WSOP 2008
Clements At Risk Early
by AdamJ on 07.10.08, 4:44 pm
Starting with a below average stack of 65k on Day 3 of the Main Event, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured right) wasn’t wielding the big stack he’s accustomed to bludgeoning on his opposition.
Clements position got bleaker after getting down to 49k in the first hour with blinds at 800-1600-200. Then Clements finally scooped a pot that will perhaps enable him to play more of his aggressive style that’s been so successful for him.
Clements raised to 4700 under-the-gun and got re-raised all-in by his opponent for an additional 36k, costing Clements the majority of his chips. Given the position Clements raised from, he wasn’t exactly ecstatic about getting raised all-in for most of his chips by this particular opponent.
“I thought about folding,” he said.
Clements eventually made the call and his AK was trailing his opponents pocket tens.
Clements picked up a two extra outs when the flop came Q-J-x, but was bad shape until he clipped a king on the river, elevating his stack to 87k.
Another PocketFiver whose built his stack early is Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez, who started the day with 124k. Ramirez’s opponent raised to 5k from middle position and Ramirez called out of the blind. On a flop of A
8
6
, Ramirez check-raised his opponent’s overbet of 20k to 55k. His opponent went all-in for an additional 10k and Ramirez called with AK, way ahead of his opponents AQ. The board ran true for Ramirez, who now has 190k.
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken played a big all-in preflop hand with his opponent, both with approximately equal stacks. Dicken held the Q
Q but found he was behind his opponents AA. Behind until the flop came KQ3 to catapult Dicken into the lead. Ah but the poker gods can be cruel sometimes and in a classic “suck-out re-suck-out” the A hit on the turn to put the other player back into the lead. As the river was being dealt the player with aces nearly jumped out of his seat seeing it was a face card but it was just the K. No quads for Dicken and he was sent to the rail.
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter and another player saw a flop of 997. The other player checked over to Porter who bet 7k only to be check-raised to 15k. Porter made the call and when the 9 fell on the turn both players checked. The T came on the river and the other player bet out 12k which Porter called. The other player showed the 66 for nines full of sixes which was good enough and Porter mucked his hand. As his table broke he said he was down about 30k from the start of the day but is looking to get it back soon!
Some early chip counts we spotted include Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (125k), Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin (60k), Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (40k), and Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (11k).
Early eliminations include Noah “exclusive” Boeken, Kevin “ImaLucSac” Macphee, Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti, and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams
Glasser Busts in 8th
by Jessica on 06.23.08, 6:57 pm
Thanks to a little help from some friends and some timely shoving, Mike”inissint” Glasser (pictured right) was quietly moving up the chip counts up to 5th position in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #39.
In his first key hand of the day, Glasser moved all-in over Habib Khanis’ raise for an additional 385k and after much deliberation, Khanis folded.
Glasser showed pocket jacks and as he raked the pot got a little ribbing from his buddy Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul who was there with Glasser from the onset.
“I dare you to show another hand,” Saul shouted.
In one of many discussions Glasser had between hands with Saul and Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken, who joined 40 minutes into the final table, Glasser affirmed to Saul that he just wanted to establish a tight image early on in hopes that his raises will gain more fold equity later as he may need to ship it light.
From that point on, Glasser’s resistance free final table started drawing traction as his chip count went south.
Glasser’s stack took a hit when he raised to 150k and got reraised all-in by Eric Beren for an additional 380k. Glasser called and was up against one of the few hands he didn’t want to see with his AQ against Beren’s AK.
Beren got a scare when the board ran out 533A turning Glasser a flush draw but was safe when the 7 dropped on the river.
Glasser’s luck turned a few hands later when he moved all-in for 65k preflop and got two callers, trippling to up to 285k when his JJ flopped a boat on a JTT flop.
His ascent back up the leaderboard was short lived however thanks to a brutal river card.
Glasser moved all-in from the button and got called by the big blind. Glasser’s 99 was in a race against Matt Wood’s AQ. His fate appeared bright when board ran out J74J by the turn, but the A spelled doom for Glasser, who took home 85k for eighth place.
Here’s some chip counts of some P5er’s battling it out on Day 2 of the 1.5k Mixed Hold-em WSOP Event #41 with 83 of 731 left.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 27k
Todd “DanDruff” Witteles - 17k
Daniel Deveau - 22k
Stu “TheDonator” Paterson - 11.5k
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.
End of Day 1A
by Court on 04.20.08, 3:23 am
After a fairly short day the players have bagged up their chips and headed out into the Bellagio to find dinner. Tomorrow a new set of players will take their turn on the felt and on Monday the remaining players from the two day ones will combine for day 2 play.
Billy Baxter (167,150), Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken (163,675) and Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis came out of the day at the top of the chip counts and will be in good shape coming into day 2 play, though there is still a long way to go. This tournament is scheduled to last until April 26th, leaving 7 more days of action before a champion is crowned. The top 100 make the money though since the registration number finally cracked the 400 mark so the money bubble will come fairly early as almost a quarter of the field gets paid.
Other Chip Counts From Day 1A:
Dario Minieri - 118,650 (right)
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 104,275
Tim “TMay420″ West - 84,925
Barry Greenstein - 76,950
Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll - 67,625
Cliff “JohnyBax” Josephy - 59,700
Shane “Shaniac” Schleger - 49,400
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 45,650
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 28,925
Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham and Jon “FieryJustice” Little were among those that did not make it through the day, joining Eric “EFro” Froehlich and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements on the sidelines before the completion of day 1A.