Just got home after a great day out with friends at birthday surprise party cookout… Logged in to hootsuite to catch up on tweets in order to find out who won the WSOP Event#4 $5K No Limit Hold’em tournament… to find… wait for it…

drum roll…

that the final table is in progress and being streamed on wsop.com.  It was down to three… but still going when I joined the action. Sean LeFort’s two black 10s just got busted by Allen Bari’s 2 red kings… First card of flop was a King. Turn was a 10.. giving Sean trip tens that just can’t beat trip Kings.

Currently on 15 minute break…

Allen Bari = 11.1M

Maria Ho = 1.875M

Loving the 2011 WSOP live streaming. Watching Event #5 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud Final Table now…streaming at WSOP.COM

Yesterday I watched $25K Heads Up Semi Finals live streamed at ESPN3.com. (Yevgeniy Timoshenko vs Eric Froehlich, then Gus Hansen vs Jake Cody)

The $25K Heads Up Finals played 6/3/11 @ 10PM and live streamed at ESPN3.com, started late for me, so, I’ll watch that tonight, even though I already know the winner

Thursday (6/2/11), I watched the Sammy Farha and Chris Moneymaker grudge match live streaming at ESPN3.com. Grudge matches are bundled here: http://espn.go.com/espn3/player?id=187935&league=WSOP

Index of shows is at ESPN3.com – > Click on the Replay tab when this page displays…  http://espn.go.com/espn3/index#

I don’t see any WSOP events listed on the Upcoming tab at ESPN3.com for next week.

The 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP), the 42nd Annual WSOP, taking place at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, starts in a few short hours. The first event, the $500 No Limit Hold’em tournament for Casino Employees starts at Noon Vegas time. This afternoon at 5PM Vegas time, WSOP Event #2, $25,000 Heads-Up Championship starts. The Heads-Up tournament is capped at 256 poker players and expected to be completed within 4 days.

Looks like there is a great event Thursday, June 2 at Noon:

REMATCH #1:  2003 WSOP Main Event: Chris Moneymaker vs. Sammy Farha – Best 2-out-of-3 format.
REMATCH #2: 1989 WSOP Main Event: Johnny Chan vs. Phil Hellmuth – One match.
REMATCH #3: Fan Choice – One match. Special episode will air on ESPN on July 26, 2011

Derrrr… I did a lousy job planning vacation time this year. Woulda like to have railed the heads-up and Thursday’s re-matches. Anyways, I see that the third re-match is by Fan Choice.. hummm… wonder where fans are voting…I’ll chase that down and report back.

Of course, all the poker action during the Summer leads up to Event #58, the Main Event, which starts July 7th and concludes with the November Nine; the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’Em Championship!

No Limit Hold’Em Events (highlighted)…

Structure sheets, registrations and more about -> the 2011 WSOP Schedule.

Continuing the earlier post about the action at the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table…

After Nguyen was busted, the remaining 8 of the November Nine took a break. Break lasted more than 30 minutes.

Chip Counts after first break were:

• Matthew Jarvis – 10.125M
• Filippo Candio – 15.050M
• Jason Senti –  17.500M
• Michael Mizrachi – 18.050M
• John Racener – 24.175M
• Joseph Cheong – 29.675M
• John Dolan – 39.525M
• Jonathan Duhamel – 65.575M

First hand back went to Jarvis. Nothing special. He raised to 1.175M and all folded. The next hand, Candio went all in after being reraised by Duhamel. Duhamel called and the other players folded. Candio’s AA beat Duhamel’s AKo.

A lot of the hands never made it to show down. One interesting hand was between Cheong and Dolan. Jarvis had opened with a 1.425M bet. Cheong, on the button, reraised to 3.525M. Dolan, in the small blind, called after thinking a while. Duhamel in the Big Blind folded as did Jarvis when it got around to him again. Dolan checked the flop. Cheong checked as well. Both checked on the Turn. On the River, Cheong bet 8.5M. Dolan took his time considering his options. After two or three minutes of silence, he called. Cheong turned over Ac10c to make him the nut flush.  

    
Cheong’s Nut Flush

The best rollercoaster hand was between Mizrachi and Jarvis. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for Jarvis who was busted, leaving the tournament in 8th place. BUT it was a stunner that brought the crowd to its feet!  Duhamel opened for 1.4M. Mizrachi called. Jarvis shoved All In for about 14M. Duhamel folded, and Mizrachi called after some consideration.

Mizrachi had AdQd. Jarvis turned over 9c9h.

• Flop…
• 
• Puts Mizrachi ahead with a set of Queens
   
• Turn:
• 
• Puts Jarvis ahead with a boat: Nines full of Queens
   
• River:
• 
• Puts Mizrachi ahead with a boat of Queens full of Aces! Jarvis was busted in eighth place.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table started Saturday, November 6, 2010 at noon in the Penn & Teller Theatre at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. I hunkered down in the second balcony. Phone on left leg. Notepad and pen on the right. Binoculars on the seat in between my knees. 

Starting chips counts…

• Jason Senti – 7,625,000
• Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000
• Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000
• Filippo Candio1 – 16,400,000
• Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000
• John Racener – 19,050,000
• Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000
• John Dolan – 46,250,000
• Jonathan Duhamel – 65,975,000

Action started with blinds at 250K/500K with 50K ante.

