Las Vegas, May 12, 1997.
They did not do an eliminations board today (as they have in the past),
nor did they take names nor do they know in what order todays eliminees
finished. I believe they are going to do one or the other or both, from
this time forward.
Today, the rec.gambling.poker guys R00000000000000000led at the WSOP.
We've only completed the first day, and there are three more to go, but
we can all be proud of the performance turned in by Andy Bloch, Steve
Brecher and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.
This is Steve's third try at the $10,000 main event and the first time he
has made it past the first day. Steve has been my main man for a long
time, and today's success couldn't happen to a nicer person.
Chris has been doing well in tournaments all year, and it's good to see
him having an excellent WSOP.
Andy Bloch had a plane ticket back to Boston and Law School for tonight,
and was undecided up until the last minute about playing or not in the
$10,000 WSOP Final Event. He agreed, while we were eating an early lunch,
that he would "volunteer" to let me sweat and record his play, if he
decided to participate, but it was still about a 50/50 proposition as to
whether he would stay or go.
He stayed, and he played a solid, aggresive game during today's session.
He zigged when he should have zigged, and zagged when he should have
zagged. Jack McClelland singled out Andy as the first announced chip
leader of the day, and Andy was in or near the lead most of the day. I
was really impressed and proud of the way that Andy played.
Cards were finally in the air at 1:15 PM for the scheduled 12:00 noon
start for the Big Show. They did some Hall of Fame stuff, but I was too
busy finding Andy's table and info on who was at his table, loading and
testing tapes etc. to catch any of the ceremonies.
I recorded all of the hand-by-hand, bet-by-bet, card-by-card data for Andy's
tables for the whole day, including Andy's hole cards on every hand, and
will continue until we win or are eliminated. Georgia says she has a good
feeling about this WSOP, and Georgia's "feelings" track record is pretty
good.
I have not done the hand-by-hand transcribing for Event #19 and Event
#20 yet, and may postpone them until next week. Also, I am not going to
do any transcribing for the Final Event, until I get around to it.
Andy was at three different tables today, and we had to take a little
good natured ribbing at each, concerning my sweating of Andy. Men "The
Master" was at an adjacent table and wanted to know if we were Father and
Son, and he kept coming over to tell us bad beat stories. Men was in the
process of getting a little lubricated from the stuff in that green bottle
that is manufactured in Denmark. Some of our fellow tabler's wanted to
check my tapes to see if Andy was lying about some of his hand declarations,
and others wanted to know if I had future info on my little recorder.
At each table, I told everyone that we were doing a "Press Thing", and I
got the names of all players that I didn't recognize. I was wishing that
they wouldn't break our table, because getting familiar with new names
and faces was adminstratively demanding.
Andy's key hand of the day occurred about five hours into the tournament
when his pocket K's ran up against Luis Santoni's pocket Q's and did what
pocket K's are supposed to do in such situations. I haven't listened to
the tape for exact data, but it was probably about a $50,000 pot, with
all of the money going in pre-flop and neither getting help from the
board.
Sounds pretty run of the mill for Andy's K's to beat the Q's, but it was
a little shaky getting there. Luis made the big all-in bet, and Andy had
to make a tough call against what might very well have been A's. They
weren't, we won, and Luis had to go home now.
Andy also got positive results from his only pocket 5's hand and from
pocket A's (Andy thinks he may have had A's twice, but I only remember
having them once, and we haven't checked the tape) although they were
both small pots.
Did I mention that I'm pretty excited and ecstatic about our guy's
performances today?
www.wsop.com is still having birthing pains. They are now feeding
through a local provider, and the feed lines are not big enough
(actually, I don't know what I'm talking about now - I'm just trying to
parrot what I was told) for more than 50 people to view things at one
time, and even then it's pretty slow. They are still shooting for things
to go well on Thursday, and they will be switching over to ATT's larger
input capacity, and hopefully things will be beautiful.
Tomorrow, I'll try and get an Email address that can be used to
communicate with the horse's mouth about problems, successes etc..
Feedback might help them in their efforts.
Has anybody been able to see the television clips yet?
We saw Noli Francisco make the right bets at the right time against Minh
Ly, and administer the coup de something or other with a sizable river
bet that was not called and then he turned over a 3 4 off suit that was
unrelated to the board.
A Noli bet also caused Andy Bloch to lay down a hand, and then be shown a
low straight draw by Noli.
Milton Berle was introduced at the WSOP in conjunction with a Press
cocktail party to plug his new magazine that has some connection to
gambling (I think), and has some kind of motto about smoking, gambling,
debauchery and such things being not all bad. Binion's had urged me to
attend the party and write something nice about Uncle Miltie and his mag.
on the Internet (Internet is a magic word in Las Vegas these days), but I
found myself otherwise occupied with "Andy Bloch" sweating.
1997 WSOP Final Table Statistics
| # | Event | # of Hands | Total Time | Over at |
|---|
| 1. | $ 2,000 Limit Holdem | 108 | 2:36 | 6:46 PM |
| 2. | 1,500 Limit Razz | 202 | 4:02 | 8:07 PM |
| 3. | 1,500 Limit Omaha | 129 | 3:59 | 7:07 PM |
| 4. | 1,500 Limit 7 Stud | ? | 3:58 | 8:09 PM |
| 5. | 1,500 Pot Limit Omaha | 109 | 3:41 | 7:49 PM |
| 6. | 1,500 Limit 7 Stud Hi-Lo | 172 | 3:08 | 7:15 PM |
| 7. | 2,000 No Limit Holdem | 87 | 3:22 | 7:25 PM |
| 8. | 2,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo | 114 | 3:28 | 7:36 PM |
| 9. | 2,000 Pot Limit Holdem | 131 | 3:11 | 7:21 PM |
| 10. | 2,500 Limit 7 Stud | 156 | 3:12 | 7:28 PM |
| 11. | 2,500 Pot Limit Omaha | 113 | 3:45 | 7:51 PM |
| 12. | 2,500 Limit 7 Stud Hi-Lo | 153 | 4:12 | 8:18 PM |
| 13. | 3,000 Limit Holdem | 164 | 4:26 | 8:29 PM |
| 14. | 3,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo | 169 | 4:26 | 8:30 PM |
| 15. | 3,000 Pot Limit Holdem | 97 | 2:23 | 6:31 PM |
| 16. | 5,000 No Limit Deuce/Seven | ? | 2:41 | 1:11 AM |
| 17. | 3,000 No Limit Holdem | 129 | 3:38 | 7:44 PM |
| 18. | 5,000 Limit 7 Stud | 166 | 3:48 | 7:55 PM |
| 19. | 5,000 Limit Holdem |
| 20. | 1,000 Ladies 7 Stud |
| 21. | 10,000 Final Event |
Single Table Satellites
(Becky Kerber and Barbara Lotief)
The last Single Table Satellite started at 11:30 AM, and they were using
accelerated blinds to get it completed before the start of the WSOP.
There were five tables still going at 12:15, when I last looked in.
