WSOP Day 43: Main Event Day 4 - Dealing for Dario

By Pauly

One of my favorite scenes from Goodfellas is the Copacabana tracking shot that starts from the street from the point of view of Karen's character as she's taken inside the famous club to the back entrance through the kitchen, past tight spaces and winding corridors and eventually at a private table to the front of the stage. Very few directors could pull off a long tracking shot like Scorsese.

There are instances where I get that same feel in Goodfellas when I embark on a similar route from the emergency exit from the media room. I sneak out into the service corridors. I don't know if I should be back there, but I haven't been caught in two years. Wil and I discovered them last year and it was an amazing short cut to the floor and to the bathrooms since we avoid the crowded and congested hallways in front of the Amazon Ballroom and in front of the poker kitchen and the media room. I've also called that spot in front of the poker kitchen... Bad Beat Alley. I've never heard so many bad beat stories as I have in that spot.

Anyway... as soon as you step into the back corridor, you see a couple of huge refrigerators, bins of ice, and plenty of shelves with condiments, shiny coffee pots, stacks and stacks of Diet Pepsi, and several cases of energy drinks. There are caged steel shelves with boxes of apples and oranges and crates filled with bananas and potato chips. A separate steel shelving unit holds hundreds of pieces of linen and table clothes for the various banquets rooms. If I took a banana would anyone notice?

As I pass the sparsely populated dealers room, I almost always trip on three large jugs of water sit on the ground along with scattered empty coffee cups and a copy of Poker Player Newspaper. There's also a TV set, broken lights, and even a plate of half-eaten buffalo chicken wings sitting on the edge of a chair. After I turn the corner and pass the Bluff Production room, I have to squeeze by a few large wooden crates before I reach ESPN's area. The hallways by their control is cluttered with various equipment boxes, right next to chairs that are stacked twenty high next to several ladders that are locked up. I guess people steal ladders more than anything in the service corridors. That's the only thing locked down.

I don't see too many people walking around back there. Perhaps the occasional dealer with a cushion tucked under their arm rushing back from a break or a guy in a black Rio shirt picking up the garbage. I've seen Norm Chad roam the corridors at random times and he's never said hello once to me so I always snub him back. I say, "What's up Lon?" from time to time just to tilt him. Lon on the other hand is always cheerful and I've seen more of him at the 2007 WSOP more than the last two years combined.

There's the graveyard for broken and wobbly chairs along with poker tables with limp legs and large spills on their felt, and a few comfortable dealer's chairs that I'd sit in to make phone calls. Sometimes I'd sneak into the hallways to write for ten minutes to avoid the insanity of the floor.

The hallways would be perfect to shoot scenes from any Aaron Sorkin drama or a PT Anderson long tracking shot with long and narrow walkways with high ceilings and random shit all over the place with plenty of random doorways and unexpected confrontations with angry cameramen, overworked floor supervisors, or half-baked media reps.

When I finally reach the doors that leads into the Amazon Ballroom underneath Puggy Pearson's portrait, I take a deep breath. Then I jump into the tumultuous waters. The sounds hit you in the face. The chip clattering nearly pierce my eardrums as the corner of the room was jam packed with media and spectators.

Day 4 was one of the busiest since it was one of the most important. The field started with 337 players after a full day of poker, a little more than a hundred would remain. We're getting closer and closer to the final table and the group of notable players gets thinner and thinner. The short stacks are trying to hold on long enough until the next money jump or looking to double up to stay alive. The medium stacks are trying to not make any stupid mistakes and slip under the average stack or some of them are seeking edges that will propel them to the front of the pack. And the big stacks are worried about conservatively maintaining their lead while some are throwing their weight around bullying the table as their stacks get bigger and bigger. And some wait for that one knockout punch where they double up against an overzealous big stack and take over the chiplead.

By this time in 2005, Greg Raymer became the first player past the 1M mark. Matusow would jump to 1.4M with under 100 players to go.

Last year with about 135 players left, at the 2006 WSOP Jamie Gold was the chipleader with 3.7M and led by over 1.4 million.

At the 2007 WSOP, there is no clear cut leader. When things started to matter the most, Gus Hansen ended Day 2 as the chipleader and failed to hold onto it. Dario Minieri snagged the chiplead on Day 3 and he also failed to protect it. Day 4's chipleader was Dag Martin Mikkelsen from Norway. We'll see if he can hold onto it as the field goes from 112 to the final 27 or 36.


Random Scandi chipleader - Dag Martin Mikkelsen
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
In my last post, I suggested that a Scandi would take over the chiplead late on Day 4. Nice catch, eh? Just after dinner break, Norwegian Dag Martin Mikkelsen jumped past the 3M mark after he took down a mosterpotten with a flopped straight. His opponent Jeff Weiss flopped second pair and a flush draw... and missed.

When Day 4 ended there were two ladies left in the field.... Mario Ho and Kelly Jo McGlothlin. There were also two previous world champions remaining. Scotty Nguyen and Huckleberry Seed were trying to win their second championships. Berry Johnston busted out on the last hand of the night. Just before dinner break, Carlos Mortensen and Robert Varkonyi also headed to the rail as their attempt to repeat came to an abrupt ending. Hey, at least Varkonyi cashed and got that monkey off his back or in poker terms... get that hook out of his mouth.

And don't forget about Porsche Boy. Dario Minieri went to the ESPN feature table with the chiplead and his Harry Potter scarf. He bled chips away with hyper-aggressive play. He slowly built his stack back up when he was moved out onto the floor. He was constantly getting a massage as most of the media kept their eyes on his table. Tao of Poker reader and Las Vegas pro Mark Muchnik was on his table for most of the day. Muchnik would bust out in 147th place. He had a pretty good WSOP and missed out on winning his first bracelet when he took second in a preliminary event.

Dario Minieri is an interesting example the struggle between rival online poker sites and the ambush marketing strategies that they employ. As long as I've been in the business, PokerStars and FullTilt have been fighting for players while Party Poker sits on the sidelines. Aside from Mike Sexton, there's really not any other pros attached to their site. As one of the official sponsors of the WSOP, they get enough exposure, but the two big dogs are constantly wrestling over the same players. At the same time other sites are getting into the mix going for the second or third rate players.

At this stage of the tournament with about ten or eleven tables left, the marketing folks strategically try to pick the guys that they think will go deep or get camera time. In the past, once a player was affiliated with one site, they were unofficially off bounds. That changed at the 2005 WSOP when Full Tilt made a last second deal with Noah Boeken and Marcel Luske. They were scheduled to play on the ESPN feature table and FT was able to get them to wear their hats and shirts for a wad of cash. That irked the suits at PokerStars and rightly so. Boeken had qualified for the main event through Stars and had been wearing their gear for the entire WSOP.

Dario got the friggin Porsche after he cashed in 3 million FPP points from PokerStars. And yet FullTilt reps were lurking the hallways and wooing his friends and translator. For a brief moment, Dario wore a Full Tilt patch on Day 4. He felt conflicted due to his relationship with PokerStars and took it off. Marco Traniello gave him the FT patch. Not only is Traniello a fellow Italian, he's friends with the Italian Pirate Max Pescatori (a FT player) and Traniello is married to Jen Harman one of the members of Team Full Tilt. Since Dario Minieri was also Italian, the Italian pros were sweating him hard to join the FT stable. Sweet sweet Dario became the latest pawn in the never ending battle for the quest of online poker dominance.


Dario sporting a FT patch
Ambush marketing among online poker sites has become a multi-million dollar a year business. I knew one woman who worked for an online poker site last year. She had two gym bags. One was filled with cash. The other was filled with hats and t-shirts. Her job was to find out who made TV tables and buy them off. Unknowns were worth $10-20K while well named pros went for $40K and up. During the later stages of the main event, the price tags go up.

With unscrupulous second rate poker agents corrupting the scene as well, things are even uglier. They're jacking up the prices and gobbling up dozens of the remaining 100 players promising them to hook them up with sweet endorsement deals. Some naive amateurs and inexperienced pros often get fucked over twice ... by shady agents signing them up to crappy deals with third rate online rooms that only insomniacs in Iceland play on.

Whoever gets Dario to wear their stuff on Saturday will be hoping that Dario survives another day and not repeat last year's performance when he donked off his big stack.

Moving on...

How about some numbers?

Players Remaining: 112
Chipleader: Dag Martin Mikkelson

Players who might have heard of that advanced to Day 5... Bill Edler, Lee Watkinson, Julian Gardner, Gus Hansen, Huckleberry Seed, Dario Minieri, Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart, Kirk Morrison, Humberto Brenes, Scotty Nguyen, Warren Karp, Daniel Alaei, Chad Brown, and Brandon Adams.

Players that you might have not heard of who advanced to Day 5... Alex Kravchenko, Rep Porter, John Spadavecchia, Matt Keikoan, Cory Carroll, Willie Tann, Philip Hilm, Maria Ho, Kenny Tran, Isaac Haxton, Francois Safieddine, Ayaz Mahmood, Jared "WacoKidd" Hamby, Mickey Seagle, and Andreas Krause.

Notable bustouts on Day 4... Berry Johnston, David Levi, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, Neal "Bad Beat" Channing, Billy Baxter, Thor Hansen, Mark Muchnik, Mathew Brady, Nick Binger, Donnacha O'Dea, Robert Varkonyi, Donna Blevins, Hal Lubarsky, Sorel Mizzi, Matthew Hilger, Jason Lester, Amanda Baker, Gary Benson, Tobey Maguire, Carl Olson, Mimi Tran, Hans "Tuna" Lund, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken, and Hasan Habib.


