WPT LA Poker Classic Day 6: The Final Table


After six longs days of poker, we've finally reached a final table for the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. 692 players, celebrities, and satellite wnners forked up $10K each for a shot at $2.3M first place prize, a set in the $25K WPT Championships, and bragging rights for winning the biggest poker tournament (total prize pool) ever in California. Right now, JC Tran sits on top as the chipleader, with WPT champion Alan Goehring still in the hunt for his second title. Per Ummer from Sweden is trying to win his first WPT event.

Final Table Chipcounts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 JC Tran (Sacremento, CA) $3.72M
2 Per "Nemo" Ummer (Cyprus, Greece) $2.87M
3 Michael Woo (Desert Hot Springs, CA) $2.195M
4 Alan Goehring (Henderson, NV) $1.9M
5 Daniel Quach (Monrovia, CA) $1.655M
6 Steven Simmons (Watertown, NY) $1.505M

Quick Stats:
Chipleader: JC Tran
Total Entrants: 692
Prize Pool: $6,643,200
First Place: $2,391,550

Here's a final table payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296

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

4:00pm... We're waiting to be let inside. In the meantime, the Poker Wire girls ate BLT sandwiches for lunch, while BJ ate McDonalds and got a St. Pattys Day green milkshake. Spaceman ate corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, and baked chicken. I ate In & Out Burger... the double-double with cheese.

4:15pm... I'm set up in media row, sitting in the far corner with Spaceman and BJ. Stay tuned for action. We're supposed to start at 5pm PCT. The crowd just got let into the stage area and the crew is finsihing up last minute preps on the set.

4:20pm... Smoke break!

4:45pm... Prop Bet Update: We got four going in media row to keep things interesting.

1. The O/U in today's tourney was set at 11:20pm. I took the over and BJ has the under.

2. I bet Spaceman that the first bustout will be a bad beat. He has the best hand winning.

3. In the media pool, Spaceman has Per Ummer, BJ has Alan Goehring, and I went with Michael Woo. In these pools, you cannot take the chipleader and I got the last pick. So I'll be pulling for my man Mike Woo today.

4. BJ thinks it will take less than 4 hands before we see our first flop. I got 5 or more.

5:15pm... Celeb Sightings: The Grinder and James Woods is sitting in front of us in Media Row. Juha Helppi is here along with Paul Darden.

5:30pm... Player introductions are starting as we speak. Mike Woo was the first player to win a single table satellite to the LAPC. And now he's here at the final table. JC Tran is the chipleader.

5:38pm... Cards are in the air.

5:39pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ 1, Pauly 0. We got to see a flop on the first hand. I'm already in the hole before the first pot has been pushed to a player! Danoel Quach took down the first pot.

5:41pm... JC Tran is still the chipleader after won a pot against Alan Goehring.

6:00pm... JC Tran is up to $4.1M in chips.

6:06pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Announcer Linda Johnson pointed out that James Woods was in the crowd. He took 24th place in this event and was playfully talking smack with Mike Woo, who busted him when his A-A held up against Q-Q. By the way, Evelyn Ng is also here in the crowd.

Updated Chipcount:
1. JC Tran $3.8M
2. Per Ummer $2.7M
3. Daniel Quach $2.4M
4. Mike Woo $2.2M
5. Steven Simmons $1.290M
6. Alan Goehring $1.2M

6:13pm... In the biggest hand of the day, Steven Simmons raised preflop to $150K. JC Tran raised to $400K and Simmons moved all in over the top. Tran thought about calling for a while before he folded. Simmons has the reputation of being a tight player, so we suspect he had a big hand like Aces or Kings. That was the first hand he played so far, through 14 hands.

6:30pm... Per Ummer won his first pot of the day and won another one soon after. JC Tran was in both hands with him. 22 hands in and we're still looking for the first bustout.

6:38pm... Daniel Quach was the second player to move all in today. He went over the top of JC Tran for $1.8M. Tran called and everyone in the crowd jumped to their feet anticipating the first big hand and bustout of the final table. Tran flipped over Ac-Kh, while Quach showed As-Ks. They chopped.

6:45pm... Players are on a break while the crew changes the tapes in the camera.

Updated Chipcount:
1. JC Tran $3.8M
2. Per Ummer $2.775M
3. Daniel Quach $2.475M
4. Steven Simmons $1.765M
5. Mike Woo $1.74M
6. Alan Goehring $1.54M

6:55pm... Players are back. We're on a new level. Blinds are $40K/$80K with a $10K ante.

7:05pm... Steve Simmons moved all in again. This time, Per Ummer called. Simmons had Q-Q to Ummer's J-J. The flop was A-10-4, the turn was a 2. I turned to Spaceman and said, "A betcha the river is a black card." He picked red and we had a prop on the river. A 10 of spades fell, which meant I picked up a win against Spaceman and Per Ummer doubled up Steven Simmons. Like I said before, Simmons is tight, but it's tough to fold J-J six-handed. Per's stack took a big hit. He has just over $1M and is the shortstack, while Simmons's stack is around $3M. JC Tran is still the chipleader. My guy Mike Woo is third in chips with $1.7M.

7:21pm... JC Tran and Per Ummer rumbled again. This time Ummer had A-A and Tran had 10-7. On a flop of Q-9-8, all the money went into the pot. Tran missed his open-ended straight draw and Ummer's Aces held up. Ummer doubled up and is now back on top as the chipleader, knocking JC Tran out of the leader's spot.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $4.2M
2 Steven Simmons $2.63M
3 Daniel Quach $2.55M
4 Michael Woo $1.9M
5 JC Tran $1.65M
6 Alan Goehring $1.2M

7:33pm... Alan Goehring came from behind to double up with 9-7. He flopped trip 9s against Daniel Quach's 10-10. Goehring's no longer the shortstack.

7:43pm... Daniel Quach just took down a big ass mother of a pot worth about $2M according to BJ. His A-A held up after he flopped a set.

7:49pm... 41 hands in, we still have six players left. The chips are going around the table. JC Tran went from first to last. Although this is not the longest the WPT has gone before somone was busted, it's certainly one of the longest tournaments I covered in a while before anyone got eliminated. With $2.3M on the line, no one wants to make a mistake. These players got this far and they're not going to piss away six days of work on a poor decision.

7:55pm... Jc Tran was all in preflop with A-K versus Alan Goehring's Kc-Jc. Tran still lead after the flop and his Big Slick held up to double up. He's still alive.

7:58pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $60K/$120K with a $15K ante. The low stacks are about even... $1.4-$1.7M for JC Tran, Alan Gohering, and Mike Woo. The big stacks are Daniel Quach with $3.5M, Steve Simmons with $2.7M and Per Ummer has $2.8M.

8:05pm... My pick Mike Woo took a pot off of Alan Goehring with the Dead Man's Hand. He now has $2.3M. Goehring slipped to $1M. He's the shortstack.

8:11pm... Players are on a break. And so am I. Quach is our new chipleader.

Updated Chipcounts:
1. Daniel Quach $3.47M
2. Steven Simmons $3.44M
3. Per Ummer $2.19M
4. Michael Woo $2.18M
5. J.C. Tran $1.19M
6. Alan Goehring $1.015M

8:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I headed downstairs to eat a hotdog at the Tiki Hut. Commerce is infamous for their hotdogs. I also grabbed a donut. Kinda stale, but I was hungry. And now back by popular demand....

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To...
1. Juha Helppi
2. Paul Darden
3. Eskimo
4. Allen Cunningham
5. The Grinder

8:48pm... We're approaching Hand #60 without an elimination. On two consecutive hands, Steven Simmons and Mike Woo moved all in and everyone folded.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Daniel Quach $3.7M
2. Steven Simmons $3.045M
3. Michael Woo $2.5M
4. Alan Goehring $2M
5. Per Ummer $1.7M

9:03pm... Linda Johnson is even bored. She's cracking one liners with the crowd and has been telling jokes.

9:06pm... JC Tran and his A-5s doubled up againt Per "Nemo" Ummer's A-4s. He's got over $1.4M now after he picked up a second pot in a row. Daniel Quach is still the chipleader with $3.2M, while Per Ummer slipped to under $800K.

9:15pm... We just completed Hand #72. No bustouts so far. Six tight players still remain. Here's how most of the hands have gone preflop: fold, fold, raise, fold, fold, fold. Yep, whoever raises preflop usually takes down the pots. No one wants to gamboool here.

9:18pm... Per Ummer came from behind to double up against Alan Goehring. Dominated K-Q to A-Q, Ummer flopped two pair. On a board of K-Q-10, Goehring had outs but didn't catch any. Ummer is still alive! And we're still six handed.

9:20pm... Players are on a break because the level ended. They are also coloring up chips.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Steven Simmons $3.155M
2. Daniel Quach $2.995M
3. Michael Woo $2.505M
4. Alan Goehring $2.19M
5. Per Ummer $1.6M
6. JC Tran $1.405M

9:30pm... Players are back. Blinds are $100K/$200K with a $20K ante. Let's hope the new blinds level will force the action.

9:36pm... Recent Elimination: The place went bonkers when Per Ummer and JC Tran were all in preflop. Everyone in the audience was tired and had been waiting for some action for almost four hours. On Hand #80, our first elimination went down. Ummer had Ac-7c while Tran showed Ah-Kh. Ummer's hand did not improve and JC Tran won the pot. Per Ummer won $199,296 for 6th place. JC Tran regained the chiplead. A new record was set at 80 hand before the first elimination. It broke the record set at the Borgata Poker Open in September of 2005, which was 73 hands. Ironically, that event lasted under 100 hands.


Per Ummer - 6th Place

Updated Chipcount:
1 JC Tran $3.7M
2 Daniel Quach $3.5M
3 Michael Woo $2.7M
4 Steven Simmons $2.6M
5 Alan Goehring $1.75M

9:40pm... Prop Bet Update: Spaceman is out of the media pool. Per Ummer was his pick and it's down to me and BJ. I lost a prop with Spaceman. I said the first bustout would be a bad beat.

9:50pm... Players are on a break. Andy Bloch is hanging out in media row.

10:08pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Things are back to being slow again. The Grinder is sitting in front of us making fart noises while Amnon Filippi is heckling the remaining players. I'm currently sweating Wil Wheaton in a 180 person SNG on Poker Stars and he's kicking ass.

