WSOP 2008
West Pulls a Kessler
by AdamJ on 07.01.08, 4:18 pm
Although you may see Tim “TMay420″ West (pictured right) in the big 10k buy-in events, don’t think he still doesn’t pinch his pennies.
West registered earlier for today’s 1.5k Limit Shootout WSOP Event #53 but then unregistered to play in Johnny Chan’s All-In tournament, which started 30 minutes before the shootout.
After West promptly busted out in the All-In tournament, he re-registered for the Limit Shootout, plucking an extra food voucher out of the Rio.
“I pulled a Kessler and did the reg, re-reg thing and got the extra voucher,” West said. “Hey…you got to get as much out of these deals as you can right?”
Allen “TheChainsaw” Kessler is a live tournament pro known for being a value hound in any area where he can find any kind of deal or overlay that he can work to his advantage.
Perhaps no player was working the system more than Matt “All in At 420″ Stout, who has already turned a profit in the All-In tournament after he busted David Singer, collecting a 1k bounty.
Stout’s A
8 turned a nut flush against Singer’s 5
5
in a hand where Stout called Singer’s all-in preflop with the bounty weighing heavily in the call obviously.
Knowing he just lined the pockets of an online pro he sees on tour, Singer felt bad about dusting off his bounty to Stout and mentioned to the table that there was a few others he would have liked to win the 1k.
One of the more interesting tables in the shootout field includes two of the top limit hold-em cash game players in Cardrunners instructor Mike “Schneids” Schneider and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko
A handful of online pro’s are scattered throughout the shootout event including names like Brock “t_soprano” Parker, Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst, and Shane “shaniac” Schleger.
Top of the Chip Counts or Bust!
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 10:11 pm
With nearly 2/3 of the field already eliminated from event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed tournament, we’ve seen a lot of action packed hands with both good and bad outcomes for some notable players.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured right) got all his chips in on a flop of 864
and thought his KK was good until his opponent flipped up the 66 for a set. The turn and river didn’t bring any kings and Levy was sent to the rail.
Kings didn’t treat Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi very well either, but only because he wasn’t the one holding them. Sorel was all in preflop holding 77 to his opponents KK and when the board ran out 4223A Sorel’s day came to an end.
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan had been building his stack up as the day progressed and we caught him in a hand with the board reading KJJT5. Ryan (pictured left) bet 2.8k into the 5k pot on the river and his opponent raised enough to put Ryan all in. Ryan said “I have a boat, I call,” but before he could flip over his cards his opponent showed the KJ for a flopped full house. Ryan showed his TT for a turned smaller full house and quietly left the table.
On the more positive side of things, Glen “choron” Chorny had been looking for an opportunity to double and he got all his chips in with KQ against an opponent holding an ace and an unknown card. The flop came with a king to put Chorny in the lead and it was enough to double his small stack.
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut had been sitting on a short stack as well and was facing a 1.5k bet from another player on a flop of T62. Daut thought for a little while before pushing his last 3.5k into the pot and the other player made the call. Daut showed AA to his opponents JT and when the turn and river brought the 2 and 2 Daut doubled almost back to his starting stack.
There are 287 players remaining in the field and they are now on a 90 minute dinner break. Only 78 will make the money with the 1st place finisher taking home an impressive $911,830 and the gold bracelet.
Day 2 action of the $50k HORSE tournament has been going on for a few hours now and Tom “durrrr” Dwan (pictured right) is sitting near the top of the chip counts with 280k. James “mig.com” Mackey and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond are both doing well with 195k and 170k. After starting the day with 41k, Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko has chipped up to 111k while Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo hasn’t been able to make much progress and currently has 74k. Brian “tsarrast” Rast’s stack has been slipping all day as he has fallen to only 17k of the 132k he started the day with and he will be looking to make a move soon.
Mackey Riding High
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 3:21 pm
After day 1 of the massive $50k HORSE event, James “mig.com” Mackey (pictured right) is the chip leader going into day two with 214k. In a field filled with big name pros, online players are definitely making their presence known such as recent bracelet winner Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond who starts today with 161k. Other players still in the hunt include Brian “tsarrast” Rast (132k), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (109k), Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo (80k), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (41k). Well known pros David Williams and Phil Hellmuth weren’t able to make it past day 1 and were among the few players eliminated last night. Play resumes at 2 pm today and we’re sure to see eliminations start coming at faster rate as the blinds and antes continue to rise.
