August 2006 Archives

It's hard to find a place where you can earn nearly a quarter of a million bucks for ten hours work. The PokerStars Sunday Million has gotten that big. After fighting through a field of nearly 2,500 players, ocrowe won this week's Sunday Million outright, taking home $218,250! Don't miss your chance to play in poker's biggest weekly tournament. Satellites are already running for next Sunday's event. Here are this week's final table results.

PokerStars Sunday Million Results

1. ocrowe (Halifax, NS, Canada) $218,250.00
2. FoxyLisa (Stockholm, Sweden) $131,556.25
3. uwhat (Telford, United Kingdom) $76,630.00
4. kuparinen (Osthammar, Sweden) $63,656.25
5. Pokerturk (Oldenburg, Germany) $52,137.50
6. dbo336 (Alliance, OH) $40,618.75
7. tony1967 (Marietta, GA) $30,312.50
8. Mr. Ruger (Marstons Mills, MA) $23,037.50
9. Dethlefsen (Odense, Denmark) $13,943.75

Ready for a full weekend at PokerStars? Check out some of the events going on in the next few days.

August 26th

13:30 -- GoldStar VIP Freeroll $5,000 prize pool
14:00 -- PlatinumStar VIP Freeroll $7,500 prize pool
14:00 -- EPT Online Monte Carlo Grand Final (One package added!)
14:30 -- Supernova VIP Freeroll $20,000 prize pool (pays 99 places)
15:00 -- PokerStars VIP Club $100,000 freeroll
15:30 -- SilverStar VIP Freeroll $2,500 prize pool

16:00: (NEW!) 200 FPP buy-in limit holdem tournament $2,500 prize pool

August 27th

16:30 -- The Sunday Million -- $1 million guaranteed prize pool
18:00 -- The Sunday Grand -- 50 FPP buy in No Limit Holdem Tournament $1000 Prize pool

Aston Martin Racing finished third and fourth in GT1 in the Generac 500 American Le Mans Series race at Road America, Sunday, August 20. The end result is a disappointment for the team who looked like they were in contention for their third win of the season.

The team made a promising start, Stephane Sarrazin pulled away cleanly to retain first place in GT1 in the 009 DBR9 and teammate Darren Turner raced from third to second in the 007 DBR9.

Turner lost second place on lap 12 and Sarrazin suffered a huge set back on lap 13 when the number two Audi made contact and the 009 car spun into the gravel trap at turn 12.

A full course yellow was called and officials towed the 009 DBR9 out of the gravel. The 007 car took the opportunity to pit and after an exceptional pit stop by the 007 crew, Turner rejoined the race in first place in GT1.

Sarrazin pitted and rejoined the race three laps down on the GT1 leader. He remained in the car until a second safety car on lap 29 when he pitted again to hand over to co-driver Pedro Lamy. Lamy ran well until he suffered a puncture on lap 55 and returned to the pits - Sarrazin taking to the wheel of 009 for the remainder of the race.

Turner completed two stints in the 007 DBR9 handing the car over to Tomas Enge a little before the two-hour mark. Enge left the pits in third place and a third safety car period ensued shortly afterwards. When the green flag dropped, Enge overtook for second place at turn five only to endure the heartbreak of a front left puncture minutes later. The ensuing pit stop dropped Enge back down to third with just over 10 minutes of the race remaining. Teammate Sarrazin crossed the line in fourth, five laps down.

The team are hoping for better luck when they return to the US for round eight of the American Le Mans Series, the Grand Prix of Mosport at Mosport International Raceway. The race starts at 3pm Eastern Time on Sunday, September 3. SPEED Channel will broadcast the race live and the www.americanlemans.com website will feature live coverage from American Le Mans Radio and will also feature live timing and scoring.

It was a record-breaking day for the PokerStars Sunday Million. Nearly 6,000 people showed up to play in poker's biggest weekly tournament. With nearly $1.2 million in the prize pool, the competition was fierce. By the time players reached the final table, they were all guaranteed a five-figure payday. A four-way deal gave the top four players a huge amount of cash, including more than $150,000 to the eventual winner, CardXFactor. Here are the final table results.

PokerStars Sunday Million Results
(based on finishing order and four-way deal that left $20,000 for first place)

1. CardXFactor (Stockton, CA) $158,889.00
2. N00Z (Helsingor, Denmark) $72,997.00
3. BigDaddy007 (Escondido, CA) $68,032.00
4. SBRounder (Los Altos, CA) $75,000.00
5. pkrooster (Thunder Bay, ON, Canada) $36,710.20
6. cherson.27 (London, ON, Canada) $29,605.0
7. CoronaC-Note (California) $23,091.90
8. vaike (Tallinn, Estonia) $17,170.90
9. guayana14 (Caracas, Venezuela) $10,657.80

Ready for a full weekend at PokerStars? Check out some of the events going on in the next few days.

August 19th

13:30 -- GoldStar VIP Freeroll $5,000 prize pool
14:00 -- PlatinumStar VIP Freeroll $7,500 prize pool
14:00 -- EPT Online Barcelona Open (One package added!)
14:30 -- Supernova VIP Freeroll $18,000 prize pool (pays 99 places)
15:30 -- SilverStar VIP Freeroll $2,500 prize pool

16:00: (NEW!) 50 FPP buy-in limit holdem tournament $1000 prize pool


August 20th

14:00 -- EPT Online European Poker Tour London (One package added!)
16:30 -- The Sunday Million -- $1 million guaranteed prize pool
18:00 -- The Sunday Grand -- 50 FPP buy in No Limit Holdem Tournament $1000 Prize pool

With all the talk about the World Series of Poker, an upcoming online poker festival has sneaked under the radar. Fortunately, the crack research staff at Team Blog managed to sniff this one out before it was too late.

PokerStars is giving away seven packages to the European Poker Tour. Yep, just giving them away.

Starting August 19th and running through August 26th, PokerStars will host a daily $200 no-limit hold'em tournament (with satellites available into each event). The winner of each of the seven events will receive a free entry and travel money to one of seven European Poker Tour events.

I've traveled to nearly all of the EPT events and venues. If I had the chance to get in on this promotin, I'd be playing every day. If you're looking to play, click on "Events" and "EPT" in your PokerStars game lobby.

Visit EPT Online for more information.

With the WSOP now just a fading memory, PokerStars players once again flocked to the biggest weekly tournament in all of poker. Nearly 5,900 people played in the PokerStars Sunday Million and built a huge prize pool. When it was over, five people had raked in more than $70,000 a piece! Here are the final table results.

PokerStars Sunday Million Results
(based on order of finish and a five-way deal that left $20,000 for first place)

1. DeuxExMachin (Jersey City, NJ) $98,360.00
2. Kraven23 (Humboldt, IA) $76,112.00
3. jmega (Richmond Hill, ON, Canada) $74,609.00
4. jonath34 (Brooklyn, NY) $89,940.00
5. Stelvask (Redondo Beach, CA) $70,660.00
6. porpe (Petite Ile, Reunion) $29,465.00
7. blackeleven (San Diego, CA) $22,982.70
8. AA big loser (Beavercreek, OH) $17,089.70
9. isac (Stockholm, Sweden) $10,607.40

PokerStars qualifiers rake in $6 million at WSOP final table

by the members of Team Blog

When the PokerStars qualifiers rolled into Las Vegas, a little basic math could've predicted the presence of one or two qualifiers at the final table. After all, PokerStars sent more than 1,600 people to the biggest poker event in history. By the time the final nine were seated, PokerStars qualifiers made up exactly one third of the field. It was a surreal scene. Unlike the old days at Binion's, there was room for as many people who wanted to watch the final table.



Team Blog's Wil Wheaton wrote, in part:

With a few platforms, some bleachers, lots of indirect lighting and creative use of their signature black drapes, ESPN has built a small sound stage, complete with studio audience, in one quadrant of the Amazon room. Where there were a twenty-five tables filled with players as recently as five days ago, there are now platforms filled with spectators and enough security goons and velvet ropes to meet the needs of any Las Vegas night club. Plasma TVs broadcast ESPNs feed -- sans audio -- for the assembled spectators outside the ropes, while friends, family and pro players alike cheer on their favorite players from within.

Read: The Transformation of the Amazon Ballroom (by Wil Wheaton)

Around the final table were nine guaranteed millionaires.

Seat 1 - Richard Lee - $11,820,000
Seat 2 - Erik Friberg - $9,605,000 ($160 Double Shootout)
Seat 3 - Paul Wasicka - $7,970,000
Seat 4 - Dan Nassif - $2,600,000 ($160 Double Shootout)
Seat 5 - Allen Cunningham - $17,770,000
Seat 6 - Michael Binger - $3,140,000
Seat 7 - Doug Kim - $6,770,000 ($650 satellite)
Seat 8 - Jamie Gold - $26,650,000
Seat 9 - Rhett Butler - $4,815,000

Here's a recap of our qualifiers' day on the final table:



Dan Nassif
Qualified: $160 Double Shootout

Dan "danxxx1" Nassif, the 33-year-old advertising sales exec from St Louis, Missouri, had to call his bosses at the Riverfront Times last weekend and ask for a few more days' vacation so he could finish his run at the WSOP. Despite the fact he was guaranteed $1.5 million, he had no plans to retire early.

He came into the final table short-stacked and only made it through the first few hands. With a relative short stack, AK looked really good and he ended up playing it for all his money. Like many people at the final table, his demise came at the hands of Jamie Gold who flopped a set of deuces and sent Nassif to the rail. Gold was eliminated in ninth place, earning a $1,566,858.

Team Blog's Mad Harper covered Dan Nassif through his storybook run to the final table and wrote this about Nassif's exit:

Just half an hour after taking his seat on the final table of the WSOP 2006, PokerStars qualifier Dan "danxxx1" Nassif was knocked out by chip leader Jamie Gold. The 33-year-old advertising sales executive from St Louis, Missouri was the shortest stack at the table with just $2.6 million (a tenth of Jamie's stack) - so his all-in raise with AK after seeing a flop of 235 was understandable. But Gold had flopped a set of deuces. Dan said: "I should really have pushed all in before the flop but I didn't want to risk my whole stack for a win of just $400,000. In hindsight, that was an error."


Dan Nassif, just before busting in 9th place for $1.5 million

I have been watching Dan play - and chatting with him in the breaks - for five days now and I have been deeply impressed by both his rock-solid poker skills as well as charming and down-to-earth character. It's no surprise to me that, despite winning over $1.5 million, he has no plans to give up his day job at the Riverfront Times. He said: "They have been so great and supportive, letting me take off two weeks to come here and play. They are great people. The Riverfront Times isn't just a job for me, it's like family. So no, I'm not leaving. It would be a lack of character on my part to walk away."

Nor has Dan has any plans to become a poker professional. In fact, he doesn't even want to play cards for a while and described playing in the World Series as "brutal". He said: "The experience has been incredible, very exciting - but I don't know how these guys do it, playing day in, day out, playing from noon to 3am, it's an absolute grind."

Dan's parents John and Noreen, twin brother Peter, sister Amy and step-brothers Matt and Tom all flew in from St Louis yesterday to watch him play and are thrilled he did so well. His father said: "No, I'm not disappointed. He has played so well. I'm really proud."

Finally, if any of Dan's friends are reading this back home in St Louis, please note Dan publicly pledged earlier to reimburse any of you who paid for Pay-per-Vew to watch him play today!

Erik Friberg
Qualified: $160 Double Shootout

Erik Friberg, our 23-year-old PokerStars qualifier from Stockholm, Sweden, had the kind of tournament at the World Series that furiously aggressive poker champs tend to have. He began the last day of play second in chips with $5,905,000 and, as he approached the final table, ended up with $9,605,000. It placed him 4th out of the last nine.

When playing against a monster stack and hyper-aggressive, Johnny Chan-coached player like Jamie Gold, sometimes one just has to hope the cookie crumbles one's way. Today, it didn't for Erik Friberg. His limp-reraise with jacks seemed to be the best move against Gold. This time, though, Gold held an actual hand. Friberg is, in his words, "Disappointed. I felt I played badly today." After winning nearly $2 million, Friberg turned on a little Stu Ungar. What will he do with the money? "Gamble it," he said.




Team Blog's European correspondent Howard Swains caught up with Erik Friberg following his eighth place elimination:

It is not immediately easy to find sympathy for a man who has just won $1.9 million, but the hundreds at the Rio who just witnessed Erik Friberg's elimination from the final table of the main event will know that it is indeed possible.

The 23-year-old PokerStars qualifier from Sweden ran his jacks into Jamie Gold's pocket queens and just gave the kind of press conference that proves once and for all that money is not necessarily the only thing that makes the world go round.


Erik Friberg

"I'm disappointed I didn't go all the way," he explained, the anguish plainly etched on to his face. "I had a good time in this tournament. I woke up feeling great this morning but I played poorly today and am really disappointed. The World Series is like Christmas for poker players - and now it's over."

The end of Christmas. It is not an analogy many had thought of, but it fits perfectly for the termination of something that promises so much, invariably delivers, but is then over so quickly leaving only faded memories and a year-long countdown until the fun begins once more.

That said, Friberg was probably being unduly harsh on himself in his post-game analysis. The hand that turned out to be last was an example of his thoughtful, cultured play that, this time, did not give the desired result.

"I picked up pocket jacks in early position and just wondered how I could best get my chips in," he said. Erik limped and Gold, the bullying chip-leader, surprised no one with his raise. "I came over the top," said Erik. "But he had queens."

That, of course, is poker and Erik, who intends to re-invest his winnings in the entirely plausible search for even greater success, realises this as well as most. A huge cash game player, both live and online, he will return to the tables even stronger for his World Series experience. Outlasting more than eight and a half thousand players is something that very few can boast.

Sweden, Europe and PokerStars are proud.

Doug Kim
(Qualified: $650 PokerStars satellite)

Doug Kim from Westchester, New York, is a recent graduate of Duke and won his seat in the WSOP Main Event on one of the last satellites available on PokerStars. He started the last day of play 11th in chips at $3.6M in chips, then rode a roller coaster on Day 6. He moved down as low as $2.5M and as high as $7.8M on the final day before the final table. He had an extremely tough table draw down to two tables, with Jamie Gold and Allen Cunningham to his left. He took some hits along the way but finally took some pots from Gold, including a big pot with K-8o on a king high board. He ended at $6.77M, good for 6th chip position.

As deep as the stacks were, it seemed like Kim was in a good spot. However, as the blinds went up and the table got increasingly erratic, Kim picked his spot to get in--pocket nines on an all undercard flop. It was the wrong time. He was up against pocket queens.

Team Blog's Craig Cunningham covered Doug Kim since Day 1 of the WSOP. He offer this post-script of Kim's stellar WSOP performance:

Doug Kim desparately wanted to play in the World Series Main Event, spending over $3,000 in a variety of qualifiers on PokerStars for the chance to play in Las Vegas. He finally made it on the last day of qualifying, and he was off to join 8,772 others for a chance at the final table. He hadn't played in small tournaments at a local casino or in earlier World Series events. This was the first live tournament he'd played in, and he rode a meandering journey through each day to get here. Along the way his friend Jason Strasser was left behind, and Doug was forced to march on alone. His family flew to Las Vegas yesterday, supportive yet concerned that their recently graduated son would turn away from the career path he had chosen He starts work in September, and for most young men it would be easy to take $2.39M and live large for awhile.


Doug Kim

Doug Kim isn't most young men. He's kept all of this in perspective as he moved to the Final Table on Tuesday. "For me, poker is an interesting game that I've tried to become good at. It hasn't been my life, but I enjoy playing and learning about the game." He came into today in good shape with $6.77M in chips, but he quickly ran into a buzzsaw. "I was re-raised three times in the first few hands, and I really had to focus and readjust. It was tough with Jamie Gold on my left, so I knew I had to battle. I could have played to move up in pay levels, but I didn't get to the final table that way. I played to win, and I feel I played my best today."

Doug Kim will report to work in a few weeks with an updated resume. Under the Achievements section at the bottom it will read: "Enjoy video games and poker, recently finishing 7th in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event."


Doug Kim walking with Chris Bigler after exiting the 2006 WSOP

This has been an exceptionally long six weeks. There have been fantastic vicories and tear-welling defeats. We have made friends. We have found heroes. We have escaped villians. More than anything, we have survived the biggest poker event in history.

PokerStars, as it always seems to do, conducted itself here in a way that can make its players proud. The PokerStars community is one that is more family than it is clubhouse. We on Team Blog have felt the wins and losses along with our players. We, like PokerStars as a whole, want to wish all of our friends and personal heroes both congratulations and thanks. You have made this marthon survivable. You have given us hope. And you have given us a reason to keep loving a game that is sometimes very hard to play and watch.

That's a long way of saying, thanks for playing for Team PokerStars and congratulations on another successful World Series of Poker.

PokerStars WSOP Main Event Winners

8:16pm--Doug Kim: Postscript

Team Blog's Craig Cunningham has been covering Doug Kim since Day 1 of the WSOP. He offer this post-script of Kim's stellar WSOP performance

Doug Kim desparately wanted to play in the World Series Main Event, spening over $3,000 in a variety of qualifiers on PokerStars for the chance to play in Las Vegas. He finally made it on the last day of qualifying, and he was off to join 8,772 others for a chance at the final table. He hadn't played in small tournaments at a local casino or in earlier World Series events. This was the first live tournament he'd played in, and he rode a meandering journey through each day to get here. Along the way his friend Jason Strasser was left behind, and Doug was forced to march on alone. His family flew to Las Vegas yesterday, supportive yet concerned that their recently graduated son would turn away from the career path he had chosen He starts work in September, and for most young men it would be easy to take $2.39M and live large for awhile.

Doug Kim isn't most young men. He's kept all of this in perspective as he moved to the Final Table on Tuesday. "For me, poker is an interesting game that I've tried to become good at. It hasn't been my life, but I enjoy playing and learning about the game." He came into today in good shape with $6.77M in chips, but he quickly ran into a buzzsaw. "I was re-raised three times in the first few hands, and I really had to focus and readjust. It was tough with Jamie Gold on my left, so I knew I had to battle. I could have played to move up in pay levels, but I didn't get to the final table that way. I played to win, and I feel I played my best today."

Doug Kim will report to work in a few weeks with an updated resume. Under the Achievements section at the bottom it will read: "Enjoy video games and poker, recently finishing 7th in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event."

6:31pm--Doug Kim eliminated

On a 443 flop, Doug Kim got his chips in with pocket nines versus Paul Wasicka's pocket queens. The turn and river were no help. Kim is out in seventh for $2,391,520.

6:24pm--Updated chip counts

Jamie Gold $35,500,000
Richard Lee $21,280,000
Allen Cunningham $13,000,000
Paul Wasicka $9,100,000
Doug Kim $5,600,000
Rhett Butler $3,800,000
Michael Binger $2,700,000


6:16pm--Kim loses one

Paul Wasicka raised to $700k, then Doug Kim reraised to $2.1M. Wasicka quickly moved all-in for another $4.8M or so, and Doug immediately went into the tank. Not a good sign that he started pondering, and it meant he was mucking which he did. A big chunk out of Doug's stack, but he's still sitting with $5.6M.

6:15pm--Exit interview with Erik Friberg

Team Blog's Howard Swains caught up with Erik Friberg following his eighth place elimination:

It is not immediately easy to find sympathy for a man who has just won $1.9 million, but the hundreds at the Rio who just witnessed Erik Friberg's elimination from the final table of the main event will know that it is indeed possible.

The 23-year-old PokerStars qualifier from Sweden ran his jacks into Jamie Gold's pocket queens and just gave the kind of press conference that proves once and for all that money is not necessarily the only thing that makes the world go round.


Erik Friberg

"I'm disappointed I didn't go all the way," he explained, the anguish plainly etched on to his face. "I had a good time in this tournament. I woke up feeling great this morning but I played poorly today and am really disappointed. The World Series is like Christmas for poker players - and now it's over."

The end of Christmas. It is not an analogy many had thought of, but it fits perfectly for the termination of something that promises so much, invariably delivers, but is then over so quickly leaving only faded memories and a year-long countdown until the fun begins once more.

That said, Friberg was probably being unduly harsh on himself in his post-game analysis. The hand that turned out to be last was an example of his thoughtful, cultured play that, this time, did not give the desired result.

"I picked up pocket jacks in early position and just wondered how I could best get my chips in," he said. Erik limped and Gold, the bullying chip-leader, surprised no one with his raise. "I came over the top," said Erik. "But he had queens."

That, of course, is poker and Erik, who intends to re-invest his winnings in the entirely plausible search for even greater success, realises this as well as most. A huge cash game player, both live and online, he will return to the tables even stronger for his World Series experience. Outlasting more than eight and a half thousand players is something that very few can boast.

Sweden, Europe and PokerStars are proud.

6:01pm--More pictures from the 2006 WSOP Final Table

Doug Kim, the remaining PokerStars qualifier

5:59pm--Updated chip counts

Jamie Gold $37,000,000
Richard Lee $20,000,000
Allen Cunningham $11,200,000
Doug Kim $7,300,000
Paul Wasicka $6,600,000
Rhett Butler $4,200,000
Michael Binger $3,200,000

5:28pm--Binger puts a hurt on Allen Cunningham

We almost lost Micahel Binger. He got AT all-in against Allen Cuningham on a QJx flop. Cunningham held AQ. A sick king on the turn gave Binge rthe straight. No ten on the turn handed a six million chip pot to Binger.

5:28pm--On cookies crumbling and Friberg's elimination

When playing against a monster stack and hyper-aggressive, Johnny Chan-coached player like Jamie Gold, sometimes you just have to hope the cookie crumbles your way. Today, it didn't for Erik Friberg. His limp-reraise with jacks seemed to be the best move against Gold. This time, though, Gold held an actual hand. Friberg is, in his words, "Disappointed. I felt I played badly today." After winning nearly $2 million, Friberg turned on a little Stu Ungar. What will he do with the money? "Gamble it," he said.

5:20pm--Erik Friberg eliminated in eighth

Friberg limps in for 200K. Jame Gold makes it a million to go. Friberg moves all in with jacks. Gold calls instantly with queens. Flop come 273. The turn is a ten. On the river, Friverg needs a jack. Instead it comes a queen and Friberg is eliminated in eigth place.

5:17pm--Kim takes on Cunningham

5337 rainbow board, Doug bet out 1.5 million and pushed Allen Cunningham, the pre-flop raiser in the hand, out of the pot. Kim picked up a couple million on that hand.

5:06pm--Photos from the WSOP final table




The WSOP final table


Erik Friberg


Dan Nassif, just before busting in 9th place for $1.5 million



4:59pm--Doug Kim's rail

Team Blog's Craig Cunningham is on the rail with Doug Kim's family:

Big sister Janet Kim and the rest of the family are here in force, all in support of Doug. "He tried last year to get in but didn't, and some of his friends got in. Since school has been out, he's been trying to qualify. We were in Europe traveling, and if we ever stopped and there was no wireless, he would pout alot. Basically, he ruined our trip!" Janet has been in Paris studying fashion design, and his older sister is looking for a job.

"Doug has always been the sibling with money, and he's supposed to back my clothing line if he ever got money." If Doug can pull this off, Janet might have a new employer.

4:56pm--Publish issues resolved

Following somoe publishing software issues, we're back. You didn't miss a great deal. Players actually took a 20-minute break during the downtime. I think they were thinking of me.

3:42pm--Updated chip counts

Following Allen Cunningham's loss of a major pot to Jamie Gold, the chip counts have changed in a pretty big way.

Jamie Gold $34,500,000
Richard Lee $16,000,000
Allen Cunningham $12,000,000
Doug Kim $7,350,000
Erik Friberg $6,000,000
Paul Wasicka $5,200,000
Rhett Butler $5,000,000
Michael Binger $3,700,000

3:29pm--Dan Nassif's final moments

Team Blog's Mad Harper checked in with Dan Nassif after he finished in 9th place:

Just half an hour after taking his seat on the final table of the WSOP 2006, PokerStars qualifier Dan "danxxx1" Nassif was knocked out by chip leader Jamie Gold. The 33-year-old advertising sales executive from St Louis, Missouri was the shortest stack at the table with just $2.6 million (a tenth of Jamie's stack) - so his all-in raise with AK after seeing a flop of 235 was understandable. But Gold had flopped a set of deuces. Dan said: "I should really have pushed all in before the flop but I didn't want to risk my whole stack for a win of just $400,000. In hindsight, that was an error."

I have been watching Dan play - and chatting with him in the breaks - for five days now and I have been deeply impressed by both his rock-solid poker skills as well as charming and down-to-earth character. It's no surprise to me that, despite winning over $1.5 million, he has no plans to give up his day job at the Riverfront Times. He said: "They have been so great and supportive, letting me take off two weeks to come here and play. They are great people. The Riverfront Times isn't just a job for me, it's like family. So no, I'm not leaving. It would be a lack of character on my part to walk away."

Nor has Dan has any plans to become a poker professional. In fact, he doesn't even want to play cards for a while and described playing in the World Series as "brutal". He said: "The experience has been incredible, very exciting - but I don't know how these guys do it, playing day in, day out, playing from noon to 3am, it's an absolute grind."

Dan's parents John and Noreen, twin brother Peter, sister Amy and step-brothers Matt and Tom all flew in from St Louis yesterday to watch him play and are thrilled he did so well. His father said: "No, I'm not disappointed. He has played so well. I'm really proud."

Finally, if any of Dan's friends are reading this back home n St Louis, please note Dan publicly pledged earlier to reimburse any of you who paid for Pay-per-Vew to watch him play today!

3:14pm--Updated chip counts

Jamie Gold $31,600,000
Allen Cunningham $16,800,000
Richard Lee $10,000,000
Erik Friberg $9,000,000
Doug Kim $6,600,000
Paul Wasicka $6,500,000
Rhett Butler $4,400,000
Michael Binger $3,000,000

3:04pm--More on Doug Kim

If you're looking to know some more about Doug Kim, check out Team Blog's Craig Cunningham's pre-game profile on Doug Kim.

2:47pm--Doug Kim in action

Blinds are currently at 80K/160K/20K. After picking up some chips in a pot with Jamie Gold, on a board of J72-5-Q, Doug Kim jammed the rest of his stack into the pot. Gold thought for a while before mucking his hand. On a subsequent hand, Doug raise pre-flopped form the button, then called a re-raise from Richard Lee. After the flop came ace-high, Doug folded to Lee's all-in bet.

2:27pm--Dan Nassif eliminated

Dan Nassif has just been eliminated, his AK falling to Jamie Gold's pocket deuces that flopped a set. Dan is eliminated in ninth place for $1,566,858.

The final table of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main event is about to begin. PokerStars is proud to have three online qualifiers seated among this year's best of the best.

Seat 1 - Richard Lee - $11,820,000
Seat 2 - Erik Friberg - $9,605,000 ($160 Double Shootout)
Seat 3 - Paul Wasicka - $7,970,000
Seat 4 - Dan Nassif - $2,600,000 ($160 Double Shootout)
Seat 5 - Allen Cunningham - $17,770,000
Seat 6 - Michael Binger - $3,140,000
Seat 7 - Doug Kim - $6,770,000 ($650 satellite)
Seat 8 - Jamie Gold - $26,650,000
Seat 9 - Rhett Butler - $4,815,000

Dan "danxxx1" Nassif


Dan "danxxx1" Nassif, the 33-year-old advertising sales exec from St Louis, Missouri, had to call his bosses at the Riverfront Times last weekend and ask for a few more days' vacation. Given that he's now worth more than $1.5 million, his next call to the office will probably be to hand in his resignation. He banned his friends and family from coming to the WSOP unless he made the final table but now, after two weeks of hard grinding, he has made it through.

Doug "technologic" Kim


Doug Kim from Westchester, New York, is a recent graduate of Duke and won his seat in the WSOP Main Event on one of the last satellites available on PokerStars. He started the last day of play 11th in chips at $3.6M in chips, then rode a roller coaster on Day 6. He moved down as low as $2.5M and as high as $7.8M on the final day before the final table. He had an extremely tough table draw down to two tables, with Jamie Gold and Allen Cunningham to his left. He took some hits along the way but finally took some pots from Gold, including a big pot with K-8o on a king high board. He ended at $6.77M, good for 6th chip position.

Erik "lirarerik" Friberg


Erik Friberg, our 23-year-old PokerStars qualifier from Stockholm, Sweden, has had the kind of tournament at the World Series that furiously aggressive poker champs tend to have. He began the last day of play second in chips with $5,905,000 and, as he approached the final table, ended up with $9,605,000. That places him 4th out of the last nine; in with a shot.

For the last month, the Amazon room has been the largest tournament poker room in the world, and today, it's been transformed into the most important television studio in poker.

With a few platforms, some bleachers, lots of indirect lighting and creative use of their signature black drapes, ESPN has built a small sound stage, complete with studio audience, in one quadrant of the Amazon room. Where there were a twenty-five tables filled with players as recently as five days ago, there are now platforms filled with spectators and enough security goons and velvet ropes to meet the needs of any Las Vegas night club. Plasma TVs broadcast ESPNs feed -- sans audio -- for the assembled spectators outside the ropes, while friends, family and pro players alike cheer on their favorite players from within.

Oh, and if you look carefully, you can even see some poker being played: there are four tables -- one of them short-handed and all of them low-limit -- in the cash area where just three weeks ago the biggest names in the poker world sat behind enough chips to pay off my mortgage several times over.

There's also the final table, which, despite the numerous inflatable Milwaukee's Best Light cans and other media sponsorships, is the reason we're all here. There were nine millionaires sitting around that table when play began today, and while the money won't change at least two of their lives, the bracelet and the fame it brings certainly will.

I asked 2004 Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, who has been here once before, and nearly made it here last year, what advice he had for the final table players.

"Once you make it to the final table, enjoy it while it lasts," he said, "because it only lasts for one of you past today."

by Craig Cunningham

UPDATE: 3:00PM

Doug has had a bit of a roller coaster of a ride to start the day, raising the first two hands only to fold to reraises by Jamie Gold and Richard Lee. Gold then called a raise by Dan Nassif, flopped a set of deuces, and knocked out Dan while Doug moved up to at least $1.979MM. Doug next played a key hand with Gold, checking from the big blind. Flop comes 7-J-2, Doug bets $400k and Gold calls. 5d hits the turn, Doug checks and Gold bets $800k, then Doug calls. Qs comes on the river, and Doug moves all-in. Gold chats him up a bit then mucks, then Doug collects the pot. He gave most of it back when he raised a couple of hands later, was re-raised by Rhett Butler to $1.2M, then Doug called. The flop came 3-9-A, Butler moved all-in, then Doug reluctantly folded.

The ESPN questionnaire that players fill out has a final question: What's one thing you'd like the television audience to know about you? Doug left it blank, finally writing No comment in the space. It's not that he is void of interest, it's just that he's just a young guy like many of us or our kids.

Doug grew up in Yonkers then moved to Hartsdale, New York for his childhood. His father is a physician, and his mother helps out in his office. "I did a lot of typical kid things growing up, played video games, was in the orchestra, started playing the guitar. I was a fairly normal guy." Off to Duke, he enjoyed the college experience including Duke basketball, but the thing he liked most about Duke were the fellow students. "I think college is mostly about the people you meet. Most of the ones at Duke were not a-holes, and I found some good friends while I was there."

His poker career started fairly innocuously as often happens. "I started playing $0.15/0.30 with buddies, then when I got to Duke I played in the home game there. I lost something like $500 in a semester when I was a freshman, and I was devestated. It was alot of money then. During the summer, I started reading more about poker, and when I was a sophomore I played better. I didn't win big money, but I didn't lose alot. I had a friend of mine from Northwestern who told me about bonus hunting as a way to build my bankroll, and that coupled with the $25 NLHE cash games started building my bankroll. I've been playing bigger recently, probably $3/6 NLHE as the biggest game I play now."

Coming into the World Series, Doug had a practical view of his outlook. "I have $10k in chips, but maybe my equity is a bit better than most. It's like I'm in a lottery with 8,700 other people, but I have a few more tickets than others. The big thing I've seen are people playing too poorly, pushing with poor hands or overbetting. Pushing pre-flop is what everyone wants to do here." Heading into Day 3, Doug sat with $95,200 good for 295th out of 1,159 players. "I was just trying to get in position to get more, to get further. I never wanted to get ahead of myself." With each day, the situation changed. He headed into Day 4 with $372k, 43rd out of 481 players. Day 5 $939k, 24th of 135, and Day 6 $1.3M (27th of 45). Day 7th he had $3.6M in chips and sat 10th place of the 27 players left.

There are a few traits that all of us can learn from Doug. The first is patience. This is somewhat similar to playing tight, but it also has to do with not feeling compelled to act. When he's drifted from this patience, he's suffered. Another very important characteristic is humility. That may not be the right word necessarily, but he doesn't see every small battle as a war. That has served him well when he's made reads that he's beaten. They haven't always been the right read. On the last hand of Day 6, Lee Kort made a big bluff at a pot that would have been nice to win heading into the last 27 players. Doug folded, and Kort showed the bluff. "That last hand, congratulations to him. If he's willing to risk that, then I'm OK with that. I can't think about how many chips I could have or did have, I just have to go on from there."

While Johnny Chan can be seen hovering behind Jamie Gold from time to time, Doug draws from his friend Jason Strasser and a couple of other players for advice and pep talks. It is a stark difference to see Gold with Chan vs. Doug with Jason. Gold seems to seek out Chan for approval or reinforcement, leaking a bit of insecurity along the way. Doug is more prone to spend some time with Jason over a dinner break talking about a couple of situations. Doug is a peer of Jason's from an understanding of the game and the complexities of theory that are being advanced today.

Doug has shown a real ability to adjust and deal with adversity. We've seen that from a couple of other players, like Richard Lee, Erik Friberg, and Paul Wasicka at this final table. Doug Kim is at the final table of the Main Event, an incredible feat. If he wins it, he'll be the newest version of Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joseph Hachem. In fact, he'll be a fusion of these three. He's the everyman that Moneymaker brought to the felt, but more the college-age player taking the game by storm. He'll be the poker student and theoritician like Raymer, but drawing and learning from those like Raymer and others who have contributed so much to this simple game. And like Hachem, underneath Doug's skin burns a fire to succeed, an emotion under control but feeding his pursuit. "I haven't tried to get ahead of myself, but everyday changes your perspective. I've had a couple of talks with my friends, and they've urged me to play for first. That doesn't mean playing recklessly, but it means that I have my eyes set on getting to the end." He's one of nine players with a chance to accomplish that goal. He'll start well behind chipleader Jamie Gold and at a disadvantage to Allen Cunningham as all there will, but as this World Series has shown, anything can happen.

by the staff of Team Blog

Nothing compares.

No matter what sporting event you attend, no matter what game you play, no matter what kind of money you want to win, nothing compares to what we're about to see.

The final table area for the WSOP

Three PokerStars players have made the final table of the 2006 World Series of Poker. Every one of them is guaranteed no less than $1.5 million dollars. From there, the prizes get so big, Benny Binion is sure to be celebrating from his grave (and likely wondering if he could find a way to come back and host the event next year).


The 2006 WSOP main event bracelet

Dan "danxxx1" Nassif, Doug "technologic" Kim, and Erik "lirarerik" Friberg will all be sitting at the final table of WSOP, competing for the biggest sporting event prizes in history.

1 - $12,000,000
2 - $6,102,499
3 - $4,123,310
4 - $3,628,513
5 - $3,216,182
6 - $2,803,851
7 - $2,391,520
8 - $1,979,189
9 - $1,566,858

If you're just tuning in (or have been under a rock for the past couple of weeks), here are the PokerStars players who will be fighting for the most coveted prize in all of poker.

Dan "danxxx1" Nassif


Dan "danxxx1" Nassif, the 33-year-old advertising sales exec from St Louis, Missouri, had to call his bosses at the Riverfront Times last weekend and ask for a few more days' vacation. Given that he's now worth more than $1.5 million, his next call to the office will probably be to hand in his resignation. Fact is, Dan will be making a lot of calls tonight. He banned his friends and family from coming to the WSOP unless he made the final table but now, after another day's hard grinding, he has made it through. He only had one dip today, when his Kings were cracked by Michael Binger's pocket queens. He doubled up Binger and lost nearly half his stack -but spent the rest of the evening battling his way back up to finish the day with $2,600,000.

Doug "technologic" Kim


Doug Kim from West Chester, New York, is a recent graduate of Duke and won
his seat in the WSOP Main Event on one of the last satellites available on
PokerStars. He started the day 11th in chips at $3.6M in chips, then rode a
roller coaster on Day 6. He moved down as low as $2.5M and as high as $7.8M
today. He had an extremely tough table draw down to two tables, with Jamie
Gold and Allen Cunningham to his left. He took some hits along the way but
finally took some pots from Gold, including a big pot with K-8o on a king
high board. He ended at $6.77M, good for 6th chip position.

Erik "lirarerik" Friberg


Erik Friberg, our 23-year-old PokerStars qualifier from Stockholm, Sweden, has had the kind of day at the World Series that furiously aggressive poker champs tend to have. He began the day second in chips with $5,905,000 and, as he approaches the final table, he has $9,605,000. That places him 4th out of the last nine; in with a shot.

It didn't start well. The huge hit came within the second level, when he became embroiled in a massive pot with Allen Cunningham, out on table one. With pocket nines and looking at an all-in bet from Cunningham on a king-high board of two spades, Friberg had correctly deduced that the American did not have a king. He called, but was forced to ship it in Cunningham's direction when he flipped over pocket fives for the set.

For more than an hour after, the ice-cool Swede looked shaken. Clearly card-dead, he found his natural game restricted and dribbled chips away. That was until he found A-Q to eliminate Kevin Aaronson and the major pot was the kick-start to an hour of all-out aggression. It came to an end, however, when he was moved to the feature table, beside the giant stacks of Jamie Gold and Allen Cunningham. There, the going was tougher and while he began to play back at Jamie, he was taking hits from other directions. He yo-yoed for three hours before eliminating Leif Force and sticking around to make the final - and considerably more than a million dollars.

Players will get a day off on Wednesday to collect their thoughts and prepare for the biggest poker day of their lives.

Here are the final table chip counts:

Jamie Gold - $26,650,000
Allen Cunningham - $17,770,000
Richard Lee - $11,820,000
Erik Friberg - $9,605,000
Paul Wasicka - $7,970,000
Doug Kim - $6,770,000
Rhett Butler - $4,815,000
Michael Binger - $3,140,000
Dan Nassif - $2,600,000

Congratulations to our final table players!

Don't miss:

Wil Wheaton's Conversation with Rob Berryman

Dr. Pauly's Exit Interviw with Eric "Rizen" Lynch

2:19am--ESPN final table set

Fred Goldberg has been eliminated in tenth place. Goldberg jammed from the cutoff with Q3. Richard Lee woke up with kings and that was it. A full wrap-up is on its way.

2:13am--Back from break, blinds up

Blinds are up to 80K/160K/20K

1:50am--Updated chip counts

Guaranteed prize: $1.1 million

Erik Friberg ($160 Double Shootout qualifier) 9.85 million (3rd)
Doug Kim ($650 satellite qualifier) 5.4 million (7th)
Dan Nassif ($160 Double Shootout qualifier) 2.8 million (9th)

1:48am--Break

A break is on and that means it's about to get later.

1:21am--Fred Goldberg doubles up Binger

Fred Goldberg's pocket tens couldn't hold up against Michael Binger's AQ. We almost had our final table there.

1:00am--Morning coming, Goldberg chipping up

All props bets have been paid up and it is now after 1am. The main man in action is Fred Goldberg, who must have read some Harrington at the break. He's playing his short stack like a well-tuned instrument.

12:34pm--Doug Kim making his moves

Facing a limp and a raise, Doug Kim jammed in his entire stack and picked up enough chips to get him up to around $5 million.

12:20am--All-in? Sure!

So much for no all-in and calls. Jamie Gold just made top pair and got all in against Paul Wasicka's set of fives. Wasicka has doubled up to around seven million.

