We were just arriving for the first of the day’s meetings while some of our unfortunate colleagues were dragging their sorry arses out of the Rio after a marathon $50k H.O.R.S.E. final table.

When David Bach and John Hanson sat down at about 3am to decide who would take home the Chip Reese Trophy, they could have been forgiven that things were almost over. Nope – it would take seven hours of heads-up play before Bach would take down the $1,276,802 first prize. The presentation ceremony took place at 10.15am!

The self-styled “Gunslinger” is well known to Australian players after final-tabling in four Aussie Millions events over the past two years.



Tired but triumphant: $50k HORSE winner David Bach

More than once, Bach trailled Hanson by a margin of 4:1 but clawed back on each occasion. After a particularly brutal round of Omaha Eight-or-Better Hanson finally decided to make a stand during the sixth hand of the Razz rotation.

Hanson eventually made a 9-8 but when Bach turned over his river card he had made a 9-7 and sent Hanson home in second place.

The minor placings were filled by Eric eric123 Sagstrom, Vitaly Lunkin (his sixth WSOP cash this year, five of which have come in world championship events), Huck Seed, Ville Wahlbeck, Chau Giang and Erik Seidel. We’ll have more details of the event when everyone wakes-up!

 WE'RE almost at the end of the preliminary schedule with just three bracelets to be decided before the Main Event starts. The final $1500 No Limit Hold’em event (#54) is down to the final 28 players – less than one per cent of the 2818 who started yesterday! Russian Sergey Konkin is the chip leader on 1.4 million.

There’s an impressive field contesting the final table in the $2500 Deuce-to-Seven Limit Triple-Draw Lowball, with John Juanda, Nam Lee and Blair Rodman among the final nine.

It was a solid day for the Aussies in the $5000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event, with 160 of the 928 entrants returning for day two.

Sean Keeton (147,000), Daniel Neilson (125,600), Dean Nyberg (72,800), Van Marcus (59,700) and Grant Levy (41,100) were all back today, with Scot Rory Mathews (369,800) setting the pace.

Tomorrow is Super Satellite day and the celebs take to the red carpet for the annual Ante Up for Africa Charity Event. Then, it’s time for the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship, AKA, the Main Event.

  WSOP media man Nolan Dalla does a magnificent job recording all the results and history. More than once, we’ve wandered into the media centre to find him asleep on the floor, resplendent in tux and bow tie! He’s just sent some interesting stats through the first 50 events of the 2009 WSOP:

Most cashes: Darryl Fish (seven); Fabrice Soullier, Jeff Lisandro, Daniel Negreanu, Brock Park, Tony Cousineau, David Fox, Barry Greenstien (six each)

Most final table appearances: Mark Gregorich, John Juanda, Jeff Lisandro, Greg Mueller, Phil Ivey, Ville Wahlbeck (three each)

High cash to entry ratio (minimum five events): Adam Fyshe (80%); Max Pescatori, Jack Powell (66.67%); Ray Bonavida, Jim Geary, Tony Lee, Marc Whitford (60%)

High cash to entry ratio (minimum 10 events): Darryl Fish (53.8%); Mitchell Schock (50%); Ken Lennaard, Clark Hamagami (45.4%)

Most entries: Nikolay Evdakov (33); Roland Isra (32); Jacobo Fernandez (29); Daniel Negreanu, Andy Black, Erick Lindgren, Amnon Filippi (28)

Most bracelets: Jeff Lisandro (3); Brock Parker, Phil Ivey, Greg Mueller (2)

Winners by nation: United States (33); United Kingdom (3); Canada (3); Australia (3); Russian Federation, Finland, Sweden, Mexico, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Iran, Germany (one each)

Pro-am breakdown of bracelet winners: Professionals (37); semi-pros (7); amateurs (6)

  AS you can imagine, there’s been blanket coverage of Michael Jackson’s passing here in the US, and it’s great to see that the good folk of the Midwest have come up with a novel way to honour the King of Pop for today's Only in America. Kinda cheesy though, they’re milking it for all it’s worth!



"Billie Jean is not made of butter!"

“Iowa State Fair organisers announced Tuesday that they will have a statue of Michael Jackson made of butter. The sculpture will be on display along with the annual butter cow, a popular attraction at the event. Both will be in a 40-degree cooler throughout the fair from August 13-23 in Des Moines. Fair organisers say the butter sculpture is a tribute to the pop icon who died at the age of 50. Jackson performed at the fair twice with the Jackson Five in 1971.”

• Remember, you can keep up to date with the latest happening from the 2009 World Series of Poker by following twitter.com/bluffaussie.