WSOP 2008
Katz and Cahail Bust Out
by AdamJ on 06.29.08, 4:18 am
Shortly after Adam “akat11″ Katz managed to double up, he found himself hitting the rail in the 2k NL WSOP Event #48. Katz was eliminated in 25th place when he ran his pocket jacks into another player’s pocket kings. He earned $20,241 for his efforts and we are hoping Erin the Lucky Masseuse pocketed another hefty tip despite Adam failing to make the final table.
Right on Katz’s heels was Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, whose J-9 didn’t improve against his opponent’s pocket fours and he was eliminated in 23rd place.
18 players remain including Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (570K), Eric “jakz101″ Crain (500K), Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson (270K), and Dan “Wretchy” Martin (200K) (pictured below)
.
The $50K HORSE Event is down to just 11 players after the elimination of Phil Ivey in 12th place. Erick Lindgren has a commanding chip lead with 2.5 million chips. The next closest competitor is Scotty Nguyen with 1.9 million. Barry Greenstein continues to hold on with 825K.
Day 1 of the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #49 concluded minutes ago as the 2,718 player field whittled down to 215 players, reaching the money bubble earlier with 270 players left.
P5er Alex “42oneverloses” Case continued to shoot up the ranks and will start Day 2 with one of the top stacks at 93k.
This is Case’s first WSOP tournament and is the biggest buy-in tournament he’s ever played in. Early on Case said he was quite nervous, especially after he got down to 1800. After shoving his way up to 5k, Case hasn’t looked back as his stack has ascended to the top.
“I’m having a great time,” Case said. “Feels good to run like this, especially in a tournament that’s like 3 times as big as anyone i’ve played in.”
Indeed.
Greg “FBT” Mueller’s stack hasn’t dipped a bit and remains as one of the top stacks at 95k. Mueller’s stack has been near the top since players returned from dinner break.
P5er “shortyjacksn” cashed with a 258th place finish, earning $2,783.
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks.
J.C. Tran - 112k
David Pham - 85k
Andy Black - 47k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 42k
Joe Pelton - 45k
Minh “TheMaster” Nguyen - 35k
Kristy Gazes - 29k
Eugene Todd - 24k
36 Left in $2K Event
by Jessica on 06.29.08, 1:26 am
Shortly before the most recent 20 minute break Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail (pictured at left) picked up a big pot when he eliminated another player. The other player bet the flop of K
Q
6 and Blake made the call. When the Q
came on the turn, the other player moved all-in for the remainder of his stack and Cahail quickly made the call with K
K. The other player held AK and the meaningless 3 on the river meant Cahail’s stack built back up to 350k.
After players returned from their most recent twenty minute break, several players made ascents up the chip counts while others, like David “DavidP18″ Peters, headed for the door. A short stacked Jose “head2782″ Severino moved all-in from the cut off and the player on the button quickly moved all-in behind him. The players in the blinds folded and the two players turned up their hands. Jose showed KQ while his opponent held AK. The other player made a flush as the board came J8392 and Severino was eliminated.
Ibuki “bukithepro” Fukui was eliminated by Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson when Johnson raised in late position and Fukui reraised all-in for a little over 100K total. Marco made the call with pocket jacks, which held against Fukui’s A-10. After the hand Marco had 340K.
Here are our most recent chip counts:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 440K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 365K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 295K
Dan “Wretchy” Martin - 220K
The $50K HORSE is down to its final 13 players and after beginning the day at the top of the leaderbaord, both Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu are now two of the shorter stacks remaining in play. Currently, Huck Seed is the chip leader with 5 more players to lose before play concludes for the night.
Finally, here are some notable chip counts in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #49 with the blinds at 400-800-100 with 350 left and the average stack at 23k:
Greg “FBT” Mueller - 65k
John Murphy - 52k
Hevad Khan - 42k
David Pham - 30k
Andy Black - 27k
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 27k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 23k
Jeff Madsen - 21k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 12k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 7k
Wolpert and Gray Get Coolered in 10k Heads-Up
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 4:36 pm
Many players have made quick work of their heads-up opponent and the blue section of the Amazon room is already starting to feel a little empty. After Isaac Haxton made quick work Scott Fischman, he decided to stick around and observe the other match taking place on his table (each table has two matches taking place on them). Eventually the tournament director announced to Haxton and the other players whose matches were complete that they needed to clear the tournament area until Round 2 starts at 5pm.
