Day 4 World Series of Poker Main Event

Last night I told the cabbie to take me to home. He flat out said, "I used to live there. You gettin' along with the hookers and drug dealers?"

I swear, the Redneck Riviera has a well-known reputation around town for being the place to get a $20 crack whore and a $20 baggie of rock. If it weren't for the strippers, I would have moved out a long time ago. But then I'd have no material. Who wants to live in the Rio anyway? Jay Greenspan has been here since Day 1 and he hasn't seen sunlight in weeks.

A couple of hippie kids (or spun out wookies as my buddy the Joker would say) moved in to the adjacent complex. There are at least five of them in a mini-school bus. I assume they are heading out East to catch the Trey Anastasio Band tour. There are two white guys with dreadlocks longer than Bob Marley ever had. There are three girls and two of them have hairier armpits than me. I hit on the clean shaven one.

Of course, they have a puppy. What is a neo-hippie clique without a puppy? The girls have weird names like Astral, Rainbow, and Jupiter. They walk around in a half-daze. I wonder what the fuck they are doing in Las Vegas?

Moving on...

The only time I spend outside is when I'm standing around sweating my balls off waiting for a cab. I walk for one minute from the drop off to the front of the convention center. Then it's a three minute walk down a dimly lit large corridor with doors to other convention rooms all over the place. Right now there are more pre-teens in town for a dance competition. It's nerve racking to see so many underage girls dressed up like strippers and the Hilton Sisters. I shuffle by numb to all of them.

I rush by all the tourists who are trying to buy t-shirts or get pictures of their favorite overrated poker pros. I glance at the hotties that the various poker companies hired. Imperial and Let's Poker hired college girls and they have that fresh girl-nextdoor look that I like. They wear tank tops and short jean shirts or skirts. Bluff hired models and actress wannabes who wear tight shirts and spread out all over the poker room and hallways. They are near perfect, but dumb as shit. Absolute hired strippers and porn stars. They have fake boobs the size of beach balls and I swear I must have seen half of them dance at Cheetah. When I walk past the, I have this strange feeling I've seen them in a dozen or so adult films. I like the hot Swedish girls that sell the poker chips. If I only spoke Swedish...

I'll be covering Day 2 of the $1500 event. Double As is still in. That coverage will be in blue. He's the damn chip leader for fuck's sake! And he took a few bad beats too last night.

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

12:17pm... Cards are in the air. We have one hour left in Level 17. Antes are $500. Blinds are $2500/$5000. 185 to start.

12:21pm... Greg Raymer already busted someone on the first hand!! One guy limped. Raymer raised. Limper reraised and Raymer called. The flop was all clubs and all rags. The guy moved all in with K-K. Raymer had the Ace of clubs and called. He caught a flush on the turn and knocked out Daniel Shak. 184 left.

12:27pm... Pocket eights vs. pocket eights. Lee Watkinson hit a four flush. Ouch. 183 left.

12:28pm... Featured Table update: Andy Black, Joe Beevers, Mike Matusow, David Plastik, and Dustin "Ugly Jumpsuit" Woolf are here.

12:34pm... 180 left.

12:39pm... Fuckin' blogger ate my post. Arrrgggg! 177 left.

12:45pm... ESPN and the Rio set up a much better system today. The media have an inner perimeter set up so I can walk around. I still can't go inside for more than 5 minutes at a time without a special badge. But I'm much closer than yesterday. In fact, that picture of Raymer was taken from my seat in press row. I can see Fossilman and his white socks with Tevas.

12:50pm... Otis read my comment about readers posting WSOP hands in my comments section. He laughed and said, "Let them blog it. We can go to the bar and drink instead." What a great idea! It bothers me because that information is not 100% verified. I like to double check big hands with ESPN and tournament directors (and BJ at Card Player) before I post it. Even Card Player and Poker Wire make mistakes, and I know I definitely do. In order to cut down on that, I have to wait before I hit publish. Believe me, I get and see this information minutes before you ever do.

12:55pm... Dutch "Tool" Boyd is out. His K-10 ran into Pocket Aces. Sorry Dutch. I'm really going to miss you.

1:05pm... 170 players left.

1:15pm... I walked the perimeter. I watched a crazy hand with Phil Ivey and John Juanda where Juanda took down a $200K pot. Last night, Juanda and Paul Darden were battling each other.

1:17pm... Jay "Big Shot" Greenspan is telling me a story about hitting Quads last night at the Palms. He took home $900.

