June 2007 Archives

It's been a while since I've uttered any kind of decree. Ever since losing my crown in an ugly game of 17-card Chinese poker, my ability to issue edicts, executive orders, and declarations of divine right has been severely curtailed. That said, with several members of Team PokerStars still alive in the $1,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw re-buy tournament, I have decided to declare this No-Straight Saturday.

Under order from PokerStars Blog Editor in Chief, Brad Willis, no member of Team PokerStars shall draw a straight in the third round of any Triple Draw hand. In the event said drawer accidentally pulls a straight, the drawn cards will be re-shuffled into the deck and re-dealt until the member has a wheel.

Still alive going into today's late start in the event are Bill Chen (8,000), Daniel Negreanu (17,300), Greg Raymer (25,300), and Victor Ramdin (32,400).





My only problem in issuing the above is that there are players playing in other events today who might need a straight. Noah Boeken and Tom McEvoy are both back for Day 2 of yesterday's $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. It will be interesting to see if they can survive the day without making a straight once. Here's to them finding flushes once an orbit.

Both of these events are going to have to squeeze tight today as one of the biggest tournaments yet--a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament--kicked off today at noon. It will likely be 9pm tonight before the Amazon Room is anywhere close to habitable for anyone who suffers form mild claustrophobia.

All in all, it's going to be a big day here at the World Series...and a day free from straights if I have anything to say about it.

The Amazon Room is full of young guns, online poker prodigies, and youthful geniuses who get quite a kick (and quite rich) out of fleecing people two and three times their age. Yeah, they may be young guns, but they aren't one of the Young Guns.

In the house tonight is Lou Diamond Phillips. Sure, it's been nearly 20 years since the Hollywood star rode in "Young Guns," but in my aging and addled mind, he will always be Jose Chavez y Chavez.

The World Series is not unfamiliar with stars of the big and little screens. Just last night I watched Shannon Elizabeth play in the Stud Hi-Lo event while Tobey Maguire sat at the same six-handed table with Isabelle Mercier. However, it was Phillips entrance tonight that dove home for me the equalizing nature of the World Series.

Tomorrow will host yet another in a series of $1,500 No-Limit hold'em events. Usually, the night before these events features a line for single-table satellites that snakes out of the Amazon Room and into the hallway. Unlike in the main casino, there is no special line for Diamond Card holders or casino hosts ushering players into secret rooms where the wealthy gamblers plot the overthrow of Pahrumph. No, the satellite line is a Line. The people who run the line are like the Soup Nazi. You don't mess around, you state what you want, and you move forward.

In Hollywood, Phillips may still have enough cachet to be waved to the front of the line at the best clubs (or, maybe he doesn't--we don't hang out together, so I wouldn't know). Here, Phillips has to stand in line to play a satellite just like anybody else. And that is exactly what he was doing when I left the room a few minutes ago. Alone, arms crossed, Phillips stood about 30 people back and waiting to get a seat in one of the many winner-take-all sit-and-gos that happen all night long.

Phillips' place in line reminds me of the simple premise on which this entire event is based: If you have the money, you can stand in line and get your seat like everybody else. What you do after that is up to how well you play poker. If you do well enough, it doesn't matter if you are Lou Diamond Phillips or Captain Lou Albano, you can walk away with a bracelet.

That's what is happening nearly around the clock here. At this hour, you can watch every variety of unknown, celebrity, or poker pro playing in a variety of different events.

Among those players, you will once again see Barry Greenstein multi-tabling two tournaments. He has a seat in both the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event and the Limit 2-7 Triple Draw rebuy event. During his dinner break from the no-limit event, he ran over and worked up a stack in the 2-7 game. Then, when 2-7 broke for dinner, he made his way back to his no-limit table. I'd lost track of him for a few minutes when I received a text message that read: "21 steps apart. Good chips in both events." It was a reminder of the day he did much the same thing: Seventeen Steps With Barry Greenstein.

Earlier today, I wrote a bit about how the 2-7 event tends to make my head explode. Later, I stepped up to Greg Raymer and said much the same thing.

"It's not really that hard a game," he said. This was coming from the man with Joe Tehan on his right and Todd Brunson two to his left.

"See, that's the thing," I said. "It looks easy, but I think it's much harder than it looks."

Five minutes later, in between hands, Greg had almost convinced me the game was easy. In fact, if it weren't for the fact registration was over, I might have plopped down my cash and sat down. (No, not really.)

That said, Greg's short lesson further spoke to the Lou Diamond Proposition. If I really had the time and really had the inclination to let the likes of Greg, Daniel Negreanu, or multiple-occasion champion Billy Baxter beat the hell out of me for a few hours, I could sit down and play with the best. It's a point that has been made so many times that it's almost trite, but I'm never going to have the chance to play 18 with Tiger or catch a Superbowl touchdown pass from Brett Favre. However, given that I ever stop writing long enough, I might get the chance to get check-raised by KidPoker or play William "BrettFavre" Jensen heads-up.

Or, had the occasion presented itself, I might have just ended up playing alongside Noah "Exclusive" Boeken today. He started the $2,000 No-Limit event today with 4000 chips like everybody else. By dinner he had turned that 4,000 into more than 45,000.


Noah Boeken

In another room, but the same tournament, sat Tom McEvoy, the 1983 World Series Main Event champion and the first person to ever win the big one after getting in via satellite.


Tom McEvoy

Not to belabor the point, but this is what I'm talking about. Thirty years ago, McEvoy was basically an unknown. He made his way into a satellite, played the main event, and has spent the last 25 years making a name for himself both in tournament poker and as a poker author. When McEvoy won his championship, Boeken was two years old. Now, thanks to online poker and the globalization of the game, both men are making their way through a field so big it would've seemed silly a few years ago. On this stage, they are equals with only their chip stacks marking their difference.

That's how the room looks tonight. As Phillips' Chavez said "I told you I would find the way, and the way is west."

So is Las Vegas.

Binaries.

That's what astronomers call two stars orbit around a common gravitational point. While not necessarily all that uncommon in space, it doesn't happen every day here at the World Series. There have been times--like when Greg Raymer and Barry Greenstein made the same final table in the $1,500 stud event a couple of weeks ago--but it's not the type of thing I'd bet on too often.

Today it happened. Two longtime and frequent PokerStars players made the same final table and, between them, raked in a nice chunk of cash in the $2,000 Omaha 8/b event.

Mitch Maples finished in ninth place for $14,578. Martin Corpuz, Jr. made a fantastic run for the bracelet but ended up coming in third place for $97,188.

Mitch Maples


Martin Corpuz

As I'm not an astronomer, I'll leave it to the experts to determine how this might affect the tides or whether it is a harbinger of locusts. For me, I'll just offer my congratulations to Mitch and Martin.

Nice work, gentlemen.

It was the 5pm start of yet another tournament here at the World Series. I began it as I normally, walking through the field and looking for familiar faces. There were my buddies Chris "savemyskin" Fargis and a fellow blogger, Garth. And, hey! There's Daniel Negreanu. Best, I get a picture of him, right?

Normally, when taking a picture, I get down on a knee or steady myself on the back of a chair. However, it seemed like a lot of people hadn't shown up yet, and I do something I never do. I put my butt in a chair.

"You wanna raise, buddy?"

I looked around and realized I'd sat right down in the four seat in front of a live stack. Dewey Tomko was looking at me with a wide smile.

"Come on! Let's gamble!" he said.

It was then I realized I'd somehow sat down in the middle of a...get this...$1,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw rebuy event. It was something I had a hard time wrapping my feeble brain around. I have a better than average understanding of hold'em games. I can hold my own in Omaha. I can putter along without embarrassing myself in the stud games. Oh, and I'm a freakin' Pai Gow champion. However, 2-7 Triple Draw is a game that might make me cry if I tried to play it at this level. Not only that, but, pardon me...a limit rebuy tournament? What gives?

My picture of Negreanu became more important. After all, when Doyle Brunson was looking for somebody to write the 2-7 chapter in Super System 2, he picked Daniel. Picture taken, I scooted away before Tomko could talk me into playing the stack or, worse, get me out on the golf course.

Daniel Negreanu

Once acclimated to my surroundings, Fargis' appearance made sense. Despite being a young guy, he is a champion in this event. The second to last time I was in Tunica, Fargis won the Triple Draw championship there. A few minutes before the event started, I saw Fargis giving Justin Bonomo a quick primer on how to play.

If there's anybody else I know personally who plays this game at the professional level, it's Greg Raymer. Greg may have his World Series bracelet in no-limit hold'em, but 2-7 is his game. About six months ago, I started talking with Greg about the game. Five minutes later, the cleaning crew was cleaning my gray matter off the walls.

I couldn't find Greg and decided he must be dead. Greg is rarely late and I know that if there was one event he wasn't going to miss, it was this one. After walking through the field three times, I was trying to find a way to tell Greg's wife about his premature demise. Fortunately, as I walked out, Greg was just getting settled in and making himself some green tea.


Greg Raymer

On the surface, this game looks like nothing but a gambler's draw game. However, a few minutes with Fargis or Greg and you'll learn how much strategy there is to it. It's enough to send me running for the Pai Gow tables and hoping the dealer pulls a nine-high.

