(PN) On July 3rd, the WSOP $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship began with 6,844 players. Ten days later, only 79 players remained, all focused on the coveted bracelet and $9,111,517 first prize seemingly within their grasp. While the payouts crossed the six-figure mark for the first time in the tournament, it was a double-edged consolation prize for all those that made it so deep into the second largest WSOP event in history.

At the end of Day 6 only 27 players remained, with Dennis Phillips holding a slight chip lead over Craig Marquis. Phillips won his seat into the Main Event through a satellite held at Harrah’s Casino in his home town of St. Louis. At age 53, he is the oldest player of the final 27, which is heavily populated by 20-something year-olds. Craig “craigmarq” Marquis, in second place, more closely represents the demographic of the remaining players; Marquis is 23, a college student, and an online player. And while the third-place player is also young, she represents a rare demographic so deep in the WSOP Championship Event. Tiffany Michelle is the last woman remaining in the field. To date, Barbara Enright is the only woman to make the WSOP Championship final table, finishing in fifth place in 1995. More than ten year later, Tiffany Michelle will get her shot at a poker history-making finish.

The worst hand in poker was responsible for the first elimination in Day 6. All the money went in on an 8-6-2 flop, with Bob Whalen holding pocket jacks to David “Chino” Rheem’s 7-2, known as “the hammer.” A seven came on the turn to give Rheem two pair, and Whalen couldn’t catch up; Whalen was eliminated in 79th place. Rheem mused, “Sometimes when you get your hand caught in the cookie jar, you get a cookie. Most of the time you get your hand smacked.” Matt Matros sealed his tenth lifetime cash in a WSOP event, finishing in 78th place when his A-7 couldn’t overtake David Saab’s pocket threes. And Mark Wilds scored his 19th WSOP lifetime money finish, coming in 77th when his pocket eights went up against Darus Suharto’s pocket nines.

Lisa Parsons put the last of her chips in the middle with pocket jacks, only to run into Owen Crowe’s pocket aces. Parsons’ finished in 76th place and left Tiffany Michelle to represent for women. David Benefield had the best of it when all his money went in on the turn. With the board reading , Benefield flipped over for the jack-high straight. Brandon Cantu turned over for a pair and nut flush draw. The on the river completed Cantu’s flush and David Benefield finished in 73rd place.

Irish player James McManus got all his money in on an open-ended straight draw against Andrew Rosskamm’s pocket aces. McManus failed to connect and finished in 71st place. Victor Ramdin finally lost his battle with a short stack, getting his chips in with against Garrett Beckman’s pocket jacks. Both players liked the flop, Ramdin with the nut flush draw and Beckman with a set of jacks. But when the board paired a five on the turn, only Beckman was pleased. Victor Ramdin has many WSOP event cashes and has grossed well over $2 million in tournament play. Surprisingly this was Ramdin’s best WSOP money finish, providing $96,500 for his 64th-place finish.

WSOP bracelet winner Thomas Keller was eliminated in 61st place when his small stack and K-Q fell to Jeremy Joseph’s 7-6 when a six hit the board. Jeremy Joseph held the lead at various stages of the Championship event, but also became a Day 6 victim. Joseph pushed in with pocket fives which failed against Gert Andersen’s pocket jacks. Joseph finished in 57th place.

WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred’s run ended in a race between his A-K and Chris Klodnicki’s pocket nines. While a king fell on the flop, so did a nine. Outhred finished in 54th place. Sometimes the mantle of chip leader is a curse, or at least that may be how Mark Ketteringham looks back on Day 6. Ketteringham started Day 6 with the lead, but ran into nothing but trouble all day. He pushed his remaining 590,000 chips in with J-8 and Gert Andersen called with A-Q. A queen on the board sealed it for Andersen and Ketterinham was eliminated in 52nd place.

Phil Hellmuth was able to negotiate his way out of a one-orbit penalty levied as Day 5 ended, but wasn’t able to negotiate his way out of a Day 6 elimination. Hellmuth was levied a penalty in the waning hours of Day 5 which was to begin at the start of Day 6. After meeting with Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director, Howard Greenbaum, Harrah’s Regional Vice President for Specialty Gaming, and Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP, Hellmuth was able to get the penalty reversed on grounds that it was “too excessive.”

Hellmuth seesawed with a relatively short stack, but finally was eliminated in 45th place when his A-Q failed to overtake Andrew Rosskamm’s pocket jacks. Kido Pham’s day would also end against pocket jacks, when his A-K lost out. Pham finished in 41st place.

Mike Matusow made the WSOP Championship final table in 2001 and 2005. But Matusow’s bid for another ended with a three-out heartbreaker that put him out in 30th place. Just before the last break of the day, both Matusow and Paul Snead checked the A-A-5 flop. All the money went in on the nine turn. Matusow flipped over A-J for trip aces, but Snead had overtaken him with a boat on the turn with A-9. A king fell on the river and Matusow’s run was over.

