November Private Tournaments: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly

Shake off your hangovers with a tournament featuring your favorite poker bloggers!!

I would like to cordially invite all readers and bloggers to participate in Saturdays with Dr. Pauly. Thanks to the kind folks over at Poker Stars, they are allowing me to host a series of 4 tournaments on Poker Stars every Saturday in November at 1pm EST. Since everyone already has an account on Poker Stars, this is the perfect place to host the events. My only regret is that Otis cannot play.

The first tournament is scheduled for this Saturday, the 5th. The buy in is low at $10 + 1 and I hope that will get more people to play. These are not associated with the WPBT... they are separate events. Wil Wheaton has been running Friday tournaments so I figured... "Why not another one on Saturdays?"

What: Saturdays with Dr. Pauly
Where: Poker Stars
When: Saturday November 5th at 1pm EST
Tournament Info: #14338880 (check under Private Tournament Tab)
Password: hiltons

Eligibility: Anyone with a Poker Stars account
Attire: Pants optional

Special Prizes & Bounties:
First place (weekly): Phil Gordon's Little Green Book
My Bounty (weekly): Free iTunes Gift Card (Bust me and get 15 free songs!!)
Grubby's Bounty: Visit the Poker Grub for more info
John "Shecky" Caldwell's Bounty: Bust John aka "Shecky" and you get a free Poker News t-shirt and $20 added to your Poker Stars account!

Saturday's with Dr. Pauly Champion... Overall Winner: iPod Nano
Overall 2nd Place: DVD of the Big Lebowski
Overall 3rd Place: Daddy calls you on Christmas to wish you Happy Holidays

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Tour Dates:
Tournament #1: Sat. November 5th at 1pm EST
Tournament #2: Sat. November 12th at 1pm EST
Tournament #3: Sat. November 19th at 1pm EST
Tournament #4: Sat. November 26th at 1pm EST

Yes, that's not a typo you see. I will also be giving away a special bonus prize... a brand new iPod NANO... to the player who does the best in all four events!! I'll even try to get it engraved for the winner.

Disclaimers: To be eligible for the iPod and DVD, you have to play every Saturday. If you are not of the Christian persausion and finish in 3rd place, you are eligible to get Daddy to call you on any other day of your choice. Offer is valid from December 24th, 2005 thru July 4th 2006.

Here's a loophole: If you are busy with life stuff, and can't play in all 4 tournaments, you can always sign up and post and fold until you get blinded out in order to maintain your eligibility for the free iPod.

How will I determine a Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Champion? Simple. You add up all your places in the four events. The player (that plays in all 4 events) with the lowest total number wins.

Example:

Iggy finishes 5th, 27th, 33th, and 15th. He has 80 points.
Pauly finishes 11st, 119th, 5th, and 25th. He has 160 points.
Derek finishes in 9th, 2nd, 17th, and 54th. He has 82 points.

Iggy would win the iPod beating out Derek by 2 points.

So here's your chance to have fun on a Saturday morning (for you West Coasters), a Saturday afternoon for you East Coasters, or Saturday night for my European friends, bloggers, and readers. In addition you have a shot at winning cool prizes including a brand new iPod. I have no problem if you want to regift the prizes for Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, or Festivus.

Saturdays with Dr. Pauly are a series of small buy-in tournaments... on purpose. It gives you a shot at winning cool gifts for a small investment. Be sure to stick around after you get busted and play cash game tables with your favorite bloggers. That will probably be more fun than the actual tournaments. A couple of years ago, a small group of 10 of us (that group rotated) used to all play small buy-in tourneys on Saturday mornings followed up by cash games. I hope to start that tradition back up this November. So please feel free to stop by and play. Again, these private tournaments are open to all readers and bloggers. This would not be possible without the awesome help from the cool folks over at Poker Stars. Mucho thanks to them.

So who is going to get crowned the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly Champion and walk away with the iPod? Who will come in 3rd and get a phone call from Daddy? Stop by Poker Stars to find out.

Any questions or comments? Shoot me an email. Feel free to pimp the Saturdays with Dr. Pauly tourneys on your blogs, or email your friends and family and tell them all about it. I can't wait. See you Saturday!!

*****

Side Note: Happy Halloween to everyone! I have one more day to go in my 5 day long Las Vegas bender. The Joker and I have been hanging out with spun out hippie girls all weekend long. I have been posting some mini-recaps, pictures, and setlists from Vegoose on the Tao of Pauly. Take a peek. I have a Widespread Panic concert tonight, which should be kick ass. I love Halloween in Las Vegas because it's a time when the weird becomes the norm and all the freaks come out from the wood work and take over Sin City. Plus, Halloween gives average girls their one and only chance a year to get dressed up in slutty costumes and they don't get labeled trashy for doing so. Lots of skin and cleavage. My favorites are the Catholic school girls and sultry cowgirls in short skirts (my new favorite). Cowgirls. Nice.

And Halloween in Las Vegas means plenty of wasted people stumbling around the Strip in odd costumes and gambling their last dollars away. Should be fun. I'll be back tomorrow, if I can survive one more day of debauchery...

Tao of Yahoo

I'm currently on the Las Vegas Strip and I was having dinner with my buddy, professional Keno player Neil Fontenot, and he was discussing the hardships of being a winning Keno player. It was an exciting conversation because there such an emphasis on Taoism these days. Neil pointed out that Keno is losing popularity because it is hard to pick all the numbers because the odds are against them. Neil embraces this fact because he is a nihilist and believes in nothing. He sometimes plays all the numbers.

My roommate Grubby, a professional minature golfer, called me in the middle of dinner and told me I needed to read Yahoo's home page because I was on the front page. And wow, there was the Tao of Poker mentioned on Yahoo because Oprah was discussing Taoism. Thanks to Oprah and Yahoo. But how the hell did I slip behind the Tao of Fuckin' Pooh as most popular Tao sites on the web?


Anyway, I would like to welcome all my new readers via Yahoo. If you want to read some good stuff, check out my archives (June & July) from this summer when I moved to Las Vegas and covered the 2005 WSOP. We also have a cool 2005 WSOP photo gallery.

You might want to read the Best of the Tao of Poker section. That's where I highlight my favorite posts.

Neil wants to get Grubby and myself to play low limit donkey poker at the Excalibur, where we will attempt to tilt the table. More stories to come, stay tuned.

***** Update *****

4:25am PCT... My fifteen minutes of yahoofame are over.

4:30am PCT... Feel free to stop by the Tao of Pauly and read the highlights of my Thursday night in Vegas, where I used farting and stripper in the same sentence.

Grubby Speaks

I interviewed Grubby about the Hammer. You can download the first ever known audio recording of Grubby... here!

You have to scroll down to the bottom of the first page you see and click "Free" then wait 20 seconds before you can download the clip. Trust me, it's worth the hassle and wait!! I hope to have Part II of the Grbby Hammer Interview up by next week.


I went bowling with Grubby and Poker Prof at Sam's Town. I challenged them to a prop bet and said that both of them can take the higher score of the two then add a 20 point handicap. If that score was higher than mine, they would win $10. Of course, I got smoked both times and lost the double-or-nothing. Poker Prof had the high score both games. Not to worry, I expect to get my money back when we play minature golf for $20 a hole later this week.

After bowling, Grubby and I headed to Sunset Station where we played at a $3/6/9 table with a bunch of chain-smoking locals. $3/6/9 is virtually $3/6 limit except, you can bet $9 on the river instead of $6. After Grubby told me I played too tight, I proceeded to win a couple of pots with J-7 and 9-4s. I also a rivered a Broadway straight with A-Q and didn't raise preflop from the blinds in a 6 way pot. There's nothing more satisfying then seeing one player bet into you when you have the nuts, then wacthing another player raise the pot. I three-bet and made it $27 to go. I won a huge pot and walked away up after two hours. I wandered past all the trippy blackjack tables with lava lamps and grabbed another late night shake at Fatburger.

I'm starting a five day old-fashioned Las Vegas bender today. Hunter would be proud of the exploits that I have planned. I'm finally done with the WPT reporting and writing a few parts of the Poker Hacks book for Double As. My work is complete for the month. It's time to celebrate. My buddy the Joker comes to town for the Vegoose music festival where we intend to getting all kinds of loopy. I also got a great Halloween costume. Stop by the Tao of Pauly for pics, setlists, concert reviews, and other sordid tales of Halloween hijinks.

I shall return next week with two special announcements. Hope everyone has a groovy weekend and a Happy Halloween.

Big Pimpin', Bluffin' Locals, & Radio Free Pauly

I've been writing furiously the past few days. I'm under a deadline for the Poker Hacks book with Double As. I'm writing five chapters/hacks/articles and I'm done with 2.5 of them. The 3rd is currently being edited and I've written the first drafts of the last two Hacks inside my head already, so it's just a matter of me putting them down into a Word Document. Yesterday, I also squeezed in writing two freelance articles (one on John Juanda and the other on advantages of playing satellite tournaments). And I published a new issue of Truckin'.

I took a needed break from writing and headed to Green Valley Ranch... a mere five minute ride from chez Grubby or the Hippie Hacienda, which he just nicknamed. Grubby and I ate at Sushi & Sake for their $29 All-U-Can-East sushi. The waitresses are hot Japanese women with tight black dresses and black leather boots that go up to their knees. We decided to keep track of how much everything would have cost if we bought them during regular hours... we would have run up almost a $200 sushi tab. Yikes. The All-U-Can-Eat promotion was seriously -EV for Green Valley Ranch and extremely +EV for Grubby and myself. I posted pictures and blogged what we ate over at the Tao of Pauly.

Since we were at Green Valley, we headed over to the poker room. We both signed up for $1/$2 NL. I heard the $3/$5 NL tables are super juicy where guys with barbed wire tatoos and sunglasses bet $40 preflop on every hand. Anyway, I watched the MLB World Series go into extra innings while I played at a $1/2 blinds $200 NL table. There were one or two tourists sitting there sipping Bud Light's and the rest were locals.