The game is now an hour old and is so stacked with pros. I spotted Victor Ramdin, Bill Chen, and Terrence Chan getting settled in for a long night. Unlike other tournaments, I'm not going to make any predictions about this one.

My head can only take so many explosions.

It was the 5am news. I was up late checking in on the HORSE final table and checking in on PokerStars' announcement of the new Asia Pacific Poker Tour tournament series. Back in my room, the local NBC morning news was on. A man with exceptionally...tall...hair told me it was going to be hot in Vegas.

"Well, no kidding," I thought, yawning.

I don't watch a lot of TV news anymore, so it's no surprise that I see virtually none when I am in Vegas. That accounts for my deficiency in understanding Sin City weatherguy vocabulary. When he says it's going to be hot in Vegas, that the winds will blow in smoke from California wildfires, and, again, that it's going to be hot, one should simply just stay in bed. Or, at the very least, one should walk around naked.

I left the Player's Pavilion overflow tent twenty minutes ago and I'm still sweating. The inside of the Rio reminds me of summer days when I would shove my head in the fridge just to cool off. The overflow tent, while well-air-conditioned on a normal day, is doing nothing to fight off the 100+ temperatures beating down today.

Frankly, I wouldn't have stayed as long, but I ran into my colleague Maria who writes the PokerStars Brazilian blog.

Maria with the Brazilians

Maria is working like a champ here at the World Series and following the Brazilians all over the strip. Today, she was drinking coffee--coffee!--in the middle of the tent while sweating (not the kind of sweating I was doing) a guy named Andre Akkari. Maria introduced me to Andre and I found him to be a really nice guy. He wasn't sweating, which I think is something he owes to living south of the equator.


Andre Akkari

Watch this space for more on Akkari. And, while I don't understand a damned word of what she's writing, I get the impression Maria is doing a bang-up job over there on the Brazilian Poker Blog. So, if you speak Portuguese or can at least read it, go check her out.

***

Barry Greenstein can find the silver lining in a place where no clouds even exist. After busting out of the Stud Hi-Lo event, he was happy one opponent scooped. That meant Barry only had to sign one copy of "Ace on the River" for the person who busted him. When Barry signs his book, he writes out his hand and the one that beat him.

"So, that's the bright side," he said. "It's not the cost of the book. It's having to write out two different stud hands in two different books. Some people like to stick around for the cameras when they bust out. You know me. I don't hang around."


Barry Greenstein

A few tables over, Humberto Brenes sat with his shark card capper at the ready. Apparently it had been in danger today.

"You missed me stomping Humberto's shark," Barry said.

The shock on my face must have been pretty clear.

"Well, I gave him a break. I stomped beside it," Barry said. "I'm going to wait for him to make a final table."

Both men are playing with seemingly every poker player in the Western Hemisphere today in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.


Humberto Brenes

At least they are playing indoors, 'cause, mama, it's hot outside.

Over the past several years, PokerStars has sent players far and wide to play in some of the world's richest poker events. From Las Vegas to the Bahamas to Monte Carlo, PokerStars players have won millions upon millions of dollars on all of the world’s biggest poker tournament series. Now, PokerStars is getting ready to offer satellites to a brand new poker circuit, The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).



Sponsored by PokerStars, the APPT already has stops scheduled in the Philippines, Korea, and Australia, with more dates to be confirmed. The APPT has set these events up in some of the world’s greatest casinos and plans to televise the tournaments around the world.

Manila, Philippines
August 24 - 26, 2007
Buy-in: $2,500

Seoul, Korea
September 28 - 30, 2007
Buy-in: $2,500

Sydney, Australia
December
Buy-in: $5,000

I'm not sure how many countries I've seen while following PokerStars satellite winners around the globe. Regardless, no matter where I go, I never fail to be impressed by how much the winners enjoy their trips. For many of them, the chance to see the world is as important as the chance of winning millions in a poker tournament. I suspect the APPT will be much the same way. There aren't many people, or many poker players, who get a chance to see the parts of the world that will be visited by the APPT.

Satellites for a $5,000 prize package to the Philippines event begin on PokerStars on July 1. Qualifying tournaments will run daily and start at $22. For more information on how you can qualify online for the APPT, visit the PokerStars APPT Satellites page.

I'm not sure what it is about my camera and Isabelle Mercier. If she's having a bad day, my pictures come out blurry, grainy, or poor-framed. If she's having a good day, the pictures come out looking like this:

I took that picture at 7pm tonight. When it came out looking nice, I should've known something was up. However, she was busy in a hand and I didn't stop to chat. Later, I realized Isabelle was having a much better day than evening her chip stack suggested.

When I sauntered up a little later in the evening, Isabelle's stack was just a little below average, but she was glowing.

"This will be my first cash of this World Series," she said.

I sort of cringed. I mean, I didn't want to say anything about putting any horses before any carts. It was still pretty early in her event.

"This one?" I said, hoping she was just being Isabelle-optimistic.

"No," she said, her accent a little more pronounced. "That one."

I followed her pointing finger over to the HORSE event. It was then I had one of those, "Ohhhhhh," moments.

"Bruno and I swapped," she said.

Before long, she'd described the terms of her 5% chop Bruno Fitoussi. At the time, he was four-handed. Now, at nearly 1:30am PDT, Fitoussi is three-handed and holds a serious chip lead. Isabelle is guaranteed $40,000 from his win and could make as much as $110,000.

"A hundred grand," she mused.

It was enough that when Tobey "Spiderman" McGuire sat down at her table, she barely seemed to notice. She continued to play, her skull card capper looking out icily form her chip stack.

The thing is, Isabelle is still alive in the $5,000 short-handed No-Limit Hold;em event. She could win considerably more money if she final tables this one. Still, with her buddy three-handed for the $50K HORSE bracelet, it's not uncommon to see Isabelle standing up and looking toward the chip count screens.

Regardless of what happens tonight, Isabelle is walking away a winner. Hopefully, she'll make it a double cash and we'll see how her pictures look tomorrow.

Update: Isabelle finished just short of the money in the $5,000 Short-handed event. However, Fitoussi ended up finishing second in the HORSE event, so that's not a bad day for Isabelle.

After five days on the HORSE horse, it's time to climb down and see what else is going on. After Barry Greenstein walked out of the Amazon Room, I assumed I wouldn't see him again before tomorrow. Frankly, I think he assumed the same thing.

However, there at table 98 inside the Players Pavilion overflow tent sat Barry with a small stack of chips. It was the 5pm $1,000 Stud Hi-Lo event.

"This is what happens when you have people betting on you," he said with a smile.

Greenstein was already on his way home when he thought about tens of thousands in side bets people had on him in fantasy poker leagues and the like. Around he turned and bought into the Stud event. Despite being a specialty game, the relative cheapness of the event drew a large crowd and featured a lot of big names, so Greenstein isn't alone in the field.


Shannon ELizabeth in the Stud event

Today actually marked the beginning of two interesting events. If the cheap 5pm drew a huge crowd, the noon $5,000 no-limit short-handed event drew the big buy-in crowd.

Nestled off in one corner was Greg "FossilMan" Raymer. As I walked up, Greg had just folded to a pre-flop raise and a player said, "Eight-deuce. I knew you had eight-deuce."

"That's amazing," Greg said. "You knew what I had before I even looked. I should probably just give you all my chips now." Then he checked his watch and asked what time he should plan on leaving.


Greg Raymer checking his watch

Across the way, fellow champion Joe Hachem was in good spirits and sitting just one table away from his brother, Tony.

"How's it going?" he asked me.

"Another day," I said. "Another day where you have lots of chips it looks like."

Hachem looked down at his stack, "Let's not talk about lots yet."


Joe Hachem

Joe's buddy Emad Tahtouh sat one table over and is remarkably facing off against Vicky Coren, the woman who bested him in the EPT event in London last year.


Emad Tahtouh

Elsewhere in the room, I caught sight of John Duthie, Bill Chen, Terrence Chan, Isabelle Mercier, and Victor Ramdin. Chan is looking for his second final table of this year's series. The rest of them are in search of their first big win of their year.


Isabelle Mercier


Terrence Chan


Victor Ramdin

Both of these events are just in Day 1 action and will be a while before we know if any of the Team PokerStars players will finish one off with a bracelet. After getting so close in the HORSE event, it will be fun to see where these two events go.

And, all else fails, I'm sure Barry will do something interesting.

For Barry Greenstein to win today, it was going to take more than just his exceptional poker skill. It was going to take getting a little lucky, and, frankly, not getting unlucky.

Beginning with the second-shortest stack at the table, Barry was still nauseous after losing more than half his stack in the final two rounds of play last night.

"I'm still sick about yesterday," he said just before he sat down to play.

Still, there was a smell in the air just like before a Midwestern thunderstorm. There was electricity in the air and there was a chance Barry could just pull off a comeback worthy of his reputation.

ESPN prepares Barry to play on TV

The one thing Barry didn't have to worry about was outlasting Thor Hansen. On the very first hand, Hansen was all-in for his final 40,000 chips. I wondered how sick a feeling it was for Hansen to begin this event with 100,000 and start the final table of the richest event yet this year with less than half of that. PokerStars' Swedish blogger, Lina, has arrived in Vegas and told me Thor had been playing in today's $5,000 short-handed no-limit event that started at noon.

