Justin “looshle” Pechie (pictured at left) managed to double up shortly before the last break of the evening.  With the blinds at 500/1,000 ante 100 a player raised to 2.5K preflop and Pechie called on the button with pocket tens.  The flop came 322 and the initial raiser checked to Justin who bet 6K, which the initial raiser called.  After the J hit on the turn, Pechie’s opponent bet 7K and Justin raised to 16K total leaving 24K behind.  The other player then pushed all-in and Pechie thought for some time before making the call.  It turned out to be a great call as the other player held AT for just ace high.  The river was the K and Justin doubled up to 100K.

Eric “jakz101″ Crain had been one of the bigger stacks throughout the day, but got as low as 100K during Level 9 of play.  He told us he was able to steal enough chips to get back up to 150K and then he got involved in a big hand that put all of his chips at risk. 

A player raised to 3K under the gun and Eric made the call on the button.  Kido Pham reraised to 15K and both players made the call.  The flop came 10-7-6 with two hearts and Pham checked.  The initial raiser bet 28K and Crain raised to 82.3K total.  Kido folded and the other player shoved all-in for 30K more.  Crain made the call and showed A5 while the other player had pocket jacks.  The K came on the turn and the board paired on the river.  Pham appeared rather distraut after the hand and claimed he folded pocket kings, meaning he would have filled up on the river and scoop the massive pot.  Instead Crain took the hand down and now has 350K.

The Table of Doom we reported on in the earlier part of the day, but some of its players have been reunited in the Blue section.  Dani “Ansky451″ Stern and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki (pictured at right) are playing at the same table once again and will likely not move before the end of the day.  Klodnicki was sitting with over 200K, but took a bit of a hit when, with the blinds at 600/1,200 ante 200 the player in the cut off open raised to 14K leaving just over 15K behind.  Klodnicki was on the button and reraised enough to put the other player all-in.  She quickly made the call with pocket kings, which had Chris’ A-K in bad shape.  A king on the flop left Klodnicki with very few outs and the turn and river failed to help him.  After the hand he was down to 187K.

Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein is now seated next to Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and they were chumming it up when we approached the table.  After Jeff took down a huge pot when he hit runner-runner for a king-high flush, he said he’s rather be lucky than good any day of the week.  Trying to keep up with his neighbor, Josh attempted to take down a pot preflop when he raised to 4,200 in early position.  It folded to the button who moved in for 20K more.  After thinking awhile, Josh folded and the button showed AK.  He said he made a good laydown and it wasn’t the right spot to gamble for his chips.

In other news, Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward managed to donate a large part of his stack to his tablemate this level.  When prodded for more information about what happened, Joe kindly requested that PocketFives report the following: “I got stupid.”  …we guess that’s just one of his latest lines.

Here are some of the most recent chip counts with around an hour left to play in Day 2A:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 355K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 185K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 140K
Jason Gray - 140K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 118K
Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz - 113K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 100K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 165K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 130K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 100K
Bobby “gettin deep” Hodson - 74K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 38K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 45K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 39K

• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- 2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak

First and foremost, we here would like to profusely apologize to Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (pictured at left).  Earlier today we reported that Christian had been eliminated during Level 7 of play.  Well, the details of Fockenberg’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and he is, in fact, alive and well with a hearty 79K.  With so many tables being broken and players being moved around sometimes the breaking order changes on us and mistakes are made.  Such was the case with Christian, so don’t worry friends and family of Fockenberg–he is just fine.

Now that we have reported on someone we lost, now it is time to tell you about someone we found amongst the 612 players remaining in the Day 2A field.  Hunter “The_Hunt_D” Frey, who is one of our chip leaders with 384K.  When we found Hunter, he kindly recalled the hand that launched him to the top of the leaderboard.  Frey was involved in an 8-way limped pot with the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 holding 2-3 when the flop came A-3-3 with two diamonds.  One of the other players led out for 6K and another player called before Hunter raised to 17.5K.  Both players made the call and the turn came Q.  The initial better then shoved all-in for his remaining 90K and the third player in the hand thought for some time before folding.  Frey told us he tanked on the decision before making the call.  The other player showed A-K, the river was no help to him, and Hunter shot up to 400K.

