The November Nine, of the WSOP are...

Date: Tue, Jul 15, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

After I went to bed last night after covering what I could of the Main Event, the players were headed off for a break. As you can imagine play has become very tight. Play continued after that, obviously without me following along. They continued on and as the approached the next break for dinner, at which time there were only 14 players remaining with an average stack of 9,778,000.

In the countdown to the final 9, which is where play will end until the the final table reconvenes, later so as to create suspense. Gert Andersen was eliminated in 14th Place for $463,201.

Nicholas Sliwinski was eliminated in 13th Place for $463,201, by Dennis Phillips who had flopped a King high flush.

Chris Klodnicki was eliminated in 12th Place and takes home $591,869.

Joe Bishop is was eliminated in 11th Place for $591,869. The details of the hand that did it were a bit brutal. Joe Bishop had moved all-in for 2.4 million. Chino Reem called from the BB and showed 2h 2c, while Bishop held Ac 3h. The flop came Ah 3c 5s, which was good for Bishop. The turn was a blank, Qc. However the river brought the 4h, giving Chino Reem the WHEEL!

According to the folks over at PokerNews.com all the players redrew for their seat at one table as follows:

Seat 1: Dean Hamrick 12,460,000 Seat 2: Dennis Phillips 21,500,000 Seat 3: Craig Marquis 12,000,000 Seat 4: Ylon Schwartz 10,500,000 Seat 5: Scott Montgomery 20,635,000 Seat 6: Darus Suharto 16,425,000 Seat 7: David "Chino" Rheem 10,100,000 Seat 8: Ivan Demidov 18,700,000 Seat 9: Kelly Kim 4,430,000 Seat 10: Peter Eastgate 10,430,000.
The button will start in Seat 4, with Ylon Schwartz. Shuffle up and deal!

Dean Hamrick was finally eliminated in 10th Place for $591,869. This finally allows play to come to an end, and the final "November Nine" will return on November 9th, to finish out what they started.

The official chip counts for the remaining final table players are as follows:

Official November Nine Chip Counts and Seat Assignments

On November 9th, 2008, the following nine players will return to the felt with 21 minutes and 50 seconds left in level 33:

Seat 1: Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000 Seat 2: Craig Marquis - 10,210,000 Seat 3: Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000 Seat 4: Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000 Seat 5: Darus Suharto - 12,520,000 Seat 6: David 'Chino' Rheem - 10,230,000 Seat 7: Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000 Seat 8: Kelly Kim - 2,620,000 Seat 9: Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
At this point each player takes home $900,670 that is guaranteed to be paid out to even the next person to be taken out of the tournament. Of course, the remainder that the players win, will be paid out come November, with interest. The remaining prizes to be paid out are:
1st $9,119,517 + the gold bracelet 2nd $5,790,024 3rd $4,503,352 4th $3,763,515 5th $3,088,012 6th $2,412,510 7th $1,769,174 8th $1,286,672 9th $900,670
Play for these players will resume in117 days on November 9th and 10th. Stay tuned folks, there's still more to come!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 5, 6, and 7...

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Well of course I've fallen behind. After our second All-Star game on Saturday, the family and I headed South for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Unfortunately it wasn't until today that I was able to secure a network cable to attach. I had assumed wireless connectivity was available here at the Baywatch complex. I thought wrong. But before we cover beach time, let's recap where I left off with the Main Event of the WSOP.

Way back on Day 5, players returned to finish out about 38 minutes of Level 19 and then continue on playing an additional 5 levels. A number of ups and downs occurred, including a "down" for Phil Hellmuth. As players headed into Round 20 Mr. Hellmuth asked to remain in the Amazon Room which doesn't happen for anyone. He said he wanted to pace. Officials directed him to the hallway where he could pace his little heart out.

Ahhhh man Hoyt Corkins has been eliminated. One of those hands where you've got pocket Queens, and they run into pocket Aces, and don't improve. Ouch!

Other notables who were eliminated are Chip Jett, Gus Hansen, Jeremmiah Smith, Justin St. John, Allen Cunningham and Shawn "Sheiky" Sheikhan, and Kara Scott.

Somewhere during the action, Phil Hellmuth was directed to his new seat right next to Mike Matusow in Seat 6.

Tiffany Michelle is on top of one helluva stack, looking as lovely as ever.

And as much as you gotta love to hate the guy, Phil Hellmuth has gone deep into the Main Event, but his journey came to an end as welll, as he finished in 45th place and takes home $154,400 for his efforts. I'm still he hasn't stopped his whining yet.

