Standings at the end of Day 2
27 remaining
| 1. | Ron "Carolina Express" Stanley - Las Vegas | $401,500 |
| 2. | Stu Ungar - Las Vegas | 232,000 |
| 3. | Peter Bao - Las Vegas | 214,500 |
| 4. | Tormop Roren - Oslo, Norway | 190,500 |
| 5. | Chris Bjorin - London, England | 152,500 |
| 6. | Jay Heimowitz - Bethel, NY | 149,500 |
| 7. | Mori Eskand - Las Vegas | 146,500 |
| 8. | Rod Peate - Long Beach, CA | 135,500 |
| 9. | George Gerds - Pleasant Hill, CA | 131,000 |
| 10. | Phil Helmuth, Jr. - Palo Alto, CA | 125,500 |
| 11. | Billy Baxter - Las Vegas | 123,500 |
| 12. | David Roepke - Temple, TX | 115,500 |
| 13. | Dewey Weum - Monona, WI | 104,500 |
| 14. | Andrew Black - Cantebury, England | 104,000 |
| 15. | Bob Walker - Las Vegas | 92,000 |
| 16. | Ken Flaton - Henderson, NV | 88,000 |
| 17. | Mel Judah - London, England | 87,000 |
| 18. | George McKeever - Derry, N. Ireland | 78,500 |
| 19. | Marsha Waggoner - Downey, CA | 72,000 |
| 20. | Kev Nettles - Denver, CO | 69,500 |
| 21. | Doyle Brunson - Las Vegas | 66,000 |
| 22. | John Strzemp - Las Vegas | 57,000 |
| 23. | Matti Kvoriti - Helsinki, Finland | 53,000 |
| 24. | "Eskimo" Clark - New Orleans, LA | 50,000 |
| 25. | Rupert Housden - Bedford, England | 33,500 |
| 26. | Parvis Roudi - Birmingham, England | 25,500 |
| 27. | Michael Schichtman - Bethel, NY | 21,500 |
1997 Prize Money Breakdown
| $1,000,000 | 1st Place |
| 583,000 | 2nd Place |
| 371,000 | 3rd Place |
| 212,000 | 4th Place |
| 161,120 | 5th Place |
| 127,200 | 6th Place |
| 95,400 | 7th Place |
| 63,600 | 8th Place |
| 48,760 | 9th Place |
| 33,920 | 10th - 12th Place |
| 29,680 | 13th - 15th Place |
| 25,440 | 16th - 18th Place |
| 21,200 | 19th - 27th Place |
|
Las Vegas, May 13, 1997.
On Day 2 of the Final Event, play continues until there are only 27
players remaining, and that didn't happen until about 2:15 AM of Day 3.
Along the way, all of the rec.gamblers bit the dust.
Steve Brecher got himself eliminated early in the session and joined
Chris Ferguson's chief sweater, beautiful Cathy Burns, Mark Ferguson and
me in the rg cheering section. When play restarted around 8:00 PM after
the dinner break, Andy Bloch was up a little on the day to around $60,000
in chips, and Chris was among the leaders, with around $105,000, which was
up from only $14,975 when the day began. There were around 60 players
remaining at that point.
Andy couldn't get it going and only lasted until around 10:00 PM and Chris'
chips kept dwindling until he was eliminated one out of the money in 28th
place.
Steve Zolotow, who started the day in 39th place with $26,675 was among
the chip leaders with over $100,000 at one point, must have finished
somewhere in the 30's, because he was in good shape when I took a food
break around midnight with less than 40 remaining, and he was gone when I
returned a half hour or so later. I saw one key hand late in the day,
where Steve's pocket 4's flopped a set and eliminated an all-in player
who had a higher pocket pair.
