WSOP 2008
Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
by Jill on 06.16.08, 5:48 am
Event #27’s $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em race for the bracelet has concluded for the evening with 18 players remaining in the field. Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sits near the top of the chip count with over 850K, now representing PocketFives in his logo t-shirt.
We caught up with Barry as he was raising preflop from the hijack to 48K with the blinds at 10K/20K. He took down the pot uncontested and did the same thing for the next two consecutive hands. He recounted a story from earlier in the tournament about a hand he played with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Apparently, Barry made his move on the button by pushing all in to Scott’s preflop raise. Barry held 9
7. Scott, trying to edge out a Scandinavian player at the table, called the raise and flipped over A-J offsuit.
In the only hand Barry has played for his tournament life, he managed to hit a 9 on the river to save his stack and suck out. He recounted how tilted Scott got at the bad beat; apparently Scott raised all in for the next seven hands, despite being deep-stacked even after the beat. The field lost two more players after Barry told his story; play is now down to the final two tables and will resume tomorrow at 2PM PST while players compete for the bracelet and $628,290.
Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) had much to smile about in the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys as his stack went from 100k to over 1M in twenty minutes. Play was down to the final two tables. Negreanu went over the one million mark when he busted David Williams’ 500k chip stack in the following hand:
On a flop of 7
32
, Williams bet out 40k and Negreanu called. The T dropped on the turn and Williams bet and got raised by Negreanu. Williams reraised all-in, prompting a snap call from Negreanu. Williams tabled the T
987, drawing dead to Negreanu’s AT{7s]7 full house.
Negreanu jokingly said he’s hoping to get at least ninth place so he can break even from the 85k he’s invested in the tournament. Many big names remain in the final 14 including Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Alexander Kostritsyn.
Matusow Wins Third Bracelet
by AdamJ on 06.12.08, 3:16 pm
In a field with 85 players, mostly comprised of well known pro’s, Mike Matusow emerged as the champion in the deuce-to-seven draw lowball tournament.
The win gives Matusow his third WSOP bracelet, which is sure to be a memorable given most of his esteemed peers constituted most of the competition. The deuce-to-seven final table read like a who’s who of poker with Tony Guoga, Tom Schneider, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, David Benyamine, and Jeff Lisandro.
The 2k NL WSOP Event #23 kicks off today at noon and there are already 1,282 entrants twelve minutes into the first level. Players will continue to file in late until registration closes, ballooning that total to an even higher mark.
Online Presence in 10k Mixed Tourney
by AdamJ on 06.04.08, 10:55 pm
Despite the 10k buy-in and an eight game spread in WSOP Event #8, a handful of online players were scattered throughout the 192 player field.
There was a predictable amount of live cash game pros in the field, a group accustomed to playing all eight games which included: triple draw 2-7, hold-em, omaha 8, razz, stud, stud 8, no-limit hold-em, PLO.
There were a handful of notable tables that featured prominent online players like the table with Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman, James “mig.com” Mackey, Robert Williamson III, Chris “Genius28″ Lee (right), Chau Giang, and Tom Schneider. Another interesting table included Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, David “Raptor” Benefield, Phil Ivey and Rafi Amit.
Although this event was loaded with stacked tables none was probably filled with more recognizable names than the table with Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Andy Bloch, Ram Vaswani, Jeff Lisandro and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko, an ultra high stakes limit hold-em specialist.
According to Patrik Antonius, Hawrilenko is one of the top four limit hold-em players in the world along with David Benyamine, Phil Ivey, and Bryce “Freedom25″ Paradis.
Other notable online pros playing in this event were Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Eric “E-Fro” Froelich, Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Dario Minieri, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, and Scott “gunning4you” Seiver.
In the $1K rebuy, Craig “Mr. Casino” Gray took a massive hit to his 600K+ stack when he ran into the AA of Lyric Duveyoung. With the blinds at 2500/5,000, Duveyoung raised to 13K and a player in middle position raised to 45K. Gray then reraised to 105k from the button and Duveyoung moved all in for nearly 350K. Gray instantly called with AK and found out the bad news. The board ran out J6238 and Gray was left with 240K in his stack. Duveyoung is the new chip leader of Event #5.
Jon “apestyles” van Fleet took out Alex Jacob shorty after at a nearby table. Jacob shoved his last 53K from the big blind with A6 and van Fleet called from the button with A2. Van Fleet, though, spiked a 2 on the flop and eliminated the 2006 USPC winner in 31st place. Ape has close to 200K going into the dinner break.
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams (right) found a way to hit the 6-figure mark for the first time by doubling up with 78. He shoved from the button and was called by the big blind with JT. Adams made a full house on the board of 73357. He then eliminated fellow online star Anirudh “BKiCe” Seth when Seth pushed his short stack forward with T4 and Adams called with A3. The A on the turn left Seth drawing dead and Adams now has 190K.
The field of 28 is still loaded with recognizeable online players, including Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams (360K), Steve “gboro780″ Gross (225K), Amit “amak316″ Makhija (180K), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (160K) and Randy “Randers” Haddox (115K).
Day 1 of the $5k MHE Event Ends, Turner Chipleader
by Crystal on 06.03.08, 5:40 am
The first day of the $5k Mixed Hold Em event is officially over, but not before some entertaining discussion went on at table #10.
Populated with popular players David Benyamine, Andy Black, Phil Laak, and Howard Lederer, this table was incredibly talkative leading up to the end of play.
During a conversation regarding how tight different players play Phil Laak stated “If you are dormant for a long time you build up credibility.” Obviously Phil didn’t feel like sitting dormant as he raised the very next hand and everyone folded. Andy Black asked “If I had pushed all in would you have folded?” and Phil laughed.
Not long after this transpired Black made it 1600 to go during a NL round and Phil Laak pushed all in for 10,325 more. Black sat for a long time debating whether to call or not as David Benyamine jokingly began to give him a hard time about whether he was going to call or not. One player at the table said “I’m gonna bet 500 chips he’s gonna fold” and the table laughed. Black did eventually fold and Phil pointed to one card and said “For $22 I’ll show you this one” but wasn’t taken up on his offer. Black did recieve a big teddy bear hug from Phil after the hand, but that probably wasn’t quite as pleasing as a large pile of chips.
An unknown player who is in the 9 seat on that table had taken part in the conversation about playing tight and when he raised on his button and everyone folded he asked the table “You want me to show it?” They all said yes and he proudly flipped over his 7-2 offsuit drawing laughter and cheers from his tablemates.
Black then announced to the table, “A bluff at the beginning and a bluff at the end. That’s perfect poker! Phil Ivey you’re useless!”
It’s nice to see such good-natured banter going on, but the tone will inevitably become more serious during day 2 as they approach the money bubble.
With 91 players remaining P5er Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured left) is one of the chip leaders at the end of day one and Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is also doing well. Notables Jeff Madsen, Phil Hellmuth, and Devilfish Ulliott have been eliminated.