WSOP 2008
Haxton Axed
by Court on 09.30.08, 9:55 am
The money bubble is in the near future, but the pace of play has already slowed. Maybe it is the large buy in, or just the enormity of the stage, but for whatever the reason the flurry of action that usually marks the start of a day has been slightly off. Don’t be foolded, chips are moving and plays are being made but the all ins and bustouts just don’t seem as frequent as is the norm at this stage of a tournament. Credit should probably be given to the structure put in place for the tournament as well.
Slow does not mean no though, and over on the main feature table Isaac Haxton (left) is one of the fallen. Daniel Negreanu was able to send Haxton to the sidelines when his A-9 won a race against Haxton’s pocket eights all in preflop. The short stacked Haxton had moved in for less than 30k and Daniel made the call.
While Daniel is the focus of attention out in the main casino area at the featured table, there are a lot of great matchups at the 4 tables in the back room. Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman recently lost a medium sized pot to John Juanda, bringing comment from Mike Matusow who is also at the table. Moorman raised to 4,600 from under the gun and Juanda called from the button. On the 7
6
6
flop Chris led out for 6,700 and was called. The A on the turn prompted a 14,500 chip bet from Moorman sending Juanda into the tank a few minutes before he made the call. The action went check check on the K river and Moorman was first to show, esposing his 98 for 9 high. Juanda tabled the 87 for a pair of sevens and won the pot.
“Now I get to see what ya’ll are playing,” Matusow said from the 9 seat. “Popping it from under the gun with 9-8 off.” Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza sat quietly between Moorman and Matusow, waiting for the spot to make a move against the larger stacks at his table.
Peter “#1Pen” Neff and Brian “sbrugby” Townsend (right) are side by side at their table, with Townsend having position on Neff. Josh Arieh is a few seats to the left of Brian.
A chatty Tim “Tmay420″ West chopped a pot at his table on a 765K
3 board. On the river Tim checked to the other player who bet 9,300. Before the chips hit the felt Tim solidly said “I call” and showed his AK. “I thought you had that,” Tim said to the other player as he also turned his AK face up on the table. The players took back their river bets and the pot was chopped between them while Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman jokingly requested that Tim wait at least a half second before making calls against him in possible future hands.
Also at the table with West and Fischman are Full Tilt pros Brandon Adams and Erik Seidel.
The fourth table in the area hosts Justin “Boosted J” Smith and Ted Lawson. Smith recently picked up a small pot that was multi way preflop. On the KT4 flop it was checked to Justin on the button and he bet 2,600. One player called and the turn was the 9. This time Smith bet 4,800 when it was checked to him and that was enough to collect the pot.
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 Q77. 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
Chips Moving Around Early at WSOPE
by Court on 09.27.08, 9:40 am
The action in the first level of many deep stacked, big buy in tournaments in slow. So far the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair, has not been a slow starting main event. There have been plenty of chips moving around and large pots, even a few bustouts.
Players start the tournament with 20k in chips and the first blind level is 50/100. In the very first few minutes of the tournament Peter “#1Pen” Neff (right) and Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar both lost small pots. Amit “Amak316″ Makhija, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, and Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron were all involved in larger pots.
Neff called a 300 raise from and under the gun Andy Bloch. On the A76 flop both players checked and with the 2 on the turn Neff called a 300 bet from Bloch. The river was the 6 and Bloch led for 500. Neff called and Andy turned over his AT. Peter mucked his hand sending the 2k pot to Bloch in the first few minutes of action.
Aguiar is at a table with Isaac Haxton. For the first few minutes of play, Isaac, Jonathan and Barney Boatman were the only players at the table. As the late arrivers were coming in to fill the table Jonathan found himself in a pot with Boatman. On the river with a board of 7542K Aguiar led for 1k and Boatman raised to 2,600. Jonathan tossed his hand in surrendering the pot.
After flopping a set on a KJ6 board Makhija (left) was able to get action from his opponent to build up a nice pot. The other player check called a 1,600 bet on the T turn and then again check called for 4,500 on the 8 river. A calm Makhija raked in the 15,000 chip pot after showing his 66 to add to his stack early on and close in on the the 30k mark. At the table behind Makhija, Marco Johnson was able to pick up a small pot with a 1,050 chip bet on a K-7-6-2 board.
Isaac Baron decided to surrender his hand on the river of an A83T4 board when he was check raised. The pot had about 6k in it and Isaac bet 2,700 when it was checked to him. The other player then raised to 11k and after brief thought Isaac tossed his hand in.
Sparse Online Turnout in Triple Draw
by AdamJ on 06.22.08, 4:27 pm
For those vying for that ever elusive WSOP bracelet, the 2.5k 2-7 triple draw WSOP Event #40 offers a rare opportunity to capture WSOP hardware in a field with just over 200 players, a far cry from the 2,700 players that entered yesterday’s 1.5k NL tournament.
Only a smattering of online players arose for the noon tournament, including Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Isaac “luvthewnba” Haxton and Jonathan “Fiery Justice” Little (pictured left).
It’s likely that those that didn’t make Day 2 of the 1.5k NL that starts today at 2pm will elect to play the 1.5k Mixed Hold-em which starts at 5pm.
As expected, this field featured many live pro’s like Daniel Negreanu, Chad Brown, Greg Raymer, Jeff Madsen, Jeff Lisandro, Alex Jacob, Nam Le, John D’Agostino, David Singer, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Gavin Smith to name a few.