WSOP 2008
The HORSE Race Continues
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 4:21 pm
Day 4 of the $50k HORSE event is set to kick off at 3 pm this afternoon with the final 24 players. Among those looking to make the money today are Barry Greenstein (1.3 mil), and a short stacked James “mig.com” Mackey (151k) (pictured right). There are still many big names in the field such as Daniel Negreanu (1.2 mil), Doyle Brunson (777k), Scotty Nguyen (1 mil), and Phil Ivey (145k). Only the top 16 will cash in this event so the short stacks are going to have to make moves early during play today as the blinds are getting rather large. They will play through the afternoon and into the evening until the final table of 8 players is set.
Starting back up at 2 pm is day 2 of the $2k NLHE event. Eric “jakz101″ Crain returns today as the chip leader with more than 253k. Other players still in the field include David “ComptonMasta” Barter (19k), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (73k), Dan “wretchy” Martin (58k), Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (32k), and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (124k).
All of the 198 remaining players are guaranteed at least $3,795 while the 1st place finisher in this event will take home the gold bracelet and an impressive $770,540.
The Comeback Stud
by Crystal on 06.08.08, 8:17 pm
Dario Mineri (pictured at right) is trying to climb his way back up the leaderboard of the $10k Stud event after his stack fell to a mere 6.5k. He had called a player’s all in bet on 4th street and Dario showed the (J
J
)K
J while his opponent held only a pair of aces. Unfortunately for Dario, his opponent caught another ace and Dario failed to improve, allowing the other player to double up. He’s now built his stack back to a much healthier 38k at the beginning of today’s first break and seems to be picking his spots well. Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich was eliminated earlier today from this event along with pros Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer, and Bill Chen. There are currently 58 players remaining but only 16 will cash in this event.
With 13 players remaining, John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien has taken a couple of big hits over in the $1.5k LHE event. He lost a pot when his KQ wasn’t good enough to best the A8 of his opponent on a J837T board and then he flopped a set of 8s when the same player from the previous hand flopped a set of 9s and took another chunk of O’Brien’s chips. He is now down to around 140k in chips which is good for 8th out of 13 remaining as the players go on a 20 minute break. We still believe that the PocketFives.com t-shirt John has been religiously wearing to this event will bring him good luck and help him make the final table!
In the $5K NLHE Shootout Event, play commenced nearly three hours ago with Tim “tmay420″ West and former Quizbowl champ Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert facing Philip Tom, Thomas Roupe, former hockey pro Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Sirous Jamshidi. No one has been eliminated yet in the play, but several tense moments have occurred in the last hour of play.
Sirous Jamshidi managed to double up through West, flopping two pair to West’s JJ
. Three hands later, Wolpert checked the flop from the big blind after calling a 70K preflop raise. Wolpert’s pocket eights were good enough to hold up, winning him about 300K in chips. His fans on the rail went nuts; other news sites are labeling them “raucous” and “wild” — only to be expected by the PocketFives crowd.
Later, West doubled through Tom Roupe when West held 88 to Roupe’s 77. West now holds a stack of over 1M in chips, yet after more than 90 hands of play, all six original players at the final table remained.
All Mixed Up in the Mixed Event
by Crystal on 06.05.08, 1:41 am
There was some confusion early on as to how the levels in the $10k Mixed event would go. Some players were under the impression that there would be groupings of games per each 20 minutes of play, but in actuality each table deals eight hands of each game before moving on to the next. As a result, tables in this tournament area might all be on different games at the same time as a result of how quickly or slowly hands progress. The dealers and staff seem to be doing a good job so far of keeping the limits for each game as clear as possibly but obviously with that much going on it can easily become confusing for even the most experienced players.
Two players who got involved in a hand were Chris “Genius28″ Lee and WSOP legend Doyle Brunson. Doyle hasn’t been able to get his stack moving in the right direction yet today but when the board read AJ5Q3 during the O8 section he tabled his AKT6 for the nut straight and Lee showed 7632 for a 6532A low. They scooped up a few more chips as a result of a third player who stuck around to the river only to find his hand was no good.
P5er Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (pictured right) wasn’t having as much luck in the razz section at his table. His opponent led the betting almost every round and Billirakis was showing 45JT (in that order). His opponent seemed upset on 7th (having been dealt a 3rd ace) and when they both checked he showed hole cards of the AA5 to go with his face up 4TA7 for a T754A low which was apparently good enough to take the pot away from Billirakis who mucked.
Event #7 - $2K NLHE Update:
At the end of level 8, 240 players remained of the original field of 1,592. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman and Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert continued to incite action at their table, Leo chipping up to a very healthy 56K, more than twice the average stack. Meanwhile, we caught up with Zak “traaction” Gilbert as he was pushing his table around at seat 6, accumulating a stack of 55K.
Event #7 held a green chip race-off at the end of the level, pausing the tournament just before the 20-minute break. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar hangs around for the next level, his stack thinning at 15K. Play resumes momentarily and we wish all the remaining P5ers the best of luck!