10:13pm... Two players were all in preflop. JC Tran had 7-7 while Mike Woo had 9-9. The flop was 10-10-8. The turn was a 10 and the river was a three. Mike Woo's hand held up and his railbirds chanted in approval. Mike Woo doubled up.

10:20pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil is 5th out of 17 left in his 180 person SNG. He's just made the money and has $16K chips left with two tables remaining. He was shortstacked a few levels ago and doubled up with Q-10 when caught trips. He had been on a rush since then.

10:22pm... Alan Goehring's J-J's held up against Mike Woo's J-6o. Goehring doubled up with a shortstack while Woo called from the big blind with J-6o. He has $1.14M and stciks around for a little while longer.

10:28pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil picked up two hands in a row with preflop raises. No action. He's 6th out of 16.

10:29pm... Recent Elimination: JC Tran badbeated! Another exciting hand, as the crowd jumped to its feet when two players went all in. Alan Goehring's 5-5 was way behind JC Tran's pocket Aces. Flop was all spades 2-9-7. Tran had the Ace of Spades and was free rolling a flush draw. The turn was a 2 and the river was a five of diamonds. The audience exploded when one of Goehring's two outs spiked on the river. The room is still buzzing from that bad beat as JC Tran just shook his head and walked off the set to do a bustout interview with the lovely Courtney Friel, who is sporting a tight fitting sleek red cocktail dress. One of JC Tran's railbirds screamed, "Get that internet dealer out of there!" Yes, even live poker is rigged. Since Goehring had Tran covered by just 25K, Tran was busted out in 5th place. JC Tran won $265,728 for 5th place after getting his pocket aces cracked. Even pros get kicked in the junk.


JC Tran - 5th place

Updated Chipcount:
1 Daniel Quach $4.5M
2 Michael Woo $3.87M
3 Alan Goehring $3.1M
4 Steven Simmons $2.33M

10:40pm... Wil Wheaton update: Wil Wheaton was shortstacked and made an amazing call on the flop with A-9. He was outdrawn and he took 10th place, bubbling out of the final table. Wil will be playing in the WPT Invitational tomorrow. Best of luck, Wil.

10:45pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $150K/$300K with $30K antes.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Daniel Quach $6.4M
2 Michael Woo $3.6M
3 Alan Goehring $2.2M
4 Steven Simmons $1.8M

10:52pm... Recent Elimination: On Hand #103, Steven Simmons was eliminated in 4th place when his J-10 lost to Alan Goehring's K-Js. Simmons moved all in on the button, and Goehring quickly called with the dominating hand. Simmons won $338,803 for 4th place.

Final 3 Chipcount:
1. Daniel Quach $6M
2. Alan Goehring $4.25M
3. Mike Woo $3.5M

Steven Simmons - 4th Place
11:05pm... Dan Quach won the first big hand once it got three-way. He added to his stack which sits at $6.5M.

11:14pm... Recent Elimination: Mike Woo is out in 3rd place. Here's what wnet down. Mike Woo raised and Dan Quach moved all in. Woo eventually called with 5-5. Quach flipped over K-Q. The flop was A-A-Q, and Quach took the lead. The turn was a ten and the river was 3. Quach's hand held up and Mike Woo was sent to the rail. He won $571,315 for 3rd place.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Dan Quach $9.315M
2. Alan Goehring $4.51M

Mike Woo - 3rd Place

11:19pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ won the media pool when his pick Alan Goehring outlasted my pick Mike Woo and Spaceman's pick Per Ummer. I won the O/U on the final time. Spaceman and I did one last prop bet of the day... the final time of the event. We set the time at Midnight and he has the under.

11:30pm... There is a slight delay as the crew sets the table for the money presentation. We're almost ready for heads up play.

11:36pm... Dan Quach won the first hand of heads up play, but Goehring picked up the next few.

11:56pm... We're on a new level. Blinds are $250K/$500K. Antes are $50K.

Updated Chipcount:
1. Dan Quach $9.7M
2. Alan Goehring $4.2M

12:00am... Alan Goehring moved all in, and everyone in the audience jumped to it's feet anticipating a showdown. Alas, Quach folded and everyone sat back down as the folks in media row grumbled. Goehring picked up a few more chips and now has $6.6M to Quach's $7.2M. We're almost even.

12:03am... Clonie Gowen sighting here at the final table taping.

12:07am... After picking up three consecutive pots, we have a new chipleader in Alan Goehring.

12:18am... Bouncin Round the Room: I forgot to tell you how the Poker Wire girls are kicking my ass in various Roshambo prop bets. While we waited to get in Amanda beat me in best-of-three. We tied the first three and I thought I was inside her head, but then I went on Roshambo tilt and lost. During the boring heads up play, I played Heather IM-a-Roshambo. She slaughtered me.

12:24am... Recent Elimination: We had our first big battle on the 30th hand of heads up play. Both players were all in preflop. Alan Goehring was behind wth K-8 versus Dan Quach's A-J. Goehring looked disappointed with his call. The flop was Q-J-9 and Qauch kept the lead, but it gave Goehring a gutshot. The turn was a King, and the crowd let out a loud reaction as Goehring took the lead. The river was a 7 and Goehring won the hand and his second WPT title. Daniel Quach won $1,162,560 for 2nd place. Alan Goehring won $2,391,550 for first place including a seat in the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April. Congrats to both Daniel Quach and Alan Goerhing.


Daniel Quach - 2nd Place


Alan Goehring - 2006 LA Poker Classic Champion
1:01am... Well that concludes another final table of the WPT. The LA Poker Classic is officially over. Thanks to the Commerce's staff and all my fellow reps in the media for another fun adventure. Special thanks to all my blogger friends for linking up my live blogging coverage and pimping it on their blogs. You guys rule. I also want to say extra special thanks especially to Maudie for the cool banners.

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 5


We're back at Commerce Casino for the shortest day of action in the history of the WPT. We have ten players remaining in the LA Poker Classic main event and we're going to play down to six. Four players must bust out. Should be an exciting day? If you were sitting in front of me in media row, you could see the sarcasm oozing out of my ears. This is totally ridiculous and my time could be better spent donking around chips at the NL tables instead of figthing through traffic (even on a holiday) and coming down to cover the last four eliminations.

Per Ummer from Sweden is the chipleader with over $2.5M, while WSOP bracelet winner David Chiu is the shortstack.

Some bustouts from Day Four included: Jon Luu, Juha Helppi, Jon Kelley, John Gale, James Woods, Rodeen Talebi, Chris Bigler, Bill Gazes.

Final 10 Chipcount (courtesy of Poker Wire):
1 Per Ummer $2.455M
2 Alan Goehring $2.315M
3 Kevan Casey $2.03M
4 Michael Woo $1.665M
5 Daniel Quach $1.425M
6 Steven Simmons $1.270M
7 JC Tran $1.245M
8 Michael McClain $665K
9 Anahit Galajian $480K
10 David Chiu $305K
Avg. Stack: $1.384M

The Final 10

Here's a payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th: $73,075

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

3:03pm... I'm sitting in between BJ and Spaceman in media row. I ate El Pollo Loco with Joe Speaker in downtown L.A., which happens to be BJ's favorite place to eat on the planet, next to In & Out Burger.

3:20pm... Prop Bet Update: I chopped with BJ last night. Today we have a good one. How many combined vowels are there going to be in the full name of the first player to bust out. He took 5 or more and I got the under... 4 or less. Should be interesting, especially since I'm getting slaughtered in Olympics betting. The US Women's curling team got spanked by the Brits.

3:36pm... Cards are in the air. Blinds are $15K/30K with a 5K ante. There's a little more than 40 minutes left at this level.

3:52pm... There's tension sticking to the walls in here. There's no talk at the tables and you can only hear the faint clatter of chips and media reps plugging away at their laptops. With $2.3M on the line for first palce, no one wants to make a bad move.

3:54pm... Recent Elimination: 2005 WSOP bracelet winner David Chui has been eliminated by JC Tran in 10th place. Tran flopped top pair and Chiu missed an pen ended straigth draw. He won $73,075.

3:55pm... Prop Bet Update: Pauly 1, BJ 0. I won the first prop bet with BJ. 4 vowels, baby!

4:05pm... Recent Elimination: Michael McClain is out in 9th place when he ran into Michael Woo's Q-Q with a steal. He won $99,648.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.7M
2 Michael Woo $2.3M
3 Alan Goehring $2.03M
4 JC Tran $2M
5 Kevan Casey $1.88M
6 Steven Simmons $1.111M
7 Daniel Quach $1M
8 Anahit Galajian $380K
Avg. Stack: $1.73M

4:20pm... Players are on a break and I'm on a smoke break.

4:40pm... We're on Level 24. Blinds are $20K/40K with $5K antes. 8 players remain. Per is reaching the $3M mark.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.9M
2 Alan Goehring $2.46M
3 Michael Woo $2.17M
4 JC Tran $1.915M
5 Kevan Casey $1.57M
6 Steven Simmons $1.1M
7 Daniel Quach $1.05M
8 Anahit Galajian $555K

5:10pm... JC Tran lost a big pot to Steven Simmons with 7-7 vs. J-J.

5:15pm... I'm running out of batteries! Be back soon.

5:30pm... Picture dump!


David Chiu & Michael "Agony of Defeat" McClain


Per Ummer's Bigstack


Glimpse from Media Row: Poker Wire Girls in action


More Media Row
6:05pm... Recent Elimination: Kevan Casey was busted in 8th place by JC Tran. He turned two pair, but Tran turned a set on a board of 10-3-2-5-J. Both players were all in by the river. Kevan Casey, who held the chiplead on more than one instance over the course of yesterday finished up in 7th. He won $132,864. That pot put Tran nto the chiplead with over $3.7M

Updated Chipcount:
1 JC Tran $3.74M
2 Per Ummer $2.9M
3 Alan Goehring $2.48M
4 Michael Woo $1.65M
5 Steven Simmons $1.62M
6 Daniel Quach $1.3M
7 Anahit Galajian $260K

6:40pm... Recent Elimination: Anahit Galajian, the last female in the field, finished in 7th place and became the TV Bubble Girl. Her A-6s lost to Daniel Quach's 9-9. Anahit Galajian won $166,080 for sixth place.