$10,000 CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRANTS
| 1. | Nevada Stupak | 2. | Chris "Jesus" Ferguson |
| 3. | Chuck Thompson | 4. | Ken Flaton |
| 5. | Ken Buntjner | 6. | Mo Fathpour |
| 7. | Amadeo Parado | 8. | Laurence Clenau |
| 9. | Jay Reisler | 10. | Joseph Winston |
| 11. | Keith Taylor | 12. | Andre Boyer |
| 13. | Kev Nettles | 14. | Tormod Roren |
| 15. | Kenneth Davis | 16. | Don Pittman |
| 17. | Marko Trapini | 18. | Steve Kim |
| 19. | Sam Merchant | 20. | Andrew Black |
| 21. | Anthony Guerriero | 22. | George Gerus, Sr. |
| 23. | MacDonald Kempf | 24. | Ron "Carolina Express" Stanley |
| 25. | "Midnight" Pete Haugan | 26. | Jack Fox |
| 27. | John Hendrix | 28. | Dave Crunkleton |
| 29. | Jim Brown | 30. | Mike Pilkington |
| 31. | Martin Comer | 32. | Samir Khoveis |
| 33. | Gary Benson | 34. | David Roepke |
| 35. | Don Holt | 36. | J. C. Pearson |
| 37. | Tommi Han | 38. | Phuc Bao |
| 39. | James Harman | 40. | Ken Jacobs |
| 41. | Pete Dixon | 42. | Bruce Van Horn |
| 43. | Bill Fain | 44. | Myron Rosenbaum |
| 45. | Robert Henry Kojfer | 46. | David Rubin |
| 47. | Jim Mascher | 48. | Al McCoy |
| 49. | Mallie Hoyer | 50. | Angus Hill |
| 51. | Herb Potter | 52. | Allen Barker |
| 53. | Dr. Max Stern | 54. | Robert Dale Ellis |
| 55. | Peter Lameureaux | 56. | Milt Myers |
| 57. | Ken Sahek | 58. | Cal Dykes |
| 59. | Alex Horowitz | 60. | Thomas Sparks |
| 61. | Monte Kouz | 62. | Phil Helmuth |
| 63. | Jack Keller | 64. | Patrick Bruel |
| 65. | Louis Asmo | 66. | Dan Fairly |
| 67. | Jerre Juhl | 68. | John Strzemp |
| 69. | Tibor Tolni | 70. | Gustavo Weiss |
| 71. | Melissa Hayden | 72. | Paul Ladanyi |
| 73. | John Spadavecchia | 74. | Ivin Mladen |
| 75. | Tom McEvoy | 76. | Peter Brehm |
| 77. | Minh Ly | 78. | Bill Gazes |
| 79. | Praviz Roudi | 80. | Humberto Brenes |
| 81. | Pascal Perrault | 82. | Joel Chaseman |
| 83. | Marsha Waggoner | 84. | Randy Holland |
| 85. | Maria Stern | 86. | Tom Jacobs |
| 87. | David Ulliot | 88. | Noel Furlong |
| 89. | Brad Daugherty | 90. | Phil Brodrick |
| 91. | Thomas Chung | 92. | Vic Kramer |
| 93. | John Feranjesh | 94. | Billy "Crocodile" Argyros |
| 95. | Alan Brodsky | 96. | Jas Perdesi |
| 97. | Fred David | 98. | Edward Stevens |
| 99. | Charles Wight III | 100. | Michael Davis |
| 101. | Marcus Soloweiczyk | 102. | Jim Ward |
| 103. | Matt Lefkowitz | 104. | Buddy Bonnecaze |
| 105. | Mike Laing | 106. | Robert Eccleston |
| 107. | Bruce Korman | 108. | Mickey Appleman |
| 109. | Berry Johnston | 110. | Bobby Hof |
| 111. | John Galbraith | 112. | John Esposito |
| 113. | Thomas Franjesh | 114. | Jason Gray |
| 115. | Shulman Berry | 116. | Russ Hamilton |
| 117. | D. J. Keas | 118. | Doyle Brunson |
| 119. | Bob Veltri | 120. | Gustavo Echeverri |
| 121. | Lyle Berman | 122. | T. J. Cloutier |
| 123. | Scotty Nguyen | 124. | Adeeb Harb |
| 125. | Jay Heimowitz | 126. | Sam Chehab |
| 127. | Barbara Laux | 128. | Eli Balas |
| 129. | Jamie Ligator | 130. | Dean Potashner |
| 131. | Mick Cowley | 132. | Noli Francisco |
| 133. | Claud Sigmon | 134. | Jose Rosenkrantz |
| 135. | A. Fritz | 136. | Gerry O'Rourke |
| 137. | Ralph Levine | 138. | Bill Alexander |
| 139. | John Montelepre Sr | 140. | Hertzel Zalewski |
| 141. | Freddie Deeb | 142. | Billy Baxter |
| 143. | John Heaney | 144. | Hank Karwowski |
| 145. | Dave Spanier | 146. | Luis Santoni |
| 147. | Clarence Kimbrough | 148. | Gary Haubelt |
| 149. | William Woodson | 150. | Tony Bloom |
| 151. | Phyllis Meyers | 152. | Jack L. Ward |
| 153. | Bob Feduniak | 154. | Marty Wilson |
| 155. | Julien Studley | 156. | Howard Goldfarb |
| 157. | Men Nguyen | 158. | Peter Vilandos |
| 159. | Donny Kerr | 160. | Annie Duke |
| 161. | John Bonetti | 162. | Tod Brunson |
| 163. | Steve Lott | 164. | Roger Moore |
| 165. | Steve Pestal | 166. | George Rodis |
| 167. | Aidan Bennett | 168. | Cindy Violette |
| 169. | Athena Jordan | 170. | Surinder Sunar |
| 171. | Mickey Finn | 172. | An Tran |
| 173. | Mathias Ronacher | 174. | Steve Brecher |
| 175. | Len Miller | 176. | ? |
| 177. | Yosh Nakano | 178. | Mark Weitzman |
| 179. | David Grey | 180. | Perry Green |
| 181. | Jason Lester | 182. | Catherine Brown |
| 183. | Tom McCormick | 184. | Gary Martin |
| 185. | Dewey Tomko | 186. | Chau Giang |
| 187. | Ron McMillan | 188. | David Chiu |
| 189. | Danny Dang | 190. | Gloria Tschetschot |
| 191. | Mark McCluskey | 192. | Richard Baldwin |
| 193. | Tony Lantz | 194. | Chris Bjorin |
| 195. | Bob Walker | 196. | Jacques Sollam |
| 197. | Farim Bazzi | 198. | Dolph Arnold |
| 199. | Ron Huber | 200. | Dan Harrington |
| 201. | "Miami John" Cernuto | 202. | Kevin Song |
| 203. | Eli Elezra | 204. | Thomas Kreilein |
| 205. | Sam Korman | 206. | Erik Seidel |
| 207. | Kevin Hunt | 208. | Tony Chaskelsod |
| 209. | Don Zewn | 210. | Liam Flood |
| 211. | Peter Delanos | 212. | Jaeggi Alphons |
| 213. | Hamid Dastmalchi | 214. | W. A. Boston Jr |
| 215. | Dave Allen | 216. | Carl McKelvey |
| 217. | Herman R. Smith | 218. | Fred Brown |
| 219. | Billy Thomas | 220. | David Mosley |
| 221. | Hilbert Shirey | 222. | Howard Lederer |
| 223. | Don Williams | 224. | Al. Crux |
| 225. | Don Barton | 226. | Monsour Matloubi |
| 227. | Paul Maxfield | 228. | Brent Carter |
| 229. | Huck Seed | 230. | Jim Bechtel |
| 231. | Steve Zolotow | 232. | Alex Brennes |
| 233. | Richard Chase | 234. | Charles Cushieri |
| 235. | O'Neil Longson | 236. | Stanley Goldstein |
| 237. | Dan O'Dea | 238. | Johnny Chan |
| 239. | Paul Rowe | 240. | Glen Marsonette |
| 241. | Andy Pantuso | 242. | Brian Meyers |
| 243. | Richard Klamian | 244. | Shelby Panoff |
| 245. | Roy Flowerday | 246. | Lance Straughn |
| 247. | Chip Reese | 248. | Howard Stevens |
| 249. | Dr. Phil Earle | 250. | Poggi Cesare |
| 251. | Michael McDonough | 252. | John Aglialoro |
| 253. | Tong N. Pak | 254. | Bobby Baldwin |
| 255. | Hal Kant | 256. | Rod Peate |
| 257. | Mel Judah | 258. | Ali Sarkeshik |
| 259. | Mark Edwards | 260. | Vince Van Patton |
| 261. | Dick Carson | 262. | Roy Thung |
| ***** To be completed Tomorrow - Sleepy time ***** |
|