During my session, Charlie Shoten popped in looking for a copy of Poker Player Newspaper. He lives nearby and we spoke for a while. He made the final two tables at the Wynn tournament earlier in the day and he really ejoyed my review of his book No Limit Life. A few of the players at the table were impressed that I knew an actual pro. That's when I let it slip out that I wrote for Fox Sports and covered the WSOP for them. Too bad I went card dead, or I could have run over the table. I got K-K tiwce early and it onl held up one time. One of the regulars folded J-J and showed it after I popped him for a reraise preflop with K-K.

One guy sitting in the far corner had two racks of red $5 chips or well over $1000. He ran up his buy-in by bluffing at a lot of pots, chasing gutshots and hitting them, and playing any King or Ace. He bragged about losing $8K playing blackjack over the weekend and I knew he was an action junkie. He started to bleed away his stack when his over-aggressiveness began to catch up with him. I finally had a chance to play in a pot with him, and then I precced to put the guy on mega-tilt. I'm such an asshole trying to get locals on tilt.

I was in the big blind with X-X. (Keep reading to find out my hand.) The blackjack guy raised the pot to $10. I called along with 5 other players. $70 in the pot.

The flop: Kh-2h-7c.

Perfect flop for the Hammer, eh? I checked, he bet $25 and I dunno why I didn't raise, but I just called. We were three way when a 7 fell on the turn. The pot was about $150 at that point. I checked, he bet $75, another player folded and I watched the blackjack guy show his cards to the old guy sitting next to him. I put him on a weak King or a flush draw since he had been playing crap all night, so I moved all in for about $250. A look of "What the fuck did you just do?" fell over his face. He thought for several minutes holding his cards up. Usually that meant he was going to muck, but he kept counting out chips and talking to himself. I refused to make eye contact and focused on the baseball game that went into extra innings.

He eventually folded on a board of Kh-7c-2h-7s.

"You got trip 7s and I'm folding this," he said as he flipped K-Q face up.

As the dealer pushed me the pot, I flipped over... Kc-Jc. I know you thought I had the Hammer, but I didn't. If he called with K-Q, I would have been properly fucked and sheepishly digging into my pocket for a rebuy. Of course, I finally got someone to fold a better hand, which was a miracle since he was a calling station. Just like Devilfish said to Fossilman, "Never bluff a calling station."

When I told Grubby about the hand, he was shocked that a guy who had been playing that loose did not call. Yeah, I got lucky that he didn't call. He must have put me on A-K or trips. Again, I put him on a weaker hand that he had and I got super lucky and he slowly slipped off into the deep end of the tilt pool.

One of the old guys at the table said, "That's the best move I saw someone make all week!"

The old regular quickly tossed me a $5 chip out of his stack. I think he was pissed that the blackjack guy was sucking out on him all night. I gave the $5 chip to the dealer and for the next 15 minutes the blackjack guy was steaming. He tried to stare me down and intimidate me while muttering under his breath. For a few minutes I actually thought he might try to start a fight with me. I wanted to leave since I doubled up but stayed just in case I could get in another pot with him and get the rest of his chips. He settled down a bit but he was still on full-blown mega-tilt. He donked off about $200 more during that time.

When I had a good session at Foxwoods, I always treated myself to a slice of cheesecake at the deli area. Last night, I walked over to the 24 hour Fatburger in the food court area of Green Valley Ranch. I got a large chocolate shake and I think I like those better than In & Out shakes and Sonic's shakes.

When I got home, I wrote some more and played an SNG on Poker Stars. I took 3rd and cracked K-K with the Hilton Sisters.

*****

And now, the pimpin' begins.

Grubby is having a Hammer contest... sort of. Take a peek and guess at "Hammer can you hear me?"

HDouble has a kick ass post called Shoulders of Giants: Top 10 Poker Reads.

If you are a horse racing fan, check out BG's Breeder's Cup posts.

The Poker Prof has been busy working on a 2005 WSOP Stats and Information Page.

Speaking of the WSOP, the schedule for the 2006 WSOP has been published. You know where I'm gonna be.

Double As also has a contest going on his blog. If you win, you get to rename his blog for a week!

*****

Radio Free Pauly

Due to Sean's hectic schedule, we were unable to tape an interview this week for the Lord Admiral Card Club Radio Show and Podcast. However, I sent in a clip featuring myself and BJ from Card Player Magazine, which I recorded at the Bellagio after the WPT event ended last Friday. Check it out.

If you don't know by now, Card Club the best and longest running podcast dedicated to poker in the universe, and I'm honored that those guys let me be a part! I'm no Joey Jeremiah, but over the last several months, I've become a huge cult figure in Canada thanks to Cinci Sean & Brent Stacks. As always, I'm happy to be a part of their amazing show. Sean and Brent are working hard every week in Toronto to get their podcast done (for free) so stop by and show your support.

My clip begins at 7:00 of the podcast. Columbo also features one of his One Minute Mysteries.

You can download the MP3 of this week's show... Episode 49: Here. (Right Click and Save As)
You can download the MP3 of last week's show... Episode 48: Here. (Right Click and Save As)

If you want to catch up and listen to previous episodes, please visit their archives over at Brainscat. Stop by Card Club at Lord Admiral Radio and check them out. Thanks again to Sean and Stacks and Mark for having me on.

*****

Top 15 Referrals

Thanks to everyone who sent me traffic in the past two weeks (not including Google).

1. Las Vegas and Poker Blog
2. Wil Wheaton
3. Iggy
4. Up for Poker
5. Poker Stars Blog
6. Blogger Championship Blog
7. Card Squad
8. Tao of Pauly
9. Aaron Gleeman
10. Bill Rini
11. The Cards Speak
12. Double As
13. Grubby
14. AlCantHang
15. Jaxia

*****

Truckin' - October 2005, Vol. 4, Issue 10

If you get bored at work, check out issue of Truckin', my literary blogzine. This issue features several new writers (HighonPoker, T-Money, Vinnie the Fish, and Gary Moore) who are readers and fans of Truckin'. Let's hope they will all return sometime in the future. BG is back with another installment of his Langston Saga. And I return with a story about some of my favorite characters... Baby and Winky.

1. Baby and Winky Reprise by Tenzin McGrupp
Baby wiped away the remainder of her tears and slid the gun underneath the passenger's seat. Just a few minutes earlier she had stood barefoot on a cold linoleum kitchen floor and kept firing... More

2. Langston Alone by BG
I let her go with everything I had left, which is to say, it took next-to-nothing to let her go. It was a moment that was dry, devoid of subtext and utterly clinical - at least on my end... More

3. Toy Box by Gary Moore
This toy box would only hold his best toys, the ones he wanted to take special care of. Anything he wanted to protect, anything he wanted to save, anything he wanted to keep from being destroyed, would go in this box... More

4. The Miracle John by T-Money
Problem was is that I was on a stretch of 131N where there is nothing. No gas stations off the side of the road. No party store. Hell, not even a fruit stand... More

5. Message in a Bottle by HighonPoker
Nine to five in an office environment is supposed to be hell for a cubicle monkey. But I'm not a cubicle monkey. I'm a junior executive. I should know better. And somehow, I do... More

6. The Chase by Vinnie the Fish
I wanted to thank you once again for helping us put a criminal in jail," were the parting remarks from the police officer before we ended our conversation... More

Hammers, Hilton Sisters, Dial-a-Shots, and other Postmodern Poker Vernacular

I got three emails last week asking me to clarify what a "Dial-a-Shot" was. I forwarded one to Al Cant Hang and he got a huge laugh out of it. Recently I've stumbled across several new bloggers boasting about dropping the Hammer in their home game or online during an SNG at Poker Stars. Random acts of destruction at the poker table always make me warm and fuzzy inside but it made me wonder if everyone knew they actually knew the origins of the Hammer? Where did it come from? And why is it called the Hammer?

With those thoughts festering inside the hallways of my mind over the weekend, I decided to take some time and discuss some words that have become an everyday part of poker blogger's vocabulary.


The Hammer

Definition: 7-2o
Creator/Credit: Grubby

The specific definition of the Hammer is 7-2o played out of the blinds for a preflop raise. 72s is the "Suited Hammer" although I've often referred to 72s as the "Swedish Hammer." I've often heard 8-3o referred to as the "Canadian Hammer."

The Hammer came from one of Grubby's home games back in DC before he moved to Las Vegas. One regular played 7-2o a lot and the other players decided to call that hand the Hammer because it happened to be that guy's last name.

When I first started reading poker blogs over two years ago, there were less than a dozen. Grubby's The Poker Grub was one that I read everyday because his sense of humor and excellent writing skills made him an instant favorite read of mine. I couldn't wait to read about how many SNGs in a row Grubby played before going to bed or what he ate at Wendy's that day. He also held cool contests on his blog like the Hammer Challenge. If you got 7-2o online and played it in any ring game, won it at showdown, and typed "Hammer!" into the chat, you would won the jackpot if you emailed Grubby the hand history. The progressive jackpot started at $5 and increased $5 everyday until it was hit, capping at $250. Grubby also threw in a wallet and a T-shirt to the winner. He only a few of them, and every possible poker blogger did their best to drop the Hammer during the ring games. Intrepid Card Player, Stick & Move, and The Poker Penguin each won Grubby's Hammer Challenge. The longest it went was almost 2 weeks when the Poker Penguin won $65. It was usually cracked in 3 or 4 days.

"I knew The Hammer officially made it when I saw it mentioned on Wikipedia," Grubby said in a recent interview with the NPR.

The Hammer is also a philosophy and a reminder that especially in No Limit, you do not need playable cards to win. Playing the Hammer and showing it is also a great way to mix up your playing style and getting other players on tilt in the process.