1:24pm... Players are on a break. Level 18 begins in a few minutes. Antes are $1000 and blinds are $3K/$6K. They are racing off the pink $500 chips. 167 left. Poker Wire is having a tough time getting access to the floor to get chip counts.

1:35pm... Recent Bustouts:

The following players won $39,075:
185 Sean Blanton
184 Michael Malloy
183 Daniel Shak
182 Allan Seiger
181 Merhrdad Yousefzaden
180 Michael Leaky
179 Martin Hans Cedercrantz
178 John Brown

1:45pm... Featured Table update: BJ scored some chip counts. Mike Matusow has $450K. Dustin "Used to be Neverwin... now called Bad Jump Suit" Woolf has about $350K. Joe Beevers got $125K. My new favorite player Andy Black has $250K.

1:53pm... 162 players left.

1:55pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The railbirds are three and four deep along the outer perimeter. The stands here at the featured table are jam packed. They added a third. There only used to be two, now they have three. There are some in house fighting with chip counts. Several sites are trying to share information but it's not working. A few railbirds complained that I was standing in front of them. I like to check out a table for a few seconds and move on. But when they complain, I stay there longer. The heaviest populated spot is Phil Ivey's table.

2:01pm... Recent Bustout: I was out on the rail when I saw Paul Darden was busted by George Huber. I caught the end of it. Darden flopped a pair, but Huber rivered him.

2:10pm... Sorry about those bad links. They have been fixed. 154 players left. Raymer has $1.4 M. Phil Ivey has a bit under $500K.

2:14pm... "Aw, Fuck!!!" was shouted out somewhere. The crowd replied, "Oohhhh!" If that guy didn't get busted, he found himself a 10 minute penalty. I shall investigate... I found out it was Cliff Cantor and he's out.

2:20pm... Featured Table update: I chatted with Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey and he gave me some excellent background on Andy Black. "He's one of the best players ever to come out of Ireland," Mike explained. He's actually spent time in a monastery and took time away from poker to center himself. He almost won one of the Short-handed events early this year. He understands that he must be able to focus and stay calm if he wants to win. He has the skills. Let's see if he can make the Final Table this year. I also found out that Joe Beever's mother is Irish. So he's being considered "Irish" by the Irish bloggers.

2:35pm... 148 players remain.

2:36pm... Featured Table update: Joe Beevers is out. His K-9 lost to pocket tens. David Plastik is out as well.

2:40pm... $1500 NL Day 2 update: Double As started the day as the chip leader. Action has been going on for about 20 minutes. FYI... Amy & Sharla from Poker Pages will be covering this event. But I'll keep my eye on Double As progress. Can he e the first blogger to win a bracelet?

2:45pm... 144 players left.

2:46pm... Dan elaborated on a great story about Sammy Farha losing $25K in prop bets yesterday. Sammy and anothe rplayer at his table were playing $1K to pick a high card out of the scramble. TD's said it was not kosher to touch the cards. So they decided to bet $1K on coin flips. Sammy was stuck $25K and tossed the guy a $25K Bellagio chip to pay him off. How fuckin' crazy is that?

3:00pm... Bouncin Round the Room: The railbirds are now 5 people deep. Wow. I ran over to the bathroom. This list includes a few from last night and today...

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next to...
1. Minneapolis Jim Meehan
2. Joe Beevers
3. Marcle Luske
4. Eirk Seidel
5. Men the Master

3:01pm... 141 players left. 48 minutes left at this level.

3:12pm... Howard Lederer has been moved to John Juanda and Phil Ivey's table. Yes that is now Full Tilt central.

3:17pm... John Juanda is the biggest mover of the day. He's got now $750K after his pocket Kings held up to A-Q. How come hwne I have K-K against A-x that clown hits the ace?

3:20pm... 138 players left. I'm in the middle of writing a freelance article while uploading audio intervuews with Wil Wheaton. Talk about multi-tasking!

3:36pm... Recent Bustouts: John Juanda's suited Big Slick just busted Lederer's A-J. 133 left.

3:36pm... Featured Table update: Mike Matusow walked over to media row and said, "I'm playing the best poker of my life right now."

3:43pm... 129 left.

3:45pm... Flipchip couldn't spend a lot of time here yesterday. He's back and we have some more photos!


The 2004 winner's bracelet (click to enlarge)


More media than players


Charming Swedish girls in Press Row


Andy Black does his best Marcel imitation


Marcel playing in the $1500 event

Don't forget to check out Flipchip's 2005 WSOP Photo Gallery.