Final Table Chipcounts:
1 JC Tran $3.72M
2 Per Ummer $2.87M
3 Michael Woo $2.195M
4 Alan Goehring $1.9M
5 Daniel Quach $1.655M
6 Steven Simmons $1.505M

Anahit Galajian - 7th Place


JC Tran - End of Day 5 Chipleader
Action is over for Day 5 and will resume at 5pm on Tuesday for the final table of the WPT LA Poker Classic. JC Tran will be the chipleader when the final table begins. See you there for more live blogging updates.

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 4

"I hope you all get anal herpes!" - James Woods in Salvador

A movie star is on the verge of making a final table in the biggest poker tournament in California. This isn't an overbudgeted blockbuster in Hollywierd, it's just another day in my life as I get to document another stop on the WPT. Can the two-time Oscar nominee James Woods survive one more day an achieve immortality by coming from behind to book the biggest poker win of his career? Or will he be one of the hundreds of players that were sent to the rail and had their brains and guts smashed to bits, like roadkill on a late night interstate.

We're back for day four of action at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. Yesterday ended with the field losing even more players and having the money bubble burst. We're going to try to get down to six players tonight and get a rare day off. I could use the sleep after five straight nights of staying up until dawn and partying with drug-addled blondes, neurotic actors, and strung out studio execs.

There are some tough questions that I am going to try to figure out today:

1. Can James Woods make a WPT final table?
2. Will I come from behind and even up the prop bets with BJ?
3. Can a European player like John Gale, Chris Bigler, Per Ummer and Juha Helppi take it down?
4. Will anyone at Commerce get anal herpes?

Jon Luu ended day three as the chipleader. Day two's chipleader Fabrice Soulier was booted yesterday, so Luu hopes he can hold off the pack and make his first WPT final table. I'll be rooting for Gentleman John Gale from London today, along with James Woods.

Here's some notable names who busted out on Day 3: Chip Reese, Chip Jett, Mark Gregorich, Shawn Sheikhan, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Phil Laak, Blair Rodman, Hasan Habib, Paul Darden, Ben Roberts, Jason Lester, Matt Matros, Fabrcie Soulier, Scotty Nguyen, Brad Berman , TJ Cloutier, David Plastik, Gabe Thaler, Ed Moncada, Allen Cunningham, Jim Bechtel, Mike Carson, Can Kim Hua, Danny Alaei, Jim Miller, and Amir Vahedi.

Here's an updated end of day three chipcount courtesy of Jen, Heather, & Amanda at Poker Wire:

1 Jon Luu $1.111M
2 Per Ummer $1,022M
3 Brian McCann $939M
4 Alan Goehring $916M
5 Juha Helppi $804M
6 Jon Kelley $751K
7 David Chiu $749K
8 Daniel Quach $739K
9 Michael McClain $737K
10 Kevan Casey $685K
11 Michael Woo $670K
12 John Gale $549K
13 Steven Simmons $494K
14 Anahit Galajian $458K
15 J.C. Tran $441K
16 James Woods $438K
17 Rodeen Talebi $414K
18 Chris Bigler $413K
19 Mark Weidmann $327K
20 Bill Gazes $258K
21 Danny Noam $253K
22 Tom Macey $242K
23 Kelly Kim $173K
24 Damon Ahmadi $135K
25 Bruce Parker $106K
26 Genefredo Legaspi $68K
27 Roy Winston $45K

Here's a payout list:
1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,502
19th-27th: $39,859

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

3:15pm... It's a cluster fuck here at Commerce as the media row was collapsed and we got sent down to the floor. I'm sitting in between Landon, BJ, and Spaceman and we're actually closer to the action instead of being stuck in the far corner of the stage. We have limited access to the tables and I'll do my best to snap a few photos. I got some horrible news. We're going to be playing down to 10 today and then we will play down to six on Monday. It's pretty silly if you ask me but why the hell would a prestigious organization like the WPT heed my advice on matters like tournament reporting? But maybe I'll get out of here earlier. That's what I'm hoping for... loose play.

3:25pm... We're a few minutes away from action. I can hear the clatter of chips start as the players unbagged their chips. When I walked into Commerce an hour ago, I spotted James Woods nervously talking on his cellphone and pacing the hallways like a caged lion.

3:35pm... We're still on Level 18 with about 30 minutes remaining. Blinds are $5K/$10K with $1K antes. Cards are officially in the air.

3:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Two quick bustouts. Tom Macey (27th place) and Genefredo Legaspi (26th place) are out within the first few minutes. Tom Macey's A-K lost a coinflip to Per Ummer's 10-10. The both won $38,859.

3:55pm... We have a new chipleader. Say hello to Per Ummer, who has $1.3M. James Woods still has around $300K which is below the average.

4:00pm... We're now on Level 19. Blinds are $6K/12K with a $2K ante.

4:05pm... Recent Elimination: Chris Bigler took a big hit when JC Tran doubled through him. A few hands later, he was busted in 25th place by Bruce Parker when his A-2 lost to A-8. He won $39,859.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.275M
2 Brian McCann $1.05M
3 Alan Goehring $970K
4 Kevan Casey $970K
5 Jon Kelley $770K

4:15pm... Recent Elimination: James Woods loses with the Hiltons. James Woods is out in 24th place when his Q-Q lost to Michael Woo's pocket Aces. James Woods won $39,859 and failed to make the final table. When he pushed his chair in and left the table, the crowd gave him a warm ovation.

4:15pm... Picture dump. I snappped these today.

Gentleman John Gale and James Woods


Sweden's Per Ummer


Chris Bigler


Finland's Juha Helppi


Bill Gazes flashes the evil eye at his opponent
4:20pm... Today's smoke break is brought to you by the letter E.

4:32pm... How about an updated chipcount?

Top 5:
1 Michael Woo $1.3M
2 Brian McCann $1.2M
3 Per Ummer $1.2M
4 Alan Goehring $840K
5 JC Tran $820K

4:37pm... Recent Elimination: Roy Winston took 23rd place when he was busted by JC Tran's A-K. He won $39,859. Down to 22.

4:53pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ and I have a double last longer bet. BJ has Bill Gazes & Alan Goehring. I'm going with Team Europe: Juha Helppi and John Gale. Yesterday BJ went 2-1 and I'm hoping to even the score.

4:56pm... Recent Elimination: Bruce Parker is out in 22nd place when his Q-J lost to JC Tran, who scooped the pot with King high. Parker won $39,859. Down to 21.

5:10pm... Recent Elimination: John Luu is out in 21st place when his A-Q lost to David Chiu's 9-9. Luu won $39,859. 20 players left.

5:22pm... Recent Elimination: Damon Ahmadi took 20th place when he was sent home by Michael McClain's 10-10. Ahmadi's overcards could not hold up and he won $39,859 for his efforts. 19 players left on three tables. We're on hand-for-hand. As soon as one more player busts out, action will consolidate to two tables.

5:30pm... Players are on a break. When action resumes we'll be Level 20 with $8K/16K blinds and a $2K ante.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.626M
2 Brian McCann $1.4M
3 Michael Woo $1.233M
4 JC Tran $982K
5 David Chiu $964K
6 Steven Simmons $940K
7 John Gale $924K
8 Kevan Casey $845K
9 Alan Goehring $786K
10 Daniel Quach $733K
11 Michael McClain $660K
12 Juha Helppi $620K
13 Jon Kelley $600K
14 Rodeen Talebi $451K
15 Kelly Kim $349K
16 Mark Weidmann $261K
17 Bill Gazes $219K
18 Danny Noam $182K
19 Anahit Galajian $125K

5:45pm... Players have returned and we're still hand-for-hand.

5:51pm... We just came up with this gem in Media Row.

Top 5 Things Bored Tournament Reporters Do on Breaks:
1. Surf for German S&M and pissing porn.
2. Masturbate in the first stall of the Men's Room. (Sorry to out you, Spaceman.)
3. Hit on the good looking female railbirds.
4. Smoke cigarettes on the patio and listen to pros bitch about bad beats.
5. Three words: hookers and blow.

6:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Courtney Friel is in the ballroom shooting promos and whenever she enters a room, the place lights up. The railbirds have flocked to the corner of the ballroom to sweat the last 19 players. There are definitely more media reps here than players remaining.

6:04pm... Recent Elimination: Rodeen Talebi was elimianted in 19th place by Kevan Casey by a brutal river suckout. Talebi led with A-K to Casey's A-Q, until a Queen spiked on the river. Talebi won $38,859. Hand-for-hand is over and players are redrawing for the final two tables. 18 players remain.

6:35pm... Nothing to report aside from the fact that Per Ummer now has over $2.1M in chips after he took down a huge pot from Brian McCann.

Updated Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.17M
2 Michael Woo $1.5M
3 Kevan Casey $1.15M
4 JC Tran $1M
5 Michael McClain $950K

7:20pm... Players are on a break as action has slowed down to a LA freeway standstill. 18 still left.

7:35pm... We're on Level 21. Blinds are $10K/20K with a $3K ante. Per Ummer is the chipleader.

Updated Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $1.905M
2 Michael Woo $1.800M
3 Kevan Casey $1.392M
4 JC Tran $980K
5 Steven Simmons $927K
6 Daniel Quach $860K
7 David Chiu $840K
8 Brian McCann $692K
9 Juha Helppi $626K
10 Mark Weidmann $575K
11 Michael McClain $575K
12 Alan Goehring $565K
13 John Gale $450K
14 Anahit Galajian $437K
15 Jon Kelley $324K
16 Kelly Kim $305K
17 Bill Gazes $257K
18 Danny Noam $123K

7:40pm... Recent Eliminations: Bill Gazes was knocked out in 18th place by Alan Goehring. Gazes moved all in with 4-4 and a shortstack and Goehring called with A-J. It was a classic race situation and GOehring flopped an ace to send Gazes to the rail. He won $46,502. Down to 17.

