Down the Stretch They Come

Still more than a full day ahead of schedule, the $10,000 Championship Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker is down to 45 players, all of whom have now earned at least a quarter of a million dollars. The chip leader is still California entertainment agent, Jamie Gold (one of his clients is Johnny Chan). While he has amassed a chip stack of over $7 million, he still has less than ten percent of the total chips in play, so there is still much work to be done.

Day 5 of the tournament was an interesting one, as, much more than last year, the presence of internet players was strongly felt. The thing many players love about a tournament like this is the deep chip stacks because it allows for plenty of good poker to be played. Pre-flop, flop, turn, and river betting are all important with large stacks relative to the blinds and antes. And now, with over 82 million chips in play, the stacks are generally quite large. The strange thing, however, is that on Sunday, player after player after player moved all-in pre-flop, even when not short stacked. The rumblings amongst some of the pros who were watching was that this is a carry-over from internet play. Either the online qualifiers are more accustomed to the fast-paced, “push or fold” mentality of the internet game or they want to negate the skill advantage of the seasons pros. Then again, it could be a little bit of both.

Even novice poker players in the crowd seemed to be amazed at the wave of “All-in!” cries from the dealers. It really was perplexing.

The few remaining pros seem to be licking their chops at the prospect of playing a final table against the online players. Shortly after eliminating Annie Duke, Jeff Lisandro came over to the rail to chat with a friend. He was amazed at the style of play this deep into the event. Said Lisandro, “A few years ago, the final twenty-seven would be really difficult, as it would all be great players. Now, with all these internet players…”

One can guess what the end of that sentence might have been. This is not to say that Lisandro was “calling his shot,” or saying that he was going to win. He knows there are still some very good players in the field and that he is going to need his share of luck, even to make the final table. He just feels that now that most of the top pros are gone, he has a better chance to make the finals, and based on some of the play he has personally witnessed, he is looking forward to mixing it up with the online players.

On the bright side, the tournament is moving along quickly. WSOP Media Director, Nolan Dalla, said that because they are so far ahead of schedule, they are hoping to just continue to chug through the next couple days and get the field narrowed down to the final nine one day early. That way, players can have a day off on Wednesday, media can get stories and interviews done, and ESPN/Harrah’s can have more time to prepare the facilities for the final table.

In other Championship event news, there are no more women remaining in the field. As mentioned before, Annie Duke was eliminated on Day 5 as the second to last female to go out. Sabyl Cohen, who was being cheered on by double bracelet winner, Bill Chen, was the final woman to be knocked out.

Play will resume on Monday at noon Pacific time. Assuming play stays a day ahead of schedule, they will play down to 27 players, although 18 would not be out of the realm of possibility.

Quote of the Day

“Sure, if he’s not an a**hole.”

Spoken by 2005 champ, Joe Hachem, when jokingly asked if one of the remaining players was going to be his new friend, based on the assumption that PokerStars would add him to their team, just as they did with Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Chris Moneymaker.

Chip Counts

1 Jamie Gold 7,330,000
2 Erik Friberg 5,905,000
3 William Thorsson 3,545,000
4 Rhett Butler 3,210,000
5 Kevin Aaronson 3,190,000
6 Ricki Nielsen 3,170,000
7 Siddharth Jain 3,090,000
8 Michael Binger 3,045,000
9 Jeffrey Lisandro 2,995,000
10 James Routos 2,775,000
11 Richard Lee 2,350,000
12 David Einhorn 2,340,000
13 Robert Betts 2,235,000
14 Andrew Schreibman 2,200,000
15 Dan Schmiech 2,155,000
16 Paul Wasicka 2,055,000
17 Lee Kort 2,005,000
18 John Magill 1,955,000
19 Eric Lynch 1,940,000
20 Rob Roseman 1,845,000
21 Mark Garner 1,810,000
22 Mitch Schock 1,785,000
23 Kevin O'Donnell 1,600,000
23 Prahlad Friedman 1,600,000
25 Mikael Thuritz 1,500,000
26 Paul Raeburn 1,385,000
27 Eric Molina 1,360,000
28 Doug Kim 1,335,000
29 Marc Friedmann 1,315,000
30 WeiKai Chang 1,295,000
31 Allen Cunningham 1,290,000
32 Brian Hansen 1,230,000
33 Rob Berryman 1,150,000
34 Cuong Do 1,115,000
35 Dustin Holmes 1,100,000
36 Fred Goldberg 1,080,000
37 Kyle Bowker 885,000
38 Sirious Jamshidi 845,000
39 John Lee 805,000
40 Richard Wyrick 800,000
41 Humberto Brenes 565,000
42 Luke Chung 560,000
43 Leif Force 510,000
44 Dan Nassif 495,000
45 Lowell Kim 350,000