Sean, Host of Lord Admiral Card Club Radio, and I had the opportunity to chat with Isabelle Mercier an exclusive for this week's podcast on Lord Admiral. Sean does his usual outstanding job of conducting the interview, dedicating most of the air time to Isabelle and her life before entering the world of Professional Tournament Poker. Isabelle is beginning her third year on the tournament circuit where she earned the nickname, 'No Mercy'. We also had time to discuss Isabelle's website where she offers her own designer accessories and jewelry. Of course, the (in)famous Isabelle jeans which have made her derriere the most photographed in all of poker, are also available.

The podcast is now available so stop by Lord Admiral Radio for an up-close and personal interview with professional poker's latest hot property, Isabelle Mercier.

Posted by pokerprof at 3:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An idea being tossed around Las Vegas not long ago was a pitch to turn the city into the epicenter for celebrating the unofficial holiday, Halloween. I thought it was a great idea and one that had not really been exploited to the degree that Las Vegas can exploit ideas. Things like turning downtown Las Vegas into the World's largest 'haunted house', the Las Vegas Strip taking on the look and feel of a magical street out of a JR Rowling novel would all combine into a gigantic themed party not to be missed (PG-21 rating).

Add to the above list the natural 'spooky side' of Las Vegas, something I had never noticed until I saw the TV movie, Night Stalker, about a Vampire living in Las Vegas and being chased by one of my all-time favorite movie reporters, Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin. The movie is worth your time just to get a historic look at Las Vegas more than three decades ago, back when the World Series of Poker was played at Binion's Horseshoe for the first time.

The grand idea of making Halloween synonymous with Las Vegas has not become a reality but maybe there's still hope. Vegoose at Sam Boyd Stadium is a two day musical celebration that was two years in the making for this 2005 Halloween weekend in Las Vegas. The party is here in Las Vegas and don't forget we have more magicians per square foot than any place on Earth outside of Transylvania. Got no where to go this Halloween? Then come on down and Trick or Treat with the big kids.

I have listed some of the little known but spooky things about Las Vegas that most people don't know. This week's Nines...

Top Nine spooky things about Las Vegas.

9. Siegfried and Roy use real magic, not illusions.

8. Phil Hellmuth can see through playing cards.

7. Packs of howling ghost dogs.

6. Penn and Teller are Hobbits.

5. Mayor Oscar Goodman keeps referring to the Las Vegas City Coven.

4. Chris Ferguson can read your mind...from the next room.

3. Steve Wynn can walk on water.

2. The Talking statues at Caesars come to life and leave in a taxi.

1. Disappearing money!

Posted by flipchipro at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Las Vegas is in between major poker tournaments with the Festa al Lago IV having ended and the next major poker event scheduled for November 9, a WSOP Circuit Series stop at Bally's/Paris casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Ultimate Poker Challenge will return to the downtown Plaza Casino and Hotel for its third season beginning November 16th and running thru the championship final table on November 29th. The holiday poker action moves up to the strip for the Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio scheduled for November 29th through December 16th. Plenty of big time tournament poker guaranteeing big dollar prize pools and rooms filled with all of the stars of the sport. All three of the tournaments will be filmed for later national television broadcast.

November is the official start of the Las Vegas Holiday Season so the town will bring out the decorations, pipe in the Ho,Ho,Ho music, turn the cocktail girls into red and green velvet clad big-breasted elves and turkey dinners replace prime rib as the casino coffee shop special. A time when visitors to Las Vegas split their time between the casinos and the Las Vegas Strip'[s ultra shopping malls. The old time locals lament the holiday times of old when the city would slow down and by Christmas Las Vegas would be a virtual ghost town, even the employees would leave the city to be with distant family members. But, following Christmas the crowds would return to fill the town to capacity for the biggest single Vegas holiday, New Year's. From the slowest time to the busiest overnight, what a rush that was back then. Now, the holidays are continually busy and bustling with visitors, even Christmas has become one of Las Vegas' biggest holidays.

The locals actually begin the season a day early on October 31. All of the Nevada offices, courts, schools and services are closed for the holiday. Halloween? Well, yes and no. Its Nevada statehood day, on this date in 1864 Nevada joined the Union as the 36th state. The words on our state flag read, "Battle Borne," referring to the Civil War being fought at the time. Neveda's statehood was pushed through so the Feds could control and use the state's abundance of rich silver and gold deposits to finance the fight with the Confederates. Another piece of Nevada trivia, the state tree is the Bristlecone Pine, thought to be the oldest living thing on earth.