7:47pm... Prop Bet Update: BJ and I made one more... I said that we're going to be playing past Midnight and BJ took the under. I'm hoping that I lose that one. In our other bet, one of his guys Bill Gazes was busted by his other player Alan Goehring. Both my two guys, Juha Helppi and John Gale, are still in. Gale doubled up with Q-10 against Kevan Casey's 5-5. But that overall prop bet is still ongoing. We're gonna take the lowest score of both combined players to determine our winner, which means that Alan Goering needs to go pretty far.

7:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I wandered over to buy a snack. I got an iced tea, a banana, and a Snickers bar. All sugar for me. I need to perk up since the action is so tediously slow.

8:01pm... Players are on a one hour dinner break. See you in 59 minutes.

9:06pm... Recent Eliminations: Kelly Kim's K-Js was busted by Kevan Casey's A-Qs. Kim won $46,502 for 17th place.

Today's Money Winners:
27. Tom Macey $38,859
26. Genefredo Legaspi
25. Chris Bigler $38,859
24. James Woods $38,859
23. Roy Winston $38,859
22. Bruce Parker $38,859
21. John Luu $38,859
20. Damon Ahmadi $38,859
19. Rodeen Talebi $38,859
18. Bill Gazes $46,502
17. Kelly Kim $46,502

9:20pm... Bouncin Round the Room: Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Adam Friedman, and Liz Lieu all were hanging out in media row. The lovely Liz was asking about my brother who wrote an article about her in December. She was busting my balls the entire time about forgetting who she was at the Bellagio. I say it never happened and she was willing to bet me it did and pulled out a wad of Benjamins. Talk about intimidating! We settled on that the loser has to take BJ to dinner. Since I know I'm right in my bet, it was a cheap way to get BJ a free meal with Liz Lieu.

9:40pm... We're currently hand-for-hand which means that we're rolling along very slow. Michael Woo captured the chiplead and wrestled it away from Per Ummer. It wasn't as exciting as it sounded, but I'm bored shitless over here.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Michael Woo $1.71M
2 Kevan Casey $1.7M
3 Per Ummer $1.64K
4 Alan Goehring $1.2K
5 Steven Simmons $965K

9:55pm... Recent Elimination: Jon Kelley, the last celebrity remaining, took 16th place after he was busted by Steven Simmons. Kelly flopped top pair with A-Q against Simmons' J-J. Unfortunately for Kelley, a Jack spiked on the river to send Kelley to the rail. He won $46,502. Down to 15 and we're no longer hand-for-hand.

10:01pm... Recent Elimination: Brian McCann is out after Kevan Casey busted his A-A with the Hilton Sisters. Casey flopped a set of Queens. McCann finished in 15th place and won $59,789 for his efforts. Down to 14 with Kevan Casey as the chipleader.

10:05pm... The 14 remaining players are on a 15 minute break. When they return, we'll be on Level 21. Blinds are $12K/$24K with a $4K ante.

Top 5 Chips:
1 Kevan Casey $2.404M
2 Michael Woo $1.700M
3 Per Ummer $1.603M
4 Steven Simmons $1.153M
5 JC Tran $991K

10:25pm... Recent Elimination: Danny Noam is out in 14th place. Alan Goehring's Q-Q busted his A-Q. Noam won $59,789. And then there were 13 players... and now we're hand-for-hand again.

10:45pm... Still 13 handed. John Gale picked up two pots, one with 10-3o in the little blind when he turned trips.

11:11pm... Nothing exciting to report. Here's a most recent chicpount:

1 Kevan Casey $2.011M
2 Michael Woo $1.8M
3 Per Ummer $1.47M
4 Alan Goehring $1.463M
5 JC Tran $1.4M
6 John Gale $1.37M
7 Michael McClain $1.345M
8 Steven Simmons $660K
9 Daniel Quach $565K
10 Juha Helppi $505K
11 Mark Weidmann $452K
12 David Chiu $430K
13 Ahahit Galajian $320K

11:55pm... Recent Elimination: Good night, Juha... or as they say in Helsinki, "Hyvaa yota." Alan Goehring's Big Slick held up against Juha Helppi's helpless A-J. Helppi won $59,789 for 13th place and misses his chance of making another WPT final table. Alan Gohering springboarded into the chiplead with almost $3.2M.

12:01am... Since Glyph asked, he got it.


JC Tran


Steve Simmons
12:35am... Recent Elimination: Gentleman John Gale is out in 12th place by Daniel Quach. He won $73,075.

12:40am... Prop Bet Update: BJ 1, Pauly 1. It's a push today. I won the final table finish O/U since BJ picked before midnight. And my team of Gale/Helppi lost to BJ's team of Gohering/Gazes.

12:50am... We're bummed in media row that our favorite eye candy is no longer around. When Roy Winston busted, his railbird left with him.


Tao of Poker's Railbird of the Day

12:55am... Recent Elimination: Mark Weidmann was knocked out in 11th place by Per Ummer. Weidmann's K-K lost to A-Q when Ummer flopped an ace. He won $73,075. We're down to 10 and action is complete for the night. We wll be playing down to 6 tomorrow. I know, it's totally retarded but that's how it goes.

End of Day 4 Chipcount:
1 Per Ummer $2.455M
2 Alan Goehring $2.315M
3 Kevan Casey $2.030M
4 Michael Woo $1.665M
5 Daniel Quach $1.425M
6 Steven Simmons $1.270M
7 JC Tran $1.245M
8 Michael McClain $665K
9 Anahit Galajian $480K
10 David Chiu $305K

See ya at 3:30pm on Monday for Day 5. That's it. In the immortal words of James Woods, "I all hope you get anal herpes."

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 3


I'm back at the Commerce Casino for the third day of action of the LA Poker Classic. Lucky for me there was no traffic this afternoon and I arrived on time. I had a late night after playing poker with some friends at the infamous West LA Murder's Row homegame. I took 3rd place in the tournament then got slaughtered in the PLH cash game.

There are 97 players remaining out of the original 693 who started the main event. The buzz today surrounds the progress of the six day event. Everyone is hoping that players can get knocked out as fast as possible in order to get a rare day off on Monday. This happened in the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure Bahamas in January, when a five day tournament only needed four days to complete. That's what the media, crew, and the staff here are hoping for! Weirder things can happen especially in California, so I'm not going to worry about that until tomorrow night. The top 45 players make the money and action always slow down once we get close to the bubble.

Frenchman Fabrcie Soulier is the chipleader with $462K. There are plenty of pros and notable names left in the mix including: JC Tran, Alan Goehring, Mike Carson, Can Kim Hua, Danny Alaei, Jim Bechtel, Jim Miller, Amir Vahedi, Chris Bigler, David Chiu, Rodeen Talebi, Edward Moncada, Ben Roberts, Jeff Rine, Chip Jett, Jason Lester, Matt Matros, Paul Darden, Hasan Habib, Gentleman John Gale, David Plastik, Allen Cunningham, Chip Reese, Bill Gazes, Shawn Sheikhan, Juha Helppi, Blair Rodman, T.J. Cloutier, Gabriel Thaler, Phil Laak, James Woods, and Scotty Nguyen.

Here's who busted out on Day 2: David Benyamine, Bruce Buffer, L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Shannon Elizabeth, Men the Master, Ray Pardley Jr., Brandon Adams, Morgan Machina, David Singer, David "Quackpot" Jones, Gus Hansen, Tony Grand, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, John Myung, Davood Mehrmand, Dan Schmiech, Boston Rob from Survivor, Jen Harman, An Tran, Daid Grey,Harley Hall, Eric Mizrachi, Loi Phan, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Erik Seidel, Dutch Boyd, Barry Greenstien, Minh Ly, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, Dewey Tomko, Mike Matusow, William Rockwell, Capt. Tom Franklin, Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth, Glyn Banks, Gabe Kaplan, Erick Lindgren, Chris Karagulleyan, Keith Sexton, Lyle Berman, Jean-Robert Bellande, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Philippe Rouas, Miami John Cernuto, Eli Elezra, Ralph Perry, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Melissa Hayden, Dustin Wolf, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori are all out.

Today's early questions are:

1. Will we get down to less than 45 players?
2. Can James Woods survive another day as one of the shortstacks?
3. Will I win any money in Olympic prop bets?
4. Can Fabrice Soulier maintain his chiplead?

Stay tuned to find out the answers.

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

3:05pm... I won my first prop of the day during breakfast. I went to Nick's Coffee Shop on Pico with Change100 and we decided to do a prop bet for the tab. She was on her own turf, set the over/under, and even got to choose! And she failed miserably, picking 12:30pm for the time our food would arrive in the crowded joint. It came at 12:46 and she was way off. My four slices of French toast, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and iced tea were all for free.

3:15pm... When I arrived in media row today, James Woods, Mike Matusow, and TJ Cloutier were milling around. Then Spaceman and I got to talk hockey with Steve Rosenbloom. Talk about having a good start to the day. Rosenbloom covered Olympic hockey in Nagano in 1988.

3:25pm... Action will be starting soon. We will be playing six levels or until 45 players remain, which is "the money." Here are the chipcounts:

End of Day 2 Chipcounts:
1 Fabrice Soulier $ 462,000
2 JC Tran $ 426,300
3 Luis Sanchez $ 383,000
4 Alan Goehring $ 368,200
5 Mike Carson $ 343,800
6 Can Kim Hua $ 329,200
7 Danny Alaei $ 317,300
8 Jim Bechtel $ 310,000
9 Stephen Giufre $ 301,200
10 Jim Miller $ 298,000
11 Amir Vahedi $ 297,600
12 Chris Bigler $ 290,800
13 Jose Tavares $ 277,500
14 David Chiu $ 265,800
15 Rodeen Talebi $ 264,400
16 Edward Moncada $ 255,000
17 Ayaz Mahmood $ 234,900
18 Orlando Maldonado $ 217,300
19 Ben Roberts $ 210,200
20 Per Ummer $ 209,700
21 Lin Ho $ 202,600
22 Luis Velador $ 200,000
23 Jeff Rine $ 197,000
24 Daniel Fuhs $ 194,100
25 Brian McCann $ 184,900
26 Chip Jett $ 180,400
27 Jason Lester $ 175,500
28 Julian Hart $ 174,200
29 Matt Matros $ 169,800
30 Paul Darden $ 157,500
31 Ugur Marangoz $ 151,700
32 Kelly Kim $ 150,200
33 Hasan Habib $ 147,400
34 Chuck Doumitt $ 147,000
35 Michael McClain $ 145,300
36 John Gale $ 143,700
37 David Plastik $ 143,500
38 John Villanueva $ 142,500
39 Emil Patel $ 141,400
40 Allen Cunningham $ 140,000
41 Raed Abukartomy $ 138,100
42 Chip Reese $ 134,400
43 Yao "Mike" Shi $ 133,200
44 Jon Luu $ 133,100
45 Daniel Quach $ 132,500
46 Bill Gazes $ 131,500
47 Bruce Parker $ 124,300
48 Shawn Sheikhan $ 124,000
49 Danny Noam $ 124,000
50 Todd Bui $ 123,800
51 Jon Kelley $ 120,200
52 Michael Woo $ 115,200
53 Juha Helppi $ 115,100
54 Blair Rodman $ 113,900
55 Daniel Ahmad $ 112,500
56 Mark Gregorich $ 107,000
57 Francois Safieddine $ 106,800
58 Sean Ly $ 105,700
59 Scott Epstein $ 104,600
60 Tom Macey $ 104,400
61 Steven Chao $ 95,000
62 T.J. Cloutier $ 89,800
63 Roy Winston $ 88,500
64 Pat Kelly $ 87,800
65 David Daneshgar $ 84,800
66 Kevan Carey $ 84,600
67 Gabriel Thaler $ 80,000
68 Sean McCabe $ 79,700
69 Mikael Thuritz $ 77,500
70 Eric "Rizen" Lynch $ 75,500
71 Larry Tull $ 75,300
72 Mark Weldmann $ 72,800
73 Genefredo Legaspi $ 72,100
74 David Domstein $ 72,000
75 Alex Azadpeyma $ 70,700
76 Amir Monsefi $ 70,500
77 Brad Berman $ 69,600
78 Tor Gammelgard $ 69,200
79 Neil Chriss $ 64,300
80 Joe Tushnet $ 62,700
81 Lee Salem $ 58,000
82 Phil Laak $ 58,000
83 James Woods $ 56,200
84 Billy Duarte $ 55,500
85 Adam Spiegelberg $ 53,600
86 Amanda Baker $ 53,600
87 Dong Bai Xu $ 51,200
88 Steven Simmons $ 48,200
89 Don O'Dea $ 42,400
90 Brian Walters $ 41,100
91 Travis Green $ 35,500
92 Sean Quinn $ 34,800
93 Scotty Nguyen $ 30,700
94 Jeffrey Freedman $ 29,100
95 Josh Millet $ 24,700
96 Anahit Galajian $ 21,700
97 Jimmy Manavi $ 20,200

3:36pm... Cards are in the air. We're on Level 13.

3:45pm... I heard that Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen are playing downstairs. Can anyone loan me $250K to sit in that game?

3:55pm... Some early action: John Gale doubled up Sean McCabe when his A-J lost to A-10, while Phil Laak doubled up Josh Millet.

4:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Chip Reese, Emil Patel, Mark Gregorich, Luis Sanchez, Jose Padilla, and Shawn Sheikhan was busted by quad 3s.

4:20pm... Today's smoke break is brought to you by the letter W...

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Chip Jett is out when his 8-8 lost to Q-Q. So is Larry Tull, Guy Calvert, Mikael Thuritz, Amir Monsefi, Lin Ho, and Eric Lynch. Eric Lynch has a poker blog called Rizen Poker. Take a peek.

4:35pm... James Woods doubled up and Alan Goehring won a huge pot when he turned a flush against David Chiu and cracked his aces.

4:38pm... Recent Eliminations: The Unabomber has left the building. Phil Laak's K-K was busted by Matt Matros' A-3. Matros flopped a three and turned trips to send Laak to the rail.

4:45pm... Chris Bigler is now the chipleader with 480K and WSOP bracelet winner Ed Moncada is not far behind. Fabrice Souiler slipped to third.

5:20pm... 76 players remain. Everyone is back from a break and the $100 chips have been colored up. We're on Level 14. Blinds are $1.5K/$3K and $500 antes.

Top 10 Chipcounts:
1 Edward Moncada $575K
2 Kevan Carey $550K
3 Chris Bigler $545K
4 Daniel Alaei $483K
5 Fabrice Soulier $375K
6 Brian McCann $350K
7 Alan Goehring $344K
8 Amir Vahedi $336K
9 Jim Bechtel $330K

5:38pm... Recent Eliminations: Joe Tushnet, Travis Green, Tor Gammelgard, Sean Quinn, Don O'Dea, Pat Kelly, and Amanda Baker are all out.

5:55pm... Scotty Nguyen cracked a set with a straight flush. Alan Goehring is back on top as the chipeader after he doubled up. Jim Betchel slowplayed top pair, top kicker and let Goehring catch trips.

6:00pm... Steve Rosenbloom quote of the day: "Don't stare too long (at players) BJ, otherwise you'd have to make a reservation at Brokeback Mountain."

6:12pm... Recent Eliminations: Blair Rodman is out. As is John Villanueva and Jose Tavares. 66 players remaining.

6:15pm... James Woods Update: With 7-7 Jimmy Boy doubled up. He's still hanging on and trying to squeak into the money.

Top 5 All Time James Woods Flicks:
1. Salvador
2. Diggstown
3. Casino
4. Any Given Sunday
5. True Believer

6:25pm... Prop Bet of the Day: BJ set the O/U for the money bubbled (45 players) at 30 mins after the dinner break. I took the under.

6:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Hasan Habib's 8-7 lost to TJ Cloutier's 9-9. Steven Chao and Scott Epstein are also out. We're down to 63 players.

6:50pm... Recent Eliminations: 58 players left. Sean Ly had his K-K cracked by Kevan Carey's 9-8s when Carey caught a flush. Lee Salem was knocked out by Gentleman John Gale. Michael Rocco is also out.

6:55pm... Players are on a short break.

7:05pm... We're on Level 15 with $2K/4K blinds and a $500 ante. Kevan Carey is the chipleader with 935K.

7:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Chuck Doumitt's K-K was snapped off by Edward Moncada's A-J when Moncada flopped trips Jacks. Mike Shi was busted in a three way pot where Julian Hart tripled up and was issued a ten minute penalty for dropping an F-Bomb.

7:27pm... Boucin Round the Room: Commerce is known for their hotdogs. I finally gave in and ate one. Not too shabby. The far corner of the ballroom is being used for cash games. I considered playing a little Mexican Poker during the dinner break.

7:31pm.... Recent Eliminations: The Truth has left the buiding. Paul Darden was crippled when his A-5 lost to 9-9, then he was busted soon after by Genefredo Legaspi. Josh Millet not only got his aces cracked, he also was bounced from the tournament when Chris Bigler rivered a set. We're down to 54 players. 9 more until the money!

7:50pm... Recent Elimination: Adam Spiegelberg is out. 52 players left.

7:55pm... Recent Eliminations: 50 left after Mark Weldman busted two players with J-9 aka "The Jaxia." Ben Roberts and Sean McCabe were the ones sent to the rail. Billy Duarte is also out.

8:00pm... Players are currently on a 45 minute dinner break. See you at 8:45pm.

Top 10 Chipleaders:
1 Kevan Casey $965K
2 J.C. Tran $713.5K
3 Fabrice Soulier $695.5K
4 Chris Bigler $610K
5 Daniel Alaei $500K
6 Alan Goehring $495K
7 Juha Helppi $460K
8 Julian Hart $425K
9 Jeff Rine $421.5K
10 Michael Woo $415K

Notable Chipcounts:
15 Edward Moncada $325.5K
17 Rodeen Talebi $290K
18 David Chiu $290K
19 James Woods $270K
22 Jim Miller $228K
24 Allen Cunningham $220K
25 Scotty Nguyen $203K
26 John Gale $200K
28 Jason Lester $180K
30 Amir Vahedi $180K
31 Mike Carson $170K
32 Jim Bechtel $170K
34 Brad Berman $148K
40 Bill Gazes $125K
45 T.J. Cloutier $110K
46 David Plastik $100K
47 Matt Matros $90K

8:45pm... Players are back. There is 33 minutes left in this level. Scott from Card Player is making fun of bloggers... "All you do is blog your feelings."

9:08pm... Recent Elimination: Jason Lester was busted by Juha Helppi. There are 49 left and I'm worried that I have only 7 minutes to win my prop bet against BJ. 4 more bust outs must happen by 9:15 otherwise, I lose.

9:14pm... Recent Elimination: Matt Matros is out in 49th place when his Q-10 ran into the Hilton Sisters.

9:16pm... BJ 1, Pauly 0. I lost my prop bet with BJ. Booooooooooo. He offered to let me keep it if I walk up to one of the many attractive railbirds/porn stars and ask them what their stage names are.

9:18pm... 48 left. Players are on a break. The TDs are coloring up the $500 chips.

9:25pm... Welcome to Level 16. Blinds are $3K/6K with $1K antes. 2 from the money. We're hoping to break the money bubble by the middle of this level. We'll be playing three more levels tonight. James Woods is 15th in chips with $330K.

Top 5 Chipcount:
1 Kevan Casey $965K
2 J.C. Tran $800K
3 Juha Helppi $690K
4 Alan Goehring $655K
5 Fabrice Soulier $550K

9:50pm... James Woods whipped the entire ballroom up into a frenzy. With the Hilton Sisters, he doubled up through Fabrice Soulier's Q-J and asked the dealer for "no bad beats." When his hand held up, Woods yelled, "Yes, that's poker!" The railbirds and everyone on the other side of the ballroom playing in cash games all stood up and cheered. Woods ended up standing up on a chair and screaming, "I'm gonna win this thing."

9:53pm... Recent Elimination: Todd Bui's 9-9 lost to A-J and he took 48th place. Ayaz Mahmood took 47th after he was sent to the rail by Orlando Maldonado. We're down to 46 players. Action is hand for hand as we are officially on the money bubble. I know that Otis is excited. He loves the bubble.

9:59pm... Recent Elimination: Fabrcie Soulier, who entered today as the chipleader, was just eliminated in 46th place. He is the "Bubble Boy" or as they say in France... garcon de bulle.

