WSOP 2008
Omaha Stakes Rise
by Jill on 06.29.08, 7:34 pm
Nearly 100 players have already been eliminated in the $10K Pot Limit Omaha World Championship, Event #50, despite the reload chip requiring mandatory usage after Level 3. Registration topped at 381; 288 players remain in the tournament.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was one of the recent chip leaders in the last few levels, but his stack kept shrinking with some sick hands. In one recent example, we caught up with the action as Scott bet out 2.8K after the turn on a board of 3
3
JA. Another player moved all in and Scott called. Scott exclaimed, “Don’t tell me you have quads!” just before his opponent flipped over two threes for the nuts. Scott’s pocket aces made a boat, but nothing could catch him up on the river and he was down to about 30K.
Recent eliminations include Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Vanessa Selbst; Jamie “TheNew” Robbins (pictured at right) and Stu “thedonator” Paterson were also suspiciously missing from their old tables, replaced by other players. Here are some unofficial chip counts of notable players who remained in the event:
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 94K
Dario Minieri - 40K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 36K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 34K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 28K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 16K
Alex Jacobs - 14K
Tom McEvoy - 14K
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 11K
Meanwhile, the final table of Event #45, the $50K HORSE World Championship has begun after the unveiling of the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. The house is standing-room only in the Amazon Room and spectators fill the gallery with applause after every hand. Michael DeMichele managed to win several of the last few pots and is on an upswing in the Razz rotation; Patrick Bueno has already busted in 9th place and Erick Lindgren retains his chip lead. More on this exciting conclusion as it develops!
To Reload or Not to Reload?
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 3:39 pm
The $10k World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha got started at noon today here in the Amazon room with around 240 entrants when play began. The field has since grown to more than 320 players and registration will stay open until the end of level two. We’ve already spotted some P5ers in this smaller field including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
While in most of the other WSOP events this year the starting stack has been double the buy-in for the event, players begin this tournament with 10k in tournament chips plus a red reload chip (pictured left) that is good for another 10k chips whenever the player chooses to use it. Players can elect to use it right at the beginning, to make their starting stack 20k while others may wait until they need the extra chips. At the end of level three, the extra 10k will be added to any player’s stack that hasn’t already used their reload chip.
The final tables of both the $50k HORSE event #45 and the $2k NLHE event #48 will start this afternoon. The HORSE final table is fileld with big name pros including P5’s own Barry Greenstein who comes into the final table with the 3rd largest chip stack as he tries to win his 2nd bracelet this year and his 4th overall bracelet.
The $2k NLHE final table will be led by chip leader Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson who has more than 2.1 million. The final table will begin play at 3 pm where Marco hopes his amazing run in this event will lead straight to his first WSOP bracelet.
Patience Pays Off
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 9:02 pm
The 36 remaining players in the $1.5k PLO w/Rebuys tournament are now in the money. Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Jamie “TheNew” Robbins were both short stacked during hand for hand play, but their patience in waiting for the bubble to burst has now paid off in a big way as all players left are now guaranteed at least $16,849.
During the hand that burst the bubble, Kyle Kloeckner who took 2nd place in event #24 the PL HE/O event, raised to 12k on the button, and both the small blind and big blind called.
The flop came QJ8
. The small blind checked and the big blind bet 34k only to see Kloeckner raise to 100k. The small blind folded but the big blind decided to call off the rest of his chips. The big blind was ahead already and had some huge draws as he held the AKQ7 for a pair of queens, and a royal flush draw while Kloeckner’s 99
85 was going to need some serious help. That help came in the form of the 7 on the turn and 6 on the river to give Kloeckner a runner-runner straight and to knock the big blind out in 37th place. Kloeckner is the current chip leader with 680k. Other chip stacks after the bubble burst were:
Jamie “TheNew” Robbins - 37k
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 31k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 120k
Steve “Cornell Fiji” Ware was just eliminated in 35th place in the same hand as Clonie Gowen and they will both receive $16,849.
The $10K Omaha Hi/Lo Championship Event is now underway in the Amazon Room and Greg Raymer is trying to get used to being sandwiched between young players Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan. Greg and Jordan recently tangled in a hand when Raymer raised from the cut off and Morgan made the call from the button. A third player who had limped in early position also made the call and the trio saw a flop of K86. The first player bet and both Raymer and Morgan called. After the 5 on the turn it checked around to Jordan who bet and both players called. Jordan bet again when a J fell on the river. The first player folded and Raymer called out “crying call” as he threw his chips in the middle.
When Jordan showed A743 for an eight high straight and an A-3 low, Raymer mucked and Jordan got to scoop the large pot. Raymer was a little surprised to see Morgan’s starting hand and made a comment to the other players at the table. Jimmy Fricke chimed in to warn Raymer and the other players that, as long as he stays at the table, they are likely to see more where that came from.
Finally, here are some updated chip counts from the $1.5K NLHE event :
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 28K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 20K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 20K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 20K
Bryan Micon - 17K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 16K
Justin “WPTHero” Rollo - 15K
Ryan “AllInAt420″ Stout -12K
Joe Sebok - 10K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 8K
How To Remedy Boredom at the Poker Table
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 5:22 pm
It seems some of the players in today’s #1.5k NLHE event may already be a little bored. We spotted Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray watching soccer on Adam’s phone. Adam said that the other day he got so bored during a tournament that he watched three episodes of South Park on his phone.
Phil “USCphildo” Collins fills his downtime at the poker table by text messaging the P5s cell phone. One text we received today said, “I seriously wonder if some of these ppl have ever played poker before. LOL at these $1,500 fields. I could probably train a monkey to play better.” We wish Phil much luck in his future monkey training efforts and we have to wonder how much more painful it would be if a monkey, rather than a human, was to suck out on the river. The world may never know.
The 48 players remaining in event #34, the $1.5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament have started play over in the Brazilia room and while some P5ers such as Tim “Tmay420″ West have a good sized stack (168k) and should more easily be able to make it into the money, others like Jamie “TheNew” Robbins are short stacked (23k) and will need to make a move early in play today to avoid being sent to the rail. 36 players will cash in this tournament so hand for hand play is definitely not far away.
Rebuy Bye Bye
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 7:14 pm
Now that the rebuy period in the $1.5K has ended, some of the loose, erratic plays we have spotted around the room is likely coming to an end. Some players, like Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis and Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, decided to cut their losses and call it a day before the rebuy period was even over.
Several other players remain in the field, but had to decide whether it was a worthwhile prospect to add-on. Someone who probably didn’t bother with adding on is Jamie “TheNew” Robbins (pictured at right) who has already built up over 20K in chips. Phil Ivey leads the pack with 90K and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi isn’t far behind with 78K. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also continued to accumulate chips.
At one point early on in the event Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul had more rebuy chips than tournament chips as he sat with the minimum starting amount of 3K. He has since worked his way back up over the 10K marker.
In the $2.5K NLHE 6-handed event, play is already 4-handed and Dario Minieri continues to build on his substantial chip lead. Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer and Justin “fluffdog” Filtz 3rd and 4th in chips respectively.
Scott “ssitron” Sitron (pictured left) has just vaulted toward the top of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em leaderboard by busting a player and chipping up to 190K. A player moved all in from the hijack for his last 19K and Sitron called from the small blind with AT, which was way behind AK. That is until the flop of KQJ gave Sitron a straight. “I saw the king in the window and hoped a queen or jack would show up to give me more outs,” Sitron joked after his hand held. Someone is running well…
Clayton “Clayton_27″ Newman was knocked out of the event during the last level, but Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci (119K), Court Harrington (58K) and Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan (50K) are still alive with 98 players left.