The big weekend here begins tomorrow with the holiday and on Saturday Vegoose cranks up at Sam Boyd Stadium for two days. Our own Dr. Pauly will be attending everything offered over the two days of Vegoose so check out his reports at TaoPoker.com and then combine a sneak preview of the Prof's latest project with Dr. Pauly's Vegoose reports by clicking the New Poker Prof's Las Vegas Blog. Pauly will provide photos of the entire happenings of the event providing Vegoose remains camera friendly.

I followed the recent Department of Energy press release and news conference concerning the change from the original plans for the radioactive nuclear waste dump being built in the Nevada desert that will make it a safer and less hazard place. Glad those friendly rocket scientist types over at the Department have apparently had some seconds thoughts about their original assurances that the dump would be a good neighbor and we locals need not worry about imaginary dangers. I did not attend the conference but J. Santos apparently talked to someone in a bar that had, or they knew someone with insider info or something. Santos said the feds were touting the new design as a really great gift for Las Vegas, one that could become a big tourist drawing card for the Statehood/Halloween holiday. Santos has done an artist concept constructed from descriptions of the redesigned nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain as gleaned, with the help of Jack Black, from the bar room sources. His rendering below shows how he believes the radioactive dump will appear to arriving airliners full of tourists; and, best of all!, it works for the next 250,000 years. Sometimes Santos can become a bit confused about what he heard so his accuracy is unverified.

Posted by flipchipro at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

High Variance Poker vs. Low Variance Poker - Bill Rini

Not Tails Down - BadBlood

The Tao of Risk - Tao of Poker

Just Don't Call Me Late for Dinner - Absinthe's Troubles

Updated Tourney Stats and Some Keys to Winning - Betting for Value

Using VP$IP to Put Opponents on a Range of Hands - The PokerShark's Cardroom

Of Statistical Significance - Sound of a Suckout

The State of Party Rakeback - Sound of a Suckout

Buying in for the Maximum at NL: Yay or Nay? - Sound of a Suckout

Win the rights to rename this blog for a week - Double A's

Shooting the breeze with easy_wind - Otis

Shoulders of Giants - Cardsspeak

Posted by at 2:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 2005 World Series of Poker broadcast on ESPN is getting close to the final two days of the main event played at the downtown Las Vegas Binion's Horseshoe Casino, now named Binion's. I thought it a good idea to review the poker room so readers will have some advance background in the properties poker rich history. If you're coming to Vegas and plan to play some cash game or tournament poker then stop downtown and test your skill and luck where it all started.-FlipChip

Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel located at 128 East Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas has more poker history than any casino poker room in the city. The original small casino sat on a corner on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. Opened by gaming legend Benny Binion in 1951, the Horseshoe offered gamblers the best odds for whatever game they played and his way of doing business drew the players. Binion's Horseshoe was proabaly the most profitable casino per square foot in Nevada; but, the likely rumor couldn't be substantiated since the Horseshoe was privately owned and didn't have to make public the accounting books.

Benny Binion is one of the true Las Vegas pioneers and architects of modern Las Vegas. He moved from his home near Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas in 1951 when a booming post-war economy made the downtown train station a busy place. All of the downtown gambling joints were small with sawdust covering the floors and low, $50, maximum bet limits designed to protect the house from going broke if someone got lucky. The most you could win at keno was fifty bucks, the most you could bet at any of the casino's games was fifty bucks, fifty bucks and that was it. Benny opened his casino on a corner of Fremont Street a block from the busy train station and named it Binion's Horseshoe. He set his maximum limit at $500, ten times higher than the bet limit of other downtown gambling joints, and the gamblers flocked to his games. Benny continued to improve the Las Vegas gaming landscape making it player friendly for the first time. He was the first to offer slot players free drinks, he was the first to provide limousines to transport players to and from the airport and he replaced the sawdust with carpet, just like the new uptown joints on the strip, another first for downtown Las Vegas. Read more of Benny's history here.

