Chris Karagulleyan Guns For Second WPT Title in Just Seven Years

Those of you watching Season 1 of the World Poker Tour on Fox Sports recently or who have memories on par with elephants are probably familiar with Chris Karagulleyan. He was the guy in the suit with the facial ticks who won the second ever WPT event back in 2002.

Those of you not watching Season 1 of the World Poker Tour on Fox Sports recently or who have memories on par with trout have no idea who Chris Karagulleyan is, because after he won the second ever WPT event back in 2002, he pretty much went the way of Temp Hutter and was never heard from again.

In fact, Karagulleyan is one of the charter members of the Temp Hutter Club. However, he may be playing himself off that list today. [copy + paste] Karagulleyan brings the chip lead to the LAPC final table, stacked at 4,080,000.

[copy + paste] Karagulleyan is followed by Mike Sowers with 2,405,000. Joining them and making his first ever WPT final table is Chris "Jesus" Ferguson with 1,565,000.

Get full chip counts and reports (and follow the final table action starting at 4PM PST) here.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson Leads LAPC With 20 Remaining

As many of you know, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson didn't play World Poker Tour events for years, as he and a group of other (mostly) FTP'ers filed a pretty ridiculous lawsuit against Lipscomb & Co.

The parties settled said suit, and now Full Tilt more or less covers the production costs of WPT broadcasts. Maybe the Israelis and Palestinians could learn something from FTP and the WPT.

Maybe.

Ferguson, who is arguably one of the best no-limit hold'em tournament players alive and already makes more money than most of the highest paid athletes do in a year, is looking to add another milli plus to his sizable warchest, as he ended Day 4 of the LAPC as chip leader, stacked at 1,721,000.

Ferguson is followed by Payman Arjang with 1,488,000, and Chris Karagulleyan with 1,146,000.

Other notables remaining include Nick Schulman (850,000), Mike Sowers (626,000), Nordberg (423,000), and Teddy "The Iceman" Monroe (264,000).

Get full chip counts here.

Mizzi, Ferguson, Pescatori Take Aim For WSOPE Event #3 Title

Some big names final tabled WSOPE Event #3 (£5,000 Pot Limit Omaha).

Among the remaining nine include Sorel Mizzi (290,000), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (282,000), 2006 Main Event final table-ist Erik Friberg (189,000), and the unfortunately nicknamed "Italian Pirate" Max Pescatori (126,000).

They all trail chip leader Theo Jorgensen (897,000). Jason Mercier, who has been around the chip lead all tourney, is second overall with 650,000.

Couple other dudes fill out the rest.

Get full recaps here.

ESPN Airs 2008 WSOP Event #2 Tonight

While tonight's ESPN WSOP broadcast might lack the sex appeal of last week's [telecast] (i.e. Patrik Antonius...Kathy Liebert...), it should be entertaining nonetheless.

This week focuses on Event #2 ($1,500 No Limit Hold'em), with a final table includes Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, David Bach, Theo Tran, and Grant Hinkle (that's him at right), brother of uber-ubiquitous Blair Hinkle. Or as they like to call themselves, "The Fabulous Poker Playing Hinkle Brothers."*

Read our updates from the event here, here, here, and here.

* Unsubstantiated. Although that sounds like a great name for an act on America's Got Talent. Or a porno. A porno we'd pay a looootttt of money to watch. Hint hint.

UPDATE: Preview for tonight's show after the jump...

2008 WSOP Update: Our Favorite Scarf-Wearing Euro Wins First Bracelet; Chris "Jesus" Ferguson Goes for His Sixth

While our photog was getting busted and Phil Ivey and Jerry Buss were chatting it up, there was actually some great poker going on at the Rio last night. Update time...

:: Event #31 ($2,500 No Limit Hold'em Six-Handed) - Our favorite scarf-wearing Euro, Dario Minieri (photo), took this one down. He beat Seth Fischer heads-up for the title, winning his first bracelet and banking $528,418. In what probably contains no irony at all, Dario's winning heads-up hand was pocket Queens. Not that Dario goes that way, even though most Euros are definitely more sexually "open" than U.S. Americans. In fact, we'd wager that that little guy probably bags more chicks than KFC. Mostly because European girls are more sexually "open" than just about anywhere else in the world, and that includes girls who grew up in Florida. So actually why are we ripping on Euros? They hardly work, their money is worth more than ours, and they're doing it like all the time. Bastards. This is a poker blog, right? Get full chip counts here.

