WPT Borgata Open

I'm blogging live from the Borgata Casino in lovely Atlantic City, NJ. I'll be here over the next few days covering the WPT Borgata Open. Buy-in is $10,000 and players start with $20K in chips. I'm sitting in press row with BJ from Card Player along with Heather and Jen from Poker Wire. It's a mini-WSOP reunion.

I can't tell you how much I missed working along side those cool folks. We seriously bonded during our six weeks together and spent many moment working until sun up. They are some really great people and make the insanity of covering a tournament a lot easier with their comedic skills, their professionalism, and their willingness to share information.

When I walked into the huge ballroom upstairs, I found myself standing next to Courtney Friel, the new hostess of the World Poker Tour. She's stunning! Her episodes won't hit the air until March 2006.

I missed Day One of the action because I was flying from Amsterdam to New York City. You can head over to Poker Wire or Card Player to see what happened. This year's WPT Borgata event started with 515 players. The prize pool is over $1.5 million and the top 45 players are getting paid. Action will end tonight when there are 45 players remaining.

Here's the payouts (thanks to BJ):

1st: $1,498,650

2nd: $799,280

3rd: $427,115

4th: $349,685

5th: $299,730

6th: $249,775

7th: $199,820

8th: $149,865

9th: $99,910

10th-12th: $64,942

13th-15th: $49,955

16th-18th: $34,969

19th-27th: $24,978

28th-36th: $14,987

37th-45th: $12,489

Over half the field was eliminated on Day One which inlcuded a ton of big name. Here are some notable bustouts on the first day: Johnny World Hennigan, Mel Judah, Chris Bigler, Liz Lieu, T.J. Cloutier, Edward Moncada, David Williams, My Main Man Freddy Deeb, Johnny Bax, Paul Darden, Andrew Black, John Myung, Miami John Cerruto, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Tilly, Harry Demitriou, Mike Wattel, Phil Ivey, Toto Leonidas, Mimi Tran, Hoyt Corkins, Padraig Parkinson, Brad Kondracki, Dan Heimiller, Phil Unabomber Laak, and Amnon Filippi.

At the end of Day One, only 285 players survived out of 515. Tom Coan emerged as the early chip leader with over $280K in chips. David Benyamine was a close second along with WSOP runner-up Steve Dannemann is among the chipleaders with Chip Jett and David Pham.

Early on Day Two Chris Jesus Ferguson was knocked out when his Big Slick lost to A-9. Ouch. Even Jesus gets kicked in the junk every once in a while. Also eliminated were: Tim Phan, Mike Gracz, Quinn Do, Tony Cousineau, David Benyamine, Erik Seidel, Bob Stupak, Chip Jett, Carlos Mortensen, Cyndy Violette, and Steve Brecher.


New WPT Hostess Courtney Friel (click to enlarge)


Erick Lingren (for Heather & the April Sisters)

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

4:54pm... Bouncin Round the Room: In the corner they have a pretzel and root beer stand. They sell root beer floats and two cute Russian girls are working the booth. I was trying to see if they wanted to go up to BJ's room and party later tonight. Next to the pretzel stand, they also have a Dunkin Donuts booth! I spotted the WPT camera crew doing a few promos with Courtney Friel. I chatted for a few minutes with Barry Greenstein. He wanted to know a little bit more about the EPT.

5:15pm... Recent Eliminations (courtesy of Poker Wire): Allen Cunningham, Minh Nguyen, Mickey Appleman, JC Tran, Farzad Bonyadi, and Jean-Robert Bellande.

6:08pm... Alan Goehring has been knocked out. Players are on a dinner break until 7pm. 11 tables are left or about 110 players. Luke Chung is our chipleader with about $440K. Time for me to do my football pool picks!

7:09pm... Players are back from dinner break. Blinds are $800 and $1600 with $300 antes.

