WSOP 2008
Hustle and Heartbreak
by Jill on 07.09.08, 4:58 am
Day 2A has come to a close here at the Amazon Room; congratulations to the 465 who remain for Day 3! The last level of the evening brought both glory and heartbreak to PocketFivers as their run for the bracelet and the huge main event prize pool continued. Day 2B begins tomorrow at noon and PocketFives will be back to report on the action!
Tim “tmay420″ West (pictured at right) and Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano were moved this evening to the ESPN Featured Table in the poker arena and commentary about their hands could be heard throughout the Rio. The last hour of the day was a huge one for Tim, who turned on the heat and managed to double up through great aggressive play. In one hand, we saw Tim bet out 6.5K into the pot on a board that read K
78
4
7
, enticing his opponent to play. He did in fact make the call and Tim showed down K9 to win the pot. Shortly afterwards, Tim raised to 3.2K preflop and got one caller. The flop came QAT and both players checked to see the T fall on the turn. His opponent bet out 5.5K and Tim called to see the 4 roll off on the river. His opponent checked, Tim bet 12.5K and he was reraised after a long tank to 27.5K more. Tim called him down and showed AK to best his opponent’s 96 busted flush draw. He raked in the pot and increased his stack to 188K.
Meanwhile, in the Green Section, there was exciting action all night at Eric “jakz101″ Crain and Derek “arods33″ Buanomo’s table. Eric joked to PocketFives about all the swinging; the table was loosest we witnessed all night. In one hand, both players went heads up: On a board that read J98KQ, Derek bet out 8.5K and Eric raised to 21.5K more. Derek easily made the call with his red pocket tens and Eric mucked his hole cards, shipping the big pot Derek’s way. Derek moved up to 165K, finishing the day just under that at 157.5K.
Eric (pictured at left) didn’t let the beat phase him, however, and in a subsequent hand, he called a raise on the button with 10K in the pot. He raised 5K after a flop of 66T and was called. The dealer laid the T on the turn and Eric bet out, inducing a fold. He slyly showed his hole cards to P5s and giggled: 25. After the hand, he was at 250K. At least he’s keeping it interesting for Mom at home. Eric finished the night with 315K and we can’t even begin to guess what happened to gain him the extra 65K in chips.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams took a substantial hit to the stack he had spent all day building when one player raised, a player reraised behind, and Jeff put in a third raise to around 45K. The initial raiser folded, but the reraiser made the call with about 75K behind. The flop came ace high, the other player bet 25K and Williams raised enough to put him all-in. The other player made the call with A-Q while Williams held Q-Q. The turn and river were no help to him and Jeff was knocked back under 50K.
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney (pictured at right) had been short-stacked for quite awhile and when the player second to act raised preflop, Brendan thought for a bit before making the call. The flop came T43. The other player checked to Brendan, who bet 5.8K, which represented more than one fourth of his stack. The other player then check-raised with a huge stack of orange 5K chips, more than enough to put Brendan all in. Brendan looked exasperated. He tanked for a bit and asked the other player “You got tens? Ace-king of diamonds?” Brendan shuffled his chips and said “I can’t fold… I call.” His opponent said “Nice call” as he flipped over his AK for ace high, which Brendan had beat with his KK. That is until the turn brought the A to put the bluffer in the lead. The 2 on the river couldn’t save Brendan and he was sent to the rail near the end of the day.
Here are some notable unofficial chip counts near the end of Day 2A:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 400K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 315K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 210K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 188K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 187K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 180K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 175K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 168K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 164K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 157.5K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 140K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 140K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 66K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 139K
Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz - 126K
Kush Patel - 120K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 119K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 116K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 106K
Jason Gray - 100K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 98K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 92K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 75K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 70K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 64K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 47.5K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 40K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 35K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 28K
Justin Time for a Double Up
by Jessica on 07.09.08, 3:10 am
Justin “looshle” Pechie (pictured at left) managed to double up shortly before the last break of the evening. With the blinds at 500/1,000 ante 100 a player raised to 2.5K preflop and Pechie called on the button with pocket tens. The flop came 322 and the initial raiser checked to Justin who bet 6K, which the initial raiser called. After the J hit on the turn, Pechie’s opponent bet 7K and Justin raised to 16K total leaving 24K behind. The other player then pushed all-in and Pechie thought for some time before making the call. It turned out to be a great call as the other player held AT for just ace high. The river was the K and Justin doubled up to 100K.
Eric “jakz101″ Crain had been one of the bigger stacks throughout the day, but got as low as 100K during Level 9 of play. He told us he was able to steal enough chips to get back up to 150K and then he got involved in a big hand that put all of his chips at risk.
A player raised to 3K under the gun and Eric made the call on the button. Kido Pham reraised to 15K and both players made the call. The flop came 10-7-6 with two hearts and Pham checked. The initial raiser bet 28K and Crain raised to 82.3K total. Kido folded and the other player shoved all-in for 30K more. Crain made the call and showed A5 while the other player had pocket jacks. The K came on the turn and the board paired on the river. Pham appeared rather distraut after the hand and claimed he folded pocket kings, meaning he would have filled up on the river and scoop the massive pot. Instead Crain took the hand down and now has 350K.
The Table of Doom we reported on in the earlier part of the day, but some of its players have been reunited in the Blue section. Dani “Ansky451″ Stern and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki (pictured at right) are playing at the same table once again and will likely not move before the end of the day. Klodnicki was sitting with over 200K, but took a bit of a hit when, with the blinds at 600/1,200 ante 200 the player in the cut off open raised to 14K leaving just over 15K behind. Klodnicki was on the button and reraised enough to put the other player all-in. She quickly made the call with pocket kings, which had Chris’ A-K in bad shape. A king on the flop left Klodnicki with very few outs and the turn and river failed to help him. After the hand he was down to 187K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein is now seated next to Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and they were chumming it up when we approached the table. After Jeff took down a huge pot when he hit runner-runner for a king-high flush, he said he’s rather be lucky than good any day of the week. Trying to keep up with his neighbor, Josh attempted to take down a pot preflop when he raised to 4,200 in early position. It folded to the button who moved in for 20K more. After thinking awhile, Josh folded and the button showed AK. He said he made a good laydown and it wasn’t the right spot to gamble for his chips.
In other news, Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward managed to donate a large part of his stack to his tablemate this level. When prodded for more information about what happened, Joe kindly requested that PocketFives report the following: “I got stupid.” …we guess that’s just one of his latest lines.
Here are some of the most recent chip counts with around an hour left to play in Day 2A:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 355K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 185K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 140K
Jason Gray - 140K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 118K
Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz - 113K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 100K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 165K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 130K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 165K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 100K
Bobby “gettin deep” Hodson - 74K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 38K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 45K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 39K
Lost & Found
by Jessica on 07.09.08, 1:27 am
First and foremost, we here would like to profusely apologize to Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (pictured at left). Earlier today we reported that Christian had been eliminated during Level 7 of play. Well, the details of Fockenberg’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and he is, in fact, alive and well with a hearty 79K. With so many tables being broken and players being moved around sometimes the breaking order changes on us and mistakes are made. Such was the case with Christian, so don’t worry friends and family of Fockenberg–he is just fine.
Now that we have reported on someone we lost, now it is time to tell you about someone we found amongst the 612 players remaining in the Day 2A field. Hunter “The_Hunt_D” Frey, who is one of our chip leaders with 384K. When we found Hunter, he kindly recalled the hand that launched him to the top of the leaderboard. Frey was involved in an 8-way limped pot with the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 holding 2-3 when the flop came A-3-3 with two diamonds. One of the other players led out for 6K and another player called before Hunter raised to 17.5K. Both players made the call and the turn came Q. The initial better then shoved all-in for his remaining 90K and the third player in the hand thought for some time before folding. Frey told us he tanked on the decision before making the call. The other player showed A-K, the river was no help to him, and Hunter shot up to 400K.
We have also lost our “Table of Doom” that featured Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Peter “number1pen” Neff. Their table was recently broken, but not before Stern reraised one of the other players preflop inducing him to fold. Before he threw his hand away he turned up K6 and joked, “I ought to show since the table is about to break.”