Nicholas Sliwinski and Nikolay Losev sparred all night long, but their battle ended when Nikolay Losev made the decision to call his short stack in with two live cards. Losev’s failed to overtake Sliwinski’s A-5 and Losev became the last elimination of Day 6, finishing in 27th place.

Day 7 will determine the 2008 Championship final table. It will also be the last day of the “summer” series as the actual final table play will be delayed until November 9th and 10th. How will poker’s summer end? Check back with the PokerNews “Live Reporting” team for all Day 7 action.

Day 6 Chip Counts:

Dennis Phillips 11,910,000
Craig Marquis 11,460,000
Tiffany Michelle 9,755,000
Peter Eastgate 9,325,000
Kelly Kim 8,840,000

David ‘Chino’ Rheem 8,280,000
Gert Andersen 6,740,000
Paul Snead 6,600,000
Chris Klodnicki 6,245,000
Toni Judet 5,000,000

Ivan Demidov 4,965,000
Nicholas Sliwinski 4,925,000
Joe Bishop 4,855,000
Brandon Cantu 4,740,000
Darus Suharto 4,510,000

Scott Montgomery 4,320,000
Owen ‘ocrowe’ Crowe 3,800,000
Albert Kim 3,675,000
Ylon Schwartz 3,655,000
Jason Riesenberg 3,405,000

Anthony Scherer 2,385,000
Dean Hamrick 2,375,000
Tim Loecke 2,280,000
Aaron Gordon 1,790,000
Niklas Flisberg 1,330,000

Phi Nguyen 1,020,000
Michael Carroll 1,015,000

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

(PN) Jeremy Joseph had a slight lead over the field of 189 remaining players going into Day 5 of the WSOP Championship. While Joseph would concede the mantle of chip leader to Mark Ketteringham by the end of the day, Joseph hovered near the top of the leaderboard for the majority of the day and currently sits in ninth place. Russian player Nikolay Losev currently holds the second-place slot. Losev apparently can’t get enough poker and took one of his days off from the main event last week to win the Bellagio Cup III $5,000 NLHE event.

Phil Hellmuth was the last remaining WSOP Champion in the field when Johnny Chan was eliminated in 329th place. Hellmuth will not be starting Day 6, but not because he was eliminated on Day 5. Hellmuth survived the day, but racked up a penalty at the end of play for berating fellow player Cristian Dragomir and will be forced to sit out the first orbit.

Day 5 players were guaranteed a $38,600 payday and the average chip count going into day was 760,000. There were, however, many players with a short stack that had to make their moves early. George Ramhe was the first elimination of the day when he shoved with A-5 against Greg Debora’s A-Q. A queen on the turn sealed it for Debora and Ramhe finished in 189th place. Peter Traply was also eliminated on the first hand of the day when his pocket queens had the misfortune of running into Darren Grant’s pocket kings; Traply finished in 188th place.

Alexander Kostritsyn bought himself some time by eventually folding pocket kings pre-flop and face up. As the betting escalated in a three-way action, Kostritsyn came to the correct conclusion; one of his opponents had pocket aces. Reagan Silber was the opponent with the rockets and Roy Carter, holding A-K, was eliminated on the hand in 182nd place.

The year that Scotty Nguyen won the championship bracelet, UK player Ben Roberts had a birds-eye view; Roberts finished sixth in the 1998 WSOP Championship. Ten years later, Roberts had to settle for 178th place when his pocket kings fell to Scott Montgomery’s A-Q after an ace showed up on the board. Lou Esposito was hoping an ace would fall on his board when his A-J tangled with Shawn Sheikhan’s pocket queens. But the board failed to cooperate and Esposito was out in 172nd.

Hoyt Corkins locked in his fifth cash of the 2008 WSOP when his pocket queens ran into Ivan Demidov’s pocket aces. Corkins finished in 162nd place. Chip Jett and Gus Hansen were right behind him, finishing in 161st and 160th place, respectively. Hansen was crippled on a hand when his flopped open-ended straight draw couldn’t connect and Jeremy Joseph’s ace-high took the pot. On the next hand, Hansen’s Q-9 led with top pair on a 9-7-5 flop against Chris Crilly’s A-6 gutshot draw. A three on the turn gave Crilly a double gutshot. And an eight on the river filled Crilly’s straight and sent Hansen to the rail.

WSOP bracelet winner Jon Friedberg was eliminated in 148th place when his A-J couldn’t overcome Keith Hawkins’ A-Q. And player/author Matt Lessinger’s run ended in 144th place. In Day 4, a million chips was a nice stack. When Day 5’s field had whittled down to 136 players, it became merely average. Tiffany Michele, one of the few remaining women in the field, seemed to have no trouble powering through the averages on Day 5. By this time, Michele had almost doubled her starting stack to 1.7 million. And by the end of the day, Michele would double that total again, finishing fourth in chips with 3.4 million.

