Hiya, Snoop ... I wasn't sure if that was you in the media room, because you look nothing like the cartoon beagle ... But, when I looked over your shoulder, the forum you were typing on looked VERY familiar. That's when it clicked. At some point, I hope to find the time to introduce myself to Jen and Tikay. It kills me to not be down on the floor with all of my friends in the media.

Unfortunately, I'm locked away in a hotel room here at the Rio, providing updates for Pokerwire.com. It's a very weird situation, based on all of the weird "exclusive" deals that Harrah's signed this year.

Anyway, at least I get to read your updates, which give a much better "feeling" of the action than the official stuff at CP.com.

Yes, I REALLY need to change my screen name. I haven't worked for Card Player since January.

(Sorry it's taken so long to respond to your hello here in the forums, but I'm busy updating 98% of the time.)

Nice work on the updates, everyone! Wish I could have been here earlier, while the action was live!

This looks like it could be a pretty interesting final table. It's definitely anybody's tournament at this point!

It's a shame Mr. Hellmuth busted. He always makes for an interesting final table.

Thanks for keeping me honest, Nemesis! You're right, of course, he had 14 outs on the turn. (I forgot to count his original three outs -- the aces.)

When you see a card like that hit on the turn, your stomach drops and you feel the loss already, even though you're still technically a favorite with just one card to come.

[Update:]

I'll tell you the kind of thing that really gets me though and it happened at the same table. Maybe Jen or Snoopy could provide the names? A French guy sat on Eli Marciano's left made a raise to 10,000 in early position and the player in the ten seat, I believe he was from Norway, pulled his cards right in behind his chips. The dealer looked at me (I was in the 1 seat) so I passed, then four more players past including Phil Helmuth who was on the big blind. The French guy started to move his cards forward and the dealer went to push the pot when Phil realised and pointed out that the Norwegian still had cards. Then the Norwegian tried to get a ruling that Frenchies hand was dead as it had crossed the line!

Angle shooters should be drawn-and-quartered, and I agree that is an offense against poker on a whole different level.

Bad etiquette = annoying
Angle Shooting = downright evil

As for the bubble -- What a painful beat! That turn card was viscious, increasing Whalroos from three outs to eleven.

Update:  Nemesis is right -- Whalroos increased to 14 outs. In my post, I was only counting his NEW outs, and forgot to include the original three aces that were still live in the deck. Thanks, Nemesis!

Joe -- Your experience with Vanessa is far more direct than ours, so it should hold more weight. (And I respect your opinion.)

But it still irks me when players ahead in a hand call for cards. Is it a fair critique? Possibly not. But it's one of those etiquette things that gets under my skin.

Regardless of how she fares in this event, you can all but guarantee that Vanessa Rousso will be invited to the WPT's Ladies Night IV.

Vanessa Rousso is from Miami, Florida, and actually went to the same college as Pokerwire's Jen Creason (one of our American poker reporters). She appeared briefly on a Bodog TV special, and then bubbled at the recent WPT World Championship in 7th place. (In her defense, she went out on a bad beat, when her A-K suited lost to James Van Alstyne's A-J suited when a jack fell on the turn. They were both all in preflop; she reraised all in, and he called.)

With only those two things to her credit (along with her looks), she's been signed to Team PokerStars. Perhaps they wanted to fill the void left by Evelyn Ng, who moved over to Bodog.

Erica Schoenberg, who was shown in a photograph earlier, is one of the loveliest girls you'll ever meet. She's a class act all the way, and she can definitely play. She actually finished 16th in the same WPT World Championship as Rousso, but has more respect from other professional players. Erica has signed a big contract with MansionPoker.net, which Blondeites will recognize as the primary sponsor of the PokerDome event -- where Rhowena Colclough won their first televised speed poker tournament.

It's a pet peeve of mine ... I hate when players who are way ahead in a hand start loudly calling for cards. Leave that to the player in need of help ...

Please don't judge all Americans based on Rousso. Or Hellmuth, for that matter. (Unless he wins.)

The previous WPT host, Courtney Friel, just had a one-year contract, and it wasn't renewed. She's a TV journalist, and has already moved on to other things.

I figured it wouldn't be too tough to put Snoopy on the lookout for Sabina. But I think Jen will find she's quite nice too. Sorry you missed out, Tikay ...

Okay, hopefully this works. Keep an eye out for the new host, Sabina Gadecki. She loves meeting the players and checking in on the action, so she'll probably be hanging around at some point either today or tomorrow. And she might be hanging around with Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.

Click to see full-size image.

Sorry I'm late to the coverage ... that time difference from Europe to Las Vegas is a killer, especially when someone like me oversleeps.

Still plenty of players for the Americans to root for. The average American poker TV viewer won't know many of these names (other than Hellmuth), but there are plenty left that are well known in American poker circles. Is Padraig still in? He's a fun guy, even if he can be tough for us to understand sometimes.

And when you're looking for Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, keep your eyes open for Sabina Gadecki. She's the new WPT host replacing Courtney Friel this year. (Courtney is the woman who replaced Shana Hiatt.) She's a very charming young girl, and she's very accessible. If you run into her, tell her that BJ, her unofficial official photographer, wishes her luck in Paris.

I've got a link to my website with some photos of her, but not sure of the policy here about links. I'll see if I can figure out how to post a picture of her directly here in the forums.

Regarding the ten-handed tables:

Generally, the WPT has no influence over the tournament until the final table. The casino's tournament director runs the tournament until then regarding blind structure, rulings, etc.

I would imagine it's either a house style for the ACF, or perhaps they were tight on space (sounds like it) and needed to fit as many players as possible.

In some American WPT events, they switch to nine-handed on Day Three, but again, it varies from casino to casino.