Binion's Horseshoe bought the next door Mint Hotel in 1988 for $27 million, knocked a hole in the wall and went from an 80 room hotel with a small casino to a 362 room hotel with enough casino floorspace to open a permanent poker room. The room was placed up front in the old Mint's casino with a view of car clogged Fremont Street a few short steps away. Benny built it and they did come including one of his oldest friends, poker legend Johnny Moss. Go to the Horseshoe's poker then on almost any day back then and you would find the Grand Old Man of Poker, Moss, there in the thick of things at the highest limit game. He was Benny's Ambassador of Poker. Johnny and his wife maintained a residence at the Horseshoe.

The Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas had been the only home of the World Series of Poker until 2005, for the first time in WSOP history the event was not held at the downtown landmark. The property had fallen into a state of neglect after the death of Benny Binion and the forced departure of Benny's son, Jack Binion. The property was closed in 2004 for two months before Harrah's bought the property, the Horseshoe name and the World Series of Poker Tournament. The new owners quickly cleaned, painted, staffed and opened with only a few days to spare before hosting the 2004 WSOP. The poker room was also reopened and expanded to serve the large crowds of players attending the 2004 WSOP. Following the conclusion of the tournament, Harrah's sold everything downtown except the Horseshoe name and the WSOP Tournament, to current owner, MTR Gaming. MTR renamed the property Binion's.

Binion's poker room has 18 tables. The adjacent tournament area has another 28 tables plus Benny's Bullpen upstairs has an additional 50 tables. Binion's poker room is managed by long time poker room manager Jimmy Delorto. His 25 plus years of experience go all the way back to the old Mint Hotel's poker operations.

Binion's poker room spreads $2-$4, $4-$8 and $3-$6 Texas Hold'em. The room also offers a $1-$2 No-limit Hold'em game with a $100 minimum to no limit maximum buy-in. The downtown poker room always has action games and, remaining true to a Benny tradition of feeding players, Binion's offers one of the more liberal comp policies in Las Vegas. Play four hours for an $8.00 food comp that can be used at most of the food outlets in the hotel.

Binion's Horseshoe had a long history of tournament poker and the tradition continues today with Binion's poker room. No-limit Hold'em tournaments at 10:00am, 2:00pm, 8:00pm and 2:00am every day. The tournament action is managed by Binion's Tournament Director, Chuck Bliane. The buy-in for the tournaments is $60.00 for all except the 8:00 pm Friday thru Sunday tournaments which are $125.00. All tournaments have a one time bonus chip buy for $10.00 ($25.00 for $125.00 buy-in) and one optional rebuy for $40.00 ($50.00 for $125.00 buy-in). Registration for the tournaments begins 2 hours before the scheduled start times. This is your first opportunity to use our new Tournament Information Page with an ultra easy search function. Type your info into the Tournament Search box for up-to-date results.

Learn to play poker at Binion's, call the poker room at 702.366.7397 for complete the complete poker lesson details. The poker room also offers promotions and special events for poker players. Binion's is currently offering Las Vegas taxi drivers a free poker tournament with a $1,000 purse on November 7th at 4:00pm. In the planning stages is another major tournament, the Binion's Classic Poker Tournament slated for October, 2006. Binion's poker room has the Gallery of Champions on one of the red flocked walls with photos and stats for every winner of the World Series of Poker's Main Event from Johnny Moss to 2005 World Champion, Joe Hachem.

Binion's Poker Room is a must visit for players and fans alike. The place is filled with the memories of some of poker's most historic moments and the air is thick with the spirits of the game's great players. Walking through Binion's where so much poker genius sat and played the game is an experience unto its self. All of the world champions in those gallery photographs played in this house and won the coveted WSOP World Champion's bracelet.

Call Binion's Poker Room direct: 702.366.7397. Room reservations toll free at: 1.800.937.6537. Website: www.binions.com

Posted by pokerprof at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tonight on ESPN we get days #2 and #3 of the 2005 World Series of Poker from the Rio Resort in Las Vegas. Actually, day #2 is really the fourth day of play since the record setting field of 5619 entrants required three days of first day play. The official day #2 of play is the first time all of the survivors from Day #1a,b,c are combined into another room full of entrants. The remaining players include many of the professional players we would expect to see and many others players never seen.

Dr. Pauly, TaoPoker.com, live blogged the entire week of the 2005 WSOP Main Event (He also live blogged all of the WSOP event final tables). Pauly's eyewitness accounting of the table action combined with his overview of the "Big Show" are required reading for all the fans of the World Series of Poker. Pauly provides readers with details of what happened during all those hours that wouldn't fit into tonight's one hour broadcast of Day #2 of the 2005 WSOP. The same applies to day #3 so stop by for a detailed look at everything left out of tonight's second hour of ESPN coverage of Day #3 of the 2005 WSOP.

