Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event -- Event #30 $1,500 Razz -- Event #29 $2K NL Day 2 -- Event #28 $5K Limit Final Table

I thought someone was trying to break into my apartment. I heard screaming and loud banging up against my front door. I woke up and jumped out of bed. I grabbed the first thing I could find... my laptop... and I was ready to smash it over the head of any intruder who dared entered my sanctuary. When I ran into the living room/kitchen area I didn't see anyone. I put down the laptop and grabbed an empty bottle of beer. I found a new weapon and I was prepped for a possible home invasion.

I heard another loud "Thud!" against my front door. I reluctantly peeked through the blinds and saw a black guy lying on the ground and another guy kicking and punching him. The loud noises where the guy's head getting bashed up against my front door. The noise stopped and I heard the assiliant run away. I thought about calling the front desk to complain. It was 9:04am and I had only been to sleep for a couple of hours. I picked up the phone and told the girl who answered the phone about the fight. They said they would call the police. I tried to go back to sleep. They guy who got his ass kicked had a friend who came by a few minutes later to help him up.

"I'm gotta end this shit now. I can't have people getting a beat down at my parties," he said.

And as the cop car rolled up, they disappeared. I starred at my fake stucco ceiling trying to fall back asleep. Things had been slow at the Redneck Riviera, until last night.

Moving on...

I taped an interview with an Austin radio show called Texas Hold'em Radio, that focuses on poker. Matt Stephans is the host and due to technical problems I only appeared on one segment. It was fun and I'm enjoying doing little side projects, specifically Sean's podcast... the Lord Admiral Card Club.

I'm exhausted and today is going to be a busy day. I'm covering 4 tournaments today including Razz, which features bloggers Felicia Lee and Tanya, along with Jen from Poker Wire and Mike Sexton.

Today's tournaments include:

Event #28 $5K Limit Final Table
Event #29 $2K NL Day 2
Event #30 $1,500 Razz
Event #31 $5K NL Short-Handed Event

There were 269 players in the $5K Limit event with a prize pool of $1,264,300. The prize pool for the $2K NL event is $1,972,480 with 1072 players buying in. Last year's defending Razz champion T.J. Cloutier is playing in a another event. There are 301 players in the $5K NL Short-handed event.

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

2:30pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Here are the final table seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Joe Sebok (San Francisco, CA) $184K
Seat 2: Annie Duke (Portland, OR) $150K
Seat 3: James Kwon (Chicago, IL) $227K
Seat 4: Gabe Kaplan (Los Angeles, CA)$209K
Seat 5: Dan Schmiech (Houston, TX) $219K
Seat 6: Young Phan (Irvine, CA) $144K
Seat 7: Luke Neely (Austin, TX) $94K
Seat 8: Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV)$38K
Seat 9: Greg "FBT" Mueller (Vancouver, BC) $89K

In the writer's pool.... BJ took Young Phan. I picked Mr. Kotter aka Gabe Kaplan. Heather took Joe Sebok. Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan went with Annie Duke. By the way, Heather is one of the nicest people that I get to work with every day in press row.

3:00pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: 45 players started playing today. Here who is left: Rohit Chopra, Michel Abecassis, Ronnie Jackson, Alan Purdy, Brandon Wong, Jarl Lindholt, J.C. Tran, Benjamin Lin, Morgan Machina, Ryan Larson, Barry Greenstein, Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf, Jeffrey Greenstein, L. Gosney, Marcello Del Grosso, Patrick O'Connor, Hyung "Shack" Ko , Scotty Brown, Humberto Brenes, Kendall Fukumoto, Tony Rila, Jim "Krazy Kanuck" Worth, Rob Hollink, Chris Karagulleyan, Jim Pedrotti, Warren Karp, Lance Turner, Bjorn Isberg, Mike Johnson, Carlo Citrone, Steven L. Hipes, Michael Barns, Danny Noam, Kathy Kolberg, Jonny Popper, Chad Brown, Henry Kim, Chuck McCormick, Paul Kroh, Devinfish Ulliott, Matthew Piggott, David Rubin, Richard Pace, Brian Gelbano, and Douglas Carli.

