WSOP 2008
Mackey Riding High
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 3:21 pm
After day 1 of the massive $50k HORSE event, James “mig.com” Mackey (pictured right) is the chip leader going into day two with 214k. In a field filled with big name pros, online players are definitely making their presence known such as recent bracelet winner Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond who starts today with 161k. Other players still in the hunt include Brian “tsarrast” Rast (132k), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (109k), Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo (80k), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (41k). Well known pros David Williams and Phil Hellmuth weren’t able to make it past day 1 and were among the few players eliminated last night. Play resumes at 2 pm today and we’re sure to see eliminations start coming at faster rate as the blinds and antes continue to rise.
Also restarting this afternoon is event #44, the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tournament. Day 2 will begin with 115 players including Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka who are near the top of the chip counts with 154k and 116k. Stu “TheDonator” Patterson had a good first day as he comes into day 2 with 95k and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen will start the day with 80k.
Just getting started in the Amazon room is event #46 the $5k NLHE six-handed event with over 550 players registered so far. These short handed events have tended to play out fast and furious at this year’s WSOP and we expect this event to be no different. We’ve already spotted numerous P5ers in the field such as Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, and Ryan “Daut44″ Daut. We’ll keep you updated on their progress as the day moves forward.
Chip and a Chair
by Jessica on 06.19.08, 7:48 pm
We have come to the point in the $1.5K NLHE where players need to double up or go home. Nearly 2/3 of the field has already hit the rail and only 940 of the initial 2,447 players remain. While some, like Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski, are trying to make up some of the ground they lost, others are just trying to hang on.
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado (pictured at left) was down to two green 25 chips, enough for two antes, but he is slowly starting to build his stack back up. Most recently, he got it all-in preflop for 675 with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25 with 7
8 against his opponent’s A
K
. When the board ran out 7-6-3-9-Q and JC’s pair of sevens were deemd the winner he called out, “I might be the best player in the world.” As he counted and stacked his chips, he added, “I may have ten big blinds now. I went from two antes to ten big blinds. What can I say? I play great 2-ante stack poker.”
Dimitri “skanky980″ Valouev had a similar story to Alvarado. During the first level of play, Valouev got it all in on the flop with a set of deuces versus an open-ended straight flush draw. The flush hit on the river and he was left with only 300 chips. He has since rebounded and added even more to his now large chip stack when the following hand occurred:
On a flop of J33 Dimitri led out for 600 and the other player in the hand raised to 1200. Dimitri made the call and then checked when the 2 came on the turn. The other player bet out 1.5K and Valouev then check-raised him for an additional 2.5K. His opponent thought for a minute before showing A-J and folding. Dimitri then turned over pocket sixes and rake in the large pot. He now has 13K.
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton also doubled up when he raised to 625 in late position and the small blind reraised enough to put him all-in for his remaining 2.1K and Eaton called with AJ. He was in a race situation against 99 and when the board ran out J635
3 Eaton doubled up to over 5K.
Sarvesh “serbie” Pershad continued the trend of doubling up when he moved all-in for 2.7K in late position with A9 and got called by a player in the blinds who held A-K. Sarvesh took the lead in the hand when the flop came QQ9. The turn and river were no help to the other player and now Pershad has a much healthier stack going into break.
Meanwhile, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right) started Day 2 of event #35, the $1.5k Stud, with less than 13k in chips and is now up to nearly 35k putting him near the top of the current chip counts.
A lot of those chips came in a big hand against a single opponent. After the bring in, a player showing the 8 completed and Bryan raised showing the J. The bring in folded and the other player called. There was lots of action on every street and after 7th was dealt Bryan bet and his opponent called. Bryan showed (JJ5)J277 for Jacks full and his opponent who was showing 8T45 mucked.
Bowker Goes Busto
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 6:30 pm
In the $1.5k PLO w/Rebuys tourney only six players have been eliminated in the first hour of play. Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams, and Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker are amongst the early casualties who weren’t able to cash in this event.
Bowker’s elimination came when he got it all preflop with a great drawing hand, the AKQT against his opponents 9877. The flop of 872 gave Bowker a flush draw and his opponent two pair. Unfortunately for Bowker, the 8 came on the turn giving his opponent a full house and left Bowker drawing dead.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams raised preflop only to have a short stack push all in. Jeff made the call with the AKQ9 which was behind to the all-in’s KK54. The board ran out KJ6Q7 and William’s stack dropped to around 60k.
In the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event, several P5ers are already running up their stacks. With the average chip count currently at 4,476, these guys are starting to themselves apart from the large field:
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at left) - 13K
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz - 11.5K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 11K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 10K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 9K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 9K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 8K
OMGClay Wins!
by Jill on 06.17.08, 4:46 am
After more than 100 hands of heads-up play in the Event #28 $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has brought down the house, winning $817,781 and the WSOP bracelet. Congratulations, Phil, on the huge win!
Play is over this evening for Event #29, the $3K No-Limit Hold’em tournament as we are down to the final table. Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured at left) sat atop the chip count at the end of the day with more than 1M in chips; Tony “Bond18″ Dunst contended with 342K and returns to play tomorrow. Vengrin’s ascent to chip leader occurred tonight when an under-the-gun player raised to 45K and Vengrin, in the small blind, raised to 100K.
The other player announced he was all in and Vengrin tanked before calling with pocket tens. His tens held up against his opponent’s A-K and Vengrin took down the huge pot. He returns tomorrow to battle it out for the for the $434,789 prize and fabled golden bracelet. The final table race will commence at 2PM PST tomorrow.
Event #27 has also concluded, crowning Vitaliy Lunkin the champion of the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament. A first-time bracelet winner, Lunkin won $628,417 and the WSOP bracelet after a relatively short hour-long heads-up match with Brett Kimes. Many congratulations to Lunkin on his win!
Apparently, the drinks that Scotty Nguyen bought for his table did him some good as Event #31, the $2.5K No-Limit Hold’em 6-handed tournament came to a close this evening. According to our sources here at PocketFives, while Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Nguyen were joking around at the table and drinking their Michelobs, a flop came 8-8-4. Both players were still in the hand and Nguyen ripped a $100 bill in half, giving one half to Hanks. Nguyen teased Hanks, “If you call me here, I’ll give you the other half, baby!” Well, call Hanks did and when Nguyen flipped over 8-T for trips, Hanks couldn’t catch up and mucked the hand, losing his entire stack. Here’s to hoping Hanks can find some strong scotch tape! Play continues at 2PM PST tomorrow afternoon.
Meanwhile, Event #30’s $10K Limit Hold’em World Championship marched on in the Brasilia room, now down to the final two tables after the elimination of Todd “DanDruff” Witteles (pictured at right) in 19th place. Witteles lost a huge pot to Michael Mizrachi when his K-K lost to a flush. Witteles was finished off when his J6 was behind his opponent’s AK on an ace-high flop and he couldn’t catch up. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Eric “EFro” Froehlich remained strong in the event, both with chip stacks in the mid-300s. Play is expected to continue into the wee hours of the morning as all players aim for the final table.
Hanks Having a Drink on Scotty
by AdamJ on 06.17.08, 3:36 am
Ordering his standard round of Michelob’s, Scotty Nguyen found a few takers to partake in his palate cleansing.
P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured right) took part in the festivities about 30 minutes after the players made the money in the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31.
On the very next hand, unaffected by Nguyen’s generosity, Hanks raised Nguyen’s big blind and took the pot down as Nguyen was more worried about tipping the waitress for the drinks.
After getting a little ribbing from Nguyen, Hanks showed Nguyen his QQ as the two had been very cordial with each other at the table.
Hanks built his stack up to 70k before doubling up a short stack to his left and currently sits at 50k in the 600-1200-100 level.
Phil “USCphildo” Collins (pictured below) probably felt in the mood for a few rounds after he lost a 140k pot in his first hand at the table to tournament chip leader Alan Shahar.
Shahar raised to 4k preflop and Collins called. On a AJ9 flop, Collins check called 7k. Collins check called Shahar’s 14k bet on the 3 turn. The 5 dropped on the river and Collins checked to Shahar’s 44k bet.
After tanking for a few minutes, trying to decipher what this man sitting behind a mountain of unorganized chips held, Collins called and mucked when Shahar showed A9 for a flopped two-pair that ran into a backdoor flush.
Collins later said he had AQ and said if he’d won that pot he thought he had a strong chance to make the final table with his stack.
He also mentioned that since he under-repped his hand so much by checking all three streets, he thought that he had a reasonable chance to induce a bet from a worse hand cause his hand looked so weak.
Collins rebounded in the following rounds, increasing his stack from 12k to 24k.
Here are some notable stacks of the 79 of 1,012 left with the average chip stack at 64k.
Dario Minieri - 90k
Jason Mercier - 80k
Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 65k
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 55k
Shannon Shorr - 46k
Mark Vos - 35k
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant - 25k
Dave Ulliott - 12k