Robert Varkonyi Poker Tournament Updates

Level Four, Hour One: Little Chops, Then Doubles

Jul 08, '10

Blinds: 150-300 with a 25 ante

Notable Chip Counts:

1. Brent Baldrey – 150,000
2. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 123,000
3. David Benyamine – 113,000
4. Paul Noriega – 112,000
5. Bretty Richey – 102,000
6. Anh Van Nguyen – 94,000
7. Jason Mercier – 91,500
8. Steve Billirakis – 91,000
9. Eric Buchman – 78,500
10. Victor Mendicuti – 76,000

Card Player Family Chip Counts

Jeff Shulman — 5,600
Steve Zolotow — 32,200
Jen Harman — 27,000

Big Hands:

Little Chops Up a Big One

Jonathan Little push his opponent all in for around 10,000 and was called. Their hands:

Little: AK
Opponent: AK

They held the same hand, but when the flop ran 527 Little saw he had a backdoor flush draw. “Freeroll,” he said.

But the board finished without two more diamonds and they chopped the pot. Little is still relatively short with just 13,000 in chips.

Lee Busts to Aces

A short-stacked Doug Lee got all in preflop holding 77, but his opponent held the big bad AA.

The board ran 552J4 and Lee was gone.

Varkonyi Loses Big One

Robert Varkonyi’s opponent was all in, creating a pretty large pot on a board of 2948J. Varkonyi tanked for a while before making the call. Their hands:

Varkonyi: J-8
Opponent: AK

Varkonyi’s two pair could not be his opponent’s nut flush, and the former main event champ dropped to 26,000 in chips.

Singer Flexes

The player under the gun raised to 1,000 and David Singer made it 3,400 to go. The blinds folded but the under the gun player called.

The flop came down 952 and the player bet 4,300. Singer made the call and the 9 fell on the turn.

The player checked and Singer pounced, moving all in for 10,625. His opponent mucked and Singer took the pot. He was at 20,000.

Freddy Deeb Getting Short

Four players, including Freddy Deeb, limped preflop and saw the KJ9 land on the felt. Everyone checked and the turn was the 5.

The player in seat 1 bet 700 and everyone folded. Deeb was ailing with just 9,000 after the hand.

Harman Gets Pushed

Jennifer Harman and her opponent in seat 9 saw a flop of J55. Seat 9 bet 2,600 and Harman raised it up to 6,600.

Seat 9 would not be pushed as he reraised to 14,600. Harman then went into the tank for a couple of minutes. The ESPN cameras noticed and surrounded the table. Harman shuffled her chips for what seemed like forever.

Finally, she threw away her hand and slipped to 27,000.

Rousso Jacks Up Opponent

Vanessa Rousso and her opponent saw a flop J98. The action preflop was unclear, but seat 6 eventually ended up all in for 27,250. Rousso made the call.

Rousso: JJ
Seat 6: A10

Rousso flopped top set but her opponent was drawing to an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the A, giving seat 6 a meaningless pair. The river was the 6 and Rousso dodged the draws to score the knockout. She was at 63,000 after the hand.

Pavilion Room Update

Johnathan Little Doubles Up

Jonathan Little bet 800 from middle position and it was folded around to a player in the small blind. The big blind raised to 1,800 and Little called. The flop came Q99. The big blind bet 2,000 and Little made the quick call. The 5 fell on the turn and the big blind bet 3,600. Little called with only 5,950 behind. An off suit four hit the river and Little’s opponent set him all in. Little made the insta-call for his tournament life. His opponent exposed the KK but was no good against the 98 of Little. Little doubled to over 30,000.

Shawn Sheikhan Outplayed

It was folded around to the small blind. Shawn Sheikhan was in the big blind and was asking for a walk. However, the small blind completed and Sheikhan checked. The flop came KK10 and it was checked to Sheikhan. He fired out a bet of 800 before being check-raised to 2,000. Sheikhan quickly folded and his opponent showed him the 52 for 5-high. Sheikhan was at around 20,000 after the hand.

Thomas Marchese Loses a Pot

With about 10,000 in the middle on a board of 1053Q6, Marchese checked and his opponent checked behind. Marchese’s opponent announced pair and tabled A5. Marchese mucked and was down to 23,000 after the hand.

Player Tags: Shawn Sheikhan,   David Singer,   Jennifer Harman,   Robert Varkonyi,   Doug Lee,   Jonathan Little,   Freddy Deeb,   Tom Marchese

Level Three, Hour Two: Lisandro Loses Big One, Still Healthy

Jul 08, '10

Blinds: 150-300

Notable Chip Counts:

1. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 132,000
2. Brent Baldrey – 128,000
3. Paul Noriega – 112,000
4. Anh Van Nguyen – 98,000
5. David Benyamine – 87,000
6. Lyle Berman – 87,800
7. Dan Heimiller – 87,500
8. Victor Mendicuti – 76,000
9. Steve Billirakis – 70,500
10. Eddie Sabat – 68,000

Card Player Family Chip Counts

Jeff Shulman — 7,300
Steve Zolotow — 39,500
Jen Harman — 59,800

Big Hands:

Lisandro Loses a Big One

Jeff Lisandro called a large bet on a flop of 4AJ and when the 3 fell on the turn his opponent bet 5,000. Lisandro again called and the 7 fell on the river. This time, both players slowed and checked the end. Their hands:

Lisandro: AK
Opponent: AJ

Lisandro had flopped top pair but his opponent flopped top two pair. Lisandro lost the pot and dropped to around 23,000 in chips.

Ivey Bullies Table Out of Pot

In a limped three-way pot Phil Ivey bet 600 after the flop of 569. Both of his opponents called and quickly checked to him on the 9 turn.

Ivey bet 1,800 this time and seat 3 folded, while seat 4 smiled and looked at Ivey, seemingly happy to be losing another pot to the best. He folded and Ivey took it down.

Ivey had around 25,000 after the hand.

Mercier Keeps Rolling

The player under the gun raised to 800 and the small blind made the call. Jason Mercier was in the big blind and called as well and the three players saw the flop come down K87.

Both blinds checked to the player under the gun and he fired 1,500. Mercier was the only caller and the turn was the 10. Both players checked and the 5 fell on the river.

Both players checked again and Mercier showed 65 for a busted straight draw but a rivered pair of fives. It was good as his opponent mucked and Mercier was at 72,000.

Greenstein Muscled Out

Picking up the action after the flop, the board read J42. The player in seat 1 fired 1,000 and Barry Greenstein made it 2,000.

Seat 1 then shoved for the rest of his stack. Greenstein had a perplexed look on his face after the move, then shrugged his shoulders and mucked. He was at 38,000.

Pavilion Room Coverage

Chris Ferguson Wins a Pot

With about 6,000 in the pot on a board of J763 Chris Ferguson bet 5,000 and his opponent went into the tank. Ferguson’s opponent asked him if he would show but once he didn’t get a response from the poker pro he folded and tabled the 99 for a pair of nines. Ferguson flashed 7-3 for two pair and raked in the pot. He was at 38,000 after the hand.

Fred Goldberg Drops a Pot

A player bet into Fred Goldberg on the river. Goldberg made the call and his opponent tabled Q-J for the nut straight. Goldberg mucked and was down to 15,025 after the hand.

Sheikhan Doubles Up

Shawn Sheikhan moved his short stack all in on a flop of K73 and was called by the player in seat 2. Their hands:

Sheikhan: K10
Seat 2: QQ

Sheikhan held the lead and his opponent was in trouble with only two queens or running hearts remaining as his saving grace. The 6 and 9 finished the board and Mr. Sheikhan doubled up to around 17,000.

Arieh With the Huge Double Up

Jason Potter raised to 725 and Josh Arieh three-bet it to 1,900. The player on the button called, but Potter got out of the way.

The flop ran 492 and Arieh bet out 2,325. The button player raised to 6,600 and Arieh made the call. On the Q turn Arieh checked and the button bet 10,000. Arieh moved all in for 19,400 and the button called. Their hands:

Arieh: 56
Opponent: KK

Arieh held the flopped flush and his opponent was drawing dead. The 4 finished the board and Arieh doubled up to 57,500.

Varkonyi Chipping Up

The 2002 winner of the main event Robert Varkonyi bet 7,000 on a board of 9810K and was called by one player. Varkonyi bet 7,000 again on the 7 river and his opponent tanked, eventually folding.

Varkonyi had around 47,000 after the hand.

Jason Alexander Wins Big One With Kings

Jason Alexander bet 1,000 on a flop of 253 and was called by one player. The 2 came on the turn and Alexander bet 5,000 into the pot.

His opponent called and the Q finished the board. Alexander checked for the first time and his opponent bet 7,000. Alexander called and they showed their hands:

Alexander: KK
Opponent: JJ

Both players held high pocket pairs, but Alexander’s was best. He took the pot and boosted his stack to 33,000.

J.C. Tran Wins a Pot

J.C. Tran bet 700 preflop and was called by the player directly to his left. The flop came 9-7-7 and Tran bet 4,075. His opponent quickly folded and Tran raked in the pot. He was up to 48,000 after the hand.

David Saab Takes Some off Kenny Tran

Kenny Tran bet 800 and David Saab three-bet to 2,000. Tran thought about it for awhile before making the call. The flop came K54 and action went check-check. The 2 fell on the turn and Tran checked again. Saab fired out a bet of 7,000 and Tran went into the tank. He eventually decided to muck his hand. He was at 30,000 after the hand while Saab increased his stack to 60,000.

Player Tags: Josh Arieh,   Chris Ferguson,   Barry Greenstein,   Shawn Sheikhan,   Jeffrey Lisandro,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Fred Goldberg,   Jason Alexander,   Jason Mercier

Level Seven Hour One Update: Varkonyi Bullies Rousso

Jul 10, '10

Blinds: 300-600 with a 75 ante

Players Remaining: 2,097 out of 7,319

Chip Counts:

1. Gabriel Walls – 300,000
2. Robert Miller – 212,000
3. Dave Sands – 210,000
4. Steve Billirakis – 200,000
5. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 186,500
6. Dan Santoro – 180,000
7. Jason DeWitt – 177,000
8. Matt Keikoan – 170,000
9. Bryn Kenney – 170,000
10. Robert Varkonyi – 160,000

Card Player Chip Counts:

Josh Brikis — 97,500
Mike Matusow — 12,700
Roy Winston — 20,000
Jennifer Harman — 34,000
Jeff Shulman – 43,500

Notable Eliminations:

Kirk Morrison

Big Hands:

Varkonyi Takes Some From Rousso

Former main event champ Robert Varkonyi called Vanessa Rousso’s raise of 1,500 and the two saw a flop of 548. Varkonyi checked and Rousso’s bet 2,000. Varkonyi then check-raised to 6,000. Vanessa called.

The J hit on the turn and Varkonyi led out for 12,000. Rousso tanked and asked Varkonyi how many chips he had. “Well over 100k,” he told her. After some time, Rousso just called.

The 3 finished the board and Varkonyi checked. Rousso followed suit and announced that she had missed all sorts of draws, flipping up 56. Varkonyi showed 88 for a flopped set and took down the pot.

Varkonyi had around 140,000 in chips after the hand. Rousso was still going strong with around 175,000.

Morrison On Life Support

Kirk Morrison limped into the pot in middle position and three others came along for the ride.

The flop ran 4AA and Morrison bet 500. Everyone folded except the player in seat 7, who called. Both players checked the 2 turn and again on the Q river.

Seat 7 turned up Q3 for a busted flush draw that hit a pair on the river. Morrison looked like he wanted to tear up his cards as he mucked. He was down to just 4,350.

Nguyen Makes Great Fold

We caught up wit the action with a short stacked player already all-in and there was over 48,000 in the middle. Nguyen thought about the decision to call off all his chips for three minutes before making the fold.

He showed KK face up and was happy to see that the other player had turned up AA. Nguyen saved himself some chips and has 75,000.

Kirk Morrison Bounced

Kirk Morrison moved all-in after the player under-the-gun raised. The player on the button called Morrison’s all-in and the player under-the-gun made it 12,275. The player on the button opted to move all-in for 16,600 total and there was a three-way showdown.

The player under-the-gun showed 66, Morrison showed AK, and the player on the button showed AA.

Aces held up in the three-way all-in all Morrison’s WSOP has come to an end.

Cantu Scores a Knockout

Brandon Cantu had an opponent all-in with AK and had his opponent dominated when he showed AQ.

The board ran out 9J476, keeping Cantu’s big slick in the lead and he chips up to 90,000.

Pavilion Room Coverage

Tony Ma Wins a Pot

On a board reading A109Q Tony Ma checked. His opponent bet 2,400 and Ma raised to 6,400. His opponent called. The river brought the 9 and Ma checked. His opponent quickly checked behind. Ma announced straight and turned over the J8. His opponent mucked. Ma was at over 100,000 after the hand.

Prahlad Friedman Free-rolling

There was massive confusion and lots of debating around a table in the Pavilion Room. The story goes that Prahlad Friedman was in the big blind and was squared off in a hand versus the small blind. The flop came jack-high and Friedman’s opponent bet into him. Friedman called and there was heavy betting on the turn. On the river, the small blind bet 80,000, which was more than enough to put Friedman all in. Friedman went into the tank for minutes before his opponent finally called the clock on him. The floor came over and started giving the countdown. With three seconds left, Friedman announced call and everyone at the table heard him. However, apparently the floor didn’t hear the call, continued the countdown to zero and announced that Friedman’s hand was dead. Friedman’s opponent tabled top two and Friedman didn’t turn over his dead hand. Friedman said that his opponent had the best hand. Allegedly, Friedman should have been eliminated but from the ruling was still alive and free-rolling the rest of the way.

Player Tags: Tony Ma,   Prahlad Friedman,   Anh Van Nguyen,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Kirk Morrison

Level Four, Hour One: Little Chops, Then Doubles

Jul 08, '10

Blinds: 150-300 with a 25 ante

Notable Chip Counts:

1. Brent Baldrey – 150,000
2. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 123,000
3. David Benyamine – 113,000
4. Paul Noriega – 112,000
5. Bretty Richey – 102,000
6. Anh Van Nguyen – 94,000
7. Jason Mercier – 91,500
8. Steve Billirakis – 91,000
9. Eric Buchman – 78,500
10. Victor Mendicuti – 76,000

Card Player Family Chip Counts

Jeff Shulman — 5,600
Steve Zolotow — 32,200
Jen Harman — 27,000

Big Hands:

Little Chops Up a Big One

Jonathan Little push his opponent all in for around 10,000 and was called. Their hands:

Little: AK
Opponent: AK

They held the same hand, but when the flop ran 527 Little saw he had a backdoor flush draw. “Freeroll,” he said.

But the board finished without two more diamonds and they chopped the pot. Little is still relatively short with just 13,000 in chips.

Lee Busts to Aces

A short-stacked Doug Lee got all in preflop holding 77, but his opponent held the big bad AA.

The board ran 552J4 and Lee was gone.

Varkonyi Loses Big One

Robert Varkonyi’s opponent was all in, creating a pretty large pot on a board of 2948J. Varkonyi tanked for a while before making the call. Their hands:

Varkonyi: J-8
Opponent: AK

Varkonyi’s two pair could not be his opponent’s nut flush, and the former main event champ dropped to 26,000 in chips.

Singer Flexes

The player under the gun raised to 1,000 and David Singer made it 3,400 to go. The blinds folded but the under the gun player called.

The flop came down 952 and the player bet 4,300. Singer made the call and the 9 fell on the turn.

The player checked and Singer pounced, moving all in for 10,625. His opponent mucked and Singer took the pot. He was at 20,000.

Freddy Deeb Getting Short

Four players, including Freddy Deeb, limped preflop and saw the KJ9 land on the felt. Everyone checked and the turn was the 5.

The player in seat 1 bet 700 and everyone folded. Deeb was ailing with just 9,000 after the hand.

Harman Gets Pushed

Jennifer Harman and her opponent in seat 9 saw a flop of J55. Seat 9 bet 2,600 and Harman raised it up to 6,600.

Seat 9 would not be pushed as he reraised to 14,600. Harman then went into the tank for a couple of minutes. The ESPN cameras noticed and surrounded the table. Harman shuffled her chips for what seemed like forever.

Finally, she threw away her hand and slipped to 27,000.

Rousso Jacks Up Opponent

Vanessa Rousso and her opponent saw a flop J98. The action preflop was unclear, but seat 6 eventually ended up all in for 27,250. Rousso made the call.

Rousso: JJ
Seat 6: A10

Rousso flopped top set but her opponent was drawing to an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the A, giving seat 6 a meaningless pair. The river was the 6 and Rousso dodged the draws to score the knockout. She was at 63,000 after the hand.

Pavilion Room Update

Johnathan Little Doubles Up

Jonathan Little bet 800 from middle position and it was folded around to a player in the small blind. The big blind raised to 1,800 and Little called. The flop came Q99. The big blind bet 2,000 and Little made the quick call. The 5 fell on the turn and the big blind bet 3,600. Little called with only 5,950 behind. An off suit four hit the river and Little’s opponent set him all in. Little made the insta-call for his tournament life. His opponent exposed the KK but was no good against the 98 of Little. Little doubled to over 30,000.

Shawn Sheikhan Outplayed

It was folded around to the small blind. Shawn Sheikhan was in the big blind and was asking for a walk. However, the small blind completed and Sheikhan checked. The flop came KK10 and it was checked to Sheikhan. He fired out a bet of 800 before being check-raised to 2,000. Sheikhan quickly folded and his opponent showed him the 52 for 5-high. Sheikhan was at around 20,000 after the hand.

Thomas Marchese Loses a Pot

With about 10,000 in the middle on a board of 1053Q6, Marchese checked and his opponent checked behind. Marchese’s opponent announced pair and tabled A5. Marchese mucked and was down to 23,000 after the hand.

Player Tags: Shawn Sheikhan,   David Singer,   Jennifer Harman,   Robert Varkonyi,   Doug Lee,   Jonathan Little,   Freddy Deeb,   Tom Marchese

Level Three, Hour Two: Lisandro Loses Big One, Still Healthy

Jul 08, '10

Blinds: 150-300

Notable Chip Counts:

1. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 132,000
2. Brent Baldrey – 128,000
3. Paul Noriega – 112,000
4. Anh Van Nguyen – 98,000
5. David Benyamine – 87,000
6. Lyle Berman – 87,800
7. Dan Heimiller – 87,500
8. Victor Mendicuti – 76,000
9. Steve Billirakis – 70,500
10. Eddie Sabat – 68,000

Card Player Family Chip Counts

Jeff Shulman — 7,300
Steve Zolotow — 39,500
Jen Harman — 59,800

Big Hands:

Lisandro Loses a Big One

Jeff Lisandro called a large bet on a flop of 4AJ and when the 3 fell on the turn his opponent bet 5,000. Lisandro again called and the 7 fell on the river. This time, both players slowed and checked the end. Their hands:

Lisandro: AK
Opponent: AJ

Lisandro had flopped top pair but his opponent flopped top two pair. Lisandro lost the pot and dropped to around 23,000 in chips.

Ivey Bullies Table Out of Pot

In a limped three-way pot Phil Ivey bet 600 after the flop of 569. Both of his opponents called and quickly checked to him on the 9 turn.

Ivey bet 1,800 this time and seat 3 folded, while seat 4 smiled and looked at Ivey, seemingly happy to be losing another pot to the best. He folded and Ivey took it down.

Ivey had around 25,000 after the hand.

Mercier Keeps Rolling

The player under the gun raised to 800 and the small blind made the call. Jason Mercier was in the big blind and called as well and the three players saw the flop come down K87.

Both blinds checked to the player under the gun and he fired 1,500. Mercier was the only caller and the turn was the 10. Both players checked and the 5 fell on the river.

Both players checked again and Mercier showed 65 for a busted straight draw but a rivered pair of fives. It was good as his opponent mucked and Mercier was at 72,000.

Greenstein Muscled Out

Picking up the action after the flop, the board read J42. The player in seat 1 fired 1,000 and Barry Greenstein made it 2,000.

Seat 1 then shoved for the rest of his stack. Greenstein had a perplexed look on his face after the move, then shrugged his shoulders and mucked. He was at 38,000.

Pavilion Room Coverage

Chris Ferguson Wins a Pot

With about 6,000 in the pot on a board of J763 Chris Ferguson bet 5,000 and his opponent went into the tank. Ferguson’s opponent asked him if he would show but once he didn’t get a response from the poker pro he folded and tabled the 99 for a pair of nines. Ferguson flashed 7-3 for two pair and raked in the pot. He was at 38,000 after the hand.

Fred Goldberg Drops a Pot

A player bet into Fred Goldberg on the river. Goldberg made the call and his opponent tabled Q-J for the nut straight. Goldberg mucked and was down to 15,025 after the hand.

Sheikhan Doubles Up

Shawn Sheikhan moved his short stack all in on a flop of K73 and was called by the player in seat 2. Their hands:

Sheikhan: K10
Seat 2: QQ

Sheikhan held the lead and his opponent was in trouble with only two queens or running hearts remaining as his saving grace. The 6 and 9 finished the board and Mr. Sheikhan doubled up to around 17,000.

Arieh With the Huge Double Up

Jason Potter raised to 725 and Josh Arieh three-bet it to 1,900. The player on the button called, but Potter got out of the way.

The flop ran 492 and Arieh bet out 2,325. The button player raised to 6,600 and Arieh made the call. On the Q turn Arieh checked and the button bet 10,000. Arieh moved all in for 19,400 and the button called. Their hands:

Arieh: 56
Opponent: KK

Arieh held the flopped flush and his opponent was drawing dead. The 4 finished the board and Arieh doubled up to 57,500.

Varkonyi Chipping Up

The 2002 winner of the main event Robert Varkonyi bet 7,000 on a board of 9810K and was called by one player. Varkonyi bet 7,000 again on the 7 river and his opponent tanked, eventually folding.

Varkonyi had around 47,000 after the hand.

Jason Alexander Wins Big One With Kings

Jason Alexander bet 1,000 on a flop of 253 and was called by one player. The 2 came on the turn and Alexander bet 5,000 into the pot.

His opponent called and the Q finished the board. Alexander checked for the first time and his opponent bet 7,000. Alexander called and they showed their hands:

Alexander: KK
Opponent: JJ

Both players held high pocket pairs, but Alexander’s was best. He took the pot and boosted his stack to 33,000.

J.C. Tran Wins a Pot

J.C. Tran bet 700 preflop and was called by the player directly to his left. The flop came 9-7-7 and Tran bet 4,075. His opponent quickly folded and Tran raked in the pot. He was up to 48,000 after the hand.

David Saab Takes Some off Kenny Tran

Kenny Tran bet 800 and David Saab three-bet to 2,000. Tran thought about it for awhile before making the call. The flop came K54 and action went check-check. The 2 fell on the turn and Tran checked again. Saab fired out a bet of 7,000 and Tran went into the tank. He eventually decided to muck his hand. He was at 30,000 after the hand while Saab increased his stack to 60,000.

Player Tags: Josh Arieh,   Chris Ferguson,   Barry Greenstein,   Shawn Sheikhan,   Jeffrey Lisandro,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Fred Goldberg,   Jason Alexander,   Jason Mercier

Level Seven Hour One Update: Varkonyi Bullies Rousso

Jul 10, '10

Blinds: 300-600 with a 75 ante

Players Remaining: 2,097 out of 7,319

Chip Counts:

1. Gabriel Walls – 300,000
2. Robert Miller – 212,000
3. Dave Sands – 210,000
4. Steve Billirakis – 200,000
5. Khamsy Nuanmanee – 186,500
6. Dan Santoro – 180,000
7. Jason DeWitt – 177,000
8. Matt Keikoan – 170,000
9. Bryn Kenney – 170,000
10. Robert Varkonyi – 160,000

Card Player Chip Counts:

Josh Brikis — 97,500
Mike Matusow — 12,700
Roy Winston — 20,000
Jennifer Harman — 34,000
Jeff Shulman – 43,500

Notable Eliminations:

Kirk Morrison

Big Hands:

Varkonyi Takes Some From Rousso

Former main event champ Robert Varkonyi called Vanessa Rousso’s raise of 1,500 and the two saw a flop of 548. Varkonyi checked and Rousso’s bet 2,000. Varkonyi then check-raised to 6,000. Vanessa called.

The J hit on the turn and Varkonyi led out for 12,000. Rousso tanked and asked Varkonyi how many chips he had. “Well over 100k,” he told her. After some time, Rousso just called.

The 3 finished the board and Varkonyi checked. Rousso followed suit and announced that she had missed all sorts of draws, flipping up 56. Varkonyi showed 88 for a flopped set and took down the pot.

Varkonyi had around 140,000 in chips after the hand. Rousso was still going strong with around 175,000.

Morrison On Life Support

Kirk Morrison limped into the pot in middle position and three others came along for the ride.

The flop ran 4AA and Morrison bet 500. Everyone folded except the player in seat 7, who called. Both players checked the 2 turn and again on the Q river.

Seat 7 turned up Q3 for a busted flush draw that hit a pair on the river. Morrison looked like he wanted to tear up his cards as he mucked. He was down to just 4,350.

Nguyen Makes Great Fold

We caught up wit the action with a short stacked player already all-in and there was over 48,000 in the middle. Nguyen thought about the decision to call off all his chips for three minutes before making the fold.

He showed KK face up and was happy to see that the other player had turned up AA. Nguyen saved himself some chips and has 75,000.

Kirk Morrison Bounced

Kirk Morrison moved all-in after the player under-the-gun raised. The player on the button called Morrison’s all-in and the player under-the-gun made it 12,275. The player on the button opted to move all-in for 16,600 total and there was a three-way showdown.

The player under-the-gun showed 66, Morrison showed AK, and the player on the button showed AA.

Aces held up in the three-way all-in all Morrison’s WSOP has come to an end.

Cantu Scores a Knockout

Brandon Cantu had an opponent all-in with AK and had his opponent dominated when he showed AQ.

The board ran out 9J476, keeping Cantu’s big slick in the lead and he chips up to 90,000.

Pavilion Room Coverage

Tony Ma Wins a Pot

On a board reading A109Q Tony Ma checked. His opponent bet 2,400 and Ma raised to 6,400. His opponent called. The river brought the 9 and Ma checked. His opponent quickly checked behind. Ma announced straight and turned over the J8. His opponent mucked. Ma was at over 100,000 after the hand.

Prahlad Friedman Free-rolling

There was massive confusion and lots of debating around a table in the Pavilion Room. The story goes that Prahlad Friedman was in the big blind and was squared off in a hand versus the small blind. The flop came jack-high and Friedman’s opponent bet into him. Friedman called and there was heavy betting on the turn. On the river, the small blind bet 80,000, which was more than enough to put Friedman all in. Friedman went into the tank for minutes before his opponent finally called the clock on him. The floor came over and started giving the countdown. With three seconds left, Friedman announced call and everyone at the table heard him. However, apparently the floor didn’t hear the call, continued the countdown to zero and announced that Friedman’s hand was dead. Friedman’s opponent tabled top two and Friedman didn’t turn over his dead hand. Friedman said that his opponent had the best hand. Allegedly, Friedman should have been eliminated but from the ruling was still alive and free-rolling the rest of the way.

Player Tags: Tony Ma,   Prahlad Friedman,   Anh Van Nguyen,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Kirk Morrison

We Are Going Home!!!!

Jul 08, '07

Wiggins Takes A Hit

Andrew Wiggins raised to $2,200 under the gun and got called by the big blind.  The flop came down A 8 5 and the big blind checked to Wiggins, who bet $3,000.  The big blind called and the turn brought the 8.  Once again, the big blind checked and Wiggins bet $5,000.  His opponent looked around Wiggins stack and made a shocked face when he saw Wiggins decently sized stack of $5,000 orange chips.  Apparently undeterred, he announced all-in.  Wiggins thought for a moment before calling with A K.  His opponent revealed the 8 7 for trips and despite the K on the river giving Wiggins top two, he still took a huge hit.  

Alaei In Control

Daniel Alaei has been picking up tons of small pots preflop and on the flop, winning a few thousand in each hand without having to showdown.   He did win one large pot this hour.  Short stack Andrew Wiggins got it all-in preflop with A Q only to have Alaei pick up A A.   The board came down A 4 3 8 Q, and despite picking up a nut flush draw on the turn and making top two, Wiggins was eliminated from the tournament.

Sick Hand

With a flop of Q 5 4 the player in the big blind checked to Team PokerStars member Vanessa Rousso, who bet $5,000.  The big blind reached into his deep stack of $5,000 orange chips and brought out three, raising to $15,000.  Rousso counted down her stack and eventually decided to min-raise to $30,000, leaving her with roughly $27,000 behind.  The big blind moved all-in and Rousso exploded in frustration. "Can this really be happening? Can I get off this?"  Her opponent only smiled as Rousso continued to talk out the situation.  "I've already been busted three times from a WSOP event this year by set over set."  Eventually she made a crying call with the 5 5 and her opponent indeed turned over the Q Q for the higher set.  The turn and river improved neither player, and Rousso was eliminated from the event after being in an incredibly tough spot.

Jesus Gives To The Poor
Robert Varkonyi raises to $2,500 from late position and is reraised by Chris Ferguson to $7,500.  He makes the call and the flop comes KQ7 and Varkonyi moves all in for $19,000.  This sends Ferguson deep into the tank.  As he is thinking Phil Gordon comes over, and sweats the action.  Ferguson finally calls and shows down JJ.  Varkonyi tables AK, and the next two card brick. 

Play Ends
Play has ended for the night, the boards currently read 680 players remaining.  That number will be revised as the bagging process ends, and the official numbers come in.  Cardplayer.com will pick back up tomorrow with coverage of day 1D starting at noon,

Player Tags: Daniel Alaei,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Andrew Wiggins,   Cory Ferguson

Night Court

Jul 08, '07

Jesus Channels Aces
A player limped in early position and it is folded to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who raises to $2,000 from the small blind.  The limper makes the call and the flop comes J42.  Jesus checks and the limper bets out $1,000.  Jesus raises to $5,000, and the limper makes the call.  The turn is 6 and Jesus bets out $7,000.  The limper asks the dealer to count the pot, the makes the call.  The river is the 10, Jesus bets out $15,000 and the limper folds.  Jesus then shows AA before he tosses into the muck.

Im ??? James
Overheard from Kenna James to Amnon Filippi after James won a pot, "How long do these guys think they can step on me?  I'm Kenna James....Bitch!"

Insider Info
Melissa Hayden and Chris Ferguson are having quite an interesting conversation regarding pretty much everyone in the poker industry.  So far they have covered topics ranging from Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok's jester prop bet to Mike Matusow's life habits.  Interestingly quiet in the conversation is Robert Varkonyi , who clearly is not in the poker "loop."

Dicken Chips Up

With a board of 10 9 4 7 3 Darrell "GigaBet" Dicken bet $16,000.  His opponent called and mucked when revealed A 10. 

Good Sportsmanship

With so many hands played every day here at the World Series of Poker, bad beats are bound to happen.  When you get all the money in with aces against tens and the board comes down J-9-8-7-2,  its hard to keep your composure.  A surprising amount of players this year have exhibited incredible self control and all around good etiquette after being eliminated.  Perhaps all of the television coverage of players melting down after taking a beat has actually brought about a change for the better, giving players an example of what they don't want to be like.   Whatever the cause, many players this year have learned to take their bad-beat eliminations in stride, and the poker world is better for it.
Notable Chip Counts

Gavin Griffin	128,000
JC Tran	110,000
Tuan Nguyen	102,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	80,000
Chris Moneymaker	62,000
Allen Cunningham	59,500
Robert Varkonyi	58,000
Steve Dannenmann	54,000
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson	54,000
Humberto Brenes	47,000
Brad Berman	47,000
Todd Brunson	32,500
Phil Gordon	32,000
Michael DeMichelle	32,000
Toto Leonidas	28,000
Brad Daugherty	19,000

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Kenna James,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Joe Sebok

Night Train

Jul 08, '07

Blinds Up

Blinds have risen to $300-$600 with a $75 ante for level 5.

Tran Takes Some Hits

J.C. Tran and a three opponents saw a flop of 10 10 3.  After two checks the middle position limped bet $4,200 and Tran called.  The other two folded and the turn brought the 10/  Tran bet $6,000 and his opponent said, "Catching aot of flops, huh?" He then pushed all-in for $12,000 more, saying, "You got a ten, you got me beat."  J.C. Tran called after a moments thought and revealed the 8-8. His opponent tabled 9-9 and dragged the pot.  Later Tran called an all-in preflop with A K. His opponent held J J for the lead, but the flop brought the A 10 8 and Tran took the lead.  The 4 changed improved neither player, and Tran's opponent was down to two outs.  The J on the river was one of them, and the short stack player put another dent in Tran's stack while doubling up.

Boutin Busts

$5,000 pot-limit omaha rebuy champion Burt Boutin was eliminated  this past hour.

Robert Varkonyi Doubles
A player in seat five raises to $2,000 and Robert Varkonyi makes the call.  The flop comes Q52, and seat five bets $3,000.  Varkonyi asks for a count of the player (who clearly has Varkonyi covered) then raises to $9,000.  Seat five makes the call and the turn brings the 5.  Seat five checks and Varkonyi moves all in for his last $9,800.  Seat five insta-calls with 99 Varkonyi shows J10 for the flush.  The river is the 2 and Varkonyi doubles up.

Amnon Filippi Takes Out Two
Seat eight moves all in for $6,200 and is called by a player in seat two who is covered.  Amnon Filippi makes the call on the button with KJ and has both players covered.  Seat eight tables A7, and seat two AQ.  The board comes K83104, giving Filippi a pair of kings and the best hand.  He now has over $75,000 in chips.

Katja Thater
Thater a team Pokerstars who is regarded as one of the best woman players has put of shop at her table.  She is currently perched upon her chair, in a statuesque manner.  You can see her focus as she diligently follows the action from player to player.  She is currently shortstacked, but if she manages to chip up watch out for her to make a legitimate run at the bracelet.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Burt Boutin,   Amnon Filippi,   Robert Varkonyi,   Katja Thater

Hour Five Recap

Jul 08, '07

Official Numbers

The tournament officials just made the announcement that there were 1743 players registered for Day 1C.  This is the largest “Day 1” so far this year, and with more than 1400 already signed up for the last “Day 1” there will be more than 6,000 players at this year’s Main Event.

