Last night, before I left the Amazon room, I made a prop bet with Pauly. "I'll take Ivey, and you can have Reese," I said.

"Okay, but we're both hoping that Andy Bloch wins, because he's the nicest guy in the world, right?"

"Of course," I said.

I got myself back to my hotel in time to hit my self-imposed bedtime of "right around midnight," but the final table play was just too damn compelling, and it wasn't until exhaustion dragged me down around 3 that I finally gave up, turned off my laptop, and went to sleep.

Pauly's blog, Cardplayer, and Pokerwire have in-depth, hand-by-hand recaps of the entire action, which is going to be insanely hard for ESPN to edit into an hour-long broadcast (if they're smart, they'll make the heads-up portion of the match, which was the longest in WSOP history, its own episode.)

Many of the pros I talked to before yesterday's final table of the 50K HORSE event were putting their faith (I didn't ask them about their money) on Phil Ivey, who is widely regarded as the best no-limit player in the world. With players like Dewey Tomko, Doyle Brunson and Andy Bloch at the table, though, everyone had a shot at the bracelet, regardless of chip count. In fact, as they played all night long, Andy and Chip traded the lead several times, with huge swings in their respective leads, from the typical 2:1 up to 6:1, then all the way up to 22:1 shortly before the end.

I'm sure Chip Reese doesn't need to hear it from the likes of me, but congratulations are in order, so here there are: Congratulations to Chip Reese, winner of the inaugural 50K HORSE event. Everyone agrees that Chip is the best all-around player in the world. In fact, the story goes, he stopped in Las Vegas on his way to Stanford, won 40,000 in a tournament, and never left. Chip routinely plays in cash games where you can buy a new car with one round of bets, so he doesn't need the 1.7 million dollar first prize, but the pros here have said all along that it's not about the money; it's about the bracelet, and though this was Chip's first bracelet since 1982, it was probably worth the wait.

With just thirty minutes left before the final table of the 50K Horse event begins, the hallways here at the Rio are filling up even more than usual.

There is pretty much one entrance for players to come through, and I happened to be standing near it about fifteen minutes ago, when Andy Bloch came in. I kind of know Andy, and I wished him luck, and congratulated him on making the final table. Andy was friendly and gracious, but I can also tell that he is one hundred percent focused on his game.

Shortly after Andy walked in, Chip Reese came up the walkway, and ran into two women who were lurking around the doors. One of them stopped him, and told him a story about Puggy Pearson that was essentially a personal bad beat story that involved leaving cold french fries on a room service cart.

Are you fucking serious? Chip Reese is on his way into the final table of the largest buy-in WSOP event in history, and you think it's cool to stop him and tell him a story about cold french fries? Chip handled it with grace and quickly continued into the Rio.

Aside: I'm writing this from the PokerStars hospitality suite, where I can get on the wireless network, and all day long top pros have been in and out of the room. David Sklansky just wandered in, wearing a PokerStars shirt, no less, looked around, and headed out. Weird.

I haven't seen any of the other final table players, but here's how they stack up, from Poker Wire:

1. Chip Reese 1,756,000
2. Doyle Brunson 1,227,000
3. Andy Bloch 934,000
4. Phil Ivey 885,000
5. Jim Bechtel 841,000
6. David Singer 745,000
7. Dewey Tomko 438,000
8. T.J. Cloutier 351,000
9. Patrik Antonius 13,000

Though they played HORSE to get this far, the final table will be entirely no-limit hold'em. Some people like this, some people think it's lame, but one thing is certain: this is the bracelet that the serious pros care the most about. This field was only 143 players, but the competition was so fierce, each table looked like poker's all-star game.

Once play is underway, you can track live updates at Cardplayer and Poker Wire.

If you're a US Congressman, and your party has had 100% control of the levers of power in Washington for five years, your president's approval rating hovers in the low to mid 30s, and your own approval rating is even worse, what do you do when the mid-term elections come up? You pander to your base, of course. You find a scapegoat, jingle your keys, and do whatever it takes to distract the voters from what a complete and miserable failure you are. This week, we got to see this election year strategy in all its hardcore action, as the House voted 317-93 to make almost all online wagering, including playing poker, a crime.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach (R- Iowa) makes it a federal crime to use a credit card or US-based bank to fund anything deemed "online gambling," with the notable and incredible exception of horse racing and online state lotteries.

Because, you know, gambling is an incredibly dangerous problem, threatening to tear apart the fabric of our society even more than same-sex marriage, or burning the flag, or repealing tax cuts for Paris Hilton and it must be stopped! Except, of course, for horse racing and lotteries; those are totally fine, and, uh, something about terrorists if you disagree with the congress on this one.

While most of us can look at this bill and see it for the transparent pandering that it is, we have to take it seriously. If the Senate passes similar legislation, ISPs could be allowed (or even required) to block access to poker sites (but not horse racing or lottery sites) from within the United States. Even if you don't care about playing online poker, think about how you feel about the government deciding what you can and can't do from the privacy of your own home, and where you can go on the Internets. Do you really want the government making those decisions for you?

There is no bill in the Senate right now, but it could easily be attached to something and we'd see the Repair all the Roads in the Northeast, Give Puppies to kids with Cancer and Ban Online Poker Act of 2006 fly through with no debate in the middle of the night on a voice vote, because that's just the way these jerks roll, you know.

So what do we do? The first thing is to find out if your congressmoron voted in favor of this bill. If it did, you need to write a letter (not e-mail) and tell them that they've lost your vote, and why. Then you need to make a phone call and tell them the same thing, and then you should write letters to the editor for your local papers. Then, join the Poker Players Alliance! They're like the EFF for poker players, and they are our best hope to prevent this ridiculous bill from becoming a law and making criminals out of us all.

The Poker Players Alliance has worked very hard to educate members of congress that poker is a game of skill and shouldn't be lumped in with luck-based games like roulette and keno, and they've made a lot of progress in a very short time with the more intelligent members of congress (yes, there are at least 93 of them.) They've posted a letter in response to the passage of this bill, which you can read at Bill Rini's blog:

"We are disappointed that the House of Representatives would assail the rights of Americans to enjoy the great game of poker on the Internet. It is unconscionable that a skill game like poker gets swept into the net of prohibition, while online horse betting and Internet lotteries get free passes," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker Players Alliance.

For you fence-sitters, Absinthe makes a good case for joining the PPA:

We often talk about poker books as reasonable investment because the information contained therein can help us profit in the future . . . So consider for a moment the number of future big bets you might earn from a successful PPA defense of the right to play online poker:

All of 'em.

If you are one of the few people in the poker blogging community who hasn't heard about the For Peyton charity auction, then please read on. A member of our community, Bobby Bracelet, has brought to our attention the story of a little girl named Peyton whose mother recently passed away from small cell ovarian cancer. Poker players, bloggers, friends and family have joined to raise money for Peyton's future, as well as for small cell ovarian cancer research.

Professional poker players have been making donations, including Phil Hellmuth, Gavin Smith, and Josh Arieh, who each generously donated $2,000. If you are interested in contributing you may make a donation or bid on one of their eBay auctions - which is a great way to get some poker swag. Auctions are live on eBay right now and will close on July 13, 2006. You can visit the For Peyton website for direct links to the auctions, as well as more information about this cause.

Some of the packages include: (details copied from the ForPeyton website)

Daniel Negreanu: This is a package of items donated by Daniel Negreanu, 2004 CardPlayer Champion, ESPN, and WPT Player of the Year, and owner of 3 WSOP bracelets. It includes a black Full Contact Poker t-shirt signed on the top left (size L), a black Full Contact Poker hat signed on the brim, and an 8.5 x 11 autographed picture of Daniel.

Scott Fischman: This is a package of items donated by two-time WSOP champion Scott Fischman. Items include an orange Fishtank hooded sweatshirt (size L), two black Fishtank hats (one trucker, one fitted), a poker table mouse pad w/chips, and a copy of the official game of the WSOP for Nintendo Gamecube.

