About 27 years ago Clonie Gowen and Brandon Cantu made a prop bet where the loser was to get tasered. Brandon Cantu lost. He finally got tasered.
The omni-present poker party crowd was on hand (Jeff Madsen, Layne Flack, etc.). Hats off to Cantu for going through with the tasering, but let’s just say if Layne Flack’s teeth are “proud” of what you’re doing, you’re probably not doing the right thing.
Final note, was that Robin Leach with more hair and Kevin Smith in the background?
If there was only an obvious joke to make about this photo...if only...
Here’s the rundown of weekend WSOP action:
:: Event #48 ($1,500 PLO 8B):Brandon Cantu outlasted a field of 752 to capture his second bracelet. For the win, he banks $228,867. Cantu defeated Lee Watkinson-Markholt ($141,873) for the title. Get full final table payouts here.
:: Event #50 ($1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout): Final table starts today at 2pm PT. Going for their second WSOP bracelets are David Williams and Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller. Joining them is the awesomely named Flaminio Malaguti. Pretty sure he was a Formula 1 race car driver at some point of his life. Or a gay Italian bar. One of the two. See the rest of the final table here.
Event #51 ($1,500 NLH): Another 2,781 entered the second-to-last $1,500 NLH event. Christopher Bonita is the overnight chip leader, stacked at 131,700. Get full chip counts here.
:: Event #47 ($2,500 Mixed Hold’em):Bahador Ahmadi, a former college football player at Holy Cross, beat a solid final table that consisted of Ylon Schwartz (3rd), Barry Greenstein (5th), and Hasan Habib, who is still alive (8th), to capture his first bracelet. Ahmadi banks $278,804 for the win. Get full final table payouts here.
:: Event #48 ($1,500 PLO 8B):Brandon Cantu makes another attempt at bracelet #2, taking a large chip lead to the final table. Cantu is stacked at 1,025,000. He’s followed by frog-leg eating Jacquin Mathieu with 552,000. Lee Watkinson-Markholt is third with 412,000. Get full chip counts here.
:: Event #49 ($50,000 H.O.R.S.E.): Now matter how it’s spun, gotta be disappointed that only 95 entrants shelled out $50k for this year’s H.O.R.S.E. championship. Even more disappointed though are the four who were eliminated on Day 1 (Alexander Kostritsyn, Dan Shak, David Singer, and Steve Zolotow). Hasan Habib, who is surprisingly still alive, is chip leader, stacked at 387,000. David Benyamine, Andy Black, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson are also among the top 10 stacks. Get full chip counts here.
:: Event #50 ($1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout): The final event of the day had 572 entrants. Among the table winners were Jean-Robert Bellande, Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller, David Williams and Brock Parker. Get a full list of winners here.
* Fuck we just went there again. We need to put that joke down like Barbaro.
Some top pros almost busted out big wins yesterday...
The big winner yesterday was Matt Graham, taking the $10k PLO Championship. We had a near-miss on an all-star final table for Event #41, as well as some decent Girls on the Rail (click thumbs below for more). Here’s the recap:
:: Event #39 ($1,500 NLH):Ray Foley, a 37 year-old business manager for Chrysler, couldn’t have possibly picked a better time to win his first bracelet, defeating Brandon Cantu heads-up for the Event #39 title. For the win, Foley banks $657,969. Cantu brings home $403,951 for second. Alex Jacob finished fourth for $190,847. Get full payouts here.
:: Event #41 ($5,000 NLH Shoot-Out): Making yet another deep tourney run, Phil Ivey just missed out on the final table, going home in eight place ($16,739). Also just missing out on the final table were Barney Boatman, Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, the completely-unfuckably-named Wilf Saar, and David “The Dragon” Pham*. That leaves us with a friends and familyTM final table that you probably aren’t too interested in. But if you are, see who’s in it here.
:: Event #42 ($2,500 Mixed): The 14 remaining entrants will play down to a winner today. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner will make another attempt to win his first bracelet, starting the day as chip leader with 469,200. In third overall is Layne Flack (283,400). Also remaining are bracelet winner Dario Alioto (225,600) and Jimmy Fricke (47,400). Get full chip counts here.
:: Event #43 ($1,000 Seniors NLH): A total of 2,707 played down to 402. If you really care who is left, go here.
:: Event #44 ($2,500 Razz): For the final event of the day, a field of 315 played down to 122. Warwick Mirzikinian is the chip leader, stacked at 59,400. Lots more Razz to be played, people, but David Chiu, Ville Walhbeck, Daniel Negreanu, and Annie Duke all have solid stacks. Get full chip counts here.
Brandon Cantu has his sights set on the Main Event title, or maybe just being this year’s Lee Watkinson-Markholt.
Soooo…let’s start the search for this year’s Jerry Yang and Lee Watkinson-Markholt now.
With the elimination of Mike "The Mouth" Matusow in 30th place (brutal, on a flop of A-A-5, both he and Paul Snead checked, the turn was a 9, Snead moved all-in, Matusow called…The Mouth holding A-J, Snead A-9…ouch), all of the major headliner names are gone.
Even Cristian Dragomir The Fragrance is out.
With 27 remaining, the two chip leaders are Dennis Phillips (11,910,000) and Craig Marquis, who may or may not be related to Vanilla Ice (11,460,000). Phillips certainly has some Jerry Yang appeal (i.e. no appeal), but history has shown us that the chip leader with 27 left won’t be the chip leader at the end unless your name is Jamie Gold. An interesting story thread could’ve been all the young Internet pros going deep, like Marquis, but lots of those guys (David Benefield, Gbecks) have been knocked out too, so oh well.
Phillips and Marquis are followed by the still running hot/looking hot FOWCP Tiffany Michelle with 9,755,000.
Our pick to win it, David "Chino" Rheem, continues his steady climb with 8,280,000. Aside from us picking him since the beginning, Rheem will be interesting as he should make "good TVTM" since he makes Kenny Tran look like the offspring of Humble Pie and Modest Mouse.
And the likely pick to be this year’s Lee Watkinson-Markholt, Brandon Cantu, 4,740,000.
Finally, the search for this year’s Brad Kondracki starts and ends with Chris Klodnicki.
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (foreground, wearing trademark cap and glasses) is running well in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
Quick update…at dinner break poker pro Brandon Cantu held the chip lead as the only player stacked over 10M (10.7 to be exact).
Our pick to win it, David "Chino" Rheem, is fifth overall with 6.8M. The Last Woman StandingTM, Tiffany Michelle is sixth overall with just over 6.7M. And Mike "The Mouth" Matusow is stacked over 3.5M.
robertcarroll: Discussion with the @wickedchops guys about my wsop cinnobun bet. 4 full size buns in 25 minutes. /via @JoeUgly I'll go 15 minutes! Easy!
Joseph Reitman: Discussion with the @wickedchops guys about my wsop cinnobun bet. 4 full size buns in 25 minutes. I think I can but the debate continues.
Bill Maendele: @wickedchops Madsen Greenstein Doyle Ivey Annette E-Dog Daniel Raymer Moneymaker, Eric Baldwin, Dario M, Jason M, hellmuth, Brock Jeff L.
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