Coming together as one

Tomorrow, two flights become one. Essentially, two tournaments will merge into one and the long road to the money begins.

As the clerical staff is swamped with work at the moment, it could be some time before we have an official count and leaderboard. As promised, you'll have it when I have it.

Until then (maybe morning, so don't get all jumpy on me)I thought we'd take a look at the math before we close out the blog for the night.

Out of 201 that started in Flight #1, 116 remain.
Out of 260 that started in Flight #2, 141 remain.

That leaves us with 141+116 going into Saturday.

Two-hundred fifty-seven.
Twenty six tables.

One hundred seventy-seven people have to bust out before we hit the money.

Saturday is going to be a long and brutal day for the players. A long day of play with still no guarantee of hitting the money.



The rail is growing thick as the tournament moves into its third day. Busted players, looky-loos, and vactioners are filling the poker room and sneaking into the tournament area for a quick peak at their favorite player.

I chatted for a while with a New York Times writer who sweated Daniel Negreanu all day long for a piece in the Times Sunday Magazine (due out some time in February). Negreanu was having a fantastic day, up to more than $40,000 in chips, before losing about half his stack (I'm not sure how it happened).




Not Gus Hansen

Toward the end of the day, I accidentally caught this player as he flopped the nut flush, played it slow until the river, then got some poor guy to go all in with a six through ten straight on the board. I can only guess his opponent had QJ. I thought for a moment the winner was pretending to be Gus Hansen. As it turned out, he was showing his tablemates the source of some nerve damage that causes his hand to shake when he places out his bets.

Didn't I feel like the heel...

Through it all, some of my favorite floor guys kept it all running smoothly.



Glenn, pictured right, is from Rhode Island. I eavesdropped on a conversation he had with his wife back home, where nearly a foot of snow is on the ground.

Mrs. Glenn, please know, we're all miserable here in the islands.

Miserable.

Again, when I have the leaderboard, you'll have it.

The Official Day 2 starts tomorrow (Saturday) at Noon.

Two flights become one tournament and 257 people start the battle for the cash in the Bahamas.

New tournament leader--Unofficial Flight 2 leaderboard

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new tournament leader.



Young Gavin Griffen spent an afternoon and evening amassing a $73,550 stack besting yesterday's leader, John Smith, who ended Thursday with a little more than 68,000.

The official chip count and leaderboard won't be available for a while, but I thought people might appreciate seeing who the leaders were at the tables.

Rather than put these in order right now, I'll just list them by table. When the official count comes in, you'll see it here first.

Table 1--Thomas Dwan-52,850
Table 2--Ron Corber-26,475
Table 3--Gavin Griffen-73,550
Table 4--Thomas Schreber-44,700
Table 5--Joe Long-31,350
Table 6--Paul Incento-34,050
Table 7--Steve Walls-26,750
Table 8--Michael Goodman-47,325 and Greg Debora-43,925
Table 9--Justin Bonomo-59,375
Table 10--Danny Ashman-41,175 and Matthew Rosenquist-41,050
Table 11--William Thorson-57,025
Table 12--Lee Watkinson-52,800
Table 13--John Gale-30,150
Table 14--John Sitton-25,750 and Daniel Negreanu-24,725
Table 15 (offficially table 18)--Mats Rahmn-18,425

An afternoon on the Flight #2 floor

Every tendon, every muscle in every back in this room has tensed up, in the words of Seinfeld's J. Peterman, "into one giant monkey-fist."

By the end of level two today, the dozens of dealers here had been dealing for three straight days.


Meg Patrick, dealer coordinator and resident mother-figure to all the dealers, tranformed herself into stretch coordinator for five minutes, taking her dealers through a routine designed to unclench the monkey-fists and restore her dealers to relative loose-ness.

Former Foxwood's dealer, Susan, participated along with the rest of the crew. I can't gauge the how loose they are now, but I feel better for just having watched. I'm going to have to ask Meg if I can get in on the next routine.

I spent the afternoon on the floor tracking the chips as they moved from player to player. The early-afternoon care had not vanished completely, but there was some evidence the players were starting to loosen up a bit. Maybe the stretch routine had something to do with that.

Table 14

The ten-seat eyed his table. "Level 3 is the quiet level," he said. Negreanu had been stacking up at the table, showing down good hands, and the action had started to dry up a little.


It had gotten so quiet that pro player, Yosh Nakano had started a project at the table. At first I thought he might be taking notes on the players. Then I looked closer. Surely not, I thought. I mean, the action had died down some, but the table hadn't died.

Sure enough, upon closer inspection, I discovered Yosh was filling out postcards to send back home. . I considered asking if he'd take the time to send one to my wife, kid, and family back home. I certainly didn't have the time. About the time I thought to ask, he got involved in a hand and I decided it was probably best to leave him alone.

Still, I continued to watch the table as Negreanu got involved in a raised pot with one other player. The board showed AKx with two diamonds after the flop. Both players checked. Another diamond fell on the turn and Negreanu bet the pot, forcing his opponent to lay down his hand.

With something resembling glee, Negreanu flipped up 23o and giggled, "Three-high."

The table took with good spirits, and Negreanu's eventual explanation was unnecessary.

"I've been showing the nuts too many times," he said. "Okay, that's my bluff for the day."

Table 3

Gavin Griffen, made famous in a broadcast of a WSOP tournament last year, was having a pretty good day and had amassed a few chips. I eavesdropped on some of his tablemates as they discussed his play.

A railbird said, "this guy thinks he's a pro but he's giving away all his chips."

I remembered Griffen's play from the WSOP, hyper-agressive to the point that his opponents got nervous when he limped into a pot.

I'd actually come over to the table to take a picture of Mr. Funny Hat (I never got his name). He'd found a way to turn a cowboy hat into a visor and that was fashion I had to document.

As I started watching, he got involved in a hand with Griffen. The flop came down 623 with two spades. Mr. Funny Hat bet into Griffen. Griffen cold-called. The turn was a four of diamonds.

Mr. Funny Hat checked to Griffen who put Funny Hat all in.

They tabled their hands. Funny hat had 22 for a set. Griffen turned up 55 for a turned straight.


Gavin Griffen all smiles

Table Ten

Josh Arieh was down to four hundred chips from his original 10,000 stack. I don't know how he got there. It happened fast. And by the time I got back to his table, he'd somehow rebuilt his stack to almost 9000. I was amazed, and frankly, impressed that he'd rebuilt so much so fast.

With the blinds at 100/200, an early-position player raised to around 1200. Arieh re-raised immediately, making it 2500.

The nine-seat thought for a moment or two and announced all-in.

The blinds folded, as did the first raiser.

Arieh went in the tank. And started talking.

"I've laid this hand down once before in my whole life," he said.

He might as well have said, "I'm holding kings over here."

He put his fingers on his cards in a familiar "I'm about to muck" motion, then eyed his opponent. He must have seen something, because he put his chips back on his cards and thought some more.

He said something about hating to call dead after building back from 400. A valid concern, I suppose. After a raise, and a re-raise, it seemed likely his opponent had aces.

Finally, Arieh mucked, flipping his cards up. A king hit the table as another card fluttered into a player's lap. I didn't have to see it. I knew it was a king.

I was hoping his opponent would turn up aces, just so I could tell the story as I predicted it.

His opponent, Steve (aka ackbleh), tabled his hand.

Queens.

I don't think I made too much of a noise, but I have to imagine the sound in Arieh's head sounded like Atlanta traffic at 4:30pm on Friday afternoon.

Later, I ran into "ackbleh" and asked him about the hand.

Humbly, he said, "Don't make me sound smart. I didn't have him on kings."

***

There are still more than 180 players left in Flight #2. And I just watched a guy call a 4000 all-in bet with a heart flush on the board, one card to come, no hearts in a his hand, and no more than an inside straight draw and a over-card. If his opponent had the flush, he was drawing dead. If not, he had seven outs (if his opponent wasn't on a flush draw).

Yeah, he hit his gutter.

Poker is quite a game.

Photo Pro-to and Prize Pool

And I thought yesterday was biggish.

We started yesterday with Flight #1 and 201 players. We winnowed it down to 116. Then, by the time today rolled around, Fight #2 had grown to 260 players. That puts the total number of participants at 461.

We have some estimated prize pool information compiled, which I'll put at the end of this post. For now, a little photo gallery of Flight #2, focused on the pros (a pro-to gallery, if you will).


Flight#2


Short-stacked early, Josh Arieh holds on


With grace and chips


Rounding out the super table, Erik sits just a couple seats away from Evelyn




Yosh Nakono, with a good-sized stack gracefully battling Daniel Negreanu


But, Negreanu has been holding his own


Sandwiched between a Yosh and a Dan


WPT champ, Juha Helppi holding court


One of the two Brenes brothers in Flight #2, Humberto sits just a couple of table away from his brother, Eric.

***
Tournament director, Mike Ward, wandered through a few minutes ago with the final player-count. He did some quick math to determine an estimated (stress...estimated) payout structure.

50-80th place--$11,426
31-50th place--$12,985
26-30th place--$15,501
21-25th place--17,312
17-20th place--$20,775
13-16th place--$25,968
12th place--$34,000
11th place--$45,000
10th place--$55,300
9th place--$65,700
8th place--$77,900
7th place--$91,700
---FINAL TABLE---
6th place--$112,0005th place--$155,800
4th place--$207,700
3rd place-- $311,600
2nd place--$484,700
First place--$865,607 + Seat in WPT Championship

***

We're about to start Level #3. About 25-30 people have busted out so far. It's looking like we'll be working long into the night again.

Which is fun as all get out, by the way.

Internet Connection....waning

Sorry for the lack of posts. For the first time in three days, our internet connections are hurting.
A pro-to gallery and prize pool distribution is on the way. --Otis

Flight 2 Underway

Flight 2 is humming along.

I'll update throughout the afternoon.

For now, I'll try to meet one request I've had, by posting a list of todays players.
I know a lot of you would like to see players PokerStars screen names. That might be possible later, but for now the databases are in two places and I don't have the time or anyone else to merge them. I'll still be seeking out players screennames when I talk to them. Hopefully, I'll be able to merge the databases later.

For now, here are today's players:

Table # Seat # Last First
1 1 Vartanian Joey
1 2 Floyd Russ
1 3 Alvarez Leo
1 4 Plotner Tony
1 5 Dwan Thomas
1 6 Boich Wayne
1 7 Eytan Avraham
1 8 Combs David B
1 9 Thai James
2 1 Hocking Patrick
2 2 Bawden Travers
2 3 Firicano Daryn
2 4 Medic Nenad
2 5 Corber Ron
2 6 Rodrigues Chris
2 7 Kastiner Jay
2 8 Terranova Henry
2 9 Smith Gavin
3 1 Weinstein Steve
3 2 Zoorob Matt G.
3 3 Schiller Marc
3 4 Kanter Aaron
3 5 Griffin Gavin
3 6 Yamron Bruce
3 7 Gray Jeff
3 8 Sarrafzadeh Steve
3 9 Jaffee Larry
4 1 Mcintyre Chris
4 2
4 3 Miller David
4 4 Mosher Philip E.
4 5 Upchurch Jimmy Lane
4 6 Nastad Petter
4 7 Lewis David
4 8 Jupatovac John
4 9 Jett Charles
5 1 Kenny John P
5 2 Goetsch Andrew
5 3 Loew Aaron
5 4 Weatherford Michael
5 5 Tatalovich Richard
5 6 Hadjicharalambous Charalambos
5 7 Nguyen Viet
5 8 Grundtvig Christian
5 9 Marklund Daniel
6 1 Sembach Morten
6 2 Thompson Grover
6 3 Turley Thomas
6 4 Talbot David E.
6 5 Somers Ernesto B
6 6 Gunnarson Peter
6 7 Ousdahl Steve
6 8 D'Agostino John
6 9 Larsen Simon Schultz
7 1 Shore Ryan
7 2 Popa John
7 3 West Richard Alvin
7 4 Hudspeth James L.
7 5 Cedercrantz Martin
7 6 Greenstein Barry
7 7 Johnson Randall L.
7 8 Jones Brandon
7 9 Jani Vilmunen
8 1 Roe Michael
8 2 Lumb Robert Nigel
8 3 Fukumoto Kendall
8 4 Goodman Michael
8 5 Graham Ruth
8 6 Williams Joseph
8 7 Sami Torbey
8 8 Nelson Roy
8 9 Azuly Aharon
9 1 Nguyen Anh Van
9 2 Sehlstedt Bo
9 3 Reis Marcos
9 4 Chahley Scott
9 5 Kroon Mard
9 6 Parker John
9 7 Jerath Kunal
9 8 Springer Rob
9 9 Sonigo Franck
10 1
10 2 Gustafsson Ronnie
10 3 Pyysing Johanna
10 4 Cardoza Avery
10 5 Gallin Jonathan
10 6 Strictland Albert
10 7 Arieh Joshua
10 8 Kelly Simon
10 9 Day Steve
11 1 Chow Howard
11 2 Seidel Erik
11 3 Thorson William
11 4 Scala Tracy
11 5 Scoratow Jay
11 6 Max Michael
11 7 Adwar Todd
11 8 Weisenberg Lee
11 9 Reid Brendan
