WSOP 2008
Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?
by Jill on 07.09.08, 9:47 pm
Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski continued to be very active in the first half of Level 8 and PocketFives caught up to the action at his table as he was raising under the gun to 2.3K. Three players called in position - both the blinds and the button. The flop came T
9
J
and he bet 5K into the pot, getting one other call. When the turn brought the J
, Chris fired out 8.5K more and his opponent called again from the small blind position. At the 6 on the river, Chris moved all in for 9.5K more and got a call; he showed down KQ and the other player mucked. Chris doubled and now sits at 55K.
A few tables over, Frank “Round42″ Rusnak (pictured at right) reported that he’s the object of batting practice — one of his tablemates just happens to be Jose Canseco’s ex-wife and baby’s momma, Jessica. The pair were confronting each other as PocketFives watched Jessica reraise his preflop 1.9K bet to 6.8K. She stared him down and he gave her a hard time, but flashed a big smile to PocketFives.
Frank recently took down a decent sized pot when a player under the gun raised to 2.1K, Rusnak called in middle position, as did the player on the button. The flop Q75 and all three players checked. The 7 on the turn prompted the initial raiser to check again and Rusnak bet out 4.7K. The player on the button then reraised to 9.7K and Frank thought momentarily before making the call. Both checked after the K came on the river and Rusnak announced, “I have a pair.” The other player stared at him, waiting for him to turn over his cards. Frank revealed 99, his opponent mucked, and he is now up to 80K.
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania had courteously doubled up several players at his table throughout the day today and recently he finally had the same courtesy extended back to him when he and another player got it all-in on a flop of 952 with Mohsin holding pocket sixes with the six of hearts while his opponent had A-K with the king of hearts. No heart came on the turn or river and Charania doubled up to 49K.
Despite starting the day with a less-than-average stack of 23K, Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert has been on a hot run of cards, elevating his stack all the way up to 123K. Although it would be easy for him to tell PocketFives he’s just been playing above the rim and chipping up, Wolpert said that he’s just been sucking out, including snapping of pocket aces with his pocket tens.
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at left) has just been eliminated from the Main Event — and in an ugly fashion at that. We caught up with Bogdanski betting 12K on a board of A43J5 and his opponent moved all in, having Gary covered. Gary leaned back in his chair and said “I can’t fold, I call,” to which the other player replied “You lose.” He flipped over 42 for a straight flush and Gary angrily showed his T8 before heading out of the Amazon Room.
Dan “voff” Deveau avoided disaster just before his table broke in the Brasilia Room. With blinds at 400/800, Deveau raised to 2.3K from under the gun and a player in late position raised to 6K. Deveau asked for a count of his opponent’s stack before making the call with QQ. The board came out T36 and Deveau checked to his opponent, who bet 10K. Deveau quickly folded and the other player showed his AA. Dan is still stitting comfortably with 70K.
Here are some other unofficial chip counts in Level 8:
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 184K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 180K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 175K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Darren Elias - 155K
David “Bakes” Baker - 155K
Aaron Steury - 140K
Brandon Schaefer - 137K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 135K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 134K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 123K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 111k
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 110K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 110K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 95K
Thayer Rasmussen - 84K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 80K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 80K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 80K
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 75K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 65K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 62K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 61K
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 58K
“BodogAri” Engel - 57K
Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski - 55K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 53K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 49K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 48.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 40K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 40K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 35K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 35k
Bryan Micon - 35K
Ben “BSUChamp” Grice - 33K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 32K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 30K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 28K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 27K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 24.5K
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 23K
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 20.5K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 17K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 17K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 16K
Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti - 16K
Martin Handed DisGusting Beat
by Brett on 07.09.08, 4:30 pm
Chris “LUHMAN” Martin learned a costly lesson early in Day 2b: Never get your chips in with the best hand against Gus Hansen. Martin, who began the day with just 7,250, moved all in from the cutoff. Hansen considered folding from the button but then decided to make the call with A8 and found out he was way behind Martin’s A9. That is until the 8 came in the door and Martin was unable to improve. His seat has now been filled by Hansen’s cell phone and BlackBerry.
A few Pocketfivers have more than doubled up their short stacks in the first hour of play. Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski won a few pots early and then busted a player with a slightly smaller stack when they played a hand all-in preflop, with Dombrowski’s queens holding up against pocket tens. After starting the day with 13k, Dombrowksi currently sits with 32k.
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski recently scooped a big pot out of a limped hand on his small blind. Bogdanski completed the blind after an under-the-gun limp with the T3 and the big blind checked. A flop of 589 got checked through and Bogdanski led for 1300 when the A peeled on the turn. The big blind raised Bogdanski to 4k and Bogdanski went all-in for an additional 10k and got called. Another ace peeled on the river and Bogdanski’s flush bested his opponents turned pair of aces with a smaller club draw. Bogdanski currently sits with 44k.
Some others we’ve seen hit the rail early were Brian “sbrugby” Townsend and Jeremy” Chipsteela” Menard.
Hamby Busts; Sad Pandas at the Rio
by Brett on 07.06.08, 3:30 am
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby exited Day 1c at the beginning of Level 5. With five players seeing a flop of J-10-8, a player in early position led out for 3K and Hamby (pictured right) jammed his last 15K into the middle. It folded back around to the bettor, who called with the flopped straight (Q-9) and Hamby’s A-Q was drawing to four kings or three nines to chop the pot. They never appeared and Hamby was sent home.
Jason “mkind0516″ Laso was reseated in the Blue section after disappearing for awhile from PocketFives’ radar. We caught up to his table while he guarded a 34K stack and was involved in a hand with one other player. There was already a small pot brewing on a T47 board, when he raised the flop to 1,050 and his opponent check-raised him to 4,400 more. After thinking awhile, Jason folded and was down to 32K.
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania got involved in a blind vs. blind battle at his table and continued to run hot. The small blind opened to 1200 at 200/400 and Charania raised to 4000 in the big blind. The small blind then four-bet all in for 22K and Charania quickly called with AK. The small blind flipped over JJ and yelled “Hold!” before the dealer prepared to reveal the board. The Q72 flop wasn’t promising for Charania, but he caught the A on the turn and rivered the A for good measure to eliminate the player and increase his stack to 115K.
Michael “benvo123″ Benvonuti (pictured left) and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski would also like us to send out a public service announcement for whoever stole their Everest Poker complimentary seat cushions to please bring them back. For those who are unaware, one of the goodies anyone who plays in the Main Even gets is a nice, green seat cushion bearing the Everest Poker seat logo. While Gary and Michael are not sentimentally attached to their cushions, they feel like the culprit should return them out of principle. They can offer no reward, but they wish bad beats and one outers on whoever stole their swag. We here at P5s Live don’t want to start any rumors, but we did see Jon Wein walking out with something like 10 seat cushions….not to point fingers or anything.
Here’s a look at how the other P5ers still alive are faring as the last level is coming to a close:
David “Bakes” Baker - 145K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 87K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 84K
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 70K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 66K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 58k
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 46.5K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 46K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 44.5K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 40K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 40K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 37K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 37K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 36K
Jason “mkind0516″ Laso - 32K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 29.5K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 28K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 27K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 25K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 25K
Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen - 23K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 23K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 23K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 22K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 20K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 20k
Hung Nguyen - 20K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 17.5K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 16K
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne - 14K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 9.5K
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 982 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 AQ 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
No Way, Jose!
by Jill on 06.28.08, 8:35 pm
Event #48, the $2K No-Limit Hold’em tournament seems to have settled down and fewer short stacks remain to continue the shovefest. A few over one hundred players were left standing at the end of the level, batting for the bracelet and $770,540 grand prize.
Several PocketFives players were doing exceptionally well when we last caught up with the tournament; Adam “akat11″ Katz was back with his lucky masseuse, Erin, and he had managed to chip up to more than 170K. Eric “jakz101″ Crain was cruising with about 310K in chips and Adam “Roothlus” Levy increased his stack to 100K.
Dan “wretchy” Martin also managed to chip up when his pocket kings dominated the pocket deuces of his opponent and he won a pot of about 30K. His stack increased to 160K. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson pictured at right) was also sitting comfortably with 110K.
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade kept his short stack viable, managing to win a few key pots and chip up to 110K. He explained that he raised under the gun with AT and was called by one other player who held Q-T. Tristan’s hand held and he managed to double up his stack. He took down a few more pots uncontested and worked his life-support stack up to a a much safer one.
The real story of the last level, though was Jose “head2782″ Severino’s ascension to chip leader. In a pot with one other player on the flop, Jose sat in late position and his opponent bet out 7K. Jose flat called him. The turn came the T, his opponent bet 23K, and Jose re-raised him all in. His opponent instantly called, flipping over AQ to Jose’s pocket kings. The river came the T and Jose took down a huge pot that had to be counted and re-counted by the dealer (with some help from Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson at the table). After the win, Jose chipped up to more than 360K in chips, surpassing Eric Crain’s domination.
Other PocketFivers, however, did not fare as well in recent play. Daniel “voff” Deveau, Jon Wein, and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski were amongst the recent eliminations.