WSOP 2008
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
Big Hit for Hunichen
by Brett on 06.23.08, 2:32 am
Chris “big huni” Hunichen has been eliminated from the $1.5k NLHE event #39 in 31st place. A short stacked player moved all in for 50k and Chris moved all in over the top for more than 200k. Hunichen (pictured right) looked shocked when the player on the button announced “call”. The blinds both folded and when all the cards were tabled Chris was ahead, but barely:
Chris: 7
7
Button: AK
Short Stack: KT
The flop was scary but left Chris in the lead as it came QJ
5 but the turn brought the A to give the short stack player the nuts and to put the button ahead of Chris. The river was a meaningless 3 and Chris was out. He was obviously upset and he said to the player on the button “It’s a horrible call! I move in for more than 200k and you call with ace king!” The button replied saying “I watched you play all day; it’s a great call.” Chris then regained his composure and shook the man’s hand saying “nice hand” and quietly left the table. Chris earns $13,737 for his efforts.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (520K) and Mike “inissint” Glasser (155K) are still alive as the field has thinned to 22.
Ari “BodogAri” Engel has just doubled through David Pham to increase his stack to 7.5K in the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. With the blinds at 100/200 in No-limit, Pham raised to 525 under-the-gun and Ari raised to 3K in middle position, leaving 500 behind. Action folded back to Pham, who looked Engel up and down before declaring “All in.” Ari called and showed TT which was way ahead of the 66 of Pham. The J535K board was kind to Engel, who is climbing back after falling down to under 2K.
We also caught an intereresting hand involving the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low champion David Benyamine. Also in the No-limit segment, Benyamine called a raise of 825 preflop and a limper in early position also called. Both players checked to Benyamine on a AT2 flop and he bet 1650. The limper folded and other player called. The 3 came on the turn and both players checked. The scary 8 on the river induced another check from the preflop raiser and Benyamine threw out a value-sized bet of 1500. He was quickly called by AA. Benyamine flipped over 55 for the flush and is now over 17K in chips.
Sorel Mizzi, Mike Sowers and Ben Fineman were all knocked out in the previous hour.
Beckman Gets Bluffed
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 1:20 am
As the seconds on the tournment clocked ticked down the last few seconds of level 16 in the $1.5k NLHE tournament, chip leader Garrett ”GBecks” Beckman got involved in a rather interesting hand.
The cards were dealt out and as the other players folded they left the table to go on break but Beckman (pictured right) in the cutoff raised to 24k. Play folded to the big blind, a man named Curtis Early, who decided to make the call. The flop came Q52 and Early bet out 14k. Beckman raised to 64k and then Early re-raised to 114k. Beckman went into the tank and said “Top pair, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” After debating for awhile Beckman eventually folded and left the table to go to break.
Early then told PocketFives that all he had was 92 for a pair of twos. He said, “I just felt like playin’ with him! He’s been pushing everybody around.” Early suspected that his twos weren’t good against Beckman’s hand but that he just wanted to play back at him because he could. Even though Beckman lost over 100k in chips in the hand he is still near the top of the chip counts and will be fighting to build his stack even higher as they get closer to the final table.
David “ComptonMasta” Barter was eliminated after having a big stack for the majority of the day. After being crippled on one hand by another big stack he put the rest of his chips in with the K5 and couldn’t catch up to his opponents AJ.
There are currently 41 players remaining including Chris “big huni” Hunichen (340k), Luke “JohnnyCashOut” Priour (52k), and Michael “inissint” Glasser (195k).
Over in the Amazon Room, 271 of the original 731 players are still going strong in the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. The players have just returned from a 30-minute dinner break and were told that they would be playing four more hours before the conclusion of Day 1. Stu “thedonator” Paterson (12K), Mike SowersUNCC” Sowers (10K), Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (9.5K) and Brock “t_soprano” Parker (6K) are some of the notables alive as the average stack is now 8K.
Shannon Shorr and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg were among those eliminated in the past level. We caught Shorr (pictured left) and David Plastik get all of their chips in on a KT68 board, with Shorr holding KQ and a 2-1 favorite against the 75 of Plastik. The river, however, brought the 9, giving Plastic a straight and sending Shorr packing.
Beckman Holds Chip Lead
by Jessica on 06.22.08, 11:12 pm
Down to 70 players in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #39, Garrett ”GBecks” Beckman is the chip leader with 405k with the average chip stack at 113k.
Blinds are currently at 3k-6k-500 and those busting out receive $7,400 until the money jumps to $8,500 at 63rd place. The eventual bracelet winner will take home 630k.
Luke “JohnnyCashout” Priour increased his stack from 60k to 110k in the last few rounds and his tablemate David “DavidP18″ Peters is at 85k, a stack size he’s maintained for the last few hours.
David “ComptonMasta” Barter (pictured right) continues to yield a big stack with just over 300k.
Chris “big huni” Hunichen just lost a few decent sized pots to bring his stack down to 128k.
Barter and Beckman Bulldozing
by AdamJ on 06.22.08, 8:43 pm
David “ComptonMasta” Barter (pictured right) is riding an uptick that has taken him from a 100k to start to over 375k for the chip lead in three levels.
Barter won a huge pot when he flatted a raise in late position with kings and busted pocket jacks when the flop came five high.
The next hand in a late position verse blind battle, he had his opponent all-in with AQ but was way behind his opponents queens for about a 120k pot. Barter fortunately rivered an ace to build his stack to its current apex.
Afterwards, Barter seemed to regret the play when explaining it to P5’s but mentioned that he thought his opponent might have been giving him less credit since he just won a big pot and that the position considerations weighed heavily as well.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman continues to run like Maurice Greene on Day 2 as his stack trails only Barter at 292k.
Beckman recently busted an opponent in the 1.5k-3k-400 level when he raised to 8500 from middle position and was called by the big blind. Beckman’s opponent bet 15k into him on a T83 flop and Beckman went all-in. Beckman’s opponent called and tabled the AT but was way behind Beckman’s 88. Beckman got a horrible feeling when the J peeled on the turn but was safe when the river bricked for his opponent, shipping a 90k pot to the P5er.
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach was added to Beckman’s table that already had Adam “Roothlus” Levy as well, who had been moving all-in multiple times with a stack that has been fluctuating between 40k to 60k.
Beckman scooped a nice pot off of Fohrenbach in one of the first hands he played at the table. Beckman’s pocket nines bested Fohrenbach’s pockets eights on a jack high paired board that the river was checked by both players, adding 50k to Beckman’s stack.
Chris “big huni” Hunichen recently busted an opponent when his AJ held up against his opponents A6 for a 60k pot, increasing Hunichen’s stack to 218k.
Barry Greenstein, Joshua “pbdrunks” VanDuyn and Dan “wretchy” Martin have been eliminated.
Here’s a list of notable players left with less than 95 players remaining with a 85k chip average.
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 98k
Luke “JohnnyCashOut2″ Priour - 90k
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 55k