PUNTE is in Las Vegas covering the WSOP Main Event. For more daily updates from the Main Event, follow his dedicated page at facebook.com/JoshAtWSOP.

Today’s Action: Day 3. 2,557 players remaining. It’ll be the first day of the Main Event where the entire field will be in the building at the same time. Players will be scattered around the Rio Convention Center Floor, between the larger Pavilion Room and the smaller, ESPN-infested Amazon Room. Players with short stacks will be forced to make moves early with less-than-idea cards, while bigger stacks will continue to pad their equity in preparation for the cash bubble tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »

Phil Ivey surprised the poker world last year when he managed to wade through another largely-amateur field to reach the WSOP Main Event’s final table and a place among the November Nine. That won’t happen again this year; Ivey busted out after an all-in move in the Pavilion Room that saw him mucking his cards face-down and almost running through an employees-only exit. It was a bitter end to a WSOP that saw Ivey cash four times, including a win in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Today’s Action: Day 2B continues. Players that advance will get tomorrow off and join the survivors of Day 2A on Monday. The field should be narrowed to about a third of the original 7,319 that began play earlier in the week. Read the rest of this entry »

PUNTE is in Las Vegas covering the WSOP Main Event. For more daily updates from the Main Event, follow his dedicated page at facebook.com/JoshAtWSOP.

The book on multi-day tournament poker is to make aggressive plays late in each day, the logic being that one will either (a) win those bigger pots and advance to the next day with more equity, or (b) bust out late in the day and save oneself the agony of making the car ride back, only to bleed to death the following morning. I was surprised to see how few people actually followed that strategy, as many players found themselves coming into Day 2A with 15k in chips, less than half of their starting stack, or even less.

The seriousness of the matter was evident upon walking into the Amazon room at the Rio Convention Center. The idle chatter, fanfare, and naive exuberance of the tournament’s first day(s) were gone. The players, all 2,412 of them, realized that today would be pivotal in their respective quests for poker’s world championship.

Poker Quote Of The Day:

Your best chance to get a Royal Flush in a casino is in the bathroom.

–V.P. Pappy, via. Read the rest of this entry »

PUNTE is in Las Vegas covering the WSOP Main Event. For more daily updates from the Main Event, follow his dedicated page at facebook.com/JoshAtWSOP.

Peter Eastgate won the Main Event just two years ago, pocketing over $9 million. Today, he announced that he’s had enough of chasing straights and sucking out and announced his retirement from poker.

“When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player. My goal was to become financially independent. I achieved that by winning the WSOP Main Event in 2008.[..]

I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. What this will be, I do not yet know. I have decided to take a break from live tournament poker, and try to focus on Peter Eastgate, the person. –via Wicked Chops Poker.

Yeah, so he just retired. From a table game. At age 24. Sometimes I really hate life.

Today’s Action: Day 1D, the last first day. With over 2,000 players for Day 1C, the rush will be on for remaining players to avoid getting shut out of the tournament. Even more big-name pros will be in the Rio convention center today competing for a spot in Day 2.

If Day 1 seems totally worthless, that’s because it is. The blog Pokerati did the math, and they determined that if you didn’t play a single hand on Day 1, you would advance to Day 2 with more than half of your 30,000 starting chips. And yet over 1,000 players will be eliminated before Day 2A begins Friday.

Notables playing today: TV’s Jason Alexander and Hank Azaria; Doyle Brunson and his two kids, Pamela and Todd Brunson; Jennifer Harman, 2005 ME champ Joe Hachem, former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, and poker pro Justin Smith.

Yesterday’s Action: Tom Dwan, Howard Lederer, and Phil Hellmuth were notables among those eliminated from Day 1C. Mike Sexton, Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen and Johnny Chan all advanced. Read the rest of this entry »

PUNTE is in Las Vegas covering the WSOP Main Event. For more daily updates from the Main Event, follow his dedicated page at facebook.com/JoshAtWSOP.

Today’s Action: Day 1C. This is the day that noted “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth makes his “grand entrace.” Hellmuth was always renown for showing up late to tournaments, and will do so today–dressed as a mixed martial artist. Hellmuth’s 11 WSOP bracelets lead all comers. Other notables playing today include 2009 Main Event winner Joe Cada, and “Voice of Poker” Mike Sexton.

Poker Quote Of The Day:

“Don’t walk too much.”

ESPN’s Lon Lon McEachern, to me. His quip really summarized the pace of play that day, where players were waiting for big hands instead of trying to make plays. With 300 big blinds to start, it also creates difficulty for players that have fallen behind to make up any ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s Action: Day 1A. “Beechmont Avenue!”

Greg Raymer, the 2004 Main Event winner with those fun sunglasses, kicked off the event with that famed announcement of “Shuffle up and deal!” Hopefully, the dealers had already shuffled their decks at that point, because that would save all kinds of time.

I’d equate trying to follow the Main Event with trying to track the flight of a single bee in a swarm of bees. Maybe it’s just because I’m new and overwhelmed, but there is too much going on for one person to follow. It’s like watching the cast of “Huge” hit a buffet. Raymer would bust out just a few hours later. “The Amazing Race” alumna Maria Ho got her chips in with aces against kings. She doubled up. I found these things out on the internet after they had happened just mere feet from where I was standing.

After a nice dinner of shoddy Chinese food and a Category 5 visit to the men’s room, I was zapped of what little endurance I had. I wondered how over a thousand people could try to play poker for eight hours when I got tired just from watching them. It’s a good thing that this tournament has four first days. I’ll have another chance at it tomorrow.

Today’s Action: Day 1B. Second verse, same as the first.

Poker Quote Of The Day.

“Thanks, Uncle Joe. Can I call you Uncle Joe?”

–Professional player Tiffany Michelle, who finished 17th in the 2008 Main Event, to the dealer after he awarded her a nice pot. The dealer’s name, according to his nametag? BRUCE. Read the rest of this entry »