World Series of Poker - Day Four, Report Two

The World Series of Poker might just be OK after all. After worrying that the final tables would be a Who(???) rather than a who's who of poker, it seems that the cream is rising to the top, at least to an extent. In the NL final table (Event # 2), four of the nine players making the final table are known top players. With 36 people left in this final table, you get the sense that we will see some known faces at the final table of this event also.

The chip leader after day one of this event is Pierre Nasr of Vancouver, Canada. But lurking in the top five are top pros Gavin Smith (fresh off his WPT win of about 10 days ago), and Layne Flack. Flack has had a big stack from almost the start, and has managed to play his way to fifth in chips with 36 players remaining. Also still in are top pros Jennifer Harman, Nick Frangos, and Hoyt Corkins (one wonders how badly Hoyt is itching to say his favorite two words "All In" - after all, this is Pot Limit!).

Players had a fifteen hour day of poker yesterday, and you get the sense that there is more to come for them today. I really feel for Ken Lambert, and the tournament staff of the WSOP. If the events keep drawing these types of fields, it is going to be one loooong six weeks for everyone...players, staff, journalists, etc. The tournament staff are kind of in a catch-22 situation. If they speed up play, this works to the disadvantage of the professionals, and will remove a bit of the luster off this event. If they don't speed up play, and the fields stay even 75% of this size, they are going to have real trouble finishing an event a day. Clearly, this will slow down, and there will be "breather" days when events like Stud/8 take place, but you get the feeling the staff are pushed to the max already. Given the circumstances, you have to take your hat off to them for the job they have done so far.

But, let's move on to poker as we are down to our final 36 players in this Pot Limit Event. 1071 players entered this event, and cards were in the air a little after noon yesterday. The prize pool is another whopper for a $1,500 event - $1,477,980 is up for grabs here in Event # 3. The first place winner will get a cool $368, 535, not to mention a gold WSOP bracelet.

We will resume play at noon today, and they will basically play it out like any other tournament. Originally scheduled to be a TV event, this event was dropped from the TV schedule to accomodate the expansion of Event # 2 from two days to three. At the end of fifteen plus hours of play, here is where the chip counts stand.

Pierre Nasr $136,500 in chips
Arash Ghaneian $125,500
Gavin Smith $108,500
Thom Werthmann $96,000
Layne Flack $86,000
Renee Wexler $71,500
Hieu Ma $69,000
Peter Zakhary $63,500
T.J. Burle $61,500
Patrick Pezzin $59,000
Jason Younger $58,000
Thomas Hunt III $52,000
Young Cho $50,000
Gerald Cheatham $48,000
Shannon Frankfather $45,000
David Bach $34,500
Nikolaos Frangos $34,500
Matthew Kirisits $34,000
Ernest Patrick $32,000
Scott Levy $31,500
Al Krux $31,000
Edward Moncada $30,000
Frank Whipple $28,000
Jim Bechtel $27,500
Mario Valenzuela $26,500
Jennifer Harman $23,500
Anders Berg $23,000
Martin Green $20,500
Chris Christy $18,000
Chance Langeness $17,500
Peter Davidson $16,000
Hoyt Corkins $15,000
John Johnson $15,000
David Danheiser $7,000
David McAfee $6,500
Chris Stoltzfus $2,900

Additionally, players who finished in the money are (well known players are bolded)

37. Bill Ernest $4,285.00
38. Roger White $4,285.00
39. Nathaniel Mullen $4,285.00
40. Alan Adler $4,285.00
41. Delmiro Toledo $4,285.00
42. Alan Kessler $4,285.00
43. Joseph Casetla $4,285.00
44. Kenny Levy $4,285.00
45. Marc Shubbe $4,285.00
46. Bruce Gifford $3,475.00
47. Antonio Abesamis $3,475.00
48. Roger Barnes $3,475.00
49. Billy Seber $3,475.00
50. David Stroj $3,475.00
51. James Kileen $3,475.00
52. Kevin Kim $3,475.00
53. Marcel Luske $3,475.00
54. Arthur Christman $3,475.00
55. Joseph Cassidy $3,475.00
56. Marco Traniello $2,955.00
57. Mark Taylor $2,955.00
58. Dean Factor $2,955.00
59. Joshua Jones $2,955.00
60. James Catton $2,955.00
61. Elliott Howle $2,955.00
62. Stanley Bayne $2,955.00
63. Carlos Trujillo $2,955.00
64. Brett Wiesner $2,585.00
65. Craig Hartman $2,585.00
66. Michael Minetti $2,585.00
67. Jesse Daniel $2,585.00
68. Jorge Arias $2,585.00
69. Manuel Regis $2,585.00
70. Tao Yubin $2,585.00
71. Amie Martini $2,585.00
72. Jeffrey Klein $2,585.00
73. Keith Sexton $2,215.00
74. Todd Brunson $2,215.00
75. Aaron Jensen $2,215.00
76. Christopher Fear $2,215.00
77. Andrew Singer $2,215.00
78. Dewey Tomko $2,215.00
79. Michael Pryce $2,215.00
80. Isabelle Mercier $2,215.00
81. Robert Glenn $2,215.00
82. Asle Gtesteland $1,845.00
83. Tommy Tucker $1,845.00
84. John Gordon $1,845.00
85. Joseph Beevers $1,845.00
86. Scott Wilson $1,845.00
87. Jason Bloom $1,845.00
88. Alan Hance $1,845.00
89. Bobby Justice $1,845.00
90. Sean Colclough $1,845.00
91. Daniel Coury $1,625.00
92. KU Davis $1,625.00
93. Steven Sauser $1,625.00
94. Steve Zolotow $1,625.00
95. Andrew Bloch $1,625.00
96. Andrew Hallenbeck $1,625.00
97. Jason Strochak $1,625.00
98. Jonathan Dull $1,625.00
99. Jordan Siegel $1,625.00
100. Gerard Denham $1,625.00

Ed Note: Poker Stars will send more people to the WSOP Main Event than any other room.