Five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham finished in fourth place in the 2006 Championship Event. Cunningham’s deep run in 2008, however, came to an end when he ran his Q-J into Tim Loecke’s pocket aces. Cunningham finished in 117th place for his fifth cash at this year’s Series. And two-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen also put in a solid performance this year, with four cashes and a 112th-place finish in this Main Event. Madsen’s run finally ended when his short stacked play with K-10 was met by Victor Ramdin holding A-K.

Shawn Sheikhan was sporting a good stack for much of the day, but lost almost all of it running his pocket jacks into Jamal Kunbuz’ pocket aces. Sheikhan put the last of his chips in on the next hand with 7-5 and again was called by Kunbuz, this time holding A-K. The board changed nothing and Shawn Sheikhan was out in 105th place. Kara Scott called in the last of her chips on an A-K-4 board with K-Q. Phi Nguyen had the advantage with A-10 and held it through the river. Kara Scott was eliminated in 104th place.

At the ESPN feature table, Mike Matusow had been playing tight all day. Matusow caught an early double-up to get to over 700,000 chips but was unable to navigate his way much higher. He played few hands and advertised high pocket pairs when he had them. In the last level of the night, Matusow must have figured his tight image was going to get the laydown when he reraised all in, over the top of Sean Davis. Davis called with A-K and Matusow was forced to flip over his 10-5. The crowd roared when Matusow pulled ahead on the J-7-5 flop. After the remaining 8-6 fell, Matusow had doubled up to over a million chips for the first time in the event. Soon after, Phil Hellmuth joined the ESPN table and quickly took control, taking three of the first six hands he played. Matusow joked that Hellmuth won more hands in the first 20 minutes at the feature table than Matusow had won all day.

Alexander Kostritsyn had dodged pocket aces early in the day, but was still unable to escape elimination in Day 5. Kostritsyn check-raised to put himself all in against Garrett Beckman on a 10-6-4 flop. Beckman went into the tank, but finally called with pocket sevens and was relieved to discover he was ahead of Kostritsyn’s A-K. No outs materialized for Kostritsyn and he finished in 84th place. And Mark Vos was also unable to escape elimination, succumbing on the very last hand of the day. Pre-flop betting escalated between Vos and Dennis Phillips until Vos finally shoved all in. Dennis Phillips immediately called with pocket aces and Vos’ A-K was drawing thin. The board ran out Q-9-3-10-2 and Vos finished in 80th place.

Along with the Day 5 chip leaders, listed below, Day 6 will play host to Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Kido Pham, Brandon Cantu, Alex Outhred, Victor Ramdin, Matt Matros, Thomas Keller, Mark Wilds, James McManus, Phi Nguyen, and David Rheem. Payouts for Day 6 will begin at $77,200. If they play down to 27 players, as planned, the last elimination of Day 6 will pay $193,000.

Check back with the PokerNews “Live Reporting” team for all the Day 6 action.

Top Ten:

Mark Ketteringham 5,800,000
Nikolay Losev 4,058,000
Albert Kim 3,734,000
Tiffany Michelle 3,438,000
Dennis Phillips 3,436,000
Aaron Gordon 3,369,000
Jamal Kunbuz 3,327,000
Terry Lade 3,225,000
Jeremy Joseph 3,100,000
Alfredo Fernandez 3,053,000

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

(PN) Day 4 of the WSOP Championship began with 474 players and play was suspended with just 189 players left, or less than three percent of the starting field of 6,844. Jeremy Joseph started the Day 4 as the chip leader, and ended it the same way with 2,187,000 in chips. But Joseph has some company near the 2 million chip mark; four other players, from four different countries, all have stacks topping 1.9 million.

The championship field had made the money in Day 3, and all the starting Day 4 players were insured of a $27,020 payday. But with the bubble safely behind them, few players thought about the guarantee. When the WSOP’s Dealer of the Year, Jenna Phillips, said “Shuffle up and deal,” the race for the bracelet and $9,110,517 began in earnest. Many of the remaining players had been to the championship table before, most notably former WSOP Champions Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Other final tablists present included Allen Cunninham, Mike Matusow, Hevad Khan, and Glenn Cozen.

The day started quickly as short stacks wielded what little power they had in a bid to double up. In the first hour, the field players at a rate of one per minute. Robert Mizrachi was an early victim when all his chips went in on a J-9-4 flop. Mizrachi had the best of it with K-J to William Soffin’s Q-J, but a queen fell on the river and Mizrachi finished in 458th place. Brian Schaedlich ended the Day 2 flights as chip leader, but Day 3 took its toll, and Schaedlich started Day 4 with a relatively short stack. In the early going, Schaedlich made his stand with A-9 against Darren Grant’s Q-4. A queen on the turn ended Schaedlich’s run in 456th place.

Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Bjorin locked in his 42nd lifetime money finish in the WSOP. Bjorin’s A-Q looked good against Shawn Sheikhan’s A-6, but the board came J-7-5-8-9 to give Sheikhan a nine-high straight and send Bjorin home in 452nd. Kirill Gerasimov also had the edge when all his chips went in pre-flop; Gerasimov had pocket kings against Danny Mitnick’s A-K. But the A-A-10 flop proved insurmountable and Gerasimov finished in 439th place. With four money finishes, including two final table appearances, Gerasimov can’t be too disappointed with his 2008 WSOP performance. The first hour of play would also claim Jason Young, Jean-Robert Bellande, Mike Wattel, and David Colclough.

“Are you kidding me?” asked a stunned Adam Schoenfeld. “Unbelievable.” Adam Schoenfeld had taken his pocket tens up against Sigurd Eskeland’s K-J. With the board reading 6-7-8-9, the only card that could hurt Schoenfeld was a ten – which fell on the river. Adam Schoenfeld finished in 424th place. Tim West was eliminated in 419th place and bracelet winner Frankie O’Dell claimed 418th place.

Phil Hellmuth had a ballistic moment, possibly attributable to a 2002 WSOP Championship flashback. In 2002, Hellmuth was eliminated by a Q-10 wielding Robert Varykonyi. Hellmuth swore he’d shave his head if Varkonyi went on to win the Championship. Varkonyi not only won it, he won it with a final hand of Q-10. Hellmuth didn’t welch on his bet, allowing Varkonyi to shave his head for the ESPN cameras. Back to 2008. Hellmuth flipped out, berating his opponent for overplaying his hand and did a lap around the feature table area in disgust. The board read 9-6-J-8-2; Hellmuth’s opponent’s flipped up cards were Q-10 for the straight. This time, however, Hellmuth still had a stack left. And after collecting himself, Hellmuth got back to work collecting more chips.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy was crippled holding pocket jacks against Danny Fuhs with J-10. All the money was in on the 9-8-6 flop, with Josephy with the overpair and Fuhs with the open-ended straight draw. Fuhs got his draw when the queen fell on the turn, and Josephy was down to 60,000 chips. Josephy got the rest of his stack in with K-J and was up against Dag Martin Mikkelsen’s dominating A-K. When Q-10-2 flopped, Josephy picked up the open-ended straight draw, but the rest of the board failed to cooperate. Josephy finished in 386th place. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier finished in 370th place when his pocket kings were outdrawn by Anthony Zinno’s A-Q when an ace came on the flop. And Jason Lester was out in 367th place when his pocket queens went down to Hoyt Corkins’ A-K when a king hit the board.

Johnny Chan was crippled when he took his pocket fives against Damien Creurer’s A-10. Chan was initially delighted to hit a set on the flop, but the ensuing board came up all diamonds and Creurer’s played for the flush. In a subsequent hand, Chan pushed all in with A-7 and Creurer called with pocket eights. The eights held and Johnny Chan finished in 329th place, leaving Phil Hellmuth as the sole former WSOP Main Event champion in the field.

Thayer Rasmussen moved in the last of his chips with pocket aces against Sylvain Coeur’s pocket tens. Rasmussen finished in 321st place when the board ran out J-8-3-7-9 to give Coeur a jack-high straight. Pat Poels finished in 310th when his pocket jacks ran into Eric Bamer’s pocket kings. Dag Martin Mikkelsen finished in 281st place when his pocket kings fell to Kevin Mason’s pocket aces. And Peter Biebel’s pocket fours couldn’t overtake Steve Billirakis’ pocket fives. Biebel’s run ended in 273rd place.

Van Nguyen took her pocket eights up against Dale Hoy’s K-Q, but Nguyen lost the race when a king hit the board. Van Nguyen finished in 250th place. The field of remaining women continued to dwindle as Tracey Nguyen and Evelyn Ng went out soon after, finishing in 239th and 238th respectively. And Hevad Khan, the last representative from the 2007 WSOP Championship final table, was eliminated in 240th place.

Right before the dinner break, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner flopped a set of aces. Albert Kim berated himself for calling on the flush draw, but the turn delivered his flush and the board never paired, sending Jon Turner to the rail in 225th place. Because Day 3 was over 14 hours long, and play had progressed quickly in Day 4, it was decided to suspend play after just one level after dinner.

Glenn Cozen finished in second place in the 1993 WSOP Championship, behind Jim Bechtel. This year Cozen had to settle for 200th place, when his K-J couldn’t overcome the slight disadvantage against Phi Nguyen’s A-9. Play definitely slowed down in the last half hour of the day, as players stalled to survive one more day of the Main Event. But a few late night eliminations still trickled in. Steve Billirakis was among them, running his pocket eights up into David “Chino” Rheem’s pocket queens. Steve Billirakis finished in 199th place.

When play was called, only four women remained in the field of 189; they are PokerNews video gal Tiffany Michelle, Kara Scott, Karen Manfrede, and Lisa Parsons. Eleven WSOP bracelet winners also advanced to Day 5. Phi Nguyen, Brandon Cantu. Mark Vos, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Mike Matusow, Thomas Keller, Hoyt Corkins, Jon Friedberg - and of course, Phil Hellmuth – will all be looking to add another to their collection. And Gus Hansen, Alex Outhred, Alexander Kostritsyn, Matt Matros, Chip Jett, Matt Lessinger, and Kido Pham will also return to chase the chip leaders, listed below, on their way to the bracelet.

