July 2006 Archives

They took part in a historic event and they all made it through. And now, like veterans of a war (which they pretty much are), the players of Table 249 are hoping for a reunion here at the WSOP. Dwayne "Barron5" Ronson and the guys from T249 all won seats to the main event in the PokerStars' 150 WSOP Seat Guarantee held on Sunday, July 16th - which just happened to be the biggest satellite in history.

Dwayne "Barron5" Ronson

So for these survivors (a total of 234 won seats), playing against a field of many thousands is nothing new. They have already beat off competition from 7,143 players and given that the WSOP field is only a thousand or so more than that, they probably won't be as phased by the sheer scale of the event as many out there in the Amazon Room. Although actually seeing thousands of other players, rather than sitting happily in front of your computer screen, will be a rather different experience.

So, Dwayne, a 38-year-old supervisor at the OLG casino in Brantford, Ontario, is keen to meet his co-winners and we have a tentative plan - guys, if you're reading this, please come to the PokerStars hospitality suite at 11am on Day 2b (Wednesday) and we'll see if we can hook you all up.

As it is, Dwayne is already $800 up on his trip to Vegas. He played a No Limit tourney at Caesar's a couple of days ago and came 16th out of a field of 360 players. And last year, he came 19th in a $1,000 WSOP event to win $5,000. Dwayne has been playing poker a long time - ever since his dad gave him a deck of cards and rack of chips for his sixth birthday. The entire Ronson family: Dad, Mum, three Aunts, four Uncles and 25 cousins all play poker - and every Sunday night, there is a Ronson home game at someone or other's home. In fact, the only Ronson who doesn't play poker is Dwayne's brother Michael. "He just never got into it", said Dwayne. "He likes to work out. That's his hobby."

And just to remind the Table 249 veterans, the meet-up will be at the PokerStars hospitality suite at 11am, Day 2b.

By Dr. Pauly

Several decades ago, author Hunter S. Thompson set out on a "A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," which ended up being the tagline to his most famous body of work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. By the end of his psychedelic fueled journey, Thompson was crushed to learn that the dream is only a myth. After the rebellious waves of the 1960s crashed somewhere in the Nevada Desert, the bright and glitzy lights of Las Vegas represented the highwater mark as the revolutionary tide rolled back into the Pacific Ocean.

For the last few decades, the eternal flame of the American Dream dulled to a tiny flicker. For millions of lost souls, they found themselves sleepwalking through life, unexcited about the things, places, and people around them. That was until a mild-mannered accountant from Tennessee by the name of Chris Moneymaker became the focal point of the gambling world. By now you know the story. Moneymaker won a seat into the 2003 WSOP via a satellite on PokerStars and parlayed a $33 investment into $2.5 million.

Maybe it's the name "Moneymaker" or simply timing, but Chris Moneymaker is often listed as one of the primary causes of the recent poker boom. It's not so much a boom as a viral infection or an epidemic and if you've walked down the hallways of the Rio Casino here in Las Vegas, you'll see the Moneymaker Effect in full force. Thousands of poker players from the farthest corners of the world have flown into Las Vegas for their shot at fame and glory. Corporations are lining up as official sponsors. Television companies and channels are churning out poker-themed shows. For a while, you'd have to stay up until 3AM to see a poorly edited episode of an old WSOP final table. Today all you have to do is turn on your TV and you'll find a high stakes game, celebrity poker, or multiple episodes of the WSOP.

If you've been playing on PokerStars over the last few years, you also know about the steady growth of players on the site. In 2005, PokerStars online qualifiers represented almost 20% of the overall field. This year, over 1,600 players won their seats on PokerStars, which is almost twice as many people that Moneymaker had to beat out in 2003 for his world championship.

Chris Moneymaker revitalized the American Dream. Underneath the bright lights of downtown Las Vegas, Moneymaker's run at the Horseshoe in May of 2003 captivated an international audience as he busted poker greats such as Phil Ivey and Humberto Brenes. Moneymaker survived an epic heads up battle against local high roller Sammy Farha, which gave poker players at home something that had been absent from their lives for a very long time... hope.

In physical appearance, Moneymaker looks like any guy in your homegame or in your office. He was clad in a PokerStars branded golf shirt and hat and wore sunglasses as he stared down the slick and cool Sammy Farha, clothed in an expensive black dinner jacket and his trademark unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. ESPN's cameras caught one of the greatest bluffs of all time from Moneymaker. It's moments like that which rattled the competitive juices inside everyone who watched.

Moneymaker represented the average Joe Sixpack and he took down a Vegas shark in Farha. Witnessing that epic feat gave other players encouragement to sit down and take a shot. Moneymaker was the snowball that launched the avalanche of televised tournament poker. He passed the torch along to fellow PokerStars player Greg "Fossilman" Raymer who would go onto to win the 2004 WSOP Championship. Not only did Raymer win his seat on PokerStars, he also won the last full World Series of Poker to be held at Binion's Horseshoe.

Raymer stood out from the rest of the pack of players by his unique holographic sunglasses that he'd slide on whenever he was in a hand. He was also one of the more intelligent players in the field and didn't just come out of nowhere. For several years, Raymer was a regular player at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and a frequent player at the tables on PokerStars. The gregarious and fan-friendly Raymer became the perfect ambassador for poker.



While poker's popularity was boiling over in America, the rest of the world started to catch the poker bug. John Duthie launched the European Poker Tour and was astonished at the large numbers of participants all over Europe. For the first time, it was evident that poker was just not an American fad because players from all over the world were just as fascinated and enraptured.

When Joe Hachem came out of nowhere to win the 2005 WSOP, he was thrust into the spotlight. His victory was indicative of the international flavor that the WSOP had attracted. The field of players in the 2005 WSOP represented six continents and several hundred countries. The media room at the WSOP resembled the United Nations with journalists and photographers from different countries. They spoke in their native tongues, although some words were the same such as "flop" and "all in."

In the press conference that kicked off the 2006 WSOP main event, Joe Hachem explained what his victory meant to poker in his native country of Australia.

"When I left Melbourne, there was just one card room. Now there's eight."



The Moneymaker effect eventually reached Australia, with Joe Hachem as the conduit. Over the past year, Hachem gladly accepted the role of poker's international ambassador. Today, he's going to be one of several thousand other dream seekers trying to survive the fist day of action.

The Post-Modern American Dream has been exported around the world as poker experienced a boom on the international scale. Poker is just not for Americans sitting around in kitchens chomping down on stale cigars and sipping cheap whiskey. The second season of the European Poker Tour grew faster than expected. The recent popularity and success of the World Cup of Poker proved that poker will continue to grow. Team Poland won the 2006 WCP dethroning two-time champions Team Costa Rica. And eyes are set on the newest market... Asia.

In the last three years, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem have been the focal point of the poker world. Not only are they members of Team PokerStars and world champions, they have been an integral part of igniting the poker boom. Only a few years ago the American Dream had been flickering on the verge of extinction, now thanks to Moneymaker, Raymer, and Hachem... the dream is a raging inferno.

(All updates just below the photo)

1:15am

The World Champion has busted out yet another player during Level 5, which saw action at the feature table get a lot livelier.

Joe raised under the gun and it was folded around to Seth Entwisle in the big blind. Seth looked down, found AsQs, and re-raised all in for his last $5 000.

"You are joking" said Joe, staring him down.

And that's when Seth got that sinking feeling.

"As soon as I heard him say that, I knew he had kings."

His read was right, though too late. Joe flipped over red Kings and 33 year old Seth was heading back to his organic lawncare business in Springfield, Missouri.

Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, the only woman at the table, has been playing a short stack brilliantly for most of the day. She and William Deadwyler are the only two survivors to start the day on Joe's table.

She's been hitting cards, and hard, in the past hour. She's pushed all in five times during the last level, inducing near hysterics in her son Julian, who's watching in the bleachers.

At one point she tangled with Joe, calling his pre-flop raise. When the flop came 6h 8s Qc, he fired at the pot again, and Allyn called to her son, "any advice?"

As Julian shrugged helplessly Joe answered for him, "Allyn, don't call!"

She didn't.

She's built her stack to more than $30 000 and Julian has stopped hyperventilating.

I was hanging out on the bleachers with William Deadwyler's roomie from George Washington University in DC, and heard the extraordinary tale of how he came to be facing the World Champion across the table.

William and Dustin Beruta, also 21, met in freshman year over poker games in their dorm.

This year they decided to try their luck in Vegas over the summer with no intentions of playing in the WSOP. After a 27 hour driving stint, from Philadelphia to Denver, in May, they collapsed in their room.

William wasn't tired so he logged onto PokerStars and won a satellite to the Main Event.

His energy is flagging but his game is not and he is level pegging with Joe on chips.

Dustin's been promised that if William wins any serious cash, they're going to freight the car home and fly back to school.




10:40pm

Spectators in the bleachers are getting a little restive tonight, or the men are at least. The tv crew has been shooting reaction shots, and that's what we've been seeing on the monitors during Level 4. It makes it hard to follow the table action, but it is fascinating to see the nuances of emotion and decision flickering across the players' faces.

After about fifteen minutes of big close-ups on Joe there was a sigh from behind me.

"My oh my, but the scenery is pretty."

I turned around to agree and met Beverley Hoff. She's part of a Mum cheer squad, barracking for one of the three original players remaining who sat down with Joe at the start of the day.

Beverley plays a girls' home game in Dallas with Linda Johnson, who has come to Vegas with her girlfriends to support her 34 year old banker son, Zach.

And so they should, as the ladies taught Zach to play poker in the first place.

Sadly, Zach busted out a little later, another victim of PokerStars player William Deadwyler who is amassing a monster stack. Zach was all in with AQ against William's pocket 5s, which seem to be the student's lucky hand today. The board came 7 A 5 8 10 giving him a another set of 5s and sending Zach home.

Joe took down a big pot just at the end of Level 4. The under the gun player called, and was followed in by three more limpers.

It was Joe's button.

"I had 84 offsuit"

He raised, closed his eyes, stuck his fingers in his ears and hoped for the best.

He got callers and the flop came 6 6 4. It was checked around to Joe, who bet out again. They all folded and he showed his cards to the table.

Joe has $27 000.

Young William thinks he might have double that amount but wasn't keeping count as he went on his break.

"I still feel sick. I think I'll be nauseous until I bust out or win."




7pm

Joe has been chilling through Level 3, shoes off, feet up, 50 Cent on his iPod.

"I haven't seen any hands this round, I'm not getting involved."

So he's been doing something else he does very well, entertaining the table.

