Day 1

In the last major poker tournament before that other poker “Series” kicks off, 228 players filed into the ropes across from the Mandalay Bay poker room.  Although it was evident some players may be taking time off before the grind of the summer, those who chose to put their 10 G’s on the line were up against some tough competition.  As we followed the action in the tournament area we ran into stacked table after stacked table with big name pros occupying five, six, or even seven of the seats around the felt. 

A crowd quickly grew around the rail as fans were only feet away from some of poker’s elite. But the railbirds would have to wait a whole two levels before the king of late arrivals took his seat.  The one, the only, Phil Hellmuth.  In his usual style he graced the tournament with his presence and immediately started his table talk.  However, it would not be Phil’s day as he made his exit shortly after he sat down.  It is worth noting that a tantrum was not included.  Others that would not make it through the day were Jeff Madsen, Gavin Smith, and WPT Pro Bloggers Isaac Haxton, Shannon Shorr, and Mirage Poker Showdown winner Jonathan Little.
 
Jean-Robert  Bellande emerged as the early chip leader, taking several huge pots down.  With everyone starting the day with 20,000 in tournament chips, Bellande shot up to an incredible 140,000 within the first two levels.  The key hand came when a player under the gun raised to 600 and Jean-Robert Bellande made it 2,100 to go. The button flat called and David Daneshgar moved all-in from the big blind for 3,300 total. The original raiser folded and Bellande re-raised 4,500 more. The button called again.  Then flop came Q 8 7 . Bellande bet 4,000 and the button made a large all-in push for around 40,000. Bellande insta-called and shows pocket aces, the button flipped over A-Q and Daneshgar showed pocket kings. The turn and the river were blanks and Bellande reached his high point of the day.  And then came the freefall.   Still at close to 100K he dumped most of his stack in the last level, ending the day with just 17,975. 
 
Taking his place as tournament chip leaders, and the only players with more than 100,000 at the end of the day were:
Shawn Buchanan – 158,075
Timothy Hebert - 155,175
John Juanda – 112,325
David Benyamine – 110,375
John Racner – 108,550
Matthew Graham - 103,900
 
110 players survived day one to continue on for their cut of the $2.21 million dollar prize pool.  The payouts were announced towards the end of the day, with 27 players getting paid capped by a $768,775 first prize payout.  Tomorrow’s action has another five levels slated into the schedule.  Can Bobby Bellande re-accumulate his once massive stack?  Will veteran pros John Juanda and David Benyamine be able to stay atop the leader board?  Or maybe one of the remaining unknown players will emerge to become poker’s next superstar.  Check back for Day 2 at the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship.

Day 2

108 players started Day 2 of the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship and many of them did not waste time sealing their fate in this tournament.   In a rush of short stacked players pushing all-in the field was narrowed down to 78 players within the first 90 minute level.  Among the early casualties were WPT Season V Player of the Year JC Tran, former chip leader Jean-Robert  Bellande, Mimi Tran and Chad Brown.
 
Caribbean  Poker Adventure Champion, Ryan Daut, began to separate himself from the pack early in the day.  Starting with a healthy chip stack of 91,925, he quickly built it up to 145,000 in the first level and used that momentum to keep him atop the leader board for most of the day.  The 22 year-old New Jersey native seemed to be a “chip magnet” in more ways than one.  After accumulating close to 300k in chips he was moved to a new table that featured fellow chip leader Timothy Hebert.  Both were massive chip leaders at the time, accounting for roughly 15% of all chips in play.  At this point the play of both seemed to tighten up, as neither player wanted to clash with the other.
 
With a large portion of the chips being focused on their table, play at the other tables also slowed.  After the slew of player that were eliminated in the early rounds,  things definitely tightened up as short stacks protected their chips as if they were their own children.  Toward the end of the night four full tables still remained, and once again where Daut was, the chips followed.  After a table re-draw he was seated three seats to the right of JC Alvarado, who at the time was the only other player with more than 300k in chips.
 
Daut and Alverado were not the only heavy-hitters at their new table, as we saw one of the most stacked tables of Season 6.  Eight of the nine players were named pros that included John Juanda
Phil Laak, Michael Mizrachi, Jim McCrink, John Racener, and Danny Wong.  (Feel free to take pity on the one pour soul that the live updates team did not recognize).

Laak's elimination on the last hand of the night ended a day where the players seemed to be crawling towards to money. Slow pace or not, Daut will be looking to attract even more chips tomorrow as he looks to make a run at a second WPT final table. 
 
Notable chip counts at the end of Day 2:
Ryan Daut - 322,300
Shawn Buchanan - 278,500
Timothy Hebert - 277,300
Chris Bell - 267,400
JC Alvarado - 229,500
John Juanda - 227,300
David Levi - 224,800
Chantel McNulty - 215,300
Barry Greenstein - 213,000
Michael Mizrachi 188,000
* Average * - 138,182 
Lex Veldhuis - 133,500
Chau Giang - 70,600
Alan Goehring - 29,100
Thomas Walhroos - 42,200

Play will resume again tomorrow at 12pm PST with 33 players remaining.  Day 3 will run for another five levels, or until only 10 players are left standing.

Day 3

With the top 27 players making the money and only 33 players starting the day, everyone came to the tournament area here at Mandalay Bay this morning knowing that the bubble was near.  The short stack of the day, Jim McCrink wasn’t afraid to ship it all-in early, and paid the price by being the first player eliminated.  In a field where no one seemed to fear the money bubble, play did not slow down and 27 players had Eugene Todd to thank when he was eliminated in 28th place just inside the second level of the day.

As others were grinding out in the traditional fashion, Table 40 might as well have been full of keyboards, mice and monitors as internet giants battled it out on the non-virtual felt. 

Here is the rundown of that table:
- Ryan ‘Daut44’ Daut
- Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis
- Chantel McNulty
- Matthew 'MattG1983' Graham
- Alan 'Bodog Ari' Engel
- Thayer 'Thay3r' Rasmussen

The table was the first one broken of the day, but while it lasted you could hear the sound of internet railbirds everywhere begging for a piece of their action.  All of these players, with the exception of Ari, would end up finishing in the money. (He was severely crippled when his Aces were cracked by MattG and he was eliminated a few hands later.)

The focus of the tournament was soon shifted away from the internet contingent and placed solely on the play of a young rising star, Danny Wong.  Wong had 126,700 in chips to start Day 2, but picked his spots well and battled it out to run his stack up over 600,000 in the middle stages of the day.  In one particular hand the board read [6s4h2c]; Tim Hebert and Wong both checked. The turn brought the [10d] and Hebert led out for 20,000. Wong made the call. The river came the [Qc]. Hebert fired a 50,000 bet into the pot and Wong went into the tank for several minutes. Since the tournament was hand for hand at the time many of the players from the other tables gathered around to watch Wong's decision. He finally called and Hebert tapped the felt as if to say "good call", but Wong waited for Hebert to reveal his cards. Hebert showed the [8s5s] for a busted straight draw while Wong tabled [Ad7d] for ace high. The room began to buzz as all the players returned to their seats discussing the sick call.  Later Wong got all his chips into the pot with pocket kings against the A-K of Ryan Daut. His Kings held up, and suddenly Duat, who was the chipleader for most of the day found himself on the shortstack and Wong had completed his climb to the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately for Wong, all good things must come to an end and as other players chipped up, he chipped down to finish the day 5th overall with 465,000.
  
Down to the final two tables, many of the internet stars were still around but they had to fight off a tough group of seasoned veterans in Chris Bell, John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Chau Chang and David Levi.  Juanda and Bell would not make it through the day however, as they finished in 12th and 11th place respectively.  To no one’s surprise it was the internet generation who knocked both players out.  Thayer Rasmussen busted Juanda after his A-Q held up against the A-J of Juanda.  With the elimination it appeared that his 685,000 would be enough to claim the chip lead heading into tomorrow’s action, that was until Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby knocked out Chris Bell moments later.  Short stacked for most of the day, Hamby somehow managed to shoot up to 698,000 to take the chip lead away from Rasmussen on the very last hand of the night.

Tomorrow’s final table will feature a mixture of rookies and veterans battling it out as we work our way down from 10 players to the TV table six.

Here’s a look at the final 10, their chip counts, and seating arrangements:

Seat 1: Thayer Rasmussen – 685,000
Seat 2: David Levi– 158,000
Seat 3: Ryan Daut – 217,000
Seat 4: Jared Hamby – 698,000
Seat 5: Chau Tu Giang – 318,000
Seat 6: David Haddad – 444,000
Seat 7: Danny  Wong – 465,000
Seat 8: Shawn Michael Buchanan – 658,000
Seat 9: Barry Greenstein – 375,000
Seat 10: J.C. Alvarado – 541,000

Day 4

Only 10 players would start Day 4 of the Mandalay Poker Championship in a table full of pros known either by the whole of the poker community or the online musings of forum gossip.   Highest of the high limit cash game player and seasoned tournament veteran Chau Giang was the first player to be eliminated.  Within the first 15 minutes of the day he found all his chips in the middle with pocket jacks against the A-K of Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby.  Hamby won the race and eliminated Chau in 10th place, good for $26,235.

WPT Season V PCA Champion, Ryan Daut was the next player to be eliminated, shortly after being crippled by a suck out courtesy of David Levi. Levi was all-in with [Ad9d] against the [AsKh] of Daut.  Things were looking good for the young pro until a devastating 9[h] fell on the flop.  The turn and river produced no help and Daut was down to his last 75,000. He soon raced for all his chips with [AhJh], but came up short against the pocket tens of Thayer Rasmussen.   He exited the tournament in 9th place, collecting $34,980.