Rest of the update after the jump . . .

2008 WSOP Update: $10k World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em, Event No. 25

Chris "Genius28" Lee was among the pros who made it to the second round of the Heads-Up event today at the 2008 WSOP

The $10k buy-in World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship of the World at the World Series of Poker is down to 64 from its original 256. Players will play one more heads-up match tonight.

Chipleaders include everyone still in the tournament.

The favorite after two rounds has to be Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, who took down the National Heads-Up Championship in April and has the most wins of any pro in the televised tournament's four-year history.

Others to look out for include Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, the spectacularly breasted JC Tran, Erick Lindgren, Sammy Farha, Brandon Adams, Kenny Tran, Alex Jacob, Theo Tran and Nam Le.

Chip counts here.

More shots of what you're looking at above (and Eric Liu railbirding?) below . . .

2008 WSOP Update: Grant Hinkle Wins Event #2, Phil Ivey Leads the Rebuy One, Erick Lindgren Guns for First Bracelet

By early evening there were four different 2008 World Series of Poker tourneys going on simultaneously, so lots to cover. Below is the abridged summation:

:: Event #2 ($1,500 NLH) - After playing down from 18 to 9 earlier in the day, the final table kicked off in primetime. Grant Hinkle (Blair's brother) bested a field of 3,929 to take the $831,462 first place prize. James Akenhead came in second to bank $520,219. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson was third ($388,287) and Theo Tran  fourth ($327,148). Get full recaps here.

:: Event # 3 ($1,500 PLH) - A couple of big names, as WPT winner Joe Tehan, whose name looks too much like Tehran for our liking, is big stacked with 458,000. He's followed by Jacobo Fernandez with 428,000. David Singer is one of the short-stacks with 83,000.

Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Hold'em) - Now this is a final table. More established names than any final table save the $50k H.O.R.S.E. that we can remember. One-time WSOP bracelet runner-up David Rheem is chip leader stacked at 885,000. One-time WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams is second with 678,500. Justin Bonomo is stacked third with 517,500. Going after his elusive first bracelet is our official-pick-to-win-it (OPTWI^TM) Erick Lindgren with 345,000. Team Full Tilt Poker leader Howard Lederer, who earlier in the year in Bluff Magazine we predicted would have a monster season is next with 324,500. The rest of the final table includes Roland de Wolfe (194,000), Andrew Robl (162,000), Howard Stern's illigitimate son Isaac Haxton (115,500), and Pat Pezzin (108,500). Final table play begins at 3pm today, get your live updates here.

Event #5 ($1,000 NLH w/ Rebuys) - One of our favorite events is led by one of our favorite players, as some guy named Phil Ivey takes the chip lead to Day 2, stacked at 175,500. He's followed by "That Guy Again?" Amit Makhija with 161,100. Making UGA proud is one-time EPT winner Jeff Williams with 145,700. Other notables include either Lee Watkinson or Lee Markholt (same guy, right?) with 80,800, Phil Hellmuth (67,300), Daniel Negreanu (64,500), and John Juanda (60,600). In total, 106 players remain and play begins again at 2pm. Get full chip counts here.

Event #6 ($1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo) - While we were busy sweating Shannon Elizabeth, we forgot to mention that Scott Clements (a lock to cash in these Omaha events) looks like he's the freaking Incredible Hulk. Dude is huge. We'll get pics today. Clements is among the chip leaders with 28,000. James Van Alstyne leads them all with 40,000. Get full chip counts here.

2008 WSOP Band of Bloggers: Get full recaps and payouts from WorldSeriesofPoker.com here. Get Dr. Pauly's take on WSOP happenings here. Gary Wise has some thoughts here. Please please don't forget Pokerati here. And get Poker Prof's recap and more photos here.

