WSOP 2008
Two Days Off
by Court on 10.10.08, 9:20 pm
With three scheduled starting days, the day 1A players have a couple of days off to enjoy the sights here in Niagara Falls. Okay, maybe that should be singular and sight, since as far as anyone can tell, the Falls are the thing to see here. 
They are impressive though, and worth taking a gander at, even if you don’t think there is 2 days worth of viewing pleasure there.
The day 1A players are bagging up their chips and will then be free to do as they please for the next two days. The field will be combined for day 2 action on Monday after two more flights of day 1 play are complete. Near the end of the day JC Tran and Christian “charder” Harder (right) were atop the chip counts. The official end of day chip counts are available here.
Chip Counts from P5ers:
Christian “charder” Harder - 125,400
Joe Sebok - 84,700
Ryan “Gottskillz” Fisler - 80,000
Neehar “nemostars22″ Banjeri - 63,100
Bryce “bwcoates123″ Coates - 44,800
Peter “Mr. Motown” Valente - 42,100
Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier - 20,700
Matt “Ch0ppy” Kay - 15,800
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 14,400
Here are some of the players that did not make it through day 1A:
Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad
Randal “RandALLin” Flowers
Corey “UGOTPZD” Carroll
Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron
Shaun Deeb
Jason March
Kofi “redsoxsox” Farkye
All Day For A Quarter, Day 1A Complete
by Court on 09.27.08, 9:51 pm
At the end of the day the players with the biggest smiles are quite often the same players with the bulging bags of chips. There were plenty of big stacks around the room, but at the end of the day Tim “Tmay420″ West seemed to be one of the most interested in telling people how he finished the day.
The starting stack was 20,000. West bagged up a grand total of 19,975 at the end of play, going through a full 5 levels and 10 hours of play to move only one of the smallest denomination of chips from his stack. West (left) is known for being patient, easily qualifying for the biblical reference of “having the patience of Job.” He will be back on Monday to see what he can do with his stack in day 2 play.
West wasn’t alone in finishing with less than the starting stack. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar would be happy to trade chip bags with West at this point. Aguiar was short stacked for a majority of the day, but stayed calm late in the day when many players would have become over aggressive and been sent packing instead of packing up their chips at the end of play. Aguiar was in a pot with Andy Bloch late in the last level. Another player had opened for 1,200 and Jonathan called from the cutoff. Bloch also called from the big blind and the three players saw a Q
7
7
. The initial bettor checked to Aguiar who bet 2,225. Bloch called and the other player got out of the hand.
With the 5
on the turn Aguiar checked to Bloch who checked behind. The J river brought another check from Aguiar but Bloch decided to bet out and tossed in a 5k chip. With a pained look on his face Aguiar counted out his chips, discovering he had exactly 11,700 left and if he made the call and lost he would have less than 7k remaining. After another 10 seconds or so he tossed his hand in, living to fight another day both figuratively and literally (well, literally in the sense of making another day in the poker tournament).
Aguiar was able to grab a small pot or two in the last few hands of play to chip up to 13,250 for an end of day count.
Here are how some of the other players finished up the day:
Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery - 81,650
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 70,650
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 53,700
Ben Grundy - 46,000
Isaac Haxton - 35,500 (right)
Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron - 34,550
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 27,200
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 19,975
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 13,250
Final Numbers: 159 players started the day with 86 making it through Day 1A. Full end of day chip counts are available here.
Here are the top 10:
| Name | City | Country | Chip | |
| 1 | Smith, Justin | Kissimmee, FL | USA | 158,925 |
| 2 | Sagstrom, Eric | Gothenburg | Sweden | 98,750 |
| 3 | Bloch, Andy | Las Vegas, NV | USA | 97,100 |
| 4 | Montgomery, Scott | Perth, Ont. | Canada | 81,650 |
| 5 | Demidov, Ivan | Moscow | Russia | 73,625 |
| 6 | Adams, Brandon | Miami, FL | USA | 72,475 |
| 7 | Matusow, Mike | Las Vegas, NV | USA | 71,550 |
| 8 | Fischman, Scott | Las Vegas, NV | USA | 70,650 |
| 9 | Dirksen, Dustin | Las Vegas, NV | USA | 70,100 |
| 10 | Gratte, Goran | Kungalv | Sweden | 67,725 |
Baron Doubles, Last Level
by Court on 09.27.08, 8:06 pm
As play moved into the last level of the day the blinds increased to 200 / 400 with a 50 chip ante, making the pot just over 1k before anyone voluntarily puts a chip in the middle. With more out there to fight for, and each orbit eating away at the players stacks, the short stacks are finding their situation getting more dire.
Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron has been working with a short stack since his pocket queens lost earlier in the day to a player that had flopped middle pair with his 6-7 suited and ended up all 
in against Isaac. His opponent hit another 6 on the turn to stay alive and leave Baron with a shortstack of around 6k. Since then Isaac has fought his way back, working up to around 14k and then staying there for a level or so.
Recently Isaac moved all in for his last 12,850 over the top of a player preflop and was called. Baron made a comment along the lines of “I need to get lucky,” and turned over his A8. He did need some help, as he was dominated by his opponents pocket eights. The Q44 flop was no help and Baron was preparing himself to exit the tournament. The next card was the A though and Baron had hit a three outer to take the lead. With the 2 on the river Isaac doubled up to 27k and now has come chips to work with.
Ben Grundy (left) has chipped up to around 50k, recently picking up chips when he made a big hand from the big blind. On a board of 8-6-6-4-8 with 3 clubs Grundy led for 3,100 and was raised to 9k. Ben quickly called, tabling the T8 for a full house. His opponent mucked and while Grundy was stacking chips another player asked Ben why he didn’t raise, saying tongue in cheek “were you afraid of clubs?” Ben replied “I just can’t see the point in raising, what is he going to call me with.” And while it seems like Ben had a lock on the hand there were a few hands that could beat him. Pocket sixes for quads, though unlikely, could be out there and though the dealer raked the board before I could get all the suits exactly, with the cards that were out there a straight flush was possible had his opponent held the 75. Either way, Ben felt the only way he was getting called was if he was either chopping the pot to the case 8 or losing to one of the few hands that could beat him.
At the same table as Grundy, member of the November Nine Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery (right) was also able to grab some chips. Scott was in middle position and bet 4k and change on the river of a 762TJ board and was called. Scott showed the T6 for two pair and raked the pot. Playing T6 suited from mid-early position? Maybe he is practicing running good for the WSOP Main Event Final Table, or just mixing it up to keep his opponents off balance.
Over in the main tournament area Peter “#1Pen” Neff and his table mates have been moved off the main feature table to another table in the area and Neff has been able to chip up to 30k, adding to his earlier double up. Another player opened for 1,200 and Neff raised to 3,325. He was called and on the T74 flop a continuation from Neff took the pot and pushed his stack to slightly over 30k.
Chip Counts:
Isaac Haxton - 68k
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 62k
Ben Grundy - 50k
Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery - 33k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 50k
Scott Fischman - 27k
Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron - 27k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 27k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 13k