WSOP 2008
Tristan Must Wade ‘Til Next Year
by Jill on 07.06.08, 10:24 pm
Meanwhile, in the Tropical Room, only thing audible was the sound of chips ruffling. We caught up with Jim “KrazyKanuck” Worth (pictured at right) who explained he’s been having a rollercoaster of a day. He said that at one point, he was down to 8K after being all-in with a flush draw and bricking out. He also said he had to lay down a flopped set against a straight on the board, but managed to chip up to about 23K. Now at 18K, Jim was looking to stop the chip swings and take a nice, relaxing dinner break.
At the other corner of the Tropical Room, we caught up with Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade (pictured below) who protected a 5K stack, up from an earlier crippled 3K. He expressed frustration to PocketFives with how the deck hit him in earlier levels. 
In one hand we witnessed, he limped into a pot with several other players and the board ran out J-T-J. The table checked down and a king fell on the turn; Tristan bet out 600 and the table folded to him. He threw A-Q face-up into the muck for a turned Broadway straight and raked in the pot.
However, on the next hand, Tristan’s hopes for the bracelet were dashed. He bet out 800 preflop from middle position and was immediately called. The flop came Q
Q
8 and, first to act, he bet 1,200. His opponent insta-raised him to 3K. Tristan moved all-in for 5,375 more and got the call. The turn was the A
and Tristan’s A9 flush draw picked up a couple additional outs. But the 5 on the river couldn’t catch him up to the other player’s Q-X and he packed his bags up to head for the rail just before dinner break. Another recent elimination was Adam “adamoos” Elpayaa.
Unofficial chip counts before the break:
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 78K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 63K
Gary “Debo34” Debernardi – 62K
Bryan “bparis” Paris – 50K
Mike “BraveJayhawk” Jensen - 50K
Gus Hansen - 47K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 41K
Jeremy “chipsteela” Menard - 40K
Ryan “youngluc” Young - 37K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 36K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 34K
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 34K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 33K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 32K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 28K
Ronald “jus2awsum” Lee - 26K
David “ComptonMasta” Barter - 21.5K
Brett “gank” Jungblut - 21K
Frank “Round42” Rusnak – 20K
Mark “AceSpades” Rodoja – 20K
Kyle “kwob20” Bowker – 19K
Russell “rcrane082985″ Crane - 18K
Nathan “darkcheck” Tuthill - 17K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 17K
Jon “FatalError” Aguiar - 14K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 13K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 10K
Aaron “ndgrinder59″ Steury - 8K
Strasser Delivers Cooler in Level 1
by Brett on 07.06.08, 4:47 pm
Less than an hour into the first level of play we heard “All-in and a call on table 57!” and found that Jason “strassa2″ Strasser (pictured right) was all in preflop with AA against another player’s KK. The other player was calling for the king to come but the board ran out 8
8358 and Jason’s aces held and he doubled up to nearly 30k.
Michael “inissint” Glasser was also seen scooping up a pot when his KJ hit a flop that contained both a king and two diamonds. Glasser made his flush on the turn and then and jack came on the river. His opponent called a bet holding the KJ but his two pair wasn’t good enough. Another player at the table noted that Glasser was “on a freeroll” after the flop and indeed he was. His stack has grown to around 23k.
Michael “BraveJayhawk” Jensen is off to a very fast start at his table. He has already worked his way up to 50K. When we asked Jensen how he acquired so many chips, he said he picked up 5-6 relatively large pots, but hadn’t had any huge all-ins just yet. He also wanted us to give a shout out for him: Mom Jensen–your son says hi!
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade was only trying to speed up the game when he called out “player down!” after his table lost a player. Perhaps it was the exuberance with which he said it or the the small space in which it was shouted (Tristan is playing in the much smaller Tropical room where satellites are usually run), but a floor person very quickly made their way over to Wade’s table. The floor person was prepared to scold the dealer for the manner in which it was called out, but when he saw a female dealer, he realized it was Tristan who was the culprit. Wade was warned to be less enthusiastic about the elimination of other player’s and Tristan sincerely apologized, noting he was just trying to speed up the game, not make light of another player’s misfortune.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman is seated at the featured table outside of the ESPN Final Table Arena with Phil Ivey. One table loaded with P5ers is in the Brasilia Room, where Table 40 includes Bryan “bparis” Paris, Dustin “stelvask” Siegel and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin. One table over, we found Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Joe Pelton and Ben “bfineman” Fineman seated together. Here’s a look at a few other interesting table draws as play began this afternoon:
Amazon Blue 23: Zach Hyman, Maria Ho, Jeff Schulman, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy
Amazon Green 15: Brandon Schaefer, Clayton “clayton_27″ Newman, Kirill Gerasimov
Brasilia 2: Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen, Carl “colson10″ Olson
Brasilia 33: Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen, Todd Brunson, Tom “titantom32″ Braband
Buzzios 9: Ian “IanJ” Johns, Christan “KCRUEL” Kruel
Katz’s “Moment of Truth”
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 9:52 pm
The 70 remaining players in the $2k NLHE tournament are now on dinner break but there was a lot of exciting action before the break began.
Adam “akat11″ Katz was involved in a huge hand with Howard Schultz, the executive producer of the television show “The Moment of Truth,” and another player. Schultz pushed all in for 64k, the other player called, and Katz then announced he was all in as well. The other player, who had less chips than Katz, made the call and they flipped over the cards.
Katz: KK
Schultz: AK
Other player: QQ
The board ran out J65K7 and Katz’s set of kings knocked out two players and increased his stack to around 340k. As Katz scooped the monster pot he said “Thanks Erin. Appreciate it.” to his massuse whose obviously still bringing Katz a little luck.