Tough Draw

Melissa Hayden is seated at the table adjacent to her boyfriend, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, however that can be the only good thing about her table draw as it contains two past Main Event Champions Chris Ferguson (‘00) and Robert Varkonyi (’02).  Ferguson has been busy reminding his table he is a World Champion. In one hand, Ferguson raised to $900 and was called by the small blind.  The flop was Q 7 5, the small blind bet $1,100, and Ferguson called.  The turn was the J, and both players checked.  The river was the 5, the small blind bet $2,250, and Ferguson called.  Ferguson showed A Q to take the pot.  Allen Cunningham has been busy himself.  He eliminated an opponent by getting him to call off the rest of his chips on the river with a Broadway straight, while Cunningham held a full boat, Jacks over tens.

One More Time

Its happened again, Mike Matusow has officially blown up.  Matusow moved all in against his opponent’s preflop $1,100 raise for his last $10,000, only to have his pocket threes run into pocket Jacks.  Matusow exited the tournament, much to the disappointment of many adoring railbirds.

Danneman Giving Information

On a K 5 5, Dannenman bet $800 and his opponent called.  Both players checked the 9d on the turn.  The 7 hit on the river, Dannenman bet $2,000, his opponent folded, and Danneman lamented his bad luck, showing the 7 7, getting no action on his boat.  Dannemnan is up above $40,000 on the day.

Thater Receives Recognition

Nolan Dalla took time to recognize the larger number of female players doing well at this year’s tournament.  He singled out the first female player to win an open event since Annie Duke in 2004, PokerStars team member Katja Thater, 2007 Razz Champion.  She gets a nice round of applause from the tournament field.

Notable Chip Counts

David Mitchell-Lolis	78,000
Gavin Griffin	70,000
Allen Cunningham	66,500
Warren Karp	66,000
Chad Brown	65,000
Shannon Shorr	56,000
Danny Alaei	55,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	47,500
Amir Vahedi	45,000
Steve Dannenmann	41,000
Todd Brunson	40,000
Vanessa Rousso	39,000
Amnon Filippi	36,000
Lee Watkinson	33,000
David Sklansky	32,000
Jason Alexander	29,000
T.J. Cloutier	28,700
Men "The Master" Nguyen	28,000
Joe Cassidy	26,000
Tony Hachem	25,000
Kristy Gazes	22,000
Katja Thater	22,000
Nick Schulman	21,000
Hasan Habib	19,000
Chris Moneymaker	19,000
Bill Gazes	18,200
Chau Giang	18,000
Phil Gordon	17,300
Rene Angelil	17,000
Melissa Hayden	17,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	17,000
Eric Cajelais	15,900
Kenna James	14,000
Humberto Brenes	14,000
Jennifer Tilly	12,500
Toto Leonidas	11,000
Clonie Gowen	11,000
Tex Barch	9,000
JC Alvarado	5,000
JC Tran	4,500

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Melissa Hayden,   Steve Dannenmann,   Katja Thater

First Break of the Day

Jul 08, '07

The first level of play has come and gone on day 1C and the players are on a 20 minute break. A large percentage of the field is still hanging around and few tables have been broken. The pace of play is slower today than on the other day ones, a possible consequence of the large starting field.

While some of the players in today's field may be intimidated by the hype of the World Series of Poker, more seasoned players are using that to their advantage and picking up a lot of dead money. Phil Ivey seems to punish almost any player at his table that dares play a pot with him. In true Ivey fashion, he has been consistantly collecting small amounts of chips with preflop raises. Ivey's table presence is allowing him to dominate his table, but with Joe Cassidy in the one seat, it may only be a matter of time before Ivey gets caught.

Daniel Alaei, known for being a quiet person at the table, was not enjoying his table draw early in the day. Seated at adjacent tables were Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco and Humberto Brenes, all attracting their fair share of attention from the media and ESPN cameras. Sticking to his game, Alaei has been able to ignore the chaos and build his stack to over $30,000. Following a preflop raise from Alaei, the players in seats nine and four called. The flop came K 10 6 and the player in seat nine led out with a bet of $800. Seat four folded and Alaei called. Both players checked the turn of 9 and the river brought out the 4. Both players again checked and Alaei showed 7 7. The player in seat nine angrily mucked because it was not the first pot that Alaei had taken away from him.

Rapper/actor Nelly had a brief but eventful showing today at the World Series of Poker. Hounded by cameras all day, shortly before the break Nelly was eliminated. Nelly pushed all in with K-9 on a king high board and was called by an opponent who had flopped two pair. The pair turned into a boat on the turn and Nelly got to steppin' in his Air Force 1's.

As the few tables broke in the first level, an interesting draw put Main Event winners Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) sharing the felt at table 66. Paying close attention to the two former champions was Allen Cunningham on table 65. Cunningham is a favorite in any tournament he is playing and with one bracelet already this summer, many believe this year may be his year. Cunningham has already built his stack to $31,000 and has no signs of slowing down.

Some well known players have already moved up the chip leader board and the current unofficial chip leader is Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken with $42,000. Close behind are J.C. Tran ($32,000), Eliah Ahmadian ($33,000), Gavin Griffin ($38,000) and Allen Cunningham ($31,000).

To get a true feel for how any tournament is going, you have got to hear directly from the players on the floor. In our Pro Blogs section you can hear from J.C. Tran, 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, renowned actor Jason Alexander and Shannon Shorr on how their day is going and what it is like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main event.


Notable Chip Counts

Phil Ivey	54,000
Chad Brown	54,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	42,500
Gavin Griffin	38,000
Danny Alaei	37,000
Steve Dannenmann	31,000
Allen Cunningham	29,750
Todd Brunson	27,800
Tony Hachem	25,750
Brad Berman	25,300
Chau Giang	24,300
Rene Angelil	23,200
Shannon Shorr	23,000
Jason Alexander	23,000
Kristy Gazes	22,300
Jon Friedberg	22,250
Andy Bloch	22,000
JC Alvarado	21,600
JC Tran	21,200
Warren Karp	21,000
Phil Gordon	21,000
Jennifer Tilly	20,500
Amnon Filippi	20,300
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow	20,200
Toto Leonidas	20,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	20,000
Bill Gazes	20,000
Andreas Krause	20,000
T.J. Cloutier	19,900
Greg Raymer	19,500
Clonie Gowen	19,400
Kenna James	19,000
Katja Thater	18,500
David Sklansky	18,500
Lee Watkinson	17,500
Rafe Furst	17,200
Humberto Brenes	17,000
Men "The Master" Nguyen	16,000
Chris Moneymaker	16,000
John Gale	15,100
Shannon Elizabeth	14,200
Amir Vahedi	14,000
Chris Bigler	13,000
Vanessa Rousso	10,000
Tim Phan	9,800
Tex Barch	4,650

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Chris Moneymaker,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Shannon Shorr

Hour One

Jul 08, '07

Day 1C of the World Series of Poker main event boasts the largest starting field thus far with 1,706. Many big name professionals and celebrities were in the mix as players took their seats. It took a mere 23 minutes for the first bustout to be announced, which rustled cheers from the crowd. Cheers were also heard when some of the past WSOP champions were introduced. There was an intermingling of cheers and boos for the declaration of Jose Conseco’s participation. Light heavyweight champion of the world, Antonio Tarver, announced to the crowd, “Just so you know, this is the only chance you have to knock me out.” Music star Nelly was one of the day one contestants as well; it appeared that the diamond-encrusted watch he was wearing could have paid for every single player in the room’s buy-in. Poker regular, Jason Alexander, was another one of the stars to add an additional level of excitement to the room.

Those were just the celebrities playing, the cast of professional player was even more impressive. Five former world champions started their quest for another title today. Among them was team www.pokerstars.com member, Greg Raymer, as well as Brad Daugherty, Robert Varkonyi, Chris Ferguson, and the poker boom catalyst himself, Chris Moneymaker.

Top professionals in the game were also in the hunt for their first world title. Phil Ivey was seated at a table with Joe Cassidy. Here is a how things have played out on Ivey’s table every couple of hands: Ivey raised preflop and everyone at the table folded their hand. To quote the words of Ali G, “Respect.” J.C. Tran was also in the field and he picked up an early pot when he raised $300 on a flop of 9 3 2 with seven players involved in the hand. That bet induced all but one of them to fold, and then both Tran and his opponent checked down the 4 on the turn, and the 2 on the river. J.C. turned over J 9, while his opponent showed pocket sevens. J.C. picked up the pot and was crusining early.

A couple of couples were playing today as well, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly started their main event voyage today, as did Allen Cunningham and Melissa Hayden. Laak picked up an early pot with a well-timed bet of $1,275 on the river of a board that read 8 7 4 5 K. His opponent folded and Laak picked up a $2,000 pot.

Also playing today are (take a deep breath), Todd Bruson, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow, Bill Edler, Chad Brown, Toto Leonidas, Shannon Shorr, Bradley Berman, Tim Phan, Jon Friedberg, Vanessa Rousso, Rene Angelil, J.C. Alvarado, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Nick Schulman, Chau Giang, Steve Dannenman, Kristy Gazes, Erik Cajelais, Darrell Dicken, Burt Boutin, Rafe Furst, Humberto Brenes, “Gentleman” John Gale, Gavin Griffin, Tex Barch, Ted Lawson, Jim Pechac, Ciaran O’Leary, Bill Gazes, Joe Pelton, Steve Brecher, Katja Thater, Amir Vahedi, Daniel Alaei, and Mark Gregorich. Most of these professionals sit by their lonesome, with nine of their new, amateur best friends in tow. Two professional players who have managed to be seated at the same table are Amnon Filippi and Kenna James. Great table draw.

Keep your browser locked on CardPlayer.com for all the day 1C action.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Phil Laak,   Chris Moneymaker,   Phil Ivey,   Brad Daugherty,   Greg Raymer,   Robert Varkonyi,   Jason Alexander

Players on Dinner Break

Jul 11, '07

The remaining 666 players are going on dinner break; they will return at 8:30.

Yeah I Won This Tournament Once

Often lost in the shuffle of larger-than-life personalities is the quiet, unassuming Robert Varkonyi.  Many may attack his skills on the felt, but it should not be forgotten that this man caused Phil Hellmuth to have to shave his head.

One player at his table certainly underestimated him.  On a board of Q 9 8 5 Varkoni bet $10,000 into a sizable pot, leaving himself only $34,900 behind, The player in seat 7 then moved all in for about $40,000.  Varkonyi then went into the tank, and the ESPN cameras moved in for the kill.  Varkonyi asked his opponent, “What do you want me to do?” and was met with stone-cold silence.  After several minutes, Varkonyi made the call, Seat 7 slowly turned over A J, and Varkonyi showed his Q10 (virtually identical to the hole cards with which he won the Main Event in 2002, save for the suits being reversed).  The river was the 5, and Varkonyi more than doubled up.

Big Pot For Amsterdam

Rolf Slotboom got a whole lot healthier chipwise in the last level, when he found himself on the nicer side of a cooler.  Slotboom made a reraise to the action from the player in Seat 1 at his table, and was then tapped by Seat 1 in response.  Slotboom made the call for his last $54,300, and went through the roof when Seat 1 flipped J J to his Q Q.  The board ran out 7 5 4 5 10, and Slotboom raked in the huge pot while fellow Hollander, Team Pokerstars member Noah Boeken looked on (somehow he’s found himself a media pass).  Slotboom now has plenty of building blocks for his creative chip-stacking tendencies.

Keep It In The Family For Now

Todd Brunson is still surviving today, but one of his clan that seems to be receiving very little fanfare is his sister Pamela Brunson.  Pamela is currently sitting at about $103,000 in chips.  Some of her good fortune could be contributed to one of her card protectors., her father’s Zippo, with a Ghostbuster’s Logo, Casper.  In the World Series coverage in the past, much has been made about this protector, as Howard Lederer has famously paid a large sum of money, to be guaranteed to receive this good luck charm at the time of Doyle’s passing.  However Doyle shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and today his daughter Pam gets the satisfaction of using Casper.

They Never Believe Me

In the last hand before the break, the player in seat 3 at Bill Edler’s table announced before the deal that this was the hand to steal, as he was in the big blind, and had barely more than $20,000 in chips.  The table folded around to Edler on the button, who raised to $6,000, Seat 3 then moved all in, and Edler called.  Seat 3 showed K Q, but Edler had him in bad shape with A Q.  The flop all but sealed it, coming A 6 5, and the 2 and 6 on the river couldn’t save Seat 3.  Gavin Smith, seated just one table over, peered over as his table left, and commented, “Geez, Bill, do you always bust somebody before the dinner break?”  And Edler simply replied, “They never believe that I have it.”  Smith then implored Edler to stack his winnings quickly so they could get to dinner.

Notable Chip Counts

Gus Hansen	340,000
Bill Edler	320,000
Darrell Dicken	295,000
Ted Forrest	280,000
Sorel Mizzi	230,000
Maria Ho	225,000
Carlos Mortensen	225,000
Dario Minieri	223,000
Chip Jett	220,000
John Murphy	178,000
Thor Hansen	175,000
Chad Brown	157,000
Warren Karp	155,000
Chris Ferguson	150,000
Nick Binger	140,000
J.C. Tran	130,000
Humberto Brenes	125,000
Daniel Alaei	123,000
Amnon Filippi	123,000
Rolf Slotboom	115,000
Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi	113,400
Andreas Krause	110,000
Robert Varkonyi	107,000
Daniel Negreanu	107,000
Gavin Smith	97,000
Ralph Perry	95,000
Lee Watkinson	92,000
Leif Force	89,000
Isaac Haxton	75,000
Hasan Habib	73,500
Tony Hachem	65,000
Melissa Hayden	60,000
Todd Brunson	53,000
Mimi Tran	50,000
Chris Grigorian	43,000
Michael Binger	40,000
Jon "Pearljammer" Turner	34,000
Eric Mizrachi	30,000

Player Tags: Howard Lederer,   Todd Brunson,   Doyle Brunson,   Gavin Smith,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Pamela Brunson,   Rolf Slotboom

Day Three Set to Begin

Jul 12, '07

The official third day of the 2007 World Series of Poker is set to begin today at 12 p.m. A starting field of 6,358 has been whittled down to just 797 players returning today to battle on to day four. Each player has now played two long and grueling days to make it this far and there is still a long way to go.

The chip leader heading into day three is Gus Hansen, with $622,3000. Bill Edler and Sorel Mizzi were also both in the top ten in chips with $486,700 and $457,100 respectively.

The starting field of 6,358 marks the second largest poker tournament in recorded history, behind only the Main Event of 2006. This year the first place finisher will take home $8,250,000 and the highly coveted Main Event Champion bracelet. The money bubble bursts when there are 621 players remaining, with the 621st finisher making $20,320.

It is worthy to note that there are six previous main event champions still in the field and battling for their second title. Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), Scotty Nguyen ('98), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00), Carlos Mortensen ('01) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) are all coming back on day three.

Stay with CardPlayer.com to follow the action on day three and check out our Pro Blogs to hear directly from the superstars still in the field.

Player Tags: Scotty Nguyen,   Chris Ferguson,   Huck Seed,   Gus Hansen,   Berry Johnston,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

Level 15

Jul 13, '07

Hard to Kill Poetic; One Champ Down

In the movie Hard to Kill, Steven Segal mentions that "the anticipation of death is worse than death itself." Former main event champion, Robert Varkonyi probably knew what he meant by the those words in the last level. Varkonyi pushed all in from middle position for his last $200,000 and was called by Mickey Seagle. Varkonyi showed A 5, and Seagle had him in bad shape with A Q. Then the dealer called out, "All-in and call!" to alert the ESPN cameras. It took several minutes while Varkonyi had to wait in agony as his inferior cards simply sat on the table. Seagle sealed the deal as the flop came down K J 10, giving him Broadway. The turn was the K, and the river was a small needle as the 5 fell, offering Varkonyi a measly small pair for his exit. Nolan Dalla announced Varkonyi's exit in 177th place. There are now three main event champions still alive: Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), and Scotty Nguyen ('98).

Dario Gets a Big Boost

On a flop of 7 5 4 Deb Blair bets out $75,000, and Dario Minieri makes the call. The 3h comes on the turn, Blair bets $200,000, Minieri pushes all in over the top quickly, and Blair nearly beats him into the pot for her last $949,000. Minieri has her drawing dead though holding J 6 to her 10 10. The river is an inconsequential 2, and Minieri is vaulted back up, well over the 2 million chip mark.

All Skill

Roy Winston moved all in on a A Q 10 board, and was called by Brock Parker. Parker was looking for a miracle as he was in horrible shape holding A Q to Winston's Q Q. As the players waited for the ESPN cameras, a player at the other end of the table jokingly asked Winston, "You gotta teach me how to do that." The turn and river found no Ace for Parker and he was eliminated.

Big Hand

Receving one of the warmer rounds of appaluse from the remaining players was blind player Hal Lubarsky, who remarkably finished in 193rd place. His accomplishment has not gone unnoticed and will serve as inspiration to other players with similar impairments, hoping to one day play at the World Series.

Scotty Nguyen	880,000
Huckleberry Seed	660,000
Berry Johnston	550,000
David Tran	550,000
Chad Brown	505,000
Humberto Brenes	500,000
Billy Baxter	341,000
Bill Edler	320,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	2,050,000
Hevad Khan	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,000,000
Zhuang Han	915,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Andrew Gunderson	630,000
David Names	470,000
Karim Vegas	450,000
Marco Mills	120,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Brock Parker,   Robert Varkonyi,   Roy Winston,   Dario Minieri,   Deb Blair,   Hal Lubarsky

Into the Break

Jul 13, '07

A Handful of Champions

A handful of former world champions still remain in this event and they are going to be a handful for the competitors who hope to win their first bracelet. Robert Varkonyi looks to vindicate his 2002 victory, while Carlos Mortensen, Berry Johnston, Scotty Nguyen, and Huck Seed look to further cement their legacies.

A Group on the Brink of Extinction

With 230 players left in the tournament, about 10 percent of the field was top professionals. Among them were Kirk Morrison, Billy Baxter, Brandon Adams, Nicholas Binger, Lars Wilkinson, Thor Hansen, Chad Brown, Peter Feldman, David Levi, Bill Edler, Jared Hamby, Lee Watkinson, Dario Minieri, Kenny Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, Daniel Alaei, Isaac Haxton, Alex Kravchenko, and team PokerStars member Humberto Brenes.

Watkinson Grabs a Large Pot

Lee Watkinson faced a $75,000 raise from his opponent in the big blind on a board of 8 7 3 5. He made the call from the cutoff and the river brought the 5. Seat No. 3 checked and Watkinson fired out $150,000. Seat No. 3 called and Watkinson flipped over pocket sevens. His opponent mucked and Watkinson took down the nice-sized pot.

Edler Takes a Hit

On a flop of 10 8 7 Bill Edler bet $50,000 and seat No. 1 reraised $80,000 more. Edler reraised again and then seat No. 1 immediately pushed all in. Edler turned over K 10 and his opponent turned over J 9 for a flopped straight. The turn and river did little to rescue Edler and his opponent doubled up through him on the hand. Edler now has less than $300,000.

Sorel Lays it Down

Sorel Mizzi had $900,000 in front of him and he raised from late position with pocket aces. He received one call and the flop was dealt A-K-2 with two clubs. Mizzi bet three-fourths of the pot and his opponent made the call. Another club fell on the turn and Mizzi once again bet three-fourths the pot, which at this point was $80,000. His opponent then shoved all in and Mizzi
mucked his hand.

Gus Hansen	1,200,000
Kirk Morrison	700,000
Huckleberry Seed	600,000
Thor Hansen	580,000
Scotty Nguyen	460,000
David Levi	450,000
David Tran	448,000
Bill Baxter	440,000
Nick Binger	340,000
Humberto Brenes	250,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,350,000
Hevad "Rain" Khan	1,150,000
Karim Vegas	750,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Brian Tracy	480,000
Andrew Gunderson	440,000
Zhuang Han	260,000
Marco Mills	250,000
Robert Starkey	240,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   Humberto Brenes,   Scotty Nguyen,   Huck Seed,   Berry Johnston,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

We Are Going Home!!!!

Jul 08, '07

Wiggins Takes A Hit

Andrew Wiggins raised to $2,200 under the gun and got called by the big blind.  The flop came down A 8 5 and the big blind checked to Wiggins, who bet $3,000.  The big blind called and the turn brought the 8.  Once again, the big blind checked and Wiggins bet $5,000.  His opponent looked around Wiggins stack and made a shocked face when he saw Wiggins decently sized stack of $5,000 orange chips.  Apparently undeterred, he announced all-in.  Wiggins thought for a moment before calling with A K.  His opponent revealed the 8 7 for trips and despite the K on the river giving Wiggins top two, he still took a huge hit.  

Alaei In Control

Daniel Alaei has been picking up tons of small pots preflop and on the flop, winning a few thousand in each hand without having to showdown.   He did win one large pot this hour.  Short stack Andrew Wiggins got it all-in preflop with A Q only to have Alaei pick up A A.   The board came down A 4 3 8 Q, and despite picking up a nut flush draw on the turn and making top two, Wiggins was eliminated from the tournament.

Sick Hand

With a flop of Q 5 4 the player in the big blind checked to Team PokerStars member Vanessa Rousso, who bet $5,000.  The big blind reached into his deep stack of $5,000 orange chips and brought out three, raising to $15,000.  Rousso counted down her stack and eventually decided to min-raise to $30,000, leaving her with roughly $27,000 behind.  The big blind moved all-in and Rousso exploded in frustration. "Can this really be happening? Can I get off this?"  Her opponent only smiled as Rousso continued to talk out the situation.  "I've already been busted three times from a WSOP event this year by set over set."  Eventually she made a crying call with the 5 5 and her opponent indeed turned over the Q Q for the higher set.  The turn and river improved neither player, and Rousso was eliminated from the event after being in an incredibly tough spot.

Jesus Gives To The Poor
Robert Varkonyi raises to $2,500 from late position and is reraised by Chris Ferguson to $7,500.  He makes the call and the flop comes KQ7 and Varkonyi moves all in for $19,000.  This sends Ferguson deep into the tank.  As he is thinking Phil Gordon comes over, and sweats the action.  Ferguson finally calls and shows down JJ.  Varkonyi tables AK, and the next two card brick. 

Play Ends
Play has ended for the night, the boards currently read 680 players remaining.  That number will be revised as the bagging process ends, and the official numbers come in.  Cardplayer.com will pick back up tomorrow with coverage of day 1D starting at noon,

Player Tags: Daniel Alaei,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Andrew Wiggins,   Cory Ferguson

Night Court

Jul 08, '07

Jesus Channels Aces
A player limped in early position and it is folded to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who raises to $2,000 from the small blind.  The limper makes the call and the flop comes J42.  Jesus checks and the limper bets out $1,000.  Jesus raises to $5,000, and the limper makes the call.  The turn is 6 and Jesus bets out $7,000.  The limper asks the dealer to count the pot, the makes the call.  The river is the 10, Jesus bets out $15,000 and the limper folds.  Jesus then shows AA before he tosses into the muck.

Im ??? James
Overheard from Kenna James to Amnon Filippi after James won a pot, "How long do these guys think they can step on me?  I'm Kenna James....Bitch!"

Insider Info
Melissa Hayden and Chris Ferguson are having quite an interesting conversation regarding pretty much everyone in the poker industry.  So far they have covered topics ranging from Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok's jester prop bet to Mike Matusow's life habits.  Interestingly quiet in the conversation is Robert Varkonyi , who clearly is not in the poker "loop."

Dicken Chips Up

With a board of 10 9 4 7 3 Darrell "GigaBet" Dicken bet $16,000.  His opponent called and mucked when revealed A 10. 

Good Sportsmanship

With so many hands played every day here at the World Series of Poker, bad beats are bound to happen.  When you get all the money in with aces against tens and the board comes down J-9-8-7-2,  its hard to keep your composure.  A surprising amount of players this year have exhibited incredible self control and all around good etiquette after being eliminated.  Perhaps all of the television coverage of players melting down after taking a beat has actually brought about a change for the better, giving players an example of what they don't want to be like.   Whatever the cause, many players this year have learned to take their bad-beat eliminations in stride, and the poker world is better for it.
Notable Chip Counts

Gavin Griffin	128,000
JC Tran	110,000
Tuan Nguyen	102,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	80,000
Chris Moneymaker	62,000
Allen Cunningham	59,500
Robert Varkonyi	58,000
Steve Dannenmann	54,000
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson	54,000
Humberto Brenes	47,000
Brad Berman	47,000
Todd Brunson	32,500
Phil Gordon	32,000
Michael DeMichelle	32,000
Toto Leonidas	28,000
Brad Daugherty	19,000

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Kenna James,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Joe Sebok

Night Train

Jul 08, '07

Blinds Up

Blinds have risen to $300-$600 with a $75 ante for level 5.

Tran Takes Some Hits

J.C. Tran and a three opponents saw a flop of 10 10 3.  After two checks the middle position limped bet $4,200 and Tran called.  The other two folded and the turn brought the 10/  Tran bet $6,000 and his opponent said, "Catching aot of flops, huh?" He then pushed all-in for $12,000 more, saying, "You got a ten, you got me beat."  J.C. Tran called after a moments thought and revealed the 8-8. His opponent tabled 9-9 and dragged the pot.  Later Tran called an all-in preflop with A K. His opponent held J J for the lead, but the flop brought the A 10 8 and Tran took the lead.  The 4 changed improved neither player, and Tran's opponent was down to two outs.  The J on the river was one of them, and the short stack player put another dent in Tran's stack while doubling up.

Boutin Busts

$5,000 pot-limit omaha rebuy champion Burt Boutin was eliminated  this past hour.

Robert Varkonyi Doubles
A player in seat five raises to $2,000 and Robert Varkonyi makes the call.  The flop comes Q52, and seat five bets $3,000.  Varkonyi asks for a count of the player (who clearly has Varkonyi covered) then raises to $9,000.  Seat five makes the call and the turn brings the 5.  Seat five checks and Varkonyi moves all in for his last $9,800.  Seat five insta-calls with 99 Varkonyi shows J10 for the flush.  The river is the 2 and Varkonyi doubles up.

Amnon Filippi Takes Out Two
Seat eight moves all in for $6,200 and is called by a player in seat two who is covered.  Amnon Filippi makes the call on the button with KJ and has both players covered.  Seat eight tables A7, and seat two AQ.  The board comes K83104, giving Filippi a pair of kings and the best hand.  He now has over $75,000 in chips.

Katja Thater
Thater a team Pokerstars who is regarded as one of the best woman players has put of shop at her table.  She is currently perched upon her chair, in a statuesque manner.  You can see her focus as she diligently follows the action from player to player.  She is currently shortstacked, but if she manages to chip up watch out for her to make a legitimate run at the bracelet.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Burt Boutin,   Amnon Filippi,   Robert Varkonyi,   Katja Thater

Hour Five Recap

Jul 08, '07

Official Numbers

The tournament officials just made the announcement that there were 1743 players registered for Day 1C.  This is the largest “Day 1” so far this year, and with more than 1400 already signed up for the last “Day 1” there will be more than 6,000 players at this year’s Main Event.

Tough Draw

Melissa Hayden is seated at the table adjacent to her boyfriend, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, however that can be the only good thing about her table draw as it contains two past Main Event Champions Chris Ferguson (‘00) and Robert Varkonyi (’02).  Ferguson has been busy reminding his table he is a World Champion. In one hand, Ferguson raised to $900 and was called by the small blind.  The flop was Q 7 5, the small blind bet $1,100, and Ferguson called.  The turn was the J, and both players checked.  The river was the 5, the small blind bet $2,250, and Ferguson called.  Ferguson showed A Q to take the pot.  Allen Cunningham has been busy himself.  He eliminated an opponent by getting him to call off the rest of his chips on the river with a Broadway straight, while Cunningham held a full boat, Jacks over tens.

One More Time

Its happened again, Mike Matusow has officially blown up.  Matusow moved all in against his opponent’s preflop $1,100 raise for his last $10,000, only to have his pocket threes run into pocket Jacks.  Matusow exited the tournament, much to the disappointment of many adoring railbirds.

Danneman Giving Information

On a K 5 5, Dannenman bet $800 and his opponent called.  Both players checked the 9d on the turn.  The 7 hit on the river, Dannenman bet $2,000, his opponent folded, and Danneman lamented his bad luck, showing the 7 7, getting no action on his boat.  Dannemnan is up above $40,000 on the day.

Thater Receives Recognition

Nolan Dalla took time to recognize the larger number of female players doing well at this year’s tournament.  He singled out the first female player to win an open event since Annie Duke in 2004, PokerStars team member Katja Thater, 2007 Razz Champion.  She gets a nice round of applause from the tournament field.

Notable Chip Counts

David Mitchell-Lolis	78,000
Gavin Griffin	70,000
Allen Cunningham	66,500
Warren Karp	66,000
Chad Brown	65,000
Shannon Shorr	56,000
Danny Alaei	55,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	47,500
Amir Vahedi	45,000
Steve Dannenmann	41,000
Todd Brunson	40,000
Vanessa Rousso	39,000
Amnon Filippi	36,000
Lee Watkinson	33,000
David Sklansky	32,000
Jason Alexander	29,000
T.J. Cloutier	28,700
Men "The Master" Nguyen	28,000
Joe Cassidy	26,000
Tony Hachem	25,000
Kristy Gazes	22,000
Katja Thater	22,000
Nick Schulman	21,000
Hasan Habib	19,000
Chris Moneymaker	19,000
Bill Gazes	18,200
Chau Giang	18,000
Phil Gordon	17,300
Rene Angelil	17,000
Melissa Hayden	17,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	17,000
Eric Cajelais	15,900
Kenna James	14,000
Humberto Brenes	14,000
Jennifer Tilly	12,500
Toto Leonidas	11,000
Clonie Gowen	11,000
Tex Barch	9,000
JC Alvarado	5,000
JC Tran	4,500

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Melissa Hayden,   Steve Dannenmann,   Katja Thater

First Break of the Day

Jul 08, '07

The first level of play has come and gone on day 1C and the players are on a 20 minute break. A large percentage of the field is still hanging around and few tables have been broken. The pace of play is slower today than on the other day ones, a possible consequence of the large starting field.

While some of the players in today's field may be intimidated by the hype of the World Series of Poker, more seasoned players are using that to their advantage and picking up a lot of dead money. Phil Ivey seems to punish almost any player at his table that dares play a pot with him. In true Ivey fashion, he has been consistantly collecting small amounts of chips with preflop raises. Ivey's table presence is allowing him to dominate his table, but with Joe Cassidy in the one seat, it may only be a matter of time before Ivey gets caught.

Daniel Alaei, known for being a quiet person at the table, was not enjoying his table draw early in the day. Seated at adjacent tables were Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco and Humberto Brenes, all attracting their fair share of attention from the media and ESPN cameras. Sticking to his game, Alaei has been able to ignore the chaos and build his stack to over $30,000. Following a preflop raise from Alaei, the players in seats nine and four called. The flop came K 10 6 and the player in seat nine led out with a bet of $800. Seat four folded and Alaei called. Both players checked the turn of 9 and the river brought out the 4. Both players again checked and Alaei showed 7 7. The player in seat nine angrily mucked because it was not the first pot that Alaei had taken away from him.

Rapper/actor Nelly had a brief but eventful showing today at the World Series of Poker. Hounded by cameras all day, shortly before the break Nelly was eliminated. Nelly pushed all in with K-9 on a king high board and was called by an opponent who had flopped two pair. The pair turned into a boat on the turn and Nelly got to steppin' in his Air Force 1's.

As the few tables broke in the first level, an interesting draw put Main Event winners Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) sharing the felt at table 66. Paying close attention to the two former champions was Allen Cunningham on table 65. Cunningham is a favorite in any tournament he is playing and with one bracelet already this summer, many believe this year may be his year. Cunningham has already built his stack to $31,000 and has no signs of slowing down.

Some well known players have already moved up the chip leader board and the current unofficial chip leader is Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken with $42,000. Close behind are J.C. Tran ($32,000), Eliah Ahmadian ($33,000), Gavin Griffin ($38,000) and Allen Cunningham ($31,000).

To get a true feel for how any tournament is going, you have got to hear directly from the players on the floor. In our Pro Blogs section you can hear from J.C. Tran, 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, renowned actor Jason Alexander and Shannon Shorr on how their day is going and what it is like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main event.


Notable Chip Counts

Phil Ivey	54,000
Chad Brown	54,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	42,500
Gavin Griffin	38,000
Danny Alaei	37,000
Steve Dannenmann	31,000
Allen Cunningham	29,750
Todd Brunson	27,800
Tony Hachem	25,750
Brad Berman	25,300
Chau Giang	24,300
Rene Angelil	23,200
Shannon Shorr	23,000
Jason Alexander	23,000
Kristy Gazes	22,300
Jon Friedberg	22,250
Andy Bloch	22,000
JC Alvarado	21,600
JC Tran	21,200
Warren Karp	21,000
Phil Gordon	21,000
Jennifer Tilly	20,500
Amnon Filippi	20,300
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow	20,200
Toto Leonidas	20,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	20,000
Bill Gazes	20,000
Andreas Krause	20,000
T.J. Cloutier	19,900
Greg Raymer	19,500
Clonie Gowen	19,400
Kenna James	19,000
Katja Thater	18,500
David Sklansky	18,500
Lee Watkinson	17,500
Rafe Furst	17,200
Humberto Brenes	17,000
Men "The Master" Nguyen	16,000
Chris Moneymaker	16,000
John Gale	15,100
Shannon Elizabeth	14,200
Amir Vahedi	14,000
Chris Bigler	13,000
Vanessa Rousso	10,000
Tim Phan	9,800
Tex Barch	4,650

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Chris Moneymaker,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Shannon Shorr

Hour One

Jul 08, '07

Day 1C of the World Series of Poker main event boasts the largest starting field thus far with 1,706. Many big name professionals and celebrities were in the mix as players took their seats. It took a mere 23 minutes for the first bustout to be announced, which rustled cheers from the crowd. Cheers were also heard when some of the past WSOP champions were introduced. There was an intermingling of cheers and boos for the declaration of Jose Conseco’s participation. Light heavyweight champion of the world, Antonio Tarver, announced to the crowd, “Just so you know, this is the only chance you have to knock me out.” Music star Nelly was one of the day one contestants as well; it appeared that the diamond-encrusted watch he was wearing could have paid for every single player in the room’s buy-in. Poker regular, Jason Alexander, was another one of the stars to add an additional level of excitement to the room.

Those were just the celebrities playing, the cast of professional player was even more impressive. Five former world champions started their quest for another title today. Among them was team www.pokerstars.com member, Greg Raymer, as well as Brad Daugherty, Robert Varkonyi, Chris Ferguson, and the poker boom catalyst himself, Chris Moneymaker.

