Event #11 $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em -- Event #10 $2K Limit Day 2 -- Event #9 $2K NL Final Table

First of all, Bobby Bracelet has been hanging out with my brother Derek back home in New York City. Derek took Bobby Bracelet to a poker room in Chinatown. Hijinks ensued. Stop by Derek's blog to read all about their wild adventures. Here's a bit:

We hit a card room in the Chinatown area (our dealer was Asian too). The guys at our NL table were horrible poker players. If we had more time to play, we would've cleaned up. The term "loose" doesn't properly capture or describe the play at our table. I saw one guy move all in with K7o. Another guy was raising in EP with 85o. There were way too many bad hands shown down to the river. I have a feeling that Bob and I were the only ones folding hands with one A or one paint. It was that bad.

Bob moved all in on the flop with AJ and lost his stack to K-medium. I won a big pot with the Hiltons against Q4o (yes, you read that correctly . . . Q4o). After I raised preflop, some clown reraised me and I moved all in. He thinks for a little bit and in all seriousness, he looks over at me and asks if I want action. lol. I looked back and said, "Yes and no." The idiot called and doubled me up. In the very next hand, I lost my entire stack. I was on the button and it was 3 handed. I raised and got one caller. I bet to a check on the flop and got reraised. I knew the guy was trying to steal the pot because he bitched about me blind stealing when I raised preflop. I moved all in on the flop with nothing. I had J8. The guy called and flipped over J7. Unfortunately, I lost when a 7 hit the board. I was hoping to re-steal the pot but he had me covered and called. Ouch. Our table broke up and most people took off for the night. Bob and I both lost our buy ins tonight but at least we got to piss in a building stairwell before the night was over.

The image of the last line is what had me cracking up all day yesterday. By the way, check out what a local newspaper had to say about Bobby Bracelet's attempt to win the $1500 NL Event #2.

Sunday is going to be another busy day. Three tournaments, two final tables, and the Roshambo Final will be on my plate today. Thank God I went to bed before sunrise last night because I'm going to be logging another 16+ hour work day. Yesterday was Saturday night in Las Vegas and Dan and I decided to party it up, drink heavily, and pick up nefarious high school girls like writers are supposed to do while on assignment.

Dan was disappointed about the lack of liquor in the media room. He said he's gonna bring in a bottle of hooch in one day and then we can do some live drunk blogging. Aside from Minneapolis Jim Meehan's penchant for Heinekens and Men the Master's addiction to Coronas, most of the players are relatively sober during the WSOP. I'm sure a few are popping trucker's speed, but the new breed of poker player is doing everything possible to keep his/her head on straight. Coffee and Red Bull seem to be the vice of choice. Last night, Mrs. Flipchip said some wasted guy offered to sell her some ecstacy. My immediate response was, "How much?" And I quickly followed that up with, "Did you score me any?"

By the way, everyday Flipchip and the Poker Prof are updating the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. Check it out.

Here are the tournaments that I'll be covering today.

1. Event #9 $2,000 NL Final Table (Day 3) = Green Font
2. Event #10 $2,000 Limit (Day 2) = Black Font
3. Event #11 $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em (Day 1) = Red Font
4. Roshambo Final Four = Blue Font

Event #10 Limit has 569 entrants with a total prize pool of $1,046,940. We're down to 22.
Event #9 NL started with 1403 with a prize pool of $2,581,520.
Event #11 Pot-Limit Hold'em has 542 players.

****** Live Blogging Update ******

1:08pm PCT... Pot-Limit update: I am seated right in front of Table #118. I spotted Dan Harrington for the first time at this year's WSOP. He's at the same table as Humberto Brenes. Action Dan was getting a massage and now Humberto is getting one. I think I'll definitely need a 15 minute rub-down later this afternoon. TJ Cloutier is in the house. Flipchip mentioned to me that he thought TJ was the best Pot-Limit Omaha player in the world. Max Pescatori and Phil Gordon are playing at the same table. David Grey, Sammy Farha, and Kristy Gazes were seated at the same table when I walked by. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Kathy Liebert are also at the same table.

1:54pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: Here are the chip counts at the end of Day 1.