7:30pm... Bouncin Round the Room: I went downstairs to the Italian deli and I just devouvered one kick ass cannoli. The room is quiet right now, which is odd after a dinner break. Usually players losen up and there a lot of all ins. Steve Zolotow and Blair Rodman are out. However, Kathy Liebert, Josh Arieh, Erick Lindgren, Surinder Sunar, Layne Flack, Kristy Gazes, Clonie Gowen, John D'Agostino, Steve Dannemann, Evelyn Ng, Ted Lawson, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Tex Barch, Russell Rosenblum, and David Singer are still alive. I just had a quick conversation with Andy Bloch. He suggested that they go to 9 handed tables to speed up the action, even 7 or 8 handed. That way, it forces players to play more hands and the tourneys don't last forever.

7:50pm... Russell Rosenbloom has been eliminated.

8:00pm... I posted pics of me annoucning the final table in Barcelona over at the Tao of Pauly. Take a peek!

8:05pm... We're down to 10 tables. TJ Cloutier is standing in front of us near media row. I wonder if he was playing craps earlier?

8:30pm... Syracuse Chris has been busted out.

8:35pm... How about some more pics?


The remaining players


Evelyn Ng


John D'Agastino
8:50pm... Bouncin Round the Room: It's been a long time since I did this installment! Back by popular demand...

Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next to:
1. Erick Lindgren
2. Josh Arieh
3. Steve Dannemann
4. Tex Barch
5. Andy Bloch

9:12pm... Kristy Gazes was busted by David the Dragon Pham. Bill Gazes was also eliminated.

9:25pm... Layne Flack has been eliminated.

10:59pm... I just got busted from the Titan tourney. Derek had his A-A cracked. Ouch.

11:08pm... We're down to 72 players. Franklin Caldwell is the chipleader.

11:30pm... Quote of the Day (courtesy of Jen from Poker Wire): "Of course I knew what a blowjob was, I was in junior high school for God's sake!"

12:17am... Action has completed for Day 2. There are about 62 players remaining. Mike Matusow and John D'Agastino are among the top chip leaders. Franklin Caldell is the chipleader. There were some other notable players still left including Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng, Tex Barch, Josh Arieh, Erick Lindgren, David Pham, JC Tran, Barry Greenstien, David SInger, Steve Dannemann, and Chris Grigorian. Play will resume at 11am on Wednesday. Tomorrow we'll play all the way down to 6. So we'll have two bubbles... the money bubble and the TV bubble.

 

 

 

New WPBT Tournament Tonight!

Just a reminder... Iggy set up a new WPBT tournament for us on my birthday of all days. Everyone's been bitching all summer long about having another blogger tournament, so where is everyone? There were only 17 people signed up so far. That's not impressive numbers.
What's the deal? Iggy worked pretty damn hard to set this up and I'm skipping out on work coverign the WPT just to play.

So what's your excuse? Sign up and fund your Titan Poker account now! If you don't like Titan, then tough shit. I'd prefer to play on Poker Stars or Full Tilt but if we do, that means some of our closest friends cannot play in the WPBT events because they work for those online sites. Titan is the best alternative.

I'll be running up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament, if that's incentive for you to play. If you crack A-A with Q-Q, I'll give you an autographed copy of one of my novels and I'll throw in a $10 gift certificate to Blockbuster.

Sign up today. Don't wait until the last minute!

What: WPBT No Limi Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Password: thehamma

This event is open to everyone... bloggers and readers!

Some Pics

I posted a few pics over at the Tao of Pauly including one of Gus Hansen sleeping on a table. Go see for yourself.

New WPBT Tournament on Tuesday

Just a reminder... Iggy set up a new WPBT tournament for us, on my birthday of all days. And yes, I'll be running up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament! If you crack A-A with Q-Q, I'll give you an autographed copy of one of my novels and I'll throw in a $10 gift certificate to Blockbuster.

Sign up today. Don't wait until the last minute!

What: WPBT Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Format: No Limit
Dress Code: Pants are optional
Password: thehamma

I'll be in Atlantic City covering the WPT Borgata Open on Tuesday, but I will sneak off to play in this event. See you there!