Top professionals in the game were also in the hunt for their first world title. Phil Ivey was seated at a table with Joe Cassidy. Here is a how things have played out on Ivey’s table every couple of hands: Ivey raised preflop and everyone at the table folded their hand. To quote the words of Ali G, “Respect.” J.C. Tran was also in the field and he picked up an early pot when he raised $300 on a flop of 9 3 2 with seven players involved in the hand. That bet induced all but one of them to fold, and then both Tran and his opponent checked down the 4 on the turn, and the 2 on the river. J.C. turned over J 9, while his opponent showed pocket sevens. J.C. picked up the pot and was crusining early.

A couple of couples were playing today as well, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly started their main event voyage today, as did Allen Cunningham and Melissa Hayden. Laak picked up an early pot with a well-timed bet of $1,275 on the river of a board that read 8 7 4 5 K. His opponent folded and Laak picked up a $2,000 pot.

Also playing today are (take a deep breath), Todd Bruson, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow, Bill Edler, Chad Brown, Toto Leonidas, Shannon Shorr, Bradley Berman, Tim Phan, Jon Friedberg, Vanessa Rousso, Rene Angelil, J.C. Alvarado, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Nick Schulman, Chau Giang, Steve Dannenman, Kristy Gazes, Erik Cajelais, Darrell Dicken, Burt Boutin, Rafe Furst, Humberto Brenes, “Gentleman” John Gale, Gavin Griffin, Tex Barch, Ted Lawson, Jim Pechac, Ciaran O’Leary, Bill Gazes, Joe Pelton, Steve Brecher, Katja Thater, Amir Vahedi, Daniel Alaei, and Mark Gregorich. Most of these professionals sit by their lonesome, with nine of their new, amateur best friends in tow. Two professional players who have managed to be seated at the same table are Amnon Filippi and Kenna James. Great table draw.

Keep your browser locked on CardPlayer.com for all the day 1C action.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Phil Laak,   Chris Moneymaker,   Phil Ivey,   Brad Daugherty,   Greg Raymer,   Robert Varkonyi,   Jason Alexander

Players on Dinner Break

Jul 11, '07

The remaining 666 players are going on dinner break; they will return at 8:30.

Yeah I Won This Tournament Once

Often lost in the shuffle of larger-than-life personalities is the quiet, unassuming Robert Varkonyi.  Many may attack his skills on the felt, but it should not be forgotten that this man caused Phil Hellmuth to have to shave his head.

One player at his table certainly underestimated him.  On a board of Q 9 8 5 Varkoni bet $10,000 into a sizable pot, leaving himself only $34,900 behind, The player in seat 7 then moved all in for about $40,000.  Varkonyi then went into the tank, and the ESPN cameras moved in for the kill.  Varkonyi asked his opponent, “What do you want me to do?” and was met with stone-cold silence.  After several minutes, Varkonyi made the call, Seat 7 slowly turned over A J, and Varkonyi showed his Q10 (virtually identical to the hole cards with which he won the Main Event in 2002, save for the suits being reversed).  The river was the 5, and Varkonyi more than doubled up.

Big Pot For Amsterdam

Rolf Slotboom got a whole lot healthier chipwise in the last level, when he found himself on the nicer side of a cooler.  Slotboom made a reraise to the action from the player in Seat 1 at his table, and was then tapped by Seat 1 in response.  Slotboom made the call for his last $54,300, and went through the roof when Seat 1 flipped J J to his Q Q.  The board ran out 7 5 4 5 10, and Slotboom raked in the huge pot while fellow Hollander, Team Pokerstars member Noah Boeken looked on (somehow he’s found himself a media pass).  Slotboom now has plenty of building blocks for his creative chip-stacking tendencies.

Keep It In The Family For Now

Todd Brunson is still surviving today, but one of his clan that seems to be receiving very little fanfare is his sister Pamela Brunson.  Pamela is currently sitting at about $103,000 in chips.  Some of her good fortune could be contributed to one of her card protectors., her father’s Zippo, with a Ghostbuster’s Logo, Casper.  In the World Series coverage in the past, much has been made about this protector, as Howard Lederer has famously paid a large sum of money, to be guaranteed to receive this good luck charm at the time of Doyle’s passing.  However Doyle shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and today his daughter Pam gets the satisfaction of using Casper.

They Never Believe Me

In the last hand before the break, the player in seat 3 at Bill Edler’s table announced before the deal that this was the hand to steal, as he was in the big blind, and had barely more than $20,000 in chips.  The table folded around to Edler on the button, who raised to $6,000, Seat 3 then moved all in, and Edler called.  Seat 3 showed K Q, but Edler had him in bad shape with A Q.  The flop all but sealed it, coming A 6 5, and the 2 and 6 on the river couldn’t save Seat 3.  Gavin Smith, seated just one table over, peered over as his table left, and commented, “Geez, Bill, do you always bust somebody before the dinner break?”  And Edler simply replied, “They never believe that I have it.”  Smith then implored Edler to stack his winnings quickly so they could get to dinner.

Notable Chip Counts

Gus Hansen	340,000
Bill Edler	320,000
Darrell Dicken	295,000
Ted Forrest	280,000
Sorel Mizzi	230,000
Maria Ho	225,000
Carlos Mortensen	225,000
Dario Minieri	223,000
Chip Jett	220,000
John Murphy	178,000
Thor Hansen	175,000
Chad Brown	157,000
Warren Karp	155,000
Chris Ferguson	150,000
Nick Binger	140,000
J.C. Tran	130,000
Humberto Brenes	125,000
Daniel Alaei	123,000
Amnon Filippi	123,000
Rolf Slotboom	115,000
Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi	113,400
Andreas Krause	110,000
Robert Varkonyi	107,000
Daniel Negreanu	107,000
Gavin Smith	97,000
Ralph Perry	95,000
Lee Watkinson	92,000
Leif Force	89,000
Isaac Haxton	75,000
Hasan Habib	73,500
Tony Hachem	65,000
Melissa Hayden	60,000
Todd Brunson	53,000
Mimi Tran	50,000
Chris Grigorian	43,000
Michael Binger	40,000
Jon "Pearljammer" Turner	34,000
Eric Mizrachi	30,000

Player Tags: Howard Lederer,   Todd Brunson,   Doyle Brunson,   Gavin Smith,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Pamela Brunson,   Rolf Slotboom

Day Three Set to Begin

Jul 12, '07

The official third day of the 2007 World Series of Poker is set to begin today at 12 p.m. A starting field of 6,358 has been whittled down to just 797 players returning today to battle on to day four. Each player has now played two long and grueling days to make it this far and there is still a long way to go.

The chip leader heading into day three is Gus Hansen, with $622,3000. Bill Edler and Sorel Mizzi were also both in the top ten in chips with $486,700 and $457,100 respectively.

The starting field of 6,358 marks the second largest poker tournament in recorded history, behind only the Main Event of 2006. This year the first place finisher will take home $8,250,000 and the highly coveted Main Event Champion bracelet. The money bubble bursts when there are 621 players remaining, with the 621st finisher making $20,320.

It is worthy to note that there are six previous main event champions still in the field and battling for their second title. Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), Scotty Nguyen ('98), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00), Carlos Mortensen ('01) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) are all coming back on day three.

Stay with CardPlayer.com to follow the action on day three and check out our Pro Blogs to hear directly from the superstars still in the field.

Player Tags: Scotty Nguyen,   Chris Ferguson,   Huck Seed,   Gus Hansen,   Berry Johnston,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

Level 15

Jul 13, '07

Hard to Kill Poetic; One Champ Down

In the movie Hard to Kill, Steven Segal mentions that "the anticipation of death is worse than death itself." Former main event champion, Robert Varkonyi probably knew what he meant by the those words in the last level. Varkonyi pushed all in from middle position for his last $200,000 and was called by Mickey Seagle. Varkonyi showed A 5, and Seagle had him in bad shape with A Q. Then the dealer called out, "All-in and call!" to alert the ESPN cameras. It took several minutes while Varkonyi had to wait in agony as his inferior cards simply sat on the table. Seagle sealed the deal as the flop came down K J 10, giving him Broadway. The turn was the K, and the river was a small needle as the 5 fell, offering Varkonyi a measly small pair for his exit. Nolan Dalla announced Varkonyi's exit in 177th place. There are now three main event champions still alive: Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), and Scotty Nguyen ('98).

Dario Gets a Big Boost

On a flop of 7 5 4 Deb Blair bets out $75,000, and Dario Minieri makes the call. The 3h comes on the turn, Blair bets $200,000, Minieri pushes all in over the top quickly, and Blair nearly beats him into the pot for her last $949,000. Minieri has her drawing dead though holding J 6 to her 10 10. The river is an inconsequential 2, and Minieri is vaulted back up, well over the 2 million chip mark.

All Skill

Roy Winston moved all in on a A Q 10 board, and was called by Brock Parker. Parker was looking for a miracle as he was in horrible shape holding A Q to Winston's Q Q. As the players waited for the ESPN cameras, a player at the other end of the table jokingly asked Winston, "You gotta teach me how to do that." The turn and river found no Ace for Parker and he was eliminated.

Big Hand

Receving one of the warmer rounds of appaluse from the remaining players was blind player Hal Lubarsky, who remarkably finished in 193rd place. His accomplishment has not gone unnoticed and will serve as inspiration to other players with similar impairments, hoping to one day play at the World Series.

Scotty Nguyen	880,000
Huckleberry Seed	660,000
Berry Johnston	550,000
David Tran	550,000
Chad Brown	505,000
Humberto Brenes	500,000
Billy Baxter	341,000
Bill Edler	320,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	2,050,000
Hevad Khan	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,000,000
Zhuang Han	915,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Andrew Gunderson	630,000
David Names	470,000
Karim Vegas	450,000
Marco Mills	120,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Brock Parker,   Robert Varkonyi,   Roy Winston,   Dario Minieri,   Deb Blair,   Hal Lubarsky

Into the Break

Jul 13, '07

A Handful of Champions

A handful of former world champions still remain in this event and they are going to be a handful for the competitors who hope to win their first bracelet. Robert Varkonyi looks to vindicate his 2002 victory, while Carlos Mortensen, Berry Johnston, Scotty Nguyen, and Huck Seed look to further cement their legacies.

A Group on the Brink of Extinction

With 230 players left in the tournament, about 10 percent of the field was top professionals. Among them were Kirk Morrison, Billy Baxter, Brandon Adams, Nicholas Binger, Lars Wilkinson, Thor Hansen, Chad Brown, Peter Feldman, David Levi, Bill Edler, Jared Hamby, Lee Watkinson, Dario Minieri, Kenny Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, Daniel Alaei, Isaac Haxton, Alex Kravchenko, and team PokerStars member Humberto Brenes.

Watkinson Grabs a Large Pot

Lee Watkinson faced a $75,000 raise from his opponent in the big blind on a board of 8 7 3 5. He made the call from the cutoff and the river brought the 5. Seat No. 3 checked and Watkinson fired out $150,000. Seat No. 3 called and Watkinson flipped over pocket sevens. His opponent mucked and Watkinson took down the nice-sized pot.

Edler Takes a Hit

On a flop of 10 8 7 Bill Edler bet $50,000 and seat No. 1 reraised $80,000 more. Edler reraised again and then seat No. 1 immediately pushed all in. Edler turned over K 10 and his opponent turned over J 9 for a flopped straight. The turn and river did little to rescue Edler and his opponent doubled up through him on the hand. Edler now has less than $300,000.

Sorel Lays it Down

Sorel Mizzi had $900,000 in front of him and he raised from late position with pocket aces. He received one call and the flop was dealt A-K-2 with two clubs. Mizzi bet three-fourths of the pot and his opponent made the call. Another club fell on the turn and Mizzi once again bet three-fourths the pot, which at this point was $80,000. His opponent then shoved all in and Mizzi
mucked his hand.

Gus Hansen	1,200,000
Kirk Morrison	700,000
Huckleberry Seed	600,000
Thor Hansen	580,000
Scotty Nguyen	460,000
David Levi	450,000
David Tran	448,000
Bill Baxter	440,000
Nick Binger	340,000
Humberto Brenes	250,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,350,000
Hevad "Rain" Khan	1,150,000
Karim Vegas	750,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Brian Tracy	480,000
Andrew Gunderson	440,000
Zhuang Han	260,000
Marco Mills	250,000
Robert Starkey	240,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   Humberto Brenes,   Scotty Nguyen,   Huck Seed,   Berry Johnston,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

We Are Going Home!!!!

Jul 08, '07

Wiggins Takes A Hit

Andrew Wiggins raised to $2,200 under the gun and got called by the big blind.  The flop came down A 8 5 and the big blind checked to Wiggins, who bet $3,000.  The big blind called and the turn brought the 8.  Once again, the big blind checked and Wiggins bet $5,000.  His opponent looked around Wiggins stack and made a shocked face when he saw Wiggins decently sized stack of $5,000 orange chips.  Apparently undeterred, he announced all-in.  Wiggins thought for a moment before calling with A K.  His opponent revealed the 8 7 for trips and despite the K on the river giving Wiggins top two, he still took a huge hit.  

Alaei In Control

Daniel Alaei has been picking up tons of small pots preflop and on the flop, winning a few thousand in each hand without having to showdown.   He did win one large pot this hour.  Short stack Andrew Wiggins got it all-in preflop with A Q only to have Alaei pick up A A.   The board came down A 4 3 8 Q, and despite picking up a nut flush draw on the turn and making top two, Wiggins was eliminated from the tournament.

Sick Hand

With a flop of Q 5 4 the player in the big blind checked to Team PokerStars member Vanessa Rousso, who bet $5,000.  The big blind reached into his deep stack of $5,000 orange chips and brought out three, raising to $15,000.  Rousso counted down her stack and eventually decided to min-raise to $30,000, leaving her with roughly $27,000 behind.  The big blind moved all-in and Rousso exploded in frustration. "Can this really be happening? Can I get off this?"  Her opponent only smiled as Rousso continued to talk out the situation.  "I've already been busted three times from a WSOP event this year by set over set."  Eventually she made a crying call with the 5 5 and her opponent indeed turned over the Q Q for the higher set.  The turn and river improved neither player, and Rousso was eliminated from the event after being in an incredibly tough spot.

Jesus Gives To The Poor
Robert Varkonyi raises to $2,500 from late position and is reraised by Chris Ferguson to $7,500.  He makes the call and the flop comes KQ7 and Varkonyi moves all in for $19,000.  This sends Ferguson deep into the tank.  As he is thinking Phil Gordon comes over, and sweats the action.  Ferguson finally calls and shows down JJ.  Varkonyi tables AK, and the next two card brick. 

Play Ends
Play has ended for the night, the boards currently read 680 players remaining.  That number will be revised as the bagging process ends, and the official numbers come in.  Cardplayer.com will pick back up tomorrow with coverage of day 1D starting at noon,

Player Tags: Daniel Alaei,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Andrew Wiggins,   Cory Ferguson

Night Court

Jul 08, '07

Jesus Channels Aces
A player limped in early position and it is folded to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who raises to $2,000 from the small blind.  The limper makes the call and the flop comes J42.  Jesus checks and the limper bets out $1,000.  Jesus raises to $5,000, and the limper makes the call.  The turn is 6 and Jesus bets out $7,000.  The limper asks the dealer to count the pot, the makes the call.  The river is the 10, Jesus bets out $15,000 and the limper folds.  Jesus then shows AA before he tosses into the muck.

Im ??? James
Overheard from Kenna James to Amnon Filippi after James won a pot, "How long do these guys think they can step on me?  I'm Kenna James....Bitch!"

Insider Info
Melissa Hayden and Chris Ferguson are having quite an interesting conversation regarding pretty much everyone in the poker industry.  So far they have covered topics ranging from Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok's jester prop bet to Mike Matusow's life habits.  Interestingly quiet in the conversation is Robert Varkonyi , who clearly is not in the poker "loop."

Dicken Chips Up

With a board of 10 9 4 7 3 Darrell "GigaBet" Dicken bet $16,000.  His opponent called and mucked when revealed A 10. 

Good Sportsmanship

With so many hands played every day here at the World Series of Poker, bad beats are bound to happen.  When you get all the money in with aces against tens and the board comes down J-9-8-7-2,  its hard to keep your composure.  A surprising amount of players this year have exhibited incredible self control and all around good etiquette after being eliminated.  Perhaps all of the television coverage of players melting down after taking a beat has actually brought about a change for the better, giving players an example of what they don't want to be like.   Whatever the cause, many players this year have learned to take their bad-beat eliminations in stride, and the poker world is better for it.
Notable Chip Counts

Gavin Griffin	128,000
JC Tran	110,000
Tuan Nguyen	102,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	80,000
Chris Moneymaker	62,000
Allen Cunningham	59,500
Robert Varkonyi	58,000
Steve Dannenmann	54,000
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson	54,000
Humberto Brenes	47,000
Brad Berman	47,000
Todd Brunson	32,500
Phil Gordon	32,000
Michael DeMichelle	32,000
Toto Leonidas	28,000
Brad Daugherty	19,000

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Kenna James,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Joe Sebok

Night Train

Jul 08, '07

Blinds Up

Blinds have risen to $300-$600 with a $75 ante for level 5.

Tran Takes Some Hits

J.C. Tran and a three opponents saw a flop of 10 10 3.  After two checks the middle position limped bet $4,200 and Tran called.  The other two folded and the turn brought the 10/  Tran bet $6,000 and his opponent said, "Catching aot of flops, huh?" He then pushed all-in for $12,000 more, saying, "You got a ten, you got me beat."  J.C. Tran called after a moments thought and revealed the 8-8. His opponent tabled 9-9 and dragged the pot.  Later Tran called an all-in preflop with A K. His opponent held J J for the lead, but the flop brought the A 10 8 and Tran took the lead.  The 4 changed improved neither player, and Tran's opponent was down to two outs.  The J on the river was one of them, and the short stack player put another dent in Tran's stack while doubling up.

Boutin Busts

$5,000 pot-limit omaha rebuy champion Burt Boutin was eliminated  this past hour.

Robert Varkonyi Doubles
A player in seat five raises to $2,000 and Robert Varkonyi makes the call.  The flop comes Q52, and seat five bets $3,000.  Varkonyi asks for a count of the player (who clearly has Varkonyi covered) then raises to $9,000.  Seat five makes the call and the turn brings the 5.  Seat five checks and Varkonyi moves all in for his last $9,800.  Seat five insta-calls with 99 Varkonyi shows J10 for the flush.  The river is the 2 and Varkonyi doubles up.

Amnon Filippi Takes Out Two
Seat eight moves all in for $6,200 and is called by a player in seat two who is covered.  Amnon Filippi makes the call on the button with KJ and has both players covered.  Seat eight tables A7, and seat two AQ.  The board comes K83104, giving Filippi a pair of kings and the best hand.  He now has over $75,000 in chips.

Katja Thater
Thater a team Pokerstars who is regarded as one of the best woman players has put of shop at her table.  She is currently perched upon her chair, in a statuesque manner.  You can see her focus as she diligently follows the action from player to player.  She is currently shortstacked, but if she manages to chip up watch out for her to make a legitimate run at the bracelet.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Burt Boutin,   Amnon Filippi,   Robert Varkonyi,   Katja Thater

Hour Five Recap

Jul 08, '07

Official Numbers

The tournament officials just made the announcement that there were 1743 players registered for Day 1C.  This is the largest “Day 1” so far this year, and with more than 1400 already signed up for the last “Day 1” there will be more than 6,000 players at this year’s Main Event.

Tough Draw

Melissa Hayden is seated at the table adjacent to her boyfriend, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, however that can be the only good thing about her table draw as it contains two past Main Event Champions Chris Ferguson (‘00) and Robert Varkonyi (’02).  Ferguson has been busy reminding his table he is a World Champion. In one hand, Ferguson raised to $900 and was called by the small blind.  The flop was Q 7 5, the small blind bet $1,100, and Ferguson called.  The turn was the J, and both players checked.  The river was the 5, the small blind bet $2,250, and Ferguson called.  Ferguson showed A Q to take the pot.  Allen Cunningham has been busy himself.  He eliminated an opponent by getting him to call off the rest of his chips on the river with a Broadway straight, while Cunningham held a full boat, Jacks over tens.

One More Time

Its happened again, Mike Matusow has officially blown up.  Matusow moved all in against his opponent’s preflop $1,100 raise for his last $10,000, only to have his pocket threes run into pocket Jacks.  Matusow exited the tournament, much to the disappointment of many adoring railbirds.

Danneman Giving Information

On a K 5 5, Dannenman bet $800 and his opponent called.  Both players checked the 9d on the turn.  The 7 hit on the river, Dannenman bet $2,000, his opponent folded, and Danneman lamented his bad luck, showing the 7 7, getting no action on his boat.  Dannemnan is up above $40,000 on the day.

Thater Receives Recognition

Nolan Dalla took time to recognize the larger number of female players doing well at this year’s tournament.  He singled out the first female player to win an open event since Annie Duke in 2004, PokerStars team member Katja Thater, 2007 Razz Champion.  She gets a nice round of applause from the tournament field.

Notable Chip Counts

David Mitchell-Lolis	78,000
Gavin Griffin	70,000
Allen Cunningham	66,500
Warren Karp	66,000
Chad Brown	65,000
Shannon Shorr	56,000
Danny Alaei	55,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	47,500
Amir Vahedi	45,000
Steve Dannenmann	41,000
Todd Brunson	40,000
Vanessa Rousso	39,000
Amnon Filippi	36,000
Lee Watkinson	33,000
David Sklansky	32,000
Jason Alexander	29,000
T.J. Cloutier	28,700
Men "The Master" Nguyen	28,000
Joe Cassidy	26,000
Tony Hachem	25,000
Kristy Gazes	22,000
Katja Thater	22,000
Nick Schulman	21,000
Hasan Habib	19,000
Chris Moneymaker	19,000
Bill Gazes	18,200
Chau Giang	18,000
Phil Gordon	17,300
Rene Angelil	17,000
Melissa Hayden	17,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	17,000
Eric Cajelais	15,900
Kenna James	14,000
Humberto Brenes	14,000
Jennifer Tilly	12,500
Toto Leonidas	11,000
Clonie Gowen	11,000
Tex Barch	9,000
JC Alvarado	5,000
JC Tran	4,500

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Melissa Hayden,   Steve Dannenmann,   Katja Thater

First Break of the Day

Jul 08, '07

The first level of play has come and gone on day 1C and the players are on a 20 minute break. A large percentage of the field is still hanging around and few tables have been broken. The pace of play is slower today than on the other day ones, a possible consequence of the large starting field.

While some of the players in today's field may be intimidated by the hype of the World Series of Poker, more seasoned players are using that to their advantage and picking up a lot of dead money. Phil Ivey seems to punish almost any player at his table that dares play a pot with him. In true Ivey fashion, he has been consistantly collecting small amounts of chips with preflop raises. Ivey's table presence is allowing him to dominate his table, but with Joe Cassidy in the one seat, it may only be a matter of time before Ivey gets caught.

Daniel Alaei, known for being a quiet person at the table, was not enjoying his table draw early in the day. Seated at adjacent tables were Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco and Humberto Brenes, all attracting their fair share of attention from the media and ESPN cameras. Sticking to his game, Alaei has been able to ignore the chaos and build his stack to over $30,000. Following a preflop raise from Alaei, the players in seats nine and four called. The flop came K 10 6 and the player in seat nine led out with a bet of $800. Seat four folded and Alaei called. Both players checked the turn of 9 and the river brought out the 4. Both players again checked and Alaei showed 7 7. The player in seat nine angrily mucked because it was not the first pot that Alaei had taken away from him.

Rapper/actor Nelly had a brief but eventful showing today at the World Series of Poker. Hounded by cameras all day, shortly before the break Nelly was eliminated. Nelly pushed all in with K-9 on a king high board and was called by an opponent who had flopped two pair. The pair turned into a boat on the turn and Nelly got to steppin' in his Air Force 1's.

As the few tables broke in the first level, an interesting draw put Main Event winners Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) sharing the felt at table 66. Paying close attention to the two former champions was Allen Cunningham on table 65. Cunningham is a favorite in any tournament he is playing and with one bracelet already this summer, many believe this year may be his year. Cunningham has already built his stack to $31,000 and has no signs of slowing down.

Some well known players have already moved up the chip leader board and the current unofficial chip leader is Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken with $42,000. Close behind are J.C. Tran ($32,000), Eliah Ahmadian ($33,000), Gavin Griffin ($38,000) and Allen Cunningham ($31,000).

To get a true feel for how any tournament is going, you have got to hear directly from the players on the floor. In our Pro Blogs section you can hear from J.C. Tran, 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, renowned actor Jason Alexander and Shannon Shorr on how their day is going and what it is like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main event.


Notable Chip Counts

Phil Ivey	54,000
Chad Brown	54,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	42,500
Gavin Griffin	38,000
Danny Alaei	37,000
Steve Dannenmann	31,000
Allen Cunningham	29,750
Todd Brunson	27,800
Tony Hachem	25,750
Brad Berman	25,300
Chau Giang	24,300
Rene Angelil	23,200
Shannon Shorr	23,000
Jason Alexander	23,000
Kristy Gazes	22,300
Jon Friedberg	22,250
Andy Bloch	22,000
JC Alvarado	21,600
JC Tran	21,200
Warren Karp	21,000
Phil Gordon	21,000
Jennifer Tilly	20,500
Amnon Filippi	20,300
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow	20,200
Toto Leonidas	20,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	20,000
Bill Gazes	20,000
Andreas Krause	20,000
T.J. Cloutier	19,900
Greg Raymer	19,500
Clonie Gowen	19,400
Kenna James	19,000
Katja Thater	18,500
David Sklansky	18,500
Lee Watkinson	17,500
Rafe Furst	17,200
Humberto Brenes	17,000
Men "The Master" Nguyen	16,000
Chris Moneymaker	16,000
John Gale	15,100
Shannon Elizabeth	14,200
Amir Vahedi	14,000
Chris Bigler	13,000
Vanessa Rousso	10,000
Tim Phan	9,800
Tex Barch	4,650

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Chris Moneymaker,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Shannon Shorr

Hour One

Jul 08, '07

Day 1C of the World Series of Poker main event boasts the largest starting field thus far with 1,706. Many big name professionals and celebrities were in the mix as players took their seats. It took a mere 23 minutes for the first bustout to be announced, which rustled cheers from the crowd. Cheers were also heard when some of the past WSOP champions were introduced. There was an intermingling of cheers and boos for the declaration of Jose Conseco’s participation. Light heavyweight champion of the world, Antonio Tarver, announced to the crowd, “Just so you know, this is the only chance you have to knock me out.” Music star Nelly was one of the day one contestants as well; it appeared that the diamond-encrusted watch he was wearing could have paid for every single player in the room’s buy-in. Poker regular, Jason Alexander, was another one of the stars to add an additional level of excitement to the room.

Those were just the celebrities playing, the cast of professional player was even more impressive. Five former world champions started their quest for another title today. Among them was team www.pokerstars.com member, Greg Raymer, as well as Brad Daugherty, Robert Varkonyi, Chris Ferguson, and the poker boom catalyst himself, Chris Moneymaker.

Top professionals in the game were also in the hunt for their first world title. Phil Ivey was seated at a table with Joe Cassidy. Here is a how things have played out on Ivey’s table every couple of hands: Ivey raised preflop and everyone at the table folded their hand. To quote the words of Ali G, “Respect.” J.C. Tran was also in the field and he picked up an early pot when he raised $300 on a flop of 9 3 2 with seven players involved in the hand. That bet induced all but one of them to fold, and then both Tran and his opponent checked down the 4 on the turn, and the 2 on the river. J.C. turned over J 9, while his opponent showed pocket sevens. J.C. picked up the pot and was crusining early.

A couple of couples were playing today as well, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly started their main event voyage today, as did Allen Cunningham and Melissa Hayden. Laak picked up an early pot with a well-timed bet of $1,275 on the river of a board that read 8 7 4 5 K. His opponent folded and Laak picked up a $2,000 pot.

Also playing today are (take a deep breath), Todd Bruson, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow, Bill Edler, Chad Brown, Toto Leonidas, Shannon Shorr, Bradley Berman, Tim Phan, Jon Friedberg, Vanessa Rousso, Rene Angelil, J.C. Alvarado, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Nick Schulman, Chau Giang, Steve Dannenman, Kristy Gazes, Erik Cajelais, Darrell Dicken, Burt Boutin, Rafe Furst, Humberto Brenes, “Gentleman” John Gale, Gavin Griffin, Tex Barch, Ted Lawson, Jim Pechac, Ciaran O’Leary, Bill Gazes, Joe Pelton, Steve Brecher, Katja Thater, Amir Vahedi, Daniel Alaei, and Mark Gregorich. Most of these professionals sit by their lonesome, with nine of their new, amateur best friends in tow. Two professional players who have managed to be seated at the same table are Amnon Filippi and Kenna James. Great table draw.

Keep your browser locked on CardPlayer.com for all the day 1C action.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Phil Laak,   Chris Moneymaker,   Phil Ivey,   Brad Daugherty,   Greg Raymer,   Robert Varkonyi,   Jason Alexander

Players on Dinner Break

Jul 11, '07

The remaining 666 players are going on dinner break; they will return at 8:30.

Yeah I Won This Tournament Once

Often lost in the shuffle of larger-than-life personalities is the quiet, unassuming Robert Varkonyi.  Many may attack his skills on the felt, but it should not be forgotten that this man caused Phil Hellmuth to have to shave his head.

One player at his table certainly underestimated him.  On a board of Q 9 8 5 Varkoni bet $10,000 into a sizable pot, leaving himself only $34,900 behind, The player in seat 7 then moved all in for about $40,000.  Varkonyi then went into the tank, and the ESPN cameras moved in for the kill.  Varkonyi asked his opponent, “What do you want me to do?” and was met with stone-cold silence.  After several minutes, Varkonyi made the call, Seat 7 slowly turned over A J, and Varkonyi showed his Q10 (virtually identical to the hole cards with which he won the Main Event in 2002, save for the suits being reversed).  The river was the 5, and Varkonyi more than doubled up.

Big Pot For Amsterdam

Rolf Slotboom got a whole lot healthier chipwise in the last level, when he found himself on the nicer side of a cooler.  Slotboom made a reraise to the action from the player in Seat 1 at his table, and was then tapped by Seat 1 in response.  Slotboom made the call for his last $54,300, and went through the roof when Seat 1 flipped J J to his Q Q.  The board ran out 7 5 4 5 10, and Slotboom raked in the huge pot while fellow Hollander, Team Pokerstars member Noah Boeken looked on (somehow he’s found himself a media pass).  Slotboom now has plenty of building blocks for his creative chip-stacking tendencies.

Keep It In The Family For Now

Todd Brunson is still surviving today, but one of his clan that seems to be receiving very little fanfare is his sister Pamela Brunson.  Pamela is currently sitting at about $103,000 in chips.  Some of her good fortune could be contributed to one of her card protectors., her father’s Zippo, with a Ghostbuster’s Logo, Casper.  In the World Series coverage in the past, much has been made about this protector, as Howard Lederer has famously paid a large sum of money, to be guaranteed to receive this good luck charm at the time of Doyle’s passing.  However Doyle shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and today his daughter Pam gets the satisfaction of using Casper.

They Never Believe Me

In the last hand before the break, the player in seat 3 at Bill Edler’s table announced before the deal that this was the hand to steal, as he was in the big blind, and had barely more than $20,000 in chips.  The table folded around to Edler on the button, who raised to $6,000, Seat 3 then moved all in, and Edler called.  Seat 3 showed K Q, but Edler had him in bad shape with A Q.  The flop all but sealed it, coming A 6 5, and the 2 and 6 on the river couldn’t save Seat 3.  Gavin Smith, seated just one table over, peered over as his table left, and commented, “Geez, Bill, do you always bust somebody before the dinner break?”  And Edler simply replied, “They never believe that I have it.”  Smith then implored Edler to stack his winnings quickly so they could get to dinner.

Notable Chip Counts

Gus Hansen	340,000
Bill Edler	320,000
Darrell Dicken	295,000
Ted Forrest	280,000
Sorel Mizzi	230,000
Maria Ho	225,000
Carlos Mortensen	225,000
Dario Minieri	223,000
Chip Jett	220,000
John Murphy	178,000
Thor Hansen	175,000
Chad Brown	157,000
Warren Karp	155,000
Chris Ferguson	150,000
Nick Binger	140,000
J.C. Tran	130,000
Humberto Brenes	125,000
Daniel Alaei	123,000
Amnon Filippi	123,000
Rolf Slotboom	115,000
Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi	113,400
Andreas Krause	110,000
Robert Varkonyi	107,000
Daniel Negreanu	107,000
Gavin Smith	97,000
Ralph Perry	95,000
Lee Watkinson	92,000
Leif Force	89,000
Isaac Haxton	75,000
Hasan Habib	73,500
Tony Hachem	65,000
Melissa Hayden	60,000
Todd Brunson	53,000
Mimi Tran	50,000
Chris Grigorian	43,000
Michael Binger	40,000
Jon "Pearljammer" Turner	34,000
Eric Mizrachi	30,000

Player Tags: Howard Lederer,   Todd Brunson,   Doyle Brunson,   Gavin Smith,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Pamela Brunson,   Rolf Slotboom

Day Three Set to Begin

Jul 12, '07

The official third day of the 2007 World Series of Poker is set to begin today at 12 p.m. A starting field of 6,358 has been whittled down to just 797 players returning today to battle on to day four. Each player has now played two long and grueling days to make it this far and there is still a long way to go.

The chip leader heading into day three is Gus Hansen, with $622,3000. Bill Edler and Sorel Mizzi were also both in the top ten in chips with $486,700 and $457,100 respectively.

The starting field of 6,358 marks the second largest poker tournament in recorded history, behind only the Main Event of 2006. This year the first place finisher will take home $8,250,000 and the highly coveted Main Event Champion bracelet. The money bubble bursts when there are 621 players remaining, with the 621st finisher making $20,320.

It is worthy to note that there are six previous main event champions still in the field and battling for their second title. Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), Scotty Nguyen ('98), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00), Carlos Mortensen ('01) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) are all coming back on day three.

Stay with CardPlayer.com to follow the action on day three and check out our Pro Blogs to hear directly from the superstars still in the field.

