Main Event Wrap up

Sam busted out last night in 142 place. He was crippled by one hand where he had AsKs suited and the board came A A 7 4 with 3 clubs. The other guy had AxQc so Sam was favored 68%. The river came the Jc.

Congrats Sam! We were all rooting for you. Awesome tournament.

Day 4 Update - 2nd Break

Sam's got 800K. About 210 players left.

Couple updates on pokernews.com - you can specify Sam to see what's up with him.
Wei Yan says that there are 220 players left now.

Sam also had an interview with ESPN Online, so they may post it some time tonight.

Day 4 update from Sam

Sam just doubled up to 600K. He was hurting a little before then, but looks better now! Sam's made it to some of the update logs on pokernews.com - so look him up!

Main Event Day 4

Sam will be starting again at noon today. Here is his table:

56 1 Pat Atehison 189,000
56 2 Ken Lawrence 119,000
56 3 Avi Cohen 390,000
56 4 Rami Boukai 203,000
56 5 Bob Slezak 130,000
56 6 Adam Weiss 446,000
56 7 David G. Conway 248,000
56 8 Steven Jacobs 1,127,000
56 9 Samuel Padgett 467,000

Re: The Main Event!

Well, I am out in 504th for a cash of $25K.  Sam is still going strong at 460K chips.  Day 3 has just ended.  They are in the middle of the 15th level, 3K/6K blinds with at 1K ante.  The average chip stack is right around 360K and there are around 339 players left.  The payout level is at $39K now and will jump to $45K once they reach 288 players.  Play resumes tomorrow at noon pacific time.

 

My day just started out really bad.  I had 139K to begin the day.  My new table draw was not too favorable with several really good agressive players around me.  There were a few really tight players, but every single pot was a raised pot preflop.  I played a couple pocket pairs early for raises and got reraised off them, so right off the bat I was down to ~110K.  After that, I tightened up some and just couldn't get any cards at all.  I won a total of 2 hands that first level and was down to ~60K.  I was able to pick off a late position raiser by shoving with 99 in the BB and that got me back to 75K.  This is when hand for hand started with about 635 players remaining.  It took about 14 hands to burst the money bubble and by then I was down to ~55K. 

 

So finally, we get to playing again.  Third hand into it, I'm in the BB.  The same late position raiser comes in for another standard raise.  I look down at ATo and decide to make my stand and shoved my last 55K in.  He instacalls with JJ.  Guy to my left says he folded an A... great.  I say "dealer, give me two tens".  Sure enough, flop comes TT6 and I double up.  I go to dinner break with 97K.

 

After dinner, blinds go to 2.5K/5K with a 500 ante.  I'm looking to double up some how.  Bout third hand into it, I find AJo in middle position and bring it in for a standard raise of 15K.  It's folded around to the BB who is the big stack at the table with 700K in chips.  He calls.  Flop comes J84 with 2 clubs.  He says the flop hits him, I'm thinking that's good and bet.  He calls.  Turn is an offsuit 3, I bet, he calls.  River is K of clubs.  He goes all in.  I have 35K left at this point and the pot is ~165K.  For some reason, I didn't put him on the flush draw and decided to call off the rest of my chips.  He flips A9 of spades for the nuts.  Doh.  At first I thought he had ace high and was ready to rake the pot.  I don't think there is any way I get away from this hand and the big stack is not folding either, so I think I get stacked here no matter how I play it. 

 

I guess I'll just have to wait for next year. :-(  Thanks for all the support!  We still got Sam to cheer on and he's got chips to play with!

 

Wei Yan Chan

Day 3 Dinner Break update

Dinner break. The guys both doubled last level!

Sam: 350K
Wei Yan: 97K

They have also reached the $25,000 payouts.

Day 3 Update - We're in the money!

8:35pm - Wei Yan has called to say that the last 1-1.5 hours has been excruciatingly slow! Hand for hand for so long. Players were busting as we speak & I hear the announcement that they've moneyed and the cheers in the background!

Sam & Wei Yan have officially made it past the bubble and have made the 1st payout of $20K.

Wei Yan reports that he now only has 57K and Sam has $160(someone confirm?). Blinds are 2K-4K, so Wei Yan can officially push-or-fold to his hearts content. On the bubble, he folded pocket 8s on the button with 2 big stacks still to act after a small stack pushed. Good luck guys!

Here is how the guys started as far as official chip counts.

