Quad Aces Beat “treysfull”
by Rachel on 06.02.09, 10:09 pm
As we were admiring the architectural marvel that was Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier’s enormous chip stack in the $1.5K PLO event, we happened to catch the biggest pot of the tournament so far. With the blinds at 1.2K/2.4K Mercier put in a pot sized raise from early position and Steve “PiKappRaider” Burkholder (pictured at left) called out of the small blind. The player in the big blind then moved all-in for his last 24.2K and Jason quickly re-potted. Burkholder, who started the hand with around 120K, moved all-in and Mercier called. Here are the hands each player held:
Burkholder: A
A
72
Big Blind: K
K34
Mercier: T785
The AA5 flop left the big blind and Mercier both drawing dead to Burkholder’s quad aces. The player in the big blind was eliminated, Burkholder took over the tournament chip lead with the 260K pot, and Mercier dropped to around 240K. Burkholder has since chipped up to about 330K while Mercier still has about 240K.
Other chip counts:
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano -135K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham -97K
Daryll “GoPhish” Dauenhauer - 51K
There are currently 29 players remaining in the field. Play will continue until the final table has been set tonight.
WSOP EVENT #4: $1K NLHE
As play progressed closer and closer to the final table, Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts pushed his 138K short stack all-in from the cutoff with the blinds at 10K/20K with an ante of 3K and the player on his right didn’t take long before making the call. Roberts AK was racing with the other player’s JJ, but he failed to improve on the Q8249 board and was eliminated shortly after they combined to three tables.
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (pictured at right) had a rough last hour of his tournament that saw many ups and downs before he eventually busted in 21st place. First he doubled up after shoving all-in from the cutoff for his last 322K with the blinds at 12K/24K with a 3K ante and a player in the blinds called with 44. Jon was behind with his A2 but he picked up some additional outs when the flop came down J99 and the A on the turn gave him the lead. The river was an inconsequential 5 and he doubled up to 680K. After the hand, he turned to us and quipped, “Allen Kessler would not approve.” What the Chainsaw would approve of is Aguiar inquiring about the next jump in payouts shortly after his double up.
The tides turned for Aguiar a few hands later though when he raised to 56K from under the gun plus one and it folded around to the player in the big blind re-raised all in for 296K total and Jon quickly called with AQ. Aguiar seemed a little surprised to see his opponent held 44 and was visibly frustrated when the flop came down A24, giving the other player middle set and leaving Aguiar drawing thin. The turn and river came 69 and Jon dropped to 350K.
The very next hand Aguiar again opened for a raise, this time to 62K. The elderly gentleman to his immediate left put in a sizeable re-raise and when it folded back around to Aguiar he quickly folded pocket nines face up. The other player showed pocket queens.
We missed the hand that crippled Aguiar a few minutes later, but Steve Sung, who is also seated at the table, informed us that Jon and another player got all the chips in pre-flop with Jon holding A-3 to the other player’s K-10. The board ran out Q-J-10-7-6 and a pair of tens was good enough to take the pot and leave Aguiar with essentially one big blind. He was all-in the very next hand and when his J-5 failed to catch up to another player’s pocket sevens, he was eliminated.
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong has recently busted from the event when his A-Q got ran down by another player’s A-9. Armstrong raised to 90K from the small blind and the big blind moved all in, having him covered. Amstrong snap called and was the victim of a brutal 9 on the turn to send him home in 16th place for $44,801.
WSOP EVENT #7: $1.5 K NLHE
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz doubled up Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo over in the Miranda Room. Tamayo was all in on the button and it was Schwartz who had the decision. Eventually he decided to call the extra 3,850 after jokingly commenting that he could go play the 2-7 tournament. Tamayo was ahead with his A2 to Schwartz’s QT. The flop was A-Q-2, giving Tamayo two pair. The turn and river were no help to Schwartz, and Tamayo doubled up to 8.5K. Schwartz looked to still have about 15K after the hand.
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson has moved over to Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti’s (pictured at left) table in the Brasilia Room. Benvenuti has been nursing a short stack for a while and has 6.3K at last check. After Johnson won a pot against Dan Shak earlier, we saw him raise three pots to 850 over a short time with the blinds at 150/300 and a 25-chip ante. However, he never found a caller and got a walk each time. He’s sitting with 13K right now.
Neil “puggy82″ Stewart has been slowly building his stack all day and now has 17.2K, which is comfortably above the chip average of 11.3K. Bill “crazyhorse76″ Slaght has 9K, Shane “ComebackShane” Bingham has 6K.
Austin “leet8s” Frenkel is up to 27.8K, but he insisted he hasn’t needed much skill so far today. He told us he had kings against tens and later aces against an opponent’s kings. We caught him bullying around a shorter stack in the Miranda Room. Frenkel min-raised to 600 on the button, and the small blind min-raised back to 1,200. Frenkel than raised again to 2,050, and the small blind folded. “See, that’s what happens when you think you have to raise,” he said as he raked in the pot.
Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo let us know that he busted from the event as has Justin Bonomo. The players are now on dinner break with 1,080 of the original 2,791 entrants still remaining. Of those players, 297 will make the money with the bracelet winner getting $666,727.
Other chip counts:
Jesse “jmaster30″ Cohen - 23K
Shaun Deeb - 21K
Ben “BFineman” Fineman - 15K
Court Harrington - 15K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 13K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 5.5K
Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen - 10K
