WSOP Day 18: Down Goes Eskimo, Hellmuth's 12, and Liz Lieu Tuesdays

By Pauly

Phil Hellmuth arrived on time for Day 2 of Event #28. That was unusual since he almost always arrives late in true Hellmuthian fashion. Even Greg "FBT" Mueller had to say something.

"How come you are not two hours late today?" asked Mueller.

Hellmuth smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Perry Friedman and Steve Dannenmann stopped by to wish him luck while Hellmuth listened to his iPod and unbagged his chips.

"I know you don't make the money often," joked Friedman. "You can't use iPods when were in the money."

Since the money bubble broke the night before, Hellmuth cashed in his 60th event, which is a WSOP record. He already set the record for bracelets a week earlier when he picked up #11 and he was trying to tie TJ Cloutier for WSOP final tables with 39.

Hellmuth's table happened to be right in front of the media table which was both entertaining and a sincere burden. Hellmuth has a magnetic personality that attracts all sorts of individuals such as the curious, the haters, the fans, and every media member inside a five hundred foot radius. That meant out tiny corner of the Amazon ballroom was jam packed as everyone watched The Phil Hellmuth Show. Some were waiting for him to go on mega tilt and berated his opponents or perhaps kick over a chair. Other hoped he'd utter more classic Hellmuthian vernacular like he did in 2005 when he told his wife in front of ESPN's cameras, "I can dodge bullets baby."

Me? I get goosebumps when Hellmuth refers to himself in the third person such as "Phil Hellmuth is the greatest Hold'em player in the history of poker."

Hellmuth's table ended up being a doozy. He had Beth Shak to his left, the wife of pro Dan Shak. Like a true East Coaster, she's mentally tough and doesn't take shit from nobody including Hellmuth or any of the internet hotshots that tried to tilt her like Luke Vrabel.

Also at Hellmuth's table was chipleader Feng Chen. About an hour into Day 2 she told us that she wanted to be called Tsai Chen. I have no idea why but I granted her that wish. She was an elderly Asian woman with a motor mouth. Even Hellmuth could not keep up with her barbs. She was capable of playing any two cards and always seemed to have a monster when someone attempted to pick off one of her bluffs.

About ninety minutes into Day 2, Luke Vrabel was moved to Hellmuth's table and that's when their two volatile personalities clashed. Hellmuth had a tough enough time keeping the attention on him with the lovely Beth Shak to his left and the Yoda-like musings of Tsai Chen in Seat 9. During his verbal diarrhea, Hellmuth mentioned a few gems such as...

"Another day, another million dollars."

"Muckit is a small town in Northern Alaska."

"I'm so good sometimes, I amaze myself."

"Phil Hellmuth never bluffs."

When Luke Vrabel, the wise-cracking internet kid with a severe case of ADD, was moved to the table, Hellmuth realized the need to step up his act. He had spectators standing seven deep on the rail and more than a dozen media encircling his table snapping photos and recording his every word as it was sagely advice from Buddha himself. It was showtime and Hellmuth seized the spotlight.

Vrable had nothing to lose and everything to gain by picking on Hellmuth. I dunno if the kid took advantage of that situation on the fly or if he's just a cocky dude. Regardless, he jumped right into the fight and started ragging on Hellmuth and giving lip to Chen. The kid did not stop talking the entire time as he riffed on a multitude of topics ranging from why his girlfriend was infatuated with ARod's ass and why PokerStars is rigged.

After a player raised, Luke Vrabel shoved all in and William Burdick went into the tank before he called. The first player folded as Vrabel turned up 10s-10c while Burdick showed Ac-Qd. Hellmuth immediately disapproved of Vrabel's play as the dealer spread out the flop of the Ah-8s-2d. Vrabel jumped out of his chair and turned around. He walked away from the table towards the rail. The turn was the 2s and when the 10d spiked on the river, everyone at his table let out a collective "Ooooooooooooh!" Vrabel busted Burdick when he rivered a two-outer. That pot pushed Vrabel's stack to 199K which was more than what Hellmuth had.

"Terrible play kid. Shoving with tens like that. Keep it up," needled Hellmuth.

After Vrabel stole his blinds for the second time Hellmuth said, "Keep stealing. They steal and steal and steal and before you know it, Phil Hellmuth has all the chips. It happens every day. They keep coming trying to take down the best int he world and they end up going broke. You're playing against a world champion."

Vrabel ignored Hellmuth's barbs and jawed back."This is pretty cool. I'm playing at the same table as the greatest player in the world. This is something I'll tell my grandkids. Of course they'll say 'Who is Phil Hellmuth?' because by then everyone will forget about you."

Vrabel won a pot off of Hellmuth which set him on tilt. After he lost the hand, Hellmuth jumped up and cursed underneath his breath. He paced around his table like a sad puppy as railbirds whipped out that cameras and tried to capture shots of the poker giant sliding into the deepest depths of utter tiltdom.

Five minutes after the hand, Hellmuth still steamed.

"This kid has no chance to win the tournament," he said to no one in particular. "He called my raise with J-9. The sucker calls with J-9. Can you believe that? Terrible poker."

"Come on Phil, it's just one hand," taunted Vrabel. "I took 35K off you and I'll do it again. If that's terrible. I'll keep playing like that."

Ten minutes later, a floor supervisor came over with a seat change card.

"Nooooooooooo!" screamed Hellmuth after he was informed that he was getting moved.

"I was just ready to double up against this guy," Hellmuth said as he pointed to Vrabel. "Check with me in two hours when you're busted and I'm still in."

"Phil Hellmuth, you're my third favorite pro behind my girlfriend and Evelyn Ng."

Evelyn Ng was moved to their table thirty minutes earlier. She sat in between Hellmuth and Vrabel while she caught an earful. Former SNL Weekend Update anchor Norm MacDonald played in the vent and eventually busted out in 20th place. He survived a tough field and hung on with a short stack most of the day. Without a doubt, Norm is my second most favorite SNL WU anchor aside from Dennis Miller. Tina Fey comes in a distant third.

When the action got down to 18 players, Hellmuth was the short stack and moved back to Vrabel's table. The two continued their sparring. When Vrabel opened up for a 40K raised, Hellmuth jammed the pot and moved all in. Vrabel mucked saying he folded A-10. Hellmuth showed A-K.

"Phil Hellmuth doesn't bluff," Helllmuth said.

Despite a short stack, Hellmuth played disciplined poker and picked the right spots to make moves. He admitted that he got no cards yet managed to be one of the last ten players. Usually, WSOP final tables are nine-handed with a few exceptions. That was one of them. I had only seen that happen once before... in 2005 when Hellmuth was short-stacked for a PLO event and they suspended play at ten so Hellmuth could have some TV time at the ESPN final table. It might be the Hellmuth Rule but makes sense if you're ESPN. At least it's not in Bluff's Black Hole.

Men the Master played in the Razz event a few tables over. He wandered over and protested.