1 Reza Payvar $173K
2 John Myung $91K
3 Toto Leonidas $81K
4 Robert 'Chuck' Schulze $79K
5 Rodeen Talebi $74K
6 Michael Chow $73K
7 Sam Chang $69K
8 Vince Palma $57K
9 Barny Boatman $55K
10 "Miami" John Cernuto $50K
11 Tommy Garza $47K
12 Kelly Harmon $44K
13 Greg 'FBT' Mueller $39K
14 David Blatte $38K
15 Jay Helfert $29K
16 Charlie Brahmi $29K
17 Mimi Tran $25K
18 Daniel Clegg $24K
19 Eric Liebeler $21K
20 Theodore Park $20K
21 Tony 'TNT' Nasr $11K
22 Donny Carlton $9K

1:59pm... Roshambo Final Table update: ESPN is taping the Roshambo Final Table. What the fuck is Roshambo? It's Rock, Paper, Scissors. And yes, you can gamble on it.

Four players are left after a series of matches that went on the last few days. There were 64 players forking up $200 each. $5K of the pool went to the Cancer Prevention Fund. The winner will win a seat in the $10K main event.

Jay Greenspan told me that Rafe Furst is a Roshambo World Champion. Dutch Boyd and Scott Fischman are siting in front of me checking out the event. Scott mentioned that he wished Annie Duke would lose. "I went paper against her every time and lost," he said. Annie wants to win pretty badly, "This means more to me than the Championship event."

1:59pm... Roshambo Final Table update: Best 4 out of 7. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon is the announcer and he's hamming it up. The world champion Rafe Furst lost to Bobby Boyd by the score of 4-2 in the first semi-final. Annie Duke used a lucky dollar bill to randomnize her selections. She and her "system" lost to Kevin Keller by the score of 4-2. Kevin Keller and Bobby Boyd will be playing for the Championship.

2:22pm... Roshambo Final Table update: Bobby Boyd came from behind down 3-1 to win it all against Kevin Keller. He won a $10K seat in the main event.

2:40pm... Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

Event #9 $2K NL Final Table
1 Chris Wunderlich $110K (Higley, AZ)... cashed in 3 WSOP events in his career.
2 Cyndy Violette $305K (Atlantic City, NJ)... won her first bracelet last year.
3 Erik Seidel $354K (Las Vegas, NV)... 6 time bracelet winner and the 1987 runner-up.
4 Soulier Fabrice $224K (Paris, France)... TV director who won several tournaments in Europe.
5 Perry Friedman $219K (San Marcos, CA)... he has one WSOP bracelet (2002) and 4 final tables.
6 Morgan Machina $1.05M (Mission Viejo, CA)... second WSOP final table and our chipleader.
7 Paul Sexton $362K (San Diego, CA)... student at University of San Diego. He dropped The Hammer yesterday!
8 Bill Blanda $46K (Houston, TX)... first WSOP final table.
9 Harry Demetriou $184K (London, England)... second final table in the past week.

I like Erik Seidel today, although Morgan Machina has a huge chiplead. I asked him for a quick quote about today's final table before he sat down. He said, "It's gonna be fun."

3:09pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Bill Blanda is the first one eliminated. Bill pushed all in preflop with A4. Perry Friedman called with 99 and hit a full house. Bill won $51,630 for ninth place.

3:10pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We're down to 18 players. Donny Carlton, Mimi Tran, Tony "TNT" Nasr, and Daniel Clegg have all been knocked out. Mimi's AQ ran into Toto Leoniads' AJ. The flop: Q-J-J. Yikes.

3:22pm... $2K NL Final Table update: A lot of us in press row have been working our asses off covering the event so we haven't been able to gamble as much as we'd like. In order to satisfy those urges, we've been engaging in random side and prop bets to keep things interesting during these long days and nights. I've been betting with BJ from Cardplayer and Jay from Poker Wire on various things like the Over/Under on what time the final table will finish (I said 11:30pm). We're betting on what Erik Seidel's hole cards were on a particular hand where everyone folded to his all-in bet with 4-7-7 on the board. We'll have to wait until ESPN airs this taped event to find out what they were. I also have another bet saying that ESPN won't air that hand that we originally bet on. We're action junkies.

3:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Chris Wunderlich moved all in preflop with AK and Paul "The Hammer" Sexton called with JJ. The flop: 7-7-J. Chris was bounced in 8th place. He won $77,445. Soulier Fabrice is the shortstack with $160K. Morgan is still the leader with over $1M in chips.

