Quest of a Closet Poker Player

And we’re off for the most anticipated event of the World Series. Photo dump, then I’ll have Tables up soon enough.

Before the start, it looked like one of those association meetings or reunions where everyone knows each other and are getting together for the first time in a year or so. Lots of smiling and backslapping.

The defending champ. I’ve only seen him in one other event, I think.

Tuan Le sighting; there’s been a 2+2 post about his whereabouts, but he’s here with Cyndy Violette. Juan Carlos Mortensen is also in.

Doyle Brunson and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. Not tons of youngsters have ponied up the cash, but there are a few. Tables coming in a bit.

UPDATE 1:15PM

Here are the tables (tentative list excluding any late buy-in’s).

Annie Duke 1 1
Josh Arieh 1 2
Steve Zolotow 1 3
Tad Jurgens 1 4
Gavin Smith 1 5
Minh Ly 1 6
Annand Ramdin 1 7

Patrick Bueno 2 1
Soheil Shamseddin 2 2
David Oppenheim 2 3
Isabelle Mercier 2 4
Michael Mizrachi 2 5
James Owens 2 6
Raymond Dehkharghani 2 7

Stephen Wolff 3 1
Mark Vos 3 2
Jerrod Ankenman 3 3
Tom Franklin 3 4
Erik Seidel 3 5
Maureen Feduniak 3 6
Abraham Mosseri 3 7

William Chen 4 1
Jerri Thomas 4 2
Massimiliano Pescatori 4 3
Thien Phan 4 4
Mark Gregorich 4 5
Jeffrey Lisandro 4 6
Ted Forrest 4 7

Nikolaos Frangos 5 1
Erick Lindgren 5 2
Ariel Schneller 5 3
John Cover 5 4
Daniel Negreanu 5 5
Marco Traniello 5 6
Shih-Ping Sun 5 7

Michael Matusow 6 1
Darrell Dicken 6 2
Chau Giang 6 3
Thor Hansen 6 5
Jeffrey King 6 6
Bon Phan 6 7

Todd Brunson 7 1
Tony Guoga 7 2
Matthew Hawrilenko 7 3
Phil Laak 7 4
William Edler 7 5
Doyle Brunson 7 6
Justin Bonomo 7 7

Jani Sointula 8 1
Allen Cunningham 8 2
Hasan Habib 8 3
Nicholas Schulman 8 5
Allen Kessler 8 6
Barry Greenstein 8 7

Chris Ferguson 9 1
John Hanson 9 2
Greg Mueller 9 3
Mickey Appleman 9 4
John Juanda 9 5
Robert Feduniak 9 6
Joe Tehan 9 7

Charles Kaelin 10 1
Scotty Nguyen 10 2
Lyle Berman 10 3
Charles Lehr 10 5
David Levi 10 6
Kristy Gazes 10 7

John Duthie 11 1
David Sklansky 11 2
John D’Agostino 11 3
Sherkhan Farnood 11 4
Greg Raymer 11 5
Jennifer Harman 11 6
Robert Mizrachi 11 7

Roy Thung 12 1
Rafi Amit 12 2
Anthony Cousineau 12 3
Benjamin Lin 12 5
David Williams 12 6
Robertus Hollink 12 7

Meikle Partin 13 1
Bart Hanson 13 2
Patrick Pezzin 13 3
Jason Lester 13 4
John Hennigan 13 5
Gabe Kaplan 13 6
David Benyamine 13 7

Mark Tenner 14 1
Rafael Perry 14 2
Thomas Weideman 14 3
Amnon Filippi 14 4
Patrik Antonius 14 5
Ted Lawson 14 6
Michael Wattel 14 7

Jean Kabbaj 15 1
Bradley Helm 15 2
Gus Hansen 15 3
Alexander Kravchenko 15 4
Gregory Mascio 15 5
Suk Sung 15 6
Jessee Jones 15 7

Kirk Morrison 16 1
Ali Eslami 16 2
David Singer 16 3
TJ Cloutier 16 4
Mike Sexton 16 5
Dewey Tomko 16 6
Phil Ivey 16 7

Howard Lederer 17 1
Brandon Adams 17 2
Chip Reese 17 3
Bruno Fitoussi 17 4
Luke Neely 17 5
James Bechtel 17 6
Vladimir Troyanovskiy 17 7

Sam Grizzle 18 1
Sam Farha 18 2
David Grey 18 3
Bari Sklar 18 4
Daniel Shak 18 5
Bill Gazes 18 6
Chris Reslock 18 7

Daniel Harmetz 19 1
Chad Brown 19 2
David Chiu 19 3
Cyndy Violette 19 4
Tuan Le 19 5
Eli Elezra 19 6
Andy Blacki 19 7

Andy Bloch 20 1
Robert Williamson 20 2
Neal Friets 20 3
Tom Schneider 20 4
Harry Thomas 20 5
Jack Zwerner 20 6
Noah Jefferson 20 7

Toughest Three Tables

Table 16 Ivey definitely ups the star power, but it’s loaded with Kirk Morrison, David Singer, Mike Sexton, TJ Cloutier, and Dewey Tomko. That’s four of the players at last year’s Final Table.

Table 19 This has to be the most balanced table with Chad Brown, David Chiu, Cyndy Violette, Tuan Le, Eli Elezra, and Andy Black.

Table 17 Todd Brunson, Tony G, and Doyle Brunson are joined by Bill Edler, Phil Laak, and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo.

UPDATE 2:40PM

I took a poop next to Pauly and slipped him a note under the stall. I’m really not a big talker on the potty.

148 players in the HORSE event, which I actually thought would be much bigger. Top prize is $2,276,832 with runner-up receiving $1,278,720 and third $852,480. Top sixteen cash.

UPDATE 4:30PM

Here’s Butt #16.

Erica Schoenberg busted Pauly, which is probably as good a way to go as any. This will be her best WSOP cash regardless of what happens next, and she took down $105,875 in a Mandalay Bay event.

I’ll probably be out of pocket hopefully for a long, long time tonight. If I’m not, I’ll let you know.

UPDATE 10:10 PM

Made it to the dinner break of the $1.5k NLH/LH Mixed Event. Got down to 1025, came back from a break and shoved limpers (Ah-3h and A-10o). UTG raised and James Van Alstyne called, and I saw two red queens and shoved again, hoping someone was ready to make a stand. Van Alstyne did with A-Qo, I got my stuff together, the ladies held up, and I was whole again. I’ve donked off some more and sit at 2875 or so.

UPDATE 12:55AM

Freakin’ KQ…I fold everything, steal once, get aces for the third time in NLH call super aggro guy with monster stack for 600 (100/200 blinds), two others call, three diamonds Q high, they check to me and I shove to get up to 4800. Kh-Qh gets called by 10-10 and 9-9, can’t connect and have to fold on turn, then I double up with queens, then I have the same thing with KQo again. Back at 2750, not much going on. Will try to survive a bit more.

UPDATE 2:30AM

Out 170th of 620, short of the money.  Just couldn’t put anything together, and I can’t say I was card dead for sure.  Aces three times (blinds twice then called with them above), KQ twice (never good), etc.  I don’t feel too good about it as I never got above average in chips and played fairly tight almost the entire time.  Now to get some rest.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.