"Everyone's having fun, it's Joe, he's keeping it light" said feature table dealer Jason Bouslaugh, (whose alter ego is dealer floor coordinator).

While he didn't get cards, Joe did get away with a couple of moves to increase his stack by $1 000. He's headed up to his room to relax over the dinner break, with $20 500.

William Deadwyler has taken the table chip lead, with more than $27 500, but his nerves haven't calmed down since the start of play. Didn't the sandwich Joe bought for him help?

"It was nice", he said "but I'm so nervous I could hardly eat it".

William has gone searching the Convention Centre for chicken noodle soup but fears that may still be too much of a challenge for his tender young stomach.

Even so, the Economics Major from George Washington University, who won his seat on PokerStars, has cranked things up a gear in this level, attacking the blinds and winning a huge pot in an all-in showdown. He had pocket 8s against Qh3h, and made a set on the river.

Has he come with any supporters? Perhaps a girl?

"I'm single right now. It sucks. If you could find me a girl that would be sweet."

If he continues to play as well as he has so far, I suspect the girls will come find him.


5.05pm

Joe Hachem has almost doubled his starting stack and went into the last break with $19 500.

There's another new face at the feature table as 24 year old Cody Hutchings, from Turlock, California, has busted out. His QQ was no good against AA on a board of 8 J 4 2 J.

So how did he feel playing against Joe? "Intimidated" he said, before wandering dejectedly from centre stage.

The father in Joe came out during this level. He got up during play and strolled away, I presumed to stretch his legs, given the stampede of leg-stretchers bolting for the nearest facility on every break.

He came back with a bag of sandwiches, tossing one across the table to William Deadwyler.

"The kid said he was hungry. I wanted some gum, and I can't eat while others are hungry, it's a culture thing." (Thanks for the tuna salad Joe. Blogging and breakfast, and for that matter, lunch, don't mix.)

There were a couple of big hands that got Joe's stack up. He called a bet from his right on a flop of 5s 8c Jh, and when his opponent checked the turn, 7h, moved all in.

"But I can't tell you what I had."

A little later a player in middle position made a pre-flop bet of 600, which Joe raised up to 1 600, and got called. The flop came Q J rag, and the other player folded to Joe's bet of 3 500.

He says the complexion of the table hasn't changed despite the new players. William Deadwyler, our PokerStars qualifier from Philadelphia, is used to a little macho head-butting as he's on his University Rugby team. He's the other big stack at the table, and in one hand shortly before the break wanted to know if Joe had him covered.

He does.

2.34pm

Joe Hachem has claimed his first scalp in the closing moments of Level 1 and now has $15 500 in chips.

Joe bet out from early position, got one call and was then raised by the Small Blind. Joe looked at him, smiling, and raised it up again, forcing one player out and sending the original raiser into the tank. 26 year old Nick Voyatzis, from Los Angeles, looked at his cards and remaining $4 700 chips and pushed them all in, getting an instant call.

Joe turns over black Aces and the table sees Nick flip QQ. The flop comes Ace-high and Nick is going home.

Was it any consolation, being busted out by the World Champion?

"No" said Nick. "I feel terrible. Doesn't matter who it was."

Earlier William Deadwyler, the 21 year old who'd only vaguely heard of Joe until he sat down opposite him, took down his first big pot. He flopped a set of 5s against AK on a King-high board. As he gathered in his chips, laughter rippled around the table.

"What was the joke?" I asked Joe going into his break.

"The kid stopped breathing" he replied. "He got called by the tightest guy on the table. Even when he knew he was home he didn't breathe. I reminded him to start again, asked if he wanted a Valium."

Joe, fruit-box in hand, water bottle in the other, then went straight to wife Jeannie, sitting in the bleachers behind him with two of her cousins, Marlene and Samantha.

"It's nerve-wracking" Jeannie said, "I'm chatting to everyone so I don't watch him play. I know he's a big star, but to me he's just my husband. He's my baby."

1:00pm

A 21-year-old PokerStars qualifier was first to find his seat today at Table 155 and looked a bit stunned that it was centre stage, surrounded by cameras and bleachers full of people.

"Do you know who's on your table?" I asked William Deadwyler, from Philadelphia. "No ma'am".

"Joe Hachem" I said. "Oh yeah" replied William, "I heard he was some kind of celebrity."

You could say that. Everyone else looks petrified of the World Champion, who has a touch of Zorro about him today in black clothing and dark shades.

In the first 15 minutes of play Joe had won a pot, stealing the blinds with a pre-flop raise, and lost one when his bets from middle position were called down to the river by the button.

There was a bit of kerfuffle ten minutes later when a player acted out of turn, but the excitement was ended before it really began, by the floor supervisor.

There'd been an empty chair for 40 minutes, and it was a slightly sheepish looking young man who was led eventually to his seat. It didn't appear to me that he was doing a Hellmuth, but rather just got a bit lost when he found the real Table 155 empty.

Joe's taken down a couple more pots with pre-flop raises and generally play is tight, early on.

by Ali Lightman

All eyes are going to be on Joe Hachem today, and he knows it. Not only those of the other 2000-odd nervous contenders praying for an easy table, with Joe not on it, because it's also their first day of the Main Event.

There are some 2 700 who have made it through to Day 2 already, and about 3 300 whose dreams of winning the WSOP are over for this year at least.

There's the throng of supporters who queue as players enter the room, pointing out their favorites then waiting patiently, sometimes for hours, for a spot jamming the rails.

Hundreds of bleary-eyed reporters are camped at the Rio, feeding out the news to millions of poker fans around the world via the mainstream media and blogs like this.

Let's spare a thought for the marketeers poised with baited breath over their budget spreadsheets hoping Joe does, or doesn't, win it again.

And then there's Australia, his home, a nation that bets on two flies crawling up a wall. Poker exploded when Joe defeated 5618 people to win the bracelet, and $7.5 million, with his 7 3. Joe is big box office Downunder.

How did he sleep last night with all that pressure? Soundly, I am sure, with his wife Jeannie by his side and two youngest kids up the hall. The Joe I know will be thinking of his family.

He was doing so yesterday as his younger brother Tony and cousin, Billy, took their chances. Joe stayed in touch with both by phone, giving advice, and commiserating when Billy was knocked out late last night.

The Hachems are a close-knit extended family and it has been tough on them all, coping at home in Melbourne with long separations, as Joe worked far away playing tournaments and being roving ambassador for the WSOP and for PokerStars.

The forty year old has already proved he's no flash in the pan, with two final table finishes already under his belt in preliminary events to this year's big one. He finished 2nd in the $2 500 Short Handed No Limit Hold'Em ($256 800) and 4th in the Pot Limit Hold'Em ($90 482). No other reigning World Champion has done that since Scotty Nguyen eight years ago, when the fields were much, much smaller, and before the emergence of the internet player.

I don't know what it's like to face Joe across the baize. I do know what it's like to sit around the dinner table with him, and his family. We've spent several evenings together during this WSOP and back home in Australia.

He strikes me as a man happiest as the head of his family. Not in a Don Corleone way, waiting for supplicants to kiss him, but as a proud and contented family man who finds joy in simple things, like watching those he loves enjoy themselves.

Joe has found a serenity under pressure, you can see it in his eyes. But that has taken work. He's admitted in the past that, being a native of Lebanon, his blood is at boiling point when he's at rest.

But he will be patient today. That was the advice he gave his brother and cousin. He advised them to play each hand on its merits, and not to get involved in decent-sized pots with marginal hands. Don't be scared to re-raise, he told Billy and Tony, and use your position. Minimise what the hands are going to cost, stay calm, and enjoy it.

You can be sure Joe Hachem wouldn't say that if he didn't believe it, so I guess that will be the World Champion's game plan, today.

[Otis' Note: While Hachem may be the biggest Star of Day 1D, we'll still be keeping an eye on the remainder of our PokerStars qualifiers. Here's a list of the folks we'll be watching today:

612830
07shooter
10inchKen
1106
222much4u
3tomake5
4runner01
Acesupper
actyper
AdenDean
Agg!3
agissilaos
Aikinback
ajfennewald
AJGrogan
Alewyn
Alyeska
anakinso
AndersFriden
andurill
arookie
AsNas
astonwilli
atlantacd
baba13
Babysmooth99
BarFine600
Barman
barnsey
BARNUM413
Barron5
BeaSly79
Bedard
bellababy
Bertus
BetPot
Big_Kimo
BIGTALKER
BJDarter
bjlaz
blu_polanski
bmxreed36
booker4
BorisKarloff
botchman
BreakRibs
brsavage
bzola
Cafeblue
Callaway dds
calluch
camoflge
canalman
Cappy 33
Captain Fink
cardman61
Castor
cattaneo
ccmdsn
chukkieblack
cimoc
cottonbud
crackem
CTRLBREAK
CurtCurt
dafuzball
dagoo
daisy1299
DemonLS
dirkdigler
Ditech27
Don G
don_beppe
dtc1126
EasyEasyEasy
emily24
erbloore
EyeSpecs
F0LD--IT
f0tops
fadycool99
fearNgreed
flashbadger
FlushTheCat
For My Son
forcemajeure
framed.ca
gfabs5
Ghostbrook
gillete
gotaquarter
Gourlay
GrampyBobC
harrymike
highyield6
Honest Terry
hoopjones
IAMCY
iamlucky
Ian J
IceBear55
J. Hard
Jack3-9-95
JackBileDuct
jdeere5220
JJC02
JoeHachem
joel_f531
johnnysr
JOHNYBLUFF
jonspencer
Joseba
KDW^
kev1399
kls834
kotnutz
LeshIsMore
liggy
littlela
loboazul
LUHMAN
macmachine1
Marlowe
matoushek
Matt774
maxxscam
MEJG2
micon
mikef777
MM23
Money800
mortenbs
MrHarley
MrSweets28
needfood
NLarsen
NoMercy
Nordberg
OBJ!
opsco
PATNITROF
pearljam1012
PeterPaaPan
pktpower
PLAYBOY
pt213jek
Ratostrikes
REDFIR
Ribbens
RichieRich21
rjm98
ROCKET416
RODRIGO750
rounder81
rtmiddle
rynosandberg
sammyace101
SAMMYJF
saphaire
scottc25
sherman58
Shipitydoda
shoe45
slammedfire
Slaskmannen
slickrit
Snow Leopard
soulman92
SpecialEd65
spkplyr
StarGlenn
SteelWheel
swish3278
talmond01267
tballs808
TCMONEY16
tcoll17
Teejay6969
thebogieman
ThePokerShow
TheRoll
thestonk
TheWombat
Timetowaste
Tipsy
tironsi
Tommybelize
toolbox2
topfroggy
Toshiwonka
transit
trave
travertine
UB_Bone
utreg
V_Cash
viperbrad
vmheat01
W Snipes
wdeadwyler
weways
Wiz252
XUDavis
yelena
ykurtz
yornitemare
Zorix

WSOP SCOREBOARD (Days 1A, 1B, 1C)

Unofficial starting players in WSOP: 8,778
Players left in the WSOP: Less than 5000
PokerStars qualifiers remaining in the WSOP field: Approximately 1000
Average all WSOP players: $26,073

Note: These chip counts have been compiled to the best of our ability. We have found several instances in which names are spelled much differently on WSOP chip count lists than they are on PokerStars qualifier lists. We have made every effort to find the errors and correct them. If your name has been omitted, please let us know.

Day 1A, 1B, 1C Chip Counts

pelletier daniel $107,850
Jonathan Carlson $106,375
Dario Minieri $103,625
John Ambrust $95,325
Cory Butler $90,250
Brian Hanson $87,025
Matthew Maroon $83,150
Philippe Boucher $82,575
Jeff Banghart $80,775
Dmitri Nobles $79,450
Erik Friberg $77,675
Sean Johnson $73,925
Rob Lederer $69,475
Iago Lopez Gonzalez $68,725
peter falk $67,575
David Barrie $65,200
Jonathan Diamond $64,825
manelic Minaya $64,325
peder behr $63,475
Arnold Blenner $63,400
Russell Davies $61,300
Joseph Stachowiak $60,525
Mark Gilbert $58,400
Erik Gomez $57,775
Andrew Brokos $57,300
Lindell Coker $56,050
Paul Harkleroad $55,675
Lee Thomas $54,425
Mario Rodriguez $53,400
Andreas Villand $52,600
Jesse Martin $52,450
ROBERT SANCHEZ $51,525
Kyle Bowker $51,300
Chris Ellison $51,150
Quan Tran $49,575
Greg Raymer $48,500
Jon Lane $48,100
Ivar Borthen $48,000
Tobias Persson $48,000
Scott Clements $47,825
Paul Parker $47,350
Brian Kooperman $46,625
Rene Mouritsen $46,350
Stephen Garabedian $46,300
sidney hasson $45,625
Stephen Jones $45,400
Stephen Jones $45,400
WILLIAM NORTH $45,250
Paul White $44,450
Nam Le $44,300
Jon Nakatani $43,575
mark handley $43,500
Paul Greim $43,300
scott sweesy $43,075
albert srour $42,875
leonard loder $42,800
JAMES CALDERARO $42,725
Erick Sadler $42,525
David Zeitlin $42,500
David Murray $42,325
Bartholomew Tantillo $42,200
Joseph Cordi $41,800
Timothy McBride $41,625
alan resh $41,500
Mark Donahey $41,475
Craig Schewe $41,250
Ernesto Panno $41,200
larry levine $41,175
frank watkins $40,400
yaron wasserman $40,000
RAYMOND TICSAY $39,850
Jim Osmani $39,750
Ian Baker $39,050
Tom McEvoy $39,025
Matthew Rundell $38,875
Derek Schwerzler $38,800
Jay Lewman $38,450
ken Goldin $38,300
John Ma $38,275
Adrian Pitt $38,250
danny walker $38,150
DARRYL DARE $37,975
Simon Gatty $37,775
Tom Prokopenko $37,750
Dale Philip $37,425
Seth Cohen $37,350
Alan Fidelo $37,350
Alex Brigante $37,075
Mark Owens $36,675
john hutchinson $36,350
Tim Vance $35,925
Viet Tran $35,700
Chris George $35,125
moe parvan $35,050
Neil Butterfield $34,600
David King $34,500
Brian Garelick $34,500
Dov Markowich $34,475
Vaughn Sandman $34,225
Fred Lavassani $34,000
Paul Smith $33,775
Richard LeBleu $33,675
Joel Frank $33,500
christopher wilson $33,425
James Jordan $33,350
Chad Griffith $33,250
Jens Thoren $32,925
Steven Sharp $32,625
Gabriel LEOST $32,450
James Mcleod $32,400
scott deppe $32,300
Andrew Lawlor $32,225
Peter Sun $32,200
mathieu weissmann $32,150
Steven Goodemote $31,950
Matt Baltz $31,350
Supot Chaimungkla $31,325
Lawrence Frye $31,250
Joe Gualtieri $30,875
Glenn Matheson $30,575
steve lustig $30,550
brett hamburger $30,325
Richard Gooding $30,300
Josh Egan $30,125
Brian Baris $30,050
Scott Mighton $30,000
Chris Dow $29,900
Keith Alter $29,450
Brian Gass $29,300
Edwin Spencer $29,050
Vincent Iannuzzi $29,025
Robert Sanders $29,025
Gabriel Andersen $29,000
Darren Brandes $28,850
Justin Truesdell $28,650
Aaron Coulthard $28,475
jeffrey anderson $28,350
Walter Kusiak $28,300
Will Fry $28,250
Wilhel Hardenberg $27,900
Nick Egide $27,800
Jason Morgan $27,800
Morten Sivertsen $27,200
Kelly Contreras $26,875
Jarrod Tavares $26,875
Andy Donovan $26,800
gordon savage $26,800
patrick griffin $26,750
sherry saccamango $26,475
Kyle Finn $26,275
Dylan Dupuls $26,125
Bret Atiyeh $26,075
Ronald Sax $26,000
Adam Barnes $25,900
Ryan Even $25,875
Noah Schwartz $25,850
Raphael Doromal $25,725
John Coito $25,650
Mark Ader $25,350
Rafael Comas $25,350
michael edens $25,300
dan nassif $25,250
Byron Goff $25,250
Todd Nichols $25,075
Dean Johnson $25,050
Craig Hillier $25,000
Kevin Manley $24,850
Kirk Fellows $24,850
Mark Shoichet $24,775
Katja Thater $24,550
Andres Alvarez $24,550
Gary Jones $24,525
jeff littlefield $24,200
david mcbride $24,100
shaun king $23,700
George Magdas $23,550
JIM MORRIS $23,375
christopher abts $23,250
manuel labandeira $22,950
Cesar Giralt-Rivera $22,900
Eric Lynch $22,875
Ken Justin $22,775
Qasim Tiwana $22,725
Mats Nilsson $22,675
Runar Runarsson $22,525
Paul Shoquist $22,500
Jeffrey Mermelstein $22,350
Michael Hasday $22,325
Rick Mombourquette $22,250
Greg Giannokostas $22,025
Jeff Parcher $22,000
Andrew Gunderson $21,950
Lasse Ubostad $21,850
Sam Hiatt $21,700
Alfred Meier $21,650
Dan Heimiller $21,600
Ray Uy $21,550
Shane Fumerton $21,150
Jonathan Rego $21,150
Paul Heathcote $21,100
Kenneth Smarol $21,100
Paul Coles $21,075
patrick joyce $20,725
Aaron Baltzell $20,700
Joshua Bird $20,500
Tom Madruga $20,375
HARRY FITZPATRICK $20,350
Randy Hanley $20,350
Josh Brenner $20,225
Gunnar Rabe $20,050
Armando Munoz-Calero $19,675
Matthias Rohnacher $19,625
Charles Villano $19,550
James Goodman $19,450
ronald nixon $19,450
Leo Wolpert $19,400
Blake Buffington $19,275
Robert Morrow $19,225
Timothy Rausenberger $19,200
steve whitman $19,150
ray ryder $19,100
Christian Foster $19,000
john pires $18,975
Donald Fagan $18,725
Luke Creigh $18,450
gary ringhofer $18,425
Norman Bryan $18,400
Layne Black $18,300
zachary slobin $18,125
Brian Jacobs $18,125
Al Stonum $18,100
sol bergren $17,875
jonathan greenhalgh $17,750
Jason Cunningham $17,500
Bruce Frank $17,450
MARK GARNER $17,450
carlos neira $17,400
Johan Kretz $16,925
Noah Boeken $16,850
Dan Finkleman $16,750
Sunil Padiyar $16,425
Jan Johannessen $16,400
Brian White $16,400
Matthew Kalish $16,050
Marcus Bower $15,875
Gary Broaddus $15,700
wade graham $15,625
Mark Hanna $15,575
Toby Atroshenko $15,550
Patrick Sullivan $15,475
Kristian Ambrosius $15,375
Ryan Vickers $15,250
shawn glines $15,225
Vincent Lin $15,175
Sumit Kumar $15,150
eugene todd $15,100
kevin tanner $15,075
keith danielsen $14,950
James Mouch $14,825
Steve Smith $14,800
Casey Tuepah $14,700
John Duthie $14,675
Jack Wooden $14,675
gus pseekos $14,650
Desmond Chan $14,650
David Creeley $14,600
David Gallello $14,250
Paul Siem $14,250
Steven Dunkelberg $14,175
mark busnardo $14,100
Doug Ednie $14,100
rodney jennings $14,075
Tammy Rocco $13,875
edward atanasio $13,775
Kevin Barcellos $13,700
John Monnette $13,500
Rosendo Perez $13,400
Nath Pizzolatto $13,350
jeff new $13,300
Craig Bunger $13,225
mike marcus $13,200
Derek Feldman $13,200
George Grady $13,100
FREDERIC HEBERT $13,100
Jay Perkins $12,925
Adam Waldbaum $12,800
Tony Petruzzi $12,775
Jon Turner $12,725
david linville $12,675
Ed Latif $12,625
Jared Lissauer $12,175
Luke Chezick $12,150
Penny Clark $12,000
reuben peters $11,800
MARK VECCHIO $11,750
Thomas Bohmer $11,625
Rob Zimmer $11,525
Junhyung Kim $11,450
Brian Chike $11,300
Neil Channing $11,125
Scott Friedman $11,125
paul fury $11,025
Michael Meredith $11,025
Maxim Dolinsky $10,950
ANTHONY RAFTER $10,700
JEFF SLAYTON $10,550
David Penly $10,450
Matthew Glassman $10,400
phil mader $10,375
Wayne Cooper $10,350
Brett Abramovitz $10,275
James Chiara $10,025
Jimmy Dowda $9,950
robert johnson $9,775
Joseph Giudice $9,750
eric miller $9,750
Deric Senne $9,750
Dustin Mele $9,500
Andrew Kent $9,450
Mikael Frisk $9,225
Richard Rashid $9,175
Phil Cooklin $8,900
Elliott Drury $8,900
John Wooton $8,675
Chris Madrid $8,600
mark talis $8,500
dave fox $8,475
Adrienne Rowsome $8,250
Alexander Mitonidis $8,075
Marek Piecha $7,950
gary lundgren $7,950
hans talstad $7,775
Christofer Lindholm $7,775
Stewart Dobbin $7,650
Jeff Sluzinski $7,650
Brian Kent $7,650
Daniel Muncan $7,525
clayton davis $7,450
robert burton $7,425
Brent Fincher $7,325
Roger Dee $7,275
David DiBiasio $7,050
Joe ebanks $6,950
Mark Judycki $6,875
John Michael $6,650
William Liming $6,650
Jeremy Ausmus $6,575
Kyle Tymeson $6,575
harinam khalsa $6,525
Ben Branden $6,275
David Sanbonmatsu $6,225
David Simon $6,225
Sam Stevens $6,025
robert green $6,000
Kyle Rose $5,975
Cameron Warren $5,700
Charles Price $5,175
Jason Lee $5,175
Mark Heintschel $4,550
josh evans $4,350
Sanjay Patel $4,225
Gustav Dahlin $4,200
David Leighton $4,000
James Olson $3,990
Michael Thomas $3,750
HECTOR GARZA $3,650
robert barnard $2,475
David Atrubin $1,125

Raymer Makes Late Run -- Five Billion Hand Freeroller goes big

Five Billion Hand Freeroller goes big

When we met him today, he was a longshot. It's not that we didn't believe. Believing is part of what we do, after all. Still, if we were to put ourselves out as Vegas bookmakers, we might have set some long odds on Arnold Blenner finishing the day. Understand, we do believe. At the same time, we knew that some of the top professionals in the world wouldn't survive Day 1C of the 2006 WSOP. So, how could anyone bet Blenner would finish the day?

We liked Blenner from the beginning. Why? Well, he was happily here on a freeoll. And not just a freeroll. He won a freeroll from a PokerStars.net play money game. As Team Blog's Craig Cunningham wrote in his first report on Arnold Blenner:

Arnold "jwblack100" Blenner was playing one day on PokerStars.net, engrossed in one of his favorites pursuits: Pot-Limit Holdem. He'd built his 1,000 in play money up to 700,000 virtual chips over the span of several months, and he enjoyed the challenges of pot-limit as a way to wind down from a long day as a utility worker in Queens, NY. As he was playing, his table was notified that they had been selected as part of PokerStars' 5 Billionth Hand freeroll tournament. "I thought there would be thousands of people in the tournament, but I say that there were only 238 players with three seats to the Main Event," said Arnold. "When the fourth player was eliminated on the bubble and everyone was congratulating each other, I didn't think it was real. When I got a check for $1,000 from PokerStars for travel expenses, that's when I believed."

That was a breakfast-time conversation. Who knew? Seriously. Who knew that toward the end of the day, Blenner would have nearly three times the average stack in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event? He finished with $38,000. It was a rough hit, but he is still sitting in good shape.


Arnold Blenner, PokerStars Five Billionth Hand Freeroll Winner

To be sure, there would be other stacks bigger than his when the day was over. At the same time, Blenner had beat not only the odds. He had outlasted more than 1000 people in Day 1C.

In the last break of the day, Brenner took time to talk to Team Blog's Craig Cunningham. It's a story you don't want to miss.

Five Billion Hand Freeroller Arnold Blenner Riding High

Raymer makes late run

The day had been one of so little excitement on The Fossilman Front, I had almost forgotten Raymer's storybook run to the final three tables of the 2005 WSOP. I had almost forgotten the excitement of Raymer ending one important day last year with the chip lead. I had almost forgotten the heart-sucking beat he suffered to end his 2005 run.

As the night neared its end, I wandered by Greg Raymer's table. He'd managed to work his stack up from $6,000 to $17,000. While impressive, it was no reason for celebration. He didn't seem at all worried.

As I stood next to him, he kept stealing glance at the rail. There, 20 yards away, his wife stood, looking tired, but determined to sweat her man.

"I'm looking for a chance to go kiss her goodnight," Greg said. "As soon as four people limp into a pot, I'm going over there."

I offered, "I'll go tell her you'll be over as soon as you can."

"Oh, she knows," Greg said. "But what you could do is stand here while I go and yell at me when the dealer starts to shuffle."

"Sure," I said.

I figured it would be a while. Instead, Greg folded under the gun, stood, and headed for the rail.

Suddenly, I felt a little sick. What if everyone folded? What if I couldn't yell loud enough--or soon enough--to get him back? What if he lost his big blind and it was my fault?

I breathed one sigh of relief as a player limped. Then another player limped. My pancreas rose into my throat. I knew what was going to happen.

In came a raise. Panic set in. I was sure everyone else would fold and Greg would be far away. To calm myself, I took a picture of Raymer's stack.



Just as I was about to start screaming, Raymer appeared from nowhere. To be frank, his speed scared me a little bit.

"Hmmph," he said. "Back before the flop. I could've stayed longer."

I wished Greg luck and went away to less pressure-filled duties. I figured Greg would end the day with around $17,000 and have a lot of work to do in Day 2.

Maybe it was that goodnight kiss. Maybe it was the knowledge that he had showed his wife he loved her enough to potentially sacrifice his big blind. Regardless, within the next two hours, Raymer had proved me wrong again. After hitting a lucky card to crack aces, Raymer went on a tear and worked his stack up to around $50,000.

Indeed, we'll all be on Fossilman Front come Day 2.

***

While Blenner and Raymer were our favorite stories of the day, there were tons of great tales that jumped out from Team Blog's coverage.

Comedian Louie Anderson was playing under the PokerStars' flag today. His day had barely started before he was walking around in the hallway outside. He hadn't lost his chips. He's lost control of his mouth. As Dr. Pauly quoted Anderson:

"I didn't think I did anything wrong. I muttered it under my breath and didn't think it was loud enough that anyone heard."

(Read Dr. Pauly's Louie Anderson story here)

After recovering from his early WSOP departure and a bout with a stomach bug, Wil Wheaton came back strong today and turned out some great tales for us today. He started by begging the game of Poker to forgive him and beating himself about the head and shoulders. Why? Well, that's just what Wil does sometimes.

I looked at my calendar and said, "Hey, I just realized that I've been here twenty-one days, today!"

Pauly and Otis looked up at me like the greenhorn I am, before they turned their bloodshot eyes back to their laptops.

"You're looking really great," Pauly said, dryly. "You haven't put on any weight, you don't have that one thousand yard stare . . ." rookie.

After a long day of reflection, Wil rebounded and turned out one of the best stories of the day. Together we met PokerStars qualifier Bret Atiyeh. Alone, Wil wrote, in part...

And that's when I found out that seat three of table forty is Bret "bati99" Atiyeh. Bret is a self-made man who earned enough money to retire at the age of 39. Rather than sit on his pile of money, or have money fights with his friends, or build forts in his living room with stacks of cash[1], Bret turned his attention to poker, a passion he developed over thirty years, since he started playing in home games for baseball cards in the seventies.

Here are all Wil's reports from the day:

Forgive me, Poker, for I have sinned (by Wil Wheaton)
The Frogurt is Also Cursed (by Wil Wheaton)
Meeting bati99, while Fossilman and Pokertrip Build their Stacks (by Wil Wheaton

In my favorite headline of the day, Howard Swains found a young Italian sitting next to one of America's better-known poker-talkers. He titled it:

Minneapolis meets Italia in Rio

Indeed, the stories from the day were many. Team Blog's C.J. Hoyt once again found the tables that were full of PokerStars players. Mad Harper tracked down Barry Greenstein and a host of other qualifiers. Ali Lightman found out the Hachem family has quite a reunion going on here at the Rio. And Max Shapiro discovered there's almost most as much fictional poker going on as the real stuff. If you have some spare time, I'd suggest going back to read all the tales from the day.

A PokerStars Record - Eight Stars at Same Table (by C.J. Hoyt)
The PokerStars Seven? (by C.J. Hoyt)
Barry Greenstein on TV (by Mad Harper)
Michael Matthews (by Mad Harper)
Mike "mman status" Meredith (by Dr Pauly)
Bobby Paine (by Craig Cunningham)
European Day at the WSOP (by Howard Swains)
You go your way, I'll go mine (by Howard Swains)
Tony Hachem and Rosa Bennett (by Ali Lightman)
Max Shapiro Goes to the Movies

Tomorrow (okay, today) we will shove aside the silly rumors and believe that Day 1D is, in fact, the final day of Day 1 play. By the time the event starts at noon, we will have finally seen all of the more than 8,600 players competing in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Perhaps the biggest news heading into Monday will be 2005 WSOP champion's Joe Hachem's entrance into the room. Ali Lightman will be on the case all day Monday and will be tracking Hachem's play all day long.

Once again, congratulations to Arnold Blenner for taking his freeroll entry into Day 2 of the WSOP.

by Craig Cunningham

Arnold "jwblack100" Blenner started his day in the PokerStars suite, casually eating breakfast from the hot spread provided for PokerStars qualifiers. The story of how he got to the Main Event is incredible, and what he's done once he sat down has been truly amazing. Arnold built 1,000 play money chips into 700,000 virtual chips, enough to play his beloved Pot Limit Holdem at any play money table on PokerStars.net. A table he was playing on was selected for a 5 Billionth Hand freeroll, and he finished in the top three to win his seat at the Main Event. Read more of his story leading up to his first hand on Sunday.

By 1:00AM, Arnold had become Arnie. He sacrificed his twenty minute break after Level 4 to relax and talk about the day. He had cause to feel fairly comfortable, with his $80k stack of yellow, pink, and black chips. "It's been great, just great to play today," said Arnie. "I was pretty overwhelmed walking in and seeing people like Raymer and Daniel Negreanu. Once we started playing, I realized these were all regular guys like me."

Arnold Blenner, PokerStars Five Billionth Hand Freeroll Winner

New Yorkers are known for their fast chatter honed after generations of living in the rat race of city life. Arnie's accent is unmistakable, but his tone and manner is one that pulls you closer to him. He's not a guy who will talk your ear off; his is a conversation that is effortless, approachable, and above all humble. "I'm just plodding along. With my chip stack, everything I do at the table is magnified. I'm trying not to get too crazy, where every hand starts looking good. I'm not pushing that much, and when I do make a play, I get alot of respect. I'm taking a little bit here and there and not putting a lot in. A lot of folding."