12:07am--All-in? No, thank you, sir

With just one player to lose before the end of play and the big-money final table, putting all one's chips at risk is not the type of thing these players are willing to do much. And when it did happen a bit ago, it forced Doug Kim to lay down his raise.

11:45pm--Big blinds and antes

Players are playing 60K/120K/20K. That makes it 380K per orbit to play. That gives the short stacks enough time to fold for a few orbits, but not enough time to sleep their way to the bigger money.

11:35pm--Ten-handed chip counts

Jamie Gold: 26.7 million
Allen Cunningham 17.7 million
Richard Lee 7.8 million
Dan Nassif 7.4 million
Doug Kim 6.54 million
Paul Wasicka 5.6 million
Erik Friberg 5 million
Fred Goldberg 3.9 million
Rhett Butler 3.8 million
Michael Binger 3.8 million
11:15pm--Friberg sneaks a smoke

Smoking is verboten in the convention hall here, but Erik Friberg needed one so bad, he took a page from Brownsville Station (or Motely Crue, if you prefer) and headed off to the head for a little smokin' in the boys room action. In a conversation (on which I eavesdropped like a CIA operative), Friberg dragged on his smoke and talked with writer Jon Vorhaus.

Vorhaus: "You need to put your sunglasses again."
Friberg: "I need to put them on so the TV cameras don't notice my anger."

Friberg has been on an up-and-down trip since the dinner break. He confessed a little tilt. Then posed for a picture with Vorhaus and headed back to play for $12 million.

10:58pm--Updated chip counts

Doug "technologic" Kim 7 million
Dan "Danxxx1" Nassif 5.7 million
Erik "lirarerik" Friberg 5 million

10:54pm--Friberg busts Force

We're down to the final ten after Erik Friberg busted Lief Force. Friberg flopped top pair to Force's flush draw and one over. Force missed all his outs twice and exited in 11th place. Now, play will consolidate to one table. When we lose one more player, we're down to the final ESPN televised table.

10.25pm--Friberg turns and climbs again

After haemorrhaging chips for about 40 minutes, Erik Friberg takes one down. He bets 300,000 pre-flop, Jamie Gold calls. The flop is Ah5d6s and both players check. Turn is a 6c and Erik bets 300,000. Called from Jamie. On the 7s river, Erik moves all in. Jamie dwells but folds.

10.20pm--Doug Kim takes one down
Doug picks up about 900,000 after his pre-flop bet is called by both Jamie Gold and Erik Friberg. He moves in on a board of 8h4d9c and both others fold.

10.15pm--Friberg's freefall continues

Erik Friberg opens up with a bet from early position for 300,000. Rhett Butler, who hasn't played much, raises to 900,000 and Erik dwells but calls. On a board of 10s-2s-8d, Erik checks and Rhett moves all in for about 2 million more. Erik folds and concedes another million.

10:01pm--Dan Nassif loses to a two outer

Dan Nassif just got his kings cracked by Michael Bingers pocket queens when a queen fell on the flop. Nassif appears to have lost about half his stack on the rough beat.

9:59pm--Friberg on a downward spiral after double up

On a flop of 8cJs3h, Kim bet 400,000 and Friberg called. A nine of clubs fell on the turn and both players checked. The seven of hearts on the river drew a one million bet from Kim. Friberg called. Kim showed AJ for the win.

9:57pm--Friberg takes on Cunningham

...and loses. On a board KQ5AT with three spades, Cunningham bet close to a million on the river. Cunning showed AT for two pair and the win.

9:53pm--Down to 11

Fred Goldberg has just busted John Magill with pocket nines vs. pocket fives. We're down to all players, one off the final table, and two off the final ESPN table.

9.40pm--Friberg doubles up through Gold

Big, big hand for Erik Friberg. He doubles through chip leader Jamie Gold and is up to 7.4 million. Jamie raises pre-flop, Erik calls. The flop comes 9d3h2d and is checked by both players. The turn is 10d and after Jamie bets, Erik moves all in. Jamie calls with AdQh - overcards and the nut diamond draw. Erik has 10-8 for top pair and no draw. The non-diamond three on the river is good for the Swede and he's now in third place.

The much-anticipated slowdown to the bloodbath seems to be upon us.

9:30pm--Friberg takes a small hit

Allen Cunningham makes a 500,000 bet on a board of 10hAh7s and Erik Friberg calls. They both check the turn (Kc) but then Alan bets out on the river of 6s. Erik folds - giving Allen a million dollar pot.

9:00pm--Coming back from break

We're coming back from break. With 12 players remaining, PokerStars has three qualifiers and one long-time and dedicated player left in the field.

Erik Friberg: 7 million
Fred Goldberg: 6.7 million
Dan Nassif: 4.3 million
Doug Kim: 4.5 million

The media have been discussing how long it will take to get down to the final table. The line has been set at 11pm. I've taken the over. Also, I've got the three PokerStars qualifiers against John Magill at 5-1. I feel pretty comfortable with both ventures.

7:10pm--Dinner break chip counts

Friberg just stood up to Jamie Gold on the last hand before the break.

Players are now on dinner break. Here are the approximate chip counts for the remaining PokerStars qualifiers:

Erik Friberg: 7 million
Dan Nassif: 4.3 million
Doug Kim: 4.5 million

6:37pm--Friberg, meet Jamie Gold

Erik Friberg has been moved to the feature table. It happens to be the table that's featuring man-eating chip leader Jamie Gold.

6:29pm--William Thorsson eliminated

And yeah, Jamie Gold did it. Thorsson had jacks to Gold's kings. We're down to 12 players. Everyone who finished from here on out is guaranteed more than a million bucks. Three players to go until the final table of the main event.

6:21pm--Friberg starts to battle

After looking downtordden for much of the day, Erik Friberg seems to have found some energy and seems to be playing every pot, betting into flops, and playing the game that got him this far. Careful, fellas, 'cause the sleeping giant ain't hittin snooze anymore.

5:55pm--Friberg picks up some chips

John Magill called Erik Friberg's big blind. As4dQc came on the flop. Friberg checked. Magill bet 400,000. Friberg then made it a million to go and Magill folded.

5:54pm--Guess who busted another one?

Yeah. Jamie Gold battled with AJ on an A5x flop and was up against A5. He turned his jack for a better two pair.

5:43pm--Picture time Pt. Deux

Erik Friberg, sans glasses


Doug Kim, under the TV cameras


Dan Nassif, looking more awake as he looks at the payout structure

5:37pm--Friberg busts Kevin Aaronson

Erik Friberg has just busted with Kevin Aaronson with AQ vs T4. We're down to 14.

5:29pm--Down to 15

Sirous Jamshidi has been eliminated. We're down to 15.

5:20pm--Jeff Lisndro eliminated

Jeff Lisandro took a huge hit to his stack when he lost with J-J against Paul Wasicka's K-K. He had a chance to qualdruple up with his last few chips on the next hand. However, after getting called in four places, Lisandro's hands (which he mucked on the river) couldn't stand up to two pair. He's out in 17th place.

4:51pm--Break time

Time for 15-minute break.

4:47pm--Picture time


Erik Friberg


Doug Kim, all-in


Dan Nassif, not nearly as asleep as he looks

4:38pm--Down to 17

David Einhorn just suffered the Jamie Gold treatement. His KQ couldn't hold up against Gold's Q6. We're down to 17.

4:28pm--Kim in action

Michael Binger came in for a raise from the button to around 200,000. Doug Kim called from the big blind. The flop came out 7sks9h. Both players checked. The ace of diamonds came on the turn. Doug checked and Binger bet out 400,000K. Kim called. The 9c came on the river. Both players checjed. Doug showed AJ, which was good for the pot.

4:16pm--Is this it?

There have been wide and bold predictions about a massive slowdown in action. I'm not saying this is it, but, dang, it could be.

3:59pm--Cannibalism predicted

All of the remaining PokerStars qualifiers are now sitting on one table. Among them, they have a little more than 15 million in chips.

3:45pm--Back from break

Back from break, we have 18 players remaining. People are scratching their head at how fast the tournament is playing so far. At this moment, there are two people who are fairly close to push or fold mode. There are a couple more who can wait for a bit before getting desperate. However, to this point, no one has paid a great deal of attention to the concept of "just hanging around." With guaranteed prize money of more than 650,000, who knows who will give a damn about hanging around.

3:28pm--Chip counts at the break

Dan Nassif 6,200,000 (3rd)
Erik Friberg 5,200,000 (8th)
Doug Kim 4,900,000 (9th)

3:22pm--Down to 18

With the elimination of Dustin Holmes, we're down to 18 and two tables. Three PokerStars qualifiers remaim: Dan Nassif, Erik Friberg, and Doug Kim.

3:08pm--Doug Kim doubles up

Doug Kim raised preflop and was called by Jamie Gold. Flop was Ah-7h-Ac and Doug moved all in. After waiting four or five minutes, Gold eventually called. He had 6-7o and Kim had A-8 for a set of Aces. Kim is up to $4.5M.

2:56pm--Friberg rebuilding

After losing the big pot to Cunningham earlier, Erik Friberg is rebuilding, having just won a pot to bring him back up over the four million mark.

2:42pm--Down to 19

Prahlad Friedman just did the same thing a lot of people have done in the past several days. He lost his final hand to chip leader Jamie Gold. Friedmas goes to the rail in 19th place.

2:37pm--Nassif wins a million

Nassif raises from middle position to 225,000 and gets called by the big blind. The flop comes Qs3dQh. Both players checked. The turn came as a four of clubs. Both players checked. The river came as the three of spades. The big blind bet out 300,000. Nassif called and flipped over aces. The big blind mucked and Nassif raked the pot.

2:35pm--Kevin O'Donnell busts

O'Donnell makes it 180,000 from under the gun. Cunningham makes it 450,000 more from the big blind. O'Donnell makes it another million. Cunning moves all in. O'Donnell and shows kings to Cunningham's aces. No king came and O'Donnell is gone in 21st place, winning $494,797

2:28pm--Doug Kim takes a big one

While we missed the early action, on a board is 5478, Doug Kim moved his entire stack into the middle. Prahlad Friedman thought forever before mucking his hand.

2:22pm--Kevin O'Donnell wins a big one

John Magill raised to 250,000 under the gun. O'Donnell called from the small blind. The flop came down AdTs9c. O'Donnell checked and Magill bet out 500,000. O'Donnell makes it an even million. Magill calls. The five of diamonds fell on the turn. O'Donnell moved all in for 1.8 million. Magill dwells forever before folding AQ face-up.

2:04pm--Blinds up

Blinds will be moving up to 30K/60K/10K

1:47pm--Chip counts at the break

Dan Nassif 5.8 million
Erik Friberg 4.2 million
Doug Kim 2.575

1:43pm--Friberg doubles up Cunningham

Under the gun made a raise pre-flop. Erik Friberg called in mid-position. Alan Cunningham called in the small blind. So did the big blind. The flop came Ks2c5s. Both blinds checked. The original raiser bet out 200,000. Friberg raised to 400,000. Cunningham then moved all-in for 2.25 million. The big blind and the original raiser folded and Friberg, after thinking for ages, called. Cunningham showed pocket fives for a set. That's better than Friberg's pocket nines. Friberg said he put Cunningham on the spade draw.

1:35pm--Down to 21--break time

Lee Kort has been eliminated in 22nd place. We're on a 30 minute break while the TDs color up some chips.

1:22pm--Down to 22

The elimination of Rob Roseman brings us down to 22 players.

1:04pm--Eric "Rizen" Lynch eliminated

Eric "Rizen" Lynch has been eliminated. A6o vs. Jamie Gold's TT, all-in pre-flop. Board: 989QQ
Team Blog: Sad
Lynch places 24th for $494,797.

12:58pm--Scary moment

A scary moment that had nothing to do with the cards. On of the plasma TVs set up for spectators fell off its stand. For a moment, I thought one of the stands of bleachers had collapsed. As it turned out, the loss is only going to be technological.

12:34pm--Rizen getting it started

Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Doug Kim are both playing on the featured table today. The seem intent on giving the TV viewers something to watch. Rizen picked up a nice-sized pot of Kim without showing down his hand.

12:27pm--Mark Garner eliminated

Dustin Holmes raises, Mark Garner, qualifier from Little Rock, Arkansas moves all in, Holmes calls with pocket aces. Garner has pocket fives. The board ran out K67Q4. Garner is out in 25th place. For his tremendous efforts, he earns $494,797. Garner's parents flew in last night. He was simply happy to have a chance for his parents to see him play.

12:25pm--Down to 27

Just a few minutes into play, the field has been reduced by one player, leaving PokerStars with with five out of the remaining 26 players. Here's who we'll be watching today:

Erik Friberg


Erik "lirarerik" Friberg is the picture of calm at the table and the same applies off. He said he is 23-years-old, from Stockholm and that he plays online as "lirarerik", where he won a $160 double shootout to book his spot in Vegas. Typically, the cards were otherwise kept close to his chest; he's giving nothing away. Friberg cracked pocket aces today with 4-5 out of the big blind to rocket toward the top of the leaderboard for the seoncd day in a row. Chips: 7,735,000 (2nd)

Dan Nassif


With 5,430,000 in chips, Dan Nassif is well within shot of the $12,000,000 top prize. He is here on his own, having banned anyone from coming to support him until he makes the final table. He said: "I've been calling my parents and friends in the breaks but I don't want anyone coming here yet. That was my idea at the beginning and I'm sticking to that." Chips: 5,430,000 (5th)

Doug Kim


The Duke University homegame regular and good buddy to online wunderkind Jason Strasser, Doug "technologic" Kim, had an up-and-down day today that ended on the good end. He finished with nearly 3.6 million in chips, enough to put him in the top half of the remaining field. Chips: 3,595,000 (11th)

Eric "Rizen" Lynch


After having his aces cracked today, the poker phenom looked like he might be down for the count. Instead, he doubled up with 20 minutes left and got back in the fight. He is currently in the middle of the field. If anyone doubles him up tomorrow, they best be careful or he could very well be final table bound. Chips: 1,785,000 (17th)

Mark Garner


"Thrilled." That's the first word that escaped Mark "MGCAPRI" Garner's mouth after he bagged his chips at the end of the day. The 43-year-old bond broker is here after winning a 160 double shootout on PokerStars. While he only has 635,000 in chips, he's guaranteed almost half a million bucks in prize money. Retire early? "Not yet," he says. He'll be looking to double up early on Tuesday. Chips: 635,000 (26th)

12:15pm--Day 7 begins

Day 7 of the World Series of Poker is underway with five PokerStars qualifiers left in the full field of 27. Team Blog is on the case and will provide you live updates throughout the day, night, and morning.

By Dr. Pauly

Eric "Rizen" Lynch qualified for the WSOP main event after winning a $160 shootout on PokerStars. He turned that small investment into $494,797 after he came in 24th place. I had a chance to catch up with him after his elimination. He was surrounded by his family, which is no surprise because Rizen is a dedicated husband and dad. I was impressed with how calm and cool he was. I know how testy I get after busting out of a $20 MTT, let alone the $10K buy-in main event.

Rizen and his son (photo by Dr. Pauly)

Pauly: Do you feel weird being known as an internet player?

Rizen: No. That's what I am. That's me. I don't think it's a bad term, not like it used to be. I know some people who use it in a derogatory sense. But online players have had a lot of success recently, so I don't mind that term at all.

Pauly: Why do you think the play went so fast the last few days?

Rizen: I saw a lot of really aggressive European players, especially the Swedes and some of the guys from Moscow. They are very very aggressive. I hate to stereo type a whole group of players but the Scandinavians, in particular the ones I played with are very aggressive. When you play a very aggressive style, things are going to happen quickly.

Pauly: At any point did you think that you could possibly go all the way?

Rizen: I tried not to. I was playing the best I could and focused on that. All of this hasn't sunk in yet.

Pauly: How has your family being around helped?

Rizen: That helps a lot having these guys around. It gives me a sense of normalcy when I leave the Rio. I'm still going to a hotel room, but I'm not going back by myself. I'm with my family.

Pauly: Does this 24th finish change anything?

Rizen: I don't think so. We'll see where it goes from here. I've had a lot of success this year. By far this is the best that I've ever done. This is just another step. I'm definitley pleased with how I did. I'll remember this moment for the rest of my life.

Pauly: Which do you prefer online play or live poker?

Rizen: I prefer playing online because it allows me to stay at home and be by my family. It's fun playing in the big live events. But being away from home kinda sucks. I won't be playing too many live events this year with my wife expecting our second child in December. I want to be home for that.

Pauly: People are finally gonna put a face with the name "Rizen." Are you prepared for your impending fame?

Rizen: I have not prepared for it at all. We'll see how everything happens after the episodes air on ESPN. I have no idea what to expect. I'm a pretty laid back guy so I'm not even sure I'm excited about the prospects of being recognized.

by Wil Wheaton

Hi,

I just wanted to thank you for your reporting of Rob Berryman throughout the WSOP . . . After reading your reports Rob became my sentimental favourite to win and I was gutted when I found out he'd been eliminated. He seems like a nice guy and I'm glad he did so well. Thanks for letting me hear his story.

K. (via e-mail)

I met Rob Berryman and his dad in the PokerStars suite shortly after he cashed out yesterday. We sat down on the fine Corinthian leather couches, and I struggled to find a question.

What I wanted to say was, "You don't know me at all, but I've watched you closely and talked with your dad for the last few days, and you're the guy I wanted to win this whole thing, because you're not a jerk." I wanted to say, "You don't know me at all, but I'm really proud of you, kid."

I didn't want to pester him with lots of questions, because I knew there were plenty of other writers lining up to do that. So when we sat on the couch, and his dad brought us a couple of sodas, I just said, "Well, that sucked."

Rob didn't agree with me. He told me that he wanted to win. He was happy to take a big risk, even though it didn't pay off, and he knew that he was ahead when all the money went in.

"I knew Thorsson didn't have anything," he said, "and I figured that I was ahead of Einhorn. I figured I could get them to lay down their hands, and if I got called, I had a lot of outs to win."

"Yeah," I said, "we all figured you had 61 outs."

He wrinkled his brow and cocked his head at me. "You mean 30.5 outs twice?"

I laughed, "No, man. I mean that we figured you were ahead, with a ton of outs, and you should have won the hand."

"Oh," he said, and smiled.

We talked for about a half-hour, and during our conversation, I learned that he is a guy who is full of surprises. First of all, he's twenty-one years old, and unlike 98% of the young players I've met since I came here five weeks ago, he has his feet solidly on the ground, and his head on straight. I was surprised to learn that this was his first multi-day live tournament. I was surprised to learn that he hasn't studied a lot of poker books (He read Super/System a year or so ago, and tried to play accordingly. He says it wrecked his game for six months.) I was surprised to learn that he doesn't even play the large MTT tourneys on PokerStars very often. "I like the $11 Turbo MTTs," he said, "and I've qualified for the big Sunday tournament lots of times, but I usually sell the entries."

"Will you come play again next year?" I said.

"Only if I win a cheap seat," he said, but ten thousand dollars could be spent much more wisely. "I don't want to be a professional poker player, at all."

He took a deep drink from his soda and said, "Poker should just be a fun, recreational, enjoyable game. I couldn't have the life that these guys have. It's hard to be away from home for a long time and . . . well, I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm not real crazy about Vegas."

I didn't tell Rob how, over the last five weeks, we on Team Blog have taken turns talking each other off the ledge, as the weight of Vegas oscillates between unbearable and insufferable. Instead, I asked Rob if he played any sports when he was a kid. He told me that he played all the regular games that high schoolers play, including football and basketball.

"How does this compare?" I said. "Did you have some of the same emotions in the World Series that you had in school sports?"

He thought for a minute and said, "I guess it's sort of like making it to game three of the state championship playoffs. You played hard, you played your best, but you didn't go all the way, so it's a little disappointing."

While we talked, I felt like Rob and his dad were disappointed that he didn't finish deeper, but they were grateful for the entire experience, and accepted the result with the pride and serenity that comes from knowing that Rob absolutely did his best. I wanted to put my notebook away, and take them out for a beer, (probably not to the Tilted Kilt, but maybe to Buzio's) but Rob's phone rang again, and he couldn't keep the reporters at bay any longer.

"I have to take this call," he said, as he walked out of the suite to do an interview.

My friend Ryan, who played with Rob on day two, gave him some coaching and advice at the end of that day (which, by the way, is extremely valuable. Ryan advised me during this year's WPT Invitational, and I finished 23rd) came into the suite while we talked, and when Rob an out to talk on the phone, he mentioned to Rob's dad how much he enjoyed playing with him, because he was a good kid. His dad smiled and said that ESPN talked with Rob for about thirty minutes earlier in the day, and the producer told him, "We don't like young punks, and your son is not a young punk."

Stop the world, people. ESPN and I agree on something.

His dad also told us that Rob's tight, smart, aggressive play -- as well as his humility and grace -- earned the respect and attention of professional player Jeffrey Lisandro, who spent time coaching him at the end of each day.

"That speaks volumes about your son's character," Ryan said, "because professional players don't just help a young kid out without a good reason."

Rob came back into the suite, and I told him that I knew he'd given me a lot of his time and attention, and I just wanted to know what he was doing next, now that this is all over.

"I just want to go fishing," Rob told me.

I knew he wasn't talking about poker -- though he easily could have been -- and I was happy for him.

I invited Rob to play in the Tuesday night WWdN Invitational (8:30 Eastern, password is monkey , entry is $10 +1) with us, because it is, like he said, "a fun, recreational, enjoyable game."

"I think you'll have a great time," I said.

"I'll see you there," he said.

We shook their hands, and I wished them well. When we walked out of the suite, they went left, toward the taxi stand and one step closer to the real world where Rob will finish his degree in finance later this year, and we went right, back down the hallway and toward the tournament room.

"I'm really depressed," I said to Ryan, as we walked.

"Don't be," Ryan said. "You know, he probably finished in exactly the right place for him. He has enough money from this event to take care of college, and he's got his head on right, so he'll invest the rest wisely. He'll be the king of his home game, and he'll be able to walk down the street without anyone bugging him. This will change his life just enough to be enjoyable, but not so much that it becomes a burden."

Ryan was right, of course, like he always is about anything involving poker. Maybe the poker gods really do know what they're doing.

by Brad "Otis" Willis

When you turn over an hourglass, the top-level sand looks as if it may never move. Time is passing. You can see it falling into the bottom glass. At the top, the part we watch in real life, everything moves slow enough that you're sure it will never end.

That's the way the 2006 World Series has been so far. With more than 8,700 players starting in the record-breaking event, it was impossible to look at anything but the big picture. It seemed this event would never end.

But that's the thing about the hourglass-nature of the WSOP. As the top-level sand sinks closer to the middle of the glass, every grain seems to be moving faster. Players are falling into the pit of elimination at such a rate that the tournament directors had to call a halt to play after less than five full hours of play.

When it ended today, 27 players remained. Among them sat five people who won their WSOP seats on PokerStars.

Here are our players going into Tuesday.
-----

Erik Friberg


Erik "lirarerik" Friberg is the picture of calm at the table and the same applies off. He said he is 23-years-old, from Stockholm and that he plays online as "lirarerik", where he won a $160 double shootout to book his spot in Vegas. Typically, the cards were otherwise kept close to his chest; he's giving nothing away. Friberg cracked pocket aces today with 4-5 out of the big blind to rocket toward the top of the leaderboard for the seoncd day in a row. Chips: 7,735,000 (2nd)

Dan Nassif


With 5,430,000 in chips, Dan Nassif is well within shot of the $12,000,000 top prize. He is here on his own, having banned anyone from coming to support him until he makes the final table. He said: "I've been calling my parents and friends in the breaks but I don't want anyone coming here yet. That was my idea at the beginning and I'm sticking to that." Chips: 5,430,000 (5th)

Doug Kim


The Duke University homegame regular and good buddy to online wunderkind Jason Strasser, Doug "technologic" Kim, had an up-and-down day today that ended on the good end. He finished with nearly 3.6 million in chips, enough to put him in the top half of the remaining field. Chips: 3,595,000 (11th)

Eric "Rizen" Lynch


After having his aces cracked today, the poker phenom looked like he might be down for the count. Instead, he doubled up with 20 minutes left and got back in the fight. He is currently in the middle of the field. If anyone doubles him up tomorrow, they best be careful or he could very well be final table bound. Chips: 1,785,000 (17th)

Mark Garner


"Thrilled." That's the first word that escaped Mark "MGCAPRI" Garner's mouth after he bagged his chips at the end of the day. The 43-year-old bond broker is here after winning a 160 double shootout on PokerStars. While he only has 635,000 in chips, he's guaranteed almost half a million bucks in prize money. Retire early? "Not yet," he says. He'll be looking to double up early on Tuesday. Chips: 635,000 (26th)
----

Play resumes at noon on Tuesday. Tournament directors are planning to play from 27 down to nine players. If that happens, it's going to be a very long day (which will completely kill my hourglass analogy). Of course, Team Blog will be on hand for the entire day, night, and morning.

by Wil Wheaton

One of the chief tasks of the writer is to share his emotions with the reader, so that the reader may be in the same place, emotionally as well as physically, as the writer.

If you'd like to be where I am right now, please stand up, and punch yourself in the stomach. Then, sit down, and do it again.

Rob "Boilingfish" Berryman was eliminated in 33rd place today, when he made a championship move -- with his money ahead, no less -- against two players who quite frankly had no business being in the hand. Hell, even I know that, and I suck at poker.

My family is in town today, stopping by on their way home from Arizona, where my older son looked at a couple of colleges. Since I haven't seen my boys in over a month, I got permission from Otis to come in a little late this afternoon, so I could spend time with my family and recharge.

After breakfast together and a morning spent in the pool, I came into the Rio happier and more relaxed and at peace than I've felt since the day I got here. It was a nice feeling, and it lasted for all of fifteen minutes.

"How's my guy doing?" I asked Pauly and Otis when I walked into the media room.

"He doubled up, then he took a little hit on a suckout," Otis said, "but he's doing fine."

"Awesome," I said. "I'm going to go in and check on him."

The room feels smaller, and darker, now that all but four tables -- one of them the featured table on the ESPN stage -- remain. Rob's table was near one corner, and to get there, I had to walk all the way around the perimeter of the tournament area. As I walked, I marveled at how much the room had compressed. Just a few days ago (or fifteen years, in Vegas time) there were over 8700 players with ten thousand chips, hoping to get here, hoping to be one of the remaining 33, with over a million chips.

Rob Berryman, who told me he has no desire to play poker in any non-recreational capacity, got there. He outlasted the largest field in history, and all but two serious poker professionals.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry about that, I'm a little emotional right now (again: fist + stomach or foot + junk, if that's how you roll.)

When I got to Rob's table, I turned around and said hello to his dad, who said to me, "See, Wil, you show up, and he plays a hand!" (Yesterday, it seemed like he was only in hands when I happened to drop by, and his dad said to me, "You're his good luck charm." My thoughts immediately went to CJ and Dmitri, and I said, "Oh man, I don't want that!")

Rob was in the big blind, David Einhorn had opened for 160K from middle position. William Thorsson called, and Rob called. The flop came Qs9c5c and Rob checked. Einhorn bet 400K, Thorsson raised to 1.3M, and Rob check-raised them both all-in.

Einhorn thought for .00094 seconds, and called for his last 900K. Thorsson, who I guess took some of my stupid pills this morning, went into the tank for almost five minutes, and also called. ESPN's cameras swarmed around the table, and everything else in the room slowed to bullet time while the dealer counted out the main and side pots.

Rob looked anxious to turn over his cards. I turned to his dad and said, "He must have a set, nines or queens. Thorsson must be on a flush draw, and maybe Einhorn has aces or kings."

We waited for an age, then we waited for another age while an ESPN cameraman loaded in a new tape (He politely barked at the table, "Hey! Don't flip over your cards until I'm ready!" Real classy, those ESPN guys.)

Finally, we saw their cards: Rob turned up 7c8c, for the straight flush draw, Einhorn showed AsQc for top pair (brilliant!) and Thorsson showed . . . KsJs for the 22-1 longshot that he called getting 6-1 (genius!)

"Rob's slightly ahead," I said to his dad, "and these other guys are morons for calling."

The turn was the ace of hearts, and suddenly one of those morons seemed pretty smart. You can start punching yourself in the stomach now, if you'd like to follow along with me at home.

"Come on, just one club. Just put one club out there," I said. "I'll never ask for anything again, I promise."

The dealer knocked the table, and slid one card off the top of the deck underneath the largest pile of poker chips I've ever seen in my life, and I held my breath as the river card came off the top of the deck.

I can see it perfectly in my memory: I'm leaning to my left, catching a glimpse between the tape-changing camera guy and the player in the two seat who stood up to watch the action. The card is slowly turned just at the edge of the chips, as the dealer's hand nears the edge of the board. I don't know what card it is, but I know that it's red, and I know that Rob and his dad are going home. When it's finally revealed, it's the ace of diamonds, and suddenly the worst call in the world looks like a genius move, as Einhorn triples up and rockets to third in chips.

Rob stood up, and shook hands with every player at his table. He was calm, poised, and full of grace as he collected his things: his sunglasses, his backpack, and a few pieces of paper. A Harrah's escort walked him out of the tournament area, as Nolan Dalla announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating our 33rd place finisher, Rob Berryman, who was the youngest player left at 21 and three months."

Tears filled my eyes as I joined the room in thunderous applause. My friend April, standing just a few feet to my left said, "I think I'm going to cry a little bit." All I could do was nod my head.

I jammed my notebook into my back pocket as the dealer pushed the largest pile of poker chips I've ever seen in my life -- both in quantity and value -- to Einhorn.

"Can someone help me stack these chips?" He said.

"Stack them yourself, you [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]" I muttered to myself. (I later felt bad for referring to Einhorn in such a manner, even if it was entirely under my breath and spoken in a moment of gut-wrenching emotion, when I found out that he's pledged 100% of his winnings -- at this point nearly 500K -- to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease. Mad Harper says, "I love that man.")

I talked with Rob and his dad in the PokerStars suite after he cashed out. I'll have that later, but right now I need some time alone.

Note: PokerStars qualifier Erik Friberg, who won his seat to the WSOP in a PokerStars double shootout, now sits in second place in chips with 27 players remaining. The reticent Swede shared a few thoughts with our European chief, Howard Swains

by Howard Swains

You take a risk approaching poker players during their infrequent breaks in the action. They aren't going to bite your head off, but they might prefer to be alone. Play at this level takes focus and discipline and the last thing you want to spend your 15 minutes respite doing is answering banal questions from reporters.

Even so, I had to catch up with Erik Friberg, the Swedish qualifier who is currently top among the PokerStars players and the closest of all competitors to the runaway chip-leader. Erik is the picture of calm at the table and the same applies off. He told me that he is 23-years-old, from Stockholm and that he plays online as "lirarerik", where he won a $160 double shootout to book his spot in Vegas. Typically, the cards were otherwise kept close to his chest; he's giving nothing away.

Erik Friberg

"All the Swedes are aggressive, but Erik is about the most aggressive of them all," explained a Swedish journalist, who is following Friberg's progress as closely as us. "He's only 23 but plays all the time at the Stockholm casinos as well as online. He has loads of experience and none of us are surprised to see him here."

A quick check in the major poker databases reveals a cash in the PokerStars European Poker Tour event in Barcelona, follwed by a first place, for $87,000, in the Swedish Poker Challenge in Stockholm last year. Here, with just 30 players remaining, he's already assured at least $329,000. Probably a whole lot more.

5:01pm--Cuong Do out--Play ends for the day

Cuong Do, the mild-mannered 24-year-old from Toronto, Canada, has been eliminated in 30th place. Cuong, the big blind, was dealt Js8d. There was only one caller before the flop came down 5s7s8s, giving Cuong top pair and a flush draw. He bet $175,000, was raised the minimum and called another $175,000.

A Queen of spades on the turn gave Cuong his flush. Both players checked to see a 5 on the river. Cuong said: "I checked on the river but I was actually prepared to call any bet. He went all-in so I called."

The other player, with 58, had made full house on the river. It wasn't what Cuong was expecting. He said: "I put him on a bluff. If he didn’t have the flush, and I didn't think he did, then he had to bet to get me out of the pot." Cuong takes home $329,865.

Play has ended for the day with 27 players. We'll have full chip counts in a bit.

4:42pm--Doug Kim doubles

With blinds at 25K/5K0/5K...

Doug Kim raises to 150 from the button--Paul W. called and Jamie Gold called from the blinds. Flop comes 3J6 all clubs. Checked all the way. Ten of hearts came on the turn. Gold bet out 500. Doug Kim moved all in for an addiitional 890K. Gold called with 89 in hearts for the bottom straight draw. Doug Kim holds KcQh for top straight draw and king-high flush draw. An ace falls on the river to give Kim his straight and the win. He's now up over 2.5 million in chips.

4:30pm--Rizen rising

After taking a massive hit before the break, Rizen is back on the move, doubling up then taking down another big pot to climb back to 2 million. The first time, all in pre-flop with Q-10, he turned a straight. Then a big re-raise on the flop with two diamonds showing was good enough for another 500,000 or so.

4:21pm--Dan Nassif climbing through the field

Dan Nassif has doubled up and is now on $4,100,000. Sitting on the feature table, he was on the button with pocket 9s and raised to $140,000. Everyone folded apart from the big blind. The flop came down 2s5s8s. The big blind bet $5,000,000 and Dan raised all-in. He said: "I didn't think he had anything so I went for it. In fact, he was on a straight draw with 6c7c but it didn't happen."

4:04pm--Break time

With 30 players remaining, we're on break for a bit. There is a rumor (yeah, I don't believe it), that we're only going to play down to 27 players before breaking for the day. If we DO stop there, we'll be down to where the TDs expected we would be at the end of play...tomorrow. If we don't stop there, there's a chance we could eb a day and a half ahead of schedule. Regardless, play will continue in just a bit.

3:58pm--Doug Kim up to 1.8 million

With the blinds at 20K/40K/5K, Doug Kim made it 120,000 to play, Jamie Gold called Lee Kort called. The flop came out TdTs5h. The players checked around. A jack of hearts fell on the turn. Gold checked, Lee Kort bet 200K, and Doug called. Gold folded. The river was a nine of hearts. Kort checks. Doug thinks for two minutes then checks behind, showing KQ for runner-runner straight win for 850,000.

3:46pm--Updated chip counts

Erik Friberg 6.5 million
Dan Nassif 4.2 million
Cuong Do 1.7 million
Doug Kim 1.3 million
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 800,000
Mark Garner 380,000

3:43pm--PokerStars cannibalism - pt III

Cuong Do has just doubled up but unfortunately it was against Mark Garner. Mark called Cuong's $90,000 raise to see a Q32 flop. Mark checked but when Cuong bet $250,000 he raised all-in and flipped over AQ. Sadly for Mark - whose parents fly in from Little Rock, Arkansas tonight - Cuong had pocket Aces and they held up.

3:40pm--PokerStars cannibalism - part II

Huge pot goes to Erik Friberg; Rizen is the victim. Rizen raises 130K under-the-gun. Friberg calls from the big blind. Flop comes Qc-9s-5s and Friberg checks. Rizen bets 200,000 and Friberg calls. Turn is 4c and, after Friberg checks again, Rizen makes it 300,000. Friberg now moves all-in, for about 3 million. Rizen squeezes his cards again and I see A-A. He dwells, then calls for about 90 per cent of his stack. Friberg shows 4-5d for two pair. River is a blank and the Swede scoops a 4 million pot.

3:20pm--PokerStars cannibalism

Erik Friberg called in late position and Rizen raised. Friberg called The flop came down KsTs9h. Friberg bet out 250,000 and Rizen calls. The jack of spades came on the turn. Friberg checked and Rizen bet out 300,000. Friberg called. The four of clubs came on the river. Both players checked. Rizen showed KQ for the straight. Friberg mucked and claims to have had an ace (presumably the ace of spades).

3:17pm--A look around the room

Eric "Rizen" Lynch


Erik Friberg


Cuong Do


Humberto Brenes


Dan Nassif


Mark Garner


Rob Berryman

3:08pm--Rob Berryman eliminated

Rob Berryman has been eliminated from the event after flopping a straight flush draw and getting all his money against two other players. He missed his many outs. He places 33rd for $329,865.

2:20pm--Friberg loses a million
Erik Friberg makes a small pre-flop raise, called by Allen Cunningham in the small blind. The flop of 5c-Qd-7s is checked by both players then Cunningham bets 300,000 when Js turns. Friberg calls. The river is the 6d and Cunningham bets 800,000 which is also called by Erik. Cunningham shows pocket fives for bottom set and Erik mucks.

2:05 pm--Humberto Brenes eliminated

Team PokerStars' Humberto Brenes has been eliminated after making a move with 58s and running into pocket kings.

2:05 pm--Kyle Bowker eliminated

Kyle Bowker has been eliminated from the 2006 WSOP after running pocket tens into pocket kings.

1:51pm--Break time chips counts

Erik Friberg 4.1 million
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 3.75 million
Dan Nassif 2.3 million
Rob Berryman 2.3 million
Mark Garner 1.3 million
Doug Kim 800,000
Cuong Do 800,000
Kyle Bowker 410,000
Humberto Brenes 430,000
Brian Hansen--Eliminated

1:35pm--Do doubles

Cuong Do just doubled through with jacks versus AK. He now sits on 660,000

1:34pm--Brenes back from the dead

Anything you might have read about Brenes being eliminated, forget about that. he just got moved off the featured table and is now playing somewhere else.

1:30pm--Nassif doubles up

Dan Nassif just doubled up took a pot of more than $1 million when he called in all-in raise with AK against AJ and the best hand held up.

1:15pm--A few words on Erik Friberg

As we're just getting to know Erik Friberg, here's a little bit about him: he comes from Stockholm, Sweded. His nickname "lilar" is Swedish slang for "player" or "gambler." The young man in his mid-twenties is an internet genius who won the Swedish Poker Challenge in 2005.

1:12pm--Cuong Do on life support

Cuong Do, who started the day with 1.15 million in chips is now down to less than 400,000. His series of raises have fallen victim to re-raises and forced Do to fold. Do is now very short-stacked.

1:10-pm--Brian Hansen eliminated

A middle position player made it 90,000 to play, Jamie Gold re-raises to 300,000. Brian Hansen called from the button and the original raiser folded. The flop came 8d4d9h. Gold moved all in and Hansen called. Gold asked if Hansen had a set and turned over aces. Hansen flipped over tens. The turn gave Hansen a straight draw, but he didn't get there on the river. Gold is now the monster chip leader with around 10 million.

1:02pm--Where did Rob Berryman get so much game?

Well, in his home game, of course.





Thanks to Berryman's fans back in Alabama for the pictures.

12:59pm--Rizen all but doubles up

In an unraised pot, Rizen sat in the big blind, when the flop came 5h9hTs. One guy who had limped into the pot made it 150,000 to go. Rizen check-raised to 400,000. The limper called and the turn was Th. Rizen now bets out half a million. The original limped moves all in for 390,000 more. Rizen thinks for a long while and says, "I can't fold," and shows T8 for top trips and says, "If you have a flush, you win." His opponent shows J9 suited in spades and is eliminated. Rizen is now a monster.

12:56pm--Garner riding a Tilt-A-Whirl

Garner, down to 550,000 in chips, just doubled up with 77 vs. AK on a T938Q.

12:52--Berryman gets unlucky with Big Slick

Berryman, holding AK, just got unlucky against short-stacked Richard Wyrick's AQ. A queen flopped and took about 800,000 out of Berryman's stack.

12:48--Friberg dodges 1.5 million chip bullet

A short-stack just moved in for 395,000. Erik Friberg called. The button then moved all in for 1.5 million more. Friberg, just off a ten minute penalty for accidentlly exposing his cards, took a long time before deciding to fold. Turns out it was a good fold. He was up again AJ and A8. He told his friends on the rail that he would not have won.

12:41pm--Rob Berryman doubles up.

