace-Jack offsuit.
”Oh, I folded Ace-Queen,” said Stig, looking a little sick. ”It was a bad play by you though. You can be happy now, but you never know what cards the board would bring. No, no, it’s ok though.”
”Don’t worry, when this is all over and I win the thing, I’ll get you good and drunk!” laughed John.
CALL A SPADEA A SPADEA
William Spadea just raised to 150,000 from the cut-off, only to find Kevin Kim in the small blind move all in for close to half a million. Spadea called, showing…
For Kim…
All of a sudden the Queen looked a bit rural.
The board paired Spadea’s Jack on the turn but nothing else. Kim doubled to just over a million; still way behind Spadea’s five million, but a seven figure stack is a prerequisite at this stage.
MARIA MARIA
Shortly after Maria Ho raised from her small blind, 150,000 to go. Sat next to her in the big blind was Kevin Farry, who re-raised to 225,000. Maria picks her moment and moves all in, nearly 600,000 more. Farry calls.
He shows…
Maria shows… 
Maria needed an Ace or diamonds; both of which missed the flop, turn and river.
Maria Ho out in 38th place for $237,865. Last of the Ho’s
BILLY BOY
Bill Edler found himself in another tough spot, perhaps the toughest of the entire tournament. With a mountain of chips in the middle, his opponent, Jeff ‘Mr. Rain’ Banghart shoved all in. The board at this point was…
Edler kept eyeing the pot, then his chips, then back at the pot. It seemed like he thought forever, and I was just observing, he must have been under tremendous pressure. He finished his cup of coffee and tossed it on the floor.
Edler was done thinking and Edler said,”I know I’m behind, but I have to call you. I call.”Bill turned over… 
”You’re going to have to catch a spade,” said Banghart, as he turned up his…
Edler looked a bit confused for a moment as he studied his opponent’s hand. Jeff must have not noticed that Edler had caught a pair, but Bill sure did. ”Or a six or a five,” said Bill, with a little bit of added hope.
Jeff studied the board for a second and realized that there were, indeed, five more cards that Bill could catch. The cameras zoomed in, the rail stood on their tip toes, and the players stared as the dealer burned the river…
Edler had hit one of his outs! The rail gasped as Jeff’s chips started getting shovelled in Bill Edler’s direction. The deeper into the tournament the players get, the more painful it is to watch them get busted out. There appeared to be a bit of camaraderie at this particular table. After Jeff busted he shared a hand shake with each player and received a ‘you played great’ from nearly everyone, including Billy, who’s chip stack is really starting to grow now.
Edler reaches over and shakes Jeff’s hand.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A BREAK MAKES
After a 20 minute break players resumed, looking for one more from the last 37 to lay down their tournament life so that the others could get some sleep.
It didn’t take long at all.
Ayaz Mahmood moved in pre-flop, called by Mikkel Madsen revealing an old fashioned race. It would be a tournament life for Ayaz,; a boost of adrenaline to Mikkel.
Ayaz…
Mikkel… 
With the inevitable crowds and cameras gathered the dealer dealt the board…
The absence of an Ace or King ends Ayaz Mahmood’s hopes of World Series glory. He exits the tournament, the Amazon Room and the Rio with $237,865 for 37th place.
It sends waves relief through the other 36 fatigued players. Their day is over; through to Day 6…
DOWN TO 36
There may be no more of the mighty British contingent but the remaining 36 players have found their way here through true grit, fearlessness, and high level intakes of weapons grade caffeine.
As they slope off now towards hotel rooms the top flight, with David Tran marginally ahead, are as follows…
(counts by worldseriesofpoker.com)
Bill Edler
Kenny Tran
How the others stand…
Kevin Farry 3,800,000
Lee Watkinson 3,550,000
Tuan Lam 3,460,000
Stefan Mattsson 3,400,000
Jon Kalmar 3,000,000
Raymond Rahme 2,750,000
John Armbrust 2,700,000
Ronald Kluber 2,675,000
Hoa Nguyen 2,430,000
Peter Darvill 2,330,000
Bob Slezak 2,300,000
Steven Garfinkle 2,280,000
Jason Welch 2,215,000
Jeff Bryan 2,190,000
Daniel Alaei 2,000,000
Ryan Elson 1,900,000
Scotty Nguyen 1,750,000
Alex Kravchenko 1,705,000
Christian Togsverd 1,640,000
Paulo Loureiro 1,355,000
Mikkel Madsen 1,300,000
Roy Winston 1,175,000
Allan W. King 1,080,000
Jason Koshi 860,000
Kevin Kim 700,000
Robin Bergren 450,000
Along the way we lost a few big names, a few small ones and some inbetween.
For $237,865
Ayaz Mahmood
Maria Ho
Rep Porter
Philip Yeh
Jeff ”Mr. Rain” Banghart
Dag Martin Mikkelsen
Avi Cohen
Senovio Ramirez, III
Stig Tap Rasmussen
For $190,153
Reagan Silber
Nicolas Atlan
Markus Gonsalves
Adam White
Kenneth Smith
Lamar Wilkinson
Tom Peterson
Mickey Seagle
Richard Harris
For $154,194
Paul Kershaw
Kirk Morrison
Francis Cagney
Hyon Kim
Naseem Salem
Floyd Clark
John Spadavecchia
Gus Hansen
Matt Keikoan
For $130,288
Jeff Tunkel
Julian Gardner
Bjorn-Erik Glenne
Ryan Lawrence
Diego Cordovez
Brandon Adams
Dennis Perry
Tommy Le
Willie Tann
For $106,382
Leonard Pruzansky
Richard Murnick
David Names
Josh Evans
Warren Karp
Ed De Haas
Billy Willis
Huckleberry Seed
Thierry van den Berg
For $82,476
Sven Heinecker
Humberto Brenes
Jared Hamby
Mark Ellerbe
David Wells
Jeff Weiss
Justin Sadauskas
John Bird
Francois Safieddine
For $67,535
Cory Carroll
Isaac Haxton
Michael Zinna
Kelly Jo McGlothlin
Charis Anastasiou
Dario Minieri
Alan Levin
Pete de Best
Chad Brown
For $58,570
Joe Shield
Cody Slaubaugh
Alan Keating
Jimmy Blevins
Brian Tracy
Richard Crowell
Zhuang Han
Travis Belles
Paul Spitzberg
Chris Lovelace
Andrew Gunderson
Andreas Krause
Thomas Koo
PLAY CONCLUDES…
Day 5 comes to a close as the hour mark approached 2am. It leaves a fragile 10 hours of rest for the 36 remaining players who will take their hopes and nightmares away with them to try to get some rest.
They will be back here at Noon tomorrow to play down to that all important final nine, the final table that will make or break a career. It can leave you riding on clouds or praying that the ground will open up and swallow you whole.
That’ll do for tonight. Coverage continues at 8pm GMT.
