WSOP 2008
Olly Olly Oxen Free!
by Jill on 07.11.08, 12:51 am
Plenty of media encircled Jeremiah Smith’s table as he was racking up a ridiculous stack as we quickly approach the money bubble on Day 3; when we first caught up with the former Poker Wire writer, he had built a fortress of more than 800K chips (that we could count). Greg “FBT” Mueller sauntered over to the table, took one look at Jeremiah’s stack, licked his lips and laughed. However, near the middle of the last level, PocketFives witnessed another run of cards for Jeremiah; he picked up aces twice and kings once in three consecutive hands, winning huge pots every time. PocketFives guesses his chip count now hovers just below the million mark.
However, he’s not the only huge stack at the table; eight out of nine players seated at the felt were well above the average stack of 186K. Seated immediately to his right is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at left), who built a smaller castle of chips and was double the average with 350K. He reported to PocketFives that he also won a big pot earlier this level in the following hand: A player on the button raised 7.5K preflop and Jon reraised him to 26K, which he called. The board came a rainbow A-K-8 and Jon led out for 29K. His opponent called, the dealer turned a ten, and Jon bet out 49K. After taking what Jon said was forever to tank, the player reluctantly folded and the chips were shipped his way.
Also at the table sat Ryan “Daut44″ Daut, who was involved in a huge hand when another player at his table raised, only to have Ryan re-raise. The other player made the call and they saw the flop come Q
T
7
. Both players got all their chips in the middle and Ryan’s AA had been out-flopped by his opponents TT
. The K came on the turn, giving Ryan a few more outs, but the K on the river couldn’t improve his aces and he was sent to the rail just short of the money. Adam “Roothlus” Levy ran over to the table and was disappointed to see that Ryan had been eliminated. Levy is doing well and is currently sitting on a stack of 440k. Also recently moved to the table? David “davidp18″ Peters.
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at right) didn’t take very long to get involved in a huge pot after the dinner break. With blinds at 1.5K/3K/400, a player opened for 9K and Agarwal re-raised to 30.2K. Kush Patel re-reraised all-in directly behind for an additional 85Kgoogle.com. Having Patel covered by 70K, Agarwal called after the action folded back to him but was in bad shape when Patel showed KK to his AK. Patel was looking good when the board read QTTQ but was sent to the rail when the A dropped on the river. Agarwal’s stack shot up to 310k after the hand.
Agarwal and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna were talking about Agarwal’s call afterward and mentioned that it would be a good spot to re-raise Agarwal all-in from Patel’s perspective since Agarwal re-raised someone who had been very active preflop and that his hand would look very strong. Agarwal also mentioned that he was getting extremely compelling odds to chase down queens as well as possibly being up against the same hand. Either way, Agarwal was extremely happy with the result.
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson had been sitting near 100k in chips for a good portion of the day. He had finally chipped up to a close-to-average stack of 160k when the following hand took place. After preflop betting, all the chips of a shorter-stacked player went in the middle with Johnson attempting to knock him out. Unfortunately for Johnson, his KK was up against the other players AA. The flop made the other player’s hand even stronger when it came down AT5 leaving Johnson drawing to runner runner outs. One of those possible cards came in the form of the K on the turn, but the 8 on the river wasn’t the second card he needed and his stack dropped back to 110k. He seemed rather disappointed but is still alive as bubble play approaches.
Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) found himself the benefactor of a generously large pot when, with the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 he raised to 8K on the button and the big blind called. When the flop came out 7-7-5, the big blind checked and Neff bet 11K. The big blind then quickly moved all-in for 130K total. Peter obliged the other player by making the call with A7 and the other player turned over 35. After the player was eliminated, Peter added the pot to his stack, which has now increased to 395K.
UPDATE: Play has now gone hand-for-hand in the Amazon Room as only 674 players remain. The money bubble will burst shortly, as 666 players cash. Stay tuned!
In our attempt to try and take over the world in total chip count domination, here are the recent unofficial counts from PocketFives writers’ tired eyes:
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 620K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 510K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 500K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 480K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 440K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 420K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 440K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 430K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 395K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 350K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 320K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 310K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 254K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 250K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 230K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 230K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 242K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 200K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 195K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 194K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 190K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 190K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 170K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 170K
Jason Gray - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Bruce “cornellxc11″ Hyde - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 110K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 110K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 102K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 90K
Jeff Papola - 90K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 85K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 67K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 60K
Strasser vs. Nguyen
by Crystal on 07.10.08, 8:43 pm
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser probably just made the ESPN footage of the main event. With the blinds at 1.2k/2.4k with a 300 ante he raised to 7k from middle position and Men Nguyen pushed all in for 20.8k more. Jason contemplated for awhile before deciding to make the call and Nguyen proudly flipped over his AA while Jason tabled the KT. His chance to bust a well known pro loomed and the flop came 542. Jason would need running cards to best Nguyen’s aces but the turn brought the 8 sealing the deal. The Q fell on the river and the 60k pot was shipped over to Nguyen with the ESPN cameras catching all the action.
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (pictured right) won a gigantic pot over 200k earlier when he flatted the small blind’s raise with pocket eights in the big blind after it was folded around to the small blind. Thayer promptly flopped a boat when it came 8-4-4, trumping his opponents pocket kings. Rasmussen later got moved to a table playing alongside Brent “astrolux85″ and and Hunter THE_HUNT_D” Frey. Several other stacked tables are forming that bear mentioning. Earlier we reported on the table that contained Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert, Owen “ocrowe” Crowe and “Bodog” Ari Engel, but that isn’t the only table where you’ll find PocketFivers duking it out. Just a few tables over, Brian “Like7″ Lamanna, Aditya “intervention” Agarwal and Kush Patel are all seated together as well. Another table to watch out for boasts Tim ‘tmay420″ West, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson, and Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby.
