Day two of the World Poker Tour London Classic wrapped up late yesterday and 39 players were left to take it to day three. 171 players entered the tournament, creating a massive prize pool of over £800,000 with the first-place winner walking away with nearly a quarter of a million pounds. While Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey were heavily feted to go the distance, both of the players were eliminated in the second day, when competition got especially fierce.

British player Luke Schwartz held the top spot for the majority of the day, at least until late in level 12 when he went in heavy while holding KK against William Martin's QQ. A queen dropped on the flop and Schwartz's descent was hard and fast, dropping the player below the six-figure mark into 30th place as day 2 wrapped up. The top five players going into today's action are as follows:

Giovanni Safina (508,800)
Tonio Roeder (424,200)
Talak Shakerchi (357,900)
Bruce Atkinson (344,600)
Philip Patrick (333,500)

Good luck to the remaining players! If you're not able to make it to your closest World Poker Tour stop, Bodog offers great online poker action, featuring massive guaranteed tournaments, freerolls, cash games and more. If you love poker, there's a game for you to play at our tables and our massive bonuses give you up to $1100 extra in your bankroll when you make your first deposit!

Lakesha C. Johnson, 27, was sentenced to 18 months probation by a Chicago judge for stealing $9,000 from a poker player in February of last year. Lake County prosecutor Bernard Carter stated that she'll be paying $9,000 in restitution and performing 90 hours of community service as part of her punishment. Johnson failed to appear at the trial.

What happened? A poker pro playing at the Horseshoe Casino met and began to flirt with Johnson, who played with him for a couple of hours. After cashing out, the duo had breakfast and opted to go back to his hotel room for some recreational activities of the nude kind. They stopped to buy gum and condoms (clearly, he wasn't as prepared for this eventuality as he should have been) and commenced to doing what two consenting adults frequently do.

The problem is, the poker pro (who has gone nameless in all police reports and media coverage) woke up alone at around 9:30 AM and the $9,000 he'd won was gone, hence Johnson's subsequent capture and sentencing. The maximum sentence for Johnson was 3 years incarceration, but it's apparent that there was a plea bargain, considering her non-appearance in court.

You don't have to worry about waking up without your bankroll or your organs when you play online poker at Bodog.

The World Poker Tour London Classic has been underway for two days and will have just started its third when this hits the blog. Due to its size, opening day for the event was split into two days. In day 1A, Erik Seidel led the way with 226,200 in chips, followed by Talal Shakerichi (188,600); Bruce Atkinson (149,800); Phil Ivey (146,2000) and Igor Kurgandu (124,300). Day 1B was less star-studded, as you can imagine, but still some impressive play with Priyan de Mel leading the pack with 235,000. He's followed by Richard Ashby (229,800); Giovanni Safina (140,000); Tyler Shook (139,200) and Joshua Field (134,400).

Other notable players that have made it into day two include Praz Bansi, Huck Seed and UK players Joe Beevers, Michael Greco, Ross Boatman and Welshman Surindar Sunar. Alynn Shulman, wife of 2009 WSOPE champion Barry Shulman, finished day two with over 100,000 in chips, proving that the two of them should definitely keep playing poker.

The London stop on the World Poker Tour has been praised by players for offering a fantastic venue, with masseuses stopping by tables and top-flight food and beverage. As always, the tournament will be aired on television in a highly-edited fashion.

Can't make it to London? Play in online poker tournaments at Bodog and take advantage of our massive guarantees and King Of The Felt contest!

Las Vegas
ESPN's Gary Wise sat down and talked to Phil Laak, whose recent ATV accident sidelined The Unabomber for a few weeks. Laak maintained his typical jovial persona throughout the interview with the poker journalist, reflecting on the accident and his reaction to being transported to the hospital:
"I was in extreme pain, but I was really happy because I had my wits about me and that meant my brain was in good shape. The fact I was thinking about that was a good sign too. My eyes were working. I knew that my arm was bashed, but they could fix that."

It's a great read, whether or not you're a fan of Jennifer Tilly's boyfriend.

Boston
The Boston Globe featured a short piece by Steve Rosenbloom, a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune. In it he talked to Oliver Busquet about taking on Phil Hellmuth in the $25,000-buy-in WPT Championship at the Bellagio this year. In it, he talks about beating Hellmuth in a monster pot: “When it comes to Phil, I hadn’t really played with him; I just know what I’d seen on TV. But my sense is he’s rarely out of line in this situation."

It's always interesting to see stories that cover individual hands so well, particularly when it involves an up-and-coming player versus a monster like Phil Hellmuth.

New Zealand
He's won $160,000 in poker tournaments in the last two years and you'd think that meant that Danish whiz Soren Eriksen would be looking at Las Vegas as his next destination, but he's keeping it local to his adopted homeland and has started his own beer label, 8 Wired Brewing, according to the New Zealand Herald. He began offering the brew last October and he has managed to sell 20,000 liters so far, picking up a coveted gold medal at this year's BrewNZ awards.

Why go for beer instead of poker? Eriksen, whose Kiwi wife is expecting their first child, said that playing poker professionally was not compatible with his view of family life. While that's understandable, he's always welcome to play online poker with us.

Congratulations to Bodog Poker player ctsrules. They came in first during this weekend’s $100,000 guaranteed poker tournament, held on Sunday, August 29. They earned a cool $25,000 for beating a field of over 570 players with ph33sh1nGT1mE taking second place and $15,000 and darknightcoming rounding out the top three finishers and winning $9,500. Here's the rest of the top nine players in the weekly event:

• 4. navyus $7,000
• 5. MrTeal110$5,700
• 6. pkb6786 $4,500
• 7. jahillyaman $3,300
• 8. ORD TWR 1 $2,200
• 9. rbry1401 $1,300

Bodog’s $100,000 guaranteed tournaments are held each Sunday at 4:00pm ET and we offer multiple ways of getting into the $150+12 buy-in tournament. Want to get on the action?  Check out our $100,000 guaranteed poker tournaments page and see how you can get in for as little as $1

In addition to our $100,000 weekend tournament, Bodog Poker hosts a variety of $10,000 guaranteed tournaments and our most recent winners are listed below:

• August 23 $10k  Guaranteed Double-Stack    perfectangel24
• August 24 $10k    Guaranteed Double-Stack    Skeeeter
• August 25 $10k    Guaranteed Double-Stack    alienface
• August 26 $10k    Guaranteed Double-Stack    wopdego33
• August 29 $10k    Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack    Joe McGuire

Bodog's guaranteed tournaments mean that there's always a big cash pool. Play poker online at Bodog and get your share!

Middle Tennessee quarterback Dwight Dasher, whose name has shown up on this blog quite a bit in the last week, has been suspended indefinitely and it's estimated that he'll miss about a third of this season's games, including the opener against Minnesota later this week. The suspension was handed down because Dasher was declared ineligable for competition by the NCAA due to his borrowing $1500 from Oliver Donnell, an 80-year-old York VA Medical Center patient.

Dasher's accepting the money made him a paid athlete for all intents and purposes according to NCAA regulations. THe laws do not apply to his playing poker, which is not covered in the NCAA rulebookm which instead focuses on sports betting on Bylaw 10.3, which states that player can not "participate in any gambling activity that involves intercollegiate athletics or professional athletics, through a bookmaker, a parlay card or any other method employed by organized
gambling."

MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro's statement to the press outlined the usual penalty for an infraction at this monetary level. "The prescribed penalty on this type violation is a 30 percent reduction in the number of games in a season (equal to three or four games), which can be mitigated either higher or lower." MTSU will be filing reinstament players for the player by this Friday or the next Monday at the latest.

It's important to note that while Dasher has been the subject of a university inquiry and MTSU police investigation, that's as far as this matter has gone in the eyes of the law. It's interesting to note that Donnell stated that Dasher stole checks from Colin Boss to pay off the loan and there's a police report that states Boss called the Murfreesboro Police's computer assisted dispatch service on July 29 to report his checks were stolen. However, Dasher's name was not mentioned in that report and Massaro didn't mention the allegedly stolen checks on Friday.

The NCAA doesn't care if you take advantage of our bonuses of up to $1100 when you sign up to play online poker at Bodog!

The UK's Daily Mirror newspaper reports that the Chilean miners trapped underground have turned to playing poker in order to keep their spirits up during the long wait for rescue. If you've not been keeping up because you've been grinding at Bodog's tables, a group of 33 miners were caught in a mine collapse near Copiapo back on August 5. Rescuers using high-tech equipment were surprised at first to hear hammering from the men and then heartened when a note that read "all 33 of us are fine in the shelter" was tied to one of their probes.

Since then, the world has looked on as these brave workers have endured ghastly conditions underground as they wait for rescue. One of the miners was a soccer star in his country in the 1980s and is using poker to keep himself and his fellow miners occupied during the long, grueling wait. Franklin Lobos represented his country in the 1980s and his free kicks made him a megastar to the populace of the South American country. His daughter Carolina told the Daily Mirror: "It will be difficult, I'm sure, but I'm not worried about him. I know he is happy and content down there because he is playing lots of poker and cards. It is good for his mind."

Medics observing the scene are paying close attention to Lobos due to his age (53) and diabetes. They've sent insulin to him through the borehole that's been used for communication, but no word on how much he's up or down so far in what's surely the highest-pressure tournament in the world.

Enjoy online poker at Bodog!