Day 4 Money Winners:
113 Berry Johnston $58,570
114 Edward Betlow $58,570
115 Bart Hanson $58,570
116 Zackary Clark $58,570
117 Justin King $58,570
118 Matt Stout $58,570
119 Jonathan Moonves $58,570
120 Ang Pang Leng $58,570
121 David Levi $58,570
122 Sylvester Geoghegan $58,570
123 Rajesh Verma $58,570
124 Andrew Barnes $58,570
125 James Williams $58,570
126 Kenneth Evanowski $58,570
127 James Kasputis $58,570
128 Patrick Huse $58,570
129 Tim Begley $58,570
130 Claude Cohen $58,570
131 Neil Channing $58,570
132 Vadim Trincher $58,570
133 Peter "Nordberg" Feldman $58,570
134 Thor Hansen $58,570
135 Bryan Swanson $58,570
136 Billy Baxter $58,570
137 Robert Lauria $58,570
138 Wolbert Bartlema $58,570
139 Greg Huffman $58,570
140 Jay Benjamin Franklin $58,570
141 Michael Mills $58,570
142 Samuel Cadget $58,570
143 Phillip Liow $58,570
144 Martin Miller $58,570
145 Adam Weiss $58,570
146 Robert Nehorayan $58,570
147 Mark Muchnik $58,570
148 Alin Rapoport $58,570
149 Justin Rollo $58,570
150 Imran Ahmad $58,570
151 Karim Vegas $58,570
152 Mark Weitzman $58,570
153 Marco Mills $58,570
154 Brent Catalano $58,570
155 Bo Sehlstedt $58,570
156 Benjamin Lamb $58,570
157 Daniel Elizondo $58,570
158 Sean Boles $58,570
159 Mathew Brady $58,570
160 John Dutchak $58,570
161 Man Montgomery $58,570
162 Mark Kim $58,570

163 Tristan Wade $51,398
164 Gonzalo Flores $51,398
165 Nick Binger $51,398
166 Clint Schafer $51,398
167 James McCrink $51,398
168 Joseph Brandenberg $51,398
169 Kenny Rundh $51,398
170 Fernando Reyes $51,398
171 Donnacha O'Dea $51,398
172 Clifford Pappas $51,398
173 Yuval Friedman $51,398
174 Brett Kimes $51,398
175 Terry Kane $51,398
176 Deborah Blair $51,398
177 Robert Varkonyi $51,398
178 John Parker $51,398
179 Donna Blevins $51,398
180 Alex Michaels $51,398
181 Joe Pharo $51,398
182 Henry Ma $51,398
183 Priyan Demel $51,398
184 Randal McLoughlin $51,398
185 Sven Abelsson $51,398
186 Jonathan Campbell $51,398
187 James Lucas $51,398
188 Michael Souza $51,398
189 Michael Laing $51,398
190 Alen Patatanyan $51,398
191 Robert Damiano $51,398
192 Richard Klein $51,398
193 David Cowan $51,398
194 Robert Starkey $51,398
195 Laughlin McKinnon $51,398
196 Conor Tate $51,398
197 Hal Lubarsky $51,398
198 Trey O'Brien $51,398
199 Christopher Overgard $51,398
200 Randall Holland $51,398
201 Karlo Lopez $51,398
202 Phivan Tran $51,398
203 Jason Sell $51,398
204 Kenneth Lawrence $51,398
205 Esfandiar Dara $51,398
206 Karga Holt $51,398
207 Matthew Olim $51,398
208 Sorel Mizzi $51,398
209 Adam Noone $51,398
210 Oyenson Benoit $51,398
211 Gary Friedlander $51,398
212 Tristan McDonald $51,398
213 Bobby Poole $51,398
214 Evan Marshall $51,398
215 Alexander Dietrich $51,398
216 Justin Sellers $51,398
217 Carlos Mortensen $51,398
218 Stephen Austin $51,398
219 Richard Weisman $51,398
220 Stephen Ma $51,398
221 Matthew Hilger $51,398
222 Antonio Arce $51,398
223 Tinten Olivier $51,398
224 Frank Schram $51,398
225 Kenneth Stead $51,398

226 Jason Heidema $45,422
227 Jose Padillo $45,422
228 Steven Lynch $45,422
229 Steven Jacobs $45,422
230 Jason Lester $45,422
231 Sebastian Zink $45,422
232 Theodore Park $45,422
233 Matt Cohen $45,422
234 Jeffrey Dambrosia $45,422
235 Steven Guiberson $45,422
236 Terris Preston $45,422
237 Sully Erna $45,422
238 Matthew Sterling $45,422
239 Richard Munro $45,422
240 Mao Qui $45,422
241 Cyrus Farzad $45,422
242 Roy Vanderswis $45,422
243 Timothy Debenport $45,422
244 Moritz Hopfner $45,422
245 Takashi Takil $45,422
246 Rami Bookai $45,422
247 Guang Lu $45,422
248 Daniel Quach $45,422
249 Brad Mills $45,422
250 Michael Yoshino $45,422
251 Kristian Obbarius $45,422
252 Noah Schwartz $45,422
253 Amanda Baker $45,422
254 Toc Helness $45,422
255 Elie Said $45,422
256 Brian Miller $45,422
257 Keith Ogren $45,422
258 Roger Tichenor $45,422
259 Thomas Barnard $45,422
260 Christopher Lines $45,422
261 Sang Kim $45,422
262 Rodney Knight $45,422
263 Bryan Curtis $45,422
264 Zachary King $45,422
265 Dorman Atchison $45,422
266 Randall Jacobson $45,422
267 Albert Riccobono $45,422
268 John Matwey $45,422
269 Ketul Nathwani $45,422
270 Qing Sun $45,422
271 Kit Mander $45,422
272 Jacques Arama $45,422
273 Gustav Ludholm $45,422
274 Douglas Gehring $45,422
275 David O'Neil $45,422
276 Stephen Crockett $45,422
277 Ut Nguyen $45,422
278 Gregory Owen $45,422
279 Kenneth Gacek $45,422
280 Jason Mellross $45,422
281 Daniel Melan $45,422
282 Craig Edwards $45,422
283 Gary Benson $45,422
284 Wayne Johnson $45,422
285 Laurence Hughes $45,422
286 Daniel Smith $45,422
287 Jason Peed $45,422
288 Mark Sanchez $45,422

289 Alex Melnikow $39,445
290 Mitch Garshofsky $39,445
291 Suk Sung $39,445
292 Tobey Maguire $39,445
293 Kevin Howatt $39,445
294 Petri Pollanen $39,445
295 Stephen O'Dwyer $39,445
296 Christoph Stiehler $39,445
297 William Wood $39,445
298 Robert Preston $39,445
299 Ira Mazie $39,445
300 David Terry $39,445
301 Jim Geary $39,445
302 Sean Walter $39,445
303 Roy Thung $39,445
304 Carl Olson $39,445
305 Ryan McLean $39,445
306 Christopher Viox $39,445
307 Alfred Merabyan $39,445
308 Derek Thorpe $39,445
309 Kenneth Weiner $39,445
310 Scott Mayfield $39,445
311 David Smart $39,445
312 Nasser Hamedani $39,445
313 Lewis Pilkington $39,445
314 Veronica Dabol $39,445
315 Vinod Jadav $39,445
316 Sverre Sundro $39,445
317 Mimi Tran $39,445
318 Jason Glass $39,445
319 Hans Lund $39,445
320 Steven Miranda $39,445
321 David Flusfeder $39,445
322 Nicholas Botta $39,445
323 Darrell Dicken $39,445
324 Abdul Fadeyi $39,445
325 Matthew Shepsky $39,445
326 Patrice McLean $39,445
327 Arthur Cole $39,445
328 Hasan Habib $39,445
329 Samuel Simon $39,445
330 Steven Dargenio $39,445
331 Kenny Dickenson $39,445
332 John Eckerd $39,445
333 Salatore Passariello $39,445
334 Peter Hill $39,445
335 Eddit Stutts $39,445
336 Daniel Schleben $39,445
337 Steven Prentky $39,445

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Main Event Day 4...

Otis and I have had a tradition where we drink a beer at the start of the last level on the night. In Monte Carlo, we'd retreat to the bar overlooking the Mediterranean and wait up to ten minutes to be recognized by surly French waiters. We've been doing that this year and engaging in high stakes Lime Toss at the same time. Over at Pokerati, Michalski wrote up his experiences watching us gamble on Lime Tossing and also posted photos. He wrote... "As mentioned before, there's so much action going on a dwindling number of tables that it's hard to keep up with it all. But that doesn't stop Pauly and Otis from sneaking away for a little lime tossing."

I was busy writing up a couple of hands when a spectator wandered over to the media desk in a specific area he was not supposed to be in. Here's a snippet of our conversation.

Spectator: Is Doyle Brunson here?
Pauly: He busted out on Day 1
Spectator: So is he playing today?
Pauly: No, he was eliminated,
Spectator: Is Phil Hellmuth here?
Pauly: He also busted out on Day 1.
Spectator: Can you tell me what table he's playing today?
Pauly: (frustrated at all the stupid question) he's playing on Table 166.

FYI... Table 166 is an empty table in the cash game area

At 2:01am, Michalski sent me a text..."When we are done with poker, wanna go blog from Iraq?" Flipchip said the same thing a few months ago. Could be interesting. I heard Flipchip is a good shot and has excellent survival skills after surviving the jungles of Vietnam. Since Michalski is from Texas, he's heavily armed at all times. Before I got into poker, I was seeking jobs as a war correspondent. At some point, I'd like to cover a war and the Olympics. Oh and those elephant polo matches in Sri Lanka. I heard the side action on those games get out of hand. My buddy Senor won like 80 million rupees on one match alone. That's worth like $4 US, but that's enough to get you a handjob from a couple of local hookers.

