Daily Rewind: Lederer's Latest Appearance, WPT SA, Ausmus Second Sponsor

In today's Daily Rewind we find out why Howard Lederer has been causing a stir, recap yesterday's action from WPT South Africa and see who else Jeremy Ausmus will be representing during the WSOP finale.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

Festa fury inside the Bellagio

Howard in action

The $10,000 Festa al Lago Championship event at the Bellagio created a buzz around the poker world yesterday for all the wrong reasons.

While the usual tournament pros played with their chips in search of a stack large enough to take them through to the final table, a rather large elephant entered the room.

Without a hint of irony or hesitation, Howard Lederer anted up alongside the very people he relieved of their bankrolls when Full Tilt was seized.

Having returned to live poker a couple of weeks ago, Howard decided to test the tournament water yesterday and play in the first event since the demise of his online poker site.

It's not clear whether Howard is extremely brave or stupid but whatever his reasons for playing, his appearance has certainly caused a stir amongst those in attendance.

Instead of confronting him directly, many players opted to vent their anger through Twitter, flooding the social networking site with a series of humorous and poignant comments.

Lederer's social reception

WPTSA latest

Yesterday's second starting day in Johannesburg attracted a total field of 148 players. With a number of famous faces taking to the felt for the WPT's inaugural South African tournament the action was fast-paced from the start.

Indeed, by the end of the day just 80 players remained, taking the total number of runners who will return today for Day 2 to 114.

Among those stacking chips on Day 1B were UK pro Jerome Bradpiece and PokerStrategy.com's 'melanieweisner'.

However, for all their efforts, the remaining players were all left trailing Sunil Devachandor who finished the day on 215,800 chips.

While today's session will commence with those who've survived the turbulence of Days 1A and 1B, it will also welcome a number of players who've yet to exercise their re-entry option.

This means that the official figures for Day 2 could increase and further bump up the prizepool.

Weisner running well

High stakes corner

Ilari wins big

A mammoth win for Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies in the past 24 hours helped claw back some of the $800,000 he's lost in the last few weeks.

After playing 1,908 hands, the volatile Finn managed to bank $662,067 which put him over $300,000 ahead of the day's other big winner: Dusan "nasud 11" Valenta ($321,702).

Also enjoying a healthy profit yesterday was Sam "tr1cky" Trickett. The UK grinder managed to add $216,680 to his bankroll after just 1,412 hands.

On a day of big winners there has to be some big losers and yesterday's unluckiest player was PokerStrategist Jens 'jenskyllonen' Kyllonen.

The Finnish player lost $413,949 and topped the day's loser chart ahead of "patpatman" (-$321,227) and Terje "Terken89" Augdal (-$305,133).

Ausmus in double deal

Ausmus's double deal

Jeremy Ausmus has bagged his second sponsorship deal in the last few days and will now sit down at Sunday's WSOP final table with two patches on his chest.

Having already inked a deal with social media site, TTAGIT, Ausmus will also represent a free play poker site called HogWild Poker.

According to poker's information guru Kevin "Kevmath" Mathers, this could be the first time that a single player has secured two sponsors for the final table.

While the deal might not be akin to an endorsement from one of the larger poker sites, it does show that despite the tough economic climate there are still deals out there for players who perform well.

Commenting on the signing of Ausmus, HogWild Poker's CEO said: "We couldn't be more excited to have a player of Jeremy's calibre representing us at the Main Event final table. He perfectly fits what our brand is all about."

Daily Signoff

We may have seen Henry Van Tran acting in a less than dignified manner in yesterday's Daily Signoff, but in today's parting piece we see him making an unconventional but profitable play during the Main Event.