OK, I first must confess that I care absolutely nothing about the Olympics. Don't watch, don't follow, don't care. Zero, Zip, Nadda. However, poker and the olympics is a different story and the golden boy of the 2008 Sportsfest, Michael Phelps, has said he would like to play in the World Series of Poker.

First, some perspective. Michael Phelps agent is receiving about 40 to 50 legitimate offers a day right now. Sponsorships, spokesperson deals, charity appearances, clothing lines, posters, bobble heads, Michael Phelps swizzle sticks. The question here is: Will a couple of million dollars to be a spokesperson/celebrity player for an online poker site even make the endorsement radar in the Phelp's Gold Rush?

You know he has an offer right? Can you say Boris Becker. I knew you could. So will Mr. Eight Gold Medals actually play some poker? Well, yes he will; because .... wait for it!

He has already been invitated to the NBC Heads Up Championship in 2009. Remember you hear it here first, unless my source has your phone number too.

So we are about a month past the selection of the November Nine. Being wired into the poker media underground, I decided to remain completely inactive regarding the November WSOP final table and see what came to me. Until the last couple of days, the sum total was nearly nothing. Now we really shouldn't expect a four month blitz of news and interviews; I mean the Super Bowl and the World Cup combined can barely muster a month of meaningless news bytes. But many in the poker world feel the silence has been deafening.

Every player seems to have had a flurry of local newspapers, radio and television interviews; and slowly the various poker websites have begun their obligatory November Nine player pieces. We also expect ESPN to begin to amp up the noise once the early days of the main event begin showing in September.

But let's talk about the one simmering topic that has been making the rounds:

"The November Nine is going to be a flop because it is a table of nobodies."

First, the obvious---yes everyone involved was hoping that one or even two big names or at least recognizable names would make the final table. There were audible expletives muttered as first Hellmuth, then Matusow went out on Day Six and then the last hope, Tiffany Michele, went down in a blaze of sponsorship greed and harassment on Day Seven.

But let me pose a question and then direct you to some discussion on this whole idea of "The Unknown Nine". Outside of insiders in the poker world, the last four final tables have basically had one "known": Lee Watkinson (2007), Allen Cunningham (2006), Mike Matusow (2005), Dan Harrington (2004). Today, however, most of us "know" not just: Jerry Yang, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, but also Hevad Khan, Paul Wasicka, Steve Dannenmann, Raymond Rahme, Michael Binger, David Williams and perhaps a few more final tablists. So the question is:

"Are these nine players really unknowns?"

We invite you to join a discussion on this topic by clicking here.

Some people call it the toughest cash game in the world. Others say it is the most fun. Whatever it is, great poker television comes out of the Party Poker-Poker Den. The Den involves handful of the most-seasoned professional poker players fighting it out in a marathon high-stakes cash game in front of television cameras. Poker TV doesn’t get any better than this.

The poker pros set to make an appearance are some of the most colorful personalities in the game. Scheduled to play are Phil Hellmuth, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot, Tony G, Jamie Gold, Brian Townsend, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Jennifer Tilly, Andrew Feldman, Sammy “Any Two” George, Robert Williamson III, Phil Laak, and Antonio Esfandiari.

This year the Den is going to be even more interesting for the players and the audience. While the first two Den Games were 24 hour events, this year, the Big Game will run for 36 hours straight.

Eddie Hearn, head of online gaming at Matchroom Sport said:

“The Poker Den has come a long way since we started back in the summer of 2005, the Big Game has been such a huge success, and the two series so far have attracted the best players in the world.”

Players will sit down with a minimum of $10,000 but no more than $20,000 and play with $25-$50 blinds. As usual, there will be a lot of straddling, guaranteeing a lot of action. Players are free to leave the table at any time; up, down or busted.

The show will be filmed September 30 and October 1; and will be shown on Channel 5 in the U.K. next year. Commenter Jesse May will be present during the entire duration of the event. To learn more about the cash game, go to Match Room Poker.