Arnie talked about two key hands that were important for his stack as well as his knowledge. In the first hand, he held A-Jo and his opponent had pocket kings. He caught his straight vs. a set of kings, but he bet small to try and elicit an all-in move by his opponent. Arnie was just called. "I thought he had aces and would lay it down. If I'd known he had kings, I would have moved all-in." Later, he played Ah-2h on a board of 4h-5h-5-3. This time, Arnie put the player all-in and was called by 8-8. An 8 fell on the river, giving life to his opponent with his full house. "If I'd moved in on the first hand, the second hand wouldn't have happened. He's not here anymore, so that's fine now."

The day hasn't been without difficulties, but they've been more away from the table than at it. Arnie is diabetic and has to monitor his blood sugar as well as regularly inject himself with insulin. "I couldn't find a place to take my meds, but I felt that my blood sugar was up," explained Arnie. "I can't do it in the bathroom, so I had to search around until I found a place near the PokerStars suite. We play a home game, five or six guys and the game is limit, but low limit. I tend to stay sharp mentally while I may get tired physically, but I tend to scoop everything at the end of the night. The guys say, 'Look out, Arnie's had his insulin!'"

There are two stacks now at Table 52 that are significant to Arnie. Jon Greene from Wisconsin has been in the 6s the whole day, and his stack has grown to $50k. Johan Wemmenhag from Sweden hads $62k, and has shown signs of aggression. "I read a book on tells before I came along with Super System, but my game is still a work in progress. One problem is I've always played limit live, and always for small stakes." When you walk by Arnie, his face never changes, always serious and focused. In the recesses of his mind lies his dream: to get deep at the Main Event. With his back immediately to railbirds, he can't see what is becoming apparent: more and more railbirds are looking over his shoulder and sharing his dream. That legion will grow here as well as on PokerStars as he continues through the tournament.

UPDATE: At 3:40AM, the room was empty with all of the dealers stuffing sealed bags of chips into a larger bag for each table. The dealer at the table reported him at $38,300 after searching for his chip bag. Arnie's dream enters Phase II as he's made it to the second day of the Main Event.

by Craig Cunningham

By night, Table 168 is devoted to the lucrative NLHE cash games that go on at the Rio. It is a big part of the World Series of Poker experience, and spectators can become players for alot less than the $10k buy-in required to enter the Main Event. By day, this table was devoted to six PokerStars qualifers. John Rickard (1s, left) is from Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. When the glaciers retreated to form what is now Wisconsin, the land left behind formed chunky hills and depressions in the land. Kettle moraine is the geological term, and the cliffettes are quite distinctive. John was hoping to avoid any big spikes today, and he held fairly steady for much of the day. Tim Reynolds (2s, center) had doubled up early and looked to be a force.

David Rood, (2nd from left, Yankees cap) aligns himself with the Yankees since the Expos left his native Montreal. Unfortunately for David, he departed before the dinner break. FPP qualifier Raphael Doromal is a student at the University of Florida, majoring in Sociology. He doesn't miss the winters of Chicago, and the scenery can be pretty good on campus, too.

Arnaud Turpin from Paris survived something every poker player who's played for awhile has experienced: aces losing to kings. "He caught a king on the river for a set, and it knocked me down to $2,700 in chips." Arnaud had enough chips to keep playing, which can be the difference for those surviving Day 1. You want to have chips to weather the storm; without that, a bad beat can send you to the rail.

FPP Qualifier Jim Scherer checked out the iPod of Lynette Chan, an aspiring cash game player who's relocated to Las Vegas from LA this year. "I don't have much," said Jim. "I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in two years. If I make it the end of the day, I'm going to do something to my hair. If I make it to Day 4, I'll have some work done on my teeth." You can't help pull for someone like Jim, and we passed in the hall after the 11:00PM dinner break. Looks like I may need to set an appointment at the salon for him.

by C.J. Hoyt

For some people, it's hard enough to play in your first ever World Series of Poker Main Event. In fact, even if you have played in this before, you may still run into something you've never faced before.

Television cameras.

Playing at the final table is one thing, but playing out amongst the masses usually provides some degree of anonimity. For a few PokerStars qualifiers, they have no such luxury.

Vince "vinny_vegas1" Martignetti and Jules Sin found themselves just a few seats away from the newest inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame, T.J. Cloutier. He's kind of a big deal.

Jules Sim found out first-hand what it's like to run into one of the true greats. In the first hour of play, he found himself with a pocket pair of Aces. He put in a healthy raise, only to be called by T.J.

"I would have pushed all in if he came over the top of me," Jules said.

The flop came down J-high, with two hearts. Jules bet and T.J. called again. The turn was a Jack of hearts and this slowed both players down. When the river was yet another heart, Jules knew he was in trouble with his two black Aces. Jules checked and called a small river bet from T.J. who showed pocket Q's, including the Queen of hearts. It was the second time T.J. cracked Aces in the first hour of play.

Cory Zeidman and Halldor Mar Sverrisson ("casinoice") have spent most of their tournament with a boom mic inches above their head. That's because television-favorite Jen Harman was sitting right beside them.

This isn't the first time Cory has tangled with Jen Harman in front of the cameras. You may remember last year when Jen suffered one of the most brutal beats when Cory nailed his one-outer to a straight flush on the river. It was the hand that crippled her and sent her to the rail shortly thereafter.



Of course, if Cory had his way, he'd have sent her to the rail again. After coming back from a break, Cory looked down at pocket J's on the first hand. He raised it up to 1000 and was immediately raised by Jen Harman who pushed all in for her final 1375. Cory called, saying softly, "Jacks." Jen sighed and flipped over her pair of Jacks, too. She was clearly disappointed in the chop, but I'm guessing Cory was, too.

Finally, Scott "10avefrezout" Wanzer has gotten up close and personal with "The Unabomber," Phil Laak, who's sitting to his left.

"He was all the way down to 2500," Scott told me, "but he just tripled up to 7500. Now he's got chips to play with again."

by Wil Wheaton

I've had a rough day. Between beating myself up over my dismal play in the WSOP, and some questionable food last night, I've felt sick to my stomach for 48 hours, and I was very close to calling it an early night about an hour ago.

Just before I was going to leave, Otis passed me in the hallway, and we walked around the Rio for a few minutes, then went outside to commiserate about missing our wives and children.

"I'm going to walk the floor and get some check on our players," Otis said.

"I think I'll come with you," I said, "and peek in at Greg while we're out there."

We traded the ninety-four degrees of hot pavement in front of the poker kitchen for the quiet din of the tournament room, and noticed that they are still running satellites for Main Event entries. The cash games, while on fewer tables, are still taking up at least a quarter of the room though many tables are empty. (I note this because I thought that the entire room had been transitioned over to Main Event tournament play. Oops.)

On our way down the rail, as we got dangerously close to table 20 and my post traumatic stress disorder that was certain to ensue, we hung a quick right at table 40, where a couple of PokerStars players were seated.

One of the players looked up at us, and said, "Hey! Are you guys with the PokerStars blog?"

"Yes, sir, we are," Otis said.

"When are you going to come by and put us on it?" He said.

I don't know about Otis, but even though I know lots of people are reading our work, all the six digit stats in the world pale in comparison to the one guy who sees us walking past his table, and interrupts his play because what we do matters to him.

Otis pulled out his notepad and said, "I'll put your information on the blog the next time we update it, if you give it to me right now."

"Really?!" He said.

"Absolutely," Otis said.

And that's when I found out that seat three of table forty is Bret "bati99" Atiyeh. Bret is a self-made man who earned enough money to retire at the age of 39. Rather than sit on his pile of money, or have money fights with his friends, or build forts in his living room with stacks of cash[1], Bret turned his attention to poker, a passion he developed over thirty years, since he started playing in home games for baseball cards in the seventies. Our crack commando research staff (CJ) found out that Bret played at Annie Duke's table last year, and busted late on day one when QQ failed to hold up for him. In fact, ladies were his undoing in the 2005 WSOP. According to Bret, he could bluff everyone at his table except Annie, who called him every time.

Tonight, Bret has 23350 chips, which he counted out for us between hands. As a bonus for you, dear readers, I can report that we saw his stack dip from 23375 when he kicked in his ante. (Now that is some real-time action reporting, folks! Ding!)

Bret's table mate asked to remain anonymous, and Otis and I honored Mr. Hughes' request[2].

A few more tables into the room, we found ourselves next to Greg. He appeared to have more chips than his current count online, but he was in a hand -- cool fossilman glasses on and everything -- when we walked up, so we left him alone and continued to prowl the floor.

A few steps later, I saw that Greg's wife, Cheryl, was standing by the rail with her sister, so I zagged when Otis zigged, and walked over to talk with them.

"It looks like Greg has about 7500 or so," I said.

"He just texted me a few minutes ago," Cheryl said, "and he's up just over ten thousand."

"Oh? That's great!" I said. "I'm supposed to be covering him today, but I don't want to get too close while he's playing."

"Oh, you should just go over and talk with him. He likes you and it wouldn't bother him at all."

I didn't tell her that I'm convinced that if I walk too close to Greg, one of his opponents will pull an Aaron Kanter on him because I happened to be there. This is an entirely rational thought.

"I think I'll stay out of his way for the rest of the day," I said.

"Oh! Greg just won a pot," Cheryl's sister said.

I turned around, and Greg was raking some chips toward him. Table 36 is five or six tables in from the rail, near the center of its quadrant in the Amazon room, though, so I couldn't get even a rough estimate of the pot.

Greg looked up and smiled at his wife, who smiled back and waved. I've been around these two a few times since I joined Team PokerStars last year, and I don't think I'm revealing any big secrets when I tell you that they love each other. A lot. It's very cool.

Greg flashed a thumbs up, and went back to playing. I noticed, as I looked back at him, that an ESPN camera crew was hovering around him, and I wondered if that added any pressure to him when he got involved in a hand.

"He likes being on TV," Cheryl said, "I think it relaxes him to play while people are watching."

Aside: It seems counterintuitive, I know, but it makes sense. Greg likes to beat the hell out of his opponents and nobody wants to look stupid on TV. He can severely test people and they'll often fold a lot of hands to him, because they don't want to get caught with middle pair on a scary flop. Like all the top pros, Greg's game goes way beyond the cards.

The tournament director's voice filled the room, announcing that spectators needed to clear out, in advance of the players taking an end-of-level break.

"Are you guys going to meet up during the break?" I said.

"Not unless I can give him something to eat or drink," she said. "I just want him to be able to get up, relax, and make it to and from the bathroom if he needs to."

Now, I almost didn't report that last bit, but it's humanizing information: even the mightiest of champions need to see a man about a mule from time to time, and they are at the mercy of the break schedules as much as the rest of us.