Also at the same table as Katz are Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured above) and Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade which has made for some humorous banter between hands. The players weren’t sure when the dinner break was so Levy called out “Floor! We need a ruling on the dinner break!” One of the floor staff came over and said “The break is in 13 minutes and 56 seconds.” Levy replied with “So, at the end of this level?” and the floor jokingly said “Yes. Delay at all and I’ll give you a penalty. I’m in a penalty mood today” which made the players laugh as they got back to focusing on their cards rather than their stomachs.
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson was involved in a big hand right before the break when he and another player with a similar size stack got all the chips in preflop. Marco held the AK against the other players 88. The flop came with a king to put Marco in the lead and the other player wasn’t able to catch back up. When the chips were counted Marco had the other player covered by a small amount so he nearly doubled up to around 155k.
Other notable chip stacks are listed below.
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 485k
Jose “head2782″ Severino - 295k
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 150k
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 143k
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade - 100k (pictured left)
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 110k
Dan “wretchy” Martin - 70k
No Way, Jose!
by Jill on 06.28.08, 8:35 pm
Event #48, the $2K No-Limit Hold’em tournament seems to have settled down and fewer short stacks remain to continue the shovefest. A few over one hundred players were left standing at the end of the level, batting for the bracelet and $770,540 grand prize.
Several PocketFives players were doing exceptionally well when we last caught up with the tournament; Adam “akat11″ Katz was back with his lucky masseuse, Erin, and he had managed to chip up to more than 170K. Eric “jakz101″ Crain was cruising with about 310K in chips and Adam “Roothlus” Levy increased his stack to 100K.
Dan “wretchy” Martin also managed to chip up when his pocket kings dominated the pocket deuces of his opponent and he won a pot of about 30K. His stack increased to 160K. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson pictured at right) was also sitting comfortably with 110K.
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade kept his short stack viable, managing to win a few key pots and chip up to 110K. He explained that he raised under the gun with AT and was called by one other player who held Q-T. Tristan’s hand held and he managed to double up his stack. He took down a few more pots uncontested and worked his life-support stack up to a a much safer one.
The real story of the last level, though was Jose “head2782″ Severino’s ascension to chip leader. In a pot with one other player on the flop, Jose sat in late position and his opponent bet out 7K. Jose flat called him. The turn came the T, his opponent bet 23K, and Jose re-raised him all in. His opponent instantly called, flipping over AQ to Jose’s pocket kings. The river came the T and Jose took down a huge pot that had to be counted and re-counted by the dealer (with some help from Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson at the table). After the win, Jose chipped up to more than 360K in chips, surpassing Eric Crain’s domination.
Other PocketFivers, however, did not fare as well in recent play. Daniel “voff” Deveau, Jon Wein, and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski were amongst the recent eliminations.
Basebaldy Bullies Bubble and Whiffs
by Jill on 06.28.08, 5:24 am
The last hour has been a harrowing run for the bubble in Event #48, the $2K No-Limit Hold’em tournament. After finishing standard tournament play after Level 10, players were nearly on the bubble and took a 15-minute break before resuming to burst the bubble. Most players were anxiously hovering over other tables to watch action occur; one PocketFiver in particular took the opportunity to double up at the hesitation of his table.
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade found himself incredibly short-stacked with 11K after a huge 80K lost pot to another player. He was visibly tilted by the loss, but when action folded to him in the cutoff, he shoved the rest of his stack into the middle. The player in the big blind (to whom he’d lost his chips earlier), thought awhile before calling and flipped over his KT to Tristan’s 7-8. Tristan was in big trouble when the flop spiked a ten, but a miracle 7 and 8 on the turn and river bought him an extra life in the tournament.
Our bubble boy for the evening was Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin (pictured at right), who raised from early position to 4.4K, hoping for a walk. His opponent re-raised him preflop to 16.4K, Baldwin shoved all in, and met an instant call. Baldwin was caught bluffing and whiffed 74 to his opponent’s pocket aces.
The 198 remaining players are guaranteed $3,795 for their run and will return at 2pm PST tomorrow afternoon to commence Day 2. PocketFivers still in the running for the $770,540 and WSOP bracelet include chip leader Eric “jakz101″ Crain with 253,500 chips, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Daniel “voff” Deveau, Adam “akat11″ Katz, David “ComptonMasta” Barter, Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski, Dan “wretchy” Martin, and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin.
Play has slowed substantially in the $5K No-Limit Hold’em 6-max event following the elimination of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in 16th place. While we last reported that Grospellier had picked up a healthy pot off Jason Gray, he ran into a series of hands that resulted in substantial hits to his chip count. The final blow came when Bertrand bet every street on a jack high board, moving all-in on the river with his A-J only to be called by the pocket aces of his opponent.
Gray has had a rollercoaster ride of a level himself. With the blinds at 6K/12K and an ante of 1K, Tom Luntz raised to 30K in early position and Jason reraised to 120K. Luntz then moved all-in and Gray made the call with A-Q. Luntz showed pocket jacks, but a queen on the turn shipped the 530K pot in Gray’s direction.
Just a few hands later, Luntz and Gray got it all-in preflop again and Tommy held pocket jacks a second time. Jason was in much worse shape this time around with his pocket tens and when the board came out AK53K Jason doubled Luntz up and was left with 225K. Play is scheduled to continue down to the final 6-handed table this evening.
Day 3 of the $50K HORSE event has come to a close and 24 players remain in contention for the much coveted bracelet. Barry Greenstein continues to stay towards the top of the leaderboard along with Daniel Negreanu. James “mig.com” Mackey will also be returning tomorrow to play down to the final eight players.