WSOP 2008
Main Event Madness!
by Jill on 07.06.08, 12:41 am
Now back from dinner break and midway through Level 4, play continued in the Amazon room with the blinds at 150/300 and an ante of 25. And then there was madness.
One of the chip leaders at the end of last level, Brian “tsarrast” Rast (pictured at left), has been experiencing a rough go for the last hour, as he’s been victim of several three-bets. When we caught up to Brian’s table, his stack had taken a slide from 97K to 83K and he was once again engaged in a pot. He made a preflop raise on the button for 900 and the small blind called him. The big blind, however, reraised and Brian exclaimed, “I’ve only played three hands so far this level. When am I going to get some respect for that?”
In a principled play, he pushed a stack of orange chips in the middle of the table, taking a stand. After the small blind folded, the short-stacked big blind mused, “Well, I haven’t been pushing you around. I’m not gonna lay this down.” Brian then guessed correctly: his opponent held pocket kings to his pocket queens. The flop ran out J-4-4-5-A and Brian shipped the chips his way. He was down to a still-very-respectable 70K stack after the hand.
Moving the opposite way of Brian was Russell “rdcrsn” Carson. When we caught up with Russell’s table, it looked like he had switched up gears to more aggressive play and was taking down small preflop pots. His stack had made small gains, increasing from 19K to 25K in the first half of the level.
Jason “JCarver” Somerville just sent a player to the rail about 30 minutes after players got back from the dinner break. Somerville raised to 1,350 from late position and got re-raised to 3,550 by a player to his left on the button. Somerville called and checked to his opponent on a T
8
3
flop, and his opponent went all-in for 10K. Somerville called and promptly flipped over the nuts with T
T, crushing his opponent’s pocket aces. The board ran true for Somerville who was up to 70k.
Court Harrington (pictured at right) moved all-in on a 7-7-5 board with two clubs holding pocket queens while his opponent held A-7. The turn and river were no help for Harrington and he was eliminated midway through Level 4. Others joining him on the rail include Robby “PlayaPlz” Lipkin and Andy “BKice” Seth.
Jon Wein, Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby were all seated at the same table when Level 4 began, but Wein was recently eliminated while holding a straight flush. Well, that’s what he wanted us to report. He actually got his remaining 12K in on a flop of 862 with TT against KQ. His opponent hit the Q on the river to cut Wein down to 2K. He called off those chips on the next hand with Q4 in the big blind and was unable to draw out on the small blind’s A9 when the board ran out Q9898. He’s on his way to the bar with Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson, who was on the rail watching.
Armstrong was able to chip up to 31K shortly before Wein’s exit. He raised to 1,050 at 150/300 from early position and the small blind called. On a board of J53, the small blind checked and Armstrong bet 2K. His opponent called and both players checked the Q on the turn. The 5 fell on the river and the small blind check-called a bet of 3,200 by Armstong, who showed AJ and took down the pot when his opponent flashed 77.
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne took a big hit shortly after dinner when he flat called a player’s raise preflop with pocket tens and the flop came ten high. He smooth called the initial raiser’s bet on the flop and when a K came on the turn his opponent bet again and Payne raised enough to put him all-in. The other player quickly made the call with pocket kings and Jerry was knocked down to 10K. He has been working his way back since then though and the following hand added even more to his stack:
With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Payne raised to 800 from the hijack and the player in the cutoff called behind him. Both players checked the flop of 886 and Jerry checked again when the 5 hit on the turn. His opponent bet out 1K and Jerry quickly raised to 3.5K total. The other player made the call and the two saw the river of the A. Jerry moved all-in for his remaining 5K and the other player turned over his JT for a busted flush draw and folded. Any guesses what Jerry showed the table? Presto! Pocket fives…
Here are some chip counts at the middle of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 107K
Darren Elias - 83K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 78K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 66k
Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 55k
Jon Kalmar - 50k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 45K
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 45k
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 45k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 33K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 31K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 31K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 30K
Michael Benvenuti - 30K
Ezra Galston - 28K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 25K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 21.5K
Patrick Hoffman - 21K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 21k
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 20.5K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 20K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 18K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 16.5K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 15.5K
Aditya Agarwal - 14.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 10.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 7k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 5.5K
All Night Grind in Stud Event
by Jessica on 06.19.08, 3:05 pm
After playing until nearly 7am the final table of the $5K Stud Hi/Lo Championship event was finally set after the eliminations of Howard Lederer and David Benyamine. Those returning for the final day of play today include Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Marcel Luske, and Steve Sung.
Our own Court Harrington put up a valiant fight in the $1.5K Hold Em event, but finished 14th when he got it all in pre-flop with AQ against current chip leader Jose Luis Velador’s AJ and Velador other player ran out a heart flush. Court earned $26,732 for his efforts. Velador and eight others will return at 2pm today to play down to the bracelet.
The $1.5K Omaha w/ rebuys also starts up again at 2pm today. Some of the names we’ll be keeping an eye on today include Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) Tim “tmay420″ West, Jared “TheWacoKidd”, Kyle Bowker, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams, Matt Giannetti, and Jamie “TheNew” Robbins. The $1.5K Stud Event will be playing down to a final table today as well.
The first event of the day is yet another $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event. WSOP staff are predicting another large field and we have already spotted several P5ers filing into the Amazon Room including Jeff “JeffBoski” Sluzinski, Michael “Bertrand13″ Bertrand, Dan “wretchy” Martin, and Phil “USCPhildo” Collins
Super Dario Powers Up!
by Jill on 06.19.08, 2:36 am
Event #31 came to a close when heads-up opponents Dario Minieri (pictured at right)and Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer both got it all in preflop after seeing nearly 200 hands at the final table. Fischer flipped KT to Minieri’s QQ and the board came AA523, which was no help to Fischer. Minieri won the bracelet, the bragging rights, and a cool $528,418. Fischer goes home with $330,519 - not bad for the 25-year-old Emory grad’s first year at the WSOP.
As the Event #32 $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament reduced down to three tables, Scott “ssitron” Sitron sat with 175K and was aggressively playing position from the hijack. The next hand, Sitron raised 27K and took down a limped pot with no show. Shortly afterwards, Sitron raised 30K preflop under the gun, which was quickly called by the hijack and both of the players in the blinds. The flop came 629 and Sitron moved all in. The player in the hijack position called and both of the blinds folded. Sitron couldn’t conceal his disappointment when he showed KQ to his opponent’s pocket nines; when the turn and river came A8, he was eliminated in 20th place. Sitron takes home $15,095 for his efforts.
PocketFivesLive’s own Court Harrington (pictured at left) remained in the bracelet running shortly after Sitron’s elimination; after two subsequent eliminations, players redrew for seats at the two final tables. With about 140K in chips and the blinds at 6K/12K, Harrington needs to make a move soon as the average stack is 460K. Good luck, Court!
An Evening of Studs
by Jill on 06.19.08, 12:22 am
The Event #33 $5K Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Championship tournament marched on with an ante and bring-in of 500, now at 2K/4K limits. PocketFives caught up with Barry Greenstein looking for a spot to make a move, as his 18K chip stack sat well below the average of 51K.
Playing extremely tight, Greenstein finally found a hand he could close in on: showing 546, he was running against one opponent who showed AQJ. Greenstein completed on third street and was raised, which Barry quickly called. Fourth street met a check from his opponent, a bet from Barry, and a subsequent call. Action continued the same way on fifth street but induced a fold from his opponent; Barry increased his stack to 27K and was looking a bit healthier by comparison.
One table over, Alex Jacob was also low, his stack at 44K. But Thayer “Thay3r” Rasmussen (pictured at right) was in the worst trouble of all, his 28K stack paltry in comparison to the shark-filled table at which he sat. Seated to the right of David Benyamine, his 8-handed table was stacked with Allen Cunningham, Howard Lederer, and Jason Lester.
Meanwhile, in Event #35, the $1.5K Seven Card Stud tournament, most of the notable players have not fared well. Recent eliminations include David Williams, Anna Wroblewski, and John Juanda. PocketFives caught up with Justin Bonomo as he was also on life support, sporting a stack of 2.5K with 288 players left in the original field of 382. He still found time to get a massage.
Day 2 of the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament paused for dinner break and will resume at 10PM PST. The average stack is 220K and players are guaranteed $11,951. Notable chip stacks include the following:
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 240K
Ray Henson - 230K
Court Harrington - 227K
BigRiskky Business as Usual
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 10:36 pm
Things just got even tougher at Scott “BigRiskky” Clements’ (pictured at right) table, but the Omaha expert seems to be taking his rough table line up just fine. Since we last reported on the $1.5K PLO w/ rebuy event, Jamie Gold has busted and a few new faces have been added to this already tough table. Here is a partial rundown of the current line-up:
Seat 2 - Bruno Fitoussi
Seat 3 - Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby
Seat 4 - Scott “BigRiskky” Clements
Seat 7 - Jordan Morgan
Seat 9 - Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
Clements recently got into a hand with several of the players when, with the blinds at 300/600, Hamby and another player limped into a pot and then Clements raised to 2.5K total. The player on the button called, as did Hamby and the other limper. The flop came A64 and it checked to Clements who paused as if he was going to bet before electing to check. The player on the button checked as well and when the turn came 6 it checked around to the player on the button once again. This time the player bet out 6.5K and everyone folded except for Scott, who made the call. The river was the T and both players checked. Clements pulled out K-K from his K-K-10-4 for two pair, kings and sixes, and the other player mucked. Scott is now up to 48K.
Here are the chip counts of some of the other remaining players in the event:
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 110K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 95K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 50K
Jared Hamby - 24K
Jordan Morgan - 22K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 12K
In the Brasilia room, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event is down to 56 players and Scott “ssitron” Sitron and Court Harrington are adding chips to their stack as the evening moves forward. Harrington began Level 15 with 60K and his built has stack to over 100K without having to show a hand down. Sitron is up to 225K despite sitting at a tough table that includes Morgan Machina, Ray Henson and Fabrice Soulier.
The $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Championship is also taking place there. Sixty-four of the world’s best players are still battling for the crown. Thayer Rasmussen is still representing the online community with 30K — slightly below the average stack.
Over at the ESPN Feature Table, play continues 3-handed at the final table of the $2.5K 6-handed NLHE event. Dario Minieri has relinquished the chip lead to Seth Fischer, but all three players are relatively even stacked.
Minieri took a huge hit when he and Justin “fluffdog” Filtz (pictured right) got it all in on a flop of AT2 with Justin holding 35 to Dario’s QJ. Filtz appeared to be in bad shape until a 4 on the turn made him the wheel. The 4 fell on the river and he doubled up to over 1.5 million chips.