She waved at Greg, and they made "I love you" motions at each other. Greg seemed really happy and relaxed, and I could see how proud of him she was. Even though my wife just got on a plane back to Los Angeles at seven this morning, I missed her as fiercely as ever in that moment.

The security goons began sweeping out the room, and I walked with Cheryl, her sister and her sister's husband, until we got to the intersection of Main Street and Wil Wheaton Kicks Ass Drive. They went down WWKAD, and continued down Main toward the hallway and media room, glancing at tables my whole way.

When I got to table 153, I saw Jon "pokertrip" Friedberg in seat 2, facing the rail.

His hands obscured his chipstack, but I noticed that he was wearing his bracelet, which made me very happy.

I watched a couple of hands, holding security at bay with my press badge, and Jon looked up and saw me. He smiled and waved, and I waved back. I looked at his chips and made the international face for "how many chips do you have? I don't want to walk over the rail and bother you while you're playing, and the stupid media rules prohibit me from explicitly asking you. Besides, you probably know and can just hold up a few fingers for me and make everyone happy while keeping us on the right side of the rules." This motion was accomplished by cocking my head to the right, and arching my left eyebrow. Yes, we actors can convey a lot in the most subtle of motions.

He held up his two index fingers, indicating eleven thousand. His huge smile indicated that he was very happy to have that stack in front of him.

I nodded my head, and wrote the information he shared with me in my notebook as the tournament director came over the loud speakers and shouted, "annnndddd GO! GO! GO! GO! Players, you are on a break for twenty minutes."

The players began to file out in a huge wave. I surfed it out of the tournament area, and into the media room.

For the last 48 hours, I've felt like a complete failure, and I really haven't liked it. After walking the floor with Otis, seeing Greg, talking with Cheryl and checking up on Jon, I feel like a writer again. I don't believe it's a coincidence that I don't feel like throwing up for the first time since Friday, either.

The next time I think about picking up a deck of cards and some chips, I think I'll reach for my notebook and pen, instead.

[1] Bret's post-retirement activities are exaggerated for comedic effect and to meet our self-imposed minimum of once gratuitous Simpsons reference a day.

[2]The player in seat four was not, in fact, Howard Hughes. Thank you for visiting Footnote Comedy Theatre.

by Ali Lightman

** 12:00 am **

Billy Sukkar just went out. It was a clash of the blinds. Billy, in the small blind had 22 and the big blind 10 10.

They both flopped a set.

Rosa Bennett was down to 9k and feeling frustrated after being moved 3 times in Level 4, and again just minutes into Level 5. She had lost two massive pots. "I just can't get a read on the table, moving all the time."

Tony Hachem had dropped down to 7.5k but is back up to 11k after taking down two consecutive pots with pre-flop raises.



Joe Hachem's mobile phone will be beeping about now with an incoming text message.

"I've got 27k, cuz!" it reads.

It's from cousin Billy, 31, who along with Joe's younger brother Tony sat down to play in his first WSOP Main Event today.

The two men are seated too far apart even to wave, and have been anxious for news of each other every time I check in with them.

They went into a huddle together on their break a few minutes ago, Tony frustrated with swings in his stack tonight. He'd just lost 12k on the last hand before the break, when he'd been holding KhQh and the flop came 7 T J with two hearts. He had plenty of outs but none of them came, and his opponent called him down to the river, to take the pot with QJo.

So, Tony is back down to 10k but ready to start grinding again.

Whenever they can, given Joe's hectic schedule, the men sit down with friends for a home game in Melbourne. Sit and go's at the kitchen table and on PokerStars are where they've both honed the skills that have got them through the first four levels of play.

Billy entered his first tournament this year, the Aussie Millions, and everyone sat up and noticed when he finished in 27th place. In his second tournament, the Melbourne Championships, he finished 22nd.

Joe had a few words with Tony about survival through this round, so has he been staying in touch with Billy today too?

"Yeah" he said. "He's been talking to me. But I play my own game, I rely on my own instincts" he said, before they headed back in to tackle Level 5.

by Howard Swains

Approximately nine of every ten articles written about poker in the mainstream press includes the word "boom". I know, because I am responsible for a number of them myself and am familiar with the tortuous struggle to find sufficiently incendiary word to explain what's gone on in the past five years. "Explosion", "eruption" and "boom". That's about it.

The evidence is easier to come by - and is right outside the door, right now. Not only are more than 8,000 players anxious to part with $10,000 to play a game of cards, but there is a poker exhibition at the Rio where there is enough free crap on offer from heavily branded dollies to fill the Grand Canyon. Twice.

However, while these are the obvious markers that bear witness to this, erm, boom, everyone who played the game during the pre-Moneymaker era has their own stories to tell from back in the day when a full house meant no more than simply folding out the sofa-bed in the spare room.

For me, I realised something was up when I first began hearing tales of success on the wider poker scene of players I had not only seen in the flesh but actually crossed swords with around the low-stakes tables. I usually lost (that much is given), but I have vivid memories of hearing that the chancers who frequented the same pub basements or South London kitchens as myself were now fully accepted as "poker players".

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I used to play poker in small clubs in London with Dan Samson, David Flusfeder and Akshay Kumar, all of whom are now mixing it in the World Series of Poker, having qualified on PokerStars. We heard all about Akshay yesterday, but today we have both Dan and David, lost somewhere in the melee that is the day one dinner break; the usual ambling railbirds tripping over a swarm of players desperate to reach the buffet queue.

David spent the first few hours sitting to the right of John Gale, whose freshly acquired WSOP bracelet is dazzling from his left wrist. "You know, he also won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2005," I told David. "Yes. Thank you. I get the point," he replied. But something Gale hasn't got that David has is the Avery Cardoza trophy, won at a hard-fought tournament in London a couple of years ago - and never given back. It now sits proudly in the Flusfeder bathroom as a defiant challenge to anyone brave enough to join his home game and take a leak.

Samson is equally tough. Known as "The Muscle", he has had 16 cashes in major tournaments over the past three years, all worthy of note on the major poker databases. He has made Luton, north London, his tournament venue of choice, but made the money in the Caribbean this year and has plenty of pedigree to go deep here.

Chip counts and progress reports will be here when we know them, brought to you by the person who sat around those tables once but was forced to admit: "I make more money writing about poker than playing it." "Wow, you must be a really bad player," came the retort.

They're not wrong.

by C.J. Hoyt

It's impossible to miss Table 163, and it didn't take the players long to notice either. PokerStars just about owns the table. Starting in Seat 1, it's Mike Jaeckels, in Seat 2 it's David Pendleton, then Samy "bebert004" Boulheouchat and Philippe "philledingue" Boucher in Seats 3 and 4, followed by Henric Strath in Seat 5 and finally Kevin "nobbyhayes" Hayes and Lon "lbfresh" Balter in Seats 6 and 7.

Mike and David have something in common besides qualifying for the Main Event on PokerStars. They both learned to play poker from their grandparents.

Mike already has his post-victory interview planned out, "I would want to go on the tonight show... Leno is so much better. He would ask me what the hell I was doing going all in with 7-2 offsuit and making my fullhouse to win the tournament. I would just tell him that I knew the cards were coming."

David has a bit more serious outlook on the tournament, "I have Crohn's disease and would love more research to be done on curing that disease. So if I were to win, I would put some money towards that cause." David's not too worry about the pros or the spotlights this time around, because he's used to it now. Last year in the Main Event, he busted on the first day at the featured table to Daniel Negreanu.

Samy has been an online poker player for two years, and this tournament will be a new experience for him. It's the first time he'll be playing live. Up to this point, he's only gotten experience playing online tourneys on PokerStars.

Lon's no stranger to competition. Not only does he have 10 years of poker playing experience, but he's a regular competitor elswhere, "I played several sports growing up and went to a Division 1 college on a baseball scholarship. I think it's this competitivness built inside of me that gives me the hunger to win in poker."

And so far today, there's been a lot of competition amongst our PokerStars players, but the good news is, they're all still alive. We'll see if the PokerStars Seven makes it as long as the PokerStars Five!

by Dr. Pauly

Comedian Louie Anderson participated in today's flight for PokerStars. Early on, the host of Family Fued found himself in a little hot water after he was issued a ten minute penalty for foul language. Louie Anderson fell victim to the controversial "F-bomb rule," where any player that uses the dirty word will be given a ten minute penalty.

"I didn't think I did anything wrong," Louie explained to me. "I muttered it under my breath and didn't think it was loud enough that anyone heard."

Actually the dealer heard Louie's F-bomb and called the floor over.

"You got to be f----- kidding me," Louie said in retort.

The floor person sent Louie to the rail for ten minutes. He took that incident seriously and realized that he needed to focus more at the tables.

"I can't believe I'm still in the World Series of Poker," he said.

Louie built his stack up to $12.5K after he took an early hit. He doubled up with 7-7 when he turned a full house when his opponent made a straight.

Louie is a definitely hit with the fans and spectators at the Rio. He's been stopped for numerous photo and autograph requests and has been always accomodating.

* * * * *

Barry Greenstein signed copies of his book Ace on the River for fans at the Poker Stars booth in the Poker Lifestyle and Gaming Expo.

In other Team PokerStars news, two former world champions played on Day 1C including Greg Raymer and Tom McEvoy.

Raymer had an up and down day. He was down to $3K for a while until he went on a run and had around $15K by dinner break. He eventually doubled up with Ad-10d against a fellow who had an open-ended straight flush draw. Raymer's opponent missed all of his outs while he turned two pair.

McEvoy caught some lady luck when he doubled up with a short stack. He cracked pocket aces with K-K.

Chris Bigler slowly added to his stack over the afternoon up to $20K, then took a hit a slipped down to under $10K.

by Howard Swains

The organisational secrets of the PokerStars blog team are not especially difficult to comprehend. Each member of our small army is allocated a particular trait to pursue: a European accent, an embroidered "Team PokerStars" shirt, a SuperNova qualification, or a huge stack of chips. We keep an eye open, grab the story, then file it back to Papa Smurf in the media room, who refines it for your delectation.

Sometimes - and it happens more often than you might think - a certain player ticks more than one box and finds himself the eye of a PokerStars blog storm. What happens when a European SuperNova builds a sizeable early stack in flight C? Ask Dario Minieri, from Italy, who is such a man and has earned both myself and CJ's attention this afternoon.

Minieri is sitting one to the left of "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan. It's unknown whether Dario and the charasmatic Meehan are exhanging much in the way of anecdote, but there is a certain flow of chips in Minieri's direction. The suave, young Italian has more than 36,000. Meehan does not.