A complete recap of each of the two day's of play is available in the Poker Prof's Blog archives. Click here for the Day #2 recap and here for the Day #3 recap. The 2005 WSOP Photo gallery has more than a thousand photos of all the action and players, close up and unstaged. If you are one of the lucky ones that participated in this historic event then check out the gallery, we probably have a photo of you.

The first hour tonight we see the remaining 1886 players from the three "first day" flights began Day #2 play and continued until 569 players are left to return for Day #3. The record prize pool of $52,818,610 will pay the top 560 players so nine players remain to be eliminated on Day #4, then everyone left gets paid.

Defending 2004 Wsop champion, Greg Raymer, spends Day #3 adding to his piles of chips until time for the day is called. Greg ends the day as the tournament chip leader proving that his 2004 win was a lot more than just flash in the pan.

Tonight promises to offer some great poker so gather the snacks, bring out the SoCo and invite a few hundred close friends for another 2005 WSOP premier two hour episode of the 2005 WSOP Main Event from the Rio in Las Vegas. The first hour is slated for 8:00pm on the East Coast, but times may vary so check the local TV listings for times in your area.

We now have our 2005 World Series of Poker Information and Data Section up and running. It provides readers with the most complete source of World Series of Poker data available and everything there has been hyper-linked for your convenience.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Festa al Lago IV ended at the Bellagio just in time for the start of the 2005 World Series of Baseball. Coming off ten days of watching professional poker players compete for a major tournament title followed by watching two nights of the World Series of Baseball has given me time to compare the two sports. With broadcast poker tournaments behind baseball in ratings numbers, I decided to determine if poker could learn something from baseball about drawing more viewers.

I've listed the things poker can learn from baseball. This week's Nines...

Top Nine things poker can learn from baseball.

9. Players encouraged to spit more.

8. Dealers deal a brush-back card when players crowd the table.

7. Lose three all-ins, you're out.

6. Poker players can no longer have secret meetings to determine outcome of game.

5. A whole new meaning for "chip and a chair" when it becomes "cup and a chair."

4. The 'Master' is banned for two tournaments after Corona is determined to be "performance enhancing."

3. Under the table cameras letting fans watch the stars scratch themselves.

2. Ace-King no longer referred to as "Big Slick," it will now be "Big Unit."

1. Just like Big League Baseball...No Female Players!

Posted by flipchipro at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr. Pauly shot all of the photos illustrating this Final Table Recap. Additional photos and a detailed accounting of the play by play from start to finish of the Final Table is available at Taopoker.com.-FlipChip

After four grueling days of poker at the Las Vegas Bellagio Resort's Casino in Las Vegas, the World Poker Tour crowned it's newest champion when Minh Ly beat Dan Harrington heads up to win $1 million in the Doyle Brunson North American Classic for the main and final event of the Festa al Lago IV poker tournament.

The final table was held in the prestigious Fontana Room overlooking the lake in front of the Bellagio where the spectacular water show could be seen every fifteen minutes. 420 players entered the $10,000 event with hopes of winning one million dollars and a free seat in the $25K WPT Championships at the Bellagio to be held in April 2006. Some of the top names in poker bought into the event and it was great to see some familiar faces at the tables like Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Chirs "Jesus" Ferguson, Erik Siedel, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Nergeanu, Gus Hansen, Max Pescatori, Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstien, and Erick Lindgren.

With three big stacks and three small stacks, the final table was going to be interesting. There was also the possibility that we'd see Dan Harrington and Minh Ly play heads up of for the title since they were the top two stacks. Minh Ly ended Day 3 as the chipleader and Dan Harrington has plenty of final table experience and should never be overlooked. However, the young gun from Canada, Gavin Smith, was seeking his second win on the WPT. Jan Sorensen might be one of the best players out of Denmark and tried to overcome a short stack. The former soccer player won a bracelet at this year's WSOP. Tony Grand is an amazing story. At 81 years old, he's the oldest player ever to make it to a WPT final table.

