Saturday, June 21, 2008

2008 WSOP Day 23 - Live Blog

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Welcome back to the zoo. I'm exaggerating, of course. There are no exotic animals behind bars but the Amazon Room definitely smells like a zoo. There's only one rule here and it's plastered all over the walls... Please don't feed the animals. Oh and then there's the disclaimer... Harrahs will not be responsible if any of your children catch hepatitis from the diseased-infested degenerates in today's field.

A few Tao of Poker fans are in the mix today including ChicagoJason, Kenneth "Drama Llama" Terrell, and Stuart from Poker academy, not to mention Martin & Ed and PokerNews' Haley. They were the brave souls who decided to rumble with thousands of other runners. The field was so packed that the poker room and Buzio's was used. At some point Harrah's will be putting poker tables in the buffet. You can feast on crab legs and runner-runner a gutshot at the same time.

Fat guys in bibs at the poker tables. Only at the World Series of Poker. It smells like Saturday.

There are four events running today including two final tables.
Event #36 $1,500 NL - Final Table
Event #37 $10,000 Omaha 8 - Day 3 and Final Table
Event #38 $2,000 PL Hold'em - Day 2
Event #39 $1,500 NL - Day 1
The O8 is down to 18 players and two tables. They will eventually play it out sometime tonight. And here's the one final table that is already set that features two guys who made the final table of the Main Event. Can you guess which ones?
Jesper Hougaard 1,582,000
Cody Slaubaugh 1,419,000
Danny Wong 1,105,000
Rick Solis 900,000
Justin Wald 873,000
Owen Crowe 674,000
Doug Middleton 356,000
John Shipley 269,000
Aaron Kanter 165,000
* * * * *


Tao of Pokerati is back with a new episode. Here's how Michalski described it...
This time Dr.P and I take a leisurely stroll through the Amazon room while discussing bad t-shirts, sunglass technology, and the relationship between Milwaukee’s Best Light, the WSOP, college kids, and Annette_15.

Download Episode #11: Floorplay (3:21)
To listen to previous podcasts head over to the Tao of Pokerati Archives.

* * * * *

3:19pm...

Went 0-2 the last two days betting on soccer. Croatia lost to Turkey in a shootout on Friday and the Ruskies whooped the Dutch. Oh well. I got Spain going tomorrow and Germany to win it all. I got two bets in at 3/1 and 6/1.

* * * * *

4:20pm...

Today's smoke break is brought to you by Fantasy Sports Live!


Event #36 $1.5K NL: Six players to go. Some guy you never heard of is the chipleader.

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8: Down to 13. Yeah, the final table is not set yet. It might not be for a few more hours. That tournament is gonna go late for sure. Anyway, Frenchman David Benyamine is the chipleader in the event. Mike Matusow has chips and is trying to make another final table... and possibly win his second bracelet. Daddy's favorite player, Chau Giang, is left but one of the short stacks.

* * * * *

5:37pm...

When I walked down the back service hallway, I caught a couple of random scenes. A guy who worked for Milwaukee's Beast (I could tell by the Beat polo that he wore) was carrying one of those six feet tall inflatable cans on his back. He said, "What's up?" as he lugged the can down the corridor.

I turned the corner and two cocktail servers were sitting down and having a heated discussion. It was a guy and a girl and they were obviously having a lover's spat in the hallway. She was crying and he looked exasperated. Another broken heart at the WSOP.

Yesterday in the same hallway there was a pigeon flying back and forth trying to find a way out and occasionally chilling out up in the air conditioning ducts.

Michalski pointed out that the cocktail servers are decked out in red All-In energy drink shirts instead of their usual attire. Apparently even the uniforms of the wait staff are up for sale. We wondered how much Harrah's whored that out for? How much did All-In and Johnny Chan fork over to get that done?

I walked over to the sports book to check up on the lines for tomorrow's Italy/Spain match. On my way back, I saw Eskimo wander around aimlessly in the area in between the electronic roulette wheel and the Hooker Bar.

* * * * *

6:28pm...

Been lurking around the final tables. Here's what I discovered...

Event #36 $1.5K NL final table: Down to four. Some guy you never heard of before is the chipleader. In the Year of the Pro, another no-name will sneak away with another bracelet.