Hansen's time at the table here didn't last as long as it took the Tournament Director to introduce the players. It's was a Stud-8 round and Hansen departed in eighth place.

Barry actually caught a good break by picking up the button on the first hand of the Hold'em round. With 30,000/60,000 blinds with 60,000/120,000 betting limits, Barry's 750,000 stack was vulnerable to the blinds alone.

He folded the first several hands before finally raising under the gun. He got a call from Amnon in the big blind. The flop came 7sJc7d. Amnon checked, Barry bet out, Amnon mucked. It was a quick 150,000 chip pick-up that gave hope to Barry's sweaters on the rail.



Now in the big blind, Barry folded his 60,000 forced bet after David Singer came in for a raise. However, once in the small blind, Barry refused to give up when Amnon raised from the button. The flop came down Kc6c8c. Barry checked, Amnon bet out, and Barry raised. I'd seen him check-raise a lot yesterday but had yet to see him show one of the hands down. This time, Amnon called. The turn was the ace of spades. Barry surrendered, check-folding to Amnon's bet.

It's was mid-afternoon Thursday, the time when the crowds have left on Wednesday but not yet arrived for the weekend. Still, there was a buzz around the packed TV stage. I hoped it would be a buzz that led Barry to picking up some chips pretty fast.

After calling John Hanson's raise in the big blind , Barry check-folded on a QdQc3d flop. That hand left him with around 300,000 in chips, barely enough to get through one hand. He lost half of that after raising from the button and then calling Kenny Tran's small blind re-raise. Kenny bet in the dark and Barry folded quickly on a 7dAcTh flop.

Now, I though, there were only two stories left. Either Barry would be out soon or we we're about to see the greatest comeback in poker history.

When the game switched to Omaha, Barry ended up in the big blind. When Bruno Fitoussi came in for a raise, Barry put in his last 140,000 Barry held AhKs8s4s to Bruno's AdJcTh6c. By the end of the hand, Bruno had made aces full, but Barry had an eight-low and survived to chop up the small blind.

After folding his small blind on the next hand, Barry put in all his chips from the button. It was a three-way pot with John and Amnon.

The flop came down 9h9sQh. On the turn, 9d, Amnon bet John out of the pot. Amnon held AsQdJs6h to Barry's AhTc4s5h. Barry needed a heart on the river.

Barry seemed to sense what was coming. He grabbed his copy of "Ace on the River" and pulled out his marker to sign it.

"Put away the book!" Freddy Deeb implored.

In response, Barry pulled out the lucky chip Chris Reslock gave him last night and sat it on the rail.

The river...was the four of clubs.

The TD bid him goodbye with a clever, "Let's give a big hand for Joey Sebok's dad!"

Greenstein signed his book for Amnon and headed for the cage. His seventh place finish earned him $259,296. This was his second final table of this year's World Series.

Congratulations, Barry, on another great run.

A member of ESPN crew just stole my watch. He sidled up, directed my attention in another way through a clever bit of trickery and deceit, and then pocketed my watch (remarkably, a replacement for one that was snatched while I was working a few months ago). This guy left me off the hook quickly.

"Hey," he said. "I was at Venice Beach and look what I found!"

There was my watch.

That's the mood right now. This is is the biggest thing that's happened this year, but the tension hasn't quite kicked in yet. The $50,000 HORSE World Championship is scheduled to begin in ten minutes. The ESPN crew is white balancing its cameras and joking around. I spotted Barry Greenstein in a TV interview as I walked in to set up beside the final table stage.

Final table preparations

As I told you last night, Barry Greenstein has made the final table of the HORSE event (check out that link for a rundown of HORSE coverage and a rundown of the final table).


Reserved seats for Barry's sweaters

While Barry's stack isn't huge, the chances of him going out first are slim. Thor Hansen sits on a 40,000 stack--less than half of what he started with and not enough to get him through the blinds in the hold'em round. Privately, there are people (read: dealers) hoping Barry wins this thing. Apparently, he's generous when it comes time to tip out.

As the players it down to play, Barry came in to get his TV microphone.

"Hey," he said when he saw me, "I'm still sick from yesterday."

Yesterday--at least the end of it--was bad. He lost too many million dollar pots and didn't win enough.


ESPN hooks Barry up with his mic

The focus now turns to today.

For some reason, though, I'm hyper and feeling good. Hopefully Barry feels as good in the early going.

Here we go.

There was little doubt in anybody's mind the final table the World Series $50,000 HORSE World Championship would feature a final table with some of the world's biggest poker professionals. There was little doubt in my mind that my duties covering Team PokerStars would find me at that final table as well. That's exactly what has happened.

Thursday afternoon at 2pm, Team PokerStars' Barry Greenstein will sit down with seven other tough pros to compete for a first prize of more than $2.2 million dollars.

Over the course of the past four days, the PokerStars Blog has chronicled the tournament as it worked its way from more than 145 players down to the final eight. if you missed any of the coverage, feel free to check out these items:

When a HORSE is not a horse
Unprecedentedly fun
Dead Meat
HORSE: Back in the saddle
HORSE gets serious
My Dream Final Table
Keeping the Dream Alive
Featured Horse
A New Track
Work Horses
In the Money
Why the Long Face
Greenstein's Gift and Raymer's Exit

If you read any of that, you know that many members of Team PokerStars made it deep in this event. This afternoon, Greg Raymer made it into the money and finished in 14th place for $103,000.

Barry Greenstein came back from dinner break with an appetite for chips. With eleven player remaining, Greenstein's stack sat at 1.8 million. It looked like he would go into the final table with a formidable chip stack. However, down to nine players, Barry was seated at the four-handed table and things turned ugly. With insane betting limits, Barry turned on the aggression and found some success with it in the early going. Then, players started calling him down. Before long, Barry had lost a few pots and had fallen down below one million in chips. The worst of it happened when Kenny Tran made a flush to Barry's aces-up in a round of Stud-8. He picked up one small pot after that and managed to stay alive with enough chips to play.

He enters final table play in seventh chip position. While the situation could look better, Barry has actually been down to the felt once and put his final 30,000 chips in on a stone-cold bluff. He got a well-timed fold and before long had worked his stack up to the monster he had earlier today.

When play begins tomorrow, Barry will face off against Kenny Tran, David Singer, Bruno Fitoussi, John Hanson, Freddy Deeb, Thor Hansen, and Amnon Filippi. The PokerStars Blog will be tableside to see if Barry can make a comeback and capture the HORSE World Championship.

Good luck, Barry

When waiting for three minutes for Bruno Fitoussi to make a call, there are little things you notice in the crowd surrounding the TV table of the $50,000 HORSE World Championship. For instance, 16 people are wearing baseball caps. Two men are wearing cowboy hats. One guy is sporting a do-rag. Two gentlemen--one of them in the caps--are wearing sunglasses on top of their head. Another dude off in the corner, despite the darkness, is wearing his shades over hie eyes.

Something else sticks out. It's something that I haven't see Barry Greenstein holding so far this year. It's a single poker chip sitting on the padded rail in front of him. In the past couple of hours, it's become an obsession of mine. Most people are tipping the servers wish cash and Barry hasn't been seen with a good luck charm that I know of. So, as usual, I'm clueless.

One thing I can't see is what's happening at Greg Raymer's table. Because of the swarming TV cameras and my lack of eyes in the back of my head, I'm forced to choose between one of the two final tables in his event. Because Greenstein is sitting on the table with a flop-cam, I choose his.

At 6:45, a rumor slips in that Greg Raymer has been eliminated. I knew he had been short, so it wouldn't have been a huge surprise. Still, I'm buoyed when a dealer pops in and corrects the rumor.

"It was Mr. Kotter," he said. Gabe Kaplan, not Greg Raymer.

Preferring to see things with my own eyes, I get up and head for the table. Raymer's seat is empty. His chips are gone. And, if I needed one definitive bit of proof, Greg is standing with his bag slung over his neck and shoulders. That's always a sign Greg is on the move. I learned later Greg had gotten a suited ace in against his favorite hand, pocket eights. Greg's departure in 14th place for $103,000 leaves this field void of a World Series Main Event champion. If depressing for me, it has to be good for Mr. Kotter's spirit that the rumors of his demise had been greatly exaggerated.

The only good news that comes out of Greg's bust-out is that I now no longer have to choose my focus. Team PokerStars has one player left in this event. Barry Greenstein doesn't look like he's ready to give up the ghost yet.

With thirteen players remaining, the game switched to Omaha-8. I picked up the action on a flop of 8s5hJc. In early position, Barry check-raised Dewey Tomko and David Singer. He got not one, but two callers. The Qd on the turn didn't slow Barry down. Once again, he bet out. Again, Tomko and Singer both called. The river, Th, killed any low draw made the straight an even better possibility. This time Barry checked. I wonder if he was as surprises as I was when both players checked behind and mucked when Barry showe his AJ for...second pair.

In the next couple of minutes, Tim Phan and Steve Wolff were eliminated. With an average of 1.3 million chips, Greenstein sat at 1.8 million. While that puts him near the top of the leader board, there are a lot of players within 100,000 chips of his stack. Eleven players remain with three left to lose before we break for tomorrow's final table.

