WSOP 2008
Dippy Destruction
by Brett on 07.09.08, 6:06 pm
Matt “dippydough” DiPaoli found himself very short early on in the first level of the day but caught fire just before players went on their first break. First, DiPaoli (pictured left) doubled his stack when he got all of his remaining chips in preflop with K
K
against AK
. The board revealed J94J3 and Matt increased his stack to 26K. On the very next hand, a player limped on the button and DiPaoli raised to 2,150 in the small blind. The button called and both players saw a flop of KQJ
. Matt led out for 2,100 and the button raised to 5K. Matt then reraised all in and the other player quickly folded. DiPaoli currently has 32K.
Ben “bfineman” Fineman was down to his last 3,575 chips when he moved all-in after it folded around to him with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50. The player on the button reraised all-in behind Ben for 15.3K and the big blind thought for a minute or two before making the call with AK. The button showed JJ and Fineman turned over QJ. Ben needed some help and picked up several outs when the flop came out AKQ.
“How about a T?” Ben asked. He didn’t get much help when a 9 came on the turn and, while it wasn’t the T, the Q on the river was enough to give Fineman the main pot and send him back up to nearly 15K.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez also picked up a ton of chips early when a player in middle position raised to 1.5K, the player in the hijack called, and Ramirez called on the button. The flop came out 743 and the initial raiser bet out 3.1K. The player in the hijack reraised to 10K and Senovio moved all in for 23.6K. The initial raiser tanked and eventually folded what he claimed was AQ. The reraiser thought for some time before making the call with JJ and Ramirez turned over 33 for bottom set. The turn and river came K2 and Ramirez scooped the large pot to send his stack up to 55K.
A handful of Pocketfivers didn’t make the first break of the Main Event Day 2b. David “ComptonMasta” Barter (pictured right) was eliminated after starting the day with an average stack of 35k. Barter busted when he lost a raise in an all-in preflop confrontation. The initial raiser opened for 2k and got two calls by the time it got to Barter, who made it 10k on the button. The initial opener put Barter all-in for his last 25k and Barter called and was in a flip with his A-K against Q-Q. Barter didn’t improve was eliminated.
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich was sent to the rail after an interesting hand playing alongside Jason “JCarver” Somerville, who reported Rich’s bust out to Pocketfives. According to Somerville, on a flop of K99, Rich’s opponent bet 2k and Rich raised to 6k. Rich’s opponent reraised to 14k and Rich raised all-in for about 10k more. Rich’s opponent called and tabled K-8, and was in remarkable shape given the action against Rich’s A8. The board bricked out for Rich and he was sent to the rail.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch and Eric “sheets” Haber were also sent packing during the past level.
David “Bakes” Baker continues to accumulate a big stack and heads to the break with 200K. Interestingly enough, Baker isn’t even the biggest stack at his table. He has a 280K stack to his immediate left. Here’s a look at some chip counts of those trying to catch Baker here on Day 2B:
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 136K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 130K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 123K
Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter - 106K
Brandon Schaefer - 90K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 80K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 75K
Jeff “japapola” Papola - 70K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 70K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 65K
Dan “voff” Deveau - 63K
Grant “drossxyu” Hinkle - 59K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 55K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 55K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 55K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 55K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 54K
Mike Herder - 53K
“BodogAri” Engel - 47K
Ian “IanJ” Johns - 45.5K
Todd Lewis - 42K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 34K
Matt “dippydough” DiPaoli - 32K
Bryan Micon - 30K
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 27K
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 28K
Ben “BSUChamp” Grice - 18K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 15K
Ronald Lee - 13K
“That is So Sick!”
by Brett on 07.05.08, 9:03 pm
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich felt the excruciating pain of a one-outer in the past hour. At the 150/300 level, a player in early position limped and Rich (pictured left) raised to 1300 in middle position. It folded to the big blind, who reraised to 3,000 and Rich made the call after the limper folded. The flop brought AJ5 and both players checked. The turn was the 7 and the big blind checked to Rich, who bet 3,300. He was then check-raised all in for 6500 more and made the call with AQ, which had the big blind’s KK drawing to one card in the deck. Sure enough, the K appeared on the river and Rich leaped out of his seat in disgust. He was left with 14K after the hand.
Justin “truesyalose” Trusdell, who had been sending chips over to David Singer earlier in the day, just shipped more to Steve Jelinek. Jelinek raised to 900 on the button and Truesdell called in the big blind. The flop brought 952 and Truesdell led out for 1,100. Jelinek called and saw the A fall on the turn. Bother players checked and the river was the K. Truesdell bet 1,500 and Jelinek raised to 6,500. Truesdell stared him down for a minute, asking the player if he had the nuts or nothing, and finally folded to cut his stack down to 13.5K.