3:47pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Soulier Fabrice raised and Perry Friedman went over the top. Fabrice looked like he knew he was behind yet called anyway. He showed A-10 to Perry's A-J. Fabrcie's Frenchy railbirds were calling out "Dix! Dix!" They wanted a ten. His hand did not improve and he went out in 7th place. Fabrcie won $103,260 for his efforts. Cyndy Violette is now the shortstack with $173K. Perry is adding to his stack and has over $425K. I saw him drawing on his hand before the final table began. I think he wanted to do a hand puppet show for the "hole cams." Here's what HDouble told me about Perry's hands:

Perry Friedman has little "faces" drawn on his two hands, so he can talk to them (and they can talk to the hole cams) while he plays. Apparently, one of the hands is "evil," while the other is "good." It'll be interesting to see which hand gives him better advice at the final table.

3:59pm... $2K Final Table update: Someone from the crowd yelled out: "I love you Perry Freidman. You make me moist!" It was a guy's voice. If you don't know Erik Seidel and Perry are mentioned in a book coming out next month called "Tales from the Tiltboys." Johnny Grooms, tournament director and announcer, read a quick exceprt from the book. It was about how Perry once flushed his own head in a toilet for $10. Aso, in a recent tournament, Perry would not stop yapping and it was bugging out Seidel. So Seidel bet Perry $1K that he could not stop talking for five minutes. Perry did not take that action!

4:01pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman raised preflop. Cyndy and her shortstack moved all in with KK. Perry called with 55. Cyndy doubled up. Felicia and made a last longer bet. I have Sediel. She has Cyndy. By the way, Felicia wanted me to quote her saying, "I hate Perry!"

4:08pm...$2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: there are 240 players on 24 tables. Jesus, David Grey, and Annie Duke have all been eliminated. Mike Sexton is the chipleader with over $13K in chips. James Woods is also playing. What event has he not played in this year? I can see Clonie Gowen from where I am sitting. She has sexy shoulders.

4:20pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We're down to 12 players. David Blatte, Barney Boatman, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Kelly Harman, Juijen Chang, and Vincent Palama have all been knocked out. Reza Payvay is still the chipleader with Jon Muyung not too far behind.

5:03pm... $2K NL Final Table: Harry D. moved all in preflop with QJ. Perry Friedman called with AK. The flop: A-Q-2. The turn was a King and that gave Harry a few more outs. The river was a blank and Harry was knocked out in 6th place. He won $123,915 for his efforts. Cyndy Violette is the short stack. And Morgan has a $1M chip lead over anyone else.

5:08pm... $2K Limit Day 2 update: We have reached a final table. There are nine players remainig. Theodore Park went out in 12th place. Charlie Brahmi and Mike Chow were just eliminated. Reza Payvar is the chipleader.

5:18pm... $2K NL Final Table: Cyndy Violette reraised all in with KK. Morgan called with A8 and he did not catch any cards. Cyndy doubled up.

5:20pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em: 2005 Bracelet winner Mike Gracz was just eliminated. Dewey Tomko is also out. Mike Sexton has over $15K in chips. Jeff Shulman and TJ Cloutier also have about $10K. Andy Bloch has $9K. Clonie, Humberto, and James Woods are still alive. Clonie is wearing a stunning black cocktail dress. Hubba hubba.

5:45pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Paul Sexton (no relation to Mike Sexton) doubled up against Morgan Machina. It appears that Erik Sediel is the new chipleader. Actually I'm wrong. Johnny Grooms, the kick ass WSOP announcer and Tournament Director, hooked me up with the chip count. Paul "The Hammer" Sexton is now our new chipleader with $870K. Cyndy is hanging on barely with $180K. Paul Wolfe, Annie Duke, and Gavin Smith are in the stands watching the final table. Annie is wearing pink Converse Chuck Taylor's. That concludes my second and final fashion update today.

6:08pm... $2K NL Final Table update: We are currently on a delay. Perry Friedman told me that they didn't know who failed to ante on the last hand. Johnny Grooms stopped play. They are in the ESPN room reviewing tape. What would they have done if this event wasn't taped?

6:35pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy was shortstacked and moved all in preflop with 10d-8d. Morgan called with KT. The flop: Ad-Q-2. Cyndy needed an 8 or running diamonds to catch a backdoor flush draw. The river was a 4d. She needed a diamond or an 8. The river was an 8 and Cyndy doubled up. She's still alive. On the very next hand, she moved all in with AQ. Paul "The Hammer" Sexton called with K9. She flopped an ace and won with two pair. She doubled up again. Cyndy has chips, baby!

6:40pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: The players are on a dinner break. There are 107 players left. Ron Jackson appears to be the chipleader with $35K.

6:41pm... $2K Limit Final Table update: The players are on a break with 7 left. Reza Payvar has over $360K in chips. Chuck Schulze was knocked out in 8th and Eric Liebeler was booted in 9th. Reza Payvar is still the chipleader. Rodeen Talebi is the short stack.

6:42pm... $2K NL Final Table update: The players are on a dinner break until 8pm. Paul Sexton is the chipleader and Cyndy is still the smallest stack although she isn't that far off from the rest of the pack. Time for me to take a break myself. I'm going to hit the head for a well-needed piss, grab a beer, hit on some of those skanky cigar booth shicks camped out in the hallway, eat a $4 slice of pizza and then try to snag an interview with my main man Freddy Deeb. See you at 8pm.

8:01pm... Dinner break is over. All three tournaments resumed. I wandered into the Full Tilt hospitality suite and bumped into Poker Pages photographer Steve. He's British and had been giving me shit that I had not been living up to the "Dr. Pauly" reputation since I've started covering the WSOP.

"Where's the booze and the nubile 17-year olds?" he mentioned.

I headed straight for the "free bar" and ordered a beer and noshed on some cheese, crackers, raisin bread, and fruit. The melon was ripe and the bread was tasty. I wandered back over to the main hallway to make nice with the skanky cigar girls. One of them said she was tired from "dancing" last night. She was referring to the type of dancing one would do with a pole. Yeah, they hired strippers to pimp cigars. I must take a picture. I keep forgetting to do so. I bought a $4 slice of pizza and grabbed another beer back at the Full Tilt bar. That's when I realized I had 40 minutes left. Amy Calistri was interviewing/seducing Gerg "Fossilman" Raymer in the hallway so I decided to fire up Party Poker. I found my brother playing and sweated him for a bit. I sat down at a $3/6 table and won $26 on two hands: JJ and the Hilton Sisters. Sad, right? I'm covering the WSOP and the only poker I played in the last few days has been on Party Poker.

8:25pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy Violette moved all in with JJ. Morgan Machina called with AK. Cyndy won the race and doubled up. She's on fire! She is now second in chips with $760K. Erik Seidel is the chipleader and Morgan is not the shortstack.

8:33pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman's TT cracked Paul "The Hammer" Sexton's pocket rockets. Perry flopped a ten. He's now the chipleader.

8:35pm... $2K Limit Final Table update: Jay Helfert's AQ was knocked out by John Muyung's TT. Jay took 7th place. Reza Payvar has over $410K in chips.

8:41pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Max Pescatori was knocked out by Phil Gordon just before the break. Layne Flack was booted just after the dinner break. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon won a monsterpot with KK. He cracked the Hilton Sisters. TJ CLoutier was moved to Phil's table. And Mike Sexton (decked out in Party Poker gear) was moved to Humberto Brenes' table.

8:44pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Erik Seidel knocked out Paul Sexton who moved all in preflop with the shortstack. Erik called with 33 and hit a set on the flop to take down Paul's K9s. There are four players left. Erik Seidel and Cyndy Violette are about even in chips. Paul Sexton won $147,145. Annie Duke walked over to Erik Seidel and said, "Nice flop, eh?"

8:52pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Call this the Cyndy Violette Show. She called Morgan Machina's all in bet. Morgan showed K8 and Cyndy had AQ again! Morgan flopped a King but Cyndy caught an Ace in the turn and a Queen spiked on the river. She knocked out Morgan in 4th place. Morgan won $170,380. Cyndy is the chipleader. She made an amazing comeback after being on the brink of elimination. She caught a ton of cards over the last few hours. When I asked Perry about his thoughts as the action got down to three players, he said, "It's close."

9:14pm... $2K NL Final Table update: The players went on a 10 minute "unscheduled" break. Felicia suggested to me in an IM that the players were cutting a deal. They waited until the lesser experienced players were out before they chopped the remaining prize pool and play out for the bracelet. It happens all the time but we never see it or hear about it. I cannot confirm nor deny these accusations. I report what I see and I didn't see any of them talking to each other during the break. I was quick to point out to Felicia that on the TV tables, ESPN often controls the action. There are breaks for a few reasons. The first is that ESPN workers are unionized. They are entitled to short breaks by contract. Secondly, the cameras need to change tapes. This definitely slows down the action, but allows me to run off to the bathroom. This is part of the behind the scenes action that I never got to see when I watched poker on TV from the comforts of home. The dealers hold off on dealing turn and river cards until the cameras can get into position. Seriously, the ESPN crew works their ass off. I have a lot of respect for those guys.

