Ship The Final Table Seat!
by Brett on 06.12.09, 5:00 am
Mike “shipitthisway” McNeil has advanced to his first World Series of Poker final table.
After 13 hours of single-table play McNeil disposed of his last opponent in the $1.5K No Limit Hold ‘em Shootout. With McNeil holding a 3-1 chip lead his opponent moved all in with K
8
and McNeil called with A
Q. The board ran out 7
44J6 and Mike finally showed some emotion by celebrating with his friends on the rail, including Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward and Steve “SteveyBallGame” Merrifield. He had been reserved for the majority of the day.
It was a back-and-forth heads-up battle that McNeil gained control of when his AK held up against his opponent’s KQ alfter all of Mike’s 170K chips went in preflop. From there McNeil played small ball knowing that he could take pots away on the flop. He chipped away at the other player until he had him down to nearly 10 big blinds. And then he sent him home with the final knockout blow.
Mike almost seemed embarrased when he was told that his table was the last of 10 tables to finish. But the most important thing he’ll remember about tonight is the feeling he had when his ace-high sent him on his way to the big show.
“What a grind,” McNeil said to us afterward, knowing that we’d been following his table since this afternoon.
The final table is all set for tomorrow as the final 10 players have their tickets punched. Joining McNeil will be P5er Jason “JCarver” Somerville as well as pros Josh Tieman and Eugene Katchalov.
WSOP 2009 Event #21: $3K HORSE
Zac “Zacpacker” Fellows is closing in on his first WSOP bracelet. Fellows holds a 10-1 chip advantage heads up over James Van Alstyne as the two are playing on the secondary ESPN table in the Amazon Room. A victory over Van Alstyne would make it seven bracelets for P5ers through 21 events in this year’s Series. We wish Zac the best of luck in sealing the deal!
WSOP 2009 Event #23: $10K NL 2-7 Championship
There are still eleven players remaining in the prestigious 2-7 Single Draw event, including our own Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, who is currently sitting in 8th place on the leaderboard. As they draw closer to the final table, questions have begun to arise as to how and when to combine to a single table. Were the players to combine at nine, as tournament staff members suggested would be the case, there is an extreme likelihood that the dealer would run out of cards to deal to the players. Were they to play five and four handed, the staff suggested it would be too unfair to the shorter handed table. In other words, we have a bit of a pickle on our hands. In the mixed games events played this year and last year, two players were simply required to sit out during the single draw rounds, so perhaps they will consider that option as well.
Either way, we’ll let you know what they decide, but considering there is less than an hour before the 3AM rule goes into effect, it is entirely possible that the field won’t lose two players and it is an issue that will have to be addressed tomorrow.
WSOP 2009 Event #24:$1.5K NLHE
Since we were just two tables away from the bubble bursting as play in Level 10 drew to a close, the tournament staff agreed to have players go on a ten minute break and return to play until the money bubble burst. While some players, like Full Tilt Pro Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery applauded every time someone doubled up so he could continue to bully with his big stack on the bubble, others grew increasingly frustrated as they couldn’t get down to 270 players.
On the final hand of the night, Dan “Wretchy” Martin (pictured left)was all-in and called by an opponent and they were instructed to leave their cards face down until it could be determined if anyone else was all-in. One other player was in the same predicament as Dan, who rounded up Andy “BKiCe” Seth from a few tables over to “bring the run good” and help him make the money. Seth and Ryan “gutshtallin” Welch watched as Dan turned up his AK, which was racing with 77. The ace in the window was a big relief for Martin, who sweated it out as the board came AQ8JJ to give him aces up and the pot. Meanwhile, the other player a few tables over failed to survive his all-in, so Martin and 269 others made it into the money and called it a night.
Here are as many end of day chip counts we could grab as players bagged and tagged at the end of Day 1:
Darryl “DFish” Fish - 157.9K
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery - 117K
Jack “doctor_fun” Powell - 115K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 70.4K
Todd “koolkeith13″ Lewis - 56.8K
David “The Maven” Chicotsky - 56.4K
Thayer Rasmussen - 50.2K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 48K (pictured right)
Andy “BKiCe” Seth - 42.4K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 38.2K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 35K
Ryan “gutshtallin” Welch - 33.1K
Pat “bigred0000″ Stemper - 29K
Devin “tranquilchaos” Porter - 28K
Joe Sebok - 26.9K
Dan “Wretchy” Martin - 26.3K
Matt “ch0ppy” Kay - 15.3K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 6.7K
