photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Are you ready for some poker? The first installment from the 2008 World Series of Poker premiers tonight on ESPN at 8 PM EST. Join hosts Norm Chad and Lon McEachern as they provide the running commentary for the first of 17 weeks of WSOP poker. That's over thirty hours from the most exciting poker tournament in the world, the WSOP.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Tonight's episode will feature the $10,000 Buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship from the Rio Resort in Las Vegas. A total of 352 players vying for a prize pool of $3,308,800 in this first event of the 2008 WSOP. Supplement tonights viewing experience with Dr. Pauly's final table recap of the event right here on the Poker Prof's Poker Blog.

Set up the laptop, grab some brews, surround yourself with snacks and settle in for an evening of poker from the 2008 WSOP. This is great training for the soon to be here 2008 NFL pre-season games. So, are you ready for some football...and poker, too? The 17 consecutive weeks of Tuesday night WSOP poker on ESPN will take us to the November 9 same day coverage of the 2008 Main Event final tablewhen the November Nine will be competing for more than $9 million.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, David "Chino" Rheem could be resolving an outstanding arrest warrant from Hollywood, Florida while the remaining eight 2008 Main Event finalist are vying for the $9 million. Rheem failed to show up in court for a misdemeanor trespassing charge from 2003. He also has prior felony convictions from Broward County Florida dating back 8 years.

So what does this have to do with the November final table? Nothing I hope. David Rheem is the early favorite to take it all and he is also the only recognizable player among the 2008 November Nine. Promoting this group will, at best, be difficult and to have David out would make it impossible..."Tune in November 9th to watch all the excitement of eight people you never heard of and aren't likely to hear from again going nose-to-nose for the title of World's Best Poker Player."

Following closely on the heels of the Tiffany Michele greed fest over the Poker News logos and the Ultimate Bet superuser cheating scam makes this latest revelation even more difficult to handle. Not exactly the publicity needed from the biggest spectacle in poker to provide a positive spin for the efforts to legalize online poker rooms. Does this mean next years WSOP entry form will come with a background check? Anyone want to venture an over/under on the number of felony convictions among this year's other 6,843 main event players?

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photo courtesy BodogLife.com

Bodog is now awarding trips and seats to Macau to compete in the Asian Poker Tour. The APT is taking place from August 26 - 31 in the Vegas of East, Macau China.

Score one of Bodog's four seats and you'll receive the Main Event buy-in worth $5,300, flight expenses, six nights' accommodation in Macau and $500 in spending cash.

Qualifiers are running from July 7 - August 3. But poker players looking for a shot at the APT can also get there on the cheap with Bodog's Seat Giveaway Series. The Seat Giveaway Series has buy-ins starting at as low as 5 Bodog Poker Points - so basically they are a series of freerolls. The top 25 players of each of these will get invited to the series finale freeroll which will award another APT Macau seat.

Learn more about Bodog's APT Macau online qualifiers.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

The WSOP main event has reached the money. Cashing in the WSOP is a prestigious moment in any poker player's life. At the 2008 WSOP, the top 666 players won prize money.

Here's some quick stats:

Number of Entries: 6,844
Net Prize Pool: $64,333,600
First Place Prize: $9,119,517
Total Spots Paid Out: 666
Players Remaining: 79

So far through Day 5, places 80-666 won prize money.

Check out the first 587 money winners after the jump

Bodog has recently announced that its usual Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed poker tournament coming up on August 10th is getting a serious upgrade to $250,000 guaranteed.

The quarter of a million dollar guaranteed prize pool will be the richest Bodog poker tournament to date.

Between July 14th and the week of August 4th they will be offering hundreds of qualifiers with buy-ins ranging from $1+$0 to $54+4. Players will also be able to buy directly in for $250 + $20. No matter how many players show up first place will be guaranteed at least $55,000!

Get the complete details on Bodog's biggest guaranteed poker tournament to date.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Having spent the last 47 days camping out in the Amazon Room at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas I filled my notebook with a long list of trivial happenings, sights, overheard comments, facts, rumors, miracles, controversy, bad beats, obscene piles of money, dead money, four dollar coffee, insanity, and images. In fact, more than thirty thousand images. That's almost one third of the life expectancy of a pro digital camera shutter.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

I thought this year's Big Poker Show was well organized and managed by the Harrah's WSOP staff, guess they are learning from past mistakes. The "no excessive celebration" rule kept the player crowd at bay and at times the Amazon Room was as quiet as a golf tournament when Woods is putting for the win. This brings up an interesting question, what footage will ESPN use to pimp the 2008 WSOP TV series? Considering the committee created drought of any spontaneous jubilation could mean we'll be watching yawn-fest 2008 promos this time next year.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

When is the "decision of the floor is final" rule not really a rule or final? When the decision is directed toward one of poker's elite stars that can speed dial the Poker Commish and demand a reversal. Such was the case when Hellmuth was assessed a one orbit sit out penalty for excessively berating a fellow player after suffering a bad beat. Turns out, as Hellmuth explained, he was just beefing up his bad boy image for the ESPN cameras. I wonder if a "no excessive whinning" rule should be added to the don't-do-it list? Probably yes, if the WSOP corporate owner's pursuit of sanitizing the event is carried to completion.

Most of us know the root cause for excessive anything at the poker show...money. Chomp, chomp, chomping sharks ala Humberto Brenes or Crazy Man impressions from Rain Khan may have been a bit over the top last year; but, they certainly attracted the attention of the ESPN cameras and that guarantees airtime for sponsor logos and that delivers bonus money to the player. And that brings us to what will probably be the biggest story to come out of this year's WSOP. The last day feud between Tiffany Michele and her original sponsor and employer, Poker News, plus the untouchables at Ultimate Bet.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

The young lady is alleged to have entered into an agreement to pimp Ultimate Bet unbeknown to Poker News. Ultimate Bet apparently was out-biding the other online rooms in their efforts to convince the online poker community that the dirty rotten scoundrels that absconded with zillions taken from unsuspecting players in a cheating scheme were now nothing more than a bad memory. Why else would such big names as the Poker Man himself identify with known cheats?

Apparently without consulting anyone at Poker News Tiffany showed up on day 6 all decked out in Ultimate Bet logos from top to toes. As an event photographer for Poker News it became apparent a shot of her that included visible Poker News logos was going to be difficult. The damage had been done and as we all know its not nice to fool with the G. All sides will probably lawyer up to decide this one in the courts. Anyone have an over/under on the amount Tiffany will end up with from the $334,534 she won for 17th place? Depending on the claimed damages to Poker News she could possible end up owing money.

For much more detailed and way better researched information click over to Dr. Pauly's Tao of Poker. Read the Official Statement from Poker News Here.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

It was the moment that everyone was waiting for. After 46 days of the World Series of Poker, the $10,000 Main Event championship played down from 27 to the final nine. Those lucky nine players were dubbed The November Nine since the final table will not be played out until November.

The Buzz: Action on Day 7 of the Main Event started out with 27 players and was complete when nine players remained. The November nine includes... Dennis Phillips, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz, Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto, David 'Chino' Rheem, Ivan Demidov, Kelly Kim, and Peter Eastgate. Sadly, Dean Hamrick bubbled off the final table in 10th place.

The Back Story: In the age of poker agents and endorsement deals, one of the subplots involved what online site would each player wear.... Poker Stars, Full Tilt, or Ultimate Bet.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Sight of the Day: Joe Bishop had several festive friends on the rail who bought him an expensive bottle of Dom Perignon which he shared with his tablemates and the players on the featured TV table.

Quote of the day: "Year of the pros? This is more like the year of the marginal pro," said Shane 'Shaniac' Schelger.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Day 7 Eliminations: Joe Bishop, Chris Klodnicki, Nicholas Sliwinski, Gert Andersen, Owen 'ocrowe' Crowe, Anthony Scherer, Tiffany 'Hot Chips' Michelle, Jason Riesenberg, Albert Kim, Brandon Cantu, Paul Snead, Judet Toni Cristian, Tim Loecke, Aaron Gordon, Niklas Flisberg, Phi Nguyen, and Michael Carroll.

That's it for now. The 2008 WSOP Main Event is currently on hiatus until November.

Stay tuned for some Flipchip photos of the November Nine.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com