Today is the day we watch the all-in-and-busts or all-in-and-double-ups while generally overlooking the pre-river play of players skillfully wielding medium-sized stacks to stay ahead of escalating blinds. It’s also the day that the 2008 189th through probably 28th or maybe 37th place WSOP main event finishers get crowned … so strike up the band(s)!
No more Team Pokerati members still alive … but we do have one Friend of Pokerati still with a fighting chance to make the bigger money — Raj Katamrsaddssldkasdi. He starts the day with 499,000 chips. (Avg. stack is 725k.) His table as Day 5 begins:
Seat 1: Mao Qiu – 1,200,000
Seat 2: Garth Paul – 647,000
Seat 3: Mark Owens – 577,000
Seat 4: Nicholas Sliwinski – 1,408,000
Seat 5: James McManus – 1,761,000
Seat 6: Stephen Kenna – 495,000
Seat 7: Alex Tinsley – 168,000
Seat 8: Raja Kattamuri – 499,000
Seat 9: Yde van Deutekom – 384,000
Others we’ll be paying attention to in the field include:
Phil Hellmuth — the last of the Big Three remaining, he’s impossible not to watch. 581,000
Mike Matusow — seriously, why is it that a guy who would be considered a total miscreant in just about every other profession is generally beloved in the poker world? I know I’d like to see him do well. 458,000
Tiffany Michelle — holy shit, like she can really play or something? Apparently more than just a texter. 909,000
Allen Cunningham — Dan Harrington’s long-lost child? (He’s on the same table as Tiffany.) 1,141,000