"WSOP final tables are nine players. Why is it ten?" he said. "Why are you making an exception for Phil Hellmuth. This is not fair."

Event #28 Final Table Seating Assignments and Chip Counts:
Seat 1: Phil Hellmuth - 213,000
Seat 2: Luke Vrabel - 315,000
Seat 3: Ben Fineman - 272,000
Seat 4: Dustin Holmes - 1,076,000
Seat 5: Jason Song - 284,000
Seat 6: Brett Richey - 738,000
Seat 7: Daniel Corbin - 210,000
Seat 8: Shankar Pillai - 371,000
Seat 9: Perry Friedman - 723,000
Seat 10: Beth Shak - 740,000

After the event ended, Hellmuth blew off Bluff's attempt to get an interview as he sat next to his wife. Michael Craig wandered over to ask a few questions. I walked over and wanted to get a clarification on some stats.

"How many final tables have you made at the WSOP?" I asked.

"I didn't know the number until Nolan Dalla told me I started the year with 39, two behind TJ (Cloutier). I made one and I'm close to tying him. I haven't made the final table... yet. I have one more bustout to go."

When I asked him about having a short stack, Hellmuth shrugged it off.

"Listen up, Phil Hellmuth is the best Hold'em player in the world. My 213K in chips is worth twice as much as their stacks. It's doubled. I'm closer to 426K. All I have to do is double up once and I have one million."

I didn't want to point out that in reality it would only be 426K. But Hellmuth was on a roll and giving me five minutes of his time so I kept my mouth shut.

"The players are so bad that they'll give me their chips. Phil Hellmuth is going for number twelve."

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 18

Eskimo Clark did a nose dive in the middle of Day 2 of the Razz event. Lance over at the Poker Biz and Wicked Chops Poker had good pieces on what went down. After collapsing in the Poker Sauna last week, Eskimo was back playing in the Razz event. He suffered two episodes on Monday and shook both off to make it to the final table. I also heard he was shot twice in the parking lot and shanked near the pisser behind the Poker Sauna. The guy is really bulletproof or he must really be stuck. He probably should be at home resting and watching the History Channel. Instead he's made a final table and is close to winning a bracelet. He'll have to survive a difficult final table with Men the Master, Katja Thater (her second final table in 2007), 2005 WSOP Razz Champion O'Neil Longson, and Australia's Mark Vos.

Since it's Liz Lieu Tiesdays how about a stealth shot of Liz's back tattoo taken by one of our photographers:


The other day, I was walking through the valet when The Grinder rolled up in his wine-colored BMW. Some of the valet guys were bitching about how some of the pros didn't tip. "All they have is $100 bills," one said. "The last thing they want to do is break a big bill for a valet tip. So we get stiffed."

Check out Benjo's blog. It's in French and I can understand about 50% of it.

Vinnie Vinh advanced to Day 2 of Event #30 $2,500 NL Short-handed. He's one of 42 players left. We'll see if he decides to show up and play or if he locks himself in a roach motel in North Las Vegas and go on a three-day crank bender. I'll be covering that event for Poker News. Click here to view live coverage of Day 2 of Event #30 $2,500 NL Short-handed.

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 26

The Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Chad Brown
2. Steve Dannennman
3. Bill Chen
4. Minh Ly
5. Jesus

* * * * *
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOP Day 17: Hellmuth's 60th Cash and Eskimo Clark Lives

By Pauly

This might be a quickie post. Short on time.

I've been assigned Day 2 restarts which is a lot of work spread out over 12-15 hour days. They begin at 2pm and do not end until nine players are left. I feel like Mo Rivera on the Yankees in the 1990s when he was the set up man for John Wetteland and Mo would pitch two innings before handing the ball over to the closer (and in our case that happens to be whoever is doing the final table that day which is usually BJ).

In the NL events, the money bubble usually burst before Day 1 ended. So on Day 2, the action starts out quick with a flurry of bustouts. All the short-stacks push all in and hope to double up. About half of them survive and the rest head over to the floor guy who tells them how much they won. I scurry around trying to figure out which big names are left over. I also make sure the junior reporters keep an eye on the big stacks. Trying to cover a hundred players that I have never seen before can be difficult and I give kudos to the guys on my team for continuously getting the job done. I rely upon their reporting skills to help bolster the tournament coverage since I can't be on the floor as much as I'd like to.

Over the weekend, I covered the $2K NL Day 2 and the $1,500 NL Donkfest Day 2. Today I have the $3K NL Day 2. What a difference $1,500 makes. There were only 827 players in Event #28 versus 2,135 in the $1,500 Donkathon. Out of the 81 remaining players, there are plenty of top pros. Phil Gordon went busto shortly before Day 2 ended when Ed Moncada made a great call and felted El Gordo. Moncada won a bracelet in 2005 and he's second in chips behind Feng Chen. Phil Hellmuth is 4th in chips and Perry Friedman is 5th. I know it burns Phil Gordon up at night knowing that Perry has more bracelets than him. He has zero.

All eyes are on Hellmuth when he plays, walks, or talks. Its sort of like watching Willie Mays play catch alongside a massive car wreck on the 405. You're watching a superstar and secretly hoping to see carnage in the process with severed limbs and pools of blood. Hellmuth is looking for bracelet #12. He already set another record with his 60th WSOP cash and is trying to break TJ Cloutier's record of most WSOP final tables. Hold'em is Hellmuth's game. And you know what? The world evolves around Phil Hellmuth. Just ask him and he'll agree.

Also in that field are Maureen Feduniak, Jorge "twin_caracas" Arias, The Unabomber, Greg FBT Mueller, Steve Dannenmann, Taylor Caby, Evelyn Ng, and actor Norm MacDonald. Should be fun to cover.

Click here to follow my coverage of Event #28 $3,000 NL Hold'em over at PokerNews.

Last night, Phil Ivey took 4th place in the $5K HORSE event and missed winning his 6th bracelet and $10 million in cash. I'm still trying to verify that rumor about his $2 million bracelet bet with 5-1 odds.

The Razz event began and they got over 300 runners. I spotted Eskimo Clark in the field. He's alive and looked good for a guy who was passed out in the Poker Sauna a week earlier. Also in the Razz event were Shirley Rosario, Jim McManus, Katja Thater, Lacey Jones, Chris Fargis (who final tabled last year's event) and Jen Creason who has a cash in the Razz event from 2005. Razz is for pure sadists but Andy Bloch mentioned that he thinks it's the easiest game to master.

Here are the tournaments over the next week:

Event #30 June 18 @ noon $2,500 NL - 6 handed (3 day event)
Event #31 June 19 @ noon $5,000 World Championship Heads Up NL (3 day event)
Event #32 June 19 @ 5 p.m. $2,000 Seven Card Stud (2 day event)
Event #33 June 20 @ noon $1,500 PLO w/rebuys (2 day event)
Event #34 June 20 @ 5 p.m. $3,000 Limit Hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #35 June 21 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #36 June 21 @ 5 p.m. $5,000 World Championship Omaha8 or Better (3 day event)
Event #37 June 22 @ noon $2,000 Pot-limit hold 'em (3 day event)
Event #38 June 23 @ noon $1,500 NL (3 day event)
Event #39 June 24 @ noon $50,000 World Championship HORSE (5 day event)
Event #40 June 24 @ 5 p.m. $1,500 Mixed hold 'em (Limit/NL - 3 Day event)

I play in Event #38 the $1,500 Donkfest. Why? Because I'm a donkey and it's my only day off between now and July 3rd when Widespread Panic plays in Las Vegas.

