WSOP 2008
Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 10:34 pm
In the Brazillia room, the $3k NLHE tournament isn’t the only event running right now. Day 2 of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) is also taking place there today and while yesterday’s action seemed rather slow because of the large starting stacks and fixed limit structure, the play today has sped up immensely with only 42 of the original 218 remaining.
Eric “EFro” Froehlich is sitting pretty at the top of the chip counts after some big hands. Howard Lederer put in a raise preflop and both Froehlich (pictured right) and another player called to see the flop come A
K
5
. Action checked to Lederer who bet and both Froehlich and the other player called. When the J dropped on the turn action checked to Lederer who again bet but this time Froehlich raised. The player in the middle and Lederer both made the call and the Q
fell on the river. Froehlich bet out, the player in the middle folded and Lederer reluctantly called to see Froehlich’s QT that had turned a broadway straight. Lederer mucked and Froehlich won a large pot. Froehlich is currently the chip leader with 350k.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker has also been doing well in this tournament today, despite being at the same table as “EFro’s” massive stack. Preflop Parker (pictured left) made it 2 bets to go, the player to his left upped it to 3 bets and the big blind capped it at 4 bets. All 3 players called to see the flop come J94. The big blind bet out and both Parker and the other player called. When the 3 came on the turn the big blind checked, Brock bet, and the other two players both smooth called. The river brought the 2, completing a possible flush draw and the big blind again checked it to Parker who bet. The player in the middle folded and after thinking for a long while the big blind eventually called and when Brock flipped up the QJ the big blind mucked his hand and Parker scooped a large pot.
Brock then finished off Howard Lederer by using his AQ to best Lederer’s KJ on a board of 6548A sending Lederer to the rail and increasing Brock’s stack to a healthy 190k. He has since chipped up to 230k and is in 2nd place behind Froehlich.
Other notable players still in the field of the LHE tourney include Justin Bonomo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles while Matt “mattster24″ Sterling and Joe Sebok were recently eliminated.
Over at the ESPN Featured Table in the Amazon room, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is dominating the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament. Johnny Chan lost a huge pot to David Benyamine to put Benyamine in 2nd place and drop Chan down to 3rd and then promptly lost another big hand to Galfond to extend Galfond’s lead and to make Chan the short stack.
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th, and 6th place and the chip counts for the 5 remaining players are:
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond - 3,156,000
David Benyamine - 1,545,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 720,000
Adam Hourani - 615,000
Johnny Chan - 330,000
Day 1 of the $5k MHE Event Ends, Turner Chipleader
by Crystal on 06.03.08, 5:40 am
The first day of the $5k Mixed Hold Em event is officially over, but not before some entertaining discussion went on at table #10.
Populated with popular players David Benyamine, Andy Black, Phil Laak, and Howard Lederer, this table was incredibly talkative leading up to the end of play.
During a conversation regarding how tight different players play Phil Laak stated “If you are dormant for a long time you build up credibility.” Obviously Phil didn’t feel like sitting dormant as he raised the very next hand and everyone folded. Andy Black asked “If I had pushed all in would you have folded?” and Phil laughed.
Not long after this transpired Black made it 1600 to go during a NL round and Phil Laak pushed all in for 10,325 more. Black sat for a long time debating whether to call or not as David Benyamine jokingly began to give him a hard time about whether he was going to call or not. One player at the table said “I’m gonna bet 500 chips he’s gonna fold” and the table laughed. Black did eventually fold and Phil pointed to one card and said “For $22 I’ll show you this one” but wasn’t taken up on his offer. Black did recieve a big teddy bear hug from Phil after the hand, but that probably wasn’t quite as pleasing as a large pile of chips.
An unknown player who is in the 9 seat on that table had taken part in the conversation about playing tight and when he raised on his button and everyone folded he asked the table “You want me to show it?” They all said yes and he proudly flipped over his 7-2 offsuit drawing laughter and cheers from his tablemates.
Black then announced to the table, “A bluff at the beginning and a bluff at the end. That’s perfect poker! Phil Ivey you’re useless!”
It’s nice to see such good-natured banter going on, but the tone will inevitably become more serious during day 2 as they approach the money bubble.
With 91 players remaining P5er Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured left) is one of the chip leaders at the end of day one and Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is also doing well. Notables Jeff Madsen, Phil Hellmuth, and Devilfish Ulliott have been eliminated.