The Hammer has become a mantra for some bloggers, a part of the logo for the unofficial logo for the WPBT, and an original contribution to the world of poker. I will get wicked goosebumps the day I hear it announced during a televised poker tournament.

This past year, I decided that we set aside February 7th to celebrate St. Grubby's Day. On 2-7, all poker players pay homage to Grubby and blast the hell out of their tables with The Hammer. So now you know the origins of the Hammer.


The Hilton Sisters

Definition: Q-Q
Creator/Credit: Vince Van Patten

I'm often incorrectly given credit for coining the term the Hilton Sisters. I never invented it. I heard WPT announcer Vince Van Patten say it during an episode and since then I've been using it on my blog. I've definitely beat it to a dead horse. Much like Paris and Nicky Hilton, pocket Queens are overrated and if you are not careful, they'll totally fuck you over and you'll go home broke and heart broken. And yes, Q-Q is my favorite hand. I'm a glutton for punishment. I've won some huge hands with them over the past two years and I've also lost my fair share of pots with them too. I have a love hate relationship with Q-Q. Hell, Hiltons are better than J-J, right?

I think the hardest part abut Q-Q is that people are deathly afraid and intimidated with the hand. It's a strong hand preflop that's extremely vulnerable post flop. So why do I play the Hilton Sisters so hard and fast? You cannot slow play two chicks who spend more money on shoes in a week than you have in your entire bankroll.

Inspired by Grubby, I've held Hilton Sister Challenges before where I give away a Pauly Painting to any blogger who cracked A-A with Q-Q. It was won by 4 bloggers including my brother! I've actually seen my Pauly Painting hanging up in Bad Blood's Den in G-Vegas. Joanne said she's seen the one hanging in her brother's Rod's apartment. And although Minnesota is one of 4 US states I have never visited, my art work hangs in the house of a Professional Poker Player.

Here are some previous winners:

Hilton Sisters Challenge 1: Chris Halverson and Bad Blood
Hilton Sisters Challenge 3: Derek from Poker in the Weeds
Hilton Sisters Challenge 4: Jordan from Hurty Gurty
Hilton Sisters Challenge 6: Rod

G-Vegas

Definition: Greenville/Greer, South Carolina
Creator/Credit: Up for Poker (CJ. Otis & G-Rob) and Bad Blood

"Where the fuck is G-Vegas?" Someone once wrote me in an email. Well it's in the heart of the Deep South, where the locals call soda pop "cokes" and BBQ is a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective. It's also the area of the country were several famous internet celebrities currently live or once lived. The first time I ever set foot in G-Vegas, I was 18 years old and whacked out after eating a fistful of mushrooms. G-Vegas is the place where I first had mayonnaise on a hamburger... and liked it. G-Vegas is where I chopped first place (with Wes Arggggggh!) in the Brad-o-Ween V Poker Tournament. And yes G-Vegas is where the annual Drunk-o-lympics takes place. I'm still in awe that Lefty ate an entire bag of cheese puffs before BigMike.


Dial-a-Shot

Definition: When you are about to do a shot (SoCo preferably), you call up someone (preferably in another city) and they do a shot simultaneously on the other line
Creator/Credit: AlCantHang

Way before AlCantHang embraced the 21st century and purchased a cell phone, he would use his lovely wife EvaCanHang's phone and call me up at odd hours along with other bloggers for a Dial-a-Shot. 96% of the time he was at the Boathouse with BigMike at his side hoisting a shot of the nectar of the Gods and toasting good wishes to his friends. Since the inception in 2004, Dial-a-Shots have been done in over 43 states, 4 Canadian Provinces, several countries in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Central America, Gibraltar, in strip clubs in Las Vegas, on the floor of the WSOP, and even some dude in Sri Lanka got one when a drunken AlCantHang dialed a wrong number by accident.

Dial-a-Shots are a great excuse to get Albert Finney drunk and ramble on incessantly while clogging up someone's voicemail with verbal sewage and soused banter. Only under the terms and conditions of a Dial-a-Shot can you get away with calling one of your friends a fat fuck for going to bed early, or calling up a celebrity and telling him he's a pussy for not picking up his phone, or professing your undying love to one of your lesbian friends who one day you hope will start playing for the other team.

There are other variations of Dial-a-Shots. For you alcoholics who sit at home and tinker on IM at odd hours of the night, you have IM-a-Shots. For you stoners and potheads, there's the Dial-a-Bong or Dial-a-Puff. I even got a Text-a-Shot once.


The Kournikova

Definition: K-Qo
Creator/Credit: F Train

F Train is a regular at the Blue Parrot in NYC. He was the one who first spoke of K-Qo being just like "Anna Kournikova... looks good, but never wins." F Train is a guy who's played plenty of hands online and logged a ton of hours in various NYC clubs, in LA and Las Vegas casinos, and in Atlantic City. If he says K-Qo never wins, then I believe him. Just like Anna Kournikova, K-Qo will look sweet to the eye at first glance, but in the end it's a loser and ends up face down in the muck.


Kicked in the Junk

Definition: The sick feeling you get in your testicular region several moments after a bad beat
Creator/Credit: The Poker Penguin

Back in 2003, The Poker Penguin posted everyday and he wrote some of the best philosophical posts on the web, especially his observations on Schrodinger's Cat. He was the first blogger to use "kicked in the junk" regularly in describing his losing sessions online.


So there you have it. A quick refresher course in poker terminology. I've tired to incorporate every single term in an article for Fox Sports or Poker Player Newspaper and other various organizations that I write for. The Hammer seems to be the one phrase that has a chance to go all the way to the top and I can't wait until the day comes when Vince Van Patten says, "Oh I can't believe he won a pot with The Hammer!"

Poker Stars Blogger Championships Results and Recap

The big day arrived and I logged in to play in the Blogger Championship on Poker Stars. 1473 players entered with the winner heading to the Bahamas for a free seat into the WPT Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure. There were plenty of other prizes including a 24" Fat Screen Monitor for 2nd through 6th place, X Boxes for places 7-16, iPod Nanos for 17-36 and Hats & Tshirts for places 37-99. Of course Poker Stars was kind enough to put out a bounty on my head... a free hat and tshirt which was won my terrymr when he busted me in 932nd place. I heard that Daddy took me in a prop bet against Bad Blood. Too bad I didn't last longer.

Congrats to Easy Wind who is the lucky focker going to the Bahamas! He outlasted 1472 other players and a tough table that was 2/3 full of European players, including 4 from the United Kingdom. Here's who made the final table (courtesy of Otis):

1. easy_wind (Cambridge, MA)
2. simonvlc (Valencia, Spain)
3. Ribs (Warrington, United Kingdom)
4. mattymillne (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
5. Sunday8pm (Edmunds, United Kingdom)
6. butwin (Cypress, CA)
7. Lucky Poet (Oslo, Norway)
8. maverick81 (Crowborough, United Kingdom)
9. MrAckley (Anchorage, AK)

I had a great time and I hope that Poker Stars will do this for the EPT Monte Carlo event and future WPT events. It's always fun playing with your friends and meeting readers of my blog for the first time at the tables. People were saying a lot of funny stuff to me. I got plenty of Redneck Riviera jokes and one guy even asked me, "Pauly do you like gladiator movies?"

It's a quote from Airplane! and cracked me up.

Moving on...

I don't have too many highlights. Mostly everyone at my table was sitting out so I played extra aggressive to pick up chips early.

4:00pm... Cards were in the air.

4:01pm... The TV table featured Al Cant Hang, Wil Wheaton, and G Rob.

4:02pm... I had Dave O'Callahan at my starting table who is a third generation poker player from Ireland. He's buddies with Mike Lacey and Tom Murhpy from Antes Up. I met him in Barcelona for the EPT event. He was at the feature TV table and I had a beer with him during one of the breaks.

4:12pm... Derek dropped the Hammer

4:20om... With 6-6, I flopped a set on a board of 6-7-8. The turn was a 7 and I had a boat. I slow played the flop and the turn and called small bets both times. On the river, I check raised a small amount and was caled with 7-6o. Ouch. I'm lucky he didn't bet more.

4:49pm ... I doubled with with A-A vs. 4-4. I had T2700.

4:56pm... K-K does not get paid off.

5:17pm... I busted out when I went all-in on a steal with 8-9s against a limper and both blinds wp were sitting out. He called with A-2 and rivered an ace on me after I flopped a pair of 8s. I was out in 932rd place. Terrymr won a bounty. Congrats!

Bobby Bracelet played great and had some guy berating him in the chat. Here's a sample of the assclown's tirade:

Assclown42 [observer]: I HOPE YOU DIE MOTHERUCKER
Assclown42 [observer]: ****IN PILE OF DIRTY SEWER ****
Assclown42 [observer]: BOB YOU AINT NOTHING BUT A QUAZIMOTO HUNCHBACK BELL RINGING *****

I got a kick out of it. Bobby and April both played great, along with Chris Halverson, Mourn, Poker Geek, Lifes a Grand, Hagbard, Tuscaloosa Johnny, Kid Dynomite, and ScottMcMillian.

Congrats to again to Easy Wind who won the first ever Bloggers Championship when he beat simonvlc of Spain heads up! Easy Wind won three crucial pots late in the tournament. One was an amazing call with A-5o and two clubs on the board. He had middle pair and was check raised byRibs who moved all in. Easy Wind called and Ribs missed his flush draw. That was a $2M pot. A few minutes later, he would knock Ribs out when he flopped a nut flush draw and top pair. He turned his flush and Ribs was eliminated in 3rd place.

On the winning hand, simonvlc was outchipped almost 6 to 1. With 9-4o, Easy Wind caught some of the flop and bet out. simovlc moved all in over the top with just ace high and Easy Wind called. His hand held up and he won the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Prize Package. Great job!

Here are some bustouts of bloggers that I know of. If I missed you, I apologize in advance. Feel free to leave your ranking in the comments and if I get off my lazy ass on Monday, I'll add it and might even get around to coding the hyperlinks to everyone's blog!

Noteable Eliminations:
1450 Pinky
1405 -EV
1400 Drizz
1398 Mr. Decker
1389 Dave O'Callahan
1378 BZZ Ghost
1367 Lefty
1358 GameCock
1355 Maigrey
1347 Donkey Puncher
1334 Mr. Subliminal
1309 Duggle Bogey
1307 VaRoadster
1301 The Fat Guy
1289 Jeff from Rants of a Young Mind
1267 Jen Leo
1247 Sell the kids
1238 Columbo
1226 TrumpJosh
1221 MtDewVirus
1195 TP
1179 JoeSpeaker
1164 Brandon Schaefer
1088 Easy Cure
1071 Rod
1040 Grubby
1020 AlCantHang
1003 AEQ

986 Skitch
973 Maudie
972 Poker Prof
970 Tokyo James
966 Buffalo66
957 TripJax
953 EvaCanHang
949 Whiskeytown
933 Pauly
922 787 style
902 DrChacko
901 Iggy
900s World of Jim
885 Poker Chronicles
865 Human Head
860 SeattleJohn
838 Helix
817 CJ
801 corey_m
799 Joaquin THE ROOSTER
779 Boy Genius
656 SirWaffle
637 Wicked Chops
623 Shane Nickerson
617 Jan from 50 Outs

541 StB
525 Sloshr
517 GCox
495 Steeler Josh
489 BADBLOOD
454 F Train
451 Felicia
439 Bill Rini
438 Jaxia
433 Shelly
421 Bugsy99
419 CHAD
416 HighonPoker
415 Slayre
400 Shirley Rosario
399 obieVIP
394 Gary Casron
380 EPHRO
357 GRob

354 Alan from Geek & Proud
336 RicoM
334 Joanne
328 Wil
318 DNasty
317 Stannum
316 Ugarte
295 Glyphic
265 Howard
259 Derek
255 Jorgen
254 Double As
251 Tully Mox
247 Chris from Cy Poker
246 Tanya aak MissT74
244 Perfomity
240 Will Wonka
236 Daddy
235 SparkyR
229 ScurvyDog
212 Mr Parx
204 Mean Gene
198 Mr Reed
197 SoxLover
196 California April
181 Chipper
173 Dragonystic
172 Gracie
170 On_THG
167 Russ Fox
163 Boobie Lover
160 BSN
151 Poker Nerd
143 Patrick from Suited Aces
141 PotCommitted
139 Spaceman
138 Predator314
125 T
115 Falstaff
108 King George

Money People:
74 Mourn
68 April (Texas)
58 Poker Geek
42 Lifes a Grind
39 Big Pirate
34 Hagbard
28 Bobby Bracelet
26 Jarooty
21 Professional Poker Player Chris Halverson
17 Tuscaloosa Johnny
15 Kid Dynomite
14 ScottMcMillian

Congrats again to everyone who made the money. Congrats again to the winner Easy Wind! Thanks again to everyone at Poker Stars including Ryan and Otis. Let's hope they do this again next week.

******

Update: My comments section is currently down for some unknown reason. I got a man on a job -- I found some dude with duct tape, a blow torch, and a screwdriver and he's hard at work fixing the comments section. Feel free to shoot me an email in the meantime if the comments section is still down!

By the way, congrats to StB of Beer City Poker who wont he blogger essay contest!!

Apologies to Halverson, who I left off my list during the inital publication of this entry!!

Saturday Night Twang in Vegas and Who's Going to the Bahamas?

Yesterday, I woke up early after a few hours of sleep and had to write a ton of stuff before my Party Poker affiliates freeroll late in the afternoon, where I finished in an unimpressive 212 out of 213. Ouch. My junk is still swollen from the bad beat.

Afterwards, Grubby and I headed to Sunset Station so he can pick up his weekly free gift. Grubby gets tons of free shit from the locals casinos. My favorite free item is a scale that he got, which I use everytime before I get into the shower. It's a reminder that I need to lose weight and exercise more.

The lovely Jaxia is in town and I got to meet another blogger for the first time. Since I know she reads me almost everyday, I have to say really nice things about her! The easy part is that I don't have to fluff this entry up, because what I have to say is 100% true. Jaxia is what I call a "triple threat." She's smart, cool, and beautiful. Too bad she's taken, because I was smitten. I think it's the Texas accent. Cute girls with accents get me everytime, and twice on Saturdays.

Anyway, let me wipe the drool off my laptop and continue.

We met up for drinks at Mandalay Bay near the Sports Book. The last time I was there was on Monday with Grubby and Bobby Bracelet and the now infamous bathroom fucking scene unfolded. Last night, Grubby was playing $2/4 in the poker room with two of his female friends who live here that are just getting into poker. Jaxia was over at the Bellagio killing the $4/8 game and came down to meet me. She had no idea how far the Mandalay Bay was from the Bellagio, so she walked! That was impressive. Lucky for her it was not too hot outside.

I sat and had drinks with Jaxia after I got cold-decked on a video poker machine waiting for her arrival. We sat chatted for a few hours, mostly about non-poker things, which was refreshing. We jumped back and forth between a ton of random topics. Sometimes you meet a poker blogger for the first time and the conversation is 99% about poker. That's great sometimes, but these days, I'm getting so burnt out on poker that it was invigorating to discuss other common interests.

Jaxia has had an interesting life and I hope she'll submit a future story or two for Truckin'. She asked me about some specifics about the Redneck Riviera (I even pointed it out to her) and she told me a hilarious story involving a goat. Well, four actually. I'm hoping that she'll write up that wicked tale up... Jaxia and the Four Goats. I love a good goat story.

OK, what make people interesting to me are their odd quirks. I have plenty, too many to list in a blog entry. But Jaxia... the girl loves sugar. Grubby, his friends, Jaxia, and myself went to the cafe at Mandalay Bay for some late night food. We counted how many sugar packets Jaxia used for her coffee. 12 for two cups. Sweet Jebus.

"Twelve fuckin' packets? Why don't you just do cocaine?" I suggested after I sipped her cup.

"Sugar is cheaper," she quickly answered.

I think I'm gonna start snorting sugar.

Anyway, I have to go. I'm checking into a hotel in an hour so I can play in the Bloggers Championship on Poker Stars later today. The winner gets a free trip to the Bahamas to play in a WPT event. There are like 40,000 players signed up as of now. And I don't read like 39,000 of them. The chances that I get seated at a t able with anyone I know will be slim.

For the record, I will not be live blogging this event. I repeat, I will not be live blogging this event. But check back on Monday for a recap. I'm sure I'll have a bad beat story or three.

If you are a reader who would like to watch some of your favorite bloggers, internet celebrities, and poker pros with blogs... then feel free to download the Poker Stars software. It's free to download. It starts at 1pm Pacific time or 4pm East Coast time. Check the "Private Tournament" tab and look for the "PokerStars Blogger Championship" which will be in green font.

See you there. Good luck everyone.

WPT Bellagio Final Table Random Pictures


"Cheers!"
Pauly with BJ at the announcer's table
(Courtesy of Foiled Coup)


Winner's shot


Bellagio chicks during the money presentation


I could see the water show from where I sat


Thanks!


They also give away a free chip set!

WPT Doyle Brunson North American Classic - Final TV Table

This is it! We are back in the Fontana Room at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas for the taping of the final table for the North American Doyle Brunson Classic.

420 players entered the 4 day $10,000 event with hopes of winning a first place prize of $1 million. The winner also gets a free seat in the $25K WPT Championships at the Bellagio. Some of the top names in poker played in this prestigious event and it was great to see some familiar faces at the final table.

With three big stacks and three small stacks, it's gonna be interesting. We could possibly see a Minh Ly/Dan Harrington heads up match up, but I'm sure the young gun Gavin Smith will try to sneak in there.

Here's who will be playing today, including seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Tony Grand $118K
Seat 2: Minh Ly $3.056M
Seat 3: Dan Harrington $2.937M
Seat 4: Don Zewin $552K
Seat 5: Gavin Smith $1.368M
Seat 6: Jan Sorensen 370K

Here are today's payouts:
1st place = $1,060,000
2nd place = $620,730
3rd place = $327,610
4th place = $189,630
5th place = $137,940
6th place = $96,560

Stay tuned for live blogging updates.

6:20pm... Right now, the crowd is seated ad the crew is testing the lights.


6:25pm... I'm sitting in Press Row in between Jen from Poker Wire and Foiled Coup from Poker Pages. (You are welcome for the plug Amy!)

6:30pm... I got a last longer bet in the "media pool" with BJ from Card Player and Heather from Poker Wire. I took Dan Harrington, BJ has Minh Ly, and Heather has Gavin Smih.

6:40pm... Charlie Shoten is in the house!

6:45pm... I've been playing cash games on Poker Stars with a bunch of bloggers including Wil Wheaton.

6:57pm... The crew asked the crowd to clap so they could tape it for the show. We did 6 takes and my hands hurt from clapping so hard! Does this get me a SAG card?

7:22pm... Human Head took 4th in the Wil Wheaton tourney on Poker Stars. Great job!

7:34pm... Players are being introduced.

7:36pm... "Shuffle up and deal!" Cards are in the air.

7:50pm... Tony Grand is 81 years old folks! Talk about quite a feat to survive make a final table in a 4 day event.

8:04pm... Dan Harrington won a $500K against Minh Ly with A-3 when he flopped an ace.

8:07pm... We have our first all-in heads up hand. Gavin Smith has 3-3 and Tony Grand has A-10. Tony had the Ace of hearts and flopped three hearts. Tony caught a flush on the turn and doubled up.

8:13pm... Tony Grand has 10-10 and Don Zewin has A-Q and both players were all in preflop. Zewin flopped an Ace and took the lead. The turn and river did not help Tony Grand and he was the sixth place finisher. He won $96,560 and became the oldest player to make a WPT final table. Here's the most recent chip count:

1 Dan Harrington $3.3M
2 Minh Ly $3M
3 Gavin Smith $1.1M
4 Don Zewin $720K
5 Jan Sorensen $300K

8:23pm... Don Zerwin moved all in with 7-7 and Jan Sorenson called with 5-5. Jan Sorenson's hand did not improve and hee was eliminated in 5th place. He won $137,940.

8:45pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Players are on a break. And now... back by popular demand.

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. Gavin Smith
2. Ted Forrest
3. Dan Harrington
4. Minh Ly
5. Erick Lindgren

8:52pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $25K/50K with $5K antes. Here's an updated chip count:

1 Dan Harrington $ 3.16M
2 Minh Ly $2.885M
3 Don Zewin $1.22M
4 Gavin Smith $1.125M

8:55pm... With an Ace on the flop, Gavin Smith moved all in with A-Q against Dan Harrington's A-10s. Gavin Smith's hand held up and he doubled up against Harrington.

9:32pm... Action has slowed down a bit. Here's an updated chip count:

1 Gavin Smith $2.65M
2 Dan Harrington $2.5M
3 Minh Ly $2.16M
4 Don Zewin $650K

9:52pm... Dan Harrington won a hand off of Minh Ly with 9-9. He is now tied for the chiplead.

9:54pm... We're at a new level. Blinds are $40K/$80K with $10K antes.

10:20pm... Players are currently on a break. Minh Ly has over $3M in chips.

10:24pm... While on a break, I bumped into a reader of my blog... Chris from Raleigh, NC. He pointed at the bathroom and asked if that was "the bathroom" where the couple were fucking in the stall next to me. I laughed and told him it was at Mandalay Bay. Always great to meet a fan. And damn, that athroom story has been getting a lot of mileage this week.

10:34pm... Don Zerwin doubled up with K-K against Dan Harrington's A-J. Action Dan lost a good part of his stack. Harrington, Gavin Smith, and Zerwin all have about the same amount of chips with $1.5 to Minh Ly's $3M.

10:55pm... While action has slowed down, I'm gonna post two pics that Curtis aka Special K took today.

WPT Hostess: Courtney Friel


Doyle & Courtney
11:11pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $60/$120K with $15K antes.

11:19pm... BJ told me that we are on hand #99. I think he just wanted to see his named blogged.

11:26pm... Gavin Smith has almost $4M in chips! Harrington is the short stack with $800K.

11:59pm.... Players went on a break and I made a run to the Snack Bar next to Light, one of the more hip clubs here in Las Vegas. The chicks in line were slammin' hot! I could tell they were wet when they saw my cool PRESS badge.

12:01am... Here's an updated chip count:

1 Minh Ly $2.945
2 Gavin Smith $2.79M
3 Dan Harrington $1.78M
4 Don Zewin $825K

12:25am... We're at a new level. Blinds are $100K/$200K with a $10K ante.

12:28am... Finally some action!! Minh Ly raised on the button and Harrington came over the top all in with K-J versus Minh Ly's 9-9. The flop didn't help Harrington, but he turned a King and his fans in the crowd went wild. The river did not help Minh Ly and Dan Harrington doubled up.

12:35am... Minh Ly moved all in with his shortstack. He had J-J and Dan Harrington called with 8-8. The flop was Q-Q-Q and the turn and river did not help Harrington. Minh Ly got most of his chips back.

12:45am... Dan Harrington went all in with 9c-7c. Don Zewin called with 9-9 and had Harrington dominated. The flop had a 7 and two clubs. The Harrington-heads went wild because Action Dan picked up a flush draw. When the 10 of clubs spiked on the river, the room erupted in applause. Harrington survived his all in and Don Zewin was eliminated in 4th place. He won $189,630. There was a good four plus hours in between eliminations. There are three players remaining. Dan Harrington has about $3M in chips. Gavin Smith has about $2.7 and Minh Ly has $2.6M.

12:53am... Minh Ly moved all in with K-8o. Gavin Smith took several minutes before he eventually called with A-7s. Minh Ly flopped a King and took the lead. Gavin Smith's hand did not improve and he was crippled. Minh Ly became the chipleader on that hand with over $5M.

12:55am... Gavin Smith moved all in with his short stack with 10-2o. Fitting hand since this is the Doyle Brunson North American Classic and the 10-2 was named after Brunson when he won back to back WSOP main events with 10-2. Dan Harrington called with 8-4s and flopped an 8 and turned a 4 to send Gavin Smith home in 3rd place. He won $327,610 for 3rd place.

12:57am... The Bellagio Babes are coming in for the money presentation. They are wearing sexy black coktail dresses and carrying cash in the Stetson hats like the one Texas Dolly often wears. We now have the anticipated match up between Minh Ly and Dan Harrington. Minh Ly is one of the best cash game players in the world and plays in Doyle Brunson's Big Game. And Harrington is considered one of the best tournament players in the world and has made four final tables at the WSOP main event. Minh Ly holds the chip lead with $5.02M to $3.375M.

1:11am... On hand #131 of the final table and during the first hand of heads up play, both players moved all in preflop. Minh Ly showed K-J and Dan Harrington flipped over A-J. The flop was all rags and the turn and river did not help Minh Ly. Dan Harrington doubled up and now has well over $6.75M to Minh Ly's $1.6M.

1:22am... Minh Ly moved all in with 10-9o and Dan Harrington called with A-9o. The flop was: Q-10-6. Minh Ly took the lead and his hand held up.

1:35am... Both players are about even in chips.

1:45am... New level. Blinds are $150K-$300K with $30K antes.

1:51am... Dan Harrington moved all in with A-5 agianst Minh Ly's J-3. Minh Ly had the chip advantage. The flop was: 3-6-9 and Minh Ly took the lead. The turn was a King and the river was a Jack and Minh Ly won the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Classic. Minh Ly will take home a cool $1,060,000 for first place along with a seat in the WPT Championships next April here at the Bellagio. Dan Harrington won $620,730 for second place.


2005 WPT Doyle Brunson
North American Champion: Minh Ly


Final 2: Action Dan Harrington & Minh Ly


Minh Ly with Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, and Courtney Friel
That's it for now. You can read my recap and see pictures of this spectacular event and over at Las Vegas and Poker Blog and Poker Player Newspaper.

The next WPT event and poker tournament that I will be covering is the WPT Foxwoods in mid-November. See you there. Thanks for reading and checking in.

Wil Wheaton Private Tourney Reminder + WPT Final Table

Two quick things... the WPT will be taping the final table of the Doyle Brunson North American Classic in the Fontana Room in the Bellagio at 7pm tonight. Look for me. I'll be wearing all black. Here's who made the final WPT TV table including seating assignments and chip counts, courtesy of Poker Wire:

Seat 1: Tony Grand 118K
Seat 2: Minh Ly 3.056M
Seat 3: Dan Harrington 2.937M
Seat 4: Don Zewin 552K
Seat 5: Gavin Smith 1.368M
Seat 6: Jan Sorensen 370K

I wrote a recap of Day 3 for Poker Player Newspaper. Take a peek.

Also, here are the details of tonight's Wil Wheaton tournament:

What: WWdN: Decker711 Invitational
Where: PokerStars
When: Friday, October 21th @ 7:00 PM EST
Password: monkey
Tournament number: 13788952 (Look under Private Tournament Tab)
Buy-in: $10+1

I will not be able to play due to work obligations. However, best of luck to everyone who's gonna play. Joanne won last week's tournament and my brother also made the final table.

If you would like to play, but do not have a Poker Stars account... then what are you waiting for? Download their software... here!

***** Update *****

4:20pm... I signed up at the last second and played in the car on the way to the Bellagio, thanks to my new broadband wireless card. I should have just post & folded and played when I got to press row in the Fontana Room. Big mistake on my part. But I might have been violating Nevada Gaming Laws. At any rate, I pushed with any draw, any ace, and any suited connectors and wa sbusted in 132nd place. Good luck to everyone still remaining.

5:15pm... Derek was busted in 82nd and Joanne finished 89th. Poker Prof is currently in the Top 30! Heather is the chip leader.

Doyle Brunson North American Classic - Day 3

I'm back at the Bellagio. The WPT crew is setting up the final table in the Fontana Room, so we have to retreat to the poker room where the final 5 tables are being played. There is no room for media on the floor, so they opened up Bobby's Room for us to work in. Yes, this might be the only time I'll ever be allowed in Bobby's Room. This is kinda like getting to work in the locker room from Yankee Stadium. I challenged BJ from Card Player to a heads up freeze out... according to the Big Game rules! $4K/$8K blinds. BJ declinded. Good thing. I wouldn't even be able to afford one big blind.

Anyway, last night I played cards with Grubby and Bad Blood. We stormed the castle and played donkey poker at the Excalibur. Yes, I donked off $100. Actually it was $70. I dropped a good $30 in tips and prop bets. Grubby, Bad Blood, and I got to sit at the same table and we were betting on "wheel spins." The money wheel at Excalibur has 3 colors and we'd each pick one. I lost every single fuckin' prop bet. Bad Blood cleaned up.

One guy sat down at our table and Grubby turned to me and suggested that we get the new guy on tilt. And we did. The poor fucker blew through his stack and didn't know what hit him. Hhe lost two big hands to me and Grubby. I had the Hammer one time and Grubby rivered the Wheel with 2-6o. The guy was wicked pissed and stormed off. Yes, we are officially evil. Afterwards, we headed out to a strip club and spent almost four hours at Sin. Yikes. I dropped $300 in a strip club without buying one cocktail. I was driving and had two Red Bulls.

Some quick pimpgae before I begin my live blogging updates...

1. Jen Leo is in town doing a book signing this weekend.
2. Wil Wheaton is throwing a private tournament tomorrow on Poker Stars at 7pm EST. Visit here for more details.
3. Read my recap of yesterday's action at Poker Player Newspaper.
4. If you want a quick recap of my trip to a strip club, head over to the Tao of Pauly.
5. You can check out Special K and Flipchip's photo gallery of Festa al Lago... here.

Moving on...

Today is Day 3 and we will play down to the final table. There are several big names left and 39 players remain. Ernie Scherer begins today the chip leader with $675K. The average stack is around $215K.

***** Live Blogging Update *****

12:10pm... Cards are in the air. We are starting with Level 13. The blinds are $3K/6K with a $500 ante. Here are today's payouts:

1 $1,060,000
2 $620,730
3 $327,610
4 $189,630
5 $137,940
6 $96,560
7 $68,970
8 $55,175
9 $48,280
10 $41,380
11-15 $34,485
16-20 $27,590
21-30 $20,690
31-40 $17,245
41-50 $13,795
51-100 $12,000

12:25pm... Matt Lefkowitz's A-A were cracked by Gus Hansen's K-K when Gus flopped a King. Matt Lefkowitz finished in 39th place. He won $17,245.

12:30pm... Doyle Brunson walked into Bobby's Room and we challenged him to a game! He laughed in our faces. The Bellagio is playing 80s music in Bobby's Room.

12:35pm... Here is the Courtey Friel picture of the day.

12:40pm... Eskimo Clark was eliminated by 2005 WSOP braceelt winner Jan Sorenson from Denmark. Eskimo had A-K Sorenson had K-10. They both flopped a King but Sorensen rivered a Ten. Eskimo Clark finished in 38th place and won $17,245.

12:45pm... Jim McManus was eliminated in 37th place and won $17,245. I wonder if got Big Jim got some fodder for his NY Times article?

12:55pm... Wayne Lewis had 10-10 and ran into Minh Ly's A-A. Lewis finished in 36th place. He won $17,245.

12:57pm... For all you Rodeen fans... Rodeen Talebi was eliminated in 35th place and won $17,245.

1:01pm... Jesus 1, Bill Edler 0. Yes, Jesus Ferguson sent Bill Elder to the rail in 34th place, when Jesus's K-K held up. What's the deal with all these jucied hands early? Live poker is so rigged.

1:06pm... The players keep dropping out. At this rate we'll be done by 4:20 in time for me for a mid-afternoon session. Craig Hartman was knocked out by Minh Ly in 33rd place.

1:10pm... Jesus 2, Arnold Spee 0. Jesus is on a tear. He busted another player when his A-K out flopped 7-7. Arnold Spee finished in 32nd place.

1:11pm... Jen from Poker Wire, BJ and myself just played poker in Bobby's Room I won the first ever North American Doyle Brunson Media Classic when my 6-6 held up against BJ's Q-10 and Jen's Q-9s.

1:14pm... Joe Clapper was just busted by Minh Ly. Man, these bust outs are coming so fast, I can hardly keep up!

1:34pm... Mark Cole was eliminated in 30th place by Young Phan. Cole won $20,690. Davood "The Little" Mehrmand busted out in 29th place by Tony Grand. Mehrmand won $20,690.

1:44pm... Mike Gracz was knocked out in 28th palce. He won $20,690.

1:48pm... Here are some pictures that I took just now:


Ernie Scherer began today as the chip leader


The media in Bobby's Room


Young Phan


Minh Ly


Barry Greenstien


Gavin Smith


Dan Harrington takes a cat nap
2:01pm... Players are on a break. 27 remain. We're down to 3 tables. Both Gus Hansen and Barry Grennstien wandered over to Bobby's Room. When play resumes, we will be on Level 14. The blinds are $4K/$8K with $1K antes. Jesus is now the chipleader with $740K. Action Dan Harrington is a close second with $660K. The average stack is $311K.

2:20PM... Kathy Liebert's J-J knocked out Scott "I'm gonna have to ask you to come in on Saturday" Lundberg's 10-10 in 27th place. He won $27,590.

2:35pm... Three more eliminations. Khanh Hua was knocked out by Gavin Smith in 26th place and Jeff Brock was busted by Don Zerwin in 25th place. Sam Rashid was eliminated in 24th place by Don Barton. All three players won $27,590. 23 remain and 17 more have to get knocked out before I get to go home and sleep!

3:31pm... Here's who got busted in the past hour:

23 Neal Mathews $20,690
22 Tom Lock $20,690
21 Gus Hansen $20,690
20 Darrel Dicken $27,590

Gus Hansen was busted when he moved all in on the button with 9-3o. Gavin Smith called with Big Slick from the blinds and busted the Great Dane.

3:36pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I got kicked out of Bobby's Room for an hour while the WPT crew filmed some interviews. I went to the Snack Bar and bought an ice tea as I ogled at a couple of college girls with back tattoos in front of me. I made several phone calls and checked the spreads in this weekend's NFL games at the sports book.

3:45pm.... Players are currently on a break. 19 are left on 3 tables. The average stack is $442K. Here's the Top 5 in chips:

1 Ernie Scherer $1.1M
2 Chris "Jesus" Ferguson $850K
3 Jan Sorensen $560K
4 Minh Ly $560K
5 Dan Harrington $550K

3:47pm... I saw Young Phan find A-A twice inside of three minutes. He beat A-J in the first hand and got them cracked the second time by Thom Werthmann's set of tens.

3:55pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $5K/$10K with $1K antes.

4:04pm... Jesus is giving handouts to the masses. He doubled up Barry Greenstien and Bob Feduniak. Feduniak rivered a set against Jesus.

4:13pm... Don Barton was just busted in 19th place. He won $27,590. Players redraw for seats for the final two tables. Ernie Sherer is still the chipleader with $1.1 million.

4:20pm... Thom Werthmann was just busted in 18th palce by Ernie Sherer. Wethmann had K-K and Sherer had A-A. Werthmann won $27,590.

4:30pm... Young Phan took 17th place after he was knocked out by Tony Grand.

4:36pm... The media is getting kicked out of Bobby's Room because Doyle Brunson is here ready to play in the Big Game with Jen Harman and David Grey. The floor manager brought in a few racks of $1K chips. I dunno when my next update will be. Stay tuned. There are 16 players left and 10 more until I get to go home.

4:43pm... I have set up temporary refuge in the Snack Bar in between Light and the Sports Book. Now I have sun-burnt tourists wearing socks with tevas gawking over my shoulder while they wait for their $9 hamburgers.

4:44pm... Massoud Nikjouian was just knocked out in 16th place by Abraham Gray. Nikjouian won $27,590. Kathy Liebert's K-K were cracked by Joe Sander's A-J. Her stack took a hoit.

4:55pm... Steve Brecher was just busted in 15th place by Action Dan Harrington's K-K. Brecher won $34,485. Ernie Scherer is still the chipleader with $1.6 million.

5:07pm... The food smells great in the snack bar. I think the chili is calling my name! Oh in poker news, Tony Grand busted Joe Sanders in 14th place. Sanders won $34,485.

5:17pm... Barry Greenstien rivered a straight flush against Jesus. Both players checked all the way to the river after the both bet $60K preflop. Barry checked to Jesus on the river hoping to trap him. Jesus had a baby flush and did not bet it.

5:30pm... Players are on a break. 13 remain and the avergae stack is $646K. Here's latest chipcount courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Ernie Scherer $1.65M
2 Tony Grand $1.6M
3 Dan Harrington $800K
4 Barry Greenstein $715K
5 Jan Sorensen $680K
6 Danny Shiff $580K
7 Chris "Jesus" Ferguson $530K
8 Minh Ly $480K
9 Gavin Smith $400K
10 Abraham "Avi" Gray $390K
11 Don Zewin $240K
12 Kathy Liebert $200K
13 Bob Feduniak $150K

5:40pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $6K/$12K with a $2K ante.

5:46pm... The shortest stack remaining, Bob Feduniak, doubled up against Dan Harrington.

6:20pm... Action has halted. I've been eating onion rings and chili and doing my fantasy football picks. No one has been knocked out in over an hour.

6:35pm... Bob Feduniak doubled up again. This time with J-J against Barry Greenstein's K-10. Ernie Scherer is still the chipleader with $1.55M.

7:36pm... After a short break to recharge my battery, I am back. We have reached Level 17. The blinds are $8K/$16K with $2K antes. Kathy Liebert doubled up against Jan Sorenson when her A-A held up, while Ernie Scherer doubled up Gavin Smith. Here's an updated chip count courtesy of the lovely ladies at Poker Wire:

1 Tony Grand $1.58M
2 Dan Harrington $980K
3 Barry Greenstein $690K
4 Danny Shiff $640K
5 Jan Sorensen $622K
6 Don Zewin $620K
7 Minh Ly $575K
8 Abraham "Avi" Gray $550K
9 Gavin Smith $550K
10 Jesus $308K
11 Kathy Liebert $240K
12 Bob Feduniak $190K
13 Ernie Scherer $140K

8:04pm... Kathy Liebert had 5-5 and ran into Ernire Scherer's K-K. Liebert finished in 13th place and won $34,485 for first place. It had been almost 2 hours since someone was knocked out.

8:20pm... On an unfortunate hand. Bob Feduniak was elimianted in 12th place when his Q-7s lost to Danny Shiff's steal with 9-4o. Fednuiak won $34,485.

8:45pm... Jesus has left the building. Minh Ly eliminated Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in 11th place. Minh Ly had the Hilton Sisters and Jesus had 4-4. Ernie Scherer is the chipleader again with $2.16M after he won a monster pot off of Tony Grand when he picked off Grand on a bluff. Dan Harrington is second in chips with $1M.

