As this is an exhibition for the amusement of the small, but mighty, crowd gathered around there’s no real need to determine a winner…but what’s a contest without a winner, right?

Morris shows why he’s the vet, with a smoother cadence and a blending of well timed rhymes and references, he notches the victory. Alex brings the passion but also pads his verses with f-bombs and the ever-so-slight, 100% not-needed homophobic reference. With some experience, he’s going to elevate his rap game (dude is already good at poker.)

All in all though, these boys bring it hard for what will be, for many, their first taste of battle rap.

Meet Matthew Haugen, a poker pro since 2009 and making a name for himself on Day 4. Headed into one of the most pivitol days of the tournament, Haugen is atop the chip count and leads the field of 291.

“King” Dan Smith is just sick. I’m going to type this again…Dan Smith is just so so sick, guys and girls. Sure, he’s a huge nerd, but he’s better at poker than almost everyone and running so pure that, as he sits 6th in chips, he’s got to be considered the #1 favorite to fade the field and make it to the November 9. On top of this run, remember, it was just a couple weeks ago the guy make $2M at the Bellagio in under 24 hours.

Read: Somerville, Smith, Marchese and Mercier Run It Up To Over A Million

Read about the controversial hand between Dan Smith and Stephen Graner from PokerNews.

Griffin Benger has run it up as well, currently sitting 3rd in chips, Benger destroyed his table and is position to become of the of the major storylines of the 2014 Main Event.

More on Benger: Griffin Benger Destroying The Main, Says Hi To His Mom

Here Griffin talks with Sarah Grant from PokerNews about capitalizing on a spazz who made a huge mistake by waiting too long to spring a trap and what it means for him to have a supportive rail helping bring him what he needs to keep his eye on the November 9.

Watch: Ronnie Bardah On Setting Records, “Nobody Wants It More Than I Do”

As we mentioned though, Bardah’s tournament life was on the line a couple of times before he was able to secure the cash. First up, he found half his stack at risk in the midst of a classic flip against that didn’t go his way. According to PokerNews, after that clash, Bardah was sitting on roughly 14bb’s.

Then Bardah put his stack, and the record, at risk pushing all-in with a medium Ace against a small pocket pair. PokerNews was again on hand to catch the actions as the board ran out in spectacular fashion, bringing outs on the flop, turn and eventually when the river brought an Ace – Bardah breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, sitting comfortably, Bardah held on until after the bubble burst.

Bardah spoke with PokerNews’ Chad Holloway right after the drama of the money bubble unfolded.

While he did make the money, Bardah’s deep run would end on Day 4 as he went busto in 475th place for $25,756 and a place in WSOP history. Now the only question for Bardah is…can he do it again next year?

Best of Ronnie: Ronnie Bardah Will Walk You To Your Car To Stave Off Thugs

That was just latest tale of Ivey floating around the Rio yesterday. Ultimate Poker's Head of Pro Marketing Dustin Iannotti had the unfortunate distinction of having Ivey sit to his immediate left during Day 3 and while they would be playing for the first time together, it wasn’t the first time Iannotti interacted with the best poker player on the planet.

Read: Sitting Next to ‘Phil Fucking Ivey’ in the WSOP Main Event [Bluff Magazine]

You see, Dustin used to work for PokerStars, and essentially Full Tilt Poker, and he tells Bluff Magazine how it was actually he who picked Ivey’s now popular online screen name “Polarizing”:

The two do have a history though, even if Ivey is unlikely to know it. Prior to joining Ultimate Poker, Iannotti worked with the Rational Group as the Head of Pro Marketing for Full Tilt Poker. Following the acquisition by PokerStars Ivey wanted to return to the tables but didn’t want his screenname to be ‘Phil Ivey’ so he had to call Iannotti to get it changed.

“I asked him what he wanted it changed to and he told me ‘I dunno, you pick something’,” said Iannotti. And just like that Ivey became ‘Polarzing’ on Full Tilt Poker. According to Iannotti, Ivey asked him what it meant.

So how’d it go for Dustin? Well, he’s busto from the Main Event. Ivey, who entered Day 3 as the chip leader, still sits in the top 100 with over 500K in chips.

More tag team coverage from Bluff and PokerNews: Phil Ivey Gets Taught A Thing Or Two By The Humphries

Having made it in the money for the past 4 years in the Main Event, Bardah is currently tied with 6 others individuals who have also made ME cash in 4 consecutive years.

Bardah, while a little short stacked, is grinding to make it number 5 and be the only player in history to do so.

Here Ronnie passionately talks with PokerNews' Remko Rinkema about his potentially record setting run and how nobody want this more than he does.

