Event #58: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

Greg Brooks, who you might recall as the winner of this year's Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC), raised to 750 from middle position and action folded all the way around to the player in the big blind, who decided to defend.

It ended up being a hapless defense as the big blind simply check-folded to Brooks' 1,100 bet on the     flop. Brooks is slowly rebuilding his stack and is up to 26,500.

Greg Brooks

26,500

12,000

Humberto Brenes just filled us in about how he got his now 63,000-chip stack.

He was dealt    preflop and called a three-bet from an opponent. The flop came with an ace and after a few bets and raises, his opponent put all of his chips in with    drawing near dead.

"Sometimes it's an easy game," Brenes said with a smile.

NBA Champion Paul Pierce has been playing solid poker all afternoon. Although he has yet to claim a WSOP gold bracelet, he does have some rather fashionable jewelry.

Earlier in the day, we gave you a quick look at some stats of the WSOP in the 1970s. Now that we're halfway through Level 3, we thought we'd move on to the next decade and have a look at the 1980s.

Top 10 1980s WSOP Most Money Won

Top 10 1980s WSOP Most Bracelets

Top 10 1980s WSOP Most Cashes

Praz Bansi was in the small blind and found himself in a battle with the player in the big blind heads up. On the     flop, Bansi checked and his opponent bet 1,000. Bansi called and the turn   was quickly checked twiced. The river   was also quickly checked twice and the opponent flipped over    for the ace-high flush. Bansi mucked his hand and the dealer almost called the floor because he thought that the player had checked behind with the nuts. He realized, however, that technically    would be the nuts which saved the player from a one round penalty.

There's not really a way to say this more cleverly than this without getting ourselves in some trouble, so we'll just say it. There is a very attractive lady hanging out with the fellas at Table 367. We've been glancing at her all day trying to see if we could pull up the mental file and figure out who she is, and we've finally sorted it.

It's Krisztina Polgar, the Hungarian model and, apparently, poker player. Polgar knows her way around the poker table as well as she does around a magazine cover, and she has a five-figure cash on her record from a fourth-place showing in the $1,500 People's Poker Tour Main Event in her home country last year. Two years prior, she was too busy competing in the Miss Earth pageant as Hungary's representative. A woman of many talents.

A cash in this Main Event would bump Polgar easily into the Top 100 on Hungary's all-time money list, but she's got some work to do. She's got about 8,800 chips at the moment.

An unknown player raised to 675 and received a call from the hijack. Action folded around to Gavin Smith in the small blind and he opted for a three-bet to 2,075. The original raised responded with a four-bet to 4,400, the cutoff folded, and Smith made the call.

Both players proceeded to check the     flop, leading to the   turn. Smith ended up check-calling a bet of 6,700, and did the same to the tune of 12,700 in the   river. Smith showed   , but it was no good against the    of his opponent.

Gavin Smith

53,000

-17,000

Chris Moneymaker's 2011 WSOP has come to a swift conclusion. After falling below 10,000 early, he had doubled back and looked as though he was starting to regain some momentum. Then he hit a couple of missteps again and was down to around 13,000 or so when his final hand took place.

Up against Carl Carlson and looking at a     flop, Carlson managed to get Moneymaker to commit the last of his chips holding    while Carlson had    for a set of tens. The turn was the   and river the  , and halfway through Level 3 Moneymaker has hit the rail.

Carlson, meanwhile, has 43,000 after that one.

A player in early position limped and Paul Pierce, who was next to act, raised to 1,200. Action folded back to the limper who called. The flop came     and both players checked. After the   came on the turn the first player checked again and Pierce tossed out a bet of 1,200. The other player thought only for a few seconds before tossing in the call. The river brought the   and both players checked and revealed their hands.

Pierce:   
Opponent:   

The ducks were good enough to win the pot but Pierce was still left with a decent stack of 52,000 after the hand.

The secondary feature table has players around it now… and a large crowd as well. Among those assigned seats there is Mimi Tran, as well as Massimiliano Martinez, he of the roughly 100,000-chip stack. Also with a seat there is the game's greatest attention-getter -- and habitual late-arriver -- Phil Hellmuth.

Well, to be accurate, Hellmuth hasn't quite sat down as yet. The ESPN crew first had Hellmuth repeatedly shoot a short bit of lead-in for a future WSOP broadcast. Wearing a sport jacket and shirt (no tie) -- and no cap, glasses, or "Poker Brat" jersey -- the dapper-looking Hellmuth was asked to walk across the stage to his seat while carrying a microphone.

"Phil Hellmuth here at the World Series of Poker, the biggest and most prestigious post tournament in the world," he said as he walked. Then, as he sat down, Hellmuth added "I'm about to sit down and do some work… back to you Lon and Norm!"

The crew had him repeat the sequence several times, the crowd laughing at each take. It sounded it wasn't as though Hellmuth was botching the lines, but that he was being asked to say different things each time at the very end.

After several takes, it appears they've gotten what they need. Now Hellmuth has disappeared again, though will surely be returning shortly. Those of us on the side were thinking how those repeated takes reminded us of Hellmuth's three runner-up finishes at this year's Series. Today begins his final chance to get the ending right.