The most formidible table. reputation wise, included at various times
Bobby Baldwin, Doyle Brunson, Phil Helmuth, Berry Johnston and Stu Ungar
(in alphabetical order). All but Doyle were there together for several
hours and Doyle came later from a broken table. Phil Helmuth finally
eliminated Bobby Baldwin when they both got all-in pre-flop in a large
pot and Phil's AK suited prospered from an A K X flop to beat Bobby's
pocket Q's and send Bobby home. Berry J. got transferred to another table
and lasted until about 30th place.
Chris Ferguson showed very poor table selection skills by getting himself
transferred to this table shortly after the dinner break.
After Doyle Brunson moved all-in with $60,000 or so late in Day 2, he
called "time" on Stu Ungar, and Stu mucked just before his time was up.
Any player may call "time" on another player at any time, and when this
happens, a floor person starts a one minute count down, announcing the 15
second increments, and at the conclusion of the one minute, there is a
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, "hand is now dead" further count down.
Marsha Waggoner is the only Lady to make Day 3, and she just barely
survived, with 31 players remaining. Her all-in pocket Q's ran into pocket
K's and a flopped set, to make a winning club flush on the river.
Best wishes to all-around-nice guy Ron "Carolina Express" Stanley who
has a commanding lead going into Day 3. The other half of the "nice team",
Ron's wife Rosanne, is a computer person as well as a very good poker
player herself.
The Volunteer Story
Early in Day 2, John Esposito was transferred to Andy Bloch's table, and
protested my sweating and recording of Andy's hole cards. John E. first
phrased his protest on the grounds that Andy was likely to play better
than otherwise because of my presence, and the fact that Andy's cards
would later be subject to public scrutiny. John maintained that this hurt
his (John E.'s) chances because Andy, who was the table chip leader,
would thereby be less likely to play questionable hands, which might give
John E. a better shot at Andy's chips. He then added that although I was
considerate and non-obtrusive, that my presence was a distraction to him.
Other people at the table, notably Rod Peate, said that they felt my
presence was a distraction also.
Shortly thereafter, my Andy sweating privileges were revoked, and I
recorded the rest of the play at Andy's Table from a distance of five or
six feet, and without being privy to Andy's hole cards.
My 86ing was very disappointing to Andy and to me. Binion's was most
apologetic to both of us, and we accepted the situation gracefully, and I
won't analyze the whys and why nots too much, but there are an awful lot
of distractions at the WSOP that seem to rank much higher than my
sweating of Andy.
Andy had been at the same table as John Esposito during Day 1's play, and
John E. had not voiced his concerns then. I do not blame John E. or Rod
P., both of whom have reputations for being agitators. They were within
their rights, and probably hoped to rattle Andy a little, as a minimum
by-product of there complaining. It would have been nice if this
situation had been forseen before I was given "Andy sweating" permission.
It was very unfortunate that John E. was eliminated from competition,
shortly after lodging his protest.
They did not do an eliminations board again today (as they have in the
past), nor did they take names nor do they know in what order today's
eliminees finished.
www.wsop.com
believes that things were running much better yesterday,
and reported that they were getting many hits at their site. Their Email
address is JWidman@wizard.com for any complaints, questions, feedback
etc.. The site is expected to stay up, with access to all the TV feeds
(past present and future), for the foreseeable future.