Poker purists hate jackpots and high hand gimmicks in any poker room. Because these bonuses are funded from a "bonus drop" at the tables, the "real" poker players feel their advantage over the weaker players is reduced because the jackpots not something you win with skill. The extra drop reduces each and every pot, won by skill, and funds one or more jackpot pools won randomly.

I think the big change in jackpots rooms is that players actually play the game differently when there are jackpots to be won. Let me cite two current examples. I was playing some limit hold'em last weekend in one of the Station casinos in Las Vegas. When an experienced player offered to "chop" the blinds with a new player, someone had to explain the concept to the rookie. The interesting part for me was the explanation contained the words: "First you check to see if you might have a jackpot hand and then you chop." None of the regulars "always chop" in a bonus room; they "chop if not jackpot eligible". Now to be fair the Station bad beat was over $225,000 last weekend, so there is some motivation to pay attention to the existence of the jackpot.

Then we have the online jackpots. Tell me that you aren't tempted to play a bit differently and a bit more, when outrageously monster jackpots are available. Right now, well at least while I am typing this, the Bad Beat Jackpot at Party Poker is approaching $1,000,000. No, that is not a typo. The BBJ at Party is currently Nine Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Dollars. The "loser" of the bad beat would win roughly one-third of a million dollars. Makes you a lot more willing to play those small pocket pairs in early position!

UPDATE: The Party Poker Bad Beat went down at $1,013,381.63! The losing hand (Quad Nines) took home more than $354K, while the winner (Royal Flush) received $177K and the other eight table members got $22K each. The winner said she would have played her pocket nines regardless, since it was a limped pot pre-flop.

Now that the World Series is over; oh, sorry it really isn't over...

After the World Series of Poker is put on hold, there is a pause in the poker world. We had a Latin American Poker Tour event and a Asian Poker Tour event and several regional tournaments, one in London and another in East Orangegrove; but basically it has been quiet in the poker world. Which means that poker writers have been pulling out all those old ideas they came up with one drunken night during the WSOP. Here are some fairly good examples of what late nights, alcohol, sleep deprivation and the need for content will produce:

-A two part series by Short Stack Shamus on how Rolling Stone magazine has or has not covered poker over the last 40 years.

-B.J. Nemeth somehow links poker and the Olympics, which one has to guess is simply a way of admitting that since there is nothing going on in poker right now, B.J. is trapped in front of his TV watching team handball at 3 A.M. But the conversation in the comments section are usually interesting at Pokerati where B.J. is writing these days.

-It would seem the Doctor of Poker Darkness has also had some time to decompress from the long, hot summer in Las Vegas. But pitch black or only shades of grey... Dr. Pauly is always interesting to read on poker and life in general.

-If you have rumbling around in the back of your brain that coming to Las Vegas to play poker for a living might be a good idea... Well there are lots of books and articles I could point you to or you could just google: "I lost my ass in a Las Vegas poker room" but for truthful look at poker in the desert from a knowledgeable player... try reading the Poker Grump.

-If you have been watching the ESPN telecasts of the 2008 WSOP then you definitely want to read an August 7th post on Up for Poker by Otis. He talks about how ESPN has looked at their televised commentary and might actually be improving the depth of their coverage.

Two major new electronic dealer-less poker rooms are about to test the viability concept in the U.S. market. The delay in gaming commission approval has made the introduction of electronic tables to some jurisdictions a much anticipated happening. Now both Atlantic City and Las Vegas will take the plunge with an entire poker room going electric.

In Las Vegas, the Excalibur Casino poker room will close next week and re-open a few days later, completely converted to electronic tables. In Atlantic City, the new poker room at Trump Plaza has been electronic from day one. The reaction to both announcements has been very different. The new East Tower poker room at Trump does not replace an existing room, nor lay-off a group of already working dealers. In addition, the small number of poker rooms in Atlantic City means more tables, of any kind, would be welcomed to meet the poker demand.

The Excalibur, on the other hand, has been a well known and successful room on the Las Vegas Strip for many years. The early talk about the "conversion" to electric has been very negative. Dealers and floor staff are losing their jobs, players used to the action are not easily persuaded of the wisdom of going electric. But Las Vegas has over 50 live poker rooms and the "test" of electronic was going to happen somewhere. MGM decided the Excalibur would be that test.

