Poker face, a happy birthday, and departures

By Brad "Otis" Willis on July 12, 2005 11:53 PM |

Larry Prugh, Radu Butan, Shane Bartholomew, player departures, and how some of our winners qualified to get here

Larry Prugh is a frustrating subject for photographers. When we're looking for a wide range of emotions to shoot, Prugh just sits there stone-faced, no matter whether he is winning or losing. Of course, what is frustrating for us must be frustrating for his opponents as well. Prugh has one of the best poker faces in the room.




Larry Prugh

Born in Dayton, OH, raised in Phoenix, AZ and now a resident of Michigan, Prugh picked up poker when his shoulder got too bad to play golf. It seems to have been a good move. The retired military man who now works in a civilian capacity for the Army has more than a half million in chips. His mom and dad are sweating him from the rail. The wife is somewhere in a corner, too scared to watch. Or at least that's what Larry's mom says.

Roving correspondent Mad Harper has been wishing birthday greetings (if a bit prematurely) to another PokerStars qualifier.


It's Radu "rbutan" Butan's 28th birthday tomorrow - and he couldn't hope for a better present than making it through to WSOP Day Five. The organisers are hoping to play down to around 100 players by the end of today, which would put at least $65,360 in the Butan coffers - even if he went out in the first hand. When we spoke to him however, he was sitting on some $420,000 - and that was before he raked in another big pot (a fold to his pocket Kings). Originally from Romania, Radu came to London, Ontario as a 12-year-old and now works as a resident doctor specialising in internal medecine. His girlfriend Sinead, smiling sweetly at him from the rails, said: "He's been to Vegas before but the best he's ever done was making the money in a $500 Bellagio tournament."



Radu Butan

The European memebers of Team Blog have become infatuated with PokerStars qualifier Shane Bartholomew. The good looking man from South London is alive and kicking and a fun subject to watch. He is also the the subject of this post's audio blog, courtesy of James Hartigan. Right click here and save to your hard drive to listen to the colorful Londoner.



Shane Bartholomew

If you're looking for players who started the day but have since departed, here are a few: MightyCanes, gator93, MadMonster, hickoryhill, skullchips, scrapper41, and BUNGALOWBILL. For a full list of PokerStars qualifiers who have cashed, check in here.

Finally, if you're curious about how some of our qualifiers made it here, here's an abbreviated list:

bogey54- $160 double shootout
larsenrw- $160 double shootout
smarx- $160 double shootout
Monty3- $160 double shootout
G6Dragon- $615+$35
berka- $33 Rebuy- 1 Rebuy
GKD33- $615+$35
TheKid1948- $160 double shootout
Virus1975- 4000 FPPs
quantum- $27 Rebuy - 2 Rebuys + Add on
TPirahna- $33 Rebuy- 1 Rebuy + Add on
BUNGALOWBILL- $615+$35
area23JC- $615+$35
kmac13- $160 double shootout
steamraise- $160 double shootout
Bob&TomShow- $33 Rebuy- 1 Rebuy + Add on
HouseBlouse- $160 double shootout
skullchips- $160 double shootout
rbutan- $160 double shootout
MightyCanes- $33 Rebuy- No Rebuys
sorerichard- $160 double shootout
Dogger9- 1000 FPPs
ShuMoney- $160 double shootout
pjfff- $160 double shootout
MadMonster- $615+$35
hickoryhill- $160 double shootout
gator93- $160 double shootout
tdrot- $33 Rebuy- No rebuys- 1 Add on
Sugar D- $160 double shootout

That should be enough for now. Back to the floor.



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This page contains a single entry by Brad "Otis" Willis published on July 12, 2005 11:53 PM.

A few words on Brad Kondracki was the previous entry in this blog.

Time to get busy--play by play is the next entry in this blog.

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