WSOP 2008
Online Kids Get on Their HORSE
by AdamJ on 06.26.08, 6:01 am
Despite a hefty 50k buy-in, a handful of online kids are making a run at perhaps the most prestigious bracelet in the WSOP in the 50k HORSE Championship WSOP Event #45.
Although the majority of online players in this tournament are those with a high stakes cash game background, a few players more known for their NL tournament games are playing like James “mig.com” Mackey, Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo and Dario Minieri.
The 148 player field is stacked with incredible tables as expected. No table featured a better lineup of elite players than the one that included two of the biggest winners online in 
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (pictured left) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan with two of the biggest live game winners in Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Dwan, Galfond, and Ivey play each other often in nosebleed NL and PLO game online as well.
Mackey has faired very well at his table that includes a tough cast of characters in David Oppenheim, Andy Bloch, Lyle Berman, Jennifer Harman, David Singer, and online cash game player Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Mackey’s stack has been over the average for most of the tournament and is at 209k as play nears to an end.
Here’s a list of notable online players chip stacks with the average at 105k.
Phil Galfond - 185k
Patrik Antonius - 180k
Dario Minieri - 140k
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 100k
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo - 81k
Nick Schulman - 70k
Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 55k
Theo Tran Rides Rush into Round 3
by AdamJ on 06.13.08, 9:38 pm
The
o Tran’s wave of success in the 2008 WSOP has continued in the 10k Heads-Up NL WSOP Event #25.
Tran has three finishes in the top 25, finishing as high as fourth place twice. Drawing Andy Bloch in second round, Tran had a difficult draw to advance but overcame it when his A
3 best Bloch’s 4
4
on a 9542J
board.
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, perhaps one of the favorites in the field with his online heads-up resume, played an interesting match with Steve Sung.
In the 400-800 level, Galfond raised to 2k on the button and Sung called. On a 3Q5 flop, Sung check called Galfond’s 2600 bet. Both players checked the 3 turn and the river brought the 6. Sung bet 3k and Galfond raised to 9k. After thinking for a few minutes, both players still sitting with deep stacks, Sung called the raise and mucked when Galfond showed QJ.
After the hand Galfond had about a 3-to-2 lead and the match continues.
Here’s a list of interesting 2nd round outcomes
Carlos Mortensen def. David Singer
David Williams def. Andrew Rosskamm
Michael Mizrachi def. Tex Barch
Clonie Gowen def. John Gordon
Alex Jacob def. Markus Lehmann
Brandon Adams def. Dario Minieri
Isaac Haxton def. Nathan Doudney
Blake Cahail Defeats Steve Fiorentini
Daniel “Ansky” Stern Defeats Thomas Bentham
Online Presence in 10k Mixed Tourney
by AdamJ on 06.04.08, 10:55 pm
Despite the 10k buy-in and an eight game spread in WSOP Event #8, a handful of online players were scattered throughout the 192 player field.
There was a predictable amount of live cash game pros in the field, a group accustomed to playing all eight games which included: triple draw 2-7, hold-em, omaha 8, razz, stud, stud 8, no-limit hold-em, PLO.
There were a handful of notable tables that featured prominent online players like the table with Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman, James “mig.com” Mackey, Robert Williamson III, Chris “Genius28″ Lee (right), Chau Giang, and Tom Schneider. Another interesting table included Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, David “Raptor” Benefield, Phil Ivey and Rafi Amit.
Although this event was loaded with stacked tables none was probably filled with more recognizable names than the table with Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Andy Bloch, Ram Vaswani, Jeff Lisandro and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko, an ultra high stakes limit hold-em specialist.
According to Patrik Antonius, Hawrilenko is one of the top four limit hold-em players in the world along with David Benyamine, Phil Ivey, and Bryce “Freedom25″ Paradis.
Other notable online pros playing in this event were Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Eric “E-Fro” Froelich, Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Dario Minieri, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, and Scott “gunning4you” Seiver.