Jeremy Joseph 2,187,000
Nikolay Losev 2,110,000
Cristian Dragomir 2,065,000
Brandon Cantu 1,981,000
Davor Lanini 1,958,000
David Rheem 1,851,000
Andrew Rosskamm 1,764,000
James McManus 1,761,000
Geoffrey Herzog 1,695,000
Albert Kim 1,688,000

5:02am: Today’s live session was definitely not easy money. It was a table full of local sharks, and had it not been for the amount of trouble I went through today in order to play live (which I won’t get into), I would have sooner turned around and went back home for a full heads up sng session.

I decided to stick it out, and in doing so I decided that I was going to have to mix things up a bit today because everyone at the table knew what my usual gameplan is. Today was a day where I only played hands in position, and I picked up a bunch of small pots by playing the button and the cutoff very aggressively. The plan worked to perfection, as no one really caught on to what I was doing.

Then, there was this one hand where I made a “blocking raise” preflop of $15 with Ac9c from middle position. I knew I wanted to see the flop, however I knew if I just limped, someone was going to make it at least $25-$30 to go. Whenever I enter the pot there, I usually get a lot of respect, so everyone (5 people) just called and we see a flop of 7c 5c 2d. The guy first to act folds unprevoked (checked out) and the action was on me. I decide to bet $30. The man to my left (loose/passive) calls $30, one guy folds, another guy folds, and the LAG player on the button makes it $130 to go. I thought about pushing right here, because I did have two overs and the nut flush draw, but I wanted the third guy in too so that I’d have better odds for the hand to hit. For that reason, I decide to just call the $100 and so does the man to my left. The pot is now $480 going into the turn.

The turn is a very beautiful card for me: Jc, giving me the absolute nuts at the moment.

I thought that if I checked it at this point, there’s no way in hell someone else would bet a scary card like that on a flushed-out board without a flush themselves. Even a set would probably take the free card here, and try to pair the board cheaply. Keeping these things in mind, I decided to lead out pretty strong ($300) hoping and praying that someone else had completed the flush OR that someone would figure, “there’s no way he could have a flush here, he would have checked. Who in the hell leads out when they hit the flush?”.

Unfortunately, no one had a flush and no one figured any of that stuff I mentioned above. Everyone folds, and I take down the pot as it stood at that point.

The rest of the night was just maintenance and picking up small pots, as I mentioned above. After a 5.5 hour session, I decided that I was indeed lucky to be up nearly $400 in a very “sharked out” game so I took my loot and left with the intention to continue my session via heads up sngs when I arrived home.

In regards to my online mini-session, there is nothing significant to report other than those who ran better than me, won the match, and those did not, lost. This enabled me to finish 3-2 on the night, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to play a longer one. Here is the last hand from the last match I played (against a pretty solid player), for those who are interested:

PokerStars Game #18736711128: Tournament #95280719, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/11 - 05:58:10 (ET)
Table ‘95280719 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: prodigies (1000 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2000 in chips)
prodigies: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qc Js]
prodigies: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Kc 3c Ts]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 90
trujm: calls 90
*** TURN *** [Kc 3c Ts] [Ad]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 240
trujm: raises 720 to 960
prodigies: calls 580 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (140) returned to trujm
*** RIVER *** [Kc 3c Ts Ad] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Qc Js] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
prodigies: shows [Qs As] (a pair of Aces)
trujm collected 2000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2000 | Rake 0
Board [Kc 3c Ts Ad 8s]
Seat 1: prodigies (button) (small blind) showed [Qs As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Qc Js] and won (2000) with a straight, Ten to Ace

More later..

2:52pm: (PN) All the overflow areas were in play at the Rio for Day 1D of the WSOP Championship Event, as 2,461 players took the field. With registration officially closed for the event, the total number of 2008 WSOP Championship entrants climbed to 6,844, the second largest WSOP Main Event field in history. The winner will take home $9,119,517 and the top 666 players will see a payday.

While the previous Day 1 flights got serenaded prior to play, Day 1D players got a political announcement, albeit one of interest. Congressman Robert Wexler spoke about the congressional efforts to revoke the UIGEA, before delivering the words the field came to Vegas for: “Players… shuffle up and deal!”

Representing 40 WSOP bracelets between them, former WSOP Champions Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Ferguson, Noel Furlong, Johnny Chan and Jerry Yang chose Day 1D to play. They were joined by many other notables, including Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, Allen Cunningham, Hevad Khan, Jennifer Harman, Alan “BodogAri” Engel, Kirill Gerasimov, Howard Lederer, Barbara Enright, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Steve Dannenmann, Phil Gordon, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and tournament director Matt Savage.

