WSOP 2008
Table Draws
by Court on 10.11.08, 2:53 pm
In cash games you can pick your spots, and if you don’t like your table you can either choose to find another table or just not play. Tournaments don’t offer a player that option, and some of the table pairings today are not what the players were hoping for in their day 1 starting seating assignments.
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is seated across the table from his good friend Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen while Jason “JP_OSU” Potter was just moved to a tough table and is now sitting with Jason “JCarver” Somerville on his immediate left and Tyler “Brainwash” Cornell on Jason’s left with Craig “MrCasino” Gray across the table as well.
Cornell has added to his stack significantly already, sitting with 55k and picking up a medium sized pot recently with pocket aces on a board of A
Q
5. There was enough in the pot preflop to warrant a 7k bet on the flop from Cornell, that ended the action when the other player folded. 
A hot Cornell turned up his aces for top set with a shrug seemingly saying “what can I do, I’m getting hands.”
Aces weren’t so kind to Somerville, who lost a 30k pot early in the day when his pocket aces ran into top set.
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz (right) just picked up a pot with an all in bet on the river with the board showing KJ
8
27. Noah’s all in was around 20k and enough to cover his opponent who decided to fold and fight another day, surrendering the 20k+ pot to Schwartz. Also at the table with Noah are Alec “traheho” Torelli fresh off back to back wins in Bellagio prelim events, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout and Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim.
Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
by Brett on 07.08.08, 11:12 pm
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim says he’s comfortable gambling with a big stack here on Day 2a. That became clear during a hand just before dinner break. On a flop of 852, a player in early position bet 6.4K and another player moved all in for 24.8K. Hakim (pictured right) made the call and the original bettor folded:
Hakim: JT
Opponent: AQ
Hakim’s fate looked bleak until the J fell on the turn and 2 on the river. Hakim increased his stack to 185.5K. Also at his table is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, who is holding 100K.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams’ hot streak continued when he and another player got it all-in on the turn for a 120K pot with the board reading 943 9 with Williams holding pocket queens to his opponent’s pocket threes. Jeff appeared to be on the way out the door, but a miracle Q on the river pushed the pot to Jeff and increased his chip stack to 20 times what he had two levels ago. Since then Jeff has taken a few hits and has 87.5K going into dinner break.
Doug “resilient” Smith took some time to fill PocketFives Live in on how he managed to double his already large stack. With the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 Doug (pictured left) raised in early position with A-K off suit and another big stack made the call. The flop came A-K-8 and Smith led out for 3.3K. His opponent made the minimum raise to 6.6K, and Doug reraised to 20K total. The other player then moved all-in and Smith made the call. His opponent held K-8 for a lesser two pair and the A on the turn left his opponent drawing dead. After the hand Doug was up to 168K and he has been building his stack even more since then. He has 185K as play ended before the dinner break.
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann was sitting with close to 130K earlier in the day but has taken a hit in the past level. Heitmann and another player built a 30K pot preflop, with the other player all in holding TT to Heitmann’s 99. The pocket tens held as the board showed KJ3K6 and Heitmann’s stack dipped to 81K.
Right before the dinner break, the player in the hijack seat at Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach’s table raised to 2.5k and Richard made the call from the big blind. The flop came AJ5 and Richard checked over to the other player who bet 4k. Richard fiddled with his chips for a bit before raising to 10k. The other player called the raise and they saw the turn bring the T. Richard wasted no time in betting out with 15k and the other player gave up his hand which allowed Richard to add a few chips to his stack.
With the average stack at 96K, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts as players went on their 90 minute dinner break:
Derek “arodss3″ Buanomo - 215K (pictured right)
Michael “DblupM0J” Johnson - 190K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 188K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 185.5K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 185K
Jason Gray - 180K
Joe “JOEYTHEB” Brooks - 170K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 131K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 123K
Kush Patel - 122K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 121K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 118K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 110K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 106K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 101K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 100K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 97K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 87.5K
Dani “Anksy451″ Stern - 80K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 77K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 71K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 70.8K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 63K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 58.5K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 50K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 47K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 36K
Jordan Morgan - 31K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 28.5K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 22K
Barry Greenstein - 19.5K
Shaun Deeb - 18K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 17K
Short Day for Ferguson
by Brett on 07.08.08, 4:14 pm
Andrew “fergwrx” Ferguson was the victim of a tough beat just five minutes into play on Day 2a and has been eliminated from the Main Event. Ferguson (pictured right), who started the day with 13.5K, got all of his chips in the middle with JJ on a flop of T43. His opponent held QT and was able to come from behind by hitting the T on the river to send Ferguson home.
Paul “ComeonPhish” Lieu, seated a few tables over in the Blue section of the Amazon Room, has climbed to over 100K with pocket jacks in Level 6. We missed the preflop action, but a player moved all in and Lieu and another player called. The flop brought 743 and Lieu led out for 5K. His opponent called to build a sidepot. Lieu bet 10K when the 7 came on the turn and the other player folded. Lieu flipped up JJ while the short stack showed AK. The 2 fell on the river, shipping the entire pot to Lieu and increasing his stack to 115K.
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim is also seated in the Blue section and has done some moving early today. He added 10K to his stack when his opponent called a 3,300 bet from Hakim on a board of K3636. Hakim showed QQ and the other player mucked. Then Jeff eliminated two players at his table when he got involved in a three-way all in preflop. His KK needed a lot of help as the other two held AA and 33, but the K spiked on the flop and his set held to increase his stack to over 140K.
Peter “number1pen” Neff was sharing a table with Stu “thedonator” Paterson. We caught Neff raising to 1350 in middle position with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50. The player to his immediate left then reraised 2,150 on top. It folded back around to Peter who put in a third raise to 20K, more than enough to put his opponent all-in for his last 14K or so. The other player made the call with TT, which was behind Neff’s JJ. The board ran out 927JT and the other player was eliminated. After the hand, Peter was up to 70K after starting the day with 48K. Paterson was eliminated shortly after when he ran his AT into QQ preflop and was unable to improve.
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka is also making moves early. Slifka is seated at a table with Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken and eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel. We caught up with Slifka and Seidel heads up on a flop of AQ2. Seidel had checked in the big blind on the flop and Slifka bet out 2K from the button. Seidel then reraised to 5.5K total and TJ made the call. Both checked the 9 on the turn. The river came 7 and Seidel checked again. Slifka moved all-in for his remaining 15K and Erik thought for at least a minute before laying down the hand and conceding the pot to TJ, increasing his stack to 30K.
SirWatts’ Tourney Future Bright
by Jill on 07.05.08, 1:37 am
Nearing the end of Level 4 this evening, play condensed further in the Amazon Room, yet the crowd of spectators remained ever large. Plenty of action for PocketFivers occurred in this last level. We caught up with Stu “thedonator” Paterson (pictured at left) who still contended with a small stack, hovering just over 13K. With a couple other players, he limped into a flop of 659 and bet out 1.4K after seeing the board. Another player in later position raised to 3.5K total; one other player called and Stu folded. It seemed he was looking for a good spot to double up at what seemed to be a tight table.
At a nearby table, Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold and Marco “KILL-BILL” Liesy protected their pre-dinner stacks, increasing their value by a few thousand chips each. While watching their table, which was right on a very spectator-filled rail, we saw Marco take down a small pot against one other player with K-Q. He chipped up to 26K while Todd accumulated to 41K.
PokerRoad’s own Haralabos Voulgaris has been increasing his chip stack as well; when we caught up to his table in the Green section, he was in the big blind and a few other players had entered play. The flop came 5J9 and players checked the flop. The A came on the turn, and one of his opponents bet out 1K. Haralabos called and the 9 came on the river. Both players checked and he flipped A8 to ship the chips his way.
In the Blue section of the Amazon room, many player have relocated and redrawn for seats, but Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski (pictured at right) informed PocketFives that no one’s left his table all day. “We’ve all become friends,” he said. “We’re just going to fold to the end of the day.” Except he did report to P5s that he managed to recently double up to 17K, so we’re not entirely sure his motives are all friendly!
At the table behind Jeff sat Mike “SirWatts” Watson who accumulated a huge chipstack - he was up to 102K in the last level. We’re not entirely sure how he keeps attracting chips to his stack since action is always calm when we watch; perhaps there are magnets under the table?
At the next table over, Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim reported that he just wants to keep up with SirWatts — He’s convinced that’s his best strategy. In an effort to do this, in one hand, Jeff bet out in the cutoff for 750 before the flop with a chipstack of 52K. The player on the button raised it to 2,400 and pushed everyone else out of the pot. Jeff counted each chipstack and estimated that he had a 5:3 chip advantage over the other player, so he reraised him to 7,450. In what became a betting war, his opponent made it 14K total, 6,600 more. Jeff thought a moment longer before pushing all his chips in the middle. His opponent, clearly agitated, thought long and hard before folding. Jeff slid his cards to the dealer and chipped up to 63K.
Some unofficial chip counts at the end of Level 4:
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 102K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 63K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 41K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 40K
Shaun Deeb - 34K
Greg “okstate345″ Cox - 31K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 31K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 28K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 26K
Marco “KILL-BILL” Liesy - 26K
Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson - 24K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 18K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 17K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 12.5K
Theo “pittrounder” Tran - 5.5K
In the Waiting Line
by Brett on 06.15.08, 6:18 pm
Spectators have formed around the 175 players still in the $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em event. A large percentage of them, however, are those that have busted from the tournament. A long line has formed in the Brasilia Room as players are waiting for their payouts. Players have grown so flustered that a tournament director has announced a 20-minute break at the end of Level 11 (the first break was supposed to come at the conclusion of Level 12).
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas (pictured right) was saved from having to head to the back of the line when he doubled to increase his stack to 23K. With the blinds at 800/1600, a player in middle position raised to 4500 and Douglas moved in for a little over 11K. Action folded back to the original raiser, who called with TT and was unable to improve against the KK of Douglas. Taylor is well known for his appearance in Nat Arem’s “The Poker Film”, a documentary about a house shared by online poker players Jeff “yellowsub” Williams, Tyler “tbthanx” Bell and Nick “Stoweski” Stowe.
Here is a list of others left in Event #27 that have avoided the dreaded money line:
Court Harrington - 75K
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 38K
Billy Westom - 31K
Jason Gray - 30K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 16K