7.30 p.m. Rob has really started to pull away after Patrik made the “big laydown.”  He is approaching 4m.

7:38 p.m. Patrik was just all in versus Rene.  Patrik flopped a flush and straight wrap versus Rene’s two pair.  Patrik doubled up when he made a straight on the turn.  Chip counts:
Patrik – 800k
Rene – 1.5m
Rob – 4m

7:42 p.m. There’s a lot of cheering going on behind me at the SHOE final table, and it looks like there is a winner, Dao Bac.  Adam Geyer took second and Chip Jett finished in third.

7:46 p.m. Storms Reback, author of “All In” (a history of the WSOP) has returned to the Rio for the next week to blog for PokerWire.  He just pointed out that four of the five people on stage (including TD Sam and the dealer) have shaved heads.  Rob’s busy doing his own thing with a full head of hair.

7:49 p.m. Patrik is all in versus Rene for 890k.    Patrik has AKJ2 while Rene has AK104.  The flop falls Q105 giving Rene the lead with a pair, but they ended up chopping the pot with the J turn for broadway. 

8:01 p.m. Rob just won a big ol’ pot from Patrik.  By big ol’ pot, I mean almost 2m worth o’ chips.  Rob flopped a six-high straight to the big ol’ pot.  He has totally pulled away with the chip lead now.
8:06 p.m. Patrik is all in with AK82 versus Rob’s AA57 and Patrik was eliminated in 3rd place with $311,394.  Rob has a crushing chip lead now over Rene with 4.7m to 1.7m.

5:43 p.m. I am not a bit surprised to see these three players left fighting it out for the bracelet.

5:49 p.m. Patrik moved all in on a KJ10J9 board and Robert called.  Robert had 10’s full, but Patrik held the AQ for the royal flush.  Full house versus royal flush. That’s two HUGE coolers for Robert now. Brutal. 

5:53 p.m. Rene bet about 600k and Robert moved all in for 1.2m on a K32 flop. Rene folded and Robert showed a straight and flush draw.

5:55 p.m. Sam just announced the chip counts, and it’s anybody’s game:
Robert Mizrachi – 2.3m
Patrik Antonius – 2.2m
Rene Mouritsen – 1.8m

6:21 p.m.  Play has been slow and steady since Ly was busted in 4th place.  The chips have basically been shuffling around the table, with Patrik the only one sliding.  His chips have gone to Rene. Every time Sam announces, “Robby is gonna win this pot,” a large section of the crowd starts cheering.  He’s the crowd favorite at the moment.

6:33 p.m. Rene has the chip lead with 2.8m, Robert has 2.4m, and Patrik 1.1m.  Play has reaaaallly slowed down, so I'm going to take a bit of a break and check in later.

2:26 p.m Steve Sung has just raised pot to 105k.  This is 3/4th of his starting stack.  Action was passed to Marco in the big blind.  He thought for awhile before calling.  I’m surprised he didn’t just move in…the flop is Q109 and Marco bet enough to put Steve all in. He called.  Steve has AAK9 for an overpair and gutshot but Marco has flopped a set of Q’s.  Steve’s out in 9th place.  I’m kind of surprised Marco called in that spot preflop against a short-stack; it was a big gamble for ½ of his stack.

2:32 p.m. Marco is mixing it up again, this time against Tommy Ly.  The common perception is that Tommy has been incredibly lucky to get to this point; someone said he plays it like a holdem player playing PLO.  That makes sense since he already has 2 holdem final tables this WSOP.  Marco has moved up close to 3rd place now.

2:44 p.m. Robert limped in, doyle limped, and Patrik raised pot. Robert called and Doyle laid the hammer down with a repot.  Patrik went into the tank before mucking and Robert mucked.  As Doyle scooped in his second pot in a row, it became clear that this is definitely a Doyle-friendly crowd.

2:55 p.m. Jonas Flug-Entin was just elimianted in 8th place when he held K8XX on a 1088 board but his opponent had A8XX.  Flug-Entin

2:56 p.m. TD Sam just referred to fellow TD Charlie "the fat one."  NH, sir.

3:01 p.m. Steven Ladowsky just doubled up.

2. Steve Sung has quietly proven himself to be one of the better all-around players in the game.
The first time I met Steve he was playing a late night Chinese Poker game with Nam Le, JC Tran, and Danny Wong in Reno.  Steve has several final table appearances in the last six months, including two $100k+ cashes in December.  He placed 12th and 23rd in the main events at Foxwoods and Mandalay Bay, with an elite eight appearance in the Mirage Heads-up event in between. Steve's game seems to closely resemble Nam's, but he might actually be the best all-around player of the four (at least currently). 

Steve has already made a final table in the $1,500 7-Card Stud event this summer, placing third.  Today, he will be one of the players standing in Doyle's way at the $10,000 PLO final table.  He's entering play as the short-stack, but you can never count out this quiet and unassuming pro because of his strength: patience.

3. Robert may be the best player of the Mizrachi brothers
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi has definitely earned the respect of his peers with back-to-back WPT victories last season.  Youngest brother Eric has yet to break through.  But Robert (like Sung), has quietly had a great career as a professional poker player.  To the casual observer, Robert may still be in Mike's shadow, but no one on the tour thinks so.  Robert has a number of big scores (including two cashes in the $500k range) in no-limit holdem,  but his mixed-game ability has turned the heads of more than a few people.

He already has four cashes this summer including Omaha 8OB and Omaha 8OB/Stud 8OB.  He made both the $2,500 and $5,000 HORSE final tables.  He's now at his third final table of the series.  He has just over 1m chips and will begin play in 2nd place in the $10,000 PLO World Championship. 

4. Michael Craig has played his way to another final table
Michael has not played in many events, but now has three cashes and two final tables under his belt.  He is an incredible student of the game, and it looks like his work on the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide has paid off.  After finishing seventh in the $1,500 Mixed Holdem event, I'm sure Michael will be fighting it out until the very end in the $1,000 SHOE.

The only thing that I've really managed this trip is lose about 10 lbs. For most people this is a good thing but not for me. Not having much extra weight on me I don‚t really enjoy losing the little extra that I got. The reason for this weight loss was my long nightly online sessions combined with the worst room service in Vegas. Last year I spent about 150 nights at the Bellagio and wanted to try something new so I went to THEhotel. In the end, however, I had to crawl back to the comfort of the Bellagio in hopes of re-gaining my lost weight.

Bellagio has its dangers though. While at THEhotel I was far away from all my buddies and the casino games at the Bellagio. It took me about 2h after checking into the Bellagio before I discovered myself at one of the Pai Gow tables having a Greygoose with cranberry juice and soda and gambling away with a couple of Swedish poker player buddies of mine. What started out as a drink and a couple of hands of Pai Gow turned into an all nighter. Surprisingly enough we lost. I then spent the rest of the morning playing online winning back my Pai Gow losses.

After being up about 20k or so I realized that the $1,500 NL event at the WSOP is starting in a few hours so I took a quick nap and shower and headed to the Rio. 20 minutes later I lost a coin flip for all my chips and was out of the tournament. No shocker.

All in all this trip to Vegas has been a joke so far. It's an exact repeat of last year. I'm doing good online and really can't be bothered to play the WSOP events. Yet I wake up every morning and drag myself to the Rio, only to play my C-game and get busted a few hours later. Tomorrow is the day of the ladies event so at least I get one day off. Might go to the Rehab club at the Hard Rock Hotel and chill out. If I still feel I won't be playing my A-game on Monday I probably won't even show up.

Being Saturday night and all I might be heading to Pure at Caesars now. Roland de Wolfe says he's going to be there with some British mates of his. Could be some proper boozing involved...I'm tempted...