Welcome to the Main Event!

NEWS FLASH: PRIZE MONEY ANNOUNCED 7/9/05, 5:00PM


Ladies and gentlemen, today is the day you have all been waiting for. The Main Event of the World Series of Poker is underway. Check back here for daily updates.

The "first day" will be split into three days because of the staggering number of entrants. The official numbers were announced a short while ago: 5,661 entrants. So, it was not as much as the 6,600 that was anticipated, but it's still the largest live poker tournament in history.

The poker room can be described in many ways. Some that come to mind are "sea of humanity", "zoo", or "the biggest smoke-free room in Las Vegas". It is absolutely nuts. Even the press room is a mess. People are fighting for internet connections and electrical outlets, members of the media are sitting on the floor, and everybody is pretty much stumbling over each other.

It took a good hour just to figure out where the big names were sitting in the poker room, and it is very likely that many were missed. Here is a list of the recognizable faces so far on Day 1 (in no particular order):

Will Wheaton
Paul Darden
Barry Greenstein
Patty Gallagher
Victor Ramdin
Brad Garrett
Reza Payvar
David Grey
Humberto Brenes
Brett Jungblut
David Singer
Alan Boston
Toto Leonidas
Gus Hansen
Scotty Nguyen
Isabelle Mercier
Jennifer Tilly
Greg Raymer
Ted Lawson
Josh Arieh
Harry Demetriou
Crandall Addington
Scott Fischman
Marco Traniello
Shirley Rosales
Julian Gardner
Mike Sexton
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
Clonie Gowen
Freddy Deeb
Mike Caro
Erik Seidel
Jeff Lisandro
Jennifer Harman
Johnny Chan
Thomas Keller
Layne Flack
Ted Forrest
Phil Laak

As the Main Event continues, Poker News Daily will post tournament updates. They will probably be slow during the first few days because of the sheer enormity of the poker to cover, but stay tuned.

DAY 1A - JULY 7, 2005

2:45pm
Notable early exits: Jennifer Harman, Thomas Keller

Harman ran into a ridiculous hand at the featured table. She hit a full house on the turn with her pocket Queens, but her opponent rivered a straight flush. Harman was crippled at this point and busted out soon thereafter.

4:15pm
Notable exits: Jennifer Tilly, Brett Jungblut, Alan Boston

Big Hand 1: Chris Ferguson pushed all-in pre-flop with about half the starting stack. He got called by the player on the button. Ferguson: A-A, Button: J-9 (huh?). The flop was J-9-4, giving the button two pair and putting Ferguson on the ropes. After the turn Queen, Jesus worked his miracle and found a 4 on the river, giving him a better two pair.

Big Hand 2: Two players at Wheaton and Darden's table, Table 81, flopped sets, one with 8's and one with 3's. Both went all-in after the flop. The last remaining 3 came on the turn, giving one player quads and ripping the heart out of the player with 8's, who lost all of his chips.

Big Hand 3: Three players went all-in post flop after they ALL hit sets on the flop - Q-8-4. The Queens held up and the guy with 4's went home.

With so many hands being dealt, there are bound to be tons more crazy flops, turns, and rivers to come.

5:20pm - Returning from break
Notable exits: Patty Gallagher

Big Hand 1: Board shows A-2-3-4-10. Three players go all-in. You would think at least one has a 5, right? Wrong. The shortest stack has 3-3, the largest stack has A-10, and the middle stack takes a huge pot with 4-4.

Big Hand 2: With two spades and a 10 on the board, one guy is all-in on the turn. He flips over 10-10 for a flopped set and the caller shows A-K, both spades, for the nut flush draw. He hits his flush on the turn, but......that card was the 10 of spades, giving the first guy quads.

