WSOP 2008
Ware on a Tear
by Jessica on 06.27.08, 1:39 am
The current chipleader in the $5K short-handed No Limit Hold Em Event is Steven “CornellFiji” Ware (pictured at left). In addition to being an online cash game player, Ware was also one of the people who uncovered the “nionio” scandal at Ultimate Bet. He is currently, in his words, “getting crushed by the deck” and has virtually doubled his already large stack in the span of one level.
One hand that helped propel him past the 200K mark occurred when, on a flop of 9
7
4, Ware’s opponent bet out 10K. Ware then asked how much the other player had, and when he learned it was around 50K more, he raised to 30K. The other player quickly moved all-in and Ware made the call with QT. He then learned he was in bad shape against his opponent’s A5, but the board came J
8
to give Ware a straight. After the hand, he was up to 225K and is the chip leader by a substantial margin.
One player who has been headed in the opposite direction is Jason “JCarver” Somerville. When we last reported on Jason, he was sitting with a hefty 63K stack, but he has since dropped to under 10K. Jason explained he didn’t get involved in any huge altercations with other players, but kept taking, “lots and lots of little stabbings–like Caesar”. His downswing started when he took a 15K hit when he got it all in with pocket jacks against a short stack’s pocket queens. Since then, he has continued to lose chips and is now sitting with less than ten big blinds once players return from break.
Some players who have been eliminated in the past two levels include Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert, Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, and Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan. One hundred-sixty eight of the initial 805 players remain and it was recently announced that 78 of them will be making the money. Here are some updated chip counts of a few of the players remaining in the field:
Shannon Shorr - 78K
Alex Jacob - 68K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 58K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 45K
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 35K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 33K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 30K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 30K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 27K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 26.5K
Rebuy Bye Bye
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 7:14 pm
Now that the rebuy period in the $1.5K has ended, some of the loose, erratic plays we have spotted around the room is likely coming to an end. Some players, like Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis and Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, decided to cut their losses and call it a day before the rebuy period was even over.
Several other players remain in the field, but had to decide whether it was a worthwhile prospect to add-on. Someone who probably didn’t bother with adding on is Jamie “TheNew” Robbins (pictured at right) who has already built up over 20K in chips. Phil Ivey leads the pack with 90K and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi isn’t far behind with 78K. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also continued to accumulate chips.
At one point early on in the event Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul had more rebuy chips than tournament chips as he sat with the minimum starting amount of 3K. He has since worked his way back up over the 10K marker.
In the $2.5K NLHE 6-handed event, play is already 4-handed and Dario Minieri continues to build on his substantial chip lead. Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer and Justin “fluffdog” Filtz 3rd and 4th in chips respectively.
Scott “ssitron” Sitron (pictured left) has just vaulted toward the top of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em leaderboard by busting a player and chipping up to 190K. A player moved all in from the hijack for his last 19K and Sitron called from the small blind with AT, which was way behind AK. That is until the flop of KQJ gave Sitron a straight. “I saw the king in the window and hoped a queen or jack would show up to give me more outs,” Sitron joked after his hand held. Someone is running well…
Clayton “Clayton_27″ Newman was knocked out of the event during the last level, but Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci (119K), Court Harrington (58K) and Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan (50K) are still alive with 98 players left.
Money Makr
by Brett on 06.13.08, 12:24 am
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh has been on a tear in Level 16 of the $5K NLHE Event. Slaughbaugh began the level with roughly 170K and has since built his stack to 350K, putting him near the top of the leaderboard.
Slaughbaugh (pictured right) first got involved in a pot with Danny Smith. At 3K/6K blinds, Slaughbaugh raised to 17K from the button and got calls from Smith and Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski in the blinds. On a flop of 553, Smith and Wroblewski checked to Slaughbaugh, who bet 28K. Smith called and Wroblewski folded. The 6 fell on the turn and again Smith checked to Slaughbaugh, who instantly shoved for 122K. Smith thought for two minutes before calling with 88, which was way behind Cody’s QQ. Slaughbaugh faded the two outer as the K came on the turn and he picked up a pot of 360K.
On the very next hand, Slaughbaugh raised to 18K from the cutoff and Wroblewski raised to 42K from the small blind. Scott Seiver then raised enough to put Anna all in, Slaughbuagh folded and Anna called immediately with KK. Seiver flipped up AJ, and then outdrew her when the A spiked on the turn. Wroblewski finished in 39th place, good for $12,712.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) has just crept over the 200K mark after busting Sam El Sayed. El Sayed shoved his last 35K from the cutoff and Freeman, being the wizard he is, figured he was priced in and made the call with K3, which was ahead of Sayed’s QT. The board ran out J52A4 and El Sayed was eliminated.
Alex “AJKHoosier” Kamberis has also just been taken out in 34th place for $16,147, but there are still a handful of notable online stars still left in the field. Here are some recent chip counts:
Scott “gunning4u” Seiver - 700K
Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet - 225K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 220K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 210K
A loud roar came from the ESPN Tournament Arena just before players in the $5K NLHE went on dinner break. A large crowd had gathered to watch Daniel Negeanu win his fourth WSOP bracelet as he defeated Ugur Marangoz heads up in the $2K Limit HE Event. He’s in a $200,000 bracelet race with Phil Ivey for this year’s WSOP, and as he hoisted bracelet #4 into the air, he yelled, “Me 1, Ivey 0!”
Greenstein and Harrington Double
by AdamJ on 06.12.08, 10:56 pm
In a hand that created a lot of buzz from players standing around the Amazon room, Barry Greenstein doubled up in a huge pot against Men “The Master” Nguyen with Queen high! About twenty minutes before the dinner break Barry Greenstein opened to 1200 on the button in the 200-400-50 level. Nguyen reraised to to 3200 and Greenstein called. On a flop of 432, Nguyen bet 4k and Greenstein raised all-in for 14k more. Nguyen called having Greenstein covered and revealed the T5, trailing Greenstein’s Q5. Neither player improved and Greenstein’s stack balloooned to 44k.
P5er Court Harrington’s (pictured at right) stack has been fluctuating all day, dipping as low as 1700 at one point. Harrington has been catching a flurry of hands and recently doubled up to 24k minutes before the dinner break. Harrington reraised a 1200 early position raise to 3300 from late position. Harrington’s opponent called having Harrington’s 8500 behind covered. On a JT4 flop, Harrington bet 3500 and got check raised all-in by his opponent for his remaining 5k. Harrington called instantly and his KK was way ahead of his opponents 99. The board ran true for Harrington doubling him up to 24k.
The money bubble burst in the $5K NLHE and 55 players are still in the running to win the coveted bracelet. One such player is Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (pictured at left), who has had an up and down kind of day. He came into Day 2 as the chip leader at his table, but after losing a couple of crucial hands early on, he was left relatively short stacked with 30K in chips. He managed to double up when his A-Q won a coinflip against Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail’s pocket 7s and he has now worked his way up to 90K. With blinds at 2K/4K, Alex is not in bad shape and seemed confident about his chances to make the final table. Other players still in the event include Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh, and Tony “Bond18″ Dunst.
Over in the Brasilia Room the $2.5K PL HE/O players appeared to have a go big or go home approach to the event. Some, like Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich, Jamie “The New” Robbins, and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams made quick exits while others, like Carter “devinr12″ Gill and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got off to fast starts. Gill already has 13K and Mizzi is just shy of the 10K marker.
The other Omaha event, the $1.5K PLO, has come to an end and Vanessa Selbst has won her first WSOP bracelet. After a lenghty heads-up match in which her opponent took to blind raising and re-potting hands, she emerged victorious and will be taking home $227,965.
Robbins Takes 8th in PLO
by Jessica on 06.12.08, 7:34 pm
While the $2k may be the largest event in the Amazon Room today, there are several others running at the same time. Both the $2K Limit Hold Em and the $1.5K PLO are playing out their final tables today and should have bracelet winners determined within a few hours. In the $2K LHE event, Daniel Negreanu is towards the top of the chip counts with 8 players remaining.
The $1.5K PLO is already down to four players and Vanessa Selbst has a substantial chip lead over the rest of the field. In fact, she currently holds more chips than the remaining players’ chip stacks combined total. Pocket Fives’ Jamie “The New” Robbins (pictured at left) was eliminated in 8th place and will be taking home $28,490.
The $5K NLHE event has only been playing for around two hours, but several notable players have already been eliminated including Jason Gray, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Ben Grundy, Gavin Smith, and Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Amit “amak316″ Makhija appeared to be in good shape after winning a big pot when he eliminated Gavin Smith with pocket queens to Smith’s K-J. However, a few hands later, he got it all-in with pocket tens against the pocket aces of Adam Geyer after the flop came 744. The turn and river were no help and he was eliminated.
Less than 90 players remain including Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, who recently doubled up to 60K through Blake Caihil.
The $3K HORSE event has also begun play for Day 2 and the new table draw has been less than kind to Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at right), who is sandwiched in between Todd Brunson and Marcel Luske. Saul remains in good spirits though and joked with us about what a soft table he ended up at. The stiff competition doesn’t seem to be deterring him though—he is currently 2nd in chips with 51K. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich are also still in the event.