52 and Truesdell led out for 1,100. Jelinek called and saw the A fall on the turn. Bother players checked and the river was the K. Truesdell bet 1,500 and Jelinek raised to 6,500. Truesdell stared him down for a minute, asking the player if he had the nuts or nothing, and finally folded to cut his stack down to 13.5K.Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen had quite a wild ride during this level; when we caught up with him before last break, his chip count had soared to 42K. However, when we went back to the Brasilia Room to check on his play, he sat with only 3.5K in chips in front of him. Though he was down, Keven was definitely not out as he played aggressively and was unafraid to put all his chips in the middle. In one hand, from middle position, he pushed his whole stack in the middle and the action folded around to him. The very next hand, Keven again pushed all his chips out and got a call from the small blind for all 4,350 of his chips. Keven flipped KQ to his opponent’s JJ, but the board ran out K7629 and he doubled up to nearly 10K. Still short, Keven was still looking to make a move, but a lot more comfortable in the meantime.
Q to his opponent’s JJ, but the board ran out K7629 and he doubled up to nearly 10K. Still short, Keven was still looking to make a move, but a lot more comfortable in the meantime.
Ezra Galston got a double up at his table when he and another player got it all-in preflop with Galston holding AK to his opponent’s AJ. The board ran out QT449 and shot Ezra’s stack up to 34K. Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured right) also picked up a few chips without having to go to showdown in a hand where he picked up pocket kings. With the blinds at 100/200 a player raised to 700 and Adam flat called in the cut off and the big blind called as well. The flop came 9-7-5 rainbow and it checked around to Levy who bet out 1.4K. The big blind folded and the initial raiser flat called. Adam told us after the fact that he was afraid his opponent may have flopped a set on him, but when the K hit on the turn his hand improved vastly, but also put two spades on the board. The other player bet out 2.1K and Levy raised to 6K. His opponent thought before folding what he claimed was pocket queens and Adam took down the pot. He currently sits with 23K.
We also caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, who had a story for us. Graham raised to 750 with A-Q and a woman in seat one made the call. A player in seat 6 then moved all in for more than 11,000. Graham, fearing only the woman behind him, laid the hand down and the woman called with a pair of tens. The “idiot” who moved all in, as Graham referred to him, had K-Q and was eliminated when his hand failed to improve. Matt then said that if he had called he would have been sent packing, as the woman admitted she would have called Graham’s all in as well and would have made a set of tens to trump Graham’s pair of aces. Nice laydown, sir.
Here are the chip counts of some notable P5ers midway through Level 3:
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 67k
Brian Devonshire - 54k
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 50.5K
Darren Elias - 50K
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 50k
David “Bakes” Baker - 47.5K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 44k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 41k
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 38K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 35K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 33K
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo - 29k
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 26k
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 26k
Leo “SuperFluous Man” Wolpert - 23k
Joseph “WSOPJoe” May - 23K
Court Harrington - 22.5K
Jon Wein - 22K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 18k
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 17K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 12K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 12K
Out: Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver
Treacherous Tables in Rebuy
by AdamJ on 06.26.08, 1:16 am
Many online players seemed a bit disgusted with their tables after players returned from an hour and a half dinner break in the 1k rebuy WSOP Event #44.
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach lamented having to play at his table, playing with Jason “JCarver” Somerville and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams to his left.
Somerville was hating life even more as he said Williams, who was sitting two players his left, was “abusing” him. The two had a playful deamenor with each other as they made cracks on each other as P5’s was watching the action.
Somerville even tried to bribe P5’s to write something bad about Williams, even offering up a green 25 chip as compensation. P5’s scoffed at the offer, electing to wait for higher compensation!
Fohrenbach’s frustration didn’t get much sympathy from Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who walked over and talked about his table which included Shaun Deeb (21k), Theo Tran (75k), Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (45k), and Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (13k).
This table was one of the more social tables, talking about many random poker stories capped off by who has broken more laptops.
After much discussion, Deeb mentioned that nobody has broken more than Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, who has a tally Deeb confidently described as “double digits” piled up in his garage.
Joshua “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) was battling a short stack of 10k at one of the more interesting tables left, playing alongside Mark Seif (98k), Minh “The Master” Nguyen, David Daneshgar (9k), and Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant (25k).
Although VanDuyn’s situation seemed dire with about a third of the 30k average stack, it was much worse until he tripled up his 3k stack off of Vinsant when his kings held up against Vinsant’s AJ. Perhaps VanDuyn will need to borrow another colorful hat like the pink one he borrowed from JJ Lieu earlier in the day to improve his fortune.