Minieri has form in live events, having cashed in March at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo for just more than $20,000. But that probably represents little more than change for anyone who has progressed to SuperNova status. Minieri may look small and young, but the gold bracelets and rings give some idea of his true standing.

It's a neat contrast to the Western fashions of Minneapolis Jim - and a table near enough to the railbirds have already found their afternoon's prey.

by Wil Wheaton

It's really hard to get close to the tables on the tournament floor, so I haven't been able to follow Greg and Tom as closely as I could in earlier events. According to the Intertubes, Tom has 4100 and Greg has 15200. It's been an up and down day for Greg, who really needs a pile of chips to play his aggressive game and beat the crap out of his opponents, and a pretty standard day for Tom, who is more steady and methodical, and doesn't take too many risks early on. If the cards come his way, he'll have chips, otherwise, he waits to pick his spots.

Without the ability to even get close to them on their breaks, I've been left adrift today, in search of a story. Of course, I found one, and as usual, Barry Greenstein was responsible.

I found myself in the expo, which is much more crowded today than it was last time I was in there on Friday. Like all trade shows, there are the obligatory booth babes, the thumping music and the piles of giveaways that will end up under the passenger seat and stolen by a car wash guy months from now. The difference between the relative tranquility where players are competing for their share of over eighty-six million dollars, and the chaos where online poker rooms, magazines, T-shirt vendors and others are competing for their share of a billion dollar industry was striking. With so much at stake, it's remarkable to me that anyone can be calm in any of the rooms here.

Aside: I've just found out that there's a monkey playing poker in the expo right now. Apparently, some genius tried to enter the monkey into the Main Event, and they were -- wait for it -- denied. Shocking. I'm not going to go back in there and watch for two reasons: as far as I am concerned, there is only one monkey who plays poker and, as one of my colleagues here just said, "Why play a monkey? If you win, so what; you beat a monkey. But if you lose? Dude, you lost to a monkey."
I saw my friend Chris on my way in.

"How are you doing?" He said.

"The same," I said.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Barry Greenstein is signing his book in the PokerStars booth, though, so you should go see him and get one."

I thought that was a great idea. If you haven't read Barry's book, and you have any intention of playing poker seriously or for a living, you must. If you enjoy poker and would like to see the most beautiful poker book in the history of life, you must pick up Ace on the River. If you are the kind of person who does what a blogger tells you to do, then you must send me a dollar, then pick up Barry's book.

I made my way to the PokerStars booth, just as Barry was finishing up his signing. In fact, I was the last in line.

I sat down and Barry asked me how our team players were doing.

I said, "I think you're the only member who is already through to day two, and Greg and Tom are in today."

"How are they doing?" He said.

I told him.

"Greg really needs to get chips to play his game," Barry said, "so I'm not surprised that he's up and down."

Barry picked up one of his books, and opened it up. Before I could say, "It's Wil with one 'L,'" he put pen to paper and began to write.

"This guy is a great writer," he said to the photographer, a pretty twenty-something blond girl who blushed and said, "can I have my picture with you when you're done? I had a huge crush on you when I was a teenager."

"Of course," I said. "It will be my pleasure."

Barry finished signing my book, and we posed for a picture. Then I stood up and posed for a picture with the photographer before I headed out of the booth and back onto the expo floor.

I made it about three booths away before the curiosity took over, and I opened up Barry's book. Inside the front cover it said,

Wil,

Thanks for all the great write-ups.

Barry Greenstein

I'm having a copy of Just A Geek sent out here, so I can write back:

Barry,

Thank you for all the great stories, and for spelling my name correctly.

Wil

The players are on the first half of a staggered break, so I'll see if I can grab a word with Greg or Tom before they head back into their tables.

Although he only started playing poker three years ago, Niclas Lundqvist, 34, from Stockholm is already made a pretty good living from it - not so much from winning at cards (although he's no slouch at the tables) but from the poker consultancy he has set up running poker events for businesses.

Niclas sussed out early on that many of the skills you need in order to be good at poker are also highly useful in business life - negotiating, reading your opponents and so forth. Scandinavian companies naturally jumped at the chance to include poker as part of their staff development strategies (hey, who wouldn't!) and now www.pokerevent.se is running up to five events a day.

The father-of-one (he and his wife expect their second child at Christmas) qualified for this year's WSOP in a PS $160 double shoot out. He also qualified on PS for last season's EPT in Barcelona but after ten hours' hard grafting experienced a horrible bad beat involving Q9 which he still finds hard to talk about.

Update:Niclas lasted seven hours into the WSOP but took a fatal hit when his set of 3s were trounced by a lucky straight.

Update as of 2:00am, Level 6

(selected chip counts are approximate and not official)

John Carlson $106,375
John Armbrust $86,000
Dmitri "dinodapro" Nobles $82,000
Brian Hansen $76,000
Jeff Banghart $73,000
ElkY $65,000
Dario Minieri $62,300
Lindell "bulld0g4life" Coker $60,000
Dan Heimiller $57,000
Manelic Minaya $55,000
Lee Thomas $54,000
Phillippe "philledingue" Boucher $53,000
Iago Gonzalez $52,500
Greg Raymer $50,000
Larry Levin $46,000
Mike "mman_status" Meredith $45,000
Andrew Lawlor $43,000
Brett "bigbrains" Hamburger $43,000
Kyle Bowker $39,000
Michael Laufer $38,000
Arnold Blenner $38,000
Bret "BATI99" Atiyeh $31,000
Gunnar Rabe $30,000
Tom McEvoy $22,500
Spencer Cosette $14,700

Update as of 12:15pm, Level 5

John Armbrust $82,000
Andrew Blenner $70,000
Phillippe "philledingue" Boucher $68,000
John Carlson $56,000
Dan Heimiller $54,000
Dario Minieri $51,000
Iago Gonzalez $50,500
Brian Hansen $50,000
Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen $48,000
Larry Levin $40,000
Manelic Minaya $40,000
Andrew Lawlor $39,000
Kyle Bowker $37,500
Lennie Duvdivani $35,000
Jeff "mrrain" Banghart $33,000
Ryan Even $31,500
Gunnar Rabe $31,000
Bret "BATI99" Atiyeh $27,000
Michael "mman_status" Meredith $24,000
David Nguyen $20,000
Tom McEvoy $19,500
Scott Byron $19,000
Greg Raymer $17,000
Tony Hachem $9,000
Rosa Bennett $7,000
Louie Anderson $5,000

Update as of 10:01pm

Arnold Blenner $60,000
John Carlson $59,000
Phillippe "philledingue" Boucher $57,000
Dario Minieri $55,000
Iago Gonzalez $54,000
Kyle Bowker $40,000
ElkY $38,000
David Nguyen $33,000
Michael "mman_status" Meredith $31,000
Dan Heimiller $30,000
Bret "BATI99" Atiyeh $23,350
Nam Le $22,000
Paul Heathcote $22,000
Danny Kaesser $20,000
Tony Hachem $16,000
Patrick Knight $16,000
Tom McEvoy $15,000
Scott Byron $12,000
Rosa Bennett $12,000
Jon "pokertrip" Friedberg $11,000
Greg Raymer $10,000
Louie Anderson $6,000

Update as of 6:03pm

Dario Minieri $49,200
John Carlson $37,000
ElkY $34,000
Jason Cunningham $33,550
Desmand Portano $30,000
John Cunningham $30,000
Kyle Bowker $29,000
Dmitri "dinodapro" Nobels $28,000
Jeff Banghart $27,600
Andrew "alaw911" Lawlor $27,000
John Armbrust $25,000
Vaughn Sandman $25,000
David Nguyen $25,000
"Lenny" $25,000
Iago Gonzalez $24,000
Andrew "gunduwarrior" $24,000
Gustav Dahlin $23,000
Chris Bigler $21,000
Bobby Paine $20,500
Manelic Minaya $20,000
Jonas "3moany" Ovestad $20,000
Arnold "jwblack100" Blenner $20,000 (5 Billionth hand freeroll)
Jeff "csonka39111" Eggenburg $19,000
Michael "mman_status" Meredith $18,500
Mike Jaeckles $18,000
Tony Hachem $17,500
Joe Sarausad $17,500
Steve Dunkleberg $17,500
Daniel Simpson $17,000
Brett "bigbrains" Hamburger $16,000
Greg "fossilman" Raymer $15,200
Philippe Boucher $15,000
Neil Channing $14,500
Nam Le $14,000
Louie Anderson $12,500
Serge "adanthar" Radushkevich $12,500
Peter Vu $12,000
Jorge Arias $11,000
Scott Byron $10,500
Lon "lbfresh" Balter $10,000
Spencer "scossett" Cossette $8,000
Mike "kidfrmtenn" Halford $7,100
Trish "DrewM" Forrestall $6,500
Tom McEvoy $4,100
Chuck "pokerhands" Agnew $5,000
Ash Hussain $4,650

Just logging on? Check out the links below the picture for all the coverage so far from Day 1C of the World Series of Poker.

PokerStars Qualifiers Updates

Main Event Day 1C Begins

Five Billionth Hand Freeroll winner takes a seat (by Craig Cunningham)

A PokerStars Record - Eight Stars at Same Table (by C.J. Hoyt)

Minneapolis meets Italia in Rio (by Howard Swains)

Meeting bati99, while Fossilman and Pokertrip Build their Stacks (by Wil Wheaton

The PokerStars Seven? (by C.J. Hoyt)

Team PokerStars and big name coverage

Forgive me, Poker, for I have sinned (by Wil Wheaton)

Barry Greenstein on TV (by Mad Harper)

The Frogurt is Also Cursed (by Wil Wheaton)

Louie Anderson's F-Bomb Penalty (by Dr. Pauly)

Player Profiles

Michael Matthews (by Mad Harper)

Mike "mman status" Meredith (by Dr Pauly)

Bobby Paine (by Craig Cunningham)

European Coverage

European Day at the WSOP (by Howard Swains)

You go your way, I'll go mine (by Howard Swains)

Aussie Coverage

Tony Hachem and Rosa Bennett (by Ali Lightman)

Max Shapiro Reports

Max Shapiro Goes to the Movies

by Mad Harper

Back in 2003, Canadian Michael Mathews was living in Vegas as a Sprint installation contractor. A keen card player - "I play everything", he said - he entered a $1,000 satellite at Binions for a seat in the WSOP. After many hours grinding at the tables, it was down to the last three.



Michael said: "Me and this other guy get the third guy out and then the remaining player asks me if I want to split it. But the dealer says we can't - at which point, the guy we've just busted offers to buy the seat off us for $9,600. So we sell it to him and split the money.

"I thought I'd be able to win another seat fairly soon but I've never actually managed it. So I was pretty pleased to win a seat in the PS satellite. It's great to be here." At the last count, Michael was holding steady on around $13,000.

by Ali Lightman

**9:45pm**

Rosa Bennett's table was the happiest I saw on my last lap of the room. Even though she's taking their money she's making them laugh.

And she has reason to be cheerful. Australia's Poker Princess went into the break having made a beautiful read on one of her opponents.

Rosa had bet 700 with KJ in early position, and it was folded around to the big blind, who re-raised, making it 1500 to go. Rosa flat called him.

The flop came T J 6, and Rosa fired 2600 at the pot. The big blind thinks and thinks, so Rosa gives him the tip "Ace Queen is no good".

He looks down at his cards and, as he throws them into the muck in disgust, flashes the cards to the rail revealing that he is in fact holding AQ.
He might think twice before tangling with her again.

Tony Hachem seems have slipped under the radar of the other players at his table, as he hoped, and they're yet to find out he's the younger brother of resigning WSOP Champion, Joe. He's just lost a sizeable pot and is down to 16k, but is remembering Joe's advice not to get involved in big pots with marginal hands, and to be patient.

Meanwhile Joe and Tony's cousin, Billy, is progressing steadily, and has 22k.

allways look, a member of Team PokerStars from New Zealand who tells me he is a "slightly talented amateur" is on 15.5k.

**update** 6:15pm

We've lost one from Team PokerStars New Zealand. 26 year old sales consultant, Shaun Gray, from Auckland, just went all in for his last 2k with AQ and was called by KT, but as Shaun said, he was getting the cards but not hitting the flops. KT did. He had a ball and is in no hurry to leave as his buddy from home, allways look, another member of Team Pokerstars NZ, is still in and sitting on 16k.

And it's a family affair for the Hachem's today. As well as Joe's brother Tony Hachem, their young cousin Billy Sukkar is playing. Both are holding their own, Billy has 12.5k and Tony's stack has risen steadily to just more than 15k.

And Rosa has been up and down a bit but she has 10k and is still smiling.


If your big brother was the reigning WSOP Champion, would you want your opponents at the table to know?

Not a chance.

"None of them know who I am" whispered Tony Hachem, early in Level 1 of play today. And that's the way the 33 year old from Melbourne wants to keep it.

Tony has a game plan, hatched with Joe, and he wants to act on it without other players taking shots at him, simply because of his name.

"I just want to feel the table for the first couple of hours, and stay above par. If they're aggressive, I'll stay behind the aggressor, and if they're tight I'll start attacking the table."



Tony woke up at four am today and went for a walk, where he bumped into a group of exhausted Aussies who'd just survived Day 1B. He knows it's going to be a long hard slog.

"We're talking about 14 hours of play" he said. "I'm a runner, so I look at this as a marathon. I'm going to pace myself, and I'm going to enjoy it."

"Joe told me to play each hand on its merits, minimise what it costs me, and stay patient."

Also playing today is the girl they call "Poker Princess" back home, (although I have also heard her described as Rosa "The Destroyer" Bennett, and said it myself when she booted me out of a Ladies Event.)

27 year old Rosa, the only female member of Team PokerStars Australia, learned to play poker during a holiday in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, and hasn't looked back.



She carves up the cash tables at her home poker room in Melbourne, and every now and then thinks about quitting her job in fashion retail, to turn pro.

She reckons she's made Aud $50 000 in the short time she's been playing, and that being female is a distinct advantage.

It's also an advantage being a woman journalist, because I can ask the questions men simply can't.

She knew I wasn't hitting on her when I asked her today if being a gorgeous looking woman is an advantage at the table. She looked me in the eye and said "yes. As a girl, they think I'm tight. I've raised 4 times already and only got one caller. They think I only play good cards. They have no idea I can bluff."

And the move she just made will reinforce any view they may have that Rosa plays tight.

She just won two out of three consecutive hands, with pre-flop raises. The last time she was on the button.

"You must be so sick of me stealing your blinds" she giggled to the men on her left. "But I've always got a hand" she said, flipping her cards to show the table KQo.

When you stop in the middle of the room and spin around, you'll be amazed at just how many PokerStars qualifiers you'll see. In fact, today we set a new record. Eight of the 10 players at Table 161 are all PokerStars qualifiers. I kinda feel sorry about the other two guys.

You may remember the last time I wrote about Table 161. It was Day 1A and the PokerStars Five were in seats three through seven. In fact, James "Chelse16" Goodman (FPP Qualifier), England's Matt Tailby and Nate "Jimmytogni" Kelley all survived to the 2nd day.

Here's who we're watching: Jonas "3moany" Ovestad, Serge "adanthar" Radushkevich, John "johnnyv5000" Vellios, Spencer "scossett" Cossette, Brett "bigbrains" Hamburger, Chuck "pokerhands" Agnew, Jeff "csonka39111" Eggenburg, and Todd "Todzila" Thomas.

Brett Hamburger


Jonas Ovestad


Spencer Cosette


Todd Thomas

Serge started playing poker with the boom a few years ago, but it didn't take him long to find success. His biggest cash is $112,000 after winning the Poker Stars Sunday Million. He put himself through law school playing poker and now works at a non-profit immigration firm. Even if things don't go well today, it's been a very successful month for Serge. He got married on the 22nd and this is his honeymoon.

John's been playing seriously over the past five years, learning on PokerStars and, he says, "hanging out in some places I shouldn't have when I was 16." Last year, he played in the $3000 NL Event but was knocked out when his pocket Kings ran lost to pocket 7's. For John this tournament isn't just about the cash prize, "In the end though, money is just money. It comes and it goes, I'm going out there to play for a bracelet."

There's a good chance Spencer and Brett have faced each other online. After all, they're both Supernova members of the PokerStars VIP Club. You don't reach that status without having a lot of success (and a lot of time on your hands). And if you have played with Brett, maybe you've faced his father Jim "downtheline" Hamburger, who's had plenty of online success himself.

Chuck wasn't sure he was ever going to play poker again. A heart attack put him in the hospital. But when he moved home to recover, he got back online and won his seat on PokerStars. He's been playing and dealing for more than 30 years. Two years ago he cashed in 82nd in the Main Event.

Todd has a really important reason to win. He's the father of twin 5-year olds who were both born with Muscular Dystrophy. When he wins the big prize, he plans to give $1 million each to two charities that have helped his family, the Scottish Rite Foundation and the MDA Foundation.

This group of PokerStars qualifiers is hoping for at least as much success as Day 1A's Table 161. In fact, they all plan on being part of a record number of PokerStars players at the final table.

by Dr Pauly

I had the opportunity to chat with another PokerStars qualifier at breakfast this morning. Michael "mman_status" Meredith is a recent college graduate from the University of Maryland. He currently lives in Hoboken, NJ.

Pauly: How did you win your seat into the WSOP?

Mike: I played about twenty double-shootouts and invested something like $3,000 to win my seat. I finally got in that way. I won a seat at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure last year. It took me only three attempts. I assumed that winning a seat to the WSOP main event would be a piece of cake. It wasn't. I didn't think I was going to win my seat, but I finally did.

Pauly: How did you do at the PCA?

Mike: I played super tight, which is not my game. I didn't make the money, but I survived about half the field. I had pocket Queens and even flopped a set but I was up against A-K of spades. There were two spades on the flop and he pushed all in. Of course he got there and I was busted. I had a great time and the majority of the field were PokerStars players.

Pauly: Is this your first time in Las Vegas?

Mike: I went to Vegas last year for the first time and didn't play much poker. This trip isn't all about poker for me. I'm taking time out to do other things. I'm here with friends and they aren't really into poker as much as me. I'm the only serious poker player out of all of them.

Pauly: Is this your first WSOP?

Mike: Yes, this is my first WSOP. Aside from the PCA, I haven't played in too many big tournaments.

Pauly: What's your tournament experience like?

Mike: I usually play the $300 MTT at the Taj Mahal. That's where I first started playing at in Atlantic City. My first live tournament was at the Tropicana and I made the final table. In my second ever live tournament, I played at the Taj and won it all. Playing live is OK, but I love PokerStars. I'm always playing tournaments there, especially the Sunday Million Guaranteed.

Pauly: What's your game plan today?

Mike: To see a lot of flops early since we have a big stack. Aside from that I'm just going to play my game and not get scared like I did at the PCA. I played way to tight and I'm not going to clam up today.

Pauly: Do you have a catch phrase or a motto?

Mike: "One Time!!"

Pauly: Any closing thoughts or comments?

Mike: Is the monkey playing today? Has he played yet?

Pauly: No way. They didn't let him play this year. According to Nolan Dalla, they will never allow a monkey in the World Series of Poker.

by Craig Cunningham

Bobby Paine is a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. Jeannie Hawkinson is a back-up singer with Bobby's band, International Country Underground. They've travelled to Las Vegas after he won a double shootout to win his seat to the Main Event. "I've been learning, watching a little," said Jeannie. She's here to support Bobby in his quest to hopefully join fellow singer Marcel Luske at the final table of the Main Event. I asked him what his plans were for today. "Win, man. Do whatever it takes. Just move and groove with the chips. I came here to play."

After finding him at Table 80 3s, I asked him how the first level was going. "This guy next to me caught a flush to take a pot from me, but I'm still doing well." He had taken a couple of pot through bold betting early on, playing to his own tune. Bobby's table lacks any big names, so he's hoping that his gameplan will hold up. He's a bit outgoing, a born entertainer and ready to play any role he needs to get through a hand. He's playing without fear, and why not?

When he finishes for the day, whether he busts out or bags his chips around 3:00 Monday morning, he'll have a song in his head and kisses on his lips. That should keep him going for a long time.

Every day during the WSOP, selected stars from the world of poker and beyond are making their way down to the corner of Harmon and Polaris, a couple of blocks from the Rio, to take part in PokerStars.com Vegas Daily, a TV show presented by "Shut Up and Deal" author Jesse May and sponsored by PokerStars.

So far Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer have already taken a spin on the red sofa, and others due to appear include British snooker champion Steve Davis, heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, European Poker Tour founder John Duthie and Padraig Parkinson.

But today it was the turn of Team PokerStars' Barry Greenstein. Barry was a superb guest on the show - the word sagacity could have been invented for his measured attitude both towards poker and the lifestyle of a pro player. But he's also highly entertaining, keeping me scribbling furiously throughout his interview.

Barry on TV