WSOP 2008
Six-Handed Players Making Moves
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 7:53 pm
There are many players making moves in event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed event. Glen “choron” Chorny was trying to get his short stack moving in the right direction when he raised to 600 preflop with the blinds at 100/200 until an opponent re-raised to 2.4k. Chorny (pictured left) looked disgusted and after thinking for a minute he mucked his cards, showing the A
. His opponent said “That’s why I didn’t want to see the flop” as he flipped over his pocket kings and raked in the pot. Chorny is sitting with half his original stack so we expect to see him making more moves as the blinds increase.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer bet out with the board showing T
5
3 and his opponent raised. After thinking for a minute O’Dwyer reraised enough to put him all in and the other player did indeed make the call with the KT
only to find that O’Dwyer held the AA and was ahead in the hand. The turn and river came with the Q and 6 and O’Dwyer added to his stack as the other player exited the tournament.
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert’s luck wasn’t quite as good. We caught up with the action on the river with the board reading T73TK and Wolpert making a bet of 850 into the small pot. He was called by his opponent and Wolpert appeared reluctant to flip over his hand. When he did he showed the AJ for ace high which had been good until the river, as his opponent held the KQ for a pair of kings which was enough to scoop the pot.
Players are just coming back from their second break of the day and the blinds will be 150/300 with a 25 ante when they return. Some unoffical chip counts of notable players left in the field are listed below.
Hevad “RainKhan” Khan - 35k
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 32k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 32k
Alex Jacob - 25k
Shannon Shorr - 19k
Gavin Griffin - 19k
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis -19k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija -17k
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista (pictured right)- 13k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 12k
Anna Wroblewski - 12k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 11k
Players that have been eliminated from the tournament so far include Joe Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Carter “devinr12″ Gill, Rolf Slotboom, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, and Issac Haxton.
Newsflash: Upcoming Book from PocketFivers!
by Jill on 06.21.08, 4:49 pm
An hour and a half into the massive Event #39, more than 2,720 players now fill the Amazon, the Brasilia, and the Tropical rooms, halting all satellite play this morning as the tables frantically break up and are reseated. PocketFives caught up with more than 40 players in the event, in good spirits and joking around at their tables.
Though the majority of play has consisted of taking down small pots, as Fares “call2light” Halteh (pictured at left) described, we did catch a big double-up from Chris “The Armenian Express” Grigorian. Dominating the play at his table, Grigorian jammed it on the turn with a big pot in the middle. He got one caller and the river was a rag; his flopped set of queens knocked out another player’s flopped set of nines. He smiled for the camera and told us it was a good day for poker.
Across the Brasilia room, Hevad Khan and Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade were chatting it up at their table, much to the chagrin of those seated around them. Wade was relaying the previous night’s deepstacked tournament at the Bellagio $2K as he took down a pot with pocket aces and got virtually no action. He laughed and Khan empathized; apparently earlier this week, he’d gotten aces in a tournament five times with no action as well.
Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck also chatted up her table, fresh after a week off from the WSOP. She told P5s she felt refreshed and happy to be at the felt. She did relay an awesome piece of news to PocketFives — apparently, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, and Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet have a book coming out next week! The collaborative work, entitled “Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time,” will be released next week on Amazon.com. It can be preordered here and is already moving up the poker book charts. Maridu had a copy at the table (pictured at right) and P5s thumbed through it — it looks like a solid, well-written work straight from the pens of extremely successful PocketFivers.
In about fifteen minutes, both the final table of Event #36 and the second day of Event #38 resume; good luck to all involved and congratulations on the great showing!
The Cooler
by Brett on 06.13.08, 5:08 am
It was cold.
With the blinds at 6K/12K and 13 players remaining in the $5K NLHE Event, Anders Henriksson raised to 33K from early position and Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet reraised to 100K, with 200K behind in his stack. Action folded back to Henriksson, who shoved for a total of 229K and Van Fleet quickly called, only to find that his QQ was way behind the KK of Henriksson. The board ran out 742K and, of course, Q on the river to leave everyone wondering what could have been.
Van Fleet was left with 68K, but then doubled up on the very next hand. He shoved in early position with A2 and was called by Adam Geyer with 44. Van Fleet hit the A on the flop and managed to dodge a two-outer to stay alive.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) lost a crucial race in what has been a rough hour for the remaining online stars. Freeman raised to 31K from under the gun and Chuck Sklar moved all in from the small blind for 140K more. Scott quickly called with AK and was unhappy to see Sklar’s 33. Freeman shook his head as the board revealed QT867 and he was left with around 350K.
Scott “gunning4u” Seiver is still the commanding chip leader with 1.4 million. He took out the last player, Humberto Brenes, whom spectators were sad to see go.
Speaking of which, P5er Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin was eliminated in 15th place for $25,767 and Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh was out in 19th place for $19,583. Both are still hanging around to watch.
Be sure to stick around tonight as we cover Event #21, as well as the $3K Horse Event, all the way to the final table.
Home Run for Baldwin
by Brett on 06.13.08, 2:33 am
It might translate better to a single and a three-base error in baseball terminology, but Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is pleased with the result regardless. Here’s how the enormous pot in the $5K NLHE Event went down: A player under the gun raised to 24K at 4K/8K blinds and Baldwin (pictured left) shoved in middle position for 170K. Thanhdat Tran then pushed his last 70K into the middle and it folded around to Ben Sprengers in the small blind, who called and had all players covered. The under-the-gun player folded and all hands were revealed:
Baldwin - 75
Tran - QQ
Sprengers - JJ
The 742 flop gave a little hope to Balwin’s seemingly irreparable hand, and then the remaining players at every table gathered to watch the 7 peel off on the turn to put Baldwin in the lead. The meaningless 8 came on the river and a pot of 440K was sent to Baldwin, who is now up to over 500K after eliminating Jorryt Van Hoof a few hands later.
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet (pictured right) and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman have also been doing work as the field has thinned down to 23. Van Fleet took a huge pot off of Eli Elezra to build his stack to over 400K. On a flop of J65, Elezra checked to Van Fleet, who bet 26K. Elezra then raised to 57K and Van Fleet called. Eli led out for 50K when the 7 appeared on the turn and Van Fleet called. The river brought the T and Elezra asked for a count of Van Fleet’s chips. Jon counted out 84K and Elezra checked after a minute of thought. Van Fleet then moved all in and four minutes passed while Elezra figured out his next play. Eventually he called the clock on himself, which got a laugh from several onlookers, and Eli folded as the tournament director got down to four seconds left on the clock.
Freeman recently eliminated Mark Radoja when his AQ out flopped the QQ of Radoja, sending him home in 25th.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy was knocked out of the event in 24th place and now the remaining 23 players are set to play down to the final nine tonight in anticipation of tomorrow’s final table. The winner will pick up a hefty $755,891.
In an unrelated story, we just caught Men “The Master” Nguyen buying five bags of beef jerky in the Poker Cafe. We’ll keep you updated on his condition.
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!”