Here's a list of 2007 WSOP Bracelet Winners through Event #26:

Event #1 $5,000 Mixed Limit/NL Hold'em: Steve Billirakis
Event #2 $500 Casino Employee NL: Frederick Narciso
Event #3 $1,500 NL: Cairan O'Leary
Event #4 $1,500 Pot-limit Hold 'em: Michael Spiegel
Event #5 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud 8: Tom Schneider
Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em: Gary Styczynski
Event #7 $5,000 PLO w/rebuys: Burt Boutin
Event #8 $1,000 NL w/rebuys: Michael Chu
Event #9 $1,500 Omaha 8: Alexander Kravchenko
Event #10 $2,000 NL: William Durkee
Event #11 $5,000 Seven Card Stud: Chris Reslock
Event #12 $1,500 NL Six Handed: Jason Warner
Event #13 $5,000 Pot-limit Hold 'em: Allen Cunningham
Event #14 $1,500 Seven Card Stud: Michael Keiner
Event #15 $1,500 NL: Phil Hellmuth
Event #16 $2,500 HORSE: James Richberg
Event #17 $1,000 Ladies Event NL: Sally Boyer
Event #18 $5,000 Limit Hold'em: Jard Getzoyan
Event #19 $2,500 NL: Francois Safieddine
Event #20 $2,000 Seven Card Stud 8: Ryan Hughes
Event #21 $1,500 NL Shootout: Don Baruch
Event #22 $5,000 NL: James Mackey
Event #23 $1,500 PLO: Scott Clements
Event #24 $3,000 Seven Card Stud 8: Eli Elezra
Event #25 $2,000 NL: Ben Ponzio
Event #26 $5,000 HORSE: Ralph Schwartz

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 17

Norm MacDonald played in the $3K event. We requested an interview for PokerNews and he said he wanted to shave first before he was on camera.

David Williams snapped at one of our reporters. He told Zeke to scram while he was getting information on a hand that Williams lost. Our new nickname for Williams is... Scram. Beats his old name... Foot Jizz.

My brother Derek sent this to me in an email about a NY Jets player:

it looks like the media is after jonathan vilma . . . after he kind of sided with michael vick last week regarding the dog fighting (but in a less embarassing way than clinton portis did) . . . the media seems to be on this smear campaign of vilma . . . they had some article linking vilma to the poker club in NY that got robbed this weekend . . . they were like vilma plays here all the time just like ARod and AJ Soprano. i guess these media clowns think poker is just as bad a dog fighting b/c there is no reason to write the article and talk about vilma . . . the story is that the club got robbed. we all know by now these clubs are illegal . . . old news.

Around Midnight, Chris Fargis said that they had yet to go on a dinner break for the Razz event. "We also need a two hour break for the older folks in the field to take a nap." They were going to play down to a final table but stopped the action around 3am. They will try to play a final table today. I have no idea. They change shit on the fly all the time.

Stella Count at the Tilted Kilt: 24

Number of people who asked me for weed over the weekend: 24

Number of media reps who asked me for Valium: 13

Sunday night, not too many hookers strolling around. They go to church on Sundays since it's their day of rest.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Marcel Luske
2. Victor Ramdin
3. Joe Sebok
4. Jamie Gold
5. David "The Dragon" Pham

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOP Day 16: Congestion Mutation and the Ghost of Vinnie Vinh

By Pauly

There were not too many open spots left in the Rio parking lot so we parked all the way in the back corner. A security guard rolled up in the Rio mini-van and asked us if we wanted a ride since it was 106 degrees. Of course, we said yes. He drove us up to the main entrance of the convention center. Thanks again to Joseph who spared me from sweating my ass off just to cross the sizzling pavement on my way to work.

Saturdays are the most congested day at the Rio. The weekend warriors fly into Las Vegas with grandiose dreams in pursuit of poker glory and a bracelet in the $1,500 donkfests that attract close to 2,000 players. Since it's also the weekend, plenty of slow-moving tourists flock to the Rio to check out the spectacle of the World Series of Poker. Most of them are newbies and are overwhelmed by the experience. They don't know about the no flash photography rule as every few minutes a rapid flash of white light illuminates a table with Phil Ivey or Doyle Brunson sitting at it.

And if you get caught roaming the hallways on a break, it resembles Mardi Gras minus the tits and stench of spilled beer and urine. Notions of claustrophobia attack the senses as the hallways are flooded with poker players and spectators trying to get outside for a smoke break, grab a snack at the Poker Kitchen, seeking out the shortest line to the bathroom, and recanting a bad beat story via their cell phones.

Then there's the amateur paparazzi who seek out photos of Jen Harman or pester Eli Elezra for an autograph while he's on break for his final table.

"Eli, remember that hand on High Stakes Poker, season 1 when you had 5-3s and Negreanu flopped a set but you rivered a flush on him and he went on tilt? Remember that?" a woman wearing a WSOP visor and a PokerStars t-shirt said to Elezra as he walked out of the bathroom.

He shrugged his shoulders and stopped to take a photo with the woman. And as soon as the pros stop, the rest of the cockroaches scurry out and bombard him with more photo requests as a symposium on High Stakes Poker hands break out in front of the Poker Kitchen. Elezra had his mind on beating Scotty Nguyen heads up, but he handled the massed with class and dignity.

Not every pro does that. I've seen a few scoff at the autograph seekers. I've witnessed WPT champions act surly towards photograph requests. Some pros are truly shy and cherish their privacy. Some are simply on a break and are more concerned with examining their play than chatting up with fans on the rail.

As one pro mentioned to me, "The spectators often forget that we're at work. I get one 15 minute break every two hours. The last thing I want to do is stand there like a cardboard cut out and pose for photos."

I sat in the Sao Paolo cafe and ate breakfast (at 1:30pm) with Change100 as we watched hundreds and hundreds of players doing the walk of shame after they busted out of the $1,500 event. A few of them were on their phones moaning about the bad beat while others seemed pleased to have played in a WSOP event. They spent the $1,500 on the overall experience and can now die peacefully because they played in at least one WSOP event. You can't criticize those players since they help swell up the prize pool.

With a 3,000 starting stack and one hour levels with swift escalating blinds in addition to playing in a field of "3,000 monkeys" as Minneapolis Jim Meehan described those events, the action goes super fast. Half the field busts before dinner break. Three hundred or so players are left by Midnight and by 2am, the money bubble bursts at 200. 90% of the field is decimated by the end of Day 1. And every time I see that happen, I'm in awe.

