Eric Buchmen and Steven Begleiter are both cruising with over 27,000,000 chips. Darvin Moon is also in good shape with 23,000,000 in third place, but things aren’t looking good for the lone remaining superstar. Phil Ivey ranks 10 of 14 and only has 7,325,000 left.
Ivey still has a chance, but he faces a steep uphill climb. With 9th place chip stack, Antoine Saout, 3,000,000+ ahead of Ivey, he has a lot of ground to make up. The FullTilt pro got hit up for 1.03 million when Nick Maimone beat his JJ with Q5. Then, his …read more

Independence Day wasn’t a great one for the WSOP as Main Event attendance dropped to 873 registers for day 1b from 1,116 on day 1a.  This is also down from recent years of Main Event play.  After 1a, Redmond Lee was the cheap leader with nearly 135,000 chips and interestingly Jason Alexander (aka George Castanza) actually ended up 6th.
Alexander also had his voice off the felt, offering a great soundbyte to ESPN360.com on the November final table.  “It’s becoming something the game is not meant to be.”  In stark contrast, Mike Sexton suggested just to go with the flow and …read more

The WSOP final table convened in November last year, roughly 4 months after the players had been decided.  This year, the WSOP will follow the same format.  If you read this blog, you know I hate that decision.  Here are my top 6 reasons why the Main Event final table shouldn’t start in November.
6. Any momentum the players have is lost.  This really sucks for someone that is on fire.
5. The final table loses buzz that would have been present if it ended at the end of the tournament.
4. Outsiders don’t understand exactly what is happening from a quick glance.
3. …read more