Three MGM properties (Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur) are side by side at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip; they all have poker rooms, they are all connected with indoor walkways to avoid the summer desert heat. It makes sense that one of those rooms would be selected to go electric. The management of MGM and Excalibur are not using words like "experiment" or "test" or "trial balloon" but everyone believes the first electric room is exactly that. Will poker players with dozens of options, decided to play in an all electric room? We will soon find out. I will be at the Grand Opening of the Electric Excalibur Poker Room and will keep you up to date with the acceptance of the new room by Las Vegas poker players.

There are more poker rooms in Las Vegas then in any other city in the world. If we have our count correct, there are 55 open and operating poker rooms in the greater Las Vegas area. But with the state of the U.S. economy, including the cost of gasoline to get all of those nearby Californians to Las Vegas; all is not well in the center of the gaming world.

Here is a current report on the poker economy in Las Vegas.

NEW ROOMS: Later this month the Eastside Cannery will open on the (naturally) East side of town. This is the first new casino opening in this area in a little over ten years. The Eastside Cannery Casino includes a "First Class Poker" room.

NEWLY, REMODELED ROOMS: Fresh locations and new tables have popped up at the Stratosphere and Sunset Station. The Orleans and Golden Nugget also had major face lifts in the last year.

FUTURE ROOMS: The Encore, Steve Wynn's second tower, did not go through with plans to have a poker room bigger and better than the one already in Wynn. MGM's City Center casino Aria, however, still plans to include a World Class Poker room that will rival Bellagio and Venetian as the premiere rooms in the city.

NEW and ELECTRONIC ROOMS?: Rumors continue to swirl that the new Station Casino at Aliante in North Las Vegas will open this fall with a completely electronic poker room. This has not been confirmed but as it turns out, Aliante would not be the first poker room in Las Vegas to embrace dealer-less electronic tables.

OLD/NEW ELECTRONIC ROOM: The Excalibur Hotel and Casino announced yesterday that they are closing the old poker room and opening a brand new, all-electronic room before the end of the month. This will be the first electronic poker room in Las Vegas.

LIMITED HOURS: Several poker rooms have gone to a late night "empty room" close, which simply means that after midnight if no tables are in action; the room closes until sometime the next morning. Both Treasure Island and Riviera have made this move and more rooms are expected to follow.

CLOSING ROOMS: There are always rumors about poker rooms about to close. Some are rumors and some are clearly leaks from corporate headquarters. Currently on the death watch list: Paris, Tropicana, Plaza and Hooters. On the doubtful list is a long-standing rumor that Caesars Palace management wants the huge space now occupied by the poker room for something more income producing, however, this remains only a rumor.

The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) announced it will be hosting its event under one roof at the Casino at the Empire, LCI's newest club in the heart of London at Leicester Square.

Now if you are not a poker insider, you may not remember that last year the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe was played at three different London casinos to accommodate all the players. The "under one roof" is just one of the improvements we can expect from the WSOPE now in its second year.

The event to be held from September 19 to October 2, 2008, will feature four bracelet events, which is an addition of one event from last year. Cash games, satellites and more non-bracelet tournaments will also be increased over last year's offerings.

September 19th , 2008 - Event #1 - £1,500 – No-Limit Hold'em Day 1A (3-day event/2 opening days)
September 22nd , 2008 - Event #2 - £2,500 – H.O.R.S.E. (3-day event)
September 24th , 2008 - Event #3 - £5,000 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)
September 27th , 2008 - Event #4 - £10,000 – World Championship No-Limit Hold'em (5-day event)

The final table participants from the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, the "November Nine" were all invited and incentivized, we are told. Thus far three have indicated they will travel to London to play: Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate and David Rheem.

For full details of the tournaments and other events here.

Building on the success of the 2008 PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship, preparations for next year’s event in Galway are already underway with the creation of a special land based tour offering a unique chance to qualify for Europe’s first major tournament of 2009. The PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship Tour launches this evening at the Eglinton Card Room and Casino in a Galway buzzing with punters attending the showpiece horse racing events.

The PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship Tour really cranks into gear with seven more events across the Emerald Isle, finishing in December. On the second leg of the tour in Waterford the top three players in the €2000 added event receive 2009 IPC seats, while in the remaining six stops the top five in the €2000 added event all get seats into the major tournament. The tour features €20,000 in added money and includes €4000 put up for a special league based on performances on the tour as a whole.

Online qualifiers are also available at Party Poker.

The 2008 Irish Poker Championship was a €2,000 buy-in tournament organized by PokerEvents.ie and sponsored by PartyPoker.com. It attracted 298 runners on a day when snow engulfed Ireland and produced a final prize pool of €542,500. Amongst the familiar faces at the tables were ‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton, Noel Furlong, ‘Flying Dutchman’ Marcel Luske, Ciaran O’Leary, Michael Keiner, Robert Williamson III, Padraig Parkinson, Jon Kalmar, Scott Gray, Bruno Fitoussi, Jan Sørensen, Roy Brindley , Mad Marty Wilson, Marty Smith, Katharine Hartree, Jeff Duvall, Alan Vinson, Tom Franklin, Steve Wong, Neil Channing, Tony Cascarino and Rory Liffey. The eventual winner was Galway ’s Jude Ainsworth.

PARTYPOKER.COM IRISH POKER CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR - SCHEDULE

Waterford Aug 30th/31st Tower Hotel

Dublin Sep 6th/7th Fitzwilliam Card Club

Cork Oct 17th/18th Macau Casino

Dublin Nov 8th/9th City West

Mayo Nov 14th/15th Park Hotel, Kiltimagh

Athlone Nov 28th/29th Springs Hotel

Letterkenny Dec 12th/13th Gold Club Casino

I hate spam and I would never solicit anyone to send spam but in this is really more like poker activism or perhaps simply Enlightened Governmental Expression.

The Republican Party in the U.S. has had this plank in their presidential platform for the last two elections.

"We support legislation prohibiting gambling over the Internet."

Now I know a lot of poker players who really want the government to get the hell out of our living rooms and our laptops but... they are not single issue voters and cannot bring themselves to vote for a democrat even though the republicans are against online poker. So there is a solution: TELL THEM!

The folks writing the 2008 republican party platform are soliciting input from voters and since email cannot be traced to a city, state or country... Everyone should feel free to let them know what you think on this issue.

It's easy, here's how to let them know you are watching:

* Go to this site to register.(you’ll receive an email with your password for the site).
* Click "Submit Text Entry" (at the top right) to submit a typed message.
* Write a short pro-poker message, choose a category, then click submit. It's that easy!

For any non-poker readers, there are lots of other topics to sound off about. I gave them a piece of my mind on stem cell research while I was there.

With poker rooms opening in some areas and closing in others; with various police agencies raiding home poker games and allowing others; with some governments restricting online poker and others taking down all legal barriers; from all of this conflicting mess comes a strange notice from Nottingham, UK.

The Dusk Till Dawn poker room has made the somewhat surprising decision to cut back upon their scheduled opening hours because they are too successful!

In a statement issued by Managing Director Rob Yong, he pinpoints the fact that Dusk Til Dawn are in danger of becoming victims of their own success, with the level of service being offered to members being highlighted as one of the major reasons behind the decision to reduce the number of hours the club is open per week from 80 down to 40, a full 50% decrease.

“DTD has now been open for nearly 8 months. After the exhausting 2 year fight to legally open the UK’s first poker club, I was finally looking forward to relaxing and enjoying playing a bit of poker with my friends. However, everything has run at a million miles per hour and DTD just feels like “another one of my businesses", rather than the type of escape from the business world that my football club provides me with. However, running another large business is never what I wanted; my goal was to create a unique poker experience based on the personal approach, high quality service and something very different from the casino poker model.”

We have a suggestion Rob . . . Hire some experienced poker room staff to run your business, rather than close it down.

For those who might wish to play at Dusk to Dawn (well actually that would be Near Dusk Til Sometime in the Middle of the Night), the new schedule is below.

is counting down to celebrating its 7th birthday and is giving players an opportunity to join in the party with a $1,000,000 guaranteed Birthday Party bonanza tournament.

There will be no cake, no disco and definitely no unwanted gifts, just a cool $1,000,000 guaranteed prize fund that will be up for grabs in a special tournament on Sunday 10th August at 1245 ET. Daily qualifiers are now taking place at PartyPoker.

Players can buy-in directly to the championship-style blind structured main event for $640. As always, PartyPoker will provide a diverse qualifying structure allowing ALL players, no matter the size of their bankroll, an opportunity to qualify and participate in the $1 Million Birthday Million. Qualifiers start from as little as $1 with a range running daily. It is possible to get involved in the action by using just 15 PartyPoints. Detailed information on qualification can be found here.

A PartyPoker spokesman said,

“There is no doubt this is a party not to miss. It is not often you go to someone else’s birthday celebrations with the chance of walking away with a share of $1,000,000. It will definitely feel like a birthday and Christmas all rolled into one for our big winners. The birthday celebrations will start on Monday 4th August, with a range of special celebration tournaments.

Time to sort through all of those non-WSOP notes and see what has been happening outside of Las Vegas for the past two months.

The most recent Ultimate Bet cheating scandal is still apparently not fully investigated and the results are

"expected to take an additional two to three months."

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You can read a semi-complete account of the current state of the affair based on a conversation between Barry Greenstein and Russ Hamilton, former principle in UB.

There is a documentary based on the final table of the 2005 WSOP about to be released. It's called "Pass the Sugar", yes 2005 when Joe Hachem won the Main Event. Not surprisingly this is an Australian production and Tony Hachem, Joe's brother is a co-producer.

The fact that the press noise around this release says that "Pass the Sugar also will feature interviews with Jennifer Tilly, Jose Canseco and other celeb cardplayers", makes me want to repeat that Jose Canseco is not a celebrity but a old baseball player who thinks it's appropriate to play in Ladies Only events and impose his own warped view of the world on others because he once took steroids and could hit a baseball.

Sticking with show business, the Venetian is going to open a show next month based on poker. The Real Deal will apparently be audience interactive and will include in its cast on a rotating basis, many name poker professionals including: Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, Phil Laak, Scotty Nguyen, and Todd Brunson. The pros will participate in shows each month, taking on the Las Vegas audience members in interactive games. More on The Real Deal can be found here.

The Game Show Network, after deciding not to renew the World Poker Tour and subsequently seeing the WPT move to Fox Sport Network, well GSN decided not to remove poker completely from its lineup and has renewed Poker After Dark for another year.

Chipleader Dennis Phillips (26,295,000) is not the odds on favorite to win the WSOP Main Event, he is listed at 5/1 on PartyBets.

Ivan Demidov (24,400,000) with the second largest chipstack has been installed as the favourite to win the November World Series of Poker main event final table. Ivan currently is listed at 3.68/1.

Scott Montgomery (19,690,000) is offered at 6/1.

Peter Eastgate (13,750,000) is 7/1 to win at PartyBets, while David Rheem (10,230,000) is listed today at 9/1. Ylon Schwartz (15,525,000), Darus Suharto (15,2000,000)and Craig Marquis (10,210,000) are all 11/1.

And finally the chances of short stack Kelly Kim (2,620,000) taking down the $9 million prize are rated at 26/1.

Ivan Demidov 3.68*
Dennis Phillips 5.00*
Scott Montgomery 6.00
Peter Eastgate 7.00
David Rheem 9.00
Ylon Schwartz 11.00
Darus Suharto 11.00
Craig Marquis 11.00
Kelly Kim 26.00

*Demidov and Phillips opened as 4/1 co-favourites, apparently some early money came in on the Russian.

With the actual WSOP events nearly over and on hiatus, ESPN will begin broadcasting the 2008 World Series of Poker this week. Below is the U.S. based television schedule. ESPN affliates around the world will be picking all of part of this schedule, I will post those times and channels when they are released.

