Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

Pennsylvania poker players robbed at gunpoint

If anyone in the Pennsylvania government needs more convincing that legalized poker in their state’s casinos is a good thing, they got a clear example of how important security can be when a poker game at a Volunteer Fire Department hall last night outside Pittsburgh was robbed by three armed intruders.

Two of the robbers gained access to the VFD hall in Heidelberg, Penn., when a player was leaving the building and later let their accomplice inside. Witnesses on hand said the robbers were armed with guns and a baton, and one witness claimed that a gun was held to his head. He claimed that the players were robbed of as much as $6,000. The only person injured was a woman, said to be one of the game’s organizers, who was pistol-whipped and received treatment for a concussion at a local hospital. Heidelberg police chief Vernon Barkley said that some 15 to 20 players were in the game at the time of the robbery. He said the investigation is ongoing, and that Heidelberg police think the intruders were familiar with the area and the set-up of the game.

(Inside Job? Late-Night Poker Game Violently Robbed At Fire Hall - WTAE Pittsburgh)

Dikshit leaving the Party

Anurag Dikshit, the fabulous PartyGaming founder with the funny name, offloaded the bulk of his stake in the company to a group of “institutional investors” today, according to the Financial Times. “He has had nothing to do with the company from a management point of view for many years now,” said Dikshit’s spokesman. “He has had little involvement other than being a significant shareholder, and it is time to move on.”

Dikshit sold about 19% of the total ownership of PartyGaming this morning for a little more than $300 million, leaving himself with another 9% of the company in his portfolio. But his spokesman said that stake is also set to be sold. Dikshit’s price on today’s sale was £188 million (US $308 million) - or $8 million dollars more than the value of the settlement Dikshit voluntarily entered into with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid prosecution for violating American gambling laws. After accounting for the DOJ settlement, the Financial Times estimates that Dikshit has still made £540 million (US $884 million) off of his initial stake in the company that helped to ignite the online poker boom.

PartyGaming shares dipped slightly on news of the sale but were expected to stay steady. Dikshit’s fellow founders, Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon, still retain a 28% stake in the company and are said to be in for the long haul.

(PartyGaming founder reduces stake in group - Financial Times)

Chicagoland WSOP Circuit crowns three new winners

The WSOP Circuit continues at Horseshoe Casino Chicagoland this week, and as of this morning three more players have won events to earn their first gold championship rings.

Event #3, the $1,100 No Limit Hold’em event, drew 223 players compared with last year’s field of 162. Justin “Fluffdog” Filtz of Stevens Point, Wisc., emerged victorious, overcoming an 18-to-1 chip deficit at the beginning of heads-up play to seal the $51,727 win. “I knew when I was down that I was going to get it in 60-40 or 40-60 and had to win that,” Filtz said of his comeback. “He wins that, and it’s over. But I won the first one, and then another.”

Event #4, the $225 Ladies Championship , saw Nadya Magnus of Palatine, Ill., take down the tournament over a field of 183 players after finishing in 11th place the previous year. The Russian-born Magnus, who learned how to win tournaments from Gus Hansen’s book Every Hand Revealed and says that she’s obsessed with poker, earned $8,877 for her victory.

Meanwhile Event #6, the $2,125 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, sported the largest buy-in of any WSOPC Omaha tournament ever held. It also drew one of the smallest fields in WSOPC history at just 24 players. The last four players chopped the prize pool equally, but Josh Mandel of Chicago walked away with the gold ring in the deal. Despite the small attendance for Event #6, overall attendance at this year’s Chicagoland WSOPC is up more than 11%.

WSOP on ESPN, plus Joe Cada on Inside Deal

It’s Tuesday night and as usual that means it’s WSOP time on ESPN. The network’s in-depth coverage of the 2009 Main Event picks up with just 64 players left in contention for the biggest prize in poker, and only 27 will remain by the time tonight’s second hour is over. Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, Darvin Moon, and last woman standing Leo Margets will all get some face time tonight, while the tournament will end for Tom Schneider, Prahlad Friedman, Dennis Phillips, and Joe Sebok.

One of those 27 players who will remain at the end of tonight’s WSOP broadcast is November Niner Joe Cada, who’s doing double duty as this week’s guest on ESPN Inside Deal. Hosts Laura Lane and Bernard Lee talk with Cada about his chances of becoming the youngest Main Event winner in history, his association with PokerStars, and finding a backer in the world of tournament poker. ESPN Inside Deal regular Andrew Feldman also stops in to talk about Dream Team Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, picking his dream teams of young guns, old guard, and women along with Cada and the hosts.

Two hours of the 2009 Main Event begin on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET tonight, while you can watch Inside Deal at any time right here.