3:50pm... Mike Matusow told me he has $900K in chips. Players are on a 15 minute break. They will start Level 19, the antes will be $1K with $4K/$8K.

4:00pm... Recent Bustouts:

The following players won $39,075:
177 Dutch Boyd
176 Jan Haellen
175 Jason Kaplan
174 Joseph Vannata
173 Randall Brooks
172 Dennis Savelkawl
171 Matthew Fizgerald

The following players won $46,245:
170 Anthony Hill
169 Glyn Banks
168 John McLaughlin
167 Jeffrey Geiger
166 Kevin O'Brien
165 Mark tenner
164 Imad Samouna
163 David Sterman
162 Brick Richardson
161 Kjetil Praesttun

160 Paul Darden
159 James Pollack
158 Edward Pelliger
157 Thomas CLark
156 Daryll Dennfas
155 Mitchek Klien
154 Clifford Cantor
153 ????
152 Michael May
151 Thomas Koral
150 Joe Beevers

149 Frank Hernandez
148 Paul Manetta
147 David Platik
146 Yamtov Shabot
145 Mark Bryab
144 Babak Razu
143 Michael Kapener
142 Robert Law
141 Mark Graves

125 players are left.

4:15pm... $1500 Day 2 update: Double As lost half his stack. He's got $55K left. His A-Q lost to 5-5 with a flop of A-Q-5. There are two tables left.

4:17pm... Fossilman jawed with a railbird who was pestering his wife about their kids, "If you fuck with my daughter, you're dead." That guy was being a total idiot and I was about to call security to clear him out when the guy bolted.

4:20pm... Phil Ivey is sitting 10 feet from me. He is still in. My comments are an extention of my blog. If there is incorrect information in there whichis posted by readers, it reflects poorly on me. I'll ask once again, please think before you post any comment.

4:23pm... From my buddy at Gutshot... James Butt has $1.4 Million. Juanda has $1.2. Russ Hamilton has $910K.

4:37pm... 118 players remaining.

4:40pm... Featured Table update: New palyers are here, but they kept Mike Matusow for the cameras. He has $1.2 million.

4:45pm... JC Tan was busted when he ran into the Hilton Sisters. I watched Tim Phan knock out Nani Dollison. She looked so sad too. She played great for several days. Very rarely do you see emotion on the faces of poker players... until they bust out and everything comes crashing down. You push yourself so hard and focus for so long that so many things break down as soon as you lose.

5:08pm... John Juanda has about $1.1 Million right now.

5:24pm... Raymer had a major suck out against the tale's smallest stack who moved all in for $70K with J-J. Raymer had 6-8o and caught runner-runner straight to bust Gen Wantanabe, who is Japanaese. With the deepest repsect, he bowed to Raymer and said something to the effect, "I am honored to have been knocked out by the World Champion." And he bowed again. That's class. Too bad most Americans are boorish idiots and would be cursing and acting up for the cameras. 109 players left.

5:35pm... Featured Table update: Mike Matusow has $1.45M. Thanks to BJ for his dilligent work. 106 players left with the avergae chip count at $535K. 20 minutes until the next break. Red Stripes here I come.

5:42pm... Thanks to Shirley who added a few $$$$ to my Poker Stars account for free beers at dinner. She's so sweet. Thanks! If you would like to contribute to my beer fund, I'd rather have you sign up for the Charlie Tuttle tournament. Details are below.

5:45pm... I just saw Raymer get bluffed off of a huge pot by Bonyadi with a Ace on the board, Raymer bet almost a quarter million and folded when Bonyadi came over the top. He showed the King high. Raymer took a hit, but still has over $1M.

6:00pm... I think it's dinner break. Otis and I are headed to the hooker bar. Try not to hurt yourselves while I am gone.

7:30pm... Liquid dinners rock. I flopped Quad Jacks playing video poker. I was up $30 and cashed out. Otis' lovely assistant Mad introduced me to Barney Boatman of Hendon Mob fame. Nice guy. He said he's going to check out my blog. At the hooker bar, ESPN was on TV. They were airing ESPN, specifically last year's 2004 WSOP. I saw Shirley Williams (David's mom) hug BJ from Card Player when David survived an all in with A-9 vs. Dan Harrington's 9-8o. We're giving him guff about that right now.


I hit Quads at the "Hooker" bar

7:35pm... Level 20 is starting now. Antes are $1K. Blinds are $5K/$10K.