Players still competing in their matches also can’t help but watch the second match taking place at their tables, especially during the downtime while dealers are shuffling. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was spotted peeking over at his neighbor Sammy Farha’s heads-up match on numerous occassions, even when he was involved in a hand himself.
Aside from many of the match-ups being quite compelling with a field ripe with notable pros, most players were watching the other match at their table because the winners from the same table play each other in the next round. For many of the players, especially those with a high stakes background online, concrentating on multiple heads-up matches is standard fare as many of them play multiple heads-up matches simultaneously online.
P5er’s Leo “Superfluos Man” Wolpert (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray must have left the Amazon room feeling like they were set up as their monster hands left them with a nightmare. Wolpert raised the button preflop and Robert Mizrachi called. On a flop of A37, Mizrachi check called Wolpert’s flop bet. The turn brought the 9 and Mizrachi check-raised Wolpert, who went all-in and was quickly called by Mizrachi, who turned over his 33 making Wolpert’s AK drawing dead.
Gray’s hand ended in similar fashion. Gray’s opponent raised the button and Gray called. On a flop of QJ9, Gray check called his opponents bet of 1300. The 7 dropped on the turn and Grey check raised his opponent bet of 3300, going all-in for another 11,500. Gray’s opponent called revealing JJ, ahead of Gray’s double draw with the Q8. Gray’s big draw bricked out and he was eliminated.
With such a diverse collection of incredible live and online pro’s, there was handful of intriguing match-ups scattered throughout the room like David “Raptor517″ Benefield vs Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis vs Kenny Tran and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi vs J.C. Tran.
Bonomo and Kenny Tran prevailed in their match and Mizzi and Tran continue to battle it out.
It took Eugene Todd and Michael Mizrachi only one hand to end their match although it had little to do with any drama on the felt. Both being good friends, they decided to go all-in blind and Mizrachi’s 8-2 prevailed over Todd’s 4-3.
List of Notable Winners
Alex Jacob, Theo Tran, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
List of Early Exits
Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius, Glen Chorney, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, and James “mig.com” Mackey
Greenstein and Harrington Double
by AdamJ on 06.12.08, 10:56 pm
In a hand that created a lot of buzz from players standing around the Amazon room, Barry Greenstein doubled up in a huge pot against Men “The Master” Nguyen with Queen high! About twenty minutes before the dinner break Barry Greenstein opened to 1200 on the button in the 200-400-50 level. Nguyen reraised to to 3200 and Greenstein called. On a flop of 432, Nguyen bet 4k and Greenstein raised all-in for 14k more. Nguyen called having Greenstein covered and revealed the T5, trailing Greenstein’s Q5. Neither player improved and Greenstein’s stack balloooned to 44k.
P5er Court Harrington’s (pictured at right) stack has been fluctuating all day, dipping as low as 1700 at one point. Harrington has been catching a flurry of hands and recently doubled up to 24k minutes before the dinner break. Harrington reraised a 1200 early position raise to 3300 from late position. Harrington’s opponent called having Harrington’s 8500 behind covered. On a JT4 flop, Harrington bet 3500 and got check raised all-in by his opponent for his remaining 5k. Harrington called instantly and his KK was way ahead of his opponents 99. The board ran true for Harrington doubling him up to 24k.
The money bubble burst in the $5K NLHE and 55 players are still in the running to win the coveted bracelet. One such player is Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (pictured at left), who has had an up and down kind of day. He came into Day 2 as the chip leader at his table, but after losing a couple of crucial hands early on, he was left relatively short stacked with 30K in chips. He managed to double up when his A-Q won a coinflip against Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail’s pocket 7s and he has now worked his way up to 90K. With blinds at 2K/4K, Alex is not in bad shape and seemed confident about his chances to make the final table. Other players still in the event include Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh, and Tony “Bond18″ Dunst.
Over in the Brasilia Room the $2.5K PL HE/O players appeared to have a go big or go home approach to the event. Some, like Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich, Jamie “The New” Robbins, and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams made quick exits while others, like Carter “devinr12″ Gill and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got off to fast starts. Gill already has 13K and Mizzi is just shy of the 10K marker.
The other Omaha event, the $1.5K PLO, has come to an end and Vanessa Selbst has won her first WSOP bracelet. After a lenghty heads-up match in which her opponent took to blind raising and re-potting hands, she emerged victorious and will be taking home $227,965.