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: With 10 to go we're technically on the final table bubble. Degenyamine is the chipleader. David Chiu, Toto Leonidas, Jason Gray, Tony Ma, Ram Vaswani are still alive. Berry Johnston and Mike Matusow are both short stacked.

* * * * *

7:28pm...

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: Berry Johnston bubbled out in 10th place. The final table is set...
Seat 1: Tony Ma (South El Monte, CA)
Seat 2: Jason Gray (Sydney, Australia)
Seat 3: Ram Vaswani (London, England)
Seat 4: Toto Leonidas (Glendale, CA)
Seat 5: David Chiu (Roland Heights, CA)
Seat 6: Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, NV)
Seat 7: David Benyamine (Paris, France)
Seat 8: Greg Jamison (Cedar Falls, IA)
Seat 9: Eugene Katchalov (Brooklyn, NY)


* * * * *

8:29pm...

Event #39 $1.5K NL: 2200 souls crushed. 2200 sheep fleeced. Less than 600 remaining.

* * * * *

9:43pm...

Event #36 $1.5K NL final table: Heads up for the bracelet. Cody Slaubaugh vs. Jesper Hougaard.

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: Down to 8. Tony Ma busted out in 9th place. The final table is being played out on Table Green #11. The table is surrounded by railbirds five and six deep sweating Matusow, who will occasionally stand up and talk to his girlfriend standing right behind him, or he's bantering with his fans. Erica Schoenberg is also on the rail sweating her beau David Benyamine. Ominous sign? There's a spectator standing right Benyamine and he's wearing a black t-shirt that reads "Degenerate Gambler." You can't make this stuff up.


Photo credit: Benjo

Event #38 $2,000 PLH: Meanwhile, over in the Brasilia Room... down to 10 and on the final table bubble. Germany's Jan Von Halle is the chipleader. Lee Watkinson is one of the shortstacks.

Event #39 $1.5K NL: 410 to go. Barry Greenstein among the chipleaders. Gobboboy just busted. He said, "I was playing with retards all day which is what I want because they pay the bills. What I can't stand are the douchebags who show no class."

* * * * *

11:33pm...

Event #36 $1.5K NL final table: And it's finally over. Another European won a bracelet... a Scandi finally.. Jesper Hougaard from Denmark took it down and collected the first 2008 WSOP bracelet for Scandinavia.

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: Ram Vaswani is out, as Benyamine took the lead with 5 to go. Matusow was shortstacked, but just busted out in 5th. Four to go. Of course the rail cleared out as soon as Matusow busted. They were there to see him.

Event #38 $2,000 PLH: Ten remaining. Final table bubble is still going down. Jan Von Halle and Lee Watkinson are up on top while Ben Roberts is the short stack.

Event #39 $1.5K NL: 288 to go. So close to the money bubble as the elusive carrot dangling in front of the jackass is about to be devoured. Barry Greenstein is the chipleader. Bind18 and Layne Flack are both still alive while both Boatman brothers from the Hendon Mob are busto.

Smoking with the Dealers: Overheard outside by the Poker Kitchen...

Dealer 1 (female): "I dealt to Devilfish the other day. He's sooooo creepy."
Dealer 2 (male): "One guy at my table today smelled like the weed. He must have had a bag in his pocket."

* * * * *

12:34am...

The after midnight edition... the casino is rocking, the hookers are flocking, the malcontents are bitching about bad beats in the hallways and the French guy is heads up for a bracelet and trying to become the second European to win a bracelet tonight.

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: Heads up between David Benyamine and Greg Jamison. Benyamine has a 3 to 1 chip advantage. Since it's 08 this could take a while.

Event #38 $2,000 PLH: Final table bubble broke. Finally. German Jan Von Halle is the chipleader.

Event #39 $1.5K NL: They are in the money. 243 players and counting.

* * * * *

12:57am...

Event #37 $10K Omaha 8 final table: Year of the Euro. David Benyamine wins the bracelet! It's his first and I actually saw him smile for the first time... ever.

So two Europeans won bracelets... congrats to both. I guess that's it. Thanks for tuning in. See ya tomorrow for my 24 th straight day of coverage.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.

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