Berryman raises from button. Ricki Nielsen re-reraises from the blind and Berryman moves all in, Nielsen calls with A3, Berryman has pocket queens. Kyle Bowker says "I folded an ace." The flop comes KJ7 rainbow...then a four and eight on turn and river. Now bad for a kid who plays a 1/2 home game in Alabama.

12:34pm--Garner cut in half

Over two hands, Mark Garner has lost a million of his starting stack. It started when PokerStars SuperNova Brian Hansen took 750,000 off him. Garner then lost about 250,000 to chip leader Jamie Gold on a subsequent hand.

-------
Day 6 of the World Series of Poker Main Event is underway. Updates can be found here all day long.

Here's who we'll be following:

Erik Friberg



Erik Friberg is from Stockholm, Sweden. His nickname "lirar" is Swedish slang for "player" or "gambler." The young man in his mid-twenties is an internet poker genius who won the Swedish Poker Challenge in 2005.

Eric Lynch



While Eric "Rizen" Lynch has been proving himself online at PokerStars for months now, many people are saying the 2006 WSOP is his coming out party. He's aleady made the final table of a $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event this year and now has more chips than any other PokerStars qualifier in the field. Chips: 1,950,000


Mark Garner


Mark Garner has a couple of reasons to be happy this week. He just celebrated his birthday and he's not walking away from Las Vegas with less than $240,000. The man from Little Rock, Arkansas lost some chips toward the end of the day after a failed bluff, but got them all back then some at the very end of the night. Chips: 1,800,000



Doug Kim


Doug "technologic" Kim recently graduated from Duke with a degree in Economics. He won his seat on PokerStars on July 23rd, one of the last satellites available. His game has been honed through PokerStars play as well as in a Duke home game that includes Jason Strasser. Chips: 1,335,000



Brian Hansen


Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen is the only remaining PokerStars VIP Club Supernova member left in the field. The long-haired poker player is a rock at the table and is among the elite players online at PokerStars. Chips: 1,230,000


Cuong Do


Cuong Do is a 24-year-old who had never left Canada until he came to the World Series of Poker. He had to get an emergency passport to come to the WSOP. What's more, he'd never played a live tournamet and now he is guaranteed nearly $250,000 in the 2006 WSOP. Chips: 1,100,000



Rob Berryman


Rob "boilingfish" Berryman is barely old enough to even play in the WSOP. He's only been of age for two months. Now, while his friends scream "Roll Tide" from Alabama, Steve sits in the final 45 players while his dad watches and takes notes from the rail. if Steve wins this, he will be the youngest WSOP main event winner ever. Chips: 1,250,000


Dan Nassif


Dan Nassif wasn't really expecting to be in Vegas today. The 33-year-old advertising sales executive is taking vacation to play in the World Series - and last year he got knocked out on the first day when his tens ran into AK and the flop brought king. Obviously, this year is going much better. Chips: 1,035,000


Kyle Bowker



Kyle "kwob20" Bowker is originally from Walton, New York, but now lives in New York City. He now plays poker professionally, and his best tournament finish previous to this event is a 4th place finish a World Poker Finals event at Foxwoods. This is his first cash in three WSOP events. Chips: 885,000


Humberto Brenes


Humberto Brenes needs no introduction. He is the Godfather of Costa Rican poker and is the most famous of the Brenes family of poker players. Brenes is also a proud member of Team PokerStars. Chips: 565,000

With Day 5 now behind us, only 45 players remain in the 2006 World Series of Poker. Among the field sit nine PokerStars players who are all fighting for their first WSOP bracelet. So far, dozens and dozens of PokerStars players have cashed in the main event. You can see those players my checking out the PokerStars WSOP winners page. Now, it's time for the nine remaining PokerStars players to fight for their spot at the final table. Day 6 play begins at noon on Monday. Here's a look at PokerStars biggest stars of the WSOP main event.

Erik Friberg



Erik Friberg is from Stockholm, Sweden. His nickname "lirar" is Swedish slang for "player" or "gambler." The young man in his mid-twenties is an internet poker genius who won the Swedish Poker Challenge in 2005. Chips: 5,905,000

Eric Lynch



While Eric "Rizen" Lynch has been proving himself online at PokerStars for months now, many people are saying the 2006 WSOP is his coming out party. He's aleady made the final table of a $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event this year and now has more chips than any other PokerStars qualifier in the field. Chips: 1,950,000


Mark Garner


Mark Garner has a couple of reasons to be happy this week. He just celebrated his birthday and he's not walking away from Las Vegas with less than $240,000. The man from Little Rock, Arkansas lost some chips toward the end of the day after a failed bluff, but got them all back then some at the very end of the night. Chips: 1,800,000



Doug Kim


Doug "technologic" Kim recently graduated from Duke with a degree in Economics. He won his seat on PokerStars on July 23rd, one of the last satellites available. His game has been honed through PokerStars play as well as in a Duke home game that includes Jason Strasser. Chips: 1,335,000



Brian Hansen


Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen is the only remaining PokerStars VIP Club Supernova member left in the field. The long-haired poker player is a rock at the table and is among the elite players online at PokerStars. Chips: 1,230,000


Cuong Do


Cuong Do is a 24-year-old who had never left Canada until he came to the World Series of Poker. He had to get an emergency passport to come to the WSOP. What's more, he'd never played a live tournamet and now he is guaranteed nearly $250,000 in the 2006 WSOP. Chips: 1,100,000



Rob Berryman


Rob "boilingfish" Berryman is barely old enough to even play in the WSOP. He's only been of age for two months. Now, while his friends scream "Roll Tide" from Alabama, Steve sits in the final 45 players while his dad watches and takes notes from the rail. if Steve wins this, he will be the youngest WSOP main event winner ever. Chips: 1,250,000


Dan Nassif


Dan Nassif wasn't really expecting to be in Vegas today. The 33-year-old advertising sales executive is taking vacation to play in the World Series - and last year he got knocked out on the first day when his tens ran into AK and the flop brought king. Obviously, this year is going much better. Chips: 1,035,000


Kyle Bowker



Kyle "kwob20" Bowker is originally from Walton, New York, but now lives in New York City. He now plays poker professionally, and his best tournament finish previous to this event is a 4th place finish a World Poker Finals event at Foxwoods. This is his first cash in three WSOP events. Chips: 885,000


Humberto Brenes


Humberto Brenes needs no introduction. He is the Godfather of Costa Rican poker and is the most famous of the Brenes family of poker players. Brenes is also a proud member of Team PokerStars. Chips: 565,000

For a look at all the coverage from Day 5, visit the World Series of Poker Day 5 Index.

Beginning Day 6 Chip Count

Jamie Gold Malibu, CA $7,330,000
Erik Friberg Stockholm, Sweden $5,905,000
William Thorson $3,545,000
Rhett Butler Rockville, MD $3,210,000
Kevin Aaronson Mission Viejo, CA $3,190,000
Ricki Nielsen Copenhagen, Denmark $3,120,000
Siddharth Jain Los Angeles, CA $3,090,000
Michael Binger Atherton, CA $3,045,000
Jeffrey Lisandro Salerno, Italy $2,995,000
David Einhorn Rye, NY $2,840,000
Jim Routos Seattle, WA $2,775,000
Richard Lee San Antonio, TX $2,350,000
Robert Betts Albuquerque, NM $2,235,000
Andrew Schreibman Vienna, VA $2,200,000
Dan Schmiech Houston, TX $2,155,000
Paul Wasicka Westminster, CO $2,055,000
Lee Kort Los Angeles, CA $2,005,000
John Magill Ireland $1,955,000
Eric Lynch Olathe, KS $1,940,000
Rob Roseman Miami, FL $1,845,000
Mark Garner Little Rock, AR $1,810,000
Mitch Schock Bismarck, ND $1,785,000
Kevin O'Donnell Scottsdale, AZ $1,600,000
Prahlad Friedman Los Angeles, CA $1,600,000
Paul Raeburn Overby, Denmark $1,385,000
Eric Molina Mission Viejo, CA $1,360,000
Douglas Kim Hartsdale, NY $1,335,000
Marc Friedmann Zurich, Switzerland $1,315,000
Weikai Chang Bay Area $1,295,000
Allen Cunningham Las Vegas, NV $1,290,000
Brian Hansen Norman, OK $1,230,000
Mikael Thuritz Stockholm, Sweden $1,185,000
Rob Berryman Killen, AL $1,150,000
Cuong Do Toronto, Canada $1,115,000
Dustin Holmes Atlanta, GA $1,100,000
Fred Goldberg Hollywood $1,080,000
Dan Nassif St. Louis, MO $1,035,000
Kyle Bowker Walton, NY $885,000
Sirous Jamshidi Philadelphia, PA $845,000
John Lee Las Vegas, NV $805,000
Richard Wyrick Lake Mary, FL $800,000
Humberto Brenes Costa Rica $565,000
Luke Chung Atlanta, GA $560,000
Leif Force Tallahassee, FL $510,000
Lowell Kim Las Vegas, NV $350,000

Workd Series of Poker Day 5 Index

PokerStars WSOP Winners

WSOP Day 5 Updates

The Best of the Best (by Dr. Pauly and Mad Harper)

Cuong Do (by Mad Harper)

Rob Berryman (by Wil Wheaton)

Carlos and Iago Lopez (by Mad Harper)

Brian Nadell (by Wil Wheaton)

Brian Nadell eliminated (by Mad Harper)

Return to Deep Stack Poker (by Wil Wheaton)

Old King Coles (by Howard Swains)

by Mad Harper

I love the World Series. It just continually throws up the most extraordinary scenarios. Take Cuong Do, a quiet and sensitive Canadian lad who the PokerStars blog team hadn't even spotted until just before the end of Day 4.

Cuong is quiet as a mouse and serene as a statue of Buddha. I watched this softly-spoken 24-year-old for hours today and he barely flickered. When I finally got a chance to talk to him - at the end of Day 5, sitting on $1.1 million chips and a guaranteed $247,000 in prize money - he confirmed what I thought: this was a Zen performance.



"It's true", said Cuong, whose parents come from Hanoi, North Vienam but are now settled in Toronto, Canada. "I just really focus on playing. I don't think about or hear anything else. It's odd because when I'm playing online, I watch TV, eat, loads of stuff. But other people have said it to me too - that when I'm playing live, I really don't have any facial expressions."

The truly odd thing about Cuaong's performance so far however is that he has never even played in a live tournament before. In fact, he's never left Canada before and, after winning one of the very last qualifying satellites on PokerStars, had to apply for an emergency passport to travel to the US.

He said: "I played on Day 1a, the very first day. I've played online for two years, but live - well, I've never played with more than a dozen people before. Just some home games at college. And I should have been nervous seeing a room with 2,000 people - but it's odd, I just cut it all out. Phil Ivey is like that. He's one of my favourite players and he doesn't seem to notice anything except the cards. And that's how I feel too - once the dealer deals the cards, that's it. That's all there is."

11:32pm--Play ends for the night

Players are bagging thier chips. Nine PokerStars players remain in the field of 45. With blinds at 15000/30000/5000, the players have approximately"

Eric "Rizen" Lynch 1,950,000
Mark "MGCAPRI" Garner 1,800,000
Doug "technologic" Kim 1,335,000
Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen 1,350,000
Rob "boilingfish" Berryman 1,250,000
Cuong "StackChipz71" Do 1,100,000
Dan Nassif 1,035,000
Kyle "kwob20" Bowker 885,000
Humberto Brenes 635,000

We'll have an official full chip count on PokerStars players as soon as we can. Day 6 will begin at noon on Monday.

11:31pm--Sean Johnson eliminated

Sean Johnson has been eliminated in 46th place. Play has ended for the night.

11:15pm--Raphael Doromal eliminated

PokerStars qualifier Raphael Doromal is out in 47th place. He earns $164,932.

11:11pm--Dave Murray eliminated

All-in pre=flop with deuces, Murray ran into Jamie Gold's pocket tens. The flop gave both players a set. Murray had one out that didn't come. Murray is out in 48th place, earning $164,932.

11:09pm--Cheng Yu eliminated
All-in pre-flop with AJ vs. kings, Cheng Yu had a glimmer of hope when a jack flopped. That glimmer turned into a black hole when the board didn't improve his hand. Yu is out in 49th place, earning $164,932.

11:04pm Play resumes--Players are back from the break. The rumor is we're playing this level or down to five tables, whichever comes first. Of course, rumors are just rumors. if I had reported the last rumor I heard, we wouldn't be playing right now.

10:43pm--Rizen sits atop PokerStars WSOP leaderboard

Is it any surprise this guy has more than $2 million in chips and more than any other PokerStars player left in the field of 49?

Eric "Rizen" Lynch

10:35pm--30 Minute break for color up

We're breaking for half and hour while the TDs color up the $1,000 chips. After that, we'll play the last level of the night.

10:21pm-Agony and Escasty for Dan Nassif

When the money went into the pot, Dan was ahead with his pocket 9's against AK. But when the flop came down AQ6, Dan's day was nearly done. A 9 on the turn, however, doubled Dan back up and he's now cracked the 1 million chip barrier.

10:17pm -- Doug Kim flirts with $2 million

Under the gun limps, folded around to small blind, who completes, and Doug Kim checks in the big blind. The players check down a board of 8AJJK to the river. It's checked to the player under the gun who bets 150,000. Doug Kim calls with J4 (The Jackhammer!) and takes down the hand. He is now just short of $2 million in chips.

10:05pm-Doug Kim plays Cowboys

Doug Kim found his pre-flop raise called by the 6 Seat. He checked the 3d2h5h flop and so did his opponent. When the 3 of clubs fell on the turn, Doug bet out at it and his opponent folded. Doug showed pocket Kings and now is approaching 2 million chips.

10:00pm--Cheng Yu battered and brusied

Cheng Yu is now regretting calling Jeff Lisandro's all in. Yu had top pair with a jack kicker. Lisandro had...well, he had the nuts (ace-high diamond flush). Yu is crippled.

9:46pm-Doug Kim Knocks Out O'Reilly

Scott O'Reilly moved in for his last $375k, and Doug Kim called with AsQc vs. the pocket 5's of O'Reilly. The board of 3KAA3 gave Doug the pot, moving him up to $1,700,000 and sending O'Reilly out in 54th place.

9:43pm-Chip Counts

54 players remaining

Coung Do 1.8 million
Cheng Yu 1.7 million
Doug Kim 1.7 million
Erick "Rizen" Lynch 1.45 million
Brian Hansen 1.25 million
Rob Berryman 1.15 million
Mark Garner 1.1 million
Kyle Bowker 950,000
Dan Nassif 700,000
Humberto Brenes 700,000
David Murray 700,000
Raphael Doromal 600,000
Sean Johnson 400,000

9:40pm-Humberto Brenes wins a big pot

When the hand was over, Humberto only needed one card in his hand, the Jack, which completed the four-card Broadway straight on the board. His opponent held just pocket 9s and Humberto moved up to about 700,000.

9:35pm-John Ma eliminated

John's Ma's all-in re-raise with AQ turned out to be the wrong move at the wrong time. His opponent held AK. Ma leaves in 55th place for $123,699.

9:26pm-Bowker mucks probable winning hand

Kyle Bowker raises to 80,000 fomr the cutoff. Allen Cunningham re-raises for another 160,000 from the small blind. The big blind thinks for a bit and folds. Finally, Bowker, after thinking for a few minutes, mucks what was surely the winning hand face-up--The Hammer (72o). [Note: We now think Bowker is on his way to the final table.]

9:17pm--Stories from Day 5

While we've been providing live updates all day long, Team Blog has been hard at work chatting up our players as well. Here are some stories from today:

The Best of the Best (by Dr. Pauly and Mad Harper)

Rob Berryman Doubles Up (by Wil Wheaton)

Old King Coles (by Howard Swains)

The Return to Deep Stack Poker (by Wil Wheaton)

Brian Nadel Feels The Rush (by Wil Wheaton)

The Pain of Brian Nadell (by Mad Harper)

"Eu sou Brasileiro!!!" (by Mad Harper)

8:37pm--Updated PokerStars chip counts

Cuong Do 1,750,000
Kyle Bowker 1,720,000
Mark Garner 1,730,000
Dan Nassif 820,000
John Ma 1,700,000
Cheng Yu 875,000
David Murray 875,000
Brian Hansen 1,335,000
Eric Lynch 700,000
Doug Kim 705,000
Humberto Brenes 361,000
Rob Berryman 430,000
Sean Johnson 500,000
Raphael Doromal 250,000

8:45pm--Reuben Peters

Reuben Peters, the friendly, backward-visor-wearing PokerStars player has just been eliminated from the 2006 WSOP. Congrats Reuben.

8:43pmSean Johnson doubles

Just back from dinner break, Sean Johnson has doubled through Willaim Thorsson.

8:30pm-Day 5 play has resumed.

7:00pm... Dinner break

Play will resume at 8:30pm.

6:50pm... Clint Brotherton has been eliminated

6:48pm--Brian Nadell out

Brian Nadell has just been eliminated - and is devastated. All-in before the flop with ATc, he was called by Ken Jacobs with KJs. The K4J flop gave him two clubs but gave Jacobs two pair.

An Ace on the turn gave Brian even more outs - any club or Queen would have saved him - but nothing turned up. Brian fell to his knees, absolutely speechless with grief. Ken's father - a friend of Brian's - grabbed him in a bear-hug and said: "I'm sorry it was Ken that knocked you out." But Brian couldn't answer and was in tears as he walked out the room.



6:28pm--Rizen gets lucky, doubles up

All-in pre-flop with AJ vs AQ, Rizen just got really lucky. The board came out QJx...J...J and Rizen is alive and well.

6:15pm--Doug Kim doubles up

All-in pre-flop, Doug Kim held aces to AK, the board ended up with J9J63. Kim now has $1.1 million.

6:12pm--Alan Resh eliminated

Alan Resh has been eliminated after running pocket queens into pocket aces. Resh came in for a raise to 60,000 and was re-raised to 200,000, then pushed all in for 180,000. No queen came on the board and Resh was eliminated.

5:41pm--Aaron Baltzell knocked out

From the small blind, Aaron Baltzell moved all-in for $179k after the cut-off bet $60k and the button called. The cut-off folds, but Kevin O'Donnell calls for with KdJh vs. Aaron's AcQs. The flop puts Aaron behind with 2sJs4s, and 10d on the turn brings the gutshot into play. 7c falls harmlessly on the board, and Aaron Baltzell is out in 74th ($65,973.)

5:35 PM--Rob "Boilingfish" Berryman doubles up

Rob Berryman, the youngest player remaining in the field and the last player to qualify in the largest World Series qualifier in history -- also a sentimental favorite of Team Blog's Wil Wheaton -- dodged a flush to double through William Thorsson with pocket tens vs. pocket nines. Rob has just over one million in chips.

5:16pm--Rizen hits quads

Eric "Rizen" Lynch just picked up quads to bust a player and get up over the $1,000,000 mark again.



5:15pm--Dmitri's party is over

Live by the sword, die by the sword. A player in early position makes a small raise, Dmitri re-raises in the cut-off. Player flat calls and we're heads up. Flop comes 3h-9d-6d and first player checks. Dmitri moves in for his remaining $400,000 and the insta-call spells trouble. Dmitri flips Kh-10h for a bluff, the player has two black sixes for the set. Dmitri is drawing dead to runner-runner flush and it doesn't come. He's out.



5:05pm--Is this the slowdown?

After a 20 minute break and the blinds moving up to $10,000 - $20,000 and a $3,000 ante, play has slowed down a little. Perhaps this is the fall-off in action the TDs were expecting.

4:35PM--Two hands: Bad for Dmitri, Good for Peters

Dmitri Nobles in the small blind calls a $46k bet from Ricardo Vecasso. The flop
comes Jh-10h-3d, and Dmitry bets $40k with a call. 3c comes on the turn,
and both players check. 9s hits the river, and Dmitry bets $100k into the
$212k pot. Vecasso moves all-in for another $375k, and as all the other
players are streaming to the exits for their break, Dmitry folds. He's
sitting at $600k.

Sean Johnson and Reuben Peters are all-in before the flop, with Sean having
him covered but behind with his 8s8h to Reuben's red aces. The first four
cards of 3d10s7s6s give Sean a lot of outs, the spades plus two other 9's.
Kc ships the pot from one PokerStars qualifier to the other. Reuben sits at
$330k and Sean is down to $420k.

4:31pm: Updated Chip Counts

81 players remaining

Cuong Do 2.3 million
Kyle Bowker 1.7 million
Mark Garner 1.6 million
Dan Nassif 1.5 million
John Ma 1.1 million
Alan Resh 900,000
Cheng Yu 875,000
David Murray 875,000
Brian Hansen 850,000
Clint Brotherton 760,000
Eric Lynch 700,000
Doug Kim 660,000
Dmitri Nobles 600,000
Raphael Doromal 500,000
Humberto Brenes 480,000
Rob Berryman 430,000
Brian Nadel 430,000
Sean Johnson 430,000
Rueben Peters 330,000
Aaron Baltzell 260,000

4:30pm: Clint Brotherton finds Aces at the right time

Facing a 50,000 chip preflop raise, Brotherton pushed all in and was immediately called. Brotherton had AA and his opponent showed KK. There was no help for the Kings and Brotherton suddenly found himself at more than 760,000 chips.

4:25pm: Paul Greim busted, brutally

Minutes before the second break of the day, Paul Greim earned himself a permanent one. It was brutal. He moved in with A-Q on a queen-high board. Ricki Nielsen called with K-Q and was dominated, but the king on the turn sent Greim out.

4:05pm: Updated Chip Counts

Kyle Bowker 2,075,000
Mark Garner 1,640,000
John Ma 1,160,000
Cuong Do 1,100,000
Dan Nassif 1,100,000
Sean Johnson, 1,100,000
Cheng Yu, 1,060,000
David Murray 880,000
Brian Hansen 850,000
Dmitri Nobles 800,000
Doug Kim 800,000
Eric Lynch 600,000
Raphael Doromal 572,000
Rob Berryman 565,000
Humberto Brenes 375,000
Reuben Peters 340,000
Clint Brotherton 230,000
Paul Greim 215,000

4:00pm: Rizen doubles up with Aces again

Eric "Rizen" Lynch moved all in on a flop of Ac-Jc-4h. he had A-A and Clint Brotherton called with K-J. The turn and river were blanks and Rizen's Aces held up. He numped up to 600K.

3:44pm: Rick Mombourquette's Day Ends

Rick move's all-in with AdQc but is up against Andrew Schreibman's As-Ks. The flop of Kc9hQh hit both but Rick needed more, and 7c10h meant Rick's great tournament was over (86th, $51,129).

3:21pm: Cuong Do wins a big one

With the board reading AdQdKh5s, Cuong's opponent pushed with a diamond flush draw and Cuong called with A5 offsuit and two pair. The diamond missed on the river, and Cuong doubled up to more than 1.2 million chips.

3:20pm: Huge pot for Mark Garner

Mark Garner just took down an extraordinary pot, both in size and the way it played. A young Scandinavian moved all in for his remaining 200,000 and it was called in three other spots - one of them Garner. Four players saw the king high rainbow flop, with somewhere approaching a million in the middle of the table. Garner, first to act, bet 200,000 and both other adversaries reluctantly folded - each giving it the Hollywood anguish. The all-in played flipped his A-Jh, Mark showed K-8 to gasps from the table and rail. No ace came and the pair of kings was good.

2:50pm: Chip counts and eliminations

Paul Coles (99th) and Iago Lopez (101st) are elminated and each will take home $51,129. Iago took a wicked bad beat. His pocet Aces were snapped off by Samir Khoueis's 10d-8d when Khoueis flopped a flush.

96 players remain. Other chip counts:

Kyle Bowker 2.2 million
Cheng Yu 1.8 million
Mark Garner 1.8 million
John Ma 1.1 million
Dan Nassif 1.1 million
Sean Johnson 1.1 million
Alan Resh 975,000
Dmitri Nobles 970,000
David Murray 950,000
Cuong Do 914,000
Rick Moumbourette 911,000
Doug Kim 790,000
Brian Hansen 720,000
Eric Lynch 700,000
Paul Greim 650,000
Brian Nadell 625,00
Humberto Brenes 610,000
Rob Berryman 480,000
Aaron Baltzell 360,000
Clint Brotherton 230,000

2:45pm: Rizen's pocket aces hold up

Eric "Rizen" Lynch doubled up with A-A against Hossein Khodabanelou's 6d-4d. That put him around 700K.

2:39pm: Brian Nadell hits a two outer

He agonized over the call and got himself all in preflop with pocket 8's vs. pocket T's. Sam Khoueis had the T's and was in good shape... at least until the flop of 899. Sam found no help on the turn or the river and he was eliminated in 98th for $51,129. Brian now has more than 600,000.

2:37pm: Quick Updates

Dmitri Nobles continues to accumulate chips and has himself up to 970,000. Brian Hansen, on the other hand, has dropped back to 560,000. Then there is Paul Greim, who's on a bit of a rush. Short-stacked, he doubled up when his AT spiked an Ace on the flop vs. 55. The next hand, he faced a huge re-raise pre-flop but Paul pushed and got his opponent to fold. Another raise on the next hand won Paul the pot and he's now up over 650,000.

2:15pm: Players on 20 minute break

2:12pm: Dmitri Nobles doubles through David Murray

It was the last hand before the break, and Dmitri did it again. Last time, it was the last hand of Day 3 when his pocket Q's busted AT offsuit. This time, Dmitri woke up with pocket K's and got all in preflop against David Murray's A5 offsuit. The flop gave Dmitri a set and it was over. Dmitri now stands at 780,000.

2:09pm: Brian Hansen knocks down another

It's becoming a trend. Brian gets into a race and wins. This time it was his pocket 9's against his opponents AJ offsuit. The flop was K33 with two hearts and the 6 of hearts on the turn gave Brian's opponent a flush draw. The river was a harmless J and Brian moves up to 1.5 million.

2:05pm: Cheng Yu loses to Queens

He was one of the biggest chip stacks, but then he ran his AJ suited into pocket Queens. The turn gave him a gutshot draw leaving him 7 outs on the river, but it was just a Jack. Cheng is down to 1.8 million.

2:03pm: Eric "Rizen" drops again

AQ is not kind to Rizen. The first time he ran into Pocket Aces, this time he ran into pocket Kings after a flop of T63. There was a Q on the turn, but a 6 on the river left him with just 300,000.

2:00pm: Hit for Dmitri Nobles

Dmitri Nobles raises from mid position, then calls a short-stack's all in re-raise. Dmitri has A-Q, the short-stack has 4-4. The pocket pair stands up all the way and our man from Houston is down to $375,000.

1:50pm: Double up for Paul Coles

The Englishman re-raises all-in from the button after the cut off tries what looks like a blind steal. It's called and Coles shows 8-8, the original raiser has A-Qd. Flop, turn and river are all blanks and Coles doubles up. Coles is now sitting next to Dave Murray.

1:22pm: Steven Goodemote eliminated by John Ma

After Steven Goodemote ran into A-A with J-J, he was cripled. Goodemote made a move with his short stacked and the Q-T of clubs. He was called by John Ma with 9-7 of hearts. The flop of Q-5-2 was great for Goodemote with only one heart. But Ma caught running hearts when a 3h fell on the turn and the Kh spiked on the river. Goodemote busted and will take home $51,129.

1:15pm: Sean Johnson's luck continues

After sucking out earlier, Sean looked down at pocket Aces and found himself all in against Steven Goodemote's pocket J's. The board was all undercards until the Q on the river. Sean moved to 1.1 million chips and Steven found himself crippled.

1:10pm: Paul Griem busts one

Paul Griem was holding AK when he got all in vs. Q-T. The flop was A-9-J giving Paul top pair but his opponent a gutshot. The 3 on the turn and the Q on the river were harmless and Paul moved up to more than 500,000.

1:05pm: Dmitri Nobles' luck turns

Dmitri Nobles has had his fair share of suck outs himself, but this one was a little rough as it went the other way. Holding A-4, the flop came A-4-Q. Dmitri got all in against AT but watched the board go K, then J for broadway. Dmitri now sits at 600,000.

1:03pm: Cheng Yu bullies Annie Duke

Cheng Yu raised from early position and found himself facing a re-raise from Annie Duke. He called and obviously liked the flop of A-J-7 because he check-raised Annie and forced her to lay down her hand. Cheng is up to 2.3 million. The pot was so big that Annie Duke helped him rake in his chips.


1:00pm: Sean Johnson sucks out

Sean Johnson isn't afraid to put his stack in the middle. With a flop of K-T-2, Sean pushed all in with 89. His opponent flipped AK and Sean was in big trouble. The dealer peeled runner-runner 9 off the deck and Sean doubled up to 528,000.

12:55pm: PokerStars Eliminations

Arturo Morales (127th), Chris Back (123rd) and Debra Lalor (117th) were eliminated. Morales will take home $47,006 while Back and Lalor have each earned $51,129.

12:50pm: Rizen runs into Aces

It was bad timing for Eric "Rizen" Lynch when he looked down at A-Q offsuit. A shortstack moved in holding Aces and despite catching a gutshot straight draw, Eric lost the hand and a big chunk of his stack. He now sits at about 600,000.

12:45pm: Chris Back eliminated

Chris Back lost an unfortunate hand. He was all in preflop with a race. His A-K lost to Daniel Kreitzman's 6-6. The flop was all blanks, but Back turned a King to take the lead. But Kreitzman rivered a set of 6s to bust Back in 123rd place. Back won $51,129.

12:40pm: Brian Hansen busts another

It was all in pre-flop and Brian Hansen's A-K was behind the 9 Seat's pocket 9's. Brian never found an Ace or a King, but he rivered broadway to send his opponent packing. Brian moves up to more than 1.4 million chips.

12:30pm: Debra Lalor loses a race

Debra Lalor called an all-in holding pocket 7s and faced K-Q suited from the 8 Seat. A King came on the flop and Debra couldn't find either of her outs. She now sits at just about 200,000 chips and finds herself in need of a double up.

12:05pm: Iago Gonzalez busts two on the first hand; Corey Butler eliminated

Iago Lopez Gonzalez busted two guys on the first hand. Bart Gilliom and Corey Butler moved all in preflop. Iago looked down and saw Q-Q and quickly called. Iago's Queens held up in a three-way pot against Gilliom's 6-6 and Butler's A-Q. Iago moved up to 570K in chips after that hand. Corey Butler, who entered the day as one of the shortstacks, busted out in 135th place. Butler won $47,006.

by Wil Wheaton

Rob Berryman's dad told me, "He's been playing well. The advice from Jeffrey Lisandro has really been helping him."

I looked at Rob's table, and saw that one of the chip leaders, William Thorsson was there, as well as a few large stacks. I forgot to record all the other details, because Rob got involved in a massive pot while I was standing there.

He raised under the gun, and Thorsson re-raised a lot. It was folded back to Rob, who calmly pushed all of his chips into the middle.

A photographer moved in next to me, blocking Rob's father's view.

"Hey, give his dad some space, okay?" I said. He stepped back.

"All-in on Table 151!" The dealer called out. ESPN cameras moved quickly into action, as Thorsson went into the tank. He stayed there for close to four minutes, and eventually called.

My stomach flipped, my heart raced, and my hands got numb . . . just like whenever I have all my chips at risk.

Rob turned up pocket tens, and Thorsson turned up . . . pocket nines!

Rob was a 90% favorite as the flop came out, all baby cards, but with two hearts, putting a possible backdoor flush draw on the board for Thorsson, who held the nine of hearts.

The turn was the hideous two of hearts, and Rob's chances of winning dropped to just under 80%. Even though the odds were in his favor, I've seen too many heartbreaking suckouts send people I care about to the rail in the last few days to feel any confidence.

"Come on," I said quietly to myself, "put a black card out there, dealer."

The dealer waited for an eternity before rapping the table and burning a card. He slowly pulled the last card off the top of the deck -- the card that was going to double Rob up or send him back to Alabama.

It was a red card. My heart stopped. "NO!"

It was the four of diamonds. "YES! YES! YES! YES!"

Rob, demonstrating a level of maturity and class that several players in the room -- including one prominent player at his table -- could learn from, nodded his head, and tapped the felt. William Thorsson, who doubled him up, did the same.

My legs felt weak, and I put my hand on the rail to steady myself. Black dots flashed at the edges of my vision.

"You're on camera," my friend Joy said.

"I don't care," I said. "My guy just doubled up!"

The dealer pushed Rob's stacks back to him, swept him the pot, then began counting out the rest of Thorsson's call.

I turned to his father, and shook his hand. What I really wanted to do was hug him, but I'm pretty sure that shit doesn't fly down in Alabama.

"Congratulations," I said, then I raced out of the room to update the blog.

After this pot, Rob had just over one million in chips.

Carlos Lopez and Iago Lopez are best friends and have known each other for 15 years. They live only six miles apart - near Lugo in Galicia, Spain. They took up playing poker together and both qualified for this year's WSOP on PokerStars, flying over together on the same flight.

Iago Lopez (left) and Carlos Lopez

Once at the Rio, they were drawn to play on exactly the same days during the tournament - and often only a few tables apart. They were the last surviving Spanish players here and both made it through to Day 5. Then, at 3.15pm this afternoon, they both got dealt Aces.

A lot of people here in the Rio could probably tell you the odds of all that happening. But what happened next is simply extraodinary.

Iago was dealt AdAh. With a three-diamond flop, he bet $50,000. Another player re-raised $200,000 and Iago called all in. But no other diamonds appeared to help him and the other player had already flopped his flush. Iago was out in 101st place - with a failed nut flush draw.

A few tables down, and at exactly the same time, Carlos, with about $200,000, was dealt an Ace of clubs and a King. Another player, with pocket 5s, bet all-in and the short-stacked Galician called. The flop brought another three clubs but no more appeared so the 5s took it. Carlos was out in 102nd place - with a failed nut flush draw.

It's also worth mentioning that the two pair go home with exactly the same prize money: $51,129.

by Craig Cunningham


Update: 3:05PM
Doug's table has been fairly tight, most pots taken down pre-flop with raises. The 9s, Lee Kort, has caught some big hands that Doug was out of, taking the overall lead at $3.3M. "I got down to $700k but have chipped up to $790k or so," said Doug. He's generally had his raises respected, except when Kort has a big hand.

12:45PM

"You should talk to my friend, he has chips as well." Jason Strasser introduced his fellow Blue Devil, Doug Kim, and he's a bit of an enigma in this field of 100 players. Recently graduated from Duke with a degree in Economics, Doug starts work for a financial consulting firm in Manhattan in December. While his friend Jason regularly plays high-limit poker, Doug is more like most of us. Both were involved in a regular home game at Duke. "It started as a $1/1 NLHE game with a $100 buy-in," said Doug, " but it would most of the time quickly escalate as the night went on. We'd have different people drop in as well, football players, others. It was always a very tough game, with a ton of trash talking." Doug qualified late for his seat in the Main Event. "I spent alot trying to get in, then grabbed a seat on the 23rd. I didn't really have any expectations coming into the tournament."

Doug had some interesting experiences on Day 2 of the tournament, sitting with a shortstacked Phil Ivey on his left then Layne Flack later in the day. "Ivey didn't have alot of chips, and he was his normal quiet image. He didn't have enough chips to do alot, but he got respect. Layne Flack was much more talkative, and he tends to limp into alot of pots. It was great to play with them. You know, I picked up alot playing in our cash games at Duke, though. It was filled with very bright people who were very competitive, so it's been a great training ground."

Doug's style is a bit more conservative than Jason's, and the younger but more experienced friend constantly teases Doug. "He just doubled up a minute ago," said Jason on Day 3, "and he celebrated like a little school girl." Doug's reply: "I had kings vs. jacks, and a jack came on the board. He trapped me, then I spiked a king on the river. Yeah, I did scream like a girl. I'm a hypocrite. Whatever." The two kept an eye on one another until Jason busted out late yesterday. Doug had a solid day on Day 4. "Nobody respected steals at our table, so changed from a nit to a super nit and started bleeding chips. I won a big pot with the nuts, then I took a $600k pot from David Chiu with A-J vs. A-T. I got moved late to the ESPN Feature Table and had Humberto Brenes plus a couple of other strong players. I had to adjust my strategy."

Table 139 has been at a fairly tight table, with most hands won pre-flop. This poker hobby of his is working fairly well, maybe a bit easier than his home game.

Brian "Art of Aces" Nadell stood less and a foot from me, looked into my eyes, and said, "I have to call."

He clearly did not want to call.

He was in the big blind, and Sam Khoueis pushed in his last 148K(ish) from the small blind.

Brian jumped out of his chair in the nine seat as soon as he peeked at his cards, and shook his head. "I have to call," he said to himself. "I have to call, I have to call, I have to call."

Like I said, he clearly did not want to call.

Sam's fans from the rail cheered him on, but I know that Brian didn't hear them. He continued to pace. "I have to call. Goddammit, I have to call."

He was standing behind the dealer, with his back to the table, when he eventually said, "Okay, I call."

Sam flipped up pocket tens. Brian's hands flew to his face and said "No! Nonononononono!!"

"Oh !$@#" I thought, ""He's got eights."

The table waited while the ESPN cameras rolled. After about a minute, the dealer turned up Brian's cards: pocket eights.

Looked right at me and said, "I had to call!" I could see the anguish in his eyes; it radiated off of him like heat from the parking lot.

The dealer picked up the two hands and positioned them in the appropriate manner, knocked the table, and dealt out the flop:

Eight. Nine. Nine.

Any other player in this room would have errupted into an endzone celebration upon flopping a full house when he was way behind pre-flop, but Brian has been a professional player for over twenty years, and I'm sure he's been in this position before. Well, maybe not with 100 players left in the Main Event, but something similar.

He collapsed to the floor, and crouched down behind his chair, physically dodging the last two tens in the deck.

They didn't come, and Brian sent Sam to the rail while increasing his stack up to over 600K.

He looked to me and we crashed our fists together in celebration. "This is my destiny, man!" He said, relief pouring out of him.

He settled back down into his seat, and while he stacked up his chips he said, "Man, now I can see the rush all you guys keep talking about! I haven't had a chance to feel like this for the entire tournament."

Over the last few days, I have watched dozens and dozens of people see their hopes and dreams shattered as they got knocked out of the main event. But never have I seen anyone as devastated, as grief-stricken, as absolutely crushed as Brian Nadell.

Brian fell to his knees and visibly sobbed when his ATc was beaten by local boy Ken Jacobs' KJs just before the dinner break. The pair both live in Las Vegas, they play together - and Brian knew he had the better hand.

He said: "I never suck out on anyone. I have only sucked out once this whole tournament. I only play when I know I have the best hand. The guys here, they are willing to risk all their chips on a coin flip. They play Hold'em like it's a video game. Jeez, most of them still live with their parents. But this is a game that is so skillful, the most skillful game there is, but they don't play it that way."

In the last few weeks, Brian has played eight WSOP tournaments and cashed in four of them. He clearly believed - to the very bottom of his soul - that this was his year, that this was it - he was going to be the next World Series of Poker Champion. And it is the horrible realisation that it's not going to happen (this year at least) which has broken Brian so irrevocably.

Brian, who turned pro 20 years ago and has been living in Las Vegas for 15 years,said: "I have worked so hard for this for so long. I felt I just had to make a stand this time. I knew I had the best hand - and winning this tournament was going to prove something I just have to prove. This tournament meant everything to me, everything. I have to grind away and I played so hard for this bracelet. I put so much heart into this thing.

"I've played so many tournaments - I've had four 2nd places, two 3rd. Now I've come 65th - it just makes me feel like I haven't accomplished anything. And there was so much I wanted to do. With that money, with that title ... well, this world is a terrible place. We have two wars going on, global warming. We are handing the planet to our children in a terrible state and, as World Champion, I really wanted make a difference. I wanted to do so much."

by Wil Wheaton

All the players who made it to the end of day four yesterday were guaranteed at least 49,000. They also managed to do what many people would consider the impossible: finish day five, as well.

The official WSOP schedule called for play to finish up when there were 700 players remaining; we played down to 135 players, which is even closer to the end than we planned to be today, and as I write this, there are 104 players left.

So that means we'll all be going home soon right?

Wrong.

There are 89 million chips in play, and the average chipstack is about 855,000. That means that the average player has an M over 20, and that means that we're about to see the skilled players slowly but surely rise to the top, as we start playing deep stack poker again. The players who can use their chip advantage make big moves are going to beat the crap out of the players who have been playing Kill Phil for the last day or so, and everyone knows it.

The mood in the room today is entirely different than it was yesterday. The chip leaders may not be able to see the finish line, but they know it's there, the same way we know we're getting close to Vegas when we can pick out the beacon from the top of the Luxor after hours on the freeway. The tension is heightened by the presence of multiple camera crews, and every suckout or brilliant bluff is magnified by the power of television.

Then there's the mobney: between now and 82nd place, players will get 51,000, but 72nd place pays over 90,000. For the online qualifiers who have a mighty $16 invested in this event, there is a real incentive to climb up the money ladder. The few remaining pros, like Humberto Brenes, just want to win it all, and they'll pick on those players, while avoiding confrontations with the deeper stacks with anything less than a premium hand.

I saw Phil "The Unibomber" Laak when I was in the tournament area a few minutes ago, and we talked about Joe Hachem's incredible showing at this year's WSOP. "Man, Hachem has been playing like a monster this year," Phil said.

"When he was busted yesterday, he outlasted more people than when he won it last year." I said.

Then Phil looked around the remaining twelve tables and added, "Jeeze. All these people have crushed that, too."

It's hard to believe that just five tournament days ago, there were nearly 9000 players hoping to make it this far. They've had to fight it out to get here, and the levels around the money bubble were a real minefield, but now that the stacks are deep again, they're playing poker in the Amazon room, and it is awesome.

On a personal note, I only have one horse left in this field. After my friend Ryan was busted early yesterday, Mr. Wrong made a move with ace queen right into pocket kings, then pushed his crippled stack into kings with a pair of fours. That leaves Rob "Boilingfish" Berryman, who had 550K, and apparently got some coaching and advice from notable professional player Jeffrey Lisandro. Rob's dad told me that rob has been playing very tough, and had been all-in twice without a showdown already today.

by Mad Harper

Click here for update

This is Alan Resh's second WSOP and it's going considerably better than his first. In 2005, he was out only four hours into Day 2. This year he's on Day 5 with over a million in chips. He said: "Yup, I'm gradually moving up the food chain."

His day started in spectacular fashion. On the second hand, he's dealt Queens. He calls a $40,000 raise and, after a raggedy flop (which both players check) and nothing on the turn, Alan bets $200,000 which the other guy calls. When the river brings nothing as well, Alan shows his Qs and the other guy mucks - topping Alan's stack up another $300k or so.



The 59-year-old property developer from Virginia Beach, Virginia has only been playing poker online for two years. He was a PS qualifier last year as well and thought he'd get some practice in before the main event by buying into a $5,000 Short-Handed No Limit tournament. It was the first time he had ever played in a brick-and-mortar event and he found himself next to Scotty Nguyen.

Alan, a Vietnam veteran, said: "I was sitting there telling him everything, my whole life story, so he was getting all the reads on me. But I was an amateur. I didn't know." The next thing that happens is Phil Hellmuth joins the table. Alan has no idea who he is and in the very first hand is dealt 8T against Hellmuth's Kings. But Hellmuth is slow-playing them and when the flop comes down 679 (giving Alan the nut straight), Hellmuth bets $1,000 which I call. The turn brings another King and Hellmuth goes all in. I call, and he's out."

As Alan is a nice guy, he went over to say a few nice words to Hellmuth and commiserate. He was stunned when Hellmuth started swearing his head off at him. Alan said: "I was just standing there. I couldn't believe it. But Scotty called over to me and said: 'Come here Alan, and sit down. Let Phil get back to anger management.'"

Alan first learned poker when he was kid, playing with his friends at their various houses. He said: "We'd play every weekend, taking each other's allowances. I was the worst. I played every hand. You can't win if you play every hand. I had to get a paper route to keep in the game."

Today, Alan is hardly playing any hands - and the ones he does play, he wins.

Update: Alan was eliminated after running pocket queens into pocket aces. Resh came in for a raise to $60,000 and was re-raised to 200,000, then pushed all in for 180,000. No queen came on the board and Alan was out.

By Howard Swains

Update: Just managed to catch up with Paul Coles, who now has $530,000 after doubling up with 8-8 against A-Q earlier in the level. "I thought I was a goner there," he admitted. But the best hand and best player doesn't always get busted - as Paul's ride to day five has proved.

"I managed to pick up some good reads on players earlier in the tournament and made some good re-raises to pick up pots uncontested. I once had king-ten outdraw jacks, but there's not been any massive stories."

That depends on your definition. Paul has been yo-yoing through the field for four days. He's been down to $21,000, up to $120,000, back down to $80,000. He's also gone from $23,000 to $500,000 in three hours yesterday. He is also one of those players who left it as late as possible to make it into the field, qualifying on the final PokerStars satellite.

"We had three weeks in Vegas booked months ago, but I thought I'd give it a last chance to get into the main event and made it. I then sold ten per cent of myself to two mates for five hundred quid. I wasn't expecting to make it past the first day, so it was a good deal."

So who are the guys who have the investment?

"One of them is that bloke you just saw, but he's obsessed with the beer girls and has gone off to see them again. The other one is still in bed."

That's the true English spirit. Making money in the land of nod, leaving your friends to do the work. Sleep in for another couple of hours, and he could be mates with a millionaire.

Before I met Paul Coles, I had the following, entirely erroneous assumptions to make:

It is almost impossible to believe that a PokerStars player from the left side of the Atlantic would manage to make it to day five of the largest tournament in the history of the game without mentioning it to someone in the media. For some of the more attention-hungry competitors, a successful button steal of the blinds and antes is often sufficient reason to issue a press release.

But for those of us who spell colour with a "u" and delicately sip at hot tea with milk from china cups on the croquet lawns of middle England, there is really nothing to get too excited about. Not even the very real prospect of a $12 million payday. That's only £6.3 million after all, hardly worth disturbing the neighbours for, best bite our bottom lips and keep the upper one reliably stiff.

Such can be the only explanation for the appearance today on our radar screens of Paul Coles, from Bristol, England. He began day five with $239,000 in chips - not one of the chip leaders, admitedly, but having already outlasted more than eight thousand others and guaranteed at least $48,000 in funny money, not a bad achievement either. One might expect to have heard of him. One, however, has not.

Today might break his cover. He currently sits two seats along from Dmitri Nobles, someone you may have heard about once or twice, and Paul could be forgiven for expecting the chance of a double up from our boisterous, brilliant player from Houston. The clash in cultures out on table 141 could be one for the notebooks.

Provided Dmitri doesn't roll over Coles and send him gracefully out of the Rio, I will try to catch up with our elusive man from the West Country and fill in some more biographical details. For now, let's content ourselves with the knowledge that Coles is there, playing, and playing well.

England is quietly proud.

By Dr. Pauly and Mad Harper

With 135 players left, PokerStars has 27 representatives still in the mix. The biggest named pro still lurking is the Costa Rican shark, Humberto Brenes. And the biggest online pro still around is Eric "Rizen" Lynch. Let's take a peek at some of the players who are left.

Kyle Bowker is a 23 year old poker pro from upstate New York and playing in his first WSOP championship. He played in two preliminary events but didn't fare well. He's made a final table at the 2005 World Poker Finals at Foxwoods and cashed in the WPT Foxwoods main event taking 81st place. His best finish in a live tournament is a second place finish in a $2K short-handed event in Tunica at a WSOP circuit event. He lost heads-up to Ayaz Mahmood. Bowker has been dating his highschool sweetheart for 5 years and they plan to get married soon.

Dimitri Nobles from Houston, TX caught the attention of everyone at the end of Day 2 when he became the first player to cross the $500K mark in the tournament. He's been wearing an upside down PokerStars visor and considers CJ, a member of PokerStars team blog, as his good luck charm. On several instances, the other players at his table insisted that CJ stay away because whenever CJ would check in on Dimitri's progress, he seemed to scoop a big pot. Dimitri ended up on the feature table and had an up and down day on Saturday, but he's still in the hunt after he ended Day 4 in 13th place in chips.

Eric "Rizen" Lynch wrote on his blog several months ago, "I'm a 27-year-old software engineer from Kansas City, Kansas who also happens to spend a lot of time playing online poker." That's an understatement. Rizen took down the most prestigious weekly online tournament when he won the PokerStars Sunday Million. He also made a final table at this year's WSOP when he took third place in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event that Rafe Furst won. Rizen is a guy that flys under the radar. He's been fighting for chips for the last four days and at several instance, he found himself among the Top 10 chipleaders. He's got plenty of experience playing in large field events and knows how to handle internet players.

Dave Murray is a 21 year-old from Dublin. He got a degree in math and computer science. He also took a job dealing in one of the clubs in Ireland. Combining his deft math skills and what he learned in the box at the poker tables, Murray is making a run at $12 million, while everyone back home on the Emerald Isle is cheering him on. He doesn't have much live experience, but he won a satellite into the EPT Barcelona Open and won a $16 double shootout on PokerStars to win his seat into the WSOP main event. He's 23rd in chips at the start of Day 5. "Dave Murray is the smartest guy in the room," Mike Lacey and Irish pro and poker writer told me yesterday. "His IQ is extraordinary."

Debra Lalor from Sunnyvale, CA is one of three females left in the field. She's a tough cookie too. One of her previous jobs was working as a counselor in a maximum security penitentiary. She's also done labor negotiations for the state of California. She had been sick for most of the early rounds and admitted to throwing up on her breaks due to her sudden illness. She gutted it out and would return to the tables ready to fight. I admire her toughness and she has a shot at becoming the last standing female player in the 2006 WSOP championship. She currently works at the Garden City Casino. Earlier this year, Lalor also took 17th place in the Ladies NL event at the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, MS.

Rick Mombourquette parlayed $16 into a seat in the $650 main event satellite and eventually a ticket into the $10,000 main. The a 48-year-old construction consultant from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He took down $20K once in a tournament at the Yellowhead Casino in Alberta. He's also a humble guy. He told Mad Harper that, "I hadn't thought about winning this event. I've been playing it one day at a time. I'm a recreational player really. I'm too busy with work and my life to play much poker - online a bit and the occasional weekend tournament. That's about it."

Brian Nadell is an "old school" poker player who's been living in Las Vegas for the last 15 years. Originally from Los Angeles, the 49 year-old cashed in 2003, coming in 60th place in what's become known as 'the Moneymaker year.' He said "It was actually the first time I'd ever played No Limit Hold'em. I play poker how it should be played. I've cahsed four times in the last eight tournaments I've played." Brian is married with three daughters. He started the day with $525K.

It's a chant more normally heard at soccer matches where Brazil are, typically, crushing the opposition: "Eu sou brasileiro, com muito orgulho, com muito amor" ("I am Brazilian, with a lot of pride, with a lot of love".) But Brazilians are fiercely patriotic, whatever the sport involved, and the World Series of Poker is no exception.



Igor "IgorFederal" Trafrane, 33, from Capinas, near Sao Paolo, came to Las Vegas with a 16-strong troupe of poker-playing buddies. The group play in tournaments all over Brazil together and are firm friends. Igor plus three of the gang - Jose Kurkowski, Leandro Vasconcelos Pimentel and Reinaldo Abramovay - all won seats to the WSOP on PokerStars and a fourth won a satellite event when the group got here.

As it happens, Igor - who is also the Brazilian Omaha champion - survived the longest, making it through to half-way through Day 4, 314th place and $38,759 in prize money. His Brazilian entourage was always just behind him on the rails - shouting encouragement, chanting, cheering and generally having a good old time.

In the breaks, the gang would gather in the outdoor Food Court area - laughing loudly and waving around their Brazilian football shirts and Brazilian flag. The lively South Americans brought a touch of colour and fun to proceedings that was noticiably absent once Igor got knocked out.

Today Igor flies back to his day job - running a chain of language schools - but I know he and his friends will be back next year and I look forward to seeing them. Viva Brasil!!!

27 PokerStars Players Fighting For Bracelet

Saturday was simultaneously a day of soul-crushing disappointment and great hope. 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem was eliminated after having his aces cracked. Still, with 135 players remaining in the World Series of Poker, PokerStars players are running strong and make up 20% of the field. What's more, dozens of PokerStars players have finished in the money and are taking home hundred of thousands of dollars.

2006 WSOP PokerStars Winners List
Day 4 Selected Chip Counts

Here's a list of PokerStars remaining players and their chip counts:

Kyle Bowker 2,272,000
Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles 1,270,000
John Ma 1,250,000
Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen 1,200,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 1,085,000
Mark Garner 1,040,000
Cuong Do 1,000,000
Dave "RoundTower" Murray 991,000
Doug Kim 941,000
Rick Mombourquette 911,000
Cheng Yu 876,000
Humberto Brenes 835,000
Dan Nassif 702,000
Debra Lalor 700,000
Iago Lopez 600,000
Steven Goodemote 569,000
Raphael Doromal 536,000
Brian "artoface" Nadell 523,000
Chris Back 416,000
Rob "boilingfish" Berryman 413,000
Aaron Baltzell 386,000
Sean "biggie05" Johnson 360,000
Reuben Peters 344,000
Paul "moledaddy" Greim 317,000
Paul Coles 239,000
Arturo Morales 222,000
Carlos Lopez 200,000
Cory Butler 150,000


Arturo Morales


Brian Hansen


Brian Nadell


Cheng Yu


Dan Nassif


Debra Lalor


Dmitri Nobles


Raphael Doramal


Kyle Bowker


Paul Greim


Rob Berryman


Rick Mombourquette

Here's all the coverage from Day 4:

PokerStars qualifiers raking it in (Igor Trafane) (by Mad Harper)
Dmitri Nobles at Featured Table Updates (by C.J. Hoyt)
Eric "Rizen" Lynch (by Brad "Otis" Willis)
Rick Mombourquette(by Mad Harper)
Kyle Bowker (by Craig Cunningham)
Debra Lalor: Top Lady In the Field (by Craig Cunningham)

Checking up on some sentimental favorites (including Rob Berryman) (by Wil Wheaton)
Weathering the storm with Jason Strasser (by Craig Cunningham)
Vulture and carcasses (by Howard Swains)
Dave Murray: Jewel from the Emerald Isle (by Howard Swains)

Day 4 European Wrap-Up (by Howard Swains)

RIP: Blue Rabbit
Aaron Clark makes move on Vegas (by Mad Harper)


Humberto Brenes--The Shark Smells Blood (by Dr. Pauly)

Tom McEvoy Exit Interview Pt. 1 (by Wil Wheaton)
Tom McEvoy Exit Interview Pt. 2 (by Dr. Pauly)

Getting to know Joe (by Ali Lightman)
Joe Hachem Eliminated
Joe Hachem Day 4 Updates (by Ali Lightman)

The big question remaining right now is how fast the field will thin from here. The WSOP tournament directors hadn't planned on players busting out so fast. In fact, there are fewer players remaining in the field now than were expected to remain at the end of play on Sunday. Still, with nearly 90 million chips in play, there's a good chance the bust-outs will slow down as deep-stack play takes over.

We'll be back at noon on Sunday to see how our remaining PokerStars players will fare in Day 5.

PokerStars World Series of Poker Main Event Day 4 Coverage

2006 WSOP PokerStars Winners List
Day 4 Selected Chip Counts

PokerStars Qualifier Coverage

PokerStars qualifiers raking it in (Igor Trafane) (by Mad Harper)
Dmitri Nobles at Featured Table Updates (by C.J. Hoyt)
Eric "Rizen" Lynch (by Brad "Otis" Willis)
Rick Mombourquette(by Mad Harper)
Kyle Bowker (by Craig Cunningham)
Debra Lalor: Top Lady In the Field (by Craig Cunningham)
Checking up on some sentimental favorites (including Rob Berryman) (by Wil Wheaton)
Weathering the storm with Jason Strasser (by Craig Cunningham)
Vulture and carcasses (by Howard Swains)
Dave Murray: Jewel from the Emerald Isle (by Howard Swains)
Day 4 European Wrap-Up (by Howard Swains)
Scott Byron (by Brad "Otis" Willis)
RIP: Blue Rabbit
Aaron Clark makes move on Vegas (by Mad Harper)


Team PokerStars Coverage

Humberto Brenes--The Shark Smells Blood (by Dr. Pauly)

Tom McEvoy Exit Interview Pt. 1 (by Wil Wheaton)
Tom McEvoy Exit Interview Pt. 2 (by Dr. Pauly)

Getting to know Joe (by Ali Lightman)
Joe Hachem Eliminated
Joe Hachem Day 4 Updates (by Ali Lightman)

Dr. Pauly

Make sure you take a peek at Wil's piece called WSOP Main Event: Tom McEvoy - Exit Interview with a Champion.

Wil and I met up with Tom McEvoy about an hour he busted out. We spoke for almost an hour in the PokerStars suite and even had Bill Chen stop by and join the conversation.

When asked about the maniacs in the tournament with plenty of chips, McEvoy said, "Many many times people get a hold of chips because they played substandard hands and got lucky and kept doing it and bulldozed people along the way. If they don't switch gears, they'll have trouble. The deeper you get into a tournament, you run into more skillful players that have survived and lasted long.

"As far as playing the main event, I have some of the most experience. As far as I know, only two players have played in more consecutive events than I have. I have played every year since I won in 1983. Dewey Tomko and Berry Johnston are the only two who have an unbroken streak bigger than mine. I know that Doyle missed a couple of years. But I'd say I have the most experience. That gives me an edge. But playing against that many players in the main event, that experience become over rated. All I have to do is focus on my table and try to survive my table. One table at a time.

"I hate A-Q and I hate J-J. And I lost a bunch of chips with Jacks, most of my stack, when I ran into aces. I could have saved 50K, but I didn't. I was forced to race with two 8s and I was taken out with A-J. You have to win coinflips. You play really well for three or four days and then all of a sudden all your money goes in with A-K versus a pair or similar to what I had. That's both the beauty and frustration of the game. It's the beauty because it encourages players to play, because they know about the luck factor and on any given day they can become the world champion. It's also very frustrating because for better players. I try to play low ball poker, which is trying to play small pots. I avoided any all-in confrontations on Day 2 and on Day 3, I was all in when I had a top set of Aces and someone called with K-K on a flop of A-Q-J. On Day 2 and Day 3, people are going all in like crazy. I don't go all in unless you have the nuts.

"I try to play small pots where I think I have a bigger edge. That's where the experience comes in. Some people are afraid to play. They over bet the pot, or underbet the pot, or give a free card when they shouldn't. Those are all mistakes where I capitalize on. I had a mantra that I kept telling myself the entire tournament, 'Don't make any mistakes.' Guess what? I made one mistake today and lost over half my stack with Jacks. This game is very cruel and unforgiving.

"Andy Bloch said that 'Poker is a godless game filled with random pain,'" said Wil.

Tom laughed.

"That's a very good quote," he said. "That I certainly agree with. Andy is a brilliant guy. Imagine what kind of pain Andy's in after getting so close in the HORSE event after beating out the world's toughest line up. He had Chip Reese all in how many times? And Chip comes back to win. That's more than random pain. That's a lot of pain. That's brutal. Which reminds me of when TJ Cloutier lost to Ferguson (in 2001) at the river with 90% chips in the pot. TJ said he could just feel that 9 coming off. Everyone in the room was staring at Chris Ferguson. Everyone but one. I was looking at TJ. I knew that he may never get to the end like that again. It was his second time as runner-up and he took third one other time. I wanted to see if he could take it. TJ has his flaws, which are fairly well known. As far as being a man and taking it, that's gotta be like taking a punch in the gut. TJ was the first man to stand up and shake Ferguson's hand. And when they interviewed TJ afterwards, he said, 'Obviously it feels terrible, but that's poker.' And you know inside he's churning, but he was able to take it. The ESPN guys were wondering if I wanted to do the interview after I busted today. They weren't too sure I'd want to do it. I told them I was alright and I'd do it.

"I noticed that comes with experience. It comes with a level of class," WIl said. "I know some players who have no class at all, like one guy with ten bracelets."

"We won't mention his name," said Tom. "But his initials are Phil Hellmuth."

"I see young players who consider themselves pros. But they are under 25 and they have no class. they play a good game and have a lot of money, but they have no class," Wil continued.

"I'd like to see where these guys are in ten years," McEvoy said, "I've been a professional poker player since 1978. I can't act like Hellmuth. I can't berate my opponents. It's not in me. You're not going to see me jumping up and down celebrating. I only did it once, when I won the main event in 1983 after playing heads up for seven hours, which happens to be a record. I like to smack those guys who celebrate after they win a hand. They see how it's done on television and they think it's supposed to happen that way."

"Like a college sporting event," added two-time bracelet winner Bill Chen. "They are fist pumping and chest-bumping. That's not poker."

"How much of that is the fact that these kids are playing solely online and never in a casino. And back in the day, they take you outside to the parking lot," I mentioned.

"Oh boy," McEvoy said as he shook his head. "They used to do that when I started playing. You'd get your ass kicked if you acted up."

"The kids are following examples from the pros," Bill Chen said. "We won't mention any names. But certain pros do that on TV during final tables and they think it's acceptable."

"Do you think that getting an edge in these huge fields is based both on your experience as a pro and playing against large fields in tournaments on PokerStars?" I asked.

"I have another extra edge over pros because I've been affiliated with PokerStars for almost four years," said McEvoy. "Way before Moneymaker and Raymer and Hachem. I've played extensively in tournaments. I play virtually but NL tournaments, and sometimes PLO. I got tons of internet experience. So I feel that I can perform better against internet players because I really study them when they come to the WSOP. They are not throwing me as many curveballs. I've seen it all. I know how to play internet players because I 'r' one. I live in Las Vegas and I virtually never go to the casinos to play in cash games. I play at home all the time. I make sure I play a lot on the site. I like playing, sometimes two or three games at once."

"What was the biggest mistake you saw players making in the main event?"

"Besides buying in?" joked Bill Chen.

"I saw some unusual plays, that I would never make. Like the guy who pushed all in against me with K-K with an Ace on the board and I was holding two Aces. What kind of play is that? What are they think?"

"Is it the online influence?"

"It must be. Playing online they are used to doing that. They can be right some of the time, but here against the world's best players, that's a lot of chips to jeopardize in a situation like that."

McEvoy told us about how the Horseshoe was so small that they used other casinos to host the extra tables. The players would joke that they were trying to make it to the "final casino."

Wil and I had to get back to the floor to cover the remainder of the Main Event, otherwise we would have sat and chatted with Tom McEvoy for several more hours. He suggested that there has been interest in a non-strategy book about his numerous poker stories. I hope he'll write that one day.

by Ali Lightman

You know that gut-wrenching heart-sinking disbelief that washes over you after a bad beat?

That's what I felt standing ten feet away from Joe Hachem this evening when the reigning World Champion was eliminated from the Main Event.

His Aces got cracked. It's happened to us all. It hurts. His pain was evident as he left the table with cameras in his face and walked into his brother Tony's arms.

He finished in the top three percent of the field, outlasting more than 8500 contenders. With two WSOP final tables already under his belt in 2006 his ability to win future major tournaments is in no doubt.

The post-mortem discussion must be happening between poker fans around the world, and Joe can tell himself the same: he got all of his money in when he was in front, in fact he was a 77% favorite to win against JJ and AQ.

It should have put him back in the running after being short-stacked for most of the past two days.

But the flop gave the pocket Jacks a set and sent Joe to the rail in 238th place.

He'd been the last WSOP Champion left.

As news of his defeat was broadcast around the tournament floor, players still battling for their place in the history books got to their feet and applauded an exceptional poker ambassador.

Although I know him personally, something stopped the journalist in me from approaching to ask the ghastly door-knock question: "How do you feel?"

The something is an affection and respect for him which has grown since I first met Joe and his wife Jeannie back home in Australia.

We've spent several evenings together here in Las Vegas, and Joe has impressed me with the graciousness he shows to everyone who stops him for a photo, an autograph or a yarn.

He has a maturity that many of his opponents in the Main Event have yet to find.

Maybe it comes from being a father. Jeannie and Joe's four children are aged from fifteen down to ten, and are always their number one priority.

The two littlest are here.

Joe's life is not about poker, it's about those kids and, like WSOP Champion Greg Raymer before him, he brings those solid values into the poker world.

He was my assignment on Team Blog. He knew it was my first outing into poker writing, and was kind to give me a couple of minutes before he was besieged by the rest of the media at every break.

The only times I missed him playing a hand in the first two days, I was en route to or from the press room, or writing, and he'd fill me in during a whispered conversation by his seat.

So I witnessed some magic moments. He was funny, engaging and on the rare occasions when he sparked up, a little scary.

My favourite moment has to be Joe's concern for William Deadwyler, a 21 year old Economics major from George Washington University.

William had won a satellite to the Main Event on PokerStars just a month ago.

The random drawing of tables meant William had to play his Day 1, on Monday, sitting across the felt from the World Champion at the TV feature table, with all the additional pressure that involves.

William had a bad case of nerves, so bad he hadn't been able to eat.

Joe was under a little pressure himself. Even so, during play, he left the feature table and went shopping for twenty minutes. He returned with a sandwich for William.

"The kid said he was hungry," Joe told me. "I wanted some gum, and I can't eat if others are hungry."

My second favorite was watching him bust out a player with his magic hand, 73, which won him the WSOP title last year. (His 73o made him a straight.)

Not only seeing it, but running into the vanquished Steve Dannenman in the hall minutes later and being able to tell him about it.

"No way!" laughed Steve, "Did he really?".

Joe ended Day 1 with $86 500 after taking down a huge pot in the final hand of the night. It wasn't close to the chip leaders, but he was comfortable.

His sense of humour was evident from the start of Day 2. There were a few short stacks around the table and Joe announced to them that he had a plan.

"One of you has to volunteer to bust out, ok? Then we'll just keep re-filling the empty seat and let them dump all their chips on us and we'll make it through the night."

There was an all-in showdown between the blinds in the very next hand, which led to one of them being eliminated.

"There you go," said Joe, "that's the power of suggestion."

Despite his positive attitude Day 2 wasn't good for Joe. He was cold-decked and grinding it out.

"It's misery," he told before heading into his dinner that evening with $59,000. "I've only had one hand."

After the long break he came back revived and fired into action, taking down three large pots to put his stack back up to $111,000.

Day 3 dawned and it started off well for Joe, who added $40,000 to his stack in the opening Level.

"That was all without seeing a showdown," he said, "this is a good table."

He slowly built his stack up, then lost a couple of pots, but when the money bubble burst he had $153,000 and seemed relaxed.

At least he was until after dinner when he clashed with PokerStars qualifier Vaughn Sandman, seated on his left.

Vaughn was the table chip leader, and in the small blind. Joe was on the button.

A player had bet from late position and Joe re-raised, up to $22,500.

Vaughn went all in.

"Everyone's got a hand this time have they?" asked Joe. And looking at Vaughn, "Nobody lays this hand down mate, nobody."

Joe paced away from the table, returned, and mucked his hand face up showing AK, not wanting to risk his tournament life on a coin flip.

Instead of discreetly passing in his winning hand to the dealer Vaughn flipped AQ.

Joe was not happy.

"You might have lost your mind mate, but I haven't."

Joe was clearly frustrated at what it cost him, both actually and potentially.

Later, after he'd moved tables in the last hour of play Joe told me, "The really sad thing is with play like that he's going to dump all his chips off on somebody, and it won't be me."

(Vaughn busted today. He pushed all in with 33 and was eliminated in 264th place by another PokerStars qualifier, Rick Mombourquette, from Canada, who had AQ and spiked a river Queen. Vaughn went home with $38,759.)

Joe wanted to move to a big stack table and got his wish a little more than an hour before play wrapped for the day.

He had one of the chip leaders, William Thorson, on his left. Ted Forrest was sitting opposite and during the last rounds of the day Joe took down a huge pot from Ted, around $80,000. William decimated Ted's stack a little later, and Ted finally busted out in 408th place.

Joe approached Day 4 with a change in attitude after going home stressed in the wee hours this morning. He had seven hours of sleep and a long chat with Jeannie.

He told me that he had no chip target in mind for today, unlike many players. He was going to play hands on their merits and build up his stack.

"I'm playing relaxed today. I'll make the best decisions I can. Whatever happens, happens."

He busted out two players but they were short-stacked, so it wasn't enough to make him dangerous. Joe hit the average of $304,000 at 4:45pm.

By this time reporting restrictions were even more stringent, and we were allowed onto the floor for only five minute intervals and then ushered away.

Most of us were missing most of the action.

I don't know how it was that I was allowed back on Joe watch during the crucial hand this evening.

I heard him call "all-in" and was then shoved rudely out of my place by a TV crew, shouting and pushing, "Move! Move!"

Their cameras rolling, the whole floor buzzing that the Champion was all in, we watched the cards fall.

You'll see it on TV. I'll never forget it. And I am not ashamed to admit that when I got in my cab at the Rio tonight I shed a few tears.

by Howard Swains

We started with three, we found two more, and we're left with just those two.

As we return from an extended dinner break to find just 189 players remaining in the main event (a mark we were not scheduled to reach until about midway through Sunday), our European PokerStars player count is low.

Our chip count, however, remains buoyant, thanks largely to Dave Murray who currently sits behind $1.2 million of the little babies. It might be even more. I just leaned over the ropes to chat to our Dublin boy and he was raking in another pot. His highly trained dealers' fingers couldn't even count fast enough and the figure reached was a typical European understatement. We always round down. It's in our nature.

Dave Murray

Our other player is Dave Pendley, known as RiverDave both on PokerStars and the British poker community at large, where he is a well-known player in the Grosvenor, Luton. He's been moving up and down the leaderboard today and when I checked up with him recently he was in more of an ebb - down to about $350,000. But there are about 3,500,000 players who would happily swap places with him, so nothing really to worry about.

All this, of course, means that our bright hopes Akshay Kumar and Gary Jones have both been snuffed out. Akshay couldn't get going today, taking beat after beat, before his final chips went in on a three-way coup. He had A-Q, another short stack held 6-6 and the table leader scented a double bust-out with A-K. As it was, the sixes were good but Akshay was out the door in 261st, for $38,759.

Gary's was a similar story. Those chips dribbled away - and a huge chunk fell when Gary moved into aces - eventually ending in 206nd place. Ole Busborg Jensen couldn't manouvre his small stack into anything sizeable and fell early today.

Not too long after this report was filed, Strasser was eliminated from the tournament.

by Craig Cunningham

Jason Strasser came into today with $483k in chips and brimming with confidence. He's played just great poker, focused, patient, slowing things down as he's been working to do. He moved close to $700k, and with the blinds at $2.5k/5.0k and $500 antes, each pot was worth contesting. Jason raised $15k, just like he'd done the previous hand. Matt Wilson had reluctantly mucked from the big blind the last hand, and this time he raised to $75k. It folded back to Jason, and he lifted his hands from his temples, motioning all-in as he said those words as he reached around his stack of chips. Wilson thought for ten seconds, then called in obvious frustration for Jason's continued aggressiveness. He turned over As-Ks, but Jason flipped over pocket aces. It was a massive pot, around $900k, and ESPN cameras shoved others aside. The flop came 4s7dJc, and Jason sat motionless. The Qs hit the turn, and more people rushed over to see the action. The 6s hit on the river, and Wilson let out a scream of delight as he had doubled up with a big suckout. He was down to $225k, then moved to $203k at the break as they colored up the pink chips.

Jason Srasser in bigger days

An hour later, Jason was hardly on tilt. "I've got around $250k," he said. "I got it up to $260k, then had pocket 10's vs. 9's (a 9 hit the flop). That got me down to $90k, but I've chipped back up." He chatted with the 1s as the dealer dealt the next hand. Two brutal beats, but remember: Jason Strasser has seen this before, and if he can push through the day with chips, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

by Wil Wheaton

I was walking up the hallway, and I saw 1983 Main Event champion Tom McEvoy walking toward me. As we neared each other, I said, "Please tell me you're on a break."

"Nope," he said, "I just busted out."

My heart sank a little bit.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry." I said.

"It's okay," he said. "That's poker."

After four weeks of listening to players (and being one of them myself in at least one event) storm down this very hallway, screaming obscenities into cell phones or at increasingly unsympathetic companions, talking briefly to Tom, who is always soft-spoken and even-keeled, was a refreshing change of pace.

"Do you feel like talking to me for the blog?" I said.

"Sure," he said, "I have to talk to ESPN, and get my payout, so can you meet me in the PokerStars suite in a half hour?"

"Absolutely," I said.

Back in the media room a few minutes later, I delivered the bad news to the rest of Team Blog, and asked Pauly to come with me for Tom's exit interview.

Aside: I'll never hear the end of it from Otis and Pauly for mentioning it here, but the truth is: Pauly is without equal in the tournament reporting business. He invented the live update style of blogging that incorporates chip counts, hand histories, and the all-important "bouncin' around the room" color that I've tried to capture in my time here at the 2006 WSOP. He's also a skilled and seasoned interviewer, and with a chance to talk with a former world champion, I'd be a total moron to go it alone.

At 2:30, Pauly and I sat down with Tom and talked with him about the history of the world series, the influx of players, and how he's been able to use his experience playing on PokerStars to get an edge against the new crop of Internets players, as well as the seasoned tournament veterans. Tom spoke with us for almost an hour, while Greg and Cheryl Raymer played heads up battleship across the room on PokerStars.net, and Dr. Bill Chen joined us for a bit, too.

For a man who had just busted out of the Main Event of the World Series, Tom was as calm and gracious as anyone I've ever seen. He told us that he made one mistake that ended up running jacks into aces, that forced him to race with sixes against ace jack, and an ace on the flop ended his tournament.

I recall reading in one of Tom's books that in No-Limit hold'em, one mistake is all it takes to send you to the rail. I didn't mention that to Tom, though.

I forget how it came up, but our conversation turned to some of the over-the-top, obnoxious celebrating that goes on in tournaments these days.

"I've only celebrated one time," he said, "and that was when I won in 1983."

"I think you earned that," Pauly said.

"Yeah, you deserved to celebrate," I said.

"Well, it was just a release after seven hours of heads up play," he said with a slight chuckle.

I told him about the idiot who clapped loudly in my face when he trapped me with a set on my day one, and he just shook his head.

"That guy has no class at all," he said.

"Yeah, what an idiot," Bill Chen added.

"You never saw that stuff before television cameras showed up," Tom said.

"Yeah, if you pulled that crap back in the old days," Pauly said, "you'd end up in the parking lot."

"That's the truth!" Tom said.

We talked for almost an hour, but it only took a few minutes to learn that Tom, like Greg and Joe, is a champion in every sense of the word: a gentleman, humble and gracious in both victory and defeat.

Pauly will have the highlights of our interview a little later. We're kind of busy covering this poker tournament down the hall.

Afterthought: Greg Raymer's father stopped me on my way out of the suite and said, "Are you the man who wrote that nice article about my son?"

"Yes, sir, I am," I said.

"Thank you for writing that," he said. "I sent it to everyone I know, and I wrote on the top 'I'm just bragging.'"

"Well, I only wrote what was true," I said. "I absolutely adore your son, and you've earned every right in the world to be proud of him."

Posted by Brad "Otis" Willis

by Wil Wheaton

I was walking up the hallway, and I saw 1983 Main Event champion Tom McEvoy walking toward me. As we neared each other, I said, "Please tell me you're on a break."

"Nope," he said, "I just busted out."

My heart sank a little bit.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry." I said.

"It's okay," he said. "That's poker."

After four weeks of listening to players (and being one of them myself in at least one event) storm down this very hallway, screaming obscenities into cell phones or at increasingly unsympathetic companions, talking briefly to Tom, who is always soft-spoken and even-keeled, was a refreshing change of pace.

"Do you feel like talking to me for the blog?" I said.

"Sure," he said, "I have to talk to ESPN, and get my payout, so can you meet me in the PokerStars suite in a half hour?"

"Absolutely," I said.

Back in the media room a few minutes later, I delivered the bad news to the rest of Team Blog, and asked Pauly to come with me for Tom's exit interview.

Aside: I'll never hear the end of it from Otis and Pauly for mentioning it here, but the truth is: Pauly is without equal in the tournament reporting business. He invented the live update style of blogging that incorporates chip counts, hand histories, and the all-important "bouncin' around the room" color that I've tried to capture in my time here at the 2006 WSOP. He's also a skilled and seasoned interviewer, and with a chance to talk with a former world champion, I'd be a total moron to go it alone.

At 2:30, Pauly and I sat down with Tom and talked with him about the history of the world series, the influx of players, and how he's been able to use his experience playing on PokerStars to get an edge against the new crop of Internets players, as well as the seasoned tournament veterans. Tom spoke with us for almost an hour, while Greg and Cheryl Raymer played heads up battleship across the room on PokerStars.net, and Dr. Bill Chen joined us for a bit, too.

For a man who had just busted out of the Main Event of the World Series, Tom was as calm and gracious as anyone I've ever seen. He told us that he made one mistake that ended up running jacks into aces, that forced him to race with sixes against ace jack, and an ace on the flop ended his tournament.

I recall reading in one of Tom's books that in No-Limit hold'em, one mistake is all it takes to send you to the rail. I didn't mention that to Tom, though.

I forget how it came up, but our conversation turned to some of the over-the-top, obnoxious celebrating that goes on in tournaments these days.

"I've only celebrated one time," he said, "and that was when I won in 1983."

"I think you earned that," Pauly said.

"Yeah, you deserved to celebrate," I said.

"Well, it was just a release after seven hours of heads up play," he said with a slight chuckle.

I told him about the idiot who clapped loudly in my face when he trapped me with a set on my day one, and he just shook his head.

"That guy has no class at all," he said.

"Yeah, what an idiot," Bill Chen added.

"You never saw that stuff before television cameras showed up," Tom said.

"Yeah, if you pulled that crap back in the old days," Pauly said, "you'd end up in the parking lot."

"That's the truth!" Tom said.

We talked for almost an hour, but it only took a few minutes to learn that Tom, like Greg and Joe, is a champion in every sense of the word: a gentleman, humble and gracious in both victory and defeat.

Pauly will have the highlights of our interview a little later. We're kind of busy covering this poker tournament down the hall.

Afterthought: Greg Raymer's father stopped me on my way out of the suite and said, "Are you the man who wrote that nice article about my son?"

"Yes, sir, I am," I said.

"Thank you for writing that," he said. "I sent it to everyone I know, and I wrote on the top 'I'm just bragging.'"

"Well, I only wrote what was true," I said. "I absolutely adore your son, and you've earned every right in the world to be proud of him."

by Wil Wheaton

I have become emotionally invested in three players in the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker. I'm not supposed to, of course, but after getting to know a little bit about these guys, meeting their families and telling you their stories, I can't help but want them to go very deep (and win the damn thing, of course.)

One of those players is my friend Ryan, (who played his heart out, and was eventually eliminated 410th today.) The other two who are still in action are PokerStars qualifiers Michael "Mr.Wrong" Hogbom, and Rob "Boilingfish" Berryman. I just had to get out into the tournament area and find them.

Yeah. About that. It's a lot easier said than done.

The good news is that PokerStars qualifiers still make up a significant percentage of the field here on day four, so they are everywhere. The bad news is, we have no idea where they all are.

Every morning, we get a seating chart that lets us know where players are, and how many chips they have. We here on Team Blog kick our crack commando research staff (CJ) and the crack commando intern (me[¹]) into action, and spend the day walking the tournament floor, counting out stacks, and keeping tabs on players when their tables break.

Unfortunately for us, the seating chart we got today had very little in common with reality. And by "very little" I mean "nothing at all."

To compound the obvious difficulties inherent in not knowing where any of our players are, tables broke very quickly this morning, introducing a certain amount of entropy into the room.

And today, the Rio decided that media will be . . . what's the word I'm looking for here . . . uh . . . oh! I know: handcuffed and put in a box.

With those restrictions in mind, here are a few observations I picked up when I was in the Amazon room earlier today:

Mr. Wrong took a huge hit early on, when his pocket queens were rivered by the other guy's A8o. It doubled up the other guy, at the cost of about half of Mr. Wrong's stack. When I walked up to his table, he was all-in on the turn of a J-high board, and the other guy was in the tank.

He looked up at me when I got there, and I instantly knew he that he had it. I began sending thought waves to the other guy: Yoooouuuuu wwwaaannnttt toooo caaaaalllllll . . . No dice. He folded.

Mr. Wrong stacked his chips, and waved me close. "I have about 165K right now," he said. "I lost half my chips early with queens against ace eight off-suit when he rivered an ace against me."

"Oh [expletive deleted]," I said.

"Yeah," he said, "but it's okay, I've been building my stack back up since then."

He spoke with quiet confidence, and I felt reassured, not that how I feel really matters in the grand scheme of things.

"I'll check back on you as much as I can, but I'll be rooting for you where ever I am, sir." I said.

"Thank you," he said, and he sat back into his seat.

The Main Event, which we once divided into four quadrants, has been consolidated down to just one area, so it would seem like it's easier to find individual players. Over the next fifteen minutes, I learned first hand how far away from "easy" that actually is.

Finally, I ran into Amanda from Pokerwire and asked her if she could help me find Boilingfish. She got on her walkie talkie, and asked Jay from Cardplayer if he knew where he was.

"There's a Steven Berryman," she said.

"Yeah, that's him. He goes by 'Rob,'" I said.

"He started at table 167, but that broke a long time ago," she said.

"Yeah, I knew that," I said.

"What does he look like?" She said.

"He's young, with straight hair that's kind of emo," I said, "sandy blond, and he usually wears dark glasses when he plays."

Amanda is like a little sister to me, so I added, "You know, Amanda, he's very good looking."

"Good looking guy with sandy blond hair and a PokerStars shirt," she said as she surveyed the room. "Is that him over there?"

She pointed to table 152, directly at Rob.

"Yes!" I said. "You are a goddess. I owe you one." I moved as quickly as I could to his table, excited to know that he was still in the action.

I looked up and saw his dad sweating him from the rail. I'm sure Harrah's didn't do it on purpose, but I was grateful that they put him at a seat by the rail, so his dad could watch him.

We talked briefly. He told me that he folded early when he raised with queens, and a tight player called him, and bet out at a flop with an ace and a king on it.

"I don't know if that was a good fold or not," he said, "but I think he had it. He wouldn't bet, otherwise."

"For what it's worth," I said, "I think that's a good, smart move."

I didn't tell him how I had to lay down queens in my disastrous "effort" in the Main Event when an ace and a king came on the flop. I folded face up, and the other guy showed me a king.

"Did he show his hand?" I said.

"No," he said, "but I didn't feel very good about my hand there so . . ." He kind of looked at me for advice or something. Rather than remind him of how badly I played, I decided to reinforce his smart, tough laydown, and not mess with his game.

"I think you did exactly the right thing and you should keep playing your game," I said. "So how's the rest of your day?"

"Good. I doubled up early with pocket nines against ace queen, and now I'm back to about 140K."

"Good deal, man," I said. "I'll get out of your way and check in on you later."

I crossed under the rail and talked to his dad.

"How is he feeling today?" I said. "Did he sleep well last night?"

"He's doing much better," he said, "and he slept great last night."

"That's great news," I said. I forgot to ask him how he was doing, but I'll do that the next time I check in on them.

[1] Actually, it's not me. Craig Cunningham, Mad Harper, and Dr. Pauly do all the heavy lifting on bringing you updated chip counts and player statistics. But it's a funny call back if I say "me," isn't it?

"In what kind of world does Rick Solomon outlast Joe Hachem?"

A member of Team Blog asked his question two seconds ago as 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem was eliminated from the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

Joe was all in with aces versus pocket jacks and AQ. A jack came on the flop and Hachem is gone.

Ali Lightman has full details of Joe's day here. She'll have more later tonight.

It's a bit "Inside Basbeball," for the PokerStars field, but for those who know him, we wish to congratulate the blue rabbit on a terrific run through the 2006 WSOP field. He's now off to munch on carrots and chips in other tournaments.

by Howard Swains

Dave Murray is the man we have been looking for.

At every event, there is at least one player who manages to plough his way through the field, dominate his table, win huge pots, boss the meek and undermine the powerful. This player is supremely talented, classy and emminently attention-worthy, but what makes them unique among all others is that somehow, through no fault except ours, we manage to miss them entirely.

Dave has been in our blind spot since the start of the tournament, but having now amassed $809,000 in chips, the secret is out.

"I got lucky a couple of times today," he claimed after popping into the media room, where finally we were able to catch up. "I hit a one-outer, I think, and doubled up. Then I got another set over set and doubled up again."

Details, please.

The hands Dave is referring to happened before table 141 was broken earlier today. With pocket tens and an eight-high board, he pushed in. One player folded pocket jacks but another, with the snowmen, called. When the hands were shown, Dave was informed that another adversary had passed a ten pre-flop. He was down to one out, but sure enough the case ten rivered and he was still breathing.

Soon after, his pocket queens were called by sixes, and while the six flopped, the queen turned and all the money went in. Another double up - he began the day with 225,000 - and Dave was back in the driving seat.

Our new hero is 21-years-old and from Dublin, Ireland, where he recently finished a degree in maths and computer science. He took a job (one of those jobs between jobs) as a poker dealer in the Fitzwilliam card club, where he was able to witness both the luck and the consummate hold 'em skills of the Irish first hand. The Emerald Isle has produced a disproportionate number of top quality players; between downing pints, picking four-leaf clovers and dancing jigs, the entire nation can all play poker very well indeed.

Dave is no exception. OK, I haven't seen him down any pints nor dance any jigs, but his poker is excellent. He played his largest live tournament on the Barcelona EPT last year after winning a live super satellite and won his way to Vegas a couple of months ago via the well-worn PokerStars $16 double shoot-out, then £650 satellite path.

"I had a big stack all along. It was quite comfortable," he said.

The momentum started then, when he played through the night to claim his seat, shows no sign of halting. There are fewer than 400 left, nearing the end of Day Four. Murray is now in the spotlight, where he is already a natural.

by Mad Harper

Dan Nassif wasn't really expecting to be in Vegas today. The 33-year-old advertising sales executive is taking vacation to play in the World Series - and last year he got knocked out on the first day when his tens ran into AK and the flop brought another King.



This year, it's a different story. Dan, from St Louis, Missouri, has some $550,000 six hours into Day 4 - and has had to extend his vacation to keep his seat here in the Amazon Room.

by Craig Cunningham

PokerStars Qualifier Rob Lederer and Michelle Ye grew up together in New York togehter. "We've been best friends since we were 12," said Michelle as she railbirded Rob. "I went to NYU, and Rob went to Brown." Michelle graduated in 2004 and headed to a PR firm in New York. Rob soon followed last year, taking his Applied Math and Economics degree to a management consulting firm.

Michelle didn't talk alot about Rob's poker play, although he's made a nice move from $341k to $600k after the second break. She did divulge the details of how he proposed. "It's most elaborate, but I'll tell you. We went to the Museum of Natural History to an IMAX movie. After we watched the movie, Rob asked if we could go to the booth where they project the film. So we went to the booth, and the operator asked us if we wanted to watch a trailer. So we went and sat down, and then this trailer came on with scenes from all the romantic movies. Then our song came on, "Kiss Me" from She's All That. I told you, we grew up together. Then there is more, and then the words Will You Marry Me come on the screen."

Wait, there's more.

"A limo was waiting for us, and we went to the Water's Edge for dinner. He told me we had dessert reservations, but then the limo took us home. He had candles and rose petals all over the house when we got there. Then the next morning, he had this great brunch for our families."

Players at his table should beware before re-raising him. He obviously know how to go over the top when everything is on the line.

by Brad "Otis" Willis

I'm one to make bold statements. It's my nature. I'm rarely right (like that time I said, "New Coke is the best marketing idea EVER!"). That's what makes moments like today so much better.

Eric "Rizen" Lynch is still alive and has an above average stack in the middle of Day 4 of the 2006 World Series of Poker.

Now, I'm not saying I'm poker's version of Nostradamus. I didn't see Rizen play in some Kansas home game and declare him to be the next great player in the poker world. However, I did spend a lot of time watching Rizen online and reading his blog. It was then (about six months ago) that I decided Rizen was the real deal.

When Rizen made the final table of the $1,500 PL Hold'em event back in Event #3, I wrote this:

Because Rizen has chosen to chronicle his exploits on his blog, I've been following his progress from regular dude to poker phenom for a little while. I've long been a big poker blog reader. Many of the blogs (a lot like the one I write for) are regular working stiffs like me who like to play poker. Rizen, however, has found a way to pull me into world that is far beyond what my ability allows.

After reading his blog for the past several months, I can't say I was at all surprised when Rizen took down the PokerStars Sunday Million a few weeks ago. Even better, Rizen provided a play-by-play commentary of the final table replay. I found it beyond entertaining.

So, I knew Rizen was on his way out to Vegas to play and I'd been looking forward to meeting him. Finally, I got the chance today. It was brief, but for a good reason. Rizen is on his way (given no bust-out has happened since I sat down to write this) to cashing in Event #3 of the WSOP.

I don't know what it is exactly. I mean, I'm fans of some of the big-name poker pros. But there's something about this guy who just six months ago wrote, "I'm a 27-year-old software engineer from Kansas City, Kansas who also happens to spend a lot of time playing online poker."

Now, he's routinely winning thousands of dollars in online tournaments and he's out here in Vegas fighting against the toughest pros in the business.

The thing about Rizen is, you don't see him coming. I knew he was still alive in main event. But he's not the type of guy that jumps up and screams when he wins a pot. He's not the type of guy that has huge swings that draw the attention of the ESPN cameras and writers.

Here's a reason to pay attention: the dude is still alive in Day 4 of the main event with a better than average stack.

Now, let's start paying attention.

by Mad Harper

Rick Mombourquette, a 48-year-old construction consultant, from Alberta Canada, came to watch the World Series last year and had a great time. This year, thanks to a $16 rebuy on PokerStars which took him into the a $650 satellite, he's here to play. And it's not going badly.

His progress through the tournament so far has been steady rather than remarkable. He went into Day 2 with $20,000 in chips, Day 3 with around $120,000, and he sat down this morning with just under half a million. But in the last few hours he's managed to turn that half mill into over nearly $800,000 putting him well up amongst the big guns here. He said: "Well, you're right. Nothing spectacular really happened until late yesterday. And yesterday wasn't even that great as I lost a couple of major pots."

The most that Rick has ever won at poker before now - in eight years' of playing - is $20,000 in a $500 tourney at Yellowhead Casino in his home city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. Four hours into Day 4, he's already guaranteed at least double that.

I asked him if he had considered giving up work yet. He laughed. "It's a decision I'd like to have to think about making. Really, I hadn't thought about winning this event. I've been playing it one day at a time. I'm a recreational player really. I'm too busy with work and my life to play much poker - online a bit and the occasional weekend tournament. That's about it."

Rick is being supported in Vegas by his son Grant, 28, also in construction and keen poker player, as well as his wife Holly.

by Craig Cunningham

Update: 6:30PM

Kyle has held strong at $1,150,000, but he's witnessed some sick hands. "The 6s had AA vs. K-Q, and they got it all in on the flop after a queen hit. Then the same guy moved in against the 6s again. That guy had aces again, this time against pocket 7's. And a 7 spiked on the flop." He was happy to stay away from all that action.

Update: 4:40PM

Kyle Bowker has attracted an audience as he's taken the chiplead. Table 195 started as one of the three biggest tables in the room based on chip average. "Three of us started with over $400k," said Kyle, "so we haven't had a ton of crazy play. In fact, the 6s is the only seat where we've had a new player; we've had five players there today."

Kyle is originally from Walton, New York but now lives in New York. "This is my first World Series. I played in a $2.5k Shorthanded event and a $2k event, but I didn't do much in either." He's done much now, and has held onto the chiplead at a table still filled with chips.

2:45PM

PokerStars Qualifier Kyle Bowker moved to $1,110,000 on a huge hand that gave him the chip lead. With $280k in the pot, he moved all-in on a board of 2h-6s-Qh-2d, the first million-dollar pot of the tournament. As fellow PokerStars qualifiers Rick Mombourquette and Vaughn Sandman looked on, John Magill contemplated for two minutes. He picked up his hand, shook the cards a few times, then watched his $250k bet move away from him as he mucked the hand. Kyle turned over Ah-10h for the nut flush draw after Magill showed Qs-7s for top pair. The dealer pulled her hands back as they both wanted to rabbit hunt, and Kyle fished out the Ac which would have given him a pair of aces and the hand. The pot was more than enough for hime, and with it comes the Day 4 lead.

by Howard Swains

It's reached that time of a major poker tournament when all dealers, spectators, reporters and the vast majority of the players begin to feel a little queasy. "All in, called, on table 158!" bellow the unfortunate casino employees, choking on their own betrayal as they issue a death call to the vultures carrying the clipboards. They flock with savage glee towards the dead men walking, directing their henchmen carrying boom-mics and handycams primed to record the final throes.

Such is the plight of the departed in these days when television rules the roost over poker. One man's distress is another's light entertainment. "Fetch me another beer, honey. This guy just lost a million bucks to a donkey with an inside straight draw and I'm laughing so much I'm making myself thirsty."

We, in the printed or web-based media, have also been relegated beyond the ropes, lest we obsruct the view of the carcasses. It's proving difficult to glean anything accurate (apart from a lashing from the security guards, delivered with rare and caustic precision).

The PokerStars European branch began today with at least four hopes: Dave Murray, from Ireland, has escaped our radar so far - remarkable, given that he now has more than $400,000 in chips, having begun today with $230,000. Gary Jones also continues in the fast lane with $387,000. Akshay Kumar is comfortably in the top half with his $277,000 while Ole Busborg Jensen, from Denmark, began the day with $63,500, but knows this game as well as any and has every chance of making a surge up the leaderboard.

Provided the "escorts" being offered by the organisers take us to the tables (rather than back to our hotels to steal our wallets) we should be able to keep you relatively up to date on the qualifiers, as well as those who I know are still lurking in this field without our knowledge.

Stay tuned.

compiled by Dr. Pauly

7 Doug Kim $2,391,520

8 Erik Friberg $1,979,189

9 Dan Nassif $1,566,858

24 Eric Lynch $494,797
25 Mark Garner $494,797

30 Cuong Do $329,865
33 Rob Berryman $329,865
36 Humberto Brenes $329,865

37 Kyle Bowker $247,399
42 Brian Hansen $247,399

46 Sean Johnson $164,932
47 Raphael Doromal $164,932
48 Dave Murray $164,932
49 Cheng Yu $164,932

55 John Ma $123,699

65 Rueben Peters $90,713
66 Clint Brotherton $90,713
67 Brian Nadell $90,713
69 Alan Resh $90,713

74 Aaron Baltzell $65,973
76 Dmitri Nobles $65,973

82 Paul Greim $51,129
86 Rick Mombourquette $51,129
99 Paul Coles $51,129
101 Iago Lopez Gonzales $51,129
102 Carlos Neira Lopez $51,129
109 Steven Goodenmote $51,129
117 Debra Lalor $51,129
123 Chris Back $51,129

127 Arturo Morales $47,006
135 Cory Butler $47,006
138 Scott Byron $47,006
143 David Ventura $47,006
153 Paul Shoquist $47,006
155 Russell Davies $47,006
156 David Penly $47,006
158 Andy Donovan $47,006
169 Jason Strasser $47,006
188 Bill Rector $47,006

197 Mats Batnes $42,882
200 Jon Lane $42,882
201 Shane Fumerton $42,882
205 Richard Clark $42,882
206 Gary Jones $42,882
212 Michael Kingsbury $42,882
214 Christopher Budak $42,882
216 Chris Martin $42,882
221 Chris George $42,882
226 Rob Lederer $42,882
231 Michael Batherwich $42,882
236 Jeff Parcher $42,882
237 Ryan Claar $42,882
238 2006 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem $42,882
249 Darryl Dare $42,882

260 Larry Levin $38,759
261 Akshay Kumar $38,759
264 Vaughn Sandman $38,759
267 Andrew Fennewald $38,759
268 Josh Newborn $38,759
274 Kenneth Robbins $38,759
276 Clayton Mozdzen $38,759
277 Greg Giannokostas $38,759
279 Andrew Brokos $38,759
287 Gunnar Rabe $38,759
298 Rene Mouritsen $38,759
299 Melandro Alina $38,759
300 Thomas Kingo $38,759
303 Vincent Iannuzzi $38,759
307 Steven Schulman $38,759
308 Rafael Comas $38,759
309 Vissilios Maniotis $38,759
311 Steve Boyle $38,759
314 Igor "IgorFederal" Trafane $38,759

321 Derek Feldman $34,636
325 Ed Blount $34,636
329 Lee Pierce $34,636
331 Manuel Labandeira $34,636
333 Robert Sanchez $34,636
337 Daniel Pickle $34,636
339 James Scherer $34,636
342 Patrick Sullivan $34,636
344 Daniel Pelletier $34,636
347 Mathiau Weissman $34,636
348 Sidney Hasson $34,636
352 Mario Rodriguez $34,636
362 Rob Dewildt $34,636
365 Jack Wooden $34,636
369 Peter Falk $34,636
371 Tom McEvoy $34,636

397 Thomas Koo $30,512
402 John Coito $30,512
403 Jason Richards $30,512
412 David Daneshgar $30,512

444 Lawrence Frye $26,389
446 Alex Todd $26,389
455 Adam Stormwind $26,389
469 Andy Martinez $26,389
474 Michael Benedetto $26,389
479 Daniel Heimiller $26,389
493 Layne Black $26,389
501 Mark Vecchio $26,389

526 Joseph Cordi $22,266
529 Edward Atanasio $22,266
543 Dario Minieri $22,266
556 Jonathan Huang $22,226
558 Adrian Pitt $22,226
561 Alex Brigante $22,226
562 Sol Bergren $22,226

569 Patrick Fortin $20,617
570 Igor Holdaiy $20,617
571 Lee Thomas $20,617
602 Josh Egan $20,617
611 John McLaughlin $20,617
616 Mark Bogen $20,617

643 Jonathan Diamond $19,050
646 Dane Wheeler $19,050
660 Joe Gualtieri $19,050

683 Gary Broaddus $17,730
687 Neil Butterfield $17,730
688 Robert Lauria $17,730
692 Frank Callucci $17,730

707 Bruce Frank $16,493
721 Steven Dunkelberg $16,493
723 Donna Skolnick $16,493
726 Christina Jones $16,493
735 Johan Kretz $16,493
753 Chris Ellison $16,493
760 Seth Cohen $16,493
767 Matt Maroon $16,493

784 Jonathan Greenhalgh $15,504
792 Jeffrey Mermelstein $15,504
793 Jonathan Rego $15,504
795 Ara Melikian $15,504
801 Scott Sweesy $15,504
808 Greg Spence $15,504

821 Fred Lavassani $14,597
827 Vitaly Lunkin $14,597
833 Roger Mason $14,597
839 Ed Latif $14,597
840 Rick Middleton $14,597
850 Nam Le $14,597
852 Steven Dubin $14,597
859 Thomas Adams $14,597
863 David Barrie $14,597

873 Brian Gass $10,616

by Mad Harper

When Aaron Clark told me he had given up college just ten hours short of graduating, I was a little bit disappointed. Chasing one's dream is great, but not when you're so very close to getting your degree. And I was even more alarmed when Aaron told me he'd just moved to Las Vegas. But this sweet, mild-mannered 23-year-old - originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky - knows what he's doing and has no intention of giving up academic life, however well this does this week.



Aaron been playing poker professinally for the last three years, and enjoying steady success. He only took up tournaments a few months ago and reckons Pot Limit Omaha is probably his strongest game. He said: "I'm doing pretty well, making about $100,00 a year. Obviously even if I bust out of the WSOP right now, I've made nearly half my annual income in a few days."

Aaron's biggest win to date was chopping a $55 Pot Limit Omaha rebuy at Caesar's Indiana to take home $17,500. But even on his days off from this tournament, Aaron has been playing poker online and actually won a $10 rebuy on PokerStars a couple of days ago, to win $11,900.

He said: "I was an economics student at Western Kentucky university and I intend to carry on with my studies. I just took a few months off to settle in here in Vegas but I'm going to finish off by correspondence course. My plan before I took up playing poker was to teach economics - and that's still what I intend to do. I like economics and I like teaching. But I want to put down a couple of million first."

Selected Day 4 Chip Counts from the WSOP
(subject to time of recording)

1:00am

Kyle Bowker 2,272,000
Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles 1,270,000
John Ma 1,250,000
Brian "LXIXME17" Hansen 1,200,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 1,085,000
Mark Garner 1,040,000
Cuong Do 1,000,000
Dave "RoundTower" Murray 991,000
Doug Kim 941,000
Rick Mombourquette 911,000
Cheng Yu 876,000
Humberto Brenes 835,000
Dan Nassif 702,000
Debra Lalor 700,000
Iago Lopez 600,000
Steven Goodemote 569,000
Raphael Doromal 536,000
Brian "artoface" Nadell 523,000
Chris Back 416,000
Rob "boilingfish" Berryman 413,000
Aaron Baltzell 386,000
Sean "biggie05" Johnson 360,000
Paul "moledaddy" Greim 317,000
Paul Coles 239,000
Arturo Morales 222,000
Carlos Lopez 200,000
Cory Butler 150,000
Scott Byron (Eliminated 138th)


10:20pm

Kyle Bowker 1,400,000
Dave Murray 1,300,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 1,160,000
Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles 970,500
Brian Hansen 930,000
Iago Lopez 800,000
Rick Mombourquette 793,000
Debra Lalor 700,000
Humberto Brenes 740,000
Cheng Yu 660,000
Michael Hogbom 550,000
Doug Kim 420,000
Dave Penly 400,000
Mark Garner 321,000
Michael Kingsbury 250,000
Carlos Lopez 230,000
Rob "boilingfish" Berryman 210,000
Scott Byron 96,000
Jason "strassa2" Strasser--Eliminated

6:43pm

Kyle Bowker 1,150,000
Dave Murray 1,100,000
Brian Hansen 930,000
Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles 925,500
Iago Lopez 800,000
Rick Mombourquette 793,000
Debra Lalor 780,000
Humberto Brenes 770,000
Cheng Yu 660,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 645,000
Rob Lederer 632,000
Michael Hogbom 550,000
Jon Lane 465,000
Doug Kim 440,000
Dave Penly 400,000
Mark Garner 321,000
Debra Lalor 290,000
Jason "strassa2" Strasser 250,000
Michael Kingsbury 250,000
Carlos Lopez 230,000
Rob "boilingfish" Berryman 210,000
Scott Byron 96,000

6:18pm

Joe Hachem eliminated from 2006 WSOP as last world champion left in the field

4:45pm

Kyle Bowker 1,140,000
Dave Murray 1,100,000
Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles 904,500
Iago Lopez 800,000
Rick Mombourquette 793,000
Rob Lederer 632,000
Humberto Brenes 550,000
Cheng Yu 490,000
Jon Lane 465,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 450,000
Dave Penly 400,000
Joe Hachem 300,000
Mark Garner 321,000
Debra Lalor 290,000
Michael Kingsbury 250,000
Carlos Lopez 230,000
Jason "strassa2" Strasser 203,000
Scott Byron 96,000
Vaughn Sandman 75,000
Gary Jones 150,000

3:30pm

Kyle Bowker 792,000
David Murray 740,000
Dmitri Nobles 720,000
Rick Mombourquette 696,000
Jason Strasser 615,000
Darryl "Dare 570,000
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 540,000
Akshay Kumar 500,000
Mark Garner 498,000
Mike Kingsbury 475,000
Humberto Brenes 460,000
Gary Jones 440,000
Bill Rector 290,000
Igor "Federal" Trafane 250,000
Debra Lalor 210,000
Chris Mack 200,000
Paul Coles 92,000

by Mad Harper

Everywhere you look in the Amazon Room today, PokerStars qualifiers are raking it in. Darry "nutboy1" Dare is up $120k since he took his seat on Day 4. Igor Trefane from Brazil doubled up and is now on $400,000. I caught him in the break with his Brazilian 'fan club', all having a great time, waving around flags and football shirts.



Spaniard Carlos Lopez, after a shaky day yesterday, doubled up early on today to $180,000 when his Kings beat 9s. Also a happy face in the break.

Young Chris Martin was ecstatic after taking out Hoyt Corkins. "I was on the button with 9s" he said. "Hoyt pushed all in with AK but never improved. I rivered a set just for good measure. It was a $140,000 pot and I'm now on $400,000." Even if Chris went out right now - which he won't - he'd still be taking home $34,6236 - easily enough for a few rounds of golf at Pebble Beach.

While I watched, Team PokerStars' Humberto Brenes bullied a player at his table into laying-down his hand and giving away a $30,000 pot. With K882A on the table, Humberto was on feet waving his arms in the air. "I know what you've got," said his opponent. "You've got K of Spades, King of Clubs." Humberto wasn't saying anything though and mucked his cards while raking in the pot.

Irishman David Murray got lucky on the river in the first hour - and doubled up to $380,000. "I had 10s and the other guy had 8s. He flopped a set and I rivered the 10. It was pretty dramatic but hopefully it won't be like that all day." According to our friend Tom from Antesup, young David is a former dealer from the Fitzwilliam Casino in Dublin. "He's only been playing about a year and a half" said Tom. "He became a dealer while he was a student to help pay the bills."

WSOP SCOREBOARD (Day 3)

Starting players in WSOP: 8773
Players left in the WSOP: Approximately 481
PokerStars qualifiers remaining in the WSOP field: Approximately 105
Average all WSOP players: 76,008

Jon Lane 654,000
Dmitri Nobles 650,000
Debra Lalor 555,000
Eric Lynch 541,000
Mark Garner 521,500
Dan Nassif 514,000
Jason Strasser 483,000
Rick Mombourcovette 467,500
Kyle Bowker 445,500
Daniel Pelletier 410,000
Greg Giannokostas 395,500
Gary Jones 387,000
Douglas Kim 372,000
Humberto Brenes 362,000
Christopher Budak 359,500
Rob Lederer 341,500
Vaughn Sandman 330,500
Chris Martin 327,500
Brian Hansen 300,500
Darryl Dare 290,000
Sean Johnson 285,500
Paul Greim 279,000
Iago Lopez 279,000
Akshay Kumar 277,000
David Penly 277,000
Igor Trafane 235,000
Christopher Szuchy 227,500
David Murray 225,000
Aaron Baltzell 220,000
Vassilios Maniotis 215,500
Lasse Ubostad 215,000
Cuong Do 208,500
Cory Butler 206,650
Rene Mouritsen 206,500
Gunnar Rabe 200,500
Daniel VanVerth 194,500
Michael Hogbam 186,500
Russell Davies 173,000
Vin Iannuzzi 169,500
Reuben Peters 163,500
Ryan Claar 163,000
Lawrence Frye 160,500
Scott Byron 159,000
Richard Clark 151,500
Steven Berryman 150,000
Mats Batnes 147,000
Jack Wooden 142,000
Rob DeWildt 140,000
Joe Hachem 139,000
Brian Nadell 138,500
Michael Kingsbury 135,000
Mario Rodriguez 135,000
Daniel Pickle 132,000
Tom McEvoy 130,000
Sidney Hasson 128,500
Larry Levine 125,500
Erik Friberg 125,000
Clint Brotherton 124,500
Manuel Labandeira 124,500
Alan Resh 124,500
Paul Coles 120,500
Paul Shoquist 114,500
Jeff Parcher 114,000
John Coito 110,000
Josh Newborn 109,500
John Ma 108,000
Clayton Mozdzen 105,000
Alex Todd 105,000
Andrew Fennewald 100,500
Lee Pierce 97,500
Ed Blount 97,000
Rafael Comas 95,500
Andy Martinez 93,500
Thomas Koo 92,000
Jose Morales-Vargas 92,000
Raphael Doromal 89,500
Bill Rector 89,000
James Scherer 86,000
David Ventura 83,000
Melandro Alina 82,000
Carlos Alberto Lopez Neira 81,500
Fred Schaffer 81,000
Matthew Weissmann 80,000
Robert Sanchez 76,500
Patrick Sullivan 76,000
Steve Boyle 74,500
Peter Falk 73,500
Thomas Kingo 73,500
Chris Back 72,500
Chris George 71,500
Andrew Brokos 66,500
Michael Batherwich 63,000
Andy Donovan 62,000
Rob Zimmer 61,500
Derek Feldman 60,500
Steve Whitman 60,000
David Daneshgar 59,000
Steven Schulman 55,000
David Creeley 44,000
Dan Heimiller 31,000
Shane Fumerton 30,500
Jason Richards 24,000
Michael Benedetto 23,000
Adam Stormwind 13,500

Update: 1:42pm

Now that's a final table.

The table changed yet again and this time, Dmitri had some rather interest company. World class pro David Chiu started the day with more than 600,000 chips, but by the time he got to Dmitri's table, he was short stacked and didn't last long. The other world class pro at the table was Team Pokerstars' Humberto Brenes, who was holding court, as usual. Also at the new featured table were PokerStars qualifiers Sean Johnson and Doug Kim.

With some new blood, there were sharks swimming in the water. In fact, Humberto used his shark card-capper to taunt players into folding, playing the the cameras as much as you'd expect. It didn't always work. At one point, Dmitri pulled a nice bluff from the button, showing his hand to the table.

That may seem like he was trying to show up his opponents, but it was all in good fun. The players were clearly enjoying themselves and the PokerStars players were gathering chips.

When the long day finally came to an end, Dmitri found himself back up over a million at 1,270,000. It was another roller coaster, but those of us who have been following him are used to it.

Update: 10:54pm

Things changed again after dinner. It's been a roller coaster from the start and it just won't end. This time, Dmitri saw his stack dip from the million he had before the break to around 750,000. It's not that he lost a big hand, it's that he lost a lot of little ones. His raises weren't getting the same respect and he just didn't have the cards to back up his bets.

Finally, ESPN stepped in and gave him a hand. They broke his table, sending the other 8 players scattering, while leaving Dmitri in front of the cameras. Over the last hour of play, he's managed to steal his way back up to 874,000 without having to show down a hand.

When this break ends, Dmitri will be back among the masses and the featured table cameras will be dark. With two hours to play, it's time to find chips, although Dmitri insists he won't be playing too aggressively. He's still solidly above average, so there's no reason to risk signifcant portions of his stack. Of course, as we've seen, that doesn't mean he won't!

Update: 7:14pm

It's dinner break and Dmitri is a 1 million chip man.

I asked him for one word to describe the last two hours of play.

"Beautiful."

Update: 4:42pm

"I'm being good," Dmitri called over to me from his seat at the Featured Table.

"That's good," I told him.

He makes the universal sign for "tight" and says, "I'm gonna keep these for awhile. I like the way they look."

And yes they do. All 904,500.

The second level of the day was obviously a little different from the first level. He had worked his way all the way down to about 150,000 when he stole some blinds, "Whew... I'm glad nobody called that one."

The next hand, Dmitri faced a raise and tossed his "All-In" chip into the middle. His opponent wasted no time in calling and flipped up pocket Tens. Dmitri had just A7 offsuit. When the flop came down Q5A, the crowd erupted. Dmitri was suddenly back up to 360,000.

Just a few hands later, Dmitri found himself in a hand with his nemesis from the 4 Seat. With an 8-high flop, Dmitri fired 100,000 into the pot. The 4 Seat pushed and Dmitri called. The 4 Seat showed pocket Kings. Dmitri was dead to 5 outs. The 4 Seat had trapped him again. But when the Ace fell on the turn, the crowd's reaction was even louder.

After two suckouts, Dmitri knew he'd get paid off as soon as he got a hand. When he held AK on a King high flop, the 1 Seat pushed with KJ. No Jack fell and Dmitri was now up to more than 900,000 chips.

It's one of the most remarkable runs I've seen in the history of the World Series of Poker. He was dead to three outs preflop and dead to five outs postflop. Both times, he escaped, and now Dmitri is back, ready for more.

"I saw all the big stacks at the table pushing around," Dmitri told me, "and I said, 'That's my job.'"

Update: 4:08pm

CJ reports that Dmitri Nobles is on a sick, sick run and is now up to 880,000 in chips. In the past hour and half, Nobles has cracked kings with a naked ace and his AK held up against KJ. CJ will be back with a full report shortly.

Update: 2:28pm

Maybe it's the television cameras. Maybe it's a run of bad luck. Or maybe the cards have just caught up with him. But anyway you look at it, Dmitri Nobles had a bad first couple of hours.

Starting the day, Dmitri was just 4,000 chips out of the lead, with a huge 650,000 stack. With the buzz he's created through the first few days, ESPN figured it was time to give him his time in the spotlight.

As play began, Dmitri's style hadn't changed. Every pot he came into he came in with a raise. He won his first four pots and on the fifth, got raised, "Watch me, I'll try it again," he told the table when he folded.

Just a few hands later, he tangled with the same player, putting a big bet out after a flop of 7h5h4c. His opponent folded and Dmitri mucked, "I don't want to embarrass him."

It wasn't long, however, before Dmitri ran into trouble. The first time, he doubled up a player in a monster pot when he ran into pocket Aces. Shortly after that, his flopped top pair was outkicked. Dmitri was suddenly down to just 226,000 chips, or about the average stack in the room.

"I thought that was it," he said, wanting a big pot. "I should have just rolled over my Queen instead of betting."

His opponents were clearly taking advanage of Dmitri's aggressive style, but things were about to change.

"I'm tightening up," he told me while taking a short break after that big pot, "Next hand I play will be Aces, Kings or Queens."

Perhaps a break will be just what Dmitri needs. When he comes back, it looks like he'll have his rally cap on. Dmitri's signature upside-down PokerStars visor is now right-side up.

Debra Lalor was shivering as she sat in the Amazon Room Friday, sick as a dog. "I've been getting sick at breaks Day 2 and today, and I was in bed all day while we were off." Her remedy for this illness is a bit unique: taking Alleve then chasing it with half-and-half to coat her stomach. "I know it doesn't sound too good, but it coats my stomach. Plus I'm freezing here, and all I have is this little jacket." A Monemaker Million PokerStars sweatshirt warmed her up, and the support staff is searching for PokerStars Pepto-Bismal.

Debra lives in Sunnyvale, California, one of the high-tech offshoots near San Jose. She's worked as a labor negotiator for the State of California, as well as a counselor at a maximimum security penitentionary. She's used to tough situations and difficult decisions, so the challenges of poker don't seem too tough in this broader context of life. Today, she works at Garden City Casino on the floor in their poker room. "We're all so excited for her," said Naida Lehr, who is supervising the room today. "She is very conscientious and is excellent on the floor, but she's an even better person. You know, she's really a very caring person. We just think she's great, and we keep following everything she's doing."

Debra started Day 3 with $156k in chips, but after the bubble burst she climbed like a bottle rocket. "I ended Day 1 with $90k and Day 2 with $156k. My daughter, Nikki, told me that I would end Day 3 at $400k." Nikki was wrong, as Debra moved to a table with Hoyt Corkins then finished up at $550k.

Day 4 is moving day, with the chipleaders bunched closely at the top. Debra got off to a great start, knocking out a player within the first twenty minutes when her queens held up vs. pocket 9's. She was excited, thanking the dejected player for the chips while stacking them in front of her. A couple of more pots may be just what the doctor ordered for her to make a full recovery on Day 4.

by Ali Lightman

**18:20**

Defending WSOP champion Joe Hachem has been knocked out of the Main Event.

He re-raised all in with pocket Aces, and was called in two places.

Joe only had $120 000 in front of him, having lost a huge pot earlier when his QQ didn't stand up against AK.

As the cameras descended around him, Joe was a 77% percent favorite to win.

He was facing pocket Jacks and AQ.

But the flop was horrible. It came 5 J 3, the turn another 3 and the river a 7, giving the Jacks a full house.

The floor erupted in applause as the announcement that Joe had been eliminated was made over the pa system. Players leapt to their feet to honour the softly spoken 40 year from Melbourne as he walked into the embrace of his brother Tony.

**4:45pm**

Joe went into his break with just over $300 000, achieving the average chip stack for the first time today.

"Really? I'm average? That's great!"

Joe told me he woke up this morning with a new attitude.

"Yesterday was stressful. I'm going to play relaxed now. I'm going to make the best decisions I can and whatever happens, happens."

He's finding cards this round. Joe busted out a second short-stacked player fifteen minutes before the break.

There was an early bet of $18 000, the small blind pushed all in for his last $25 000, and when it was Joe's turn to act he found red Kings.

A king fell on the flop giving him the set and the champion took the pot.

**3:31pm**

Joe Hacham has just busted another player.

"I love this table! You people are geat!" Joe laughed as he raked in a pot of some $80,000.

And "Aussie Aussie Aussie" came tentatively from the rail behind me.

Joe bet $12 000 from middle position and was re-raised by the small blind who pushed with his last $35 000.

Joe called and turned JJ seeing he was in a coin flip with his opponent on AK.

The flop was all hearts, 8 2 4.

Joe, holding the Jh, closed his eyes as the turn fell a 6, and the board paired on the river card, another 6.

He now has more than $260 000.

Meanwhile Australian PokerStars qualifer Russell Davies has just taken down two large pots to put him well over $500 000.

The 29 year old computer programmer, from Sydney, was enjoying a massage in front of his big stack when I caught up with him.

"Someone made a move on me" said Russell.

And the timing was perfect, for Russell, sitting on the button with JJ.

"I made a button raise and he mis-read me, thought I was stealing. He knew I could make a big laydown because we played together yesterday, so he pushed all in for
more than $100 000."

Russell called the bet and his opponent showed 9 10 suited.

Russell flopped a set with A K J, only worried about the Queens still in the deck.

But the turn and the river paired 6s, giving him a full house and sending another one home.






**2.20pm**

Defending WSOP Champion Joe Hachem doesn't have a chip goal in mind for the end of today.

"Someone said $400 000. That's a good number. But I don't really have a target for today. I just want to build up some chips."

Joe went into his first break with $180 000. Better than where he started, but not as good as where he has been in the past hour.

"I got up to $260 000 but I lost a couple of pots. It's okay. There's nothing really happening yet."

Sitting on top of his stack is the lump of quartz handed to him late last night as a good luck charm by a WSOP waiter, who wanted to wish him well.

Sitting opposite Joe with $130 000 is Andy Donovan, an expatriate Brit who now lives in Houma, Louisiana. Andy won a $160 double shoot-out on PokerStars to win his Main Event seat.

"I keep telling Joe an Englishman is going to win it this time."

But Joe's not the only Aussie intending to prove Andy wrong.

Russell Davies, 29, a PokerStars qualifer from Sydney, has a little over $200,000.

Sam Khouiss has around $180,000.

Some other PokerStars qualifers from Downunder made it into the money yesterday.

Josh Egan, 22 year old Film and Finance student from New Zealand, made $20,619, and Adrian Pitt made $22,226.

1:15pm

The World Champion has started a long fight back to contention in this year's Main Event by doubling up in the first hour.

He now has $240,000.

But his day didn't start well.

Tight reporting restrictions which are now in force meant I could watch action at his table for only fifteen minutes and in that time I saw him lose at least $40,000.

He made a pre-flop bet of $10,000 from middle position but had to fold when the big blind moved all in.

Minutes later it was Joe's big blind and as he put out his $4 000, plus $500 antes, he said "this is the hand, I can feel it".

Joe and three limpers all checked the flop of Qh 3d 3s.

The turn was 6s. Joe bet $5,000 and everyone folded except the button.

The turn was 7c. When Joe checked the button made it $15,000, and Joe called.

But he mucked his hard in disgust when his opponent showed 5 4o which gave him a straight.

"Nice river Sir" he said.

At that moment the head media wrangler gave me 30 seconds notice to leave the floor, and as I headed back to the press room Joe hit a hand in the small blind.

There was a bet of $15,000 pre-flop and Joe moved all in for $105,000.

PokerStars Qualifier Brian Hansen opponent called with pocket 5s.

Joe showed AsQs.

The flop came down Qh Qd 9s 2s 4s, giving the world champion a set and the nut flush for good measure.

By Dr. Pauly

It's not a surprise to me that Humberto Brenes is still alive at the WSOP. With 483 players remaining, Brenes is one of a handful of notable pros who are still in the hunt for the $12 million first place prize. In a sea of internet qualifiers (the exact numbers are somewhere between 40% and 60% of the field), a few sharks are circling the waters ready to feed on the schools of fish still remaining. One of those sharks is Brenes.

"How do you say shark in Spanish?" Brenes asked a member of ESPN's crew. The producer shrugged his shoulders as the film crew captured the animated Brenes on film.

"Humberto!" he quickly answered as a smile unfurled on his face.

Without a doubt, Humberto Brenes is one of the most likable players on the tournament circuit. He's known as the Godfather of Costa Rican players and as a member of Team PokerStars, he's the ambassador to all Spanish speaking players. Brenes is part of the CRC, otherwise known as the Costa Rica Connection that features his fellow countrymen Jose Rosenkrantz and his brothers Alex and Erick, who are both poker players.


Brenes got his start playing cards as a child. He'd watch his father play in different games. His father was an extremely generous man and would often return his winnings back to the losing players. That goodwill bothered a young Brenes. He felt that the losing players took advantage of his father's generous nature. That's where he developed his winning attitude.

Brenes played cards during college while he pursued his degree in engineering. After college he worked in different areas. For a while he was in the cookie business with his brother. Brenes eventually turned into a successful businessmen in his home country of Costa Rica. He owned an Univision television station, a construction company, several restaurants, and at one point in his life, Brenes was involved in the export business of chocolate, nuts, and other fruits and vegetables.

During the downtime, Brenes enjoyed gambling against tourists at the many casinos in Costa Rica. Brenes excelled in baccarat and craps and frequently competed in tournaments. Brenes once won $300,000 in a craps tournament. At the suggestion of a good friend, he started playing poker and eventually he bought into poker tournaments.

Brenes applied his business savvy and ability to make excellent decisions to his poker game. Brenes evolved into an excellent all around poker player who has won $4.1 million in his career on the tournament circuit.

Brenes always stressed the importance of concentration during tournaments. One of my favorite Brenes quotes is "Talent is something that you are born with, but concentration is something that you must teach yourself. I am hoping to have the discipline, skills, and the concentration to win."

Brenes often listens to music at the tables. That helps him focus and calms him down when things are not going his way. The music also puts him a better mood. He'll often be found singing at the tables and entertaining his opponents with his soothing voice, which makes for great TV. That's why film crew love to follow Brenes. The always amicable Brenes is doing something for the cameras, whether it's singing, joking around with players, or doing his trademark "all in" gesture. Brenes will stand up, cup his hands and making a swooshing motion towards the tables signifying that he's going to put all his chips into the pot.

Brenes has also won two bracelets at the WSOP and made at least 18 final tables. He came close to winning his first bracelet in 1992, but he lost to WPT creator Lyle Berman heads-up. Brenes waited one more year to win his first bracelet. He actually won two in 1993. His first bracelet was in Pot Limit Omaha and his second was Limit Hold'em. In 1995, Brenes missed his third bracelet after Mickey Applebaum beat him heads up in the $5,000 NL event.

Brenes is the patron saint of second place finishers. He would take second place two more times in WSOP events. Over his career, Brenes would come close to winning 6 bracelets and if he caught a little luck any of those times, he could have several more bracelets in his collection. In 1999, Josh Arieh beat Brenes heads up in the $3,000 Limit event. In 1999 Brenes finished in second place in the $5,000 Seven-card Stud event.

Despite the slew of second place finishes over his career, Brenes emerged as an excellent all-around player. However, it was his deft No Limit skills that made him into an international television superstar. In 2002, Brenes won the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, MS. His final table might go down as one of the toughest final tables in Tunica history. Brenes beat Erik Seidel heads-up in a grueling match after he outlasted Andy Bloch, Chris Bigler, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot, and Barry Shulman. In 2003, Brenes bubbled out of the TV table at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic.

2004 was a breakout year for Brenes. He made three TV tables in all with two second place finishes. At the WPT Invitational in Los Angeles, Brenes lost to Phil "The Unabomber" Laak heads up after outlasting John Juanda, Antonio Esfandiari, Harry Demetriou, and Jose Cassidy at his final table. Later that year at Foxwoods, Brenes took third place in the World Poker Finals. His final table featured tough players such as eventual champion Tuan Le, David "The Dragon" Pham and Brad Berman. In December of 2004, Brenes lost heads up to Daniel Negreanu at a final table of a Bellagio Five Diamond Classic that also included Jen Harman. Although Brenes never won a WPT event, he emerged as one of the most lovable players on the tour and became one of the most popular poker players in Central and South America.

One of the only knocks against Brenes is that he cannot close out a poker tournament on a strong note. Many poker pundits point to his numerous second place finishes to support their argument that one of the few of Brenes' weaknesses is his heads up play. I disagree. Brenes is good enough to consistently make it to final table. Most of the time, heads up battles are less about skill and more about card catching. The statistic that should matter the most is Brenes' consistency over the last decade. He's not only excelled at NL Hold'em, but he's also an excellent all around player as well. Brenes has cashed in over 90 major tournaments and won nine overall.

In 2006, Brenes had an excellent WSOP. He cashed seven times (including the WSOP main event) and already made one final table where he finished in 7th place. He starts Day 4 with $362K in chips and is twice about the average stack. He's been intimidating the other players at his table, while making them laugh and smile at the same time. That's part of Humberto Brenes' charm. He'll take all your chips and make you feel good about it in the process.

PokerStars qualifier Dmitri Nobles continues to lead 2006 WSOP
--
PokerStars players cash in Day 3

by Brad "Otis" Willis

As a poker writer, I would give up every moment of action I ever see in tournaments to experience a continuous loop of what happened today. There is no greater poker tension than the moments leading up to the explosion of the money bubble in the main event of the WSOP.

Even greater, though, is the joy that comes in the seconds after players make the money. Sure, whoever wins this thing will enjoy an individual elation that few people will ever know. However, the pure energy that explodes from more than 860 people reaching the money is undeniably better. It's just pretty damned rare to see 800 people in one room being happy at the same time.

Surviving the Bubble

As Dr. Pauly wrote in Bubble Time :

The bubble is when the psychological aspects of money comes into play for the first time in the tournament. For almost a week, the players had one goal in mind: make it to the end of the day. When everyone woke up today, their goal changed to: make the money.

With more than 800 players set to make the money, it became a monumental task for tournament directors to figure out who would cash out and who would not. Even though play slows down, it's hard to keep track of who is busting and who is still alive.

Finally, though, the announcement came over the loudspeaker. Everybody still left in their seat was in the money. Suddenly, the line to cash out was as longer than the line to get in and see the players still in action. Dr. Pauly then took on the task of tracking the PokerStars players who finished in the money. You can see the list by visiting the PokerStars WSOP Winners (Day 3) page.

Also see:

Beyond the Bubble (by Wil Wheaton)
A Pause in the Action (by Wil Wheaton)

PokerStars qualifiers continue to rock the leader board

Funny thing. Two days ago, I Googled Dmitri Nobles' name. The results barely filled the first page. By Friday afternoon, there were more than five hundred results, nearly all of them about Dmitri Nobles' chip-leading performance at the 2006 WSOP.


Dmitri Nobles

There were quite a few people who viewed Dmitri's loose and aggressive style of play as too reckless to maintain his spot on the leaderboard. Today, Nobles' proved everybody wrong. Though his stack went up and down faster than a NASCAR piston, he ended the day... at the top of the leaderboard...

Wow. What a finish.

Dmitri says he was on tilt. He told his new table (after moving) that he wasn't happy. They hardly believed him considering the near 500,000 in front of him. Then he explained how he had doubled up 10 players already and was once at 770,000.

On the last hand of the night, Dmitri announced, "I need to bust someone here."

That story was written by Team Blog's resident luckbox, C.J. Hoyt, who has been sweating Dmitri for the past several days and spent all day long filing reports on the man 2nd in chips. You can read the end of that story and all of his reports on the Dmitri Nobles updates page.


Dmitri Nobles waits for a flop

Wunderkind Jason Strasser continued to roll today. While he seemed a little disappointed to not have a half million in chips at the end of the day, he still sits among the leaders in the WSOP.

Read all about how Strasser sees his game in Craig Cunningham's Jason Strasser showers and takes off.


Team Blog's Craig Cunningham with Jason Strasser

Craig has also been keeping track of the developing story of PokerStars qualifier Debra Lalor. She currently has more than half a million in chips and has more chips than any woman (and almost everybody else) in the tournament. Craig will have an interview with Lalor in tomorrow's reports.


Debra Lalor

Also read:
The European March (by Howard Swains)
Viva Espana (by Mad Harper)
Looking at the extremes (by Craig Cunningham)
Daniel Pelletier on a rush (by C.J. Hoyt)
Decision Time on the Bubble for Johan Beckfjard (by Craig Cunningham)
Super Dario Minieri (by Howard Swains)
Will the real Chris Martin please stand up? (by Mad Harper)
In Search of the Big Story -- Humberto Brenes (by Wil Wheaton)


A champion's game

There's something about Joe Hachem you may not know. While he may seem like the calmest man in the world, he is not without emotion. While the 2005 WSOP was a slow and steady build to the greatest poker emotion of all, this year's main event has been like a riding a Tilt-A-Whirl after a night of college drinking. A moments, nothing could be finer. At other moments, you just want to puke.



While I could attempt to re-create the day (and may someday ask Joe for permission to report a private conversation we had), the story is best told by reading reports from Team Blog's Ali Lightman. She tracked Joe Hachem's Day 3 at the WSOP from beginning to end and tells the up and down story as well as it can be told.


Joe Hachem

While Hachem may be the most recent champion, there is another one in the field. Team PokerStars Tom McEvoy has been chipping away at his opponents all day long and remains in the fight for his second bracelet. Before the day began, Dr. Pauly wrote Tom McEvoy: Unsung Hero. It is certainly worth a read.

Making Day 4

Now, it's time to move on to Day 4. While the field has been falling apart faster than tournament officials expected (less than 500 players remain), we're expecting some long days to come. With more than 87,000,000 chips in play, the blinds are not going to be much of a threat to the monster stacks. There is going to be a lot of deepstack poker going on. Of course, Team Blog will be on hand to report all the action as it unfolds.

Selected Day 3 Chip Counts
WSOP Day 3 Photo Gallery

by Mad Harper

Igor "igorfederal" Trefane arrived in Vegas with a 16-strong gang of poker-playing compatriots. Five qualified on PokerStars to play in the main event, one in a WSOP satellite. Now only Igor remains.

Igor "IgorFederal" Trafane

The 33-year-old from Campinas, near Sao Paolo, has been playing poker online for three years, as well as live tournaments around Brazil. He's the current Omaha champion but has yet to give up his day job - running a chain of language schools in the Sao Paolo region. This year's WSOP could change all that - towards the end of Day 3, Igor was looking strong with $270,000 in chips.

Adam Stormwind


Akshay Kumar


Alex Todd


Andrew Brokos


Carlos Lopez


Cheng Yu


Cory Butler


Team Blog's Craig Cunningham with Jason Strasser


Dan Heimiller


Dan Pelletier


Dario Minieri


Darryl "nutboy1" Dare


Dmitri Nobles


Dmitri Nobles waits for a flop


A PokerStars qualifier gets creative with the online gaming restriction stickers




Joe Hachem






Humberto Brenes


Iago Lopez




Jason Strasser


Jim Sherer


Hachem, later in the day


Lee Thomas


Mark Garner


Michael Hogbom


Peter Falk


Team Blog's crack research team C.J. Hoyt (right) counting chips with his "intern" Wil Wheaton


Scott Byron


Rob Lederer


Sean Johnson


Igor "Federal" Trafane


Debra Lalor


Doug Kim


Leo Fernandez

by Wil Wheaton

Now that the bubble has burst, there are money jumps pretty frequently, and each time that happens, they have to pause the tournament to make sure players are paid correctly, and tables can be balanced.

I walked into the Amazon room during one of these pauses, and found an atmosphere more like a convention than a poker tournament. Players were mostly out of their seats, wandering around the room, visiting with friends and family on the rail, and in some cases, curled up against the wall or resting their head on an empty table. I imagine that, once the stress of getting to the bubble and its ensuing euphoria has passed, the adrenaline high wears off, and the reality of the distance to the real goal settles in: if this were a marathon, we wouldn't even be to the half, yet.

My first stop was at Humberto's table, where I was horrified to see that, in front of his empty seat, was not a stack of close to 400K, but one much shorter and closer to 90K. I noticed that there was a huge stack in the three seat (one to his left) and hoped I could see him and find out what went wrong . . . until I realized that I was looking at seat two of table 143, not seat two of table 142.

I laughed at myself, and moved one table deeper into the room, where I saw Humberto's stack, sitting safely at about 375,000. Humberto came walking over, and the look on his face when he walked up to the empty seat at table 143 was absolutely priceless. It only took him a second to realize he'd walked to the wrong table, but before he could leave, the guy who is in that seat came back. He saw Humberto, put two and two together, and said, "Hey, do you want to trade?" There was much rejoicing.

I worked my way deeper into the room, past players who were on their sidekicks, or their cell phones, and down to Joe Hachem's table, against the wall near the back of the room. I was going to ask Joe how he was enjoying his massage, until I realized that he wasn't with a massage therapist, but was actually getting a hug and a bit of nuzzling from his wife. "That's cool," I thought, "He deserves that."

The tournament director instructed players to return to their seats so play could resume. I recorded all of these observations in my new notebook (the one with a Sleestack sticker on the front) and turned around to head out of the room. Right after I passed the center, the tournament director gave the order to shuffle up and deal, and the mood in the room instantly shifted from relaxation to intense focus.

These players have a long way to go, yet, and they all know it. It's going to be a long night.

Aside: The players went on a break just as I was finishing writing this. On my way down the hallway, I bumped into Rob "boilingfish" Berryman and his dad.

"How are you doing?" I asked him.

"I have about 130K," He said.

"You have just about 10K under average," I said, "you're doing great, man."

"What do you think I should do?" He asked.

"Dude," I thought, "I played like a moron and busted before level 2. You don't want my advice on anything."

"You should just keep doing what you've been doing," I said, "because it's really working well for you."

"Okay," he said, "I think I have some respect at my table."

"Use that, man," I said, "but don't forget that you have enough chips to go deep. How are you feeling?"

"I'm really tired." He said. I could see the exhaustion in his body, but there was also a big tell that, as a parent, I recognized from times my own kids have been sick: his pupils were pretty dilated.

"Right after the money bubble, he told me, 'I don't think I can go on, dad,'" His dad told me, "and I told him, 'you got to! you got to keep going!'"

They both smiled, and Rob said, "Yeah, when we got past the twenty thousand mark, I felt a little extra motivation."

"That's entirely understandable," I said.

"Yeah, I think we're making something like three thousand an hour now, but I just want to finish the day and go to bed."

"That's a great plan," I said, "whatever happens, we're all really proud of you."

He looked at the clock on his phone. "Oh! I have to get back in there," he said.

"Just keep doing what you're doing!" I said as he joined the stream of players moving back into the tournament area.

by Wil Wheaton

Just before the money bubble burst, almost all of the spectators and media were sent off to the island of misfit toys, where we sang claymation songs and watched bumbles bounce.

As soon as we were let back into the tournament area, CJ and I headed down the hallway and into the room. We worked our way around the line of spectators hoping to get in, and flashed our passes at the security guy. Once we passed the door, we were greeted by a dull roar of celebration, the ever-present clattering of poker chips, and the occasional "Yeah!" shouted from someone, somewhere.

"I'm going to check on my man Dmitri," CJ said, as he vanished deep into the back of the room, while I climbed under the rail to check on Humberto.

Holy. Crap. Humberto has so many chips, his black one hundreds are arranged in a 5x5 grid, twenty chips tall. That's fifty thousand right there. Then there are his yellows and pinks, in towers close to forty chips tall. Just at a glance, I could tell that Humberto had more chips than the rest of his table combined.

He stood up and shook my hand when I got to his table, just as a prominent poker publisher shoved his hand into my back, nearly knocking me over as he passed. "Well," I thought, "at least he said 'excuse me.'"

"Looks like you have some chips there, sir," I said.

Humberto laughed. I couldn't tell if it was with relief or genuine joy, but I suspect that it's a combination of both.

"About three hundred and fifty?" I said.

He pointed his right thumb into the air, and lifted it skyward, just as he did when he said, "Raise it," on a pure bluff two days ago and said, "over four hundred."

"That's fantastic, sir," I said, and then I got out of the way before someone else ran over me.

I made my way to the center of the room, where I hid behind a flat panel TV, in the eye of the hurricane, and made some notes: It is tense and festive, if that makes any sense, and very chaotic.

From the rail on Main Street, a woman cried out, "Whoooo!" at a nearby player, as she celebrated from a distance with someone who had made it into the money.

Voices and chips combine into dull roar. Hiding in the eye of a hurricane

A tournament official's voice came over the speakers, "Dealers hold up. Hold up after this hand. Players, please stay in your seats."

I looked up, and noticed that the line of players at the cashier's cage was snaking out of the room; apparently, once the money bubble burst, so many players went all-in and busted, the tournament can't keep up with them. "That explains the chaos," I thought.

Above the roar I heard a dealer call out, "Cocktails! one thirty-eight!"

"Ah, I bet I'd like a drink right now too," I thought.

I went to check on my friend Ryan, and saw Joe Hachem, his head down on his table while he got a massage during this unscheduled break. Joe had a respectable stack of chips in front of him, carefully stacked up and neatly organized. "Joe's been here many times before," I thought. It's not a particularly deep sentiment, but he's made three major final tables since he won his title last year, and even though he's not currently in the top ten, he has a lot of experience, and that is an extremely important X-factor.

Aside: Joe "The Show" O'Neill just came into the media room. According to our Irish friends, Joe is a big Star Trek fan, and wanted to say hello to me. It was the least I could do, because Joe went out on the bubble with aces versus sixes, when both players flopped a set, and the other guy (Mike Sullivan) turned the case six to make quads. Thanks to the round-for-round system they're using this year, Joe gets $10,616, but it's a long, long way from where he hoped to finish.

Against the wall next to Joe, I saw Ali Lightman talking with Joe's brother Tony, taking down notes while Tony told her a (bad beat?) story. Tony is a great guy, and quite a poker player, too. I saw Cindy Violette at her table, her eyes closed as she listened to something on her iPod. She looked like she was trying her best to relax. I couldn't tell if she was successful.

I checked in with Ryan, who had about 107K (an outstanding achievement, especially since he started the day with under 50) and slowly made my way back out of the room.

I got up near Humberto's table, and stopped to check in on Rob "boiling fish" Berryman, and I nearly panicked when I saw an empty seat where he was the last time I looked.

I bumped into my friend Joy, who is shooting some of the great pictures you're seeing with our posts, and asked her if they were breaking tables in this area.

"No," she said, "I don't think so."

"Oh, [expletive deleted]," I said. "I was really hoping that --"

Just then, Rob walked back to his seat. I hadn't even noticed that he had a healthy stack there. I guess when I saw the empty seat, they fell into some sort of panic-induced blind spot.

"-- this guy was still in!" I said.

I extended my hand to him and introduced myself. "I'm the guy your dad asked to cover you on the blog," I said.

He grinned sheepishly and said, "I think my dad's more excited than I am."

"I'm a dad," I said, "and I totally understand how he feels. When he's watching you and wearing a PokerStars cap, I can see myself watching my kids play T-ball while I wear a Direct Tire T-shirt."

He turned over his shoulder, and saw his dad standing at the rail. He waved and turned back around. I watched his dad swell with pride.

"How are you doing?" I said.

"I have about one hundred and five thousand," he said.

"This is good," I said.

"Yeah, and I didn't even think I would be here today, because I was so sick last night."

"Nerves?" I said.

"Oh no," he said, "I think I ate some bad food or something, because I was up all night long."

"Oh man," I said. "That sucks."

"Yeah, I finally had a doctor come in and give me a shot around six this morning, and even then I didn't think I'd make it here."

We looked at his stack together. "So this is pretty cool, considering." He said.

"Yeah, I think I'll agree with you," I said.

"And did you know that I got here on sixteen dollars?"

"Oh yes," I told him, and I didn't even try to suppress the huge smile that spread across my face. "We on Team Blog know all about you, and we're cheering like hell for you."

Another PokerStars qualifier, who wore a PokerStars visor Dmitri Nobles-style, came over and joined us.

"Man, did you hear about the aces versus the sixes?" He said to Rob.

They talked about Joe "The Show's" hand, while I made some notes.

I introduced myself to him, and found out that his PokerStars name is APAC3232.

"Man, I had a sick hand on the bubble," he said. "I got it all in with pocket kings against ace queen. The flop comes queen queen trey with two hearts. I had the king of hearts, and caught runner / runner hearts to make my flush! I had to order a beer after that."

It didn't occur to me to ask him if he was at table 138, but wouldn't it be cool if he was?

"Hey, you were ahead at the beginning, and you got there at the end," I said.

"Can I just tell you that this has been the best and worst week of my life?" He laughed.

"I totally understand," I said.

They talked with each other, and I left them to think about things like making the next money jump.

I passed the rail, and stopped to talk with Rob's father.

"Congratulations, dad!" I said.

"Thank you," he said. "Did he tell you about being sick overnight?"

"Yeah," I said, "I'm really glad that he's here, though."

"So am I," he said. The pride in his eyes may have brought tears to mine.

On a personal note, I've just filled up my notebook, and I'm now switching over to a new one. I'll understand if nobody else is as excited about this as I am.

by Dr. Pauly

The money bubble broke several hours ago. Here are a list of PokerStars qualifiers who made the money in the 2006 WSOP Main Event:

397 Thomas Koo $30,512
402 John Coito $30,512
403 Jason Richards $30,512
412 David Daneshgar $30,512

444 Lawrence Frye $26,389
446 Alex Todd $26,389
455 Adam Stormwind $26,389
469 Andy Martinez $26,389
474 Michael Benedetto $26,389
479 Daniel Heimiller $26,389

493 Layne Black $26,389
501 Mark Vecchio $26,389

526 Joseph Cordi $22,266
543 Dario Minieri $22,266
556 Jonathan Huang $22,226
558 Adrian Pitt $22,226
561 Alex Brigante $22,226
562 Sol Bergren $22,226

569 Patrick Fortin $20,617
570 Igor Holdaiy $20,617
571 Lee Thomas $20,617
602 Josh Egan $20,617
611 John McLaughlin $20,617
616 Mark Bogen $20,617

643 Jonathan Diamond $19,050
646 Dane Wheeler $19,050
660 Joe Gualtieri $19,050

683 Gary Broaddus $17,730
687 Neil Butterfield $17,730
692 Frank Callucci $17,730

721 Steven Dunkelberg $16,493
723 Donna Skolnick $16,493
726 Christina Jones $16,493
735 Johan Kretz $16,493
760 Seth Cohen $16,493
767 Matt Maroon $16,493

784 Jonathan Greenhalgh $15,504
793 Jonathan Rego $15,504
795 Ara Melikian $15,504
801 Scott Sweesy $15,504
808 Greg Spence $15,504

821 Fred Lavassani $14,597
827 Vitaly Lunkin $14,597
833 Roger Mason $14,597
839 Ed Latif $14,597
840 Rick Middleton $14,597
850 Nam Le $14,597
852 Steven Dubin $14,597
863 David Barrie $14,597

?? Brian Gass $10,616

Congrats to everyone who cashed!

General Coverage

Selected Day 3 Chip Counts

PokerStars WSOP Winners (Day 3) (compiled by Dr. Pauly)

WSOP Day 3 Photo Gallery

Bubble Time (by Dr. Pauly)

Beyond the Bubble (by Wil Wheaton)

A Pause in the Action (by Wil Wheaton)

PokerStars qualifier coverage

Looking at the extremes (by Craig Cunningham)

The European March (by Howard Swains)

Viva Espana (by Mad Harper)

Jason Strasser showers and takes off (by Craig Cunningham)

Daniel Pelletier on a rush (by C.J. Hoyt)

Decision Time on the Bubble for Johan Beckfjard (by Craig Cunningham)

Super Dario Minieri (by Howard Swains)

Will the real Chris Martin please stand up? (by Mad Harper)

The Brazillian Survivor -- Igor "Federal" Trafane (by Mad Harper)

Team PokerStars Coverage

In Search of the Big Story -- Humberto Brenes (by Wil Wheaton)

Tom McEvoy: Unsung Hero

by Craig Cunningham

Team Blog's Craig Cunningham checks out Strasser's chip stack

Jason's at $450,000 and had a bit of downtime as Allen Cunningham sprinted by him from a nearby table, making a run to the restroom. Play has slowed as so many players bustout, creating a long line at the payout area.

"I lost a $100k pot to the guy next to me," he said, "and I don't want to talk about it." Jason's smiling as he says that, and you can tell he still has his A-game. He's more disappointed that some of his chips are sitting next to him rather than in front of him. His friend Doug Kim, a PokerStars qualifier, is two tables over and has built his stack up to $190k. "I feel like I'm due to lose a big pot," Jason said. I suggested that he should walk in the hall for a more extensive interview, but he's brushed it off. Maybe he's due to win a big pot instead.

1:36PM
"Day 2, I rolled out of with no expectations, I didn't even shower," said Jason Strasser as he described his move on Day 2 from $44,300 to $319,000 by the end of the night. It was a magical run, doubling up early on then steadily building his stack through great reads and controlled aggression. The thing that may set him apart from other young players is that he's been here before.



"I played several EPT tournaments, as well as WPT France. I was the chipleader of the Aviation Club tourney in Paris on Day 2, only to bust out. I had chips at the EPT tourney in Vienna and London as well. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but one of the biggest things for me is fighting myself. When I had chips, I turned into Mr. Invinceable and it cost me." Jason has made some changes to work on correcting these flaws in my game. "It's hard to keep your focus in live tournaments when you multi-table online. My iPod helps me to slow down, and I'm trying to find a different beat, a different pulse to keep me settled down. I probably lose information with my headphones on, but I gain a lot more by slowing down."


Jason Strasser in a moment of reflection

If you watch Jason play for even one round, his level of focus jumps out at you. "It isn't so much focus as absorption, I just allow myself to collect as much information as I can," he said. Mentally, he's more than prepared for some of the obstacles that might get in his way. "I have a weird attitude; I expect bad things to happen to me. If I flop a set and their are two diamonds on the board, I expect a third diamond to hit. I don't know, it just seems to help me work though hands better." Having been at or near the chip lead of big tournaments, Jason now has a perspective hardened through some tough bustouts. "It may sound like I'm doing really well, but there are $90,000,000 chips in play and I have $300,000. I just look at it like we're starting a 1,200 person tournnament on Friday, and I happen to be starting out a little ahead of most players. The minute I get ahead of myself, then I'll be in trouble."

Some players have a gameplan coming into Day 3, but Jason doesn't believe in that. "I think it's counterproductive to have a plan; I react to what's being presented to me. I think players with a hard plan are not very dynamic poker players. I constantly have to worry about who's around me. I play off of my table rather than sticking to a certain style."

He may not have come in with a plan, but he has been sticking to a certain style: stacking chips. He's built his $319,000 to $460,000 before the dinner break. While he's worrying about the other players at the table, every other player there is worried they will be Jason's next victim.

by C.J. Hoyt

When Day 2 started, Daniel Pelletier was among the chip leaders with about $100,000. Vegas is a long way from his home in Quebec, north of the border, but he obviously brought his poker game with him. For Day 2, he had a plan and it was to win chips, and lots of them.

Daniel Pelletier


For the first few hours of play, the plan wasn't working. It's not that he was losing chips, it's that he couldn't win many. And then suddenly everything changed. Daniel was moved to a new table and in no time at all, had doubled up. At about $200,000, he wasn't done yet.

With Ad6d, Daniel found himself with the nut flush on the river. He pushed himself all in and his opponent went into the tank. After a long wait, Daniel called for the floor and the clock started. At the end of the clock, Daniel's opponent said he didn't know he was on the clock and wanted another countdown. Daniel wasn't happy with the ruling and the cameras from ESPN were suddenly all around to catch the action.

With the second clock running down, Daniel waited, hoping for the call. His opponent finally did, showing 7d4d, and Daniel won a massive $450,000 chip pot. He was suddenly among the chip leaders and wanting more. Unfortunately, the momentum didn't stick for the rest of Day 2 and he finished up with $334,000.

Daniel's been playing poker for more than two decades, and at 42 years old, he's very confident of his changes to break through now.

"In everything, I believe, in my life I've had very good success," he says about his chances of winning, "and I believe in me."

Today, Daniel was ready for action and wasn't worried about the bubble. However, during the first level, I found Daniel's chair empty. I asked the table and they said he was there, but left with his wife.

It seems missing a few blinds wasn't something Daniel was worried about on Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. And now that he has $444,000 shortly before the Day 3 dinner break, I can understand why.

by Craig Cunningham

Johan Backfjard started the day strong at $137,700, but by the time play went round by round, he was sitting on around $12,500. With blinds at $1k/2k with $300 antes, any pot would help him revive his fortunes and give him a chance to climb back into contention. Lose a pot, and Johan might very well leave out of the money, forfeiting $14,957.



In the small blind, Johan had a raiser in front of him and looked down at pocket queens. He struggled for at least three minutes, trying to decide if he wanted to risk that much cash. He was tortured, and ultimately he mucked the hand.


With the button, there were no callers to him when he again looked down at pocket queens. If he moved and was called, he could get knocked out if either blind called. Normally, both of these hands are no-brainers, but this was a special situation. He flipped his glasses up to his head, again his face strained under the immense stress that he was under. Ultimately, he moved all-in and looked away. The small blind folded immediately, but the big blind sat and pondered the move for probably a minute. He finally fired his cards into the muck, and Johan stacked the chips. He walked away from the table, now guaranteed cashing in the Main Event. Ten minutes later, the announcement came that indeed fourteen players had busted in the last round, and Johan's decisions had given him at least the $14,957 payout. He'll have to double through a few times now to move up.

by Howard Swains

For further updates on Dario Minieri, click here.

When I first caught up with Dario Minieri, back on Day 1, there was one thing on his mind.

"You work for PokerStars?" he asked. "I don't have my SuperNova T-shirt yet," he said.

Dario Mineri before finding his specialized Supernova gear

Essential as poker-table fashions are, it was not the reason I had initially approached the young Italian. I was considerably more interested in the piles of chips in front of him, chips that were spawning chips as if Gremlins past midnight in a bath.

Today, Day Three, we are all happy. Dario now sits proudly in his tailored SuperNova basketball shirt, his screen-name (the same as his actual name) proudly embroidered across his narrow shoulders.

What's more, the sartorial improvement has also been reflected in those chips. He now peeks over approximately $280,000 worth of those prized discs and is, by some measure, table five's undisputed captain.

With Surinder Sunar, British professional, to his left and three other well-chipped PokerStars qualifiers on the table, Dario is nonetheless the picture of calm. He is merrily chewing the fat with his neighbour concerning his PokerStars play, detailing past battles with Jason Strasser and the like, other big players making huge ripples here.

But geniality aside, get Minieri in a pot and there really is no letting up. He is a raising machine and if you want to tangle, you better have the goods. With the bubble now burst and everyone in the money, they are coming like lambs to the slaughter to Dario.

We'll check up in a few hour's time. Then probably tomorrow as well. And the next day. Twelve million dollars is an awful lot of euros.

by Mad Harper

Click here for update

I got quite excited when I saw the name Chris Martin on the PS qualifiers' list. "Ooh, Coldplay!" I thought. Obviously however, it's not Gwyneth Paltrow's pop-singing hubby on Table 56 - it's the other Chris Martin, the 23-year-old real estate agent from Bourbonnais, Illinois known on PokerStars as "LUHMAN".



Quietly-spoken Chris has been making calm and steady progress through the WSOP and - a couple of hours into Day 3 - had already bumped up his chips another $25k to $250,000. Several hours - and some enormous pots later and he's up to $453,000. His success here - everyone still playing is in the money - matches Chris' steady progress generally in online poker.

He said: "I've been playing for around three years now - and seriously for about a year. I pretty much play full-time (although I still put in a few hours at work) and it just gets better and beter. Last month was my best ever - I made the final tables of two events to win around $25,000 each time and won two seats at the WSOP. I'm pretty confident and comfortable with my game at the moment - and I couldn't be happier with the way I've been playing here."

Much as he likes playing cards however, poker is not Chris' first love: it's golf. Chris has been playing seven years or so and now has a 7 handicap. He said: "Yeah, golf is my favourite. If I win $12,000,000, the first thing I'm doing is ringing the Pebble Beach Pro Shop to set up a block of tee times for my friends and I. And the second thing I'm doing is buying a house in Scottsdale, Arizona. I have relatives there but the things I really like about it is that there's a lot of good golf courses round there."


Chris Martin is out - but in such a spectacular fashion, it had the ESPN crews jumping over furniture to shoot the scene.

Chris kicked off an all-in frenzy when he shoved his remaining 90k into the pot with pocket Jacks. A flop of 532 brought all-in calls from three other players and the cards were flipped over to reveal pocket Qs, As and tens.

A 10 on the turn gave this gargantuan pot - something well over 1.5 million - to the underdog. Bye bye Chris plus two other players, in the space of a couple of minutes.

Chip counts are subject to time of recording

1:04am

# indicates spot on leaderboard (standings are subject to change upon final chip count)

Dmitri Nobles 650,000 (1)
Kyle Bowker 600,000 (5)
Jon Lane 580,000 (6)
Debra Lalor 550,000 (8)
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 541,000 (9)
Mark Garner 525,000 (10)
Rick Mombourouette 500,000
Jason Strasser 485,000
Daniel Pelletier 400,000
Darryl 'nutboy1' Dare 390,000
Chris Budak 380,000
Cheng Yu 370,000
Rob Lederer 360,000
Douglas Kim 360,000
Humberto Brenes 352,000
Vaughn Sandman 335,000
Chris Martin 327,500
Sean Johsnon 310,000
Brian Hansen 300,000
Shane Fumerton 280,000
Paul Grein 280,000
Akshay Kumar 280,000
Igor "Federal" Trafane 270,000
Iago Lopez 285,000
Paul Greim 280,000
Steven Goodemote 250,000
Lee Thomas 220,000
Gunnar Rabe 210,000
Cory Butler 208,000
Brian Nadell 195,000
Doug Kim 190,000
Clayton Mazdzen 180,000
Vince Ianuzzi 176,000
Scott Byron 160,000
Dan Heimiller 150,000
Joe Hachem 141,000
Leo Fernandez 140,000
Gary Jones 140,000
Thomas Koo 130,000
Rob Berryman 126,000
Michael Batherwich 125,000
Tom McEvoy 125,000
Carlos Lopez 120,000
Alex Todd 120,000
Ed Blount 100,000
Andy Donovan 70,000

12:14am

# indicates spot on leaderboard

Dmitri Nobles 545,000 (1)
Eric "Rizen" Lynch 360,000 (2)
Mark Garner 525,000 (3)
Jon Lane 500,000(t5)
Rick Mombourouette 500,000 (t5)
Kyle Bowker 495,000(7)
Jason Strasser 495,000
Debra Lalor 460,000(8)
Humberto Brenes 420,000
Daniel Pelletier 390,000
Chris Budak 380,000
Douglas Kim 360,000
Darryl 'nutboy1' Dare 355,000
Chris Martin 325,000
Cheng Yu 340,000
Vaughn Sandman 335,000
Shane Fumerton 280,000
Paul Grein 280,000
Igor "Federal" Trafane 270,000
Ed Blount 260,000
Iago Lopez 260,000
Sean Johsnon 230,000
Akshay Kumar 230,000
Lee Thomas 220,000
Gunnar Rabe 220,000
Rob Lederer 205,000
Brian Nadell 195,000
Doug Kim 190,000
Clayton Mazdzen 180,000
Vince Ianuzzi 176,000
Scott Byron 160,000
Dan Heimiller 150,000
Phillipe Boucher 148,000
Leo Fernandez 140,000
Gary Jones 140,000
Thomas Koo 130,000
Rob Berryman 126,000
Michael Batherwich 125,000
Carlos Lopez 120,000
Alex Todd 120,000
Tom McEvoy 115,000

Dr. Pauly

No one wants to be the Bubble Boy. Or Bubble Girl or Bubble Monkey for that matter. Busting out on the bubble is one of the most demoralizing moments in tournament poker. At some point, every player has experience busting out on or near the bubble. But having that happen at the WSOP can be the single worst moment in a poker player's career.

Play near the money bubble tends to slow down. Tournament directors want to make sure every table has a fair advantage so each table plays the same number of hands until the money bubble breaks. Some players will small stacks tend to stall so they can squeak into the money. While other players take their time to make decisions because a bad move could cost them a shot at cashing.

The bubble is when the psychological aspects of money comes into play for the first time in the tournament. For almost a week, the players had one goal in mind: make it to the end of the day. When everyone woke up today, their goal changed to: make the money.

Many players switch gears as the money bubble approaches. Some tighten up to ensure a cash, while others see that as an opportunity to pick up a lot of free pots. Many pros use the bubble to their advantage. They know that online qualifiers and amateurs don't want to risk their stacks, so they go on the attack with bully raises and steals. $14,597 is the least anyone who cashes will earn. If you bought in directly you'll get about $4,600 for a a few days of work. If you qualified on PokerStars through a freeroll or spent a couple hundred bucks on a satellite, then $14,597 is a decent return on your minimal investment.

The atmosphere in the tournament room during the WSOP Championship bubble is an intense period of time. Players tense up and focus. This year, the tournament directors decided to go round-for-round as the play approached the bubble. With about 880 players remaining, the dealers would deal an entire orbit and then wait for all the other tables to catch up. They did that until the bubble broke.

In previous years, the Bubble Boy was bought into the WSOP championship the very next year, as a nice gesture from the casino. That would actually make the person one off the bubble as the Bubble Boy. Things are a little different this year. Milwaukee's Best, one of the official sponsors of the WSOP, is giving a way a seat into the 2007 WSOP championship. They are picking the nine players who bust out on the bubble to play in a SNG. The winner gets the $10,000 seat.

When the bubble broke, the room filled with applause as players got over one a major hurdle. Cashing in the 2006 WSOP is a major accomplishment for any poker player. The players still sitting in the room beat out almost 8,000 other players to get to that point.

When the moment happened justa round 5:30pm local time, many of the players sprung to their feet and joined in the celebration. The entire room let out a collective sigh of relief. Others flipped open their cellphone and called their loved ones. One guy hugged his dealer. Two PokerStars qualifiers sitting at the same table exchanged high-fives and fist bumps. A few others checked the payout sheet to see what the next jump in money is (places 775 through 819 gets $15,504).

Congrats to all the PokerStars qualifiers who made it to the money at the 2006 WSOP championship.

Today is cut day, similar to a Friday at a PGA event. 286 players won't cash, and the table you draw has a significant impact on how your day will go.

Jason "strassa22" Strasser sits on the high extreme, his table holding $1,223,000 in chips. He starts the day comfortably at $319,000, but Akshay Kumar holds $249,000 and Matt Maroon sits next to the dealer with $201,000. Two players hold less than $35,000, but this should prove to be quite a dynamic table. "I've held the chip lead on Day 2 of an EPT tourney only to be busted, so I've been high in chips before," said Jason. "I may be top ten in chips today, but there are $88,000,000 in play, so anything can happen."

Igor Holdaiy sits at an average table with $769,000, and at $118,000 he is in a comfortable position. To his left sits fellow PokerStars qualifier Daniel Pelletier with $334k (below). Igor held his own at Joe Hachem's table yesterday. "He was mad at me," Igor said at a break. "I re-raised him three times, but I had a hand every time. The third time he looked at me very angrily, but he knew I was ahead every time." If he stays away from Daniel, Igor could sit in good shape for Day 4.

On the short end is Table 13, holding only $364,000 as the smallest table around. PokerStars qualifiers Jonathan Hoang, Rick Middleton, and David Ventura share this table with seven others who don't have to fear a big stack, as the chip leader only has $57,800. Blinds have moved up to $800/1600 with a $200 ante, so each pot now has $4,400 in chips. In Dan Harrington's excellent series on tournament holdem, he extensively discusses M, the ratio of your chips to the pot. For those at Table 13, their M ranges from 13 to 4, so any raise will commit most players to the pot. Theoretically, it would be in their best interests to collectively wait out the bubble, guaranteeing everyone at the table $14,597.

When the bubble bursts, the Vegas Strip will shudder from the tremor created at the Rio. Who squeeks in and who grabs chips during the wait will be key to how the field looks at the end of Day 3.

by Howard Swains

Just before heading to Las Vegas for the World Series, I was faced with the arduous task of moving house; sentimentally weeping my way through years of letters, photographs, dust and memories before shoving them into a box and pretending it all never happened.

More happily, I also revisited the 1990s in the form of my VHS collection; plenty more to be embarrassed about there, but also some hidden gems. In the latter category, I found the germination of my interest in poker: eight cassettes, all with their tabs removed, representing six series of Late Night Poker, the Channel 4 series that screened every Friday night in Britain and changed the entire poker landscape.

Not only was this first show to utilise under-the-table cameras, but it was also a brilliantly structured and edited tournament that showed real poker the way it is really played. Coin flips were a rarity, quality play from quality players was not. Eight years later and we are still nowhere near replicating the standards set right at the beginning of the TV boom.

One of the stars of this show is currently representing PokerStars in day three of this WSOP main event. Gary Jones is a qualifier for the second year in succession and is currently sitting beneath a PokerStars cap and behind more than 200,000 in chips.
That’s not exactly rare this year (PokerStars qualifiers are tearing through this World Series field) but unlike some of his peers, Jones is hardly playing in his first live tournament. He is a regular in the biggest games in London’s Victoria Casino, arriving daily in the Ferrari that a decade at the top of the game has bought. In 2004, the year Greg Raymer claimed the top WSOP prize, Jones was the highest finishing British player, his 17th place worth $175,000.

On Late Night Poker, Jones made one of the best calls ever seen on the show, brilliantly reading a bluff from Marty Wilson, another British pro, and calling him on the turn with ace-high. When Wilson went on to hit his three outer on the river, Jones sat in the interview room, ruefully shrugged “That’s poker”, and left with his reputation forever enhanced.

Gary also has a neat sideline in poker commentary, grabbing the mic for the British Poker Open, one of the first tournaments ever to be screened live in its entirety on British TV. It is therefore amusing to watch the reaction among the majority of the players here to see what appears to be a novice (Gary’s “Choirboy” nickname comes from his adolescent looks) play with the obvious ability of a veteran.

As the bubble approaches, Jones is still well set to go even deeper. Stay tuned for when the Choirboy sings even louder.

by Wil Wheaton

Every day, we on Team Blog look for what we call The Big Story. It's been Jason Strasser, The PokerStars Seven (then Five), 2005 World Series Champion Joe Hachem not only surviving to day three, but kicking ass all the way . . . and, of course, Dmitri Nobles, just to name a few of them.

Today, however, we really don't even know where to start. Dmitri is playing his game (and doubling up a few short stacks in the process, but picking off enough smaller pots to maintain his chip position) and looks set to go very, very deep. Jason Strasser is just 100K behind Dmitri, and could very well claim the chip lead by the end of the day. Tom McEvoy won his Main Event title in 1983 (as Dr. Pauly famously observed, "before Jason Strasser was even born") at last count had over 70K, and is one of the very few former world champions left in action, as Carlos Mortensen just busted, about thirty minutes after my friend Ryan eliminated Chris Ferguson.

A few minutes ago, Otis got a call on his phone. When he hung up, he turned to me and said, "I have an assignment for you: you're on Humberto today, because he has a massive stack after busting two players back to back. He could end up being one of the big stories today."

Look at me! I'm the big story!

"I'm on it, sir," I said, as I grabbed my notebook (which is down to one blank page and is about to be retired) and jogged out to the tournament floor.

I walked up to table 142 (studiously avoiding the increasingly rude and inconsiderate ESPN camera crews) and looked for Humberto's trademark visor. It wasn't there, but evidence of Humberto's presence was: an absolutely epic stack of chips that is so large, the tournament staff may be thinking about racing off the pink chips sooner than planned. I looked down at them and started to count, just as Humberto appeared back at his seat.

He looked up at me and smiled, and I said, "So, uh, it looks like you've been playing a little poker, sir."

"Just a little bit," he said with a grin and a shrug, as he sat into his seat during the deal. I pulled my notebook out of my pocket and wrote, "Brenes has a huge stack. Only one other stack is close, entire table looks glum."

Glum? Really? Did I really write "glum?" I'll be sure to drop in a "boss" and a "swell" later on.


Glum? Who is glum?

While cards came out at his table, I looked around and saw Rob "boilingfish" Berryman. Boilingfish is a sentimental favorite of mine, mostly because I know how proud of him his dad is, and how many of his friends back home are cheering for him. I also saw Michael "Mr.Wrong" H., another sentimental favorite, who I'd like to get deep into the money so he can buy his girlfriend -- who he met because I wrote about PokerStars on my blog -- something nice.

Humberto folded his hand, and I saw that he was counting his chips. He looked up at me and said, "It's about 250."

"Awesome." I said. "I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other today."

I jotted down a couple of notes and made my way back to the media room. I don't know what the big story will finally be when the chips are bagged up at the end of day three, but I'm sure it's going to be a good one.

Aside: Remember when I wrote about his button raise a few days ago? I asked him about it yesterday, and he told me that he had absolutely nothing when he got the blinds to fold to him. That's just how he rolls, folks.

by Howard Swains

Day three, and the final 1,168 all fancy their chances of the money. Just 873 of those actually will make it, meaning 295 won't. We're already in a pseudo-bubble phase, with the uber-bubble expected to burst a level or two into today.

From a European PokerStars perspective, things are rosy. Dario Minieri (275,900), the SuperNova from Rome, continues to blaze a trail. He has remained in the top chunk since day one and has shown exceptionally few chinks in his armour.

Dario Minieri

Akshay Kumar (249,600), from London, is in similar shape. Both these two love getting their chips in but their frighteningly hasty accumulation has proven that they know exactly when to do so and when to steer clear.


Akshay Kumar

Also from London (although originally from the north of England) is Gary Jones (172,800) a well-known professional player and poker commentator. A qualifier on PokerStars for the second year in succession, he undoubtedly has the big game experience to push on. Watch out for a profile later today.


Gary Jones

The success in the main event of Dennis Plejdrup Kobbero (126,500) gives me the most pleasure of all. I got to know Dennis during last season's EPT, where he qualified for both the Barcelona and Dublin events on PokerStars (and also bubbled on a Baden qualifier). Clearly an excellent large-field player, a major success has been imminent for far too long. Here it is, at last.

"Whichever tournament I go to, you seem to be there and have chips." That's me, to Ole Busborg Jensen (114,500), Danish PokerStars qualifier, who has been in the money on the EPT last season. "Well, what can you do?" he replied. Jensen was down the the felt on day two when Freddy Deeb made an outrageous call of a re-raise with nothing but an inside straight draw. Deeb hit it to beat Jensen's two pair. But the Dane has battled back and is now safely on the right side of six figures.

Meanwhile Donna Skolnick (33,100) is still in the mix as well. I saw her move her entire stack in late on day 1D and receive a caller - bolding laying her tournament on the line. Thankfully, she was sitting with a set of fours to her opponent's top pair kings and a fourth four on the turn provided the safety net she didn't need. She survived through day two with a minimum of variance and now might push on.

We'll be following all these players today, as well as the certain few who are still battling but we have missed. That's the frustration of these massive fields, but also the beauty. I am certain there are at least two or three other European players who will cash here who have not yet appeared on our radar. Look out for our discovery of those later, as well.

by Mad Harper

Sitting on Table 3 today is a loveable bear of a guy called Carlos Albert Lopez Neira. He and his best friend Iago Lopez Gonzalez are both PokerStars qualifiers and the only two Spaniards left in the WSOP. They grew up six miles apart in Lugo, Galicia and took up playing cards together when they were kids. Back then the game was Spanish poker - a stud-like game played with just over half a deck.

Carlos Lopez Neira
But two years ago, Carlos caught a TV re-run of Carlos Mortensen winning the 2001 WSOP - which lured him to the casinos of Madrid and Barcelona to try his hand at Hold'em. At the time he owned a surfwear store called "Distraction" but it was Carlos who got distracted. In the first year, he'd made enough to consider closing up shop. Then he took up playing online - and three months later, that was the end of Distraction.

Now, after only 15 months of playing online, Carlos, 29, is one of PokerStars' biggest players, a Supernova in the PS VIP club. He qualifed for the PokerStars European Poker Tour event in Deauville last February and won a total of three seats for this year's WSOP including a free-roll.

After Level 1 on Day 3, both the Spaniards are in reasonable shape. Iago has just doubled up to $100,000 and Carlos has $110,000 - thanks to a phenomenal bit of make-or-break luck just before dinner on Day 2. Carlos had 6s. Two seats to his left, under the gun, a guy had 7s. UTG made trips on the flop and called Carlos' semi-bluff. The turn produced a 6, giving Carlos what he believed was a winning set. He checked, then called UTG's $10,000 to go all-in. He said: "I only had one outer. But it came. The river gave me quads and I doubled up. The guy had me covered but he was pretty mad. He's still in though - he doubled up a few hands later."



Iago (left) and Carlos

By Dr. Pauly

Tom McEvoy begins Day 3 as one of three WSOP Champions left in the field. 2005 Champion Joe Hachem and 2000 Champion Carlos Mortensen are both still in the hunt for their second championship along with Tom McEvoy, who won his championship in 1983. That was before Jason Strasser was even born.

McEvoy has won four WSOP bracelets. He won bracelets in NL Hold'em, Limit Omaha, Limit and Hold'em Razz. He also made 17 final tables at the WSOP. McEvoy also won an even on the PPT. When he won the WSOP Championship in 1983, he beat out Poker Hall of Famers Doyle Brunson and Crandall Addington. He also only won $540,000. At that time, it was the highest payout for any poker tournament. Compare that to this year's payout distribution. 18th place at the 2006 WSOP will be guaranteed more money than McEvoy won in 1983. Times have changed at the WSOP with a huge influx of satellite winners.

McEvoy won his seat into the 1983 main event from the first ever satellite held at Binion's Horseshoe. According to Craig Cunningham, he's also known as "the patron saint of satellite qualifiers."

Tom McEvoy grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starting playing penny ante poker with his grandmother. According to McEvoy's Team PokerStars bio, he "took quite a beating in those days." He regularly got in trouble playing poker in grade school. He would win his classmates' lunch money, then the kids would go home crying and complaining to their mothers, who would promptly call McEvoy's mom issuing a complaint.

"If little Johnny is dumb enough to lose his money," his mother said in defense of the young poker shark, "There is nothing I can do about it."

He started playing poker full time in 1978 when he was laid off from his accounting job. He would fly back and forth playing 5-10. When he was making more money than his accounting gig, he eventually moved to Las Vegas and since then he's been a professional poker player and a noted author of over a dozen books. Some of my favorites were books he co-authored with TJ Cloutier.

If you are a non-smoker and hate smoke filled poker rooms, you have Tom McEvoy to thank for the clean air in most poker rooms in Las Vegas. He was part of a team that organized the first non-smoking tournament in 1988. In 2002, he also bribed Beck Binion Behnen to make the WSOP a smoke-free tournament by agreeing to give her poker lessons if she prohibited smoking in the room.

Tom McEvoy plays online and is able to handle the new breed of player.

"On-line players are very different, but stand a good chance in these larger tournament formats such as the WSOP final event. Events with over 1,000 players are rare in traditional tournaments; but on-line it's not uncommon to see a field of 1,700 players," McEvoy once said in an interview with the Poker Prof.

"The big problems with on-line players are they overplay their hands, they make all kinds of mistakes. They over bet the pot they under bet the pot, I see this in every online game. The worst move I have seen is a player making a raise the size of the big blind in a no-limit game; if there is a more mindless play in no limit Hold'em I haven't seen it. You drive nobody out of the pot, it re-opens the betting, maybe they're trying to make the pot bigger, but if that is their intent there are far better ways to do this. If you have a big pair for example, you're not raising enough to accomplish the goal which is to thin out the field. You see a lot of total inexperience on-line, you would think with these players playing for real money they would invest in a good book... they would have the cost of the book back with one pot."

McEvoy entered Day 3 with $60K in chips, just below the average stack. McEvoy usually flys under the radar in tournaments. Those who've read his many books or play on PokerStars know who he is. But there's a large percentage that don't, which makes Tom McEvoy the unsung hero at the WSOP. He's a true gentleman in a city filled with of liars, cheaters, and miscreants. That's why he stands out from the rest of his peers. We'll be keeping tabs on him throughout the day.

**1:15am**

The World Champion has survived a grueling day battling for his place in Day 4 of the main event.

"To finish at $141 000 after the day I've had, I'm ecstatic."

While still under average ($174 000) it's a big improvement, both emotionally and in terms of his stack. Joe headed into a slump early this evening after clashing with PokerStars qualifier Vaughn Sandman, and started leaking chips.

"I had no fight left in me after that kid made a move."

As detailed in an earlier post Joe made a pre-flop raise of $22 500 and was stunned when Vaughn, the table chip leader, moved all in.

Joe folded, flipping over AK only to see Vaughn turn AQ, and take the pot.

"The sad thing is, with play like that, he's going to dump all of his chips off on someone, and it won't be me."

Ted Forrest lost a huge pot to Joe, something around $80 000, to put him firmly back into contention in the closing half hour of play.

Sadly for Ted, he then came under attack by William Thorson and lost another huge chunk, going from $245 000 to what looked like less than $100 000, in less than half an hour. William has $628 000, very close to the chip leader, PokerStars' Dmitri Nobles.

As Joe and I were chatting Scott Lazar wandered over and offered his perspective.

Of the 1159 players who started today, Scott said "there are only 50 tables left.That's how close you are."

Joe's chipstack is now adorned by a large lump of quartz. Where did it come from?

"A waiter who'd been serving me came over a little while ago. He pressed it into my hand and wished me luck."

**12:30am**

Joe is looking a lot happier at his new table surrounded by huge stacks.

They broke his old table with one hour and seventeen minutes to go in the last level of play for the day.

It's what he wanted.

But when I asked him for a chip count a minute ago he refused to count them (with a smile.)

My guess would be in the low $90 000s, barely more than half the current average of $170 000.

He's chatting away to William Thorson on his left, who has built such towering candlesticks of chips I went cross-eyed trying to work it out.

William has an impressive tournament record over the past two years, his biggest finish being fifth place in the LA Poker Classic last year for which he took home $36 557.

Next to William, the intently focussed young Daniel Kreitzman, who has $304 000.

Further round the table is Dan Nassif from St Louis Missouri who has $475 000.

Ted Forrest in seat nine has $245 000 and Paul Sexton has $126 000.

If Joe is going to double up in the remaining half hour of play this is the table where he'll do it.

He's already demonstrated he's willing to put them all in once. He called a bet of $8 000 in the big blind. The flop was 9s Jh 9c. Joe checked, and when the button bet $10 000 Joe moved all in. The button folded and Joe took the pot.

**10:52pm**

Joe went into the break with around $98 000. He took down a couple of blinds with uncontested pre-flop raises. But he was obviously still thinking about laying down his AK to an all-in pre-flop raise from the table chip leader, PokerStars qualifer Vaughn Sandman, who was behind with AQ.

**10.25pm**

"He might have lost his mind. But I haven't lost mine mate."

That was Joe Hachem moments ago, clearly frustrated at a move made against him by PokerStars satellite winner Vaughn Sandman, which cost him $22 500 actual chips, but potentially a lot more.

It was Joe's button. There was a raise to $7 500 from late position, which Joe re-raised up to $22 500.

Vaughan Sandman in the small blind, who has Joe easily covered, re-raised all in.

"Every's got a hand this round have they?" Joe asked. "Mind if I think for a little bit?"

The World Champion rose and paced towards his wife Jeannie, and a few seconds later as he returned to his seat, tv crews had materialised out of nowhere. Joe was facing a huge decision, perhaps for his tournament life, under boom microphones and the scrutiny of cameras.

He turned to Vaughn saying "I know you're not making a play. I might just call you out of frustration. Nobody folds this hand, mate."

But fold he eventually did, flipping his cards to show AK.

Vaughn did the same, showing AQ, which seem to provoke Joe into making a warning to the table.

"Any one of you that wants to play a hand with me now, you'll be playing for all of your chips."

**6.30pm**

"Now you guys are in trouble!"

That was the warning from the World Champion, as the applause ebbed away in the tournament room and the players who've made it into the money got down to business making a bit more.

"My wife is here and she's my lucky charm" said Joe "and I'm taking off my jacket so watch out!"

Joe has $178 000.

Sitting on his left with $211 000 is Vaughn "rosebudd" Sandman, who won his seat online at PokerStars. Vaughn, 30 is from NYC, and played chess at a national level when he was at elementary school.

He now lives in LA and has been playing poker for six years. He tried to turn pro a few years ago but it didn't work out and he's now having another run at it and it's going well.

Joe and Vaughan have been keeping out of each other's way for the most part.

One of our PokerStars qualifers from Downunder, Peter Sun, is going great guns. He's just knocked out Layne Flack and has just over $200 000. Peter, 49, uses creative visualation (he imagines himself sitting in a huge pile of cash) but has also had some great luck today.

It was a three-way pot. Peter had QQ, another player had KK and Layne Flack had 88, pushing all in when the flop brought an 8. Unfortunately for Layne the turn was Q, and Peter had busted out two for the price of one.

Russell Davies, who has an impressive tournament record back home in Australia, is also going deep into the main event, with $150 000 at last count.

**4:33pm**

As we hit the money bubble, and play orbit-for-orbit until 15 people bust, Joe Hachem sits with $158,000.

**3.30pm**

Level two became frustrating for the World Champion, who went to the break with $154 000, a dip of around $20 000 from an hour ago.

He told me he'd called an all-in raise from a short stack, who pushed in for $13 000 when he found Q 10.

"I had A K and he hits a Queen on the flop."

To make matters worse Joe then doubled up the other short stack at the table.

The big blind had only played three hands all day, so Joe thought he could make a move from middle position and bet $4 000.

He never expected him to move all in.

Joe said "I've got two outs", called, and flipped 7 5o.

Woops. The big blind was holding cowboys. At least it was only $3 200 Joe more sent across the felt.

As players went for their break Joe hung around to watch a showdown between the small blind and and seat 7, then wished he hadn't.

The flop wasn't what he wanted to see.

"I folded 5 6 in the big blind. I didn't want to get involved. I would have hit two pairs and taken them both out."

Players are on break for thirty minutes.

**2.30pm**

There seem to be a few nerves at table 7, noone wanting to clash with Joe Hachem who has built his stack to $173 000 in the past hour.

"A big gun-shy are you" asked Joe of the small blind, who was looking rather worried about completing when he had Joe to act behind him. He mucked, answering the question.

A moment later Joe took the blinds from the button with a bet of $4 000.

Russell Davies, PokerStars satellite winner from Sydney, is having a good opening session.

Her's just won a pot of $23 000 and has about $150 000.

Peter Sun from Queensland is up to $130 000. Adrian Pitt isn't hitting cards yet and told me he was still hovering around $50 000.

Josh Egan, our only Kiwi PokerStars qualifier to survive Day 2, is up about $10 000 from the start of play, on $105 000.

Sam Khouiss has been up to $100 000 but is down again to $60 000 after losing three hands in a row to the player on his left.

**

Joe Hachem has added $40 000 to his stack in the opening level of Day 3, going into the break on $154 000.

"That was all without seeing a showdown" said Joe, "it's a good table."

I saw him clash with with PokerStars qualifer Vaughn Sandman, seated to Joe's left.

Joe was under the gun and bet $3 200, and was called by Vaughn, a player opposite, and the big blind.



The flop came 10s 6d 9c.

The big blind and Joe checked, and Vaughn bet $7 000, pushing out everyone except Joe.

The turn was Js which both players checked and when the river was 5h, Joe bet out $15 000.

"Come on mate" he said, "Pay me off".

Vaughn didn't think very long before mucking his hand.

Another PokerStars player from Australia, satellite winner Russell Davies, has also been building his stack during this level, up around $10 000 to $115 000 when the break started.

And a quick check of our other PokerStars satellite winners from Downunder revealed Peter Sun, a Gold Coast businessman, holding steady around $112 000, Adrian Pitt on $52 000, and Josh Egan, a 22 year old student from New Zealand, on around $90 000.

Sam Khouiss, who's a big PokerStars player from Sydney, has around $70 000.

by C.J. Hoyt

Update: 1:11am

Wow. What a finish.

Dmitri says he was on tilt. He told his new table (after moving) that he wasn't happy. They hardly believed him considering the near 500,000 in front of him. Then he explained how he had doubled up 10 players already and was once at 770,000.

On the last hand of the night, Dmitri announced, "I need to bust someone here."

It was folded around to his small blind and he raised, as he had done four consecutive hands. The big blind decided it was a good time to make a move, with the clock striking double zero, and he pushed all in.

Dmitri beat him into the pot.

He flipped pocket Q's and his opponent flipped AT offsuit. Dmitri was facing a three outer. Every card on the board ended up being below a Ten.

Dmitri was back. After running into a brutal last hour, that included doubling up a guy holding KQ against his A6 when he spiked a Queen on the river, Dmitri was due.

When the chips were shipped, Dmitri had 650,000 chips, more than 100,000 than he started the day with, and there was a good chance he'd still be the chip leader.

I think everyone knows who Dmitri Nobles is now.

Update: 12:14am

Disaster for Dmitri.

Normally, someone who loses more than 200,000 chips on one hand would be crippled. When it happened to Dmitri, he was still the chip leader. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt.

Here's how it happened:

Dmitri raised to 10,000 preflop and the 8 Seat called. The flop was Th7hAc. Dmitri bets 10,000 and the 8 Seat calls again. The turn is the 9 of diamonds. Dmitri bets 30,000 and the 8 Seat raises to 110,000, which Dmitri calls in a shot. The river is the 5 of hearts and Dmitri moves all in. The 8 Seat thinks for a good five minutes, at least, before finally calling. Dmitri shows an 8 of hearts to the table and that's it. The 8 Seat had pocket 9's for a set. Dmitri was open-ended, but did not have the flush. His other card was the Q of diamonds.

Update: 11:27pm

[Otis note: CJ couldn't make it back to the media room for this report, so he asked us to post it for him.]

Dmitri meet Dario. Dario meet Dmitri. Now, Dmitri, say goodbye to Dario.

Dario Minieri is out of the event. After bluffing into an overpair with a gutshot draw and losing a lot of his chips, Dario pushed all in with AK. Dmitri called with pocket three, flopped a set, and sent Dario Minieri to the rail.

Now, get this: Dmitri Nobles has 770,000 in chips.

Update: 10:50pm

Remember what I said about Dmitri's plan for the after-dinner play? Well, it doesn't sound like his opponents think he's slowed down at all. As they went on break, a friend of Dario Minieri asked Dmitri how he got all his chips.

"He folds a lot," Dario cut in, sarcastically, with a smile.

"Yeah, that's right," Dmitri said.

"He raised four straight hands," Dario told his friend.

"And I had an Ace every time."

"I don't know about that," Dario said, laughing.

"What? You don't believe a poker player?"

Both Dmitri and Dario have a reason to smile right now. They're well above the average stack of $142,000. In fact, since the last break, Dmitri has climbed about that amount, $141,000, to sit at $641,000. That's still more than $100,000 than 2nd place. Dario is still at $307,000, and not anxious to tangle with the only stack at the table bigger than him.

At one point, Dmitri walked over to Daniel Negreanu's table to see him crippled (he had started the day at $331,000 but found himself under $50,000).

"How you doing?" Daniel asked him.

"I've got more than $600,000."

"That's good... just don't run into the nuts 7 times like I did."

"Ha, I already have!"

And maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration for Dmitri, but he is a poker player after all.

Update: 9:59pm

He's catching cards now. After a couple big hands, including an all-in of KT suited vs. his own AJ offsuit, Dmitri is now up to a whopping 623,000. That means his chip lead is now more than 100,000 over the rest of the field. Of course, things just got a little more interesting. Sitting in the seat vacated by the player busted by Dmitri is none other than PokerStars' own Dario Minieri.

Update: 7:05pm

So if a guy at your table played about 80% of the pots and raised you almost every time, what would you think of him?

"They love me!" Dmitri said when I asked him about his opponents, "Just ask them!"

He's played for 5 hours now and his stack has dwindled from $549,000 to $500,000, yet he's still the chip leader. He's counted about 10 double ups so far against the rest of the table, but it hasn't dissuaded him yet.

"I keep pushing and pushing, til I get a big hand and I'll get all their chips," he says. "I just haven't seen any big hands yet."

When Dmitri gets back from dinner, he expects to cut down on the number of the hands he plays (to which Team PokerStars crack commando research intern Wil Wheaton says, "So he'll just play 60% of the flops?"). He's hoping the cards turn around for him, and if they do, he'll make the same kind of run tonight he made last night.

Update: 5:37pm

When the announcement was made, the players cheered... we're in the money. And when we hit that point, Dmitri Nobles was still the overall chip leader at $500,000. I'll talk to him on the dinner break about play for the first half of today and find out if things are going to change for the rest of the day.

Update: 4:32pm

We're at the money bubble meaning players will play orbit-for-orbit until about 15 players bust. Dmitri, still a huge chip leader, has his stack up to $571,000.

Update: 4:02pm

The second break is now over and players are back at the tables. It was quite a roller coaster for Dmitri in the first 3 hours of play. It seems like he's played about 80% of the hands, at least that's how the rest of the table feels.

"I've doubled up like 5 or 6 other players and I still have more than I started with," he told me on his way out of the room.

And he's right. He's sitting at $553,000, which still puts him more than $100,000 ahead of second place.

On one big hand, he rivered a flush and got a guy to call after calling the clock. On another, he bet the whole way to the river where he caught a Queen, winning another nice pot. Hands like those have kept him going. We're approaching the money bubble now and Dmitri says he doesn't plan on changing his strategy.

"When we get close to the money, I'm going to steal every blind."

Update: 1:43pm

Otis note: CJ has just reported from the floor that Dmitri lost an 80,000 pot when his opponent flopped a flush against him. Dmitri is now down to about 460,000.


Update 1:00pm:

It's break time and there's a little bad news for Dmitri. He's already doubled up two players at his table. The first time, it was for about 50,000 and the second time is was a little more than 30,000. You'd think that would put a dent in Dmitri's huge stack, but it hasn't. The good news is that Dmitri still sits at 534,000 which means he's only down about 15,000.

"I don't mind doubling someone up, because eventually I'll bust them," he says, still confident about his style of play. Here are two hands that will give you an indication of how he's playing:

On a flop of A82, Dmitri called a short stack's all in with just 85 offsuit. His opponent flipped A2 for Aces up. Dmitri was dead to two outs, although that's not outside the realm of possibilities. This time, however, it didn't come.

On the second hand, Dmitri raised to 4000 preflop after a couple limpers. One player called. The flop came down Ah7d9c. Dmitri checked and the 10 Seat bet 7000 which Dmitri called. The turn was the 3s and both players checked. The river was another Ace and Dmitri immediately fired out 14000. The 10 Seat sighed audibly in frustration and folded. Dmitri flipped over his 92 offsuit.

Dmitri is still getting a lot of attention. At one point, PokerStars qualifer Jim Scherer says to him, "Are you so pretty that everybody has to have a picture of you?"

"Nah, I just have a lot of chips," Dmitri told him. "On the first day, I had 3,500, and they were like, 'Who are you?'"

They know now.
---------

Update 11:45am:

He's been the talk of the poker world for three days. Everyone wants to know who managed to amass a massive stack of $549,200 chips by the end of Day 2 of the World Series of Poker. It's nearly unheard of. Dmitri Nobles did it.

Dmitri Nobles

It's the kind of performance that gets 10-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth's attention. Towards the end of Day 2, he stopped by a few times to check up on Dmitri's progress. It's the kind of performance that gets the poker media talking. ESPN did their big interview yesterday and Dmitri tells me he's not even sure who else he's talked to.

When I talked to him before Day 2 started, Dmitri told me he slept just fine. Today, is a different story.

"I didn't really sleep. I went to bed early at about 8:30, but woke up at 12:30 and watched TV. Then I tried to sleep again at 4:30 and woke up at 7:30."

I can't really blame the guy. I doubt I'd be able to sleep much if I had more than 100,000 chips more than second place. In fact, there's a chance that if you add up the other 9 guys at Dmitri's table, he might still have more than them. Second place at his table is sitting at 130,000.

Dmitri figures that means a lot of the players there won't want to bust out before the money hits (about 300 have to bust for that) so he plans to punish those little stacks who likely won't want to fight with him. It's called big stack poker, and Dmitri is ready to play it.

Previous Dmitri Nobles stories:
Dmitri Nobles: Chip Leader
Dmitri Nobles: Half Million Dollar Man
Dmitri Nobles: Fast and Loose

WSOP SCOREBOARD (Day 2B Combined)

Starting players in WSOP: 8773
Players left in the WSOP: Approximately 1,159
PokerStars qualifiers remaining in the WSOP field: Approximately 170
Average all WSOP players: 76,008

Dmitri Nobles 549,200
Jon Lane 405,400
Daniel Pelletier 334,300
Jason Strasser 319,000
Phillipe Boucher 303,300
Dario Minieri 275,900
Cheng Yu 258,200
Akshay Kumar 249,600
aaron clark 242,000
Kyle Bowker 236,000
Chris Martin 231,300
Matt Maroon 208,900
MARK GARNER 196,500
Eric Lynch 194,500
Sean Johnson 191,000
Lee Thomas 181,200
DARRYL DARE 179,800
Erik Friberg 175,700
John Ambrust 175,100
Gary Jones 172,800
David Murray 171,400
Vaughn Sandman 163,000
Debra Lalor 156,100
Igor Trafane 153,900
Shane Fumerton 132,100
Dennis Plejdrup 126,500
alan resh 125,300
Raphael Doromal 125,200
Daniel Pickle 124,600
Jason Richards 122,800
alex todd 118,500
igor holdaiy 118,100
James Scherer 115,300
Joe Hachem 114,100
jeremy scheeringa 112,500
John Ma 111,900
sidney hasson 110,000
Clint Brotherton 106,700
Greg Giannokostas 106,600
Rob Berryman 106,000
Russell Davies 105,100
larry levine 103,800
Fred Lavassani 101,500
peter falk 98,600
Ryan Claar 96,300
Douglas Kim 95,200
Josh Egan 94,800
Brian Hansen 92,500
Brian Jacobs 91,200
Nam Le 91,000
Chris George 90,000
reuben peters 88,900
Michael Benedetto 88,200
Cory Butler 87,900
mark busnardo 86,800
David Penly 85,800
Lawrence Frye 84,300
David Simon 84,100
Chris Ellison 82,000
Michael Batherwich 80,800
John Coito 80,100
Paul Parker 78,600
WILLIAM NORTH 78,500
Rob Lederer 78,000
Johnathan Dempsey 77,900
Bruce Bellerose 77,200
clayton mozdzen 76,900
Paul Coles 75,500
ronald nixon 73,400
Joe Gualtieri 72,000
Dan Nassif 70,700
Steven Schulman 69,800
Mark Bogen 68,300
Scott Byron 66,900
David Cristini 66,900
Patrick Sullivan 65,700
Steven Dunkelberg 65,600
Blake Buffington 63,900
Jared Lissauer 63,510
Mark Gilbert 62,800
David Zeitlin 62,100
ROBERT SANCHEZ 61,700
Ernesto Panno 61,300
mathieu weissmann 60,800
Tom McEvoy 60,500
Rene Mouritsen 59,300
Paul Shoquist 58,100
Ara Melikian 58,000
Jens Thoren 57,900
Melandro Alina 55,600
Paul Smith 55,200
Jeff Parcher 54,400
scott sweesy 53,600
Jack Wooden 52,900
Bruce Frank 52,400
sol bergren 51,900
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN 51,700
Adrian Pitt 51,300
Gunnar Rabe 50,700
Kelly Contreras 49,500
Patrick Joyce 49,100
Duane Weum 48,200
Aaron Baltzell 47,500
Jeffrey Mermelstein 46,500
Lee Pierce 46,300
thomas adams 45,700
Curtis Dutchak 44,800
Rafael Comas 44,800
David Daneshgar 42,600
Mark Shaffer 42,600
Safuan Beatty 42,000
david mcbride 41,300
Seth Cohen 40,000
Michael Laufer 39,700
Gary Broaddus 39,600
steve whitman 39,400
Kirk Fellows 39,100
greg spence 38,500
Craig Schewe 36,800
Jesse Martin 35,500
Brian White 35,200
David Creeley 35,000
Thomas Koo 34,200
Wayne Cooper 34,000
Andrew Lawlor 33,600
Vincent Lin 32,300
manuel labandeira 32,100
Neil Butterfield 31,900
Layne Black 31,400
Adam Stormwind 30,000
Rick Middleton 29,700
Dan Finkleman 29,600
Eugene Yanayt 29,600
Merritt Teague 29,000
Lasse Ubostad 28,800
Justin Truesdell 28,000
Patrick Fortin 27,900
Dane Wheeler 27,100
Derek Feldman 25,200
Tom Prokopenko 24,900
Jonathan Rego 23,000
Jon Nakatani 23,000
Alex Brigante 22,200
Wilhelm Hardenberg 22,200
mike marcus 22,200
David Barrie 21,600
Chris Madrid 21,000
Christopher Budak 21,000
David Margolis 20,300
Steve Boyle 19,600
steven dubin 19,400
kevin armstrong 19,200
Dean Johnson 18,700
Roger Mason 15,700
Trent Wyatt 16,500
James Jordan 11,800
Desmond Chan 9,600
Alan Fidelo 9,600
michael kingsbury 9,500
Paul Harkleroad 9,000
Christina Jones 8,000
Jesse Moro 5,500
Toby Atroshenko 4,100
Jonathan Diamond 1,100

by C.J. Hoyt

End of Day 2B Update: $549,200. It's hard to imagine someone having that many chips after two days of play, but that's exactly where Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles finds himself. In fact, had his pocket Tens held up against pocket 8s, he'd still have about $600,000.

"I do better when I'm behind!" he told me after the hand, "I should have had the 8s!"

When the day ended, it was a fist bump and a bear hug from Dmitri, he was clearly the happiest guy in the room. The 2nd happiest was anyone who wouldn't be at his table Friday.

While his massive stack was being counted by the floor (they required two bags, and black tape), ESPN grabbed him for a quick interview.

"Look at me," he said after the camera was off, "I look all rough. But I'll look good tomorrow." That's when ESPN will get a sit down interview in the same chair where superstars like Daniel Negreanu and Joe Hachem will sit.

Friday, Dmitri will start his day at Table 146, Seat 6. No one at his table has more than $135,000. It's just the kind of table he likes. Of course, the way the cards have been falling for him, it doesn't really matter who's sitting across from him.

--------------

He came into the day with $86,000 and wanted to chip up early. Dmitri "DinoDaPro" Nobles has done that, and then some. Halfway through the day he was up over $300,000 and the massive chip leader. With just an hour to play, Dmitri now has a remarkable $606,000. My crack commando research staff (we've assigned it to Wil now) will find out if he's anywhere near a record.

At 34-years old, Dmitri has been playing poker for more than a decade. He's got a regular crew back home in Houston, TX.

"My friends saw I had $80,000 in chips and said 'we beat Dmitri every day!'" he told me. "But I don't think anyone in this room is better than me."

Dmitri isn't trying to be cocky. He just knows that in a tournament like this, it's a matter of playing good cards, making good reads, and getting lucky. And he's gotten VERY lucky so far.

On the very last hand before the last break, Dmitri decided his pocket T's were good after a flop of J-9-x. His opponent, however, was holding AJ. Dmitri wasn't worried. The turn was a 7, giving him a gutshot straight draw. That meant any 8 or 10 would be a winner. Dmitri called out for an 8, figuring there were four of them in the deck. Of course, there were only 2, since the player in the 1 Seat folded pocket 8's. It didn't seem to matter much, because the dealer peeled the 8 off the deck anyway.

Right before that hand, 10-time bracelet Phil Hellmuth stopped by to check up on the PokerStars qualifier. One of the two is currently out of the WSOP Main Event, the other is holding more chips than anyone.

"There are a lot of jealous people in the room right now," Phil told me.

Dmitri's strategy is pretty simple from here on out. He's going to keep pushing hard, but avoiding big stacks. More than anything, he's going to enjoy it.

"I'm on cloud 9 right now..." he paused, "No... I'm on cloud 11!! I'm two clouds above cloud 9!"

Previous Reports:
Dmitri Nobles: Half Million Dollar Man
Dmitri Nobles: Fast and Loose

by Craig Cunningham

Daniel Negreanu held court today on the ESPN Feature Table, keeping the crowd entertained while accumulating chips. In the shadow of the ESPN Feature Table sits Table 9, where two PokerStars players sat on opposite sides of the dealer and at the extreme opposite end of poker experience. The 1s and 10s The 1s and the 10s are often the least desirable seats in poker. Visibility is poor, you often bump into dealers as they deal their down and move on. Today, Phillipe Boucher and Tom McEvoy didn't seem to mind.

Tom is one of the former winner of the Main Event still alive on Day 2B, joining Robert Varkonyi and Joe Hachem still going strong. He is the author or co-author of six books of mandatory reading for tournament and cash game players looking to improve. His 1983 Championship over Doyle Brunson was the gem in his treasuretrove of four bracelets and eighteen WSOP final tables, as well as smaller tournament wins and cashes. He regularly plays smaller buy-in tourneys, helping to spread his knowledge and enthusiasm for the game to other players. In some ways he is the patron saint of PokerStars qualifiers as he was the first satellite winner to take the WSOP $10k Main Event. He also was the main catalyst to clear the air in the poker room pushing to have the World Series smoke-free in 2002.

The native of Quebec City started the day in good shape with $82,575, and he had steadily built his stack to $292,000 with one hour to play. "I played twelve No-Limit Holdem WSOP tournaments before the main event, cashing in two of them. It was a big help to play these tournaments first. It gave me good confidence and experience playing with people like Phil Hellmuth. When I was at the table with him in an earlier event, I was the only one talking to him. It's made me much more comfortable at the table." He studied electrical engineering in Canada but decided to play professionally a couple years ago. He and his wife Boucher brought their two Rhodesian Ridgebacks to a rented house in Henderson for the duration of the World Series, a home away from home as he focuses on the Main Event.

Philippe spends time each day on PrincePoker, a French-Canadian site devoted to improving play. "I've been going there for three years, and it's similar to 2+2 as a forum. We only have 1,000 members, but I learn something and help others with their play." He plays heavily on PokerStars, working continually to improve his play. "The no-names like me or strassa22 who play on PokerStars are really good. I play something like 100,000 hands a month. Doyle Brunson says that he thinks that type of volume of hands improves our understanding of the game. I don't have the experience of someone like Doyle, but I'm feeling good about my play right now. When we got to the last hours on Day 1, I moved from $50,000 to $80,000 in the last five hands because people wanted to get to Day 2. People were tired, but I play sometimes twenty hours in a row at PokerStars. I didn't come here to get through Day 2; I came to win."

(UPDATED AT END)

PokerStars Cash Qualifier Dmitri "Dinodapro" Nobles recently became the 2006 WSOP Main Event's first player to reach a half million in chips.

Dmitri Nobles

In one recent orbit, Nobles raised four consecutive hands. On one, he showed an ace. On the next he showed 23o. On the next he showed 34o. On the fourth, a player moved in on him. Nobels folded 23o face-up.

One player at the table just asked the tournament director, in a pleading tone, "When are you breaking this table?"

After tickling the half-million mark, Nobles called an all-in on a draw and missed, dropping his stack down to $430,000. Within 20 minutes, Nobles busted another player at the table and is now up to $530,000. He currently has a $250,000 lead on second place in Day 2B.

1:29pm--Fifteen minutes later, at the last hand of a level, Dmitri Nobles hit a runner-runner straight to move up over $600,000 in chips.

Nobles has come to believe that Team Blog's C.J. Hoyt is his lucky charm. After hitting that two-outer in the runner-runner hand above, he turned around, saw C.J., and shouted, "I should've KNOWN you were here!"

by Howard Swains

It's unlikely that Dario Minieri has spent much of his life as a bully. A quick glance at our PokerStars Supernova from Rome, Italy, reveals a wee slip of a lad - glinting gold jewellery notwithstanding, he's unlikely to have been striding out Russell Crowe-style to Gladiator-whip a bunch of lions for the baying Colosseum crowds.

Dario Minieri

Poker, however, does not require chains, pikes nor even pecks. Brawn is measured in chips and Dario has a bundle. I stood with him for an orbit and hour or so ago and, from the ten hands on offer, Dario won three, including a walk in the big blind when no one dared tangle.

It's the usual big stack's fun-day. Those with meagre overnight holdings have shoved in already, doubling up or heading home double quick. Those with medium stacks have what they consider to be a sniff of the money, so are making the prudent lay-downs and protecting what they have.

Ha! Some chance, spit the chip leaders. Dario and his cohorts with column beside column of multi-coloured discs are the puppet masters, teasing and tempting with tickler bets, over-raises, flat-calling then baffling and bullying on a nine-high flop.

The Rio is the new Colosseum - and Dario may be Maximus yet.

Dario Minieri


Tom McEvoy


Arnie Blenner


Adam Stormwind


Eric Bloore


Dan Heimiller


Scott Byron


Tim Woodcock

By Dr. Pauly

Two champions at the start of the day

I had been standing on the rail closely watching Greg Raymer's every move for most of Day 2B. If you've played in poker tournaments or sweated friends or family members from the rail, you know how boring poker can be. It's probably even more frustrating for the players when they are not getting cards or worse, getting marginal hands out of position or when there's been a raise in front of you.



Raymer appeared cool and calm like he always does, but I could sense his frustration level was growing. Despite having a shortstack, that did not deter him from making any bad decisions.

"It's been a tough day so far. I've been outflopped a lot," he mentioned before he went on a break. "I gotta catch better cards or I'm done."

Raymer finally got a big hand, pocket Kings, but he didn't get paid off and picked up a small pot. That seemed to be the case for most of the afternoon. With several big stacks to his right and a few weak-tight players to his left, he was in an ideal position to pick up chips and steal blinds. However, most of the action at his table was fast in front of him. When players would come into pots preflop with his raise, Raymer would peek at his cards and quickly muck them.

With about five minutes to go in the break and the blinds at $400/$800 and a $100 ante, one player in EP limped and another raised to 2K. Raymer looked at his cards and moved all in. He slid on his trademark sunglasses as ESPN cameras rushed over to capture the hand. His opponent waited for a few moments and asked Raymer to count out his chips. He eventually called and flipped over A-A. Raymer reluctantly showed 8-8. After a flop of A-9-5, Raymer knew he was drawing almost dead. He needed running 8s to survive. The river was an unless 8.

Raymer jokingly picked up the Ace on the flop and tossed it into the muck. He picked up one of the burn cards and positioned it on the flop. That card ended up being the case Ace which got a laugh out of everyone at the table.

The classy Raymer shook everyone's hand including the player who busted him. Raymer outlasted several hundred players on Day 2B. Despite today's outcome, Raymer is still a champion in my eyes.

Greg Raymer: Large Field Guru (by Dr Pauly)
Greg Raymer Plays Like a Champion (by Wil Wheaton)
Greg Raymer Does His Best (by Wil Wheaton)

World Series of Poker Day 2B Coveage Index

PokerStars Qualifiers Update

Selected Day 2B Chip Counts

Dmitri Nobles: Fast and Loose (by C.J. Hoyt)

Dmitri Nobles: The Half Million Dollar Man (by Brad "Otis" Willis)

Igor sits with the champ (by Craig Cunningham)

A PokerStars family reunion (by Mad Harper)

When all's said and Don (by Howard Swains)

The new Collosseum--Dario Minieri (by Howard Swains)

Playing like a champion with a champion--Phillipe Boucher (by Craig Cunningham)

Team PokerStars coverage

Greg Raymer: Large Field Guru (by Dr Pauly)

Greg Raymer Plays Like a Champion (by Wil Wheaton)

Greg Raymer Does His Best (by Wil Wheaton)

Joe Hachem Day 2B Updates (by Ali Lightman)

Joe Hachem: Here's the Plan, Boys (by Ali Lightman)

Don't miss: Greg Raymer--Large Field Guru by Dr Pauly and Raymer Plays Like a Champion.

by Wil Wheaton

The tournament director announced that this was the last hand before the break, just as action came to Greg, who was once again on the button.

Greg looked at his cards, raised, and struck that now-familiar pose. It was folded to the big blind in seat two, who thought for a moment, and called.

Phil Gordon was the first player to talk to me about the "artificial bubbles" in tournaments. These are moments that come up just before breaks, when players are anxious to get out of their seats and grab a snack, go to the bathroom, or eat some Keno crayons. Good players know that they can steal on these artificial bubbles, so they're likely to make moves from late position with a very wide range of cards. I know that Greg is a brilliant competitor, and I know that, even though his stack is relatively short, he'll make this move because it's usually the correct thing to do.

When the flop came out T-7-2 rainbow, the first thing I thought was, "Hammer!" The second thing I thought was, "Oh man, I hope Greg has a hand."

The big blind checked, and Greg thought for a moment. He counted out a bunch of pink chips, set them to the side of his stack, and looked at the other guy. Another moment passed, and Greg put a little over 7000 into the pot of almost 8000.

The other guy counted out a call, then picked up his hands and put them over his mouth. Everything about his body language said to me that he had some sort of hand, but he wasn't really crazy about it. He looked like he was trying to determine if Greg was putting a move on him, and my heart began to pound in my chest as if I was in the hand myself.

He stayed in the tank for close to two minutes, and eventually mucked his cards. Greg smiled and flipped up two red kings.

All the other players at the table -- who had stayed around to watch this hand play out while the rest of the room filed out for their break -- came over to Greg, and lined up to shake his hand.

"It's a real pleasure to play with you, sir," one of them said.

"What an honor," said another.

Greg talked to them all, and then helped the guy in the 8 seat count out all his green chips (they were racing off the greens at the end of this level). The guy seemed a little unsure, so Greg counted them all out for him and said, "You have fourteen thousand here. Make sure that's what they give you when you come back from the break." The guy thanked him, and Greg walked over to me.

"How are you feeling today?" I said.

"I'm tired," he said. "That last hand was the first hand I've had all day that really played itself. Everything else has involved a lot of decision-making and extra focus."

We made it about ten feet before he was stopped for a picture and an autograph, and then another picture.

"I had a tough hand where I flopped top pair with a king, checked to give the other guy a free card and induce a bluff on the turn, and he spiked an ace with ace queen. That took about five thousand out of my stack." He said. "It's been a really tough day."

The hallway was filled with fans, and the only thing that took him away from them was the voice of his wife calling out, "Greg!" over the white noise.

He walked over to her, and they talked for a few minutes. I stayed back and left them alone, but when Greg walked down the hallway, I talked with Cheryl for a minute.

"It's been so much harder for him this year," she said. "The year he won, and last year, the cards were really coming his way, but this year he's really had to work hard to get chips."

"That's the difference between him and ninety percent of that room," I said, "Greg doesn't necessarily need cards to win."

"I hope you're right," she said. We talked for a few more minutes, until Greg came back near the end of his break. He posed for more pictures and signed more autographs, and I told him that everyone in blogland was cheering for him to win.

"I bet they'd be happier if I had one hundred twenty-seven, instead of just twenty-seven," he said with a smile.

"Greg," I said, "you have to give the people what they want!"

"I'll do my best," he said, as he headed back into the tournament area.

Don't miss: Greg Raymer--Large Field Guru by Dr Pauly

by Wil Wheaton

I stayed out a little too late[1] last night, so I got into the Rio excessively late today, long after Team Blog had begun its soon-to-be-award-winning work.

I dropped off my backpack, grabbed my notebook, and found Pauly at the rail, keeping an eye on Greg Raymer. Greg's stack has taken some hits today, and was sitting around 15.5K when I finally navigated my way through the teeming mass of railbirds.

"What happened to Greg's chips?" I asked Pauly. We both really want Greg to go deep, and his aggressive game creates swings in his stack that can give guys like us a touch of the vapors.

"It's just the way he plays," he said. "He's got two huge stacks to his right, and they're entering pots before he can. He's been picking up pots here and there, though, and staying tough."

We both looked at Greg for a minute, and Pauly added, "That's what champions do, you know?"

A floorman brought a new player over to Greg's table, and sat him under the gun to Greg's left. The floorman said, "Oh, here you are, sir. A nice and easy table for you."

This new guy had several racks of chips, and fired out a big raise before he could even get them all stacked up. It was folded around to Greg, who looked at his cards in the small blind, thought for a second, and mucked. The big blind also folded, and the new guy flipped his pocket queens face up as the dealer shipped him the pot.

Pauly and I talked about Tom and Joe, both of whom are doing very well, and figured out how we're going to split up our duties today when I saw Greg glance our way.

I lifted my hand to wave, when I realized that he wasn't looking at us, but was looking at his wife, Cheryl, who was against the rail a little bit behind us. Greg smiled at her, and she smiled back. I was struck by how Greg can stay so cool under such pressure, and identified with Cheryl's concern (well, as much as I could, since I'm just Greg's friend, and not his, uh, wife.)

Greg went back to his cards, and open-raised from the button. The small blind folded, and the big blind (the new guy) called. Greg put on his holographic glasses, and rested his chin on his hand.

The ESPN crew stood up and started rolling. A few railbirds snapped pictures, and the rudest photographer I've ever seen in my life shoved his way between me and Pauly, then bumped the ESPN camera, then blocked someone who was already set up to take a photo. Good work, dude. On behalf of all the writers here, I'd like to applaud your professionalism and courtesy.

The flop came out: 8d-8h-2d. The new guy checked, and Greg checked behind. The As fell on the turn, and the new guy checked again. Greg bet 2000 into a pot that looked to be around 3000, and the new guy folded.

"See?" Pauly said. "That's how he's been doing it all day. Just chipping away and picking up small pots."

Just like a champion.

[1] By "a little" I mean "there were errors."

by Craig Cunningham

Igor Holdaiy (above) and Bill Rector spent much of the day together on Day 1, and they both made it to the end of the night in good shape. When players finish bagging their chips at the end of the day, they are given a small colored card with their new table and seat assignment. Holdaiy immediately recognized another player from PokerStars, WSOP 2005 Champion Joseph Hachem. "I had my picture made before Day1 started," said Igor. "And I told him I'd see him at the final table. He remembered me when he came to the table with his chips. He asked how I did, then looked at my chips. He told me they were OK." Igor relaxed and slept a good bit since his last day of play, sneaking in a nice massage to get ready for today. His first day was fairly tough." There were a few big stacks who were ver aggressive, so I had to play tight and wait for a hand. I just didn't get many big hands." Igor feels Hachem is playing conservatively, and he thinks it's a good table for him.


Bill Rector from Arkansas started today with $57,325 in chips. "I got up to $70k, but there were a couple of tough players and tough pots for me. I chopped pots with A-K and A-Q, which was disappointing. I had to lay down queens to a re-raise from a guy with pocket kings." This isn't Bill's first time in the World Series, as he played in a couple of other events last year. He plays alot on PokerStars, but he feels that he's become very adept at reading players live. He liked the look of his new table, as he was the chip leader with several stacks in the $20-30k range. "I took it easy the last couple of days, playing some no-limit at the Rio yesterday. I'm up $1,300 the last couple days in the cash game." Igor and Bill will be working hard to make it to Friday, where they'll have a chance to make some serious cash.

by C.J. Hoyt

Update at 6:17pm: You may want to read the rest of this post for some background, but I had to add this story...

As I approached Dmitri's table, I saw a 11,000 bet in front of him. The board held 5hQdKd. The player in the 7 Seat (to Dmitri's right) had checked and was now considering a call. Eventually, he called, putting about a quarter of his stack in the middle.

The turn was the Kh. The 7 Seat thought for a moment and said, "All in."

Without hesitation, Dmitri said, "Call!" At that point, I assumed he had the King and was just waiting for his opponent to push.

"Ah... I was bluffing," Seat 7 told the table.

"That's okay, I'm on a draw," Dmitri replied, shocking just about anyone watching.

The 7 Seat flipped over As9s and Dmitri showed his Td9D. He was on the gutshot straight flush draw, a 2-to-1 underdog. There was about 80,000 in the pot. The dealer rapped the table and peeled the river off the deck. I almost couldn't watch.

The 6 of diamonds.

"Yes!" Dmitri shouted, "I knew I was okay, my boy was here."

Apparently I was still good luck.

-----------

Dmitri Nobels must believe I'm his own personal good luck charm. It wouldn't be the first time someone believed my mere presence might benefit their play. Where my esteemed colleague Wil Wheaton may cause a player to lose to back-to-back one-outers, I tend to see my fair share of good fortune at the poker table. When one of our players makes the final table, I believe PokerStars plans to have me within three feet of them for the entire day.

On Sunday, I stopped by Dmitri's table when he was holding about 28,000. It was a good stack, but nothing spectacular. Three hands later, he found himself up over 60,000.

First he got himself all-in with pocket Q's against Big Slick. His hand obviously held up. The next hand he plays A9 and completely misses the board. That didn't stop him from winning the pot. And the third hand he looks down at AQ and catches his Ace on the river. It was a mini-rush, but one that Dmitri apparently attributed to me.

"Don't leave me," he said, reaching out and grabbing my arm.

I did, but it didn't stop him for running his first day chip count up to 79,450.

Today, Dmitri is sporting his PokerStars visor upside down, because that's just how he rolls. The important folks here made him fill out an information sheet meaning there's a good chance a camera will be stopping by at some point.

When I stopped by the table today, the first thing he said was, "Don't go anywhere."

I stuck around to see Dmitri squeeze 7h5h. A hand I would throw away, but of course Dmitri raised it up to 1600. The flop came down 528, and middle pair is more than enough for a big bet here. The 2 Seat called him. The turn was an Ace, a card that slows down even Dmitri, who checks. The 2 Seat throws out a bet about a third of the pot and Dmitri calls. The river is a Queen, giving Dmitri nothing better than 4th pair. But like a flash, he throws out a 10,000 bet. The 2 Seat thinks and thinks, before mucking. Dmitri shows his monster. And looks at me with a smile.

"I slept good, but I'm nervous," he tells me. I certainly couldn't tell. The next hand he plays AJ to a pre-flop raise, gets action on an 864 flop, checks the 7 on the turn and throws a big bet out when he catches his Ace on the river. Suddenly, Dmitri has his stack up over 100,000. It was a good start to the day.

"I have to go, Dmitri," I tell him, "You're on your own now."

"That's okay, just make sure you stop back."

I assured him I will, after all, anything I can do to help.

Selected chip counts are approximate and subject to the time they were recorded

Update as of 12:21am End of Day 2B

Dmitri Nobles $549,200
Daniel Pelletier $350,000
Phillipe Boucher $292,000
Dario Minieri $260,000
Kyle Bowker $250,000
Chris Martin $180,000
Dan Heimiller $170,000
Vaughn Sandman $152,000
Johan Backfjord $147,000
Joe Hachem $140,000
Andy Martinez $136,000
Jim Scherer $118,000
Stephen Jones $103,000
Michael Laufer $100,000
Jon Carlson $100,000
Alex Todd $95,000
Andrew Fennewald $93,000
Ken Bennet $82,000
Steve Lustig $78,000
David Barrie $77,000
Clayton Mozdzen $74,000
Brian Hansen $74,000
Patrick Fortin $70,000
Lee Thomas $69,000
Steve Dunkelberg $68,000
John Hutchinson $68,000
Iago Lopez Gonzalez $68,000
Mike Batherwich $65,000
Tom McEvoy $59,000
John Armbrust $57,500
Arnold Blenner $54,000
Adam Storwind $42,000
Yuri ten Bokkel $40,000
Carlos "djalminha" Lopez $9,500

Update as of 10:51pm Level 11

Dmitri Nobles $605,000
Daniel Pelletier $450,000
Phillipe Boucher $292,000
Dario Minieri $235,000
Dan Heimiller $153,000
Andy Martinez $148,000
Johan Backfjord $140,000
Vaughn Sandman $136,000
Stephen Jones $103,000
Chris Martin $102,000
Joe Hachem $100,000
Michael Laufer $100,000
Mike Batherwich $100,000
Jon Carlson $100,000
Clayton Mozdzen $95,000
Steve Dunkelberg $95,000
Carlos "djalminha" Lopez $94,000
Daniel Pelletier $91,000
Steve Lustig $88,000
Kyle Bowker $88,000
Ken Bennet $82,000
David Barrie $77,000
Patrick Fortin $70,000
Lee Thomas $69,000
John Hutchinson $68,000
Brian Hansen $67,000
Tom McEvoy $58,000
John Armbrust $57,500
Alex Todd $55,000
Arnold Blenner $54,000
Adam Storwind $42,000
Iago Lopez Gonzalez $40,000

Update as of 6:10pm Level 9

Dmitri Nobles $317,000
Johan Backfjord $183,000
Dan Heimiller $168,000
Phillipe Boucher $150,000
Dario Minieri $120,000
Stephen Jones $103,000
Chris Martin $102,000
Michael Laufer $100,000
Mike Batherwich $100,000
Andy Martinez $100,000
Steve Dunkelberg $95,000
Daniel Pelletier $91,000
Steve Lustig $88,000
Kyle Bowker $88,000
Joe Hachem $83,000
Ken Bennet $82,000
David Barrie $77,000
Patrick Fortin $70,000
Lee Thomas $69,000
John Hutchinson $68,000
Brian Hansen $67,000
Tom McEvoy $60,000
John Armbrust $55,000
Alex Todd $55,000
Arnold Blenner $54,000
Jon Carlson $52,000
Clayton Mozdzen $52,000

Update as of 4:05pm Level 8

Dmitri Nobles $201,000
Phillipe Boucher $132,000
Michael Laufer $114,000
Daniel Pelletier $102,000
Joe Hachem $100,000
Michael Benedetto $100,000
Mike Batherwich $100,000
David Barrie $97,000
Chris Martin $95,000
Lee Thomas $93,000
Brian Hanson $87,000
Dan Heimicker $85,475
Steve Lustig $85,000
Patrick Fortin $82,700
John Armbrust $82,300
Johan Backfjord $81,000
Stephen Jones $80,200
Dario Minieri $80,000
Alex Todd $78,000
Steven Schulman $74,100
Jon Carlson $72,000
Iago Gonzalez $72,000
Ken Bennet $70,400
Andrew Lawlor $68,100
Eddie Atanasio $61,000
Armando Munez-Calero $60,875
John Ma $58,600
Ed Blount $57,000
Vaughn Sandman $48,100
Wilhelm Nordfjord $47,200
Tom McEvoy $47,000
Arnold Blenner $43,100
Ryan Vickers $42,800
Kim Wittendorff $42,100
Donna Skonick $41,200
Brett Hamburger $37,000
Adam Stormwind $36,000
Mats Batnes $36,000
Gordon Savage $32,500
Eric Bloore $31,000
Richard Ellis $28,000
Jim Scherer $25,200
Lindell Coker $24,900
Runar Runarsson $23,000
Randy Caprenzi $18,200
Adam Barnes $18,000
Greg Raymer $13,000
Jared Rebin $10,400
Chris Madsen $8,100
Manelic Minaya $4,500

by Mad Harper

When Brooks Craig Rickard III was just six years old, his father, Brooks Craig Rickard II, left home. As the eldest of three, young Craig stepped into his father's shoes but his parents' break-up left a bitter legacy. For his entire life, Craig hated his Dad for 'abandoning' the family. He never saw his Dad again and even when his father tried to make contact - the day Craig's first child was born - Craig refused to take the call.

Because of their childhood traumas, the Rickard boys (and sister Julie), from Madison, Wisconsin, had quite a tough childhood and it is largely because of this that Craig, now 41, and his younger brother John, 37, are incredibly close. They both work for the same company, they talk for several hours a day on the phone, they go fishing and hunting together and they both play poker on PokerStars.

A few months ago, Craig notices that a new player has started watching brother John when he's playing on PokerStars. He likes "udog55" a lot: the guy is fun, a great chatter, a nice guy. The brothers start playing some private SNGs and "udog55" joins in. This goes on for a few months until one day, John turns up at Craig's house. Craig said: "John just sits there looking at me. So eventually I say: 'Just spit it out, John.' And then John says it: 'Craig, udog is your Dad.'

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack. This is a guy I grew up hating my entire life but it's also someone I really like. I had no idea. I didn't even know that John was in contact with him although, in fact they've met several times but John didn't want to tell me because he knew how much I hated him. Thing is, when my Dad left home, my Mum told me he wanted nothing to do with us. I now know that's not true but I was only six at the time so I bought the story."

"Anyway, I was kind of pissed at John that he hadn't told me. But in a way it was great because I met my Dad, without knowing it was my Dad. We started talking on MSN and stuff, and it was all pretty emotional. It's turned my life around."

In May, John and Craig flew to Kansas for their father's 60th birthday - the first time Craig had seen his Dad in 35 years. Craig said: "There was a lot of crying. And there were all these Aunts and Uncles there that I don't remember and they kept calling me 'Baby Craig'. And we also met our step-brothers and step-sisters. It was awesome."

John (left) and Craig Rickard

Today, on Day 2b of the WSOP, John - who qualified in a $33 rebuy - is taking his seat with just $7,125 in chips. But he's pretty confident and reckons he can build on that. Craig will be watching from the rail, in constant touch with "udog55". If John gets anywhere near the final table, the first person the brothers will be flying down to Vegas is their Dad, "udog55".

Updates on Joe Hachem in Day 2B will be published here all day long

by Ali Lightman

**11pm**

Joe's stack is now up to $111 000.

He raised from the button with QJo and and found a caller in the big blind, who had an unlit cigarette between clenched teeth and a furiously jiggling leg after sending a huge chunk of chips across the table in the previous hand.

(He had top pair with KQ and called an all-in raise from a short stack, watching in horror as his opponent, with AcQc, sucked out a backdoor flush.)

And this wasn't to be his pot either.

The flop came Jd 7s 2s, giving Joe top pair.

Both checked and the turn was 10h. Joe bet $4 000, was called, and the board paired on the river, 10c.

The temperature round the table shot up a few hands later. There was more than $20 000 on the table, and it was Joe on the button and the leg jiggler, still chewing on his cigarette.

The flop was 3h Ad 4s, and when the small blind checked Joe announced "I'm all in." In case Jeannie hadn't heard from the rail Joe stood up and said "this is it babe".

His opponent folded and Joe told the table he'd been holding AcKc.

There's only an hour left to play tonight and restrictions have been imposed which prevent us from sweating the players anymore. It's to give the tv crews more room.

So I wished Joe goodnight and goodluck on my way out the door and asked him a favour.

I'm playing the $1 000 No Limit Event tomorrow, did Joe have any advice?

Sweet man that he is he took me into a huddle and gave me instructions. Which I'll share, but not tonight.

**9.15pm**

It was what the railbirds have been waiting for all day.

"Pass the sugar!"

Joe has taken down three large pots in a row to put him on $100 000, after being card-dead for much of the evening.

I got back to his table after the dinner break (having left him on $59 00) and Joe extended his arms, "Ali, I need some love."

It would be have churlish to refuse. One bear hug and a kiss later (and more than a little bit thrilled) I saw the World Champion fire into action.

The button bet $4 000, the small blind folded and Joe in the big blind just called.

The flop came down 7h Kc 10h.

The button player bet out again, making it $4 000, and again Joe called.

The turn was 3d, which both players checked.

The river was Ad, and the button bet out again, $6 000.

Joe flipped K J and the button folded.

As he stacked up his chips I felt an energy surge in him from ten feet away.

And on the next hand he did it again.

In the small blind he called a bet of $3 000 to see the flop, which came Ad 3h 7c.

The big stack Jeremy Roberts bet $4 000 and Joe called, to see the turn card come 2h.

Both players checked for a free river card which was the Js, and Joe won the hand with A 10.

Then it was Joe's button, and after action was folded around to him Joe bet out $3 000. He was called in the big blind, and the flop was 10s 9c 3h.

Joe bet $5 000 and was called again. When the turn card came As, the big blind made it $6 000.

The river was 2d. Joe flipped red Queens to take his third pot in a row.

A few moments later, Gerry Semper was busted out. Having started so promisingly, with $112 000 when he joined the table, Gerry has been leaking chips all day.

He put his remaining stack in pre-flop when he found KK but sadly for the funny family doctor, he ran his cowboys straight into Aces.

**7pm**

Another grinding session has come to a close for Joe who described this round as "misery".

"I only had one hand" he told me before heading for dinner.

It was Joe's big blind and the under the gun player limped. Gerry Semper, the doctor from Curacao, made it $2 000, which the small blind called.

When it came around to Joe he fired $11 200 at the pot and both players folded.

He's taken the blinds with pre-flop bets, and seen a couple of flops but had to muck his hand when he was raised.

As if they could could feel Joe's frustration at the cold deck, his wife Jeannie and her cousins Marlene and Samantha made a rare appearance at the rail, followed by Joe's brother Tony and cousin Billy, who both busted out earlier.

Joe has minimised his losses and is only down $2 000 from the start of the Level.

He went to to dinner with $59 000 in front of him, saddened that fellow WSOP champion Greg Raymer was busted out minutes earlier.

The chips have all been heading in one direction, into the stack of Jeremy Roberts from Arkansas who is table chip leader with more than $200 000.





**5pm**

Level 9 has been frustrating for the World Champion, who has dropped $25 000 and is down to $61 000.

"It's disgusting, I lost with tens twice, and when I had KK I only picked up the antes."

I reminded him about huge win with 73 (see below) and he agreed, "yeah, that's been the highlight so far today."

Out in the hall by the press room I bumped into Steve Dannenman, who Joe defeated with 73o at the WSOP least year, and couldn't resist telling him Joe had busted someone else out with it today.

"No way" laughed Steve, "did he really?"

Joe has been tangling with another PokerStars player at his table, Igor Holdaiy and coming off second best.

Igor has boosted his starting stack of $18 450 to a more comfortable $46 300. Most of it came from an all-in showdown when Igor's A2o hit the flop of 4d 2s 2c, and sent another player home.

**4pm**

Joe Hachem has just busted out another player with his magic hand, 7 3.

As every poker player knows he won the 2005 WSOP bracelet when his 73o made a straight.

Today they were suited, and he made a flush.

It was a battle of the blinds. The small blind completed and Joe checked, and the flop came Ks 5c 4d.

Both players checked the flop and the turn was 6s.

Rick Basham, from Destin Florida, bet $2 000 which made Joe think.

"Are you slow playing me" he said, before calling.

The river card was the Js.

Rick looked down at his last $13 000 and pushed them all in, revealing middle pair with his 6d 10d.

Joe flipped over his 7s 3s, and the crowded whooped.

"You like that 7 3, huh?" came the shout from the rail.

"It's been good to me" he smiled, pulling in pot a of some $32 000. He now has $62 000.

10 2 will forever be known the Doyle Brunson since he won back to back world titles on the hand. Aces and 8s became the dead man's hand, as Wild Bill Hickock was shot dead holding them back in 1876.

Most players I know would fold 7 3 instantly but I, for one, will think twice before throwing away a Hachem.

**2:45**

The banter is as fast as the action around table 121 since a new player, from Curacao, took the seat vacated by Greg Sellmeyer in Level 1.

"Hello everybody" he said as he unloaded $112 000 on the table. "I'm Gerry".

It took Gerry five minutes to figure out that he was three seats away from the World Champion.

The moment he recognised Joe he cracked up.

"I'm laughing like a clown, I'm sorry" he said. "I just realised who you are"

"Welcome to the table" came back from Joe, the other big stack with about $85 000.

On his break Joe described Level one as uneventful. He lost $15 000 on one hand, when he had an open-ended straight draw against top pair, and didn't hit.

But Joe has made that back with a series of small wins, and a larger three-way pot just before the break when his pocket 9s made a set on the river.

Gerry didn't waste any time getting involved, putting in a $5 000 pre-flop bet and provoking cries from around the table.

"You're at the wrong table" said Joe, "we're making it $1 600 to play."

"Next time I'll ask permission first" said Gerry, "but I thought these were worth $5 000" as he flipped KK and took the pot.

True to his word the next hand Gerry made only $2 000 to go, and on a Jack high flop asked "what should I bet? Is $4 500 ok?"

It was certainly enough to get rid of the caller and give Gerry his second pot.

"Thanks" said Joe. "We are a friendly table, and we appreciate you wanting to be part of our family."

Fiztgerald "Gerry" Semper got straight As for drama at school and it shows.

The 38 year old family physician has only been playing poker since October.

"But I have read eight books".

Read about Hachem's arrival at Day 2B here.

By Dr. Pauly

Greg Raymer has set himself apart from his peers by becoming one of the greatest large field tournament players of all time. Over the last three year the numbers of participants in various WSOP tournaments, including the main event championship, have spiked to ridiculous numbers. The number of entrants this year jumped from 5,619 to 8,773.

Some pros regard tournaments with more than 1,000 players as a "crap shoot" or a "mine field." In the past I've described the first two days of the WSOP main event as similar to the opening scene from Steven Spielberg's WWII flick Saving Private Ryan, when the Americans storm the beaches at Normandy. You could do everything right, and still get picked off when you least expect it. In a field of several thousand players, poker acumen is no more important than simple luck.

Over the past three years, Greg Raymer's statistics at the WSOP back up my assessment that he's one of the toughest players to beat in a field of 2,000 players or more. At the beginning of this year's WSOP, Raymer became the first and only player who cashed in every single event that had fields over 2,000 players, which at the time were the among the five largest pool of players in WSOP history.

63 out of 2,776 (2006 $1,500 NL)
25 out of 5,619 (2005 $10,000 Championship)
6 out of 2,013 (2005 $1,500 NL)
86 out of 2,305 (2005 $1,500 NL)
1 out of 2,576 (2004 $10,000 Championship)

Raymer's performance at last year's main event featured his most impressive run to date. He outlasted 8,170 players over two years at the WSOP before he was eliminated after losing a chunk of his stack by a vicious bad beat. Raymer's pocket Kings were crippled by Aaron Kanter when he sucked out a flush to cripple Raymer, who had went from over $3M in chips to under $500K. Raymer would bust out a half hour later in 25th place as everyone in Benny's Bullpen at the Horseshoe gave him a standing ovation.

During his ESPN bust out interview Raymer said, "I don't look at results. Poker is about decisions. And I am happy with the decisions I made this year."

That statement sums up why Raymer is considered the best large field player in poker. He has the patience, discipline, and humbleness of a Buddhist monk. At the same time, he has the astute decision making ability of a brain surgeon. Time after time, Raymer makes the best decisions possible during any given situation. At one of the featured tables last year, he sniffed out a bluff against Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot. A lot of other players would have folded on the river to the intimidating Devilfish, but Raymer went with his gut and made a bold assessment that Devilfish was bluffing. Raymer called and scooped the pot.

As of this morning, Raymer outlasted over 6,200 players in the 2006 main event. That number of eliminations represents more players that played in the entire 2005 main event. In the last three years at the main event over 14,000 players busted out before Raymer. And he still has chips at the start of today's action with $48,500.

So why does Greg Raymer succeed in larger fields more so than the average professional poker player?

The source of his success is two-fold. The main contributing factor to his amazing runs is that he's one of the best decision makers I've seen in poker. He's aggressive, but not a maniac. He's disciplined, but not entirely passive. Raymer picks his spots. When he senses weakness he attacks. When he thinks he's behind, he mucks. This is basic strategy, but very few can apply these traits in the heat of the battle.

Raymer is also a hybrid poker player with experience playing both live events and online tournaments. When he won the 2004 WSOP, Raymer was not a complete unknown like the two previous champions in Chris Moneymaker and Robert Varkonyi. Raymer was a regular in the weekly NL tournaments at Foxwoods Casino. He made several final tables, won a few tournaments, and did well in various New England Poker Classic events.

Raymer was also a savvy internet player. He won his seat to the 2004 WSOP via a satellite on PokerStars. He knows how to handle anonymous hyper-aggressive opponents. Since the convenience of the internet allows several thousands players to be in a tournament simultaneously, Raymer gained experience against gigantic fields.

Since the majority of the players in the smaller buy-in WSOP events in the $1,500 range were novices and internet payers, Raymer knew how to adjust his play accordingly. The main events over the past three years were also filled with internet hotshots and luckboxes. Raymer could handle those players much easier than some of the other bigger named pros.

With deft experience against large fields and Raymer's exquisite decsion-making ability, it's not a surprise that he's still in the hunt for his second WSOP championship. Anything can happen in tournament poker, but based on Raymer's track record, I expect to see him survive Day 2 and outlast another 800 or so players.

by Howard Swains

Much of last year's World Series coverage on this blog focused on Anthony Donald Fagan, a PokerStars qualifier who did not fit quite as snugly into the common perception of an internet player as most.

Anthony (known as Don) is a mild-mannered Irishman with a distinctly more tigerish table image. He placed third in a WPT event on season two, but his most impressive poker exploits pre-date both the televised and online poker revolutions: Fagan used to mix it with the likes of Amarillo Slim, Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson et al in the 1970s, when - as "Kalooki Don" - he was among the first Europeans to descend on Las Vegas and baffle the Texas Rounders with super aggressive play and a peculiar accent.

This year's story is less about "Don" than about Don. That's Don Junior; Donald Fagan II, Kalooki Don's offspring who has followed in his father's footsteps into the PokerStars cardroom and qualified for the World Series main event. Like father, like son, Donald Jr cashed in the WPT Aruba event on season three and now, again like Papa Fagan, is playing the second day at the WSOP.

Donald Jr has $18,725 going into Day Two, three thousand more than Don Sr, who, of course, is also playing again. Even more worryingly, for reporters and players alike, is the news that a third Fagan - this one named Anthony Jr - is also no slouch around the poker tables. Next year, we could have Anthony "Don" Fagan, up against Donald Fagan, alongside Anthony Fagan, a brainteaser certain to wreak havoc among the sometimes-less-than-reliable official chip counters.

For now, we'll settle for just one Don. He's not quite among the chip leaders, but he has a workable stack and rich pedigree. Don't be surprised to see him somewhere further up the leaderboard - when all's said and Don.

Joe Hachem forgot his ID when he turned up to play Day 2B today, but as the dealer and players and everyone watching could vouch for his identity it was no big deal.

An all-in raise by the button took the first pot and that's when Joe made an announcement.

"Here's the plan boys" he said looking at the short stacks around him.

"One of you has to volunteer to bust out, ok? Then we'll just keep re-filling the empty seat and let them dump all their chips on us, and we'll make it through the night."

Whether he meant it literally or not, that's what happened in the very next hand.

It was an all-in showdown between the blinds.

The small blind had QQ and the big blind A2o, and when the board came K 5 Q 5 7 the big blind was going home after playing just one hand.

"There you go", said Joe, "that's the power of suggestion."

Joe has $86 500, and not $56 500 as was incorrectly reported at the end of his first day.

How did he build such a monster stack (and how did it slip past us)?

"It was the last hand of the night" Joe told me this morning "three minutes before the end of play."


"I was under the gun with 2 4 offsuit."

Joe bet out $1 200. "I wasn't expecting anyone to play!"

But to his astonishment he got two callers.

"I gave them a lecture about wasting their money".

At that moment, applause erupted around the tournament floor as officially time was up and players were celebrating their survival.

"Don't you two clap" he said to his callers " you haven't made it through yet!"

The flop came 9 2 2 giving Joe a set.

He checked..The big blind went for his chips, then changed his mind and checked, and so did the third player.

The turn card comes....the fourth 2.

Joe checks his quads and the big blind bets out $5 000. The other guy folds and Joe calls.

The river comes a 3.

"I gave the guy another lecture" said Joe. "I checked. I said look at the dilemna you are in, if you bet I might raise you, and if you check I might bet and you won't know where you are".

He decides to bet, making it $8 000 which leaves him only $13 000 behind.

Joe said no, make it $16 000 and got called.

"He had black Queens" said Joe. "The poor guy".

WSOP SCOREBOARD Day 2A

Starting players in WSOP: 8773
Players left in the WSOP: 2296
PokerStars qualifiers remaining in the WSOP field: Approximately 280
Average all WSOP players: $77,620

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 KNOW there are names missing from this list. We apologize in advance. There is only so much we can do with the two different databases. We have made every effort to find the errors and correct them. If your name has been omitted, please let us know. And be polite. We're trying.

Jon Lane 405,400
Jason Strasser 319,000
Cheng Yu 258200
Akshay Kumar 249600
aaron clark 242000
Matt Maroon 208,900
MARK GARNER 196500
Eric Lynch 194500
Sean Johnson 191000
DARRYL DARE 179800
Erik Friberg 175700
Gary Jones 172800
David Murray 171400
Igor Trafane 153900
Shane Fumerton 132100
Dennis Plejdrup 126500
alan resh 125300
Greg Giannokostas 106600
Russell Davies 105100
Fred Lavassani 101500
peter falk 98600
Douglas Kim 95200
Josh Egan 94800
Brian Jacobs 91200
Chris George 90000
reuben peters 88900
Cory Butler 87900
David Penly 85800
Lawrence Frye 84300
Chris Ellison 82000
John Coito 80100
Paul Parker 78600
WILLIAM NORTH 78500
Rob Lederer 78000
Johnathan Dempsey 77900
Bruce Bellerose 77200
Paul Coles 75500
ronald nixon 73400
Patrick Sullivan 65700
Blake Buffington 63900
Jared Lissauer 63510
Mark Gilbert 62800
David Zeitlin 62100
ROBERT SANCHEZ 61700
Ernesto Panno 61300
mathieu weissmann 60800
Paul Shoquist 58100
Ara Melikian 58000
Melandro Alina 55600
Paul Smith 55200
scott sweesy 53600
Jack Wooden 52900
Bruce Frank 52400
sol bergren 51900
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN 51700
Adrian Pitt 51300
Kelly Contreras 49500
Duane Weum 48200
Jeffrey Mermelstein 46500
thomas adams 45700
Rafael Comas 44800
Mark Shaffer 42600
Safuan Beatty 42000
david mcbride 41300
Seth Cohen 40000
Steph Klempner 39900
Gary Broaddus 39600
steve whitman 39400
Kirk Fellows 39100
greg spence 38500
Craig Schewe 36800
Jesse Martin 35500
Brian White 35200
David Creeley 35000
Wayne Cooper 34000
Vincent Lin 32300
manuel labandeira 32100
Neil Butterfield 31900
Dan Finkleman 29600
Merritt Teague 29000
Dane Wheeler 27100
Derek Feldman 25200
Jon Nakatani 23000
Jonathan Rego 23000
Alex Brigante 22200
Wilhelm Hardenberg 22200
Chris Madrid 21000
Steve Boyle 19600
kevin armstrong 19200
Dean Johnson 18700
Alan Fidelo 9600
Desmond Chan 9600
michael kingsbury 9500
Paul Harkleroad 9000
Jesse Moro 5500
Toby Atroshenko 4100