Yeah, I leave Spain in less than twelve hours and I'm pretty sad to go. I must say that I kinda like it here... a lot. Man, if I didn't have the Borgata Open and the Boatyard Bash, I'd stay here in Europe for a few more weeks. Did I happen to mention how I'm slowly falling in love with Spanish women?

Anyway, I stayed up all night after I wrote until sun up. I wandered around Barcelona all morning taking a few pictures and thinking about everything that went down this past week. I decided that I am the Forrest Gump of the poker bloggers. I'm the luckiest person I know. I'm just a dumb ass who somehow gets fortunate time after time.

While I was announcing the final table last night, I had one of those moments... how the hell did I get here?

One year ago just a few days shy of my 32nd birthday, I was broke, losing my hair, kicked out of my studio and without a place to live, and unemployed (unless you count playing Party Poker as a job). You all know what's happened to me since then. Un-fuckin-believable.

Stupid is, stupid does.

Next stop... New York City.

The Barcelona Open - Day 2

Well, I'm back at the Casino de Barcelona for the second and final day of action on the EPT. It seems like I only left here a few hours ago! I'm pretty excited. The bubble time is always fun. And today we have two bubbles... the money bubble and the TV bubble.

As the conclusion of my first EPT event is underway, I must say that I was impressed with how everything was set up. Sure, they weren't prepared that so many people would want to play, but overall everything was very professional. If it wasn't so damn expensive to travel through Europe, I'd love to be on the road follwoing the EPT on every destination. Alas, I have other obligations and tournaments to cover over the remainder of this year. But I'll be back in 2006 to cover at least one or two EPT events.

It's raining in Spain today. I didn't think it rained in Spain. Oh well. Last night it was pouring when I left around 5am. I caught a cab with Howard from Poker Stars and Brandon Schaefer. In order to catch a cab, we had to fight off a crowd of drunks who were kicked out of the casino. Yeah, casinos are not 24 hours here.

This afternoon, I ate lunch at the mall next to the Princess Hotel. Man, it was jam packed with hot women on a Saturday afternoon. Talk about leaps and bounds from the skinny toothless crack whores who roamed the hallways at the Redneck Riviera.

Moving on...

44 players are left. Here's an unofficial chip count courtesy of TK from Blonde Poker. The Great Dane appears to be the chip leader.

Gus Hansen 219.2k
Mika Puro 207k
Anders Gidgon 205.8k
Peter Gunnarson 192.8k
Nicholas Martin 173.9k
Feriould Romain 167.5k
Jan Slavik 103.9k
Luca Pagano 101.2k
Peter Ohlson 96.9k
Mike Luumi (?) 94.6k
Joachim Geigert 92.7k
AnbJorn Hagd (?) 87.5k
Kirill Gerasimov 85.1k
Richard Redmond 83k
Carlos Mortensen 73.4k
Jemil Butt 70.5k
Bueno Patrick 67.9k
Dario Alioto 64.5k
Patrick ?? 62.8k
Richard Ashby 62.6k
Fougeron Thomas 62k
Jan Boubli 61.6k
Greek Jack Dionysiou 60.1k
Christer Johannson 56.7k
Ben Callinan 50.5k
Alex Bowler 49.8k
Eskillon Hans 49.4k
Thomas Gunderson 49.1k
Ranigal Simms 45.2k
Iwan Jones 43.1k
Robert Binellii 42.7k
Richard Baldwin 42.7k
Patrick Martenson 39k
Luke Smith 37.7k
Anton Berstromm 37k
Hakon Warstead (?) 36.3k
Michael Zasdenberg 34.6k
Michael English 30.8k
Steve Day 28.7k
"Smokin" Steve Vladar 26.1k
Richard White 20.2k
Edik 19.8k
Liam Flood 18.3k

I will be posting the payouts as soon as they are relased. Stay tuned for some live blogging updates! And there's a small chance that I will be doing some annoucning/emcee'ing today. Action was supposed to resume at 3:30pm local time, but that's a few minutes away and it looks like that's not going to happen.