10:00pm... We're in the money and every player almost doubled up their investment. Here's the payout list:

1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,505
19th-27th: $38,849
28th-36th: $26,573
37th-45th: $19,930

10:06pm... James Woods has plenty of fans including Change 100. "If James Woods makes the final table, I'll grab his junk and blow lines with him. I know how much he loves blondes."

10:10pm... Recent Elimination: And that's all she wrote, baby! Scotty Nguyen is out when his A-K lost to John Luu's 9-9. He won $19,930.

10:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Brad Berman and Ugur Marangos are both out. They won $19,930 each. 42 left.

10:33pm... Prop Bet Update: I got another prop bet with BJ. We have until Midnight to settle this bet. I said there will be 34 players and under remaining and BJ has 35 or more left. Say tuned for this outcome.

10:45pm... Alan Goehring sucked out JC Tran on the river and cracked his A-A in the process with Q-J. Goehring rivered a straight. He took down a $670K pot.

10:53pm... Recent Elimination: Orlando "Don't call me Candy" Maldonado is out in 42nd place when his A-Q lost to K-10. He won $19,930.

11:00pm... Level 16 is over. Players are on a ten minute break. 41 left.

11:10pm... We're back from break. Level 17. Blinds are $4K/$8K with a $1K ante. James Woods has $395K ater he ran into K-K with A-J and lost a pot.

Top 10 Chipcounts:
1 Alan Goehring $1.04M
2 Kevan Casey $983K
3 Michael McClain $875K
4 Daniel Quach $710K
5 Jon Luu $687K
6 Juha Helppi $673K
7 Michael Woo $530K
8 Jon Kelley $506K
9 Brian McCann $475K
10 Mike Carson $425K

11:15pm... Recent Elimination: TJ Cloutier is out in 41st place when his pocket cowboys went Brokeback on him. JC Tran turned a set with 8-8. TJ's backers were hoping for a much better showing. Luckily, there are no craps tables at Commerce so TJ's $19,930 winnings are safe... for now. Although, there is always Mexican Poker downstairs.

11:15pm... Recent Elimination: Julian Hart was busted in 40th place by Amir Vahedi. He won $19,930.

11:35pm... Recent Elimination: David Plastik lost a coinflip to Per Ummer. His 10-10 lost to A-K and Plastik finished in 39th place. He won $19,930.

11:44pm... I just spoke to John Gale and he told me he was card dead the entire day. When I said there were still 2.5 hours left, he joked, "I can't take another hour of this!"

11:52pm... Bill Gazes crippled Allen Cunningham, who has less than 60K in chips. Bill then took a pot off of Mike Carson.

11:53pm... Recent Elimination: Gabe Thaler was eliminated in 38th place when he ran into A-A. He won $19,930. Play is hand for hand until the next player is busted.

12:00am... BJ 2, Pauly 0. I lost my second prop bet of the day when only 37 players remain as of Midnight. We have one more going... the final number of players at the end of today! He has 28 and above, and I have 27 and below.

12:15am... Recent Elimination: Ed Moncada is out in 37th place when his A-7 lost to Mike Carson's Q-9. He won $19,930.

Today's Money Winners:
45. Scotty Nguyen $19,930
44. Brad Berman $19,930
43. Ugur Marangos $19,930
42. Orlando Maldanado $19,930
41. TJ Cloutier $19,930
40. Julian Hart $19,930
39. David Plastik $19,930
38. Gabe Thaler $19,930
37. Ed Moncada $19,930

12:30am.... Recent Eliminations: Allen Cunningham (36th) and Jim Bechtel (35th) are both out and won $26,573 each. Cunningham's A-9 lost to David Chiu's A-2 when Chiu flopped trip 2s.

12:40am... Heather from Poker Wire told me that Brian McCann is the chipleader with over 1M after he scooped a pot against Mike Carson. James Woods in 20th in chips with $315K.

Top 5 Chipcounts:
1 Brian McCann $1M
2 Alan Goehring $820K
3 David Chiu $800K
4 Juha Helppi $790K

12:45am... Yes, I've been drinking a lot of water and iced tea and pissing a ton.

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. TJ Cloutier
2. Juha Helppi
3. Humberto Brenes
4. Chip Jett
5. Blair Rodman

12:48am... Recent Eliminations: Mike Carson is out in 34th place after Chris Bigler busted him. Carson won $26,573. Can Kim Hua is out in 33rd. He flopped two pair with A-10, but his opponent flopped a set of Queens. Can Kim Hua won $26,573.

12:50am... 32 left. Players are on a break.

1:00am... Players are back. We're on Level 18, the final level of play for tonight. Blinds are $5K/10K with a $1K ante.

1:18am... Recent Eliminations: Danny Alaei (30th), Jim Miller (31st place), and Amir Vahedi (32nd place) are out. They all won $26,573. Vahedi's 9-9 did not win a race against Per Ummer's A-K.

1:25am... Recent Eliminations: Raed Abukartomy is out 29th place. He won $26,573. 28 players remain and we're hand for hand. James Woods is 18th in chips with $370K.

Top 5 Chipcounts:
1 Brian McCann $940K
2 Alan Goehring $860K
3 David Chiu $820K
4 Jon Kelley $810K
5 Per Ummer $800K

1:55am... Nothing to report. We've been laying hand for hand for a half hour. The railbirds are several people deep. I have 33 minutes left to win my prop bet. One player must bust in order for me to win.

2:05am... Recent Elimination: We're down to 3 tables and 27 players after Jeff Rine was eliminated in 28th place. He won $26,573.

Recent Money Winners:
36. Allen Cunningham $26,573
35. Jim Betchel $26,573
34. Mike Carson $26,573
33. Can Kim Hua $26,573
32. Amir Vahedi $26,573
31. Jim Miller $26,573
30. Danny Alaei $26,573
29. Raed Abukartomy $26,573
28. Jeff Rine $26,573

We're down to 27 players and action is over for today. Play will resume at 3:30pm on Sunday. See you then.

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 2


I'm late to work. Caught in traffic. I spotted two old ladies smoking on a blunt on I-5. I had to do a doubletake to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I'm sure it was medicinal.

Well we're back for action for day two of the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. Alan Goehring ended the first day as the chipleader with $128,375. There are 379 players out of 693 remaining and they are all slugging it out to survive the second day of action. $2.3 million first place prize is on the line along with a seat to the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in April.

Here are some notable bustouts from Day 1: David Williams, Gavin Smith, Shirley Rosario, Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey, Eugene Todd, Bill Edler, Bret Jungblutt, Quinn Do, Ted Forrest, John Duthie, Jen Tilly, Tex Barch, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Tony G, James Van Alstyne, Lee Watkinson, Cyndy Violette, Robert Varkonyi, Steve Zolotow, Amnon Filippi, Todd Brunson, Denis Ethier, Jerri Thomas, Victor Ramdin, Dewey Tomko, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, "My Main Man" Freddy Deeb, David Levi, Anthony Reategui, Jean Gaspard, Barry Shulman, Harry Demetriou, Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Mike Gracz, The Grinder, Oliver Hudson, Ryan Kallberg, Patrik Antonius, Kenna James, Scott Fischman, Dan Alspach, Chau Giang, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, Tuan Le, Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis, Layne Flack, John D'Agostino, Josh Arieh, John Juanda, Mimi Tran, Kristy Gazes, Maria Ho, and Carmel Petresco.

Here are some notable players who survived the Day 1: Alan Goehring, Bill Gazes, Hasan Habib, li Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Edward Moncada, Melissa Hayden, David Daneshgar, T.J. Cloutier, Lyle Berman, Chip Jett, Blair Rodman, Shawn Sheikhan, Dutch Boyd, Amir Vahedi, Chip Reese, Chris Bigler, Young Phan, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, An Tran, Antonio Esfandiari, Scotty Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Minh Ly, Jean Robert Bellande, James Woods, Carl Olson, Huck Seed, Gentleman John Gale, Donnacha O'Dea, Harley Hall, Mike Matusow, Capt. Tom Franklin, Mike Wattel, Miami John Cernuto, William Rockwell, Randy Holland, Juha Helppi, Phil Laak, Jerry Buss, Jason Lester, Peter Costa, Allen Cunningham, John Myung, Matt Matros, Gabe Kaplan, Keith Sexton, Olga Varkonyi, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Brecher, Erik Seidel, Thor Hansen, Gus Hansen, David Singer, Davood Mehrmand, Men the Master, and Joe Awada.

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

3:35pm... Cards were in the air! We're on Level 7. There was a mistake with the end of Day 1 chipcounts. Here are the top 10 counts at the start of today:

1 Alan Goehring $128,375
2 Bill Gazes $123,750
3 Ali Eslami $122,300
4 Brian McCann $119,875
5 Hasan Habib $113,550
6 Abraham Bergis $105,450
7 Jon Luu $102,200
8 Jeff Rine $100,375
9 Albert Alshamn $99,900
10 Eli Elezra $96,300

3:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Frenchman and WPT champion David Benyamine was eliminated when his 5-5 lost to 10-10. Bruce Buffer, the brother of Michael "Let's Ready for Rumble" Buffer was busted.

4:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: There's a weird silence in the room as the remaining players are locked in and focused. You can hear the clatter of chips in the background. Most of the noise is coming from media row which takes up five banquet tables and three poker tables that are being used as desks for everyone.

4:15pm... Recent Eliminations: L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss is out.

4:20pm... It appears that Shannon Elizabeth is a no-show today. Most likely she was caught in traffic as well.

4:30pm... Recent Eliminations: All you can eat baby, as long as it's on the rail. Men the Master has left the building after he was busted by Max Pescatori's A-A. He started the day as one of the shortstacks and doubled up but just got bounced. Ray Pardley Jr. is also out when his 10-10 ran into pocket aces.

4:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Brandon Adams and Morgan machina are both out.

5:00pm... Prop Bet Woes: I'm getting slaughtered gambling on the Olympics. My buddy from Norway pooled his money together with friends of his from Oslo to take me on for random prop bets during the Torino Olympics. mirroring Andy Beal vs. the Corporation, there are 12 Norwegians taking on me and one week into the Olympics, I've been seriously humbled. The US women's curling team took another loss, this time to Sweden. And my sure thing Lindsey Jacobellis fell and took second int he snowboard cross. It's been an unlucky day for me for sure. I might have to go hit the tables to make up some of my losses!