And, so what of that single chip sitting in front of Barry Greenstein. As it turns out, Barry busted Chris Reslock in 15th place. Reslock, knowing Barry gives out a copy of his book "Ace on the River" to whoever busts him, pulled out a chip and gave it to Barry.

"This has been lucky for me."

How lucky? Well, just a few weeks ago, Reslock won the $5,000 Stud championship here at the World Series.

It's the little things, you know?

With the bubble now a twinkling sprinkle in the air, the work of making the final table in the $50,000 HORSE World Championship began. Sixteen players, most all of them easily-recognized pros. ESPN, ever watching for a good story, switched up the TV table. Team PokerStars Barry Greenstein found his way to the eight seat.

I've watched Barry play more hands than I can count in this World Series. Unlike some players who wear their emotions like holographic tattoos--Mike Matusow comes to mind--Barry Greenstein's expression rarely changes. He looks sour, dry, and unaffected by anything.

In the Razz round, Barry didn't appear inactive. Rather, he appeared measured, perhaps like he didn't care to get involved in big hands in such a gut-cutting game. Still, while looking ever the sour puss during the Razz round, by 5:30 pm local time, I can see the hints of a smile when he's not in a hand.

The smile foretells something else. From an outsider's perspective, it's like Seven Card Stud is favorite season in five part year of the HORSE. When this round began, either two things were happening. He either slipped easily into a great rush of cards or stomped hard on the aggression button. For a while, it seemed like he was completing the bet on 75% of the hands and taking most of them down. Only Bruno Fitoussi (who yesterday told Phil Hellmuth he didn't give a diddly squat about the money) had the stones to call Barry down on on a hand (and that was after Barry gave up on fifth street.

When the bust-outs where coming as regular as desert wind gusts, most people were predicting Day 4 would be a short one. As we entered the Stud-8 round, I started to think the opposite. Although there are only 14 players remaining in this event, getting rid of final six before the final table will be a challenge.

Greenstein's son, Joe Sebok, appeared on stage for a moment and beckoned his dad into the shadows. I tired to make out what they were talking about. Was Sebok asking for advice or was it something else? ESPN was curious, too, and a boom mic appeared. That was when the conversation was cut short. Some things, obviously, are best left between a father and son.

As the Stud-8 round drew to a close, the Rio's emergency alert system went off with strobe lights and sirens.

With millions of dollars still at stake, no one stopped playing.

At the break, Greenstein sat third in chips with more than 1.3 million. Greg Raymer still has work to do. He sits in tenth place with 600,000.

The fire alarm has ended. Now, it's time for the levels to go up and start playing some hold'em.

Barry Greenstein and Justin Bonomo were in step together as they walked the long hallway that leads to the Amazon Room. I stepped in beside them. Last we spoke, neither was in a good mood. Both had chips at the dinner break last night. Both had a rough go of it in the two hours following.

"You get any sleep?" Barry asked me.

I must look bad, I thought. "A little. You?"

"Not really."

"You play all night?" I asked.

"Nah, my daughter is in town," he said. "I got up early with her."

I made an assumption. "So, you feel better today?"

This is where I expected Greenstein to say, "Sure, I got a little sleep, saw my family, and am now ready to take on the day."

"No," he said. "I'm still frustrated."

It was irritating for Greenstein to lose every pot he player after dinner last night. Today, he didn't look much in a winning mood.

***

In truth, it was Daniel Negreanu who had reason to be sour. At one point yesterday, he had more than a million chips. At the end of the day, he had less than 200,000. It was basically enough to play one big hand and hope.

There were 21 players who started the day. Five of them would finish four days of play with no money. The rest were guaranteed $88,000. Negreanu and Greg Raymer sat on the TV table, while Greenstein say off on another riser with a rail crowding in behind him.

At the TV table, the mood was still light, despite Negreanu's tenuous hold on his place in the event. When Bruno Fitoussi came in for a raise in the Stud round with an ace showing, Daniel re-raised. It was pretty clear this was going to be Daniel's hand. Daniel held J8/J to Fitoussi's A3/A. Negreanu made two pair on the turn and his chips were all in the middle.

"Hold," he muttered.

The dealer tossed out all the cards. With the river dealt down, Negreanu still looked to be ahead. Then Fitoussi flipped up his card. It was a three--a better two pair. He was out of his seat in less than a second. ESPN snagged him for an interview. When it was over, Negreanu called back to the table, "Wasn't that a mis-deal?"

He chuckled to himself as he left the room.

Had Negreanu had chips, that hand might have played out differently. Perhaps Negreanu could've pushed Fitoussi off the hand before seventh street. All-in, though, Negreanu just had to hope. So, instead of being able to play strong or get ticked at Fitoussi for chasing with one pair to the river, he could only walk out disappointed. In short, there wasn't much else he could do.

***

There are two men watch the TV table with religious shirts. One reads "Thank you, Jesus." The other reads "Is it poker or poker-dolotry?" Despite the fact they seem to carry an anti-poker message on their shirts, they seemed rapt with attention as the action plays out. And frankly, it's hard not to enjoy.

Fellow poker writer Jay Greenspan turned to me at one point and said, "This got good."

And he was right. Despite the limit-nature of the HORSE event, the action is tense. Nearly every person left in the event is on the edge between cashing and being out. One bad hand could send them to the rail and an event with not nearly as much importance.

I'd been watching the TV table, but peeked over to see if Greenstein's mood had improved. Though his face and demeanor didn't show it, I can't help but think he was happier. He's turned his 650,000 into more than a million.

On my way back to the TV table, a French journalist warned me "Don't you say anything bad about my Frenchman just because he busted Negreanu.

I didn't have time to worry about Negreanu anymore. With him gone and Barry back on a million, Raymer was my focus. He was down to 300,000 and fading fast. In the Stud-8 round, he lost another hand and fell down to 200,000.

***

There were 19 players left when we hit the Limit Hold'em round. Amnon Filippi was running over the TV table and had worked his stack up to 2.5 million. He couldn't lose a hand he played. He also happened to be immediately on Greg's left. There couldn't have been a much worse situation for the one-time World Champion.

And so it happened that Bonomo came in for a raise and Greg three-bet from the button. Bonomo put in another bet and Greg called. The flop came down Ad2c4h. Bonomo bet out and Greg put in the cal. The turn was the Td. This time Bonomo checked and Greg bet. Bonomo thought for an age before mucking kings face-up.

A couple of hands later, Greg made quad fives in another hand with Bonomo got away. On the very next hand, Greg flopped a set of sevenes and got Amnon to pay him off in a huge pot. With a smile, Greg muttered something about being a cardrack.

Bonomo busted off the TV table a few hands later and suddenly we sat on the bubble. In my earlier walk with Barry, I remember him saying he planned to exploit the bubble and pick up some chips.

He didn't have long to exploit it. It was just a few minutes before the bubble burst and the remaining 16 players were in the money. As if to cap off his run, Raymer made Broadway in an Omaha/8 hand and added some more chips to his stack.

As the players consolidated to two tables, Greenstein held 1,090,000 in chips. Raymer had 760,000.

Now in the money, the players and I turn our attention to the real focus of the day: The biggest final table of this year's World Series.

Whatever the players in the $50,000 HORSE event had for dinner, they all shared the same dessert: Lose three players and you're done for the day. With 24 runners remaining, Team PokerStars' Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negreanu all went to dinner and came back ready to make it to tomorrow. The anticipation was chocolate-mousse-thick. Bruno Fitoussi had his French rail. Thor Hansen had a Nordic rail. Daniel Negreanu just had a rowdy rail.

"Yay-ah, boyee!" Daniel called back to them, not sure whether his response was appropriate. So, when the players re-drew for seats, Daniel was still feeling good and poking fun at Fitoussi. Told they have a few minutes, Fitoussi broke for the door to smoke.

"We just had a dinner break," Daniel said. "You need to smoke again?"

"I am French!" Bruno yelled.

"Oh yeah," Daniel said with a wry smile, "You're French. Everybody in Paris smokes."

Minutes later Daniel would be shadow-boxing and looking for a new mark.

As the players sat back down, I overheard Freddy Deeb trying to get John Hanson to bet $1,000 on a last-longer.

"I don't bet over $200," Hanson said without a hint of sarcasm. I didn't bother reminding him the bottom pay in this event is $88,000.

Barry Greenstein sat just to Deeb's right. Just before he sat down, Barry told me he is only alive because Bruno had folded to his bluff. Down to his last 30,000 in chips Barry had put them in on a stone-cold bluff. Bruno, thankfully, believed him and mucked. Next thing Barry knew, he had over 900,000 chips.

The feature table featured both Daniel Negreanu and Greg Raymer. In between hands, Daniel began making fun of young Justin Bonomo's hairline. Bonomo is sporting a new faux-hawk and is showing just the beginnings of a receding hairline. Bruno, knowing what Negreanu's looks like under his PokerStars baseball cap, asked to see Negreanu's hairline, and then showed of his own perfect hair.

Again, Negrenau said, "Yeah, but you're French. Your hair is like steel wool!"



It took just a little less than two hours to knock off the three remaining players. Greenstein seemed frustrated and wasn't able to win a hand after dinner. Raymer finished much as he started. Negreanu took a nosedive in the final two hours. Still, all three members of Team PokerStars were alive at the end. With 21 players remaining and an average chip stack of 704,761, here's how they stacked up:

Barry Greenstein: 650,000
Greg Raymer: 504,000
Daniel Negreanu: 149,000

When we return tomorrow, five players will leave the room without making a cent. The remaining 16 are guaranteed $88,000. First prize is more than $2 million.