Michalski was one of the early casualties. He had Barry Greenstein seated to his right. He got crippled early and fought back before he busted out when he lost a coinflip.

Moving on...

My assignment for Day 16 was to cover the Day 2 Event #25 $2,000 NL. 130 players survived Day 1. Liz Lieu and Brandon Schaefer had cashed in the event and were trying to make it to the final table. Since the money bubble burst just as play ended on Day 1, the beginning of Day 2 featured a blizzard of eliminations. Twenty players headed to the rail in the first fifteen minutes of play. Liz Lieu survived the initial onslaught and doubled up with her shortstack, but she busted out in 89th place.

Steve Dannenmann played in Day 1 of the $1,500 donkfest. He said he played super fast and super loose and tried to build up a stack. When he realized that was not happening and it got close to the starting time for Day 2 of Event #25, he moved all in blind. He had to talk his opponent into calling him and finally busted so he could head over to play in Day 2. Sadly, Dannenmann didn't go deep and he busted out in 90th place just before Liz.

Brand Schaefer struggled early on. He had several short stacks at his table to his left that would jam the pot if Brandon opened up for a raise. He patiently waited for his spots as he slipped out of the Top 10 in chips. With four tables remaining, he was in the middle of the pack and got crippled when his A-10 lost to A-Q. He busted out on the next hand in 31st place. Despite not making the final table, Brandon has a 20th place and a 31st place finish at the 2007 WSOP. That's not too shabby.


Kazuki Ikeuchi playing in Event #25
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip via PokerNews)
I had a great crew working with me for that event including Dave, Zeke, and Slippers one of our Aussie guys. And I also got to work with Jen Creason for a bit. If you haven't heard, PokerNews drew some criticism over the chipcounts over the first two weeks. In order to address that issue, our big wigs went out and hired the best possible person in the universe to do that... Jen Creason otherwise known as PokerWire Jen. A couple of years ago, Jen started PokerWire. The neice of Howard Lederer and fiancee to Andy Bloch left the business at the end of the summer last year to finish up her degree at Duke. Now, we have her working part-time with PokerNews. Obviously she can't work everyday but I'm confident that the overall quality of chipsounts will improve thanks to her joining our ranks. No one can count a table faster than Jen and I'm super pumped to have her on the team. Hopefully this recent hire will bolster one of the weaker aspects of our coverage. In baseball terms, it's like signing a left-handed power-hitter a few months into the season.

There are 12 players left in the $5K HORSE event including Phil Ivey and Bill Gazes. Phil Ivey supposedly bet $2 million that he'd win a bracelet in 2007. I'm not clear on who exactly bet him if it was Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, or Lyle Berman. It could have been all four pooling their money. I don't know. I'm on the case and trying to find out. But here's the coolest part... Ivey is getting 5-1 odds. If he wins a bracelet on Day 17, he cashes in for $10 million in a prop bet. By the way, first place pays $275K in that event. That's pocket change compared to the possibility of a $10 million pay day. I'd keep an eye on that event to see of Ivey can make a final table and win a bracelet. He came close already this year with a second place finish in the $5K Stud event when he lost to Chris Reslock. Click here to follow the action in Event #26 $5,000 HORSE.

I'll be covering Day 2 of the $1,500 donkfest. There are 135 players remaining. Click here to follow the action in Event #27 $1,500 NL Hold'em.

* * * * *
Bouncin' Round the Room on Day 16

I spotted David Sklansky walking down the hallway of the convention center with a hot woman who had her hand in his back pocket. Was she a pro? At this point... we don't know.

Vinnie Vinh is alive. I saw him playing in the $1,500 event. We even got a photo of him at Poker News. He didn't seem too thrilled about getting his photo snapped, but he's not dead like many of us thought after he failed to show up on Day 2 of an event.


Vinnie Vinh
(Photo courtesy of PokerNews)
Gavin Smith told me about a hand he misplayed during the Event #26 $5,000 HORSE event. I prefer hearing pros talk about hands in that manner instead of hearing bad beats stories. I usually can't learn too much from a bad beat, but listening to pros examine every detail of a hand with remarkable clarity is both fascinating and educational. Smith is an exceptional player and he broke down the action in the most simplest turns and was able to objectively look at the situation. All of this went down during one of his breaks as he sipped a rum and coke and kept saying, "Pauly, I really played that bad." Gavin Smith busted out a few minutes later in 21st place in between Doyle Brunson and Australia's Billy the Croc.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Thor Hansen
2. Brandon Schaefer
3. E-Fro
4. Ben Roberts
5. Alex Jacob

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

Truckin' - June 2007, Vol. 6, Issue 6

By Pauly

The new issue of Truckin' has been published. Guess what? It's the birthday issue. Truckin' is now five years old!

I'm blown away to think that this little corner of the internet has been around for five years! We've come a long way since my original vision of sharing travel stories with friends. Since then we've published over fifty writers from all over the world. There were moments when I wanted to quit, but thanks to the encouragement of some special people, I kept it going. And now, we get to celebrate Truckin's 5th birthday. Thanks to everyone involved in the last five years and especially the last twelve months. Super thanks goes out to Maudie for the site re-design and to Jessica for her thankless work as assitant editor.

And thanks to all the writer's who wrote for free. Thanks for sharing your bloodwork.

1. Donuts with Baby & Winky by Paul McGuire
Baby sat on the edge of the coffee table and poured out an ashtray that overflowed with butts. She picked out three or four and lit one up. She took three drags and put it out before she lit up another used one. Then another... More

2. Three Men Leaving by Brad "Otis" Willis
he cash register hummed underneath the buzz of the overhead fluorescents. Together, the noises almost masked the sounds of the crickets. Their little love song sang through the open door and it was getting on Little Liza's nerves... More

3. Desperados by Joe Speaker
The start time was pragmatic. We didn't want to be traversing the Mexican desert in mid-day, especially in our unreliable cars. This way, we'd arrive shortly after dawn, being treated to a spectacular sunrise the last hundred miles or so. There are always trade-offs, though, and our schedule dictated we'd drive through the border town of Mexicali in the dead of night... More

4. Five Dollars for the Colonel by Dr. Tim Lavalli
Across the alley are these two trailers, the back one is Annie's and she'll give you head for twenty bucks, only the Colonel don't like her doing that, so you give him $5 and he goes to get his bottle of muscatel but he doesn't like the folks at Abe's Liquor so he goes down the street to the Chinaman's and then you go to see Annie while he is getting his wine... More

5. Leaving the City by Sigge S. Amdal
All of this mud, all of this poison pumping from my pitch black heart, through my veins and out the razor sharp tip of the pen is nothing but unclean blood for you to leech on. As I see the city disappear, minute-by-minute, I become much more a man... More

6. Rose by Doog
Rose's heart pounded with anticipation, a strange mix of exhilaration and fear of the unknown coursing through her veins. Keeper opened the door and stepped through into the world outside... More

7. Las Vegas Car Battery by Dingo
I suppose because of my accent I seem to attract a weird and wide selection of sheilas and broads. I am quite okay looking, or so people tell me, so picking up sheilas has never been a problem. Mine all just seem to be total whack jobs... More

I ask that if you like these stories, then please do me and the rest of the writers a huge favor: Tell your friends about your favorite stories. It takes a few seconds to pass along Truckin'. I certainly appreciate your support. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you know anyone who is interested in being added to the mailing list.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOP Day 15: Clements Time, the $18,000 Weed Prop Bet, and Brandon Schaefer Crushes Day 1

By Pauly

Covering the WSOP is like climbing Mt. Everest. Most inexperienced climbers spend too much energy reaching the summit that they forget to realize they have to climb down. That's when most of the accidents occur, when you are tired and making poor decisions that often end up costing you your life. I view the start of the main event on July 6th as the summit and the following 12 days as the descent. I didn't always think about the series in those terms until just recently.