Aww man Mike Matusow was eliminated in 30th place. Pre flop his AJ was best, but a turned nine gave Paul Snead two pair aces and nines to take down the pot. Congratulations, on going so deep in the tournament and for a cool $193,000.

Day 6 came to a close with only 27 players remaining. Dennis Phillips found himself on a mountian of chips with 11.9 million. Tiffany Michelle is way up there as well with over 9.7 million.

Day 7 then fired up...One of the most notable events was that Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. She's had an amazing run.. Congratulations, and I look forward to watching you on TV when ESPN runs the series later this year. For her fantastic showing she takes home $334,534.

There are currently only 14 players remaining, and play will have to get down to the final 9 and then comes the extended break. But for tonight, I'm done with my coverage. I'll check back in, in the morning gang to see what went down. It's late, I'm tired, and the sound of the ocean is slowly putting me to sleep.

Good Night.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Almost there...

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Only 189 players remain and will return to face off in Day 5 of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. The current chip leader is young Jeremy Joseph with 2,187,000 in chips. Nikolay Losev close behind with 2,110,000, followed by Cristian Dragomir with 2,065,000, Brandon Cantu with 1,981,000, and Davor Lanini rounding it out in fifth place with 1,958,000. All this of course according to and THANKS to the fine folks over at PokerNews.com, watch the action for yourself at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/.
Let's take a look back to when I left off, in need of my beauty sleep, and as the players were headed to their dinner break.

Here's a problem I'd like to have at least one time...

Posted by F-Train
Here's a New Problem
Brandon Cantu just complained to a floorperson that he had too many chips on the table. His stack was so big, and comprised of so many yellow (T1,000) chips, that he had no room on the table in front of him to actually play his cards. The floorperson quickly vanished, only to return a few moments later bearing some orange (T5,000) and green (T25,000) chips. Cantu changed out 600,000 worth of yellows, and in the process cleared quite a bit of real estate.
And oops not the time bluff:

Posted by MeanGene

Um, Yeah, I CallAfter an intriguing 5c 5s 5d flop Nicholas Sliwinski checked and Ross Smith moved in for his last 255,000. One imagines that Sliwinski called as fast as is humanly possible because he held Qh 5h for quad fives and Smith was drawing completely dead. Sliwinski is now up to 1.37 million.

Apparantly one player has had a "rule" named after him the "Mark Vos Rule" which the tournment officials have implemented. Players are not permitted to stack their chips in an unstable manner. Okay, think of it as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and it makes perfect sense.
And as play came to a close for the day as I said before they are down to 189 players. Notables still remaining include Shawn Sheikhan, Mark Vos, Gus Hansen, Victor Ramdin, Alexander Kostritsyn, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Tiffany Michelle, Mike Matusow, Kara Scott, Hoyt Corkins and, of course "whining" his way through the pack the last remaining WSOP World Champion in the field, Phil Hellmuth.

Oh and here on the homefront, one more All-Star game to play at 1:30, and our clan is outa here! Beach Time!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 4 up to the dinner break

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Once again, posts such as these prove that the guys playing in the Main Event are a lot like the rest of us twisted poker degenerates:

Posted by MeanGene Refer to Your Tournament Director's HandbookNo doubt quite a few players were out last night celebrating the fact that they cashed in the Main Event. One such player is sitting at Table 6 and looking a little green around the gills, and he asked the dealer, "If I throw up on the table, is that a penalty?"

Just over 5 hours ago Robert Mizrachi's Main Event journey came to an end. He got in in with the best of it but was rivered by his opponent.

And not long after he made his exit, Mountaineer qualifier Brian Schaedlich made his final stand with A-9os, he was called down by Darren Grant with a Q-7os. A queen came up on the turn and Schaedlich makes his exit in 456th place and $27,020 in his pocket. Not a bad return on a $135 tournament entry fee back at the Mountaineer Casino in Chester, WV. : ) Congratulations to him!

According to postings at PokerNews.com the first level of play on this Day 4, has taken its toll on the field. They have averaged a bustout a minute throughout the level.

Wow, Table #6 in the green section doesn't sound all that fun, at all! Five hours ago, Jeremy Joseph found himself there, with two empty seats that were filled by Alexander Kostritsyn with 900,000 in chips, and Johnny Chan joined soon after. ESPN setup shop, soon after!

Oh there's a surprise, Phil Hellmuth has a blow up after losing a hand with a great big pot... and openly berates his opponent.

Just as Round 17 was about to begin, the T500 chips are no longer required and the color up took place just before a quick break. The price of poker is going up! 350 players remained.
Maya Gellar-Antonius was eliminated in 331st place for a $32,166 payday. Congratulations, and hubby Patrik should be proud!

Hevad Khan was busted by the lovely Tiffany Michelle, and makes it up to 660,000 chips! Did I say lovely? Okay, yeah... I did.

Just over an hour ago another lovely and talented lady makes her exit from the Main Event. Evelyn Ng has been eliminated, but congratulations on her deepest finish yet in the Main Event!

An hour ago, Gus Hansen was moved to Mike Matusow's table, amid cheers from the spectators.

And oh look another blowup by Phil Hellmuth. You know he really is an ass...

And the stack of Jeremy Joseph just keeps growing and growing, an hour ago, he was at 2.5 Million!

And with that, or there abouts, the players head off for dinner break. Upon their return at 9:30pm PDT, they will play one final level before calling it a night.

The field now stands at 218. Still much poker yet to be played, but with that I'm calling it a night. We have 2 baseball games tomorrow, the first of which is at 9:00am. By the way, tonight the boys won, against "Tubby's" Team, Nate and Kevin know what I'm talking about. We pounded them, 30-6 before they finally cried uncle at the end of the 3rd inning. That is the boys first win in tournament play, against a team that beat us previously, that we just knew we could beat! : ) Cole may not be of much use in the games tomorrow, since he was injured running to 2nd base. His ankle is pretty swollen and stiff, but he seems to be getting around, albeit slowly and a bit tender. Sorry buddy.
As soon as the games are over, cheer_dad and family will start the drive SOUTH to Myrtle Beach!

Regards,

cheer_dad

P.S. Oh and one other really cool item of interest, Big Red's mom (the original Big Red) called us while we were at the baseball game all excited. Seems she was at BINGO, and playing the tips, and she was playing my son, Cole's birthday numbers, and she hit for a COOL $9,000!!! $6,500-ish after taxes!!! Since it was his numbers, does that mean he gets splitsies?!? Yeah like he wouldn't anyway from his Mamaw!

Sure honey let's go on vaction...NOW!

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

My wife, the lovely Big Red... will one day send me to my grave. Probably sooner than later! When she gets an idea, damn the girl can run with it! You've all obviously been up on current events in my life, which I've inter mingled in the words about the WSOP and other pokerosity. I'm talking about All-Star baseball and my life as a dad, coach, husband, blahblahblah... Well we're playing again tonight in Belpre against South Parkersburg "B." Plus a couple more games tomorrow.

Here we gets tricksy.

The Morrison clan (including Jeffrey who's on the team with Cole) have a beach trip that starts tomorrow. So, we've known he wouldn't be there to play, but no prob, we've still enough kids to play. Then, somehow the conversation emerges about, "hey, why don't you guys join us in Myrtle Beach, SC?" That conversation fired up maybe a day and a half ago. It was sheer talking out loud. I wasn't even involved in it. Fast forward to this morning... and I'm checking with my boss about taking a week off beginning NOW, shuffling some other duties, sorting out baseball since I won't be here to coach, and a million other things. Meanwhile, my wife's on the phone booking a room for yup tomorrow night. She's already figured out we'll stay for tomorrow's game (maybe) and then get the hell outa Dodge! Yes, she's worked all this out in her head while on hold with the Beach Realty company. AND she got dropped on the call once, put on hold twice, and one lady tried to charge her about $500 more for the room than she quoted, when the "system" mysteriously crashed in the middle of the transaction. Sadly, said lady had NO IDEA she was dealing with Big Red. Not only did a demand for a manager ensue, and when she was conveniently disconnected and left dangling on hold for 20 minutes, she grabbed a 2nd phone line, and gave 'em what for and got a room for the price originally quoted. And this lady in the same office, said yes it was a madhouse, but she wasn't aware of any system crash. Hmmm. Manager's Special, my ass!

So anyway, I went from Thank God It's Friday, to feeling like I'm going into OVERDRIVE!!! So, thankfully this is my short day, and I get off work at 2:45pm. I can rush home, and break out the lawnmower and get that done, before changing and going to the baseball game in Belpre, gotta be there by 5:15pm. Hopefully, done by 8:30-ish. Go home, clean up, eat, attack the laundry with a vengeance, pack, organize, make a couple of plans, check up on the status of the WSOP Main Event. Get to bed, get up the following morning at the crack of dawn, and get ready for baseball game, be there by 8:30am! Finish that, and then we'll either hang out for the other game at 1:00pm or say fuggit and head SOUTH! Oh I haven't mentioned, that we're also taking along JoJo, at least my daughter Whitney is checking on that right now. No wonder I'm fully medicated for stress and anxiety.

Oh and let's get one other thing outa the way, I am not prepared for the beach. I'm likely to have a herd of Eco-Tree-Hugger types trying to help coax me back into the water when they find me laying on the sand (if you get my blubbery drift.) My man titties may actually lactate in the heat. I dunno...

Someone sympathize, just a little. Maybe I'll follow the lead of SirAlCan'tHang and go to a bar when I get to Myrtle Beach and just do dial-a-shots all day! I just hope I don't need a vacation AFTER this vacation to recuperate!

Well that's all I got folks, I'm tapped, spent even. I wonder if this complex will have wi-fi? Laptop, balcony, mass quantities of alcohol and an already dwindling online bankroll. Oh yeah I see great things happening! At least there'll be some great bad beat stories to be told after the fact!

I'll try to continue to blog, even if I have to drive around w/the laptop to find a hotspot!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 3 Aftermath

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

And now to catch up.

I logged in to see how things were going at the WSOP after the baseball game and the Eagles' drawing, and found myself still wading through the bloggers' recaps of the goings on until after midnight, before I said enough, and it'll have to wait til morning. Now it's morning, and I've got a spare few minutes, so it's time once again.

I rejoin the Live Coverage as the field of players has been reduced to 687 from a Day 3 starting number of 1,307, according to the fine folks over at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day3/. The plan when they get to 675 (9 away from the money) the action will go hand-to-hand. None of that slow-playing nonsense!

Phil Hellmuth is now up and a bit healthy with 470,000 in chips.
Minh Nguyen busted not long after that, when his pocket Kings met an opponents pocket Aces. Nenad Medic busted out of the tournament when his AK was torpedoed by Sigurd Eskeland's AQ, when another lady appeared on the river. Nenad exits the tourney, while Eskeland became the new chip leader with 950,000 in chips!

Around 7 hours ago, the action went to Hand For Hand, when they hit 675 players. Not long after Jeremiah Smith became the first player to crack the One Million Chip Mark, currently the average chip stack is at around 200,000.

This hand posting while they were still going hand for hand was brutal:
Posted by donpeters Big Stack Power... With Some LuckDavid Peters raised under the gun and action folded to Jeremiah Smith who was still reorganizing his chip stack. Smith stopped talking rubgy with a tablemate and pushed out two tall orange stacks totaling 200,000 from the small blind. The big blind folded and Peters looked at his stack, then to Smith, and then said "I call," and had his last 160,000 on the line.
Smith rolled over 9c 6c and Peters held Qh Qs . Before any action was dealt, the table was swarmed by media and other players, even some railbirds made it into the fray.
"I'm sorry," said Smith. Implying that a beat would be delivered. "It's your standard race situation."
After the camera crew cleared up the preflop action, the flop came 10c 8d 7c , and Smith flopped the straight right off, with a club redraw.
"Running so good!" yelled Greg Mueller from the edge of the crowd.
The turn brought some outs for Peters with the 10h and the crowd took a gasp.
The river was the As and that was it for Peters. He quickly made his exit from the room with the ESPN camera team hot on his trail to get some more shots.
OUCH!

Only two former WSOP World Champions remaining, Phil Hellmuth at 310,000 and Johnny Chan at 336,000.

And finally I have reached the point in the story at which a Bubble Boy has been found. Here's the post from MarcC, found here, http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day3/page7.htm
Bubble Boy.
It had to happen sooner or later to someone, and that unfortunate soul is Steve Chung. His adversary was Jesse McEuen holding Kd Ks , and it was with 8c 8h that Chung decided to gamble, and it all went in preflop.
The board ran out 2h Jh 2c 3h 6s to eliminate him.
It would normally be the worst position of all to finish, but thanks to Milwakee's Best Light he already has his seat for next year's Main Event locked. Bad luck nonetheless.

The gang at Table #7 in the Orange section sound like my kinda people. When they found they were in the money, they ordered a round of shots of tequila for the whole table. Glasses in the air, shots downed and here we go.

Then the $100 chip is being colored up now that the ante is 500, and then level 15 (and the final level of the day) will begin.

An uber shortstack (Juan Hernandez) at Table Blue 41, with only around 15,000 chips left, ordered a round of drinks for his table. An on camera toast ensued, and then level 15 began.

Blinds at 2,000/4,000 w/ a 500 ante.

Vanessa Rousso was eliminated most heinously... glad you made the money, but I'm sure that's small conciliation to you.

Men "The Master" Nguyen was eliminated by Frank Russo. The Master moved all in for 30K against Russo who opened from late position w/ a raise to 21K. Men showed pocket 10's... Russo 3-5os. Two 3's showed up on the board and Men Nguyen departs in disgust.

Mike Matusow moved up to 485,000 chips.

Maya Antonius chips up to 240,000, while hubby Patrik already out, sweats her via the PokerNews.com feeds.

Notables Brandon Adams, Thor Hansen, Chau Giang, Rolf Slotboom, were all eliminated during the final level of play for the day.
The chipleader at the beginning of Day 3, recall Brian Schaedlich (from Mountaineer Casino satellite) who had a whopping 801,000, has only 22,000 heading into Day 4. Glad you made the money, and it's been great watching/reading about your WSOP Main Event Journey!

The new chip leader heading into Day 4 is Jeremy Joseph sitting on 1,470,000 in chips. The field stood at 474 players as the day ended. Play will resume at 1:00pm PDT.

According to the current chip count 3 players are above the One Million Chip Mark, Jeremy Joseph, Jeremiah Smith, and Owen Crowe. Oh, and remember the guy, Alan Jaffray, who showed up in drag to play in the ladies only event? Well, he's currently the 7th largest chip stack with 865,000.

There's still a lot of star power and kick left in the Main Event. Stay tuned! And once again a huge thank you goes out to the bloggers of PokerNews.com who are doing an outstanding job of keeping us updated in real time. http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day3/. You're the best!

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 3 cont. (more of my random observations)

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Jennifer Harman out... c'mon!
Tony Hachem gone.
Heidi Northcott's out of it too!?! (Nice parting shot picture of her though on PokerNews.com.)
Liv Boeree gets her Aces cracked AND she's out.
All the lovelies are being eliminated! What gives? Are the poker gods, gay as well as mean spirited?

Thank goodness at least there's mention of Tiffany Michelle chipping her way up.
Scott Clements is gone. Victor Ramdin continues to climb. Jeff Madsen had not shown up as his stack was slowly chipped ever downward. MeanGene mentions that his iPod (which he uses as his friggin' alarm clock) was out of juice and someone was going to have to go wake his dumb ass up. Okay I added in the dumb ass part...

Brian Schaedlich got tangled up with Jeff Kimber and chipped himself back into some lower chip levels. Schaedlich had AA, when Jeff Kimber found himself with QQ and another beatiful Q on the flop. Schaedlich shoved and was insta-called. Jeff Kimber dragged the largest pot thus far of the series at a whopping 681,000. Damn!

Oh and there's a report that Vanessa Rousso has climbed up a bit as well to 78,000 chips. : )
And Phil Gordon is now out, failing to improve with A-10. And then minutes later, so is John D'Agostino.
Hey, not long ago, just a coupla hours... Gus Hansen doubled up to 202,000. Men Nguyen appears to have gotten himself in good position just before the dinner break, and from reports appears quite jovial and entertaining the table. At the dinner break there remain only 733 players of the original 6,844. 67 more will fall before the bubble bursts and the rest in the room can at least breathe a sigh of relief assured of at the very least doubling up.

As of this writing, it looks like Jeremiah Smith has taken the chip lead with 766,000.

Regards,

cheer_dad

And they're off...

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Cards are once again in the air at the WSOP Main Event (now on Day 3,) with blinds at 800/1,600 with a 200 ante. The schedule is to play 5 levels to the bubble. In other words, get it down to everyone who's in the money before calling it a night.

Play immediately turned into an All-In-A-Thon...with those in need of chip life support going after it with all they've got left. As I write this, former Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker has been eliminated.

And just a few minutes later, Patrik Antonius has been sent to the rail. Sorry Big Red his KJos lost to A-10s!

Vanessa Rousso just chipped up, after an all-in with a pretty pocket pair of ladies. She's now got a little more breathing room with 61,000 in chips.

I'm checking in on the series now, since I'll be headed for the ball fields of Belpre for our next All-Stars Tournament tonight. Game time is 6:00pm. It's going to be a LONG night... I'll check in at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day3/ when I return and start wading through all that I've missed. Maybe I do have a problem.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Chip count update shows a new 2b chipleader...

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

According to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/chip-counts/day2b/ the chipleader for Day 2b is now shown as Peter Biebel 531,000, as opposed to earlier reports that Alex Outhred was the front runner. Sorry!

Also, Leland Smith is now showing up, as making it through to Day3 with 55,100 in chips.
Darren Horvath is "still" not listed in the "official" chip counts. He was listed as still having chips after Day 1c, but doesn't show up at all in the 2b listings. I'll ask some of the PokerNews bloggers, if they have any ideas or thoughts. I'd at least like to report whether he's in or out.

Regardless though Brian Schaedlich is still on top of the whole pack right now with his 801,000 chips. His closest competitor is 270,000 below him! Hang in there! Or roll over 'em! : P

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Day 2b comes to an end.

Date: Thu, Jul 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

A little over 3 hours ago, Day 2b of the WSOP Main Event came to a close with a congratulatory announcement that those still seated with chips had made it through to Day 3. I noted last night a number of the "high profile" bustouts including Jerry Yang, Clonie Gowen, Antonio Esfandiari and Shannon Elizabeth. As I catch up this morning, I see that Phil Laak, Joe Hachem, and Liz Lieu as well have been added to the list of casualties, but I'm just now getting started reading through the Live Reporting commentary. On the other hand there are some who are alive and well, including Victor Ramdin, Nenad Medic, Phil Hellmuth, Jean-Robert Bellande, Jeff Madsen, John D'Agostino, Phil Gordon, Shawn Sheikhan, Gus Hansen, and Mike Matusow, according to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/. Some calculating is still going on, but it appears that approximately 1,308 players will resume play today at noon, when everyone gets together for Day 3 of the Main Event.

The chipleader of Day 2b is Alex Outhred at 486,800, however overall he's second in chips to Day 2a's chipleader Brian Schaedlich with his uberstack of 801,000. Still there are some tough customers with healthy chipstacks to be dealt with before anyone is going to lay claim to the top spot.

I'm having trouble finding Leland Smith and Darren Horvath listed on Day 2b. According to tallies from 1c and 1d they were headed for Day 2, but I can't find them at all. Recall that these two also qualified at the Mountaineer Casino. Brian Schaedlich and Doug Craine are still pretty easy to find with their impressive Day 2a finishes.

I'll keep looking for more news and keep you posted.

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Main Event 2b or not 2b from way far away...

Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

We had a short practice session tonight for baseball, so I was back in time to start my catch-up session on the WSOP Main Event Day 2b.

Somewhere along the line I realized my girlfriend Clonie Gowen was still in the Series albeit sitting on a short stack! BUT in bigger news she opted to leave the hallowed halls of the RIO and wander over to the Bellagio Cup IV, and play in the $5,000 NLHE event. According to the boys over at http://pokerati.com/2008/07/09/clonies-big-score-second-chance/ she bested the field of 235 players to take down a $437,775 payday!!! http://pokerati.com/author/danm/ posts that they should start hanging out all the time like best friends... but honestly Clonie, remember I was offerin' up a shoulder to cry on when times were tough over in another corner of Las Vegas. I'm here, don't forget me!?! But congratulations on the victory! I'm only just now sitting down to see where things stand in Day 2b, and I'm crossing my fingers for you!

Sorry gang a rotten work week required and demanded a trip to the Eagles for a minor skirmish with the accursed Jack Daniels. He and his evil horde will eventually be defeated. I for one will not rest... No, really sleep is optional!

Anyway, here's the random observations of your drunken (yet happy) servant. : P

Wait... did I mention Clonie... oops yes I did, moving on... (call me)

We rejoin our program already in progress.

The first article I see is by MeanGene a favored Pittsburgh blogger! He made mention of a hand involving Emanuel Seal and some other unknown player in which the unknown got it all in with QQ preflop, wherein the flop came 555, then an Ace fell on the turn for Mr. Seal but was invalidated by the rivered case 5!!! Joe Hachem, good guy that he is, had to call the "unknown" back to the table for the chop!!! : ) Honestly, how many times have you wished that happened for you?

Ahhhh hell, as I catch up, MeanGene also announces the fate of my beloved... Clonie has been eliminated, when her 8's were bested by 10's. Sorry. : ( No, really I'm not a stalker, honest.

Jerry Yang, defending champion, has also been eliminated, but as reported, he exited with class, shaking the hands of ALL those at his table and wishing "good luck to everyone." ( I know Allman, 'it's something you say, not something you mean.'

The agile, pretty Tiffany Michelle crossed the 100K chip mark just over 6 hours ago. I say agile based on pictures of her "perched" in her chair while at the tables. Okay, I'll stop.

Hmmm, Hevad Khan is keeping his mouth shut, and is just under the 100K mark.

According to http://my.pokernews.com/MarcC/ when Johnny Chan's not happy "nearly" no one's happy. Johnny's complained about the chairs in the Brasilia room as being "the worst in poker history!" Meanwhile behind him another player hit a royal in the same friggin' chair. Go figure...

Not long after, Mr Chan chips up to the 130K level, according to yet another of my fave bloggers Shamus... http://my.pokernews.com/Shamus/

Oh super, in Shamus' same breath, he announces the demise of one Shannon Elizabeth!

Jean-Robert Bellande has eliminated Howard Lederer. JRB's pocket 9's held up against Howard's AKos.

Back to back picture posts on the PokerNews.com live reporting confirm to me that two lovely ladies still remain, Evelyn Ng and Jennifer Harman. Okay, they've both got much more than their looks on their side!

And yet again, round and round up and down Gus Hansen is still in there, now, back up to 102K.

Argh... someone has eliminated Ms. Isabelle Mercier!

About 3 hours ago, Evelyn Ng chipped up to 116K on AKos!!! (Honestly NDPT'ers quit bitchin' about that hand!)

Just under 2 hours ago, Antonio Esfandiari was eliminated when his pocket cowboys met pocket ladies and then it all went south on a "turned" queen. His opponent Paul Andrzejewski apologized... to which Antonio replied, "Never say sorry, it's poker."

And just like that... I'm all caught up! Hmmm, this bloggin' thing ain't so hard! Okay, sorry folks (guys and gals alike) I envy you the gig, but appreciate the job that you're ALL doing!!!

According to http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/day2b/ the field is down to 1744 out of 6844.

I'll update tomorrow... I promise. The sandman demands it... as does my employer tomorrow morning.

Regards,

cheer_dad

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort WSOP Satellite winners doing well!

Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

After mentioning Brian Schaedlich who is the current WSOP Main Event chip leader (with a now reported 745,000 in chips) and Ohio native who won his way into the WSOP via winning a $135 Satelite at West Virginia's own Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort; I got curious as to how all the other winners from the Mountaineer are doing.

So, here's what I've found...

Doug Craine finished Day 2a with 201,600 chips. Leland Smith will enter Day 2b play with 63,025 chips and Darren Horvath with 24,550.

All others noted on the Mountaineer Casino website do not appear to have played in the WSOP including: James Retton, Daniel Whitaker, and Leland Smith.

I'm still trying to wade through and search the players roster for any of the other names. But congratulations to all of them for winning the package and doing so well thus far!

Wheeling Island's website however has no mention of the WSOP Satellite's OR their winners. This has honestly been "par-for-the-course" for Wheeling's website though. They should really get on the ball with this. They're really missing out on some GREAT advertising if any of their winners even went to the WSOP, let alone if they happen to still be in the running!

Ron White was right... "You can't fix stupid."

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Main Event 2a aftermath, and local boy Brian Schaedlich

Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

According to the head counts available from http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updatelander--new.asp there are 2,852 players remaining of the original 6,844 who began the journey that is the 2008 Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Still to come is Day 2b of the event, where the herd will continue to be thinned. It has now been announced that the top 666 will be payed out. (Look momma, it's the devil in the poker.) The field will be easier to maintain and track once all players remaining come together in one room at the same time, to allow play to continue. Needless to say, I'm really interested to see where things stand after Day 2b. But that being said let's take a look at what happened yesterday.

Off the cuff, the first notable point is that both Scotty Nguyen and Robert Varkonyi have both been eliminated from the field. They were the only remaining previous winners of the Main Event remaining entering Day 2a. Other players that I had my eye on fell by the wayside as well, including Barry Greenstein, Paul Wasicka, David Grey, Greg Mueller, Kathy Liebert, Dario Alioto, Barry Schulman, Nick Schulman, Erick Lindgren, and Svetlana Gromenkova.

The top 10 players after Day 2a are Brian Schaedlich 745,000, Hunter Frey 400,000, Jeremiah Smith 390,000, Brandon Adams 371,000, Kellen Hunter 360,000, Patrick Fortin 355,000, David Rheem 320,000, Farhad Sinaei 312,000, Garth Paul 265,000 and Soren Peterson 258,000. With a field with an average stack of 47,994 chips... these guys are pretty healthy at this point.

Recall that I had my eye on the following players, and I'm holding out hope for them: Vanessa Rousso is very short-stacked but I'm holding out hope for her and her 28,000 in chips. Patrik Antonius with 64,125. (I have to add in to my watch list MRS. Antonius (Maya Geller-Antonius) who is currently sitting on 130,000 in chips! Erik Seidel with 145,000, Hoyt Corkins 131,000, Thor Hansen 117,000, Chau Giang 115,000, Robert Mizrachi with 237,000 and of course Brandon Adams who I've already noted (because he's in the top 10) with 371,000 chips. And I can't believe I left out Vince Van Patten, who is above the mid stack with 53,000. Hang in there gang!

Another VERY COOL thing to note is that the current chip leader Brian Schaedlich (745,000) is a local boy, having won his way into the WSOP by winning here in my home state of West "by god" Virginia at the newly opened poker room of the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort. A Big Thanks to Frank for pointing this out over at his blog and reminding me of the fact! He's also being noticed as is pointed out by this article http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsid=2150. Best of luck to you Brian! You've already done well for yourself, now just keep doin' what your doin' and make for yourself a big payday!

I also can't believe I didn't make mention of the fact that Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren has been named the 2008 Milwaukee's Best Light Player of the Year with a total of 5 cashes AND $1,348,528 in earnings. Congratulations! Check out all the standings at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/2008.asp.

The action gets back underway today at Noon for Day 2b when those who survived Days 1c and 1d will gather to battle on in search of the elusive Main Event WSOP bracelet and ultimately a $9,119,517 payday!

We'll be watching, or rather reading all about it, over at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2008-world-series-of-poker/main-event/.

Back here, close to home I was told last night what our baseball schedule is like for the Belpre Tournament for this "extended" weekend. Thursday 6:00pm, Friday 6:00pm, Saturday (ugh) 9:00am, 11:15am, and 3:45pm. We'll likely be done after that, as I don't expect us to advance in the finals. Particularly, since there is NO DIVISION between the "A" and "B" All-Stars. In other words, our B team will be going up against A teams too. What kinda idiocy is that?!

Anyway, it is what it is...

Regards,

cheer_dad

WSOP Main Event Day 2a, starts today at Noon PDT

Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

On the very near horizon is Day 2a of the 39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event (a.k.a. Event 54.) Players who began their journey on Days 1a and 1b and survived, will return to battle it out for the bracelet and the top spot. The current chipleaders from the combined 1a and 1b groups are as follows:

Mark Garner 194900, Ben Sarnoff 177500, Brandon Adams 176450, Brian Schaedlich 160725, Kellen Hunter 155200, Stefan Mattsson 154275, Patrick Fortin 145275, Robert Mizrachi 142400, Jeff Frerichs 138025, Soren Peterson 135475

BUT, I'll have my eye on all of the following players on Day 2a, for no other reason than I really like them... and they have more chips than they started with on Day 1:

Barry Greenstein 21500, Scotty Nguyen 23600, Paul Wasicka 26950, David Grey 37100, Greg Mueller 37725, Kathy Liebert 39550, Vanessa Rousso 48450, Dario Alioto 51875, Barry Schulman 58350, Patrik Antonius 64125, Erik Seidel 64925, Hoyt Corkins 67525, Nick Schulman 69000, Thor Hansen 78850, Chau Giang 87625, Erick Lindgren 92325, Svetlana Gromenkova 94125, Robert Mizrachi 142400, Brandon Adams 176450

As for Day 2b the chipleaders in this one as combined from Days 1c and 1d are as follows:

Henning Granstad 242950, Curt Kohlberg 173050, David "Bakes" Baker 163450, Howard Berchowitz 160075, Arnaud Mattern 157650, Steve Austin 149000, Mohamad Kowssarie 146000, David Stucke 140525, Sami Rustom 140450, Dylan Linde 138425

BUT, I'll have my eye on all of the following players, for no other reason than I really like them... and they have more chips than they started with on Day 1.

Howard Lederer 28975, Erik Cajelais 29350, Scott Clements 29800, Jerry Yang 30350, John D'Agostino 35400, Steve Dannenmann 37500, Isabelle Mercier 40725, Phil Laak 45200, Men Nguyen 48025, Allen Cunningham 49000, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier 49900, Mike Matusow 52000, Jeff Madsen 52300, Rolf Slotboom 52425, Chip Jett 52450, Hevad Khan 54600, Phil Gordon 58700, Jennifer Harman 63050, Liz Lieu 68025, Chris Moneymaker 68525, Shawn 'Sheiky' Sheikhan 69825, Jean-Robert Bellande 70700, Phil Hellmuth 78900, Brian 'sbrugby' Townsend 85650, Nenad Medic 93200, Antonio Esfandiari 93775, Gus Hansen 102900, Heidi Northcott 103075, Carlos Mortensen 109825, Evelyn Ng 110225, David Oppenheim 114400, David Singer 119425, Victor Ramdin 124600.

Thanks to the folks over at PokerNews.com who are doing such a fantastic job of keeping all of this updated. Please visit and give them your support!

Regards,

cheer_dad