While that table may have disappeared, we may have another table of doom brewing over in the Blue section. Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a fairly easy day when he played on Day 1B and seemed to flop sets at will during the early levels and he was hoping Day 2 would be in the same vein. However, every time his table loses a player, they bring over yet another known pro to add to the already stacked table. First it was the big stacked Jason Gray (pictured at right) and when we last checked on the table Brandon Adams, who started today 2nd in chips, was unpacking several racks of chips. Mike also told us there are some other online players at the table as well.
Tim “tmay420″ West continued to sit at a table with Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and remained steady throughout the last level, hovering around the 100K mark and taking relatively few risks. When we caught up with Tim’s table, he was raising a min-betting opponent preflop to 6K more with 8K already in the pot. After awhile in the tank, his opponent folded and he took the pot down to increase his stack to 105K. Eric “jakz101″ Crain sat nearby, expressing frustration when his flopped straight flush draw bricked out and he lost a 100K pot. Eric still has 210K in front of him and is confident he will reclaim his lost chips.
When PocketFives caught up to Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson (pictured at left), his strategy seemed to be similar - he reported that he got pocket kings twice in the last level and each time bet out to see what risks he faced. In one situation, he said that he raised 5K under the gun with kings and was called by four other players preflop. When the dealer spiked an ace, players checked around. Hodson said he bet at the turn to see where he was, and was insta-raised by another player. He folded and said though he’s gotten no value out of his kings, he minimized his loss and is happy with his 72K chipstack. At a table full of recreational players, he said his strategy for the rest of the night was to play extremely tight through Level 9 and turn up the heat in the last level of the evening.
Here are some unofficial chip counts from midway through Level 9 of play:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 384K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 210K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 200K
Jason Gray - 190K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 184K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 180K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 172K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 160K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 155K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 142.5K
Peter “number1pen” - 122K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 122K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 118K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 99K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 90K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 90K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 87.5K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 79K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 79K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 75K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 65K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 49K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 45K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 44K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 43K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 39K
Recent eliminations include Shaun Deeb, TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka, Steve “McNallyville” McNally, and Barry Greenstein.
Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
by Crystal on 07.04.08, 3:16 am
Shannon Shorr has been short stacked during this last level of the night but that hasn’t deterred him from getting involved in pots. When Shannon (pictured left) had 7.3k in chips remaining a player raised to 1.1k and Shannon pushed all in. The other player folded and Shannon added a bit more to his stack.
Soon after that hand Shannon raised to 1.1k in the hi-jack seat and the cutoff made the call. The flop came AT4 and both players checked. The 9 came on the turn and again both players checked. When the 5 came on the river Shannon bet 2.7k and after some thought his opponent folded.
The very next hand Shannon again raised to 1.1k but this time the player to his left re-raised to 3.1k. the table folded back around to Shannon who reluctantly folded. It seems he is trying to chip up bit by bit and not risk his whole stack unnecessarily.
When PocketFives caught up to Jon “PearlJammer” Turner’s table in the Orange section, he was sitting comfortably with 51k in chips in front of him. Turner (pictured right) alerted us to another P5er still in the race for the bracelet a few tables over. Sure enough, when we caught up to the action at Steve “McNallyville” McNally’s table, the dealer laid a flop of 9T9 and Steve bet out 3,650 after one other early player checked to him. His opponent called and the dealer turned the 2. Both players checked to see the 8 on the river. Steve’s opponent, first to act, checked to him and he answered with a 5.1K bet. After quite awhile in the tank, the other player called and Steve flipped over 98 for the full house. He shipped the chips into his growing stack, which was up to 42K.
Jason Gray continues to add to his stack, most recently we caught up with him and one other player involved in a hand with the flop showing T44. They both checked and saw the 4 come on the turn. The other player bet out 1,525 and Jason called. WHen the K fell on the river the other player checked over to Jason who bet 2.6k. The other player went into the tank for a bit before finally making the call. The other player showed 55 for fours full of fives, but Jason held the KQ for fours full of kings and he took the pot. He now has almost 40k in chips and will be now able to keep an eye on his twin brother Craig “MrCasino” Gray as they are now seated at tables right next to each other and keep stepping away from the table to update each other (as seen in the picture at right). Craig is sitting with around 23k.
Below are some other notable chip counts as play begins to wind down for the night. Players have a little less than an hour to go before day 1a will officially be in the books.