Also restarting this afternoon is event #44, the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tournament. Day 2 will begin with 115 players including Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka who are near the top of the chip counts with 154k and 116k. Stu “TheDonator” Patterson had a good first day as he comes into day 2 with 95k and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen will start the day with 80k.
Just getting started in the Amazon room is event #46 the $5k NLHE six-handed event with over 550 players registered so far. These short handed events have tended to play out fast and furious at this year’s WSOP and we expect this event to be no different. We’ve already spotted numerous P5ers in the field such as Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, and Ryan “Daut44″ Daut. We’ll keep you updated on their progress as the day moves forward.
Mineri Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 4:20 pm
Day 2 of event #31, the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament, is set to restart at 2:30 pm today with Dario Mineri (pictured left) 2nd in chips with over 191k. Only 73 out of the original 1012 players are left and they will play down to the final 9 tonight before play concludes for the evening. Other players still in the hunt include Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (78k), Billy Westom (70k), and Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (46k). Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant was eliminated last night in 80th place for a payday of $4,189.
Also starting at 2 pm is the final table event #29 the $3k NLHE with Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin coming in as the chip leader with over 1 million in chips. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst is also at the final table with 333k which is good enough for 8th out of the 9 remaining players but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him build that stack up and finish even higher once play begins.
In the Amazon room event #32 has just taken an unscheduled 30 minute break to accomodate for the estimated 400 people that are still trying to register for the event. This seems to be the first time the WSOP has had any trouble with registrations this year. We’ve heard from one of the players who registered late for the event that the computer system was registering players as alternates rather than at empty tables and then the entire system actually crashed. We imagine this may be the cause of the backup in registrations today but if we find out otherwise we’ll let you know.
Before the break began, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan was short stacked after losing a few hands but was then able to double up back to around 2.5k when he turned a king high flush against his opponents top pair. Other P5ers spotted in the field include Court Harrington, Adam “adam_mc” McGregor, and Phil “USCphildo” Collins.
Hanks Having a Drink on Scotty
by AdamJ on 06.17.08, 3:36 am
Ordering his standard round of Michelob’s, Scotty Nguyen found a few takers to partake in his palate cleansing.
P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured right) took part in the festivities about 30 minutes after the players made the money in the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31.
On the very next hand, unaffected by Nguyen’s generosity, Hanks raised Nguyen’s big blind and took the pot down as Nguyen was more worried about tipping the waitress for the drinks.
After getting a little ribbing from Nguyen, Hanks showed Nguyen his QQ as the two had been very cordial with each other at the table.
Hanks built his stack up to 70k before doubling up a short stack to his left and currently sits at 50k in the 600-1200-100 level.
Phil “USCphildo” Collins (pictured below) probably felt in the mood for a few rounds after he lost a 140k pot in his first hand at the table to tournament chip leader Alan Shahar.
Shahar raised to 4k preflop and Collins called. On a AJ9 flop, Collins check called 7k. Collins check called Shahar’s 14k bet on the 3 turn. The 5 dropped on the river and Collins checked to Shahar’s 44k bet.
After tanking for a few minutes, trying to decipher what this man sitting behind a mountain of unorganized chips held, Collins called and mucked when Shahar showed A9 for a flopped two-pair that ran into a backdoor flush.
Collins later said he had AQ and said if he’d won that pot he thought he had a strong chance to make the final table with his stack.
He also mentioned that since he under-repped his hand so much by checking all three streets, he thought that he had a reasonable chance to induce a bet from a worse hand cause his hand looked so weak.
Collins rebounded in the following rounds, increasing his stack from 12k to 24k.
Here are some notable stacks of the 79 of 1,012 left with the average chip stack at 64k.
Dario Minieri - 90k
Jason Mercier - 80k
Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 65k
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 55k
Shannon Shorr - 46k
Mark Vos - 35k
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant - 25k
Dave Ulliott - 12k