WSOP 2008
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 9
82
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 A
Q 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
More Players Disappearing as Day 1B Wraps up
by Jessica on 06.02.08, 2:02 am
Still no sign of Chris Savage (it’s more than likely a case of mistaken identity early on in the day) and there are several other players who have disappeared from the Amazon Room as play continued this evening. Some notable eliminations include Glen Chorny and Ezra Galston (pictured at right).
Play only continued for 16 minutes once players returned from their final 20 minute break, but that was long enough for a few more players to bust out as Day 1B came to a close. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar got involved in a 3-way all in with A2 against pocket deuces and AK and an ace on the flop sent him to the rail shortly after play resumed.
Barry Greenstein was also eliminated after the break when his 7 7 failed to crack his opponent’s A A. He dutifully signed his book for the other player and called it a night ten minutes early.
There were many players who used the final sixteen minutes to their advantage though. Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley maintained his healthy stack while his friend, Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista watched him from the rail throughout the evening.
Mark “pokerbok” Vos also continued to accumulate chips during the day’s next-to-last level, chipping up through many small pots. In the cutoff, Vos was first to act and raised to 2300; he was immediately called by the big blind. The flop read 532 and the big blind checked. Vos asked how much he needed to bet to put the big blind all in, which was 10K. When he made the bet, the other player folded and he increased his chipstack to 70K. Vos has a big stack, but the biggest stack at his table belongs to the Day 1B chip leader, David Bach, who is sitting on 114K.
During the table’s next hand, play stalled as the antes failed to add up correctly. Confusion ensued as a tournament official hurried to the table to investigate; she stated that any conflict would stall the entire tournament 20 minutes. A player at the table finally confessed and received a warning just before the break.
The play for Event #2 ceased 16:13 into Level 9, with the ante at $100 and the blinds at 500/1000. Day 1B now mirrors the play of Day 1A and both will join together at the same relative point in the tournament tomorrow. The total registration for the event topped at 3929, and the top prize will be $831,462.
Play will resume tomorrow with the remaining players playing down to the final table. Meanwhile, Nenad Medic and Andy Bloch are now heads up in the 10k PL Hold Em event.
As we wait for Event #1 to wrap up, the search for brsavage continues…
Bigboybunk, Ezra Galston have healthy stacks at the dinner break
by Jill on 06.01.08, 10:37 pm
At Table 25, we caught up with Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley (pictured at left) showing down a hand with a player in late position. Bunkley showed KJ to the other player’s JT. He was way ahead when the flop came with J and two clubs, but a T on the turn gave the other player two pair, leaving Antuan shaking his head. Despite the chip loss, his 32K stack remains healthy at the break.
Ezra Galston (pictured at right) of Cardrunners gave Table 4 a run for their money before the break as well. In the middle of the last level, Galston raised on the button. The rest of the table folded around, except the player to his immediate right, who jammed his short stack into the middle. Quickly calling, Ezra showed J7 to the short stack’s Q5. When the flop came J7Q, Ezra’s two pair held and the short stack was eliminated. Several hands later, Ezra flat-called a preflop raise of 1300 in late position, after the other player in the hand affirmed he would call a 5K raise. When the flop came J75, the player in early position checked and Ezra bet 2800. After awhile in the tank, the other player folded and Ezra picked up a nice pot and teased him by showing the K.
Here are some of the unofficial chip counts before the 90-minute dinner break:
Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley - 32K
Barry Greenstein - 24K
Ezra Galston - 22K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 20K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 20K
Joe Sebok - 20K
Brian Micon - 9K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 14K
Jason “mkind16″ Lasso - 7K
Stacked tables to watch after the break:
Blue 6 - Isabelle Mercier, Mark Vos, Robert Mizrachi, Liz Lieu
Blue 23 - Joe Sebok, Lee Watkinson, Michael Binger, Arnold Spee