Breakfast Club Poker

27 Left With Two Days Yet to Play

Yesterday, the WSOP Championship played down to 27 players.  Each of the remaining players is guaranteed to take home $494,797.  And although that is quite a tidy sum, it will be hard for players to leave now, knowing just how close they came to their $12 million dream.   

While the majority of the remaining players are not poker household names, the field still represents a wealth of tournament experience. 

Jamie Gold (pictured) will start today at the top of the leader board, where he has been for most of the last two days.  He's a California player with the penchant for action they are known for.  And while he has only played in tournaments for the better part of the year, he's got some nice scores going into this year's WSOP.

Prahlad Friedman should be a household name, but for some reason sneaks under the radar screen of most poker enthusiasts.  Fridman won a WSOP bracelet in the 2003 $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em event and came in 2nd in the 2005 WSOP Circuit Championship at Rincon.  He is also well known in the world of internet cash games, where he plays at the levels you and I fear to tread.

Even though he is mild mannered and understated in the field, Allen Cunningham is a pro that's on everyone's radar screen.  With four WSOP bracelets to his name and 95 money finishes in major tournaments, he's hard to miss.

For more discussion of the field and the list of today's starting chip counts, read on.          

Two Names Out Already Today

We started with 45 players today and had few "names" left in the field.  But today has already taken its toll on some of the known pros.  Humberto Brenes started with a short stack relative to the field today and went out in 36th place.  2005 WSOP bracelet winner, Dan Schmiech just succumbed in 32nd place.

Both men take home $329,865 for their outstanding performance.

And They Play On...But For How Long

Tomorrow's plan was to stop the WSOP Main Event when they got down to 60 players...but of course we already got to that point this evening.  There was an unofficial statement that we would stop play today at 54 players.  We are currently down to 53 players.

Jeffrey Pollack, the Commisioner of the WSOP, was heard to say in the hallway that they would be playing down to 45 players tonight, but there has still been no official announcement. 

 

WSOP Schedule? Got a Plan?

If you go to the official WSOP Main Event Schedule you might think today's plan would be to play from 300 players down to 150 players.  That would be all well and good, except they played into the wee hours last night, getting down to 135 players. 

The deviation from the schedule is starting to be of concern to the remaining players.  Last night many assumed that they would have a short day, breaking before dinner.  At that point there were 214 players remaining in the field, far less than the scheduled 300.  And then players assumed that surely the WSOP would stop play when they reached the 150 player mark, a full day ahead of schedule.  But player 151 busted at about 11:45 pm - and the main event played on.

Yesterday, Day Four ended at 1:25 am with 135 players. 

So what's the plan now?  Many have speculated that the WSOP has decided to put in an impromptu day off sometime in the next few remaing days, but there has been no announcement about what and when.  Some are now speculating that TWO days off may be in the offing as today's play could get them close to that mark.

For the remaining (now 121) players in the field, there has been no announcement about the new main event schedule; a schedule that has life changing potential for all those still posting antes today.   

      

Day 1A&B finishers at the 2006 WSOP

We got a list of finishers from the past two days.
Here are the names that I recognize.

Mark Vos 85,375
Jeff Lissandro 85,025
Allen Cunningham 77,625
David Pham 57,850
Layne Flack 56,300
Steve Day 53,550

Duke Scores Coveted Prize

Most people following the WSOP know little about it, but WSOP insiders crave the tough competition and honor associated with the WSOP Roshambo (rock-paper-scissors) Event.

This year Annie Duke reigned supreme against a trecherous field of 64 players.  Duke had to be considered one of the favorites as she also made the semi-finals last year.  She totally owned the final match, taking it down 5-0.

While the Roshambo is clearly one of the WSOP's lighter moments, most of the pros that turn out are motivated by the fact that a significant portion of the buy-in goes to the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation.

Congrats Annie.               

So Proud of Carl Olson!

I'm staying in what we have been calling the House of Cards, long befor the other House of Cards had their name. It's a large Spanish style house rented by a handful of online poker pros who've come to Las Vegas to take their shot at the World Series. We're living the life -- pool, golf course, ping pong room, jacuzzi, entertainment room, bar with pool table, etc. The other day everybody but John played in the $2,000 NL Hold'Em event. Carl Olson is still in it.

The Blonde Ivey is hanging in there. He's my new fave underdog, and even more interesting because he's only 24, has some big cashes in the past two seasons of the EPT, and is headed to Europe again this fall. Travel, poker, ahhhh.

The $2,000 is down to 45 players and they just went on dinner break. Carl wanted to keep playing, but the break is, of course, mandatory.

"It's been a rocky day. I just doubled up and am in reasonable shape now. But I'm still below average," said Olson at $70,000. Dan Harrington is also at his table with a little bit less.

Andy Black's B-Day

It's Andy Black's birthday today.  If you see him out on the tournament floor, wish him a good one. 

Andy really wanted to play a final table today, but just missed the money in the 7 Stud event yesterday.  A friend of his said, "I didn't even know Andy played stud.  Of course I didn't know he could play Omaha hi/lo either."  Black has monied in two WSOP events so far this year; both Omaha hi/lo.  Up until now, his only money finish in a non-Hold'em event was his 9th place finish in the PLO event at the EPT's Irish Winter Tournament last October.

Last year, Andy cashed in three WSOP events (all NLHE), making two final tables, including his stunning 5th place finish in the Championship event.

Happy Birthday from BCP Andy.  May you have many more - birthdays and final tables.       

Liebert Just Misses in Shootout Marathon

I tend to complain if I play a single table that lasts more than two hours.  I can't even begin to imagine what was going through Kathy Liebert's mind when she started playing into her seventh hour in yesterday's NLHE Shootout event.

One hundred players started Day Two of the Shootout event with ten tables of ten players each.  The winner of each table would advance to the final table, which will be played later today.  Charles Sewell was the first table winner to emerge in just under four hours of play.  Eventually nine table winners were decided while Kathy Liebert and Chad Layne battled heads-up, vying for the last seat at the final table.  Liebert just couldn't catch a break.  If she had middle pair, Layne had top pair.  If she had a flush, his was a tad higher.  Eventully Liebert succumbed; the last player out before the final table.            

James Woods Cashes at WSOP

Actor James Woods is no stranger to poker, but before today Woods had not cashed in a WSOP event.  In today's WSOP $2000 NLHE Shootout, Woods won his table, ensuring at least a $4,805 payday.  And I, for one, am happy that Woods gave me an excuse to post the picture of us at last year's WSOP:)

The shootout event started with 100 tables of six players.  The winner of each table today made the money and will proceed to tomorrow where there will be ten tables of ten players.  The winner of each of tomorrow's tables will make up the event's final table where 10th place pays $16,380 and first place pays $240,222.

The event is still in play with only about 30 of tomorrow's participants decided.  Other table winners so far include David Singer, Blair Rodman, Josh Arieh, Evelyn Ng, Roland de Wolfe, Jeff Shulman, David Pham, Gavin Griffin, Tony G, Marcel Luske, Brett Jungblut, and Bruno Fitoussi.  So it looks like a challenging field is assembling for Day Two of the Shootout.

BCP congratulates James Woods on his first WSOP score and we wish him luck going into tomorrow's second round.