WSOP 2008
Vivek Lost at Sea
by AdamJ on 06.29.08, 12:18 am
Returning from a break in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #49, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (pictured right) encountered a problem he’d never faced when playing online.
Thanks to hundreds of people mixing in with a monotone grid of tables, Rajkumar was unable to find his seat as the tournament was about to start.
“I’m such a clown,” Rajkumar said. “I’m a world class clown,” he told P5’s as he was having fun with the situation.
As Rajkumar was wondering around the Amazon Room one of his tablemates waved him over. Then Rajkumar had to decided which stack to sit in front of as two stacks of chips remained vacant next to each other where Rajkumar was seated. They figured it out rather quickly as Rajkumar got a little ribbing from the table as the tournament was underway.
Rajkumar didn’t have nearly as hard a time doubling his 16k stack minutes later when he 3-bet his opponent with pocket jacks and his opponent called and moved all-in on a 10-10-7 flop. Rajkumar’s hand held up against his opponents ace-high as his stack shot up to 30k.
William “gptbigguy” Looper has maintained his 36k stack amid a home-game environment with Minh “The Master” Nguyen sitting to his immediate left. Nguyen had been cracking jokes and cackling loudly following the break and was last seen taking shots with some people at the table. Although he was enjoying the atmostphere, Looper didn’t succumb to the party environment.
“No shots for me just yet,” Looper said. “I’ve got to keep my concentration level.”
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks in Level 7 with blinds at 300-600-75 and the average stack at 17k. There are 460 of the initial 2,718 players left.
Greg “FBT” Mueller - 50k
Andy Black - 35k
David Pham - 28k
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 16k
Eugene Todd - 16k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 15k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 15k
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 14k
J.C. Tran - 12k
Hevad Khan - 8k
In the $2K No Limit Hold Em event Dan “Wretchy” Martin recently doubled up when a player raised to 18K and Martin then reraised to 43K with blinds at 3k-6k and a 500 ante. The first player then moved all-in, forcing Dan to a decision for his remaining 80K. Luckily for Martin, the decision was pretty simple and he quickly made the call with A
A
. The other player showed K
K
and when the cards ran out 6434J Dan’s stack shot up to 240K. Martin told Pocket Fives he picked up pocket queens the very next hand and picked up another pot after reraising pre-flop. He now sits with 300K.
Here are some other notable chip counts from some of the 48 remaining players:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 540K
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 410K
Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail - 333K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 300K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 145K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 133K
Jose “head2782″ Severino - 110K
Ibuki “bukithepro” Fukui - 77K
Recent eliminations include Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Tristan “Cre8tive” Wade.
Rizen Out
by Jill on 06.28.08, 10:52 pm
Since we last updated on Event #49, the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament, more than 600 additional players have been eliminated. The number of players remaining is 572 and the average stack is 14.2K; players left for dinner break just before 7pm PST.
One of the latest casualties of the maniacal field included Eric “Rizen” Lynch (pictured at left), who sat comfortably with 14K in the blue section of the Amazon room. Before the flop came, he raised 1.2K from under the gun and got one caller - the player immediately to his left. The flop came 35K and Eric bet 2K, only to be repopped for 6K. Eric moved all in and was called by his opponent. The turn was the T and his opponent flipped over AQ to Eric’s pocket sixes. The 2 on the river couldn’t help Eric, who was drawing dead, and he was sent to the rail after giving a very gracious “Nice hand” compliment to his opponent.
Other players were also frustrated by the deck before the break. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar engaged in a hand with one other opponent when he raised to 1.2K preflop in early position and was called by a limper. The flop came 4T3 and his opponent checked, only to have Vivek bet out 1.9K. The other player smooth-called Vivek’s bet and the 6 came on the turn. Both players checked down the turn and the Q came on the river. Vivek’s opponent led out with 5K and Vivek tanked, sarcastically telling his opponent, “Obviously I hit that. Why such a big bet?” He finally folded and let the table peek his Q as he mucked his cards.
On the flip side of the coin, William “gptbigguy” Looper (pictured at right) experienced quite a bit of good fortune in the last couple of levels, chipping all the way up to 31K. When PocketFives asked him what his strategy had been, he answered: “Getting lucky. Getting really lucky.” He wouldn’t even report hands to the media crew in fear that we would post them, but so far his luck is holding!
David “seal” Eisenstein also got lucky in a hand this afternoon. He reported that he’d been all in on a previous hand and his opponent hit two pair on the flop, then rivered a full house. His stack took a huge hit and was down 15K, but not out. We caught up with David as he was all in for 2K with Q-8; an eight on the river saved him from elimination and he doubled up. The next hand, he urged us to stick around - he went all in with pocket fives and took down the pot uncontested before showing his cards and making the table laugh.
Here are some unofficial chip counts at the break:
William “gptbigguy” Looper - 31K
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas - 27K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 16K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 13.5K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 10.5K
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 10K
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 10K
“shortyjacksn” - 7K
Seat Open!
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 6:16 pm
Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.
Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.
60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.
In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop. Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn. Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot. Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines. He was down to 1.8K at the break.
Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K