1997 WSOP Final Table Statistics
| # | Event | # of Hands | Total Time | Over at |
|---|
| 1. | $ 2,000 Limit Holdem | 108 | 2:36 | 6:46 PM |
| 2. | 1,500 Limit Razz | 202 | 4:02 | 8:07 PM |
| 3. | 1,500 Limit Omaha | 129 | 3:59 | 7:07 PM |
| 4. | 1,500 Limit 7 Stud | ? | 3:58 | 8:09 PM |
| 5. | 1,500 Pot Limit Omaha | 109 | 3:41 | 7:49 PM |
| 6. | 1,500 Limit 7 Stud Hi-Lo | 172 | 3:08 | 7:15 PM |
| 7. | 2,000 No Limit Holdem | 87 | 3:22 | 7:25 PM |
| 8. | 2,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo | 114 | 3:28 | 7:36 PM |
| 9. | 2,000 Pot Limit Holdem | 131 | 3:11 | 7:21 PM |
| 10. | 2,500 Limit 7 Stud | 156 | 3:12 | 7:28 PM |
| 11. | 2,500 Pot Limit Omaha | 113 | 3:45 | 7:51 PM |
| 12. | 2,500 Limit 7 Stud Hi-Lo | 153 | 4:12 | 8:18 PM |
| 13. | 3,000 Limit Holdem | 164 | 4:26 | 8:29 PM |
| 14. | 3,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo | 169 | 4:26 | 8:30 PM |
| 15. | 3,000 Pot Limit Holdem | 97 | 2:23 | 6:31 PM |
| 16. | 5,000 No Limit Deuce/Seven | ? | 2:41 | 1:11 AM |
| 17. | 3,000 No Limit Holdem | 129 | 3:38 | 7:44 PM |
| 18. | 5,000 Limit 7 Stud | 166 | 3:48 | 7:55 PM |
| 19. | 5,000 Limit Holdem |
| 20. | 1,000 Ladies 7 Stud |
| 21. | 10,000 Final Event |
$10,000 CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRANTS
| 1. | Nevada Stupak | 2. | Chris "Jesus" Ferguson |
| 3. | Chuck Thompson | 4. | Ken Flaton |
| 5. | Ken Buntjner | 6. | Mo Fathpour |
| 7. | Amadeo Parado | 8. | Laurence Clenau |
| 9. | Jay Reisler | 10. | Joseph Winston |
| 11. | Keith Taylor | 12. | Andre Boyer |
| 13. | Kev Nettles | 14. | Tormod Roren |
| 15. | Kenneth Davis | 16. | Don Pittman |
| 17. | Marko Trapini | 18. | Steve Kim |
| 19. | Sam Merchant | 20. | Andrew Black |
| 21. | Anthony Guerriero | 22. | George Gerus, Sr. |
| 23. | MacDonald Kempf | 24. | Ron "Carolina Express" Stanley |
| 25. | "Midnight" Pete Haugan | 26. | Jack Fox |
| 27. | John Hendrix | 28. | Dave Crunkleton |
| 29. | Jim Brown | 30. | Mike Pilkington |
| 31. | Martin Comer | 32. | Samir Khoveis |
| 33. | Gary Benson | 34. | David Roepke |
| 35. | Don Holt | 36. | J. C. Pearson |
| 37. | Tommi Han | 38. | Phuc Bao |
| 39. | James Harman | 40. | Ken Jacobs |
| 41. | Pete Dixon | 42. | Bruce Van Horn |
| 43. | Bill Fain | 44. | Myron Rosenbaum |
| 45. | Robert Henry Kojfer | 46. | David Rubin |
| 47. | Jim Mascher | 48. | Al McCoy |
| 49. | Mallie Hoyer | 50. | Angus Hill |
| 51. | Herb Potter | 52. | Allen Barker |
| 53. | Dr. Max Stern | 54. | Robert Dale Ellis |
| 55. | Peter Lameureaux | 56. | Milt Myers |
| 57. | Ken Sahek | 58. | Cal Dykes |
| 59. | Alex Horowitz | 60. | Thomas Sparks |
| 61. | Monte Kouz | 62. | Phil Helmuth |
| 63. | Jack Keller | 64. | Patrick Bruel |
| 65. | Louis Asmo | 66. | Dan Fairly |
| 67. | Jerre Juhl | 68. | John Strzemp |
| 69. | Tibor Tolni | 70. | Gustavo Weiss |