In the $1K rebuy, Craig “Mr. Casino” Gray took a massive hit to his 600K+ stack when he ran into the AA of Lyric Duveyoung. With the blinds at 2500/5,000, Duveyoung raised to 13K and a player in middle position raised to 45K. Gray then reraised to 105k from the button and Duveyoung moved all in for nearly 350K. Gray instantly called with AK and found out the bad news. The board ran out J6238 and Gray was left with 240K in his stack. Duveyoung is the new chip leader of Event #5.
Jon “apestyles” van Fleet took out Alex Jacob shorty after at a nearby table. Jacob shoved his last 53K from the big blind with A6 and van Fleet called from the button with A2. Van Fleet, though, spiked a 2 on the flop and eliminated the 2006 USPC winner in 31st place. Ape has close to 200K going into the dinner break.
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams (right) found a way to hit the 6-figure mark for the first time by doubling up with 78. He shoved from the button and was called by the big blind with JT. Adams made a full house on the board of 73357. He then eliminated fellow online star Anirudh “BKiCe” Seth when Seth pushed his short stack forward with T4 and Adams called with A3. The A on the turn left Seth drawing dead and Adams now has 190K.
The field of 28 is still loaded with recognizeable online players, including Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams (360K), Steve “gboro780″ Gross (225K), Amit “amak316″ Makhija (180K), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (160K) and Randy “Randers” Haddox (115K).
Nenad Medic Wins WSOP Event#1
by Jessica on 06.02.08, 3:09 am
On a flop of 8 5 4 Andy Bloch and Nenad Medic got it all in and Medic had Bloch covered. Nenad held 5 7 for a pair, gut shot straight draw, and flush draw versus Bloch’s 9 9 . The J on the turn gave Nenad his flush, but also gave Bloch a higher flush draw. With a 5 on the river, Medic took down the first event of the 2008 WSOP, earning himself $794,112. Bloch gets $488, 048 for his 2nd place finish.
Be sure to check in again tomorrow at 12pm PST for coverage of Day 2 of Event #2 and the start of Event #3 ($1500 PL Hold Em).
More Players Disappearing as Day 1B Wraps up
by Jessica on 06.02.08, 2:02 am
Still no sign of Chris Savage (it’s more than likely a case of mistaken identity early on in the day) and there are several other players who have disappeared from the Amazon Room as play continued this evening. Some notable eliminations include Glen Chorny and Ezra Galston (pictured at right).
Play only continued for 16 minutes once players returned from their final 20 minute break, but that was long enough for a few more players to bust out as Day 1B came to a close. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar got involved in a 3-way all in with A2 against pocket deuces and AK and an ace on the flop sent him to the rail shortly after play resumed.
Barry Greenstein was also eliminated after the break when his 7 7 failed to crack his opponent’s A A. He dutifully signed his book for the other player and called it a night ten minutes early.
There were many players who used the final sixteen minutes to their advantage though. Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley maintained his healthy stack while his friend, Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista watched him from the rail throughout the evening.
Mark “pokerbok” Vos also continued to accumulate chips during the day’s next-to-last level, chipping up through many small pots. In the cutoff, Vos was first to act and raised to 2300; he was immediately called by the big blind. The flop read 532 and the big blind checked. Vos asked how much he needed to bet to put the big blind all in, which was 10K. When he made the bet, the other player folded and he increased his chipstack to 70K. Vos has a big stack, but the biggest stack at his table belongs to the Day 1B chip leader, David Bach, who is sitting on 114K.
During the table’s next hand, play stalled as the antes failed to add up correctly. Confusion ensued as a tournament official hurried to the table to investigate; she stated that any conflict would stall the entire tournament 20 minutes. A player at the table finally confessed and received a warning just before the break.
The play for Event #2 ceased 16:13 into Level 9, with the ante at $100 and the blinds at 500/1000. Day 1B now mirrors the play of Day 1A and both will join together at the same relative point in the tournament tomorrow. The total registration for the event topped at 3929, and the top prize will be $831,462.
Play will resume tomorrow with the remaining players playing down to the final table. Meanwhile, Nenad Medic and Andy Bloch are now heads up in the 10k PL Hold Em event.
As we wait for Event #1 to wrap up, the search for brsavage continues…