WSOP 2008
Home Court Advantage
by Court on 09.27.08, 12:43 pm
The early goings of the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair.com, have been smooth sailing for two local Brits. Ben Grundy recently eliminated Jason “JP_OSU” Potter (left) and is well above the starting stack while Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman is off to a great start and among the early chip leaders with over 50k.
On an A
T
8 flop Ben bet 3k and Potter moved in over the top for just over 10k. Grundy made the call and Potter was drawing thin with his AJ trailing Ben’s A
Q. Two low hearts filled out the board, marking the end of the road for Potter who, as always, took his defeat graciously and made his exit from the Empire Casino. After adding Potter’s chips to his stack Grundy is around 27k.
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman (right) came out of the gates quickly, busting Howard Lederer early on and continuing to chip up since. Grundy’s original table was located behind the bar under the steps (yeah, they pretty much have tables everywhere but in the bathrooms here at the Empire) but the table was one of the first to break and Grundy is now in the downstairs poker area referred to as the Dungeon by most in and around the tournament, seated at a table with Max Pescatori to his right and Ted Lawson on his left. At last count Moorman had over 55k chips and was one of the chip leaders.
An ever aggressive Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson has been involved in a lot of pots, but so far hasn’t gained much traction. He has dropped a few thousand off of his starting stack and had about 16k at last check. Peter “#1Pen” Neff is in the same situation with just over 15k chips.
Gomes, Johnson Go 1 and 2 in $2K Event
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 12:24 am
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson’s (pictured at left) tournament run also came to an end when he finished 2nd in the $2K No Limit Hold Em event. Johnson and fellow Pocket Fiver Alexandre “allingomes” Gomes battled back and forth in their heads up match before Gomes gained the upper hand when he cracked Johnson’s pocket aces with A
T after the board ran out KT3TJ.
A few hands later, Marco moved in for the remainder of his chips with QJ and Alexandre quickly made the call with AK. After a flop of 432 and an ace on the turn, Johnson was drawing dead to a 5 for a chop. When the river came 4, Gomes scooped the pot and the victory, sending his large Brasilian contingent into a roar of applause. Gomes earned $770,540 for his finish and Johnson took home $491,273 for 2nd.
Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane’s run in the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event has come to an end. Gerry was in the big blind when he and another player got it all-in on a board of 543K. Kane flopped two pair with his 34, but he needed to fill up in order to best the other player’s 67 for a flopped straight. The 2 on the river was no help to Kane and he was eliminated in 45th place, earning $10,759. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was also eliminated recently. He finished in 72nd place, good enough for $7,420.
The $50K HORSE event lost a couple of players before pausing the tournament to take a dinner break. Huck Seed was eliminated in 7th place and Barry Greenstein was out shortly afterwards in 6th when his pair of aces in Stud 8 were no match for Scotty Nguyen’s full house. Shortly after pocketing his $355,200 prize, Barry registered for his third tournament of the day and is now playing in the $1.5K HORSE event.
A handful of P5er’s are left in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. With a small 381 player field, not many tables featured players that were known from either live or online poker. However, Tim “TMay420″ West had a below average stack of 23k at a table full of live pro’s with Tony Cousineau, Tony G, Dan Shak, and Joe “The Elegance” Beevers from the Hendon Mob.
Jason “JP OSU” Potter just bricked out on a massive multiway 90k pot when his freeroll with pocket aces and a nut flush draw didn’t come to fruition. Potter’s 34k stack is below the 48k average. Ryan “Daut44″ Daut also just lost a big pot when his opponent rivered a nut flush and Daut led for 8k on the river and called another 12k more when he got raised. Daut had 44k earlier in the level and currently has 14k.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch is nursing an extreme short stack at 13k with blinds at 400-800 but remains optimistic at a table that includes Noah “Exclusive” Boeken’s massive 105k stack and Chris Moneymaker.
“It can change in a hurry,” Lynch said. “It will in one way or another shortly.”
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left:
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanon - 120k
David “Raptor57″ Benefield - 110k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 64k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 55k
Dario Minieri - 43k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 19k
Diamonds-A-Plenty for Rosen
by Brett on 06.25.08, 8:01 pm
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen has escalated to near the top of the leaderboard of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys after picking up a massive pot. Rosen raised to 500 from middle position and two players called. On the flop of T64, the small blind checked and Rosen (pictured left)bet 1,050. The cutoff raised all-in for 3,650 and the small blind called, forcing Rosen to a decision. He decided to move the rest of his chips in, having the entire table covered and the small blind called:
Rosen: K9
Small blind: 42
Cutoff: QT
The 4 on the turn changed nothing, but the 8 on the river gave Rosen a flush and now puts him at 59K. Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier is the current chip leader with 65K.
Jason “JP OSU” Potter has been very aggressive at his table, opening several pots preflop, but the players at his table have began playing back at him. He finally found a spot to get his chips in during Level 4. With the blinds at 100/200, Potter raised to 575 in early position and a player in middle position called. The cutoff then re-raised to 1900 and Potter moved in for his last 5375. The flat caller folded and cutoff quickly called with JJ, which was in a flip situation against Potter’s AK. Potter rose to his feet when the flop brought KK2 and he was able to avoid a two-outer to chip up to over 11K.
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman added to his already ample chip stack when, with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25, he raised to 1K out of the small blind and a player who had limped in early position made the call. When the flop came AKK Feldman bet 1.6K and the other player threw out 5 blue 500 chips. The player then explained to the dealer he intended to call. Feldman had the dealer call over a floor person and they ruled that, since the amount of chips the other player put in the pot was more than half the size of the raise, the player was required to raise to 3,200. The player had only had 2.5K left in his stack and tried to move all-in, but he was told he could only raise to 3.2K. Peter then reraised enough to put the other player all-in and his opponent reluctantly made the call with A5. Feldman showed KQ and, when the turn and river were blanks, he took down the pot and increased his cihp count to 20K.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured right) cut his chip stack in half when a player in early position limped, another player raised to 700, Kevin called the raise, and the limper then moved all in for 8.5K total. As Saul mulled over his decision, he asked the player, “why so much?”, but he remained silent and stone-faced. After a couple minutes of thinking Kevin counted out the chips to make the call, kissed them goodbye, and threw them in the pot. The other player showed AA while Saul held QQ.
With a J on the flop and a K on the river, the table pointed out that every paint card except the one had shown up on the board. Humberto Brenes then jokingly called out, “he needs one more card.” Saul then burned and turned off the top of the deck and, to add insult to injury, it was the Q. Saul was left with 8K after the hand was over.
Several other players were unable to stick around through the end of Level 3. Recent eliminations include Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Blair “blur5f6, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, and Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci.
With 420 players remaining, here’s a look at some of the notable chip counts:
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 35K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 25K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 24K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 21K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 19K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 18K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 16K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 15K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 14.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 14K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 14K
Matt “AllInat420″ Stout - 13K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 13K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 13K
Thayer Rasmussen - 12K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 10.5K
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 9.5K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 9K
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh - 8K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn - 6K
Lots of Action at a Stacked Table in Event #5
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 10:20 pm
The luck of the seat draw has produced a fascinating table in the $1K w/ rebuys. Three of the final table participants of the stacked Event #1 final table were reunited once again as Amit “amak316″ Makhija (pictured at left), Chris Bell, and the event champion, Nenad Medic, ended up at the same table along with P5ers Jason Gray and Jason “JP OSU” Potter.
With the blinds at 150/300 Amit raised to 900 in early position, a player in middle position called, and Chris Bell called from the small blind. The flop came K Q 4 and Chris Bell checked. Makhija bet out 1.5K and the player in middle position raised to 4.5K total. Bell thought for some time before calling from the big blind. Makhija then reraised to 15K total. The player in the middle folded and Chris, who had around 11K left, tanked once again. He eventually moved all in for 1K more, which Amit quickly called. Bell held AK to Makhija’s K K for top set. Bell was eliminated and Amit now has 65K in chips.
A few hands later Jason Potter was eliminated when he got it all-in pre-flop with A K to his opponent’s J J and failed to improve. Jason Gray and Nenad Medic remain at the table and have 20K and 40K respectively.
Some other chip counts:
Randy “Randers” Haddox - 49K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 41K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 40K
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 40K
Jason “Jcarver” Somerville - 35K
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 23K