WSOP 2008
Main Event Madness!
by Jill on 07.06.08, 12:41 am
Now back from dinner break and midway through Level 4, play continued in the Amazon room with the blinds at 150/300 and an ante of 25. And then there was madness.
One of the chip leaders at the end of last level, Brian “tsarrast” Rast (pictured at left), has been experiencing a rough go for the last hour, as he’s been victim of several three-bets. When we caught up to Brian’s table, his stack had taken a slide from 97K to 83K and he was once again engaged in a pot. He made a preflop raise on the button for 900 and the small blind called him. The big blind, however, reraised and Brian exclaimed, “I’ve only played three hands so far this level. When am I going to get some respect for that?”
In a principled play, he pushed a stack of orange chips in the middle of the table, taking a stand. After the small blind folded, the short-stacked big blind mused, “Well, I haven’t been pushing you around. I’m not gonna lay this down.” Brian then guessed correctly: his opponent held pocket kings to his pocket queens. The flop ran out J-4-4-5-A and Brian shipped the chips his way. He was down to a still-very-respectable 70K stack after the hand.
Moving the opposite way of Brian was Russell “rdcrsn” Carson. When we caught up with Russell’s table, it looked like he had switched up gears to more aggressive play and was taking down small preflop pots. His stack had made small gains, increasing from 19K to 25K in the first half of the level.
Jason “JCarver” Somerville just sent a player to the rail about 30 minutes after players got back from the dinner break. Somerville raised to 1,350 from late position and got re-raised to 3,550 by a player to his left on the button. Somerville called and checked to his opponent on a T
8
3
flop, and his opponent went all-in for 10K. Somerville called and promptly flipped over the nuts with T
T, crushing his opponent’s pocket aces. The board ran true for Somerville who was up to 70k.
Court Harrington (pictured at right) moved all-in on a 7-7-5 board with two clubs holding pocket queens while his opponent held A-7. The turn and river were no help for Harrington and he was eliminated midway through Level 4. Others joining him on the rail include Robby “PlayaPlz” Lipkin and Andy “BKice” Seth.
Jon Wein, Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby were all seated at the same table when Level 4 began, but Wein was recently eliminated while holding a straight flush. Well, that’s what he wanted us to report. He actually got his remaining 12K in on a flop of 862 with TT against KQ. His opponent hit the Q on the river to cut Wein down to 2K. He called off those chips on the next hand with Q4 in the big blind and was unable to draw out on the small blind’s A9 when the board ran out Q9898. He’s on his way to the bar with Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson, who was on the rail watching.
Armstrong was able to chip up to 31K shortly before Wein’s exit. He raised to 1,050 at 150/300 from early position and the small blind called. On a board of J53, the small blind checked and Armstrong bet 2K. His opponent called and both players checked the Q on the turn. The 5 fell on the river and the small blind check-called a bet of 3,200 by Armstong, who showed AJ and took down the pot when his opponent flashed 77.
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne took a big hit shortly after dinner when he flat called a player’s raise preflop with pocket tens and the flop came ten high. He smooth called the initial raiser’s bet on the flop and when a K came on the turn his opponent bet again and Payne raised enough to put him all-in. The other player quickly made the call with pocket kings and Jerry was knocked down to 10K. He has been working his way back since then though and the following hand added even more to his stack:
With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Payne raised to 800 from the hijack and the player in the cutoff called behind him. Both players checked the flop of 886 and Jerry checked again when the 5 hit on the turn. His opponent bet out 1K and Jerry quickly raised to 3.5K total. The other player made the call and the two saw the river of the A. Jerry moved all-in for his remaining 5K and the other player turned over his JT for a busted flush draw and folded. Any guesses what Jerry showed the table? Presto! Pocket fives…
Here are some chip counts at the middle of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 107K
Darren Elias - 83K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 78K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 66k
Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 55k
Jon Kalmar - 50k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 45K
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 45k
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 45k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 33K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 31K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 31K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 30K
Michael Benvenuti - 30K
Ezra Galston - 28K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 25K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 21.5K
Patrick Hoffman - 21K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 21k
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 20.5K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 20K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 18K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 16.5K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 15.5K
Aditya Agarwal - 14.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 10.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 7k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 5.5K
No Double Dipping
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 7:42 pm
Several players in the $1.5K HORSE event decided to try to kill a couple of hours before Day 2 of play began by signing up for the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event. Unfortunately, the double dipping didn’t appear to work out well for most of them. Shannon Shorr made early exits in both events while Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right) lasted a mere 3 hands in Day 2 of the HORSE event before returning to the $1.5K No Limit event. Doug “Resilient” Smith, on the other hand, was too late to register for the Hold Em event, but remains in the HORSE event with 9K. Meanwhile, Alex Jacob continues to alternate back and forth between the two events.
Luckily for Bryan, he has already built up a big stack to return to in the $1.5K event. He was recently moved to the right of Ben “bfineman” Fineman and, when we caught up to Devonshire, he had raised to 550 under the gun with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25. The player in the small blind reraised to 1750 and Bryan thought momentarily before making the call. The flop came J86 and the player in the small blind bet out 2.5K. Devonshire immediately moved all-in for his remaining 9K, which more than covered the other player’s chip stack.
The other player eventually folded and the table called for Devonshire to reveal his hand. He declined, but did let Pocket Fives have a peek at his 89 before he tossed it in the muck. After Bryan gave us permission to post it on Pocket Fives, but made us promise not to tell anyone on the floor, Fineman called out, “anyone have the internet on their phone?”
Another player making moves in the $1.5K Hold Em event is Andy “BKice” Seth (pictured at left), who recently doubled up when he moved all-in for his remaining 3.8K on a board reading Q6223 and his opponent thought momentarily before making the call. Seth showed AQ for the nut flush and the other player mucked, sending the 16K pot Andy’s way.
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka’s table has been extremely active, with numerous all-ins on almost every hand. While his tablemate TJ Cloutier is staying out of the all-in fests, Jaka recently got tangled in an enormous pot when he picked up pocket aces. With the blinds at 100/200 Young Phan shoved all-in under the gun for 550 and a player in early position reraised to 1,100. Faraz then shoved all-in for 2,875 with his aces, and the button moved all-in for 6K right behind him. The player who reraised to 1,100 made the call and they all turned over their hands:
Phan: A-10
Early Position Player: Q-Q
Jaka: A-A
Button Player: A-K
The board ran out T82T5 and Phan took the main pot with trip tens, while Jaka scooped the side pot for 6,700.
Pocket Fives recently learned that Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan and yesterday’s $2K No Limit Hold Em runner up Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (pictured at right) were also in today’s enormous field. With registration maxed out, players were put in every corner of the Rio and Johnson and Ryan spent the first three levels of play outside of the seafood restaurant Buzio’s–nearly one-third of a mile away from the Amazon Room. Ryan told us he was “happy to get out of the ghetto” and into the main room. He is sitting in good shape with 8.5K while Johnson is holding steady at his 3K starting stack.
Here are some chip counts of some of the other 1,620 players still in the event:
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 14K
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 10.5K
Ben Fineman - 8.5K
Nick “fu_15″ Maimon - 6.5K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 5K
Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 3.5K
Let’s Get It Started!
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 3:20 pm
Getting the players (or maybe the dealers?) pumped up for today’s $1.5k NLHE event #32, the Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get It Started” was pumping through the sound system in the Amazon room again today as a field of nearly 2,000 players filed in to take their seats. The registration line for this event was out the door of the registration room and wrapped around through the hall 20 minutes before the start of the tournament so the total number of players will easily climb higher before registration closes.
There are numerous P5ers hitting the felt today in this immense field including Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (pictured right), Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez, and Andy “BKiCe” Seth. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on these and many other P5ers as the day progresses.
Last night the final table of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) was set and Brock “t_soprano” Parker is coming into the final table as the short stack with only 166k in chips while the current chip leader Aaron Katz has over 1.2 Million. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was eliminated in 12th place when his KQ couldn’t catch up to the AA of J.C. Tran on a JT835 board. Froehlich takes home $35,861 for his great finish in this tournament. The final table will begin playing at 3 pm this afternoon.
Fast Action in Event #31
by Brett on 06.16.08, 9:34 pm
To nobody’s surprise, players are falling quickly in today’s $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-handed event. Almost 800 of the original 1,012 have been eliminated — including several notables in the last level. Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong, Adam “csimmssux” Geyer, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Dan “Wretchy” Martin have all been seen on the rail. Martin (pictured right), who at one time was among the chip leaders at 40K, lost two massive pots in which he failed to hit straight flush draws against pocket kings and aces.
Dozens of familiar faces are still hanging in, however. Shannon Shorr just doubled his stack when he got 11K in preflop with TT and flopped to a set to beat AK. Andy “BKiCE” Seth picked up a big pot as well, making a tough call on the river with AK on a board of A97JT to pick off a bluff. Seth is up to 25K.
We managed to find many more P5ers still healthy in the event. With the blinds at 200/400/50 ante and the average stack at 21K, here are some unofficial chip counts:
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 30K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks -26K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 22K
Hevad “Rain” Khan - 21K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 19K
Jon “FatalError” Aguiar - 19K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 14K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 14K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 13K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 13K
Zach “CrazyZachary” Clark - 12K
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas - 10.5K
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 8K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 8K
BK-iCed!
by Crystal on 06.12.08, 12:27 am
Andy “BKiCe” Seth was recently eliminated from the $5k NLHE tournament when his squeeze play failed to squeeze the other players out of the pot.
With the blinds at 300/600 and a 75 ante, Gavin Griffin raised to 1,850 3rd to act. Action folded to the cutoff, who called along with the small blind. Seth, who was in the big blind, then made a large reraise all in for an additional 12,150. Griffin called without much thought but the cutoff’s decision seemed a little tougher. After thinking for awhile, the cutoff called and the small blind folded.
When the flop came Q72, Griffin checked and the cutoff asked him how much he had left. The cutoff then bet 17k into the dry side pot and Griffin folded. The cutoff tabled the AQ for top pair top kicker while Seth held the T8, the fruits of a failed squeeze play that didn’t work out in his favor. The J came on the turn giving Seth a few outs but the T on the river sealed his fate and he was eliminated.
Over in Event #22, the $3K HORSE Tournament, Craig “MrCasino” Gray was having a hard time hitting some great draws in a Stud hand. After 3 betting it on 3rd, his opponent bet out most streets with Gray calling. On 6th both players checked with Gray showing J987 and his opponent showing KA62. After their final cards were dealt both players checked again and when Gray’s opponent called out “Ace high,” Gray sadly looked at his hole cards and mucked, knowing he probably could’ve taken the pot with a bet on the river.
At the other end of the HORSE tournament, Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Kevin “BeL0wAB0ve” Saul were seated at the same table. Saul reported that he nearly hit rock-bottom in the tournament with 275 in chips. Parker, bemused, chimed in that he’d doubled Saul up - twice. As the two recounted the story to PocketFives, Saul nearly managed to double again, taking down a Stud pot with an A high flush and racking up the chip count to 5K. Parker was sitting happily with 11K in chips before the table broke up and the pair were reseated. The average chipstack of the tournament sat at 7K with 352 remaining of the original 414 in the field.
Doug “Resilient” Smith reported that he’s been card dead and hit a low of 3.6K chips in the event, but has since managed to painstakingly increase his stack back up to 6.5K. Zak “traction” Gilbert also hovered in the 7K range just before the break.
Meanwhile, in Event #20’s Limit Hold’Em standoff, players reached the money with Daniel Negreanu leading the pack. Also in the money is Brett “Gank” Jungblut, nursing a very short stack and looking to make a move. More than 40 players remain in the event, play will continue down to the final table.
Day Two of the Pot Limit Omaha event concluded tonight with the elimination of Tony Phillips in 10th place, when chip leader Vanessa Selbst had a huge showdown and managed to pull out two pair on the river. Selbst guards more than half the chips in play going into the final table, plus the well-earned respect of the other players struggling to take her down.