As this is written Thursday night two nearly complete unknowns are leading the Festa al Lago. Neither chip leader Ryan Fair or second place William Mietz would seem to have the bona fides to even be in the money, let alone leading after Day 3.

Not saying that either will win this thing. Chip leaders have been an endangered species in this tournament. Antonio Esfandiari made himself and his massive chip lead disappear on Day 2 and Daniel Negreanu just barely held on to get about half his money back after Day 3.

But both of the two unknowns are guaranteed their biggest paychecks ever, no matter how disastrous this turns out.

How do they do it?

I’ve covered tournament poker forever and I still can’t figure out how players who have NEVER been in these kinds of situations can SUDDENLY beat the best in the world. Then they usually return to obscurity, of course, but their one day in the sun is more than I ever had as a player.

Name: Ryan Fair
Location: Coral Springs, FL, United States
Cashes: 5
Total Winnings: $79,352
ProRank 1 Position: 3067 [ DETAILS ]

Ryan Fair Poker Results
EVENT PLACE PRIZE DATE
39th World Series of Poker 2008
Event #3 - WSOP Pot Limit Hold'em 10th $12,165 2-Jun-08
Foxwoods Poker Classic / WPT Event Season 6
No Limit Hold'em 16th $3,697 30-Mar-08
38th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #30 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em Short Handed 29th $9,546 18-Jun-07
38th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #3 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em 16th $27,827 2-Jun-07
37th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #31 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em 18th $26,117 21-Jul-06

Name: William Mietz
Location: Littleton, CO, United States
Cashes: 4
Total Winnings: $17,898
ProRank 1 Position: 4196 [ DETAILS ]

William Mietz Poker Results
EVENT PLACE PRIZE DATE
Heartland Poker Tour
No Limit Hold'em 18th $4,544 7-Oct-08
39th World Series of Poker 2008
Event #7 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em 68th $6,374 4-Jun-08
38th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #3 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em 148th $4,706 2-Jun-07
37th Annual World Series of Poker
Event #2 - WSOP No Limit Hold'em 224th $2,274 27-Jun-06

Day 4 chip leaders

1 Ryan Fair 1,331,000
2 William Mietz 1,217,000
3 Bertrand Grospellier 1,151,000
4 Joe Sebok 1,100,000
5 Nenad Medic 925,000
6 Odie Dardon 703,000
7 Steven Fiorentini 686,000
8 Brad Booth 616,000
9 Joseph Ebanks 595,000
10 Nam Le 557,000
11 Scott Clements 552,000
12 Daniel Alaei 546,000
13 Olav Prinz Von Sachsen 517,000
14 Johannes Van Til 486,000
15 Bryan Devonshire 485,000
16 Michael DeMichele 475,000
17 Kasey Nam 416,000
18 Andrew Robl 400,000
19 Mike Wattel 393,000
20 Dutch Boyd 366,000
21 Isaac Baron 325,000
22 Justin Bonomo 300,000
23 Adam Levy 298,000
24 Jamie Rosen 291,000
25 Sabyl Cohen-Landrum 282,000
26 John Roveto 263,000
27 Shawn Cunix 232,000
28 Abe Mosseri 208,000
29 Jimmy N. Tran 201,000
30 Emeline Boich 195,000
31 Chris Bjorin 179,000
32 Blake Cahail 173,000
33 Erica Schoenberg 140,000
34 JJ Liu 21,000

35 Matthew Stout $26,645
36 Tony Cousineau $26,645
37 Chad Layne $26,645
38 Jeremiah Vinsant $26,645
39 Masaaki Kagawa $26,645
40 Richard Sciuto $26,645
41 Danial Cordi $21,315
42 Robert McLaughlin $21,315
43 Nicholas Sliwinski $21,315
44 Doyle Brunson $21,315
45 David Chiu $21,315
46 William Heimiller $21,315
47 Kenny Goldman $21,315
48 Beth Shak $21,315
49 Bob Slezak $21,315
50 Ted Lawson $7,105
50 Daniel Negreanu $7,105
50 Jennifer Tilly $7,105

Here are a few of the more successful players Mr. Fair and Mr. Mietz beat out of the money.

Alan Goehring
Alan Smurfit
Alec Torelli
Allen Cunningham
Allie Prescott
Amir Vahedi
Amnon Filippi
Andy Bloch
Anna Wroblewski
Antonio Esfandiari
Barry Greenstein
Barry Shulman
Bill Edler
Billy Baxter
Blair Hinkle
Brandon Adams
Brandon Cantu
Brian Rast
Carlos Mortensen
Chau Giang
Chris Tsiprailidis
Clemenceau Calixto
Cliff Josephy
Daniel Alaei
Daniel Schreiber
Daniel Shak
Danny Wong
David "Chino" Rheem
David Benyamine
David Pham
David Singer
David Williams
Doug Lee
Dustin Woolf
Eli Elezra
Eric Hershler
Erick Lindgren
Erik Cajelais
Erik Seidel
Francois Saffieddine
Freddy Bonyadi
Freddy Deeb
Gabe Thaler
Gavin Smith
Gus Hansen
Haralabos Voulgaris
Hevad Khan
Howard Lederer
Hoyt Corkins
Isaac Haxton
Isabelle Mercier
James Mackey
James Van Alstyne
Jason Lester
Jason Mercier
JC Alvarado
JC Tran
Jeff Madsen
Jeff Shulman
Jimmy Fricke
Joe Cassidy
John Gale
John Hennigan
John Juanda
John Phan
Johnny Chan
Jon Friedberg
Jonathan Aguiar
Jonathan Tamayo
Justin Bonomo
Kathy Liebert
Kelly Kim
Kenny Tran
Kevin Saul
Lee Markholt
Lyle Berman
Marco Traniello
Mark Dickstein
Mark Seif
Matt Keikoan
Michael Mizrachi
Mike Matusow
Noah Schwartz
Patrik Antonius
Paul Kroh
Peter Feldman
Peter Neff
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Laak
Ralph Perry
Randall Skaggs
Raymond Davis
Richard Harroch
Robert Mizrachi
Russell Rosenblum
Scott Epstein
Scott Montgomery
Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Buchanan
Shawn Sheikhan
Steve Brecher
Steve Sung
Theo Tran
Thor Hansen
Tim West
Tom Schneider
Toto Leonidas
Tuan Le
Vinny Vinh
Vivek Rajkumar
Will Wilkinson

Good luck to the unknowns and probably goodbye.

What do you think?

Love

Mike Paulle

Email: mikepaulle@aol.com

Please look for this blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays