2007 WSOP, Day 4: Extreme Multitabling

As Earl Burton points out today in his World Series of Poker recap for PokerNews, yesterday marked the first time in WSOP history that four different tournaments were going simultaneously.

It was mid-afternoon yesterday when the final table of Event No. 1 -- the $5,000 buy-in Mixed Hold ’em event eventually won by youngest-ever champ Steve Billirakis -- got underway. After couple of hours of play, they were down to 7-handed when Fred Berger’s QQ outraced Jon “PearlJammer” Turner’s big slick. (Click here to watch this hand run in PokerNews’ nifty “Feature Hands” simulator.) Right around the moment Turner was being sent to the rail, here’s what was happening elsewhere in the Rio . . . .

After a late start -- and more delays to accommodate a lot of early bustouts -- the second day of Event No. 3 ($1,500 No Limit Hold ’em) had been running for a couple of hours. The starting field of 2,998 had been whittled down to 123 players seated around 13 tables.

Event No. 4 ($1,500 Pot Limit Hold ’em) kicked off just after noon, and by five o’clock over half of the original starting field of 781 players had already busted out, leaving around 300 runners playing at 30 or so tables.

And the first Stud 8/b hands of Event No. 5 ($2,500 Omaha 8/b-Stud 8/b) were being dealt to its 327 participants, positioned at 41 tables.

Am rapidly developing an appreciation for those reporters running around keeping up with all of the action. All told, something like 40 hours of tournament play to cover yesterday.

And today gets even more hectic, with five different tournaments taking place. While I’ll be following all five, I’ll be particularly curious to see how Beyond the Table co-host, Pokerati contributor, and friend of Hard-Boiled Poker Tom Schneider makes out in the Omaha/Stud Event No. 5. Tom (a.k.a. the Donkey Bomber) began today at the top of the leaderboard of the 80-some players still alive. Tough group, though, as all of these mixed games (particularly those with larger than $1,500 buy-ins) attract the best of the best.

Looking at the schedule, I see on Tuesday no less than six different tournaments will be taking place, as Events No. 4 and 5 play out their final tables, Event No. 6 (Limit HE, $1,500 buy-in) and Event No. 7 (PLO, $5,000 with rebuys) reach their second days, and Event No. 8 (NLHE, $1,000 with rebuys) and Event No. 9 (Omaha 8/b, $1,500) get underway.

Talk about multitabling.

As usual, Dr. Pauly is providing a great daily narratives of each day’s proceedings over at Tao of Poker. I see Phil Gordon has revived his daily WSOP podcasts (here is the RSS feed for those). And, of course, do check out PokerNews’ live reporting from the WSOP for all the latest.