July 22 -- 8-10 p.m. $10,000 pot-limit hold 'em
July 29 -- 8-10 p.m. $1,500 no-limit hold 'em
Aug. 5 -- 8-10 p.m. $5,000 mixed hold 'em
Aug. 12 -- 8-10 p.m. $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys
Aug. 19 -- 8-10 p.m. $50,000 HORSE
Aug. 26 -- 8-10 p.m. $10,000 pot-limit Omaha
Sept. 2 -- 8-10 p.m. $10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event
Sept. 9 to Oct. 28 -- 9-11 p.m. $10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event
Nov. 4 -- 8-10 p.m. WSOP main event final table preview show
Nov. 11 -- 9-11 p.m. WSOP main event final table

"And then there were nine."

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The World Series of Poker got down to the nine survivors; the final table; the November Nine. There were a lot of different reactions when that finally happened.

Relief that it was over.

A sense of being cheated because it wasn't really over.

The beginning of a long period of delayed gratification.

A cool celebration at the final table.

An unsatisfactory celebration because we had not a champion.

As you all know, I was for the delayed WSOP final table from the beginning but you also know I was pulling and praying for at least one "name" player to make the final nine; that did not happen. So we begin a long walk and wait until November. How will this all play out? Well at this point everyone has an opinion and no one has an answer.

This is just the first of many "9" posts.

Whatever your favorite four letter word is, today is the time to mutter it under your breath. No need to shout it out loud, no need to shake your fist and rant to the gods, just mutter it quietly and dream of what might have been. There will be no "big" name at the World Series final table in November. I know the odds were long on someone making it but yesterday they played down to 27 and lost Hellmuth and Matusow. Damn that would have been great. Four months of either of those guys would have been just amazing for poker.

Now the publicity machines will have to focus on the nine who survive today and try to create some interesting characters. Tiffany Michelle is the one player remaining who it might be possible to elevate to some real level of celebrity. Also in the mix are Brandon Cantu and Phi Nguyen both are "know professionals" to the poker world. But it was sad and painful when Matusow left the field in 30th place. The last chance at a truly big show for November was resting on his shoulders and, of course, he got nailed by a 3 outer; but the real bad beat was delivered not to Mike but to the Fall Final.

I was at the ESPN final table last night when the Day Five play ended and Phil Hellmuth was given a one orbit penalty for player abuse. Details of the incident are everywhere, I will only add that I am not convinced Phil did more than he ever does and, in fact, he pointed out to the floor supervisor at one point that: "You guys don't put me at the television table to be quiet."

However, I have a problem with penalties that are accessed beginning with the next day's play. If a player is going to sit out a round of play based on his or her actions; then shouldn't the players who were at the table when the infraction took place benefit from the penalty? I mean Phil will be giving up 81,000 chips [30K/15K blinds, 4K ante] to eight players who were not at his table when the penalty was given.

Let's not even deal with the increased blinds since the penalty was given or the fact that no penalty was considered until the offended player loudly complained to the floor staff. By the way, the other player, Cristian Dragomir, should have also been warned for his behavior but in the shadow of a full Hellmuth rant, it may have been hard to see his rule bending behavior.

I will suggest to the Tournament Director's Association that if a player is given an "overnight" penalty and if there is also a seat/table redraw for the following day that those penalized blinds and antes be removed from play and the player simply is dealt out of the hands. This causes some issues with the blinds but free chips, as is the current solution, seems a not well considered remedy.

After a somewhat abrupt suspension of play last night at 189 players, the Main Event of the World Series should play out something like this over the next three days:

Thursday Day 3: 1308 played down to 474
Friday Day 4: 474 played down to 189
Saturday Day 5: 189 playing to 81 or 72 (or less)
Sunday Day 6: 81 or 72 playing down to 27
Monday Day 7: 27 playing down to November Nine
November: Final Table

Today is the critical day, with a full five levels scheduled the field will definitely go under 100. Trying to anticipate the pace of play is a skill developed by good tournament directors but about as accurate as predicting the weather (we had lightening last night in Las Vegas; 90 degrees at midnight and lightening). The key to today's decision is a balance between the number of remaining players and the stack sizes. When the field is full of stacks of similar sizes, play takes longer; when there are a good number of short stacks, play is quicker.

