WSOP Day 5, Black Friday in Mainstream Media (again)

Many a 'player to win their first bracelet in 2011' bet was off to a quick start with Eugene Katchalov winning Event #5: $1,500 Seven Card Stud and a not insignificant $122,909. I'm sure Katchalov would have been a popular pick (he went early in both of the drafts I participated in) so a few people will be paying up already. Katchalov is a NLHE specialist by trade, making the win that much more impressive. I might have to put him on my multiple bracelet in 2011 list...

The hugely popular Maria Ho made her first WSOP final table in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em which is now down to 3 now after 4 started the final day. Allen Bari has a huge chip lead with over 9m chips to Ho and Sean LeFort's 2m each. It would be nice to see a woman take down a bracelet this earlier, especially if it's Maria!


Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, a triple chance (players get two add on chips) event gets underway with a half decent 275 players in the field. Jimmy 'Gobboboy' Fricke and George Lind have enough chips to make the biggest stacks to end day one. Hopefully Jimmy can make a deep run, I'm a big fan of his work on Pokerroad and behind the scenes on the Pokerstars Big Game.

Interesting article on the Fox News website about the effect Black Friday has had on families who rely on online poker as the main source of household income. It;'s great to see a few more 'real' stories come out of Black Friday instead of the 'oh no, I can't buy another $2m apartment/Bentley/$50k watch' type stories. The stories in the upcoming BOOM documentary seem to focus on the same issues, which should get people thinking about some of the more heartwarming stories.

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