WSOP 2008
Big Hit for Hunichen
by Brett on 06.23.08, 2:32 am
Chris “big huni” Hunichen has been eliminated from the $1.5k NLHE event #39 in 31st place. A short stacked player moved all in for 50k and Chris moved all in over the top for more than 200k. Hunichen (pictured right) looked shocked when the player on the button announced “call”. The blinds both folded and when all the cards were tabled Chris was ahead, but barely:
Chris: 7
7
Button: AK
Short Stack: KT
The flop was scary but left Chris in the lead as it came QJ
5 but the turn brought the A to give the short stack player the nuts and to put the button ahead of Chris. The river was a meaningless 3 and Chris was out. He was obviously upset and he said to the player on the button “It’s a horrible call! I move in for more than 200k and you call with ace king!” The button replied saying “I watched you play all day; it’s a great call.” Chris then regained his composure and shook the man’s hand saying “nice hand” and quietly left the table. Chris earns $13,737 for his efforts.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (520K) and Mike “inissint” Glasser (155K) are still alive as the field has thinned to 22.
Ari “BodogAri” Engel has just doubled through David Pham to increase his stack to 7.5K in the $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. With the blinds at 100/200 in No-limit, Pham raised to 525 under-the-gun and Ari raised to 3K in middle position, leaving 500 behind. Action folded back to Pham, who looked Engel up and down before declaring “All in.” Ari called and showed TT which was way ahead of the 66 of Pham. The J535K board was kind to Engel, who is climbing back after falling down to under 2K.
We also caught an intereresting hand involving the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low champion David Benyamine. Also in the No-limit segment, Benyamine called a raise of 825 preflop and a limper in early position also called. Both players checked to Benyamine on a AT2 flop and he bet 1650. The limper folded and other player called. The 3 came on the turn and both players checked. The scary 8 on the river induced another check from the preflop raiser and Benyamine threw out a value-sized bet of 1500. He was quickly called by AA. Benyamine flipped over 55 for the flush and is now over 17K in chips.
Sorel Mizzi, Mike Sowers and Ben Fineman were all knocked out in the previous hour.
Shorr Doubles, Dario Ascending
by AdamJ on 06.17.08, 1:22 am
The drinks arrived at Eric “Peachy K33N” Liu’s side and the high stakes cash game specialist asked Shannon Shorr (pictured left) to pay for the tip.
Shorr gave a grin and obliged, tipping the waitress for Liu’s double shot order of rum and coke.
After drawing out on Liu’s KK with AQ minutes earlier in an all-in preflop hand where Shorr’s stack rose from 20k to over 40k, the couple bucks for drinks seemed like a bargain to Shorr.
John Racener was also at the table with a 19k stack, making it one of the more star-studded 6-max tables left in the 2.5k 6-max WSOP Event #31.
P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks was exchanging smiles sitting directly to left of Scotty Nguyen, whose affable personality was generally dictating the conversation. Hanks had much to smile about with the biggest stack at his table at 57k.
Here are some other notable chip stacks with 120 of 1,012 left with the average stack at 42k.
Dario Minieri - 88k
Dave Ulliott - 60k
Kenna James - 48k
Mark Vos - 44k
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Visant - 30k
Brandon Cantu - 26k
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 13k
Event #28, the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys tournament, was down to three-handed play, with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond sporting a 2:1 chip advantage over both of the other two players. Galfond has managed to capture 3.3M in chips, while David Benyamine and Adam Hourani both hold 1.6M. The tournament is currently paused for dinner break; it will resume at 10PM PST. Galfond continued to play aggressively before the break, raising every button and slowly chipping away at each of his opponents’ stacks.
Meanwhile, Event #29’s $3K No-Limit Hold’em was reduced to two tables with the quick elimination of seven more players. Climbing the chip counts was Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (pictured at right), who managed to stop the chip acquisition of Carter “ckingusc” King for good. King’s pocket tens ran into Dunst’s A-Q and couldn’t hold on a K7Q89 board. Dunst eliminated King in 20th Place for a payout of $11,264. Other PocketFivers still holding on in the event included Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, who increased his stack to 350K, while Matt “All In At 420″ Stout trended downward to 175K.
Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 10:34 pm
In the Brazillia room, the $3k NLHE tournament isn’t the only event running right now. Day 2 of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) is also taking place there today and while yesterday’s action seemed rather slow because of the large starting stacks and fixed limit structure, the play today has sped up immensely with only 42 of the original 218 remaining.
Eric “EFro” Froehlich is sitting pretty at the top of the chip counts after some big hands. Howard Lederer put in a raise preflop and both Froehlich (pictured right) and another player called to see the flop come AK5. Action checked to Lederer who bet and both Froehlich and the other player called. When the J dropped on the turn action checked to Lederer who again bet but this time Froehlich raised. The player in the middle and Lederer both made the call and the Q fell on the river. Froehlich bet out, the player in the middle folded and Lederer reluctantly called to see Froehlich’s QT that had turned a broadway straight. Lederer mucked and Froehlich won a large pot. Froehlich is currently the chip leader with 350k.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker has also been doing well in this tournament today, despite being at the same table as “EFro’s” massive stack. Preflop Parker (pictured left) made it 2 bets to go, the player to his left upped it to 3 bets and the big blind capped it at 4 bets. All 3 players called to see the flop come J94. The big blind bet out and both Parker and the other player called. When the 3 came on the turn the big blind checked, Brock bet, and the other two players both smooth called. The river brought the 2, completing a possible flush draw and the big blind again checked it to Parker who bet. The player in the middle folded and after thinking for a long while the big blind eventually called and when Brock flipped up the QJ the big blind mucked his hand and Parker scooped a large pot.
Brock then finished off Howard Lederer by using his AQ to best Lederer’s KJ on a board of 6548A sending Lederer to the rail and increasing Brock’s stack to a healthy 190k. He has since chipped up to 230k and is in 2nd place behind Froehlich.
Other notable players still in the field of the LHE tourney include Justin Bonomo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles while Matt “mattster24″ Sterling and Joe Sebok were recently eliminated.
Over at the ESPN Featured Table in the Amazon room, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is dominating the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament. Johnny Chan lost a huge pot to David Benyamine to put Benyamine in 2nd place and drop Chan down to 3rd and then promptly lost another big hand to Galfond to extend Galfond’s lead and to make Chan the short stack.
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th, and 6th place and the chip counts for the 5 remaining players are:
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond - 3,156,000
David Benyamine - 1,545,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 720,000
Adam Hourani - 615,000
Johnny Chan - 330,000