A Hump Day WSOP Update

Event 15 - $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em World Championship crowned its winner, Svetlana Gromenkova last night. She claims the bracelet and $244,702. Congratulations Svetlana! Let me also pause to say that I fully support continuing on with the TRADITION of the Ladies Event, despite Alan Jaffray showing up dressed as a lady and trying to play in the tournament, go here http://jnala.livejournal.com/ to see for yourself. You may have to scroll down to the June 8th, 2008 post in order to see "him" in all his glory (shudder.) Let's not pretend that he was doing this because he felt that his basic civil liberties were being violated. Read deep enough in the comments and you'll find a post by "undersupervised" http://jnala.livejournal.com/430861.html?thread=747533#t747533 which expresses my thoughts on the issue, quite well. But like me, this poster felt like the odd man out, as judged by all the comments to the contrary of our opinions. I couldn't help (as usual) voicing my opinion as well! Suddenly, Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady" comes to mind. Then, frighteningly after that The Kinks, "LOLA!" AHHH, moving right along. Okay, one more... "that's not a Sheila!" The real CRAZY thing is the fact that Mr. Alan Jaffray finished 5th in the WSOP Event #5, $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with Rebuys for a whopping $164,963 payday. According to his site, he's played in "15 WSOP events total in my life, and I've made two final tables. Wouldn't mind keeping up that ratio. :)" Go figure...

Event 16 - $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo has a winner too. Andrew Brown bested the field of 553 to take home the bracelet and the $226,483, of course. You gotta give him his due on this, as the 25-year old had to go heads up against Ted Forrest for quite some time to lay claim to the title! Congratulations Andrew!

Event 17 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout is in the history books now as well. Jason Young came out on top of the 1,000 total entrants, pocketing the $335,565, and accessorizing with the gold bracelet. Congratulations Jason!

Event 18 - $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys is down to the final 9, and play will resume later today. This event was very PRO-HEAVY from the get go, but there's definitely STAR POWER in this final table. My boy Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren could make bracelet #2 in this one, as he currently holds a healthy chip lead entering into the final day of play, at 1,100,000 in chips. The closest competitor is Mike Matusow in 2nd with 540,000 in chips! The other 7 easily recognizables are: Jeffrey Lisandro, Barry Greenstein, Tony 'G' Guoga, David Benyamine, and Tom Schneider. But let me say it again... "GO E-DOG!!!"

Event 19 - $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha went from 759 players to 46 in Day 1! According to the bloggers of the event MarcC and Shamus, "...that works out to more than 70 players per level!" I haven't seen an Omaha game that wild since, the last time I played over at Shuman's!

Event 20 - $2,000 Limit Hold'em has whittled down the pack from 480 to 125 players. Still lots of poker to be played. Notably Daniel Negreanu is currently in 4th place with 32,200 (17,000 off the leader Daniel Makowsky.) This is still anyone's game.

Event 21 - $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em and Event 22 - $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. will get under way at Noon PDT today. Stay tuned...

As always... thanks for all the fantastic reporting and writing going on by the fine folks over at PokerNews, http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/. I'm just recapping and giving my take on it all; they're doing all the WORK. Thanks!

In other poker news, this time far from the Vegas glitz and glamour, a handful of the NDPT contingent got together in the basement of cheer_dad last night while the lovely Big Red was playing host upstairs to a "ladies only" event of her own, a "Candle Lite" party. (Kinda like TupperWare or Home Interiors, only not...) But in the basement the game was a familiar NLHE. Just a simple little cash game, but I for one had fun. I know, it's ALWAYS more fun when you're winning. I was getting cards though. Heck, even I can't argue that one, I mean you all saw me hit more than a couple straights and flushes. And how about those friggin' QUAD KINGS! I'm doing my happy dance right now, and showing my "Oh Face." I more than doubled up for the night. Hope you all had a good time! Of course, I did so well there that I'll likely find myself card dead on Friday at the Yanok's tournament night (2 games) and the following night back at my house for NDPT Tournament #8 of the year. So c'mon guys take it easy on me. : )

Regards,

cheer_dad