WSOP 2008
All’s Quiet On the Amazon Front
by Crystal on 06.12.08, 5:16 am
While the $2k Limit Hold’Em tournament still has two tables playing and Jeffrey Lisandro and Mike Matusow are still playing heads up in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys, play has ceased in both the $5k NLHE tournament and the $3k HORSE tournament and the Amazon room is now mostly quiet. Numerous P5ers are still in the hunt in both the $5k NLHE and the $3k HORSE tourneys.
During the last level of the $5k NLHE tourney, Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer’s stack was anything but steady. In one hand O’Dwyer raised preflop and the small blind called. The flop came A
K5
, the small blind checked, O’Dwyer bet 8.5k, and the small blind pushed all in for 17k total. O’Dwyer said “I have to call!” as he flipped over his T7 for a flush draw that was behind the A
J of his opponent. The 9 on the turn and 3
on the river were no help to O’Dwyer and his stack dropped to around 30k.
Not long after that hand, O’Dwyer tangled in another big pot when Carl “colson10″ Olson raised preflop and O’Dwyer pushed all in next to act. Olsen called with AK and was ahead to O’Dwyers AT but when a Q, J, and finally a K fell on the board O’Dwyer’s broadway straight was enough to eliminate Olson from the tournament.
P5ers still in the hunt when the $5k No-Limit Hold’em Event #21 resumes tomorrow at 2PM PST include:
Anna Wroblewski
Amit “amak316″ Makhija (pictured at left)
Ben “MilkyBarKid” Grundy
Jason Gray
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis
Mike “SirWattel” Wattel
Eric “BaseBaldy” Baldwin
Kevin “StamDogg” Stammen
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer
John “pbdrunks” VanDuyn
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver
Eric “Rizen” Lynch
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant
Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet
Eric “sheets” Haber
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman
Adam”Roothless” Levy
P5ers still grinding away in the Event #22 $3k HORSE tourney include Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, James “mig.com” Mackey, Mark “pokerbok” Vos, Zak “traction” Gilbert, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich.
Mizzi Accumulates Big Stack at Manic Table
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 6:04 pm
The level of energy jolting through the Amazon room was palpable as players frantically pushed their chips to amass a large stack before the close of the rebuy in the WSOP Event #5.
For many poker players, a rebuy tournament is as welcomed of an event as Christmas is to kids.
No table exemplified that mentality more than Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi’s table, which featured Mark Vos and Steve Sung, all of whom weren’t pinching their pennies.
At the end of the rebuy period, Mizzi was in for 4k and said that Sung was in for 25k and Vos about 8 to 10k.
As a result, this table had an incredible amount of chips on it, led by Mizzi and Vos who had stacks over 40k.
Often there was a negotiation before many hands at this table as Vos, Mizzi, and Sung would put in 4k and run the board without betting.
Many players had extra stacks of non-tournament chips on the table that they would use to purchase more tournament chips as needed, Bellagio chips accepted along with Rio chips.
From looking throughout the room it seemed as if there was a contest going on among players as to who could sit with the most amount of money on the table.
Not surprisingly, Phil Ivey’s stack of 100k worth of Bellagio’s chips was the unofficial winner although Kenny Tran’s cupholder full of white Bellagio 1k chips won the award for best presentation.
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz got caught up in the action as well but decided to call it a day after he busted before the rebuy period after being in for 14k.
Since Schwartz was also in the money of 1.5k PLHE event which started after the rebuy period closed and would be shortstacked in the rebuy if rebought again, he decided it wasn’t worth it to try to multi-table both tournaments.
The online community had a strong presence as predicted in this event, as many players have a lot of experience playing many rebuy tournaments online.
One table included Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson.
During the 50-100 level after five limpers, Johnson raised to 500 and Kamberis and another player called.
On a 427 flop, Johnson bet 800 and Kamberis called. Both players checked the K turn, and when the 9 dropped on the river, Johnson bet 1800 and Kamberis called, beating Johnson QQ with 97 for two pair.
Not all tables where chaotic however. The table that featured Jennifer Tilly, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Bill Gazes and Robert Mizrachi didn’t have many chips on it and both Tilly and Beckman hadn’t rebought since the optional initial add-on.
Daut, Crazy Marco Get Bad Beats
by AdamJ on 05.31.08, 12:55 am
In a three way raised pot between Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, David Benyamine, and an unknown on a 989 flop, Johnson raised Benyamine’s flop bet and Benyamine went all-in and Johnson revealed 98 for full house besting Benyamine’s TT until a T turned and a meaningless 4 hit the river. Benyamine doubled up to about 80k in chips and Johnson, one of the chip leaders, dropped down to 122k.
