ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 8 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/15/2009 — 3:30 p.m. ET: With only 27 players left, the focus has been on Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari. However, it turns out that I wrote about one of the other 27, Jordan Smith, already this year. Smith, who started out the day by winning a $1 million pot off of Phil Ivey, won his first bracelet earlier this WSOP in the $2,000 no-limit hold 'em Event 36. As I wrote then, Smith's poker career has been up-and-down, and now it looks like he could be back on his feet for good with at least a $353,000 score...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 7 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/14/2009 — 3:10 p.m. ET: Less than 1 percent of the original 6,494-player field remains. Play is under way here and we'll be playing until 27 players remain, something that tournament director Jack Effel believes will take around five levels. Antonio Esfandiari is at the feature table, and, more significantly, he is not wearing any logos. He has just finished Googling every player at his table to see if they have any significant results -- a common move at this point in the tournament. Poker databases have...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 4 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/11/2009 — 3:30 p.m. ET: Day 4 is under way and play has picked up right where it left off. Within the first minute, the table right in front of me, Orange 69, had a double all-in. The first two players of the day were eliminated and everyone suddenly moved closer to making the money in the 2009 WSOP main event. As I mentioned in my Day 3 recap, play is going to speed up early (as it has) then slow down dramatically as players just hope to make the money. > > > The Poker Edge Andrew Feldman and Bluff's Lance...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 8 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/16/2009 — 8:30 p.m. ET: There are only 15 players left after the elimination of two players, one at each table, in the last hand of Level 31. At the feature table, Steve Begleiter called Ian Tavelli's all-in postflop on a 6-4-2 board. Begleiter had K-K and had Tavelli's 9-9 dominated. The kings would hold and Tavelli would be eliminated in 16th, giving a nearly $16 million-chip pot to Begletier, our new chip leader. > At the outside table, Ludovic Lacay lost a race against Jeff Shulman to be eliminated in...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 3 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/10/2009 — 3:50 p.m. ET: Good morning/afternoon everyone! All the players had a day off yesterday, but the media was quite busy. I played in the media tournament where I suffered an entertaining beat that is covered fully on the Poker Edge. After the media tournament, PokerStars had their yearly party at Rain in the Palms. They put on a great party and in my life, I never thought I would be in attendance for a Nelly concert, but there I was listening to "Shake Ya Tailfeather". The crowd was into it and a ton...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 3 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/11/2009 — 9:35 p.m. ET: It's been hard to keep track of everyone here in the Amazon Room today. Tables are breaking, but more significantly, the field of 2,044 players has been whittled down to 1,161 as players head to their dinner break. It's quite unbelievable. I've been speaking for days about how important it would be to lose a lot of players today and I guess the Tournament Directors knew that the players this year are being absolutely ridiculous. No, I'm not exaggerating here. At this very juncture,...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 7 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/15/2009 — Editor's note: If you want more frequent updates. Follow @ESPN_Poker. > 8:25 p.m. ET: Most of the time we see A-K go up against A-K and we think that we're freerolling. With two players holding the same hand, it doesn't happen often that one is able to hit a flush and pull through. After making it into the top-50, Dennis Phillips held Ad-Kd and was up against Francois Balmigere's As-Ks all-in preflop. After a flop of 4s-Kc-6s, Phillips needed to fade another spade to save his tournament life. After...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 5 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/12/2009 — 3:35 p.m. ET: For 175 players today will be the last day of their main event journey. Tournament Director Jack Effel announced that only 175 players would be eliminated today and then everyone would have another extra hours to rest. It's interesting to see that after the issue of spacing just a few days ago, the Amazon Room is spread out with tables with plenty of room for the TV cameras and media to walk around. I'm not going to get into the big names we're watching as Gary Wise already took care...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 5 blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/13/2009 — 11:59 p.m. ET: For the second night in a row, play was stopped after three levels. When play began today, tournament director Jack Effel said his staff wanted to get down to 175 players by the end of the night, and after a flurry of eliminations during the first two levels, the staff decided with 20 minutes to go in Level 20 that this would be the last level of the night. > What does this mean for the remaining 185 players? Some very long days are ahead. I know I've said it repeatedly in this blog,...

ESPN.com's 2009 WSOP main event Day 1D blog
sports.espn.go.com 7/7/2009 — 1:50 a.m. ET: After getting to dinner break at with around $40,000, Eric Mullen felt like he would be the first ESPN Poker Club player to make it to Day 2. He was on cruise control and for the first hour of Level 4, he was playing tight, but still picking his spots. Then came the hand. With his dad standing behind him on the rail, I watched the action preflop. Jesper Hougaard raised from early position and Mullen reraised. Judging both players' reactions, I knew we were in for fireworks. I walked...