12 1 Burton Colin
12 2 Larsen Jonas Schultz
12 3 Lane Ron
12 4 Poladian Jerry
12 5 Reynolds Alan
12 6 Schrijvers Remco
12 7 Leibovitz Gary
12 8 Helppi Juha
12 9 Bielser Jay Tyler
13 1 Wilson Thomas
13 2 Keshtavar Behrouz B
13 3 Zango Herman
13 4 Drill Scott
13 5 Ilmari Juvonen Jukka
13 6 Wright Maxwell
13 7 Didonato Joseph
13 8 Boukai Rami
13 9 Brenes Eric
14 1 Yeates Scott
14 2 Boeken Noah
14 3 Nakano Yosh
14 4 Morofke Jason
14 5 Negreanu Daniel
14 6 Matros Matthew
14 7 Barker Declan
14 8 Antonius Patrik
14 9 Menechella Carmen
15 1 Pino Michael
15 2 Leveson Stephen
15 3 Jr Thomas A Moore
15 4 Kask Per Henrik
15 5 Jaikel Luis
15 6 Paterson Stuart
15 7 Woo Michael
15 8 Hom John
15 9 Lewin Jaime
16 1 Cossio David
16 2 Stupicic Kris
16 3 Corvese Philip John
16 4 Smith Danny
16 5 Lang Joe
16 6 Nesheiwat Mazen
16 7 Markholt Lee
16 8 Keiner Michael
16 9 Obriecht Roy T
17 1 Saraf David
17 2 Arnold Todd
17 3 Kushner Keith
17 4 Fair Andrew
17 5 Klein Geffrey
17 6 Foran Matt
17 7 Elharrar Claude
17 8 Spino Robert
17 9 Rainess Ira
18 1 Lefkowitz Matthew J
18 2 Vogelstein Eric
18 3 Hill William
18 4 Schrijvers Dennis
18 5 Barcellos Kevin
18 6 Cassidy Joseph
18 7 Cernuto John
18 8 Rahmn Mats
18 9 Seely James
19 1 Smurfit Alan
19 2 Barker Liam
19 3 Armour Robert
19 4 Baldaramos Rick
19 5 Perlman Eli
19 6 Keikoan Todd
19 7 Lawrence Tony
19 8 Leader Eugene
19 9
20 1 Bush Chris
20 2 Watkinson Lee
20 3 Ashman Danny
20 4 Brenes Humberto
20 6 Deabay Michael Joseph
20 7 Massoudnia Mohammad Yousef
20 8 Merrill Raymond
20 9 Slaton William L.
21 1 Englander Mathew
21 2 Dickson George Kelly
21 3 Garofalo Lenny
21 4 Fahrenkrug Kris
21 5 Wong Steve
21 6 Brannan Dave
21 7 Gazes Bill
21 8 Nygaard Tore
21 9 Løvmo Anne Gro
22 1 Debora Greg
22 2 Kobzeff Michael
22 3 Dechello Steven
22 4 Paterson Iain
22 5 Kempin Martin
22 6 Amiot Brian
22 7 Ramsey Timothy
22 8 Cassidy Patrick
22 9 Bush Howard
23 1 Giufre Stephen
23 2 Ward Cory
23 3 Boich Emeline
23 4 Vaverka Michael W
23 5 Buchanan Shawn
23 6 Drobushevich Shae
23 7 Govert Jeramy
23 8 Bergqvist Johan
23 9 Brecher Steve
23 9 Mckormack Chris
24 1 Cummings Brian
24 2 Strochak Jason
24 3
24 4 Bensley Mike
24 5 Mueller Greg
24 6 Mitrokostas Spyridon
24 7 Lee Sherman
24 8 Fanning John
24 9 Sitton John
25 1 Rosenquist Matthew
25 2 Barnes Mr D G
25 3 Bonomo Justin
25 4 Phillips Andrew
25 5 Schleger Shane
25 6 Walls Stephen
25 7 Gale John Michael
25 8 Fredrick William B.
25 9 Artessa Mark
26 1 Ardebili Al
26 2 Garriss Lillian Ruth
26 3 Persson John
26 4 Schreiber Tomas
26 5 Pelletiee Daniel
26 6 Sitar Dustin
26 7 Duros Greg
26 8 Schiller Roy
26 9

Potential in progress

Sometimes it's impossible to determine whether it's more intimidating to look across a room full of people who want your money, or across a seemingly endless expanse of felt at the one guy who wants everything in front of you.
In this room, in this flight, the intimidation seemed impossibly strong on both sides. World Class Players sat elbow to elbow with people who had never played in a live tournament. And under the din of shuffling cards and riffling chips, a trained ear could hear it humming: potential, an engine with more cylinders than syllables.