Phil Gordon: This package includes an autographed copy of Phil Gordon's Little Green Book and Final Table Poker DVD, as well as an autographed photo.

CardPlayer: This package includes Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker System DVD, 2 CardPlayer t-shirts, a copy of the book, 52 Tips For Texas Hold'em Poker by Barry Shulman with Mark Gregorich, a CardPlayer mouse pad, hat and deck of cards.

Poker DVD Package: This package includes Phil Hellmuth's Million Dollar Poker System DVD and the Poker for Dummies DVD, as well as a CardPlayer mouse pad.

Also for auction:

Autographed photo of Isabelle Mercier and an autographed photo of 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem.

For full details about this charity auction, please visit the ForPeyton.com website.

This coming Sunday, PokerStars will be putting their regular Sunday Million Dollar Tournament on hold so they can host a World Series of Poker satellite. A minimum of 150 prize packages to the Main Event will be offered, each worth $12,000 which includes:

$10,000 Main Event Buy In
9 Nights Luxury Hotel Accommodations
$1,000 In Spending Cash

Satellites to Sunday's tournament are running now, or you can buy-in directly for $350 plus $20 juice.

The tournament will be held at PokerStars on Sunday, July 16th at 4:30pm. For more information, you can check out the PokerStars website.

Here is a quick look at the 2006 World Series of Poker bracelet winners and final table finishers over the past few days:

Event #9, $5000 No Limit Hold'em
Total Prize Pool: $2,293,400
Entries: 622

This must have been an epic event to watch - Phil Hellmuth was vying for his tenth World Series of Poker Bracelet in a final heads-up match against Jeff Cabanillas, however had to settle for second place and $423,893. First place finisher Cabanillas claimed the bracelet and $818,546. To make things even more exciting, Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier were also competing at the final table, though they went out in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Quoc Al 'Vinnie' Vinh, who has lifetime tournament earnings of over $2 million dollars, also made the final table and finished in eighth place.

Final standings:

1. Jeff Cabanillas $818,546
2. Phil Hellmuth Jr. $423,893
3. Eugene Todd $233,872
4. Marcel Luske $204,638
5. Isabelle Mercier $175,404
6. Thomas Schreiber $146,170
7. Douglas Carli $116,936
8. Vinnie Vinh $87,702
9. Dan Smith $58,468

Event #10, $1500 Seven-Card Stud
Total Prize Pool: $652,470
Entries: 478

David Williams has over $5 million dollars in tournament earnings to date, 3.5 million of which was earned for placing second in the 2004 WSOP Main Event. This marks his first-ever World Series of Poker championship bracelet though, and places David in 4th place on Card Player's 2006 Player of the Year race, only behind Michael Mizrachi, Nam Le, and Anthony Reategui. Final nine players in the $1500 Seven-Card Stud event were:

1. David Williams $163,118
2. John Hoang $110,920
3. Jack Duncan $71,772
4. Mitchell Ledis $45,673
5. 'Miami' John Cernuto $35,886
6. Ivan Schertzer $29,361
7. Johnny Chan $22,836
8. Matt Hawrilenko $16,312
9. Mark Dickstein $8,482
   

If you are looking for a recap of the WPBT weekend in Las Vegas, you have come to the wrong place. Unfortunately I was unable to make this trip and have been wallowing in self-pity all weekend because of it. Ok, that is only somewhat true - I had the opportunity to go and made the very tough decision to pass due to other commitments, but I am very happy to hear that everyone is having a great time there. Having been to one of these get-togethers already made it very difficult to miss this one, and due to the few trip reports that are already trickling in I can see that it was another epic weekend.

Thanks to Pauly for posting the winner of the WPBT tournament, as well as the winner of the Gigli prize (first player out.) I've been looking everywhere for the past 24 hours and he, as usual, was the first to post the results. You want to know who won? Here is the link.

To all of my friends there, I really missed seeing you all, and have a safe trip back home!

The poker world is so surreal, you don't need to make up stories, because the true ones are weird and unbelievable enough on their own.

For example:

At last year's WSOP, Paul Phillips traded 3% with me. What the hell? Why would one of the best players in the world trade with me? Because we're friends, and it made it more interesting for him. Paul just entered the 50K HORSE event that plays on Tuesday.