3:25pm... Razz update: Not much to report. Tanya has about $2K in chips and she described her game as "Up and down, like a yo-yo. But a good yo-yo." Felicis has about $800 left and Jen from Pokerwire is up to about $1750. Phil Ivey is sitting at the table next to me and he's getting a massage. I spotted Andy Bloch, Ted Forrest, Jean Gaspard, Doyle Brunson, and Cowboy Hoyt Corkins. Felicia ripped into me right away from the first moment I saw her. She is sitting at one of the closest tables to press row. Felicia said she was going to get sick by staring at my bald spot. She's a class act isn't she? I'm tired so I had very little patience today. I put on a hat to appease the poker queen. Now she has no excuses for busting out early.

3:31pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: With a shortstack, Jeff Shulman doubled up with pocket aces against Young Phan's A-3. Shulman now has $80K in chips

4:03pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Greg Mueller was the first player elimianted from the final table. On the flop if Ks-7c-4s, Phan bet out, Mueller raised, Phan reraised, and Mueller called the rest of his chips and he was all in. Phan flipped over 8-8 and Mueller showed 9-9. Mueller was in the lead until Phan caught a runner-runner straight to knock him out. Greg Mueller won $25,285 for 9th place. James Kwon continued to be the chipleader.

4:10pm... Razz update: Phil Ivey is both out. Felicia is down to $500. Tanya now has $3200 and is running over her table.

4:15pm... $5K NL Shorthaned update: Howard Lederer, John D'Agostino, and Daniel Negreanu have been eliminated. Chip Jett is one of the chipleaders. Johnny World, Scotty Nguyen, Jesus, Allen Cunningham, John Juanada, Layne Flack, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, TJ Cloutier, Doyle Brunson, Harry Demetriou, and Phil Hellmuth are still left. I spotted Daniel Negreanu in the cash game area.

4:30pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Mr. Kotter put a wicked bad beat on Young Phan. Gabe Kaplan had 10-3 and flopped bottom pair. Phan had A-3 and flopped bottom pair with a top kicker. The river was a ten, and Mr. Kotter's three outer sent Young Phan home in 8th place. He won $37,930.

4:55pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke and her As-Qs caught a runner runner flush to knock out Jeff Shulman. He flopped top pair with KJ. Jeff Shulman was elimianted in 7th place and won $50,570.

5:00pm... Razz update: Felicia is still short stacked. She started out with A-2-3-4 and caught brick, brick, brick and lost a big pot. Jen Creason is cruising. She has $3300. Tanya had about $3000+. Oliver Tse from Poker News has been elimianted.

5:05pm... $2K NL Day 2 update: The Devilfish, Humberto, and Chad Brown have been eliminated. They are down to 27 players and Barry Greenstein lost a big pot.

6:07pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Welcome Back, Mr. Kotter. Gabe Kaplan doubled up three times in the last fifteen minutes. He survived all in attempts each time and is still alive.

6:40pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok is on a rush. He scopped a big pot and moved into the chip lead.

6:45pm... Razz update: I bumped into Dave Nunley in the hallway while he was on break in his Razz event. I also met his wife who was sweating him. Dave qualified on Full Tilt and I met him a few days ago when he was hanging out with Kim from Lips Tour. He's got $1600 left and had Marcel Luske at his table. Daniel Negreanu is sitting there now. Jen Creason has $3000 in chips. Felicia busted out.

6:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I spotted Antion Esfiandari brushing his teeth in the Men's Room. I also have a new list for you guys...

Last 5 Professional Poker Players I Took a Piss Next to...
1. David Williams
2. Tom McEvoy
3. Men the Master
4. Bret "Gank" Jungblutt
5. Phil Gordon

By the way, I'm starting to loathe tourists. They block up the aisle and slow down traffic when I'm trying to run from one side of the poker room to the other.

