WSOP Day 4 Update

There are 185 players left going into Day 4, which starts at noon PST Tuesday. If all goes according to schedule (it's actually ahead of schedule so far), the tournament will be narrowed down to 100-150 players by day's end.

In a "déjà vu all over again" scenario, Greg Raymer is perched on top of the field with over one million chips. He is followed closely by Rod Pardey, Jr., who is the only other player over the million mark.

For complete tournament standings as of the end of Day 3, click here

1:55pm
The players are just returning from a break.

As much as people whined about the new media arrangements yesterday, I am quite impressed with the way things have worked. The “bullpens” are positioned well, and are very easy to access. Nolan Dalla, the Media Director, even came up to me when I was watching the action and asked if I wanted to get any specific pictures – he was going to let me past the ropes for a little bit. I didn’t need any, so I declined, but I appreciated the gesture.

On the other hand, a lot of the “media” folks tend to be self-righteous jerks. I overhead an argument between a young guy who works for some website and a seasoned novelist, where the young guy was criticizing how the novelist writes. Thing is, he’s never read the man’s work. It was just stupid. The kid was saying how the novelist wasn’t going about his research/observation correctly, how if he didn’t get all the hand histories and chip counts, all his writing would lack context. Whatever, guy.

In the meantime, I commented to the novelist later about it, we got to talking, and he interviewed me for his next book. So, at least I’ve got that going for me.

I believe Raymer is still doing well, but because of the interview, I haven’t been out at the games for a while. Maybe catching up on the action would be a good idea.


5:00pm
Since the last update, Howard Lederer was eliminated by John Juanda. “The Professor” got a loud round of applause as he made his exit.

Greg Raymer is still cruising, but has lost the chip lead to Tim Phan, who busted out another player, collecting $300,000. The board was 9-8-4, and Phan bet with his 4-4, only to see Nani Dollison move all-in with A-9. Phan called. The turn was a 9, giving Dollison a set, but Phan a full house. The river was no help to either.

There are less than 130 players left and the payouts are starting to get pretty significant. People busting out right now receive $54,965.

There was some loud applause coming from the poker room just now. Someone well-known may have just been knocked out.

A caterer was replacing the coffee urn a little while ago here in the press office and knocked the whole contraption over, including the burner. This caused the floor to catch on fire. While it smelled bad in here for a little while, everything is ok.


8:25pm
Huge Suckout by Greg Raymer

The champ just knocked another player out.

His opponent, very short-stacked, moved all-in pre-flop with a pair of Jacks. Raymer called with 8-6 off-suit.

The flop was 3s-2s-7s…you still have no idea what is coming.

The turn was a 5…now you might have it figured out.

The river was a 9, giving Raymer a miracle straight and sending his opponent home.

While the topic is on Raymer, it should be mentioned that he is quite fun to watch. Whenever he is in a hand, he puts on his now famous sunglasses and stares down his opponent. The great thing is, he doesn’t even look at the card(s) being dealt until it is his turn. He stares at the other player to watch his reaction to the cards.

Then again, with the sunglasses on, he could very well be looking at the board – it’s hard to tell sometimes.

Raymer is obviously very intelligent, but a dealer commented the other day as to how truly sharp he is. Raymer had been playing at this dealer’s table one day at the WSOP, and the dealer spread the cards, as they do when they first sit down, to make sure all the cards are accounted for. The dealer fanned the cards, did his quick scan, and then collected them again to shuffle. This process usually takes all of a few seconds.

Before he started shuffling, Raymer asked, “I didn’t see the five of clubs, did you?”

Sure enough, when the dealer counted the cards, that one was missing.

8:15pm
Raymer got stung a few minutes ago when Tex Barch hit his gut-shot on the river and took $500,000 from the champ. Raymer is way down to around $700,000 now.

9:15
Mike Matusow just busted two players in a span of 15 minutes.

On the first, his opponent went all-in after the flop of 8-9-4. Matusow had a set of 4's, while his opponent had Q-9 for top pair. The set held up.

Matusow got very lucky on the second one. A shortish stack moved all-in pre-lop with pocket 9's. Matusow did not look like he wanted to call, but he did, since the call was not a big percentage of his stack. When he saw his opponent's hand, he knew he was in trouble, as all he had was A-9. Fortunately for Matusow, he hit his Ace on the river and sent the other player packing.

10:26pm
There are 79 players left in the Main Event. They started a new level short time ago and will retire for the night when it ends. Should be a little after midnight.

The well-known pros are doing very well. At last count, Phil Ivey is heading the pack with $2,200,000. Mike Matusow and Greg Raymer are both around one and a quarter million, while John Juanda was close to a million chips.

1:30am
We're getting close. Today's competition is over with only 58 (one percent) of the field remaining. Tomorrow they'll play until there are 27 players left and then the final three tables will be played at Binion's.

Tim Phan continued his strong play all day and is now the chip leader with $3.2 million.