WSOP 2008
Engel Doubles in Event #43
by Brett on 06.24.08, 6:19 pm
“BodogAri” Engel has doubled his chip stack to nearly 4K — just short of the average — in Level 3 of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event. With the blinds at 75/150, Engel (pictured right) raised to 525 preflop with A
K
82
and a player in late position called. The flop came J85 and Engel quickly moved his last 1300 chips in and was called. We didn’t catch the hand of the other player, but Ari’s hand held when the Q
and J filled the board and Engel was given new life. Eric “Rizen” Lynch is also seated at Engel’s table and has 5,000 chips.
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, kyle “kwob20″ Bowker and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski were all eliminated in the past hour. Unfortunately for Bogdanski, the new haircut apparently did not do the trick for him today. Gary and his opponent were all-in on a board reading Q-3-2-9 and Bogdanski turned up his A-Q-4-7 and quickly learned he was behind the other player’s A-A-2-5. Another 9 on the river failed to bring a qualifying low for Gary to get half the pot and the other player won with his pair of aces.
More than 200 players have already exited Event #43. Here are some unofficial chip counts coming back from break:
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 9K
Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik - 6.5K
Chris “SKOAL” Falconer - 5.5K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 5.5K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 3K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 3K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 3K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 1.2K
Glasser Not So “inissint”
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 5:31 am
Mike “inissint” Glasser is guilty… of sending another player to the rail. After one of the chip leaders raised to 55k in early postion, another player moved all in only to have Glasser come over the top by pushing all in himself. The initial raiser folded and the other player asked Glasser “You have aces?” to which Glasser replied with a worried look on his face, ”No, why? Do you have kings?” The other player laughed and said no and when the cards were flipped up Glasser held the JJ which was way ahead of the other player’s 88. The board ran out Q4366 and Glasser knocked out the other player and almost doubled up his chip stack. After the hand Glasser had around 550k in chips and there are now 14 players left fighting to try to make the final table.
Over at the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event, “BodogAri” Engel went through a wild ride of swings to his chip stack before being taken out in 99th place. With the blinds at 200/400 in the No-limit round, Engel was put to a decision to call a player’s all-in bet of 4575 on a board of T9237. Ari eventually made the call and mucked when his opponent flipped over KT and was left with 2K.
Three hands later, the player in the cutoff raised to 800 and Engel moved his last 1700 into the pot on the button. Stu “thedonator” Paterson (pictured right) then re-raised from the small blind for 2700 more and the cutoff moved all in. Stu folded, giving Engel and opportunity to triple up in a heads-up showdown. His AT was dominated by AQ, but the door card was the T and Ari’s hand held to chip him up to 5500. On the very next hand, however, Ari got all of his chips in with 98 against Paterson’s AT preflop. The K98 flop made things interesting but Paterson made a flush with the 6 on the turn and Engel couldn’t boat up on the river to send him home just minutes before the conclusion of Day 1.
Paterson will head into Day 2 with close to 15K. Daniel “voff” Deveau (24.5K) and Brock “t_soprano” Parker (23.5K) will also be among the 98 players back tomorrow afternoon as we will play down to the final nine.
Beckman Eliminated
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 4:09 am
As the blinds continued to rise, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman’s stack began slowly decreasing. The final tables of the $1.5k NLHE event #39 have been filled with aggressive play and it seemed that Beckman (pictured left) just couldn’t get things going in the right direction.
With the blinds at 8k/16k (2k ante) Beckman open shoved all in for his last 140k in chips. The player on the button looked a little too happy as he also pushed all in for 182k total. Both blinds folded and Garrett held the JT to the button’s KK. The board ran out 755A2 and Beckman was sent to the rail just as a cocktail server delivered a drink he had ordered. He finished in 21st place and will take home $17,450.
Mike “inissint” Glasser is still fighting and has around 240k in chips while the current chip leader holds over 1 million.
Daniel “voff” Deveau has been on a rush in the last level of the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event, adding 18K chips to his stack. The majority came while we were away, but Deveau (pictured right) gave us the details. A player in early position raised to 800 and Deveau called in the cutoff. The player then check-raised Deveau on a J-8-4 flop and he called. Deveau then raised a bet when a blank hit on the turn and he was called. An 8 came on the river and Deveau was check-raised all in. Felt easily priced in, Deveau called with A-J and his opponent mucked, sending a massive pot his way. Deveau then turned quad aces on the very next hand to hit the 30K mark but has since been cut down to 25K.
Ari “BodogAri” Engel has chipped up to nearly 11K, but missed out on busting Mimi Tran. Tran moved in for her last 1K during the limit round with blinds at 800/1600 and Ari and Stu “thedonator” Paterson made the call. Engel led the KQ4 flop and Paterson called to increase the sidepot. The T fell on the river and Engel bet Paterson out of the pot and looked to have Tran heading toward the rail with AK against her A4. That is, until the J appeared on the river, giving her and Engel a straight. Ari smiled at us and said “Got in with the best hand like I always do.”
Engel did, however, knock David Pham out of the tournament not too long after. The short-stacked Pham got his last 2K in the middle preflop with AJ but Engel’s A5 was best when all was done when he spiked the 5 on the flop.
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst was just eliminated in 140th place. He got his last 1900 chips in on a K54J board with AT and was unable to catch up to his opponent’s KQ.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker is hovering near the chip leaders with more than 30K.
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: 77
Button: AK
Short Stack: KT
The flop was scary but left Chris in the lead as it came QJ5 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.
Loaded Field in 5k NL WSOP Event #21
by AdamJ on 06.11.08, 5:58 pm
With the second largest NL buy-in aside from the Main Event in the WSOP, tables were stacked with notable NL players from live and online scenes. The 731 player field created a handful of stacked tables throughout the Amazon Room.
P5er Court Harrington was at one of the most eclectic tables of all, sitting alongside Sammy Farha, Ari “BodogAri” Engel, Ray Davis, Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, and Ben “Milkybarkid” Grundy. Harrington has emerged from the tough draw with one of the biggest stacks at his table, doubling his 10k starting stack to over 20k.
Ray Davis busted before the dinner break when he closed the action on the flop after a player bet into the field and Grundy called and Davis called on a J92 flop. When the K dropped on the turn, the flop bettor led big again on the turn, Grundy folded, and Davis tanked for a few minutes.
Shortly after the player mentioned to Davis that he should try to make the first break, Davis called with QQ, ahead of his opponents JT. Davis was sent to the rail when the 3h dropped on the river. P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks drew a tough starting table as he was up against three players with NL championship titles in Gavin Griffin, David Chiu, and Glen Chorny, a trio with 13.5 million in tournament winnings between them.
No table featured more notable players than Cory “ugotpzd” Carroll’s table, featuring Chris “Genius28″ Lee, Brian Devonshire, John Robert Bellande, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, and Richard “Quiet Lion” Brody. Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter drew one of the more interesting tables as well, playing alongside cash-game wizard Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billarakis.