As an avid fan of Sports Guy and Chuck Klosterman (both do similar live blogs for ESPN), I decided to outright copy them and "live" blog the ESPN coverage of the WSOP each week. Since this obviously isn’t TECHNICALLY live, this article can be enjoyed two ways – by having it open and following along as you re-watch the previous Tuesday's episodes on rerun or DVR, or on its own (for instance printed out and taken into the bathroom at work … you're welcome for the idea by the way).

So here we go, ESPN’s coverage of Event #45, the $50,000 HORSE World Championship.
NOTE: I'm going to try signing on AIM under the name 'ShronkDaddy' during the WSOP coverage in case anyone reading this wants to chat while watching. The real reason is that hopefully someone says something funny to me via AIM, and I can steal it for the blog.

5:00 – HORSE. BOOM! So pumped. Look for me in the background, right behind Barry sitting with Sebok.
5:01 – Not sure if they're going to cover this, but Jeffrey Pollack also announced at the beginning of the final table that when the Chip Reese trophy arrived, it had a slight imperfection…a chip in the back of the marble.

5:05 – Good ole Norm's little opening about Chip Reese was well written and fitting (and it takes a lot for me to compliment Norman Chad).

what all the fuss was about, but I have played Razz about none times in my life, and I certainly don't understand the intricacies of etiquette the true rounders grant each other. In this case, I will default to the people who know what they're talking about, namely, Barry Greenstein.

5:11 – SO MANY POKERROAD PATCHES!! WEEEEEEE!

5:15 – That was an amazing tribute to Chip. My only personal Chip story comes from The Circuit in ‘06 when we were able to wrangle him for a two-part episode. Chip rarely did media, but Barry was able to convince him to come up to Huff's Bellagio suite (aka The Studio) for the show. It was getting into "Grind Week" (the extended hump-day/week that occurs during the WSOP) and before shows started (and even during) there was a lot of bickering and people being cranky, but when Chip came up for the episode, Gavin, Huff, and Sebok all became Kindergarteners at story time.
While Chip spoke, everyone just stared at him with anticipatory smiles on their faces for what must have been close to two hours (I've never played poker with Chip, but if he's half as good at poker as he is at storytelling…). I remember after the interview was over, and Gavin and Joe left, Scott and I were grinning like idiots. That was one of my favorite days of that summer.

5:18 – DeMichele takes a lot of heat for some of his actions at the final table. I was watching live when Huck went out, and I didn't even know about DeMichele mis-calling his hand. He seemed legitimately apologetic about it though. But Lindgren was right – if Huck could have beaten two pair, but not a flush, things could have gotten ugly.

5:20 – I was wondering how they were going to handle the graphics for the split games – so far I'm liking the dual color-coded percentages.

5:24 – BOOM! PokerRoad patch on John Phan too (I think I actually handed him that one)!

5:27 – I have absolutely no recollection of the final table they're previewing for next week ("Grinder goes for one, Hellmuth goes for history").

5:34 – DeMichele came across as really humble and seemed to have a great perspective on things. If some of his actions at the final table come across as arrogant or showboating, I'm gonna have to assume it was some mixture of nerves and adrenaline (especially the bowing after winning hands).

5:37 – Wow. Erick kinda owned DeMichele there – "We don't normally take bows."

5:41 – From what I hear, getting Scotty to start drinking is normally +EV for everyone at the table. However, on this occasion it may have been –EV for the whole poker community after some of his antics that we'll see in about forty minutes.

5:43 – The graphics for the O8 are sweet (I'm such a nerd)!

5:47 – Can anyone pick out the hand that Scotty started getting tipsy?

5:49 – Explaining it would be too painful, but if you want to see the worst commercial ever, try to find the ESPN Monday Night Football commercial with MC Hammer.

5:52 – $1.2 Million in the middle before 4th street in Razz. So sick.

5:54 – Another DeMichele confrontation (the first of many with Scotty). I score this one for DeMichele. Scotty was steaming, and Michael admitted that he didn’t realize the bowing and cheering was offending people. I really do think it was just nerves and adrenaline, because the kid seems to have good intentions (yes, I can call him a kid since I'm turning twenty-seven next week…so old).

5:58 – "I can’t believe you're gonna show the audience the cards, that's awesome." – Michael DeMichele. I like the kid's sarcasm. Norm remarked that showing your cards to the crowd is not, "something he (Lindgren) or any other true professional would do" – hopefully a preamble to Norm giving Scotty his comeuppance once “The Poker Prince” gets even more out of hand.

6:00 – Scotty tells DeMichele that Lindgren finds DeMichele's antics unnerving (I wonder who is going to tell Scotty that his own antics made a bunch of Full Tilt representatives at the final table consider ripping off his Full Tilt patches).

6:06 – Lindgren has exposed the key to getting Scotty to play bad. You START drinking with Scotty, but you don’t CONTINUE to drink with Scotty.

6:07 – AHHHH! Finally an explanation for the discrepancy in pronunciations of “DeMichele” between the USPC and now (was "dee-mish-el" before, is "dee-mik-el-ee" now): seems as his family convinced him to pull a “Tony Dorsett” and honor his Italian roots with old country pronunciation of the last name.

6:09 – Aaaaaawkward. Scotty screams at well…basically everyone, asking why he is playing at "this f***ing table" and "still waiting for cocktail!"

6:12 – The tension grows. The table talk between DeMichele and Scotty discussing what will happen when they get heads-up is increasingly awkward. Of course we can count on Erick to break the tension – "Stop talking about me like I'm broke."

6:14 – How the hell did Scotty win this thing? He is steaming soooooo bad.

6:16 – Norm with some more commentary on DeMichele, calling his early antics, "just kid stuff … not egregious." I can't believe I'm agreeing with Norman Chad this many times in one night.

6:18 – Weeeeeeeee! My first AIM chat comment!
Op illusion27: the worst part about this world series is having to see that planters commercial every time somebody makes a good decision
ShronkDaddy: well, they don’t show it every time someone makes a good decision
ShronkDaddy: and the times they show it aren’t always the best decisions
ShronkDaddy: but i agree that it sucks

6:21 – LOL!!!!!!!! Nuts segment asking poker players what other poker player they would like to be for 24 hours:
Doyle: "I would be Patrik Antonius."

Cut To:
Patrik Antonius: "Yea, it's pretty good to be Patrik Antonius."
A great lesson in editing. For the record, I would be Bart Hanson.

6:28 – Big Norm is on fire tonight. Well, as "on fire" as you can be if you're Norman Chad. "Lon, when I have poker dreams, they're always in Stud Eight."

6:29 – It's a good thing there was so much drama at this final table. If there wasn't I wouldn't have anything to write about since I know NOTHING about any of these other games.

6:30 – I'm liking this live chat thing. “Op illusion27” just reminded me about something I wanted to mention:

There was a HUGE time gap in between the last event ESPN aired and this one. Therefore, by this time, there was a lot of information coming out about the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. So, in this event, next week's event, and the Main Event, you can safely assume that players wearing Ultimate Bet gear did so with some knowledge of the cheating going on at the site.

6:31 – I don't understand why Scotty was just going at Lindgren, but I can still say with some confidence that Scotty was wrong.

6:32 – Wowww. Even Lon is piling on now: "A lot of players told us they wanted to honor Chip in this event, but some of the behavior we've seen here tonight does nothing to honor the memory of Chip Reese."

6:37 – I changed my mind. I want to be Erick Lindgren.

6:44 – "I ain't on Team Scotty, I'll tell you that. Never been, never will be. How 'bout that buddy?" – Erick Lindgren. Wow.

6:48 – As, I almost don’t want to use the word but, “interesting” as this is to watch, it's truly disgusting and really bad for poker. This would be bad if it was a regular final table. That it's at the final table dedicated to the memory of a man who "never raised his voice to anyone," is tragic.

6:50 – Good game, Erick. Not many events do you see the winner go out 3rd.

6:56 – I think Scotty is saying, "Rip this!" to DeMichele. I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean anything. EDIT: Ok, apparently he was saying, "Brick this!" Although that does mean something, it's still idiotic.

6:59 – Oh, Scotty shook DeMichele’s hand and said good luck at the end, so it's all good.

7:00 – The last time I anticipated a TV event this much, and felt this let down afterwards, was the Seinfeld finale. This is obviously going to be discussed ad nauseam for who knows how long, which is odd considering that I imagine everyone will be on relatively the same side. Looking back, you can't really say this was a "good" night for anyone.

The tournament with arguably the most to win will be reduced to a discussion of who lost the least.