Another bad beat elimated Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (right) when he reraised Phil Laak preflop and got reraised all in by Laak. Laak tabled the AT and Daut AK. After Laak’s flopped ten held up, Laak responded to his good fortune by saying “I was thinking he can’t have it everytime,” mentioning Daut had been habitually reraising him preflop.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul was involved in two interesting hands. He raised pre-flop only to be re-raised by David Chiu. After thinking for a little while Saul pushed enough chips in the middle to put Chiu in and Chiu quickly called. Saul showed AJ to Chiu’s QQ. The board came 875T2 letting Chiu’s hand hold for him to double up. After the hand Eric “Rizen” Lynch and Shaun Deeb debated whether Saul’s move was +EV or -EV.
The very next hand Saul called the cutoff’s all-in bet pre-flop. Before Saul flipped over his cards he said, “I have to call!” Saul showed 64 while the other player held AQ. The board came K5543 allowing Saul’s pair of fours to knock the other player out. After the hand was over Saul said he recieves at least 3 e-mails a day about how to play 46 suited better.
Another notable hand came from Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis who called the small blind’s all-in preflop. Alex showed A3 while the small blind held AK. The flop came with good and bad news for Alex showing Q53 giving him a pair of 3’s but giving his opponent a flush draw. The 4 on the turn and 9 on the river allowed Alex to take the pot and knock out the other player.
Some recent chip counts:
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 122k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija -111k (right)
Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar - 110k
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 85k
Jerimiah “Believer82″ Vinsant - 80k
Joe Sebok - 74k
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul - 52k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 51k
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 46k
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 41k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 38k
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 28k
Mario “Deuce2high” Silvestri - 27k
Alex “AKJHoosier1″ Kamberis - 26k
Chris “Genius28″ Lee - 26k
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 23k
Jason Gray - 21k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 19k
Shaun Deeb -16k
Matt “MattG1983″ Graham - 16k
CrazyMarco and Keller Among Chip Leaders
by Crystal on 05.30.08, 10:23 pm
With the blinds at 400/800, Chris “Genius28″ Lee and the player in the cutoff raised back and forth pre-flop until Chris put the other player all in. Chris showed AQ while the other player had KK. The flop came 36K giving the other player top set, and the K on the turn sealed the deal giving him quads. Although it hurt Chris’s stack he still has about 35k as we move into the dinner break.
The randomness of table draws brought some interesting collections of players. One table could seemingly be labeled the “live pro’s table” populated with players including Allen Cunningham, Joe Sebok, Andy Black, Tony Cousineau, Patrick Antonius, and Kathy Leibert. Some tables had higher concentrations of known online players as well with one table including Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Brock “t_soprano” Parker, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Ben “Milkybarkid” Grundy and Jeff Madsen.
Other tables, such as the table with Kevin “BeLOWaB0Ve” Saul, had a mixture of well-known live and online tournaments players including Shaun Deeb, Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton, John Phan, Michael Mizrachi, Minh Ly, and Dan Shak.
Among the chip leaders heading into the dinner break were Shawn Keller and Marco Johnson (pictured), who have around 150k in chips with about 170 of the initial 352 remaining.
Other notable players had the following chips stacks: Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis 18k, Isaac Haxton 30k, Shaun Deeb 20k, Chris “Genius28″ Lee 35k.
Big Event Early
by Court on 05.30.08, 4:48 pm
The first event of the World Series of Poker is off and under way. Players entered in the $10k event started with 20k in chips, thought the blinds did start at 100 / 200. In the past the WSOP has kicked off with smaller buyin events, resulting in massive fields, and mass confusion. This year the $10k starting event has kept the field size much small, with the board only showing 350 entrants so far as the last of the late registrants trickle in.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul lost a big pot early to Chris “Genius28″ Lee. Kevin bet 7,500 on a J32K board and Chris thought for a few moments before moving all in for 8,325 more. Kevin went into the tank for a while but ended up folding his hand, leaving himself with over 10k chips. He was able to pick up a few pots soon after and was back up to 15k by the time the first level ended.
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis also took a hit early. Vince Van Patten hit a set of threes to take a 14k pot off of Kamberis, leaving Alex with around 13k chips. Kamberis flashed his pocket aces as he mucked his hand after seeing the set. He was still in good spirits though, saying he thought he lost the minimum on the hand.