In the Amazon Room at the Rio, shortly after I was eliminated, I stood near the middle of the room and talked with Chris Ferguson. He kept apologizing to me when people would push past me and ask for his autograph. I told him that we could go over to the Hilton if he wanted to trade places.

At BARGE last year, Greg Raymer sat next to me at the symposium. Sensing that I was terrified and didn't know anyone, Greg put me at ease by teaching me Chinese poker while we waited for the symposium to start.

Nolan Dalla once asked me for advice on publishing.

At the PCA this year, I played in the craziest SNG ever, with a very drunk BJ Nemeth who kept the table in stitches with comments like, "Hey! Three players to a hand!" BJ played a hand totally blind against Isabelle Mercier, who put him in for all his chips with a middle pair. BJ called -- blind -- and turned over pocket aces. It took a huge chunk out of her stack, but she still worked her way up to heads-up with me. I lasted all of two hands before she busted me.

Just now, I was on the phone with one of the marketing VPs at PokerStars. We were talking about some logo clothes I'd like to wear when I play in the WSOP this year.

"So I think I'd like to get a --" I said.

"Wait. Wil, I'm sorry, I have to interrupt you. Isabelle just got eliminated and is on the other line. I'll have to call you back."

So that's how I found out that Isabelle Mercier finished in fifth place in event number nine at the 2006 World Series of Poker. She takes home $136,000 -- not a bad return on $5,000, but not a bracelet, either. Hellmuth and Marcel Luske are still around, with two players I don't know. I'm cheering for Luske, and whoever is in a pot with Phil.

Man, this is a weird world.

Shane Nickerson and I were at Commerce Casino playing NLHE about four months ago. There was an Asian guy in his mid-30s at our table, who just couldn't catch a break; he was out-drawn several times in a few hours, and he eventually got up and moved to a different table that was still close to where we were sitting.

Fifteen or twenty minutes after he moved, we heard him shouting "Ten Q! Ten Q!" as he stood up and pointed at the table where the flop presumably had just been dealt.

I looked over, and assumed that he had flopped a draw, and needed a ten or a queen to complete his straight, but I figured out very quickly that he was actually shouting "thank you" to a woman who had called his kings with nines, and they were both all-in. He was deliriously happy that she'd called him with a totally dominated hand, and he was going to get close to unstuck on the night.

There were two clubs on the board, she had a club in her hand, and she caught running cards to make a four-card flush. The poor guy, who had made such good decisions while he was playing, and had just gotten really unlucky, was just crushed.

Since that day, when Shane or I get outdrawn or get really unlucky (in poker or not) one of us will say, "TenQ."

I'm surprised at the number of people who entered event #8 - Omaha Hi/Low Split. It's one of my favorite games, but not usually as popular as some of the others. However, 670 players ponied up $2000 each for a total prize pool of $1,219,400 - that is 255 more players than in event #7 - Limit Hold'em. A new trend, perhaps? Negreanu cashed again, this time earning $48,776 for 7th place. The bracelet winner though was Jack Zwerner who earned $341,426 for his first place finish. Final nine and their prize money:

1. Jack Zwerner $341,426
2. Florante Mandap $176,813
3. Jeff Madsen $97,552
4. Cuong Do $85,358
5. Bob Mangino $73,164
6. Robert Collins $60,970
7. Daniel Negreanu $48,776
8. Russ Salzer $36,582
9. Steve Lustig $24,388

Event #7, $3000 Limit Hold'em, completed on Tuesday evening. 415 players entered making the total prize pool $1,145,400. William Chen took down the championship and the bracelet, earning a very nice payday of $343,618. Top nine finishers and their prize money were as follows:

1. William Chen $343,618
2. Yueqi Zhu $184,409
3. Henry Nguyen $91,632
4. Karlo Lopez $80,178
5. Danny Ciaramella $68,724
6. Larry Thomas $57,270
7. Allan Puzantyan $45,816
8. Ernie Scherer $34,362
9. Jeffrey Lisandro $22,908

In case you haven't heard - Barry Greenstein is the newest member of Team PokerStars. Barry will join the past three World Series of Poker Main Event champions Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, and Chris Moneymaker, along with our own Wil Wheaton, Isabelle Mercier, Tom McEvoy, John Duthie, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Vanessa Rousso, Luca Pagano, Victor Ramdin, and Lee Nelson.

