U.S. Poker Championship -- Day 2

The second day of the USPC saw many quick eliminations, as the short stacks pushed all their chips in early. In fact, powerful pro, Young Phan, went out on the very first hand. All told, the tournament lost almost 100 players on Wednesday, leaving only 51 players until the money. Play resumes Thursday at 1:00pm.

Wednesday was an exercise in correcting problems from the day before for the USPC. Many pros could be overheard complaining about how disorganized the tournament has been, and while things are still far from perfect, they have improved. During each break, security has been stepped up to prevent spectators from simply wandering amongst the tables. Not only does this bother the players, but it restricts the movement of the people who are actually allowed to be there, such as USPC officials, ESPN camera crews, cocktail waitresses, and members of the media. At one point, tournament officials put up chairs as barricades around the tables. Then retractable ropes were added to make it more obvious. Security guards were also permanently stationed inside the area of play to shoo away trespassers.

What the USPC still hasn’t figured out, however, is how to start things on time. Play continues to start about thirty minutes late at the beginning of the day and after dinner. Delays after standard breaks have ranged from ten to twenty minutes. This is generally because players at the television tables have to be mic’d up and interviewed on camera. They tell players at the featured tables to get back from break five minutes early, but a) that is not enough buffer time, and b) they don’t all return five minutes early. It is to the point where players know they can take an extra twenty minutes or so at dinner.

And speaking of television tables, the table that is being filmed in the Arena is a travesty. First of all, it is in a different room than the rest of the tournament, so it does not have the same exciting feel at all. Second, there are not enough people interested in watching the table, so most of the audience are hired extras.

That’s right. Almost every spectator was paid ten dollars an hour to sit and cheer. They yelled out ridiculous things and cheered like idiots whenever someone took down a pot. Most didn’t even know anything about poker. One person asked me how many cards the players get. Several were joking about trying to get a player to give them a $1,000 chip in exchange for their rooting (“If we could just get one orange chip and split it five ways…”). I had to let them down and inform them that tournament chips have no cash value.

Third, the featured table announcer was absolutely horrible. He sounded like a late-night soul grooves DJ for a radio program called “The Quiet Storm,” jacked up every so slightly, as if he had taken a single shot of espresso. It was quite apparent that he had never announced a poker tournament before. Really, there is no need to vocalize every time the dealer burns a card. Really.

Add to that the fact that play was insanely slow because they were framing everything for television, and it was embarrassing just to be in the room. I felt bad for the players.

Most Bizarre Moment of the Day

At one table, the flop produced three spades, one of which was the Ace. The first player to act bet out hard and one of the chip leaders, Lance Funston, who is quite a character to say the least, re-raised. His opponent then moved all-in.

After that bet, Funston looked around the table and said, “Can I ask a question,” to which most of the table said, “No,” fearing that it might be against the rules, depending on what he was about to ask.

Undeterred, Funston continued, “All I want to ask is what hand beats what.”

The collective jaws of the players dropped.

Funston continued, “I’m dead serious. I was up late last night and my head is fuzzy. Does a flush beat three-of-a-kind?”

At this point, the floor was called over and Funston asked the question again. The floor manager looked at him like he was crazy and responded, “Yes, I believe it does.”

At that, Funston called the all-in, showing a Queen high flush, knocking out his opponent, who had an eight high flush. Weird, weird, weird.

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow Quote of the Day

To an unskinny player at his table, “You know, I don’t know you, but we need a weight loss plan.”


COMPLETE STANDINGS - END OF DAY 2

69 players remaining
Average chips -- $65,217

(Place/Player/Chip Count)

1 Ralph Pecorale -- $170,200
2 Kenny 'Kid' Tran -- $168,000
3 Vadim Trinelta -- $166,700
4 Mark Seif -- $166,000
5 James Caporuscio -- $161,100
6 Kevin Chan -- $158,500
7 John D'Agostino -- $151,600
8 Amnon Filippi -- $128,300
9 Chris Furbert -- $127,000
10 Gavin Smith -- $113,200
11 Jean-Robert Bellande -- $113,200
12 Balint Barta -- $107,000
13 Cong Do -- $102,900
14 John Juanda -- $102,500
15 Eric Crain -- $95,200
16 Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson -- $88,800
17 Blake Buffington -- $85,600
18 Lance Funston -- $84,500
19 Paul 'X-22' Magriel -- $83,400
20 Surinder Sunar -- $83,100
21 Mike Santoro -- $79,300
22 Tom Coan -- $79,200
23 Charlie Bae -- $77,100
24 Mickey Finn -- $74,100
25 Matt Glantz -- $74,100
26 Frank Vizza -- $70,000
27 Thomas Owens -- $69,900
28 Bo Toft -- $66,200
29 Erik Seidel -- $66,000
30 James White -- $64,400
31 Steve Brecher -- $58,700
32 Rizquallah Abusued -- $58,600
33 Amir Marmar -- $56,600
34 Men 'The Master' Nguyen -- $55,000
35 Joe Palma -- $52,200
36 Ray Lin -- $51,700
37 Tommy Wang -- $49,100
38 Jack Schroth -- $45,300
39 Jesse Martin -- $45,000
40 Mike Sukonik -- $44,000
41 Jay Park -- $40,800
42 Miami' John Cernuto -- $39,200
43 Tuan 'Tommy' Vu -- $38,700
44 Charles Boatwright -- $38,500
45 Pete Skyllas -- $38,200
46 Joe Saccone -- $37,700
47 Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi -- $36,900
48 Bobby Chung -- $36,300
49 Allen Kessler -- $35,400
50 Thomas Koral -- $33,500
51 Daniel Cutroni -- $33,300
52 George Anthony -- $30,900
53 Kathy Liebert -- $29,500
54 Gerald Cheatam -- $28,600
55 Richard Cohen -- $28,600
56 Wally Wei -- $28,600
57 Rathe Miller -- $27,700
58 Alan Colon -- $27,400
59 Senthil Kumar -- $26,200
60 Chad Moore -- $26,100
61 Steven Dannenmann -- $23,600
62 Sal Giambrone -- $20,400
63 Brian Haveson -- $19,600
64 Thomas Peterson -- $17,500
65 Juan Vazquez -- $16,500
66 Patrick Arena -- $16,000
67 Layne Flack -- $13,100
68 Cameron Scott -- $13,000
69 Bob Edgren -- $11,100


PRIZE PAYOUTS

Total Players -- 225
Total Prizepool -- $2,182,500

(Place/Prize Money)

1. $831,532.50
2. $436,500
3. $218,250
4. $130,950
5. $98,212.50
6. $76,387.50
7. $54,562.50
8. $43,650
9. $34,102.50
10-18. $28,372.50