We have reached the conclusion of the second week of the 2007 WSOP. I'm surprised that we got this far. On all accounts. We almost had our first death, a bunch of people we never heard of before won bracelets, Hellmuth took down #11 (as won Texas Dolly $400K in the process), and Jeffrey Pollack has not been lynched and hung by an angry mob of poker players... yet.

I see the weary faces on the media reps who have been in the shit since Day 1. They develop that blank stare and move a tad slower than everyone else. The newbies who used to get giddy when they saw Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson shrug it off. They are just one player in a sea of thousands of poker junkies.

By the end of week 2 most people working the WSOP start questioning their sanity and start job surfing on Monster.com. That includes floor supervisors, dealers, chip runners, massage therapists, poker pros, and media reps.

"What the hell did I just get myself into?" they think. I know, it's happened to me twice in previous years.

Instead of focusing on the now, they are worried about the bigger picture of being here for another five weeks. That daunting notion crumbles any self-confidence that they have and freakouts ensue whether it's donking off your chips at the poker tables after your shift or getting shitfaced drunk at the Hooker Bar. The results are never positive when you have a nervous breakdown in Las Vegas.

Mental health and psychical health were my main priorities coming into this year. Mental health is important because it's very easy to start worrying about major things or obsessing about trivial things. I remind myself to focus on the next step that I take instead of worrying about the entire journey.

Sometimes people read too much into things or project their feelings and emotions into what I write. Take the last post for example. I might have been tired by the time I got to the end of the piece, but I was not angry or whining or on "speed" or drunk or wasted. I was relatively sober and held up a mirror to the entire city of Las Vegas. That's what I saw.

And despite what everyone has been hypothesizing, I'm doing great physically and mentally. Despite a bum ankle and knee, my body is amazing compared to previous years. I'm getting more than two hours of sleep a night. I have not developed the Las Vegas cough that usually happens about ten days in. My sinuses have not been acting up. And although I put on a few extra pounds from those beers at the Tilted Kilt, I find myself doing my best to make healthier food choices. I ate Wendy's or In & Out at least once a day in 2005. This year, I've been avoiding fast food and the poker kitchen aside from the fruit salad and choosing to eat my biggest meal before I come into work. No coffee or Red Bull for me this year. The Red Bull tip I got from Dr. Jeff, brother of the Otis, who told him to exercise regularly and avoid Red Bull.

On Day 13, I was given a rare day off and spent all o my time away from the Rio. Although Change100 and I work and live together, we rarely get to spend quality time with one another. We drove up to Red Rock for lunch and played poker. She went on mega-tilt when she got her Aces cracked in a kill pot... my kill pot... when I called her raised with 10-4. I flopped two pair and lost to a sausage jockey who turned a higher two pair.

After poker, we hung out with a friend of mine, I won't reveal his name, but he's a pothead. A world class pothead. The Phil Ivey of potheads. I've dragged my fair share of Mary Jane over the last 17 years. In college just before Jerry Garcia died, I used to follow the Grateful Dead and hang out with old school hippies. I knew plenty of drug fiends in Seattle and in New York City. And when I say that this dude is one of the Top 5 potheads that I ever met... that means something.

So what did I do? I offered him up a prop bet... $18,000 that he could not last an entire week without smoking marijuana. No bong hits. No blunts. No spliffs. No more dank. No more fatty nugs. No more cheebah. Clean and sober for seven straight days.

He's still mulling over the wager but I think I'm good here. Stay tuned for an update on the $18K weed bet. If I do win, I'll fly my buddy out to Amsterdam for a week to get shitaced.

I love a good prop bet. Who cares about A-K outflopping a set of Jacks? I get excited when Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest make a weight bet in front of us in media row. I loved seeing Barry Greenstein slay Eli Elezra playing "props" during the PLO with Rebuys event last week.

The two best prop bets I heard about this year involve Texas Dolly betting an unknown gambler $300,000 that Phil Hellmuth would win a bracelet this year. When Hellmuth ended Day 1 among the chipleaders, he threw down another $100,000. Brunson might have been bummed that Hellmuth broke his record, but at least he got some cash out of it. Smart bet. If Texas Dolly bets anything over six figures with you, you probably have to know that you're the underdog.

Johnny Chan recently bet $1 million that he'd win a bracelet this year. He bet on himself and that's fuckin' balls tot he wall. I'm trying to figure out if it was the same guy that bet Brunson that Hellmuth wouldn't win. Anyway, Johnny Chan has gone deep in a few events this year but he's yet to make a final table.

I also made a prop bet that makes Brandon Schaefer happy. One friend of mine (name withheld by request) offered me 10-1 odds that Brandon Schaefer would not win a bracelet before Carl Olson. The two are best buddies and Schaefer actually beat Olson heads-up to win the first ever event in Deauville, France during the first season of the European Poker Tour. Olson is the king of the online package. No one that I know personally qualifies for more events online that Carl Olson. Schecky called him "The white Phil Ivey."

There's no doubt in my mind that Olson will win a bracelet someday. But hey, Brandon is a good friend and I was getting 10-1 on him so I put down $100. I wanted to put down $1K but the guy got scared and tried to drop the odds to 5-1. We settled on 10-1 so if Brandon wins a bracelet this year (and before Carl Olson does), I get $1,000.

When Brandon told Olson about the prop bet, he laughed harder than Brandon had ever seen him. Olson thinks the other guy who bet me is a moron.

Guess what? At the end of Day 1 of Even #25 $2,000 NL, Brandon Schaefer is 5th in chips.1,619 players bought in and there are 130 left. The money bubble broke late last night and the remaining 130 in the field are all guaranteed a cash. Brandon has his eye on a bracelet. He started out 0 for 7 but has cashed in two out of his last three events including the NL Shootout when he lost to Erick Lindgren heads-up in Round 2. If he beat Lindgren, he would have made a final table. So close.

"Man, I want to run good for the next two days sooo bad," Brandon told me.

I told Brandon to keep having positive thoughts at the table and to think about the same things that entered his mind when he won an EPT event and took second at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo in 2005.

"I'm definitely having flashbacks (about Deauville and Monte Carlo). I feel awesome at the table," he said.

I'm pumped because I get to cover Brandon's event for Day 2. Also still left in the mix is Liz Lieu! She doesn't have as many chips as Brandon but I'll be clocking her progress as well over at Poker News.

Click here to follow my live updates of Day 2 for Event #25 $2,000 NL.

Top 5 Chipcounts for Event #25:
1. Peter Auer - 186,800
2. Justin Pechie - 177,900
3. Kazuki Ikeuchi - 171,100
4. Jordan Morgan - 156,900
5. Brandon Schaefer - 151,200

On Day 15, I covered Event #23 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. 23 players started and I covered them all down to the last one standing... Scott Clements, who picked up his second career bracelet. Johnny Chan, Andy Black, and Burt Boutin were all advanced to Day 2. Everyone was anticipating Chan making a final table as he tried to win #11. he showed up ten minutes late and lost his first two hands. He went from over 110K to 25K. He eventually busted out in 20th place.

Burt Boutin won a bracelet in Event #7 PLO with rebuys. He was one of the favorites to win but he lost a big pot early and busted out just before Chan in 22nd place. With Chan and Boutin out, the odds on favorite to win as Scott Clements and his monster stack. All he had to do was outslug a final table that included Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Andy Black, and 2007 WSOP bracelet winner Will Durkee.

Andy Black had been running hot at PLO. He won three PLO tournaments on three different continents this year and was looking for number four. I watched him take down the PLO one in Australia. He didn't have enough chips to compete against Scott Clements and busted out in 7th place.

Clements played perfect big stack poker. He aggressively raised almost every pot he play and rarely limped (which I assume he did with big hands to switch up his play). He didn't double up many smaller stacks and kept the pressure on. After he busted Tommy Ly in 3rd place, Clements had 1.65M in chips to Rizen's 100K. heads-up lasted one hand as both players were all in before the flop. Clements snagged the victory and a bracelet.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 15

I finally met Maridu, one of the writers from the Brazilian PokerStars Blog. She's friends with our photographer Felipe and has been a fan of Tao of Poker for some time. She used to write a hilarious blog called Need An Ace. Of course I had no idea what she was saying since it was in Portuguese. However, from what my Brazilian friends say, she's a hilarious and talented writer.

I ended my shift early and waited for Change100 to finish her assignment before we went home. I played cash games at the Rio. I got slammed at the 10/20 tables then got drunk and donked around the 4/8 tables while Jen Leo, Michalski, and Charles came by to sweat and shoot the shit.

Chris Fargis stopped by my table. He's looking happy and slim. He had a monster stack of black chips at his BT table... Badugi and Triple Draw. I want him to loan me the money so I can open up a hash bar in Amsterdam called... Triple Draw... where Shaniac gets to smoke at a heavy discount.

I spotted a couple of hookers in the actual Amazon Room. "Must be Friday," I said. That's how I can tell what day it is... the cash games are packed and the hookers stroll through the room looking for johns.

Many thanks to Johnny Hughes for the kind emails over the last week or so. I'll be pimping his new book when it comes out for sure.

After I exit the bathroom on piss breaks, there is always a few fans with their cameras ready as they try to snag a photo op with their favorite pros. I also have a secret bathroom where I drop the kids off at the pool. There is no way I would consider shitting in the toilets outside the Poker Sauna.

The Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Dewey Tomko
2. Scott Clements
3. Dan Heimiller
4. John Juanda
5. Dutch Boyd

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOP Day 14: Lost Paradise

By Pauly

"Bags of money," I said to Change100 as I pointed up at the glowing Nevada sky. "All of those planes are flying in bags and bags of money."

As we drove back from Blue Diamond to the Del Bocca Vista, 13 planes lined up on approach to McCarran airport.

"St. Louis, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Portland, Toronto, London, and Miami," I mumbled aloud as I counted each one.

Each plane bubbled over with exuberance as thoughts of wads of dollars danced around the heads of the newest batch of cherry gamblers that carried with them legendary dreams of big scores under the flashing lights during four day alcho-narco binges that would make John Belushi's worst bender look like a circle of girl scouts roasting marshmallows over a warm fire. Those epic orgies are fueled by gallons of Red Bull, fistfuls of Adderal, enough cheap blow to choke a giraffe, constant casino oxygen and the ecstatic possibility of becoming the biggest and baddest ass muthafuckin' baller that you know with the next hand of blackjack, at the next toss of the dice, at the next turn of the roulette wheel, as the next card that spikes on the river, and as that next Keno number illuminates so too does that spark which ignites your soul as it jumps right out of your intestines and knocks back eight consecutive glasses of Champagne while you sit next to a big time pimp with bling the size of bowling balls and a stable of girls matching the elasticity of Romanian gymnasts. They habitually carried around a bottle of KY, a nasty case of the clap, along with a scornful attitudes that accompanied $2,000 a night working girls at the Hooker Bar at the Rio. Those disease-infested tramps drenched in poorly cloned perfume to hide the smell of cock on their breaths, hope to lure in the sexually depraved internet pros who have not seen daylight let alone the inside of a vagina since 2004 as they shuffle past the geriatric zombies glued to the Wheel of Fortune slot machines as their orange eyeballs radiate sloth, greed, wrath, pride, gluttony, lust, and pride and suck the life out of anyone who walks within five feet radius of their tortured karmas.

The planes land every few minutes and drop off walking ATMs with distracted minds that are flooded with fleeting thoughts of sordid guilty pleasures, multiple trips to strip clubs pissing away two or three paychecks on artifical-breasted life size blow up dolls named Amber, Cinnamon, Raven, Summer, Mercedes, Angel, Crystal, Sierra, Lavender, and Sable who grind their asses into beerguts for $20 every three minutes as deafening hip hop blasts on the speakers while you get served over-priced and water-downed drinks.

The planes drop off weekend warriors hoping to get a hummer from their wife after an expensive dinner followed up by a show at the latest Cirque de Soleil... Ka, Love, Zumanity, Mystere, O, or listening to outdated comics like Louie Anderson or Carrot Top who were funny in 1989 and now play semi-packed rooms from tourists from flyover states who wish they were getting lapdances at the Rhino instead of hearing recycled jokes from hacks who make fun of unruly Vegas cab drivers that clutch their steering wheel and secretly wish they could mow down a herd of pedestrians stumbling across the Strip amidst the sparkling and glimmering lights that magically reflect a kaleidoscope of colors onto the sizzling payment and for a brief moment your Aunt Edna from Des Moines looks like she's walking on glistening gems, but those bright lights blind the populous and hide the opposite end of the Las Vegas spectrum where the vampires and tweakers lurk in the shadows of dimly lit alleyways and parking lots and carjack conventioneers from Houston and steal their wallets jammed packed with $100 bills as the flustered victims try to explain to the trigger happy cops that a pimply faced guy with no teeth shanked him with a dull steak knife before he sped off with the overpriced rental car which the junkie will sell to a chop shop in North Las Vegas for enough crystal meth to get him through the end of the week when he'll have to beat the shit out of a retiree in Henderson and steal her Caddy and month supply of Ensure as that vicious cycle of addictions continues every second of everyday in the city of sinners where the ten commandments are brazenly broken and frowned upon as the lunatics run rampant down the Strip, fucking anything that moves like Vikings pillaging towns, as the guilt-ridden sinners hide from the sneers from God and become the lost souls that perfect little pious Mormons children pray for every night as hundreds and thousands of citizens with good reputations, solid marriages, an impeccable criminal records become shattered casualties in a cloudy weekend of execs debauchery and Dionysian decadence while locking themselves into a suite at the Stratosphere and shooting pharmaceutical cocaine into the veins in their feet with a 21-year old stripper from Boise that moved to Vegas to become a blackjack dealer that ended up on the pole who ordered $500 in room service while clogging up the toilet with a nasty case of diarrhea.