During approx. 9 hours of play between 12:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. PST, I blasted 47 tweets (@PokaPaloma). There was lots of action. Very focused players with very little chatter. The All Ins, three-bets and four-bets kept spectators interested and hooting-n-hollering throughout the day and night.

I shot off the first tweet about 7 minutes into the final table during the second hand of the day. Action folded around to the button, November Niner Jason Senti who came to the final table short stacked with 7.625M. Senti went All In for the first time. The blinds folded, and Senti took it down. We would witness a lot more All Ins from Senti throughout the day; the second coming within 10 minutes (two hands) of the first, and, it appears that his first All In gave everyone else permission. Kind of like getting the first dent on a new car. Once that is over, you don’t worry so much, and just drive along. Once the first All In was heard at this Final Table, it became the mantra and was echoed many many times which made for exciting spectating.

One of the most uncomfortable hands of the day came right away – the third hand. Jarvis and Cheong ended up heads up. The look of concentration and tension on each of their faces was tough to watch. Jarvis had opened with a bet of 1.175M. Cheung (on the button) raised it to 2.675M. Other players folded around back to Jarvis who called, and, Cheong and Jarvis were heads up. They both checked the flop. Jarvis bet 3M on the Turn. Cheong called. Jarvis bet 4.275M on the River. Cheong thought for a few seconds and announced, “All In“. Jarvis, still deliberate and composed, but in obvious discomfort, tanked for a minute or two, then folded. 

    
Third Hand of the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table

I think it was so uncomfortable because it was extremely early for big play like that. Later in the afternoon, after the players get “warmed up”, you would expect it, but not 14 minutes into Final Table action. Jarvis lost 7.8M on that hand. Cheong bounced to about 33.5M.

The first casualty of the day was Soi Nguyen. Soi was busted after about 100 minutes of play. He went All In from the button with AdKc. Senti looked him up with a pair of Queens, and flopped a set with Qh 3s 10c. Turn was 9s. River was Ks. Nguyen’s pair of Kings was no match for Senti’s set, and he was eliminated in 9th place after playing 3 hands.

More comments in an upcoming post…Largest Hand played in WSOP HISTORY!

Current Standings…

1. Jonathan Duhamel 188,950,000
2. John Racener 30,750,000
3. Joseph Cheong $4,130,049
4. Filippo Candio $3,092,545
5. Michael Mizrachi $2,332,992
6. John Dolan $1,772,959
7. Jason Senti $1,356,720
8. Matthew Jarvis $1,045,743
9. Soi Nguyen $811,823

2010 WSOP coverage on ESPN begins tomorrow (Tuesday, the 27th) at 8:00pm EST. The two-hour episode will feature the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. One hundred and sixteen of the world’s elite poker players came together to test their skills in 8 different games.

Can’t watch? Spoiler–> Results of the Poker Players Championship. Don’t click if you don’t want to know.

Fun Facts:

1. Two of the Mizrachi brothers made the final table: Robert and Michael.
2. Eight of the players at the final table were from the US. The other player was from Russia. (John Juanda, David “Bakes” Baker, Daniel Alaei, Mikael Thuritz, David Oppenheim, Nick Schulman, and Vladimir Shchemelev (RU)

First prize = $1.5M. Lon McEachern and Norman Chad = the announcers.

Suffering from post-WSOP blues. Feeling let down after 8 busy and exciting weeks of logging in to wsop.com and all the reporting websites and twitter…

SCREECH…fingernails across the chalk board…nothing to check up on today.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table will be played at the Rio in Las Vegas, November 6 – 9, 2010. The players finishing in the top 8 positions will earn at least $1M. 

Most notable change from last year is that last year, a player earned at least $1M just by virtue of making the final table. This year a player has to finish in 1st through 8th place in order to earn $1M, and, the player finishing in 9th place will earn only $800K (almost $200K less than last year – even though the total prize money ($68,798,600) is more than last year). Psychology behind that?

The payouts, first to ninth place is:

1. $8,944,138 
2. $5,545,855 
3. $4,129,979 
4. $3,092,497 
5. $2,332,960
6. $1,772,939
7. $1,356,708 
8. $1,045,738 
9. $811,823

Here’s a reminder of the players and their chip stacks – 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table Players  aka the 2010 November Nine.

Who do you think will win? Take a second to vote –>

The November Nine were decided early in the morning Sunday, July18, 2010.

1. Jonathan Duhamel (CA), 65,975,000 (Start of day 7th ~10.5M)
2. John Dolan (US), 46,250,000 (Start of day 24th ~2.2M)
3. Joseph Cheong (US), 23,525,000 (Start of day 1st ~24.5M)
4. John Racener (US), 19,050,000 (Start of day 8th ~10.5M)
5. Matthew Jarvis (CA), 16,700,000 (Start of day 5th ~13.3M)
6. Filippo Candio (IT), 16,400,000 (Start of day 9th ~10.0M)
7. Michael Mizrachi (US, 14,450,000 (Start of day 16th ~6.3M)
8. Soi Nguyen (US), 9,650,000 (Start of day 2nd ~23.1M)
9. Jason Senti (US), 7,625,000 (Start of day 4th ~3.6M)

Dolan came all the way from 24th place to second. Amazing! Mizrachi held on tight to improve from 16th to 7th.

Interesting that there are 8 players from North America (6 from the U.S., 2 from Canada) and one from Europe (1 from Italy).

Chip counts and placement for the other final 18 players