Because the staff has the option of stopping play at any time, we know they definitely want to make tomorrow (Day Six) a reasonable length day getting down to 27 but even with this in mind, no one would be surprised if a fast pace lowers todays field to 63 or even 54 and then on Sunday we go for a final two tables at 18.

This is all about managing the pace of an unpredictable game at ten or twenty different tables. What we do know is that Monday evening or early Tuesday morning, we will have nine players left standing.

Let's be honest, there are WSOP officials on their knees every morning praying that at least one BIG name player makes it to the November final table. Nevermind what they say in public, ESPN programmers are burning incense and killing chickens hoping that someone everyone knows makes it to the final nine.

I heard a veteran poker writer say the other day that if a big name pro gets as close as Scotty Nguyen did last year, they would drag him away from the table so he can't donk off his chips and miss the monster TV event.

So who is still around to fulfill this fantasy?

Dag Martin Mikkelsen 931000
Alexander Kostritsyn 887000
Matt Matros 822500
Jon Turner 726500
Shawn Sheikhan 724000
Brandon Cantu 710000
Jeff Kimber 632500
Phil Hellmuth 475000
Victor Ramdin 471000
Mark Vos 468000
Hoyt Corkins 439500
Mike Matusow 438500

Some of the early conversations today were about how one player had a 2-to-1 chiplead on the entire field. Brian Schaedlich begins play with 801,000, which is not a 2-1 lead since the counts are all in from yesterday, he did hold a 2-to-1 lead on the Day 2A field. I thought it might be interesting to track our top ten for the entire day. I will try to catch them three times during the day to see just how much a chip lead means on Day Three of the WSOP Main Event.

Here are the top ten starting stacks at noon with 1,307 players remaining:

Brian Schaedlich 801,000
Peter Biebel 531,000
Alex Outhred 486,800
Raja Kattamuri 411,100
Hunter Frey 397,000
Jeremiah Smith 386,000
Steven Goosen 362,100
Patrick Fortin 355,900
Reagan Silber 355,500
Kellen Hunter 354,100

At 5 PM, two levels in, the original top ten now with 852 players still in the field:

When the Main Event resumes today for Day 3, there will be 1308 players left standing. Lots of reports expressed surprise at the pace of both Day 2's. But compared to 2007, we still have a long way to go.

Here is how '07 played down:

Day 3: 797 played down to 337
Day 4: 337 played down to 112
Day 5: 112 played to 36
Day 6: 36 played down to 9
Day 0: Day Off
Day 7: Final Table

Those who were here last July remember some very late nights on Days 4, 5 & 6. But the schedulers have noted that problem and added one full day to the 2008 Final (Summer) Week.

Thursday Day 3: 1308 playing down to xxx
Friday Day 4: xxx playing down to yyy
Saturday Day 5: yyy playing to zz or zzz
Sunday Day 6: zz or zzz playing down to 36
Monday Day 7: 36 playing down to November Nine
November: Final Table

The Plan remains in place to play five 2 hour levels each day or less as needed to reach the final table. As of now only Day Six or Seven seem in any jeopardy of needing extended time, which is normal for any large field tournament.

Here are some of the words of wisdom I have overheard at the tables during the '08 World Series of Poker.

"Man I took those after my back surgery, how do you stay awake at the table?" "Who said I stay awake, this is only poker."

You get to meet so many different people at the Series:

"They have broken my table four times today; its not that I mind moving but you guys are nowhere near as cute as my last table."

In the different strokes for different folks category:

"I don't want to win the free massage, my wife would never understand."
"What does your wife do?"
"She dances in the Folies at the Tropicana."

The next four were all sung badly by two players at a 7 Stud table:

"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be poker players."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be dealers."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be President."

Player busting out late on Day 2B:

"I woulda made money in any other event."

In fact he outlasted 4500+ players, which would have easily won every WSOP tournament, except of course, the Main Event.

At the World Series of Poker, you get to play against all those great professionals you see on television:

"I like Annie Duke on those days when she is Howard Lederer's sister but sometimes she acts like Phil Hellmuth is her brother."

This is my favorite, a guy with a good read but no follow thru.