7:40pm... Featured Table update: Tiffany Williams, according to poker historian Mike Paulle, is the first woman to make $1M in chips. Also there is John Juanda.

7:42pm... 100 players remaining!

7:45pm... Recent bustouts:

The following players won $54,965:
140 Paul Fisher
139 Daniel Alaei
138 Michael Cribb
137 Scott Numoto
136 George Dickson
135 Adma Brosious
134 Joe Liebman
133 John Pappas
132 Howard Lederer
131 Dimitri Eidelman

130 Chris Drozdowski
129 Amit Sander
128 Bob Hotchandani
127 Brett Weisner
126 Thomas Roupe
125 Kit Phaphon
124 Joseph Toth
123 Njorn Lindenberg
122 Alexander Dierich
121 Paul Vicary

120 Tom Shaneberger
119 Krystal Nelson
118 Stephen Deetz
117 JC Tran
116 Douglas Gehring
115 Kun Nan Dollison
114 Louis Lo
113 ???? John Doe ???
112 Kevin Kim
111 Joseph Simmons

The following players won: $65,360
110 Glen Wantanbe
109 Matt Fitzpatrick
108 George Huber
107 Chris Podlewski
106 Mark Cole
105 Jospeh Chiosie
104 Rafael Perry

8:00pm... $1500 update: $321K goes to the first place winner. Double As had a big hand with a short stack. K-Q vs. K-2... and he had to chop! Erik Seidel made the final table. I think he busted out in 12th. Double As won $13,100.

8:21pm... According to BJ's stellar math skills, the average stack is $610K. Raymer is barely above average. There are 91 players left. The over/under for tonight in press row is 75 players.

8:30pm... 89 players left.

8:45pm... Featured Table update: John Juanda has $840K.

8:50pm... I saw Phil Ivey won a huge pot. He doubled up with A-K vs. Brian Stellwagen's 8-8. Ivey flopped a King. Both players were all in on the flop. Ivey has around $1.6 Million.

8:57pm... 87 players left.

9:00pm... Otis told me about a huge pot Greg Raymer won. He flopped a set with pocket sixes and on the river filled up a full house. He's now back up to $1.3 Million.

9:05pm... Webber Kang was busted in 86th place. He moved all in with KK and lost to A-9. He had $800K at the dinner break and lost $600K within an hour.

9:10pm... 85 players left. $661K is the average stack.

9:15pm... Mike Matusow 1, Hilton Sisters 0. Matusow cracked Q-Q when he flopped a set with pocket fours.

9:35pm... Players are on a break. When they return, we'll be at Level 21. Blinds are $6K/$12K and antes are $2K.

9:45pm... "Acting like you've been award" goes to... Phil Ivey. He's got six bracelets and does he were them? Nope. Right now, he's got over $2M in chips and has his chips stacked up in a pyramid.

10:00pm... Featured table update: Mike Matusow's table is back. He told me he had $2M.

10:06pm... 81 players are left. Players who bust out now will win at least six figures.

10:07pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I saw Annie Duke talking to a few fans. A guy from Chicago named Tom stopped me. He said he read my blog. He was playing cash games. I also spotted Dr. Mark Burtman playing cash games as well.

10:14pm... Shane Bartholomew was bad beated when is pair of Jacks lost to K-9. 80 players remaining.

10:18pm... Featured Table update: More quotes from Mike Matusow, "I can't help it. I play so good that the chips just come to me."

10:22pm... Recent Bustouts:

These players won $65,360:
103 Alejandro Pacheco
102 Al Laughling
101 Chris Short

These palyers won $77,710:
100 Carmelo Menechello
99 Peter Hedlund
98 Thomas Drotleft
97 Robert Turner
96 Joshua Prager
95 Mike Wattel
94 Samir Shakhtoor
93 Nick Cassavantes
92 Jack Ernest Ward
91 James Olson

The following players won $91,950:
90 Brian Stellwagen
89 CK Hua
88 Jonathan Lane
87 Gabriel Walls
86 Webber Kang
85 Richard Zapwood
84 Kevin Wright
83 Marcello Del Graso
82 Jonathan Kalmar

The follwoing player won $107,950:
81 Shane Bartolomew

10:30pm... I'm getting email from all over right now. I'm too busy to write anything more than Thanks for reading! But seriously, it feels great to gets ome may responses from all over. Here's parts of an email I got from Travis in Australia!