5:05pm... In true Hellmuthian fashion, Shannon Elizabeth arrived 90 minutes late.

5:06pm... Recent Eliminations: I spoke too soon. Shannon Elizabeth has been eliminated by Bill Gazes who turned two pair with A-9. David Singer is also out. He was sent to the rail by David "Quackpot" Jones.

5:25pm... Recent Elimination: Gus Hansen is out when his K-8 rand into K-K. Also out are Tony Grand, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, John Myung, Davood Mehrmand, and Dan Schmiech.

5:30pm... Players just returned from a break. We're on Level 8. Blinds are $400/800 with a $100 ante. I spotted Shannon Elizabeth and Amber from Survivor buying hats out in the hallway.

5:50pm... Alan Goehring now has over 227K. James Woods cracked Hiltons with A-10 when he flopped an ace. There are 31 tables left with about 278 players remaining.

6:00pm... One of my favorite players to sweat is TJ Cloutier. He lost a big pot a few hands earlier when his Q-Q lost to K-K. In the hand I watched, Cloutier moved all in in early position with 7-7. One player in late position called with 9-9 and another called with A-Q. Cloutier flopped a set. By the turn there were four clubs on the board but lucky for Cloutier none of his opponents held a club. He tripled up and is looking good after winning a pot worth almost 50K.

6:05pm... James Woods doubled up with A-A against K-10. He now has over 120K.

6:15pm... Recent Eliminations: Boston Rob from Survivor has been knocked off the island. Jen Harman and An Tran are also out. Tran got busted by Antonio Esfandiari. Daid Grey was knocked out by David Daneshgar.

6:20pm... Steve Rosenbloom from ESPN is here in press row. He's always entertaining and he's the ony real sportswriter here.

"Yo Steve! How come you're not in Torino?"

"I did the last two winter Olympics. I skipped Italy. But shit, if there was a place I could get laid, it would be in Italy. I mean Nagano and Salt Lake City? No chance for action there."

At that point he launched into a rant about the lackluster strip clubs in Utah that he experienced during the 2002 Olympics.

"There's a three feet rule. The strippers have to saty three feet away from you. And they wear pasties over their tits. You're better off going to Hooters."

6:30pm... I have to step away for a while. In the meantime, check Poker Wire for chipcounts and be sure to stop by and read Spaceman's updates over at Bluff.

7:15pm... Random Photo Dump:


Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori getting a massage


TJ Cloutier


Paul "The Truth" Darden


Seidel & Lindgren


William Rockwell
7:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Harley Hall, Eric Mizrachi, Loi Phan, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Erik Seidel, Dutch Boyd, Barry Greenstien, Minh Ly, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, Dewey Tomko, Mike Matusow, William Rockwell, Capt. Tom Franklin, Jim 'Krazy Kanuck' Worth, and Glyn Banks are all out.

8:00pm... Players are on a dinner break. James Woods has over 220K.

9:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Goodbye Mr. Kotter. Gabe Kaplan was busted when his 9-9 lost to Gabe Thaler's 2-2 when a 2 flopped. Erick Lindgren, Chris Karagulleyan, and Keith Sexton are all out.

10:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Lyle Berman and Jean-Robert Bellande are both out.

11:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Minneapolis Jim Meehan was busted by Juha Helppi. Meehan's Q-Q lost to Helppi's 10-10 when he rivered a 10. Also sent to the rail were Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Philippe Rouas, and Miami John Cernuto.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Eli Elezra is out.

12:05am... Alan Goehring is the chipleader with 400K.

12:30am... 131 players left!

2:30am... Recent Eliminations: Ralph Perry, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Melissa Hayden, Dustin Wolf, Antonio Esfandiari, and Max Pescatori are all out.

2:35am... Play is over for today and will resume at 3:30pm on Saturday!

WPT LA Poker Classic - Day 1


I've been in LA for less than two days and I've come to the conclusion that every other person you meet is an actor, writer, or pothead. In some instances, they are all three. You can add poker to that mix. It seems that everyone is playing poker in this town; studio execs, B-list celebrities, frat boys from USC, and wannabe screenwriters who daylight as a valets.

Southern California has always been the poker capital of the world. And if anyone thinks poker is on the decline, they have not been to a LA poker room recently. The rooms are immense, especially here at Commerce. And for the next week, the ballroom upstairs at the Commerce Casino will be the hotspot for all of poker as everyone waits to see who the next WPT champion will be.

Welcome to the coverage of the first day of action at the main event for the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, located just outside of Los Angeles.

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

3:35pm PCT... Cards are in the air. Levels are 90 minutes. Players start wth 20K in chips.

3:40pm... Fellow blogger Ryan from Absinthe Troubles is playing attable 20. He'll be live blogging from the table! So stop by his site to see his progress.

3:45pm... The Poker Geek made a rare appearance in media row. He's here doing podcasts for Full Tilt. He has a new nickname... "Coco." Please refer to him as that in the future.

3:50pm... "We have a brat in the house," said Spaceman as he climbed back into press row. Indeed, Phil Hellmuth is here. Spaceman is covering this event over at Bluff. Take a peek at his photos and updates!

3:55pm... Bouncin Round the Room: A ton of big time pros are here including Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Marco Traniello, Jen Harman, Todd Brunson, Gavin Smith, Steve Brecher, John D'Agostino, Bill "The Stunning One" Edler, Allen Cunningham, Victor Ramdin, Carmel Petresco, Liz Lieu, Gentleman John Gale, Robert Varkonyi, Amir Vahedi, Alan Goehring, and Antonio Esfiandari.

4:00pm... Alan Goehring nearly doubled up when he busted a guy when he rivered a straight flush against his opponent's full boat.

4:10pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I took another quick walk through the crowd and I spotted Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Paul Darden, Al Ardebili, Jen Tilly, Oliver Hudson, Chip Jett, Barry Greenstien, Mel Judah, John Duthie, David Singer, David Williams, David Plastik, Joanne Liu, Jerry Buss, Cyndy Violette, Mike Matusow, The Grinder, "My Main Man" Freddy Deeb, Gus Hansen, Tuan Le, Erik Seidel, Shannon Elizabeth, Men the Master, Kristy Gazes, Amnon Filippi, Lyle Berman, David "The Dragon" Pham, Chris Fargis, Harry Demetriou, and William Rockwell.

4:15pm... Straight Flush sighting: According to the Poker Geek, Gentleman Ben Roberts also hit a straight flush. David Plastik cracked Hung La's A-A with K-K.

4:20pm... Smoke break.

4:40pm... Antonio Esfiandari is down to about 11K in chips.

4:50pm... Prop Bet Bartabs: Gavin Smith and Bill Edler have a running prop bet. Whoever wins the most money in a set month gets his drinks paid for free for the next month. Gavin won January and all his drinks for this month are free. This is the crucial month for Gavin. He's currently down and needs a big score here if he wants to drink for free in March. That's when the Party Poker cruise runs and drinks are super-pricey on the boat.

5:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spotted some more bigtime pros such as Dewey Tomko, Mike Gracz, Boston Rob from Survivor, James Woods, Bill Gazes, Humberto Brenes, Carlos Mortenson, Brett "Blunt" Jungblut, Tony G, David Levi, Huck Seed, Eskimo Clark, Chau Giang, Chris Bigler, Olga Varkonyi, Layne Flack, Kenna James, Jean Robert Bellande, Dutch "Tool" Boyd, Scott Fischman, Jason Lester, Patrik Antonius, Juha Helppi, and Action Dan Harrington. Ooppps, I forgot to mention... Mr. Kotter is in the house. Gabe Kaplan is here. Mike Matisow was spotted down in the lobby taking a nap on a couch as he gets blinded off.

5:01pm... It's official. There are 692 entries in today's event.

5:05pm... Recent Eliminations: Mimi Tran, Kristy Gazes, and Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan are all out. Chan flopped two pair against David Chiu who flopped a se of Kings.

5:10pm... Players are curently on a break. When they return, we'll be on Level 2. I spotted Spaceman chatting with Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori. Also, one of my favorite pros Shirley Rosario aka Poker Babe stopped by media row to chat. She's got about 20K in chips and she's doing well.

5:15pm... Ryan has 19.9K in chips and counting.

5:30pm... In last year's event, won by The Grinder, there were 538 players. This year's number of particpants, 692, broke last year's record. Teh grinder won $1.85M last year. The winner of this year's event wins over $2.3M for first place. That's not a bad payday for five days of work. Here's a list of the total payouts with the top 45 getting paid:

1st: $2,391,550
2nd: $1,162,560
3rd: $571,315
4th: $338,803
5th: $265,728
6th: $199,296
7th: $166,080
8th: $132,864
9th: $99,648
10th-12th: $73,075
13th-15th: $59,789
16th-18th: $46,505
19th-27th: $38,849
28th-36th: $26,573
37th-45th: $19,930

6:00pm... Ryan took a hit according to Spaceman. He's down to 17.3K. David Chui has over $60K in chips.

6:15pm... Recent Elimiantion: Phil Ivey is out when he semi-bluffed with the Hammer and he was sent to the rail.

6:30pm... The Media Boom: With the poker boom, so too comes the media boom trailing behind the tournament circuit in a cloud of dust like Pig Pen, Charlie Brown's unkempt friend from Peanuts cartoons. At the WPT Borgata Open in September of 2005, there were five of us sitting in media row for the final table; Heather & Jen from Pokerwire, BJ from Card Player, one other person and myself. Today there are almost 20 media reps here on the first day. The WPT has 7-8 people covering it for them. Poker Wire added two more to their roster. BJ was replaced by three people at Card Player. At some point, there will be an oversaturation of media coverage of poker tournaments. With the WPT, WSOP, WSOP Cicuit, UPC, and EPT... there are just too mnay tournaments out there. Who's gonna burn out first... the players? The media? Or the readers?

The majority of people are running around in media row like it's the final table of the friggin' WSOP, like chickens on high-powered crystal meth who discovered that their heads have been cut off. The majority of these people are newbies to the tournament reporting world. The veterans like BJ or the Pokerwire girls are casually walking around at a steady pace. It's like soldiers in the field for the first time that hit the deck as soon as they hear the first sounds of incoming artillery file, while the war dogs simply carry on with focusing on the tasks in front of them.