Player Tags: Scotty Nguyen,   Chris Ferguson,   Huck Seed,   Gus Hansen,   Berry Johnston,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

Level 15

Jul 13, '07

Hard to Kill Poetic; One Champ Down

In the movie Hard to Kill, Steven Segal mentions that "the anticipation of death is worse than death itself." Former main event champion, Robert Varkonyi probably knew what he meant by the those words in the last level. Varkonyi pushed all in from middle position for his last $200,000 and was called by Mickey Seagle. Varkonyi showed A 5, and Seagle had him in bad shape with A Q. Then the dealer called out, "All-in and call!" to alert the ESPN cameras. It took several minutes while Varkonyi had to wait in agony as his inferior cards simply sat on the table. Seagle sealed the deal as the flop came down K J 10, giving him Broadway. The turn was the K, and the river was a small needle as the 5 fell, offering Varkonyi a measly small pair for his exit. Nolan Dalla announced Varkonyi's exit in 177th place. There are now three main event champions still alive: Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), and Scotty Nguyen ('98).

Dario Gets a Big Boost

On a flop of 7 5 4 Deb Blair bets out $75,000, and Dario Minieri makes the call. The 3h comes on the turn, Blair bets $200,000, Minieri pushes all in over the top quickly, and Blair nearly beats him into the pot for her last $949,000. Minieri has her drawing dead though holding J 6 to her 10 10. The river is an inconsequential 2, and Minieri is vaulted back up, well over the 2 million chip mark.

All Skill

Roy Winston moved all in on a A Q 10 board, and was called by Brock Parker. Parker was looking for a miracle as he was in horrible shape holding A Q to Winston's Q Q. As the players waited for the ESPN cameras, a player at the other end of the table jokingly asked Winston, "You gotta teach me how to do that." The turn and river found no Ace for Parker and he was eliminated.

Big Hand

Receving one of the warmer rounds of appaluse from the remaining players was blind player Hal Lubarsky, who remarkably finished in 193rd place. His accomplishment has not gone unnoticed and will serve as inspiration to other players with similar impairments, hoping to one day play at the World Series.

Scotty Nguyen	880,000
Huckleberry Seed	660,000
Berry Johnston	550,000
David Tran	550,000
Chad Brown	505,000
Humberto Brenes	500,000
Billy Baxter	341,000
Bill Edler	320,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	2,050,000
Hevad Khan	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,000,000
Zhuang Han	915,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Andrew Gunderson	630,000
David Names	470,000
Karim Vegas	450,000
Marco Mills	120,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Brock Parker,   Robert Varkonyi,   Roy Winston,   Dario Minieri,   Deb Blair,   Hal Lubarsky

Into the Break

Jul 13, '07

A Handful of Champions

A handful of former world champions still remain in this event and they are going to be a handful for the competitors who hope to win their first bracelet. Robert Varkonyi looks to vindicate his 2002 victory, while Carlos Mortensen, Berry Johnston, Scotty Nguyen, and Huck Seed look to further cement their legacies.

A Group on the Brink of Extinction

With 230 players left in the tournament, about 10 percent of the field was top professionals. Among them were Kirk Morrison, Billy Baxter, Brandon Adams, Nicholas Binger, Lars Wilkinson, Thor Hansen, Chad Brown, Peter Feldman, David Levi, Bill Edler, Jared Hamby, Lee Watkinson, Dario Minieri, Kenny Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, Daniel Alaei, Isaac Haxton, Alex Kravchenko, and team PokerStars member Humberto Brenes.

Watkinson Grabs a Large Pot

Lee Watkinson faced a $75,000 raise from his opponent in the big blind on a board of 8 7 3 5. He made the call from the cutoff and the river brought the 5. Seat No. 3 checked and Watkinson fired out $150,000. Seat No. 3 called and Watkinson flipped over pocket sevens. His opponent mucked and Watkinson took down the nice-sized pot.

Edler Takes a Hit

On a flop of 10 8 7 Bill Edler bet $50,000 and seat No. 1 reraised $80,000 more. Edler reraised again and then seat No. 1 immediately pushed all in. Edler turned over K 10 and his opponent turned over J 9 for a flopped straight. The turn and river did little to rescue Edler and his opponent doubled up through him on the hand. Edler now has less than $300,000.

Sorel Lays it Down

Sorel Mizzi had $900,000 in front of him and he raised from late position with pocket aces. He received one call and the flop was dealt A-K-2 with two clubs. Mizzi bet three-fourths of the pot and his opponent made the call. Another club fell on the turn and Mizzi once again bet three-fourths the pot, which at this point was $80,000. His opponent then shoved all in and Mizzi
mucked his hand.

Gus Hansen	1,200,000
Kirk Morrison	700,000
Huckleberry Seed	600,000
Thor Hansen	580,000
Scotty Nguyen	460,000
David Levi	450,000
David Tran	448,000
Bill Baxter	440,000
Nick Binger	340,000
Humberto Brenes	250,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,350,000
Hevad "Rain" Khan	1,150,000
Karim Vegas	750,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Brian Tracy	480,000
Andrew Gunderson	440,000
Zhuang Han	260,000
Marco Mills	250,000
Robert Starkey	240,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   Humberto Brenes,   Scotty Nguyen,   Huck Seed,   Berry Johnston,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

We Are Going Home!!!!

Jul 08, '07

Wiggins Takes A Hit

Andrew Wiggins raised to $2,200 under the gun and got called by the big blind.  The flop came down A 8 5 and the big blind checked to Wiggins, who bet $3,000.  The big blind called and the turn brought the 8.  Once again, the big blind checked and Wiggins bet $5,000.  His opponent looked around Wiggins stack and made a shocked face when he saw Wiggins decently sized stack of $5,000 orange chips.  Apparently undeterred, he announced all-in.  Wiggins thought for a moment before calling with A K.  His opponent revealed the 8 7 for trips and despite the K on the river giving Wiggins top two, he still took a huge hit.  

Alaei In Control

Daniel Alaei has been picking up tons of small pots preflop and on the flop, winning a few thousand in each hand without having to showdown.   He did win one large pot this hour.  Short stack Andrew Wiggins got it all-in preflop with A Q only to have Alaei pick up A A.   The board came down A 4 3 8 Q, and despite picking up a nut flush draw on the turn and making top two, Wiggins was eliminated from the tournament.

Sick Hand

With a flop of Q 5 4 the player in the big blind checked to Team PokerStars member Vanessa Rousso, who bet $5,000.  The big blind reached into his deep stack of $5,000 orange chips and brought out three, raising to $15,000.  Rousso counted down her stack and eventually decided to min-raise to $30,000, leaving her with roughly $27,000 behind.  The big blind moved all-in and Rousso exploded in frustration. "Can this really be happening? Can I get off this?"  Her opponent only smiled as Rousso continued to talk out the situation.  "I've already been busted three times from a WSOP event this year by set over set."  Eventually she made a crying call with the 5 5 and her opponent indeed turned over the Q Q for the higher set.  The turn and river improved neither player, and Rousso was eliminated from the event after being in an incredibly tough spot.

Jesus Gives To The Poor
Robert Varkonyi raises to $2,500 from late position and is reraised by Chris Ferguson to $7,500.  He makes the call and the flop comes KQ7 and Varkonyi moves all in for $19,000.  This sends Ferguson deep into the tank.  As he is thinking Phil Gordon comes over, and sweats the action.  Ferguson finally calls and shows down JJ.  Varkonyi tables AK, and the next two card brick. 

Play Ends
Play has ended for the night, the boards currently read 680 players remaining.  That number will be revised as the bagging process ends, and the official numbers come in.  Cardplayer.com will pick back up tomorrow with coverage of day 1D starting at noon,

Player Tags: Daniel Alaei,   Robert Varkonyi,   Vanessa Rousso,   Andrew Wiggins,   Cory Ferguson

Night Court

Jul 08, '07

Jesus Channels Aces
A player limped in early position and it is folded to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who raises to $2,000 from the small blind.  The limper makes the call and the flop comes J42.  Jesus checks and the limper bets out $1,000.  Jesus raises to $5,000, and the limper makes the call.  The turn is 6 and Jesus bets out $7,000.  The limper asks the dealer to count the pot, the makes the call.  The river is the 10, Jesus bets out $15,000 and the limper folds.  Jesus then shows AA before he tosses into the muck.

Im ??? James
Overheard from Kenna James to Amnon Filippi after James won a pot, "How long do these guys think they can step on me?  I'm Kenna James....Bitch!"

Insider Info
Melissa Hayden and Chris Ferguson are having quite an interesting conversation regarding pretty much everyone in the poker industry.  So far they have covered topics ranging from Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok's jester prop bet to Mike Matusow's life habits.  Interestingly quiet in the conversation is Robert Varkonyi , who clearly is not in the poker "loop."

Dicken Chips Up

With a board of 10 9 4 7 3 Darrell "GigaBet" Dicken bet $16,000.  His opponent called and mucked when revealed A 10. 

Good Sportsmanship

With so many hands played every day here at the World Series of Poker, bad beats are bound to happen.  When you get all the money in with aces against tens and the board comes down J-9-8-7-2,  its hard to keep your composure.  A surprising amount of players this year have exhibited incredible self control and all around good etiquette after being eliminated.  Perhaps all of the television coverage of players melting down after taking a beat has actually brought about a change for the better, giving players an example of what they don't want to be like.   Whatever the cause, many players this year have learned to take their bad-beat eliminations in stride, and the poker world is better for it.
Notable Chip Counts

Gavin Griffin	128,000
JC Tran	110,000
Tuan Nguyen	102,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	80,000
Chris Moneymaker	62,000
Allen Cunningham	59,500
Robert Varkonyi	58,000
Steve Dannenmann	54,000
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson	54,000
Humberto Brenes	47,000
Brad Berman	47,000
Todd Brunson	32,500
Phil Gordon	32,000
Michael DeMichelle	32,000
Toto Leonidas	28,000
Brad Daugherty	19,000

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Kenna James,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Joe Sebok

Night Train

Jul 08, '07

Blinds Up

Blinds have risen to $300-$600 with a $75 ante for level 5.

Tran Takes Some Hits

J.C. Tran and a three opponents saw a flop of 10 10 3.  After two checks the middle position limped bet $4,200 and Tran called.  The other two folded and the turn brought the 10/  Tran bet $6,000 and his opponent said, "Catching aot of flops, huh?" He then pushed all-in for $12,000 more, saying, "You got a ten, you got me beat."  J.C. Tran called after a moments thought and revealed the 8-8. His opponent tabled 9-9 and dragged the pot.  Later Tran called an all-in preflop with A K. His opponent held J J for the lead, but the flop brought the A 10 8 and Tran took the lead.  The 4 changed improved neither player, and Tran's opponent was down to two outs.  The J on the river was one of them, and the short stack player put another dent in Tran's stack while doubling up.

Boutin Busts

$5,000 pot-limit omaha rebuy champion Burt Boutin was eliminated  this past hour.

Robert Varkonyi Doubles
A player in seat five raises to $2,000 and Robert Varkonyi makes the call.  The flop comes Q52, and seat five bets $3,000.  Varkonyi asks for a count of the player (who clearly has Varkonyi covered) then raises to $9,000.  Seat five makes the call and the turn brings the 5.  Seat five checks and Varkonyi moves all in for his last $9,800.  Seat five insta-calls with 99 Varkonyi shows J10 for the flush.  The river is the 2 and Varkonyi doubles up.

Amnon Filippi Takes Out Two
Seat eight moves all in for $6,200 and is called by a player in seat two who is covered.  Amnon Filippi makes the call on the button with KJ and has both players covered.  Seat eight tables A7, and seat two AQ.  The board comes K83104, giving Filippi a pair of kings and the best hand.  He now has over $75,000 in chips.

Katja Thater
Thater a team Pokerstars who is regarded as one of the best woman players has put of shop at her table.  She is currently perched upon her chair, in a statuesque manner.  You can see her focus as she diligently follows the action from player to player.  She is currently shortstacked, but if she manages to chip up watch out for her to make a legitimate run at the bracelet.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Burt Boutin,   Amnon Filippi,   Robert Varkonyi,   Katja Thater

Hour Five Recap

Jul 08, '07

Official Numbers

The tournament officials just made the announcement that there were 1743 players registered for Day 1C.  This is the largest “Day 1” so far this year, and with more than 1400 already signed up for the last “Day 1” there will be more than 6,000 players at this year’s Main Event.

Tough Draw

Melissa Hayden is seated at the table adjacent to her boyfriend, five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, however that can be the only good thing about her table draw as it contains two past Main Event Champions Chris Ferguson (‘00) and Robert Varkonyi (’02).  Ferguson has been busy reminding his table he is a World Champion. In one hand, Ferguson raised to $900 and was called by the small blind.  The flop was Q 7 5, the small blind bet $1,100, and Ferguson called.  The turn was the J, and both players checked.  The river was the 5, the small blind bet $2,250, and Ferguson called.  Ferguson showed A Q to take the pot.  Allen Cunningham has been busy himself.  He eliminated an opponent by getting him to call off the rest of his chips on the river with a Broadway straight, while Cunningham held a full boat, Jacks over tens.

One More Time

Its happened again, Mike Matusow has officially blown up.  Matusow moved all in against his opponent’s preflop $1,100 raise for his last $10,000, only to have his pocket threes run into pocket Jacks.  Matusow exited the tournament, much to the disappointment of many adoring railbirds.

Danneman Giving Information

On a K 5 5, Dannenman bet $800 and his opponent called.  Both players checked the 9d on the turn.  The 7 hit on the river, Dannenman bet $2,000, his opponent folded, and Danneman lamented his bad luck, showing the 7 7, getting no action on his boat.  Dannemnan is up above $40,000 on the day.

Thater Receives Recognition

Nolan Dalla took time to recognize the larger number of female players doing well at this year’s tournament.  He singled out the first female player to win an open event since Annie Duke in 2004, PokerStars team member Katja Thater, 2007 Razz Champion.  She gets a nice round of applause from the tournament field.

Notable Chip Counts

David Mitchell-Lolis	78,000
Gavin Griffin	70,000
Allen Cunningham	66,500
Warren Karp	66,000
Chad Brown	65,000
Shannon Shorr	56,000
Danny Alaei	55,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	47,500
Amir Vahedi	45,000
Steve Dannenmann	41,000
Todd Brunson	40,000
Vanessa Rousso	39,000
Amnon Filippi	36,000
Lee Watkinson	33,000
David Sklansky	32,000
Jason Alexander	29,000
T.J. Cloutier	28,700
Men "The Master" Nguyen	28,000
Joe Cassidy	26,000
Tony Hachem	25,000
Kristy Gazes	22,000
Katja Thater	22,000
Nick Schulman	21,000
Hasan Habib	19,000
Chris Moneymaker	19,000
Bill Gazes	18,200
Chau Giang	18,000
Phil Gordon	17,300
Rene Angelil	17,000
Melissa Hayden	17,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	17,000
Eric Cajelais	15,900
Kenna James	14,000
Humberto Brenes	14,000
Jennifer Tilly	12,500
Toto Leonidas	11,000
Clonie Gowen	11,000
Tex Barch	9,000
JC Alvarado	5,000
JC Tran	4,500

Player Tags: Chris Ferguson,   Mike Matusow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Melissa Hayden,   Steve Dannenmann,   Katja Thater

First Break of the Day

Jul 08, '07

The first level of play has come and gone on day 1C and the players are on a 20 minute break. A large percentage of the field is still hanging around and few tables have been broken. The pace of play is slower today than on the other day ones, a possible consequence of the large starting field.

While some of the players in today's field may be intimidated by the hype of the World Series of Poker, more seasoned players are using that to their advantage and picking up a lot of dead money. Phil Ivey seems to punish almost any player at his table that dares play a pot with him. In true Ivey fashion, he has been consistantly collecting small amounts of chips with preflop raises. Ivey's table presence is allowing him to dominate his table, but with Joe Cassidy in the one seat, it may only be a matter of time before Ivey gets caught.

Daniel Alaei, known for being a quiet person at the table, was not enjoying his table draw early in the day. Seated at adjacent tables were Greg Raymer, Jose Canseco and Humberto Brenes, all attracting their fair share of attention from the media and ESPN cameras. Sticking to his game, Alaei has been able to ignore the chaos and build his stack to over $30,000. Following a preflop raise from Alaei, the players in seats nine and four called. The flop came K 10 6 and the player in seat nine led out with a bet of $800. Seat four folded and Alaei called. Both players checked the turn of 9 and the river brought out the 4. Both players again checked and Alaei showed 7 7. The player in seat nine angrily mucked because it was not the first pot that Alaei had taken away from him.

Rapper/actor Nelly had a brief but eventful showing today at the World Series of Poker. Hounded by cameras all day, shortly before the break Nelly was eliminated. Nelly pushed all in with K-9 on a king high board and was called by an opponent who had flopped two pair. The pair turned into a boat on the turn and Nelly got to steppin' in his Air Force 1's.

As the few tables broke in the first level, an interesting draw put Main Event winners Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) sharing the felt at table 66. Paying close attention to the two former champions was Allen Cunningham on table 65. Cunningham is a favorite in any tournament he is playing and with one bracelet already this summer, many believe this year may be his year. Cunningham has already built his stack to $31,000 and has no signs of slowing down.

Some well known players have already moved up the chip leader board and the current unofficial chip leader is Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken with $42,000. Close behind are J.C. Tran ($32,000), Eliah Ahmadian ($33,000), Gavin Griffin ($38,000) and Allen Cunningham ($31,000).

To get a true feel for how any tournament is going, you have got to hear directly from the players on the floor. In our Pro Blogs section you can hear from J.C. Tran, 2003 Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, renowned actor Jason Alexander and Shannon Shorr on how their day is going and what it is like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main event.