Stupid Play of the Day: The same player who busted above with 3-3 (we'll call him Jerry) was in a hand earlier when the river produced a fourth diamond for the board, two of which were the Ace and Queen. One player bet $1,500 and Jerry called. The first player showed the 10 of diamonds for a solid flush, while Jerry flipped over the King of diamonds for the stone-cold nuts. Why he didn't raise as the last person to play, holding an unbeatable hand, will remain a mystery.

8:15pm - Back from dinner
Notable exits: Carlos Mortensen, Freddy Deeb, Phil Laak, Martin De Knijff, Harry Demetriou

Joe Rafferty currently leads the pack with 78,000 chips.

10:00pm
There are currently 101 tables left, which means there are approximately 1,000 players remaining on this first flight of Day 1. Average stack would thus be 18,850.

Tournament director, Johnny Grooms, announced that while they plan to play through Level 7, they will continue play if there are more than 650 people remaining by the end of the level.

Notable exits: Barry Greenstein (to a big round of applause...out of appreciation, not joy), Johnny Chan, Brad Garrett

Current chip leader: Lee Watkinson with almost $90,000. Last year's champ, Greg Raymer, is aiming to prove that he's more than a one-hit wonder and is currently in second place with almost $60,000.

Tough beat (of many): A big stack in Seat 1 raised to $1,100 pre-flop with blinds at 150/300. A short stack two seats to his left moved all-in for over $6,000 more. After thinking for a couple minutes, Seat 1 called to show J-J. Seat 3 had Q-Q. By the time the community cards were out, the board read 6d-5d-Ad-4h-8d. Unfortunately for Seat 3, Seat 1 held the Jack of diamonds and Seat 3 went home.

Case of mistaken identity: One of the reporters asked me if a certain player with sunglasses and a thick mustache was poker pro, Roy Cooke. I said he wasn't, but he was certain he was. Later, I saw a tournament official explaining to the player in question that he made an improper raise, telling him what the allowable raise would be. When I found the other reporter later, I told him that the player definitely wasn't Roy Cooke....Cooke would know how to raise. Point taken.

Announcement of the Day: Earlier in the day, the Tournament Director took the microphone and announced, "For all of you internet players, the raise button is on the right side of your chair."

2:00am
Getting closer to packing up for the night. Only a couple tables left to break to get down to the magic number of 65 (which will make it 650 people remaining).

Notable exits: Humberto Brenes, Erik Seidel, Josh Arieh (who the cameras followed as he left...leave the guy alone), Marco Traniello (ESPN at least asked him for an on camera interview), Scott Fischman, Chris Ferguson, Mike Sexton, David Grey

Wrong time to go all-in: Humberto Brenes, short-stacked, moved all-in with Q-Q. Unfortunately, his opponent had K-K (and another had A-Q). The board helped nobody and Brenes bowed out.

Yes! No! Part 1: A player in Seat 3 raises, Seat 6 re-raises, and Seat 8, very short-stacked, moves all-in, already covered by the other stacks. Seat 3 folds pocket deuces. Seat 6 flips over Q-Q, Seat 8 shows a weak 10-8. Someone else said they folded A-K, so there was some discussion at the table that Seat 8 actually had a chance as it looked like his cards were live.

Flop: 6-J-10 -- Seat 8 hit his 10 and now had a few outs. Eyebrows raised.
Turn: 10 -- the table cheers in excitement as the short stack is alive.
Flop: Q -- the table erupts as Seat 6 made a full-house, knocking out Seat 8.

Yes! No! Part 2: Same table as above, a while later. Another short-stack moves all-in on the button for 7,100 (blinds 200/400) with A-Q. Big blind calls him with J-J.

Flop: 8-9-6
Turn: Q -- button hits his set
River: 10 -- big blind hits a gut-shot straight to knock out the short-stack

The chip leader is still Lee Watkinson, who has built his stack to over 150,000.

As mentioned above, play will stop when there are 650 people left and will resume with the second flight of "Day 1" at 11:00am.

2:30am
The players are done for the night and will come back on Sunday to compete in a merged field against the survivors from Friday and Saturday.

Top Five Chip Stacks
Lee Watkinson -- $145,800
Ed Cardona -- $129,475
Tony Laughing, Jr. -- $100,175
Kalee Tan -- $97,325
Corey Cheresnick -- $95,375

And for all of you wondering how our defending champ is doing, he's doing just fine. Greg Raymer has $39,525.


DAY 1B - JULY 8, 2005

The second wave of players is ready to seek their riches and have been playing for almost two hours already on this, the second day of the Main Event.

Lots of big names are here again today, and while they are generally spread throughout the almost 200 tables, there are a couple tables worthy of mention.

The first is the featured table on the main stage. It was probably no coincidence, but both Sammy Farha and Daniel Negreanu found themselves at this table. Farha tripled his chip stack within an hour, running over most of the unfortunate souls who had to stare down two heavyweights.

The other table is number 107, with not just Allen Cunningham, but last year’s Main Event runner-up, David Williams, seated, as well.

More notable players (like yesterday, some may have been missed in the humongous room):

Young Phan
Vince Van Patten
Dan Harrington
Max Pescatori
Men “The Master” Nguyen
John Bonetti
Mimi Rogers
David Sklansky
Jim “Krazy Kanuck” Worth
Todd Brunson
Evelyn Ng
Paul Phillips
Robert Varkonyi
Jason Lester
Perry Friedman
Erin Ness
Erick Lindgren
Joe Beevers
Al Krux
Cyndy Violette
Dewey Tomko
David Pham
Rafe Furst
Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi
Dutch Boyd
Michael Gracz
Rob Hollink
Phil Gordon
John Hennigan
Hasan Habib
Chip Reese
Kathy Liebert
Tobey Maguire
Chris Moneymaker
Boston Rob from “Survivor”
Amir Vahedi
Phil Hellmuth (showed up late, as usual)
Karina Jett
Antonio Esfandiari


The first person to be eliminated today ran into some very tough luck. Holding J-10 and having flopped the nut straight when the flop came 8-Q-9, he moved all-in. He was called by a guy with A-A. An Ace fell on the turn, giving the caller his set, and then came the river. Oh….the river. It was another 8, turning the set of Aces into a full house and knocking out the poor guy with the best hand after flop.

2:30pm
Notable exits: Kathy Liebert, Tobey Maguire, John Bonetti, Karina Jett

Most interesting table: While Kathy Liebert was still in the game, she was at a table with “Survivor” star Boston Rob, and a player who plays with his feet because he is not able to use his arms. This player is sporting a tattoo on his foot from the online poker room…you guessed it…GoldenPalace.com.

Three-Way All-In Part 1: With two spades on the board, three players pushed. All had two spades in their hands. K-10 versus A-J versus 3-4. One of the spades on the board was a 10 and since the flush came and nobody else paired up, the K-10 won and knocked the other two out of the Main Event.

Three-Way All-In Part 2: There was a loud ruckus from on one side of the room and many players and cameramen could be seen converging on one particular table. Soon after the commotion, Tournament Director, Johnny Grooms, announced over the public address system, “For those who were wondering, it was A-A versus K-K versus A-Q and the Aces won.” Thank you, Johnny.

Moneymaker Sighting: 2003 Champion, Chris Moneymaker knocked out an opponent with some very shrewd play. Details aside, he let his opponent do all the betting, thinking he had the best hand.

4:15pm
Notable departures: Todd Brunson, Daniel Negreanu

Dummy Move of the Day: A player made his full house on the turn and was getting ready to make a bet on the river. He stood up, taking his time, probably doing some acting, and when he sat down, he for whatever reason, put his cards in front of his chips before he counted out his bet. Well, the dealer interpreted this as a fold, since he was not protecting his cards any longer. The dealer mucked his cards. Of course, a tournament official was called over to make a ruling, but he upheld the dealer’s decision. I have a feeling that player will never do anything like that again.


