My friend Mike Paulle has given me permission to post his daily reports for each event of the World Series of Poker this year to the ChipBoard! Below is his report on Event #35 Day 4. Andy - Las Vegas

WORLD SERIES OF POKER 2002

EVENT #35 THE CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM
Monday, May 20-24, 2002
$10,000 BUY-IN
$10,000 in chips

DAY FOUR

No bracelets? No money? No problem!

You'd send your nickel-dime playing granny against this lineup, right? No WSOP
bracelets among them. None! Total WSOP earnings for the group: under $450,000.
They have a whopping seven Final Tables in all WSOP events with one second as
the best result. Three of them had never made a penny in the Series before
today.

Those who like to complain, "tournaments are always won by the same people"
will have to be still for a while.

How's this for formidable credentials? These are the final nine's prior WSOP
earnings.
Our chip leader, John Shipley: $37,270
Russ Rosenblum: $0
Rafael Perry (aka Perovskin) $58,340
Rob Varkonyi: $0
Minh Ly: $62,155
Scott Gray: $12,200
Julian Gardner: $0
Tony D: $228,532
Harley Hall: $25,260

Only Shipley (42nd, 2000) and Tony D (13th, 2001) have ever cashed in any WSOP
No-Limit event. They were both in the $10,000 Championship.

What do all these statistics mean? Absolutely Nothing! Trust me, your dear
granny would get crushed by this group. They all can play.

The Final Table was setup when Don Barton couldn't get off a hand when he was
raised by John Shipley. On second button, Barton bet out on the flop of J 10 9.
Shipley on the button raised $100k. Don had A Q that gave him an up and down
straight draw. Barton went all-in. Shipley called with trip Jacks. With two
short stacks, Barton might have picked a better spot to make a stand.

But Don might have still been steaming from the beat the other Brit at the
table had just given him. Julian Gardner could have been out of this tournament
a couple of times. His wizardry is still working. Don Barton had Julian
dominated all-in just prior to Barton's exit in 10th to John Shipley. Don had A
K, Julian was all-in with A 10. No worries! When a 10 rips right off the deck,
you know you can do magic.

There are dozens of great stories on Day Three. I don't have the space to tell
them all. It was an exciting day. If you'd like to really experience what
happened you should watch the Internet feed on www.binions.com.

Anyway, two of the best stories of the day involve the chip leader for
tomorrow's Final Table, John Shipley, and the guy second in chips, Russ
Rosenblum.

They say you have to get lucky to win a poker tournament, but this is
ridiculous! John Shipley, by rights, should have been history on Day Two. John
had A K and was all-in. Phil Ivey had flopped a set of threes with his pocket
pair. Phil made a full house when another Ace came on the turn. John had three
Aces. Oops! Make that Quad Aces on the river. John had caught runner runner
Quads. Shipley is still alive and goes on a two day rush. Phil Ivey never fully
recovers and finishes 23rd. Fate? Karma? Who knows?

Russ Rosenblum had made one of the great recoveries of WSOP history to have
$927,000 in chips. Rosenblum made one of the worst mistakes of his life to
nearly put himself out of the tournament.

Early in Day Three, Russ bets $18,000 on a 10 3 10 flop. Julian Gardner comes
over the top for $50k to go. Russ has a pair of Jacks and reraises it to
$100,000. Instantly and dramatically, Julian Gardner knocks his stacks over
into the pot, all-in. Rosenblum is so shocked by this move that he gets up and
walks into a service area behind his table. Co-Tournament Director, Matt
Savage, comes looking for him to find out what he wants to do. While still
standing away from the table Russ says, "I fold."

Even though Russ isn't in his seat, Savage says that the verbal bet in turn is
binding. Now Russ realizes his error and what's Gardner's stack counted down to
see what it would take to call the reraise. Too late, the fold stands. Gardner
slams a pair of 6's down on the table. Rosenblum would have had Julian drawing
to a 6 and probably out of the tournament. Instead of nearly $400,000 in chips
if he'd called the small Gardner reraise, Russ Rosenblum now has $32,000. "I
play better with only a few chips," was Rosenblum's answer to how he came back.

Lastly, the performance of Harley Hall has to be mentioned. Hall started the
day in 40th position out of 45. He passed 31 players to get to the Final Table.
A couple of those players had hundreds of thousands of dollars more in chips
than he did.

It's easy to have fun with the WSOP histories of our last nine. They can take
it; they will be making a fortune on Friday. But make no mistake. These guys
beat a world-class field that included 13 former World Champions and nearly all
of the WSOP millionaires. That they aren't famous poker players is only
temporary.

No bracelets? No money? No Problem!

THE FINAL TABLE 1 hr 42 mins left of 2 hours. $3,000 ante. The blinds are
$8,000/$16,000

Player Hometown Chip Count

Seat 1 Tony D (Tam Duong) Los Angeles CA $231,000
Seat 2 Julian Gardner Manchester, UK $394,000
Seat 3 Scott Gray Dublin, Ireland $545,000
Seat 4 Rafael Perry Las Vegas NV $ 766,000
Seat 5 Minh Ly Las Vegas NV $614,000
Seat 6 Rob Varkonyi Brooklyn NY $640,000
Seat 7 John Shipley Solihull, UK $2,033,000
Seat 8 Russ Rosenblum Bethesda MD $927,000
Seat 9 Harley Hall San Juan Capistrano CA $161,000

Official Money Winners
1. $2,000,000
2. $1,100,000
3. $ 550,000
4. $ 281,480
5. $ 195,000
6. $ 150,000
7. $ 120,000
8. $ 100,000
9. $ 85,000

10th-12th received $70,000
Don Barton (Pahrump NV), Amir Nasseri (Henderson NV), Owen Mullan (Ireland)

13th-15th received $60,000
Martin de Knijff (Sweden), Yosh Nankano (Las Vegas NV), James Neely (Land O'
Lakes FL)

16th-18th received $50,000
Bernard Ko (Sunnyvale CA), Sigi Stockington (Austria), David Rubin (Mill Valley
CA)

19th-27th received $40,000
Mike Fetter (Long Beach CA), Stephen Wilsdon (England), Jack Fox (Reno NV),
Dave Crunkleton, (Las Vegas NV), Phil Ivey (Atlantic City NJ), Minh Nguyen
(Bell Gardens CA), Lamar Wilkinson (Pacheco CA), Kurt Paseka (Bayside NY), Ray
January (Vancouver WA)

28th-36th received $30,000
Luan Phu (San Jose CA), Sam Whitt (Lima OH), Rameen Sai (Ireland), Scott Amos
(Carrollton OH), Steve Melton (Noble OK), Eric Holum (Las Vegas NV), Ross
Boatman (England), Randy Holland (Orange CA), Tom Schneider (Phoenix AZ)

37th-45th received $20,000
Hertzel Zalewski (Houston TX), Doug Booth (Bowling Green KY), Jason 'Kid
Wonder' Lane (Chandler AZ), Brian Haveson (Newton PA), Greg Alston (Walnut
Creek CA), David Sklansky (Las Vegas NV), Dan Heimiller (Livonia MI), Tristan
McDonald (England), Peter Giordano (Liverpool NY)