Mike and Glenn, experts of the floor

With controlled choas purring at every table, Mike, Glenn and the rest of their colleagues made the engine run as smoothly as it could. Careful players, straining against early bust outs, kept the tournament running longer than intended. Dinner reservations suffered the second greatest fate, falling only behind the 85 bust-outs that found themselves with more time to spend on the beach than they wanted.

The room popped with screams of anguish and celebration, and at some point, NBA star Rick Fox came in and signed up for some $20/$40 Hold'em. When that wasn't open, he sat down at a $100 Sit & Go tournament.

Who says poker isn't the great equalizer?

David Williams, second place finisher at last year's WSOP Main Event played strong all day, stacking up then stacking off to finish the day with more than double his startinig stack.

The man who bested him in the WSOP built a tremendous stack, in the words of one table mate "getting the respect he deserves." When his table finally broke, he ran into a massive hand and lost around half his stack, reportedly to John Smith, the current chip leader. Still, Raymer's sitting with more than triple his original stack.



Just about anyone who I've talked to who has played with Raymer has indicated he's an affable guy who doesn't mind offering advice to younger players. I think he made a friend in Jon Rasool, the young player from Toronto. Rasool is sitting on a shortened stack, but has survived until Saturday.

That's more than can be said for some of the better-known pros. Isabelle Mercier, Carlos Mortensen, and Tom McEvoy all busted out today. None of them seemed to be catching cards and their moves weren't working. Still, some of their fellow World Class Players are still in contention.



Josh Scheln (sdouble) found himself sitting next to WSOP champ Chris Moneymaker today after Moneymaker's table broke. Moneymaker spent most of the day stacking up at what was the de facto "featured table" because it was the closest table to the rail that hosted a celebrity player. Moreover, a TV crew from Nashville came down to profile him and spent several hours shooting b-roll of the table while Moneymaker chatted up his opponents.

By the end of the day, though, Schlen found himself faring better than Moneymaker. Both of them head into Saturday with decent stacks.

Try as I might, I couldn't help but gravitate back to the least assuming of the tables in the room. Table #1 also sat close to the rail, but wasn't home to any of the players that got the railbirds hooting. Still, I couldn't keep my eyes off a man the online players know as broomcorn.



Dan Alspach's shirt, a flowing mess of cat and kitten prints, drew my eye every time I walked by. I might've been able to avert my gaze if he hadn't been wearing a matching visor. When I kneeled down to check his stack, I made a joke about being familiar with his uncle. Then I noticed he'd amassed a stack bigger than forty grand and I decided I'd quit with the joking.

Toward the end of the final day's level, a whoop-hollar broke through the room and sent me hopping toward Table #5.



When I made it to the table, Maurice Hawkins was still in full celebration, good-naturedly mumbling "ship it."

A table-mate said, seriously, "I thought you were alseep."

I completely missed the hand, but I think Maurice was holding AKs and hit his flush on the river. Maybe the turn. He may want to correct me later. Two hands later he folded AKo to a small raise without blinking.

"Can't do it twice," he said.

As the final minutes ticked off the clock, I madly made my way around the the tables trying to tally a quick unofficial leaderboard (for all the good it did me). I ran into Seung Yoo who had just worked his way into third place with a stack of more than $41,000.




A buddy of his, in perhaps an homage to the movie "Swingers" said something to the effect of "Little boy's all grown up" and have Yoo a playful shake.

This, friends, is what it's all about: potential in progress. No one knows what the next few days will hold in terms of chips, cards, beats, and wins. Tonight, though, 116 players are going to bed knowing they are still alive.

And alive in the Bahamas is a good thing to be.

Good luck to all the Flight #2 players who start in just about ten hours.

Note: You might've noticed I disabled the comments section of the blog. While I'm a big fan of comments on the blog, the dialog here had degenerated into an anonymous forum for fourteen year-olds. Such is life in this anonymous ethereal world. While I'm thick-skinned enough to handle just about anything, there is something nice about decorum and honesty. Some malcontents just don't get that kind of thing. That is, I appreciate the urging for quick reports, but I'm not a big fan of the pseudo-sexual suggestions of the adolescents who happened across the blog after Mom and Dad went to bed. My thanks to the thousands of readers who've been keeping up with the blog so far. Your suggestions are welcome and I'll do my best to update you as often as I can. You can now send all flames, comments, and suggests to my e-mail box. At least for the time being. --Otis