Just wanted to drop you a line from Melbourne Australia to say thanks heaps for keeping us up to date with what's going on. The work days aren't terribly productive at the moment as I constantly refresh you site for the latest happenings. A bunch of us here in a syndicate that outlayed bets on numerous player to make the final table, we'll be rolling in it if Raymer, Ivey or Juanda make it.

Really enjoy your informative and humorous comments. The game of poker is starting to catch on down under with tournaments starting in our casinos and of course the access to online games. Me and my mates play all the time. Good luck in your future tournaments, I'll be sure to keep reading in future.

Thanks again.10:35pm... 79 players left.

10:50pm... Action has slowed... finally. Here are the $2M club guys: Tex Barch, Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow.

11:00pm... 77 players remain.

11:15pm... 76 players remain. Players have tightened up. we're 46 minutes way from ending the day. Mostly everyone is tired and trying not to make mistakes.

11:22pm... Recent Bustout: Jason Lester is gone. He took 76th. Ron Ware took 75th. There are 74 players remaining.

11:30pm... TD's annouced that we will play one half level, for five full levels. There's a mutiny here. Players are shouting, "No!!!!!" I'll be here for 90+ more minutes. Fuck. Oh well. That will make it 5 full levels of play or 10 hours of play. Maybe we'll get down to 69 players. I have more time to download porn and hit on the Swedish girls in front of me. I found out that the "bad beat" in Swedish is "bad beat."

11:35pm... Featured Table update: Mike Matusow's stack has dipped to below $1.6M.

11:42pm... Tiffany Williamson, a Columbia Law School grad, cracked K-K with A-Q. She won a $2M pot, which might be the biggest of the tournament so far. She over bets too much and plays like an internet player. One of my Gutshot contact told me she plays 5Pound tournaments in England. She won a $10 satellite to get here.

11:55am... Bustouts:

The following players won $107,950
80 Terry Myers
79 Sean Daulat
78 Kelly Zoudo
77 Alex Morales
76 Jason Lester
75 Ron Ware
74 Luis Calvo
73 Jake Minter

11:57pm... Raymer won a monster pot when he moved all in on a flop of A-J-8. He said he flopped a set of 8s. Tex Barch said he folded A-J. Otis called bullshit. It would be hard to lay down A-J there. He must have had Ace-Other. Anyway, Raymer is back to over $1.2M

12:00am... Players are on a twenty minute break. And so am I!

12:14am... Level 22. Antes are $2K. Blinds are $8K and $16K. 72 players remaining.

12:31am... 70 players left.

12:44am... 68 players left. Mad told me a great story. She's British and knows the Gutshot guys as well. Anyway, she said that Gutshot always interviews (on video) a player during the break. And like clock work before the end of the next level, that player is busted. This time, they resisted the temptation to interview her, because they don't want to continue the jinx.

12:48am... Featured Table update: Mike Matusow won a big hand and knocked out Jose Rodriguez, who's wicked pissed. Mike's J-J beat Big Slick. After he won, he high fived a few guys in the crowd. One guy missed and smacked him in the head. He shouted, "A coinflip! I won a coinflip!" and thrust his arms in the air. Matusow is on a roll with $2.2M. 65 players are left. Average chip count is $864K.

12:56am... 62 left. Sarah Bilney is out.

12:58am... Recent Bustouts:

The following players won $124,835:
72 Bob Larson
71 Tom Pniak
70 Vadim Shlez
69 Kevin McCarthy
68 Joe Berry
67 Jose Rodriguez
66 Richard Kirsh
65 Niklas Flisberg
64 Patrick Madden

The following players win $145,875:
63 Sarah Bliney
62 Patrick Madden
61 Manny Minia
60 Danni Awad
59 Russ Hamilton

1:08am... Fossilman lost half of his stack when his K-Q ran into A-Q. Damn kickers.

1:10am... Since everyone has been asking...


Tiffany WilliamsonDon't forget to check out Flipchip's WSOP photo gallery!

1:20am... Former WSOP Champ, Russ Hamilton was busted. Raymer is the only WSOP champ still in.

1:23am... Action is done for tonight. Play will resume at Noon on Wednesday. 58 players are left. $968K is the avergae chip count according to BJ's stellar math skills. We will play down to 27 tomorrow. We move to Binion's on Thursday. Final Table is Friday.

1:24am... Matusow has $2.5M. That makes him the chipleader. He asked Phil Ivey what he had. Ivey said, "Two million." See ya tomorrow.