Also hanging in on the short-stack is PokerStars player Pat Pezzin, a friend of Daniel's from Toronto.



After it was over, Raymer seemed unconcerned about his less than average stack. He stood talking to ESPN folks and explained one of his losing hands. I eavesdropped and heard Greg describe his thought process which included what he called his 10% rule--a metric he uses when calculating his odds when calling.

"I go by the ten percent rule," he said. "No matter how tight a person is, ten percent of time, they are full of it." At least, that's pretty close to what he said.



Also in action late today was Team PokerStars' Bill Chen, who paid for his entire table's after losing at credit card roulette, went back to the PLO8 event and finished in 28th place.

Nearing midnight, I also spotted Team PokerStars Noah Boeken with chips in today's $2,000 Limit Hold'em event. Immediately to his left was a member of PokerStars German blogging team, Klaus Hausmann.



Tomorrow will be a day in which the HORSE event again takes center stage. If Raymer, Greenstein, and Negreanu plan to make it to the final table, they'll need to find their inner work horse.

At this point, I'm not counting anybody out.

There is a point in which the important of an event is not only palpable in the movement of chips from one stack to another or the anxious looks on the players' faces. Now, that the HORSE event is down to the final few tables, the importance of the event is measurable by the depth of people on the rail. Now moved into the quarter of the room reserved for TV production, the HORSE event had a rail four people deep. A full television crew is recording nearly everything that happens. The Harrah's big wigs are powdered up and keep an eagle-eye view on the action.

At Table 66, success and failure walk hand in lock step. Rumor had it, early in the day Matt Hawrilenko fell victim to a common mistake in HORSE events. Although I wasn't able to confirm it with Matt (a really, really nice guy who bought in with PokerStars W$), gossip said he accidentally played a hand in the Stud round thinking he was playing Stud-8. I walked up just as he was busting out. He said under his breath, "I can't believe I played that Stud-8," and walked to the rail.

Immediately to his right, Isabelle Mercier was glowing. Having started the day with one of the shortest stacks in the room, she had managed to work her way up to a better than average stack in just the first couple hours of play.

"It's the dream scenario," she said, all smiles. "I dreamt about it all night." She then stopped and pointed to her stack. "It happened."

Relaxed, Isabelle sat down and pulled a giant turkey sandwich out of a bag and began to eat. She looked across the room at someone eying her stack and gave them a wink. Bruno Fitoussi walked over and peeked at her stack. With her mouth full of turkey, Isabelle held up three fingers Trois cent.



Greg Raymer, who came out of yesterday with the spirit of a survivalist, started playing hard today. I watched as his AA2x didn't hold against an all-in Andy Bloch in the O8 round. Later in the same round, Gabe Kaplan turned a jack and then checked the river to Raymer. Raymer checked behind.

"Three jacks, ace-five," Kaplan said.

"Three jacks?" Raymer said. He was incredulous. "Nice catch." The look in his eye was a lot like Jon Lovitz as Michael Dukakis in the Saturday Night Live debate against Dana Carvey's George Bush. It said, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."

Isabelle, meanwhile, finished her lunch and popped a toothpick in her mouth. Even at just a few feet away, she looked like an old Texas gambler, toothpick bobbing in the corner of her lips, and eyes focused on the table.

Under the TV lights on stage, the story of the tournament became Daniel Negreanu. After spending the first few days playing measure poker, Negreanu has exploded in Day 3 and, at this hour, has taken over the chip lead.



Word on the street is ESPN has requested the HORSE jockeys play down to to 24 players today. Thirty-two players remain with several short-stacks on life support. As players get ready to return to action, I hear that Raymer and Mercier's table is being moved onto the TV stage.

Again...this is a new track for these jockeys. Let's go see how they handle the turf.

Update: Isabelle Mercier has been eliminated in the $50,000 HORSE event in 31st place.

Photos courtesy of Image Masters

ESPN has been stalking the $50,000 HORSE tournament for the past few days, collecting b-roll footage and waiting for...well, today. With just a few more than 50 players left in the big one, ESPN has moved one of the tables to the main stage. In a Series where no event gets more than final table coverage, mid-tourney coverage of the HORSE event is just another indication how big this thing is.

Another big thing is the betting limits. Today will see the field start to fall apart under the pressure of high limits and levels. A couple bad hands could destroy even the most formidable stack.

Last night's Dream Final Table is still alive. The most vulnerable of the Dream Team is Team PokerStars' Isabelle Mercier. She started the day with barely enough bets to get through one hand. In early action, she managed to pick up a pair and run it through Freddy Deeb for a double up, but she is still in a touchy place.

In other news, Bill Chen has made Day 2 of the the $1,500 PLO8 event and Tom McEvoy has made Day 2 of the Seniors no-limit hold'em tournament.

After several days of battling in which no 12 hour period changed much of anything, I suspect we're on the verge of seeing some big changes on the Amazon room floor.

We're about to see, anyway.

The last time I had walked through the HORSE tournament area, Greg Raymer was on life support. I couldn't bear to watch the end. I feel like a cooler so often that I don't need any more reason to dislike myself. It wasn't long after that I saw Greg walking out to the overflow tent to check on Joe Hachem's progress in the Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event.

Greg said one word. "Whew."

Whew could mean anything. It could be "Whew, I'm glad that's over" or "Whew, I can't believe I hung on so long long."

I didn't want to compound any misery he might be feeling after two straight days of playing HORSE. "How did you finish?" I asked. It was question that could be interpreted any number of ways.

Then Greg told me his chip stack.

It was above average.

"I got lucky," he said. After having to fold his blinds in the Hold'em round, he chipped up a bit in the Omaha round. Then when Razz came around, Greg, in his own words, "sucked out." Twice. After that, there wasn't any stopping him and he was up over 250,000.

I left Greg looking for Hachem and wondered if my Dream HORSE table still had a chance at coming true. In fact, it does.

Barry Greenstein finished the day in much the same shape as Greg Raymer. In fact, out of all the PokerStars players remaining in the event, only Isabelle Mercier is desperately short-stacked. Last we spoke, she still seemed optimistic. And really, she can take some inspiration from Greg Raymer. Just a few hands and the chance at the dream final table is still alive.

In other news, Bill Chen and Joe Hachem are doing great in the $1,500 PLO8 event and Tom McEvoy is running strong in the Seniors Event.

After a few dry days with no pleasant anxiety to drive this bus, it looks like we;re in store for some fun days ahead.

Around here, a lot of folks are participating in fantasy poker drafts and betting on who will make final tables and win bracelets. Me, I'm participating in a little fantasy of my own. It involves a dream finial table in the $50,000 HORSE event. Of course, based on my focus here, it involves the remaining PokerStars players in the field. Nonetheless, it's the kind of final table that everybody would love to watch.

So, with half the field in the event now gone, here's how I hope it turns out.

Seat 1: Greg Raymer

The final table needs a World Series Champion and Greg Raymer fits the bill. What's more, Greg has already made two final tables in this year's World Series and both were in Stud games. At this hour, Greg is sitting on a reasonable stack and is playing studied careful poker.

Seat 2: Barry Greenstein

When you talk about cash game gurus, Barry Greenstein is not the type of guy you can forget. Greenstein plays these games all the time for the kind of money that makes me think about retiring. Greenstein spent a good portion of the day in the top three in chips, but has since fallen back a bit. Still, he's not hurting at all and a couple pots could put him back in position to get there.



Seat 3: Isabelle Mercier

Not because she's a woman, but because she's among the youngest players in the field and has shown great poise throughout. Isabelle has been building her mixed game skills in the past few years and has proven to be a force, especially in Razz. Isabelle has been treading water all day and needs to start winning some pots soon. Okay, and she would look fantastic on camera as well.



Seat 4: Daniel Negreanu

Kid Poker is just insanely good. He has bracelets. He has WPT titles. He is a cash game monster. What's more, he talks a great game and would liven up the table. In Day 1, Daniel looked like he was sitting back and waiting. Today, he has been pouncing and is close to the top of the leader board.



Seat 5: Matt Hawrilenko

Okay, you may not know the name, but others do. He's a huge player and SuperNova on PokerStars. He bought into this event with his W$. What's more, he's been crushing today and, at the moment, sits among the top three in chips. It's good for the game to get new faces in and Matt is proving he belongs.



Seat 6: Pat Pezzin

Pat is a PokerStars SuperNova who bought into this event directly. He won his Main Event seat on PokerStars and tells me he's buddies with Daniel He still has a playable stack and could still get there.



With those players making up the first six seats, I have two wild cards that would make the table interesting.

Seat 7: Eli Elezra

He's a wild gambler who might be able to convince Greenstein to play props during the televised final event. He's been betting hands blind today, which is fun to watch...and is good for pushing chips to other players.

Seat 8: Scotty Nguyen

I mean, come on. He's Scotty Nguyen. Tell me that wouldn't be fun.

We won't hit the final two tables for a couple of days, so it will be a long time before we see dreams come true.

Here's to hoping, yeah?

I stepped into the elevator here at the Rio the other night. It was packed--some, like a fire marshal, might say "dangerously over packed"--with Vegas revelers.

"Be Scottish!" said one of the tourists.

"I'm not exactly Scottish," I replied.

"Be Scottish!"

And then the entire elevator--some 14 people with too much of the drink in their system--screamed at once, "If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"

The callback to the old Saturday Night Live Mike Myers routine did not go unappreciated, but I ran from the elevator as fast as I could. Still, the ringing in my ears continues today as I look around the Rio and realize, there's a lot going on that's not HORSE. And it certainly, if you'll forgive my colloquialism, is not crap.

Perhaps the least appreciated event going on today is the Seniors Event. Open to folks 50 years old and older, the event drew a record crowd today. Despite being the butt of many jokes (among my favorites "The dinner break will be at 3:30" and "We've doubled the number of bathroom breaks"), the field is not a weak one and has a number of known pros among its players. One of them is Team PokerStars' Tom McEvoy.

One thing I like about McEvoy is that, in a normal crowd, I can spot McEvoy a mile away. His hair stands out in a room full of people with not-gray, not-white hair. In the Seniors Event, I walked around for fifteen minutes saying, "There's Tom! No, there's Tom! Wait, Tom's over there."

Fortunately, Tom is wearing a canary-yellow shirt today and finding the 1983 World Series Main Event champion turned out to be easier than I feared. His early big chip stack also made him a quick find.

Tom McEvoy in the 2007 World Series Seniors Event

Elsewhere at the World Series, Monday is playing host to a fun little event: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. In that field today are a number of Team PokerStars players, one of whom is Joe Hachem. Now, Hachem is a different story for me. Even though Hachem has an immediately recognizable face, he blends into a crowd well.

As I wandered the overflow playing area, I heard someone yell, "Pass the sugah!" I turned, only to find that it was someone imitating Hachem. It turned out to be a fortunate imitation. Hachem was sitting at the next table with a top-ten chip stack.


Hachem, incognito

Perhaps having the worst day of any member of Team PokerStars is Bill Chen. He was dismissed from the $50,000 HORSE event and went immediately to play in the PLO8 game. His seat put him right in a shaft of desert sunlight that was as annoying as it was hot.


Chen squints in the sunshine

Also in the PLO8 field today, Humberto Brenes and OmahaEd.


Humberto Brenes


OmahaEd

So, while the HORSE event takes its dinner break, the other players fight on. They aren't Scottish, and they're not HORSE, but they are all fighting for a bracelet, and that's the kind of thing that all of us wish we were doing.

I spent the afternoon looking for signs that the HORSE event was holding onto the relaxed atmosphere it projected through most of Day 1. I looked for Isabelle to be talking about "the most fun she's had in her life" or Greenstein to be betting big with somebody at his table. The closest thing I found to frivolousness was John Phan ordering beer at 4pm. He drinks it on ice and likes to eat Cheetos (a rough prospect when trying to handle cards with Cheesy-Fingers). Beyond that, the mood has been decidedly more tense.

The entire field re-drew seats today and it seemed like every table was one that would send any novice player back to the Monopoly board. Consider Greg Raymer's starting table included names like Eli Elezra (current chip leader), Chip Reese (last year's winner) and Phil Hellmuth. If the tension wasn't clear enough, Hellmuth's demeanor told the story. Between hands, he would lay down his head and seem to meditate. The only cute thing at the entire table was Cyndy Violette's "Peace, Love, Poker," shirt.

The reason is pretty clear. Yesterday, it was going to take a very bad run of cards to send a player to the rail. Today, all it takes is a few bad hands and the dream of winning the HORSE World Championship is over. Just ask Bill Chen. The guy is wicked-smart, won two World Series bracelets last year alone, and hit the rail before the dinner break today.

Chen's exit, preceded by Team PokerStars' John Duthie today, leaves a still-star-studded crowd, including Greg Raymer, Victor Ramdin, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, and Matt Hawrilenko.

Photo courtesy of Image Masters

I've decided that I will not ask Barry Greenstein about how much he lost in props to Eli Elezra last night. First of all, it's none of my business (nor, by extension, yours). Second, he's got better work to do than keep me up to date on his side action. Among the players in the $50,000 HORSE event who are flying the PokerStars flag, Greenstein finished Day 1 of the event with the most chips.

The marathon HORSE World Championship begins Day 2 with most of the field still in tact. Today will last just as late as last night with three days still to go. I've spent enough time rambling about how big, how important, and how prestigious this tournament is. Everybody understands that part now. With Day 1 out of the way, the real work of winning this thing begins.

While Greg Raymer is starting Day 2 off well, his table-mate and fellow Team PokerStars member John Duthie is not. Duthie is already looking for pasture with a little more green in it after an early Day 2 elimination.

Still alive today are Bill Chen, Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, Matt Hawrilenko, Victor Ramdin, and, of course, Barry Greenstein.

Photo courtesy of Image Masters

Greg Raymer was passing out Dentyne Ice to the people at his table. Robert Mizrachi took a piece. Jennifer Harman did not.

"How are the other Team PokerStars players doing?" he asked.

I gave him the rundown. Barry was doing well, Victor was down a bit. Everybody else was treading water.

"I saw Isabelle," Raymer said. "Is she playing today?"

Now, you should understand, it takes ten seconds to walk from Raymer's table to Isabelle's table. They had been playing within thirty yards of each other for seven hours and hadn't noticed each other yet.

"She's doing fine," I said. "Was up to 155,000 at one point."

Greg Raymer

She was not doing as fine as before. When I walked the few steps to her table, there were fewer chips than before.

"I just lost seven hands in a row. Seven hands in a row!" she said. "That's 70,000."

As usual, I wasn't sure what to say. "That's no fun," was all I came up with.

"But I'm going to win the next ten," she said and turned back to the table.


Isabelle Mercier looking for ten hands in a row

Two tables away, the losing was taking a far different form. Eli Elezra had been moved to Barry Greenstein's seat and had an imposing stack of chips. Not only that, he had a chicken-scratched piece of paper that looked familiar. In fact, it looked just like the prop scorecard Barry and Eli kept during the last time the were sat together. Barry looked moderately peeved.

"He sits down and hits every hand," Greenstein said. "And, he's up $135,000 in props."

I looked down at the sheet. Sure enough, it had climbed from $10,000 up to $135,000 without taking many a dip in Greenstein's favor.

"I think I'm going to hit him," Greenstein pondered out loud. "He used to be a commando or something, but I don't think he's that tough anymore."

As proof, Elezra winced as his tableside massage therapist worked a sore spot in his leg. Not so tough.

By the time I stopped keeping notes on the props, Elezra was up $210,000 in props and held the chip lead in the HORSE tournament.


Barry Greenstein--Good chips, bad props

"Who else is playing today?" Greenstein had asked me at one point in the day.

That's what's funny about this event. On the surface it looks like everybody is having a good time, betting it up, talking shop, and having a ball. However, deep in the poker mind, the focus doesn't go beyond the seven other people at the table. If they are going to be successful--if they are going to win--they can't be worried about what's happening at the 17 other tables in the tournament. They may look like they don't care if they win, but they do. They so do.

As Raymer and I finished talking, he said that just yesterday he'd practiced playing HORSE with Bill Chen, Terrance Chan, and others while eating some beef imported form Palo Alto.

He's not just playing for fun tonight. He's looking to win.


Raymer and your intrepid blogger

As the night draws to a close, nearly everyone playing for Team PokerStars is still alive and sitting on at least as many chips as they started with. When only a few people bust after twelve hours of play, the chip average just doesn't get much bigger. This is, after all, a five day event. While today hurt a few folks' feelings (and likely tweaked a bankroll or two), this was just the get-to-know-you period.

The hard rows to hoe will begin tomorrow.

Or, if I may, tomorrow is a horse of an entirely different color.

(Come on, I'm allowed one bad equine pun a day, right?)

Previous HORSE coverage

When a HORSE is not a horse

Unprecedentedly fun

Dead Meat

Pictures courtesy of Image Masters

Nolan Dalla is more than the Media Director for the World Series. He is often its voice. His timbre and tone are unmistakable on the PA system. This evening, as the players in HORSE event prepared to take their dinner break, Dalla announced all the players would be receiving, gratis, a meal at the Fiore Steakhouse at the Rio.

In closing, he said, "There is an open bar."

Daniel Negreanu, noted and often notorious vegetarian, couldn't help but speak up. "Yeah! You can have some dead cow. You can have some dead pig. You can have some baby cow that they beat!"

Negreanu's protestations (I mean, I guess they could've had the free meal at the Indian joint here...) went unheeded as many of the players headed off for a free steak dinner. There was no grousing, I should note, that they were getting a free $100 meal. Anyone who has registered for the $1,500 events here know that they come with a free $10 voucher you can spend at a steak and eggs place. So, a good hunk of $80 red meat is not something a poker player turns down, you know?

If Negreanu was worried about cow carnage, there was only one player who couldn't go to dinner due to the carnage at the tables. Jeff Lisandro was the first and only elimination by the dinner break. He reportedly handled being the first dead meat in the biggest event fairly well and went to play a $1,000 Mixed Hold'em event in the overflow tent outside.

As we return to play tonight, all members of Team PokerStars are still alive and kicking. Spies report Greg Raymer had dinner with his family at the Tilted Kilt. Isabelle Mercier was spotted returning to the Rio by cab with none other than Sammy Farha in tow.

As I headed back to the tournament area, Robert Williamson III was strolling along with a glass of wine in his hand. Steve Zolotow was matching pace with Williamson and said, "I can't see how you have so much wine and can play poker and not fall asleep."

And now the players sit back down for the biggest HORSE event ever played. We'll see how the dead cow and the wine affect the players.

There's still a lot of dead meat to come.

I was sweating Barry Greenstein in today's $50,000 HORSE event. I will occasionally eavesdrop, but try not to get involved in conversations unless invited in. Nick Schulman handed Barry his phone and Barry shook his head. I figured there was some sort of prop bet in the works when Barry said, "Brad, look at this."

Schulman handed me his phone. He was in the middle of a text message that included the word, "unprecedentedly."

"Unprecedentedly?" I asked.

The debate what over whether it was a word. Schulman used it in a sentence and it sounded bad.

"I think you spelled it right, but..." Greenstein said as he looked up at me.

"It's not a word," I said definitively. That seemed to end it. I mean, these guys can play cards for $50,000 an event, but I'm the word guy, right? I sort of hoped Barry had bet Schulman ten grand or something on it.

Because, for around half the crowd in the big event today, that's how relaxed it is. They are betting on who final tables, betting on who wins, and betting just to bet. John Duthie is getting massaged. Daniel Negreanu is eating his veggie grub, and Isabelle...

Well, walk over to her table. It's the one in the back corner where the rail is cut off by a wall. It's quieter back here. And Isabelle looks, in a word, mean. Her shirt is low cut and she's wearing make-up, but I wouldn't trust her with a sharp object.

It's the end of the Razz round and she's bet out on sixth street. Her opponent looks like he wished he had woken up with a case of pneumonia, because that would surely be more fun. He tosses in his call. The dealer hasn't even begun to deal seventh street when Isabelle's chips leave her hand and land on a table with an "I'm already there, so good luck on catching up" slap.

The young Canadian re-inforces her blind-bet message by refusing to look at her river card. I didn't know if she was there yet or not, but the look on her face says she is. Her now looks like he would gladly give Isabelle a pair of scissors if she promised to stab him in the neck. That, too, would likely be more fun.

Isabelle's man now peeks at his river card and, almost as if he is resigned to his fate, tosses in his call. Isabelle pulls up her hole cards and arranges a 7432A low. Her opponent shuffles his cards three times, but it's clear he's got an eight and no better. Isabelle flicks her upper lip with her tongue and doesn't deign to give her opponent another look. Her eyes, without changing, said, "Silly boy."



It's break time and Isabelle counts her chips In less than five hours, she's increased her stack by more than 50%. She counts them out slowly and looks up at the digital leaderboard on the wall. It's not yet been updated.

"I should be up there," she says. I look down and she's wearing a green pair of socks. She's taking them off and slipping into a pair of gold heels. It's clear, when she's on the move at the table, she's doing it comfort. When she's on the move everywhere else, she's doing it in style.

"Having fun yet?" I ask.

"The most fun of my life," she said.

***

I'm just getting over watching Isabelle eviscerate the guy, when I notice a a man walking away with Bill Chen.

Who is THAT guy? There weren't a ton of people in this event and I recognized everybody wearing a PokerStars shirt. Except that guy. So, I asked. It is Matt Hawrilenko and he's playing this event with...wait for it...PokerStars W$.

'nuff said.



***

And so back to report. Dictionary.com tells me that unprecedently is, in fact, a word. I feel like I've just busted out of a tournament. I can't play poker and I apparently don't have as strong a command on the English language as I thought.

I sure hope I didn't lose Barry any money.

Photos courtesy of Image Masters

The American flag on top of the Rio is being blown flat by the desert winds that pressed in this morning. The palms around the hotel are shaking like they are ready to face a hurricane. Inside the Rio, the Amazon room is as quiet as it is at 4am. This is not the scene of a $1,500 no-limit hold'em tournament. This is the $50,000 World Championship of HORSE and there is nothing bigger here at the World Series.

The beginning of the $50,000 HORSE event

It is an event so big that fewer than 200 people have entered. It is an event so big that nearly everyone in the event knows each other, and most of them know each other's secrets, tells, and styles. These are people who have played against each other for years and now are sitting down for what most of them considered to be the test of power dominance.

To ask who is here is less instructive than to ask who is not. Still, it's the people in the seats who will make up this week's stories. They are the world's top professionals and they will spend the next five days fighting to make it to the most prestigious tournament in the world.

When the $1,500 no-limit field was relatively void of these people yesterday, there was little surprise why. The HORSE event will be a marathon. Instead of a Pony Express run across the desert, this event and its structure are a sturdy-backed pack mule with saddle bags made for chip-hauling. They are starting with 100,000 of those chips a piece. There will be no no-limit cooler to send somebody packing in one hand. As Greg Raymer said the other night, sometimes these games are like death by a thousand cuts.

Team PokerStars is well represented here and among the players are the names you will expect. Greenstein, Negreanu, Raymer, Chen, Ramdin, Mercier, Duthie. They are six men and one keen-eyed lady who trust their game enough to lay down $50,000. It's the kind of money that could afford them five main events. In their eyes it's clear that this is the main event, at least for now.















At the beginning of something this big, it's tempting to throw out every superlative in one's vocabulary. It's best, I think, to save a few for later. Because even as the field shrinks, this event will be bigger than anything we see this year.

The dinner break in today's $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament saw a little more than 500 players remaining out of the 2,780 who began. The carnage throughout the day had left just about any player flying the PokerStars flag a tattered mess.

I was killing time while the players ate when Noah "Exclusive" Boeken wandered up.

"You hungry?" he asked.

I wasn't, but that didn't stop my curiosity.

"No, why?"

"David Williams isn't here," Noah explained.

It took a second for me to register the explanation. Then I remembered the Boeken is crashing at Williams high-dollar condo during the World Series.

"I have a chef," Noah said and held up a brown bag. "It's good."

After too many cheese steaks from the Poker Kitchen, I could only think, "Oh, to be a young poker phenom. To have a chef!"

I said none of this, however, and thanked Noah for the offer. I watched him walk into the masses with his brown bag. Now, as my stomach starts to grumble, I'm wondering what was in the bag. It has to be better than any stromboli-nacho-chicken-wing choice I may find in my present locale.

Rather than eat, though, I grumbled my way back onto the floor where cries of "Seat open!" continued to ring. People play fast in these lower buy-in events and it's little surprise how fast it's moving.

Although most stories that might interest the PokerStars crowd had long since found their way to a BBQ, game of Chinese, or a bed to rest for tomorrow's big HORSE event (more on that in a sec), Noah Boeken continued to roll. At the break, he had a double-average stack and a look in his eye that said, "Dinner was good. Chips are better."

There's still a long way to go in this thing--even before they hit the money--but Boeken is looking pretty strong. That said, based on the reliability of my predictions in recent days, I'm just going to say Noah has chips. What he does with them, we'll just have to wait and see.

In other news, I can't let this post or event go by without giving a mention and premature congratulations to my buddy and member of the 2006 World Series PokerStars Team Blog, Paul "Dr. Pauly" McGuire who is taking a break from his Poker News reporting duties to play today. He currently is running hot and is among the the players at the top of the leader board.

This event will run until 2am PDT. That will leave just a few short hours of sleep before the noon kickoff of tomorrow's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E world championship. This event is going to be both exciting and slow at the same time. While the biggest buy-in event in this year's Series and sure to draw the biggest pros in the world, it's an event that will start with a staggering 100,000 starting chips and is scheduled to run five days. Either way, I suspect it will be fodder for many a good story and several bad equine-related puns.

Of course, of course.

Imagine a locker room at halftime of a NFL game. A few dozen sweaty people leave the playing field in a mix of urgency and fatigue. All look for a few moment's respite and maybe a chance to hit the head. Now, imagine if the team had 2,700 players on it and they'd all been drinking water and Red Bull for two hours. That's the scene as the players here head for the first bathroom break.

Today, the World Series $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event sold out before the end of the first level. A total of 2,780 players packed into the Rio in what PokerNews' Change100 dubbed "The Dead Money Parade."

Less than 25% of the field in the $1,500 NL Hold'em Event

It's a chance at World Series glory, a gold bracelet grappled by hand from the middle of a dark ocean floor. This is a sea of faces that I--without much embarrassment--just don't recognize. Walking the floor this afternoon, I finally vocalized to a couple people what I'd been thinking for two hours.

"Who are these people?" I asked. I literally had looked at two hundred faces before I saw one that even glimmered with recognition. Most times I asked the question to fellow members of the media, they just shrugged.

I was 75% of my way through the crowd when I figured it out. This is the live version of an online tournament. It's more than 2,700 players strong. Every once in a while, you see a name or face you recognize, but most of the time, you're playing against unknowns.


Overflow playing area--a tent air conditioned by giant plastic tubes

Lest you think I have any animosity or disdain for this field, you should know that, if I were to play an event this year, it would likely be one a lot like this. In fact, all the Series events I've played in the past have been like this. So, it's not that I can't relate to this field. It's just that it's so big...and so anonymous.

