WSOP 2008
Parker Taking it to the Limit
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 9:45 pm
Brock “t_soprano” Parker is still at the final table of event #30 the $10k LHE tournament. After coming into the day short stacked, Parker (pictured right) has managed to win some big pots and is currently 4th out of the 6 remaining players in chips. He hasn’t been very active in hands for the past hour or so, obviously trying to pick his spots carefully and get his money in with the best hands he can. Andy Bloch was just eliminated in 7th place ensuring that Parker and the other 5 remainng players are guaranteed to take home at least $102,460
Over in the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament Billy Westom, Shannon Shorr, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen and Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier have been eliminated.
Billy Westom got all his chips in with A
T against Bill Chen’s JJ
and failed to improve and was knocked out in 40th place good for $8,379.
Shannon Shorr got all his money in with almost the same hand as Westom, the AT
and found he was dominated by his opponents AJ. The flop came with both an ace and a jack and Shorr was sent to the rail in 32nd place to claim his $9,775 prize.
Keven Stammen was knocked out in 24th place when his QQ was bested by a player who made a flush with their AK on a T5238 board. Stammen recieves $15,594 for his great run.
Jason Mercier was one of the chip leaders for a good portion of the day but he doubled up Scotty Nguyen when his AT couldn’t catch up to Scotty’s pocket sevens. After the hand, both Mercier and Scotty were left with exactly 160k in chips and got involved in another big pot on the very next hand. Scotty opened with a raise to 11k and Mercier pushed his entire 160k stack into the pot. Scotty called with his TT which dominated Mercier’s 77
and when the board hit neither player, Mercier was eliminated by the prince of poker himself who said “I can’t be pushed around, baby” as Mercier was leaving the table. Mercier’s 22nd place finish was good enough to net him $15,594.
Event #33, the $5k Seven Card Stud H/L World Championship has been underway for almost two hours now and a number of notable players have been spotted in the field including Jordan “octavian_c” Rich, Thayer Rasmussen, Anna Wroblewski, Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, and Barry Greenstein. In a field filled with well known pro players this event is sure to be an exciting one and we will keep you posted as play progresses.
Fivers Going Strong Six Handed
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 7:19 pm
P5ers are holding strong as players continue to drop from the $2.5k NLHE six-handed event #31.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier won a huge pot when he got all his chips in preflop against another big stack. The AK that Jason held dominated the AT of his opponent and when the board ran out A8224 Jason doubled his stack to over 200k.
Not long after that hand a battle of the P5ers nearly took place on Jason’s table. Jason raised in the cutoff and was called by Billy Westom in the small blind. Frank “Round42″ Rusnak who was in the big blind played with his chips contemplating a call but instead decided to re-raise for another 14k on top. An exciting P5 filled hand might have been in store, but Jason and Billy both folded giving Frank the pot.
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen has also been doing well. When the button on his table raised to 3.3k preflop Keven made the call from his sb. The flop came with the 883 and both players checked to see the Q come on the turn. They both checked again and when the 4 dropped on the river Keven bet out 6k and the button called. Keven tabled the QJ for a pair of queens and the button mucked.
There are currently 47 players remaining. Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured left), and Michael “slugo5″ Glasser have been eliminated from today’s event but many players are still active in the field. Unofficial chip counts are listed below.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 200k
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 160k
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 140k
Billy Westom - 95k
Shannon Shorr - 85k
Todd “tbt4653″ Terry - 70k
Paul “uclabruinz” Smith - 62k
Ian “IanJ300″ Johns - 50k
Mineri Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 4:20 pm
Day 2 of event #31, the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament, is set to restart at 2:30 pm today with Dario Mineri (pictured left) 2nd in chips with over 191k. Only 73 out of the original 1012 players are left and they will play down to the final 9 tonight before play concludes for the evening. Other players still in the hunt include Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (78k), Billy Westom (70k), and Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (46k). Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant was eliminated last night in 80th place for a payday of $4,189.
Also starting at 2 pm is the final table event #29 the $3k NLHE with Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin coming in as the chip leader with over 1 million in chips. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst is also at the final table with 333k which is good enough for 8th out of the 9 remaining players but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him build that stack up and finish even higher once play begins.
In the Amazon room event #32 has just taken an unscheduled 30 minute break to accomodate for the estimated 400 people that are still trying to register for the event. This seems to be the first time the WSOP has had any trouble with registrations this year. We’ve heard from one of the players who registered late for the event that the computer system was registering players as alternates rather than at empty tables and then the entire system actually crashed. We imagine this may be the cause of the backup in registrations today but if we find out otherwise we’ll let you know.
Before the break began, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan was short stacked after losing a few hands but was then able to double up back to around 2.5k when he turned a king high flush against his opponents top pair. Other P5ers spotted in the field include Court Harrington, Adam “adam_mc” McGregor, and Phil “USCphildo” Collins.
In the Waiting Line
by Brett on 06.15.08, 6:18 pm
Spectators have formed around the 175 players still in the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event. A large percentage of them, however, are those that have busted from the tournament. A long line has formed in the Brasilia Room as players are waiting for their payouts. Players have grown so flustered that a tournament director has announced a 20-minute break at the end of Level 11 (the first break was supposed to come at the conclusion of Level 12).
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas (pictured right) was saved from having to head to the back of the line when he doubled to increase his stack to 23K. With the blinds at 800/1600, a player in middle position raised to 4500 and Douglas moved in for a little over 11K. Action folded back to the original raiser, who called with TT and was unable to improve against the KK of Douglas. Taylor is well known for his appearance in Nat Arem’s “The Poker Film”, a documentary about a house shared by online poker players Jeff “yellowsub” Williams, Tyler “tbthanx” Bell and Nick “Stoweski” Stowe.
Here is a list of others left in Event #27 that have avoided the dreaded money line:
Court Harrington - 75K
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 38K
Billy Westom - 31K
Jason Gray - 30K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 16K
Italian Pirate Wins a Ton of Booty
by Jessica on 06.15.08, 3:09 pm
Max Pescatori took home the $2.5K PL HE/O bracelet last night, defeating Kyle “RedEye33″ Kloeckner in heads up play and winning $246,741in the process. Kloeckner earned $152,410 for his efforts. Other notable finishes at the table include Allen Cunningham, who placed 4th for $76,205, and Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa, who came in 6th for $48,876.
The $10K HU Championship event is down to the final four and today Vanessa Selbst, Kenny Tran, Alec Torelli, and Jonathan Jaffe will play down to a winner. Selbst (pictured left) is two wins away from picking up her second bracelet in as many events and amazingly took third in the heads-up event last year. The semifinal round will begin at 2:00 PT and the winners will then play a best-of-3 championship match.
Barry Greenstein will enter the $1,500 Razz final table as 2nd in chips with 243,000 as play begins at 3:00 PT. Brandon “BrandonPL” Leeds is third with 206,000.
Several online players are still among the field of 224 in Event #27 ($1,500 No-Limit Hold’em). Court Harrington (79.4K), Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan (65.6), Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen (61.5K), Billy Westom (32.4K) and Jason Gray (29.9) are still heathy and look to play into the evening as the field dwindles down to nine.
Cole “cts” South, Brian “tsarrast” Rast and Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis are all still playing for the enormous $817,781 first-place price in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys event. The tournament is filled with heavy-hitters, including chip leaders David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren and John Juanda.
And, finally, the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em and $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship will get underway today. The $3K NLHE just got kicked off at noon with more than 600 players in their seats. The Limit event will begin at 5:00 PT.
Good luck to all playing today!