WSOP 2008
Little and Jaka Moving Up
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 4:44 pm
Chips are flying in the early levels of the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52 and many P5er’s are reaping the benefits in the 2700 player capped field.
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka (pictured at right) won a 7.5k pot when his all-in 1500 bet on the river was called by his opponent on a 9
9
A3
7 board. Jaka tabled the J9
and scooped the pot.
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little busted an opponent when he raised to 300 in the 50-100 level and got re-raised to 900 by an opponent in late position. Little effectively put his opponent all-in for his remaining 2k stack and his opponent called with QQ, way behind Little’s KK. The board ran true for Little, whose stack sits around 5.5k.
Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth got shortstacked early but won a race early in an all-in preflop confrontation with his KQ running down his opponents 99, increasing Niergarth’s stack increased to 1700.
Shane “shaniac” Schleger and Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista will have to battle back from rough starts as Schleger sits with 1k and Batista at 2k. Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski’s stack has been reduced to three green 25 chips but is in way better shape than Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who busted out early.
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh and Matt “All In At 420″ Stout have chipped up a little in the first few levels with Slaubaugh at 3300 and Stout at 3600.
Seat Open!
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 6:16 pm
Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.
Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.
60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.
In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop. Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn. Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot. Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines. He was down to 1.8K at the break.
Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K
Diamonds are Stout’s Best Friend
by Jill on 06.26.08, 2:37 am
Fortunately for the players in the $1K No-Limit Hold’em with Rebuy WSOP event, they just had a 20-minute break to race off the green 25 chips at their tables and cool off from the stiff competition. Prior to the break, however, several showdowns resulted in recent eliminations and equally dramatic chipstack increases.
As PocketFives reported earlier, Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn was nursing a short stack; when we last checked in at his table, his seat had been filled by someone else and Mark Seif’s stack was up to 130K. No word on what happened, but we couldn’t spot his signature mohawk anywhere in the field. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (pictured at left) was eliminated when his A-Q hit an ace on the turn, but was rivered with the 4, giving his opponent a set of fours.
On the flip side of the draw was Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, who raised it up with 3K. He was reraised all in by a player in late position and called. When they flipped their cards over, Stout’s QT was way behind pocket kings, but a flop full of diamonds was Matt’s best friend. Another diamond on the river flushed out the other player.
Other players faring well included Scott “USCTrojans” Freeman, who sat stacked with about 60K in chips and was bullying his way through late position to take down several uncontested pots. Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant held his own with 33K at a table stacked with Men Nguyen and huge-stacked Mark Seif.
Meanwhile, Shaun Deeb (pictured at right) was raking in a pot he had gone all in on, increasing his stack to 14K just before the break. He sat at a table with Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, who challenged him to a side bet of $20 when they drew cards for the green chip race-off. Deeb’s queen was enough to take down the bet. Don’t spend it all in one place, Shaun!
Play continues into Level 9 in the event and will complete at the end of Level 10. Only 180 players remain out of the original field of 879; it’s yet to be seen if we will break the bubble tonight, as has been the case in the majority of recent events. Good luck to all those who remain!
Stout All Out At 420, DanDruff Doubles
by Jill on 06.17.08, 2:36 am
Event #29 has almost narrowed down to the final table with the recent elimination of Matt “All In At 420″ Stout. (pictured at right) Stout’s pocket threes couldn’t hold up to David Phan’s pocket sevens and fell further behind when Phan flopped a set. Stout went out in 13th place for a $19,761 payout, his hopes for a bracelet dashed.
Also left in the event, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin were seated at the same table as Phan. Dunst, however, had a change of luck. His earlier stack of nearly 300K was chopped in half when he took a big hit in a hand where his opponent turned a 5 and made a set of fives. Dunst was down to 170K and looking weary.
Nearby in the Brasilia room, Event #30, the $10K Limit Hold’em World Championship, resumed after a break with the blinds at 3K/6K. All players seemed on edge, looking for the right spots to get all their chips in the middle and improve their equity. While a crowd of spectators looked on, Todd “DanDruff” Witteles, Brock “t_soprano” Parker, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich sat at the same table.
When we caught up to the play, which is down to the final three tables, Witteles (pictured at left) made a raise on the turn for 24K. The board read Q52Q. His opponent called him down and the dealer rivered the 3. His opponent checked; Witteles bet out. After spending plenty of time to think, his opponent called and Witteles flipped over A-Q for trip ladies. His opponent shook his head and shipped the chips his way; Witteles is up to 135K, which was below the average size of 165K.
Play in the $10K should continue to the final table this evening; stay tuned as we update on the P5s horses still left in this race!
Shorr Doubles, Dario Ascending
by AdamJ on 06.17.08, 1:22 am
The drinks arrived at Eric “Peachy K33N” Liu’s side and the high stakes cash game specialist asked Shannon Shorr (pictured left) to pay for the tip.
Shorr gave a grin and obliged, tipping the waitress for Liu’s double shot order of rum and coke.
After drawing out on Liu’s KK with AQ minutes earlier in an all-in preflop hand where Shorr’s stack rose from 20k to over 40k, the couple bucks for drinks seemed like a bargain to Shorr.
John Racener was also at the table with a 19k stack, making it one of the more star-studded 6-max tables left in the 2.5k 6-max WSOP Event #31.
P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks was exchanging smiles sitting directly to left of Scotty Nguyen, whose affable personality was generally dictating the conversation. Hanks had much to smile about with the biggest stack at his table at 57k.
Here are some other notable chip stacks with 120 of 1,012 left with the average stack at 42k.
Dario Minieri - 88k
Dave Ulliott - 60k
Kenna James - 48k
Mark Vos - 44k
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Visant - 30k
Brandon Cantu - 26k
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 13k
Event #28, the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys tournament, was down to three-handed play, with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond sporting a 2:1 chip advantage over both of the other two players. Galfond has managed to capture 3.3M in chips, while David Benyamine and Adam Hourani both hold 1.6M. The tournament is currently paused for dinner break; it will resume at 10PM PST. Galfond continued to play aggressively before the break, raising every button and slowly chipping away at each of his opponents’ stacks.
Meanwhile, Event #29’s $3K No-Limit Hold’em was reduced to two tables with the quick elimination of seven more players. Climbing the chip counts was Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (pictured at right), who managed to stop the chip acquisition of Carter “ckingusc” King for good. King’s pocket tens ran into Dunst’s A-Q and couldn’t hold on a K7Q89 board. Dunst eliminated King in 20th Place for a payout of $11,264. Other PocketFivers still holding on in the event included Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, who increased his stack to 350K, while Matt “All In At 420″ Stout trended downward to 175K.