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, the 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 the Event #4, the $5,000 Mixed Hold’em.

5:00 – Well, apparently I have to rescind a comment from last week.  I made fun of ESPN for including David Williams in a promo for what I thought was the $50k HORSE event.  Turns out they were referring to the $5k Mixed, which DW actually did final table.

5:02 – Hey!  Chino Rheem made the final table of the $5k Mixed!  Should only increase his status as the "most well-known" of the November Nine.

5:03 – Apparently Pat Pezzin was captain of the Canadian Bocce Team?  Why would you even put that on your info form?

5:04 – I've never had a problem with Isaac Haxton, but he really comes off as a megageek on TV.

5:05 – Justin Bonomo making fun of Hellmuth's amazing insurance bets was pretty funny.  Though, most of the really bad ones he made with Ivey at last year's WSOP should be attributed to Ivey's incredible ability to convince someone that they're not taking WAY the worst of it.

5:06 – "It must be tough being Erick Lindgren" – Roland de Wolfe.  Roland is definitely one of the funniest guys in poker, just beware that he is INCREDIBLY dry.  If he says something that doesn't seem to make sense, assume he is being sarcastic.

5:07 – I'm really surprised at how much Norman Chad went to town on Justin for the multi-accounting scandal.  I realize this is the first time ESPN has had a chance to comment on the situation, but I thought he went a little far.  Go back to when you were around 19-20 years old, and try to think of your biggest screw-up.  Now imagine that it was broadcast on the Internet and millions of your peers got to comment on it for years to come.  Now honestly tell me you would have handled yourself as well as Justin has.

5:09 – I'll bet anyone I just saw Howard Lederer’s mom in the crowd.  Back the truck up.

5:12 - I really like what Howard had to say in his interview about despite the younger guys maybe having played tons of more hands than him at this point, there is something to say for having the life experience that comes with living the poker life for as many years as he has.

5:16 – "Never play a Hobgoblin out of position." – Roland needling DW and Justin about being Magic: The Gathering players.  I'm sorry to my friends that play Magic, but that's just funny.

5:21 – Wait, does Erick Lindgren not have a bracelet?

5:22 – "Even Gavin Smith, who doesn’t even have one - he gives me crap." - Lindgren

5:23 – Ha!  Roland reveals to the rest of the table that Mike Sexton called Lindgren the "American Idol" on the WPT PartyPoker Million broadcast.  He forgot to mention that Sexton also referred to Erick as a "Backstreet Boy."  In other news, ESPN shrewdly dodged actually saying "PartyPoker" when talking about the PPM – I'm guessing it’s because Party used to pay to have their name on the WSOP tables and no longer do.

5:25 – "Two outs, and it comes Hobgoglin-Hobgoblin.  So sick." – Roland.  This will get old at some point.  That point is not right now.

5:27 – "I think an Elf was exposed during the hand, so it's unlikely I have an Elf." – Roland.  I was right…not old yet.

5:33 – The chick dealer right now has been dealing for all three years I've been at the WSOP, and for some reason I have a huge crush on her.  If anyone knows her, ship her the Pokerazzi email.

5:34 – "Erick's just learning how bad you can run when you start playing good."  Oh sh**, Howard is turning into TJ Cloutier.

5:36 – "Erick is playing well AND running good." – Lon McEachern.  If you're going to correctly use "well" as an adverb to describe how Erick is playing, why would you revert back to saying he's running "good" in the same sentence?

5:40 – One indication that you've been covering poker for too long is when you start to recognize about half the people on the rail.  One of Erick's railbirds is Blake Stepp, former basketball star at Gonzaga (of whom Erick is a huge fan).  Blake plays poker now and, from what I hear, is really good.

5:44 – David Williams runs off to register for another event with only a few minutes to spare after busting.  I always wondered if, when pros are short in a WSOP event, and another event's registration is ending in a few minutes, if

that affects their play.  I'm sure it does, but even at a final table?  At this year's Series, I just happen to be walking through Day 2 of one of the NL events when Barry Greenstein called me over.  He said he was getting short and there was like six minutes left to register for the Razz event that day.  I hustled over and registered him, and he ended up winning the bracelet.  I was surprised he didn’t ask me to register him for any more events.

5:49 – “Nuts” segment on standing up when you're all-in.  I think most people do it because of adrenaline.  Some do it for attention.  I do it because I hate doing the stand-up-and-walk-away routine with everyone looking at me.  I'd much rather stand up and get ready while people are looking at the two hands and the flop.

5:55 – Justin is really good at accumulating chips without having any of the hands shown on TV.

5:56 – Of course, as soon as I say that they show him playing two pots in a row with Howard.

6:14 – "What's the point of being funny if no one can hear it?" – Roland.  The journalist in Roland comes out every now and then (Roland is a former poker journalist).

6:20 – Oh dear god, Hellmuth is here.  HA!  The TD introduced him and the crowd boo'd.  "I'm just trying to become 1/11 the player you are." – Lindgren to Hellmuth

6:22 – Andrew Robl plays Limit Hold'em weird.  I don't know enough about LHE to say he plays bad, but he definitely plays weird.

6:25 – How on earth is this the first time ESPN has done any coverage on Erick's golf bet from last year?  A week or so after it happened I emailed Mike & Mike and PTI about it because both shows had done stories on some PGA players complaining about the heat at tournaments.  Erick's agent, Brian Balsbaugh, was previously an agent for PGA players, and he said that he would be surprised if 5% of the golf pros could do what Erick did that day.

6:28 – Just saw Ozzy87 (aka Aurangzeb "Ozzy" Sheikh) in Bonomo's cheering section.  Ozzy wasn't twenty-one at the time of the taping – not sure if that's against the rules or not.

6:31 – Please.  For the love of all that is holy.  Shut up about Brett Favre.

6:41 – The phrase "cut your teeth" still makes me cringe.

6:44 – Robl gets eliminated and Justin, assumingly joking, says to Erick, "chop?”  If Justin did want to chop there, and offered Erick the bracelet and less money, I think Erick is one of the guys in that spot that would actually turn it down.

6:48 – Second BSS, “Blake Stepp Sighting” - this time in the shot of Erick Losing to Jeff Madsen.

6:49 – Shows you what a difference four years makes.  After Erick's PartyPoker Million win he ran up a $22k bar tab; he told us on the radio show that, after his bracelet win this year, he went home and slept.

6:56 – "Bonomo reminds me of that movie Speed – he's a bus that can’t slow down."  Norman Chad must have a bet with someone that each year he can come up with a metaphor that's worse than the year before.

6:59 – Erick once again shows tremendous class in telling Justin that, "You're the future of poker; you're gonna be a good representative."

7:00 – I told Erick this in person the day after his win…but congrats again for finally getting there.  I can earnestly say we all (meaning the media) were rooting for ya on this one.

*Please note that I have proven it is possible to talk about Erick for an extended period of time without calling him "E-dog."  You should try it.