WSOP 2008
Mackey, Dwan Big Stacks in 10k Mixed
by AdamJ on 06.06.08, 7:01 am
Playing down to an 8-handed final table in WSOP Event #8 Mixed Championship, online’s wiz kids yield big stacks with ten players left.
James “mig.com” Mackey doubled up earlier to acquire his 480k in an earlier NL hand when his 3bet of Tom “durrrr” Dwan got 4bet all-in back to him by Dwan.
With his tournament on the line, Mackey called with T
T
, way ahead of Dwan’s KT
.
Mackey’s tens prevailed, taking him from an average stack to one of the chip leaders.
Despite his stack taking a huge hit, Dwan rebounded big in the triple draw round, which didn’t go unnoticed by his tablemate David Oppenheim.
“Durrrr’s won every single hand in triple draw,” Oppenheim said to Gus Hansen, sitting at the other table.
Here are the stacks of the ten remaining players: Mathew Glantz 650k, Tom Dwan 520k, Gus Hansen 440k, Michael DeMichele 320k, Jeff Madsen 320k, Sammy Farha 265k, Tony Rivera 200k, David Oppenheim 170k, Eli Elezra 90k.
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.
Dwan, Rivera Chip Leaders in 10k Mixed
by AdamJ on 06.06.08, 1:31 am
The young guns of high stakes poker are faring well in the 10k mixed event despite lacking years of experience compared to their live game pro counterparts.
Among the young pro’s doing well are Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Tony “tongni” Rivera, (pictured right) who were the top stacks after the dinner break with 33 players left.
Dwan, a 21-year-old online phenom, is the chip leader with 220k. Dwan specializes in nosebleed NL and PLO cash games at the highest stakes. Rivera, with 188k, is a 22-year-old who’s best known for limit hold-em, playing live 400-800 as well as high stakes mixed games.
Both are seated at a table stacked with live mixed game pro’s like Sammy Farha, who plays the 3k-6k mixed game in the Bellagio, as well as last year’s WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Mike Sexton, and Marcel Luske. Vanessa Rousso and Adam Friedman are also seated at the table.
Another table included Gus Hansen, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, Ralph Perry, Brandon Adams, Lee Watkinson, Chad Brown, and James “mig.com” Mackey.
Mackey, winner of a 5k NL event last summer as a 21-year-old, had a solid stack of 135k in the 1k-2k NL round.
During the 1k-2k NL level, Farha faced elimination when he was all-in preflop for 63k and his AQ trailed Rouso’s AK.
After a queen dropped on the turn and prevailed by the river, Rousso, stunned by the turn of events, proclaimed how unlucky she is for the next few minutes.
A few minutes later Farha was all-in again when he raised Schneider’s flop bet with an all-in move.
While Schneider was thinking, Hansen came over to watch the hand and proclaimed Farha as one of the most dangerous NL and PLO players, emphasizing “after Durrrr” of course in the pecking order.
Farha seemed amused by the compliment and raked the pot after Schneider folded.
Dwan and Farha were very active in the NL round as expected and played many pots against each other, resulting in some interesting hands.
Dwan opened from middle position for 5300 and Farha defended his big blind, calling 3200 more. Both players checked the KJ4 flop and the 3 turn Farha bet 12k and Dwan called. When the 7 dropped on the river, Farha checked and Dwan made an odd underbet of 4400. Farha called and mucked after Dwan tabled the 88 for a flush.
Chiu Makes The Comeback
$25K Bellagio Five Star WPT Championship
by Court on 04.27.08, 12:48 am
After going into heads up as a dominating chip leader Gus Hansen will now be leaving with only 2nd place money. David Chiu (left) was able to battle back and in the last hand hit what he needed on the river to win the pot and the title.
Chiu made the comeback after being a 23 to 4 dog starting heads up play. After climbing all the way to the chip lead David was faced with an all in bet of over 8 million from Gus on a board of AT85. After counting out the chips Chiu looked at some of his friends in the crowd and said “I think this is it boys,” then he looked back towads the table and said simply “I call.”
The next words he said were “aces and a flush draw,” and that was what he had with the A9. Gus had flopped two pair with the T8 and only needed to fade the river card to take back over as a commanding chip leader. Chiu didn’t make his flush on the river, but the A gave him trip aces to overcome Hansen’s two pair.
For second place Gus (right) will receive $1,714,800.
The comeback victory brings the top prize of $3,389,140 to David Chiu.
Heads Up Play
$25K Bellagio Five Star WPT Championship
by Court on 04.26.08, 11:29 pm
After plowing through the field to get to heads up play things have slowed down for Gus Hansen. David Chiu (left) went into heads up play with about 4 million and in serious danger against Hansen’s 23 million. Win a pot here and there and double up once though and then things aren’t so bad.
That is exactly what happened for Chiu and after about an hour of heads up play he is up to 9 million and Gus is down to about 18 million. Still a 2 to 1 chip lead, but another double up will flip the tables and make Chiu the 2 to 1 leader over Gus.
The difference between first and second is around $1.6 million so there is plenty to play for even before you factor in any ancillary benefits to being the champion of one of the largest tournaments of the year. Gus is in a commanding position but the death grip he had on this tournament has loosened slightly in the first part of heads up play.