WSOP 2008
Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
by Jill on 07.11.08, 4:25 am
Now that play has reached the money, the all-in paddles are once again flying through the air as players are putting all their chips on the line. Though many PocketFives players continue to protect their stacks, plenty are also making decisions for their entire stack and getting sent to the rail. Now that players have made the money, they are dropping at a rate of nearly 1.5 players per minute; exactly 100 players were eliminated in the last level’s hour.
One recent elimination was Jason Gray (pictured at left), whose A-Q couldn’t catch up to the pocket kings of his opponent. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson’s solid run throughout the 2008 WSOP officially came end minutes ago as well. Nelson busted out in a blind versus blind battle when the action folded around to him in the small blind. Short-stacked with 65K in the 2K-4K-500 level, Nelson looked at the K
and moved all-in. Cort “thecorster” Kibler-Melby woke up with 6
6
in the big blind and called with a 400K-plus stack. Nelson held the 5 as a kicker and was eliminated when he didn’t improve. This is Nelson’s third cash this series. He also had two deep finishes prior to the Main Event with a 16th and 17th place finish.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez was also one of many players who busted shortly after the bubble burst when he raised under the gun to 11K with the blinds at 2K/4K ante 500. The player in the hijack reraised the minimum, making it 22K total. The player in the cut off called the 22K and Senovio pushed all-in for his remaining 20.5K. The reraiser made the call and the other player, who was also shortstacked with less than 100K thought for a minute before eventually folding. Ramirez showed KK and the other player turned over AJ
. The flop came down JT6 giving his opponent two more outs. The A on the turn left Senovio drawing very slim and the 2 on the river saw him eliminated shortly after the last level of the night began. He receives 622nd place for his efforts.
On the flip side of the coin are the players that continue to chip up and increase their stacks. Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen (pictured at right) continues to play aggressive poker at his table when a player in middle positoin raised to 11K, the player in the hijack called, and Rosen reraised out of the blinds for 31K total. The initial raiser folded and the other player made the call. The cards on the flop ran out T98 and Jamie led for 26K, which the other player called. Both checked the 5 on the turn and checked again when the 9 hit on the river. Rosen announced, “I have a ten”, as he flipped over 5T and the other player mucked. After the hand, Rosen was up to 460K.
Doug “Resilient” Smith was among the short stacks moving up as he turned his earlier 60K into 85K. When PocketFives reminded him that’s what his nickname was for, he jokingly asked his tablemates, “Can you even spell resilient?” He singled one of his opponents out, teasing, “Just getting you back, man. ” His opponent retorted, “Well, yeah, you’re just that Bill Murray look-alike guy, right? I didn’t even know you played poker.”
Jokes aside, here are some of the more recent unofficial chip counts:
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 780K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 720K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 550K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 505K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 420K
Thayer Rasmussen - 400K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 400K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 385K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 328K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 280K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 250K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 230K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 205K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 230K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 175K
Hevad Khan - 170K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 150K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 140K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 135K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 123K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 115K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 110K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 105K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 100K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 80K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 30K
Recent Eliminations:
Jason Gray
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
by Crystal on 07.10.08, 10:32 pm
733 players are now on their 90 minute dinner break and the tension in the air has been continuously rising as we get closer and closer to the money bubble of 666 players. The staff here at the Rio is somewhat going to be restricting media access to the tables as hand for hand play approaches so we’ll do our best after the break to catch as much as we can.
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (pictured right) started the day with a healthy 220k in chips but during the level before the dinner break he was caught up in a couple crazy hands. After building his stack up to nearly 350k, Crowe and two other players saw a flop of Q43. The big blind bet out 17.9k and the player in the middle and Crowe made the call. The K fell on the turn and both the other players checked to Crowe who pushed a large stack of orange 5k chips into the middle, 80k total. The big blind folded and after a lot of thought the other player made the call. The 7 fell on the river and both players checked. Crowe’s opponent flipped over the K9 for the 2nd nut flush and Crowe was livid. He couldn’t believe that the other player had made his flush and checked it. The other player requested to see Crowe’s cards and so the dealer flipped over his KQ. The ESPN cameras caught all the action but Crowe was visibly not enjoying being filmed and was steaming after the hand.
It didn’t take too long to get a few of his chips back. We caught up with the action with the board reading 8639J and Crowe bet 23k which another player called. Crowe tabled the T7 for a turned straight that only improved on the river and scooped up to pot. A little later Crowe got into a hand with Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert but they weren’t too eager to create much action. They both checked the KT5 flop, the K on the turn, and the 3 on the river. Crowe showed the J5 for kings and fives which was the best hand as Leo mucked and Crowe climbed back up to around 320k.