Juan Carlos “JC” Alvarado became the next casualty at the final table when he ran into one of the hottest players in poker right now, Jared Hamby.  From middle position JC Alvarado raised to 42,000 and Hamby called from the big blind. The flop came K[d]Q[s]7[d] and Hamby checked.  Alvarado bet 50,000 and Hamby smooth called.  The turn brought the J[s]  and Hamby checked again.  Alvarado slid in two stacks of blue chips equaling 200,000. Hamby then turned his hat around and announced that he was all-in. Alvarado made the call and showed 10[d]8[d]  for a diamond flush draw to go along with an open ended straight draw. Hamby revealed K[h]J[d]  for two pair.   The river was the J[h]  giving Hamby a full house and the pot.  JC Alvarado was eliminated in 8th place, collecting $43,720.

It appeared as if Las Vegas local David Haddad would come up short in his bid at making a WPT final table until lightning struck for him on the river.  Haddad had been playing pre-flop poker all day long, taking down pot after pot with uncontested re-raises before the flop.  When he finally decided to see a flop it almost cost him his tournament life and his shot at the WPT title.
 
Haddad raised to 45,000 from the button and Danny Wong called out of the small blind. The flop came [Kd7c6d]  and Wong checked.  Haddad bet out 65,000, and Wong check-raised him another 115,000. Haddad moved all his chips in without too much thought for 385,000 more. After careful consideration Wong called and showed [KcQd].  It proved to be a great call as Haddad flipped over K[h]J[h].  The turn was a blank but Wong went from potential chipleader to the short stack at the table when the river brought the J[d], giving Haddad two pair.  Haddad doubled up, leaving Wong with only 74,000.

Wong managed to nurse his short stack and he narrowly avoided elimination before the final table was set.  Busting out in his place was the one, the only, Barry Greenstein.  One of the most consistent players of all time, a short-stacked Greenstein pushed all-in with [Kc10s], but ran into the pocket jacks of Hamby.  The jacks held up and Barry busted on the bubble of what would have been his 5th WPT final table. He earned $54,655 for his 7th place finish.  

As for tomorrow we have another exciting field in just our second final table of Season VI.

Here’s a preview:

Seat 1: Thayer Rasmussen - 273,000
Online he’s known as THAY3R and the forums have been buzzing with detailed updates as more and more railbirds have showed up to sweat and support him over the past two days.

Seat 2: David Levi - 334,000
Long time high stakes Israeli poker player.  Levi has been a regular on the World Poker Tour since the very first event where he finished 9th. In the five seasons on Tour he’s amassed WPT career earnings of $226,699 but he’s never made a final table until today. He’ll have to work the short stack but as he said in his video blog with Kimberly, “no one plays a short stack as good as me.”

Seat 3 Jared Hamby - 1,764,000
Online he’s known as “TheWacoKidd”.  To say he’s running well would be an understatement.  In the last 50 days he has won three events totaling over $600,000.  He has cashed in the last three WPT events for another $80,000 and counting. And he’ll be taking a commanding lead into his first televised final table where he will have a shot at another $768,775. Not bad for a career let alone the last two months.
 
Seat 4: David Haddad - 1,180,000
Las Vegas native, backgammon player, and a regular in the Bellagio cash games, David qualified for this event through a $1,000 satellite, which just so happened to be the first tournament he’s ever played. Now in his second tournament he finds himself sitting at a WPT televised final table.

Seat 5: Danny  Wong - 185,000
Danny Wong is a highly respected young player as anyone who has racked up career earnings totaling nearly $1.1 million in just under a year should be. At last year’s $10k Bellagio Cup Main Event, Danny finished second to Shannon Shorr and he broke through with a first place finish in the $2,500 prelim event at the Bellagio 5 Diamond World Poker Classic.
 
Danny is the only player of the final six with WPT final table experience as earlier this year he finished 6th at the Reno World Poker Challenge. His experience will give him an edge but with only 185,000 in chips he has a lot of work to do if he wants to improve upon his previous WPT placement.

Seat 6: Shawn Michael Buchanan - 853,000 
Starting at the top of the leaderboard on Day 1 is one thing, finishing at the top is another, but it is rare to start at the top and stay there through out the entire course of a major event but that is just what Shawn Buchanan has done here at the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship. Shawn finished Day 1 as the chipleader, Day 2 he was 2nd overall, Day 3 he finished 3rd overall, and at the end of Day 4 he finds himself still in 3rd heading into his first WPT final table. Like David Levi, Shawn has been a regular on the Tour over last few seasons and he has six WPT cashes for close to $150,000.