Chippers
by Court on 09.29.08, 2:03 pm
The World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair, ended up with a total of 362 entrants. Of that number only a few over 100 remain and the number is falling like prices at Wal-Mart. The folks over at ESPN couldn’t be happier so far, with Daniel Negreanu finishing as the day 1 chip leader and them quickly zooming up to 300k today to take a sizeable chip lead.
Well, maybe ESPN could dream for a better scenario, with big names like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein being eliminated today, and defending champion Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad falling out yesterday, but all in all if Daniel makes the final table the ratings will soar no matter who else is there with him.
Phil Hellmuth is still hanging on with around 10k, demanding constant attention from the cameras. At one point a short stacked Phil decided to miss his blinds to go visit Daniel at the feature table, just in case there was a camera in the building not focused on Hellmuth’s antics. His ongoing conversation across the room with Mike Matusow has a few of the other players a bit on edge, but most everyone seems to be ignoring him, while David “DevilFish” Ulliot makes regular witty remarks about the attention loving star. Phil has mentioned no less than 6 times in the last hour how many bracelets he has won.
Still battling with the short stack, Tim “Tmay420″ West (right) commented that “10 big blinds is all I need.” Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar is at the same table with Tim, and though not nearly as short he would also like to add chips to get to a more comfortable level. With about 43k in front of him Aguiar moved all in after a player had opened for 2,800 and another player had raised to 7,500. His all in moment added over 11k to his stack and put him around 55k.
Aguiar (left) was also part of a mild controversy that was more a discussion of rules than a complaint. Sitting in the 9 seat Aguiar had not acted on his hand when the 1, 2, and 3 seats all folded out of turn, leaving Aguiar with a hand and only the blinds remaining. Jonathan put in a raise to 2,100 and picked up the blinds, showing the 6
5. Another player at the table mentioned after the hand that after more than 2 players act out of turn that a player in Aguiars situation should have his hand ruled dead for not stopping the action.
Many of the European players at the table seemed to agree this was a rule, and it may well be but in three years of covering and playing in major live tournaments I have never seen a hand ruled dead because other players acted out of turn. The question is, should the burden be on the player to stop the out of turn action or should it fall on each player to know when it is and is not his or her turn and on the dealer to catch any out of turn action?
Here is a quick update around the room of how some of the boys are doing. Blinds are 400 / 800 with a 100 ante to give a frame of reference.
Daniel Negreanu (right) - 300k
Justin “Boosted J” Smith - 160k
Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery - 150k
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 130k
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 122k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 111k
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 110k
Jamie Rosen - 55k
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 47k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 55k
Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen - 40k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 13k
