Not far behind me, in the first row of the audience, one of Dennis Phillips’s 300 supporters periodically “livens things up” by shouting out Dennis’s initials. This guy, however, manages to call out these 14 letters in about 2 seconds, and he does it without using any consonants. He’s very loud, this kind of mealy bellow. At one point, I looked back and saw his mouth open, and it looked to me like he was dentally challenged. Hence the nickname.

It’s 11:30 PM and we’ve just gone on break. We’re 4-handed and have 43 minutes left in level 37, 300k-600k/75k.

When they got down to six-handed, Jack Effel made a flourish of announcing “something was coming” for the players. Several men brought pairs of alumimum suitcases to a table next to where they were playing. It was The Money. It seemed kind of early and kind of corny, but there it was, bundles and bundles and bundles of hundred dollar bills, the prize money the final six were trying to win.

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Here’s what Scott Montgomery told me when I asked him how he managed to lose almost 30 million reflop with Ad-9d.

“It was the first time Ivan Demidov and I were in the blinds together. I noticed that Ivan was playing aggressively, raising with position. I wanted to let him know for the future that he couldn’t do that with me. And with A-9s, I have one of my favorite bluffing hands. I’m usually not worse than 30% if I get called. Unfortunately, the first time I try to ‘teach him a lesson’, he has pocket kings.”

While I was gone, Montgomery built up his stack and seemed the first to try to control the table five-handed. In a giant miscalculation, however, he lost nearly 30 million chips in an all-in pre-flop move and has just been eliminated in 5th place. this happened at 9:40 PM, just as we were entering a 20 minute break and the start of the next level.

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I’m back after an hour at my least favorite restaurant with some of my favorite people. Until the last few minutes of my absence, it doesn’t appear I missed too much, but then Darus Suharto busted in 6th place. Let me try to catch you up with as much stuff as I can … until something takes me in another direction.

The Stacks, The Game

We’re now five-handed and getting ready, I think for a pretty long road before us. At 9:15 PM, there were 25 minutes left in the level (250k-500k/50k). This can change in a hurry but there are no short stacks. Peter Eastgate has the lead with 37 million. Scott Montgomery has made a run and has 32.5 million. Ivan Demidov has 27 million. And Dennis Phillips and Ylon Schwartz each have about 20 million. The smallest stack has 40 BB and the largest has fewer than 80. The game is fluid, and control is available to whoever wants to try and seize it.

Buy This Bloch, or, Allen Don’t Come Cheap

At dinner, I told Allen Cunningham that he was a popular choice among entrants to my essay contest about who they would hire as their coach for the final table. Allen said he wasn’t sure how much he could do. “They were good enough to get this far.”

But he has a price. He said he’d have seriously considered an offer - no one approached him - of 10% of winnings, not including the $900,000 everyone already received. And he made it clear that, though he didn’t know what he’d do - or didn’t want to share it with me - he’d work hard for that money.

But what about a short consultation, an hour or two of the best Allen Cunningham has to offer? I’m sure I was putting him on the spot - I mean, how do you answer that? - but he pulled out a number. $10,000.

When Andy Bloch arrived a few minutes later, I asked Cunningham if Andy would be more expensive or less. Without hesitation, Allen said “less.”

I think Andy Bloch would be jazzed by the opportunity. Not the self-promotion but just the opportunity to see what he could do to help someone in that unique situation. He said he’d consider coaching someone at the Main Event final table for 1%. For an hour or two, he’d do it for $1,000.

It’s now 7:25 PM, ten minutes past when Harrah’s was supposed to do the Hall of Fame ceremony. We went on break at 6 PM. Between all my observations and ideas about the final table and all I could say about the Hall of Fame, I probably won’t get everything I want into this blog before (a) they restart the action, with 1 1/2 hours left in level 36, and (b) I leave the action at 8 PM for an hour or so to have dinner with a group of friends including Andy Bloch and Allen Cunningham, where I hope to get a couple opinions from them about what’s going on today.

For now, I have time for just one item, and it’s an important one.

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David “Chino” Rheem has just busted in 7th place. He’s been a short-stack for awhile and got his chips in with A-K. Peter Eastgate called him with A-Q, then picked up a queen on the flop. This happened at about 5:15 PM, with four minutes left in this level. It appears the clock has stopped.

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It’s about 4:30 PM and we’re on break. Play is seven-handed, though if you’re tracking by web site, it’s Pokerstars 6, Full Tilt 1. Scott Montgomery has 16.4 million chips, and it seems the only hand that’s gone right is the one where he busted Craig Marquis. Ivan Demidov has the lead with over 40 million. Ylon Schwartz has 32 million. Peter Eastgate has 21 million. Dennis Phillips and Darus Suharto, thanks to a double up by Darus on the last hand before break, have 10.6 and 8.6 million respectively. Chino Rheem is the shortest stack with 5.8 million.

It’s actually been about an hour since Kelly Kim busted.

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It’s a few minutes before 4 PM and there’s an hour left in the 150k-300k/40k level and seven players left. It’s been a bad day at Tilt rock, with Craig Marquis going out in 9th and Kelly Kim, soon after, in 8th. I just now conducted a short interview with Craig and want to pass along some information … before I do the same with Kelly Kim and whatever else goes on here.

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It’s 2:40 PM and we’ve just resumed play. They are now playing level 35, 150k-300k blinds, 40k antes.

I’m already hearing grousing by the media about how long this is going to go, in that we’ve been here 3 3/4 hours and no one has busted. Gawd, do I sound like that? I mean, I avoid the prospect of work like it’s a flesh-eating bacteria, but once I’m actually on site, I put out, right?

On the other hand …

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