"I gotta remember to bring drugs with me tomorrow," Spaceman joked.

6:52pm... Players are on a break. Shannon "Nadia from American Pie" Elizabeth busted Frank Kassela. She had Q-Q and he had A-K. Her Hiltons held up and she sent Kassela to the rail.

7:00pm... Daniel Negreanu has been moved to Ryan's table.

7:15pm... Power Table: Gabe Kaplan, William Rockwell, Amnon Filippi, Melissa Hayden, and Shirley Rosario are all at the same table. Melissa has 20K in chips. Shirley has 22K. The lovely Carmel Petresco has over 50K in chips. Eli Elizera apears to be the early chipleader.


Melissa Hayden and Shirley Rosario mugging for the camera.
7:30pm... Recent Eliminations: 70 players have been busted including Chris "Triple Draw" Fargis and Layne Flack.

8:00pm... Recent Eliminations: John D'Agostino, Josh Arieh, and John Juanda are both out.

8:05pm... Players are on a 45 minute dinner break. Ryan from Absinthe's Troubles has about 17K in chips.

8:45pm... Players have returned from their dinner break. I saw Young Phan eating icecream. Lyle Berman ate fruit salad. Jen from Pokerwire ate sushi. I expect a few players bust out right away. Usually there are several quick bustouts right after dinner. Either players get drunk during dinner or they decide to make a move. Regardless, there is a spike in eliminations within the first few minutes of the break.

9:00pm... Recent Eliminations: Shirley Rosario has been busted by Melissa Hayden. Shirley's K-K ran into Melissa's A-A. "I almost cried," said Melissa. "I didn't want to bust my table friend." Right now Hayden has over 47K in chips. Shirley felt she played the hand badly, but getting away from K-K is tough. "I'm a pro. I should be able to fold them," Shirley explained.

9:15pm... Recent Eliminations: David Williams and Gavin Smith are out. Looks like he'll be paying for his own drinks on the Party Poker cruise, as well as Bill Edler's.

9:22pm... We're now on Level 4. We will be playing through the completion of Level 6.

9:25pm... My Main Man Freddy Deeb took a hit when his straight flush lost to a higher staright flush. On a board of 6h-7h-8h-9h, Deeb had the 5h while his opponent had the Qh-10h. Too bad there wasn't a bad beat jackpot.

9:30pm... Ghost Tales: There's a ghost here at Commerce who keeps turning out the lights. They went out for a minute while players sat in the dark. A few yelled out asking for the clock to be stopped. The lights eventually came back on.

9:40pm... David Plastik likes the Hilton Sisters. He cracked K-K with them when he caught a set on the river. He has almost 60K in chips. There are about 569 players left on 570 tables. Also, Freddy Deeb doubled through Lyle Berman. Deeb had A-A and Berman had A-Q.

9:45pm... Recent Eliminations: Oliver Hudson is out. He moved all in with A-Q and he ended up losing to quad Jacks! If you don't know, Oliver Hudson got to make out with Katie Holmes in several episodes of Dawson's Creek when he played the townie bartender.

9:50pm... Recent Eliminations: Ryan Kallberg was just busted by Blair Rodman. His K-K lost to Rodman's A-K when Rodman flopped trip aces. This ends one helluva run for Ryan who won Event #1 and cashed in 5 events at the LA Poker Classic. WPT Bellagio Champion Patrik Antonius has been eliminated. Also busted were: Kenna James, Scott Fischman, Dan Alspach, Chau Giang, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, and Tuan Le

10:00pm... Spaceman saw a crazy hand involving Gabe Kaplan, who rivered a guy with K-Q. The guy slammed his fist on the table and stormed off.

10:05pm... Back by popular demand!

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:
1. Jean Gaspard
2. Allen Cunningham
3. John Myung
4. John D'Agsotino
5. Shawn Sheikan

10:20pm... Recent Eliminations: My Main Man Freddy Deeb is out. He was busted bby former hockey pro Greg "FBT" Mueller. Deeb's A9s lost to Mueller's Q-Q.

11:01pm... Recent Eliminations: David Levi, Anthony Reategui, Jean Gaspard, Barry Shulman, and Harry Demetriou.

11:15pm... Players are back from a break.

11:30pm... Recent Eliminations: Robert Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Mike Gracz, and The Grinder are all out. Evelyn Ng's Hilton Sisters were cracked by J-J.

12:01am... Brian McCamm is the chipleader with $90K. Other notable chipcounts:

Eli Elezra $89K
Hassan Habib $88K
Edward Moncada $ 72K
Shawn Sheikhan $ 68K
Lyle Berman $62K
Melissa Hayden $55K
Marco Traniello $50K
Matt Matros $50K
Dutch Boyd $50K
Phil Laak $50K
Bill Gazes $48K
TJ Cloutier $47K
Chris Bigler $46K
Erick Lindgren $46K
John Gale $45K
Mike Matusow $45K
Paul Darden $40K
Jean-Robert Bellande $40K
Blair Rodman $38K
Jen Harman $36K
Chip Jett $36K
Barry Greenstein $34K
Chip Reese $34K
James Woods $34K
Dan Harrington $30K
Huckleberry Seed $28K
William Rockwell $26K
Rod Pardey Jr. $ 25,000
Captain Tom Franklin $25K
Arnold Spee $25K
Gus Hansen $25K
Todd Brunson $24K
Amir Vahedi $24K
David Benyamine $23K
Peter Costa $23K
Greg 'FBT' Mueller $22.5K
Thor Hansen $21K
David Grey $21K
Antonio Esfandiari $21K
Scott Lazar $21K
Steve Brecher $21K
Minneapolis Jim Meehan $21K
Minh Ly $20K
Allen Cunningham $20K
Miami John Cernuto $20K
An Tran $20K
Ted Forrest $19K
Amnon Filippi $18K
Harley Hall $18K
John Myung $17K
Carmel Petresco $15K
Erik Seidel $13K
Daniel Negreanu $13K
Gabe Kaplan $12K
Juha Helppi $11K
Scotty Nguyen $10K
David Singer $10K
Denis Ethier $10K
Jerry Buss $10K
Max Pescatori $9K
Humberto Brenes 9K
Shannon Elizabeth $9K

12:15am... Recent Eliminations: John Duthie, Jen Tilly, Tex Barch, Chad Layne, Martin de Knijff, Tony G, James Van Alstyne, Lee Watkinson, Cyndy Violette, David Wells, and Robert Varkonyi are all out. Once again Olga outlasts her husband.

12:35am... Players are on a break. There are about 449 players left.

1:00am... Recent Eliminations: Steve Zolotow, Amnon Filippi, Todd Brunson, Denis Ethier, Jerri Thomas, Victor Ramdin, and Dewey Tomko. Blogger Peter "Nordberg" Feldman is also out.

1:15am.... How abou a 1:15am picture dump? You can click on the photos to enlarge them.


The Unabomber loves referring to himself in the 3rd person


The always lovely Maria Ho


Gus Hansen charms the new girl from Poker Wire


Action at the LA Poker Classic


Barry Greenstien
1:20am... Time for a smoke break. It's 4:20 on the East Coast!

1:32am... Bill Gazes is on a tear. He flopped quads against Mike Matusow and won a $35K pot. He moved his stack up to 110K. Carmel Petresco has over 70K.

1:35am... Recent Eliminations: Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Eugene Todd, and Bill Edler who ran into Erick Lindgren's A-A.

1:55am... Recent Elimination: Time to fire one up for Gank! Bret Jungblutt was just smoked when his Hilton Sisters were snapped off by Huck Seed's A-K. In the immortal words of Ben Harper, "If you don't like my fire, then don't come around, 'cause I'm gonna burn one down."

2:15am... Recent Eliminations: Quinn Do and Ted Forrest are both gone. Quin Do's A-A were cracked by David Daneshgar's quad 4s. Ted Forrest's 9-9 lost to Mike Godman's A-J.

2:18am... Action has completed for today with 379 players remaining. Day 2 begins at 3:30pm on Friday.

End of Day 1 Chicpounts:

Top 10:
1 Michael Carroll $154,375
2 Alan Goehring $128,375
3 Bill Gazes $123,750
4 Ali Eslami $122,300
5 Brian McCann $119,875
6 Hasan Habib $113,550
7 Abraham Bergis $105,450
8 Jon Luu $102,200
9 Jeff Rine $100,375
10 Albert Alshamn $99,900

Notables:
Eli Elezra 96,300
Erick Lindgren 88,000
Edward Moncada 85,400
Melissa Hayden 75,975
David Daneshgar 69,875
T.J. Cloutier 67,550
Lyle Berman 66,600
Chip Jett 66,250
Blair Rodman 59,450
Shawn Sheikhan 58,500
Dutch Boyd 55,975
Amir Vahedi 52,800
Chip Reese 51,925
Chris Bigler 50,950
Young Phan 50,525
Jennifer Harman50,300
Barry Greenstein 46,975
An Tran 46,750
Antonio Esfandiari 45,750
Scotty Nguyen 44,225
Max Pescatori 42,625
Minh Ly 42,600
Jean Robert Bellande 42,025
James Woods 41,975
Carl Olson 41,750
Huck Seed 40,600
John Gale 40,250
Donnacha O'Dea 33,575
Harley Hall 33,550
Mike Matusow 33,525
Capt. Tom Franklin 33,300
Mike Wattel 32,250
Miami John Cernuto 31,050
William Rockwell 30,600
Randy Holland 30,175
Juha Helppi 28,225
Phil Laak 28,150
Jerry Buss 27,000
Jason Lester 25,800
Peter Costa 25,325
Allen Cunningham 25,250
John Myung 24,225
Matt Matros 24,000
Gabe Kaplan 22,750
Keith Sexton 22,500
Olga Varkonyi 21,300
Minneapolis Jim Meehan 20,100
Shannon Elizabeth 18,250
Steve Brecher 17,925
Erik Seidel 17,450
Thor Hansen 16,525
Gus Hansen 15,800
David Singer 9,975
Davood Mehrmand 7,850
Men the Master 7,800
Joe Awada 4,900