Phil Ivey has the fourth largest chip stack heading into the Day 8 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Darvin Moon is doing his best to establish himself as a threat as the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event nears the November Nine pause. The 45 year old hovered in the top ten of the leaderboard until the final 15 minutes of play when he put a 5 million chip difference between himself and Billy Kopp to take the overall for the second day in a row.

But even with 20,160,000 in chips Moon isn’t even close to threat of the player whose name still strikes fear into nearly every remaining player; Phil Ivey.

“I’m going to hide in a corner when I get up against him,” admitted Moon. ”Everybody that’s made it this far has way more card experience than me. If Phil Ivey is on my left and even looks at me, I’m mucking.”

Ivey finished the night fourth in chips with 11,350,000 after cresting as high as 15,000,000 during Day 7 play. With 27 players remaining the goal for Ivey on Wednesday will be to make the November Nine and give himself a chance at the ever elusive World Championship bracelet.

While Moon might be nervous facing Ivey, 23 year old Kopp feels that he’s on top of his game and is ready for whatever challenges Wednesday brings.

“I’m not really intimidated by anybody. It’s my ballgame,” said Kopp. “I feel like when a good players gets good cards and runs well at the same time there’s no stopping him.”

Dennis Phillips‘ impressive run at a second final table appearance was cut short on Day 7 in one of the most painful ways possible. Getting all his money in with A K against the A K of Francois Balmigere gave Phillips reason to believe he’d be continuing on. The cards though didn’t cooperate and Balmigere made a flush to send last November’s third place finisher home in 45th.

The day started with 64 players and in the three levels leading up to the dinner break the fast play of previous days continued. Twenty-five players saw their tournament end before the players broke for 90 minutes. Another well known pro, Joe Sebok, also couldn’t survive another day as a short stack and he was sent home with $108,047 for a 56th place finish. Also sent home during the first three levels were Fabrice Soulier, Prahlad Friedman, Tom Schneider and Blair Rodman.

One player well known to poker fans that did survive was Antonio Esfandiari. He’ll return to Day 8 with a less than average stack of 4,470,000. His chip stack took a roller coaster ride throughout the day and he was as high as third in chips.

And despite starting the day with a short stack the last female player left in the field, Leo Margets, still has a shot at becoming the first female member of the November Nine. The Spanish TV hostess finished the day with 1,530,000, the second smallest stack. She is ahead of only Balmigere who bagged up 1,440,000.

Action resumes at Noon PT on Wednesday and will continue until the 2009 November Nine have been determined. Tournament officials are preparing for a long day and if the last level of the night Tuesday, which saw only two players ousted, is any indication the action may take as much as nine levels to wrap up.

BluffMagazine.com has all the live updates and chip counts as the day progresses.

Antonio Esfandiari had a solid day on Monday and plans on doing his best on Tuesday to make a November Nine run possible.

Poker fans had a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news on Monday, Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. Which do you want first?

The bad news is that some of the most well known players in the field were sent home and denied a shot at the limelight that comes with being in the November Nine. The good news though is that two big names made huge strides on Monday to finish in the top ten in chips and with 64 players remaining are in good shape for an even deeper run.

Seeing their Main Event end in disappointing fashion were JC Tran, Theo Tran, Jordan Morgan, David Benyamine, Hac Dang and the current #1 ranked tournament player in the world, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. If that list of top pros has poker fans disappointed they need not worry - both Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari had very strong days and each finished near the top of the leaderboard.

“Determination and will. I have both and I’m going to get there,” said Esfandiari of what it’s going to take for him to make an even deeper run.

Other well known players still in the mix are 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Fabrice Soulier, original November Niner Dennis Phillips and Prahlad Friedman. Making the most of a short stack the entire day was Joe Sebok who finished with exactly 1,000,000 in chips.

“I don’t even know what’s going on in this tournament anymore. I should have been a hundred times in a hundred different ways,” laughed Sebok, who was down as low as 125,000 on Monday. “If you can’t be patient, if you can not work a short stack, if you can not deal with some of your issues in the poker world when it comes to that stuff in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker you have no business being here.”

The last two remaining world champions both saw their respective runs come to an end on Monday. Joe Hachem busted in 103rd spot for $40,288 and defending champion Peter Eastgate finished 78th for $68,979. Eastgate moved all-in preflop with A J and got called by both Dennis Phillips and Billy Kopp. The board ran out A 4 6 J 3 giving Eastgate two pair but Kopp showed 8 8 for a completed flush.

“Obviously this exceeds all expectations, but you still feel some disappointment when you bust out,” said Eastgate. “That’s how it goes in poker sometimes. I can’t be disappointed though having won last year.”

Sitting atop the leaderboard at the end of the night was Darvin Moon. The logger from Maryland finished with 9,745,000. He’s joined in the top five by Billy Kopp (8,245,000), Ivey (6,345,000), Steven Begleiter (6,315,000) and Ludovic Lacay (5,965,000).

“It’s easy to play when you get hands like I was getting. To run like this is a dream. To get pocket aces and flop trips on a rainbow flop - you check it and people bet into you,” said Moon at the end of the night. ”The first 5 hours I didn’t get a hand. I had pocket kings one time and a guy pushed over the top of me for three quarters of a million and I mucked them. He’s got to have pocket Aces there, what else can he have?”

“That’s just my style, I play tight. When I get’em I bet and when I don’t I fold.”

The title of Last Woman Standing was awarded to Leo Margets of Barcelona after Nichoel Peppe was eliminated in 75th place. Margets is excited to have gotten this for and takes pride in being the last female player still playing for poker’s biggest prize.

“Yeah it is my first Main Event, but I’ve played the best poker I can and I’ve been super consitent and I’ve actually never played so good,” said Margets. ”At least it has been working, because sometimes you can play good and it doesn’t work and in this tournament it’s been working. I can really see the results and it’s very satisfying.”

Day 7 gets underway again at Noon PT and play will continue until 27 players remain. BluffMagazine.com will have the live updates and chip counts to let you follow the action live.

Ludovic Lacay came within one pot at the end of the night of being the chip leader heading into Day 5. He'll start the day second in chips.

One of the shortest days in recent World Series of Poker Main Event history was action-packed despite players battling through only three levels of play, including the painfully slow hand-for-hand segment, and after play wrapped up for the night it was little known Matt Affleck sitting pretty atop the leaderboard.

Affleck wrapped up the night with 1,819,000 and he finds himself 211,000 ahead of Frenchman Ludovic Lacay who bagged up 1,608,000. Lacay actually held the chip lead before dropping nearly 280,000 in one of the final hands of the night.

The only other American in the top ten is Blair Hinkle. The 2008 WSOP bracelet winer spent the last half of the day playing at the same table as Lacay and managed to avoid tangling too much with the then chipleader. Hinkle also lost a six figure pot as the night was drawing to a close making a river call only to see his opponent turn over the nuts.

“It was hard for me to put him on the ace. I thought he had a missed flush draw or something. Mistake by me, no big deal. I still have plenty of chips,” said Hinkle, who despite the mistake believes his strong day gives him more than enough chips to be aggressive as play continues . ”Basically, in the second level I went on this huge heater and pretty won nearly every pot. I have plenty of chips.”

But long before the chipleaders took over the spotlight the news of the day was built around the bubble and the inevitable bursting to put 648 players into the money. After the first level of play there were only 659 players remaining and it took nearly a full two hours 11 players to hit the rail. Kia Hamadani was the final player eliminated before everybody else was in the money. As the bubble boy Hamadani was awarded with a free buy-in to the 2010 WSOP Main Event courtesy of sponsor Jack Link’s Beef Jerky.

The pace of eliminations following the bubble was staggering. The night ended with 407 players remaining meaning 241 players were ousted from the tournament in a span of 150 minutes. Not long after the bubble burst Phil Hellmuth was eliminated in 436th place, walking away with yet another WSOP cash but short of his ultimate goal, another Main Event bracelet. The Poker Brat earned $25,027 for his performance.

And while one Phil was walking out the door the other, Phil Ivey, was slowly climbing the leaderboard. When all was said and done Ivey was bagging up 1,276,000 - good enough for 15th place and only one spot ahead of Day 3 chipleader Bertrand Grospellier who finished with 1,253,000.

Other notable players eliminated on Saturday were Mike Sexton, Erik Seidel, Greg Mueller and Kelly Kim. The elimination of Kim means only two members of the 2008 November Nine are still in contention for another final table appearance. Dennis Phillips (414,000) and defending World Champion Peter Eastgate (397,000) are both below the average chip stack of 473,000.

Tournament officials have yet to decide how many levels or eliminations Day 5 (Sunday) will see. Action resumes at 12 pm PT and live updates and chip counts are available at BluffMagazine.com.

Bertrand Grospellier will return for Day 4 with a mountain of chips knowing every player in the room now fears the #1 ranked player in the world even more.

The 2009 World Series of Poker underwent a minor transformation on Friday. Rather than a showcase of the world’s best poker players it was two Frenchmen who grabbed control, dominated the action and took center stage during Day 3 of the Main Event.

Ludovic Lacay and Bertrand Grospellier built their stacks up early and when it came time for somebody to break the 1 million chip mark, it was either Lacay or Grospellier who crested it first - depending on which story you want to believe. Either way the top of the leaderboard is heavy on French players as Grospellier leads with 1,380,500 and Lacay sits in second with 925,000.

“It was a really good day. In the begining it was really slow. People were trying to put moves on me. I slept pretty well. I had a very good day. I’m happy about it,” said Grosepllier, who sits at the the BLUFF Power Rankings. ”I also had some hands and people tried to push me off my hands when I flopped. People tried to push me off me hands when I had a set. I had some good timing. I was trying to push some people around. I knew that they were weak and wanted to play in the tournament. So I tried to push them around and adapt.”

Elky started his day off with an elimination. On a king-high flop Grospellier bet enough to put Kent Senter all-in. After taking some time to think over the decision Senter decided to call and tabled pocket tens. Grospellier showed pocket jacks and Senter, despite calling for a ten on the turn or river, was unable to make a set and his tournament was over.

But he wasn’t just picking on amateur fodder throughout the day. Early on Grospellier was seated at a table with Phil Ivey. Rather than engage in a battle of the big stacks the current #1 ranked player in the world did his best to avoid clashes with Ivey.

 ”Ivey is probably the best player in the world and I respect his game very much. I was going to play my hands and if I had a big hand I was going to play it. I wasn’t trying to go out of my way to play pots with Ivey,” admitted Grospellier. ”I tried not to get involved with too many pots with him, but I have to play my game. I wasn’t going to play a big pot with him without a big hand because there was no point for that.”

While the rise of the two Frenchman was the big story on Friday there was a big name making moves and if it continues over the duration of the Series the entire poker world will know about it. Trust us.

Phil Hellmuth got as high as sixth in chips early in the day but when play broke for the night he had fallen to 210,000. Average stack is in the neighborhood of 250,000.

And then there’s the original cast of the November Nine making a run. Dennis Phillips wound up with 460,000, Kelly Kim 320,000 and defending World Champion Peter Eastgate is also still alive with 310,000. Phillips believes his experience last year is paying huge dividends as he makes his way through another monster field.

“It’s almost like a homecoming. I wasn’t nervous, I was on the feature table and I felt at home, said Phillips. ”Other people were worried about the cameras and this and that and I got to just play poker. It was great, having that experience was absolutely fabulous.”

It’s helped him so much he’s actually had a better start to the 2009 Main Event than he did to the 2008 tournament.

“I am (doing) much better, want to see me dance a jig? I’m about ready to.”

The pace of play was something to be seen. When cards went in the air shortly after Noon PT there 2,044 players seated in the Amazon and Brazilia rooms. When play finished for the night there were 810 players remaining after five levels of play.

Among the players who were eliminated on Friday were Jason Alexander, Greg Raymer, Josh Arieh, John Juanda, Nam Le and former world champion Carlos Mortensen.

The speed of play was much faster than expected and tournament officials are considering stopping play on Saturday after the completion of four levels or when the remaining field reaches 400 players, whichever comes first. A decision is expected early Saturdday.

Action resumes at Noon PT and live updates and chip counts are available at BluffMagazine.com.

Thanks to a huge hand late in the evening Amir Lehavot is the Day 3 Chip Leader at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.

If recent World Series of Poker Main Events are any indication than the chipleader after each of the Day 1’s had better enjoy his or 15 minutes of fame. Apparently Troy Weber isn’t much of a history buff. The 38 year old started Day 2b as the chip leader and, thanks to his large head start on the rest of the field, sat there through all four levels of play and finished the day there with 435,000 chips.

“I really didn’t have a strategy going in, just like (Day 1d). Whatever the table allowed me to get away with, I took advantage of it,” said Weber. “There were some big stacks at my table and I had to tread lightly.”

But he’s not even the chipleader. Thanks to a huge last level Amir Lehavot sits atop the leaderboard with 610,000. With all remaining players through nine levels of play Lehavot holds a lead of 175,000 over Weber and the rest of the field. Heading into the final level of the night Lehavot had around 350,000 before a key hand turned his fortunes around.

“I just had a huge hand half an hour ago. I had about 350,000 and another big stack at the table had about 250,000. Most of my chips I won just in that one hand. I just got moved to a new table and I had pocket 3s and made a small raise. He min-raised me. I flopped a set, we got it all in and he had top pair.”

And while Lehavot and his huge lead on the rest of the field continues to be the story there were a number of top players who decided to make some noise of their own. Phil Ivey started the day with 84,025 and as each level passed he built his stack higher and higher, finishing the night with 350,000.

The other Phil in the room on Wednesday was none other than Julius Caesar himself, Phil Hellmuth. Devoid of a grandiose entrance Hellmuth was seated at the ESPN feature table the entire day and was extremely active and even scored a key double up during the first few minutes of play. He finished the day with 142,900.

“If you’re gonna win, you have to trust your instincts,” said Hellmuth. “I’m completely relaxed. I haven’t been completely relaxed ever in the Main Event in the last ten years. Right now I’ll do anything as far as making a play.”

Other players making waves on Wednesday included Justin Bonomo, Bertrand “eLKy” Grospellier and Kenny Tran. Bonomo started the day with just north of 100,000 and after some early swings he wound up in the top 25 with 190,000. Grospellier climbed the leaderboard all day long and wound up with 200,000. Tran nearly quadrupled his starting stack of 65,600 to finish with 249,000.

It was almost a day of bad news for reigning World Champion Peter Eastgate. He struggled throughout the day and the death watch began as early as the first level of the day. Down to just over 8,000 in chips towards the end of the evening Eastgate wound up with 90,000 and heads into Day 3 with an above average chip stack.

Thursday is an off day at the WSOP with action getting back underway Friday at Noon PT.

Photographic evidence of Eric Cloutier's monster chip stack after Day 2a.

Okay, no kidding around this time and no clerical errors. Former professional hockey player Eric Cloutier has the chip lead in the World Series of Poker Main Event. Cloutier went on a monster rush on Day 2b to finish as the unofficial overnight chipleader. The 34-year-old bagged up 383,000 chips at the end of the night.

“I think the first level I didn’t play many hands, I think I got up to 30,000. Then I went back down to about 9,000 and got lucky on a pair of sevens and a seven came on the river. I had about 35,000 chips at the begining of Level 8,” said Cloutier. “In one hand I made a weak beat on the end, he raised me and then I moved all-in. He called me with ace-high and I had a pair of twos and that put me up over 60,000. Then after that it went aces, kings, queens - I got a lot of good hands.”

Cloutier was incorrectly credited with being the Day 1a chipleader after he filled out his chip count slip illegibly. Rather than 150,750 Cloutier finished his first day with only 15,750. The error was noticed by Harrah’s staff after Day 1c when his slip was pulled to verify the chip count. But after Day 2a there’s little doubt that Cloutier is, at the very least, near the top of the leaderboard.

“It’s my fault because I wrote my chip count 15,025 and then I went to write my section next to it, which was orange (section). And I kind of crossed it out. So it looked like 150,000 chips,” admitted Cloutier. ”Funny story is that when I woke up the next day I had about 30 text messages from Canada, Brazil, Louisiana saying congratulations. I was like ‘WHy?’ Then I got to the tenth text from my friend in Canada that said I was the chip leader. I went to Antonio Esfandiari’s room to look on the computer and there I was as chip leader. So I called Jack (Effel) to tell him I’m not the chip leader.”

“But I am today.”

Day 2a saw the surviving players from Day 1a and Day 1b combined into a field 1,476 players. By the end of the night amidst all of those players two good friends climbed the leaderboard and each ended up in the top twenty in chips. Greg “FBT” Mueller finished with 287,000 and Kyle Wilson had 307,000. If not for each of them losing a 60,000 pot at the end of the night they may both have actually wound up in the top five.

“I was chipping away early and I made a key bluff early in the day. That propelled my up to 45,000 or 50,000 as opposed to being down at around 15,000,” said Mueller. “A key hand for me was when I flopped a flush draw. I played it small until I hit the flush and then I played it huge. He put his money in drawing dead and that was 40,000 so that put me right over the hump and gave me the position to zig and zag a little bit.”

Wilson’s day wasn’t as steady but he still found a way to end up with a formidable stack.

“It was a really up and down day for me. I played pretty wild today. I was up to 100,00 right away and then down to 25,000 in the second level today. Then I caught fire a little bit and went on a sick run the last level. I went from 120,000 to 306,000 in the last level,” said Wilson.

Having two players from the same home town make a deep run is something Wilson’s already thinking about.

“I think it’s going to be two White Rock (B.C.) guys making a November Nine run. I can see it,” said Wilson.

“(Kyle) has done well in the Main Event before and I’ve seemed to struggle a little bit,” said Mueller. “So this is pretty sick.”

Playing five levels of play the field was whittled down to 630 players. The Day 2b field, which will start with 2,964 players, will play only four levels on Wednesday so that the entire field will have played nine levels. After a day off on Thursday action will resume on Friday with all remaining players playing at the same time for the first time this year.

There was a number of prominent names sent packing on Tuesday. Just after the dinner break the Amazon Room got a little bit quieter as Mike “the Mouth” Matusow saw his Main Event run come a slow, painful death. Coming into the day Matusow had only 37,875 and after being card dead the better part of the day Matusow put his tournament life on the line with K Q against the pocket kings of his opponent.

“That’s a microcosm of my entire Series,” Matusow said as he exited the Amazon Room without cashing in the Main Event for the third time in four years. “I never had a hand all day. I was beyond card dead.”

Minutes later the room got even quieter as Gavin Smith busted out. The class clown of the poker world couldn’t win a race with A Q against a pair of eights. Other high profile players who were sent to the rail on Tuesday included Gus Hansen, Sandra Naujoks, Johnny Chan, Phil Laak, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Todd Brunson and 1972 World Champion Amarillo Slim.

Day 2b gets underway at Noon PT and Live Updates and Chip Counts are available at BluffMagazine.com.

Janice Brookshire sits at her table in the 2009 WSOP Main Event with her late husband Eddie's ashes in a small box as her card marker and conscience.

Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event is not easy. Players find their strength and support in a variety of ways, but for one woman it is simply the love between a husband and wife that got her to this point.

It was October of 1972 and Janice Brookshire was out and about with a male friend. “Not on a date or anything like that, we were just friends,” she said. “We were out running around and he said he needed to stop by this guy’s house, and it was him.” That guy, Eddie, asked the friend if he and Janice were dating, when the friend said they were not Eddie declared he was going to take her out. “And he did,” Janice said.

The two were married June 29, 1974 when Janice was just 17 and would have celebrated 35 years together this year, but Eddie passed away from heart and kidney disease on May 18, at age 53.

Tuesday, Day 2a of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Janice and Eddie were at table 12 in the Blue section of the Amazon room. Janice was in her seat and Eddie was beside her chips in a  1.5″ x 1.5″ wooden box.

Eddie was an avid poker player, he played the World Poker Tour event hat the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, CA in 2006 and taught Janice how to play. As his health declined he began to play more and more online, but during the last eight months of his life his health had deteriorated to the point where Janice became his 24-hour caregiver. At that point neither was playing much and Janice gave up learning the game to care for him.

“He always joked that I was better then him because I had more patience,” she said. “That was the most important thing he taught me about the game, to have patience, the one thing he didn’t have.”

Just two weeks after his passing Janice was alone in her home after a Sunday dinner with her family. “Every Sunday is family night and you had better have a good excuse not to be there,” she said. When her family left that night she felt very somber “he is there, definitely he is there, but it’s very lonely.” Janice went into her office and pulled up PokerStars on her computer. “I was looking at an $11 satellite and I though ‘do I want to spend $11?’ There were 477 entrants, and I came out on top.”

She had been trying to win satellites to the Main Event for a while and a friend of hers attributes her final success to her husband. “She told me ‘he got you here because he knew you wouldn’t have left him to go play.’” 

There was no way Janice could come to the Main Event without Eddie, “he had to go, he had to come, and I can’t bring the big box,” she said. To find a proper keepsake to hold Eddie’s ashes Janice went to the Internet, “I actually googled ‘tiny wooden box’ and found this guy in North Carolina that sells these little boxes,” she said. “I didn’t want something that looked like an urn.”

The contents of the little box next to her chips that she held in her hand when she was not in a hand were unknown to the players at her table.

“That guy that commentates for ESPN, he was lurking behind me at the table and he kept looking at the box, I said to him ‘you want to know what’s in the box don’t you?’ and he said ‘yes’, I just said ‘you can figure it out.’ He didn’t have to ask, he knew,” she said.

Redmond Lee is in position to become the first English-born player to win the WSOP Main Event.

When Day 2a kicked off Tuesday afternoon Englishman Redmond Lee was at the top of the leaderboard. BluffMagazine.com caught up with Lee and found out a little bit about him.

Do you have an online name that your are known by?

Himclop85.

How did you qualify for the Main Event?

I bought straight in.

Is this your first Main Event?

No, it’s my third.

How old are you?

I’m 23. No really I’m 15, just kidding.

Do you have a favorite casino here in Las Vegas?

Probably the Wynn. The Wynn is my favorite yeah.

Any really big hands on Day 1 or any hands that you thought you were going out on?

I made a really nice call into a three spot with king-high on a paired board and he bet the river, he overbet the river and my king-high was good. Aside from that no, I never really got my money in behind. I had to make some big calls, the flop came jack high and I had ace-jack and I led out. He called, the turn came a ten, so it was like Tx 7x Jx, I led out and he shoved on me, so I was like ‘marvelous.’ I didn’t think he would play a straight draw like that, I didn’t think he would float me in like that, so that was pretty nice. And I think the other good part was the guy raised out with ace-king and I had the 9, I flopped a flush, I checked to him, he bet, but it was really weird cause he was such a tight guy. I guess he just went mad or something, I checked raised and he instantly went all-in, I snapped his head off, he had ace-king.

What will you do until Day 2?

I’m just going to hang out, yeah just relax.

Do you have any friends and family here with you?

I know people within the poker world but not anyone in particular.

What will you do if you make it all the way?

Buy a million candy bars. No, I will probably invest it in some property. I’d probably be very smart with it. Maybe if the Rio would accept it I could go and put it all on black and double my money. We’ll see how it goes right?

He used to be a patent attorney in Massachusetts who spent his tournament breaks running across the street to get a refill on his supersized drink and use the restroom, but in the last five years, Greg Raymer has become a fixture in every poker household spending his breaks signing autographs and taking pictures with fans.

Winning the World Series of Poker’s Main Event in 2004, Raymer catapulted to from a small-stakes poker player known for selling fossil card protectors to a superstar whose life has changed more drastically than just how he spends his dinner and bathroom breaks.

A professional high-stakes tournament player now, Raymer has also continued his interest in law, however, it’s not for a pharmaceutical and research company anymore, but for American’s rights to play the country’s new favorite pastime online.

Just before he took to the felt in the 2009 WSOP Main Event in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle twice BluffMagazine.com caught up with “Fossil-Man” to talk about how his life has changed since his championship.

It’s been five years  since you’ve won the Main Event. How has your life changed since then?

Oh, well, that answer is relatively easy. I used to be a 9-5 office worker for Pfizer, at their facility in Groton, Conn. (Signing autographs) This answers your question. Now, I’m traveling the world, playing big poker tournaments, people come up and ask for autographs and photos and handshakes.

Does that get overwhelming?

Not overwhelming, but it sometimes interferes with your regular life. Most of the time I’m very, very happy it’s going on. If people weren’t interested, if people didn’t want to do those things, PokerStars wouldn’t be paying me the money to represent them. And that’s my livelihood nowadays. I’m not going to try to make my living just playing poker.

Before you won the Main Event you played different events, not just No Limit Hold’em. How have you been able to do that in the last five years also?

In a way it gets easier because it’s hard to play mixed games for $5/10. Early in my poker career when I was playing much smaller games, like $3/6 Limit, there wasn’t much available back then but Limit Hold’em, which I now believe is the devil’s game, the worst of all forms of poker. I hate Limit Hold’em and I’m not good at it, it’s not my best game at all, even though back then it was almost the only game I played. But I was playing Omaha (8-or-better), some (Seven-card) Stud. I just find those games to be much more interesting, much more amenable to making money.

Have you seen the WSOP change in the last five years?

Well, when I won, it was still at Binion’s. It couldn’t possibly fit there today. I mean, even if the Binion’s downtown now could come up with the money to buy the World Series, they could not possibly host it. But it was, in some ways, more fun back then. I had my nice routine established when I won the Main Event. Whenever we had our breaks I would run outside rather than stand in line for the toilet in Binion’s. (I would) go across the street, west of Binion’s to the Mermaids Casino, which is just a slots parlor, but I could use the toilet without standing in line. And then there was a little souveneir store across the street and in addition to all the T-shirts sold there, they had a drink fountain and I would get these big cups for $1 and fill up the Super Big Gulp-sized cup with Diet Coke and a little bit of Cherry Coke and the 15 minute break was just enough time to do those things and get back to my table inside Binion’s.

Now you spend your 15 minute breaks not waiting in line, but you’re signing autographs.

I should probably have the 21-year-old personal assistant. I mean it’s all just very, very different.

You’re also a family man. How has everybody else reacted to that, how have they adapted to the fortune and the fame?

My daughter doesn’t really think much about it. I mean, I think she knows she can get what she wants a little more, in terms of toys and stuff. Not so much because I’m going to get it for her, but my wife is the push over, not me. People will always see me with my daughter and they think, “Oh, that’s daddy’s little girl. She’s got you wrapped around her finger.” And I’m like, “Actually, I’m probably the tough one.” If she wants a new teddy bear or something my wife will get it for her pretty much every time. She always goes to my wife first when she wants something.

What do you see in the next five years happening for you?

I dont know. I don’t think it’s going to necessarily change a lot. If it does it will because of some of these legal changes. If we, with the Poker Players Alliance, help (Assemblyman) Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and the other members of Congress to get some of these laws passed so that online poker is liscensed and regulated within the U.S., I think we’re going to see an explosion again in the growth of poker. So that will have a lot of positive things for me and a lot of other professional poker players.

England's Redmond Lee is the chip leader after Day 1a at the 2009 World Series of Poker.

The biggest day of the year for poker players came and went Friday as the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event kicked off with Day 1a - the first of four starting days. For nearly half of the 1,116 players who registered for the opening day though the dream of becoming World Champion ended with an all too common refrain:

“Seat open!”

One player who heard that more than others is Redmond Lee. The 23 year old Brit ended the day with 134,275 chips which puts him in the top five of chips counts. 

The current leader is former pro hockey player Eric Cloutier who wound up with 134,275. Jean Docquier (122,755), Marcucci Gianluca (118,000) and Peter Buermann round out the top five spots. Also in good position for Day 2a are  James Navolanic (100,000), Bryan Colin (98,000), Jason Riesenberg (93,650) and Domen Pinteric ( 90,000).

“I made a really nice call into a three spot with King high on a paired board and he bet the river, he overbet the river and my King high was good,” said Lee at the end of the night. ”Aside from that, I never really got my money in behind.”

The day was originally scheduled to include five levels of play but due to the relatively small turnout the decision was made the end one level early. The following three Day 1’s will also play four levels each so that when action resumes on Day 2a and 2b all players will be at the same point in the tournament.

Four of the 51 individual bracelet winners from 2009 were in play on Friday. Vitaly Lunkin, Roland De Wolfe, Jason Mercier and Zac Fellows all showed up hoping to grab a second bracelet this summer. Fellows busted at the end of Level 3 while the other three will all return on Tuesday for Day 2a action.

The Main Event debut of online phenom Isaac Baron didn’t go quite as smoothly as he’d hoped. On a flop of J T 8 Baron called his opponents all-in and tabled 7 9 for a flopped straight. His opponent showed pocket tens for a flopped set and Baron’s moment of glee turned torturous after the J on the river gave his opponent a full house. Baron was initially shortstacked but did manage to make it through the day with 38,500 chips.

“It was pretty disappointing for my first main event to get it all in on the flop when I flopped a set and the guy has a set for a huge pot,” said Baron. “I was really pissed off so I just played tight while I cooled down a little bit.”

“After that I played pretty good, ran a couple of bluffs and got paid off on some hands a little bit.”

A number of notable players also decided to kick off their pursuit of the Main Event bracelet title on Friday. John Phan, who won two bracelets in 2008 on his way to the BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year, found his seat and almost just as quickly found the exit. Phan was the first notable player to be eliminated from play. Gavin Smith, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Dewey Tomko, Nikolay Evdakov and Mike Sexton were amongst the field on Day 1a.

The surprise performance of the day probably goes to former Seinfeld star Jason Alexander. The man who gave us George Costanza won a huge pot in the middle of the last level of play with runner-runner full house to wind up with 89,975 chips. He doesn’t consider himself to be the best Hollywooder in the field but he’s certainly ready to embrace the status - at least temporarily. 

“Let’s see where the rest of my peers are on their day two, ” said Alexander. “A triple up is good, it’s real good. It’s not record breaking by any means.”

“The nice thing is, the nice pat on the back is that I actually have been working on the game. It’s nice to see that some of it got in and paid off.”

Other celebs playing on Friday included Jennifer Tilly, Brad Garrett, Orel Hershiser and rapper Nelly.

Day 1b action gets underway at Noon PT and you can follow all the WSOP Live Updates at BluffMagazine.com.

WSOP Day 1a Unofficial Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Redmond Lee - 134,275 
2. James Navolanic - 100,000  
3. Bryan Colin - 98,000 
4. Jason Riesenberg - 93,650  
5. Domen Pinteric - 90,000  
6. Jason Alexander - 89,575
7. Dragan Galic - 88,000  
8. Lex Veldhuis - 84,000
9. Eli Elezra  83,375  
10. David Sands - 80,000

It’s not an official bracelet event but the folks behind Dream Team Poker have to be happy to know that their unique team poker tournament is being featured during the 2009 World Series of Poker.

Dream Team Gaming announced Tuesday that an event using their patent-pending scoring system will be held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino on July 12 - 13 coinciding with Day 5 and 6 of the Main Event. The buy-in for the event is $1,680 per three-person team and the first 300 teams to register will receive custom team jerseys.

“After seeing the terrific response to the recent Dream Team Poker tournaments in Las Vegas, we thought a team-based event would be a fun addition to the end of the WSOP,” said Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP Commissioner. “The Dream Team Poker event is one of the many new elements added in 2009 that will help make this summer a memorable one for all WSOP players and fans.”

The most recent Dream Team Poker event was held at Caesars Las Vegas and was won by Team Aced.com featuring 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold. The event prior to that was won by Team BLUFF featuring Justin Bonomo, publisher Eric Morris and Editor-in-Chief Matt Parvis. The unique scoring system awards points to your team based on the finish of each individual player. The addition of the event to the WSOP schedule is seen as a major building block for a brand that was only introduced to the poker world a little more than six months ago.

“The WSOP and the Rio have really shown their commitment to the players in continuing to innovate and try new concepts,” said Daniel Delshad, CEO of Dream Team Gaming. “Bringing our brand to the Rio during the WSOP and onto the most hollowed ground in the sport is a powerful way to introduce Dream Team Poker to the world.”

Players interested in registering for the event can visit www.dreamteampoker.com or be able to talk directly with those behind Dream Team Gaming at their booth outside the Amazon Room during the WSOP.