Well, we can be very short about this. It's none nonexistent. This is what just happened over in the orange section of the Amazon room.
"You suck Monnette!" Mike Matusow shouted as he walked over to John Monnette's table. Monnette was having a conversation with Daniel Negreanu, and didn't seem bothered by Matusow's rant.
"You suck Monnette! You cost me so much f***king money!" Matusow went on about his hatred towards one of this year's best performing players at the World Series of Poker.
"Sorry," Monnette said, as he glanced over at Matusow who stood about a table length away from him.
"Don't you f***king sorry me!" Matusow added to finish off his rant, but Monnette was already focussed on what Negreanu had to say. Matusow paused for about a second before he started making his way back to his table.
It has to be interesting to know how Monnette feels about someone being angry at him, because we have to admit it's usually the other way around. With $592,103 in winnings during this year's WSOP Monnette has nothing to be angry about, or maybe that second place in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. and third in the $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo still hurt. Monnette is currently in second place on the Player of the Year leader board behind none other then Phil Ivey.
Marcel Luske has gotten off to a flying start, which is fitting for the man nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman." He's already built his stack up to 12,500 in chips, which is 5,000 more than what he started with... and it's only halfway through the second level of play.
Luske has put up some very nice results in the games of Seven Card Stud and Omaha at the World Series of Poker. In 2004, Luske took second in the $5,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship and in 2008, he took fourth in the $5,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event. Those finishes earned him $120,800 and $95,069, respectively.
In 2002, he placed second in the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split event for $44,560 and in 2007, Luske took fourth in the $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split event for nearly $65,000.
Clearly, Luske knows how to play these games and has plenty of experience on his side as his record exhibits. Bolster that with his solid start today and it looks like Luske could put together a very nice run in Event 42.
Brian Nadell is seated right in front of our media desk at Table 353 with Michel Abecassis, Chris Bjorin and Kevin Iacofano, among others. He recently spoke up and said, "Let me tell you guys the greatest poker story of all time."
The table looked interested and wanted to hear it. Nadell began to tell the story and it went something like this.
Nadell was playing in a $50-100 Omaha-8 game at The Mirage several years back and explained that Brent Carter played in the game and that he always had a 7-Eleven Big Gulp cup with him. One day, Nadell thought it would be funny to steal the cup and hide it. When Carter was away from the table, he hid the cup. Upon Carter's return, he was immediately in shambles, not knowing where the cup went or what had happened to it.
Nadell went on to explain that Carter "lost it" and went off for one of the worst losing sessions he's ever had. Nadell mentioned that for some reason the Big Gulp cup was almost a security blanket for Carter and once it was gone, he simply couldn't win without it. Nadell said Carter was questioning the floor staff, dealers, the cocktail waitresses and even digging through garbage cans looking for the cup.
Now, while Nadell was telling this story, Marcel Luske, who was seated almost back to back with Nadell at an adjacent table, leaned back in his chair to listen in. He heard the name Brent Carter and pulled out his phone, pretending to dial it. During a break in Nadell's story, Luske gave Nadell the phone and said Carter was on the line and wanted to talk to him. Nadell took the phone, said hello a few times, but no one was there.
The two laughed about this, as did the table, before Nadell went back to telling his story. The story seemed to end with Nadell telling the table that all that happened was Carter lost a lot in the game and "lost his mind," which didn't really resonate as the "greatest poker story of all time" to the others at the table. They joked with Nadell a little bit that the story was much farther from the greatest than Nadell thought and in the end, everyone got a good laugh.
Spotted in the field here in the early goings on Event 42 are three newly-crowned gold bracelet winners from 2012. Benjamin Scholl, winner of Event 20: $5,000 Limit Hold'em, is seated at Table 358 and Chris Tryba, winner of Event 35: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em, is seated at Table 352. Both of them in Seat 3 at their respective tables and they will be looking to earn a second gold bracelet of the year.
In Scholl's win, he bested a field of 166 players to earn just over $200,000, defeating Andrew Prock heads up. Tryba had to wade through a larger field of 393 players to earn over $210,000.
Another 2012 bracelet winner was Michael Gathy and he took home over $440,000 after beating out more than 2,700 players to take the title in Event 21: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em. In doing so, Gathy became the second gold bracelet winner from Belgium. He's seated over at Table 362.
Gathy came very close to earning his second piece of gold at this Series after he final tabled the event Tryba won. Unfortunately for Gathy, his run ended in fifth place, which surely leaves the taste for number two bitterly lingering in his mouth.
We'll be keeping a close eye on these three to see how they progress, or digress, during the day in quest for a second WSOP title.
