WSOP 2008
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by Court on 10.11.08, 7:46 pm
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz was sitting pretty with over 90k early in the day, but in no limit hold em the action can be fast and in the blink of an eye a mountain of chips can melt into the green felt in front of you. Noah made an aggressive move in a multi-way pot that he quickly regretted. After a handful of players were in for a raise preflop the board came 5-4-3 rainbow and a player moved all in for just over 8k, slightly more than the pot. Noah called the all in bet, but then was faced with a hefty raise from Joe Hoellein.
Hoellein made it 25k to go with about 45k behind. Schwartz moved in making a play at the side pot and an isolation move for the main pot. Things worked out opposite of what he was hoping for though, when his opponent quickly called with his 7-6 for the flopped nut straight. 
Noah had pocket sevens and needed to hit a gutshot six to tie or runner runner for the win.
Instead, he was left shaking his head at his own move and seeing a pile of chips head the other way. Not too long after the hand Schwartz (left) was eliminated from the tournament.
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich made the right read, but got the wrong result. With a bunch of players calling a raise to 1,200 preflop the action got to the big blind who moved all in. Jordan called with pocket tens only to find out he was up against pocket kings, but was told by the player with kings that he had made up his mind to move in with any 2 cards anyway. Long story short, Jordan was happy with his read and call but he lost the pot to the player with pocket kings.
Shawn “jordankickz” Busse made a crying call when a player moved all in over the top of his turn bet. On a board of T
32
8 Shawn bet something between 3k and 4k and the other player moved all in for what turned out to be exactly 10k more. Shawn dejectedly put in the chips to make the call and saw what he was up against what he his facial expression implied he expected when he made the call - a made flush in the form of QJ.
At a table toward the back of the room Russell “rdcrsn” Carson has been involved in a couple of pots against the same opponent. In the first pot Carson gave up his hand in a small pot when the other player bet 5k on the river of a A
8874 board after Carson had bet the flop and both players checked the turn. A few hands later Carson was one forcing the other player out with a raise on the river. The board showed 96
379 and when he was faced with a 5k bet Carson put out 14k worth of chips and after some thought his opponent folded. In the after hand talk Carson told the other player that he got bluffed “if you had any kind of pair.”
An always jovial Matt “All In At 420″ Stout raised to 1,200 preflop and another player made it 3,200. Stout stopped his conversation with the other players just long enough to say all in. The other player thought for a minute before folding and asked Matt if he would show. “Maybe,” Matt replied. “Show me what you raised me with.” The player declined and the dealer scooped up the cards with Matt saying “I was going to show if you did.”
Players are on break and will be back to play out the last level of the day.
Moving To Vegas, Quads for Schwartz
by Court on 10.11.08, 3:49 pm
With his bags packed a little heavier than usual, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke can now start looking for a flight to make his move to Vegas official. Jimmy has all his clothes packed up and is making the move to Nevada, with a brief stop in Niagara Falls to play the tournament here. 
Early on day 1 he ran pocket aces into a player that had flopped two pair. The chips went in on the turn and with no help on the river Jimmy left the building to make the final plans for his move to Sin City.
Alec “traheho” Torelli (left) is probably going to be on the same flight back to Vegas, with his elimination coming within moments of Fricke’s. Again, Torelli’s overpair to the board fell to a flopped two pair.
After the completion of the second level the players are all on break, none with bigger smiles than Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz. After a flop of Q-T-4 Noah had to think he was in good shape with a set of tens, but after another ten on the turn he had all but a lock on the hand. When the chips went in Noah saw he was up against another huge hand, a flopped set of queens turned into top full house on the turn. The player with queens was left with only 1 out on the river, and when it didn’t hit Noah was able to cold deck his way into a large pot and continue to pile up chips.
Table Draws
by Court on 10.11.08, 2:53 pm
In cash games you can pick your spots, and if you don’t like your table you can either choose to find another table or just not play. Tournaments don’t offer a player that option, and some of the table pairings today are not what the players were hoping for in their day 1 starting seating assignments.
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is seated across the table from his good friend Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen while Jason “JP_OSU” Potter was just moved to a tough table and is now sitting with Jason “JCarver” Somerville on his immediate left and Tyler “Brainwash” Cornell on Jason’s left with Craig “MrCasino” Gray across the table as well.
Cornell has added to his stack significantly already, sitting with 55k and picking up a medium sized pot recently with pocket aces on a board of AQ5. There was enough in the pot preflop to warrant a 7k bet on the flop from Cornell, that ended the action when the other player folded. A hot Cornell turned up his aces for top set with a shrug seemingly saying “what can I do, I’m getting hands.”
Aces weren’t so kind to Somerville, who lost a 30k pot early in the day when his pocket aces ran into top set.
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz (right) just picked up a pot with an all in bet on the river with the board showing KJ827. Noah’s all in was around 20k and enough to cover his opponent who decided to fold and fight another day, surrendering the 20k+ pot to Schwartz. Also at the table with Noah are Alec “traheho” Torelli fresh off back to back wins in Bellagio prelim events, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout and Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim.
Bowker Goes Busto
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 6:30 pm
In the $1.5k PLO w/Rebuys tourney only six players have been eliminated in the first hour of play. Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams, and Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker are amongst the early casualties who weren’t able to cash in this event.
Bowker’s elimination came when he got it all preflop with a great drawing hand, the AKQT against his opponents 9877. The flop of 872 gave Bowker a flush draw and his opponent two pair. Unfortunately for Bowker, the 8 came on the turn giving his opponent a full house and left Bowker drawing dead.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams raised preflop only to have a short stack push all in. Jeff made the call with the AKQ9 which was behind to the all-in’s KK54. The board ran out KJ6Q7 and William’s stack dropped to around 60k.
In the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event, several P5ers are already running up their stacks. With the average chip count currently at 4,476, these guys are starting to themselves apart from the large field:
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at left) - 13K
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz - 11.5K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 11K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 10K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 9K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 9K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 8K