5:40pm
Notable people who are $10,000 poorer: Erick Lindgren, Antonio Esfandiari

Earlier today, it was mentioned that there was a gentleman playing with his feet because he was physically unable to use his arms. This guy is fascinating to watch. He has a triangular wedge next to his chips, positioned so that it ramps up towards him (it’s a couple inches high). To look at his cards, he pushes the cards up the ramp with his foot and slides them sideways, slightly off the edge, so he can see their values. He then slides them back down. To bet, he simply slides chips off his stack with his toe and then kicks the chips into the middle of the table. When he has to show his cards, he pushes them up against the wedge and flips them over with his toe. It is all very interesting.

8:15pm
Back from dinner, beginning of Level 4. Blinds 150/300. $25 antes.

125 tables remaining, which means there are around 1,250 players left. Average chip stack is approximately 15,000.

Nothing too thrilling has happened lately. The one close call was when a player thought he had a $5,000 chip missing from his stack, which prompted a call to security to review the surveillance tape. Turned out that he just miscounted.

Notable players who did not have to hurry back from dinner: Perry Friedman, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Robert Varkonyi

8:50
Watch Your Language!

As many of you probably know, the WSOP has instituted the "no f-bomb" rule. Anyone who drops the "fudge" word will be assessed a 10-minute penalty in which they are forced to sit out. Just to be sure there would be no misunderstandings, the Tournament Director, emphasized this rule over the public address system in his pre-game announcements.

Well, some people forget in the heat of the moment.

A wild-haired English man (presumably English based on his accent and his England soccer jersey) was very short-stacked and moved all-in with A-K. Before he even got a caller, he was getting very excited, yelling for someone to call him (yelling in excitement, not in anger). When someone did, showing Q-J, the man started yelling, "Come on baby! Come on baby!" as he prayed for his cards to hit.

When the flop showed K-9-x, he let out a huge cheer. But, now his opponent needed a 10 for a straight. Thus, the opponent said, "I need a ten."

Upon hearing this, the Englishman hollered, "F--- the ten! F--- the ten!"

Fortunately, the 10 never came, and the short-stack won. Unfortunately, there were three WSOP officials standing right there and he was assessed a TWENTY minute penalty before the hand even ended because he used the f-bomb twice.

After he was penalized, the man appealed to the officials, saying that he should only be penalized for ten minutes because he used the word twice in one sentence. Additionally, he felt that he should be given a break because it was not on live television (it wasn't on taped television, either). The officials would not give him any concessions.

Making a last ditch effort to get his sentence reduced, the man pleaded, "I'm a gentleman. I apologized for it. I came all the way across the Atlantic to play in this wonderful tournament and now I'm going to get blinded off."

His begging didn't work, and he went out into the hallway to serve his term.

High comedy at the WSOP.

10:00pm
The Girl is Taking it to the Boys

Attractive and unassuming, Carmel Petresco is absolutely running over her table. Maybe it is because of these superficial traits, maybe it is just because she is a female, but the players at her table are just not giving her the respect she deserves. Witness three consecutive hands…

Hand 1: Seat 3 leads out with aggressive betting every round, taking his stack from around $16,000 to $8,000 by the river. Petresco, in Seat 4, plays right along with him. By the river, the community cards are 5-A-K-5-9. Seat 3 pushes his remaining stack all-in and after some thought, Petresco calls, showing A-8 for only a pair of Aces. Seat 3 mucks, to everybody’s surprise and goes home. Call of the day.

Hand 2: Petresco bullies the new Seat 3 player out of a pot after the flop.

Hand 3: She gets into another battle with Seat 3, who seems to be steaming after he conceded the last hand to Petresco. On the turn, the board reads K-5-7-2 and Petresco bets $1,000 (blinds were 150/300). Seat 3 re-raises to $5,000. Then, in the coolest of fashions, Petresco simply took a stack of $5,000 chips off of her now massive stack and placed it on the felt in front of her, putting her opponent all-in. He thought and thought and thought; several minutes of pondering. Finally, Seat 3 committed the rest of his chips and flipped over K-9 for top pair. She showed 5-5 for a set. The river was no help to Seat 3 and as soon as he joined the table, he was gone.