Here's who made the final table including seat assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1: Tony Grand $118K
Seat 2: Minh Ly $3.056M
Seat 3: Dan Harrington $2.937M
Seat 4: Don Zewin $552K
Seat 5: Gavin Smith $1.368M
Seat 6: Jan Sorensen 370K

Here the payouts:
1st place = $1,060,000
2nd place = $620,730
3rd place = $327,610
4th place = $189,630
5th place = $137,940
6th place = $96,560

Tony Grand found 10-10 and moved all in. Don Zewin had A-Q and flopped an Ace. That pot was big enough for him to take over the chip lead. The turn and river did not help Tony Grand and he finished in sixth place, winning $96,560. Tony Grand made history when he became the oldest player to make a WPT final table. Less than an hour into the tournament, Jan Sorensen was eliminated in 5th place. Don Zerwin moved all in with 7-7 and Sorensen called with 5-5. Sorensen's hand did not improve and he was eliminated in 5th place, winning $137,940.

With four players remaining, Dan Harrington moved into the chip lead with $3.16M. He wouldn't hold onto his lead for too long. He lost a hand to Gavin Smith and that started the wave of revolving chip leaders. With an Ace on the flop, Gavin Smith moved all in with A-Q against Dan Harrington's A-10s. Gavin Smith's hand held up and he doubled up against Harrington. Smith would eventually take over the chip lead but give it back to Harrington when he won a hand against Minh Ly with 9-9.

One hour later, Gavin Smith built his stack to over $4M in chips, while Harrington slipped to the short stack with $800K. By Midnight, Gavin Smith would cough up the lead to Minh Ly and Don Zerwin became the short stack. Five hours into the tournament, with the blinds escalating, the table finally saw some action. Minh Ly raised on the button and Dan Harrington came over the top all in with K-J versus Minh Ly's 9-9. The flop didn't help Harrington, but he turned a King and his fans in the crowd went wild. The river did not help Minh Ly and Dan Harrington doubled up.

Minh Ly moved all in with his shortstack with J-J against Dan Harrington's 8-8 and it held up. Minh Ly got most of his chips back. About ten minutes later, Dan Harrington moved all in with 9c-7c. Don Zewin called with 9-9 and had Harrington dominated. The flop contained a 7 and two clubs. The Harrington-heads went wild because Action Dan picked up a flush draw. When the 10 of clubs spiked on the river, the room erupted in applause. Harrington survived his all in attempt and Don Zewin was eliminated in 4th place. He won $189,630. That hand ended a good four plus hours in between eliminations. After that pot, Dan Harrington moved back into the chip lead with $3M to Gavin Smith's $2.7 and Minh Ly's $2.6M.

Minh Ly made a move and pushed all in with K-8o. Gavin Smith took several minutes before he eventually called with A-7s. Minh Ly flopped a King and won the pot when Gavin Smith's hand did not improve. Smith was crippled. Minh Ly became the chipleader with over $5M.

Shortstacked, Gavin Smith moved all in with 10-2o, which was a fitting hand since he was playing in the Doyle Brunson North American Classic. The 10-2 was nicknamed after Brunson when he won back to back WSOP main events with 10-2. Dan Harrington called with 8-4s and was behind. He flopped an 8 and turned a 4 to send Gavin Smith home in 3rd place. Smith won $327,610 for 3rd place.

The Bellagio Babes entered for the money presentation. They wore sexy black cocktail dresses and carried cash in the Stetson hats, much like the one often seen on Texas Dolly's head. As the Bellagio Babes emptied the cash onto the table, the anticipated heads up match between Minh Ly and Dan Harrington began. Minh Ly is one of the best cash game players in the world and can be found playing in Doyle Brunson's Big Game. And Dan Harrington is considered one of the best tournament players in the world after making four final tables at the WSOP main event. Minh Ly held a chip lead of $5.02M to $3.375M.

On the first hand of heads up play, both players moved all in preflop. Minh Ly showed K-J and Dan Harrington flipped over A-J. Dan Harrington's hand held up and he doubled up. Minh Ly was crippled and had only $1.6M to Harrington's $6.75M. Minh Ly would quickly close the gap when he moved all in with 10-9o. Dan Harrington quickly called with A-9o and was outflopped. Minh Ly came from certain defeat to take over the chiplead.