Here’s a list of notable chip stacks during the 400-800-100 level with 198 of 879 left.
Jason Mercier - 73k
Eric “E-fro” Froehlich - 64k
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 49k
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 30k
Brett “bhanks11″ Hanks - 26k
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 21k
Stu “TheDonator” Paterson - 20k
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 20k
Matt “All in At 420 Stout” - 18k
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 9k
Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 9:12 pm
All of the remaining 420 players for the $1K No Limit Hold Em with rebuys have been condensed into the same section, which is resulting in several loaded tables. Shortly after Scott “gunning4you” Seiver busted, his seat was filled by Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich. Rich has Adam “Roothlus” Levy to his right and Adam has Scott “BigRiskky” Clements on his right, creating a murderer’s row of skilled players. Several other tables feature a combination of prominent players. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson have been seated at the same table all day. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman and Chris “moorman1″ Moorman are seated together, as are Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Adam “akat11″ Katz, and Ben “bfineman” Fineman. Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach are passing the time at their table discussing the merits of Cake Poker.
One player who has been moved to about six different tables today is Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured at left). After he was seated at his most recent table, he got involved in the following hand, which resulted in a noticable hit to his chip stack:
On a flop of KQ5 Matt bet out 850 and one other player made the call. After the 4 peeled off on the turn, his opponent checked, Matt bet out 1,625, and his opponent didn’t think too long before making the call. When the 2 hit on the river the other player led out for 3.5K and Matt announced “I just call.” The player showed QJ for the rivered flush and Matt flashed his set of fives before tossing them in the muck. He still had 15K as Level 5 was winding down.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija also took a hit to his stack when his opponent bet out 1.1K on a flop of 633 and Amit check-raised to 3K total. The other player made the call and they both saw the turn–J. Amit led out for 5.3K and his opponent called. Once the T came on the river, Amit elected to check and his opponent checked behind. Makhija held A-5 while his opponent had A-6 for two pair. He was left with 25K after the hand.
As the field has been cut in half, several players have been eliminated including Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu.
Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured at right) - 42K
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 20K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 18.5K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 15K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 14K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 13K
Isaac Haxton - 12K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 11K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 9K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 8.5K
Jason Gray - 8K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 4K
One of everyone’s favorite events, the $50K Horse is underway with over 120 players vying to take home the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy in addition to the bracelet. It was announced at the beginning of the event that the trophy will travel around from winner to winner, similar to the way the Stanley Cup does. Some of the players we spotted in the field include Justin Bonomo, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Dario Minieri.
In the Brasilia Room, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event is down to its final 26 players. Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik was eliminated in 52nd place for $3,341 and Tom “SBRounder” West took 41st for $3,636. Shannon Shorr and Dan “Stainley88″ Adams are still alive but both working with short stacks.
Ginger Snaps
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 6:30 am
As play went on into the late hours of the night in the $5K Stud Hi/Lo tempers began to flare. As the last hand of the night was dealt out Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (pictured at left) and Max Pescatori began to exchange some less than friendly words. While Pocket Fives was not present when the confrontation began, it appeared as though Rich had called the clock on Pescatori in a prior hand after what Pescatori believed was a very brief period of time.
As they exchanged words the duo, along with two other players, got invovled in a hand. On 4th street a player showing a pair of 9s bet and Pescatori folded his hand with his up cards reading K-Q. Jordan and the two other players got invovled in a betting and raising war through all streets until 7th st was dealt out face down. The player showing a pair of 9s and a possible straight checked, as did Rich, who showed a possible 7-6 low, and the third player, who showed possible low and straight possibilities, bet. The player with the nines then raised and Jordan was left with a tough decision.
As Rich deliberated the decision, Pescatori attempted to call the clock on him, prompting Rich to respond, “are you in the hand?” and remind him that three minutes needs to pass before the clock can be called. Max reminded him that at one point he was involved in the hand and then appealed to the floor person standing nearby who confirmed Jordan’s response that he needed to wait at least a couple of minutes before he could call the clock.
After much thought, Jordan made the call and showed a 7-6-5-3-A low and a busted flush draw. The player with the 9s up turned over a straight to the 10 and the third player showed a straight to the 7 and a 7-6-5-4-2 low for second best all-around. Rich took half of the giant pot and ended the night with 27.5K. Play will resume tomorrow at 3pm.
Other notable chip counts as the day came to a close include:
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 32K
Justin Bonomo - 25K
Thayer “Thay3r” Rasmussen - 16K
Elminations since we last posted on the event include: Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, James “mig.com” Mackey, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Scott Fischman, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements