Sorel Rallies, Youngblood Ousted
by Court on 10.13.08, 5:27 pm
The pros get most of the attention at the major tournaments, but some of the best human interest stories come and go without anyone knowing much about them. Daniel “poncholoco” Youngblood (right) got the opportunity to play in a major live tournament through a satellite and though he has busted on day 2 play he still had the chance to experience playing at the highest level with some of the best and most known players in the poker world.
Daniel moved all in for his last 13k or so and happened to walk right into a player with pocket aces. The aces held up against Daniel’s QJ and Daniel made a gracious exit from the tournament, obviously disappointed but also with a hint of a smile still on his face. Hopefully he will be able to look back on this as a good experience even though it didn’t end as well as he hoped.
For top pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (left) the day started off bleak with his starting stack of only 9,100, but he has increased that tenfold and is now up over 100k. As the field continues to drop and chips accumulate between the remaining players many 100k+ stacks are emerging with a few 200k stacks leading the way.
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson was able to grab another pot to put himself right in the range of 100k chips. Carson opened for 3k and was called. On the K
K
5 flop Carson checked and the other Curt Kohlberg bet 5k. Carson the raised to 14,200 and his check raise was strong enough to get Curt to relinquish his hand.
Big pairs have been good to Ryan “Gotskillz” Fisler so far in the North American Poker Championship. On day 1 pocket kings twice overcame pocket aces for Fisler to build a stack and today he was able to bust a player in an all in preflop situation with his pocket queens against AK. The flop came Q-5-5 making a full house for Fisler. The turn was a Jack and the river a Ten, prompting a few players to think the AK had won with a straight, but Fisler and his opponent both knew that after the flopped full house the straight was no good. After adding those chips to his stack Fisler now has 165k.
Other Chip Counts:
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 200k (right)
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 165k
Ryan “Gotskillz” Fisler - 160k
Jamie Rosen - 150k
Joe Sebok - 125k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 120k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 110k
Steve Paul-Ambrose - 95k
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 95k
Jason “JP_OSU” Potter - 90k
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 74k
Peter “Mr. Motown” Valente - 70k
Jason Gray - 53k
Brynn Kenney - 44k
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 40k
Tyler “Brainwash” Cornell - 33k
Mike “Timex” McDonald - 20k