Of course, the Vegas working girls are at the start of their slow season. They have been trickling down to the WSOP hallways and at the hooker bar aggressively seeking clients who just cashed in the WSOP main event and are looking for some bad beat therapy. After seeing some of the tabs that poker players run up with the massage therapists during the WSOP, I wonder how much some of those high rollers spend on hookers per month?

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Humberto Brenes
2. Willie Tann
3. Mickey "Mouse" Mills
4. Huck Seed
5. Chad Brown

* * * * *

Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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

WSOP Day 42: Main Event Day 3 - Bubblicious

By Pauly

"The bubble is my favorite time," Otis has said to me more than once.

He's right. After covering enough poker tournaments over the last three years and getting to experience the bubble in the $1,500 NL event that I played a couple of weeks ago, the bubble is indeed one of the most exhilarating moments during a poker tournament. The bubble time of the main event is the most stressful moment in poker.

The majority of most tournaments are boring affairs with 99% of unaction. However, the bubble happens to be packed with excitement and drama. The future of the tournament is played out in a slow and methodical pace. Players are literally hanging on for their lives. The short stacks are hoping to squeeze into the money while other players are not even looking at their hands during the Hand-for-Hand period before the money bust. I heard about how a few players folded big hands like Aces and Kings. That's also the time when the savvy pros and uber-aggressive players make moves. Lee Watkinson had everyone at his table covered with a big stack. No one had more than 140K in chips. He raised every single hand on the bubble to 150K. He dared anyone to play for all their chips. And no one wanted his action. His stack got bigger and bigger before the bubble burst.

The room was only half-full with an ofd configuration of a rail surrounding the tables. There was a mixture of media and spectators milling around the ropes. Some unauthorized media snuck inside the ropes, while plenty of spectators managed to bypass security and slip through the cracks. ESPN cameras rumbled through the aisles as other media fought for space around a table with a significant hand.

Most of the cameras were focused on Table #67 right in front of the media desk where I sat.

Seat 2: David Wells
Seat 3: Josh Evans
Seat 4: Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart
Seat 7: Humberto Brenes
Seat 8: Tobey Maguire
Seat 9: Jared "WacoKidd" Hamby

The ESPN suits were coming in their pants as were most of the other photographers who could have not asked for a better table to shoot. They had one of the top online players in the WacoKidd. Evans was a just 22-year old kid. Tobey Maguire gave them the star-power that could fill an entire episode. Mr. Rain held the chiplead for part of the day and was the monster stack at the table. And Humberto was... Humberto. He was up to his usual antics, pulling out his toy sharks and yelling at the top of his lungs for the cameras.


Tobey Maguire at Table #67
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
During the 2006 WSOP, the Irish media referred to Brenes as the "asshat of sombreros." Phil Gordon can't stand his antics along with other players who have no love for Humberto Brenes. On the other hand, there are hundreds of other players who adore Brenes and admire what he's accomplished for himself and for representing poker for Central and South America. He's a true ambassador of poker and a valuable asset for PokerStars in Spanish speaking markets.

Brenes went deep at the 2006 WSOP main event. I know because he was one of my assignments for two days when I worked for PokerStars blog. He was one of the Team PokerStars players that I had to sweat along with Greg Raymer and Tom McEvoy. If you see reruns of last year's main event, you'll find me standing behind Brenes during his bustout hand. That's when he first introduced The Shark.

Anyway, Brenes was up to his old tricks and mugging for the cameras, busting out the shark and pretending to talk to it. Ed from Gutshot asked Tobey Maguire if he thought Brenes was annoying or a distraction.

"I kind of like it," Spidey said.

The cameras loved every minute of it. I really thought that they should have been on ESPN's feature table. The day started off with three heavy hitters under the bright lights. Chipleader Gus Hansen, Gavin Smith, and Carlos Mortensen were began the day on the stage. Their table eventually broke up and you would have thunk ESPN's suits would have snagged the Spiderman vs. Shark table with special guests. Change100 suggested that Tobey Maguire asked not to be on a feature table. Perhaps he had some pre-arranged deal with the Upper Mouse Suits which excluded him from intense media scrutiny.

Maguire had been ducking photographers all day. He sat next to the lead singer of Godsmack Sully Erna for most of the afternoon. He did his best to get out of way of cameras and would turn his head. Flipchip had to go all ninja on Spiderman and sneak around without being detected. Flipchip would shoot him using a sick lens from three or four tables away.

When Day 4 was over Porsche Boy... aka Dario Minieri was in first place with a 2.4M chiplead. He's an online guru who cashed in 3 million in PokerStars FPP for a firggin' Porsche. Lucky fucker. And he looks like he's in 8th grade. I first came across Minieri during last year's main event when I worked for PokerStars. He was one of their qualifiers. At some point during the main event, he had built up a massive lead. All I could think was, "Who's the little kid with the monster stack?"

When I asked him his name, Minieri spoke to me in broken English. He said he was from Italy and,"I am the sorry. I don't speak your English good."

That's why he could not answer some of the random questions I asked him. Cardplayer fucked up his name and called him Dario Milan for a while. PokerStars had him by his real name until they read our chipcounts and corrected their mistake. Minieri could not maintain his lead and finished up in 543rd place.

Flash forward to April 2007. I stood in the lobby of the Sports Complex behind the Monte Carlo Bay Casino. That's where the EPT Championships were behind held. As soon as you walk into the lobby, a huge banner with a PokerStars logo greeted you. On that particular banner had Dario Minieri's photo. He had made the final table of the EPT Baden and finished in 3rd place.

When I first saw him at the 2007 WSOP, he sported a scarf. Only one other player I knew of wore scarves and that was Scarf Boy George Danzer from Germany. It seems like his trend is catching on with the European players. Anyway, the Italian guy with the scarf with the funny accent who looked like he was 15 years old also owned a Porsche courtesy of PokerStars and had an online bankroll can choke a fuckin' giraffe was leading the WSOP.


Dario
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
Poker is an international game. Denmark's Gus Hansen held the lead at the start of Day 3. Italy's Dario Minieri took it over by Midnight. Can Porsche Boy hold onto the lead or will a Scandi come out of nowhere and jump out to a huge lead? Or can Mr. Rain picked up his game or will a former champion like Huck Seed or Scotty Nguyen make a run? Those questions will be answered in less than 24 hours.

Moving on...

There are 337 players left. They all made the money and advanced to Day 4. They will return to the Rio on Friday at noon. The final table is set for Tuesday.

Players advancing to Day 4 include... Dario Minieri, Jeff Weiss, Kenny Tran, Robert Nehorayan, Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart, Hevad Khan, Rep Porter, Gus Hansen, Brock "Tsoprano" Parker, Isaac Haxton, Lars Bonding, Bart Hanson, Kirk Morrison, Conor Tate, Bill Edler, Josh Evans, Huck Seed, Darrell Dicken, Cory Carroll, Lee Watkinson, Maria Ho, Matt Keikoan, Hal Lubarsky, Julian Gardner, John Spadavecchia, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, Chad Brown, Brandon Adams, Randy Holland, Robert Varkonyi , Alex Kravchenko, Carlos Mortensen, Thor Hansen, Danny Smith, David Wells, Willie Tann, Jared "WacoKidd" Hamby, Warren Karp, Ayaz Mahmood, Matthew Hilger, Ut Nguyen, Sorel Mizzi, David Levi, Mickey Seagle, Scotty Nguyen, Mark Muchnik, Daniel Quach, Mickey "Mouse" Mills, Amanda Baker, Humberto Brenes, Daniel Alaei, Hasan Habib, Terry Magill, Nick Binger, Mimi Tran, Sully Erna, Hans "Tuna" Lund, Billy Baxter, Mike Laing, Tobey Maguire, Berry Johnston, Carl Olson, Don O'Dea, Gary Benson, Vandy Krouch, and Sam Khouiss.

In case you were wondering who cashed. Here's a list of Day 3 money winners...

2007 WSOP Main Event Day 3 Money Winners:
338 Santiago Terrazas $39,445
339 Simone Rossi $39,445
340 Camillo Calabrese $39,445
341 Thomas Burandt $39,445
342 Brian Hearn $39,445
343 Dolph Arnold $39,445
344 Steven Khun $39,445
345 Jose Severino $39,445
346 Jared Okun $39,445
347 Dennis Marcum $39,445
348 Wing Tso $39,445
349 John Doucet $39,445
350 Alexander Johnoff $39,445
351 Kevin Chan $39,445

352 Christian Toth $34,664
353 George Ramsey $34,664
354 Demetrios Arvanites $34,664
355 Nils Ersson $34,664
356 Jesper Hougaard $34,664
357 Robert Mizrachi $34,664
358 George Vazanellis $34,664
359 Thomas Vinas $34,664
360 Robert Roseman $34,664
361 Andrew Brokis $34,664
362 Sam Ditson $34,664
363 James Dawick $34,664
364 Pamela Brunson $34,664
365 Christopher Hamman $34,664
366 Darin Haddock $34,664
367 Michael Ium $34,664
368 Kyu Cho $34,664
369 Weldon Johnson $34,664
370 Jonathan Goldberg $34,664
371 Kathy Jamison $34,664
372 Brian Darmaniu $34,664
373 Keith Gipson $34,664
374 Brian Collins $34,664
375 Lee Biddulph $34,664
376 Franklin Welca $34,664
377 David Wilson $34,664
378 Ronald Philpot $34,664
379 John Strzemp $34,664
380 Todd Philips $34,664
381 Andrew Bartou $34,664
382 William Davidson $34,664
383 Grege Jaffy $34,664
384 Charles Anderson $34,664
385 Stuart Spear $34,664
386 Dennis Lane $34,664
387 Pat Datillo $34,664
388 Michael Cooper $34,664
389 Daniel Prevettegoldstein $34,664
390 Andre Wagner $34,664
391 Brent Sheirbon $34,664
392 Leif Force $34,664
393 Chris Collins $34,664
394 Jong O $34,664
395 Gregory Hobson $34,664
396 Casey Childress $34,664
397 Oliver Maingay $34,664
398 Steven Ettenger $34,664
399 Jay Perkins $34,664
400 Wenlong Jin $34,664
401 Edward Anselmo $34,664
402 Pierre Bounahra $34,664
403 Daniel Heimiller $34,664
404 Davidi Kitai $34,664
405 Daniel Showden $34,664
406 Marcous Naalden $34,664
407 Henry McMillan $34,664
408 Charles Jett $34,664
409 Gregory Liang $34,664
410 Tobias Christensen $34,664
411 Brian Hollywood $34,664
412 Nicholas Nicolaou $34,664
413 Michael Tureniec $34,664
414 Robert Donnino $34,664

415 Eduardo Santi $29,883
416 James Capone $29,883
417 Jefferson James $29,883
418 Scott Epstein $29,883
419 Eugene Foukshan $29,883
420 Diana Hakopian $29,883
421 Fabrice Soulier $29,883
422 Sam Khouiss $29,883
423 Christiane Klecz $29,883
424 Phillip Lowery $29,883
425 Ronald Stubing $29,883
426 Chris Grigorian $29,883
427 Bradley Ellis $29,883
428 Mathew Ciezki $29,883
429 Joseph Fallows $29,883
430 Robert Lipkin $29,883
431 Curtis Vangilder $29,883
432 George Alex $29,883
433 Huyen Nguyen $29,883
434 Andre Boyer $29,883
435 Tony Lee $29,883
436 Yuan Hsleh $29,883
437 William Orvis $29,883
438 Yoeqi Zhu $29,883
439 Louis Merola $29,883
440 Thomas Nielsen $29,883
441 Redmond Lee $29,883
442 Robert Ford $29,883
443 Le Hun G $29,883
444 Hien Tran $29,883
445 Daniel Gelowitz $29,883
446 Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy $29,883
447 Goalter Santos $29,883
448 Jonathan Kemsley $29,883
449 Minh Ly $29,883
450 Aditya Agarwal $29,883
451 Wade Chow $29,883
452 Nicholas Cunnane $29,883
453 Ian McDonald $29,883
454 Lance Allred $29,883
455 Jeffrey Weil $29,883
456 Anthony Newman $29,883
457 Alan Hance $29,883
458 Eric Kurtzman $29,883
459 Todd Brunson $29,883
460 Ricardo Nuno $29,883
461 Bruno Fitoussi $29,883
462 Jeppe Nielsen $29,883
463 Bryan Veach $29,883
464 Robby Rose $29,883
465 Shirley Williams $29,883
466 Andrew Grimason $29,883
467 Sara Stohler $29,883
468 Mark Owens $29,883
469 Lloyd Rees $29,883
470 Player Brian de Bruijn $29,883
471 Paul Nero $29,883
472 Phil Lifschitz $29,883
473 Jason Tikijian $29,883
474 Vandy Krouch $29,883
475 Suleiman Aboeid $29,883
476 Eris Staton $29,883
477 Eugene Ji $29,883

478 Nhut Minh Tran $25,101
479 Antonio Salorio $25,101
480 James Campbell $25,101
481 Scott Yeates $25,101
482 William Stocker $25,101
483 Joseph Reichenberger $25,101
484 Peter Valente $25,101
485 Robert Van Hsia $25,101
486 Lee Klosty $25,101
487 Peter Gould $25,101
488 William Cheeseman $25,101
489 Shayan Salehi $25,101
490 Geoffrey Herzoe $25,101
491 David Riley $25,101
492 Irvin Hoffman $25,101
493 Justin Tran $25,101
494 Jonathan Krela $25,101
495 Nikzad Hooman $25,101
496 Jose Barbero $25,101
497 Daniel Fisher $25,101
498 Anmom Filippi $25,101
499 Victor Rooney $25,101
500 Jeffrey Norman $25,101
501 Terrence Magill $25,101
502 David Gurevich $25,101
503 Michael Ward $25,101
504 Wei Yan Chan $25,101
505 Andrew Evans $25,101
506 Nicholas Carrillo $25,101
507 Mark Bryan $25,101
508 Leo Boxell $25,101
509 Joshua Bauer $25,101
510 Steven Wilk $25,101
511 Rahol Maitra $25,101
512 Farrell Hinkle $25,101
513 Richard Wild $25,101
514 Isaac Galazan $25,101
515 Ronald Crosswell $25,101
516 Robert De Forge $25,101
517 Arthur Rhea $25,101
518 Daniel Palmer $25,101
519 Ten Bokkel $25,101
520 Blair Hinkle $25,101
521 Allen Davis $25,101
522 Ziad Alaheddine $25,101
523 Randall Brueckner $25,101
524 Howard Mann $25,101
525 Aaron Eokhart $25,101
526 Robert Blaeser $25,101
527 Gerald Kim $25,101
528 Russell Kamer $25,101
529 Wilson Tien $25,101
530 Ned Griffis $25,101
531 James Tolley $25,101
532 Jeffrey Lewis $25,101
533 Daniel Attie $25,101
534 Jeffrey Nairih $25,101
535 Mitch Ivey $25,101
536 Jules Dreamell $25,101
537 Christian Abele $25,101
538 Per Linus Johansson $25,101
539 Richard Marshall $25,101
540 Kyle Morris $25,101
541 James Lewis $25,101
542 Kevan Casey $25,101
543 Shawn Chang $25,101
544 Samie Zoudo $25,101
545 Montgomery Cole $25,101
546 Aaron Coulthard $25,101
547 Matthew Traudt $25,101
548 Randall Ameil $25,101
549 Michael Puskarich $25,101

550 Marc Friedmann $20,320
551 Ken Webster $20,320
552 Tony Hachem $20,320
553 Joshua Van Dyke $20,320
554 Thomas Laviano $20,320
555 Roger Brooks $20,320
556 Randy McKay $20,320
557 Edson Esquio $20,320
558 Dale Michael $20,320
559 Rolf Slotboom $20,320
560 Tom McCormick $20,320
561 Deric Senne $20,320
562 Ethan Steinberg $20,320
563 Kizirian Armenak $20,320
564 Patrik Petersson $20,320
565 Shawn Chaconas $20,320
566 Glen Questroo $20,320
567 Jason Stern $20,320
568 Jonathon Tare $20,320
569 ????????? - $20,320
570 Paul Kemp $20,320
571 Bernard Strauss $20,320
572 Desmond Portano $20,320
573 Benjamin Gold $20,320
574 Nikolas Liakos $20,320
575 Bette Carswell $20,320
576 Kevin Lake $20,320
577 Richard Salle $20,320
578 Angela Giannino $20,320
579 Darren Woods $20,320
580 Kyle Wilson $20,320
581 Jeff Dumas $20,320
582 Cal Namihira $20,320
583 Andrew Sheperd $20,320
584 Jonas Jerlstrom $20,320
585 Duane Van Keulen $20,320
586 Penh Lo $20,320
587 Wai "Lucky" Liu $20,320
588 Chris Crilly $20,320
589 Robert Daily $20,320
590 Johnathan Stanton $20,320
591 Eddie Gravalese $20,320
592 Gavin Smith $20,320
593 Ryan Osborne $20,320
594 Joe Graziano $20,320
595 Richard Barbino $20,320
596 Frank Holloway $20,320
597 Mohammed Zahour $20,320
598 Juan Fernandezi $20,320
599 Dean Hamrick $20,320
600 Patric Martensson $20,320
601 Michael Quist $20,320
602 Jan Sorensen $20,320
603 Jeremy Joseph $20,320
604 Loi Khuon Tran $20,320
605 Richard Warburg $20,320
606 Ole Bergan $20,320
607 Jeffrey Lowenhar $20,320
608 George Dolofan $20,320
609 Takeo Oishi $20,320
610 Joseph Cutler $20,320
611 John Michael $20,320
612 Christopher Perry $20,320
613 Artur Szczupak $20,320
614 Anders Solheim $20,320
615 Sheldon Saul $20,320
616 Thong Tran $20,320
617 Kiarasa Hamadani $20,320
618 Carsten Jakobsen $20,320
619 Brian Senie $20,320
620 Jorge Albalat $20,320
621 Gregory Treger $20,320

Action resumes at noon. I'll be live blogging Day 4 for PokerNews.com.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Main Event Day 3...

There were five former WSOP Champions left in the field... Berry Johnston, Scotty Nguyen, Huck Seed, Carlos Mortensen, and Robert Varkonyi.

There's one guy who gets no respect and it's Robert Varkonyi. Storms told me a sad story about how Varkonyi tried to get into the Amazon Ballroom during one of the Day 1s. Only media were allowed inside and spectators had to wait in that insane line to get in. The security guard told Varkonyi to go to the end of the line. Varkonyi argued with the security guard to no avail. Storms stepped in and told the security to walk into the room and look up. Varkonyi's championship portrait happened to be right above the entrance. The security guard apologized and let Varkonyi inside.

Nasser Hamedani was so jacked up with excitement and making the money that he early passed out. He had a panic/anxiety attack and had to be taken to the hospital. The paramedics wanted to make sure he wasn't having a heart attack. Most of his stack was blinded off but his empty chair advanced to Day 4.

I didn't see it, but heard the story about the guy flipping his table over after he busted out. I'm shocked that stuff didn't happen more often. Wish I had seen that and got photos.

Otis picked Mr. Rain to win the main event on Day 2b. I picked Carl Olson. Mr. Rain is a little ahead of Olson, but anything can happy on Day 4.

My sticky fingers smell like limes. After ordering Corona's from the bar in front of the poker kitchen, I had been squeezing limes in order to get enough juice out of them before I'd toss one down a flight of stairs and try to get it in a trash can. I won $20 from Otis on consecutive nights on Throwing Things prop bets. I'm stuck over $200 for the entire WSOP, but I'm slowly chopping away at my debt. We had a group of media watching such as members of the international French and British press who were fascinated with our degeneracy. Even the Pokerati crew of Michalski and the Fresh Princess were curious about our post-Midnight drinking and gambling activities.

24 hours earlier, I sat in the Gold Coast casino at a Pai Gow table with Change100, Otis, and Laurie the Dealer. We unpatiently waited for a waitress to bring us cocktails. She was one of the slowest that I had ever experienced in Las Vegas. Otis was visibly rattled after he won a $250 bonus with a straight flush. All the cracker wanted was a Greyhound. Grapefruit juice and 1/2 a shot of well vodka. Could you blame him? He worked hard all day and was finally able to kick back with friends. He made a rare hand at the Pai Gow tables and nailed a bonus. He wanted to celebrate with a cocktail. But the slow-ass, trailer park, mullet-breeder never stopped by our table. The only solution was to run over to the bar and pay for drinks. It only cost $11 for a beer, a Greyhound, and a White Russian for Nicky. In NYC or in Hollywierd, $11 is the norm for one drink.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next to...
1. Lee Watinkinson
2. Danny Alaei
3. Tony Hachem
4. Thor Hansen
5. Minh Ly

* * * * *

Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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

WSOP Day 41: Main Event Day 2b

By Pauly

"Do you have a good story?" I asked Amy Calistri.

"God, I wish," she lamented.

Even the gossip queen of the WSOP had a tough time digging up dirt. She knew that I must have been hard up to keep pestering her.

"Maybe I'll write about staring at asses for the last hour," she said.

Calistri and I sat at the media desk right next to Gus Hansen's table. The Great Dane was in the middle of getting massage when Nolan Dalla announced that he was the chipleader with 420K. At that moment every media rep in the room converged on Hansen's table. ESPN's film crew nearly pancaked a Swedish girl snapping photos of Hansen for a Scandi poker mag. A blanket of darkness blanketed us as a dozen people obstructed out view of the table which also featured a PokerStars guy named Rain Khan and one of the most well-known online gurus in Sorel "Imper1ium" Mizzi.

Hansen started building his stack during the first level of Day 2. He busted two players including one that I titled, "Gus Hansen Likes Sick Puppies" in a post for Poker News. I stumbled up this hand by accident. I was only at his table to get a chip count. Instead, I picked up an interesting hand to write about.

Hansen was seated at a table with a bunch of unknowns. He raised on the button. The small blind (with a short stack) called. The big blind moved all in for 46K more. Hansen went into the tank as an ESPN camera crew began to film Hansen as he sat and pondered a decision for a few minutes. He counted out 46K, mostly in orange 5K chips. He took a few deep breaths before he tossed his chips into the pot. The small blind instantly folded. The big blind flipped over Ad-Js.

"I have a small pair," said Hansen as he tabled his cards... the 2d-2c.

"You're one sick puppy," said Hansen's opponent.

The flop was Kd-9c-8h and Hansen still led. The turn was the 6h. The river was the 3d. Hansen's pair of deuces held up as his opponent busted out. On camera too. You know that's going to be immortalized and repeated three hundred times before the year is up. Hansen increased his stack to 165K after that hand.

As I walked away, one of the guys serving drinks said, "Sick fuckin' call. That guy is crazy. Who calls there with fuckin' deuces? Sick. Just sick. I don't know if he's a fuckin' moron or my hero."

Hansen's table broke and as the tournament progressed he increased his stack. Just before dinner he reached 420K and I wrote a post for Poker News called "Gus Hansen Likes 420."

After dinner ended, Nolan Dalla got wind of his big stack and made the announcement. Media crowded the table as they stood for or five people deep. That's when I moved to another part of the Amazon Ballroom to find a more peaceful place to write about the fact there's nothing to write about.

I wandered out to the new media pen, the area roped off in front of the media room, where Harrah's set up spillover tables. I sat down and told them about my inability to find a story. I was worried that I had been here for too long that what used to seem interesting and fascinating was banal and uneventful. Maybe I'm officially jaded and can't motivate myself to find a compelling story for consumption of the folks following the Tao.

"I gotta say, I'm having a difficult time finding a story too," add Michalski.

Over the last three WSOPs, Michalski and I seek each other out when we need the writer's shove. We stepped outside by the loading dock. He chainsmoked while we brainstormed. Lucky for him, he had the Donkey Bomber story to keep him busy over the last few weeks. Since Donkey Bomber writes for Pokerati and won two bracelets, Michalski had a major story fall into his lap. And we both agreed that if the Vinnie Vinh story did not exist, we'd have nothing to write about.

"It's been a boring World Series even with Vinh," another media rep added.

Before Day 2b started, everyone had been speculating and gambling on whether or not Vinh was going to show up on Day 2. I took a picture of Vinh's stack before he arrived.


Vinh has a habit of skipping Day 2s. He did it twice in earlier events, but that was after he made the money. Then he disappeared for a few days before his empty chair resurfaced on Day 1b. We spotted his name on the player's list yet he was absent. It turned out that Vinh was in a hospital and his friends pleaded for a refund. TD Jack Effel agreed. More rumors flooded the hallways and the intertubes that said Vinh was in rehab. I even alluded to the fact that "hospital" was a code for rehab.

We thought that might be the end of the Vinnie Vinh story. We'd all go home after the series ended and we'd forget about the ghost of Vinnie Vinh until he resurfaced again... at a circuit event or perhaps a WPT event. That didn't happen. Vinnie Vinh magically appeared on Day 1d. He sat down and slowly built up a stack. Even Chops was able to snag an interview with Vinh for Raw Vegas TV. When he was asked why he skipped Day 2s, he mumbled something about a dispute with his backer.

Then according to Lance over at The Poker Biz, Vinh had some more interesting things to say...

"I can't win," said Vinh. "If I win this year, I die. So I’m not gonna win."

When asked to elaborate what that meant Vinh was somewhat cryptic.

"These Vietnamese guys, they find me if I win," said Vinh, before sitting down to his stack of 3,200. "So I'm not going to win this year. Next year though, I win."

"This year I'm too crazy."

A few hours after that, I got an anonymous email. Usually they are from Nigerian email scammers that want me to help get a large sum of money stuck in a bank somewhere. This one was different. I couldn't tell if the source was legit, pure bullshit, or if I was getting set up. That's for you to decide. Here's a summary of what I was told.

The guy who emailed me said that he ran into a Vietnamese pro last week in Las Vegas. He had played in tournaments and side games with that pro and they were friendly enough that he could ask him about the Vinnie Vinh story. That's when the pro said to expect Vinh back during the main event because...

"The people he owed money to would make sure he was there because that was the only way they ever figured to get any money from him."

Vinh was stuck with a couple of people including several well known pros and bracelet winners. According to the email...

"They have taken everything he owns, beaten him, locked him up, drugged him, chased him between Vegas and wherever he is from. They have also tried to make sure he has no money so he can't get anywhere... I think that he was locked up with no access to anything but drugs, including very little food."

The email also mentioned that the well known pro said that he expected Vinh to show up for Day 1 then skip out. The series would be the best place for him to find other people to loan him money to get unstuck with the person(s) who had been tormenting him.

The last thing my anonymous emailer said was that Vinh skipped out on Day 2 because he knew that they'd put aside his prize money and he could come back and collect at a later date when his backers were not around. It's an old trick that plenty of old school gamblers used to do in order to avoided of making good with backers who were sweating them.

Like I said before, I couldn't tell you for sure if there was any truth in that email or if I was getting set up. I was given names and chose not to publish those just in case the emailer was trying to get those pros in trouble. I have not verified the story and that's been my mission ever since I got the email. I guess I'd like to get to the bottom of the Vinh story. Maybe he's not a complete junkie like we thought. Maybe his backers helped spin that story in the media to deflect their tactics in trying to get their money back.

We're not talking about the little spat where Newhizzle kicked an empty chip rack at Neverwin and then wrote a lengthy post about their situation on his blog since Neverwin owed him up to 200K. This was a tad more serious. And now those comments he told Lance made more sense...

If I win this year, I die. So I'm not gonna win.

When he didn't show up on Day 1 after the dinner break, I though Vinh took a nap and never woke up. If that email is correct, he skipped out. That's when they called in the bodyguards to make sure Vinh showed up on Day 2. I don't see the point. With only 3,200 to play with, Vinh was a virtual goner.

He showed up, to everyone's surprise. He was eating an ice cream bar as he looked over his table as the rest of his opponents unbagged their chips. He moved all in on the second hand of the day... and busted out. Then he vanished into thin air. No one has seen him since.

So was Vinh a junkie who couldn't pay his debts? Or was he just in a bad spot which got made worse by his backers? Those are questions I'm hoping to find out answers. Maybe I'll reveal them in my book someday.

* * * * *
Here are some stats.

Day 3 Top 10 Chips Counts:
Gus Hansen (Monaco) - 622,300
Hevad Khan (Poughkeepsie, NY) - 592,500
Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart (Bennington, NE) - 570,100
Jeff Weiss (Davie, FL) - 550,000
Jon Monves (Los Angeles, CA) - 549,800
Brent Sheirbon (The Dalles, OR) - 549,300
Tuan Lam (Canada) - 538,500
Markus Gonsalves (San Diego, CA) - 512,400
Bradley Ellis (Midland, TX) - 509,400
Robert Nehorayan (Los Angeles, CA) - 505,700

There are around 797 players remaining with Gus Hansen as your chipleader.

* * * * *

Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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

WSOP Day 40: Main Event Day 2a

By Pauly

"Am I the chipleader?" Todd Phillips asked Change100.

"I think so," she said as she counted his stack.


Todd Phillips
(Photo courtesy of Flipchip)
Phillips was well past 300K. The director from Hollyweird was leading the pack on the second day of the most prestigious tournament in all of poker. Not a savvy veteran. Not a former champion. Not a Scandi wearing capri pants, but Todd Phillips. He likes to gamble. Just take a peek at his resume. He dropped out of NYU film school to finish a project called Hated. He started out directing documentary films including Bittersweet Motel, which was an amazing glimpse into the world if one of my favorite bands, Phish. He soon switched genres and received notoriety after his comedy Road Trip hit theaters. Soon after that, the epic flick Old School was released starring Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, and Luke Wilson. There are several lines from his hilarious movie that I regularly quote.

Phillips first go street cred in the poker community after his final table appearance at the WPT Legends of Poker. Out of all of the celebrities who played, he made the biggest impact on Day 2. At one point he was the chipleader after busting a few players.

I tried to come up with a big story but I didn't get much. Day 2a finished shorter than scheduled. Only 1,034 players began the day and the bustouts started as soon as the cards were in the air. We had a tough time keeping up. Every few minutes a deal would shout, "All in and a call!" Tables were broken down at such a rapid pace that an entire section of the Amazon Ballroom was bare by mid-afternoon. I guess the big story was how fast players were being eliminated. Their dreams crushed. Their souls spit on. Their fifteen minutes of fame was over.

One by one, the pros and celebrity players started hitting the rail. TD Jack Effel made a decision to only play five levels (instead of six) or until there were 350 players left. With the top 621 players getting paid prize money and almost 1,300 players still to play on Day 2b, he had to set 350 as the cutoff number.

As soon as he announced the change in scheduling, we set lines and started betting on the finishing time. I figured anything before Midnight would be gold. Schecky set the line at 11:25pm. Then we got word that Effel might stop play at the end of Level 4. With ten minutes to go in that level, 399 players remained. By the time level ended, there were 385 players. He decided to keep playing down to 350. Play eventuallys topped after Midnight.

At the 2006 WSOP, the action during the main event unfolded at a brisk pace, however, there was a circus-like atmosphere surrounding the event. Everything was a spectacle from the vendors, to the strippers dancing in the hallways, to all the spectators clogging up every possible open space, to a crush of international media that which the WSOP had never seen before. The 2007 WSOP seemed to unravel at a much lackadaisical pace with a lot less of the insanity. Harrah's was better prepared this year. The strippers were gone. The vendors were not longer hawking their poker shit in the hallways. The online hospitality suites are a distant memory. The fans got wind that it was useless to try to get in since the lines were too long.

Sure, it's the biggest tournament in the world and it's still a spectacle, but everything seems to be much more toned down at the start of Day 2a.

"It's serious poker," said Michalski. "But boring."

The attitude in the room was different for sure. The "aw shucks" crowd is gone. Those satellite qualifiers or those guys who know they are dead money who forking over 10K on the dreams were long gone. They either busted out on the first day or accumulated enough chips that they actually have a shot at going deep. Their "I'm happy to be here attitude" has changed to "let's fuckin' do this thing." The smiles disappear. They're ready to defend their chips to the death.

Otis had a theory on the bizarre mood in the Amazon Room. After a brief chat near the dealers smoking area, we simplified out discussion into this... less hipsters and assholes and more real players. The majority of people who won seats online last year were those raised by televised poker. They entered the poker world during the boom. The pros went about their business seriously, but they represented a small subsection of the internet qualifiers. The remainder of the satellite winners knew that they were longshots to win. So, they took their appearance in the WSOP with a little less seriousness than say someone who spent their own $10,000 or someone who lists "professional poker player" on their tax returns.

I wish I could write more about but I really can't bullshit anymore than I just did. Day 2s are the dead zones. The real stories develop on Day 3 and 4.

Moving on...

ESPN has already started airing episodes of the WSOP. You might have caught Event #1 and Event #3 final tables. Here's the rest of the schedule (not including the main event):

ESPN 2007 WSOP Broadcast Schedule:
Tuesday, July 17 at 8 p.m. -- $1,500 pot-limit hold 'em (Event 4)
Tuesday, July 17 at 9 p.m. -- $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys (Event 8)
Tuesday, July 31 at 8 and 9 p.m. -- $5,000 pot-limit Omaha with rebuys (Event 7)
Tuesday, August 7 at 8 and 9 p.m. -- $3,000 no-limit hold 'em (Event 28)
Tuesday, August 14th at 8 p.m. -- $5,000 World Championship pot-limit hold 'em (Event 13)
Tuesday, August 14th at 9 p.m. -- $5,000 World Championship heads-up and $2,000 seven card stud (Event 31 and 32)
Tuesdays, August 21 until October 9 at 8 and 9 p.m. -- $10,000 main event no-limit hold 'em (Event 55)
Tuesdays, October 16 until October 30 at 8 and 9 p.m. -- $50,000 HORSE (Event 39)

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 2a...

Otis and I came up with a prop bet involving limes. We have been drinking Coronas by the bar in front of the poker kitchen. We were hanging outside on the dealer's smoking ledge. Down a stairwell was a garbage can/ashtry. We bet each other various amounts if we could do one of three things...

$20 to hit the garbage can with the lime
$100 to have it land on the ashtray
$250 to actually go inside the small opening

We missed out on attempts during two rounds of beers. I came close once, but couldn't pick up any easy money off of Otis.

How about Liz Lieu Tuesdays?


Change100 and I covered a section that included the feature table and plenty of celebrities. Spiderman was moved right next to Mandy Baker. Todd Phillips was not far away. That Deanna Dozier chick got plenty of camera time. Everyone was bummed when she eventually busted.

Steve Rosenbloom is a funny guy. He told Otis that he was worried about us. "You guys are working under crazy conditions. I'm worried that you'll snap and become serial killers. When I heard about the New York, New York shootings, I simply assumed it was one of you too." He walked over to me at some point and said it looked like I was on ludes. I fuckin' wish.

I walked past the dealer room around 4:20pm and the entire room was packed. Dealers were scheduled to work, but since too many players busted early, they had no one to deal to.

I spotted two Scandis trying to pick up the Milwaukee's Beast girls. One was writing her phone number down on a piece of paper. The other was clocking her cleavage.

I checked the numbers on PokerStars qualifiers. Out of 1500+ players who won satellites, only 600 showed up at the Rio to play. Stars represents about 10% of the entire field. In previous years, they accounted for 17 to 19% of all players.

One wife of a Las Vegas poker pro was spotted with her children lurking in front of the media room. She was hoping someone would write a story about how her husband is a deadbeat and has not given her money for July's rent.

Last 5 Pros I Pissed Next To...
1. Robert Varknoyi
2. Donkey Bomber
3. Joe Beevers
4. Jeff Madsen
5. Dan Harrington

* * * * *

Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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

WSOP Day 39: Main Event Day 1d

By Pauly

There were a few big stories that I kept tabs on during Day 1d...

1. Phil Hellmuth
2. Jamie Gold busting
3. Where the fuck was Vinnie Vinh?
4. The official numbers

Phil Hellmuth was supposed to be sitting at one of the tables I covered. He wasn't there when Senator Al D'Amato said, "Shuffle up and deal!" I didn't expect him for a while and wondered what kind of entrance he'd make. At the 2005 WSOP, Hellmuth showed up with a body guard. He had been practicing his grand entrance the day before when he wrecked the Ultimate Bet racecar with his mug sitting on the hood. Some conspiracy theorists will say that it was rigged. Others will say it was an accident and Hellmuth lost control. That's for you to decide.

I heard rumors that Hellmuth was going to drive the actual car down the hallway of the Rio. When he couldn't, he purposely wrecked his car to generate buzz. But the most rumor I heard was that he was supposed to drive up to the entrance to the convention center, step out wearing a helmut and be escorted inside by eleven scantily clad women. Since he crashed his car by accident, he was forced to take a limo instead.

Snake told me that he was coming at 1:30pm. I grabbed Filipe and told him to snap some photos. Head over to PokerNews to see what he shot. Unfortunately, Hellmuth was even late for his scheduled late arrival.


Hellmuth didn't show up to 2:20pm. I stood outside on the steps in the 155 degree heat as Hellmuth emerged from his limo. Eleven stripper/model types greeted him. They each symbolized one of the eleven bracelets he's won. Even the girls were labeled by specific bracelets. It was total ridiculous and hysterical at the same time. I was fortunate to catch every step that Hellmuth took once he entered the convention center.

Hellmuth paused for a few photos as the ESPN camera crew taped his every move. He signed autographs as fans swarmed around him. The mob of media, ESPN guys, fans, and agents, managers, Harrah's suits, and PR people slowly made its way down the corridor and into the Amazon Ballroom.


Hellmuth entered with his entourage trailing behind him. He took his seat and shook hands with the gentleman next to him.

"This is fuckin' ridiculous," joked Nolan Dalla.


If there was ever a true Hellmuthian moment, that was one of them. Just when I thought the day would be boring, my first 2.5 hours was consumed with Phil Hellmuth.

"He's hurting. With whiplash," mentioned super agent Brian Balsbaugh. "But you know what He told me? 'I've won tournaments when I was hurt before. I've won bracelets under more pain.'"

Hellmuth could dodge bullets, but he couldn't dodge a light pole. Sore or not sore. Rigged or not rigged. It didn't matter. Hellmuth wouldn't make it to the dinner break and eventually busted out at 6:41pm. When Nolan Dalla announced his elimination to the crowd, players actually cheered against Hellmuth.

* * * * *
Hellmuth wasn't the only former champion to bust out. Jamie Gold ended his reign as the world champion. He took a few hits early and slipped to under 10K by dinner break. He couldn't build a stack and busted out when his Qs-9s could not beat A-7. As what happened with Hellmuth, Gold was jeered when his elimination was announced shortly after the dinner break.

In so many ways, Gold can now relax and focus on playing poker instead of being a marked man. He'll always be known as a controversial world champion, but in a few years, we'll forget about Crispin Leyser and Jamie Gold will be a distant memory, or just one of the faces you see hung up on tapestries surrounding the Amazon Ballroom.

He'll return to sweat his mother Jane who advanced to Day 2.

* * * * *
When I rushed out to get a good spot for Hellmuth, I spotted Vinnie Vinh standing around the registration area. He was waiting for Jimmy Sommerfeld. I saw the two talking again in the hallway and shortly after than Vinh was playing in the WSOP main event. Everyone in the room kept an eye on him, players, media, floor people, friends... waiting for him to explode but also hoping he could make a run and change his frenetic life around. One by one the relentless media stopped by his table and gawked, giggled, pointed, and jeerred like he was a side attraction at a carnival. The freak show with the baby with lobster claws for hands or the Siamese Twins or the lunatic drug addicted degenerate gambler one step away from his deathbed yet one turn of the card away from winning $8.25M.

America is a country of fuck ups. Lots of them. And we're suckers for dramatic stories. Perhaps it's the boost in self-esteem that people have when the relish in other people's misfortunes. Or maybe it's the morbid fascination that makes you slow down and look for dead bodies when there's a car wreck on the freeway.

Photographers took turns taking pics of Vinh (and when he disappeared they shot his empty chair) as he muttered how he wanted to go back to sleep. He's be seen resting his head down on the rail at times, when other moments he seemed in control picking up pots and demonstrating that deep down he still had skills at the poker table. Not too many people can boast that the have $2.3 million in career tournament earnings. But it's disturbing to think that someone with talent like Vinh's can piss it all away thanks to his inner demons.


At 8:30pm, Poker News reported that Vinh's stack was 34K. He did not return from dinner and everyone thought the worst. Just six hours earlier, the media paraded in front of Vinh's table checking out the freak and they all returned one by one to take photos of the empty chair. He was blinded off which happened twice before at the WSOP. Those instances, he failed to show up on Day 2 while he was in the money. His stack ended up taking down 20th and 22nd place... both impressive feats considering he wasn't even in the room during his elimination hands.

On Day 1d, Vinh left for dinner break and never returned. I suspected that he was sleeping. He probably took a nap at dinner and never woke up. he slept through his alarm or wake up call. Other friends thought the worse and that he was passed out in a cheap motel after snorting too much (insert drug here).

Where have you gone Vinnie Vinh? Everyone's talking about you. The ghost of Stuey Ungar has returned.

* * * * *
Here are some official numbers...

Total Entrants: 6,358
Prize Pool: 59.7M
Top 621 get paid
Harrah's Juice: $2,670,360
Dealer's Toke: 1,144,440
Millionaires: 5

Payouts:
1 $8,250,000
2 $4,840,981
3 $3,048,025
4 $1,852,721
5 $1,255,069
6 $956,243
7 $705,229
8 $585,699
9 $525,934
10th-12th $476,926
13th-15th $429,114
16th-18th $381,302
19th-27th $333,490
28th-36th $285,678
37th-45th $190,053
46th-72nd $130,288
73rd-81st $106,382
82nd-90th $82,476
91st-99th $67,535
110th-162nd $58,570
163rd-225th $51,398
226th-288th $45,422
289th-351st $39,445
352nd-414th $34,644
415th-477th $29,883
478th-549th $25,101
550th-621st $20,320

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 1d...

Brandi Hawbaker arrived. She had strep throat and was sick for the previous week or so. She looked thinner, but not Vinnie Vinh thinner. She also got a new haircut which I thought made her look less cute and more psycho.

Steve Horton gets credit for this bit... Brandi Hawbaker busted out after Teddy Monroe put a bad beat on her. She pushed with A-7 and Monroe called with Kc-Qc. He flopped a King and she couldn't improve. As she was getting up to leave, he said, "Sorry, Brandi." Her reply? "Go fuck yourself."

The Poker Geek cracked the case on the John Duthie hand where he won a 50K pot in a cash game with just Queen high!! Head over to Expert Insight to get the scoop.

Linda's son Dennis played in the event. He made it past dinner break and was moved to Prahlad Friedman's table. I caught two of his hands including his bustout. Linda was on the rail along with her other son watching Dennis play. Head over to her blog. I'm sure she'll have a recap with pictures.

Al D'amato was in the Rio hanging out with Jeffrey Pollack. It seemed like a cheap photo op, not as cheap as the Hellmuthian stunt, but Al D'Amato is nothing more than a glorified used car salesman who lost his job. He's slumming among the unwashed masses and has as much pull in Washington as Sam Grizzle has.

* * * * *

Bonus Code: Pauly
Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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

WSOP Day 38: Main Event Day 1c

By Pauly

Midnight in Las Vegas. Day 1c of the WSOP. I'm hypnotized by the sounds. Sometimes, I can block out the clattering of chips in the Amazon Ballroom and everything goes quiet as I lose myself in my writing. Most of the time that's impossible to do with the madness of the World Series of Poker enveloping around me. The clattering chips is a distinct sound that is hard to replicate like the roar of the trading floor at J.P. Morgan or the eardrum shattering sounds of a subway screeching to a halt in Times Square.

If someone played me different versions of ambient poker room sounds, I could easily pick out the Rio from the rest. Besides the chips, there the thousands of other layered sounds that drive some people crazy. Players use special headphones or earplugs to block out the background clutter. There's a low hum of players talking to each other at the tables but add it all up, it sounds like an orgy of geese fucking.

One sweaty guy in jogging pants is telling another guy in an ugly blue PokerStars shirt a bad beat story. Another player screams, "Yes!" as he sucks out on the river to avoid elimination. Reporters are explaining bustout hands to my Poker News colleagues. You could hear the ESPN crew communicating with each other into their headsets as they rush to get over to a table with Humberto Brenes screaming at the top of his lung as whips out his miniature shark and tells his opponent that, "The Chark is hun-greeeeeeeee!" A dealer in the far corner shouts, "All in and a call on Table 42!" Another dealer screams, "Floor on 12!" as a gaunt cocktail waitress barks, "Cocktails! Red bull!" A railbird asks Flipchip, "Where's Daniel Negreanu?" And I mutter, "Whata douchebag!" under my breath.

For the last five weeks, I have spent the majority of my waking hours sitting at the various media desks on the floor of the Amazon Room underneath the various portraits of former WSOP champions. Sometimes I'm hunched over my laptop underneath the black and white photo of the legendary Sailor Roberts, who won the big one when I was three years old. Other times, I'm sitting underneath a portrait of Berry Johnston. He won the event a few weeks before I graduated grammar school. And a couple of months ago, he busted me out of a FTOPS event on Full Tilt. Despite the fact that the world is a small pond, I'll always be the fish.

The one thing I am unable to do is escape the noise. The only moments of calm are when I'm walking in the secret hallways behind the ballrooms. It's a scene out of Ocean's 11 when one of their guys snuck around the employees area of the Bellagio. They corridors are almost always empty and void of sounds aside from a few dealers gossiping to one another. I like walking around that area, past broken poker tables, boxes of ESPN equipment, and stacks of wobbly chairs. The only other time I get any semblance of peace and quiet is when I sneak off to Change100's car, crank up a Grateful Dead bootleg, and burn one down.

Moving on...

Over the last 24 hours, I've written down various notes such as:

Too many people. Slews of dead money. Too many dreams. Not enough fulfillment.

There might be over 6,000 players in this year's event. All but one will go home a supreme winner. Like Bill Parcells once said, "There are no moral victories. You either win or you lose."

When I think of the Tuna yelling at reporters in the tunnels underneath Giants Stadium, I look at the sea of players in the Amazon Ballroom and see bags and bags of money. Someone is going to become the ultimate beneficiary of all the collective donkey donators. At this point, we don't know who will win the event. It's too early to tell. The odds are in favor of an unknown. But whoever survives this existentialist meatgrinder is going to end up a very wealthy and extremely famous person as they embark on the hardest gig in all of poker... WSOP World Champion. Along with the glory, fame, and cash comes the toughest year of their life as they constantly avoid getting gang raped by every vulture, charlatan, gold digger, and hustler in the industry.

Here are some quick numbers:

Day 1a: 1,287
Day 1b: 1,545
Day 1c: 1,743
Day 1d: ???
Entrants Through Day 1c: 4,575

Day 1d is predicted between 1,600 and 1,700 players. That would push the numbers of the WSOP to over 6,000. It's nowhere close to last year's record breaking year. But it's more than 2005. Even with the UIGEA, PokerStars paid out more satellite winners than last year. Only a percentage of seat winners actually showed up at the Rio. And imagine how large the field would be without the UIGEA? Over 10,000. Easily. There main event would be almost three weeks long to accommodate those massive fields with 20% clad in PokerStars gear.

Day 1c was by far the most exciting of the three. The first two days took forever and annoyed the piss out of me like sipping week-old Jell-O through a straw while sitting in LA freeway traffic with the radio stuck on Rush Limbaugh rant about feminazis. The field on Day 1c was appetizing with a few more named pros such as Phil Ivey, Fossilman, that Moneymaker fellow, T.J. Cloutier, Allen Cunningham, Kenna James, Robert Varkonyi, Melissa Hayden, former WSOP champion Brad Daugherty, Rafe Furst, Clonie Gowan, Katja Thater and Jan Von Halle.


Day 1c also contained a few more celebrities and professional athletes donking off their chips and trying to pretend like they were big time poker pros. Antonio Tarver, Jose Canseco, and Rick Tocchet were among the athletes in the field. Jen Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander (aka George Costanza), Jen Tilly, Rene Angelil, Nelly, and Swedish pop star Dilba Demirbag were also playing. Nolan Dalla introduced Shannon Elizabeth and mentioned her involvement in American Pie and how he watched "that scene at least thirty times."

"She's me milking that movie for eight years," said Change100.

"It's a great fucking movie," I reminded her.

I wonder what it feels like to be Shannon Elizabeth and to know that she walked into a room filled with two thousand men who jerked off to her tits in the bedroom scene in American Pie? Multiple times?

I first met Antonio Tarver at the Borgata in January of 2006 when I was hired by them to cover their Winter Open. He played in the main event and found himself at Gavin Smith's table. I kept a keen eye on the two as they battled in several pots together. Tarver mentioned that Smith was crazy, would not stop talking, and that he was a tough opponent. He underestimated how hard tournament poker was and how patient and disciplined he needed to be. Like boxing, he had to wait for his moment, then attack with everything he had. He didn't last too long that day at the Borgata and I'll never forget our conversation as he explained the similarities between tournament poker and boxing. Unlike poker, he was fighting for his life everytime he stepped into the ring.

Rick Tocchet is an interesting story. I grew up watching him play against the Rangers when he skated for the Flyers and the Penguins. He recently pled guilty to his involvement in Operation Slapshot, where he and several other people (such as Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet Jones) were implicated in a multi-million dollar gambling ring. Steve Rosenbloom stopped by the media desk and we talked about how Tocchet had to step down as coach of the Coyotes when he was pinched by the federalies. It wasn't a Pete Rose incident where he bet on games in his own sport. As Jeremy Roenick said, "No one bets on hockey."

Um, actually... I do. I'm a complete degenerate with little scruples and questionable morals. Alas, I thrive the action. The last time I bet on hockey was during March Madness at Red Rock Casino. We were throwing thousands of dollars on single games, so a $100 five team NHL parlay seemed like pocket change for us. I asked Change100 to pick five teams and then I faded all of her picks. I went 4-1. Anyway, I'll save my sports betting hockey bad beats for another time.

By the end of Day 1c, about 670 players remained. Carl Olson was in the top 5 for a while after dinner break. I picked him to win the Main Event before it started. He was making me look like a genius when he became one of the first players past the 200K mark. Pokerati's The Big Randy was among the leaders for the majority of the day.

* * * * *
Bouncin Round the Room on Day 1c...

"I have never seen a bigger field of donkeys," said Aussie pro Emad Tathou after he busted out. "I called Quantas and said get me on the next fuckin' flight to Melbourne. I leave tomorrow morning."

I watched a few of Antonio Tarver's hands. He moved all in during the first orbit. He had Queens and chopped a pot with a Broadway straight. His opponent had A-Q and rivered the tie.

Jose Canseco wore an ugly yellow shirt that read, "Olympic Gardens" on it. I heard rumors that he's MC Hammer broke and that he was sponsored into the event. My guess is the OG. Gotta love strip club sponsorship.

When Nolan Dalla announced to the crowd that Canseco was in the room, a few boo birds showered him with an unpleasant welcome. "Must be an LA crowd," joked Dalla.

Jonno bought an Asian Chicken Wrap at the Poker Kitchen. It comes with a fortune cookie. His read, "It is a sunny day." I told him, "No shit Sherlock. We're in the middle of the fuckin' desert."

Here's some random dealer conversations that I overheard...

Two Dealers in the Hallway:
Dealer A: "I have Jesus at my table."
Dealer B: "Be careful. He might slice your fingers off when he mucks his cards."

Two Dealers in the Secret Smoking Spot:
Dealer A: "What's that? A plane dragging a sign that says, 'Congrats to the newest member of Team PokerStars Daniel Negreanu.'"
Dealer B: "I dunno what was a bigger waste of money for PokerStars... hiring that plane or signing Negreanu. He's a donkey."

The dealers smoke in one area outside near the employees parking lot. One member of the media described the landing as "depressing and full of bad beats. It's sad enough to hear players tell them. It's awful to hear dealers tell them."

When I walked past the dealer's room, a crowd was gathered around one table as a few of them played in a quick SNG.

Grubby has been staying at the Rio. I snuck him into the room a few times. His boss was playing and he wanted to sweat him.

They are limiting how many spectators can come into the Amazon Room. From a media's standpoint, it's a welcome relief. Usually it's difficult to get through the dense crowd. Without them clogging up the walkways, it's a lot easier to do my job. From a fan's perspective or if you're someone who wants to railbird a friend or relative, it sucks camel cock. You have to stand in line for up to three hours and then they only let you watch the feature table without any announcers. I overheard two people complaining about how they waited in line for two hours and got in the room for ten minutes before they were asked to leave because a break was coming up. A couple of angry fans got into a heated shoving match with security guards at one tense moment.

I was walking the floor getting chipcounts when I saw Jose Canseco stand up. An ESPN film crew surrounded his table and he started to walk towards the rail. The dealer had washed the cards and I saw that a player in seat one was stacking up chips. I raced over and bent down on one knee and asked the guy how he busted Canseco. That's when I realized it was Amir Vahedi. "I had A-7 of spades," he said. "He had A-J. The flop was Ks-10s-Q. I bet, he raised, I moved all in, he called. I got a spade on the river."

I was the cooler for sure. I walked over to Jen Tilly's table and she busted out when she moved all in on an open-ended straight draw. After she busted a weird Scandi at an adjacent table wearing a tight blue dress shirt, shorts, and black socks with sandals walked over to me and said in broken English, "What movie was she in?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Is she in any good pornos?" he asked with a sketchy smile.

Otis walked over to me around 4:20 in the afternoon and said that there was a Vinnie Vinh sighting near the Poker Sauna. No word if he'll be playing on Day 1d.

Kenna James lost a big pot and danced with Change100 as she walked past his table. "When you lose a 5K pot, you need to dance it off," said James.

At one point, everyone was looking for Felipe or Flipchip to take a photo of a drunk guy who passed out at his table in a mega-satelitte in the Poker Sauna.

I got word about Phil Hellmuth's car wreck. He drove around an Ultimate Bet race car in the parking lot. He ended up crashing it into a light pole. It totally looked staged. Otis agreed. Hellmuth plays on Day 1d and will be arriving late in true Hellmuthian fashion. RawVegas.tv has the video. Check it out.


Click here to view the Hellmuth crash video via RSS or Bloglines.
Drew, one of the Poker News reporters, has his Mom in town from Minnesota. She's a big fan of the Tao and Pot Committed. She baked us cookies and we went out in the hallway to hang out due to the long lines to get inside. When I told Change100 about the cookies she asked, "Is there pot in them?" There wasn't but the cookies were yummy. Thanks...!

Amy Calistri and I stood int he middle of the floor when one player rushed past us. He smelled worst than a bum on the subway. A few minutes after he left, his stench still lingered. "That boy needs some deodorant," said Calistri. "And some clean underwear," I added. He's among the many people in the room who had not showered in days and weeks.

I lost a last longer bet. I picked Olga Varkonyi to last longer against her husband Robert Varkonyi. I was even giving odds at 3-1. Unfortunately she busted out before he did and I lost.

When I walked into the media room, no less than five people were playing online poker. Junkies. To accommodate the lack of space in the room, Harrah's roped off the area outside the media room and set up several tables to alleviate the cramped space. Nice move in their part, but a few days too late. That took Otis and Scurvy Dog off cramped media room tilt.

Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey told me a great story about John Duthie winning a pot in a big NL cash game. He called a 17K bet on the river with just King high... and he won. Unreal. Duthie, the EPT creator, ended Day 1a among the chipleaders with over 150K.

* * * * *

Don't forget to check out LasVegasVegas for Flipchip's WSOP photos and there's the Poker Prof's cool 2007 WSOP Info page.

And come back at the Tao of Poker for daily recaps and head over at PokerNews for live coverage and updates including chipcounts.

For all you fantasy sports junkies, check out our new site... Fantasy Sports Live.

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