6:52pm... $5K NL Shorthanded update: Phil Hellmuth, John Bonetti, and TJ Cloutier are all out.

6:55pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Luke Neely was short stacked and busted by Annie Duke. He finished in 6th place and won $63,215.

7:30pm... All tournament players are on a dinner break. I grabbed a double cheeseburger at the deli near the sports book. Yummy. Time for me to catch up on freelance work. Be back soon.

8:55pm... Razz update: Jen Creason is at a crazy table. She has Johnny Chan, Kristy Gazes, and her fiancee Andy Boch there. Before Johnny Chan sat down, Phil Gordon was playing at her table as well.

9:20pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke doubled up on two hands, once against Gabe Kaplan and the other against James Kwon. She had Hiltons on the last one agianst pocket Jacks.

9:25pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok's pocket Kings doubled up against Gabe Kaplan's Big Slick.

9:32pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Joe Sebok was knocked out in 5th place by Annie Duke. Joe had pocket 3's to Annie's K-7. Annie flopped a King and Joe's hand failed to improve. Joe Sebok won $75,860.

So how about some random pictures that Flipchip took today? Don't forget to visit his 2005 World Series of Poker photo gallery.


Layne Flack's big stack


Behind the scenes during at the TV table


Minneapolis Jim Meehan agonizes over a call while Tom McEvoy watches


What's on Daniel's iPod?
10:34pm... Razz update: 72 players left. I saw Felicia. She told me that she was knocked out int he bottom 1/3 of the field. She suspected that Tany busted sometime after the second break and before dinner. Jen Creason knocked Johnny Chan out a few minutes ago. Jen might be the first player to knock out a 10 time WSOP bracelet winner.

10:39pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Gabe Kaplan took over the chip lead ($640K) after he won a monster pot from James Kwon who only has $200K remaining.

10:48pm... $5K Limit Final Table update: Annie Duke was shortstacked and moved all in preflop with QJ. Dan Schmiech called with A-2 and his hand held up to eliminate Annnie Duke, who won $88,500 for fourth place.

12:33am... $5K Limit Final Table update: James Kwon moved all in with AJ. Dan Schmiech called with Ah-5h and caught some of the flop with a pair of fives. Kwon's hand did not improve and he was elimianted in 3rd place. He won $113,785. Dan Schmiech has a 2 to 1 chip lead over Gabe Kaplan.

We have reached heads up play.

12:35am... Bouncin Round the Room: I'm tired, exhausted, overworked, eating horribly, drinking too much, and I starting to get a little bummed out about some personal things. During the last break, I went for a walk and on my way back, I found myself in the long corridor connecting the casino to the convention center where the WSOP was being played. The hallway was empty aand I had my head down. At the last moment I looked up and saw the angelic Isabelle Mercier sauntering my way. She cracked a smile and as I caught a wiff of her tantilizing perfume I uttered, "Bon soir."

She said the same thing back to me as her smile widened twofold. I kept walking and all of a sudden forgot about my problems.

12:54am... $5K Short-handed update: Texas Dolly has a huge stack! Look out, kids. Here is who's left: Doyle Brunson, Lane Flack, Jason Lester, John Hennigan, Men "The Master" Nguyen, John Kabbaj, Kiril Gerasimov, Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Chris Ferguson, Chip Reese, and David Singer.

12:56am... $2K NL Day 2 update: We're down to a final table. Here's who will return tomorrow: Carlo Citrone, Hyung Shack Ko, L Gosney, Bjorn Isberg, Tony Rila, Dustin Woolf, J.C. Tran, Alan Purdy, and Jarl Lindholt.

1:00am... $5K Limit Final Table update: We have a winner! Gabe Kaplan was eliminated in second place. He won $222,515. Dan Schmiech won his first bracelet and $404,585.


2005 $5K Limit Hold'em champion: Dan Schmiech