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.
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.
A Blair Affair
by Brett on 06.14.08, 3:24 pm
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle will enter today’s $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table second in chips and attempt to pick up his first-ever WSOP bracelet. Hinkle (1.03 million, pictured right) trails only Andrew Jeffreys (1.05 million) and will be seated to Jeffreys’ left when play begins at 2:00 PM PT. Blair’s brother Grant has already won the hardware this year by taking down Event #2 ($1,500 NLHE).
Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa will also be seeking his first bracelet when the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha final table begins at 3:00 PT. Depa will have to make his way through a tough group of players including Max Pescatori, Minh Ly and Allen Cunningham. A prize of $246,471 will be awarded to the winner.
Events resuming play today will be the $10,000 NLHE Heads Up and $1,500 Razz. Barry Greenstein is the chip leader of the Razz event, which will start at 3:00 PT. Also among the 100 players still left are Brett “gank” Jungblut, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Mike “SirWatts” Wattel. Thirty-two of the original 256 players are alive in the $10K Heads Up Event. Here are the matchups of the the remaining P5ers in Round 4:
Emil Patel vs. Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci
Andy Black vs. Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil
Daniel “Ansky” Stern vs. David Williams
Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti vs. Michael Mizrachi
The $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event (#27) has just begun and over 2,600 entrants have made their way into the Amazon Room with more expected. Phil Hellmuth is the defending champion and will certainly be making that fact known to his table –and surrounding tables.
The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys will get underway at 5:00 PM. Stay tuned to PocketFivesLive for coverage on all of the events in what will be a very busy and entertaining day at the Rio!