Rajkumar, Sebok and Cornell
by Court on 03.19.09, 4:43 pm
The Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament got down to the final 36 players last night, and when those players returned this morning it was to 6 handed play that will continue all the way down to the final 6. To start the day the final 60 minutes of the 2k / 4k with a 500 ante level will be completed and from there on out all levels will be 2 hours in length with the first blind jump to 2,500 / 5,000 with a 500 ante. The seating draw put Tyler “Brainwash” Cornell, Joe Sebok and Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar in the 4,5 and 6 seats respectively at table 3. Cornell started the action with a hefty chip lead over the rest of his table with his 425k being more than double the next largest stack.
Sebok (right) was able to get a double up early off of Cornell when his AQ held up against Tyler’s AT. Cornell had opened for 9,500 and Joe moved all in for 98k which Cornell called. The 9
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J board was no help to Cornell and Sebok was able to double to just over 200k. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar was left short stacked after missing an open ended straight draw and moved all in from the small blind for 48k. Matt Lessinger called from the big blind with the A3 and Vivek’s tournament was on the line with his T2. The flop came J87J9 and Vivek was able to make a straight to double up, though still relatively short stacked with only 100k.
With a large chip stack and playing 6-handed, Tyler Cornell has been active at the table, involved in a lot of pots and he was able to eliminate one short stacked player when his K9 won a race against Robert Fox’s pocket fives. Tyler has also doubles up both Matt Lessinger and Louis Razzano. The short stacked Lessinger was all in for 23,500 against Cornell but Matt’s AT help up against Tyler’s Q9 to keep him in the tourney. Razzano won a larger pot off Cornell to double to over 200k when Tyler’s AK made two pair on the river only to lose to the straight of Razzano. Louis had the QJ and took the lead on the QT2 flop but the K on the turn put the advantage back on Tyler’s side. The A on the river made Razzano a straight though, and Cornell was forced to send a full stack of pink 5k chips across the table.
Towards the end of the 2k / 4k level Vivek (left) was able to get another double up, this time at the expense of Sebok. Joe limped in from the small blind and Vivek checked to see the AQ9 flop. Joe then began a series of check calling that cost him 6,500 on the flop, another 19,500 on the 3 turn and the last 53k of Vivek’s chips on the T river. Once the chips were all in the middle Sebok showed his Q8, but Vivek had flopped two pair with the Q9 and got a double up to around 200k while Sebok fell back to around his starting stack of roughly 120k.
Mohsin “ChicagoCards1″ Charania lost a pot to leave him among the shorter stacks going into the next level. In a hand where there was only a big blind Mohsin raised to 10,500 and was called by Farzad Bonyadi. The flop came QJT and Mohsin led out for 13k. Bonyadi called and the 5 turn brought a 26,500 chip bet from Charania. Farzad again called and on the K river both players checked. Bonyadi showed the KQ to win the pot.
The first hour was relatively quiet for Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson. After the elimination of Paul Wasicka the two players to Marco’s left both had huge stacks and seemed comfortable with their chips in the middle. His 150k-ish stack leaves him a bit handcuffed with Kamran and Tighe playing the role of the big stack to his left. For now he seems happy to bide his time and wait on a hand to double him through one of the big stacks.
In the first level of play 6 players were eliminated including bounty player Paul Wasicka and Jeremy Meier. Both earn the $15,000 payout that went to players finishing 36th through 30th. The next 6 eliminations will earn an even $20,000.
