The most obvious thing to learn is simply, how the game is played. You can pick up the rules (and customs) of the game just by watching. We all have to start somewhere and where better than the Formula One of Cards. Look a bit deeper and you’ll see how players maximize the potential of their (good) hole cards. Check out the early raises, reflecting the higher percentage of winning the pot. It may be Poker Rules Page One to you, but the WSOP shows you how you really make your money work for you. Sometimes the TV producers give you a heads up display on the screen as to what percentage each player has of winning the pot. Take a god hard look at these, and if you find yourself thinking, I’d have stayed in on that hand (when it shows a 12%) chance think again. ESPECIALLY if staying in would have rivered you a straight (respect the odds). Similarly Take note of rounds expert players folding (seemingly) strong hands listen to the to the commentators as they explain the psychology and reasoning, they know what they’re talking about. If you don’t have your own table character watch the pros at The World Series of Poker, as they are some of the finest tight and loose players in the game. Watch the way players play and work out what would work for you.

The next one is a great free tip for playing poker. This is something that is a lot easier to do when you’re off the table. Sit and quietly watch how those pros act when they’re playing. Because of the glass topped tables you’ll be able to know when they’re bluffing. Is there a twitch, a tell, do they look scared do they look overly confident. You may never have the chance to sit opposite them and bankrupt a pro working on his tell till the sun comes up, but in more general terms they will show you how to be “the Grey man” that’s an unreadable slate who could be holding the nuts of garbage. Look at their body language and the way they carry themselves, particularly when they are bluffing.

Once you’ve done your learning and feel that you’ve had enough schooling for one day, crack open a cold one, watch and enjoy some of the best games players on the planet ply their trade at the highest of high tables.

While he had several outbursts, 2 of them stood out from the rest.  In one hand, he went to the flop with the lead of KQ to KJ.  His opponent took the lead on the flop with a J hitting and the K on the river spelled disaster for Hellmuth.  He continued to call down and then expected to win when he hit the river.  He went off on the dealer about how he allowed a dominated hand to catch up to him as though it is unacceptable for anyone to hit a hand against him.

His last tirade of the day came during the last few minutes.  The tournaments have had countdowns in the last 10 minutes by drawing cards to decide how many hands would be played.  This prevents players from stalling so that they can avoid the blinds at the end of the day.  For some reason, the tournament director allowed them to play down to zero and Hellmuth once again went off.  While his point was correct, the scenes that he makes are quite annoying.

While the antics of Hellmuth tend to steal the headlines, the real story is the humongous stack that Bertrand Grospellier has managed to build.  With a stack of 1,380,500, he holds over 400,000 to the second place player.  While he was building his stack, well over 1,500 players found the rail.  Some of the most notable victims of the day were: Jennifer Harman, Grey Raymer, Marco Traniello, John Cernuto, John Juanda, Robert Mizrachi, Jason Alexander, Matthew Vogel, Jeff Lisandro and David Ulliott.

Even though he was knocked out, Jeff Lisandro has wrapped up the Player of the Year Award as he had outlasted everyone that was within striking distance.  There is no denying that he was far and away the best of the season with 3 bracelets to his credit and several other deep runs.

Day 4 will kick off at noon and there should still be plenty of fireworks to see.  With 800 players still alive, we are over 100 people away from the bubble.  Expect some aggressive play until there are about 10 players to go when the play will slow down dramatically.  The short stacks will delay every hand in the hopes that someone else will get knocked out before them and the big stacks will get hyper-aggressive in the hopes of stealing blind after blind.

While Mueller was at the top of the leader board throughout this tournament, the heads up battle was anything but easy. Marc Naalden gave him everything he could handle and actually looked as though he was going to win this at one point. The cards ended up changing and Mueller was able to take down the event. Naalden won $120,614 for second place.

In other tournaments…

The $50 K H.O.R.S.E. Event continues on and they are now down to 19 players and should be playing down to a champion on Monday. Vitaly Lunkin continues to impress with his play and while he was not able to dramatically increase his overall chip lead, he is still in first place with 1,527,000. Freddy Deeb is having a wonderful tournament and you can expect to continue to see him among the leaders. The one notable downfall has been Gus Hansen. At one time, he was way ahead of the field, but he has since come back to reality and now only has 801,000 in chips.

Event 51 players have already played to the max time for the last two days and will be back early on Monday to try and finish this event. We knew they were in trouble with a low elimination number in day one and with 30 players left, they will have to come back at 1pm to play down to a winner. Thibaut Durand has taken over the lead and has 1,650,000 in his stack.

