$$ Cash 4 Seat $$

It only cost him $80.

Darus Suharto qualified on PokerStars for the World Series Main Event. His $80 win got him into a bigger qualifier and there he won his prize package to Las Vegas.

Now, Suharto is one of the November Nine, the final table players of the 2008 World Series Main Event.

Here’s what he had to say in the moments after he made the final table.

See the other interviews with The PokerStars Six:

Dennis Phillips interview
Ylon Schwartz interview
Peter Eastgate interview
David Chino Rheem interview
Ivan Demidov interview

Perhaps better known online as TenthPlanet, Ylon Schwartz is no stranger to live poker. A regular on the East Coast live scene, Schwartz has been around long enough to have paid his dues. Now the chess expert, lover of all games, and PokerStars is looking to get away for a while.

In his own words, he was “bugging out” when he finally made the final table. He took a few minutes to talk to us before escaping to places unknown in preparation for the November final table.

Here’s what he had to say.

See other interviews with the PokerStars Six

Darus Suharto interview
Dennis Phillips interview
Peter Eastgate interview
David Chino Rheem interview
Ivan Demidov interview

In minutes that followed PokerStars player Ivan Demodov’s making it to the 2008 World Series final table, he was still in shock. After coming all the way from Moscow to compete in his first major live tournament, Demidov could barely find the words to explain what had just happened to him.

Now, Demidov is set to become a superstar in Russia and around the poker world. Here is what he had to say in the moments after making the final table.

Watch WSOP 08: Ivan Demidov Finalist on PokerStars.tv

See more interviews with the PokerStars Six

Darus Suharto interview
Dennis Phillips interview
Ylon Schwartz interview
Peter Eastgate interview
David Chino Rheem interview

Victor Ramdin has a genie, but he looks nothing the lovely Jeannie from your TV set (or, for that matter, a semi-popular slot machine here in town).

“It’s my lucky genie,” he told his table. “I’m very superstitious.”

How lucky? Midway through the first level of the day he saw a raise and an all-in re-raise before he looked down at two black kings in his small blind.

“Call,” he said, his genie hanging just over his shoulder.

The first raiser smelled something funny and mucked his hand, leaving the re-stealing all-in player to sheepishly turn up Js7s. He was drawing dead by the turn.

“Sure, people just hand you their chips,” said a brash player a couple of seats to Ramdin’s left.

Ramdin pointed to his genie. “It’s the massage,” he said.

Ramdin is more focused than I’ve seen him in recent years. He’s alternately grinding and playing huge pots. What’s more, he’s kept the same massage therapist– a big, muscular man–near his back at nearly all times. The therapist is not quite Tiger Woods’ caddy, but at times it seems like it.

Even when the genie is away, Ramdin is winning. On a board of 4d5hAh-Qc-Qd, Ramdin checked and watched his opponent throw out 65,000 in chips. Ramdin tanked while the ever-present ESPN cameras swarmed. He finally threw in his call and watched his opponent muck without showing. Forced to show his own hand, Ramdin turned up A2.

He stacked his chips without a word–laser focus that only makes way for some fun table chit-chat between hands. ESPN seems to love him. The producers have made Ramdin their feature table player twice, and had cameras at the ready any time he is in a hand.

Last night, as he sat on the side feature table, he leaned back to shake my hand. In just a few short minutes, without really trying, he cemented my impression of him.

“My son starts school tomorrow,” he said.

Not even August yet, I wondered why. Ramdin explained his son has some exceptional talent in a wide variety of disciplines, including boxing and chess. Ramdin found a summer program for gifted kids, and in went his son. While Ramdin toils in Las Vegas, he’s making sure his family is well taken care of.

That’s Ramdin. He’s a strategist, he’s a provider, he’s a fighter.

“Why don’t you have a woman masseuse?” someone wondered aloud.

Ramdin said the females are fine, but they sometimes don’t have the strength to get to the deep tissue.

“You’re a fruitcake,” said the mouthy player from before.

Ramdin’s lips drew into a line, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, his genie spoke for him.

“Have you seen his wife?”

Later, Ramdin remembered the guy in not-too-fond terms.

“The guy called me a fruit,” he said.

From nowhere appeared the genie. “That guy was uneducated,” he said.

“Wish he’d said it to be outside,” Ramdin mused. Then he looked to his therapist-caddy-genie and said, “We’re going to have a session at the dinner break.”

***

Ramdin looks to go into that break with more than 600,000 in chips.