9:30pm... $2K Limit Final Table Update: Miami John was knocked out by Toto Leonidas. Rodeen Talebi and Tommy Graza were both booted. Three players remain.

9:37pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Perry Friedman was all in preflop with the Hilton Sisters. Erik Seidel quickly called with pocket aces. From the rail, Phil Gordon yelled out, "Come on Perry! Suckout!" Perry's hand did not improve and he came in third place and won $196,455 for his efforts. Erik has almost a 2 to 1 chip lead over Cyndy. Wow, I made a bet with Felicia hours ago. I picked Erik Seidel and she took Cyndy Violette. It's going down to the wire.

10:05pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Phil Gordon is the chipleader and TJ Cloutier is not far behind. Mike Sexton and Richad Brodie are still alive. Chau Giang was just knocked out by a bad beat AQ vs. KQ. Mike Sexton knocked out Humberto Brenes. Sexton had Big Slick and Humberto had Mrs. Slick. Does that make Mike Sexton a wifebeater?

10:37pm... I am bored outta my tits. The Limit event has been playing three way for an hour. Cyndy and Erik have been heads up for an hour as well. By the way, if you click on the photos that appear in this post, they will enlarge. Just in case you horny guys wanna get a closer look at Clonie or if you want to try to count Mike Sexton's chips. By the way, I fuckin' love this photo of Perry Freidman with Clonie and Tara Ried.

10:40pm... $2K NL Final Table update: Cyndy took her shoes off and she's playing barefoot. Am I hunting for material or what? Did you know that Erik Seidel has 6 WSOP bracelets? He's trying to win his 7th. Cyndy is looking for her second.

11:06pm... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: I'm gonna call this the Phil Gordon update in honor of the April Sisters. Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon doubled up with pocket aces. Yesterday he had his aces cracked by David Pham's TT. This time they hold up.

11:30pm... $2K NL Final Table update: We have a winner. Erik Seidel won. Cyndy pushed all in preflop with 99. Erik called with 88. The flop: 5-5-8. The pro-Cyndy crowd seemed dejected. Cyndy didn't catch anything to help her and Siedel won. Congrats to Erik and Cyndy for almost two hours of intense heads up action. Cyndy takes home $295,970. Erik won $611,795 and his 7th WSOP bracelet.


2005 WSOP $2K NL Champion: Erik Seidel
After Erik won, his wife brought over a cellphone and he called his daughter to tell her that he won. It was a touching moment and I guess he didn't realize he was talking to her right in front of me. I asked his wife if she thought he had a shot at a bracelet this year. She honestly said, "I never thought he'd make another final table ever again with so many more people playing every year."

12:02am... As I was walking around stretching my legs I spotted an interesting $25/$50 NL cash game involving Clonie Gowen, Jen Tilly, Phil Laak, and Antonio Esfandiari.

12:04am... $2K Pot-Limit Hold'em update: Mike Sexton and my main man Freddy Deeb are sitting at the same table. TJ Cloutier is out.

12:05am... $2K Limit Hold'em update: Still three way. This can and will go until dawn.

1:45am... $2K Pot-Limit update: Phil Gordon was knocked out in 27th place when Marco Traniello flopped the nuts against him. 26 players left.

2:00am... $2K Limit Final Table update: They have been playing three way for five hours. John Myung, Toto Leonidas, and Reza Payvar are not going anywhere it seems. Reza has a huge chiplead. As Andy Bloch commented, "This is a race for second place."

2:16am... $2K Limit Final Table update: We're down to heads up! Thank fuckin' God. John Myung got bad beated too, which sucks for him. I was rooting for him. Toto Leonidas played 7-3o and won with a pair of threes, beating Myung's A9. John Myung won $83,755 for third place. We're heads up.

2:55am... $2K Pot-Limit update: We're down to 20 players. Thor Hansen was KO'd. Play will resume at 2pm tomorrow when they will play down to 9. The final table will be taped by ESPN on Tuesday.

For complete results check out the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results. Don't forget to chuck out Flipchip's 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery. Some of the pics you see in this blog come from Flip Chip. I will be writing recaps for Poker Player Newspaper. Take a peek at that.