Here is also a list of the payout structure. Last report was that they were down to 553, so they are already getting ready to jump a level.

End of Day 2

END OF DAY 2. They both SURVIVED.

Wei Yan: 139,000
Sam: 208,800

Varying reports from different sites, but ~800 survived day 2A. 621 get paid. Sam says 800, some site say 808, others say just under 800.

Play starts Thursday at noon and players should be in the money in the first couple levels on Thursday. They'll be starting the day at Level 11 (37 min left). Blinds will be $1,200/$2,400 with $300 antes.

Day 2 - Dinner Break

The guys have both made it through. Only 3 more hours of play left!

Sam: 160K
Wei Yan: 68K

Sam now has Chip Jett & John Murphy at his table (latest chip counts say they have a combined 400K in chips).

Next Blind level is 1K/2K with $300 antes.
Play resumes at 8:30pm PST and ends right after midnight. 100K avg stack.
72 tables still in action, with 639-648 players still in. That puts the total remaining field to right under 1,000 - so only ~350 more players need to go out til the guys get to the money.

Day 2B - 2nd break

The guys are almost 1/2 way through the day now and both still in. On their 2nd break - at the end of level 8.

Sam: 115K
Wei Yan: 41K

Chip Jett sat down directly to Sam's left with 300K. Wei Yan is sweatin' - knowing he needs to accumulate some chips soon. He's got ~25x the big blind, so he's not totally short stacked yet, but they've announced that they've gone < 800 players before the break, so he's got to survive several more hours. Yesterday ended at 12:04am when they hit 350 players, so tonight they will play until 12:04 as well. They guys will need to survive tonight & make it through part of the day tomorrow before they make it to the money. Get some cards & some flops, turns & rivers, guys!

Main Event: Day 2

Day 2 for Wei Yan & Sam will start at noon Pacific time (3pm EST) today. After 2 days to rest up and not play any poker, hopefully they will be rested & ready to play. It looks like they should play until about midnight. At the end of the day, there should be less than 1000 players left. A little over 600 get paid. (Last night at 8pm there were ~500 from the 1st day 2 field from the 1,000 players that started). Sam & Wei Yan's day 2 should start with ~1300 players.

Sam start the day with 71,500 chips. Wei Yan has 51,900. Wei Yan calculated that it will cost us about 100,000 in blinds and antes to play Day 2, so we definitely can't sit back. We'll have to pick our spots and sometimes move some chips.

Interesting article on CBS (one of the only sites I can get to from work) about how the pros are dealing with their fame & everyone knowing how they play.

A long time WSOP dealer had this to say

The player who ends up winning is generally, in my opinion, the player who gets most lost in the crowd," Bowen said. "It's the players who don't flamboyantly make dramatic entrances into the pot that are going to be there at the end.

So, I think Wei Yan and Sam will have their tight images at the table, but for the most part won't be drawing too much attention. They will have to be careful about the 1 play that players might remember, but they definitely won't be all out there.

Main Event Day 1 results

Just to clarify, out of the 6,358 players that entered the main event it looks like 2,395 players are left after day 1. Wei Yan and Sam's chip count rankings are just out of the 680 players left on the day that they played. One more day of rest before the grind starts again. The estimates are that they will need to make it to day 3 before the money, but that of course depends on how fast folks are going out.

Day 1C - 11pm break

End of level 4. Tournament started 11 hours ago. Sam has 40K chips. Wei
Yan is down to 29K. Average stack is about 30K.

Next level: 300/600 ante 50

Main Event Day 1C - Dinner break update

Dinner break and both Sam & Wei Yan are still in it!
Wei Yan has 39K. Sam has 29K.
The word on the street is that it will probably go til 3am in the morning.

Day 1B started with 1,545 players and 610 players survived. So that puts it at 1055 players from 1A & 1B advancing to day 2. Today (1C) started with 1706. There have been a total of 4,498 players so far - tomorrow will let us know what the final numbers will be.

I'm headed to bed soon, but maybe Sam will give us an update for all of us East Coasters to wake up to.

Good luck, guys!

Day 1C - 1st break

Wei Yan sat down and the dealer pointed out to him that his registration card said Saturday July 7th. After talking with the floor and hoping not to have to play on the last start day, there was a seat available on table 33 - so the day began there.

1st break at 2pm - Sam has 17K, Wei Yan has 22K.

Sam laid down KK preflop on the 3rd hand. Wei Yan flopped top 2 pair with J-10 and had to lay it down the the turn & river being 9, Q - that was a big pot that he lost a few thousand on. Had won big pots with pocket aces and flopping a set of 3s with pocket 3s and was up to around 25K before the J-10 hand.

The Main Event has begun

Wei Yan is at table 68. I'm at 67. Sam has promised to try to send updates, but they're strict about cell phone use.

Andrew went out 26 in the Venetian deep stacks tourney. Out of the money, but Wei Yan and Sam are going to try to convince him to play a satellite.

Main Event

Wei Yan, Sam & Andrew headed off to Vegas Friday evening. Wei Yan went without crutches since his gout has subsided enough to allow him to walk somewhat slowly.

Wei Yan and Sam registered for the WSOP Main Event - start day #3 - Sunday at noon. Since the event is so large there are 4 starting days. The 1st day (Friday - day 1A) started with 1,287 players and only 445 survived the 1st day. Saturday's 1B started with 1515. Over 5K have registered and they are expecting about 7,000 players.

Andrew's Venetian deep stacks tourney started at noon today with 130 entants. As of 8pm Eastern time, he was still in - on dinner break with 37 players left & 18 getting paid. He has 31K - which is slightly below average. Good luck, Andrew. We are all ready to have 3 representatives of our Friday night game in the Main Event!

Wei Yan and Sam have reportedly spent the day at Bally's playing 2-4.

Best of luck, guys! Represent!

Golden Nugget - the pool to lounge at

 

The Golden Nugget recently renovated their pool. If you are ever down on Fremont street - take the kiddies or just lounge out down here when you need a break from the tables. We went at night and it was one of the only places in Vegas where I've seen folks hanging out outside and looking really relaxed. Yes folks, those are REAL sharks in that tank - and, yup, you can slide right through that tank! (OK, it's not open at night, but still very cool)

WSOP

Saturday, Wei Yan survives the day in Event 15. I stay until Wei Yan makes the money and then around 12:30am head off to catch the shuttle from Rio to Bally's before is shuts down for the night. Wei Yan has to play until 2am before he can sleep. Knowing his in the money, I get some sleep.

Sunday, I get up at 10am and head over to the Rio. Some scary looking women walking around - as in it's hard to tell that they actually are women. I grab some cha sha bao's from the Chinese place and eat while I wait. Noon and I find my table. Luckily they all look like women. At my first table, I'm playing aggressively, but making some descent lay downs. No running into Kings with AK at this first table for me.

The table is real quite. Someone jokes that no one wants to be the first one out. And it's true, once the first one goes, the mood lightens up. This table is definitley a bit quieter than last year (i.e., the women don't suck as bad - bummer) Tables start breaking after about an hour & a half. Kathy Leibert sits down at our table. And yup, we're all quite again. We're all eyeing her sizeable chip stack. Not much happens there. I raise a few times and hold my breath as she folds...the story that could have been. Then we break and I'm moved to a table in the 2nd row. Just a few hands in, it folds around to the small blind who raises to 300 (we're at 50-100). I look down at Queens - I know she's got at least a strong Ace, since she's small stacked & hasn't done anything but fold up til now. I raise to 1K. She pushes for another 750. I'm getting almost 4 to 1 (yeah, I know, not quite) and know I need to get lucky at some point. I'll have 2,500 left if I call - and I know I'm beat but I gotta do it. She has Aces of course and no luck in the cards to come.

Built my stack back up to 4,500 - then did some stupid chasing cuz I was in the small blind and I was back down to 2K before I know it. Folded around to me in the cutoff & I look down at KQ suited & push. Button calls (doesn't push) with AQ and even though the flop came A-8 of hearts, no more hearts and I'm done. 3rd round.

But Wei Yan is still in. While I'm still bummed, it's a few more hours of watching poker. He ends up coming in 89th and wins a little money, so he's 2 for 2 in WSOP events. Can't beat that!

Caesar's tourney

 

Yesterday everyone arrived in Vegas. Ate at TAO (Venetian) - it was ok, but I've had better. I mean, we did just get back from HK. Today, we all (mostly) enter the Caesar's $200 tourney. By 7pm, I'm the only one of our crew left and it's down to the final 2 tables. I bust 10th - missing the final table, but now have a good chunk of my ladies event buy in. Mentally exhasted though!