Rpnnie currently sits with roughly 108k in chips with a chip average of about 268k. At the end of the evening 746 players remained and so Bardah will have to fade 52 bustouts, as 693 runners get paid, in order to claim a record that will be damn hard to beat.

Boom. Thanks to his nearly $8.3M One Drop score, this is a very pretty stat line. Daniel cashed in 9 events this summer, which most people would be happy with, but he also played a ton and many of those buy-ins were of the $10K variety. So, while he’s got a huge number on the buy-ins he was really saved in the One Drop.

Going by Daniel’s numbers, the dude’s hourly rate was $24,160/hr. – just during the WSOP.

Daniel took the next step though and posted his bank sheet for all of 2014. Check it:

His cashes go up by 3, his profit by $260K but his buy-ins increase by a massive $1.7M (just under actually). Still, it’s a stat line that his (and maybe his future wife’s) parents would approve of.

Of course, his hourly drops to a mere $17,585/hr.

What’s not there? The number he took home from his much talked about (and victorious) bracelet bet which is rumored to have been about $300k in total with $100k going to him.

Nice work if you can get it.

More: Daniel Negreanu Pays Up, Pants Off

Bonus: Daniel talks with PokerTube from his trailer behind the WSOP.

In addition to being patient at the table, he’s also patiently waiting for online poker to come back to his home state of California. In the meantime, he’ll focus on screaming his head off in the middle of the Octagon and raking in pots at the WSOP.

No worries though, a fawning Caitlyn Howe from PokerNews is there to comfort him and listen to his bad bluff story. Also, it’s not all bad news for The Brat, after Phil and his agent Brian Balsbaugh stuck a deal for Hellmuth with the dudes at 3Bet Clothing. Now, Phil has officially signed on to be “one of the boys.”

Read: Love him or hate him, Phil Hellmuth has been instrumental in WSOP’s success

The WSOP on ESPN aires new episodes beginning on July 29 with the first of 6 episodes chronicling the 2014 Big One For One Drop. Spoiler alert: the winner doesn’t give ESPN an interview.

It continues after a short break on September 28 when the highlight package that is the 2014 Main Event kicks off and it’s here you may see some of the drone technology in action.

Every week there after, two new episodes of the WSOP on ESPN will air straight through until November 9. On November 10 you will be glued to the Live Main Event Final Table and the event will wrap up on November 11 when we play down to a new World Champion.

Again, these drones look pretty cool but can they help people get drunk?!

Read: Drone Bartenders Descend on Las Vegas

Ivey destroyed the competition during his Day 2 flight and amassed enough chips (over 500k) to become the overall tournament chipleader. According to PokerNews, while Ivey was already ripping it up, he caught a bit of a lucky break in a massive three way hand where he binked the river to rake a huge pot and jettison his stack to the top of the list.

Read: Because He’s Phil Ivey

At the dinner break, Ivey noted that the average stack was 45K and he had this mess of chips….

By the end of the night, Ivey was huge, the only guy over 500K. Check out this pretty sick shot of his chips:

So, yea, all eyes are on Phil as the tournament forges ahead into Day 3 when, finally, the entire field of 1864 will be jousting for position at the same time. While it’s fun to focus on The People’s Champ, there are other notable names who are sitting pretty and can possibly make big moves at any time.

Isaac Baron, Brian Townsend, John Hennigan, Griffin Benger, Daniel Alaei, former November Niner Mark Newhouse, Ronnie Bardah, Tom Marchese, John Dolan, Haralabos Voulgaris, Jason Koon, Matt Matros, Tristan Wade and Adam “Roothlus” Levy all finished with above average chips stacks for the day.

Daniel Negreanu had a rough go of it and while he managed to survive the day, he’ll be returning on Day 3 with a very short stack.

He may be short, but at least Daniel will be back. There was plenty of big time talent who put in over 10 hours of play only to be sent to the rail unceremoniously. Gus Hansen, Eugene Todd Bro, Dominik Nitsche, Jordan Morgan, Maurice Hawkins, Allen Kessler, Dutch Boyd, Mickey Petersen, Scotty Nguyen, Ryan Eriquezzo, Doug Polk and WSOP World Champions Carlos Mortensen, Joe Hachem ,Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Cada and Phil Hellmuth are just a few who have to find something better to do with their time.

The best part about the Main Event is that the action just does not slow down. Play starts up again at 12pm PST as everyone begins to think about how long it will take before we creep into the money at 693 runners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwLl9R-ODYQ

Phil Ivey talks about his big day (thus far) with PokerNews

Also…Bruce Buffer kicked off the day with a rousing rendition of “Shuffle Up And Deal!”

Hachem is pretty blunt about his feelings on that front. If you don’t love the game, get out. If you feel bad about the $15M, give it away. He wants players to stop being selfish, thinking about their own bottom line and start doing what’s good for the game because he freakin’ loves it that much.

While being appreciative of the wizards who have taken the game to the next level, Hachem does miss the days when poker was more about the “game” than the “numbers” and he feels like his generation is one that gravitated to poker through passion, while he current set have been pulled in because of business. He hopes to bring the two together.

Hachem, always candid, rarely disappoints on camera and he doesn’t disappoint here.

James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton call the action as Selbst, Esfandiari and Tony Gregg try to fend off Max Altergott, Fabian Quoss and the remaining members of the “German High Roller Squad.”

Want more televised poker? PokerStars EPT 2014 PCA Super High Roller – Episode 2

Just finished the first color up of the #MainEvent. It’s been fun, green 25 chips!

Subject: Daniel Colman – $15,000,000 Man

When Daniel Colman snubbed the poker media by not granting an interview, it spawned quite a number of articles and op-eds. Honestly not all of them are worth a damn, but you can, of course, read what we wrote: Daniel “mrgr33n13” Colman – Wizard Wins One Drop, Declines To Do Media, Sets off Media Firestorm

We also linked to a few worthwhile reads when Daniel Negreanu responded to Colman, which you can check out here: Daniel to Daniel – Make A Choice, Don’t Compromise Moral Code For Money

And while noted author James McManus declared Colman the new $15M anti-hero, and poker pundit (and reader of F5) Dan Katz wonders aloud if ambassardorship is an obligation or choice …

Put simply, no. Poker players put up their own money to participate in games, be they tournaments or cash games. For most of us, if we have a bad day at work, it’s just a bad day. We still get paid. If a poker player has a bad day, he not only doesn’t get paid, but actually loses money, as well. They owe nothing to anyone but themselves.

Perhaps the most compelling Op-ed to come out of all of these comes from prolific poker writer Steve Ruddock (who makes us all look bad with his output).

Read: Why We Should Promote Poker not Poker Pros

In our opinion, the article is a well thought out warning about the dangers of promoting the misleading promise of professional poker while omitting the dark side – the swings, the instability, the fact that you have to be great, not just good, to make it.

We keep calling it a game of skill, but trying to quantify the skill element is quite difficult and an impossible exercise for most players to undertake. Sure, you can quickly learn to play poker better than 90% of your opponents, but only about 5% of poker players win in the long run, and only about 1-2% win enough to survive on.

Is this article right? Who knows? It is compelling and definitely worth reading. It’s a reminder that no matter what ESPN, PokerNews, Twitter, Instagram…and especially we jerks here at F5Poker tell you, always play with your head, not the rent.

**

Subject: The Kevmath (Non) Controversy

The other day we shipped a post about Bluff Magazine's Kevin Mathers (aka Kevmath) getting staked by big name pros into the Main Event: World Series of Poker Main Event – Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers Gets Shown Main Event Love

We thought it was a fun little story and not long after we posted, Bluff themselves even posted a more in-depth article on the same subject which is also a solid read: Players Come Together to Help Put Kevmath in the 2014 WSOP Main Event

Then a little known site, Nevada Poker Reviews, which looks to be a future affiliate site, pushed out an interesting Op-ed entitled Want Unbiased Poker News Coverage? Buying a Player into WSOP Isn’t the Way

It’s an skeptical take on Mathers being backed by big time pros and it’s taking the hard stance of poker “journalists” (this word is in quotes as we don’t consider there to be many true journalists in poker media) being too close to their subjects and, to that end, how can Bluff continue to be unbiased.

Journalists from any field aren’t supposed to accept gifts such as this which they could profit from. They aren’t supposed to accept gifts that, in an unfortunate circumstance in the future, would bias their coverage in the future. They aren’t supposed to become PART of the story, they are supposed to report the story.

While it’s an interesting take, and a pretty harsh shot taken at Bluff. It is a little misguided on his specifics. While he may be on to something with anyone considering themselves a journalist getting too close to those they report on, Mathers is more of a stats guy. He’s not Bluff’s crack reporter, doing the feature articles or undercover work, he’s their minister of information. Op-ed author Earl Burton may or may not know this but while his article’s thesis is not without merit, in journalistic practices, his “gotcha” example in this case isn’t a very good one.