Notable Chip Counts

Phil Ivey	54,000
Chad Brown	54,000
Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken	42,500
Gavin Griffin	38,000
Danny Alaei	37,000
Steve Dannenmann	31,000
Allen Cunningham	29,750
Todd Brunson	27,800
Tony Hachem	25,750
Brad Berman	25,300
Chau Giang	24,300
Rene Angelil	23,200
Shannon Shorr	23,000
Jason Alexander	23,000
Kristy Gazes	22,300
Jon Friedberg	22,250
Andy Bloch	22,000
JC Alvarado	21,600
JC Tran	21,200
Warren Karp	21,000
Phil Gordon	21,000
Jennifer Tilly	20,500
Amnon Filippi	20,300
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow	20,200
Toto Leonidas	20,000
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson	20,000
Bill Gazes	20,000
Andreas Krause	20,000
T.J. Cloutier	19,900
Greg Raymer	19,500
Clonie Gowen	19,400
Kenna James	19,000
Katja Thater	18,500
David Sklansky	18,500
Lee Watkinson	17,500
Rafe Furst	17,200
Humberto Brenes	17,000
Men "The Master" Nguyen	16,000
Chris Moneymaker	16,000
John Gale	15,100
Shannon Elizabeth	14,200
Amir Vahedi	14,000
Chris Bigler	13,000
Vanessa Rousso	10,000
Tim Phan	9,800
Tex Barch	4,650

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Chris Moneymaker,   Joe Cassidy,   Daniel Alaei,   Phil Ivey,   Robert Varkonyi,   Shannon Shorr

Hour One

Jul 08, '07

Day 1C of the World Series of Poker main event boasts the largest starting field thus far with 1,706. Many big name professionals and celebrities were in the mix as players took their seats. It took a mere 23 minutes for the first bustout to be announced, which rustled cheers from the crowd. Cheers were also heard when some of the past WSOP champions were introduced. There was an intermingling of cheers and boos for the declaration of Jose Conseco’s participation. Light heavyweight champion of the world, Antonio Tarver, announced to the crowd, “Just so you know, this is the only chance you have to knock me out.” Music star Nelly was one of the day one contestants as well; it appeared that the diamond-encrusted watch he was wearing could have paid for every single player in the room’s buy-in. Poker regular, Jason Alexander, was another one of the stars to add an additional level of excitement to the room.

Those were just the celebrities playing, the cast of professional player was even more impressive. Five former world champions started their quest for another title today. Among them was team www.pokerstars.com member, Greg Raymer, as well as Brad Daugherty, Robert Varkonyi, Chris Ferguson, and the poker boom catalyst himself, Chris Moneymaker.

Top professionals in the game were also in the hunt for their first world title. Phil Ivey was seated at a table with Joe Cassidy. Here is a how things have played out on Ivey’s table every couple of hands: Ivey raised preflop and everyone at the table folded their hand. To quote the words of Ali G, “Respect.” J.C. Tran was also in the field and he picked up an early pot when he raised $300 on a flop of 9 3 2 with seven players involved in the hand. That bet induced all but one of them to fold, and then both Tran and his opponent checked down the 4 on the turn, and the 2 on the river. J.C. turned over J 9, while his opponent showed pocket sevens. J.C. picked up the pot and was crusining early.

A couple of couples were playing today as well, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly started their main event voyage today, as did Allen Cunningham and Melissa Hayden. Laak picked up an early pot with a well-timed bet of $1,275 on the river of a board that read 8 7 4 5 K. His opponent folded and Laak picked up a $2,000 pot.

Also playing today are (take a deep breath), Todd Bruson, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow, Bill Edler, Chad Brown, Toto Leonidas, Shannon Shorr, Bradley Berman, Tim Phan, Jon Friedberg, Vanessa Rousso, Rene Angelil, J.C. Alvarado, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Nick Schulman, Chau Giang, Steve Dannenman, Kristy Gazes, Erik Cajelais, Darrell Dicken, Burt Boutin, Rafe Furst, Humberto Brenes, “Gentleman” John Gale, Gavin Griffin, Tex Barch, Ted Lawson, Jim Pechac, Ciaran O’Leary, Bill Gazes, Joe Pelton, Steve Brecher, Katja Thater, Amir Vahedi, Daniel Alaei, and Mark Gregorich. Most of these professionals sit by their lonesome, with nine of their new, amateur best friends in tow. Two professional players who have managed to be seated at the same table are Amnon Filippi and Kenna James. Great table draw.

Keep your browser locked on CardPlayer.com for all the day 1C action.

Player Tags: J.C. Tran,   Chris Ferguson,   Phil Laak,   Chris Moneymaker,   Phil Ivey,   Brad Daugherty,   Greg Raymer,   Robert Varkonyi,   Jason Alexander

Players on Dinner Break

Jul 11, '07

The remaining 666 players are going on dinner break; they will return at 8:30.

Yeah I Won This Tournament Once

Often lost in the shuffle of larger-than-life personalities is the quiet, unassuming Robert Varkonyi.  Many may attack his skills on the felt, but it should not be forgotten that this man caused Phil Hellmuth to have to shave his head.

One player at his table certainly underestimated him.  On a board of Q 9 8 5 Varkoni bet $10,000 into a sizable pot, leaving himself only $34,900 behind, The player in seat 7 then moved all in for about $40,000.  Varkonyi then went into the tank, and the ESPN cameras moved in for the kill.  Varkonyi asked his opponent, “What do you want me to do?” and was met with stone-cold silence.  After several minutes, Varkonyi made the call, Seat 7 slowly turned over A J, and Varkonyi showed his Q10 (virtually identical to the hole cards with which he won the Main Event in 2002, save for the suits being reversed).  The river was the 5, and Varkonyi more than doubled up.

Big Pot For Amsterdam

Rolf Slotboom got a whole lot healthier chipwise in the last level, when he found himself on the nicer side of a cooler.  Slotboom made a reraise to the action from the player in Seat 1 at his table, and was then tapped by Seat 1 in response.  Slotboom made the call for his last $54,300, and went through the roof when Seat 1 flipped J J to his Q Q.  The board ran out 7 5 4 5 10, and Slotboom raked in the huge pot while fellow Hollander, Team Pokerstars member Noah Boeken looked on (somehow he’s found himself a media pass).  Slotboom now has plenty of building blocks for his creative chip-stacking tendencies.

Keep It In The Family For Now

Todd Brunson is still surviving today, but one of his clan that seems to be receiving very little fanfare is his sister Pamela Brunson.  Pamela is currently sitting at about $103,000 in chips.  Some of her good fortune could be contributed to one of her card protectors., her father’s Zippo, with a Ghostbuster’s Logo, Casper.  In the World Series coverage in the past, much has been made about this protector, as Howard Lederer has famously paid a large sum of money, to be guaranteed to receive this good luck charm at the time of Doyle’s passing.  However Doyle shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and today his daughter Pam gets the satisfaction of using Casper.

They Never Believe Me

In the last hand before the break, the player in seat 3 at Bill Edler’s table announced before the deal that this was the hand to steal, as he was in the big blind, and had barely more than $20,000 in chips.  The table folded around to Edler on the button, who raised to $6,000, Seat 3 then moved all in, and Edler called.  Seat 3 showed K Q, but Edler had him in bad shape with A Q.  The flop all but sealed it, coming A 6 5, and the 2 and 6 on the river couldn’t save Seat 3.  Gavin Smith, seated just one table over, peered over as his table left, and commented, “Geez, Bill, do you always bust somebody before the dinner break?”  And Edler simply replied, “They never believe that I have it.”  Smith then implored Edler to stack his winnings quickly so they could get to dinner.

Notable Chip Counts

Gus Hansen	340,000
Bill Edler	320,000
Darrell Dicken	295,000
Ted Forrest	280,000
Sorel Mizzi	230,000
Maria Ho	225,000
Carlos Mortensen	225,000
Dario Minieri	223,000
Chip Jett	220,000
John Murphy	178,000
Thor Hansen	175,000
Chad Brown	157,000
Warren Karp	155,000
Chris Ferguson	150,000
Nick Binger	140,000
J.C. Tran	130,000
Humberto Brenes	125,000
Daniel Alaei	123,000
Amnon Filippi	123,000
Rolf Slotboom	115,000
Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi	113,400
Andreas Krause	110,000
Robert Varkonyi	107,000
Daniel Negreanu	107,000
Gavin Smith	97,000
Ralph Perry	95,000
Lee Watkinson	92,000
Leif Force	89,000
Isaac Haxton	75,000
Hasan Habib	73,500
Tony Hachem	65,000
Melissa Hayden	60,000
Todd Brunson	53,000
Mimi Tran	50,000
Chris Grigorian	43,000
Michael Binger	40,000
Jon "Pearljammer" Turner	34,000
Eric Mizrachi	30,000

Player Tags: Howard Lederer,   Todd Brunson,   Doyle Brunson,   Gavin Smith,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Pamela Brunson,   Rolf Slotboom

Day Three Set to Begin

Jul 12, '07

The official third day of the 2007 World Series of Poker is set to begin today at 12 p.m. A starting field of 6,358 has been whittled down to just 797 players returning today to battle on to day four. Each player has now played two long and grueling days to make it this far and there is still a long way to go.

The chip leader heading into day three is Gus Hansen, with $622,3000. Bill Edler and Sorel Mizzi were also both in the top ten in chips with $486,700 and $457,100 respectively.

The starting field of 6,358 marks the second largest poker tournament in recorded history, behind only the Main Event of 2006. This year the first place finisher will take home $8,250,000 and the highly coveted Main Event Champion bracelet. The money bubble bursts when there are 621 players remaining, with the 621st finisher making $20,320.

It is worthy to note that there are six previous main event champions still in the field and battling for their second title. Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), Scotty Nguyen ('98), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson ('00), Carlos Mortensen ('01) and Robert Varkonyi ('02) are all coming back on day three.

Stay with CardPlayer.com to follow the action on day three and check out our Pro Blogs to hear directly from the superstars still in the field.

Player Tags: Scotty Nguyen,   Chris Ferguson,   Huck Seed,   Gus Hansen,   Berry Johnston,   Bill Edler,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

Level 15

Jul 13, '07

Hard to Kill Poetic; One Champ Down

In the movie Hard to Kill, Steven Segal mentions that "the anticipation of death is worse than death itself." Former main event champion, Robert Varkonyi probably knew what he meant by the those words in the last level. Varkonyi pushed all in from middle position for his last $200,000 and was called by Mickey Seagle. Varkonyi showed A 5, and Seagle had him in bad shape with A Q. Then the dealer called out, "All-in and call!" to alert the ESPN cameras. It took several minutes while Varkonyi had to wait in agony as his inferior cards simply sat on the table. Seagle sealed the deal as the flop came down K J 10, giving him Broadway. The turn was the K, and the river was a small needle as the 5 fell, offering Varkonyi a measly small pair for his exit. Nolan Dalla announced Varkonyi's exit in 177th place. There are now three main event champions still alive: Berry Johnston ('86), Huck Seed ('96), and Scotty Nguyen ('98).

Dario Gets a Big Boost

On a flop of 7 5 4 Deb Blair bets out $75,000, and Dario Minieri makes the call. The 3h comes on the turn, Blair bets $200,000, Minieri pushes all in over the top quickly, and Blair nearly beats him into the pot for her last $949,000. Minieri has her drawing dead though holding J 6 to her 10 10. The river is an inconsequential 2, and Minieri is vaulted back up, well over the 2 million chip mark.

All Skill

Roy Winston moved all in on a A Q 10 board, and was called by Brock Parker. Parker was looking for a miracle as he was in horrible shape holding A Q to Winston's Q Q. As the players waited for the ESPN cameras, a player at the other end of the table jokingly asked Winston, "You gotta teach me how to do that." The turn and river found no Ace for Parker and he was eliminated.

Big Hand

Receving one of the warmer rounds of appaluse from the remaining players was blind player Hal Lubarsky, who remarkably finished in 193rd place. His accomplishment has not gone unnoticed and will serve as inspiration to other players with similar impairments, hoping to one day play at the World Series.

Scotty Nguyen	880,000
Huckleberry Seed	660,000
Berry Johnston	550,000
David Tran	550,000
Chad Brown	505,000
Humberto Brenes	500,000
Billy Baxter	341,000
Bill Edler	320,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	2,050,000
Hevad Khan	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,000,000
Zhuang Han	915,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Andrew Gunderson	630,000
David Names	470,000
Karim Vegas	450,000
Marco Mills	120,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Brock Parker,   Robert Varkonyi,   Roy Winston,   Dario Minieri,   Deb Blair,   Hal Lubarsky

Into the Break

Jul 13, '07

A Handful of Champions

A handful of former world champions still remain in this event and they are going to be a handful for the competitors who hope to win their first bracelet. Robert Varkonyi looks to vindicate his 2002 victory, while Carlos Mortensen, Berry Johnston, Scotty Nguyen, and Huck Seed look to further cement their legacies.

A Group on the Brink of Extinction

With 230 players left in the tournament, about 10 percent of the field was top professionals. Among them were Kirk Morrison, Billy Baxter, Brandon Adams, Nicholas Binger, Lars Wilkinson, Thor Hansen, Chad Brown, Peter Feldman, David Levi, Bill Edler, Jared Hamby, Lee Watkinson, Dario Minieri, Kenny Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, Daniel Alaei, Isaac Haxton, Alex Kravchenko, and team PokerStars member Humberto Brenes.

Watkinson Grabs a Large Pot

Lee Watkinson faced a $75,000 raise from his opponent in the big blind on a board of 8 7 3 5. He made the call from the cutoff and the river brought the 5. Seat No. 3 checked and Watkinson fired out $150,000. Seat No. 3 called and Watkinson flipped over pocket sevens. His opponent mucked and Watkinson took down the nice-sized pot.

Edler Takes a Hit

On a flop of 10 8 7 Bill Edler bet $50,000 and seat No. 1 reraised $80,000 more. Edler reraised again and then seat No. 1 immediately pushed all in. Edler turned over K 10 and his opponent turned over J 9 for a flopped straight. The turn and river did little to rescue Edler and his opponent doubled up through him on the hand. Edler now has less than $300,000.

Sorel Lays it Down

Sorel Mizzi had $900,000 in front of him and he raised from late position with pocket aces. He received one call and the flop was dealt A-K-2 with two clubs. Mizzi bet three-fourths of the pot and his opponent made the call. Another club fell on the turn and Mizzi once again bet three-fourths the pot, which at this point was $80,000. His opponent then shoved all in and Mizzi
mucked his hand.

Gus Hansen	1,200,000
Kirk Morrison	700,000
Huckleberry Seed	600,000
Thor Hansen	580,000
Scotty Nguyen	460,000
David Levi	450,000
David Tran	448,000
Bill Baxter	440,000
Nick Binger	340,000
Humberto Brenes	250,000

Pokerstars Online Qualifiers

Rep Porter	1,400,000
Ryan Lawrence	1,350,000
Hevad "Rain" Khan	1,150,000
Karim Vegas	750,000
Jason Welch	657,000
Brian Tracy	480,000
Andrew Gunderson	440,000
Zhuang Han	260,000
Marco Mills	250,000
Robert Starkey	240,000

pokerstars.com

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   Humberto Brenes,   Scotty Nguyen,   Huck Seed,   Berry Johnston,   Robert Varkonyi,   Sorel Mizzi

Not Enough Play

Jun 07, '07

Players are dropping at a very quick rate.  Just beginning the second level it was announced that 120 alternates had already been seated.  Joe Cassidy, Robert Williamson, Shawn Sheikhan, and Jean-Robert Bellande were among those alternates.  With only ten minutes left to register the tournament director even got a laugh from those still in the field.  As he was asking if anyone was still interested in entering, making a note of how many alternates were already seated, joking, “There’s a lot of bad players in this field so you’ll want to enter.”

 

In a six-handed event, starting hand values go up considerably as you cannot afford to wait for premium hands with the blinds moving around the table almost twice as fast as in a full-table tournament.  Thus margin for error in the beginning of a low buyin tournament is increased greatly.  One mistake, even if its not for all your chips, puts you into desperation mode.  Several notable names have fallen in the last hour in those same circumstances.  Barry Greenstein found himself signing a copy of his book, after he was all in with A5 against his opponent’s Q9.  The final board of KQ953 saw Greenstein looking for a bigger game.  Daniel Negreanu ran into the nuts on two consecutive hands and was sent packing

 

In his own words Young Phan found himself “In trouble” after he raised all in with 109 and a flop of J88 and was called by the player in the small blind with J10.  The turn 8 shut the door, and the meaningless 10 fell on the river.  Steve Zolotow also hit the rail early.  In a three-way pot with a flop KQ2, Zolotow checked from the small blind, the big blind raised to $400, the player in the cutoff called, Zolotow check-raised to $1,200, the original raiser folded and the cutoff called.  Both players almost put their money in simultaneously when the 9s hit the river.  Zolotow tabled the 22 for bottom set, while the cutoff shoed J10 for the made straight.  The A on the river was no help to Zolotow.

 

Several players aren’t finding such misfortune.  Mark “Newhizzle” Newhouse has chipped up to $11,500 already today, and Lee Watkinson, sandwiched between Robert Varkonyi and Jennifer Tilly, has built his $3,000 in starting chips to $7,500.

 

We will have the official numbers and payouts as soon as they are available.

Player Tags: Lee Watkinson,   Young Phan,   Barry Greenstein,   Daniel Negreanu,   Steve Zolotow,   Robert Varkonyi,   Jennifer Tilly,   Mark Newhouse