WSOP 2008
Lost & Found
by Jessica on 07.09.08, 1:27 am
First and foremost, we here would like to profusely apologize to Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (pictured at left). Earlier today we reported that Christian had been eliminated during Level 7 of play. Well, the details of Fockenberg’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and he is, in fact, alive and well with a hearty 79K. With so many tables being broken and players being moved around sometimes the breaking order changes on us and mistakes are made. Such was the case with Christian, so don’t worry friends and family of Fockenberg–he is just fine.
Now that we have reported on someone we lost, now it is time to tell you about someone we found amongst the 612 players remaining in the Day 2A field. Hunter “The_Hunt_D” Frey, who is one of our chip leaders with 384K. When we found Hunter, he kindly recalled the hand that launched him to the top of the leaderboard. Frey was involved in an 8-way limped pot with the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 holding 2-3 when the flop came A-3-3 with two diamonds. One of the other players led out for 6K and another player called before Hunter raised to 17.5K. Both players made the call and the turn came Q
. The initial better then shoved all-in for his remaining 90K and the third player in the hand thought for some time before folding. Frey told us he tanked on the decision before making the call. The other player showed A-K, the river was no help to him, and Hunter shot up to 400K.
We have also lost our “Table of Doom” that featured Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Peter “number1pen” Neff. Their table was recently broken, but not before Stern reraised one of the other players preflop inducing him to fold. Before he threw his hand away he turned up K6 and joked, “I ought to show since the table is about to break.”
While that table may have disappeared, we may have another table of doom brewing over in the Blue section. Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a fairly easy day when he played on Day 1B and seemed to flop sets at will during the early levels and he was hoping Day 2 would be in the same vein. However, every time his table loses a player, they bring over yet another known pro to add to the already stacked table. First it was the big stacked Jason Gray (pictured at right) and when we last checked on the table Brandon Adams, who started today 2nd in chips, was unpacking several racks of chips. Mike also told us there are some other online players at the table as well.
Tim “tmay420″ West continued to sit at a table with Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and remained steady throughout the last level, hovering around the 100K mark and taking relatively few risks. When we caught up with Tim’s table, he was raising a min-betting opponent preflop to 6K more with 8K already in the pot. After awhile in the tank, his opponent folded and he took the pot down to increase his stack to 105K. Eric “jakz101″ Crain sat nearby, expressing frustration when his flopped straight flush draw bricked out and he lost a 100K pot. Eric still has 210K in front of him and is confident he will reclaim his lost chips.
When PocketFives caught up to Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson (pictured at left), his strategy seemed to be similar - he reported that he got pocket kings twice in the last level and each time bet out to see what risks he faced. In one situation, he said that he raised 5K under the gun with kings and was called by four other players preflop. When the dealer spiked an ace, players checked around. Hodson said he bet at the turn to see where he was, and was insta-raised by another player. He folded and said though he’s gotten no value out of his kings, he minimized his loss and is happy with his 72K chipstack. At a table full of recreational players, he said his strategy for the rest of the night was to play extremely tight through Level 9 and turn up the heat in the last level of the evening.
Here are some unofficial chip counts from midway through Level 9 of play:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 384K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 210K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 200K
Jason Gray - 190K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 184K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 180K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 172K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 160K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 155K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 142.5K
Peter “number1pen” - 122K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 122K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 118K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 99K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 90K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 90K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 87.5K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 79K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 79K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 75K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 65K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 49K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 45K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 44K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 43K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 39K
Recent eliminations include Shaun Deeb, TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka, Steve “McNallyville” McNally, and Barry Greenstein.
Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
by Crystal on 07.08.08, 5:54 pm
Greg “okstate345″ Cox recently played in a $50 Heads Up sit-n-go tournament online and lost, and since a prop bet was part of the deal between he and the other player, Greg showed up today in a purple bathrobe, pink swim goggles and a blue wide-brimmed sun hat. In one hand where Greg had only 7k left in chips there was a raise and re-raise in front of him and he held pocket queens on the button. Greg decided to fold and was relieved to see the re-raiser show pocket aces. “He’s been a nit so far” Greg said in reference to the player with aces. Another gentleman at the table thought that “nit” was an insult and was shocked Greg said it but after a humorous conversation at the table they decided that “nit” actually wasn’t meant to be an insult in this case and Greg was off the hook.
His stack dwindled down to around 5k and when the player under the gun limped, Greg pushed all in. Everyone else folded but the under the gun player made the call with his 88
to find he was way behind Greg’s TT
. The flop came Q76 and Greg’s opponent was drawing slim. The 4 on the turn gave him a few more options and the 5 fell on the river giving the other player an eight-high straight and sending Greg to the rail with a disgusted look on his face.
We caught up to Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein in the Blue section who had just called a bet of 2,500 on flop of J
24. He and one other player both checked the J turn to see the 5 river. His opponent checked to him, and Josh bet out 7,025. After tanking awhile, his opponent made the call and Josh flipped over AJ to take down the pot and increase his stack to 74K.
As tables are broken in the Red section, more and more players are being moved into the orange and blue sections of the Amazon Room, resulting in some stacked tables. We stumbled upon table Orange 12, which boasts a line-up of Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki. The three players have been very active at their tables and we caught both Rosen and Ansky busting out players and increasing their chip counts in the process.
First, Rosen raised to 1,250 in early position with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50 and a player in middle position made the call. After the flop came A92 Jamie bet 2,250 and the other player quickly called. Rosen checked when the Q came on the turn and the other player bet 5K. Rosen quickly check-raised to 15K total and the other player moved all-in for less than 5K on top of the 15K. Jamie called and turned over AK and the other player revealed 9T. The J on the river was no help to his opponent and Rosen scooped a pot that pushed him up to a 140K chip stack.
A few hands later a shortstacked player raised on the button and Dani Stern reraised out of the big blind. The other player appeared to just call his raise, leaving only 5K behind. He then announced “all-in in the dark” and Stern reminded him that he was not the first to act in the hand. The flop came J73 and Dani appeared to take a quick peek at his hand to check for a club before throwing out a 5K chip. The other player called with AK while Dani held QQ. The turn and river came 6T and the other player was eliminated. Stern now sits with 75K.
Oh, and if the table wasn’t crowded enough as it was, the seat of the player Rosen busted has just been filled by Peter “number1pen” Neff.
One player whose table in the Red section has yet to break is Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson. He informed Pocketfives that he had been getting maximum value out of all of his hands and had worked his starting Day 2 stack of 28K all the way up to 60K. However, he ran into a hand where he got it all in preflop with A-K into his opponent’s pocket aces. The board bricked out and he was knocked down to just below where he started and has 26K.
Now for the good stuff! Chip counts galore!
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 145K
Paul “ComeonPhish” Lieu - 130K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 120K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 107K
Jason Gray - 90K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 82K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 73K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 72K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 69K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 66K
Jordan Morgan - 58K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 56K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 55K
Paul “beanie” Nobles - 55K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 53K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 51K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 48K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 40K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 38K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 35K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 35K
Terry “Asiandude77″ Eichens - 31K
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka - 29K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 28K
Aaron Been - 27K
Shaun Deeb - 25K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 25K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 24K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 15K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 10K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 7K
Barry Greenstein - 5K
Players eliminated since our last post include Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, and Matt “SamENole” Smith.
Viva Las Main Event
by Jill on 07.05.08, 4:19 am
The end of Level 5 for Day 1B of the Main Event started off in bizarre territory; as PocketFives caught up with play in the Amazon Room, Kenna James belted out a country ballad to all those within earshot. Meanwhile, Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold was doing Jerry Yang impersonations to the amusement of his table. And finally, at Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu’s table in the Blue section, his dealer was *definitely* an Elvis impersonator.
At Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson’s table, he spun a true tale of nearly doubling up after winning a clutch 20K pot. Ironically enough, it was with everyone’s favorite hand - pocket fives! He reported that a player in the hijack open-shoved and Bobby was in the big blind. Whether compelled by a tell or the power of the fives, Bobby called and his hand held against the other player’s A-K. He took down the pot and his stack rose to 30K.
Other players strengthening their stacks in the level included Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu who managed to take down plenty of small pots and work his way up to 85K at the end of the day. Mike “SirWatts” Watson also continued to dominate his table and walked away tonight with more than 100K. Another stellar performance was by Derek “arodss3″ Buonano (pictured at left), who worked his way up to 82K after a highly-televised table and subsequent media crew invaded his space for most of the evening. Apparently, there was a heckler at the table who was openly insulting Tom McEvoy who sat a table away.
Shaun Deeb had been sitting on a short stack for awhile and he and two other players saw a flop of KJ3. Shaun pushed all in on the flop and was called by one player whose QT open-ended straight draw was behind Shaun’s J5 pair of jacks. The turn was the 3 and the river brought the 6 and Shaun managed to double his stack.
Steve “gboro780″ Gross was one of the players that experienced a chip slide in the last level. When we caught up to him midway through the level, he guarded a 38K stack and was in a pot on a TQ6 board. He had bet out and was called; the 9 fell on the turn and he checked to his opponent, who bet out 3.4K. Steve called and the K fell on the river. He checked to his opponent, who made a river bet of 6K. Steve thought for quite awhile before folding AQ face up. He was down to 31K after the hand. Shortly after, he managed to swing up the chip counts to 42K when his KQ held on a queen-high board.
However, it seemed that the chip swings were beginning to tilt Gross, who later raised on the button in a hand. Both the big blind and a limper in early position called. When the flop came 332, one of his opponents bet 3.5K and Steve raised to 8K; his opponent called and the 3 came on the turn. Both players checked and the J fell on the river. His opponent bet out 8K and Steve folded after thinking quite awhile. After a series of downswing hands, Steve was was down to 17K.
Here is a collection of unofficial chip counts prior to the end of Day 1B. Congratulations to all players on a great day and good luck to them as they advance in the Main Event!
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 106K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 85K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 82K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 42K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 48.5K (pictured at right)
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 15K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 26K
Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson - 30K
Greg “okstate345″ Cox - 21K
Marco “KILL-BILL” Liesy - 28K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 27K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 18K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 17K
Shaun Deeb - 16K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 8.5K