Early Exit for The World’s #1
by Brett on 05.28.09, 7:46 pm
Action was fierce in Level 3 of the $40,000 No Limit Hold ‘em event. Steve “gboro780″ Gross, Christian “charder30″ Harder and Jon “FieryJustice” Little all met their demise, while several other online stars took big hits to their stacks.
Gross (pictured at left), the top-ranked player on Pocket Fives,  lost a good portion of his stack before the first break to Greg “FBT” Mueller. The two saw a flop of 8
22
. Gross bet, Mueller raised and Gross made the call. The T fell on the turn and Mueller led with a 13K bet. Gross called. A red queen came on the river and Mueller bet 25K. Gross called with A5 and Mueller flipped over 8
8 for a full house.
Gross then busted shortly after the break when he moved all in with A-9 preflop and couldn’t catch up to Doyle Brunson’s A-Q.
Christian “charder30″ Harder again fell short in a big pot against Jason Rosenkrantz. Harder opened preflop with a raise to 2.2K in the cutoff, the small blind called, and Rosenkrantz raised to 11.5K in the big blind. Harder moved all in for a total of 64K , the small blind folded and Rosenkrantz called with pocket jacks. Harder’s AJ was unable to improve and he was eliminated. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar has taken Harder’s old seat next to Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson.
Steve “thorladen” Weinstein lost a substantial pot toward the beginning of Level 3. With the blinds at 400/800/100, on a board of K J 6 A 4, Weinstein checked and faced a river bet around 15K from an opponent in seat five. Weinstein called and his opponent rolled over pocket aces, scooping a pot worth over 40k. Weinstein showed his A-K before mucking, dropping to around 90,000.
Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza lost a battle to Kenny Tran a few tables away. On a flop of J62, Garza check-called a bet of 3K. The 4 came on the turn and again Garza check-called, this time a bet of 6K. The river brought the A and Garza check-called a bet of 16K from Tran, who won the pot with his 43 for a flush. Garza was still sitting with 160K after the hand.
Over at table 91 we found Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen getting involved with Daniel Alaei. Sitting in the small blind, Junglen faced a raise to 2.4K. The original raise came from middle position and Alaei flatted behind. Junglen tanked before reraising to 10.3K. The original raiser promptly folded and Alaei made the call. The flop fell Q 9 J, and Junglen check called a 12K bet from Alaei. The turn brought the K. Junglen checked again, and Alaei (sitting with around 85K) asked for Junglen’s chip count. Junglen moved his arms and Alaei examined his stack of about 134K. Alaei flipped a 25K chip in the middle and Junglen tanked before folding. Alaei scooped the 50K pot, bringing him up to around 135K.
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman (pictured at right) has seen his stack move in the opposite direction. Moorman and J.C. Tran tangled in Level 3, getting all of their money in on a flop of KQ3. Moorman had led the flop with a bet of 10K, Tran raised to 26K and Moorman moved all in for around 60K. Tran called and saw that his AJ needed help against Moorman’s 65. The turn 3 and river Q
changed nothing and shipped a pot of 125K to Pocketfives.com’s second-ranked player.
Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier was moved to table 60 where he found himself in a big hand against David Singer. The action was raised preflop, and on a flop of Q 7 2, Staudenmaier checked from the small blind and Singer led out for 4.5K from the cutoff. Staudenmaier raised to 15.1K  and Singer called. The turn brought the 8, and Staudenmaier led out for 16K. Singer tanked for a few minutes before making the call. Staudenmaier quickly shoved all in for 52,200 when the J came on the river. Singer folded, and Staudenmaier’s stack grew to about 120K.
Players have just gone on a 20 minute break. Twenty-seven of the original 201 players have been eliminated so far. The payouts have been released, with the top 27Â getting paid and the winner receiving a cool $1,891,012.