IRAs, college savings, housing payments, credit card advances... they all get fleeced to support the lowest forms of habitual self-inflicted terror of endless craps out, dealer's Blackjack, no sightings of Mr. Cashman, too many cold decks at Pai Gow, or too many bad beats by sunburnt donkeys with wrap-around sunglasses that are secretly Celine Dion fans who fly in thrice a year to pay homage to the greatest French Canadian singer in the entire world, as sprinting valets dodge speeding cabs and drunk drivers and pothead limo drivers shuttling drunken frat boys from Scores and to massage parlors where they can get a rub and a tug before hitting the Midnight tourney at Binion's where it sometimes smells like a nursing home and a Tobacco farm while the faint aroma of stale urine wafts it's way in from Freemont Street where corruption and corporate scumbags ruined what used to be the jewel of gambling Mecca, and now Downtown Las Vegas reminds me of an old French whore who has done one too many tricks and fucks not for the money but because she needs a good rodgering to remind herself that she is still alive and the last thirty-five years were not a distant dream or a fading memory, because once upon a time, Las Vegas used to be a small jewel in the Nevada desert where high rollers drove through town in convertibles and now you can't drive anywhere near downtown in an open-aired vehicle without worrying about the hoodlums sieging your car like an angry mob of cockroaches swarming on the kitchen floor of my old apartment in the Redneck Riviera.

All you can eat buffets is on everyone's To Do list while they stuff their faces with lukewarm fried chicken and ignore the simple fact that millions of others in our world are dying of starvation with flies crash landing on their swollen protruding bellies as the vultures of death circle around ready to tear apart the thin layer of muscle and skin that wrap around our fellow humans and with every extra plate of pasta or every scoop of ice cream we step closer and closer towards Hell's front door where hustlers named Zed hang out and try to steal every single dollar out of your pocket and rob you of every ounce of dignity in your brainwashed body because you firmly believe that anything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but those credit card bills don't stay in Vegas and come to your mailbox, just like how that itchy case of the crabs you picked up from the cocktail waitress at the Nascar Cafe in the Sahara follows you back home to Philly where you have to explain to your six-month pregnant wife why you have to shave your pubic hair and apply ointment to your hair-less balls three times a day because you got drank too much tequila and knocked boots with a Las Vegas cocktail server who stole your cellphone, two credit cards, and all of your black Bellagio chips as she quickly donked off your money at the Money Wheel and sold the numbers to your American Express card to an Al-Qaeda operative scouting out the best possible method to blow up the Hoover Dam to a million pieces while he lives high off the hog, ignoring all of Allah's special rules regarding women and pork and he forgot about 72 virgins because even deep cover Al-Qaeda cells can't ignoring all those hot chippies standing in line waiting to get into Tao, instead of planting IED on highways outside of Baghdad and trying to blow limbs off of 19 year old kids who wish they were back home playing online poker and trying to win satellite on PokerStars and snagging a WSOP bracelet in a 3,000 person event playing donkey poker and winning forty-seven coinflips in a row which means more money to buy more lapdances and until they are so broke that hey have to sneak onto the Monorail to get back to their hotel, if management hasn't thrown them out yet and rented their room a couple of German honeymooners named Karl and Freda.

The absurd is the norm. Take my apartment in the Del Bocca Vista for example. Upstairs an Asian family of ten live in a two bed room apartment while a stripper and part-time call girl lives downstairs and drives a convertible with a vanity plate. While I'm not worried about a crystal meth lab exploding don the street, I am worried that Bush's Anti-Immigration thugs will tear gas my flat and purposely kick down my door and drag me out of the apartment with plastic ties tearing into my wrists cutting off the circulation to my fingers because they think I'm running an immigrant smuggling ring. I'm always one to look for a solid investment but human trafficking ain't my bag... yet.

Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to live in Las Vegas and the WSOP was held in a cooler place like New York City or in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State or in the Casino Holland in Amsterdam where I could hit up the local hash bar on my dinner breaks and cover more Pot-Limit Omaha events instead of trying to figure out who the next unknown will be to win a bracelet. That's the allure of the WSOP these days... to win a bracelet and brag to your friends and family that you won more WSOP bracelets than Erick Lindgren or Phil Gordon or Patrik Antonius or Gus Hansen or Marcel Luske or Gavin Smith or The Grinder or Andy Bloch or The Unabomber or Isabelle Mercier. None of them have won a bracelet and everyday Jeffrey Pollack is handing out one, two, or three bracelets. They cost as little as $1,500 if you can survive "a field of 3,000 monkeys" as Minneapolis Jim Meehan referred to the massive fields during some of the smaller buy-in NL events. Everyday Phil Gordon cringes because in his mind another donkeyfish picked up something he's had his eyes on for almost a decade.

Why do some of us live and why do some of us die? Why do some of us leave Las Vegas a winner why others of us leave utterly hungover, dehydrated, and completely broke? That's an existentialist question that I have been trying to seek out the answer ever since I first arrived in Las Vegas back during the Clinton administration in 1995 when Action Dan Harrington won the WSOP along with a paltry $1 million after he dominated what was essentially a 28 table SNG with 273 total players and a final table that featured Barbara Enright, the only chick to make it to a main event final. Also at that final table was Capt. Tom's Penis. Yes, it's true. In 1995, Brandi Hawbaker was just 12 years old and little did she know that some guy who'd make the final table of the WSOP would someday put his penis in her back.

All flights eventually land in Las Vegas to drop off more wretches who foolishly think they can tame the lost paradise. I'm one of them.

* * * * *Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos. And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

WSOP Day 13: Good Morning Vietnam and Step into the Freezer

By Pauly

Pros have been complaining to me about the Bluff Tent. Pros like to complain but the recent wave of bitching and moaning has drawn my curiosity. I love the fact that I'm not hearing these pros tell me bad beat stories, but the bottom line is that the biggest names in poker feel that having a company profit off of hidden final tables is absurd.

Ah, during Week 2 at the series, the Bluff Tent has become the focus of controversy. Last week, the Poker Shrink nicknamed it the Sequestrium. I refer to it as the Black Hole and Lance from the Poker Biz calls it The Forbidden City. It's actually none of those things, just a few drapes and black cloth covering a final table in the Amazon Room. The NGC came down hard on Bluff and forced them to make those changes on the fly if they wanted to show hole cards. The result has been a disaster. When you have Bluff employees referring to the Black Hole as "retarded," then you know you're in trouble.

I doubt that they will pull the plug on their brainchild. I applaud them for coming up with an innovative concept but after applying said concept to real life, it's obviously not working. Sure the fans booed Bob Dylan when he stopped playing acoustic guitar and went electric, but the Bluff Tent ain't Bob Dylan, babe. I fear that the Forbidden City/Black Hole/Sequestarium will become Bluff's own personal Vietnam minus the hookers saying, "No boom-boom with soul brother."

At 3am the night before, the folks in charge made a last minute change. Once they saw the roster for the final table of the $1,500 Shootout (Lindgren and Negreanu), they bumped the $2,500 NL final table out of the Black Hole and onto the main stage.

Several big wigs felt embarrassed about that decision, but I could sense that their hands were tied. It appears that Bluff is not following their published broadcast schedule. There are days with two or three final tables and they will pick the best final table and throw those players into the Black Hole to play. Popular pros like Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren mean that more people at home will be more likely to buy the WSOP package versus if there's a final table with just Humberto Brenes on it. I dunno what's worse... the slam on the players at the $2,500 NL final table because they weren't popular or cool enough? Or the fact that the powers to be blatantly used and exploited Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren to boost sales?

And I'd hate to bring the race card into the mix. The two pretty white boys and their final table got picked over the final table with a Costa Rica, and Asian-American, and a French kid. If promoting world-wide poker is the ultimate goal, then why ignore the Central American (and Spanish speaking markets), Asian, and European fans who would like to check out the action in Las Vegas?

I was scheduled to work the Black Hole but I begged my superiors to take me off those assignments. Since it has turned into a quagmire like Vietnam and I'm a conscious objector, I want no part of those final tables. I have asked to be relieved of any final table that is in the Black Hole/Vietnam/Sequestrium/Forbidden City due to political and philosophical reasons. The good news is that my wish has been temporarily granted and future requests depend on roster scheduling. I'm doing my best to stay out of the shit and focus on other events and final tables that Bluff deems "not as cool or interesting."

I drew Event #19 $2,500 NL final table with The Shark and The Razor. Also at that final table was ElkY (the former video game pro who plays 20 SNGs at once), Devin Porter, Lars Bonding, Marcus Obser, Shawn Hattem, Alex Bolotin, and Francois Safieddine.

Humberto Brenes busted out the shark a few times. He made his third final table in six events that he's played in 2007. Brenes has been on a rush yet he failed in his quest for bracelet #3. He busted out in 7th place.

John Phan seemed in control. What I admire most about his game is that he takes his time with every decision. The kid is a thinker. With a bracelet and $521K for first place on the line, he's not going to make any bad decisions. Francois Safieddine tried to tilt Phan by calling the clock on him during several instances. The worst incident happened only thirty seconds after he acted. Phan objected and said something like, "We're playing for a bracelet here. You can't call a clock just after you bet."

Safieddine agreed and waited a couple of minutes before he asked the TD for a clock. Phan folded that hand but it was obvious that Safieddine was trying to take Phan out of his game by making faster decisions.

I thought Phan was going to win but Safieddine picked up a few pots when he rivered a better hand.

"Can we not play with a river? And just go to the turn?" Phan joked in a somewhat serious tone.

After playing 24 hands of heads-up play, Phan found A-A. He was shortstacked and desperately needed to double up to stay alive. Safieddine had been bullying Phan with his big stack and moving all in pre-flop or on the flop, taking away Phan's ability to out-play him on the flop. So when Safieddine moved all in from his small blind, Phan quickly called and tabled Ah-As. Safieddine frowned as he turned over the 4h-4d.

Phan led on the flop of Js-8c-2c. And if they eliminated the river card, he would have won when the 5h fell on the turn. Sadly, the room exploded when the 4s spiked on the river. Safieddine rivered a two outer to bust Phan. Had Phan's hand held up, they would have been close in chips. Since Safieddine caught another lucky card on the river, Phan had to settle for another second place finish at a WSOP final table, while Francois Safieddine picked up his first WSOP bracelet.

Phan played like a champion but sometimes in poker, the cards fall the other way.

In the Black Hole, Negreanu also missed a chance at a bracelet in Event #21 $1,500 NL Shootout. He took third while Lindgren finished in 8th place.

At the forgotten final table, Greg Raymer took fourth place in Event #20 Stud Hi/Lo. The Fossilman has made two final tables this year and he'll have to wait a little longer to win his second title.

And just like BJ Nemeth's observation from the other day, several big names continued to come in second place, third or fourth place at the 2007 WSOP as John Phan was another runner-up on Day 13.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 13

I covered the final table with Drew, one of our junior reporters. The kid did a great job and ironically his mother back in Minnesota happens to be a big fan of Tao of Poker. She encouraged Drew to take the job with PokerNews. How cool is that? Anyway, thanks to Momma Drew.

For the last few days, several of my co-workers have been complaining about the cold temperatures in the Amazon Ballroom. They also bitched that they had to buy $40 hoodies from the gift shop just to stay warm. It's a scam! I finally felt their pain at the final table. My nipples were frozen solid. When there is not a lot of players in the room generating body heat, the temperature drops. Won't you step into the freezer...

At the final table, I sat next to Lacey Jones. She's a sweetheart but sitting next to her was tough because every horny guy in the room came over to hit on her while I logged hand-for-hand coverage of the final table. Having to sit next to a hot chick made it difficult to concentrate, and having every other moron in the media trying to woo Lacey while I was working became old after a while.

Whenever Brandi Hawbaker plays, a buzz is generated. Either those media reps refusing to cover her start bitching or those who can't get enough of Brandi swarm like flies on shit. Everyone got a kick out of David Sklansky's revelation when he found out about Brandi blowing through 30K of Newhizzle's roll on Poker Stars. The saga continues...

Over in the cash game area... CK Hua and Sabyl Cohen were playing $100/point Chinese Poker while Swedish pro William Thorsson tested out the $25/$50 NL game.

I spotted Robert Varkonyi playing satellites. Feel bad for the guy. He's the dude who leaves a party early only to find out the next day that the Swedish bikini team crashed the party five minutes after he left and brought two kegs of beer and two kilos of Peruvian blow with them. At least he has his portrait up among the banner of Champions in the Amazon Room.

I didn't get too much gossip on Day 13 while I was stuck at the final table. Since it ended early, I got to go home way before Midnight. I could have stuck around the Rio to dig up dirt, play cash games or satellites, but the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time there. And with Otis gone for about a week, I have no one to get in prop bet trouble with.

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