WSOP 2008
Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
by Jill on 07.11.08, 4:25 am
Now that play has reached the money, the all-in paddles are once again flying through the air as players are putting all their chips on the line. Though many PocketFives players continue to protect their stacks, plenty are also making decisions for their entire stack and getting sent to the rail. Now that players have made the money, they are dropping at a rate of nearly 1.5 players per minute; exactly 100 players were eliminated in the last level’s hour.
One recent elimination was Jason Gray (pictured at left), whose A-Q couldn’t catch up to the pocket kings of his opponent. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson’s solid run throughout the 2008 WSOP officially came end minutes ago as well. Nelson busted out in a blind versus blind battle when the action folded around to him in the small blind. Short-stacked with 65K in the 2K-4K-500 level, Nelson looked at the K
and moved all-in. Cort “thecorster” Kibler-Melby woke up with 6
6
in the big blind and called with a 400K-plus stack. Nelson held the 5 as a kicker and was eliminated when he didn’t improve. This is Nelson’s third cash this series. He also had two deep finishes prior to the Main Event with a 16th and 17th place finish.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez was also one of many players who busted shortly after the bubble burst when he raised under the gun to 11K with the blinds at 2K/4K ante 500. The player in the hijack reraised the minimum, making it 22K total. The player in the cut off called the 22K and Senovio pushed all-in for his remaining 20.5K. The reraiser made the call and the other player, who was also shortstacked with less than 100K thought for a minute before eventually folding. Ramirez showed KK and the other player turned over AJ
. The flop came down JT6 giving his opponent two more outs. The A on the turn left Senovio drawing very slim and the 2 on the river saw him eliminated shortly after the last level of the night began. He receives 622nd place for his efforts.
On the flip side of the coin are the players that continue to chip up and increase their stacks. Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen (pictured at right) continues to play aggressive poker at his table when a player in middle positoin raised to 11K, the player in the hijack called, and Rosen reraised out of the blinds for 31K total. The initial raiser folded and the other player made the call. The cards on the flop ran out T98 and Jamie led for 26K, which the other player called. Both checked the 5 on the turn and checked again when the 9 hit on the river. Rosen announced, “I have a ten”, as he flipped over 5T and the other player mucked. After the hand, Rosen was up to 460K.
Doug “Resilient” Smith was among the short stacks moving up as he turned his earlier 60K into 85K. When PocketFives reminded him that’s what his nickname was for, he jokingly asked his tablemates, “Can you even spell resilient?” He singled one of his opponents out, teasing, “Just getting you back, man. ” His opponent retorted, “Well, yeah, you’re just that Bill Murray look-alike guy, right? I didn’t even know you played poker.”
Jokes aside, here are some of the more recent unofficial chip counts:
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 780K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 720K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 550K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 505K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 420K
Thayer Rasmussen - 400K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 400K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 385K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 328K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 280K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 250K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 230K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 205K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 230K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 175K
Hevad Khan - 170K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 150K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 140K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 135K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 123K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 115K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 110K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 105K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 100K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 80K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 30K
Recent Eliminations:
Jason Gray
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
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
The Toilet-0 Dethrones His Opponent
by Jill on 07.04.08, 2:01 am
As Level 4 comes to a close and players anticipate the blinds increasing from 150/300 to 200/400 for the last level of play this evening, many players were making moves and chipping up before the break. We caught up with Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke as he called a river bet with T9 with two tens on the board to take down a good-sized pot and increase his stack from 22K to 30K.
Two tables over, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka (pictured at left) called an all-in bet on a flop of 443 against one opponent. He flipped over pocket kings to his opponent’s pocket nines; the dealer waved the magic “All-In” sign and the media descended on the table. The turn and river came 22 and Faraz increased his stack from 32.5K to 61K. His good-natured opponent shook everyone’s hand and exited the Amazon room.
In the Orange section, Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of QJ7 and both decided to check. When the 8 fell on the turn, Jason checked and the other player bet 2K. Jason made the call and the river brought the 2. Jason led out with a bet of 5K and his opponent called. Jason flipped over his 87 for two pair and the other player angrily mucked his hand and said “nice catch.” Jason just smiled and scooped up the pot. Jason is now sitting with a little more than 30K.
At the other end of the Amazon Blue section, PocketFives watched as Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen raised to 4.2K preflop with 23K behind. One opponent called after the rest of the table folded and the flop came JT6. His opponent pushed all in and Jamie snap-called him; he showed KK to the other player’s A-K. Jamie’s pocket kings held up effortlessly when turn was the 5 and the river the 4; he scooped the pot and was up to 67K, which he informed us was where he sat about ten minutes prior to the confrontation.
Other unofficial chip counts prior to the break:
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 86K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 67K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 61K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman (pictured at right)- 50K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 40.3K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 35K
Jason Gray - 30K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 30K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 17K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 17K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 10.5K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 8K
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.