WSOP 2008
Kickin’ It Old School
by Crystal on 06.07.08, 10:06 pm
While the hot new game in poker may be texas hold ‘em, 7 Card Stud definitely hasn’t dropped off the radar. The $10k World Championship of 7 Card Stud kicked off tonight at 5 pm with a star studded field of poker’s best and brightest. For some of these players who play in events every day it is nice to mix it up a little bit since hold ‘em makes up the majority of this years 54 events.
Over at the final table of the $15.k NLHE 6 handed event, Devin Porter (pictured right) has a little bit healthier chip stack. He moved all in on a flop of T
5
5
for 490k prompting Rep Porter, the current chip leader, to fold. In another hand Devin raised preflop and was called by John Conkright. The flop came J
T7, Devin bet and Conkright folded. Devin’s stack is now much healthier as he continues to make a run at his first WSOP bracelet.
Also running in the amazon room is day 2 of the $1.5k LHE event #12. 99 players remain and 81 will make the money so short stacks are going to have to make some moves if they want to cash in this event. Notable players still in the hunt include Eric Crain, Anna Wroblewski, Aaron Steury, Gary Bogdanski, and Ben Fineman.
In the $5k Shootout Adam “Roothless” Levy was unable to overcome Greg “FBT” Mueller. Levy lost most of his chips holding the QQ on a board of 974J3 but his flush was trumped by Mueller’s A6. Levy’s all in was with the 87 against Mueller’s AQ. The flop of 964 came with some possibilities for Levy but the J on the turn and the 9 on the river shipped the pot to Mueller and knocked Levy out. Just like the 4 at his table that went out before him Levy will receive $16,920 for his efforts.
If you ever wondered how we here at PocketFives keep up with all the players here at the WSOP, we have a cell phone so we can communicate with players via text messaging. Generally we request players send us their table and seat number so we can more easily keep tabs on them during a tournament, but some players like to send us a little more info. One such player is Phil “USCphildo” Collins (pictured left) who is playing in the $2.5k NLHE event. Some texts we’ve received from Phil today include…
“Uscphildo table 13 amazon blue. Woke up this morning and pissed some excellence. Probly gonna win imo.”
“Double up. Uscphildownage.”
“I’m so sick. Call the doctor. 16k.”
“Lol. These guys are so bad it tickles me pink. 20k with no showdowns.”
“Lost AJ to 66 allin preflop. 16k. I will rise and conquer tho.”
“I have now lost 4 straight flips when allin preflop. Still have 11k. If I actually start running good I’ll finish the day with 100k.”
“Sickkkkkkkkk call by phildo. 26k. Weeeeeeeeeeeee.”
Keep ‘em coming Phildo!
Levy Staging a Comeback
by Crystal on 06.07.08, 7:51 pm
Adam “Roothless” Levy is hanging in there in the $5k shootout. After the first break Levy and Greg “FBT Mueller continued heads up play with Mueller holding about a 9:1 chip advantage over Levy. Mueller has been talking up a storm while Levy is patiently waiting to catch a hand. Levy doubled once with A8 against Mueller’s 22 by catching an ace and he has been slowly chipping up since. Most recently he raised Mueller on the turn of a KT92 board and was called. Levy bet out 37k on the river and after debating Mueller called and then mucked when he saw Levy held the K2 for two pair. Mueller still has almost a 2:1 chip advantage but has been complaining that Levy is catching much better cards heads up.
While Levy battles on, Leo Wolpert made quick work of his table, taking it down 1 hour and 10 minutes after play began today. He gained a huge chip lead when he won a three-way pot with pocket aces, then once play was heads up Wolpert made a bet on the river with the board showing A8748 and his opponent raised all in. Wolpert jumped from his chair yelling “Call, call call!” before flipping over the A8 for a full house that was good enough to give him the win in the 2nd round of the shootout. He now has one of the six seats at the final table tomorrow.
Joe Sebok and Isaac Haxton were both eliminated from their tables while Tim “TMay420″ West is still battling with John Juanda and Eric “EFro” Froehlich on another table.
Tran Final Tables 2k NL, Dwan Challenges Rule
by AdamJ on 06.06.08, 4:48 am
Th
eo Tran is running so good, he said he’s afraid to drive home.
Given his streak of luck today inside the Amazon room, it’s hard to blame him for not wanting to leave.
Thanks to a hot streak of cards and strong play, Tran became the first player to final table two WSOP events this summer.
Tran finishing 4th in WSOP Event #2, 1.5k NL earlier this week.
A little luck expedited Tran’s run to the final table.
Ten handed with blinds at 6k-12k with a 1k ante, Tran opened for 40k from early position as the chip leader with 1.8 million. A player from middle position moved all-in for 200k and Tran called, exposing AK.
Tran agonized when he saw his opponents KK.
His feelings changed dramatically when the A hit the flop and his opponents kings failed to catch-up, sealing the final table.
This will be Tran’s 4th WSOP final table. Last summer Tran came close the coveted WSOP bracelet when he finished second in the rebuy event.
Tran heads to the final table as chip leader with 1.884 million. Mihai Manole is second with 1.02 million.
Other notable players at the final table include Shannon Shorr with 627k, Alex Bolotin 345k, and J.C. Tran with 273k.
Despite not being as established as his counterparts on the tournament trail, Tom “durrrr” Dwan (pictured right) wasn’t afraid to speak his mind when a rule seemed unfair.
As a player busted deep in the WSOP Event #8 Mixed Championship, Dwan was informed that after every redraw 2-7 triple draw restarts as the next game.
“This is unfair, how can any game always be first, this should be random,” Dwan said. ”I have a big problem with this.”
High stakes pro David Oppenheim, sitting to Dwan’s left chimed in.
“I agree it’s unfair but it’s the rule,” Oppenheim said.
Greg “FBT” Mueller, also at Dwan’s table, agreed with Dwan but said “what can we do” in response to the fuming Dwan.
Not satisfied with “it’s the rule” as justification for its existence, Dwan continued to speak up.
Lee Watkinson came over and told him, ‘if we speak up we can change it.’
After a few minutes, a WSOP tournament director spoke up and announced they’d redraw a game at random.
When the tournament director announced No-Limit as the next game, which is Dwan’s specialty, Gus Hansen reminded Dwan how good he runs.
Stacked 5k Mixed field, Sowers Bad Beats Dicken
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 1:27 am
For those trying to game select WSOP tournaments to play, looking for fields ripe with weak players to enhance their chances, the 5k mixed hold-em event would fail miserably.
The 332-player field read like a who’s who list of poker professionals from both live and online communities.
Multiple tables had four to six recognizable names in poker and some tables were stocked with a bevy of big names like the table that featured Barry Greenstein, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Phil Hellmuth, Hoyt Corkins, Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, and Amit “Amak316″ Makhija.
Ulliott had the distinct pleasure of sitting to Hellmuth’s right, prompting him to attach a piece of paper over his left ear that read “bullshit deflector.”
Greg “FBT” Mueller , last year’s 5k mixed hold-em 2nd place finisher, drew one of the tougher tables in the field with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at right), David “Raptor” Benefield, Corey “ugotpzd” Carroll, Gavin Griffin, and Andrew “Good2cu” Robl.
It didn’t take long for Mike “SowersUNCC” and Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken to bump heads, a clash that left Dicken exiting the table talking to his former tablemates about the upcoming rebuy event.
With blinds at 200-400 in the limit round, Sowers raised to 800 from middle position and Dicken reraised to 1200 out of the blind. Sowers put Dicken all-in for his last 300 and Dicken was shocked to see that his Q8 was dominated by Sowers A8.
‘When you go all-in with Q8 its more likely your not dominated,’ lamented Dicken, as he stood up awaiting his fate.
The board brought no hope for Dicken and he was eliminated.
A hand minutes earlier between Sowers and Dicken played a bigger part in his departure however.
With blinds still at 200-400 in the limit round, Sowers and Dicken got involved in a capped pot preflop where Sowers got all-in on the flop.
On a KKT flop, Sowers found himself in a cooler with AK, trailing Dicken’s TT. After a baby card dropped on the turn, Sowers hit a miracle K on the river.
Another table included a diverse collection of poker players from around the world in both live and online realms with Roland De Wolfe, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton, former world champion Greg Raymer, and last year’s 5k mixed hold-em champion and youngest bracelet holder, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis.
It didn’t take long for the affable De Wolfe to get ribbing from the table after his AQ beat his opponents AA in an all-in preflop hand in the NL round after De Wolfe’s second queen dropped on the river, sending his opponent recounting the hand to a friend still in the tournament.
‘The good thing about that is that if you go on to win the tournament you won’t be able to brag about it because i’ll be able to remind you of that,’ Raymer said to De Wolfe.