WSOP 2008
2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
by Jill on 07.04.08, 4:48 am
Play concluded for Day 1A of the Main Event just after 1AM PST. Nearly half of the day’s entrants were eliminated in the 10K championship; 657 of 1,297 remain for Day 2 play. Day 1b will commence tomorrow at 12pm PST at the Rio, but before we get ahead of ourselves, here is a wrap-up of Level 5, which brought quite a bit of excitement for PocketFives players.
After patiently waiting the entire level, Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) finally got his last 5K all in from the big blind after the player on the button raised to 1.2K. He was in great shape with A-K versus his opponent’s A-5. The flop came Q-7-2. When a queen came on the turn, Jeff looked nervous, fearing a chop, but an ace on the river sealed the deal and he doubled up to 10.5K in chips.
Another big double-up came for Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, who had been sitting on a short stack for quite awhile. He got involved in a hand with one other player and Richard’s A
Q
bested his opponent’s AT on a A
979
2 board. He doubled up to 28K.
PocketFives also caught up with Joe “latestlines2″ Ward who was in the small blind and engaged in a hand with one other opponent. The board ran out 4-A-K-9-T and Joe’s A-6 held up to increase his stack to 56K. Shortly afterward, Joe also got involved in a hand when the board ran out J6J96. He bet out on the river and was called; both players showed A-Q for the chop, but they each picked up the blinds, antes, and a couple of limpers’ chips, so Joe increased his stack to 68K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein (pictured at left), on the other hand, was feeling a little suppressed as he explained that his table was extremely nitty, yet the table next to theirs kept the camera crews running over every other hand with their all in action. Nitty or not, Josh’s stack stayed strong at 43K and he will continue on to Day 2 after attending a wedding in Chicago during his break.
Recent eliminations include Adam “akat11″ Katz, whose pocket queens couldn’t catch his opponents pocket kings, and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, whose all-in preflop K-J couldn’t best his opponent’s K-Q. Also suspiciously missing from their seats? JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu, about whom we haven’t heard any news.
Congrats to all players who played valiantly through Day 1a! Though official chip counts will be released later this evening, here are estimates at the end of Level 5:
Michael “dblupM0j” Johnson - 114K
Mark “pokerbok” Vos - 106K
Jeremiah Smith - 99K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 70K
Jason Gray - 69.4K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 57.4K
Joe “latestlines2″ Ward - 68K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 55K
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 54K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 50K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 50K
Peter “number1pen” Neff- 49K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 43K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 37.6
Kevin “Kice32″ Iacofano - 37.5K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 35.8K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 32K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 26K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 21K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 21K
Barry Greenstein - 21K
Peter Cries De Wolfe
by Jill on 07.04.08, 12:58 am
Now back from dinner break and midway into Level 4, some players were feeling a bit squeezed by their short stacks and put to difficult decisions. PocketFives caught up with Dan “wretchy” Martin (pictured at right) in the Green section of the Amazon room sporting a stack of 2.8K, asking P5s to abstain from counting it out. It seemed like his friendly table image was working to his advantage, however, laughing as he shoved and raking in a few uncontested pots as we watched. He was definitely in emergency mode, but we all saw what happened to Matt “MattG1983″ Graham after he was down to one big blind last night — it won him a bracelet!
Nearby in the Green section sat Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz. We caught up with action at the table in a very interesting hand where Kevin was put to a decision for most of his chips. Before the flop, both the big blind and the small blind were in the hand, as well as two early limpers. The cutoff raised to a total of 3.1K with about 3K behind and Kevin sat on the button. Shuffling his chips, Kevin queried his opponent: “What was your name online?” He answered, “CG2212. Does that help you?” Kevin joked, “No.” His opponent took his sunglasses off and Kevin paused quite awhile to count out his chips before throwing his hand in the muck. Ultimately, one of the players in the blind shoved and got the call from the original raiser; the blind held A-K to his opponent’s pocket fours. Kevin, relieved, explained that he held A-Q and caught the sunglass tell; when the flop spiked an ace, his opponent was sent to the rail.
Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) told PocketFives at dinner break that he couldn’t wait for his table in the Orange section to break. Considering the lineup has featured everyone from David Benyamine to Brock “t_soprano” Parker to Roland De Wolfe to Gavin Smith, who can blame him? Upon returning from break, he first won a decent-sized pot off Brock with a full house. Then, with the blinds at 150/300 with an ante of 25, he picked up aces and raised preflop to 850. The small blind called and Roland De Wolfe made it 3K from the big blind. Peter shoved all in for the remainder of his 18K chips. The small blind folded and Roland called off his last 6K with pocket queens. Neff’s hand held up and subsequently, he got his wish when the table broke. Considering his hot streak, did he speak too soon?
Eric “jakz101″ Crain managed to double his stack when he got all his chips in preflop with KQ against his opponent’s 66. The board ran out 943Q9 and Eric’s queens and nines were good enough to take the pot; he has continued to build since then. In a recent hand, the board read 98667. Although we missed the action, it appeared that both players checked it down the whole way. When they both checked on the river Eric said “Dude, I flopped a straight but I’m going to check.” He flipped over his 75 which was good enough to take the pot. As he raked in the chips he said “I was hoping to get in a check-raise on the flop, then I didn’t like the turn, and I really didn’t like the river. Did you have outs?” The other player laughed and said no, so it seems that if Eric had fired off a bet at some point he would have taken the pot regardless. Eric is now sitting with 40K and in good spirits.
Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of JT3. When Jason checked, his opponent bet out, only to have Jason go all in for 13.5K. The other player made the call with his QJ only to find that he was behind Jason’s KK. The A on the turn and 7 on the river were harmless to Jason’s kings and he doubled up to around 30k.
Anna Wroblewski has been busy building up her big stack. Her most recent addition in chips came when another player pushed all in on a flop of T95. Anna debated for awhile before making the call with the KT for a pair of tens with a flush draw. Although she was behind her opponent who held the T9, the K fell on the turn, giving Anna a better two pair and the 5 on the river changed nothing so Anna knocked out a player and her stack grew to over 70k.
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin (pictured at right) did not fare as well during the last level. He reported that he had pocket ladies in the big blind and reraised Kido Pham on the button from 1K to 3.6K. When the flop came 7-high with two clubs, Ken shoved for 14K more and Kido called with 94. When the turn spiked the A, Ken was sent to the rail.
Also eliminated in the level was Joe Sebok, whose day came to an end when he shoved the remainder of his chips in preflop with pocket jacks and ran into another player’s pocket queens. The player with queens ended up making quads and Joe was eliminated.
Seat Open!
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 6:16 pm
Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.
Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.
60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.
In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop. Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn. Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot. Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines. He was down to 1.8K at the break.
Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K
Radditz, Fineman Among Chip Leaders of Event 48
by Brett on 06.27.08, 7:17 pm
Danny “MrRadditz” Radditz and Ben “bfineman” Fineman are two of the early chip leaders of today’s $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Radditz (pictured right) began the day in the Brasilia Room, where he chipped up to 21,125 chips before being moved to the blue section of the Amazon Room. “Hopefully I’m a luckbox over here, too!” he said as he began re-stacking his chips. Radditz is in great spirts, chatting away with the players at his table and even Mike Matusow, who is nearby.
Fineman has built his stack to over 25K early on after being seated at a tough table early that included Kevin “WiCane” Pionkowsi. Also toward the top of the Event 48 leaderboard early are Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, who busted out in 12th place this morning in the $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em with Rebuys event, Blair Rodman and Matt “AllInAt420″ Stout.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was one of many early exits in Day 1, getting his chips in with 67 on a 874 board, but couldn’t catch up to the pocket jacks of Liv Boeree. There are worse ways to go out, Scott.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul also met his demise early. Saul doubled his stack to 8K before the first 20-minute break, but in Level 3 he squeezed over a raiser and flat caller preflop with AK and found himself up against the AA of another player and failed to improve.
The ESPN Final Table Arena has been echoing with hoots and howls as several players have their friends on hand to watch the action in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Five of the original nine have been already eliminated, including the chip leader coming in, Jesse Chinni. Chinni got all of his chips in with AK against the AA of Rene Mouritsen and was unable to hit a miracle. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman has been quiet early but still has nearly 500K chips at 12K/24K — plenty enough to maneuver with.
Diamonds-A-Plenty for Rosen
by Brett on 06.25.08, 8:01 pm
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen has escalated to near the top of the leaderboard of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys after picking up a massive pot. Rosen raised to 500 from middle position and two players called. On the flop of T64, the small blind checked and Rosen (pictured left)bet 1,050. The cutoff raised all-in for 3,650 and the small blind called, forcing Rosen to a decision. He decided to move the rest of his chips in, having the entire table covered and the small blind called:
Rosen: K9
Small blind: 42
Cutoff: QT
The 4 on the turn changed nothing, but the 8 on the river gave Rosen a flush and now puts him at 59K. Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier is the current chip leader with 65K.
Jason “JP OSU” Potter has been very aggressive at his table, opening several pots preflop, but the players at his table have began playing back at him. He finally found a spot to get his chips in during Level 4. With the blinds at 100/200, Potter raised to 575 in early position and a player in middle position called. The cutoff then re-raised to 1900 and Potter moved in for his last 5375. The flat caller folded and cutoff quickly called with JJ, which was in a flip situation against Potter’s AK. Potter rose to his feet when the flop brought KK2 and he was able to avoid a two-outer to chip up to over 11K.
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman added to his already ample chip stack when, with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25, he raised to 1K out of the small blind and a player who had limped in early position made the call. When the flop came AKK Feldman bet 1.6K and the other player threw out 5 blue 500 chips. The player then explained to the dealer he intended to call. Feldman had the dealer call over a floor person and they ruled that, since the amount of chips the other player put in the pot was more than half the size of the raise, the player was required to raise to 3,200. The player had only had 2.5K left in his stack and tried to move all-in, but he was told he could only raise to 3.2K. Peter then reraised enough to put the other player all-in and his opponent reluctantly made the call with A5. Feldman showed KQ and, when the turn and river were blanks, he took down the pot and increased his cihp count to 20K.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured right) cut his chip stack in half when a player in early position limped, another player raised to 700, Kevin called the raise, and the limper then moved all in for 8.5K total. As Saul mulled over his decision, he asked the player, “why so much?”, but he remained silent and stone-faced. After a couple minutes of thinking Kevin counted out the chips to make the call, kissed them goodbye, and threw them in the pot. The other player showed AA while Saul held QQ.
With a J on the flop and a K on the river, the table pointed out that every paint card except the one had shown up on the board. Humberto Brenes then jokingly called out, “he needs one more card.” Saul then burned and turned off the top of the deck and, to add insult to injury, it was the Q. Saul was left with 8K after the hand was over.
Several other players were unable to stick around through the end of Level 3. Recent eliminations include Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Blair “blur5f6, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, and Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci.
With 420 players remaining, here’s a look at some of the notable chip counts:
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 35K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 25K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 24K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 21K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 19K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 18K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 16K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 15K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 14.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 14K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 14K
Matt “AllInat420″ Stout - 13K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 13K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 13K
Thayer Rasmussen - 12K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 10.5K
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 9.5K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 9K
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh - 8K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn - 6K