The Triple Chance Tournament has been a lot of fun to watch and has some interesting names at the top of the leader board. Of course, Jeff Lisandro is making his customary appearance, but Antonio Esfandiari is finally being heard from and sits in the top 5. John Juanda is also still kicking in this one, but his stack is screaming for help with only 42,600 in chips.

Event 53 is well under way and has only 143 players left in the field of 467. Allie Prescot is the current chip leader with 52,500, but there is still some high powered talent close behind. Most notably, Annie Duke is sitting in 6th place with 36,600 and Daniel Negreanu rounds out the top 10 with 33,100 in chips.

The final hand of the tournament had Eise on button and doubling the blinds. Chang called the small raise to see a flop of 3c6d3s. Chang checked it down, but Eise stayed aggressive and moved all his chips to the middle of the table. Chang immediately called and everyone thought he was sitting on a monster, but he only turned over AhJd. Eise did not have anything either, but he hid have two live cards with his 8h7d. When the dealer turned a 7h and the room full of Eise supporters let out a roar that would have made a football crowd happy. The river was a harmless 5s and Eise Wins. Change would receive $392,494 for second place.

In other tournaments…

The Heads-Up Championship reached its final table after the shocking upset of Johnny Chen. He had his opponent dead to rights and all in and somehow he managed to hit a 3 outer. From that point on, it was all downhill. While he still had a huge chip lead at this point, momentum was clearly shifting. He had his opponent all in again with the best of it and lost not only the hand, but the chip lead as well. He never saw the better of it again and was soon out of the tournament falling short of his quest for an 11th bracelet.

The final table was reached in Event 30 and while John Juanda is still alive, he is the short stack at the table with only 129,000 left in his stack. JC Tran is also alive with 387,000, but the overall chip leader is Ross Boatman with 718,000 in his stack.

The H.O.R.S.E. event failed to get down to a final table and still has a rather large field of 23 players remaining. With this being a limit event, these players are coming back early and better dig in for a marathon session. This one will end in the wee hours of the morning. The overall leader is Fabrice Soulier with 351,000, but Shannon Shore is hot on his heels with 323,500.

Event 32 has shrunk from its initial 1534 person field down to 261 and should continue down to the final table today. However, if it follows the recent trend of tables slowing down dramatically on day 2, we could see another long session for the eventual champion. The bubble on this one is 171 player and we should see that fairly early in day 2.

The World Championship of Limit Hold’em did not even come close to where they needed to be. With only 185 players starting, they still have 157 left in the field. These late starting tournaments are creating very long day 2 and day 3’s for the field. This is something they are going to have to look at next year and possibly get these going a little earlier. Notable players that have already been felted are Jeff Lisandro, Gabe Kaplan, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow and Gavin Smith. Jennifer Harman is the day one leader with 127,600 in chips.

The final hand had Tschirch on the button and raising to 55,000. Kelly came over the top and made it 150,000 to go. Tschirch made the call to a flop of 8c5d4s. Kelly put out another 155,000 and Tschirch again made the call. Kelly upped the ante when a Qc hit the turn and made it 300,000 to go. Tschirch pushed all in and Kelly could not get his chips in there fast enough. When the cards were turned, we saw the reason why, he was sitting on AQ in the hole. This had to be a heart breaker for Tschirch as he had actually hit the flop holding A5 in his hand. The river was a harmless 2c and that was all she wrote. In addition to the bracelet, Kelly takes home $193,434.

In other tournaments…

Event 21 is still motoring along, but it is going to be quite a while before we have a winner in this one. 8 players are still left and James Van Alsytne has almost half of the chips in play with 1,059,000. While he has never won a bracelet, he does have 11 WSOP cashed under his belt and over $500,000 in earnings. It is unlikely the pressure will make him buckle and he should finally get his first WSOP championship.

Event 22 is only about halfway through this round. The No Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament is a SNG masters dream and at the end of the round we will only have 10 players remaining. At this point, there are still about 50 players seated at the table and play is moving along fairly slowly for this type of tournament.

Event 23, the 2-7 Lowball Draw tournament is the buzz saw of the day. They are already down to just 27 players with a lot of short stacks hanging around. Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow still has chips in front of him, but he is way down on the leader board. The name to be feared at this point is John Juanda as he can be absolutely deadly with a stack. He is currently sitting at 181,000 and very close to the overall leader.

Another name that is way up on the board that has not been around for some time is Jean-Robert Bellande. You may remember him from a circuit event in 2005 as he was giving Jennifer Harmon the business at the table and he eventually came away with third. He does have a few cashes since, but the closest he has come to winning anything is last year with a second place finish in the Limit Hold’em Shootout.

At hand 355 this event is officially the longest event in WSOP history as far as the number of hands played.  The 2006 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event only lasted 354 hands.  At this point, the final table had run 17 and ½ hours.  And there was still a lot of poker to be played folks.

Alekhin rasied from the button to 100,000 and Juanda made a reraise to 325,000.  Both players saw a flop of 2c-Ks-4h.  Juanda bet out 365,000 and was called.  The turn fell the 10d and Juanda bet out 480,000 chips.  Alekhin started stacking chips.  Before he could put them in the middle, Juanda folded his hand.  Alekhin showed pocket queens.  At this point Alekhin has retaken the chip lead at 4.66 Million to Juanda’s 2.61 Million.

At this point Stanislav Alekhin started turning on the pressure to Juanda.  He started chipping away at Juanda’s stack over the course of the next hour or so to the point where Juanda was left just 940,000 chips.  John Juanda at hand 399 decided to raise to 150,000 and Alekhin put him all-in.  Juanda called showing As-Kc and Alekhin showed Kd-Jd.  The flop fell Jc-4c-4s and Juanda is far behind.  He would need help to win.  The turn card  fell the Qh and Juanda could now win with an Ace, King, Queen, or 10 on the river.   The river fell the 10c and Juanda doubled up to 1.78 Million in chips.

A few hands later, Alekhin raised to 150,000 preflop and Juanda called.  The flop fell Ad-4h-6d.  Action is checked around and the 2 fell on the turn and Juanda bet out 275,000.  Alekhin called.  A 10s fell on the river and Juanda bet out 475,000.  Alekhin immediately moved all-in and Juanda stood up.  He then said, “Alright, I call” and Alekhin showed Qd-2h for a pair of ducks.  Juanda showed Ah-6c for two pair and doubled up to take the chip lead.  After the double up Juanda moved up to 3,850,000 in chips and Alekhin had 3,370,00 in chips.

For the next few hands Alekhin was able to pick up a few chips and after hand 420, the chip counts looked like such:

John Juanda         3,620,000
Stanislav Alekhin     3,600,000

Where is John Phan to go all-in blind?

Play litereally went back and forth for the next couple of house.  Alekhin was able to retake the chiplead and was around 4.2 Million in chips when a huge confrontation occurred between the two.

Preflop, Juanda raised to 165,000 and Alekhin made the call.  On a flop of Kc-Qh-7c, Alekhin fired out a bet of 325,000.  Juanda then moved all in and was called by Alekhin.  Juanda held Kh-6h for top pair and Alekhin held 4c-3c for the flush draw.  The turn fell the 9s, leaving Alekhin needing one of 9 clubs.  The river fell a harmless 4h and John Juanda doubled up through Alekhin.  Juanda held 6.6 Million in chips, and Alekhin was crippled with about 600,000.

At hand 484, Alekhin moved all in from the button and is called by Juanda.  Alekhin held Ac-9s and Juanda held Ks-6c.  Juanda flops a near miracle when the 6d-6s-2d hits the board.  Alekhin needs running aces or nines to win.  The turn fell the Qc, which left Alekhin drawing dead.  To add insult to injury, the river card was the 6h, giving Juanda quads and the title.  Stanislav Alekhin finished this Main Event as the runner-up and will take home £533,950 for his fantastic showing.

After 22 hours and a marathon heads-up session that saw him come back from the brink multiple times, John Juanda is the Champion of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.  This is the fourth bracelet for John Juanda.  Each of his bracelets have come in different games.  He now holds bracelets in No Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, Seven Cards Stud, and 2-7 Lowball.  During his interview he stated, “It’s so long ago when I won my last bracelet, I can’t remember. It’s embarrassing. Some people have to keep up with the Joneses. I have to keep up with the Iveys and Cunninghams and Negreanus.” “I wondered if I will ever win again. Today there are so many young excellent tournament players from all over the world. Like the two young Russians and the Scandis. Much more than it used to be. Daniel Negreanu said that we have to step up our game.”

362 players came out to take their shot at poker immortality and the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Title.  Man top pros weaved their way through the field, but it was John Juanda that came out on top in the longest final table in World Series of Poker history.  In addition to his gold bracelet, Juanda will take home £868,800.

Congratulations to John Juanda, Champion of the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe.