WSOP 2008
2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
by Jill on 07.04.08, 4:48 am
Play concluded for Day 1A of the Main Event just after 1AM PST. Nearly half of the day’s entrants were eliminated in the 10K championship; 657 of 1,297 remain for Day 2 play. Day 1b will commence tomorrow at 12pm PST at the Rio, but before we get ahead of ourselves, here is a wrap-up of Level 5, which brought quite a bit of excitement for PocketFives players.
After patiently waiting the entire level, Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) finally got his last 5K all in from the big blind after the player on the button raised to 1.2K. He was in great shape with A-K versus his opponent’s A-5. The flop came Q-7-2. When a queen came on the turn, Jeff looked nervous, fearing a chop, but an ace on the river sealed the deal and he doubled up to 10.5K in chips.
Another big double-up came for Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, who had been sitting on a short stack for quite awhile. He got involved in a hand with one other player and Richard’s A
Q
bested his opponent’s AT on a A
979
2 board. He doubled up to 28K.
PocketFives also caught up with Joe “latestlines2″ Ward who was in the small blind and engaged in a hand with one other opponent. The board ran out 4-A-K-9-T and Joe’s A-6 held up to increase his stack to 56K. Shortly afterward, Joe also got involved in a hand when the board ran out J6J96. He bet out on the river and was called; both players showed A-Q for the chop, but they each picked up the blinds, antes, and a couple of limpers’ chips, so Joe increased his stack to 68K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein (pictured at left), on the other hand, was feeling a little suppressed as he explained that his table was extremely nitty, yet the table next to theirs kept the camera crews running over every other hand with their all in action. Nitty or not, Josh’s stack stayed strong at 43K and he will continue on to Day 2 after attending a wedding in Chicago during his break.
Recent eliminations include Adam “akat11″ Katz, whose pocket queens couldn’t catch his opponents pocket kings, and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, whose all-in preflop K-J couldn’t best his opponent’s K-Q. Also suspiciously missing from their seats? JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu, about whom we haven’t heard any news.
Congrats to all players who played valiantly through Day 1a! Though official chip counts will be released later this evening, here are estimates at the end of Level 5:
Michael “dblupM0j” Johnson - 114K
Mark “pokerbok” Vos - 106K
Jeremiah Smith - 99K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 70K
Jason Gray - 69.4K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 57.4K
Joe “latestlines2″ Ward - 68K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 55K
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 54K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 50K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 50K
Peter “number1pen” Neff- 49K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 43K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 37.6
Kevin “Kice32″ Iacofano - 37.5K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 35.8K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 32K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 26K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 21K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 21K
Barry Greenstein - 21K
Nit Watch 2008
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 5:20 pm
With all the loose play in the $1K rebuy, several players have been throwing out some loaded accusations and dropping the “n” word—you know, nit. Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was the first to start throwing around the accusation towards one of his tablemates. Williams quipped, “yeah, but he’s a nit–he’ll look before he moves all-in, its no fun.” Although, as we mentioned earlier, Williams shouldn’t have trouble finding action elsewhere at his table considering Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi is seated to his left. Not to mention that Williams has already worked his stack up to 27K.
When we last checked in with Jeremy “Chipsteela” Menard, he had built his chips up to 16K with pocket aces. Since then, Jeremy (pictured left) has not shown down a hand and the others at his table have begun accusations that he is a nit. JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado claimed, “we could put Allen Kessler and Steve Zolotow at this table and you would still be the biggest nit here.” This comment led to the mutual decision by the table that Menard would now be known as “Chainsaw Jr.” and Roland de Wolfe even went so far as to dig out his $10 food voucher the players receive when they register for the tournament and throw it Jeremy’s way.
Adam “akat11″ Katz is struggling to build a stack in the rebuy event. He was recently moved to a table with Mike “UNCC” Sowers and Ben “bfineman” Fineman. Adam got it all-in on a flop of 98X with JT only to realize he had less outs than he thought because his opponent held Q3. The flush hit on the turn and with no 7 to save Adam, he was forced to reach into his pocket and rebuy.
After the hand, Adam summed up his day by noting, “I flopped an open-ended straight flush draw and got in all in basically drawing dead. I hate you internet kids.” One such internet kid he may be referring to is Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured right), who is sitting at the table next to Katz’s and has already worked his way up to 19.5K and said to his friends that, so far, he is only in for the minimum buy-in.
Some other players off to a fast start include:
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 22K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 21.5K
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 18K
Dan “Wretchy” Martin - 14.2K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 14K
Aaron Been - 13K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 13K
Welcome to the Madhouse
by Brett on 06.25.08, 4:18 pm
Just mention the word “rebuy” and the online players will come calling. The $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys field is crowded with the world’s top online stars and the rebuy chips are flying everywhere. So far 860 players have registered for the event with more expected, but it looks like many of the familiar live pros will be sitting this one out with the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event starting later in the day.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured right) hit the jackpot by being seated at a table with Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen, but he was able to climb to an early chip lead following a hand that Mizzi folded preflop! With the blinds at 25/50, Mikkelsen limped in middle position and Williams raised to 150 on the button. Two players and Mikkelsen called and saw a flop of A94. A player bet 600, Mikkelsen folded and Williams raised to 3,000. It came back around to the original raiser, who moved all in for 7,500 and Williams quickly made the call, showing AK. He had the AQ of his opponent in trouble and the board revealed the 8 and 4, increasing Williams’ stack to over 15K.
Craig “MrCasino” Gray has also managed to chip up early at the disgust of Tim Vance. Gray and Vance got all of their chips in on the flop — Vance with top pair and Gray with a straight draw. Gray rivered his straight and Vance flew out of his seat and cried “Every time! All you gotta do is go against me and you’re gonna get chips.” Gray is up to 8K and Vance was left reaching for more rebuy chips.
We have seen both the good and the bad sides of a rebuy tournament at a table featuring JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado (pictured left) and Jeremy “Chipsteela” Menard. On the third hand of play, Jeremy moved all-in with pocket aces and got called by five people. Menard had a bit of sweat when a flush draw came on the turn, but the card that brought the flush on the river also paired the board, giving him a full house. He is already up to 16K.
JC, meanwhile, has had a rough go of things. He has frequently been moving all-in preflop in an attempt to build up his chip stack. Most recently, he got it all-in with 9T vs. both A8 and AK. Alvarado was ecstatic when the flop came KQJ, giving him a flopped straight. The 5 on the turn was no help to the other players, but when the T came on the river, most of the players in the Brasilia room heard the loud “No!” JC belted out when he realized he had been 3-outed.
Chip and a Chair
by Jessica on 06.19.08, 7:48 pm
We have come to the point in the $1.5K NLHE where players need to double up or go home. Nearly 2/3 of the field has already hit the rail and only 940 of the initial 2,447 players remain. While some, like Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski, are trying to make up some of the ground they lost, others are just trying to hang on.
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado (pictured at left) was down to two green 25 chips, enough for two antes, but he is slowly starting to build his stack back up. Most recently, he got it all-in preflop for 675 with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25 with 78 against his opponent’s AK. When the board ran out 7-6-3-9-Q and JC’s pair of sevens were deemd the winner he called out, “I might be the best player in the world.” As he counted and stacked his chips, he added, “I may have ten big blinds now. I went from two antes to ten big blinds. What can I say? I play great 2-ante stack poker.”
Dimitri “skanky980″ Valouev had a similar story to Alvarado. During the first level of play, Valouev got it all in on the flop with a set of deuces versus an open-ended straight flush draw. The flush hit on the river and he was left with only 300 chips. He has since rebounded and added even more to his now large chip stack when the following hand occurred:
On a flop of J33 Dimitri led out for 600 and the other player in the hand raised to 1200. Dimitri made the call and then checked when the 2 came on the turn. The other player bet out 1.5K and Valouev then check-raised him for an additional 2.5K. His opponent thought for a minute before showing A-J and folding. Dimitri then turned over pocket sixes and rake in the large pot. He now has 13K.
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton also doubled up when he raised to 625 in late position and the small blind reraised enough to put him all-in for his remaining 2.1K and Eaton called with AJ. He was in a race situation against 99 and when the board ran out J6353 Eaton doubled up to over 5K.
Sarvesh “serbie” Pershad continued the trend of doubling up when he moved all-in for 2.7K in late position with A9 and got called by a player in the blinds who held A-K. Sarvesh took the lead in the hand when the flop came QQ9. The turn and river were no help to the other player and now Pershad has a much healthier stack going into break.
Meanwhile, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right) started Day 2 of event #35, the $1.5k Stud, with less than 13k in chips and is now up to nearly 35k putting him near the top of the current chip counts.
A lot of those chips came in a big hand against a single opponent. After the bring in, a player showing the 8 completed and Bryan raised showing the J. The bring in folded and the other player called. There was lots of action on every street and after 7th was dealt Bryan bet and his opponent called. Bryan showed (JJ5)J277 for Jacks full and his opponent who was showing 8T45 mucked.
Lazy Sunday
by Jessica on 06.15.08, 5:18 pm
The Amazon Room is unusually quiet today as a field of 716 battle it out in Event #29, a $3K NLHE event. Everywhere we look we see lots of yawning and tired faces. It might be safe to say that the WSOP is beginning to take its toll on players’ energy levels.
One table that stands out from the rest includes JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado (pictured at right), Evelyn Ng, and Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks who are being entertained by their outgoing tablemate who has been talking virtually non-stop since the tournament began. Alvarado appears to be the one enjoying the player’s antics the most. During the first level with blinds at 25/50, it folded around to JC who completed the small blind. The extroverted player then shoved all in for 3K. Rather than get annoyed, Alvarado burst out laughing and the two appear to have made fast friends.
Other players are off to fast starts. Craig “MrCasino” Gray has already run his starting stack of 3K up to 11K. We here at Pocket Fives have decided we are only going to report when Craig does not immediately double his starting stack since it seems to just be common practice for him. Several other players are near or past the 10K mark. Here are some noteworthy chips counts headed into the first break:
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 14K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 11.5K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 11K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 11K
Andrew “Tiltyjoker” Lee - 11K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 10K
Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau - 9.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 9K
Other players, like Isaac Haxton, made an early exit. Those who followed suit include Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, and Theo Tran.