WSOP 2010 news, live blogging, interviews, parties and side action from Las Vegas.

30 Jason Alexander LOW

His name's not George Costanza. In fact, it's not even really Jason Alexander. Whatever you call the man born Jay Scott Greenspan, he's helped shape millions of people's senses of humor.

Nowadays he does many things, one of which being the WSOP Main Event.

We talked to Jason Alexander on video, and shot this latest cover in Alexander JE Bradley's continuing photo series.

Jason Alexander, welcome to The Circuit.

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Joe Cheong

Every member of the 2010 November Nine has been officially eliminated save one – Joe Cheong. 

Cheong, who plays online as subiime, finished third in last year’s Main Event for $4 million.

The Californian was relatively unknown heading into the November Nine but impressed many poker fans with his strong play at the final table.

Cheong finally slipped up when he shoved A-7 into Jonathan Duhamel’s QQ.

Since making the 2010 Main Event final table, Cheong has remained very active on the poker scene and has cashed for $500k with a second-place finish in the £10,000 High Roller Turbo at EPT London.

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Reza Kashani

It’s a wonderful moment when the Main Event bubble bursts.

There is generally a great deal of celebration and high fives for the remaining players as each one is guaranteed at least $19,359 for their efforts in the tournament. 

Of course, for one player it can be one of the most devastating moments in their poker career.

We’re talking, of course, about the player who actually crashes to the rail on the bubble.

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27 DevilFish LOW

It's hard to believe David Ulliott is for real. He's a character out of a Guy Ritchie movie.

Few have seen what he's seen in the poker world, and unlike many he's not afraid to talk about it.

Check out the cover above and/or check out the Video Edition we did with him to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

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ElkY low

The latest edition of The Circuit is here, featuring the one and only ElkY Grospellier, international man of mystery and loud clothing.

By photographer Alexander JE Bradley's own admission it's the best one yet.

Very few players have made as much money in the last couple years as ElkY, or spent as much time traveling the poker circuit. A professional gamer who traveled to Korea to ply his trade years before poker took over his life, Bertrand Grospellier knows a thing or two about life on the road.

Check out the cover above and click through here for the video companion piece in which ElkY himself tells us about the ups and downs of living your life out of a suitcase.

ElkY, welcome to The Circuit.

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Eric and Danny Mizrachi

Last year the four Mizrachi brothers pulled off an impressive feat as every single sibling cashed in the Main Event. 

It won’t happen this year as Michael Mizrachi and Robert Mizrachi have already busted, leaving the lesser-known Donny and Eric to carry the Mizrachi name forward in the 2011 Main Event.

The only problem is that out of all the tables in the Amazon Room, Donny and Eric had the misfortune of being placed at the same table today.

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Phil Ivey

In case you missed this yesterday: Phil Ivey has indeed passed on the entire 2011 WSOP.

Of course yesterday was the final starting day for the Main Event, which is the last tournament of the 2011 WSOP, and Ivey did not show up.

It was rumored that Ivey, who has sat out the entire WSOP because he felt Full Tilt needed to pay back its U.S. players, might show up for the tournament after helping broker a deal that would see Full Tilt sold to European investors.

Apparently the rumor was too good to be true because Ivey never showed up for the Main Event or the $50k Players Championship for that matter.

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Scotty Nguyen Laughs at Phil Hellmuth

The above photo shows Scotty Nguyen cracking up at fellow poker pro Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth.

Nguyen is laughing because Hellmuth, who was severely short-stacked entering Day 2a, made one crucial mistake today.

He forgot to show up.

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WSOP 2011 $25K Fantasy Poker League Update

Created By: Alexander Villegas Posted in: WSOP Blog, Tournament Trail
2011 Jul 11
Jason Mercier

On May 26, 2011, the WSOP Fantasy Auction Draft took place at the Aria Hotel and Casino.

Fifteen teams coughed up the $25,000 entry fee for a combined prize pool of $375,000.

Only four teams will get paid and whoever wins will be taking home $225,000.

We'll find out what team that is on July 19th.

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Dr Pauly LOW2

There's more to the poker circuit than what you see on ESPN.

For poker media it's a worldwide long-haul grind of hotels, flights, friends and tournament poker

This summer we're taking a look behind the curtain and talking to the people who live the poker circuit.

Today's cover features the infamous Dr. Pauly, aka Paul McGuire. He's been on the scene longer than most, and has probably seen more than all.

From Las Vegas to London, England and beyond, Pauly knows a thing or two about the road. We know that because we've been right there with him for a lot of it.

Dr. Pauly, welcome to The Circuit.

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Kevmath on the WSOP Circuit

Due to circumstances beyond his control Alexander JE Bradley was free during the WSOP.

We jumped at the chance to bring him to Las Vegas to do a special WSOP Edition of his photo series "The Circuit".

We're kicking things off with the one and only Kevmath. Real name Kevin Mathers, he's known for getting the answers to poker questions faster and more frequently than anyone else on the planet.

If you've ever asked a question on Two Plus Two there's a good chance he was the one who responded.

Kevmath, welcome to the Circuit.

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Doyle Brunson

Poker fans may have witnessed poker history on Thursday without realizing it.

The legendary Doyle Brunson may have played his final live tournament.

The 77-year-old has been a ghost at the 2011 WSOP, playing only a handful of events, with very little success at the tables.

Even so, Brunson surprised many poker fans when he wrote on Twitter that if he didn’t perform up to his standards in the $50k Players Championship he might be finished with the WSOP altogether.

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Brian Rast Wins

Not to brag or anything but we really think our photographer BJ Nemeth has captured some of the best images at the 2011 WSOP.

That said, he truly outdid himself with this latest snap.

The photo was taken just as Brian Rast, who came from an almost insurmountable chip deficit heads up, managed to fade a third straight flush draw and bust Phil Hellmuth in a hand that would have likely decided the tournament either way.

Rast picked up $1.7 million for his efforts in the tournament. And that's Antonio Esfandiari jumping over the rail to hug his friend by the way.

For those who don’t know, it’s a serious challenge to get great winner shots when players leave the final table.

The problem is that although the final table is well lit, the audience is purposely dark to provide a solid contrast for the ESPN video cameras.

Somehow BJ pulled it off, however, and the result is a photo that captures the sheer emotion and exhilaration that No-Limit Hold’em sometimes provides.

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Phil Hellmuth

We’re down to seven players in the 2011 WSOP $50k Players Championship and Phil Hellmuth is the chip leader with nearly five million chips. 

Hellmuth has been waiting for his record-setting 12th bracelet since 2007 and you’d have to think his bracelet hunger is at an all-time high today.

When you think about it, this just might be the most-important final table Hellmuth has ever played.

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50K Bubble Boy

As far as bubbles go, few are as massive as the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship.

This year the difference between 17th and 16th place is $108,503. Robert Mizrachi, whose brother Michael won this event last year, was the unlucky bubble boy.

We caught the moment on camera and we're going to break it down for you right here.

Match up the numbers with the explanations below to get the whole story.

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Jennifer Cowan

Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. 

Our photographer, BJ Nemeth, certainly learned that first hand yesterday when he came upon Jennifer Cowan all in for her tournament life in the Ladies Event.

Cowan was all in pre-flop with A-K against her opponent’s 7-7. Unfortunately for Cowan the flop came 10-7-X and she was in a world of trouble against her opponent’s jackpot set of sevens.

She went so far as to start grabbing her things to go when a queen peeled off the turn.

The queen made Cowan do a double-take and she shrugged her shoulders and said, “I guess I can win with a jack.”

You’ll never believe what card rolled off the deck on the river…

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Daniel Negreanu

As much as we love to give credit where credit is due, it’s getting around time to call a spade a spade at the 2011 WSOP.

We’ve compiled a completely subjective list of five players who have been less than impressive at the 2011 WSOP.

We should add that we’re actually pretty big fans of the following players but their results have simply been unacceptable for how skilled they are at poker.

The 2011 WSOP is not finished, of course, with about 10 more bracelets to be awarded and the mega $50k Players Championship and $10,000 Main Event yet to be played.

Will any of the following players be able to prove us wrong in our assessment? We hope so.

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Christina Lindley

It’s the one you’ve been waiting for.

The 2011 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Ladies Event kicked off from the Rio today and the Pavilion Room looked better and smelled better than it has for the entire summer. 

A total of 1,055 women (one more than last year!) bought into the event creating a prizepool of $949,500 with $192,344 dedicated to first place.

Of course we always do a photo blog for the event and this year we had sharp shooter BJ Nemeth collecting images so it’s one heck of haul.

Click through to see the best photos from the Ladies Event:

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Six months ago every major poker tournament field was filled with players sporting Full Tilt Poker patches.

After Black Friday that group got smaller, but it was still there.

After today's news that FTP has lost its license to operate an online poker room, the players willing to rep the site are almost non-existent.

We took a tour of the WSOP tournament rooms and these are the only people we saw rocking Full Tilt gear.

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Tom Dwan

Following this morning's news about Full Tilt Poker losing its gaming license and shutting down global operations, the first reactions, as usual, came via Twitter.

We've done the legwork and assembled the most informative, funny and critical tweets from pro players, media and poker fans.

It might not be credible and it might not be accurate, but at least it's easily accessible.

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Annie Duke, Daniel Negreanu

There are some players that are expectedly not making an appearance at the 2011 WSOP.

Because of the timing of Black Friday and the complications involving payouts for U.S. players on Full Tilt Poker, no one is betting that Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer or Chris Ferguson will walk through the doors of the Rio any time soon.

There is one player, however, who has no ties to Full Tilt, other than family, who has been absent from the entire 2011 WSOP.

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Photo By Numbers 5 way

Today's WSOP Photo by Numbers is another BJ Nemeth special, captured with about 80 players left in the $10,000 PLO Championship this afternoon.

As BJ put it, "I've been covering major tournaments since 2004, and I can't recall ever seeing a five-way all-in situation this deep into a major event."

Five players were all-in before the flop, and in Omaha no less!

Read on for the full story of this photo, by the numbers of course.

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Mike Matusow

We’re just past the halfway point of the 2011 WSOP and we’ve already had some exceptionally memorable moments with huge fields, Jason Mercier and John Juanda bracelets and the complete absence of Phil Ivey.

As always the players have been providing some great commentary on the various happenings at the WSOP and we thought we’d catch you up with five of the best Tweets we’ve seen regarding this summer’s WSOP.

Grab some popcorn and prepare to be entertained!

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Domenico Denotaristefani

Event 38 is yet another $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. 

After a couple days of play there are 137 players of the original 2,192 entrants still with chips including a few pros.

Beyond that there is not much that stands out about the tournament - unless you take a look at a few of the player’s names in the event.

Given poker’s global appeal, it’s not unusual to see some remarkable names but this particular tournament has some names that would give even the most experienced tournament announcer nightmares.

In the spirit of popular sports blogging tradition we’ve decided to pick out the best names still in the event and give you the all-name feature table of event 38.

Poker will never be the same.

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PokerListings Free Poker Life Coaching Giveaway

Created By: PokerListings Posted in: WSOP Blog, Tournament Trail
2011 Jun 21
Jen Dunphy

For the last three years Jennifer Dunphy has worked for Las Vegas organizations like Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts, helping everyone from VPs to housecleaners realize their goals.

She believes she can do the same for poker players both on the felt and away from the table.

We politely asked her to put her money where her mouth is and she responded by putting up three free coaching sessions for one PokerListings reader.

So if you’re a poker player who thinks your mental game could use some work, just Like us on Facebook and post a comment to the wall of our Free Poker Life Coaching giveaway event page.

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