6:12am: If you look in the “HFL Content” menu on the left, you will notice that there is a new link for “Free Live Tutoring”. The page includes a live chat widget for those of you wishing to get in touch with me and ask a few quick questions. The first five minutes of each session are free. If you would like to continue speaking, normal rates would apply OR you would need to sign up for one of our supported poker rooms.

Please see the link for the list of things you receive when you sign up for a tutoring session.

I will try to establish a set schedule of times I will be online to tend to those of you who have questions. I will post those times and days later on.

3:02am: The biggest battle you face at the tables, espcially heads up, may not even be against your next opponent. Instead, your toughest competitor might be you. Everyone’s got an achilles heel. That is, something that “sets them off” into self-distruct mode sending them downspirling in slow motion with seemingly no way to stop it.

For example, you’re about to put someone away in a $20 husng; they have 280 chips to your 2720. You pick up A10off on the button, so you just put them all in hoping to get a call. You get the call you want, and they turn over the hand you want - J10off - but the RNG lets them off the hook when the flop brings the unfortunate Jack. That’s actually OK, because you’re still at the point where you can maintain your composure and put them away.

But what happens when the situation happens not once, but twice? - and in an even MORE unlikely way. The blinds are now 50/100, and you have 2100 to your opponents 900 and pick up 10 10 in the big blind. Your opponent open shoves, which makes this an easy call and then flip over A2. Beautiful, right? Not so fast. The flop is: K K 3. Still looking good? How about the turn (Q)? Is that a good card? Almost never. Especially in this case because it allowed a Q to hit on the river, counterfeiting your two pair and giving the underdog with A2 the winning hand.

The question is: how do you handle things like that when they happen to you? How is one supposed to take it when it happens over, and over and over again. Here are a few steps to stomaching the sometimes seemingly never ending barage of SICKNESS that happens in heads up sngs (while still in the match):

1. Take 10 seconds, breathe, and look away from the screen. Remember that at the end of the day, it is still just a game and it is for this particular reason that we have bankrolls: so that we don’t have to get sick when things like this happen. It is also the same reason we preach “volume, volume, and more volume”.

2. Remember that if the best hand always held up, no one would ever play. I once heard a proposal for a game variation of Texas Hold Em where the hand would be over on the flop. This was literally one of the dumbest things I had ever heard, and clearly conceived by someone who is so emotionally scarred from getting drawn out on, that he had to invent his own little world where the best hand always wins.

3. Believe in the RNG in the long run. Yeah, yeah - you hear it all the time: long term. You hear it so much, that you’re sick of hearing it, but it’s completely true. Take it from someone who has played nearly a million hands in poker in his life. “Long term” can seem EXTREMELY long sometimes, but the numbers always even out in the end.

4. Do not melt down. There’s a tendency to compound the problem by taking out your frustration on yourself. For some reason, we love to play the victim in life whenever we can - and once a night has gotten terrible past the point of no return, people have a tendency to just “blow a fuse” and not care anymore. Whenever you feel yourself START to get at this point, it’s time to stop. Seriously. Do not register for any more heads up sngs until you’ve completely regained your composure. Also, do not lie to yourself: only you know deep down if you’re just fooling yourself into believing that you’re in the right mindset. Trust and honesty with yourself in these moments is key.

On the other hand, if you happen to be in the middle of the match, you need to do the best you can to emulate the mindset you were in when the match first started. A fresh mindset has been the base of many of my comeback victories, and there’s no reason you can’t do the same.

5. Regain your composure, and finish the guy off. He’s gotten his money in bad at least twice now, which means he’s a good candidate to give these chips back to you. Be patient, don’t rush it, and find another good spot to get your chips in. Not to get all “hollywood” and “cliche” on you, but I believe Mickey told Rocky in one of the movies that every good fighter has one good round left in him. He says, “get up, you son of a bitch! fight this guy hard! cause Mickey loves you!”

In short, don’t let yourself be your worst enemy. In playing heads up sngs for a living, you will find over time that the only person who can beat you is you. Know your weaknesses, be honest about it, and whenever you feel yourself sliding into the dark place, jump out before the water gets too deep.

7:58pm: Since there’s been such a demand to produce more tutorials to cover more situations and outcomes, I will crank out a seventh tutorial hopefully before Friday. After scrapping the idea to make the sixth tutorial cover a $100 match (will be covered in the seventh tutorial), the sixth tutorial should be the final one to cover a match from the $50’s.

This particular episode serves mainly to show how to wear your opponent down mentally, frustrating them to a point where they will make the big mistake. That is indeed what happens, as you will see on the last hand. This match wasn’t about patience so much as it was taking advantage of a good run, while giving off the image that I just trying to push him around in big pots.

Also, as promised a month or so ago, I am currently working on a batch of “single hand” video tutorials, which will be sorted by situations (i.e “Underpair with overcards on the board”, etc). I added the section to the HFL content menu - keep checking back for this exciting addition.

Enjoy, everyone!