Tim “tmay420″ West - 71K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 52K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 51K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 42K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 19K
Barry Greenstein - 9.5K
Peter Cries De Wolfe
by Jill on 07.04.08, 12:58 am
Now back from dinner break and midway into Level 4, some players were feeling a bit squeezed by their short stacks and put to difficult decisions. PocketFives caught up with Dan “wretchy” Martin (pictured at right) in the Green section of the Amazon room sporting a stack of 2.8K, asking P5s to abstain from counting it out. It seemed like his friendly table image was working to his advantage, however, laughing as he shoved and raking in a few uncontested pots as we watched. He was definitely in emergency mode, but we all saw what happened to Matt “MattG1983″ Graham after he was down to one big blind last night — it won him a bracelet!
Nearby in the Green section sat Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Andy “BadgerPro” Schultz. We caught up with action at the table in a very interesting hand where Kevin was put to a decision for most of his chips. Before the flop, both the big blind and the small blind were in the hand, as well as two early limpers. The cutoff raised to a total of 3.1K with about 3K behind and Kevin sat on the button. Shuffling his chips, Kevin queried his opponent: “What was your name online?” He answered, “CG2212. Does that help you?” Kevin joked, “No.” His opponent took his sunglasses off and Kevin paused quite awhile to count out his chips before throwing his hand in the muck. Ultimately, one of the players in the blind shoved and got the call from the original raiser; the blind held A-K to his opponent’s pocket fours. Kevin, relieved, explained that he held A-Q and caught the sunglass tell; when the flop spiked an ace, his opponent was sent to the rail.
Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) told PocketFives at dinner break that he couldn’t wait for his table in the Orange section to break. Considering the lineup has featured everyone from David Benyamine to Brock “t_soprano” Parker to Roland De Wolfe to Gavin Smith, who can blame him? Upon returning from break, he first won a decent-sized pot off Brock with a full house. Then, with the blinds at 150/300 with an ante of 25, he picked up aces and raised preflop to 850. The small blind called and Roland De Wolfe made it 3K from the big blind. Peter shoved all in for the remainder of his 18K chips. The small blind folded and Roland called off his last 6K with pocket queens. Neff’s hand held up and subsequently, he got his wish when the table broke. Considering his hot streak, did he speak too soon?
Eric “jakz101″ Crain managed to double his stack when he got all his chips in preflop with KQ against his opponent’s 66. The board ran out 943Q9 and Eric’s queens and nines were good enough to take the pot; he has continued to build since then. In a recent hand, the board read 98667. Although we missed the action, it appeared that both players checked it down the whole way. When they both checked on the river Eric said “Dude, I flopped a straight but I’m going to check.” He flipped over his 75 which was good enough to take the pot. As he raked in the chips he said “I was hoping to get in a check-raise on the flop, then I didn’t like the turn, and I really didn’t like the river. Did you have outs?” The other player laughed and said no, so it seems that if Eric had fired off a bet at some point he would have taken the pot regardless. Eric is now sitting with 40K and in good spirits.
Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of JT3. When Jason checked, his opponent bet out, only to have Jason go all in for 13.5K. The other player made the call with his QJ only to find that he was behind Jason’s KK. The A on the turn and 7 on the river were harmless to Jason’s kings and he doubled up to around 30k.
Anna Wroblewski has been busy building up her big stack. Her most recent addition in chips came when another player pushed all in on a flop of T95. Anna debated for awhile before making the call with the KT for a pair of tens with a flush draw. Although she was behind her opponent who held the T9, the K fell on the turn, giving Anna a better two pair and the 5 on the river changed nothing so Anna knocked out a player and her stack grew to over 70k.
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin (pictured at right) did not fare as well during the last level. He reported that he had pocket ladies in the big blind and reraised Kido Pham on the button from 1K to 3.6K. When the flop came 7-high with two clubs, Ken shoved for 14K more and Kido called with 94. When the turn spiked the A, Ken was sent to the rail.
Also eliminated in the level was Joe Sebok, whose day came to an end when he shoved the remainder of his chips in preflop with pocket jacks and ran into another player’s pocket queens. The player with queens ended up making quads and Joe was eliminated.