We have also lost our “Table of Doom” that featured Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Peter “number1pen” Neff.  Their table was recently broken, but not before Stern reraised one of the other players preflop inducing him to fold.  Before he threw his hand away he turned up K6 and joked, “I ought to show since the table is about to break.”

While that table may have disappeared, we may have another table of doom brewing over in the Blue section.  Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a fairly easy day when he played on Day 1B and seemed to flop sets at will during the early levels and he was hoping Day 2 would be in the same vein.  However, every time his table loses a player, they bring over yet another known pro to add to the already stacked table.  First it was the big stacked Jason Gray (pictured at right) and when we last checked on the table Brandon Adams, who started today 2nd in chips, was unpacking several racks of chips.  Mike also told us there are some other online players at the table as well.

Tim “tmay420″ West continued to sit at a table with Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and remained steady throughout the last level, hovering around the 100K mark and taking relatively few risks.  When we caught up with Tim’s table, he was raising a min-betting opponent preflop to 6K more with 8K already in the pot.  After awhile in the tank, his opponent folded and he took the pot down to increase his stack to 105K.  Eric “jakz101″ Crain sat nearby, expressing frustration when his flopped straight flush draw bricked out and he lost a 100K pot.  Eric still has 210K in front of him and is confident he will reclaim his lost chips.

When PocketFives caught up to Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson (pictured at left), his strategy seemed to be similar - he reported that he got pocket kings twice in the last level and each time bet out to see what risks he faced.  In one situation, he said that he raised 5K under the gun with kings and was called by four other players preflop.  When the dealer spiked an ace, players checked around.  Hodson said he bet at the turn to see where he was, and was insta-raised by another player.  He folded and said though he’s gotten no value out of his kings, he minimized his loss and is happy with his 72K chipstack.  At a table full of recreational players, he said his strategy for the rest of the night was to play extremely tight through Level 9 and turn up the heat in the last level of the evening.

Here are some unofficial chip counts from midway through Level 9 of play:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 384K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 210K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 200K
Jason Gray - 190K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 184K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 180K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 172K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 160K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 155K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 142.5K
Peter “number1pen” - 122K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 122K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 118K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 99K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 90K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 90K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 87.5K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 79K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 79K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 75K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 65K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 49K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 45K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 44K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 43K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 39K

Recent eliminations include Shaun Deeb, TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka, Steve “McNallyville” McNally, and Barry Greenstein.

• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern

It didn’t take long for Peter “number1pen” Neff to get involved with some of the other notable online players populating his new table. As we last reported, Neff is seated with Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen. With the blinds at 300/600 ante 75 Neff and Stern were heads up in a hand where the flop came down AT9. Peter bet out 2.6K into a 5K pot from under the gun and Dani raised to 7K on the button. Neff asked for a count of the remainder of Stern’s chips, learned he had around 65K behind, and made the call. Peter checked when the J came on the turn and Dani fired out 13K. Peter thought for a couple of minutes before calling. The K on the river prompted another check from Neff and, after some thought, Stern bet 26K. Neff thought for a couple of minutes once again before eventually announcing “call.” Dani turned over 99 and Peter showed TT for the better set. The hand left Stern with 27K and pushed Neff up to 140K.

Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann surpassed the 100K mark after knocking a player out of the tournament. A player moved all in with 88 and Heitmann called with JJ. The KQT76 board was kind to Heitmann, who is now at 130K.

Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor recently busted out and the player who eliminated him relayed the information of the hand to us. The flop came A-7-4 with two hearts and the player bet 2k and both Taylor and a third player made the call. The turn was the 3 and the player who bet the flop bet 7k and Taylor pushed all in. Taylor had A-2 (we aren’t sure of the suits) and the other player held 6-5 for the nut straight which was good enough to send Taylor to the rail.

Zach “CrazyZachary” Clark (pictured right) was sent to the rail after he moved all in with A2 on the flop of J73 and couldn’t outdraw his opponent’s KK.  Craig “MrCasino” Gray was one of the other casualties of Level 8 as well.  Here’s a look at others who who have been more fortunate, along with their chip counts as Level 7 comes to a close:

Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 198K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 142K
Paul “ComeOnPhish - 133K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 120K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 116K
Jason Gray - 107K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 85K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 84K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 75K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 69K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 64K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 59K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 56K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 55K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 52K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 48K
Jordan Morgan - 46K
Justin “looshle” Peachie - 42K
Shaun Deeb - 42K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 40K
Paul “Beanie” Nobles - 40K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 39.5K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 35K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 33K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken” - 28.5K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 27K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 27K
Aaron Been - 24K
Ralf “Pelzzi” Pelzner - 23K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 21K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reigngold - 17K
Matthias “goodvibe” Neu - 10K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 8K
Barry Greenstein - 5.5K

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack

Greg “okstate345″ Cox recently played in a $50 Heads Up sit-n-go tournament online and lost, and since a prop bet was part of the deal between he and the other player, Greg showed up today in a purple bathrobe, pink swim goggles and a blue wide-brimmed sun hat. In one hand where Greg had only 7k left in chips there was a raise and re-raise in front of him and he held pocket queens on the button. Greg decided to fold and was relieved to see the re-raiser show pocket aces. “He’s been a nit so far” Greg said in reference to the player with aces. Another gentleman at the table thought that “nit” was an insult and was shocked Greg said it but after a humorous conversation at the table they decided that “nit” actually wasn’t meant to be an insult in this case and Greg was off the hook.

His stack dwindled down to around 5k and when the player under the gun limped, Greg pushed all in. Everyone else folded but the under the gun player made the call with his 88 to find he was way behind Greg’s TT. The flop came Q76 and Greg’s opponent was drawing slim. The 4 on the turn gave him a few more options and the 5 fell on the river giving the other player an eight-high straight and sending Greg to the rail with a disgusted look on his face.

We caught up to Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein in the Blue section who had just called a bet of 2,500 on flop of J24.  He and one other player both checked the J turn to see the 5 river.  His opponent checked to him, and Josh bet out 7,025. After tanking awhile, his opponent made the call and Josh flipped over AJ to take down the pot and increase his stack to 74K.

As tables are broken in the Red section, more and more players are being moved into the orange and blue sections of the Amazon Room, resulting in some stacked tables.  We stumbled upon table Orange 12, which boasts a line-up of Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki.  The three players have been very active at their tables and we caught both Rosen and Ansky busting out players and increasing their chip counts in the process.
 
First, Rosen raised to 1,250 in early position with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50 and a player in middle position made the call.  After the flop came A92 Jamie bet 2,250 and the other player quickly called.  Rosen checked when the Q came on the turn and the other player bet 5K.  Rosen quickly check-raised to 15K total and the other player moved all-in for less than 5K on top of the 15K.  Jamie called and turned over AK and the other player revealed 9T.  The J on the river was no help to his opponent and Rosen scooped a pot that pushed him up to a 140K chip stack.
 
A few hands later a shortstacked player raised on the button and Dani Stern reraised out of the big blind.  The other player appeared to just call his raise, leaving only 5K behind.  He then announced “all-in in the dark” and Stern reminded him that he was not the first to act in the hand.  The flop came J73 and Dani appeared to take a quick peek at his hand to check for a club before throwing out a 5K chip.  The other player called with AK while Dani held QQ.  The turn and river came 6T and the other player was eliminated.  Stern now sits with 75K.

Oh, and if the table wasn’t crowded enough as it was, the seat of the player Rosen busted has just been filled by Peter “number1pen” Neff.
 
One player whose table in the Red section has yet to break is Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson.  He informed Pocketfives that he had been getting maximum value out of all of his hands and had worked his starting Day 2 stack of 28K all the way up to 60K.  However, he ran into a hand where he got it all in preflop with A-K into his opponent’s pocket aces.  The board bricked out and he was knocked down to just below where he started and has 26K.

Now for the good stuff! Chip counts galore!

Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 145K
Paul “ComeonPhish” Lieu - 130K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 120K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 107K
Jason Gray - 90K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 82K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 73K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 72K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 69K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 66K
Jordan Morgan - 58K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 56K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 55K
Paul “beanie” Nobles - 55K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 53K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 51K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 48K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 40K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 38K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 35K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 35K
Terry “Asiandude77″ Eichens - 31K
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka - 29K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 28K
Aaron Been - 27K
Shaun Deeb - 25K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 25K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 24K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 15K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 10K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 7K
Barry Greenstein - 5K

Players eliminated since our last post include Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, and Matt “SamENole” Smith.

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern
• July 15, 2008 -- P5ers Collide, Klodnicki Sent Home in 12th