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

3:37pm... Cards are in the air! Blinds are 3000/6000 antes are 600. 43 players are starting Day 2. They are not taping anything until the final table, so my short-lived European TV career has come to an end. David Hasselhoff can breathe a sigh of relief. Although, I hear I'm huge in Belgium. (I love that "line" from the 1990s flick Singles when Matt Dillon played the stoner lead singer of Citizen Dick, which also included actual members from Pearl Jam, and he told a music reporter that his band was big in Europe.)

3:44pm... Here are the payouts. Top 27 pay. EPT final TV tables are 8 handed.

Final Table Payouts:
1. 416,000 Euros
2. 228,000 Euros
3. 117,000 Euros
4. 91,000 Euros
5. 78,000 Euros
6. 65,000 Euros
7. 52,000 Euros
8. 39,000 Euros

And the rest:
9. 26,000 Euros
10-12th 15,600 Euros
13-15th 13,000 Euros
16-18th 10,400 Euros
19-27th 7,800 Euros

3:55pm... We have a writer's pool going on the time the final table will end. Here's who has who:

Matt from Gutshot 12:45am
TK from Blonde Poker 3:15am
Howard from Poker Stars 2:30am
Tom from Antes Up 2:31am
Pauly 4:00am

4:00pm... Here are some random pics:


The final 5 tables


Media Row


Moving all in
4:20pm... I was having coffee with a few folks from Poker Stars and Isabelle Mercier sat down. I asked her about what she thought of the tournament structure at the EPT. The levels are 45 minutes and she said they were too short.

4:35pm... We're down to 29 players!

5:01pm... We've reached the bubble. 28 players are left. Gus Hansen's stack is now almost 290K.

5:08pm... Former WSOP champion Carlos Mortensen bubbled out in 28th place when his 10-8 ran into A-J. All remaining players made the money and will win at least $7800 Euros.

5:10pm... The best name at this year's EPT has to be Jemil Butt from Norway.

5:13pm... Players are on a ten minute break while the player's color up. I spoke to Christer Johansen for a few seconds. He started the day with 47K and now he has over 137K. He was involved in the huge hand yesterday when his A-A held up against Gus Hansen's A-7s (Gus flopped a nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw) and the wild Finnish kid Ilari's Hilton Sisters.

5:25pm... Blinds are 5K/10K with 1K antes. 27 players remaining.

5:35pm... I can't keep up. Everyone is going all in right now. Richard Ashby from England was just elimnated in 25th place when his Hilton Sisters were cracked by J-J. 24 players are left. Mike Luumi took 27th and Peter Ohlson busted out in 26th place. They all won $7,800 Euros.

5:45pm... Christer Johansen doubled up. He now has almost 300K.

6:00pm... I spoke to John Duthie, creator of the EPT and he said some positive things about my annoucing stint yesterday. "It's good to hear an American voice do poker. It's proper." His feelings were echoed by one of the guys in the "truck." He explained, "When you hear a documentary, you expect to hear a British voice. With poker, it's natural to hear an American voice. It sounds right." Maybe I can parlay this into a gig! Ah, probably not. They were all being nice. I'm glad I didn't fuck up as a pinch hitter.

6:11pm... Were down to 21 players. Thomas Gundersen finsihed in 23rd and Ben Calliman took 22nd. They both won $7,800 Euros.

6:20pm... We're down to 20. Luca Pagano was eliminated when his K-J ran into K-Q. Who say's the Kournikova doesn't win? Gus Hansen is over 400K now. Gus with chips is a dangerous thing.

6:45pm... I had a quick bite to eat at the bar with Tom Murphy. We had a great discussion on the different styles of play from the different Europeans as compared to how Americans play. It could become great material for a future article. In short, the Scandanvians/Nordic countries are hyper-aggressive. And most Europeans think Americans play too tight.

7:00pm... We're down to 12 players. Gus Hansen has over 700K in chips right now. Andreas Hagen was 19th, Richard Redmond took 18th, Joakim Geigert busted out in 17th, Peter Gunnarsson was 16th, Nicolas Martin finished in 15th, Iwan Jones busted out in 14th, and Thomas Fougerou was out in 13th.

