WSOP 2008
Big Stacks
by Court on 08.23.08, 7:29 pm
After only 90 minutes of play some large stacks have already emerged. Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld and Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman are both over 50k going into the second level of play.
Al picked up some chips when he flopped top set with queens against Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (right) who flopped a flush draw and picked up more outs with an open ended straight draw and a flush draw after the turn. Neither of the draws completed on the river and Vivek had to fold when Al moved in. After picking up the 47k pot Zeidenfeld was up to around 60k and among the chip leaders early on.
Werman also ran well in the first level, chipping up significantly and is going into the second level with high hopes.
Rajkumar won a big coin flip to get back above the starting stack. He was all in preflop with AK against Lee Watkinson’s pocket queens. Vivek flopped a king and was around 35k after winning the pot.
All the chips had to come from somewhere though and Joe Sebok was among those eliminated in the early going. Sebok picked up a lot of big starting hands but couldn’t get them to hold up and found himself sidelined early with no hopes of another deep run at the Bike this year.
Crain Drained
by Jill on 07.01.08, 5:36 pm
After completing the first two levels of Event #53, the Limit Hold’em Shootout, players recently went on break to refuel and catch up with what’s going on in the All-In Tournament. Plenty of online players remain to take down their tables, with the exception of one Eric “jakz101″ Crain. (pictured at left) Eric sat with a really fun table of online guys and seemed to be having more fun playing less-than-premium hands. When we first caught up to Crain, he was playing Q
2 and taking down a pot as his tablemates laughed.
However, the strategy didn’t quite work out for Eric and he was second to be eliminated, halfway through Level 2; his 5
8 draw on a 9Q
7 flop couldn’t catch up against the other player’s Q-J when the turn and river fell 2
Q. Eric was eliminated, but remained positive and chummy with his new friends, asking when the PocketFives party starts tonight. Answer? 7pm-10pm at the Hooters Casino in the Iowa Banquet Room!
Other P5s player remaining include the following, with unofficial chip counts:
Theo Tran - 10.5K
Barry Greenstein - 4.6K
Kenna James - 4.4K
Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 4K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 4K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 3.4K
Eric “EFro” Froehlich - 3K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 2.5K
Jonathan “Fiery Justice” Little - 2.5K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 2.4K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 1.9K
Mike “Schneids” Schneider - 1.4K
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 1.3K
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 1K
Meanwhile, Day 2 of Event #52, the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament has resumed as play will theoretically continue down to the final table this evening. Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld entered the day as one of the top chip leaders, while Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh, Scott “ssitron” Sitron and Adam “adamoos” Elpayaa contend for the title.
Thugmoneymkr Makes Money (Ahem.)
by Jill on 07.01.08, 4:32 am
Play concluded in Event #52, the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament just before 1AM PST with 228 players remaining in the field. Several PocketFivers will return at 2PM tomorrow to contend for the bracelet and the $625,443 payout; amongst them are Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh, Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, and Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld.
We caught up to Cody (pictured at left) during Level 10; Cody sported one of the biggest stacks at the table with 82K and was drinking Coronas with the biggest stack at the table. His strategy of chumming it up with the big guy seemed to be working as he made a big preflop raise to 3.2K in middle position and induced the table to show some respect and fold around to him.
Cody did, however, tangle in a pot with another PocketFiver, Joe “JonesJ1″ Jones, who sat with a small stack. He joked to PocketFives that it would be pretty embarrassing to have to return for Day 2 with so few chips, but he managed to pick up a hand shortly after and shove his 5,900 chips in the middle before the flop. Cody reraised to 10.6K total, isolating against the blinds that were still in the hand. They folded and Cody flipped over A9 to Joe’s TT. The board ran out JJQ78 and Joe more than doubled to 14K. Cody’s stack sat at a very comfortable 82K, nearly triple the average.
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld, however, was the standout of the evening and bagged up 180K in chips. He returns tomorrow as the above-and-beyond chipleader. Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan took a hit to his chip stack and will return with 17K, while Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn managed to double up through several uncalled shoves to 18K.
Though we didn’t witness first-hand the miraculous comeback that Kevin Saul reported to us, apparently another PocketFiver, George Butler, had 125 chips going into the dinner break after his pocket queens ran into pocket aces. Butler now has 45K in chips, has made the money, and continues on to play in Day 2. This is the stuff that urban legends are made of, people.
In the Brasilia room, the $1.5K HORSE tournament continues, with 33 players left all vying for a spot at the final table. The large field has been condensed to a shark tank of live players; Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, Joe Hachem, and Chad Brown all contend for the bracelet alongside short-stacked Alex Jacob. Play is expected to continue late into the evening; all players are now guaranteed $5,042.
Event #50, the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament has now moved from Brasilia to the Amazon room because ESPN wanted to get down to filming. Play is now down to 16 remaining and all are guaranteed $35,814. Recent eliminations include Dario Alioto (19th), David Williams (26th) and Nikolay Evdakov (28th), who has cashed a record ten times in this year’s WSOP. Apparently, his opponents were not unhappy to see him go; his legendary stalling continued well into this evening’s play.
Quads
by Court on 04.21.08, 6:46 pm
You put your opponent on a big hand and you call to see the flop, knowing that if you hit there is a good chance you will get paid off. Tim “Tmay420″ West (right) was in that kind of situation recently with pocket sixes. He hit the flop pretty hard, with a 6 in the door and another right behind for flopped quads in a three way pot with one player he read as really strong and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy also involved.
Bax didn’t go much farther with the hand but Tim was able to check call a bet from the other player on the flop and then when he checked the turn he was getting to call a 35k all in bet. His quads were up against an unimproved AK and after eliminating the player Tim is up to 150k and feeling very good about his stack at this stage of the tourney.
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld has also been chipping up lately. In his words he has “been making hands against players that can’t be bluffed.” Al is up to 75k after two levels of play on day 2.
The trademark green Baylor Bears hat that always sits atop Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby’s head during tournaments is well known throughout the poker world. For this tournament Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s selection of headware is drawing more attention than Hamby’s standard cap. Dwan lost a bet with Alan Sass and as a result Tom is wearing an assortment of colorful, JJ Liu style, headwear.
Pictured Left: Dwan and Hamby in their hats.
Hamby recently had to fold after betting 7k on a J43 flop and having Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll come over the top for 17,500. Cory had 57k behind and Jared seemed to be contemplating putting him all in. After a few minutes he decided it wasn’t worth it though and threw his hand away.
The good run continued through the second level for Joe Sebok. He started the day with only 13k but after a few early double ups he was up to 60k and has continued the upswing all the way to 145k at the end of the second level.