WSOP 2008
Rizen Out
by Jill on 06.28.08, 10:52 pm
Since we last updated on Event #49, the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament, more than 600 additional players have been eliminated. The number of players remaining is 572 and the average stack is 14.2K; players left for dinner break just before 7pm PST.
One of the latest casualties of the maniacal field included Eric “Rizen” Lynch (pictured at left), who sat comfortably with 14K in the blue section of the Amazon room. Before the flop came, he raised 1.2K from under the gun and got one caller - the player immediately to his left. The flop came 3
5K and Eric bet 2K, only to be repopped for 6K. Eric moved all in and was called by his opponent. The turn was the T and his opponent flipped over AQ
to Eric’s pocket sixes. The 2
on the river couldn’t help Eric, who was drawing dead, and he was sent to the rail after giving a very gracious “Nice hand” compliment to his opponent.
Other players were also frustrated by the deck before the break. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar engaged in a hand with one other opponent when he raised to 1.2K preflop in early position and was called by a limper. The flop came 4
T3 and his opponent checked, only to have Vivek bet out 1.9K. The other player smooth-called Vivek’s bet and the 6 came on the turn. Both players checked down the turn and the Q came on the river. Vivek’s opponent led out with 5K and Vivek tanked, sarcastically telling his opponent, “Obviously I hit that. Why such a big bet?” He finally folded and let the table peek his Q as he mucked his cards.
On the flip side of the coin, William “gptbigguy” Looper (pictured at right) experienced quite a bit of good fortune in the last couple of levels, chipping all the way up to 31K. When PocketFives asked him what his strategy had been, he answered: “Getting lucky. Getting really lucky.” He wouldn’t even report hands to the media crew in fear that we would post them, but so far his luck is holding!
David “seal” Eisenstein also got lucky in a hand this afternoon. He reported that he’d been all in on a previous hand and his opponent hit two pair on the flop, then rivered a full house. His stack took a huge hit and was down 15K, but not out. We caught up with David as he was all in for 2K with Q-8; an eight on the river saved him from elimination and he doubled up. The next hand, he urged us to stick around - he went all in with pocket fives and took down the pot uncontested before showing his cards and making the table laugh.
Here are some unofficial chip counts at the break:
William “gptbigguy” Looper - 31K
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas - 27K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 16K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 13.5K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 10.5K
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 10K
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 10K
“shortyjacksn” - 7K