7:35pm... We're down to 9 players. Michel Zajdenberg was out in 12th, Patrick Bueno took 11th and Jemil Butt busted out in 10th place. We've reached the TV table bubble!

8:00pm... We're down to 8 players when Mika Puro was knocked out in 9th place. Everyone is on a dinner break while they set up the TV table. Action will resume at 9:15. Here's who's left: Gus Hansen, Patrick Martensson, Jan Boubli, Romain Feriolo, Christer Johansson, Patrick Antonius, Anotn Bergstrom, and Dario Alioto.

9:55pm... After a huge delay, the final table is ready to begin. Cards are in the air! Here's who made it:

Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Coppenhagen, Denmark) $743K
Seat 2: Patrick Martensson (Stockholm, Sweden) $281K
Seat 3: Jan Boubli (France) $292K
Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Marabella, Spain) $282K
Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Holliken, Sweden) $885K = Chipleader
Seat 6: Patrick Antonius (Helsinki, Finland) $331K
Seat 7: Anotn Bergstrom (Lund, Sweden) $338,500
Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Palermo, Italy) $87,500

Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Denmark) 3 time WPT Champion


Seat 2: Patrick Mortensson (Sweden)


Seat 3: Jan Boulbi (France)


Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Spain)


Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Sweden)


Seat 6: Patrik Antonius (Finland)


Seat 7: Anton "Doogie Howser" Bergstroem (Sweden)


Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Italy)

10:15pm... We have our first elimination from the final table. Romain Feriolo was knocked out in 8th place by Christer Johansson. On a flop of K-10-9, Feriolo moved all in with 10-2. Johansson called with 10-9 and he turned a full house. Romain Feriolo won $39,000 Euros for 8th place.

10:33pm... Holy shit!!! John Duthie asked me if I could announce the final table for a level or two later on tonight to give Thomas Kresmer a breather.

10:40pm... Dario Alioto was shortstacked and moved all in with KQ. Patrik Anontious called with A-10 and it held up. Dario Alioto was eliminated in 7th place. He won 52,000 Euros.

11:11pm... Gus Hansen had been getting beat up by the three Swedes at the table. he lost a lot of his stack to them. He moved all in with A-8 versus Patrik Antonius's pocket threes. He caught his ace and doubled up.

11:13pm... Anton Bergstrom was knocked out in 6th place by Gus Hansen. Anton had Q-10 and Gus had A-4. Gus caught trip 4s and Anton was eliminated. He won $65,000 Eruos for 6th place.

1:30am... I'm back after annoucning the final table for the last two plus hours. We're down too three players. Christer Johanssen is the cipleader. Jan Boulbli is second and Patrik Antonious is last in chips. I need a stiff drink after the two most stressful hours of my life and collect myself. Be back in a few minutes after I get my shit together.

1:48pm... OK, here's the run down so far. Gus Hansen lost a big pot with Ks-7s to Patrick Mortensson's A-Q. Patrick Mortensson was the short stack and moved all in. Gus called. Both players caught a runner runner straight but Patrick's was higher. I incorrectly called the hand and announced that Gus won to the crowd. Gus corrected me and said that he lost. I thought he was pissed at me, but I just spoke to him and he was cool with that. Gus Hansen's stack took a big hit. He eventually was eliminated in 5th place when his Ks-Qs lost to Jan Boulbi's J-J. Gus Hansen won $78,000 for fifth place.

In the battle of the Patricks... Patrick Mortensson was eliminated in 4th place when his 8-8 ran into Patrik Antonious' Q-Q. The young Patrick Mortensson won $91,000.

Patrik Antonious was eliminated in 3rd place when he missed a flush draw with Ks-3s on a board with As-4s-Ah. Jan Boubli flopped two pair with 3h-4h and it held up when Patrik failed to catch his flush. Patrik Antonious won $117,000 for third place.