"I hate it when I'm drawing dead . . . . how much did you bet?"

And finally, what we have all come to know as The Moneymaker Dream:

"If Jerry Yang can win this thing then so can I!"

I had several interesting conversations in the last 24 hours about the math involving entrants on the Day 2's of the Series. Surprisingly there is a wide range of opinions about these numbers.

The basic formula we are talking about is this:

Day 1A survivors + Day 1B survivors = Day 2A combined field
Day 1C survivors + Day 1D survivors = Day 2B combined field

Which works out in actual numbers to this:

636 + 615 = 1,251
1026 + 1352 = 2,378

This all comes about because the starting fields for Days 1A & 1B were much smaller than for Days 1C & 1D.

The question is: Are players at any disadvantage starting their Day 2 with a field of 1,250 or 2,378 and if so, why?

What surprised me is that some of the same "mathematical" reasoning goes into arguments that either of the two fields gives some hidden and unfair advantage to the players in that flight. Here are a few of the "facts" I have heard:

The World Series of Poker Circuit schedule has been released for the 2008-2009 season. Slightly reduced from 12 to 10 stops the Circuit will begin in October of this year at Caesars Indiana. Last year there were two stops in New Orleans, Tunica and at Caesars Indiana; these have all been reduced to one stop only and a new event has been added for Harrah's Hammond.

Here is the new schedule:

2008-09 WORLD SERIES OF POKER CIRCUIT SCHEDULE

October 2 -- October 14, 2008
CAESARS INDIANA

October 24 -- November 2, 2008
HORSESHOE HAMMOND (Chicago area)

November 6 -- November 16, 2008
HARVEYS LAKE TAHOE (Nevada)

December 5 – December 18, 2008
HARRAH’S ATLANTIC CITY

January 20 – February 9, 2009
HARRAH’S TUNICA (Mississippi)

February 12 – February 25, 2009
HORSESHOE COUNCIL BLUFFS (Iowa)

March 4 – March 14, 2009
CAESARS ATLANTIC CITY

March 19 – March 29, 2009
HARRAH’S RINCON (San Diego)

April 12 – April 29, 2009
CAESARS PALACE (Las Vegas)

May 8 – May 20, 2009
HARRAH’S NEW ORLEANS

As I mentioned yesterday, this is the official Day Off for the 2008 Main Event. There is a $500 Casino Employees event and a Charity Media Tournament but the only real high or low-lite will be the WSOP News Conference, if anything comes out of that lovefest, we will report details later; otherwise--see you tomorrow for Day 2A of The Greatest Tournament in the World brought to you by Milwaukee's Best Lite.

With a big finish on Day 1D, the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event has reached an official total of 2,471 entrants, which makes this the second largest poker tournament ever.

2006 WSOP Main Event: 8,773 entrants
2008 WSOP Main Event: 6,844 entrants
2007 WSOP Main Event: 6,358 entrants
2005 WSOP Main Event: 5,619 entrants
2004 WSOP Main Event: 2,576 entrants

TODAY: 2008 Day 1D: 2,461 entrants
2007 Day 1D: 1783 entrants

2008 Main Event Day 1C: 1928 entrants [4,383 three day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1C: 1743 entrants [4,575]

2008 Main Event Day 1B: 1158 entrants [2455 two day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1B: 1545 entrants [2832]

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

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As expected Day 1C was a much bigger field than either 1A or 1B. Estimates for tomorrow's Day 1D are all over the board with many predictions of over 2,000*. To match last year's Main Event total the magic number is 1,985*.

Lots of name professionals are playing tomorrow and plenty of other players are coming in after spending the Fourth of July with family and friends. So, "close" will be the operational word tomorrow for all of those over/under wagers* on the total runners in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

TODAY: 2008 Main Event Day 1C: 1928 entrants [4,373 three day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1C: 1743 entrants [4,575]

2008 Main Event Day 1B: 1158 entrants [2455 two day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1B: 1545 entrants [2832]

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

2008 Day 1D: Sunday?*
2007 Day 1D: 1783 entrants

*Late/Early reports or Early/Late reports are that the field for Sunday is over 2200 and counting.

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