Liv Boeree, Maria Ho and Some Other Girls Playing Poker at the 2008 WSOP, Plus an Update

Above is head-banging poker hottie Liv Boeree and the last chick standing at the 2007 WSOP Main Event Maria Ho playing at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Liv, a woman, was in the field yesterday for Event No. 2 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and mentioned that she "went deep and got it in ahead and that's what matters." So we guess that means she's out. Maria Ho, also a woman, is playing today in Event No. 4 - $5k Mixed Hold'em.

Updating you on the action from the floor of the WSOP, there are three events underway today at the Rio, including Day 2 of the $1,500 NLH event. 180 players remain from the nearly 4000 who started Event No. 2 and Ginikachukwu Izuogu (<- no way that's a real name) is out front with 305,000 in chips, David Bach (6th at 2007 LAPC) is in second with 288,000 in chips and Ryan D'Angelo is third with 237,000. Notables still in include Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Theo Tran, Kenny Tran, Shaniac, Aaron Kanter, Arnold Spee, and Terrence Chan. They have to play down to the final 9 before action stops so we're guessing they'll still be going when we wake up tomorrow afternoon.

Both Event No. 3 ($1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em) and Event No. 4 ($5k Mixed Hold'em) started today with the former drawing a decent 713 entrants and already down to 198. David Singer leads the pro heavy field last we checked. Get the latest chip counts here.

Event No. 4 was the late start today and had 333 players enter, with most of the field consisting of players who busted early from Event No. 3. Brit pro Ben Grundy holds the early chip lead with 32,000, and big names over 20k in chips already include Bill Chen, Ralph Perry, Bill Edler, Berry Johnston, Eric Froelich, and Phil Ivey.

Okay, this is really tiring. Time for a nap.

WSOP updates here. If you speak French, maybe here.

Random photos of some random girls and Mrs. Patrik Antonius (center pic) playing poker at the 2008 WSOP below.

Doyle Brunson Opens the 2008 WSOP and Cougar Accepts WCP Invite

It was no surprise when WCP asked “a woman” to write on their site but it was quite the shocker when they chose “a woman” who hadn’t undressed for money. Nonetheless, it was a quick affirmative as I knew I would have full access to their private jet and yacht. We debated… In the Cage with a Cougar, Five Minutes with a Cougar, The Cougar’s Roar and settled on The Cougar Corner.

They call me the Cougar for at least two of the following reasons:

1. It’s an inside joke.
2. I married a man 392 days my junior.
3. It makes the 1/3 of WCP married to a Cougar feel better.
4. Cougar halts at the border of offensiveness and my husband scares them.
5. I attended Cougar classes here.

However, last night between their beer bongs, SEXT* messages (to their current and first wives) and casino streaking, they couldn’t decide what exactly qualified one as a Cougar. Did she hunt or just prefer younger men? Should Cougars be at least 40 years-old with relations averaging a ten year age difference? Did a Cougar need to be a fan of the Chippendale dancers?

In Cougar summary, it doesn’t matter because they’ve branded me with the nickname and now, since several people addressed me as Cougar yesterday at the 2008 WSOP, I guess it’s “Time to Say Goodbye” to nickname numero uno…the Black Widow.

Hump to the jump for WSOP updates.

Libertarian Poker Night with Jesus and Bloch this April Fools' Day

The freedom-loving, free-thinking, free market-ers over at Reason.com are hosting a "poker night" on Tuesday, April 1 with special guests Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Andy Bloch. The evening will include some card playing and an open discussion on politics and poker moderated by the well-reasoned online poker advocate and CATO-er Radley Balko.

Says the site:

"On Tuesday, April 1, please join the staff of reason at our D.C. offices for a short panel discussion about the great American game of poker. What's behind its massive recent surge in popularity? Why did Congress ban online poker? Why are local governments sending in SWAT teams to bust up private games?

After a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by reason Senior Editor Radley Balko, we'll shuffle up and deal specially embossed free reason playing cards. Drinks, light snacks and poker paraphernalia provided."

A poker night in DC held on April 1st with famous poker players and a bunch of UIGEA-opposing Libertarians? We smell an April Fools' Day hoax coming saying the event got raided. Or maybe we'll start it ourselves. And if we do, hopefully you'll forget we just said that.

For more about the event go here.

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