2:15am... We have a new champion. Jan Boubli from France won the Barcelona Open! With K-Q he caught a Queen on the river to beat Christer Johansson's As-2s. Christer flopped two pair on a board of 8-2-8. Bother players got their money all in on the flop. The turn was a rag and the river gave Jan Boubli the win. Christer Johansson won $228,000 Euros for second place. Jan Boubli won $416,000 Euros for first place and a seat to the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo in March of 2006.


Jan celebrates his victory


Jan Boubli the 2005 Barcelona Open Champion


Jan's check


I was filling in for Thomas Kresmer
That's it for now. See ya in Atlantic City in a few days where I'll be covering the World Poker Tour and the Borgata Open.

The Barcelona Open - Day 1

Yesterday, I bumped into Marcel Luske getting out of the elevator. He's staying in my hotel, the Barcelona Princess. Last night, I headed over to the Casino de Barcelona to survey the scene. You need to show your passport to get into the casino. You also have to pay. I got in for free because I'm with the media and help from the Poker Stars crew. I must say that everyone at Poker Stars has been extremely accomodating to me. They really made life easier in Spain and are allowing me unfettered access to everything. So thanks to Mad, Tamar, Marta, Conrad, Howard, and everyone else I forgot to mention at Poker Stars. Yeah, even Otis too!

The poker room is located downstairs and they had 25 tables spread out. They were setting up the "TV table and stage" while a satellite for today's event was ongoing. The relatively small room was super crowded. I spotted Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey who was trying to win a seat in today's $4000 Euro main event which begins at 4pm local time or 10am New York City time. His buddy Tom Murphy was around as well. They will be providing coverage of the EPT for their Irish readers over at Antes Up. I met both guys at the WSOP. The Irish guys are always buying me beers at a faster pace than I can drink them. Lacey continued this tradition on one of his breaks. Yeah, there's a bar like five feet from the poker room. I spent a lot of time there getting to know my good friend... Senor Cerveza.

I also chatted with John Gale for a little bit. He's a good guy and will be playing a mixture of EPT and WPT events during the remainder of the year.

Otis told me that I needed to hang out with Brandon Schaefer. He's the best player under 26 that you never heard of. He was the runner up in the Grand Finale at Monte Carlo last year and he also won another event on the EPT. He's a cool guy too. He got even more respect from me because when I introduced myself he said, "Man, I love your blog." Yeah he's reads the Tao of Poker. Pretty cool. I ended up having dinner with him and several members from team Poker Stars, including Mad.

For lunch today, I got to crash the Poker Stars luncheon for their players. On a big screen in the center of the room, they showed clips from last year's EPT Barcelona event, which was cool because I never saw any of the episodes. Brandon told me that most of the episodes from Season 1 are available for download at bit torrent. I also got to eat another meal with Brandon and two of his friends from Seattle. It's hard not to root for such a nice guy.

Conrad spoke for a little bit and he even introduced me as a reputable member of the American media. He's obviously never read any of my clips. Ha! I've been eating fish at every meal since I arrived in Spain and lunch was no different. I also got to catch a glimpse of the stunning Caroline Flack, who is the hostess for the EPT. She's the Shana Hiatt of the EPT and was conducting random player interviews during the luncheon.



Any pictures and live blogging updates will appear below.

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

2:45pm... There was only one snafu I encountered at the Casino. There was no wifi access near the poker room. Tom Murphy said that you can get a faint signal if you sit outside the disco on the other side of the bottom floor. So that means I don't think I can do a ton of live blogging like I anticipated. If the connection problems clear themselves up, you can expect frequent updates and photos. If not, you can always follow Howard who will be blogging for Poker Stars in place of Otis for this event.

3:25pm... Wifi access problem has been solved! I rode over to the venue on the shuttle bus with Dan Roth, an American qualifier from Seattle, and Isabelle Mercier. I chatted with both for a bit. I spotted Tony G, Barny Boatman, Marcel Luske, and Gus Hansen waiting in line to get into the Casino.