After being merely a spectator for the first few levels, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy’s chip stack started fluctuating in big margins. Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera raised to 5400 under-the-gun and a player in middle position shoved all-in for 20k. Josephy re-raised to 38k and Ferrera moved all-in for a total of 202k. Josephy made the call tabling pocket kings but was trailing Ferrera’s pocket aces. The hand boosted Ferrera’s stack to 409k and Josephy was left with around 60k.
Luckily for Josephy, a table change helped move his stack north. In his first orbit at his new table, Josephy raised under-the-gun only to have a player in the blind put him all-in for his last 57k. Josephy made the call and tabled pocket kings again but this time was ahead of his opponents pocket jacks. The board ran true for Josephy, although his friend Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul, watching from about 40 feet away from the rail, had thought Josephy lost given his demeanor.
“Tell him to smile next time he doubles through,” Saul said to Pocketfives. A few minutes later Saul came over to congratulate Josephy on his double up and gave him a hard time about looking glum. Given Josephy’s last level, who can blame him?
“I had a lot more,” Josephy told Saul in response to his ribbing.
There are currently only 801 of the 1307 players that started the day which means we are only 135 spots away from the money. Play has been fast and furious all day but will likely slow down as the bubble approaches.
Here are some of our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 465K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 350K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 330K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 320K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 305K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 270K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 265K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 225K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 220K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 220K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
David “Raptor157″ Benefield - 195K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 165K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 155K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 145K
David “Bakes” Baker - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 135K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 135K
Jason Gray - 120K
Kush Patel - 115K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 110K
Bruce “Cornellxc11″ Hyde - 105K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 95K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 94K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 90K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 89K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 86K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 75K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 70K
Cody “shankingyou” Shedd - 43K
Steury’s Stack Slips
by Brett on 07.10.08, 2:07 am
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury’s (pictured left) perch near the top of the chip throne was short lived as he got tangled up in a massive pot after the dinner break. Steury defended his blind in a raised pot and flopped trips on a baby board and check-raised his opponent, who called. The turn brought another small card that completed the flush draw on the flop and Steury’s turn bet got raised. Steury ended up having his opponent all-in on the turn but his opponent turned the flush and Steury didn’t improve to a boat, shipping over a 200k pot away from Steury, who still has over 100K after the carnage.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez pulled PocketFives aside to report on the hand which allowed him to double up to 120K in the last level. Ramirez said that a player in middle position raised 3K preflop and the hijack called, so he felt compelled to call with his 98. The board came 922 and the player in middle position fired out an 8.4K bet which was called down by the hijack. Taking advantage of his pot odds, Ramirez decided to push all in for his remaining 20K. The player in middle position tanked for quite awhile before folding and then the hijack called, showing 53 for the flush draw. The turn and river brought the 69 and Ramirez’ full house pulled down the entire 110K pot. When asked what he did to get so lucky on his dinner break, he replied, “I got to talk to my daughters! That’s what it was!”
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna (pictured right) was able to double up upon returning from dinner break when a player raised in the hijack and Brian flat called in the cut off. The other player checked in the dark before the flop came out 8-6-5 rainbow. Lamanna bet out 10K and his opponent reraised all-in for 30K more. Brian made the call with pocket tens and the other player showed A-5. The turn and river were no help to the other player and Brian doubled up to 90K.
Chris “cdbr3799″ Dowbrowski was sent to the rail after reshoving a raise from the button for his last 20K and running his A6 into TT. The board ran out Q65K3 and Chris was eliminated.
Here are a whole heap of chip counts heading into the last break of the day:
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 230K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 191K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 183K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 170K
Brandon Schaefer - 162K
Allen “abari” Bari - 150K
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 150K
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 145K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 145K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 138K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 125K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 123K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert -120K
Spencer “spankybabes” Lawrence - 120K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 120K
David “Bakes” Baker - 120K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 104K
Brian “snagglepuss” Powell - 101K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 100K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 100K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 96K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 95K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 93K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 90K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 90K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 89K
Thayer Rasmussen - 85K
“BodogAri” Engel - 80K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 78K
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 76K
Darren Elias - 75K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 73K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 67K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 67K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 66K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 65K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 60K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 60K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 53K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 51K
Jason “Mkind16″ Laso - 47K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 45K
Michael “martine23″ Martin - 40.5K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 33K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 21K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 20K
Recent eliminations include Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast and Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter.
Shootout–Take Two
by Jessica on 06.10.08, 2:10 am
Play is finally underway for Round Two of the $1.5K NLHE Shootout event after the final, marathon heads up session of Round One came to a close. The original plan was to break for one hour after the last table was completed, but when that table ran so late, they shortened the break to around 15 minutes before resuming play. Unfortunately for Brian “Like7″ Lamanna, no one told him about the changes, so he did not arrive to the event until the first level was nearly over. Brian has some ground to make up and has 20K of his 30K starting stack left with the blinds at 400/800 and a 100 ante.
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn (pictured at left) exited the tournament shortly before Lamanna arrived and 13 other players have headed home for the night as well. Most of the tables are still relatively full, but play will not end until each of the ten tables has played down to a single winner. Here are the chip counts of several P5ers and notable online players remaining in the field:
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 55K
Matthew “Hazards21″ Gianetti - 50K
Casey “ccmuney” Coleman - 37K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 35K
David “nutsr84444″ Redlin - 35K
Tom “SBRounder” West - 29K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 20K
Across the room, the $10K Stud Championship event crowned Eric Brooks their winner and he will be taking home $415,856 for his efforts.
The other events still taking place as the night progresses are the $1K ladies event, which is one player away from setting the final table, the $5K 2-7 Single Draw with rebuys, and the $2K Omaha Hi/Lo Split event.