WSOP 2008
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 K
Q
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 7
5 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.
Slaubaugh Busts in Level 1
by AdamJ on 07.03.08, 4:47 pm
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh’s remarkable run through this WSOP came to an end in the first level of the 10k NL Main Event, WSOP Event #54.
Slaubaugh’s 86 got all-in on the turn when the board read 5793. Slaubaugh’s opponent turned an ace-high flush.
P5’s unfortunately caught the action late on the turn so the context of the hand isn’t complete.
Nevertheless, it’s been an incredible series for Slaubaugh, whose had arguably the best results from WSOP NL tournaments this summer.
Slaubaugh’s made five cashes this WSOP, three of which were top 20 finishes. Slaubaugh’s best run was through the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #36 where he finished 2nd, cashing for 389k.
Most players barometer on whether they drew a good starting table, especially in fields this large, is to not recognize anyone at their table.
A handful of P5ers were unfortunately not in that enviable position.
Adam “akat11″ Katz was sitting right across from one of the most feared NL tournament players in the world in David Pham. At least Katz was sitting a few seats to Pham’s right, although from talking with Katz that hardly seemed like any consolation.
“I mean why wouldn’t I be seated right across from one of the most aggressive tournament players in the world,” he said.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker (pictured left) drew one of the tougher tables in the field with Roland De Wolfe and David Benyamine sitting directly to his right. Throw in Peter Neff as well and the table is down right cruel.
Joe Sebok’s tough WSOP got a little bleaker when he was planted to the immediate right of James “mig.com” Mackey.
So far, Sebok has fared well at the table with 24k to Mackey’s 14k.
Joshua “pbdrunks” VanDuyn continues to battle tough luck early in tournaments this WSOP. VanDuyn’s stack is down to 11k after he turned an underflush in a pot he raised preflop. Luckily VanDuyn was able to salvage a chunk of his chips after he took a pot-control line after the flop, check-calling the turn and river.
Here’s a list of players’ stacks:
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 26k
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 25k
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 23k
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 21k
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 21k
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 18k
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 17k
Adam “All In At 420″ Stout - 17k
Nick “fu_15″ Maimone - 14k
Six-Handed Players Making Moves
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 7:53 pm
There are many players making moves in event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed event. Glen “choron” Chorny was trying to get his short stack moving in the right direction when he raised to 600 preflop with the blinds at 100/200 until an opponent re-raised to 2.4k. Chorny (pictured left) looked disgusted and after thinking for a minute he mucked his cards, showing the A. His opponent said “That’s why I didn’t want to see the flop” as he flipped over his pocket kings and raked in the pot. Chorny is sitting with half his original stack so we expect to see him making more moves as the blinds increase.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer bet out with the board showing T53 and his opponent raised. After thinking for a minute O’Dwyer reraised enough to put him all in and the other player did indeed make the call with the KT only to find that O’Dwyer held the AA and was ahead in the hand. The turn and river came with the Q and 6 and O’Dwyer added to his stack as the other player exited the tournament.
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert’s luck wasn’t quite as good. We caught up with the action on the river with the board reading T73TK and Wolpert making a bet of 850 into the small pot. He was called by his opponent and Wolpert appeared reluctant to flip over his hand. When he did he showed the AJ for ace high which had been good until the river, as his opponent held the KQ for a pair of kings which was enough to scoop the pot.
Players are just coming back from their second break of the day and the blinds will be 150/300 with a 25 ante when they return. Some unoffical chip counts of notable players left in the field are listed below.
Hevad “RainKhan” Khan - 35k
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 32k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 32k
Alex Jacob - 25k
Shannon Shorr - 19k
Gavin Griffin - 19k
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis -19k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija -17k
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista (pictured right)- 13k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 12k
Anna Wroblewski - 12k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 11k
Players that have been eliminated from the tournament so far include Joe Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Carter “devinr12″ Gill, Rolf Slotboom, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, and Issac Haxton.
Gavin Fun
by Jessica on 06.14.08, 6:08 pm
Round 4 of the $10K Heads Up event has been running less than an hour, but already players are making quick work of their opponents. Recent bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst was the first to advance to the Sweet 16 and shortly on her heels was Gavin Griffin (pictured at right), who won his match after the following hand transpired:
With starting stacks of 160K and the blinds at 1K/2K, Griffin raised to 5K total and Alex Kostritsyn made the call. The flop came 432 and Kostritsyn checked. Griffin bet out 8K and Alex raised 10.5K on top. Griffin thought for a moment before raising again for 30K more. Kostritsyn then moved all-in for another 35K or so and Griffin called with AJ to his KK. The turn came T and the river was a king, but the K, which gave Griffin the winning flush.
The 2,706 person field of the $1.5K NLHE Event #27 has been narrowed to 1,970 already and several players are starting to build their stacks. Here are some chip counts we spotted heading into the break:
13K - Craig “MrCasino” Gray
7.5K - Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul
7K - Court Harrington
6.6K - Scott “ssitron” Sitron
6K - Mike “wiscomurray” Murray
4.7K - Michael “moneymike10″ Prepelica
Other players, like Joe Sebok, made an early exit in the event. Joe was eliminated in Level 1 of play when he got it all-in preflop with A-K to Roy Winston’s pocket queens. The board came out 9 high and Winston was the benefactor of an early double up. In addition to Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Nick “fu_15″ Maimone, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Shane “shaniac” Schleger also made early exits.
Levy Staging a Comeback
by Crystal on 06.07.08, 7:51 pm
Adam “Roothless” Levy is hanging in there in the $5k shootout. After the first break Levy and Greg “FBT Mueller continued heads up play with Mueller holding about a 9:1 chip advantage over Levy. Mueller has been talking up a storm while Levy is patiently waiting to catch a hand. Levy doubled once with A8 against Mueller’s 22 by catching an ace and he has been slowly chipping up since. Most recently he raised Mueller on the turn of a KT92 board and was called. Levy bet out 37k on the river and after debating Mueller called and then mucked when he saw Levy held the K2 for two pair. Mueller still has almost a 2:1 chip advantage but has been complaining that Levy is catching much better cards heads up.
While Levy battles on, Leo Wolpert made quick work of his table, taking it down 1 hour and 10 minutes after play began today. He gained a huge chip lead when he won a three-way pot with pocket aces, then once play was heads up Wolpert made a bet on the river with the board showing A8748 and his opponent raised all in. Wolpert jumped from his chair yelling “Call, call call!” before flipping over the A8 for a full house that was good enough to give him the win in the 2nd round of the shootout. He now has one of the six seats at the final table tomorrow.
Joe Sebok and Isaac Haxton were both eliminated from their tables while Tim “TMay420″ West is still battling with John Juanda and Eric “EFro” Froehlich on another table.