WSOP 2008
Sweet and Sowers
by Jessica on 07.03.08, 9:17 pm
The buzz around the Amazon Room as players returned from break was how many chips Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (pictured at left). The televisions broadcasting the leaderboard showed Sowers as having a whopping 270K at the end of the 2nd break. Were it true, that would mean Mike had increased his starting stack more than tenfold in a mere four hours. While we can neither confirm nor deny the 270K mark, when we last caught up with Mike Sowers he had around 13K in chips.
That is, until he got tangled up in a hand during the 150/300 blind level where a player limped in middle position, the small blind completed, and Sowers raised to 1,500 total out of the big blind. The limper then reraised to 3K total, the small blind folded, and Mike quickly reraised all-in. The other player called instantly and Sowers appeared to know what the other player had before his opponent turned over his hand.
“Aces, huh?”
Sowers waited for his opponent to reveal his A
A
before he turned up his KK
. The board ran out 822
8Q and the large pot was pushed to the other player. Thankfully for Sowers, he had his opponent covered and he was left with 6K at the conclusion of the hand.
It didn’t take long for Sowers to work his chip stack back up when he and another player got it all in on a flop of 10-10-3 with Sowers holding 10-8 to another player’s 8-8. The turn was a Q and the river a 3 giving Mike a full house and the pot. He is now back where we found him at 13K.
While his magical friend Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail was eliminated this level, Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle (pictured at right) continues to increase what was already a healthy 45k stack heading heading back from the break. Hinkle recently won a huge hand that increased his stack to 80k in the 150-300 level. Hinkle raised to 800 utg and got two callers. Hinkle checked the A5J flop and his opponent bet 2k and the third player called before it got back to Hinkle, who check-raised to 8k and both players called. Hinkle bet 22k on the T turn and the flop bettor folded and last player to act went all-in for his last 11k. Hinkle table JJ for a set leading his opponents JT for two-pair and a flush draw. The river brought the Q and Hinkle scooped a huge pot that seemed like an Omaha hand given the extreme strength of the players’ holdings in relation to the board.
Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 36.5K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 26.5K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 24K
Billy Westom - 19K
Mike “michnak” Michnik - 19K
Shannon Shorr - 18K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slivka - 16K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 15K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 14.5K
Dan “wretchy” Martin - 12K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 11K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 11K
Eric Liu - 10.5K
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka - 9K
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet - 6K
Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich - 5K
Zac “iLLNuGWichee” Fronterhouse - 3K
Recent eliminations include Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Justin “jurollo” Rollo, and Kevin “WiCane” Pionkowski.
The Wizard of Amazon
by AdamJ on 07.03.08, 8:08 pm
Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail (pictured left) doesn’t typically dress in a mythical blue robe with long whispy white hair.
It’s just that Cahail is a man of his word.
Cahail lost a WSOP bracelet bet to good friend Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle, who won a bracelet a few weeks back.
So now Cahail has to wear his wizard costume on Day 1A of the WSOP Main Event and even routine things like grabbing a cell phone out of his pocket underneath his robe become a laborsome chore.
Cahail currently sits with perhaps the most influential NL tournament author in Dan Harrington. Cahail (22k) is sitting a few seats to Harrington’s (16k) left.
Wearing ordinary street clothes, Hinkle is off to a fast start with 54k.
Hinkle won a nice pot early when he flatted a preflop raise with AK. Hinkle bet 600 a 10-2-2 flop and Hinkle’s opponent called. Hinkle bet 800 when he turned a royal flush draw when the J peeled and his opponent called. He bet 1.5x the pot for 4k when another club dropped and Hinkle’s opponent called and tabled pocket queens.
Just when it appeared Brock “t_soprano” Parker’s table got a little easier with the busting of David Benyamine, it got even harder with the appearance of former WPT player of the year Gavin Smith. Peter “number1pen” Neff and Roland De Wolfe started and remain at the table as well.
