If sitting on the fence were a paid profession, I'd be right up there with the highest earners of all. Ladies only poker tournaments, good or bad? I don't feel strongly either way. Lakers or the Celtics for NBA final glory? Again, no real view on that one. But how about the split between those poker fans who love supporting players for their 'bad boy' image rather than players who let their skill at the felt do the talking? Now, this time I do have an opinion. Give me the player and not the 'image' every time.

That said, both sides of the debate agree on one thing - it's rather enjoyable when the bad boy gets mashed. And it's even more fun when that player gets done over on TV. You may have heard this was coming, now you can see what happens to 'Poker Brat' Phil Hellmuth in The PokerStars Big Game. In the episode that aired across the US last night, Hellmuth was crushed by one of the most horrible beats you're ever likely to see. Lovely.

That's Phil Hellmuth under there

Thanks to the folks at pokerstars.tv, you can now enjoy every second time and again. The video below shows the whole episode, but if you want to get to the nitty-gritty quickly, then let the video load up and fast forward to the 11 min, 10 second mark. Enjoy...

Now, wasn't that fun? The action on The PokerStars Big Game is only just getting started. If you want more information, including a veritable feast of great stats and clips not shown on TV, visit The Big Game website.

In related poker-player popularity news, yesterday the WSOP announced the results of the public voting to determine who should play in the Tournament of Champions, a 27-player 'freeroll' event with a whopping $1million prizepool up for grabs. 20 seats would be determined by the public, and more than 350,000 took the trouble to vote. Here are the winners, which contain a healthy selection of top Team PokerStars Pros:

1. Phil Ivey
2. Daniel Negreanu, Team PokerStars Pro
3. Doyle Brunson
4. Phil Hellmuth
5. Chris Ferguson
6. Allen Cunningham
7. Johnny Chan
8. Scotty Nguyen
9. Barry Greenstein, Team PokerStars Pro
10. John Juanda
11. Erik Seidel
12. Jen Harman
13. Huck Seed
14. Dan Harrington
15. TJ Cloutier
16. Sammy Farha
17. Howard Lederer
18. Greg Raymer, Team PokerStars Pro
19. Joe Hachem, Team PokerStars Pro
20. Antonio Esfaniari

Five players were automatic entries:
2004 ToC Champion: Annie Duke
2005 ToC Champion: Mike Matusow
2006 ToC Champion: Mike Sexton
2009 WSOP Main Event Champ: Joe Cada, Team PokerStars Pro
2009 WSOP-E Champ: Barry Shulman

Finally, Team PokerStars Pro ElkY won a sponsored one-table play-off to win his seat, while online qualifier Andrew Barton completes the line-up. Congratulations to all.

All of which brings us back to the WSOP action at the Rio in Las Vegas yesterday, which saw mixed fortunes for Team PokerStars players. Germany's Sandra Naujoks, a former EPT Dortmund champion, came 25th in day two of the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha for $9,842, with France's Thomas Bichon falling a little earlier for $5,304.

Thomas Bichon

Joe Hachem and ElkY were in with a shout earlier in the day, but both failed to make it to the money. Just 12 of the 596 starters remain, with Miguel Proulx topping them with 877,000 chips.

ElkY

PokerStars had high hopes in day two of the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship. Canada's Van Nguyen and Greg DeBora, Andre Akkari, Barry Greenstein, Bill Chen, Vanessa Rousso, Pat Pezzin, Chad Brown and Lex Veldhuis all returned to the felt. In the event, only Van Nguyen made it through, and he sits in tenth place of the 13 survivors as they prepare for today's day three. Van Nguyen is already guaranteed $27,069 for his efforts, but he'll have his sights set on the top prize, $425,969, and the WSOP bracelet.

Barry Greenstein

Vanessa Rousso

In day 1 of the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event, a name familiar to those on the EPT circuit appears near the top: Pierre Neuville is a Friend of PokerStars from Belgium who was dubbed the 'Serial PokerStars Qualifier' by PokerStars Blog HQ for his happy habit of qualifying online for EPTs.

Pierre Neuville

He sits with 80,000 chips, in 20th place of the 288 survivors from 2,394 starters. Also coming back today are Team PokerStars Pros Pieter de Korver (17,800), the Dutchman who won EPT Monte Carlo in 2009, and Martin Hruby (15,300).

The second starter event yesterday was the $1,500 HORSE. A healthy 828 entered this one, with 280 making it through successfully. Among them Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis on 30,100, not a million miles behind chip leader Ming Reslock with 50,000. Johannes Steindl sits on 19,900, Victor Ramdin 19,100, Jose 'Nacho' Barbero, fresh from his back-to-back LAPT victories, 16,400, Jason Mercier 16,000, George Lind (Team PokerStars Online) 15,000 and Pat Pezzin 12,200.