Petresco at that point had around $80,000 in chips when the average stack was about $19,000.

The spectators were simply amazed by her skillful play and it was apparent that the players at her table were starting to grasp the idea that she is not just a pretty face.

11:50pm
85 tables left, approximately 850 competitors. Average stack is over 22,000.

Notables who will be getting more rest than money: Mimi Rogers, Phil Gordon, John Hennigan, Cyndy Violette, Dewey Tomko, David Williams, Hasan Habib

Random Table Update: At Table 23, with the board showing 5-6-7 and two hearts, a player moves all-in with Q-Q. After some careful thought, he is called by Paul Doyle, who has A-K. Doyle had an anguished look on his face when he saw his opponent’s hand, but that frown turned upside-down when the dealer presented Doyle with a King on the turn. Doyle is now up to about 40,000 in chips.


2:30am
Day 1B has ended with about 620 players remaining.

DAY 1C - JULY 9, 2005

Déjà vu, Déjà vu

Here we go again. Flight 3 of Day 1 is underway and, like the last two days, the players will have to tough it out until 2:30am.

Today has already started off on a good note. There was no national anthem. Yesterday, Carolyn Gardner, the 1983 women’s poker champion, opened the festivities with a…let’s see…unique version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Think somewhere between Carl Lewis and Screech Powers. At least it woke everybody up.

First lap around the room, and here are the big name sightings (apologies to those who were missed this go-round):

Shannon Sharpe
James Woods
T.J. Cloutier
Joe Sebok
Andy Bloch
Howard Lederer
Doyle Brunson
Huck Seed
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
John Phan
John D’Agostino
Billy Baxter
Hoyt Corkins
Ram Vaswani
Marcel Luske
Mel Judah
Chip Jett
Robert Williamson III
Mickey Appleman
Gavin Smith
Mark Seif
Minh Nguyen
Chau Giang
Tom McEvoy
Mike Matusow

Remember the twenty minute penalty from yesterday? Well, Mike Matusow decided to call the guy's penalty and raise him two more. Yes, "The Mouth" has been penalized FORTY minutes for dropping four f-bombs. Fortunately, there are no antes and the blinds are small.

4:20pm
Notable exits: T.J. Cloutier, Joe Cassidy, Minh Nguyen, Chip Jett

5:00pm
NEWS FLASH: PRIZE MONEY ANNOUNCED 7/9/05, 5:00PM

Tournament Director, Johnny Grooms, just announced the official payouts for the Main Event.

Total Prize Pool: $52,818,600

Total entrants: 5,619

Places Paid: 560
Payout for 560th Place: $12,500 (which was a nice surprise, considering Grooms faked everybody out by saying 560th place received $1,250)

Final Table Payouts
9th -- $1,000,000
8th – $1,150,000
7th -- $1,300,000
6th -- $1,500,000
5th – $1,750,000
4th -- $2,000,000
3rd -- $2,500,000
2nd -- $4,250,000
1st -- $7,500,000

5:50pm

A Standing Ovation Can Only Mean One Thing

Doyle Brunson has been eliminated.

Also finding the exit door: Mark Seif and Andy Bloch

10:10pm
Players just went on break, ending Level 5. Next level will see the blinds go up to 200/400 and $50 antes.

Notable players who ran out of chips: Ram Vaswani, Tom McEvoy, Hoyt Corkins, James Woods

Shannon Sharpe has finally decided to use his size to his advantage and start muscling the other players. Just before dinner, he doubled up when his 9-9 beat A-K, taking him up to around 13,000 chips. Then, right after that, he pushed all-in pre-flop, forcing the others to fold. Funny - Shannon Sharpe has lasted longer than Doyle Brunson.