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson was eliminated from the event when, with the blinds at 100/200, a player raised to 575 in the cut off and Marco reraised to 1,800 from the blinds. The initial raiser then raised again, this time to 6,575. Marco then pushed all-in for the remainder of his chips with AK and the other player quickly called with AA. The board was no help to Johnson and he headed home midway through Level 2. James “mig.com” Mackey got short stacked early on and was eliminated when he flopped a set to Joe Sebok’s flush draw. They got it all-in on the flop, Joe hit his flush, and he is now up to 30.5K.
Here are some other chip counts we spotted heading into the 2nd break:
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 44K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 42K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 33K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray -32K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 32K
Anthony “D1rtyR1v3r” Nardi - 31.5K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 29.5K
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul - 29K
Steven “CornellFiji” Ware - 24K
Aaron Been - 23K
Carter “devinr12″ Gill - 21K
Shannon Shorr- 21K
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 20.5K
Doug “reslient” Smith - 20K
Jason Gray - 19.5K
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis - 19K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 17.5K
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 16K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 15K
Matt “AllInAt420″ Stout - 14.5K
Jordan Morgan - 13.5K
Larry “larrygold” Goldstein - 9.5K
Taylor “GreenPlastic” Caby - 9K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 7K
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 T53 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.
Route 66 Leads to a Bracelet for Hinkle
by Crystal on 06.15.08, 1:00 am
Some say that “666″ is the number of the Devil himself, but for Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle (pictured at right), it worked miracles at the final table of Event #23, the $2K No-Limit Hold’em tournament. When the players were 3-handed, Hinkle raised his button and Daniel O’Brien raised all in. Hinkle debated and then called but found out his 66 was dominated by O’Brien’s 88. Hinkle’s throng of supporters yelled for another six and indeed when the flop was laid out, it read A65, prompting the crowd to go wild! The 5 came on the turn, leaving O’Brien with the two remaining eights as his only outs. The K fell on the river, sending O’Brien to the rail and putting Hinkle into heads up play as the chip leader.
A mere eight hands later, Hinkle raised on the button and Mark Brockington reraised only to have Hinkle push all in. Brockington made the call with his AK, only slightly behind Hinkle’s 66. Again the crowd called for a six to come and this time it was Brockington’s tournament life on the line. The dealer laid out the flop of the A62 and Hinkle flopped a set of sixes once again, leaving Brockington drawing only to runner runner outs. The crowd was in hysterics! The 8 on the turn sealed Brockington’s fate and gave Blair Hinkle $507,563 and his first WSOP Bracelet win a mere 10 days after his brother Grant captured WSOP gold in Event #2.
Ship It Mike’s Way
by Brett on 06.14.08, 7:28 pm
Mike “shipitthisway” McNeil defeated Andy Black in Round 4 of the $10,000 NLHE Heads Up Championship to advance to the round of 16. McNeil (pictured left) chipped away at Black before finally getting it in with A6 against Black’s JT and rivered a flush to pick up the win. We’re still awaiting the announcement of his next opponent, as two matches are still in progress, but McNeill doesn’t seem concerned. The high-stakes heads up cash player is one of the favorites of those still remaining to win the $539,056 jackpot.
Other notable players moving on to Round 5 were Vanessa Selbst, David Williams, Gavin Griffin, Robert Mizrachi and Emil “whitelime” Patel, who took second place in Full Tilt Poker’s inagural $25K Heads Up event at the end of last month. Patel lost to David Singer in the championship match and earned $320,000.
The $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table is down to its final six players. Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle has climbed up to 1.2 million chips, second to David Steicke’s 2.07 million. Blair is trying to match his brother Grant’s achievement of winning a bracelet in this year’s World Series.
Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa is vying for a bracelet of his own in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha Event. Depa is 3/7 in chips with nearly 400K, trailing Kyle Kloeckner and Allen Cunningham.