WSOP 2008
People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
by Jill on 07.11.08, 2:38 am
As hand-for-hand play continued well past the end of Level 14, players were either anxiously awaiting the money bubble or falling asleep at their tables. Play was frenetic as camera crews ran up and down the aisles, trying to capture players’ best and worst moments. However, cheers recently erupted in the Amazon room, signifying that 666 remain and everyone has made the money and are now guaranteed $21,230. Congratulations to all! As soon as hand-for-hand completes, players will take a 30-minute break to color up and take a breather.
Some players, like Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez (pictured at right) were trying to take advantage of the bubble to semi-bluff players off their chips and getting burned in the process. Senovio reported that he managed to lose 100K in chips over the last two levels, but spoke to his daughters for good luck once again at dinner and hopes it would charm his play going into the bubble.
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu decided to put his big stack to use bullying other players at the table while hand-for-hand play was underway. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 it folded around to Lieu who raised to 10K from the hijack. The player on the button then reraised to 35K and Paul eyed his stack before making the call. The flop was A
7
6 and Paul led for 20K. The other player thought for moment before making the call. As soon as the 2 hit on the turn, Lieu grabbed a stack of orange 5K chips large enough to put his opponent all-in. The other player thought briefly before announcing, “Well, you better get a camera over here.” Another player asked if he was calling and he paused before verbally announcing his call. The player then turned over AA
while Lieu showed 28. Paul needed a diamond on the river, but instead he got the 6 and he paid off the other player’s remaining 64.4K.
Other players were making extremely solid moves and chipping up. Jeff “jpapola” Papola has been on a rush approaching the money bubble, doubling up twice. He went from 50K to 100K when his A-J held up against K-J and later went from 100k to 230k when his kings held up against A-Q. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen also chipped up when he won a 400k pot off of Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey (pictured at left) when his A-K beat Frey’s jacks in an all-in preflop hand. The hand left Rasmussen with 420k and Frey with 60k.
Other players were making strong plays and getting completely flattened. As we reported earlier, the table where Jeremiah Smith sits with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner was incredibly dangerous. Jeremiah built his stack up to more than 1.2M in the last level and was apparently still on his heater.
One of his latest victims is David “davidp18″ Peters (pictured at left), who has been struck by lightning. After Peters opened under-the-gun to 8k, tournament chip leader and former poker reporter Jeremiah Smith put him all-in for his last 160k after he stuck out two orange 100K stacks. Peters called with the Q
Q and was way ahead of Smith’s 96. Or at least he thought. Smith apologized in advance and jokingly referred to it as a standard race situation before the flop dropped. Smith’s optimism was understood when the flop came T87, flopping Smith a straight with a flush draw. Peter’s dire situation caught a ray of hope when the T peeled on the turn but the A on the river capped off what has been a Jamie Gold-like run of cards for Smith, who was awestruck in the aftermath of an incredible scene which captured in its entirety by the ESPN crew.
Here are some more unofficial chip counts at the bubble:
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 600K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 530K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 500K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 485K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 480K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 440K
Thayer Rasmussen - 420K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 370K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 330K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 260K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 260K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 245K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 235K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 217K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 193K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 145K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 145K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack - 140K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” - 110K
Jason Gray - 100K
Ben “astrolux85″ Roberts - 95K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 80K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 80K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 63K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 62K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 46K
BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
by Jill on 07.06.08, 2:00 am
Level 4 of Day 1C saw a rash of eliminations starting with Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right). Devonshire had been towards the top of the leaderboard for the majority of the day, but lost a monster pot for his entire stack when he and another player got all-in with the same nut straight, but his opponent had the freeroll to hit the spade flush. The spade came on the river, Bryan was eliminated, and Day 1C found itself a brand new chipleader. Unfortunately, no one found REAL ULTIMATE POWER as a result.
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins was also eliminated this level when he and Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin got involved in a three-way hand. With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Eric raised to 800 under the gun and Collins reraised to 2.4K. The player in the small blind and Baldwin both made the call. The flop came down 982 and both the small blind and Eric checked to Phil. Collins thought for at least a minute before moving all-in for nearly 15K. The player in the small blind tanked briefly before moving all-in behind Phil and Eric quickly folded. Collins showed AQ and needed some help against the other player’s JJ. The turn and river came 42 and Phil gave us a friendly, “See you next year!” as he headed for the door.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija, who had been shortstacked for much of the level was also eliminated when his two pair failed to hold against his opponent’s straight draw.
Meanwhile, Ladbrokes team pro John Kalmar (pictured at left) has been struck by lightning. With a board that read AJ23 and a more-than-14K pot in the middle, John’s opponent bet 10K and he went in behind for his entire 37K stack. After calling over the floor to determine if he could expose one of his cards to Kalmar, his opponent tanked for a long time before the clock was called. Finally, he made the the call and John flipped over pocket twos against his opponent’s A3. When the 3 came on the river, John was sent to the rail on a stretcher.
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline has apparently developed quite the table image at his table. A player in early position raised to 900 and three other players called behind him. Kline then moved all-in from the small blind for 8,650. The initial raiser seemed quite frustrated with Kline’s move and accidentally revealed the K as he tossed his cards in the muck. Everyone else folded as well and the man claimed he folded AK.
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at right)reported during Level 4 that he considered one of his recent plays an emotional victory; he finally won a race. Gary told PocketFives that he held A-Q and bet 900 preflop, only to be met with a 4,400 raise from one opponent. He managed to flop an ace and get his chips in good, winning the pot and chipping up to 24K before the last level of the evening. He and Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti have both been checking PocketFivesLive for action updates on their iPhones, especially now that David “davidp18″ Peters is also at their table. We’re wondering what the over/under is until they realize that Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings has also sat down to the table.
Meanwhile, Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen hovered around the 20K mark and saw a flop with four-way action. The board came KJA and all players checked. The T came on the turn and Hung raised to 1K. Two players called and the 8 came out on the river. Again, Hung bet 1K to induce a fold from one other player, but one opponent called him, flipping over K-Q to Hung’s QQ. They chopped the pot and Hung added a few chips to his stack.
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania added 10K to his stack after picking up a pot at the end of Level 4. With 5K in the middle preflop, Charania called a bet of 1.5K on a board of KT2. The K came on the turn and Charania called a bet of 2K. On the river, Charania’s opponent check-called a bet of 4K and Charania showed K8. The other player mucked. He is now at 88K, and at the opposite end of the table from Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal. “I don’t want to double him up,” Charania said of the short-stacked Agarwal as they both went on a 20-minute break.
Also afraid of doubling others up at his table was Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell, who sat at an intimidating table with Michael Binger and David Singer. He reported to PocketFives that he managed to chip up to 45K with pocket aces versus K-J on a jack-high flop. He lamented that he hadn’t gotten the full value for his aces, however, because he put his opponent on a set. Because of the recent addition of Michael Binger to the table, he said he planned on blinding off to the end of the day. We can’t blame you, Justin!
We caught Ezra Galston taking a small hit to his stack on the last hand before break. On a board of A435Q, Galston was facing a bet of 2.7K from an opponent. He contemplated for three minutes before making the call and mucked his cards when his opponent showed AJ. Galston is now at 19.5K.
Here are some notable unofficial chipstacks at the end of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 130K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 88K
Darren Elias - 86K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 67K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 49.5K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 45K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 37K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 34K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 32K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 30K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 27.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 27.5K
Jason “mkind0516″ Laso - 27K
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 26K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 26K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 24K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 24K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 23K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 22K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 21K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 20K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16.5K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 14K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 13.5K
Slaughbaugh Slaughtering 1.5k NL
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 6:27 pm
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh (pictured at left) couldn’t keep the smile off his face when P5’s caught a glance at his chip stack in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52.
With nearly six times the average stack at 22.5k, Slaubaugh caught fire in Level 3.
Slaubaugh won an all-in pot on when his pocket aces dodged a 17-out draw on the turn. Later, it was Slaubaugh who snapped off aces when his opponent flatted his re-raise and check shoved all-in when he flopped a set of queens.
David “Davidp18″ Peters wasn’t nearly as lucky, busting out when his opponent put him all-in after Peters made it 525 on the button with 3k behind. Peters called with A8 but was sent to the rail when his opponents J-7 offsuit turned a jack.
Here’s some chip counts of notable players we spotted with the average stack at 3700.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 7.5k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 6.5k
Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 3.5k
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 2.8k
Matt “All in At 420″ Stout - 300
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen is one of a few P5er’s left in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. Rasmussen just doubled up to 190k thanks to wicked draw out when his opponent flopped gin.
With blinds at 1k-2k, Rasmussen re-raised his opponents 7k raise to 31k with about 60k behind. Rasmussen’s opponent called and put Rasmussen all-in on a QQ6 flop. Rasmussen called with AAT2 but was way behind his opponent’s 6675. The turn brought a miracle Q for Rasmussen, who doubled after the 9 peeled on the river.
Here’s a list of other notable players left with the average stack at 95k and less than 80 players left.
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 240k
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 100k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 80k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 25k
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
You Have to Win a Race
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 12:14 am
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker’s chip stack had been slowly dwinding in the $1.5k NLHE tournament until he decided to put it all in with pocket sixes. A player sitting across from him made the call with his AK and when the flop came with a king Bowker fell behind in the hand and was unable to catch back up. Even though the shirt Kyle (pictured left) is wearing today says “Nice Hand Sir. And by hand I mean catch and by sir I mean moron” he graciously accepted the loss and was consoled by a friend who said “What can you do? You have to win a race. Good game man” as Kyle headed to the cashier to collect his winnings.
Another player got all his chips in needing some serious help to stay alive. David “DavidP18″ Peters and a shorter stack both got all their chips in against another player who had them both covered.
Peters: A9
Short stack: 33
Other player: AA
Peters and the other short stack were both in serious trouble against the aces and when the board ran out Q2287 they were both sent to the rail.
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Stu “thedonator” Paterson have been early movers in today’s $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. Sowers has just increased his chip count to over 8K by crippling Bryan Micon in Limit Hold’em. Sowers (pictured right) raised from middle position and Micon called from the big blind. On the flop of Q84, Micon check-raised Sowers and Sowers made the call. The turn was the Q and Micon bet and Sowers called. The 9 fell on the river and again Sowers called a bet from Micon, who showed A8 but was rivered by the A9 of Sowers. Micon was eliminated shortly after.
Paterson showed why he’s considered one of the online greats at the other end of the room during No-limit. In a three-way pot, Paterson and another player checked a A53 flop to the original preflop raiser, who bet 1K and both players called. The 3 came on the turn and again it was checked over the the raiser, who bet 1500 and only Paterson called. The river was the 7 and Paterson quickly check-called a bet of 3K and showed TT, which beat KQ. Paterson is among the chip leaders with 15K.