Not only is he one of the best players in the world, but he is also one of the few professionals I haven't personally seen play online (though Wil apparently has), so I am pretty excited about him joining forces with them.

Okay, I'll admit it: I positively adore Isabelle Mercier. It's not just because she's beautiful, or because she is a deadly good poker player, or because she has always been so friendly to me since we first met at a PokerStars event two years ago. It's all those things, but it's mainly because of her attitude: regardless of how she's running, I've never seen her outwardly upset, or get impatient with an adoring fan (read: creepy drooling dude with stained pants, or me.) At the PCA this year, I put a terrible beat on her, hitting a two-outer to suckout on the river, and though a normal person would leap up from the table and storm out of the room, Isabelle sighed, said, "I am running really bad," congratulated me, and kissed my cheek.

Yet they call her No Mercy, because even though she's so easy to fall in love with, she will destroy you at the poker table . . . and if you're lucky, you'll get a kiss on the cheek as she scoops all your chips.

Today, Isabelle will head into the final table of event number nine -- five thousand dollar no-limit hold-em -- on a quest for her first WSOP bracelet. Like all the serious pros, Isabelle says that it's not about the massive payday she'll get if she wins; it is about the bracelet, and the prestige and respect that comes with it.

I've had the good fortune to see some of Isabelle's jewelry close up. It's as beautiful and delicate as she is, and though a heavy gold bracelet may appear out of place on her wrist, it would, in fact, fit in perfectly.

Event #9 resumes at 2PM today, and the final table (which ESPN must be kicking itself for not covering -- good thing they're working so hard to rehabilitate Dutch Boyd's image, though) looks like this:

1. Vinnie Vinh 784,000
2. Phil Hellmuth 461,000
3. Marcel Luske 458,000
4. Isabelle Mercier 301,000
5. Jeff Cabanillas 275,000
6. Douglas Carli 273,000
7. Eugene Todd 240,000
8. Thomas Schreiber 200,000
9. Dan Smith 117,000

Otis will be updating Isabelle's progress today, at the Official Poker Stars blog.

Ok, I am almost caught up. You miss a few days of the World Series and you miss a lot, apparently. Event #6 was No Limit Hold'em with a $2000 buy-in. Carlos Mortensen made his second final table of the 2006 WSOP, but finished in 9th place once again. The championship bracelet went to Mark Vos, along with $803,274 in cash.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Mark Vos $803,274
2. Nam Le $401,647
3. John Reiss $209,555
4. Thomas Hunt III $160,659
5. Willard Chang $136,211
6. Kevin Peterson $115,255
7. Vanessa Selbst $101,285
8. David Wells $87,315
9. Juan Carlos Mortensen $73,344

Now that we are all caught up on what did happen, you can go check the following people for live updates on the current events. I'll be posting recaps and updates as they come in, as well as some other stuff so stay tuned.

Live from Vegas:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

There are a handful of events that I would really like to see live over the others, and this would have been one of them. The $2500 NLHE short-handed (6 players per table) event finished on Sunday, and I can only imagine it was pretty entertaining to watch. Short-handed tables move a lot faster since your starting requirements are lower, but when you have a final table that includes Dutch Boyd, Joseph Hachem, and Daniel Negreanu, you have to know the action never stopped.

Dutch Boyd walked away as champion, earning the 5th World Series of Poker bracelet of 2006. Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Dutch Boyd $475,712
2. Joseph Hachem $256,800
3. Jeff Knight $153,511
4. Michael Goodman $115,607
5. Pete Hassett $91,917
6. David Solomon $68,227
7. Mirza Nagji $42,642
8. Daniel Negreanu $38,852
9. Vegard Nygaard $35,061

Again, don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire