WSOP 2008
By the Numbers: 2008 WSOP Main Event
by Jill on 07.07.08, 4:10 am
As the final installment of Day 1 of the Main Event came to a close just before 1AM PST, nearly 1,400 players remain from today’s field of 2,461. After calculations from Rio tournament staff, the net prize pool now stands at $64,333,600 with total registration of 6,844 entrants. This figure is almost 500 more than 2007, and amazingly, more than the first 34 years of the Main Event COMBINED. Pretty amazing stuff. First prize will walk away with the coveted bracelet and a cool $9.1M dollars; all players at the final table will make $900K or more.
Overall, PocketFivers fared well in today’s event and many live on to compete in Days 2A and 2B. Tomorrow, all players will take a rest day as the media will compete in a charity tournament. Before we retire for a day, however, there are plenty of stories remaining before the break.
Playing his entire day at one of the featured side tables with Phil Ivey, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (pictured at left) recently doubled his stack up when his ace-high flush dominated his opponent’s jack-high flush on a paired board. His A
8 was good enough to propel him up the chip counts.
On the last hand of the evening, Garrett was on the button when the player under the gun bet 1K. Garrett called it down and the big blind followed suit. The flop came A9
2
and the big blind checked. The player under the gun bet 1.5K and both Garrett and the big blind called. The 5 on the turn induced a check from both his opponents and he took the opportunity to bet 3K. Both folded and he showed 22 for the flopped set. He ended the night with 53K in chips and will come back fighting after a restful two days.
Ryan “youngluck” Young also made a run in the last hour of play; PocketFives saw him flop top set and a king-high flush, increasing his stack to 85k near the end of the day.
Some PocketFivers took a hit before the end of the day but will return to play in Day 2. One of our chip leaders, Tom “titantom32″ Braband, took a near-30k hit in the last level of play, but still was sitting comfortable with 90k. Also taking a hit was Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, who was hovering around 45k until he got a bluff snapped off on the river, taking a 10k chunk out of his stack in the last 30 minutes of play. Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez also lost a big pot to an opponent who held pocket eights when the board ran out 4-3-3-8-X. His stack dipped to 12K after peaking at 26K after the dinner break.
Sitting with about 70k near the end of the day, Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier (pictured at right) appeared to be heading to Day 2 with a solid stack. But then came along a hand that he’ll surely be thinking about the rest of the night, a hand Mercier just recently explained to PocketFives. Mercier hit a monster flop when his 64 connected to the Q67 board. Mercier and his opponent got all-in on the flop, resulting in a 90k pot. Mercier just happened to be up against the 85, one of the few hands against which he could in bad shape. The board bricked out for Mercier and improved his opponent and he’s left with 19k nearing the end of Day 1D.
Meanwhile, though Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti sat with only 5K when we last reported on him, he managed to increase his stack through well-picked pots all the way up to 24K. Andreas Hoivold, however, went the opposite way and was sent to the rail despite chipping up early.
Here are some notable unofficial chip counts at the end of the day. Congratulations to all players!
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 90K
Ryan “youngluck” Young - 85K
Scott Pendergrast - 61K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 53K
Bryan Micon - 51K
Bodog Ari Engel - 46K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 41K
James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell - 40K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 35K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 33K
Eric “sheets” Haber - 27K
Ladbrokes pro Azad Pirooti - 24K (pictured at left)
Grant “drossXYU” Hinkle - 13.5K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 12K
Stud Players in the Money
by Crystal on 06.27.08, 10:43 pm
The bubble burst in event #47, the $1.5k Stud h/l and the remaining players are all guaranteed at least $2,450. Brett “Gank” Jungblut and Craig “MrCasino” Gray have both survived the day so far. Brett currently has around 18k while Craig has been hovering around the 12k mark for a majority of the day. Phil Hellmuth has made his 66th WSOP cash in this event and Men “The Master” Nguyen has now cashed in 61 WSOP events.
Many notable players are still alive in the $5k NLHE six-handed event with the field down to 47. Steven “Cornell Fiji” Ware went on a killer run after the bubble burst. He started play after the bubble with 35k in chips and an hour later held over 350k. PocketFives asked Ware if he had proposed marriage to Frank (the dealer who dealt him all those monster hands) and Ware laughed and said he probably should have.
Players who have been knocked out recently include Glen “choron” Chorny (69th, $8,323), Mike “inissint” Glasser (66th, $9,080), Jason “tresfull21″ Mercier (51st, $10,972), and Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar (49th, $10,972). Below are the unoffical chip counts of the remaining players.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (pictured right)- 470k
Steven “Cornell Fiji” Ware - 370k
Jason Gray - 210k
Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski - 200k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 170k
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 150k
Shannon Shorr - 130k
Alex Jacob - 50k
Sweating the Bubble
by Crystal on 06.27.08, 5:59 pm
Players in the $5k NLHE six-handed tournament are all carefully watching the tournament clock as the player count slowly drops. Play started with 96 players and they are now down to 79 players, just 1 shy of the money.
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista was involved in a couple big hands. First a player raised to 4.2k and Chad (pictured left) re-raised to 18k total. After contemplating for quite awhile the other player moved all in and Chad made the call with his A2. His opponent held the 44
and Chad commented that he was baffled as to how the other player could make such a big move with that hand after facing a re-raise. The board ran out KTT53 and the pocket fours held and Chad’s stack was reduced to around 30k.
On the very next hand, Chad open-shoved all in only to have a player behind him with more chips move all in as well. Chad held the 88 against the other players AK so it was off to the races as the board came down KT953 and Chad was eliminated just 11 places shy of the money.
Mike “inissint” Glasser had been short stacked since the beginning of play today and he got all the money in preflop with QT but was way behind his opponents AT. The flop came 832 and Glasser called for another club to come on the turn which could give him outs to a chop, but instead the Q fell putting him in the lead. The river was the J and Glasser doubled to around 75k.
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar was trying to double up at his table as well. After another player raised Jon pushed all in for a total of 38k. His opponent decided to fold so Jon lived to see another hand and told PocketFives to put “Choo Choo” in the update with a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine. We’re not quite sure what that means, but we figured we would post it for him anyway.
The bubble will burst soon and we still have quite a few players left looking to make the money including Glen “choron” Chorny, Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Ryan Daut, Shannon Shorr, Jason Gray, Steve “Cornell Fiji” Ware, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jason “tresfull21″ Mercier, and Alex Jacob.
Feelin’ Good
by Crystal on 06.27.08, 3:16 pm
James Brown’s “I Feel Good” was playing over the loudspeakers in the Amazon room before play began in today’s $2k NLHE event #48. Players seemed anxious to get started today in what will likely be another exciting and fast moving tournament.
The tournament clock is already showing 2,159 entrants into this event which has surpassed last years total number of entrants into this event (2,038) and will likely increase even more before late registration ends. There are a large number of notable online players hitting the felt once again today and we’re looking forward to seeing them build some monster stacks as the day progresses.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) and the other eight players at the final table of event #44, the $1k NLHE w/rebuys, will begin play at 2 pm today with Freeman looking to regain the chip lead he lost yesterday.
Also starting at 2 pm today is day 2 of the $5k NLHE six-handed event #46 where players such as Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Shannon Shorr, Glen “choron” Chorny, Jason “tresfull21″ Mercier, and Jason Gray will be trying to run deep and make the money. 96 players will begin play today but only 78 will make the money.
Lots of action here at the Rio today and we’ll keep you informed about everything going on as the day progresses!
Fivers Going Strong Six Handed
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 7:19 pm
P5ers are holding strong as players continue to drop from the $2.5k NLHE six-handed event #31.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier won a huge pot when he got all his chips in preflop against another big stack. The AK that Jason held dominated the AT of his opponent and when the board ran out A8224 Jason doubled his stack to over 200k.
Not long after that hand a battle of the P5ers nearly took place on Jason’s table. Jason raised in the cutoff and was called by Billy Westom in the small blind. Frank “Round42″ Rusnak who was in the big blind played with his chips contemplating a call but instead decided to re-raise for another 14k on top. An exciting P5 filled hand might have been in store, but Jason and Billy both folded giving Frank the pot.
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen has also been doing well. When the button on his table raised to 3.3k preflop Keven made the call from his sb. The flop came with the 883 and both players checked to see the Q come on the turn. They both checked again and when the 4 dropped on the river Keven bet out 6k and the button called. Keven tabled the QJ for a pair of queens and the button mucked.
There are currently 47 players remaining. Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured left), and Michael “slugo5″ Glasser have been eliminated from today’s event but many players are still active in the field. Unofficial chip counts are listed below.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 200k
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 160k
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 140k
Billy Westom - 95k
Shannon Shorr - 85k
Todd “tbt4653″ Terry - 70k
Paul “uclabruinz” Smith - 62k
Ian “IanJ300″ Johns - 50k