We caught up with David “Bakes” Baker (pictured left) as he and another opponent were heads up in a raised pot on a flop of QJ8. Baker’s opponent bet 15K and David thought briefly before raising enough to put him all-in. The other player tanked for some time and tried to pry information from David asking him questions and announcing, “I know you’re only on a draw.” He eventually made the call for his remaining 38.7K with AQ. David turned over the KK and the turn came the 3, leaving the other player with one less out since David picked up the flush draw. The Q fell on the river and the other player doubled through Baker leaving him with right around 150K going into dinner break.
Today, Table 12 in the Blue section of the Amazon room may qualify as one of the sickest lineups we’ve seen so far in the entire 2008 World Series. Tim “tmay420″ West, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson, Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby and Allen Cunningham are lined up in a row. When we last caught up to their table, Darren gave us -the look-; he was feeling frustrated as his stack dropped from 190K earlier today to a much less comfortable 85K. When we asked what happened, Tim chuckled and Garrett groaned.
Darren reported that he picked up aces two levels ago. On a flop of Q-7-8 with an already-sizeable pot in the middle, Darren put his one remaining opponent all-in. Darren’s pocket aces dominated… that is, until a 3 on the turn and a jack spiked on the river gave his opponent’s Q-J two pair. Darren quartered his stack, falling below 50K in chips. However, Garrett chimed in at this point in the story, noting that he’d later doubled Darren up when his J-T connected to a jack-high flop with all clubs on the board. Darren’s pocket aces held and he edged his stack upwards. He left for dinner break with a stack of 85K to Garrett’s 150K. Tim reported that he was trying to stay out of it; he said, “It sucks when I have no other choice but to bust my close friends!” He guarded a 97K stack while Cort had 200K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein, however, didn’t have such an exciting table draw. He lamented to PocketFives that he’s been bored the last few levels. Regardless, he was taking the opportunity to rake in a few small preflop pots; he increased his stack to 127K before the break.
On a side note, Mike Matusow was just spotted running “laps” outside near the poker kitchen during the break. By laps, we actually mean 20 ft smallish circles… perhaps trying to work off nervous energy? Maybe he just didn’t get all his running in today and is trying to make up for it. Regardless, it gave us here at P5s a chuckle.
In case you’re hungry, here’s a heaping pile of chip counts for you to munch on during the break! (The average stack based on the tournament clock is currently almost 187k)
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 580K (pictured right)
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 430K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 400K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 390K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 340K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 310K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 290K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 285K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 280K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 276K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 270K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 265K
Allen “abari” Bari - 255K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 205K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 200K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward- 190k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 185K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 182K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 180K
Thayer Rasmussen - 170K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 165K
Jason Gray - 155K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 150K
David “Bakes” Baker - 150K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 140K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 130K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 127K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 120K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 120K
Kush Patel - 115K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 110K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 109K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 100K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 97K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 95K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 85K
Jeff Papola - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 70K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 70K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 68K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 50K
Recent eliminations include Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Jason “strassa2″ Strasser, Cody “shankingyou” Shedd, Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa, and Brandon Shaefer.
Porter Picks Up Pot with Pocket Rockets
by Jessica on 07.10.08, 4:42 am
Say that five times fast. We dare you.
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter (pictured at left) made a lot of headway adding to his chip stack in the final level. With the blinds 600/1200 ante 200 Devin raised in middle position and the player in the big blind called. The flop came AJJ and both players checked. When the 4 fell on the turn the player in the big blind bet out 7.5K and Devin made the call. The board double paired when the 4 came on the river and the big blind checked. Porter bet out 15K and the other player thought for a minute before making the call. Devin turned over AA for the flopped boat and the other player tossed his cards in the muck.
A little while later, Porter picked up another substantial pot on the last hand of the night to increase his stack to 182K. Porter, Nenad Medic and another player saw a flop of 742 and Porter bet 6.5K. Medic folded and the other player called. The J fell on the turn and both players checked. The 8 came on the turn and the other player checked to porter, who bet 14K. The other player called with a pocket pair of threes and Porter showed A4. We here at PocketFives Live are guessing Devin is feelin oooohhhhkaaaay going into Day 3.
When PocketFives caught up to Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson’s (pictured right) table, he bet out in position several consecutive hands to take down small preflop pots. When we talked with Darren, it seemed this strategy had been working quite well for him as he was staying strong at 190K. However, the rest of his table seemed to be tilting before the end of the night as tempers flared and patience waned. In one particularly inflammatory hand, Darren called a small preflop bet from a player in early position and smartly laid it down to a reraise behind. Long story short, the floor was called because of dealer errors, the clock was called erroneously, and Darren laughed as he watched his table unravel. We’re pretty sure he will look forward to his new table draw for tomorrow!
At a few tables over, Mike “RunScreamin” Herder managed to take down a couple of uncontested preflop pots as the rest of his table was dormant, waiting for the clock to run out on Day 2B. Mike was excited to continue on to Day 3 and will return with a very substantial 208K in chips.
Russell “rdrcrsn” Carson fought the short stack struggle for about an hour after losing the bulk of his chips on a double-draw gone bad a few hours before the end of the day. Carson eventually busted out when he re-reraised a 4k open from the button out of the blind for his last 18k. Carson’s opponent called with JJ, ahead of Carson’s AK. Carson was looking good after the turn when the board read T-Q-3-K but a nine on the river made his opponent a straight and sent Carson to the rail. Joining him on the rail as play ended for the day were Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and David “hosnimbarak” Tazbaz who got it all-in with pocket kings on a flop of Q-8-3 with his opponent holding pocket queens.
Here are some unofficial chip counts we caught as play was wrapping up for the evening:
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 246K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 237K
Brandon Schaefer - 230K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 213K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 208K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 200K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 184K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 171K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert -170K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 155K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 153K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 150K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 140K
Thayer Rasmussen - 140K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 133K
Darren Elias - 132K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 130K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 125K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 120K
Allen “abari” Bari - 118K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 102K
Spencer “spankybabes” Lawrence - 102K
Mike “yngmanN4quiki” Postle - 101K
David “Bakes” Baker - 100K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 90K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 87K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 85K
Brian “snagglepuss” Powell - 75K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 73K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 70K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 67K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 66K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 65K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 41K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 35K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 26K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 23K
DABADEST Run of Cards
by Jill on 07.01.08, 10:18 pm
Play in Event #53, the $1.5K Limit Shootout tournament is now down to mostly two- and three-handed tables, with several PocketFivers engaged in heads-up play. Contenders still in the running just paused for a 20-minute break to clear their heads before getting back in the game tonight.
We caught up with Tim “tmay420″ West (pictured at right), who was defying his 8:1 underdog status and hanging in there with 3.5K in chips. Meanwhile, Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg battles Andy Bloch and his beat-up hat, also an underdog with 3:1 odds. However, two other P5ers were making extraordinary moves and fighting up the chip counts to dominate their tables.
Matt “MattG1983″ Graham sat behind a fortress of chips with 22.5K, bullying his opponent, who was on life support. In one hand, the board ran out K5364 with Matt betting and his opponent calling on every street; Matt’s king was enough to take down the pot. The hand just before the break commenced, however, managed to nearly double his opponent. On a board of 487A, Matt bet the turn, his opponent reraised, and Matt called. The 2 on the river was irrelevant, as his opponent held A7 for two pair and took it down. Matt will return after the break to try and polish off his opponent.
As we reported earlier, Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson (pictured at left) rallied his short stack up to 12K; in the last level, he went on a run of cards and worked it back and forth, managing to achieve 20K in chips at one point. His opponent kept making crying calls on river bets - in one hand, he bet 800 after the river and his opponent called on a 96T82 board. Darren showed down the QJ for the nut straight and raked in his chips. He also picked up several suit combinations of A-7 in the last level, showing it down three times to win pots.
Darren’s opponent jokingly accused the dealer of having romantic inclinations towards DABADESTCHIC as she switched places with an incoming dealer since his run of cards had been so good. “I swear you’re going out with the guy,” he said. “You gotta give her a kiss when she leaves, for goodness’ sakes!” Dan “wretchy” Martin and Faraz “The Toilet-0” Jaka were on hand to rail Darren, who apparently had a deep run in the Bellagio tournament last night.
Good luck to all players remaining in the event as play continues!
Sitron Making a Run in 1.5k NL
by AdamJ on 07.01.08, 9:00 pm
Scott “ssitron” Sitron (pictured left) has nearly quadrupled his stack since P5’s last caught up with him a few hours ago.
Sitron currently sits with 250k in Day 2 of the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52, a stack way above the 82k average with 98 players left with blinds at 1.5k-3k-400.
Sitron said he has been running good and has won a trio of all-ins when he was ahead each time with Q-Q vs 5-5, J-J vs 5-5, and TT vs A-5 suited.
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh just dipped below his 170k starting stack after he lost 20k in a pot where he re-raised an under the gun raise and got 4-bet and flatted the raise, check-folding on a T94 flop.
George “TheButler” Dietz has moved up from his 35k stack a few hours ago, currently at 70k. Dietz got a favorable seat draw with his back only a few feet from the rail where his friends Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul and Dan “Wretcy” Martin followed the action.
After starting the day with only 9k, David Daneshgar has held on to the 110k stack he accumulated in the first few hours.
Ben “bfineman” Fineman was one of the early winners of the 1.5k Limit Shootout WSOP Event #53. A handful of other P5er’s are still in the hunt as well.
Tim “TMay420″ West is 3-handed with 13k of the 29k in play and Scott “gunning4you” Seiver is heads-up with 18k. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson has mounted a big rally in heads-up play, running a 4k stack up to 12k. Brock “t_soprano” Parker is down to 3-handed play but is very short at 2k and Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo is 3-handed with 8k. Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is 3-handed with 5.5k.