| 71. | Melissa Hayden | 72. | Paul Ladanyi |
| 73. | John Spadavecchia | 74. | Ivin Mladen |
| 75. | Tom McEvoy | 76. | Peter Brehm |
| 77. | Minh Ly | 78. | Bill Gazes |
| 79. | Praviz Roudi | 80. | Humberto Brenes |
| 81. | Pascal Perrault | 82. | Joel Chaseman |
| 83. | Marsha Waggoner | 84. | Randy Holland |
| 85. | Maria Stern | 86. | Tom Jacobs |
| 87. | David Ulliot | 88. | Noel Furlong |
| 89. | Brad Daugherty | 90. | Phil Brodrick |
| 91. | Thomas Chung | 92. | Vic Kramer |
| 93. | John Feranjesh | 94. | Billy "Crocodile" Argyros |
| 95. | Alan Brodsky | 96. | Jas Perdesi |
| 97. | Fred David | 98. | Edward Stevens |
| 99. | Charles Wight III | 100. | Michael Davis |
| 101. | Marcus Soloweiczyk | 102. | Jim Ward |
| 103. | Matt Lefkowitz | 104. | Buddy Bonnecaze |
| 105. | Mike Laing | 106. | Robert Eccleston |
| 107. | Bruce Korman | 108. | Mickey Appleman |
| 109. | Berry Johnston | 110. | Bobby Hof |
| 111. | John Galbraith | 112. | John Esposito |
| 113. | Thomas Franjesh | 114. | Jason Gray |
| 115. | Shulman Berry | 116. | Russ Hamilton |
| 117. | D. J. Keas | 118. | Doyle Brunson |
| 119. | Bob Veltri | 120. | Gustavo Echeverri |
| 121. | Lyle Berman | 122. | T. J. Cloutier |
| 123. | Scotty Nguyen | 124. | Adeeb Harb |
| 125. | Jay Heimowitz | 126. | Sam Chehab |
| 127. | Barbara Laux | 128. | Eli Balas |
| 129. | Jamie Ligator | 130. | Dean Potashner |
| 131. | Mick Cowley | 132. | Noli Francisco |
| 133. | Claud Sigmon | 134. | Jose Rosenkrantz |
| 135. | A. Fritz | 136. | Gerry O'Rourke |
| 137. | Ralph Levine | 138. | Bill Alexander |
| 139. | John Montelepre Sr | 140. | Hertzel Zalewski |
| 141. | Freddie Deeb | 142. | Billy Baxter |
| 143. | John Heaney | 144. | Hank Karwowski |
| 145. | Dave Spanier | 146. | Luis Santoni |
| 147. | Clarence Kimbrough | 148. | Gary Haubelt |
| 149. | William Woodson | 150. | Tony Bloom |
| 151. | Phyllis Meyers | 152. | Jack L. Ward |
| 153. | Bob Feduniak | 154. | Marty Wilson |
| 155. | Julien Studley | 156. | Howard Goldfarb |
| 157. | Men Nguyen | 158. | Peter Vilandos |
| 159. | Donny Kerr | 160. | Annie Duke |
| 161. | John Bonetti | 162. | Tod Brunson |
| 163. | Steve Lott | 164. | Roger Moore |
| 165. | Steve Pestal | 166. | George Rodis |
| 167. | Aidan Bennett | 168. | Cindy Violette |
| 169. | Athena Jordan | 170. | Surinder Sunar |
| 171. | Mickey Finn | 172. | An Tran |
| 173. | Mathias Ronacher | 174. | Steve Brecher |
| 175. | Tex Morgan | 176. | Len Miller |
| 177. | Yosh Nakano | 178. | Mark Weitzman |
| 179. | David Grey | 180. | Perry Green |
| 181. | Jason Lester | 182. | Catherine Brown |
| 183. | Tom McCormick | 184. | Gary Martin |
| 185. | Dewey Tomko | 186. | Chau Giang |
| 187. | Ron McMillan | 188. | David Chiu |
| 189. | Danny Dang | 190. | Gloria Tschetschot |
| 191. | Mark McCluskey | 192. | Richard Baldwin |
| 193. | Tony Lantz | 194. | Chris Bjorin |
| 195. | Bob Walker | 196. | Jacques Sollam |
| 197. | Farim Bazzi | 198. | Dolph Arnold |
| 199. | Ron Huber | 200. | Dan Harrington |
| 201. | "Miami John" Cernuto | 202. | Kevin Song |
| 203. | Eli Elezra | 204. | Thomas Kreilein |
| 205. | Sam Korman | 206. | Erik Seidel |
| 207. | Kevin Hunt | 208. | Tony Chaskelsod |
| 209. | Don Zewn | 210. | Liam Flood |
| 211. | Peter Delanos | 212. | Jaeggi Alphons |
| 213. | Hamid Dastmalchi | 214. | W. A. Boston Jr |
| 215. | Dave Allen | 216. | Carl McKelvey |
| 217. | Herman R. Smith | 218. | Fred Brown |
| 219. | Billy Thomas | 220. | David Mosley |
| 221. | Hilbert Shirey | 222. | Howard Lederer |
| 223. | Don Williams | 224. | Al. Crux |
| 225. | Don Barton | 226. | Monsour Matloubi |
| 227. | Paul Maxfield | 228. | Brent Carter |
| 229. | Huck Seed | 230. | Jim Bechtel |
| 231. | Steve Zolotow | 232. | Alex Brennes |
| 233. | Richard Chase | 234. | Charles Cushieri |
| 235. | O'Neil Longson | 236. | Stanley Goldstein |
| 237. | Dan O'Dea | 238. | Johnny Chan |
| 239. | Paul Rowe | 240. | Glen Marsonette |
| 241. | Andy Pantuso | 242. | Brian Meyers |
| 243. | Richard Klamian | 244. | Shelby Panoff |
| 245. | Roy Flowerday | 246. | Lance Straughn |
| 247. | Chip Reese | 248. | Howard Stevens |
| 249. | Dr. Phil Earle | 250. | Poggi Cesare |
| 251. | Michael McDonough | 252. | John Aglialoro |
| 253. | Tong N. Pak | 254. | Bobby Baldwin |
| 255. | Hal Kant | 256. | Rod Peate |
| 257. | Mel Judah | 258. | Ali Sarkeshik |
| 259. | Mark Edwards | 260. | Vince Van Patton |
| 261. | Dick Carson | 262. | Roy Thung |
| 263. | Pothiptinnakon | 264. | Jimmy Jimmy Cha |
| 265. | Andrew Bloch | 266. | Barry Greenstein |
| 267. | Dan Heimiller | 268. | Matti Kuortti |
| 269. | Tommy Grimes | 270. | Mel Weiner |
| 271. | Vince Burgio | 272. | Mike Sexton |
| 273. | George McKeever | 274. | Jim Tarr |
| 275. | Don Limor | 276. | "Eskimo" Clark |
| 277. | Dewey Weum | 278. | Larry Sigety |
| 279. | Cesar Como | 280. | Buddy Williams |
| 281. | Kathy Liebert | 282. | Michael Schichtman |
| 283. | Steve Melton | 284. | Keith Sexton |
| 285. | Pat Fleming | 286. | Lee Salem |
| 287. | "Doc" Berry | 288. | Crews Johnston |
| 289. | Glenn Cozen | 290. | Mori Eskand |
| 291. | Henry Orenstein | 292. | Mark Rose |
| 293. | Jeff Lisandro | 294. | Robert Housden |
| 295. | Larry Beilfuss | 296. | Ted Forrest |
| 297. | Frank Henderson | 298. | Walter Threadgill |
| 299. | Tommy Vinus | 300. | Gabe Kaplan |
| 301. | Harry Thomas | 302. | John Horn |
| 303. | Will Wilkenson | 304. | Bob Stupak |
| 305. | Hieu Ma | 306. | Robert Turner |
| 307. | Alan Boston | 308. | Stu Ungar |
| 309. | Mike Alsadi | 310. | Vasilis Lazarou |
| 311. | Victor Schperotti | 312. | Diasimi Maurizio |
| |
