WSOP 2008
Clements Takes an Early Lead
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 4:49 pm
In the $10k PLO event #50, a number of players have already built their stacks up while a few have already been eliminated from the tournament. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was knocked out when his opponent flopped top two pair and all Eric had was a pair of aces in his hand. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements‘ stack is heading in the opposite direction. Clements (pictured right) is the current chip leader with 32k and has not used his reload chip yet. Barry Greenstein was one of the chip leaders in the PLO event until a massive hand took his entire stack away. Greenstein flopped a set of kings on a K
Q
T board and the Q
came on the turn giving him the best full house possible. Unfortunately for Greenstein, his opponent held the other two queens for quads and scooped up a 50k pot to knock Greenstein out of the tournament. He’ll now have a little over an hour to prepare for the final table of the $50k HORSE event that kicks off at 3pm.
Day 2 of the $1.5k NLHE event #49 is set to kick off at 2 pm with a number of notable online players still in the field.
After starting with a massive field of 2,018, only 215 players survived the day to return on day 2. The bubble burst last night at 270 players and all the players returning today are guaranteed at least $2,968 while the 1st place finisher will take home $631,170 along with the gold bracelet. Some notable players hitting the felt again today include Greg “FBT” Mueller (131.7k), Alex “42oneverloses” Case (97.3k), Hevad “RainKhan” Khan (58.8k), and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (20.7).
To Reload or Not to Reload?
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 3:39 pm
The $10k World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha got started at noon today here in the Amazon room with around 240 entrants when play began. The field has since grown to more than 320 players and registration will stay open until the end of level two. We’ve already spotted some P5ers in this smaller field including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
While in most of the other WSOP events this year the starting stack has been double the buy-in for the event, players begin this tournament with 10k in tournament chips plus a red reload chip (pictured left) that is good for another 10k chips whenever the player chooses to use it. Players can elect to use it right at the beginning, to make their starting stack 20k while others may wait until they need the extra chips. At the end of level three, the extra 10k will be added to any player’s stack that hasn’t already used their reload chip.
The final tables of both the $50k HORSE event #45 and the $2k NLHE event #48 will start this afternoon. The HORSE final table is fileld with big name pros including P5’s own Barry Greenstein who comes into the final table with the 3rd largest chip stack as he tries to win his 2nd bracelet this year and his 4th overall bracelet.
The $2k NLHE final table will be led by chip leader Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson who has more than 2.1 million. The final table will begin play at 3 pm where Marco hopes his amazing run in this event will lead straight to his first WSOP bracelet.
Online Players Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 5:46 pm
After tournament registration closed for the $5k NLHE six-handed event, 805 players had entered the tournament, beating last years total by 77 entries. Even with 10k starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, the play has been fast and furious. There are so many notable online players in the field that we can’t even begin to list them all. One of our reporters counted more than 50 notable online players in the field at the start of the tournament so we wouldn’t be surprised if numerous P5ers ran deep in today’s event.
We caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham in a hand with the board reading 6
32. It appeared that Matt had bet out on the flop only to be raised another 2.3k by his opponent. Matt was obviously stressed about his decision and then decided to fold his pocket tens face-up. Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Hevad “RainKhan” Khan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger (pictured right), and Alex Jacob are all doing well and have built their stacks up during the first two levels.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was seen walking through the field of six-handed players a little before 2 pm, but he isn’t playing in today’s event because he is in day 2 of the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tourney. He is seated at table #13 along with Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left). Another table with a few notable players is #15 with Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich all seated together. 81 of the 115 players that started today will make the money so short stacked players are going to have to make moves soon as the bubble isn’t too far away.
Let’s Get It Started!
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 3:20 pm
Getting the players (or maybe the dealers?) pumped up for today’s $1.5k NLHE event #32, the Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get It Started” was pumping through the sound system in the Amazon room again today as a field of nearly 2,000 players filed in to take their seats. The registration line for this event was out the door of the registration room and wrapped around through the hall 20 minutes before the start of the tournament so the total number of players will easily climb higher before registration closes.
There are numerous P5ers hitting the felt today in this immense field including Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (pictured right), Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez, and Andy “BKiCe” Seth. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on these and many other P5ers as the day progresses.
Last night the final table of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) was set and Brock “t_soprano” Parker is coming into the final table as the short stack with only 166k in chips while the current chip leader Aaron Katz has over 1.2 Million. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was eliminated in 12th place when his KQ couldn’t catch up to the AA of J.C. Tran on a JT835 board. Froehlich takes home $35,861 for his great finish in this tournament. The final table will begin playing at 3 pm this afternoon.
OMGClay Wins!
by Jill on 06.17.08, 4:46 am
After more than 100 hands of heads-up play in the Event #28 $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has brought down the house, winning $817,781 and the WSOP bracelet. Congratulations, Phil, on the huge win!
Play is over this evening for Event #29, the $3K No-Limit Hold’em tournament as we are down to the final table. Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured at left) sat atop the chip count at the end of the day with more than 1M in chips; Tony “Bond18″ Dunst contended with 342K and returns to play tomorrow. Vengrin’s ascent to chip leader occurred tonight when an under-the-gun player raised to 45K and Vengrin, in the small blind, raised to 100K.
The other player announced he was all in and Vengrin tanked before calling with pocket tens. His tens held up against his opponent’s A-K and Vengrin took down the huge pot. He returns tomorrow to battle it out for the for the $434,789 prize and fabled golden bracelet. The final table race will commence at 2PM PST tomorrow.
Event #27 has also concluded, crowning Vitaliy Lunkin the champion of the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament. A first-time bracelet winner, Lunkin won $628,417 and the WSOP bracelet after a relatively short hour-long heads-up match with Brett Kimes. Many congratulations to Lunkin on his win!
Apparently, the drinks that Scotty Nguyen bought for his table did him some good as Event #31, the $2.5K No-Limit Hold’em 6-handed tournament came to a close this evening. According to our sources here at PocketFives, while Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Nguyen were joking around at the table and drinking their Michelobs, a flop came 8-8-4. Both players were still in the hand and Nguyen ripped a $100 bill in half, giving one half to Hanks. Nguyen teased Hanks, “If you call me here, I’ll give you the other half, baby!” Well, call Hanks did and when Nguyen flipped over 8-T for trips, Hanks couldn’t catch up and mucked the hand, losing his entire stack. Here’s to hoping Hanks can find some strong scotch tape! Play continues at 2PM PST tomorrow afternoon.
Meanwhile, Event #30’s $10K Limit Hold’em World Championship marched on in the Brasilia room, now down to the final two tables after the elimination of Todd “DanDruff” Witteles (pictured at right) in 19th place. Witteles lost a huge pot to Michael Mizrachi when his K-K lost to a flush. Witteles was finished off when his J6 was behind his opponent’s AK on an ace-high flop and he couldn’t catch up. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Eric “EFro” Froehlich remained strong in the event, both with chip stacks in the mid-300s. Play is expected to continue into the wee hours of the morning as all players aim for the final table.