3:45pm... Guess what? Tamar from Poker Stars asked me to emcee the TV table today. I will be taking turns with tournament director Thomas Kremser and Howard from Poker Stars. We'll be alternating levels. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it should be fun. Basically, I'll be doing my best Johnny Grooms imitation announcing raises and all ins on the TV table. I highly doubt that I will be on the broadcast because they usually cut those bits out. So I'll be doing some live blogging in between. Good thing I'm only midly hungover today.

4:20pm... The tournament was scheduled to start at 4pm. We're running late and will begin at 4:35pm. I'll be starting my announcing duties at the beginning of level 2.

4:48pm... Cards will be in the air shortly.

5:00pm... Blinds are $25/50 to start with 45 minute levels. 294 players are in with a waiting list of 90 players deep. First place should pay well over $400,000 Euros. Last year 227 players enetered the first ever EPT event in Barcelona. Play will begin shortly. On the feature table is Brandon Schaefer, Gus Hansen, Pascal Perrault, and Daniel Larrson.

5:05pm... Cards are in the air!

5:17pm... On the feature table, Gus Hansen's A-A held up against Daniel Murelius' K-K.

5:41pm... 8 minutes until show time for me. I hope I dont royaly screw up!

6:41pm... Well I'm back. I announced level two of the featured TV table and I was super nervous. Here's who was there:

Seat 1: Pascal Perrault
Seat 2: Christer Johansen
Seat 3: Theo Jorgenson
Seat 4: Frederick Ostervald
Seat 5: Peter Eichardt
Seat 6: Gus Hansen
Seat 7: Daniel Larrson (and later... David O'Callahan)
Seat 8: Brandon Schaefer
Seat 9: Ilari Shames

So I tried to act calm, but I wasn't. Before this all went down, I went to the production truck and talked to one of the producers and directors. The production crew is all British. They were pretty cool and gave me some guidelines. Again, I have no clue what I'm doing and only pitched in because I was asked by Tamar from Poker Stars since the normal TD is overwhelmed with the huge turnout at this event. The PA was a nice gal named Francine and she told me not to worry. When I finsihed she said that everyone in the truck thought I did a good job. Oh the best thing out of all of this... I got to wear a Poker Stars shirt. I think I get to keep it too.

Anyway... it was awesome to watch Brandon play. I was going to sweat him at some point today anyway and he was surprised to see me up at the TV table with a microphone in my hand. I watched Gus Hansen hit quad queens. He cracked Daniel Larrson's pocket aces. Gus raised preflop and Daniel reraised. Gus called. The flop had one Queen. Gus bet, Daniel raised, and Gus called. The turn was a Queen. Gus checked and Daniel checked. On the river another Queen fell. Gus bet $4000 which covered Daniel, who called. Gus showed Qd-8d for four of a kind which beat Daniel's A-A. I put Gus on a Queen too after I saw his hand shaking when he went to count out his chips. He joked afterwards, "It was hard to get away from flopping top pair."

It's one thing to cover tournaments from media row or the sidelines. It's a whole other world be that up close and watching several top notch players go at it.

9:12pm... I'm on a dinner break. Half the field goes on dinner break while the other half plays. Anyway... Brandon Schaefer has about 11K in chips. We chatted at dinner. He's waiting for good hands. I got some positive criticism from the roducers about my announcing skills. They wanted me to give more information on the sizes of the pots. Counting up chips is harder than I expected!

9:40pm... Marcel Luske told me he has $13K in chips. Peter Roche has about 17K.

11:00pm... I just announced for a third time. The blinds are now 200/400 with 50 antes. Gus Hansen has $46K. Brandon Schaefer has $9K. Dan Roth has about $15K the last time I checked.

11:05pm... 324 players bought into this event. Top 27 players will make the money and $416,000 Eruos goes to the winner. This event has the most entrants of any EPT event.

11:11pm... Here are some random photos. I'm no where close to being as good as Flipchip, but here's my best efforts.


David O'Callahan (left) and Brandon Schaefer


American Dan Roth (center)


Isabelle's eyes wander


Marcel Luske's peeks at the flop

11:12pm... The guys at Gutshot told me some news about Isabelle Merceir. She was short stacked and moved all in with A-5. She flopped two pair and tripled up. She has about $7K plus now.

11:21pm... Bouncin Round the Room: It's been a long time since I did one of these updates. Here's the deal. People smoke everywhere in Europe. The small downstairs floor of the Casino de Barcelona sits under a thick veil of second hand smoke. Since it's Friday night, there are people here at the casino who are dressed up in their most fancy clothes. The men are wearing tuxes and expensive suits and the ladies are wearing stunning cocktail dresses. Damn. Hot. European. Chicks. Aye Carumba! And some of them have seen me announce the TV table. Media row is underneath the grand staircase. I'm sitting at a table with Howard from Poker Stars (when he's not announcing the TV table), the Brits from Gutshot, and the Irish guys from Antes Up. Rolf Stolbloom is in the corner too. Tom Murphy agreed to buy us a round of drinks in media row. There is open seating for $10/20 Hold'em. It's in Euros and that's the lowest limit they have.

11:31pm... Brandon Schaefer was eliminated. He had 7-7 and was heads up with Gus Hansen. The flop was 10-3-2. Gus checked and Brandon bet. Gus check raised and essentially put Brandon all in. Brandon reluctantly called and Gus hsowd J-10. Damn. Brandon played well all day and night. He endured a difficult table including Gus Hansen to his right and some Finnish kid Ilari Sahamies to his right, who was raising every pot.

11:35pm... I heard that Devilfish is out.

12:40am... Isabelle Mercier is out. Her K-K lost to 9-9 when her opponent caught a four flush on her. Dan Roth has about 22K. 163 players are remaining.

12:44am... I just completed my level of announcing. The levels were 300/600 with 100 antes. Christer Johansen tripled up with A-A against Gus Hansen's Ad-7d and the Finnish wunderkid Ilari Sahamies's Q-Q. Gus flopped a nut flush draw and gutshot straight draw. However, Christer's A-A held up and he tripled up his stack. Ilari was eliminated and Gus Hansen lost a big chunk of his stack.

2:00am... My European TV career is over for the time being. The TV table will no longer be taped, so I am free to drink at the bar with the Irish guys. The TD made a decision to end pla at 4:30am and resume tomorrow at 3:30pm and play it out then. 108 players are left.

2:10am.... Dan Roth has about 50K in chips!

2:30am... Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Tony G, and Barny Boatman have all been eliminated. 90 players left according to Mike "Lucky Blind" Lacey. Carlos Mortensen, Liam Flood, and Gus Hansen are still in.

3:00am... Bouncin Round the Room: I headed to the bar about thirty feet from where I'm sitting in media row for a few late night cocktails. Service is awful in Europe but the drinks are cheap. Three beers cost $7.50 Euros. I saw producer for the EPT TV series. He told me I did an excellent job and might need my services again tomorrow if the TD is still busy since there will be another event tomorrow starting. By the way, both production assistants are cute British chicks. And they are both blondes. They both told me I did a great job. Alas, I can't tell if they are being honest or doing that polite British things.

3:30am... 64 players remaining on 7 tables. American Dan Roth is still in the mix.

4:20am... 46 players remaining. Action will end in 10 minutes. Then I get to stay up until dawn writing recaps!

4:30am... Play has been stopped. 44 players remain. Action will resume at 3:30pm local time. That's 9:30am NYC time or 7:30am Las Vegas time. By this time tomorrow, I hope that we will have a new EPT champion!

New WPBT Tournament on Sept 20th!

Are you guys ready? Iggy set up a new tournament for us, on mybirthday of all days. And yes, I'll be setting up a Hilton Sisters Challenge during the tournament!

What: WPBT Tournament
Where: Titan Poker
When: Tuesday, September 20th at 9pm ET
Buy-in: $20 + 1
Format: No Limit
Dress Code: Pants are optional
Password: thehamma

I'll be in Atlantic City covering the WPT Borgata Open, but I will sneak off to play in his event. See you there!