I am tempted to compare this feat with Dan Harrington making the final table of the main event two years in a row, but I would be doing so with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. It’s more comparable to Jim McManus making the final table of the main event in 2001. The headline is nearly the same: Writer Becomes the Story. Poker writers are supposed to be dead money. It seems those days have passed. If this trend keeps up, the Media event, which starts on Thursday and has historically been more Laugh Olympics than serious poker tournament, will turn into a title as coveted as the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Having read about Michael’s travails when trying to interview Phil Hellmuth for Bluff magazine (a difficult experience I have also been forced to endure), I had to laugh when I observed Hellmuth stroll by Michael’s table minutes after getting knocked out of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys event and look at Michael and say, “You made another one of these?” For the record these two men have now made the same number of final tables at this year’s World Series although Hellmuth remains slightly ahead in total number of bracelets won.

I also got a chuckle out of the fact that Michael seems to be following the tradition started by Barry Greenstein, who gives a copy of his book Ace on the River to whoever knocks him out. Michael arrived at the final table armed with not one but two copies of his book The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide. He has been crediting much of his success at the tables this year with the time he spent with various Full Tilt players writing this book. That’s as good of an endorsement as I have ever heard and I’m going to run out and get a copy as soon as I can.

At the start of the day Michael sat squarely in the middle of the pack with 161k. At last glance there had been at least one player knocked out, which means Michael can do no worse than tie his best finish, seventh, at a World Series final table. Already guaranteed at least $15,943, he has to be feeling pretty darn good at this point. Nice work, Michael.

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.

11:06 PM - Randy Jensen is a very nice guy. He's apparently read a lot of what I've written. He told me that he likes my writing, but takes exception with what I once wrote about him. I think it was in SUICIDE KING but it could have been in my last blog, but I suggested that his nickname sounded made-up.

I don't remember if I said it was made up or SOUNDED made-up but it truly sounds like something the WPT just febricated to give him an "image" for his final table appearance v. Barry Greenstein. Like something from the WWF.

He told me that the nickname wasn't made up. I hereby apologize to Randy, though I have to admit that it's not much of an apology. Here's what he told me about the nickname: "I got in in Tunica one year, where I made like 4 or 5 final tables. One of the dealers said, 'you're crushin' 'em' and so someone called me 'dreamcrusher.'"

I don't know, Randy. I 100% believe that's what happened, but that's not much different than saying "It sounds made-up." Is it a true nickname in a sense that people actually call him that? It's one letter longer than his first and last name combined. I know Phil Ivey used to be referred to as "the Tiger Woods of poker" but that was never his nickname. No one called him that. Nor, I'm sure, was he ever called "Tiger" or "T.W." Likewise, I'd be surprised if Randy's friends call him "D.C." or "Dreamcrusher."

I was speculating when I wrote whatever I first wrote. But I thought the WPT seized "Dreamcrusher" to create a persona because Randy wasn't super-well-known outside of poker. That still sounds like the case, especially because Randy Jensen, no matter how good a poker player he can be, is too nice a guy for that nickname. It's just not him.

There are a lot of cooler nicknames I could actually give him, that people might actually use.

11:15 PM - 25,300. Starting 150-300 blinds LHE, bets of 300-600. Sabyl Cohen is in Seat 1. I gave her and Randy copies of the book. Randy is reading his at the table. The HORSE had 148 entries, 5 more than last year. Randy Jensen told me he took a year off poker to spend time at home with his kids. They're 8 and 4 now and he used to take them with him when he traveled, even showing them parts of the world they were learning about in school. But they were missing a lot of school and it became a problem. He said my blog was one of the things he read to keep up what what was going on with people in poker.

11:45 PM - 28,000. There are 240 players left, with a chip average of about 7,800.

12:10 AM - There's definitely a feeling that the HORSE is the major leagues and we're the triple-A club one town over. They have extra ropes and security and floor people. Even at midnight, the crowd is 2-3 deep around the rail. Here? I think I've been the chipleader most of the night and I don't think anyone has noticed.

12:20 AM - 25,000. HORSE is done for the night. 130 left, average is 113,000. It's going to be like a ghost town in here. I'm glad I'm playing instead of watching. I feel like some of the best stuff I ever wrote was about the HORSE last year for my prior blog on Pokerworks.com. (E-mail me at suicideking@fulltiltpoker.com if you want the links, or just look at the site at my old entries from the dates of last year's HORSE.) What was great about the tournament last year was the fact that they were in completed uncharted territory. They had no idea how to set up the structure, or what a cool field they had. So they went very late the first night, and didn't finish the second "night" until 10:30 AM the next day. The final table started at 8 PM and the heads-up between Bloch and Reese went from midnight until 9 AM. It was about old pros, playing for days on end. The atmosphere was incredible.

None of that this year. It's scheduled for 5 days with heavy TV coverage.

I see Oklahoma Johnny Hale walking around inside the ropes. Doing what?

1:10 AM - 27,700. Back from break. 200-300 blind NLHE. 619 started, 186 left.

1:30 AM - A woman who looks like Paris Hilton walks by, dressed like you'd expect to see Paris Hilton dressed to walk through a casino. The look just shocks me because it's so dead and empty in here. Just as I'm thinking this, Randy mutters, "Did Paris just get out of jail?"

Sabyl Cohen has busted out and Paul Darden takes her seat.

From earlier, I talked with Randy Jensen about a story I wrote about him and Ted Forrest and the PPT event they played where they finished 1st (Ted) and 2nd (Randy). I wrote about the final table from Ted's perspective for a CARD PLAYER feature. An interesting story out of that table is that Randy started the day on the shortest stack. He signed the PPT application declaring his professional affiliation with Full Tilt but never got a shirt with a logo on it. (Obviously, this is before they had patches or people who were present with the clothing - that's how I've gotten most of my wardrobe.) Ted Forrest had the opposite problem: he was wearing a Full Tilt dress shirt and was ready to endorse the site but he wasn't allowed to, because he didn't declare on the application before the tourney.

Ted gave Randy his shirt, then watched as Jensen went on a tear, chipping up and putting himself in contention. When they started heads-up, Ted's main thought was, I can't believe I had the lucky shirt and I let Randy Jensen have it.

We laughed about the story and Randy said, "That was very nice of Ted. I made fifteen or twenty thousand because of that." I asked him if he ever gave the shirt back. "Right there in the Mirage. Everyone was treated to a view of 'the bod.'"

1:41 AM - Chip counter came by. "I feel like I should recognize you from somewhere."

Randy says to him, "Do you watch porn?"

I introduced myself and asked him what he estimated for my stack. "About 34."

I said, "It's actually about 31,000 but like in my porn days, we tend to exaggerate by a little."

1:58 AM - 22,400. That chip counter was the kiss of death. Now that I'm on the leaderboard, I'm plummeting off it. I lost a big hunk to Paul Darden, who raised in limit with ace-rag on my big blind, then called my check-raise and bet on the turn, only to hit a gut-shot on the river. Three hands later, Darden did exactly the same thing to Randy Jensen. After that, I lost another hand in limit hold 'em where I raised and kept betting top pair, but was outkicked.

2:14 AM - 200-400 blind NLHE. Moved to a new table. Paul Darden is sitting across from me. Two different people compliment him on having lost weight, which makes him say, "Gee, did it seem like I was that big before?" Hopefully I can get back some of my chips from him, unless he makes some more straights.

2:35 AM - 20,300. 125 players left. The average is 14,500.

2:40 AM - I pull off a bluff so obvious to Paul Darden that he winks at me and I can't help but smile. That takes me up to about 23,000. I'm mostly staying out of it. The level is 200-400 and Paul made a raise to 1,400, and now everyone at the table is raising to 1,400. That's a HUGE raise when there are no antes.

3:00 AM - 22,700. End of the night. Restart at 3 PM tomorrow. I think we have about 115 left.

Furthermore, we played from 115 down to 9 while two of the more unusual WSOP events started: the Seniors Event and the Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split. Essentially, there was no reason for anyone aged 22-49 to be in the Amazon Room, unless they paid $50,000 to play the HORSE. I'll tell you one thing: it probably made for some interesting cigarette-break gatherings.

I've been taking notes the last two days and my previous pair of entries covered many of the Sunday entries. I'll complete those sometime. There's far less interesting stuff from Monday - I'm not going to bore you with hand descriptions, even if I feel I played great.

Here are the highlights:

1. We spent an hour playing hand-for-hand. They paid 63 spots and started hand-for-hand at 65. I eliminated number 64. I had 33,000 when we started H4H and 52,000 when we made it into the money, so I guess I can't complain.

2. I spent time playing with Adam from the Rounders poker radio show/podcast; Phil Gordon; Jeffrey Lisandro; and J.C. Tran. I actually do have a few anecdotes, so I'll put those in another blog when I'm more coherent. Nearly all the notes are of a nature of "8:33 PM - NLHE 1k-2k/90.5k [+2k BB]" so I'll give you a very abridged version of the action on Monday.

3. I did see some guy walk back to his seat in the Seniors Event from the dinner break carrying a neck-strap margarita.

4. I made some mistakes - Phil Gordon has asked me to call him on the phone in a couple days, presumably so he can scold me about one of them - but I played very smart and got more active as the night went on.

5. We spent almost 2 hours 10-handed. I went from 241,000 to 338,000 during this period, so I can't complain.

6. The blinds/bets are really, really high, especially in limit hold 'em. I'm looking forward to the final table and I think I have an excellent chance to do well, notwithstanding that good or bad cards - even one hand at these levels - can disproportionately determine the outcome. Here is why:

a. I have a lot of chips. Several of us are bunched close together but I think only one player has more than me.

b. The chip leader, if I got the counts right, is to my immediate right.

c. I've been very active, especially the last few hours. I don't think any of the players with a fair amount of chips has overall gotten the better of me. I don't think they're going to play a big pot with me without a big hand, and I have a huge advantage if that's the case.

d. I think I'm the best limit hold 'em player at the final table.

e. I've played a bunch with every one of these players and feel pretty comfortable with their styles.

We start at 3 PM. Try to keep up on Pokerwire.com of if, shame on them, they don't have good enough updates, on one of the other sites. No matter how it goes, I'm going back to Scottsdale after for a couple days, and I'll write about all the things that happened that I missed in these summaries.

This is pretty exciting stuff.

-------------------------------------

(editor's note: Michael also had a blog before his Day 2 that did not get posted on PokerWire.  You can read it here.)

As you know from reading my first 18 World Series entries, I came to Vegas for the beginning. I was there for the long lines and endless complaints before the first event (Mixed Hold 'Em), the casino employees event, and the first GIGANTIC no-limit hold 'em event. I made it to day 2 of that event, cashed, and braved the the tent-city of Loserville waiting to get paid. I played late in some other events without getting paid and even got to experience the feeling of playing lousy and going out early.

I've been at the Rio at 9 AM; I've been there at 3 AM.

I've seen an incredible march of history, both part of the moment and frustrated that I wasn't doing more to record it. Tom Schneider, a very nice guy from Scottsdale who is friends with my buddy Robert Goldfarb, won a bracelet and made another final table. Annie Duke and Chris Ferguson, two of my very best friends in poker, made the same final table where Tom won his first bracelet. I was so addled by the break-in of my car that I couldn't give them and their situation enough attention. Plus Gavin Smith, my friend and collaborator, was in the process of falling just short of winning his first bracelet at exactly the same time.

Phil Ivey came close to number 6. Humberto Brenes and Marco Traniello have each made a pair of final tables. Many, many top pros have been knocking at the door. And I feel like it's been a struggle to keep up.

Wait, I've definitely lost the battle to keep up. It's been a struggle just to keep within hailing distance. I'm pleased with what I've written so far and I'm catching up with my notes from the first 10 days, but I want to do a lot more. And, paradoxically, I'm playing well during all this, which both gives me a closer view of what's going on and some stories of my own, but makes it difficult for me to write detailed pieces in real-time.

I already skipped my first trip home. I combined trips 1 & 2 into a 1-AM-Sunday-to-Thursday-morning trip to Scottsdale, to call dibs on my family and watch Valerie's dance recital rehearsal and one of her two performances.

So what happens when I get home? All hell breaks loose in Vegas.

On Saturday afternoon, Melissa Hayden invites me to use her and Allen Cunningham's spare bedroom. Home on Sunday night, I am sending her text messages after Allen wins his fifth bracelet. On Monday, I see Howard is hanging around the limit hold 'em championship late on day 2. Apart from being a good friend, he wrote the limit hold 'em chapter of the FULL TILT POKER STRATEGY GUIDE. If he makes the final table, I have to get to Vegas. It would be a monster promotional opportunity, and I don't think he has a single copy of the book with him.

We have out-of-town guests but I keep excusing myself to check chip counts and flight schedules. If he makes the final table, I'll fly out Tuesday morning, miss Val's dress rehearsal, then fly back home Wednesday morning. I'll watch her Wednesday performance and Thursday performance, and blow off the Thursday interview I've scheduled in Las Vegas.

But he busts out, which disappoints me, but keeps my schedule as I planned.

Then I see Phil Hellmuth has won his ELEVENTH bracelet. I am not close friends with Phil Hellmuth, but I have great admiration for his game and his place in poker's history. I think this is a great development and one I would have preferred watching from a closer vantage.

By the way, I may have blown an opportunity to do just that. BLUFF is doing one-hour delayed complete webcast final table coverage of 17 bracelet events (I think Phil's 11th was their first). They do hole cards, every hand. The whole shot. They're also doing the final tables of Circuit Championships and all the events at the WSOP Europe. I read that Robert Williamson III did final table commentary yesterday. The whole package is just $50, through worldseriesofpoker.com. I want to be THERE and be PART of it but I'm sure that's better than missing it like I did and moaning and groaning about it.

Just as I'm writing these words, I get a call from Matthew Parvis, my editor at BLUFF. He is asking if I'll write the cover profile on Hellmuth for the August issue. It's a tight deadline and I don't know Phil especially well, but I never want to say no to a cover. I never want to say to no BLUFF. I never want to say no to feature money.

I never want to say no.

I said I'll think about it and we'll talk tomorrow.

And now there is Mike Matusow to balance in all this. He is near the chip lead after Day 1 in the $2500 NLHE. The longest final-table streak in WSOP history belongs to T.J. Cloutier. He has made a final table every year since 1992, but he hasn't made one yet this year. Phil Hellmuth has made a final table every year since 1999 and now has made one nine years running.

Guess what streaky, erratic, inconsistent maniac is the model of steady success with a similar 1999+ streak. Not Cunningham or Chan or Negreanu or Juanda. Mike Matusow. And he's made final tables in the $2500 NLHE event in 2003 and 2006.

So I am once again looking at flight schedules and rescheduling interviews and dance recital performances. Because you better believe if Mike makes the final table of this one, I'm going to be there.

I can't believe it's 48 hours until I'm SUPPOSED TO be back in Las Vegas. Who knows how the world of poker will turn between now and then?

When I'm at the Series, I wish I was home. When I'm home, I wish I was at the Series.

The place promised “weekly maid service” but I think what they meant was “WEAKLY maid service.” They would “schedule” me for a particular day then ignore the schedule. Only after complaining at least twice would they bringing in the HazMat crew. The maid service was actually pretty good – a contract service no doubt – but the motel was fattening its margins by hiring them only on an as-complained basis. The hotel staff also employed a variety of accents and would feign an inability to understand English on a selective basis.

I had earlier determined that the ancient Stairmaster in the hotel’s “fitness center” was a death-trap so I got my exercise walking the parking lot. It was on one of these walks that I wondered whether the SD/FI offered a Monster Truck Discount. I counted 4 “Big Horn” edition Dodge trucks, one “Harley Davidson” edition truck, and 3 vehicles with double rear tires. Most of these vehicles looked like they had a hard life, except one. It was giant, red, and gleaming like brand new. The only sign that it wasn’t still in showroom condition was the opened carton of Winstons on the dash – unless they came with the truck.

I had earlier secured a promise from Clonie Gowen that I could use her pool during the Series. I had memories of the pool at the Inn from last year and they weren’t pleasant. On my morning walk, I saw a guy reading from a stack of newspapers next to the pool. The pool area is small and severely fenced off, so there was little space between the fence and the pool’s edge; the guy was practically leaning over the water. A breeze blew the newspaper out of his hand and into the water. Without missing a beat, he picked up another section and continued reading, the waterlogged paper sinking into the swimming pool.

I learned that the Pokerpages.com crew had some experience with the SD/FI. Justin, an editor, stayed there last year and swore off the place. Why? “I don’t like living with roaches. I don’t like the fire alarm going off over and over. I don’t like living under prostitutes. I don’t like living next to the guy who got kicked out of the Merchant Marines.”

Jennifer told me that Pokerpages.com was tentatively scheduled for a mass return to the Hookerville Arms but were rescued by the Feduniaks. Bob and Maureen Feduniak, serious poker players and very classy people, started some financial relationship with Pokerpages.com (I wasn’t told the details and didn’t ask). According to Jennifer, “Maureen Feduniak took a look around and said, ‘No, you won’t be staying here.’”

Maureen Feduniak knows things. She picked up in an instant what it took me over a year, a busted car window, and a lost navigation system to figure out. That’s one of the reasons why Maureen Feduniak is such a successful poker player.

The second most common question I've gotten this week is "What is the story about Richard Brodie getting barred by Harrah's and not being allowed to play in the Series?" (The most common is "Why did you turn down the offer of a spare bedroom at Clonie Gowen's and Shannon Elizabeth's house ... you idiot?" But I don't have a satisfactory answer for that one.)

I'm pleased to report, as Brodie has in his Lion Tales blog, that the misunderstanding has been resolved.

"I've been 68ed," he told me over the phone as I was pulling into the Rio this afternoon. My brain wasn't functioning properly or I'm just dumb but I temporarily forgot that "86" means "kicked out" so "68" means the opposite. I sort of gathered what he was getting at, but in my confusion, I thought he said "69ed". He cleared up the details, thankfully without explaining the difference between "86ed" and "69ed". You have to trust me that I actually understand the difference; I just wasn't thinking clearly.

So Richard Brodie's "wilderness years - er, weeks" are over. The misunderstanding with Harrah's has been cleared up. He is back in good standing at all Harrah's properties and he will be making his 2007 WSOP debut on Sunday. I suggested that let him say "shuffle up and deal" as a way of informing everyone of the resolution. He said, "Jeffrey Pollack might actually go for it." Brodie went on to tell me that Pollack did a great job standing up for him, and so did a number of top players.

He was beaming and effusive in his praise of Pollack - and remember, Brodie was the first person to really spread the word while last year's Main Event was going on about the extra chips, so Pollack did this DESPITE Richard's squeaky wheel status - and the breadth and depth of support he received from the poker community.

Annie Duke - We saw each other just briefly at Jennifer Harman's charity tournament and the unveiling of her picture in Caesars' poker room, but hadn't really visited since last year's World Series. Back when I was in L.A. every other week interviewing her brother or Chris Ferguson for the Full Tilt book, we would get together so often that Jo Anne would gaze dreamily at pictures of Joe Reitman on the Internet, just to know if I could carry on a fantasy fling, she could too.

Annie was thrilled and excited about the huge ad in USA TODAY for Ante Up for Africa, the tournament she and Don Cheadle are hosting the day before the Main Event. She didn't even notice that the special section devoted to poker had a caricature of her - a very nice one - and a bit saying her nicknames were "The Duke" and "Annie Legend."

I think Annie Duke would punch me if I called her Annie Legend, even for fun.

We made vague plans to get together. "Text me," she said, repeating the message of almost every other poker pro in the house. Professional poker players are high-high-high on the list of the most frequent and agile text messagers.

I was so happy to see Annie that I gave her four hugs, and got at least one in return. I wished her luck during the last one and she whispered in my ear, "I'm a little bit sick."

We all are, babe. That's part of the charm.

Phil Gordon - Phil got MARRIED since the last time I saw him. I'm predicting a big Series for Phil and I told him, in addition to anyone else who will listen. He, too, was thrilled by the ad in USA TODAY's special poker section devoted to his favorite cause, cancer cures. Like Annie, he had high praise for Harrah's efforts to promote his cause. Phil and I also discussed, as commentators on the game, how a lot of outside media would spin the inevitable decline in Main Event numbers into a "poker is dead" sound-bite and what we could do, while being responsible and impartial, to rain (or at least urinate) on their parade.

Pauly - I saw the King of Bloggers, the Mayor of the Tilted Kilt, in the media line. It was the first time in half a year and I was amazed at how Paul looked ... good. I mean, healthy, fit, clean. Not the poster boy for the Seven Deadly Sins that I had grown to love and fear. But he assured me, "It's the 'before' picture."

Johnny Chan walks by, carrying a gold shopping back. There's Liz Lieu, looking gorgeous, yet way too skinny for a healthy human being. Chris Ferguson arrives and is mobbed by poker fans.

Howard Lederer, I learned, is not here for the start of the Series. He is attending his 25-year high school reunion. I e-mail him that I insist he give me the details for this blog. "If you don't," I write, "I'm just going to make it up, and what are you going to do then?"

I finally get out of the Rio at about 1 PM. I had shown up at 9 AM just to sneak in and register. Half my ensemble is pajamas and I haven't bathed or shaved.

I stop by a sandwich shop on the way back and am drawn into a conversation of three people about the quality of food offered casino employees. "Bellagio is best," Jennifer tells me. Jennifer is smokin-hot; I don't catch the names of the two dudes she's with. "After that, Wynn is great. Caesars has good food but they make you eat it in a pit." What's bad? "I think the worst is Riviera. When I worked there, everyone said to stay away from the EDR [employee dining room], including people who served the food. Tropicana is no good, and New York New York? That place is terrible."