Putting this into perspective is poker writer John Mehaffey who took to the same website to voice his displeasure and produced a counter-point to Burton’s article with his piece: Kevin Mathers’ WSOP Buy-In Is Not A Controversy and then if you want a complete shut down, there’s Haley Hintze's no punches-pulled, dumbfounded reaction to Burton in her piece: How to Misunderstand the Concept of Poker Journalism Ethics

If you are the type of reader, and you may not be as you are on F5 right now, that is looking for your poker news to be of the hard hitting variety, check out this debate.

**

Subject: WSOP $10M Guarantee

Rob King (aka Hippy80) has mad beef with the World Series of Poker and in his latest editorial against the WSOP he puts them on blast for the top heavy nature of the payouts due to the marketing of the $10M guarantee for first place. With a nearly $5M discrepancy between first and the runner-up and the min-cash being less than previous years, King sees the money shift as being equity stolen from the players.

No one could reasonably have expected to see the Main Event to attract enough players to see a $10 Million first prize naturally created from the entries. If the WSOP wanted to see the big numbers on the final table, they should have been willing to put up the difference themselves rather than effectively steal equity from the players who have managed to almost herculean task of making the money in the Main Event.

Read: WSOP Main Event Prizes Announced, Guarantee Sparks Debate

You like any of these columns? Want more editorials to read? Hit us up on the Twitters and let us know.

The reigning, defending World Champion, Ryan Riess would not only be in action on the felt, but was given the honor of kicking off the action by hopping on the mic and telling the field it was time to “Shuffle Up and Deal!”

In fact, according to WSOP.com, Ryan wasn’t the only guy who had won it all sitting in their seats on this day. There were seven total former Main Event bracelet winners in action and only four of them survived the day. Greg Merson, “Action” Dan Harrington and Tom McEvoy hit the rail while Chris Moneymaker, Huck Seed, Riess and Johnny Chan made moves to keep them in the tournament and on to Day 3.

Guess which #mainevent champ is trying to blend in during Day 2. Hint: he has won this event twice.

Read: Johnny Chan: The WSOP Trifecta That Didn’t Happen

In fact, Moneymaker soared in chips, eclipsing the 200K mark, but he wasn’t the only big name pro to wrap up above average stacks. Martin Jacobson, Grayson Ramage, Antonio Esfandiari, Abe “On Bail” Mosseri, Mukul Pahuja, Jeff Madsen, Faraz Jaka, Kevin MacPhee, Maria Mayrinck, Ole Schemion, Marvin Rettenmaier, Phil Galfond, David Pham, Allen Cunningham, Layne Flack and Erik Seidel all are looking to make big time moves.

Listen to Chris Moneymaker talk about his rough start with PokerNews' Chad Holloway:

While some soared, others fell as the dream had died for notable names Matt Affleck, Annette Obrestad, Liv Boeree, Xuan Liu, George Danzer, Brandon Shack-Harris, Jason Somerville, Amanda Musumeci, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and *Vanessa Selbst who went busto the day before her 30th birthday.

With that Day 2AB came to an end, making way for Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and the returning field from Day 1C to play down starting at 12pm PST.

For more details about Day 2AB check out these great links:

pokerfuse: Unknown Amateur Leads 2014 WSOP Main Event

ESPN: Day 2AB Recap: Chip leaders emerge

PokerNews: Tim Stansifer Tops Main Event Day 2a/b; Esfandiari, Moneymaker Thrive

Their new cash grab is called Sizzlin Summer and BorgataPoker.com is putting up $100K of giveaway cash and giving pieces of it away week after week. Best part is, you don’t have to grind a ton of tables to get a piece.

New Jersey residents – log on, opt in to the Sizzlin Summer promo and get free tickets to the drawing. That’s it. You can do that repetitive motion every 24-hours and just rack up luckbox points and see if you hit the Sizzlin lotto.

Want more action? OK, this is where they get you to play.

Make a deposit- get 500 entries. You can deposit all you like (hopefully you won’t have to!) but you only get 500 chances every week for 9 weeks. Make sense? Max number of 4500.

Finally, take a shot in some of their big-time tournaments like their 10K or 50K guaranteed and then they dump a ton more entires on you.

But remember, you don’t gotta play at all to have a chance. Just log-in, opt-in and sweat it.

Living in NJ but don’t have an account? That’s crazy, but not a problem. BorgataPoker.com is incentivizing you with all sorts of worthwhile promotions like deposit bonuses, newbie freerolls and, of course, the Sizzlin Summer. So hop on, log on, check it out and don’t be dumb, play with your head not your rent.

Madsen tells Bluff Magazine's Thomas Keeling that he doesn’t mind when those of us in the media jump to conclusions about his tongue-in-cheekyness, he thinks it’s funny and if you’ve followed him for any amount of time, it should be completely obv.

Now, when it comes to the World Series of Poker Main Event, Jeff thinks that it’s just plain silly to not play.