Thirty minutes later, and the two almost even in chips. Dan Harrington moved all in with A-5 against Minh Ly's J-3. The flop was: 3-6-9 and Minh Ly took the lead. The turn was a King and the river was a Jack and Minh Ly won the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Classic. Minh Ly will take home a cool $1,060,000 for first place along with a seat in the WPT Championships next April at the Bellagio. Dan Harrington won $620,730 for second place.

Congrats to Minh Ly!

Posted by flipchipro at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Bellagio Festa al Lago IV WPT Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship has come to an end. Minh Ly is the Festa al Lago IV Doyle Brunson North American Poker Tournament Champion for 2005. Minh Ly eliminated Dan Harrington after the two went heads up at the final WPT TV table. Going into the two way play Dan had a commanding 4 to 1 chip lead after eliminating Gavin Smith in third; but, Minh held his own as they traded blinds and antes then doubled through Dan to even the count.

The final hand came a little before 2:00am when Dan went all in with A,5 and Minh called with J,3. The flop of 3,6,9 gave Minh the lead with the pair of treys, the turn was a King and the river was a Jack giving Minh Ly two pair and the championship. Minh received $1,060,000 in cash, a $25,500 seat in the WPT Finals Championship scheduled for April 18, 2006 at the Bellagio. He also received the special gold and diamond bracelet made especially for the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship.

Dan Harrington takes away $620,730 for second and Gavin Smith settles for $327,610. The Festa al Lago was another great poker tournament enjoyed by the players and fans. The media had complete access to the events and players for the run of the show making it a pleasure to provide the tournament news. Jack McClelland, Bellagio Tournament Director, and his crew at the Bellagio ran another outstanding poker tournament and congratulations are in order.
Thanks Jack!

Dr.Pauly at TaoPoker.com live blogged throughout the final table so go there for all the details of the of the live action plus Pauly's observations and thoughts on things happening close to a major poker tournament, some very interesting reading. Dr. Pauly's Final Table Recap of tonight's Championship will be available soon so stop back.

Posted by flipchipro at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Dr. Pauly Recap for Day 3 of the Bellagio Festa al Lago IV WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship. Don't forget to go to TaoPoker.com for a Pauly Live Blog of tonight's 10:00pm EST final table.-FlipChip

Day 3 of the Doyle Brunson North American Classic continued at the Bellagio with 39 players with several top pros still remaining such as Dan Harrington, Gus Hansen, Young Phan, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Gavin Smith, Mike Gracz, Jan Sorensen, Bob Feduniak, Eskimo Clark, and writer Jim McManus. The action was moved from the Fontana Room to the poker room where media and fans squeezed in to catch a glimpse of the final event of the Festa al Lago IV poker tournament. Ernie Scherer ended Day 2 as the chipleader and was looking to hold onto his chip advantage.

Gus Hansen did some damage early when he cracked Matt Lefkowitz's A-A. Hansen flopped a set of Kings. Eskimo Clark was eliminated by 2005 WSOP bracelet winner Jan Sorenson from Denmark, when Eskimo's A-K lost to Sorenson's K-10 on the river. Jim McManus was the next player to be eliminated. The author of Positively Fifth Street finished in 37th place and won $17,245.

Wayne Lewis was eliminated when his 10-10 and ran into Minh Ly's A-A. Lewis finished in 36th place. He won $17,245. Minh Ly continued his run on Day 3 and knocked out his three players by mid-afternoon. He climbed up to the top 5 in chips. Jesus Ferguson made a run as well after he knocked out Arnold Spee finished in 32nd place. He was second in chips to Ernie Scherer for a while.

Gus Hansen took 21st place when he got caught on a steal with 9-3o. Gavin Smith woke up to find Big Slick from the blinds and busted the Great Dane. Jesus' stack took a major hit when he doubled up Barry Greenstien and Bob Feduniak. Feduniak rivered a set against Jesus.

When play reached the final two tables, Ernie Scherer was still the chipleader with $1.1 million. He added to his stack after he found pocket Aces and busted Thom Wherthmann's K-K. Young Phan took 17th place after he was knocked out by Tony Grand. Steve Brecher was out in 15th place when he ran into Action Dan Harrington's K-K.

Kathy Liebert started the day as the only remaining female. She had a short stack and doubled up against Jan Sorenson when her A-A held up. While Ernie Scherer 's stack was severely dented when he doubled up Gavin Smith. He lost the chip lead and faced elimination with one of the short stacks. Meanwhile, Tony Grand and Dan Harrington were among the two chipleaders.

Kathy Liebert's shot at making consecutive WPT final tables fell short when her 5-5 ran into Ernie Scherer's K-K. Liebert finished in 13th place and won $34,485 for an amazing effort. Liebert finished 3rd at the Borgata in Atlantic City last month.

Action slowed down substantially and it took two hours before Bob Feduniak was eliminated in 12th place. Minh Ly eliminated Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in 11th place when Ly's Hilton Sisters held up against 4-4. By the dinner break, 10 players remained. Ernie Scherer regained the chiplead with $2.16M after he won a monster pot off of Tony Grand. Scherer picked off Grand on a bluff. Dan Harrington was a distant second with $1M.

After the dinner break, it was almost another hour before anyone went home. Barry Greenstien was eventually knocked out in 10th place by Gavin Smith, who flopped a set of 2s against Greenstien's pair of Kings. Greenstien won $41,380. Abraham Gray was eliminated soon after when his 10-10 was outflopped by Ernie Scherer's A-K. Gray won $48,280 for 9th place. Play reached the bubble when Dan Harrington knocked out Danny Shiff in 8th place. Shiff won $55,175.

Play slowed down at the TV bubble. Ernie Scherer continued to be the chipleader at $2M, while Minh Ly slipped to the short stack. Minh Ly would eventually be involved in two big hands. He doubled up with Q-10 against Scherer's 5-5, but lost most of those chips to Tony Grand when his Hilton Sisters were outflopped by Grand's A-8. Jan Sorenson's stack was crippled by Don Zerwin. Sorenson's A-K could not beat Zerwin's K-K, and his stack shrunk to $300K. Sorenson bounced back when he was all in against Ernie Scherer and caught a card on the river to double up.

With Minh Ly as the short stack again, his A-A held up and he double up against Gavin Smith. Dan Harrington won a monster pot off of Tony Grand when his Q-Q held up against Grand's 10-10. Grand slipped to the short stack while Harrington's stack grew to over $2.5 million as he moved back into the chiplead. A few hands later, Harrington found Q-Q again and won a pot against Ernie Scherer to increase his chip lead by even more.

After 14 hours of play on Day 3, Ernie Scherer was knocked out by Minh Ly in 7th place. Both players were all in on the flop of A-J-9 with two clubs. Minh Ly had a gutshot straight draw and a King-high flush draw, while Scherer flopped two pair. Minh Ly made his flush on the river, which sent Scherer home on the TV bubble. Scherer entered the day as the chip leader and won $68,970 for his excellent effort.

Here's who made the final WPT TV table including chip counts:

Seat 1: Tony Grand 118K
Seat 2: Minh Ly 3.056M
Seat 3: Dan Harrington 2.937M
Seat 4: Don Zewin 552K
Seat 5: Gavin Smith 1.368M
Seat 6: Jan Sorensen 370K

Here's the final 6 payouts:

1st Place: $1,060,000
2nd Place: $620,730
3rd Place: $327,610
4th Place: $189,630
5th Place: $137,940
6th Place: $96,560

The final table will begin at 7pm on Friday in the Fontana Room at the Bellagio. See you there!

Posted by Dr. Pauly at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read the Day Three Recap of the WPT event at poker player by our expert online poker blogger Dr. Pauly, he's live blogging the WPT event. Photos for the event are in the Las Vegas and Poker Photo Gallery.

The WWdN tournament is tonight at 7pm EST on Poker Stars. Complete details for the poker tournament can be found at Wil Wheaton in Exile.

In other news Wicked Chops Poker did a blog file on us and by sheer coincidence the blog has been renamed.

Posted by pokerprof at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You're seeing the all new, better Poker Prof's Blog. The same old stuff we've always had plus some new features yet to be introduced that we've never had. We have been busy building some entirely new features, rebuilding the old, intergrating and interfacing everything into a seamless presentation that will result in the most complete and always up-to-date Las Vegas dedicated blog that will be everything Vegas. We have completed most of the build, the beta testing phase is well underway and today is the day for the first look at the new look of the Poker Blog.

Complete coverage of the Bellagio Festa al Lago IV WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship final table being played on Friday will be available once the match is complete and a champion is found. Dr. Pauly will be ringside with his laptop live blogging for you as it happens, live from the floor of the tournament. If you want to be there live as it hap