I'm mad at "Lead Tournament Reporter" Jeremiah Smith.  I wanted to call the new roped off area the "media moat."  Unfortunately, Jeremiah's much more industrious than me, and he already made the joke in a previous post.  Although, I can add that the "moat" works two-fold.  It not only pisses people off (as Jeremiah mentioned earlier), but it also forces annoying railbirds to shout even louder so that they can be heard by the pros they are pestering.  Awesome.

In other news, someone decided it would be a good idea to make all the chips in play at this point in the tournament the same color - orange.  Basically the denominations break down as follows: orange, slightly darker orange, and slightly lighter orange.  It's a little disorienting.  The people doing chip counts look more confused than the cops chasing Pierce Brosnan at the end of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Huckleberry Seed was just eliminated.  After being moved to the ESPN feature table, Huck ran into AK when trying to steal from the button with 87.  He flopped a gutshot, but a pair K's ended up sending him to the rail.

In the meantime, Scotty Nguyen (the lone main event champ remaining) seems right at home in the shortened field.  He has chipped up to over 3m today which has kept him in the top 10.  Scotty has been all over the tournament floor today with plenty of "Hey, baaaby!"'s to go around.  He's shown bluffs, made big resteals, and generally been in control of his table all afternoon.

Two other players who bear watching are Bill Edler and Ray Henson (pictured).  Each player has been climbing the leaderboard today.  Edler entered the day at 600k and has added 1m to his stack, while Henson has gone from 1.1m to 2m. Edler and Henson are both at the featured table.

One of the more interesting tables to watch in the 2-7 tournament has been the one with Scotty Nguyen, “Captain” Tom Franklin, Barry Greenstein, Thor Hansen, Freddy Deeb, and Andy Black. When they’re not kibitzing, they’re betting on baseball games, and when they’re not sweating the score of the Indians-Tigers game they’re, oh yeah, playing some mean poker.

After all the controversy that’s taken place in that tournament today, I expected more of a brouhaha when one of Thor Hansen’s cards flipped over as it was being dealt to him. It was the 3, a good card to have, and he quickly turned it over and mixed it in with his other four cards. Andy Black spotted it and said something about it. Tom Franklin shrugged and said, “It was a wheel card,” as if that made it permissible. Who knows what the actual ruling should have been, but no one seemed to have a problem with it so play continued as if nothing had happened.

Event #46 $1k Seven Card Stud H/L has just finished up as Tom Schneider defeated Hoyt Verner heads-up.  This gives Schneider his second bracelet of this WSOP.  The final table payouts were:

1. Tom Schneider  $147,713
2. Hoyt Verner  $82,064
3. Miguel De La Cruz  $51,670
4. Scotty Nguyen  $31,610
5. Saundra Taylor  $24,619
6. Tony Ma  $19,270
7. Tommy Hang  $14,711
8. Woody Deck  $11,063

In Event 39 ($50,000 HORSE) on Day 3, an all in David Williams peeked at John Juanda's cards only to find out that Juanda had a better hand and that he would be eliminated.

Later, on the same day of that event, Daniel Negreanu took a look at Scotty Nguyen's cards. Negreanu won the hand and Nguyen, who was all in at the time, was sent home.

Meanwhile on Day 1 of Event 43 ($2,000 Limit Holdem) Noah Boeken watched Phil Laak play his PSP to pass the time between hands.

How would you play if you were in his seat?

This photo of Howard Lederer with Scotty Nguyen to his left was taken on Day 2 of Event 39 ($50,000 HORSE) at the 2007 WSOP.

Or his?

This photo of Phil Ivey with Erick Lindgren on his right was taken on the same Day of Event 39.

Event #24 $3k Seven Card Stud H/L tourney was just won by Eli Elezra when he defeated Scotty Nguyen heads-up.  He won the bracelet and $198,984.  The final table payouts were:

1. Eli Elezra  $198,984
2. Scotty Nguyen  $110,731
3. Dutch Boyd  $71,650
4. John Harkness $47,224
5. David Sklansky  $35,825
6. Thor Hansen  $27,357
7. George Hardie  $20,844
8. Marshall Ragir  $14,981