WSOP 2008
Mizzi Moving Up
by AdamJ on 07.05.08, 10:17 pm
Many PocketFivers are moving up the chip counts on Day 1C of the WSOP Main Event and look to be in position to make a strong run into the night. They all hope to accumulate a big stack for Day 2.
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi’s (pictured at right) stack just took a boost, thanks to scooping two straight solid pots. In Level 3 with blinds at 150-300, Mizzi’s opponent raised to 700 and Mizzi called. His opponent bet 1,200 on a A
5
6 flop and Mizzi raised to 3,200; his opponent called. The turn was the 9 and Mizzi’s opponent checked. Mizzi bet 4,650 and his opponent called. The river was the 2 and action checked to Mizzi, who bet his opponent all-in for his remaining 12k. He called. Mizzi dragged the pot with the T8 for a turned flush.
The next hand, Mizzi called a 900 preflop raise from middle position and took the flop in position yet again. Mizzi’s opponent bet 1,650 on an AJ8 flop and Mizzi called. The turn was the 2 and his opponent bet 5,200; Mizzi called. The river was the 3 and both players checked with Mizzi’s A
Q besting his opponents A9
. Mizzi’s stack ballooned to 67K after dragging both pots.
Although he got about a two-minute stare down from his opponent on the river, Jason “JCarver” Somerville (pictured at left) was able to win a 20K pot on the river without a showdown. In a limped pot, Somerville’s opponent bet 1K on a T46 flop and Somerville raised to 3,100 and his opponent called. The turn was the 2 and his opponent checked. Somerville bet 5,575 and got called. The river was the A and Somerville put his opponent all-in for his last 10k. Somerville was sitting directly to the left of his opponent, and he put Somerville through the ringer, staring right at him for a few minutes before finally folding. Somerville later told P5’s he turned the nuts with what has become one of his most profitable/favorite hands lately with the 53. Somerville has won an additional 15k since that last pot and currently sits with 57k.
We caught up with Andy “BKice” Seth sitting at his table with 19K, but he told us he had gotten as high as 30K earlier in the day before he took a big hit. He got involved in a hand holding 67 and the flop came out K-10-7 with two spades. A short stack moved all-in for 1.8K into the 2.1K pot and Andy just called. Another player then reraised all-in for 9K more. Seth made the call and learned he was in worse shape than he expected against J9. The flush hit on the river and Seth was knocked back down under his starting stack.
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins also lost a piece of his chip stack recently, but it could have been much worse. On a flop of 865 the player to Phil’s right bet out 3K and Collins made the call. As soon as the J peeled off on the turn, the other player loudly announced his bet of 10K and Phil threw his hands up and flashed his hole cards to his opponent in the process. Phil asked the player if he had pocket jacks and thought momentarily before folding his pocket queens face up. Turns out Collins made a good read–his opponent showed the table his pocket kings as he scooped the pot.
Ladbrokes pros Jon Kalmar and Steve Davis continued their chip races in the last level. As we reported earlier, both cracked the 30K mark before the end of the first level. Now at the end of Level 3, Davis continued to accumulate chips and was up to 41K. Jonas Danielsson, also a Ladbrokes pro, was down to 18K at the break.
Here’s a look at some other notable chip counts:
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 97K
Darren Elias - 77K
David “Bakes” Baker - 67K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 65K
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 54K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 52K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 51K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 41K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 38K
Ezra Galston - 37K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 35K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 35K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 34K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 32K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 31K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 31K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 30.5K
Steve Paul Ambrose - 30K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 27.5K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 26K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 25.5K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 23.5K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 23.5K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 22K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 22K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 21.5K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 20K
Court Harrington - 19.5K
Andy “BKiCe” Seth - 19K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 19K
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne - 18.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 17K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 15K
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 14.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 12K
Aditya “Intervention” Argawal - 8.5K
Jon Wein - 6.5K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 6K
Here were a few departures over the last level:
Derek “blackpipe” Blenman
Joseph “WSOPJoe” May
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo
Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured at right)
Randy “randers” Haddox
Saddling Up for HORSE
by Jill on 06.29.08, 10:11 pm
Event #51, the $1.5K HORSE tournament is well under way with a strong online presence. Play continued to spread across multiple sections of the Amazon room as well as the Brasilia room. PocketFives spotted Shannon Shorr, Brett “Gank” Jungblut, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Justin Bonomo, and Eric “jakz101″ Crain amongst the field.
David “seal” Eisenstein and Bryan Micon (pictured at right) were seated next to each other, but there was a mix-up about where Micon was supposed to sit. The dealer called the floor staff over to help resolve the situation, and the woman who came knew not what she was getting herself into. “Who are you, now?” she asked Micon. “Who am I?” he replied. “I’m Bryan Micon. I’m very, very, very famous.” The table laughed before Micon assumed the correct seat and play began.
Meanwhile, we spotted Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Alex Jacob, and Stu “thedonator” Paterson, all of whom busted out earlier from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament. We caught Stu yawning a number of times, so it looks like they have a long night ahead of them in this big field.
When PocketFives caught up with play in Event #49, Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane (pictured at left in his Scottish gear) continued to use his lucky kilt to accumulate chips; his stack was up to 110K and growing as he was taking down small pots. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was short-stacked with 20K and recently moved to Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar’s table, where he had worked his stack up to a respectable 95K. Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, however, was looking healthy and happy with a stack of 170K.
In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got involved in an interesting hand. We caught up with the action on the turn with the board reading 652K. Sorel checked over to his opponent who bet 9.1K. Sorel tanked for a couple of minutes before tossing out two pink 5K chips to make the call. The river brought the K and Sorel again checked over to the other player who bet 13K.
Sorel went into the tank yet again and after a few minutes had passed another player called the clock. Sorel had 60 seconds to make a decision and as the floor counted 3…2…1… Sorel mucked his hand, conceding the pot. His opponent showed two of his hole cards, the 75 which, by themselves, would have been good for two pair - kings and fives. Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break and some unoffical chip counts are listed below.
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 48k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 46k
Rolf Slotboom - 46k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 40k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 36k
Thayer Rasmussen - 33k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 20k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 18k
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.
Six-Handed Players Making Moves
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 7:53 pm
There are many players making moves in event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed event. Glen “choron” Chorny was trying to get his short stack moving in the right direction when he raised to 600 preflop with the blinds at 100/200 until an opponent re-raised to 2.4k. Chorny (pictured left) looked disgusted and after thinking for a minute he mucked his cards, showing the A. His opponent said “That’s why I didn’t want to see the flop” as he flipped over his pocket kings and raked in the pot. Chorny is sitting with half his original stack so we expect to see him making more moves as the blinds increase.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer bet out with the board showing T53 and his opponent raised. After thinking for a minute O’Dwyer reraised enough to put him all in and the other player did indeed make the call with the KT only to find that O’Dwyer held the AA and was ahead in the hand. The turn and river came with the Q and 6 and O’Dwyer added to his stack as the other player exited the tournament.
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert’s luck wasn’t quite as good. We caught up with the action on the river with the board reading T73TK and Wolpert making a bet of 850 into the small pot. He was called by his opponent and Wolpert appeared reluctant to flip over his hand. When he did he showed the AJ for ace high which had been good until the river, as his opponent held the KQ for a pair of kings which was enough to scoop the pot.
Players are just coming back from their second break of the day and the blinds will be 150/300 with a 25 ante when they return. Some unoffical chip counts of notable players left in the field are listed below.
Hevad “RainKhan” Khan - 35k
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 32k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 32k
Alex Jacob - 25k
Shannon Shorr - 19k
Gavin Griffin - 19k
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis -19k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija -17k
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista (pictured right)- 13k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 12k
Anna Wroblewski - 12k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 11k
Players that have been eliminated from the tournament so far include Joe Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Carter “devinr12″ Gill, Rolf Slotboom, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, and Issac Haxton.