Event #6 Shorthanded 6-Max NL Day 2 and Event #7 $1000 NL w/ Rebuys Day 1

Today is my third day on the job and I'm exhausted after another late night covering a final table. The last two bracelet winners... Efro and Pat Poels... won around 4am and 3:30am respectively. I stay up a good two or three hours after the bracelet presentation finishing up my work. Please forgive me for any typos or errors you see here. I will do my best to publish accurate information. Sometimes the lack of sleep and time constraints causes me to make mistakes. If you see anything wrong, feel free to drop me an email and tell me where I messed up. You can read my recap of Event #5 over at Poker Player Newspaper.

Moving on...

Wednesday begins with two NL tourneys going down. There are 13 players left on 3 tables for the second day of the $2500 Shorthanded 6-Max NL event #6. It started yesterday with 548 players. The prize pool is worth over $1.2 million. If you are wondering about this event, there are only 6 players per table in this tournament so the action is much faster than a regular full tournament table of ten players. You can't wait for good hands when you play shorthanded. You must play a lot looser or you will get blinded down. The structure makes this tournament a lot more interesting and I'm positive I won't be sitting around until 4am waiting for this one to finish.

Andrew Black started Day 2 as the chipleader in the 6-max event. Alex Prendes is the shortstack with $16,700. The blinds will start out at $1500/$3000 with $500 antes.

Event #7 begins today as well. It's a $1000 buyin NL tournament with rebuys. There is a single or double add-on at the end of Level 3. The prize pool in this event should be very juicy because some of the pros can dig deep into their pockets. In 2004, Daniel Negreanu engaged in a ridiculous amount of rebuys with 27. That's a record, I think. Daniel took third and Gerald Drehobl ended up winning $365,900 and a bracelet in last year's event.

****** Live Blogging Updates ******

1:00pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: You cannot walk around for a minute without hearing someone shout, "Rebuy!!" Chip runners are going to be earning their keep today. By the first hour, there were 420 rebuys. Daniel Negreanu already is up to his 10th rebuy.

1:54pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: Someone moved all in with The Hammer!! You gotta love rebuy tourneys. Where else can someone push with 7-2o?

2:30pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: It's break time. The rebuy period is over. When the players return they have an option of one last single rebuy or a double rebuy. Without fail, Daniel Negreanu had 10 rebuys and 2 add-ons. Other notables digging deep into their pockets included Erick Lindgren and Gavin Smith with 8 each.

3:01pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: I saw a huge crowd gathered around one table. I call it a power table... one with a bunch of notable pros like Andy Bloch, Fossil Man, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, and Barry Greenstein. I would not want to be sitting there!

3:20pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Alex Prendes was knocked out in 13th place. He won $10,085.

4:00pm PCT... 6-Handed NL update: Mel Judah was knocked out by Antonio Esfandiari in 11th place. Abe Almalhi had pocket aces and he doubled up against Antonio. His stack took a big hit. As of now, there are seven players remaining. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $374K. Antonio is the shortstack with a bit under $8K in chips.

4:01pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: 526 players are left.

4:20pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Tommy Grimes knocked out Abe Almalhi in 7th place. We reached the final table. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader. Antonio is the short stack. Here they are:

Seat 1: David Barnes (England) $148K
Seat 2: David Singer (Brooklyn) $122K
Seat 3: Isaac Galazan (Miami) $285K
Seat 4: Harry Demetriou (England) $453K
Seat 5: Tommy Grimes (Houston) $278K
Seat 6: Antonio Esfandiari (San Francisco) $86K

4:35pm PCT... David Barnes moved all in with Ah-Jh. Isaac G called him with pocket tens. The flop was 7-4-3 with two hearts. David flopped the nut flush draw and two overcards. His hand did not improve and he was booted in 6th place. He won $50,415.

4:36pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Harry Demetriou and Antonio Esfandiari went heads up preflop. Harry had pocket 8s and Antonio showed KJo. Harry won the race and Antonio was knocked out in fifth place. He won $63,020. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $515K. Isaac G is second with $435K. Tommy Grimes is third with $270K. David Singer is the short stack with $125K.

4:37pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Tourney announcer Johnny Grooms said that there was gum underneath the table at Seat 2. The victim in this incident was David Singer. He stopped the action to remove the glutinous obstruction. Nolan Dalla, the WSOP media director, turned around to me and said, "That's blogworthy." So here it is. We're one week into the tournament and one of the best poker players in the world discarded their gum the old fashioned way. Although we do not know who is the culprit, we do have a list of unusual suspects.

5:02pm PCT... NL Rebuy update: There are 340 players remaining. At the power table... Andy Bloch, John Juanda, and Greg Raymer were all eliminated. Jesus Ferguson was also knocked out, but at a different table. Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi doubled up Daniel Negreanu. The Grinder moved all in after the flop with 10-8s. He had an open ended straight draw along with a flush draw, but missed all of his outs. Daniel's Hilton Sisters held up.

5:30pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Four players still remain. The blinds are now $3K/$6K. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $542K. Isaac G is in second with $416K. Tommy Grimes is third with $258K. David Singer is the short stack with $128K.

5:33pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: David Singer's K9 doubled through against Isaac G's pocket Jacks. David flopped a King and his hand held up.

5:37pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: Mike Matusow, Clonie Gowen, and Carlos Mortenson have all been knocked out. Clonie had JJ and ran into the Hilton Sisters. Mike Matusow's Big Slick ran into the Hiltons as well.

5:58pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: Four players still. Harry Demetriou almost has a 2 to 1 chiplead over the rest of the players. Only $90K separates Tommy Grimes, Isaac G, and David Singer. Can Harry win his first WSOP bracelet?

6:31pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: David Singer moved all in on the river with pocket nines. There was an ace on the board and another overcard showing on the board. Harry Demetriou held a weak ace and thought about calling for a while. He wondered whether or not he'd be outkicked. He finally called and showed A4. His top pair was enough to knock out David Singer in fourth place. David won $75,625 for his efforts. Harry is still the chip leader with 3 players left.

6:39pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: 230 players are left. Mimi Tran had a nice sized stack along with Chip Jett. They counted all the rebuys: $1,495,000. It had to be physically counted a few times. That's a lot of $100 bills! The prize pool for the NL Rebuy tourney is about $2.2 million.

7:00pm PCT... 6-Handed final table: We've reached the dinner break. Harry Demetriou is the chipleader with $750K. Issac G is second with $417K. Tommy Grimes is the shortstack with $118K.

8:00pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: 210 players are left at the dinner break. Freddy Deeb has $38K. David Williams is sitting on $33K. Mimi Tran has $32K.

8:15pm PCT... Dinner break is over for both events.

8:21pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: On a flop of Q-J-7, Tommy Grimes moved all in with J8. Isaac G called with Q9. A king fell on the turn and a three came on the river. Isaac G won the pot and Tommy Grimes was knocked out in 3rd place. He won $85,705. We are now heads up. Harry has over $850K in chips. Isaac has about $500K.

8:32pm PCT... NL Rebuys update: Daniel Negreanu is currently getting a massage at his table. Scotty Nguyen walked over and joked around with him.

8:38pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: In a weird hand, Harry Demetriou called and all in bet from Isaac G. The flop read: 2-5-6. Harry had 6-4... top pair with a gutshot draw. Isaac had pocket nines. The turn was a king and the river a nine. A lot of folks in press row wondered why exactly Harry called that all in bet, me included.

8:41pm PCT... 6-Handed final table update: Severely outchipped by Isaac G. Harry moved all-in preflop with Q9. Isaac called with KJ. The flop: 4-5-8. The turn: 5. At that point Isaac motioned to the female dealer and said, "One more, Love!" Harry had six outs. Isaac began making kissing sounds as the dealer burned one card then flipped over the river. It was a 2 and Isaac won with King high. By far he was the most junilant winner that I've seen since I began covering the final tables. Harry Demetriou finished in second and collected $163,850 for his efforts.


Isaac Galazan the new 2005 Short Handed 6-Max WSOP Champion
Issac won $315,125 and a gold bracelet. He wasn't even going to play in this event. But he couldn't wait until Friday to play, so he bought in. He lives in Thailand where gambling is illegal so there are no casino there for him to play. Another amazing story. Congrats again to Isaac.

You can read a full recap of the event on Poker Player Newspaper and Lasvegasvegas.com.

Don't forget to check out pictures of your favorite pros in the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery.

2:22am PCT... NL Rebuys update: We are "in the money." 42 players are left. Jen Harman was just knocked out. Freddy Deeb and Scott Fischman have also been eliminated. Daniel Negreanu bubbled out when his top pair, weak kicker was beat out by a straight.