WSOP 2008
Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 10:34 pm
In the Brazillia room, the $3k NLHE tournament isn’t the only event running right now. Day 2 of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) is also taking place there today and while yesterday’s action seemed rather slow because of the large starting stacks and fixed limit structure, the play today has sped up immensely with only 42 of the original 218 remaining.
Eric “EFro” Froehlich is sitting pretty at the top of the chip counts after some big hands. Howard Lederer put in a raise preflop and both Froehlich (pictured right) and another player called to see the flop come A
K
5
. Action checked to Lederer who bet and both Froehlich and the other player called. When the J dropped on the turn action checked to Lederer who again bet but this time Froehlich raised. The player in the middle and Lederer both made the call and the Q
fell on the river. Froehlich bet out, the player in the middle folded and Lederer reluctantly called to see Froehlich’s QT that had turned a broadway straight. Lederer mucked and Froehlich won a large pot. Froehlich is currently the chip leader with 350k.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker has also been doing well in this tournament today, despite being at the same table as “EFro’s” massive stack. Preflop Parker (pictured left) made it 2 bets to go, the player to his left upped it to 3 bets and the big blind capped it at 4 bets. All 3 players called to see the flop come J94. The big blind bet out and both Parker and the other player called. When the 3 came on the turn the big blind checked, Brock bet, and the other two players both smooth called. The river brought the 2, completing a possible flush draw and the big blind again checked it to Parker who bet. The player in the middle folded and after thinking for a long while the big blind eventually called and when Brock flipped up the QJ the big blind mucked his hand and Parker scooped a large pot.
Brock then finished off Howard Lederer by using his AQ to best Lederer’s KJ on a board of 6548A sending Lederer to the rail and increasing Brock’s stack to a healthy 190k. He has since chipped up to 230k and is in 2nd place behind Froehlich.
Other notable players still in the field of the LHE tourney include Justin Bonomo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles while Matt “mattster24″ Sterling and Joe Sebok were recently eliminated.
Over at the ESPN Featured Table in the Amazon room, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is dominating the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament. Johnny Chan lost a huge pot to David Benyamine to put Benyamine in 2nd place and drop Chan down to 3rd and then promptly lost another big hand to Galfond to extend Galfond’s lead and to make Chan the short stack.
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th, and 6th place and the chip counts for the 5 remaining players are:
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond - 3,156,000
David Benyamine - 1,545,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 720,000
Adam Hourani - 615,000
Johnny Chan - 330,000
Galfond Loses the Chip Lead… OMG!
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 8:26 pm
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is now 2nd in chips with around 1.5 million at the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney. Johnny Chan just stole the lead away when he busted Brian Rast in 9th place and now sits with over 2 million in chips. Phil Hellmuth is currently the short stack with around 150k even after he doubled up earlier when his KK54 caught a king on the turn to best Brian Rast’s AA22 after all the money was in preflop.
Galfond (pictured left) is definitely not letting these big name live pros intimidate him. In one hand Daniel Negreanu raised to 50k preflop with the blinds at 10k/20k and Galfond called from the big blind. The flop came out with the J63 and Galfond checked it over to Negreanu who bet 75k. Galfond calmly sat and contemplated before raising to 225k prompting Negreanu to muck his hand almost instantly.
In the Brazillia room event #29, the $3k NLHE has been filled with agressive play ever since the bubble burst which has lead to a number of players being eliminated. Jason “JCarver” Somerville was eliminated in 61st place when his QT couldn’t best another player’s AQ all in on a queen high flop. Soon after Somerville was knocked out Steven O’Dwyer got all his chips in the middle with pocket fours in a race against the AK of his only caller. The ace came on the flop and O’Dwyer couldn’t get back ahead and was busted in 60th place.
Stu “The Donator” Patterson went on a chip stack rollercoaster ride when he lost a large portion of his chips in a hand where his AQ couldn’t catch up to an opponents AK. He was then crippled down to almost nothing on a subsequent hand. Afterwards he was able to post the ante and nothing else and he actually won the table’s antes with his 92 when four diamonds came on the board making him a flush and no other player held a diamond in their hand. Still incredibly short stacked he got his money in with 97 and was happy to see he was live against his opponents AJ. The board ran out 6423A and Patterson was eliminated in 57th place.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch got all his chips in preflop with his JT dominating his opponents J9, but unfortunately for Lynch a 9 came on the flop and he couldn’t recover and was sent to the rail in 46th place.
Somerville, O’Dwyer and Patterson will all receive $6,126 for their 2 day run in this tournament and Lynch will receive $6,718.
Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
by Jill on 06.16.08, 5:48 am
Event #27’s $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em race for the bracelet has concluded for the evening with 18 players remaining in the field. Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sits near the top of the chip count with over 850K, now representing PocketFives in his logo t-shirt.
We caught up with Barry as he was raising preflop from the hijack to 48K with the blinds at 10K/20K. He took down the pot uncontested and did the same thing for the next two consecutive hands. He recounted a story from earlier in the tournament about a hand he played with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Apparently, Barry made his move on the button by pushing all in to Scott’s preflop raise. Barry held 97. Scott, trying to edge out a Scandinavian player at the table, called the raise and flipped over A-J offsuit.
In the only hand Barry has played for his tournament life, he managed to hit a 9 on the river to save his stack and suck out. He recounted how tilted Scott got at the bad beat; apparently Scott raised all in for the next seven hands, despite being deep-stacked even after the beat. The field lost two more players after Barry told his story; play is now down to the final two tables and will resume tomorrow at 2PM PST while players compete for the bracelet and $628,290.
Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) had much to smile about in the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys as his stack went from 100k to over 1M in twenty minutes. Play was down to the final two tables. Negreanu went over the one million mark when he busted David Williams’ 500k chip stack in the following hand:
On a flop of 732, Williams bet out 40k and Negreanu called. The T dropped on the turn and Williams bet and got raised by Negreanu. Williams reraised all-in, prompting a snap call from Negreanu. Williams tabled the T987, drawing dead to Negreanu’s AT{7s]7 full house.
Negreanu jokingly said he’s hoping to get at least ninth place so he can break even from the 85k he’s invested in the tournament. Many big names remain in the final 14 including Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Alexander Kostritsyn.