2:14pm: (PN) The year of the pro continues as Scotts “you call it gonna be all ova baby” Nguyen wins his fifth bracelet. Here is how it went down:

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It took five days and an amazing final-table performance to do it, but Scotty Nguyen claimed his fifth World Series of Poker bracelet with his victory in Event #45, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. He outlasted a final table featuring several other bracelet winners, Player of the Year candidates and some of the biggest cash-game players in the world on the way to the bracelet, the $1,989,120 first prize, and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

Nguyen started the final table just slightly behind Erick Lindgren in chips, with the seating assignments and chip stacks as follows:

Seat 1: Matt Glantz — 1,445,000
Seat 2: Huck Seed — 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno — 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman — 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen — 3,535,000
Seat 6: Barry Greenstein — 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele — 905,000
Seat 8: Erick Lindgren — 3,680,000

Patrick Bueno started the final table on the short stack after hovering near the top of the leader board for several days. He busted early in the final table when he got the last of his chips in the middle in a razz hand against Erick Lindgren. Lindgren started with 8-7-2, and Bueno held 4-K-A on third street. Lindgren made an 8-low by the end of the hand, while Bueno paired his four on fourth street and bricked out the rest of the way to finish in eighth place ($230,880).

Play was deliberate and the stacks were deep, so significant time passed between each elimination. Huck Seed was next to fall when he and Michael DeMichele tangled in a hand of stud hi/lo. DeMichele had the bring-in, and Seed called. DeMichele led out on fourth, and Seed called again. Seed had a pair of nines showing on fifth street when he led out, and DeMichele called. DeMichele called on every subsequent street, and tabled a flush and a low to send Seed to the rail in seventh place ($284,160).

Barry Greenstein and Erick Lindgren went into this tournament in heavy contention for the Player of the Year title, and Greenstein took the lead when he was eliminated in sixth place ($355,200). Greenstein, who cashed in this event all three times it was played while making the final table twice, busted to Scotty Nguyen in a stud hi/lo hand that saw action on every street. Nguyen completed with [x-x] , and Greenstein called with the in the door. Greenstein led out on every street, and Nguyen called him all the way down to seventh street, when Greenstein fired out the last of his chips with a board of . Nguyen called and tabled [7-7] [6] for trip sevens. Greenstein held two pair, aces and fours, but no low. Nguyen’s trips were good enough to send Greenstein to the rail in sixth.

It took a while for the next elimination to take place, and it was multiple bracelet winner and “Big Game” regular Lyle Berman who busted in fifth place ($444,000). The action was capped on third street in razz when Berman, Scotty Nguyen and Michael DeMichele engaged in a raising frenzy. Berman was all in on the last bet, and DeMichele fired on every street. Nguyen called, and both players checked seventh street. DeMichele tabled 8-7-5-4-3, and both opponents mucked. Nguyen still had a healthy stack, but Berman was eliminated.

Matt Glantz got all his chips in on the flop in Omaha hi/lo against Scotty Nguyen holding . Nguyen tabled on a flop of , for the nut low draw and a naked A-K to Glantz’ pair of tens. The on the turn gave Nguyen a pair of aces and a flush draw, and Glantz was in trouble. The river made Nguyen’s flush, and he scooped the pot as Glantz was eliminated in fourth place ($568,320).

After Glantz was eliminated, the tournament entered marathon mode. The pace of eliminations had been fairly steady to that point, with 20 or 30 hands going by between bustouts. Here, nearly six hours passed between Glantz’ elimination in fourth place and Erick Lindgren’s third-place bustout.

It took nearly 200 hands of three-way action before Lindgren and Scotty Nguyen tangled for the final time. In his final hand, Lindgren completed on third street with the in the door. Scotty Nguyen raised, showing the , and Lindgren called. Nguyen fired again on fourth street with showing. Lindgren had up and called. The on fifth street gave Lindgren the high board, and he bet out. Nguyen, with showing, raised and Lindgren called all in. Lindgren showed []- for a pair of eights, and Nguyen tabled a pair of nines. Lindgren caught no help on sixth or seventh street, and was eliminated in third place for $781,440. Lindgren also vaulted past Barry Greenstein on the Player of the Year points list with his third-place finish.

Scotty Nguyen took more than a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play with the young Michael DeMichele. The 22-year-old Connecticut native was playing his second WSOP final table, and was guaranteed his largest cash ever just by locking up second place. In fact, his cash in Event #45 was greater than the sum total of his live winnings up to that point. The chip stacks looked like this as heads-up play began:

Scotty Nguyen: 12,140,000
Michael DeMichele: 2,660,000

It didn’t take long for Scotty Nguyen to put his big stack to use and bust his final opponent to claim bracelet #5. After about ten hands of heads-up play, DeMichele raised preflop in hold’em with . Nguyen thought for a moment before saying, in inimitable fashion, “It’s gonna be all over, baby.” Nguyen raised with , and DeMichele called all in. The flop came down , and Nguyen was in a dominating lead. The came on the turn, and DeMichele could only win with a three on the river. The showed instead, and Michael DeMichele was eliminated in second place ($1,243,200).

