WSOP 2008
Graham Slam
by Jessica on 06.20.08, 5:32 am
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured at right) has been on a tear in the $10K Omaha Hi/Lo Championship Event. Graham spent the first few levels hovering at or above his starting stack of 20K, but in the final level of play today, he hit several big hands that propelled him up the chip counts.
First, Matt flopped a boat on a 2-2-4 flop holding A-2-4-4. The turn and river came 7-7 and by the end he actually had several different full houses, which was good enough to scoop the pot. His good fortune continued a few hands later when he got involved in a multi-way pot that went down as follows:
With the blinds at 600/1200 Erick Lindgren raised in early position, Matt called on the button and both of the blinds called as well. The flop came down 8
5
4
and it checked around. When the 5 came on the turn the small blind checked, the big blind bet, Lindgren folded, and Graham and the small blind made the call. After the 2 hit on the river the small blind checked and the big blind bet once again. Matt made the call and the small blind folded. Graham then showed A-3-3-7 for the wheel and the other player mucked, giving the entire pot to Graham and increasing his chip stack to 40K.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez also hit a big hand on a flop of A-A-10, but his opponent folded on the flop after Ramirez raised the intial bet. Saddened not to get more action, he showed his pocket aces for a flopped set of quads. Despite the lack of action on that hand, Ramirez was sitting with a healthy 38K.
He later ran into a hand with Daniel Negreanu on a board of 5
96QK; Ramirez showed down pocket kings for a set, but Negreanu flipped over the A for the nut flush. Despite the loss, DorsalFin has chummed his way up to 47.5K. With a little bit of luck (and a lot of railing from P5s!), Ramirez will finally cash in this event. He relayed that he popped the bubble in the last event he played; his pocket kings were dominated by pocket aces and he went out in 100th place. His tight aggressive strategy in this tournament, however, seems to be working out quite well for him despite a tough table draw. Ramirez joked: “Have you been watching me fold all night? You’d think I worked at the Gap!”
Others still in the event include Chris “SKOAL” Falconer (29K), Brett “Gank” Jungblut (31K), and Stu “thedonator” Patterson (37K). Meanwhile Justin Bonomo, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, and James “mig.com” Mackey were sent to the rail.
Almost sent to the rail as he blinded out, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson returned to 3,300 in chips in the $10K Omaha event after being eliminated in the heads-up finale of Event #33’s $5K Seven Card Stud Hi-Low World Championship. Sebastian Ruthenberg takes home his first WSOP bracelet and $328,756. Congratulations to Ruthenberg (and his huge European posse) on the huge win!
Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
by Jill on 06.16.08, 5:48 am
Event #27’s $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em race for the bracelet has concluded for the evening with 18 players remaining in the field. Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sits near the top of the chip count with over 850K, now representing PocketFives in his logo t-shirt.
We caught up with Barry as he was raising preflop from the hijack to 48K with the blinds at 10K/20K. He took down the pot uncontested and did the same thing for the next two consecutive hands. He recounted a story from earlier in the tournament about a hand he played with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Apparently, Barry made his move on the button by pushing all in to Scott’s preflop raise. Barry held 97. Scott, trying to edge out a Scandinavian player at the table, called the raise and flipped over A-J offsuit.
In the only hand Barry has played for his tournament life, he managed to hit a 9 on the river to save his stack and suck out. He recounted how tilted Scott got at the bad beat; apparently Scott raised all in for the next seven hands, despite being deep-stacked even after the beat. The field lost two more players after Barry told his story; play is now down to the final two tables and will resume tomorrow at 2PM PST while players compete for the bracelet and $628,290.
Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) had much to smile about in the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys as his stack went from 100k to over 1M in twenty minutes. Play was down to the final two tables. Negreanu went over the one million mark when he busted David Williams’ 500k chip stack in the following hand:
On a flop of 732, Williams bet out 40k and Negreanu called. The T dropped on the turn and Williams bet and got raised by Negreanu. Williams reraised all-in, prompting a snap call from Negreanu. Williams tabled the T987, drawing dead to Negreanu’s AT{7s]7 full house.
Negreanu jokingly said he’s hoping to get at least ninth place so he can break even from the 85k he’s invested in the tournament. Many big names remain in the final 14 including Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Alexander Kostritsyn.
Falconer and Clements Hanging In There
by Crystal on 06.05.08, 5:08 am
In the $1.5k O8 tournament Scott “BigRiskky” Clements and Chris “SKOAL” Falconer (pictured at left) are amongst the 28 players remaining.
These two players tangled in a pot together with Clements leading the betting the whole way. The board read 654A6 and while Scott was set to take the whole pot on the turn with his KK32, Falconer took the high side of the pot on the river with his AQ62.
The blinds are currently 3k/5k with 5k/10k betting limits so the short stacks are going to have to make moves quickly if they want to chip up and have a chance at the final table.
In Event #8, the Mixed event the 109 players left are in the last level of play for the night and a number of pros and popular online players have already been eliminated. Amongst the casualties are Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and David Williams.
Players still in the hunt include Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, and James “mig.com” Mackey along with numerous live pros.
Controversy Delays End of Day 2 for 1.5k NL Event #2
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 7:38 am
As eyelids drew closer and closer to being shut, an apparent accident delayed the end of Day 2 to an even later time than anticipated.
After a player in seat 2 busted two players in an all-in preflop pot, Thomas Fuller, who was sitting in seat 3, left his seat to talk to the rail.
The drama drawn from the three way all-in would pale in comparison to what would follow seconds later.
As the chips were being shipped to the player in seat 2 from seats 4 and 5 who got busted, chips in Thomas Fuller’s stack were accidently moved in seat 2’s stack by the player compiling his chips, prompting the floor to have to check surveillance to sort out the untimely mess.
Dealing with losing chips by a draw out can be frustrating enough, but an entirely different feeling consumed Fuller when he returned to his seat and what he estimated as 90 percent of his 300k stack vaporized while he left the table.
Ten minutes later the ordeal was resolved and the tournament resumed.
Before the mishap, the 32 remaining players seemed to be more focused on predicting how long it would take for the end of play for Day 2, which concludes when the tournament reaches the final nine players remaining.
One players prediction evoked an animated reaction out of Perry Friedman.
“I’ll bet you 5k this event will go past 9 a.m.,” he said, as he stated how many levels and breaks were left.
When one player began to speculate if there was a chance a concession would be made and they may not have to play down to nine, Theo Tran (pictured right) alluded to the 2006 HORSE event that turned into a marathon session for the final two tables.
“If they’re not going to going to stop for Doyle, they’re definetely not going to stop for us,” Tran said.
Friedman’s 9 a.m. handicap was an interesting guess given the playdown day to the final table of the 2006 HORSE event went from 2 p.m. to 9 a.m., effectively the same schedule as this 1.5k NL event #2.
Despite being noticeabley exhausted throughout the morning, Theo Tran’s stack ascended to the chip lead with over 1.5 million.
Other notable players remaining include Chris Ferguson, David Bach, and Perry Friedman.
No Luck for the Ladies
by Jessica on 05.31.08, 7:53 pm
In the 10k PL event, things have not been going well for the majority of the remaining women in the field. With the blinds at 1500/3000 Anna Wroblewski pleaded with Nenad Medic to keep it friendly while she was in the small blind. He ignored her request and raised to 8,500. Wroblewski thought for a moment before reraising to 20,000. Medic reraised, putting her all in, and she made the call. Anna held A K to his pocket aces. The board came K 9 6 5 T and she was eliminated.
Just a couple of minutes later at the next table over, Jennifer Harman was also in the small blind when Chris Bell raised in the cut off to 9,600. She moved in for around 30k and Bell called. Harman showed J J while Chris held A K. Bell hit not just one, but two aces when the board came A 2 7 4 A, sending Harman to the rail. All hope is not lost for the ladies though, as two women, Jerri Thomas and Kathy Leibert, remain in the field.
Another recent elimination was Mario “Deuce2high” Silvestri, who moved all-in preflop on the button with 77. Called by a player in early position who showed KQ, the board brought a full house with Kings full and Mario quietly left the table.
Meanwhile, on Table 12, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson led out with a 36K raise in middle position. A short stack called for the rest of his chips, showing 66 but the board was no help and Marco’s TT held. Several hands later at the same table, Mike Sexton raised pre-flop, meeting an immediate reraise from Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar. After giving Vivek a hard time for his predictability, Sexton pushed all in with AT. Vivek called with A9, the board was no help, and Sexton doubled up. Afterwards, Eli Elezra laughed at Vivek’s “garbage hand.”
Other major chip movers in the event include Matt “mattg1983″ Graham who started the day with around 37K and is now up over 250K, Amit “amak316″ Makhija who is sitting at just over 300K, and Patrik Antonius.
Matt Graham got involved in two enormous pots. On a board of 654, Graham got it all in with Chris Ferguson holding KK and Graham 78 — a flopped straight. The 2 on the turn earned Graham the pot and he doubled to over 150K. Only a few minutes later, Graham took a huge pot off Tuan Le. Le opened with 8500 from the button, and Graham and Andy Bloch called from the blinds. The flop brought 975 and Graham and Bloch checked. Le bet 22K and Graham counted his chips and reraised to 67K. Bloch folded and Le called. Graham moved all in on the turn when the 5 appeared and Le folded, increasing Graham’s stack to around 260K.
Meanwhile, in Event #2 several P5ers remain in the field. Here are some recent chip counts:
Jason “JCarver” Somervile - 11k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 6K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 5K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 7K
Jason Gray - 3.5K
Brent Hanks recently doubled up. In a 4-way limped pot, Brent shoved from the big blind with pocket sevens and another player snap called with KQ. Hanks’ hand held and he was sitting at 7k going into break.