Here’s a video blog recorded earlier today when Ramdin was having a rougher time of it.

Watch WSOP 08: Victor Ramdin Day 4 Catch Up on PokerStars.tv

Editor’s note: After publishing this article, we were made aware Ramdin actually has two genies in the field. Rob Marriott is the one featured in the article. Morgan Hildreth is the other. Both seem to be good luck for Ramdin and are a credit to the growing number of male therapists in the room.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the Amazon Room, between the remaining tables. The most notable is a player wandering around, getting well known around the room as the player who went on break with chips and came back to find his table broken and his chips gone. He literally can’t find his chips anymore, causing him obvious stress, and some mild amusement to the players.

On a table in the green zone a player is out of his chair, whooping and celebrating a survival hand. Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan looks over at the guy with a knowing smile. It’s easy for him to remember a time not so long ago.

This time last year it was Hevad’s parade - a high profile contender for poker’s biggest prize. He ran his incredible performance into sixth place and $956,243; a vocally charged whirlwind that had the TV cameras swooning and several cans of nicely packaged and memorable footage for the highlight reels.

Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan

Twelve months later and midway through the first level of the day Hevad Khan was at 380K. This is a pretty sizeable stack for most but he didn’t seem prepared to wait and had soon spun it up to nearly 500K.

It seems one good run is not enough for the Poughkeepsie man. Call it his already natural playing style, temperament or just the fact that his eyebrows add a certain menace to his face, Hevad has turned it up a gear, is controlling his table, and has plans to make it two in a row. As he said himself after my colleague Maria Mayrinck asked him if he intended to do it all again… “Yeah, just watch.”

I’ve seen it before but Hevad goes into a kind of trance when busy in a hand, playing in slow motion period like an old 78 speed LP. His World Series priors mean the cameras are never far away. He managed to ignore the foot long microphone hanging above his head and mucked his hand. He had a set but his opponent was betting big, a factor that took Hevad five minutes of questions before letting the matter go.

Tiffany Michelle is also at this table, another cause for the cameras to stop by. With the mike hanging over her head this time like a scythe she asked Hevad if he had any advice, since he’d been this far before.

“Sit out…” he replied, pausing for effect before letting on that he was kidding.

Hevad’s table presence is unmistakable. He’s a big man; big hands, big arms, and those eyebrows. He’s also a friendly guy, but when he plays a hand, and you’re up against that slow motion trance, you can almost predict what carnage will come. It’s like the slow movements are to save as much energy as possible. He doesn’t waste it at all.

A raise and a call. Both the raiser and Hevad checked the nine high flop to see a jack on the turn. A 30K raise to Hevad who asked for a count just to be sure. He rested his hands on the table and waited. When he was ready he slowly picked up some of the green 25K’s and re-raised, 80K total. His opponent, who now had to stop his massage, counted his stack. He has only yellow chips but calls with Hevad watching him. The river card is a six. It’s checked to Hevad who bets big once more, too big to keep up with, and good for another big pot.

His course is true, his actions strong. Hevad Khan is looking for a repeat, up to 600K.

***

The PokerStars video blog team caught up with a few players this morning, including PokerStars sponsored player Kara Scott, who talked about her chances after a few set backs late last night…

Watch WSOP 08: Kara Scott Day 4 Pre Play Chat on PokerStars.tv

Our spies in the Palms poker room sent over this story this morning…

Day 2 of the World Series is always a tough day. Regardless of age, nationality or gender, most people find it pretty gruelling to sit at a poker table, for ten hours at a stretch, with more than $9 million at stake - and stay focused and on the ball.

Day 2B of the World Series main event - which, with nearly 2,500 starters, had a much larger field here than Day 2A - was particularly arduous. You grind away and every time you look at the screen, there are STILL hundreds of players left in.

So you would think that once the day finally ends most survivors would be heading straight to their rooms to get some well-earned shut-eye before doing it all over again on Day 3.

Most people, yes. But not Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker. At the end of Day 2B, Chris bagged and tagged his $40,000, then headed straight to the No Limit room at the Palms where he handed over $500 and plonked himself down in Seat 1 at the $1-$3 table.

The rest of the table - almost exclusively players who had already bust out of the main event - were gob-smacked. Is the guy nuts? Or simply a poker phenomenon? Chris seemed totally unphased by the attention. He chatted for a bit, posed for photographs, signed some autographs, won three hands in a row - and then moved over to the $2-$5 table where a seat had just come up.

Chris finally left the room at around 3am, with what looked a load more chips than he’d started with.

So you would think that might be the end of his poker until he got back to the Rio today. But no. At 11am this morning, Chris was at the tables yet again, spinning it up in a $15-$30 cash game on PokerStars.

***

By noon today Chris was in the Amazon Room of the Rio, where he both hoped and expected to spend at least 13 hours playing cards. Alas, it is not to be.

Miuntes into the start of play today, Chris Moneymaker had his chance to double up, gtting AJ in against 9T pre-flop. Does it matter if it was a nine or a ten on the flop? Well, it was a ten, and Chris Moneymaker is done at the World Series for another year.

In other Team PokerStars Pro news, Vanessa Rousso managed to double up her short-stack at the start of play, while Noah Boeken has already found the door, his top trips falling to a full house.

That leaves us with John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, ElkY, Hevad Khan, and Victor Ramdin. Ramdin is running hot at the moment and looks good to make a deep run today.

Hevad Khan just raised seven out of ten pots. I’d been told this was the way he plays. Really, I stood and watched them.

For many the Team PokerStars Pro is famous for two things. First, the video clip he sent to PokerStars showing himself playing 28 sit and goes at the same time, proving the speculation that he was in fact a bot, to be undeniably wrong.

Second thing on the list of most memorable Hevad moments is his performance at the World Series last year, where the main event saw a talented and spirited Hevad charge his way to a sixth place finish, good for $956,243 and a place in the general poker consciousness.

The contrast between then and now couldn’t be more different. By his own admission Hevad is a calmer player these days, and at table Blue 34 sits as the quiet one at the table, letting his chips do the talking if you like. Whether he’s suffering from a long day or a long Series is unclear. I suspect it’s neither of those, just that he doesn’t need to play in any other way. Instead his movements are slow and considered - at least during a pot. When he wins he can stack chips on warp speed.

Just recently this has been happening a lot.

First a raise from Hevad, re-raised by Steve Weinstein in the nine seat, who bumps it up to 14,500. Hevad moves in slow motion, like he’s playing out the pinnacle action sequence of a low budget movie. He picks off some chips, actually all of his chips, and move them in the middle.

Hevad Khan

That taught them. Another pot to Hevad.

Next hand, Hevad raising again. Nothing fancy, just a straight forward 2,500. No takers, another pot for Hevad.

He raises the next hand, the same process, the same result – another pot to Hevad.

You get the picture… I’d guess it’s still going on as I write this. Quieter than last year but no less effective; Hevad was on 36K. Now that figure is more like 60K.

This may have been the first time all week I haven’t seen Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin getting a massage. On Victor’s day one, it seems he required a constant pummelling to ease himself back into contention, and before that in the $1,500 HORSE the situation was the same. It must have worked though – Victor made the final of that event, finishing sixth.

But perhaps Victor is not as tense right now, and who can blame him? Sat as he is with 250,000 he owns the table. Besides, the massage therapy wouldn’t have been able to penetrate his leather jacket.
The board reads 8-A-5-5.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

The baby-faced seat two player had been getting busy with some pre-flop raises for the few hands I’d been watching. The two of them danced their way to the river on an ace-high board…

“I got an ace.”

This made Victor pause a second; he did too but didn’t want to show his hand first. Ace-nine against ace-nine - a split pot.

Curiously when Victor is in control it’s as the hands taking place are irrelevant to the actual process of gaining chips. It’s around day two or three that you start to get a better understanding of how things are shaping up, a clearer vantage point from which to judge who’s doing well, who’s trying to do well and who is hanging on as best they can.

It’s no surprise that the leaders on day one, like Kellen Hunter, soon start pulling away, increasing their stacks even more. If you wait for cards you’re doomed, your advantage comes from knowing more than the other guy.

This is where Victor comes in. A quarter of a million in chips, not really playing hands, more just working the table, picking up what he can when he can. Coffee arrives.

Another hand, Victor in the cut off, it’s folded to him and he raises. The blinds fold and Victor picks up a grand or two. He gets his headphones out.

A flop of 8sTdAd, checked by two players, one of them Victor. The fourth street jack sees Victor raise 5,600 which prompts his opponent to take off his shades and re-raise. This time Victor mucks. He does the same after a pre-flop raise on the next hand, forced out by a re-raise.

Betting all the way to the turn on the next hand, an Ad4d7s2d board. The seat seven player made it 7,500 – he’d tangled with Victor before. Victor called and checked the king on the river, then another bet of 12K.