12:30am
Level 7 is starting. 250/500 blinds, $25 ante. They will play this level plus another 25 minutes before calling it quits.

Notables who now have time to spend with family: Shannon Sharpe, Chau Giang

A DEALER in the Penalty Box?

Maybe he got fed after midnight. Who knows. But when a dealer gets tossed out of the tournament, something weird is going on.

A player had just doubled-up through Vinnie Vinh and Vinh was in the process of counting out his chips to pass over to the winner. For whatever reason, the dealer stood up and tried to hurry Vinh up. Vinh did not like the fact that the dealer was standing and refused to hand over his chips until the dealer took his seat. Well, that started a battle of egos, as the dealer would not sit, saying that it was his table and he'll do what he wants.

A floor manager told the dealer to sit down, but the dealer remained stubborn. When the floor manager once again insisted that the dealer sit, the dealer proceeded to call the manager a "horses**t m***** f***er." Apparently, this dealer does not want a job.

He was quickly replaced at the table and is out of the WSOP.

Is...THIS Your Card?

At Table 20, the cards were dealt, the betting started, but all of a sudden, the player in Seat 3 realized that he only had one card, even though he knew had been dealt two. He stopped the action and looked all around him, even under the chip rack of a player who had just moved to Seat 2, but couldn't find the card. As the dealer collected all the cards to reshuffle and redeal. As the dealer was counting the cards, a couple players decided to look under the padded rail. Lo and behold, there was the card. Seat 3 flipped it over and was probably relieved when it was only the 6 of hearts, and not an Ace.

Lederer Takes a Hit

After a raise, a player to Howard Lederer's right re-raised to 4,000. Lederer thought a bit and called, while the original raiser folded. After the flop of 2s-Qd-4h, Lederer went into the tank and finally bet another 4,000. The other player took his time to consider his move and then went all-in for about 15,000. Lederer eventually folded, finding himself 8,000 chips lighter.

Yes, We Know There Are Lots of Players

A little while ago, Tournament Director, Johnny Grooms, announced, "Only 8 million players remaining. 8 million."

Thanks for the update, Johnny.

1:45am
More Dealer Shenanigans

At a table with several large stacks (that’s really not relevant, but it is being used in lieu of a table number), the dealer suddenly told player in Seat 9 that he will not tolerate cursing in any language. Confused, the player asked for a clarification. The dealer informed him that he knows that he just dropped the f-bomb in Vietnamese. The player protested, stating that he said, “I don’t like you. I don’t like you,” to a person across the table (the two had apparently been playfully ribbing each other – it wasn’t meant in a vicious way). He also said that was Chinese, not Vietnamese. The dealer would have nothing of this and called for a floor manager several times. In the meantime, the other players protested, arguing that Seat 9 was telling the truth and that most of them heard him say what he claimed he said. They were all pretty upset that the floor was called, especially because they all seemed to be getting along very well. When Johnny Grooms did come over, he obviously did not want to deal with the stupidity so he just said that there will be no foreign languages spoken at the table and left it at that.

Yes, That’s What I Asked

A player came over to the rail to say hi to someone and was asked, in reference to his large chip stack, “Are you pushing 100 [thousand dollars]?”

Completely straight-faced, the young man said, “No I’ve got 90…90-something.”

Um…that would be considered pushing 100.

At Least He Has a Sense of Humor

The aforementioned dealer, while not taking kindly to foul language, was able to crack a joke a few minutes before the incident.

To set the scene, a flop came Q-J-3 and two players pushed all-in. Player 1 had K-K and Player 2 had A-Q. The turn gave Player 2 the lead, as it was an Ace. But, Player 1 was saved when the river 10 gave him a straight.

In the excitement, a player that wasn’t involved in the hand asked the dealer, “Do you deal for PokerStars, too?”

The dealer’s response, “Party Poker.”

A minute later, the player asked the dealer again, and the dealer replied, “Party Poker, Sir. I’m a river dealer.”