As well as those events returning today, we have two new tournaments, the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed and the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em/Omaha.

Good luck to all.

* * * *

Tweets of the Day
@RaSZi: Finished day 1 of #wsop31 HORSE with 30,100!! Feels really good to make back to back day 2s and finally I have some chips now. w0oot

@FossilMan: Ugh. Lost huge pots in razz and holdem, then all-in with AAJJ in omaha, lost to queens full. sigh.

@RealKidPoker (Daniel Negreanu): Stud hand guy folds a 6 I say "was that a 6?" To remind everyone. I had a 6 up... With 66 in the hole! I get rolled up so much its scary

* * * *

Thought of the Day
Run it four times - lol

* * * *

Previous WSOP Diary entries
WSOP Diary: Classic rub down for Daniel Negreanu
WSOP Diary: Maria Mayrinck, something in the water
WSOP Diary: Who needs a rest anyway?
WSOP Diary: An apology
WSOP Diary: George Danzer just misses first bracelet for PokerStars
WSOP Diary: Negreanu, Danzer eye $10K Lowball bracelet
WSOP Diary: Hold me, darling - this is going to be BIG
WSOP Diary: Why Peter Eastgate is missing from the World Series
WSOP Diary: Ville Wahlbeck joins Team PokerStars Pro
WSOP Diary: Durrr misses biggest-ever poker payday, pros overjoyed
WSOP Diary: Poker's clean-up operation begins again
WSOP Diary: Manchester United soccer star Darren Fletcher tackles World Series of Poker
WSOP Diary: $10,000 Stud Championsip draws big names
WSOP Diary: Nh, gg, wp Daniel Negreanu, k?
WSOP Diary: Grinding out $1.5million with perfect timing
WSOP Diary: Team Pro Maridu needs Baker, Baker needs dough
WSOP Diary: Viva la revolution in Las Vegas
WSOP Diary: Safari, so good for Noah Boeken
WSOP Diary: Barry Greenstein mixes it up in the $50K
WSOP Diary: Going supersize in Las Vegas

Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tallinn local Andry Purk, who lives in the Old Town district of the Estonian capital, is the chip leader at the end of Day 1a of the PokerStars Baltic Festival. The 22-year-old sports data analyst, who won his seat on PokerStars, has been playing poker for five years and kicked off using jelly babies as poker chips. He now has 73,050 real chips and is in great shape for Day 2 of the event, writes Mad Harper.

It's tough to say that Day 1a drew to a close here in Tallinn as we're so far north that the sun is only just setting. However, in the scarlet-and yellow-tinged dusk of nearly midnight, just 37 players are left from the 96 who started the day.

Andry Purk

A host of stars took their seats for the first day of the €1,500 Main Event and many have made it through. Finnish pro and EPT Barcelona finalist Mika Paasonen is in third place with 50,725 and PokerStars qualifier Mathias Hoog, who won the "Mats Sundin Gold Hunt" - a five-day trip to the Vancouver Olympics with Team PokerStars SportStar Sundin - has 49,850. Other survivors include Danish pro Martin Wendt, Tuomas Ketola, the former Finnish #2 tennis pro, and Estonian PokerStars-sponsored TV presenter Mart Mardisalu.

Among those who competed on Day 1a but are now watching the action from the rails are Eurovision Song Contest star Maarja-Liis Ilus, Estonia's Henri Käsper, winner of the 2007 Baltic Open Championship, Finnish pro Kimmo Kurko who won the Season 5 EPT San Remo €2,000 event and Billy Seber from Houston, Texas, USA, a 62-year-old retired gear factory supervisor who is here on his first ever visit to Europe after winning his seat to Tallinn on PokerStars.

Taking part on Day 1b of the Main Event tomorrow are Team PokerStars SportStar and Finnish Formula 1 powerboat champion Sami Seliö, Team PokerStars Pros William Thorson from Sweden, Marcin Horecki from Poland and Ville Wahlbeck from Finland as well as Team Online member Grzegorz Mikielewicz from Poland and the PokerStars-sponsored Estonian NBA player Martin Müürsepp.

More than 80 players won their seats to Tallinn on PokerStars and are proudly wearing the PokerStars logo at the tables. The PokerStars-branded player who lasts longest in the Main Event wins a prize package worth €6,000 for EPT Tallinn, the debut event of Season 7 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour which runs August 11-16 at the Swissôtel.

Live updates from Day 3, level 18 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Howard Swains, Brad Willis, and Simon Young.

Click refresh to see the latest updates below. Click through to the chip count page for selected notable chip counts, updated regularly throughout the day.

Previous coverage: Day 1A wrap | Day 1B wrap | Day 2 wrap | Level 15 | Level 16 | Level 17

Blinds: 4,000-8,000-1,000

6.35pm: Level over
That's the end of that level. Ready for the next.

6.30pm: Introducing Dean Sanders
The polite version of Dean Sanders' request to PokerStars Blog was this: "Good day. At what point this evening are you intending to write some coverage of my tournament progression on your news outlet?" The real version began with: "Oi!" and was scarcely printable from that point on.

But Sanders' exploits do deserve covering. There have been few players riding such an extreme roller coaster through this tournament as him. He had a solid-ish day one, sitting opposite Nelly for the early stages, but only bagging 25,800 at the end.

Dean Sanders

And day two started disastrously when he ran monsters into bigger monsters and had around 7,000 at one point. Despite sharing a table with Phil Ivey, Sanders' resurgence was mighty impressive and he finished last night with close to 350,000.

Today started poorly again and he dipped to about 140,000. But at the point he called out across the tournament area for some coverage, he was back up to 850,000-odd. With Praz Bansi still prospering, Sanders is another Londoner with much to crow about.

6.20pm: By special invitation
There's an exclusion zone around Phil Ivey, one you discover at your peril when a dealer asks you to shift yourself. Ivey doesn't want people behind him when he's in a hand and the rule is vigorously enforced. Except if your name is Nelly and you have sold a few records here and there.

The Hip Hop Star, here to play the amFAR charity event starting soon, bounced past the spectator barrier to say hello and introduce him to his friend Kelly, also playing the charity event and also responsible for shifting a few CDs. Nobody seemed to mind this Nelly and Kelly rule violation, least not Ivey.

6:16pm; Duthie sniffing at a million
"He tried to steal my blinds," John Duthie explained when we asked what happened. He was pointing at a man on the button. In the middle of it, a guy in the middle (who we never saw) re-raised out of the small blind. That's when Duthie just called in the big blind with big slick. The flop came king-high and the small blind pushed all-in with his pocket nines. Duthie called and got his stack over 900,000.

"He didn't have to do that," Duthie mused while getting a massage. "He could've waited."

6:05pm: New chip leader
In just the past few minutes, Matthew Haugen has overtaken the chip lead in a very big way. Though it's hard to count his rows and rows of chips, we're putting him on about 1.8 million at the 4,000/8,000/1,000 level. Haugen is a PokerStars qualifier from the U.S. who we have found easy to recognize by the Florida Gators hoodie he has been wearing for the past couple of days.

Around about the time that Haugen was making his charge, Justin Bonomo was shipping about 200,000 of his stack to Josh Bergman-Turnbull. The flop was [7d][ac][2h][10h][3s] and Bergman-Turnbull bet 131,000 on the end. Bonomo tank-called and was shown [7h][7c]. Bonomo still has about 950,000 though, so no need for alarm bells to ring just yet.

6pm: AWOL
Missing presumed eliminated: Jens Kyllonen, Joao Barbosa, Richard Gryko.

5.55pm: Dynamo Duthie
Holger Kanisch opened with a standard bet from under the gun and was called by John Duthie in the big blind for a flop of [3c][kd][td]. They each checked that and the [jc] turn for a [5s] on the river. Duthie threw out 32,000 to take the pot. Up to more than 550,000.

5:49pm: Ivan Demidov eliminated
The runner-up from the 2008 WSOP, Ivan Demidov, is out. He just ran pocket sevens into pocket aces and is out.

And well might you purse your lips, Ivan

5:44pm: The Ambrose-Khan problem
There are two men left in this field that are notable together, if only for their near-identical records here at the PCA.

Item #1: Steve Paul-Ambrose won this event in 2006. He came back in 2007 and took 20th place. Now, he is the only former PCA champion remaining in the field. Including the money he is already guaranteed in 2010, Ambrose has earned $1,424,646 at the PCA.

Item #2: Hafiz Khan has never won the PCA, but he came runner-up to ElkY in 2008. Then, he came back last year and placed 21st. Including the money he has already won in the main event here, Khan has earned $1,164,976.

Both men remain in the field with 122 players remaining. For Khan to catch Paul-Ambrose in finishing position, he will only have to place two spots better. To catch Paul-Ambrose in earnings over the three year period, Khan will have to place seventh place or better in 2010.

5.35pm: Koral sends Liebert crashing
Kathy Liebert had been dishing out the lessons to the online generation earlier today. She had no choice, with FatalError, Kongsgaard, haffa, SirWatts, among others for company. But her tournament is now over, after she open shoved two off the button for her last 168,000 and was looked up by Thomas Koral on the button. He moved all in over the top, just to make sure he would isolate, and they turned over the cards:

Liebert: [as][jh]
Koral: [ad][ks]

The flop was [9c][qs][9s][7c][6s] and Liebert was out. Koral has more than 400,000.

5.25pm: Demidov demi-down
Luc Greenwood has doubled up through Ivan Demidov in a battle of the blinds. Greenwood had about 110,000 and he shoved after Demidov raised from the small blind. Demidov had [jd][9c] and Greenwood had [as][4h]. An ace and a four flopped and there was no miracle runner-runner. Greenwood is back over 200,000.

5.15pm: Bonomo on the charge
Justin Bonomo has been destroying the field this afternoon and as we enter level 18, he is our probable chip leader with more than 1,100,000. This is the man, right here:

Justin Bonomo on day three of 2010 PCA

This was the day for the files of "men who were supposed to be somewhere else."

Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo had an appointment today. He was scheduled to have both of his wrists fitted with gold World Championship of Online Poker bracelets, his token prize to go along with the thousands of dollars he won for crushing not one, but two WCOOP events last year. There is an exclusive reception tonight for him and his fellow 2009 WCOOP winners. On any normal day, that would be the biggest thing on D'Angelo's calendar. Instead, he ends Day 4 of the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with a 7,483,000 stack and as the runaway chip leader.

And then there is John Duthie. If the name does't ring a bell, you don't know very much about the European Poker Tour. Duthie is the man who created the EPT and grew it the behemoth baby it continues to be. In that time, Duthie has not once sat his rear end in an EPT chair for the purposes of playing a tournament. This year at the PCA, however, Duthie decided to take a seat and play. Now the man who also claims membership on Team PokerStars Pro goes into Day 5 with 5,304,000, the second biggest chip stack.

John Duthie



Both men were probably supposed to be somewhere else on Day 4. D'Angelo could've been off having cocktails with Slash and all the other celebs. Duthie could've been off pointing at things around the room and making them better with the mere suggestion of improvement. Instead, they are the men with the chips. They join 22 other players who will return here Sunday afternoon to play down to the 2010 PCA final table (PCA chip counts).

Day 4 began with 62 players and the potential for an early end. While it didn't go fast, the pain wasn't overly delayed for the 38 people who gave up the ghost. Among them were a host of names you know: Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden and Florian Langmann; Huck Seed; Liz Lieu; Bill Gazes; Alex Brenes and many others who will have to settle for a bundle full of cash and the wait for the 2011 PCA Main Event (2010 PCA winners).

There are many threads running through this story and we're not sure where any of them lead yet. There are two, though, that we can't omit from this report.

If you've been following the coverage since the beginning this year, you know that Wayne Bentley finished Day 1A with the chip lead at 329,500 chips. The 28-year-old former truck driver and army man drives a cab back home, but plans to put an end to that if he can put together enough money here. He then went on to Day 2 and finished third in chips. Day 3 was a struggle, but he still came out with half a million. When play began today, it looked like our story might be coming to an end. Bentley's stack was picked apart in just about every possible way and he was at one point down to fewer than 80,000 chips. We were just about to sign his death warrant when he began to rally. At day's end, Bentley is swaggering away with 2,878,000 and a shot at the final table.

Wayne Bentley

And then there is the Fabulous Growing ROI story in the form of Darren Keyes. Keyes is no stranger to live events. He was part of Team Moneymaker a couple of years ago at the World Series of Poker and, most recently, made the final table of the LAPT event in Playa Conchal, Costa Rica. Keyes remains in the field tonight as the player with the best possible return on investment. He got his seat here through one of PokerStars' Mega-Path satellites. He started his journey for 75 Frequent Player Points and worked his way up the ladder. Now guaranteed $75,000, it's almost impossible to calculate his ROI. It's somewhere in the 4,000,000% range. Is he excited?

"I may not look it, because I'm tired, but yeah I am," he told us at the end of play..

Darren Keyes

Those are the stories as we end this day of play. The vagaries of tournament poker could change everything by this time tomorrow, but tonight we're leaving it there. It's enough to hold the story until we return Sunday at midday.

If you'd like to start handicapping the rest of the field, here's a complete look of how they stack up on our PCA chip counts page. If you'd like to see everyone who has cashed so far, please head on over to our 2010 PCA winners page.

Not enough for you? Well, here's how the Day 4 went down, blow by blow, tear by tear, drop of blood by drop of blood.

Day 4 sprint
Level 21
Level 22
Level 23
Level 24
Level 25

Despite the winnowing field and scope of nationalities, our foreign correspondents are still click-clacking away at their keyboards. You like the hurdy-gurdy talk? Go Swedish. If that doesn't do it for you, we also have German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese straight out of the mind of a Brazilian. That should be more than enough to keep you busy.

As always, a tip of the hat to our tireless and well-preserved photographers Joe Giron and Neil Stoddart.

We hate to leave you this early in the night, but our eyes and notebooks are required elsewhere. The PokerStars party featuring Kelly Rowland kicks off tonight at 9pm. If you are around, we'll be the pasty, pudgy white guys dancing like nobody's watching.