Now Victor pulled his headphones off, like you would if you suspected the table were talking about you, and with a slight shake of his head he reluctantly counted out the call. Holding the chips high and at arm’s length, grimacing all the way, he dropped in the call.

At that moment his opponent mucked. Victor didn’t even have to show his hand. With a sigh to suggest he’d been put through a trauma for no reason he started stacking his chips. Not to worry, Victor up to over 260K.

Meanwhile the PokerStars video blog team caught up with PokerStars qualifier Adam York…

Watch WSOP 08: Adam York on PokerStars.tv

By our count, five former World Series champions remain in the field of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Among these players are Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker. Hachem, as mentioned here, is sitting in a quiet dark corner, quietly plotting to chip up before day’s end. Moneymaker, however, does not have such a quiet place for reflection. His day started and continues to be on the ESPN featured table, in front of the cameras, under the lights, and with everyone at the table gunning for him.

Moneymaker seems to be in a good place this week. He’s dropped some pounds, spent a lot of time with his family, and when playing poker (even just for fun in the Palms poker room), he seems happy. It’s not always as easy under the lights, though. After he limps, it’s a raise, and a re-raise before it gets back to him. His cards get to the muck quickly, and when the next bet is an all-in, Moneymaker literally reaches over his shoulder and pats himself on the back.

His constant sweater, aka his father, sits in the stands watching every move. When Chris turns to find his bottle of water empty, his father stands and brings a fresh one. These guys have been together at the World Series since that fateful night five years ago when Chris turned his $39 PokerStars satellite entry into $2.5 million. Now, Dad sits by while his son tries to create another storybook tale.

The past hour could’ve been better for Moneymaker. After limp-folding in the hand before, Moneymaker once again limped, but this time, after getting raised to 3,200, Moneymaker fired back a raise for 7,500 more. A smooth call came in, followed by a flop of Kd9dTh. Moneymaker put 11,000 in the middle and his opponent pushed all-in for 55,000 more. With not a hint of a smile, Moneymaker folded. He put his sunglasses on top of his head, put his head down on the table, and tried to stare under the bill of his opponent’s cap.

The crowd laughed appreciatively and a railbird called, “Good fold, Chris!”

The next time, it fails to go as well. Moneymaker got AKo all-in pre-flop against aces for a 40,000 pot. He picked up a gutshot draw on the flop, but bricked twice. He walked back over to his dad, talked for a bit, then returned to the table, flipping his 50-chip ante into the pot with a sigh. It wasn’t his best level of the tournament, but he’s still in good shape.

In other news, Hevad Khan, Victor Ramdin, and ElkY are all doing well today and sit with more than 100,000 chips.

Finally, the PokerStars Video Blog team caught up with EPT commentator and PokerStars-sponsored player Kara Scott at the break.

Watch WSOP 08: Kara Scott Day 2b Chat on PokerStars.tv

I first met Serge Grenier at the reception for the Team Moneymaker players. He stood out from the other team members for the fact he spoke to me in French. Putting to use what little French I still had in my head, like taking the covers off an old ‘57 Chevy to take it for a spin, I discovered that Serge was from Quebec and was an engineer. To continue the analogy, it wasn’t a long drive.

Serge Grenier

But quiet as he may have been on day one he quietly put together a stack good enough to survive the day. Back today and it’s a similar story, up to 80K and keeping out of trouble.

Another who has made it this far and is doing his best to keep pace is David Trinh, a pharmacist from Toronto. He did have a shade over 20K before just doubling up. Whilst Darren Keyes, whose wife Michelle is watching closely from the rail, reached the first break of the day with close to 90K.

David Trinh

Along the way we’ve lost a couple of others form the team, including Claude Elam from North Carolina, making his second World Series appearance.

There’s no team work in poker but there is camaraderie between players who have arrived in Las Vegas via the same qualifying route, be it in a freeroll or a special event like the $39 Team Moneymaker competition. This is displayed in none more so than in Mickey Parkinson one of those winners who qualified for $39.

Mickey Parkinson

Earlier I ran into Mickey, a nurse from Alberta in Canada, and probably the most cheerful looking member of the team. Today she started with her short stack on table Orange 25. She called me over with news of her tournament so far but in the space between then and the break she had busted. At one point the dealer asked her if she was okay…

“I’m very quiet… but I’m having a good time!”

Sadly that would all come to an end before I got chance to catch up with her at the break – so long Mickey.