8:50pm... Players are on a dinner break. Play will resume at 10pm.

10:34pm... Play has resumed. Avi Gray doubled up twice, once against Barry Greenstien and the other against Ernie Scherer when he cracked Scherer's K-K with a set of 8s. Scherer still has over $2M in chips and Dan Harrington is second with under $1M.

11:07pm... Barry Greenstien was knocked out in 10th place by Gavin Smith who flopped a set of 2s. Greenstien won $41,380.

11:22pm... We're down to 8 players after Abraham "Avi" Gray was eliminated in 9th Place. His 10-10 was outflopped by Ernie Scherer's A-K. Gray won $48,280 for 9th. Two more players to go! Ernie Scherer has $2.76M in chips and is still the chipleader. Gavin Smith has $1.4M.

12:30am... Dan Harrington knocked out Danny Shiff in 8th place. He won $55,175. We've reached the bubble!!! Here's a quick chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Ernie Scherer $2M
2 Gavin Smith $1.45M
3 Dan Harrington $1.4M
4 Don Zewin $860K
5 Tony Grand $720K
6 Jan Sorensen $630K
7 Minh Ly $450K

As play reaches it's 12th hour at the Bellagio, I have to wonder if there is anyone still actually at home/work following this?

1:13am... Minh Ly was the shortstack and doubled up with Q-10 against Ernie Scherer's 5-5. However, very soon after, Minh Ly lost most of those chips when his Hilton Sisters could not hold up against Tony Grand's A-8o. Grand flopped an ace and doubled up. Don Zerwin is the shortstack and Minh Ly is not far behidn with $500K in chips. Ernie Scherer remained the chip leader with $1.94M to Gavin Smith's $1.85M.

1:25am... Denamrk's Jan Sorenson was crippled when his A-K lost to Don Zerwin's K-K. Sorenson is the shortstack with $300K. On the brink of elimination, Sorenson caught a miracle card on the river to survive his all-in against Ernie Scherer.

1:45am... Players are returning from a break. The level has increased. Blinds are $15K/$30K with $4K antes. Action Dan Harrington moved into the chiplead while Minh Ly became the shortstack.

2:05am... Minh Ly doubled up against Gavin Smith when his A-A held up.


World Poker Tour hostess Courtney Friel during a photo shoot yesterday
2:31am... Dan Harrington loves the Hilton Sisters. He doubled up with Q-Q versus Tony Grand's 10-10. Tony Grand slipped to the short stack with $200K while Harrington is the chipleader with $2.5M. A few minutes later, Harrington found Q-Q again and won a pot against Ernie Scherer to add to his big stack.

3:05am... Minh Ly eliminated Erne Scherer in 7th place. Scherer entered teh day as teh chip leader and won $68,970. Both players were all in on the flop of A-J-9 with two clubs. Minh Ly had a gutshot straight draw and a King-high flush draw, while Scherer flopped two pair. Minh Ly made his flush on the river, which sent Scherer home on the TV bubble.

Here's who made the final WPT TV table including seating assignments and chip counts, courtesy of Poker Wire:

Seat 1: Tony Grand 118K
Seat 2: Minh Ly 3.056M
Seat 3: Dan Harrington 2.937M
Seat 4: Don Zewin 552K
Seat 5: Gavin Smith 1.368M
Seat 6: Jan Sorensen 370K

See everyone tomorrow (later tonight) at 7pm Vegas time for the taping of the final table.

WPT Doyle Brunson North America Classic - Day 2

Before I begin, I must apologize for spreading horrible rumors! I inncorrectly blogged that Richard Brodie was eliminated last night. He made it to Day 2 and I'm gonna be rooting him on a lot today. Thanks to the Quiet Lion who left a nice comment on my blog telling me that he's still alive.

Last night after I completed my work for the day, I played at the Bellagio. I sat down for two hours at a $8/$16 table that included one guy in a wheelchair who could not see the flop because he had horrible eye sight. The dealer had to read out the cards to him every time. Aother guy was so drunk that he spilled drinks on the felt not once, not twice, but thrice! Then there was the hot chick who was nipping out the entire time. That's enough to get anyone on tilt. I sat next to the "cool guy toughster" who sported a barb wire tattoo and wore shades at the table. He looked like a total idiot but was actually a nice guy. Always get to know the person sitting to your left. Ask plenty of questions if you can. The better profile you can come up with, the better your chances of knowing if you have a fish, a maniac, or a rock sitting next to you.

I won $30, barely 2 big bets. I won my very first hand when I post with A-7 at the cutoff. I flopped two pair. I walked away after my A-A miraculously held up in early position. The flop had a Queen and I got two callers. The turn was a Queen and put a flush draw out there. One guy bet out. I put him on trip Queens but prayed he was jamming his flush draw. I raised, another guy folded, and the original bettor re-raised me. I considered mucking and called. The river was a blank and he bet out. I glanced at the rock hard nipples of the red head sitting across from me while she sipped on a vodka tonic and said, "Fuck it!"

I tossed out three red Bellagio chips and a blue one. I flipped over my Aces and the guy showed A-6 of hearts and said, "Great call!" He only had Ace high had a busted flush draw. I played one more hand and then racked up my chips.

When I got home, I fired up Poker Stars and played in a $10 MTT. I took 160th out of 680+. Thanks to Joanne who sweated me. Grubby came home mid-way after a rough night at Sunset Station. He saw me bluff my chips away when I had a short stack and made a move to steal the blinds with 10-2o. I ran into A-A in the blinds. That always happens to me it seems.

Here's the end of Day 1 chip count courtesy of the awesome folks at Poker Wire:

1 Chau Giang $ 208,900
2 Joe Rutledge $ 178,425
3 Arthur Rhea $ 110,025
4 Mike Gracz $ 100,925
5 Abraham "Avi" Gray $ 99,150
6 Bob Rahimi $ 97,375
7 Lew Fleming $ 95,725
8 Kevin Hong $ 95,675
9 Howard Weston $ 93,575
10 Layne Flack $ 92,550
11 Harold Singer $ 89,125
12 Reza Payvar $ 88,800
13 Scott Lundberg $ 86,050
14 Jean-Robert Bellande $ 86,025
15 Larry Etherington $ 84,700
16 Mike Matusow $ 83,025
17 Anthony Reategui $ 80,475
18 David Oppenheim $ 80,150
19 Joe Clapper $ 76,975
20 Darrell Dicken $ 76,775
21 Sam Rashid $ 76,750
22 Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson $ 76,475
23 Massoud Nikjouian $ 75,650
24 Jan Sorensen $ 73,850
25 Craig Hartman $ 73,250
26 David Kim $ 72,400
27 Jim McCrink $ 71,600
28 Damon Ahmadi $ 69,550
29 Seth Entwisle $ 67,150
30 Matthew Zambanini $ 66,800
31 Tex Barch $ 65,425
32 Philip Gurian $ 63,500
33 Neal Matthews $ 63,475
34 Andy Miller $ 62,375
35 Johnny Chan $ 62,275
36 Amir Nasseri $ 61,875
37 Bill Edler $ 61,600
38 Eskimo Clark $ 60,000
39 Wayne Lewis $ 59,725
40 Jay Cullen $ 59,275
41 Jason Gray $ 58,750
42 David Rubin $ 58,625
43 Can Kim Hua $ 58,500
44 Vasilis Lazarou $ 57,725
45 Evelyn Ng $ 56,625
46 Young Phan $ 56,500
47 William Thorson $ 55,825
48 James 'Capo' Caporuscio $ 55,050
49 Shane Shleger $ 53,975
50 Stan Wasserkrug $ 52,125
51 Mark Cole $ 51,550
52 Tom Lock $ 51,450
53 Erick Lindgren $ 50,725
54 Mark Chapic $ 50,575
55 Rodeen Talebi $ 50,000
56 Chad Moore $ 49,375
57 Kelly Zoudo $ 49,350
58 Minh Nguyen $ 49,275
59 Joseph Sanders $ 49,100
60 Lyle Berman $ 48,725
61 Barry Greenstein $ 46,925
62 Robert Mizrachi $ 46,500
63 Marco Traniello $ 46,325
64 Adam Richardson $ 45,850
65 Sean McCabe $ 45,300
66 Jordan Morgan $ 45,075
67 Howard Golden $ 44,925
68 Refugio Quintero $ 44,775
69 William Kerkaert $ 44,525
70 Adam Slutsky $ 44,375
71 Brett Zimmerman $ 43,975
72 Stephen Vansickle $ 43,625
73 Ernie Scherer $ 43,050
74 Bob Feduniak $ 42,450
75 Daniel Holm $ 42,425
76 Al Stonum $ 42,000
77 Steve Rassi $ 40,500
78 Chuck Pacheco $ 40,300
79 Bob Stupak $ 40,250
80 Tom McCormick $ 40,200
81 Mike Epstein $ 39,850
82 Herbert Montalbano $ 39,825
83 Mel Weiner $ 38,975
84 Eric Weiner $ 38,975
85 Gavin Smith $ 38,575
86 Tony Grand $ 38,000
87 Eric Kesselman $ 37,750
88 Howard Lederer $ 37,400
89 Jerry Burgess Jr. $ 37,275
90 Dan Alspach $ 37,175
91 Ron Turner $ 36,850
92 Davood Mehrmand $ 36,275
93 Jeff Brock $ 35,800
94 Meng La $ 35,750
95 Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi $ 35,700
96 Franco Brunetti $ 35,500
97 Jesse Jones $ 35,325
98 Tom Werthmann $ 35,225
99 Alex Brenes $ 34,375
100 Ron Faltinsky $ 34,200
101 TJ Cloutier $ 34,150
102 Captain' Tom Franklin $ 34,075
103 Andy Bloch $ 33,575
104 Harry Demetriou $ 32,800
105 Randy Lorensen $ 32,525
106 Tim Anders $ 32,500
107 Daniel Negreanu $ 32,375
108 Anthony George $ 32,350
109 Gus Hansen $ 32,325
110 John Hanson $ 32,225
111 Khanh Hua $ 32,050
112 David 'Devilfish' Ulliott $ 31,825
113 Richard 'Quiet Lion' Brodie $ 31,675
114 Alvin Zeidenfeld $ 31,525
115 Daniel Shiff $ 31,500
116 Arturo Diaz $ 31,150
117 Max Pescatori $ 31,000
118 Joe Cassidy $ 30,975
119 Alan Smurfit $ 30,725
120 Don Barton $ 30,725
121 David 'The Dragon' Pham $ 30,300
122 Bob Plonowski $ 30,175
123 Mel Judah $ 29,950
124 Robert Ozman $ 29,650
125 Robert Anastasopoulos $ 29,350
126 Lee Salem $ 29,225
127 Jake Minter $ 28,975
128 Lee Watkinson $ 28,825
129 Bill Heupel $ 28,425
130 John Pires $ 28,325
131 Wayne Boich $ 28,300
132 Minh Ly $ 28,150
133 Arnold Spee $ 27,975
134 John Myung $ 27,875
135 Alan Goehring $ 27,750
136 Abraham Tannous $ 27,400
137 Chad Brown $ 27,125
138 Daniel Clarin $ 26,850
139 Ben Gilbert $ 26,750
140 David Lloyd $ 26,675
141 Lonnie Mason $ 26,575
142 Jason Lester $ 26,300
143 Kent Goulding $ 26,150
144 Shane Douglas $ 26,025
145 Kathy Liebert $ 25,525
146 Charles McClink $ 25,000
147 Mark Gregorich $ 24,975
148 Nicholas Candela $ 24,675
149 Kristy Gazes $ 24,375
150 Blair Rodman $ 23,700
151 Neil Channing $ 23,675
152 Vinny Landrum $ 23,100
153 Vadim Trincher $ 23,050
154 Kevin 'The Man' Chan $ 23,000
155 Gerald Rhoads $ 22,575
156 Don Zewin $ 21,925
157 Jim McManus $ 21,600
158 Walter Chambers $ 21,450
159 Chris Ball $ 20,475
160 Josh Arieh $ 20,400
161 Men 'The Master' Nguyen $ 20,350
162 Seymour Guiberson $ 20,125
163 Mark Muchnik $ 19,975
164 Victor Ramdin $ 19,675
165 Richard Tatalovich $ 19,500
166 Gary Friedlander $ 19,475
167 Matt Lefkowitz $ 19,375
168 Mohammad Fathipour $ 19,025
169 Jennifer Harman $ 18,925
170 David Williams $ 18,900
171 Darren Walther $ 18,850
172 Steve Brecher $ 18,200
173 Chad Layne $ 18,150
174 Mickey 'Mouse' Mills $ 18,100
175 Mario Quijano $ 18,025
176 Michael Tate $ 17,900
177 Anthony Salinas $ 17,825
178 Adam Smith $ 17,750
179 Ronald Adams $ 17,725
180 Steven Silva $ 17,675
181 Freddy Deeb $ 17,425
182 Jorge Arias $ 17,325
183 Tony Lucci $ 17,075
184 Bryan Kim $ 16,900
185 Lee Markholt $ 16,375
186 Chris McCormack $ 15,900
187 Alan Boston $ 15,675
188 Phil Immergluck $ 15,550
189 Eric Mizrachi $ 15,175
190 Matt Zoorob $ 15,000
191 Vincenzo Beatrice $ 14,475
192 "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan $ 14,075
193 David Rabbani $ 13,350
194 Philippe Rouas $ 12,950
195 Jeff Rine $ 12,900
196 Steve Rosen $ 12,850
197 Anatole Parthes $ 12,600
198 JW Young $ 12,300
199 Bob Wenzl $ 12,225
200 David Bertolucci $ 12,175
201 Surinder Sunar $ 12,000
202 Stan Jablonski $ 11,775
203 Dan Woodward $ 11,625
204 Dan Harrington $ 11,475
205 Doyle Brunson $ 10,775
206 Jens Sjogren $ 10,275
207 Damon Ramirez $ 10,000
208 Thomas Rau $ 9,900
209 Nam Le $ 9,800
210 Daniel Alaei $ 7,850
211 Harley Hall $ 7,800
212 Bill Seber $ 6,450
213 Peter Falting $ 3,125

Yes, Chau "I Love Poker!" Giang is the chip leader. Doyle Brunson is going to have to make some moves because he's one of the short stacks. Day 2 begins at Noon with 213 players trying to win the first place prize of $1 million. Here are some tables that are going to be fun to watch today:

Table 55: Kevin "The Man" Chan, Tex Barch, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, David Kim, and Rodeen Talebi
Table 56: Jean-Robert Bellande, "Captain" Tom Franklin, Lyle Berman, Marco Traniello, and Gavin Smith
Table 57: Eskimo Clark, "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan, Blair Rodman, and Kathy Liebert
Table 61: Chad Brown, Doyle Brunson, Minh Nguyen, and Dan Harrington

Stay tuned for more action. In the meantime, go check out Flipchip and Curits K's pictures: here and here.

***** Live Blogging Updates *****

4:20pm... Here are some pictures that I took today:


Welcome!


Nice shirt!


Eye on the clock


The Fontana Room


Johnny Fuckin' Chan
5:03pm... Sorry for the lack of updates. The air card I'm using is kinda slow inside the Fontana Room so I'm out on the patio and every 30 minutes the water show goes off! Johnny Chan just walked past me and now he's smoking a cigar.

5:15pm... Here's the skinny. Chau Giang is still the chipleader. There are 105 players remaining. Richard Brodie, Mike Matusow, Lyle Berman, David The Dragon Pham, Josh Arieh, Marco Traniello, Jen Harman, Howard Lederer, Tex Barch, Mel Judah, Max Pescatori, Jean-Robert Bellande, Minh Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Devilfish, Erick Lindgren, Joe Cassidy, "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan, Evelyn Ng, Andy Bloch, Capt. Tom Franklin, and Doyle Brunson have all been eliminated. Max told me about his hand. He had a short stack and someone push all-in in front of him with a weak ace. Max had A-10 and moved all in. Eskimo Clark called with A-A!! Ouch.

5:23pm... Jen Harman, Doyle Brunson, and Daniel Negreanu are all in Bobby's Room playing in the Big Game.

5:40pm... Break is over. 104 players left. Average stack is about 80K. Chau Giang is the chipleader and Minh Ly is a close second. Right now we are on Level 9. Blinds are $800/$1600 with a $200 antes.

6:00pm... We reached the money bubble. 101 players remain.

6:14pm... We're in the money! Jesus saves the day by knocking out Kent Goulding in 101st place on the bubble. There was a possibilty that we'd be sitting here for hours during a hand-to-hand play.

6:20pm... Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. Minh Ly
2. Gavin Smith
3. Layne Flack
4. Gus Hansen
5. Lee Watkinson

7:45pm... I got comped the buffet, courtesy of the Bellagio. The sushi rocks.

7:54pm... 77 players remaining.Chau Giang is the chip leader with $295K. Steve Brecher has about $265K and Jesus has $225K. NYC's Shane Schleger was knocked out in 92nd place.

8:01pm... Bad Blood is in the house!! He's in town for a few days and he's hanging out with the media now in press row.

8:30pm... Kristy Gazes and Surinder Sunar have both been eliminated.

8:47pm... 68 players remaining. Players are going on a dinner break and will be back at 10pm. Then they will play 2 more levels before play is stopped around 1am. Since Bad Blood is in town, we will be heading to a strip club with Grubby. So I will be leaving my post here at the Fontana Room to get drunk and grope strippers. If you want updates, visit Poker Wire for chip counts or read BJ's updates at Card Player. I shall be back tomorrow. I will post a Day 2 update on Las Vegas and Poker Blog sometime later tonight, after I get that stripper's perfume off of my clothes.

4:20am... Back from Sin. Anyway, there are 39 players remaining. Here's the end of Day 2 chip count courtesy of Poker Wire:

1 Ernie Scherer $ 675,000
2 Gavin Smith $ 497,500
3 Tony Grand $ 457,000
4 Mike Gracz $ 402,500
5 Dan Harrington $ 375,000
6 Young Phan $ 362,500
7 Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson $ 359,000
8 Joe Clapper $ 323,000
9 Khanh Hua $ 287,000
10 Steve Brecher $ 276,500
11 Barry Greenstein $ 244,000
12 Thomas Lock $ 241,500
13 Jeff Brock $ 233,000
14 Darrell Dicken $ 230,000
15 Massoud Nikjouian $ 228,500
16 Jan Sorensen $ 223,000
17 Abraham 'Avi' Gray $ 223,000
18 Thom Werthmann $ 220,000
19 Don Barton $ 218,500
20 Toe Sanders $ 198,500
21 Minh Ly $ 195,000
22 Kathy Liebert $ 190,500
23 Sam Rashid $ 190,500
24 Davood Mehrmand $ 187,000
25 Arnold Spee $ 168,000
26 Bill Edler $ 154,500
27 Craig Hartman $ 144,000
28 Gus Hansen $ 143,500
29 Scott Lundberg $ 132,500
30 Neal Matthews $ 108,000
31 Don Zewin $ 92,000
32 Mark Cole $ 80,000
33 Bob Feduniak $ 78,000
34 Wayne Lewis $ 70,500
35 Jim McManus $ 57,000
36 Danny Shiff $ 55,000
37 Rodeen Talebi $ 55,000
38 Eskimo Clark $ 53,000
39 Matt Lefkowitz $ 42,000

Play resumes at Noon on Wednesday. See you then.