WSOP 2008
Micon Is Gone
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 4:20 am
Bryan Micon (pictured at right) took a big hit in the $1.5K HORSE Event when his low draw didn’t materialize and pretty much everyone at his table and the tables surrounding him knew it. His tablemate, Mike Matusow, finally proclaimed, “Bryan: you are allowed to talk non-stop about anything you want, anything at all, but you are not allowed to talk about that hand anymore.”
Mike continued his table banter with Micon by explaining to him the power of positive thinking. Bryan was down to just 3 chips, 1,100 total, and Matusow was attempting to inspire him to make a comeback.
Micon made his last stand when he raised on 3rd street with a K up in Stud 8. Both Matusow and the player who was the bring in made the call. By 5th street Micon was showing K-10-10 and the third player bet, inducing Matusow to fold. The other player held a pair of aces, but he made aces up on 6th and left Bryan, who had kings and tens, drawing very thin, especially since one of the kings was folded on 3rd. Micon failed to improve and he was eliminated as Level 7 came to a close.
Other players making an exit in the event recently include Barry Greenstein and Kenna James. Here are some chip counts of a few of the players still hanging around in the event:
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 15K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 14K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 13.5K
Shannon Shorr - 8K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 6.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch made his exit from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha Championship when, with the blinds at 800/1,600 a player in late position raised and Lynch moved all-in for 11.8K more. The player made the call with 4-5-6-8 and Eric showed A
A
2
3. The flop came88
-X and, with no help on the turn or river, Lynch was eliminated.
Play has ended for the day and 86 players will be returning tomorrow. Here are some unofficial chip counts we spotted as the level was coming to a close:
Josh Arieh - 368k (chip leader)
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 240k
David Williams - 160k
Michael Mizrachi - 160k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 118k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 95k
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 90k
Nenad Medic - 75k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 75k
John D’Agostino - 48k
Rafi Amit - 34k
Saddling Up for HORSE
by Jill on 06.29.08, 10:11 pm
Event #51, the $1.5K HORSE tournament is well under way with a strong online presence. Play continued to spread across multiple sections of the Amazon room as well as the Brasilia room. PocketFives spotted Shannon Shorr, Brett “Gank” Jungblut, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Justin Bonomo, and Eric “jakz101″ Crain amongst the field.
David “seal” Eisenstein and Bryan Micon (pictured at right) were seated next to each other, but there was a mix-up about where Micon was supposed to sit. The dealer called the floor staff over to help resolve the situation, and the woman who came knew not what she was getting herself into. “Who are you, now?” she asked Micon. “Who am I?” he replied. “I’m Bryan Micon. I’m very, very, very famous.” The table laughed before Micon assumed the correct seat and play began.
Meanwhile, we spotted Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Alex Jacob, and Stu “thedonator” Paterson, all of whom busted out earlier from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament. We caught Stu yawning a number of times, so it looks like they have a long night ahead of them in this big field.
When PocketFives caught up with play in Event #49, Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane (pictured at left in his Scottish gear) continued to use his lucky kilt to accumulate chips; his stack was up to 110K and growing as he was taking down small pots. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was short-stacked with 20K and recently moved to Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar’s table, where he had worked his stack up to a respectable 95K. Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, however, was looking healthy and happy with a stack of 170K.
In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got involved in an interesting hand. We caught up with the action on the turn with the board reading 652K. Sorel checked over to his opponent who bet 9.1K. Sorel tanked for a couple of minutes before tossing out two pink 5K chips to make the call. The river brought the K and Sorel again checked over to the other player who bet 13K.
Sorel went into the tank yet again and after a few minutes had passed another player called the clock. Sorel had 60 seconds to make a decision and as the floor counted 3…2…1… Sorel mucked his hand, conceding the pot. His opponent showed two of his hole cards, the 75 which, by themselves, would have been good for two pair - kings and fives. Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break and some unoffical chip counts are listed below.
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 48k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 46k
Rolf Slotboom - 46k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 40k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 36k
Thayer Rasmussen - 33k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 20k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 18k
You Have to Win a Race
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 12:14 am
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker’s chip stack had been slowly dwinding in the $1.5k NLHE tournament until he decided to put it all in with pocket sixes. A player sitting across from him made the call with his AK and when the flop came with a king Bowker fell behind in the hand and was unable to catch back up. Even though the shirt Kyle (pictured left) is wearing today says “Nice Hand Sir. And by hand I mean catch and by sir I mean moron” he graciously accepted the loss and was consoled by a friend who said “What can you do? You have to win a race. Good game man” as Kyle headed to the cashier to collect his winnings.
Another player got all his chips in needing some serious help to stay alive. David “DavidP18″ Peters and a shorter stack both got all their chips in against another player who had them both covered.
Peters: A9
Short stack: 33
Other player: AA
Peters and the other short stack were both in serious trouble against the aces and when the board ran out Q2287 they were both sent to the rail.
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Stu “thedonator” Paterson have been early movers in today’s $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. Sowers has just increased his chip count to over 8K by crippling Bryan Micon in Limit Hold’em. Sowers (pictured right) raised from middle position and Micon called from the big blind. On the flop of Q84, Micon check-raised Sowers and Sowers made the call. The turn was the Q and Micon bet and Sowers called. The 9 fell on the river and again Sowers called a bet from Micon, who showed A8 but was rivered by the A9 of Sowers. Micon was eliminated shortly after.
Paterson showed why he’s considered one of the online greats at the other end of the room during No-limit. In a three-way pot, Paterson and another player checked a A53 flop to the original preflop raiser, who bet 1K and both players called. The 3 came on the turn and again it was checked over the the raiser, who bet 1500 and only Paterson called. The river was the 7 and Paterson quickly check-called a bet of 3K and showed TT, which beat KQ. Paterson is among the chip leaders with 15K.
He’s a Shaniac!
by Jill on 06.21.08, 5:07 am
The pace in the Amazon room slowed to a crawl as 64 players remained in Event #38, the $2K Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament. Hand-for-hand play endured for 45 minutes of the last level as players eyed the guaranteed payout of $3,744. When the bubble still hadn’t burst at the end of Level 10, groans were heard everywhere. Tournament directors instructed the players that they would play through the bubble tonight before taking a quick ten-minute break to ease the burden of the news.
Unfortunately, several PocketFivers suffered at the whims of the bubble; Noah “Exclusive” Boeken was eliminated when his 55 were dominated by his opponent’s pocket nines. Other recent eliminations include Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Shaun Deeb, Shannon Shorr, Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, and Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, who was spotted talking with friends on the rail.
Building a stack, however, was Shane “shaniac” Schleger (pictured at right) who had 48K in chips. When P5s caught up with Shane’s table, he was raising to 3.4K preflop in early position and bullied his whole table into a fold. He remained aggressive as the last level of the day concluded, making sure that he stayed above the average stack of 36K.
After the ten-minute break, Shane managed to catch a couple of monster hands perfect for chipping up: in the first hand, Shane reraised preflop against one other opponent who folded queens; he showed pocket aces. The next hand, the same opponent raised and Shane re-raised once again. This time there was no fold and Shane called his opponent’s potted all-in. Shane held pocket queens to his opponent’s AK and he managed to catch a club flush on the river. The Shaniac was living large with 85K at the conclusion of play tonight after the bubble finally burst and the players were sent home. Play resumes at 2PM PST tomorrow afternoon.
Stu “thedonator” Patterson battled on in Event #37, the $10K Omaha 8 tournament. The field narrowed to 30 remaining players with average stacks of 142K as we caught up with Stu’s table showing the 37T4 on the board. Stu bet 8K after the turn and was called. The Q dropped on the river and Stu bet again, receiving a call. He showed down pocket aces for the win and was up to 112K in chips. Shortly after, Stu re-raised a limper and min-raiser to 25K preflop. The limper dropped out but the min-raiser called and the board came 4AK. Stu bet 8K, met a reraise and called. The 2 hit the river; when his opponent bet out, Stu folded and his stack dropped to 80K. At the next table over, Mike Matusow was making train noises for no apparent reason.
The field has since narrowed to 27 players who are all guaranteed $22,090 for making it this far. Players drew for new seats and have since returned from a short break; play will certainly continue late into the evening as all contenders compete for the $535,687 first-place finish and bracelet.
Across the Brasilia room at the Event #36 $10K, the final table for Event #36 has been set and play ended for the evening. Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh is the acting chip leader with 1.59M after busting Bryan Micon (pictured at left), who walks away with $28,391 for his deep run. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe also earned his seat at the final table when he eliminated Tom “titantom32″ Braband. Braband’s pocket nines were dominated by Crowe’s AQ on a Q-Q-4 flop; he busted in 12th Place for $36,741. Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter will sit at the final table as the 200K short stack. Play also resumes tomorrow at 2PM PST.
Slaubaugh Not Afraid to Gamble
by AdamJ on 06.21.08, 3:54 am
Down to the final two tables in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #36, Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh (pictured left) came across a tournament defining moment on the final hand before the break.
Facing a 70k bet from his opponent in the big blind on a 965 flop in a hand Slaubaugh raised to 35k preflop, Slaubaugh faced a dilemma that a lot of players would probably be split on holding 77.
With about 350k behind on an incredibly drawy board for his pair, Slaubaugh could either play a big pot for his tournament or fold and try to chip up without being all-in when he was likely a small favorite at best if called.
After tanking for about a minute, Slaubaugh made it 270k, effectively putting his opponent all-in, having him covered by 10k.
Slaubaugh’s opponent went all-in and flipped up the AJ, putting Slaubaugh in a coin-flip for his tournament.
After the 4 and the T peeled off, Slaubaugh effectively doubled up, moving his chip stack to 787k.
Minutes earlier at another table, Tom “titantom32″ Braband bricked out on a gamble that would have placed him with one of the bigger stacks in the tournament when his open-end straight draw missed, leaving him with a short stack of 130k instead of 710k.
Such are the breaks that often determine a player’s fate deep in tournaments.
Danny Wong continues to steamroll the field and is the chipleader with 1.1 million. After opening a pot from early position to 35k, Wong faced an all-in from his opponent for an additional 112k.
Wong called and his T9 ran down his opponents 77 when he clipped a ten on the turn.
Duncan “pumper” Bell, winner of the 2.5k NL WSOP Event #13, was eliminated when his pocket eights ran into pocket tens, finishing in 20th place.
Here’s a list of notable chip counts with 15 players left.
Bryan Micon - 230k
Aaron Kanter - 350k
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 160k
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 130k