The biggest event of the year crowns the only true champion according to Jeff and the fact is, if you play well (and don’t get coolered) you have a pretty decent chance at going deep.

It’s Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Main Event and Somerville takes a few moments to talk with PokerNews to tell everyone to chill the **** out and “call.”

Don’t be going broke with AK or AQ preflop yet, this is a marathon…“a 44 day marathon”... and you’re deep enough to get away with it.

So, see a flop people.

Bonus: Martin Kampmann talks with Amber Fukuda about his Day 1 action. (He survives.)

More with Jason: Somerville, Smith, Marchese and Mercier Run It Up To Over A Million

Not a shocker, Chris thinks it is up to the individual to decide if they want to accept a thrust upon role of painting poker in a good light – it’s something he seems happy to still be doing after all these years.

Read: Daniel “mrgr33n13” Colman – Wizard Wins One Drop, Declines To Do Media, Sets off Media Firestorm

Read: Sofia Lövgren & Xuan Liu Take Their Talents To 888poker

Sofia Lövgren thinks blue nails bring her luck.

Jackie Glazier has got it, does not flaunt it.

J.C. Tran is high…on confidence.

Michiel Brummelhuis still has that feeling.

Xuan Liu knows how to party in Las Vegas.

The Choice Center devotee tells Sarah that it’s not about the results, it’s about the process and since he’s simply focused on making the right decisions, he’s sure the results are going to come. As of now, he’s got a healthy stack and so it’s off to the races.

David’s also been catching up on some must-see TV in between hands while sitting at the table, which is keeping his mind focused on being patient.

More DW: David Williams Not Wasting Time By Busting Out Early

Read: Pat & Mel Humphrey: Friends With Ivey Since He Was 17 [Bluff Magazine]

“We first met Phil in Atlantic city, when he was playing the low limit games, playing 1/5 Stud. He was only 17. I started playing in a tournament with him and we got friendly, and from there on we played with him in the same games. Then he moved to Vegas, he got better and we didn’t,” said Pat laughing.

You may have seen Pat and Mel featured on ESPN whenever Phil is deep in the Main Event. Even though Phil has offered to bring them out to Vegas many times, the pair insist on paying their own way, making their own plans as early as February just so they can be there to cheer him on..

The Humphries really have something to get up in arms about this week as their guy is sitting pretty, 2nd in chips, in his opening flight of the Main Event and returns tomorrow at noon PST to make a real run at going deep.

More Ivey: Phil Ivey – Poker, Parties And Pick-Up Lines

So far, so good…

Let’s see if Kristy can make it through Day 2a and into cashing contention.

Bonus: Arnett makes her first televised appearance as a player with Poker Night In America.

Decent PLO action in this 5/10/25 game @wsop. Every single pot is like this.

Since they provided us with a solid post, we’ll happily point you over to their internet residence where you can buy a shirt or something. We prefer the lightweight hoodie.

The NBA brought in current free-agent, NBA Champion Paul Pierce...

Paul Pierce talks with PokerNews.

and 2006 NBA Champion Earl Barron...

3-Time NFL Super Bowl Champion Richard Seymour was on the felt.

The UFC was well represented as well as destroyer of men Martin Kampmann, took a seat…

and UFC ring announcer (and bone fide poker junkie) Bruce Buffer found time to play some hands.

You probably already know that actors Ray Romano, Kevin Pollack and James Woods all ponied up (or were staked) for the Main Event but probably the most popular actor wandering the halls of the Rio was Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul (who played Jesse Pinkman on the critically acclaimed series). It was reported that Paul didn’t have time to play the event this year, but was such a fan he came to rail for a bit.

With the 2014 Main Event field being the biggest one since 2010 poker is back on the upswing and maybe next year we’ll see even more famous faces giving all their chips to Phil Ivey.

Of the 3,768 runners who took their seats on Monday, all hoping to being their quest for $10M, Phil Ivey finished with the 2nd most in chips, right behind New Jersey player Eric Tracy. Ivey’s not the only big name to have raked a ton of pots as Jared Bleznick and Blair Hinkle both also finished with top 10 chipstacks.

If that’s not exciting enough for you, Daniel Negreanu actually called his shot yesterday, declaring his intention to have over 100k at the end of the day and, well, he did.

Kid Poker not only got to kick off the action by hopping on the mic and shouting “Shuffle Up and Deal!” yesterday, he also has a top 40 stack (129,250) to end the day with.

If that doesn’t seem like a big deal to you that both Ivey and Negreanu are sitting pretty in this massive field, figure that 2571 people survived the day putting the bracelet bet partners both in the top 1% of participant. While there’s a very very long way to go, that’s a pretty good start.

Other notables who piled more than t100k – Jake Cody, McLean Karr, Daniel Alaei, Jonathan Jaffe, Isaac Baron, James Obst, Brad Booth and Matt Matros.

According to Andrew Feldman over at ESPN, there were a ton of former World Champs in the field as well. Carlos Mortensen, Jonathan Duhamel, Joe Cada, Joe Hachem and *Robert Varkonyi*s soared through to Day 2 while Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer hit the rail.

Phil Hellmuth made it through too and according to his own tweets, he’s putting a positive spin on his table demeanor this year.

Of course, for some to succeed in poker, others must fail. Tom Dwan made an appearance, looking like he just flew in, and while he made it to the end of the day, he ended up going busto on the very last hand.

Barry Greenstein fared a little better than Tom did, ending the day with just slightly above average chips.

Other names that are on to the next one include Fabian Quoss, Shannon Shorr, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, John Racener, Jesse Sylvia, Jackie Glazier, James Woods, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Kathy Liebert and Sam Trickett.

Bad Beat Diaries:

With all the Day 1’s under wraps, the combined field of 1933 Day 1A & Day 1B survivors meet again today at 12pm PST to play another long 5 levels to see who chips up to return for Day 3 on Thursday.

-

Look, there was a lot of action on Day 1C and luckily for everyone, a bunch of media outlets working hard to write about them. So if you have yet to get your fill, give some of these items a click:

pokerfuse: Phil Ivey has Massive Stack After Day 1C of the 2014 WSOP Main Event

ESPN: Day 1C Recap: Ivey second in chips

PokerNews: Eric Tracy, Phil Ivey Top Huge Day 1c; Main Event Draws 6,683

WSOP.com: Records Broken, Ivey Crushing, And Day 1 Of The Main Event Complete

Ten players, two cards, one flop = one hand where winner takes it. Check this out from ESPN's Andrew Feldman.

UPDATE: Brian Pempus over at CardPlayer grabbed some video of the single-table flipament after we had published our post…so we’re adding it here. Good times.

Read More: World Series of Poker Main Event – Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers Gets Shown Main Event Love

The 6 day, $1M guaranteed event has climbed to over 1250 runners with two full (and one half) days left for people to enter. Sunday brought another 457 people into the Aria trying to play into the top 12% of the field in order to make the money. The top 5% (or 22 players on this day) advanced to Day 2, which takes place on Wednesday.

The WPT 500 has two final full starting days and then a turbo starter on July 9th. All of those who make it into the Day 2 will then play down starting at 1PM. The WPT is so happy with the event that they are already looking forward to next year.

Who’s ready for #WPT500 2015? Mike is having so much fun here at Aria he’s already looking forward to next year. So there you have it. If you aren’t playing this week, there’s always next year!

Here’s one guy who’s not quite as happy with the WPT as Mike is.

The event is drawing a little more action it seems than the Aria can handle actually, as many report long lines to register and long wait times for alternates to get in. The Aria Poker twitter account is being used to help summon alternates that may not be ready to go.

That being said, familiar faces are making their way down to the Matt Savage event to take their last shot at poker glory for the summer.

For update on the WPT 500, check out the World Poker Tour Live Update page.

Pollack fired off a tweet looking for a last ditch sponsor and soon enough he was on the phone talking with Chuck Fried, the president of TxMQ – a business that does things.

Read: Day 1B: The power of one tweet

Fried said he looked up Pollak and was impressed with his accomplishments. Pollak said he looked up Fried to see whether his company was legitimate. Due diligence was important for both sides, but Fried also had to convince those at his company that this was the right move. That wasn’t easy, but over the next two hours everyone was on board and the two worked out a deal. Shirts were shipped, the cash was wired and Pollak’s lawyer had written up the contract. Essentially out of nowhere, Pollak was heading to the main event.

Not a bad deal for both sides and, as it turns out, Pollack didn’t squander the opportunity by calling off or getting coolered. Kevin made it to Day 2 with better than a starting stack, which is better than most.

Check out this absolutely sick list of just some of the backers for Mathers in the Main: Daniel Alaei, Brian Hastings, Terrence Chan, Paul Volpe, Scott Clements, David “ODB” Baker, J.C. Tran, Greg Mueller and Daniel Negreanu who picked up the lion’s share at a generous 10%.

If you want to follow along Kevin’s journey, make sure you check out his chip count Twitter account: @KevmathChips and cheer him on to Day 2 and beyond.

Of course, our deep dark hope is that Kevin makes the November 9, takes down the $10M first place prize and then, after all he’s done, gives the double bird and refuses to do any interviews and declaring that poker is evil. That would be amazing.

If you’d like to one day find yourself in Kevin’s shoes and put into the Main Event by the A-list of poker professional, it’s actually quite simple: know everything there is about every tournament all the time and be at everyone’s beck and call roughly 24 hours a day for, what, six years?

Just do something like that. Easy.

Good luck Kevin!

Actor Ray Romano, who everybody loves, brought his of-age son to the podium, bought him into the event (mbn) and kicked off 5 levels of action with the customary “Shuffle Up And Deal!”

According to PokerNews, roughly 1300 players survived the flight and plenty of notable names are among them. Eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel, Main Event mainstay Matt Affleck and long time GPI chart topper Marvin Rettenmaier all finished the evening with to 50 chip stacks.

PokerNews’ Caitlyn Howe talks with Matt Affleck at the end of the night.

David Williams, Brian Hastings, Phil Galfond, Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Little, Galen Hall, David Bach, Sorel Mizzi, Tim West, Jason Somerville, Faraz Jaka, Alec Torelli and Vanessa Selbst are just a sample of the top pros that finished the evening with above average (for the flight) stacks.

The feature table saw a pair of legends sitting side-by-side as well as WSOP champions Huck Seed and Dan Harrington found themselves vying for the same pots.

But as roughly 800 people weren’t able to get through the night, there was bound to be some big time talent who can no longer dream of making it deep in 2014.

Brandon Cantu, Robert Mizrachi, Paul Volpe, Joe Serock, Team 888’s Sofia Lovgren, Team Ivey’s Mike Leah, Joseph Cheong, Max Silver, Team U’s Dan O’ Brien, Chris Moorman, ElkY, “Doc” Sands and Dan Shak are just a few names that can begin the post-WSOP grieving process.

Busted the main event on day 1. Went looking for salvation at the bottom of a sundae. – Dan O’ Brien

Day 1C is expected to push the number of entrants close to 7K when play resumes today at 12PM PST.

Want to read more about Day 1B? Here you go:

ESPN: Day 1B Recap: Bigger field brings life to Rio

Bluff Magazine: John Luxemburger Leads Day 1B Survivors, Igor Dubinskyy Wins Little One For One Drop

CardPlayer: World Series of Poker Main Event Day 1B Draws 2,144 Players

World Poker Tour Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage quickly replied to Merson, indicating that he has the utmost respect for the WSOP and would never expect anyone to think of the WPT 500 as an alternative to playing the WSOP event (if they were already going to do so).

But the hits just keep on coming from Merson:

Strong words by Merson as he publicly dresses down the WPT. Merson hasn’t previously had any major public beef with the WPT (to our knowledge) and it was just a couple months ago, the beginning of March, that Merson played (and cashed in) the LAPC, a WPT event, at the Commerce Casino.

The tirade has some speculating as to whether Greggy is just a loyal WSOP customer, thankful for the gifts he’s been given by winning the WSOP ME a couple years ago or if there’s a deeper alliance between the brand and the player. Merson was, after all, sporting a WSOP.com patch during Day 1a of the Main Event.

Or maybe you have noticed that he has also been hyping WSOP.com, pretty much, all summer long.

While there may be some sentiment that the WPT is looking to capture a little of the WSOP’s spillover. Not everyone jumped on the anti-WPT train though, as players and industry came to the WPT’s defense.

Has the World Poker Tour hurt the WSOP numbers? Is the WPT 500 simply an auxiliary event that players can jump in if they aren’t playing in the Main Event, cannot afford the $10K or have a premature evacuation from the Rio? We’ll know soon as Day 1C is expected to be a massive field for WSOP and the WPT 500 is just under 800 people from fulfilling their own guarantee. Maybe everyone can be happy.

While we’re at chastising dudes for poor bathroom etiquette let us remind all you filthy animals to wash your hands – because no one is buying the excuse that “your dick is cleaner than your hands.”

(We’ve literally heard this said in the WSOP restrooms more than once. It’s disgusting.)

Read: Phil Ivey’s New House Of Cards

From $50K a hand baccarat, to Ivey Poker parties dominated by ladies “all eights or better”, in addition to recounting Ivey ascension to the pinnacle of poker, Kaplan details a more personal side of Ivey than we’re used to seeing and, just as you’d think, it’s extremely fascinating.

Money, he decided a long time ago, is a thing to be deployed, not savored when it’s won or mourned when it’s gone. The summer he was 23, Ivey says, he started with a $200,000 cushion of poker winnings. “It was the largest bankroll I’d ever had up until that point. By the end of the summer, though, I’d lost all of it playing poker.” Told that he must have been devastated, Ivey looks uncomprehending. “I didn’t view it as money lost,” he says. “I saw it as money used to play bigger games. I thought it was worth playing in those games. Now I see money as what gets me into the biggest game in the world. Wherever the biggest game is, that’s where I want to be.”

More than just tales of Ivey’s sicko thirst for action and his otherworldly prowess at poker, we see Ivey hitting on women after his divorce, his “black cat” superstitious nature, his ability to summon private trainers to move to Las Vegas and that, apparently, Ivey know how to throw a pretty great party.

More: Phil Ivey Is A Nice Guy, Great Guy, Good Guy

Sure, 771 is probably a little lower than organizers had hoped would turn out for the initial flight of the Main, but don’t count this Main Event out just yet. According to WSOP.com, over 4,000 people – both online and in person – attempted to satty into the Main yesterday giving high hopes to massive Day 1B and Day 1C flights.

Furthermore, just because the number was a little down didn’t detract from the excitement of yesterday as amateurs and pros stormed the castle Rio for, what many hope, will be a marathon event. As “Salty” Joe Hachem performed his ambassador-like duties of announcing “Shuffle Up and Deal”, play got underway and it didn’t take long before the chips began to fly.

Read: World Series of Poker Main Event Mania Gets Underway

A ton of notable names were spotted in the field on Saturday, a list so long we couldn’t possibly name them all…but here’s a bunch of them: Martin Jacobson holds the overnight chip lead while Aaron “WiltOnTilt” Wilt finished the night in 2nd.

Evolution of a #WSOP chip stack. Martin Jacobson bags 200,100 after Day 1a of the #MainEvent.

Right behind those two are big time talents Kenny “Sick Call” Tran, WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja and the “Orient Express” 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan who all have top ten chip stacks.

That’s just the top ten.

Nick DiVella, Kevin MacPhee, Layne “Back-to-Back” Flack, German sickos Ole Schemion and Martin Finger, Barny Boatman, Noah Schwartz, David Vamplew, Hasan Habib, Justin Bonomo, Maria Mayrinck, Max Altergott, David Singer and the one and only Mike “The Mouth” Matusow all ended the day with above average (45,800 avg.) chip stacks.

Ultimate Poker ambassador and 2012 One Drop Champ Antonio Esfandiari and WSOPE Main Event Winner Annette Obrestad finished with ton of chips as well.

Four previous WSOP Main Event Champions finished the day still in the game as Ryan Riess (2013), Chris Moneymaker (2003), Tom McEvoy (1983) and Greg Merson (2012) all will be back for Day 2. In Merson’s case he’d better run it up quickly as he finished the day with one of the lowest recorded chipstacks at 7K (according to PokerNews).

You want even more names? OK, you got it.

Bill “The Businessman” Perkins, Hac Dang, Hoyt Corkins, Abe “Out On Bail” Mosseri, 2013 runner-up Jay Farber, Joe Tehan, Mr. WPT Mike Sexton, Lee Watkinson, Lee Markholt, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, David Benefield, Cory Zeidman, Andy Bloch, “Miami” John Cernuto, Kyle Cartwright, Josh Arieh, Amanda Musumeci, Andrew “Luckychewy” Lichtenberger, Tony “Bond18” Dunst and Randal Flowers all held on to some of their stack though the first 5 levels of play.

The same can’t be said for these big time talents that hit the rail on Day 1A. Jason Mercier, Marc-Etienne McLaughlin, Jeff Gross, reality star Trishelle Cannatella, “All American” Dave Swanson, Steve Gee and even late registration couldn’t help Jean-Robert Bellande hold on to chips this summer.

Sadly, our pick to win everything, all time time, Phil Laak went busto as well. He may have lost all his chips, but he leaves the Rio in style.

While there’s still two starting days left and, no doubt, a plethora of big name stars will take their seats, one man who made a promise not to be in the Rio for the Main is, unfortunately, Doyle Brunson who shot this message out to his fans.

The action will intensify today as Day 1B will bring another hoard of dreamers to the Amazon room. For all the updates, make sure you give the hard workers at PokerNews some love. Catch up with all the action of Day 1B starting that 12pm PST.

World Series of Poker Main Event Updates

If you want to read more about what went down on Day 1A, there’s no shortage of material. Like these:

Bluff Magazine: Jacobson Leads Main Event After Day 1A; Baldwin Highlights ‘Little One’ Final 9

PokerNews: 2014 WSOP Day 40: Martin Jacobson Dominates Main Event Day 1a; Walsh Wins Event #64

Card Player: World Series of Poker Main Event Day 1A Draws 771 Players

ESPN: Champs survive small field