Scotty Nguyen earned $1,989,120 for his victory, and the right to call himself the world’s greatest poker player… for a year, at least. The Prince of Poker beat one of the toughest fields in poker on his way to his fifth WSOP bracelet and the trophy honoring one of the true legends of the game, Chip Reese.

4:16pm: Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of heads up poker online is the presence of tells on both sides. Think about it, how many times have you possibly tipped off your hand in the last 6 months or so by betting/raising too fast, too slow, or perhaps by not raising at all? Let’s take a look at which tells are obvious, how you can spot them and also how to conceal these tendencies. Keep in mind these tells are what I call “level 1″ tells, which operate under the assumption that your opponent doesn’t know that you know these are tells. An example of a “level 2″ tell would be something from the perspective that your opponent knows that you know quick betting indicates weakness, so they will quick bet a hand in strength to intentionally give off weakness.

1. Weakness Tells

• Quick bets. Like I mentioned above, those who bet their hand rather quickly are usually holding nothing more than one pair. Betting so firm, so fast is an attempt to communicate to you, “my hand is so strong that I don’t even have to think about betting”. Good players can see through this, and will usually make a play or, at the very least, optimize their play for what they assume their opponent is holding.
• The min bet. Don’t worry if you think that someone is only doing it to trap you with an attempt to force you into a raise. In all likelihood, the person you’re playing is not thinking that much, so if you need to raise for value, don’t be afraid to do so. Also don’t be afraid to try an take the pot from someone who keeps doing it repeatedly.
• Overbetting the pot on the FLOP. When I call this a “weak tell”, I might be using the term loosely, but I consider one pair to be a weak holding postflop, so by definition this tell is spot on. Notice that I emphasized the word flop, which we will get into later. In this case, usually when people overbet the flop, they are usually holding a pair, but are not necessarily looking for a call and are usually dreading a shove. If you can beat one pair in this spot, you are nearly going to be good 100% of the time in this spot.
• Quick checking. Usually when someone checks very quickly, they just want to move on to the next hand. When someone takes less than a second to check, I will usually take a stab at the pot - with probably a 66% success rate, which gives me good faith in this as a tell of weakness.

2. Strength Tells

• 4x raise preflop. Some things in life are given: death, taxes, and the fact that when someone raises 4x the pot preflop, they are probably holding a small to mid pocket pair. People usually raise more with hands that are harder to play, so they really don’t feel like seeing a flop with hands like this most of the time. A lot of people have trouble playing 77-JJ, and they’d much rather take it down uncontested because they won’t know what to do when overcards come out. Only problem with this method is that they will either win a small pot, or lose a big one. Pay attention to this next time because if you have QQ+, you can shove and will almost always get snap called by someone who is behind 4:1 who assumes you have AK or AQ.
• Long delays followed by betting. When people do this, it’s usually an attempt to communicate to you that their hand is weak enough that they need time to think about betting. When someone does this, I try to stay away unless I’m confident my hand is stronger.
• Preflop limp re raises. You’ve got KJoff in the big blind. Your opponent limps, and you want to make him pay for it, because after all you’ve got a pretty good hand heads up. That is, until he comes back over the top after having initially limped into the pot. If this happens, odds are your opponent perceives you as aggressive and knew you were going to raise pre flop. He also doesn’t believe you will have the disclipline to lay down a marginal hand in this spot - which you should - because he is more than likely not bluffing.
• The huge river overbet. Ever find yourself in a situation where the pot is like 150-250, and all of a sudden, randomly on the river your opponent fires out like 540 into a relatively small pot leaving you wondering what in the world is going on? After all, you just rivered two pair - this seems like an easy call, right? Wrong. More often than not, your opponent is holding a minimum of top two in this situation.
• “Just calling” on every street, followed by a huge bet/raise on the river. Good players will do this when they are weak because they will assume that you will assume that you have just been slowplayed, and are attempting to get you to lay your hand down. Most of the time people aren’t this advanced, and being as such you really have just been slowplayed. It’s probably a good idea to lay your hand down in this spot.

If you find yourself doing ANY of the above, drastically cutting these tactics out of your play can work wonders for improving you ROI. Good players can spot these things, and even sometimes average players. What I used to do is to keep a bunch of small post it notes next to my monitor, and anytime I caught myself giving off a tell, I would make a note on my monitor to make a conscious effort not to do it the next time. Tells are nothing more than bad habits, and most of them come natural. This is why you have to literally go out of your way not to do some of these things, until eventually — not giving off tells has now become a good habit for you.

Spotting these basic tells can also improve you ROI much the same way. Since we can’t see things such as facial expressions and body language online, we have to use the only tools we have at our disposal, such as timing tells and betting patterns. The tells listed above are very basic and are only a small part of equation, hence the name “level 1″ tells. Stay tuned later on for some tells on a more advanced level.