Finally, near the end of my walk, I find some more popular faces. There's Noah Boeken hitting his flush on the river. There's Humberto Brenes talking his opponent into a fold. There's Steve Paul-Ambrose looking down to see if he has cards he's willing to put up against a field so big. There are others, to be sure. And maybe those folks will make it to the final table over the next three days. Who knows?


Noah Boeken all-in (he won)


Noah Boeken gives an interview to the Dutch media


Humberto Brenes, an alternate who got a seat

That's the thing in a field this big. The "Who Knows" factor is huge. That's actually part of its appeal. It's part of the reason the World Series is so popular. Anybody can come here with dream in their head and $1,500 in their pocket and walk away three days later being able to say what a very, very small percentage of poker players will ever be able to say: "I won a World Series bracelet."

The other night, I sat with Jim McManus--well-known poker writer and player--and chatted for a while about poker, writing, and money. We've each had our own levels of success in these arenas, but there was one thing both lacked and wanted. McManus said it quietly, looking into his drink and saying it so quietly it was almost as if he didn't even want to hear it himself.

"I want the bracelet," he said.

The flotsam and jetsam of dreams still float here. It will be three days before we know which of the faces will be the one we won't forget.

Sometimes, in an effort to see a story from beginning to end, one has to make predictions or hint at them. When Joe Hachem began the day running over the the Pot-Limit Hold'em field, it was only natural to get that tingle of excitement and call back his two big 2006 World Series Pot-Limit Hold'em finishes. Hachem, at least for the purposs of this humble news outlet, was The Story today.

If blog writing allowed me to affect an accent, it would sound a lot like Gilda Radner's Emily Latella.

Never mind.

Hachem exited before the dinner break, shortly after a chilly hand that saw him flopping a set against a flush. That leaves us with the age old Friday news story: What's happening this weekend.

This weekend will be huge for two reasons. First, tomorrow will host a $1,500 no-limit hold'em event. When these things go off on the weekend, they are massive. It's so big, several members of the media are just taking the day off to play it.

While that event will surely have a nice payday, the story of the week begins on Sunday when the $50,000 World Championship of H.O.R.S.E kicks off. There is almost as much fun speculating about who will play as actually watching the event.

For tonight, though, the stories have come to an end. After having an insanely good two weeks, it's probably best to take a breather. There's still a long way to go in this thing and a lot of time for more stories.

We'll see you on Saturday.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There was this niggling tickle somewhere in the area of my medula oblongata that said, "Pssst, you're missing something." Still, I couldn't figure it out.

It's not a massive field for the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament today, but it's impressive enough that it's sometimes hard to find people. Me? I was looking for Joe Hachem. Word had spread quickly that he had spent the first part of the day climbing the leaderboard.

I'd gotten a call from Barry Greenstein. He, too, was in the event, but went over to play in Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Still, it was almost easier to find him...or, at the very least, his seat.

Barry's chips and book wait for his return to the Pot-Limit Hold'em event

Eventually, I coaxed a fellow member of the media to take me to Hachem. There he sat in the one-seat. His collar pulled up, sunglasses on, and headphones blocking out the noise, he was quiet. It was the focused, almost sour look of a man on a mission.

Still, my finger was dancing all around but not landing on It. I mean, in a land where a dozens of tournaments make up the World Series, why did Hachem's early rise today seem significant? Why was it pushing me to think?


Hachem in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event

I'd given up. I'd decided this would just be an eHarmony post (that's "picture and a paragraph" to those of you who don't have the commercials and their creep host burned into your brain). I was on my way out of the tournament room when it hit me. I ran back to my computer to confirm my revelation.

I was right, albeit a little late on the uptake.

Eleven months ago, Hachem made the final two tables of this very event. A week or so later, he hit another Pot-Limit Hold'em event and made the final table. So, I'm not saying he's going to win this thing or anything, but an early chip lead in a pot-limit hold'em sounds awfully familiar, no?

I've simply been spoiled since I sat down here at the World Series. If each day didn't begin with "Which final table are we covering?" it began with "who is going to make a final table today?" That is to say, as I focus on the PokerStars players who have been playing here so far, more often than not I'm either covering someone sitting at a final table or on the cusp of being there.

Today is not one of those days.

Dry Vegas

When I got up today, I went through my daily rituals only to discover that the insane pace of the last couple of weeks has slowed down. That's for a couple of reasons. First, while it's about to get even busier here in Vegas, the number of tournaments per week is about to go down. As we get closer and closer to the main event, we're going to see less and less of the five-tournaments-a-day schedule in the Amazon room.

Frankly, while all the excitement has been invigorating and we've seen a lot of great successes here, the slower pace might make for at least a couple days that don't involve running from the front 40 to the back 40 every few minutes just in case we missed something. It also might be a little easier for the players who have been forced to enter tournaments late or multi-table to get in the kind of action they want.

As Friday begins here, we will be keeping an eye on Barry Greenstein. Barry is heading into Day 2 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8/b tournament. He's already made one final table this year, but will have to battle through a insanely tough crowd to make it down to the final table today.



Everybody else today is just getting started in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event that kicked off an hour or so ago. That event will go all day and night before we have any idea who has a shot at a bracelet.

Looks like if there is another final table report in the near future, it's going to take some workin' on the weekend.

Which is just fine with me.

In the past few days, there have been a ton of great stories coming out of the World Series. More often than even I have been able to cover, there is usually a subtitle that involves PokerStars.

Just the other day, PokerStars Supernova Shankar825 (known in public as Shankar Pillai) won one of the biggest prizes so far this year in a no-limit hold'em event. He picked up more than half a million bucks for his win.

Shankar Pillai

As I type, another Supernova, Keith Block, is down to the final four players in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. Already guaranteed $128,968, Block is on a complete freeroll after using his Frequent Player Points to buy into this event. Update: Keith ended up going out in the final four, but still managed to earn more than $125,000 on a complete freeroll. Congrats, Keith.


Keith Block

Today, Team PokerStars' own Daniel Negreanu took fifth place in the $2,000 Seven Card stud event. For more on that, check out the final table reports below:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


Daniel Negreanu

While Daniel couldn't pull the bracelet in that event, cash game superstar Jeff Lisandro picked up his first World Series bracelet. And based on where this post has been, you can guess how the final picture will look.



Photos courtesy of Image Masters

Part 1
Part 2

At the first break, Daniel Negreanu doesn't disappear for long. Greg Pappas busted out in the final moments of the last level and Daniel seems like he doesn't want to leave his early-days rush unattended.

Daniel is standing alone on the stage, eager.

"You have two minutes and twenty seconds left on your break," the dealer tells him.

"I'm ready to play," Daniel says and then turns to the dealer. "Are you ready to play?"

Any chip lead here is tenuous at best. In the waning moments of the last level, Daniel's chip lead had been overtaken by Nicky Frangos.

The TD reads off the chip counts, though, and it's clear that it's still anybody's game.

Daniel 214,000
Nicky 274,000
Nes 114,000
Jeff 126,000
Severin 132,000

But something bad is happening now. It's hard to say exactly what, but it's clear Daniel has made a decision to continue playing fast. He still looks eager for the first ten minutes of play. Then, he loses two straight hands, the worst of which ended in him missing one of a million outs on the river in a hand against Nicky. Daniel knows he has to bet to win and, thus, he does. Nicky cocks his head to the left, purses his lips, and then calls with only a pair of fives. Daniel shows his king-high and pushes the monster pot over to Nicky.

Now Daniel is in a precarious position. He can't play fast anymore. The next hand he plays past fourth street is going to be either the one that doubles him up or sends him out to the Omaha 8/B event that begins at 5pm.

It's just five mminutes later that he's all in on fifth street with a pair of jacks and a backdoor flush draw. He's run directly into Severin's rolled up deuces. Daniel needs running diamonds or a jack to suck out. Sixth street is a baby black card.

Now, there are only two cards in the deck that can save him. The nature of stud doesn't offer a ton of drama, but all-in, the river card is still dealt down, and Daniel feels obliged to squeeze it.

"Ahhhh, it's a spaaade," he says and continued to squeeze. "It's a jack!"

He stands up and slaps his card down on the table. It's red and nothing close to a jack.

He's done.

"Time for the Omaha!" he says and bounds from his seat.

In one hour, he'll be sitting down for another tournament.

Part 1

Ten years ago, Daniel Negreanu found a role model in Greg Pappas. Today, they are peers, with even Greg admitting that Negreanu has become a much better player over the years.

"Luckier for sure," Daniel said last night.

Now a seasoned pro, Negreanu has become a role model to many and a mentor to some others. Today, Daniel's protege sits on the rail watching him. Amazing, I think, what can change in ten years.

Twelve years ago, Daniel was a nobody and was amazed at how old-timers didn't give a damn what he thought. Now, there's a line of people out the door who would give up just about anything to spend a year under Negreanu's tutelage.

Greg Raymer appears over my shoulder. He's on break from the $1,500 no-limit event and asks about Daniel. As I'm answering, Greg looks up to the rail.

"Hey, there's my mom."

I've been around Greg at many tournaments and he frequently has family on the rail. This is the first time I've seen his mom.

"Everybody give a big round of applause for 2004 World Series champion!"

The tournament dir