WSOP 2008
BigRiskky Business as Usual
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 10:36 pm
Things just got even tougher at Scott “BigRiskky” Clements’ (pictured at right) table, but the Omaha expert seems to be taking his rough table line up just fine. Since we last reported on the $1.5K PLO w/ rebuy event, Jamie Gold has busted and a few new faces have been added to this already tough table. Here is a partial rundown of the current line-up:
Seat 2 - Bruno Fitoussi
Seat 3 - Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby
Seat 4 - Scott “BigRiskky” Clements
Seat 7 - Jordan Morgan
Seat 9 - Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
Clements recently got into a hand with several of the players when, with the blinds at 300/600, Hamby and another player limped into a pot and then Clements raised to 2.5K total. The player on the button called, as did Hamby and the other limper. The flop came A
6
4
and it checked to Clements who paused as if he was going to bet before electing to check. The player on the button checked as well and when the turn came 6 it checked around to the player on the button once again. This time the player bet out 6.5K and everyone folded except for Scott, who made the call. The river was the T and both players checked. Clements pulled out K-K from his K-K-10-4 for two pair, kings and sixes, and the other player mucked. Scott is now up to 48K.
Here are the chip counts of some of the other remaining players in the event:
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 110K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 95K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 50K
Jared Hamby - 24K
Jordan Morgan - 22K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 12K
In the Brasilia room, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event is down to 56 players and Scott “ssitron” Sitron and Court Harrington are adding chips to their stack as the evening moves forward. Harrington began Level 15 with 60K and his built has stack to over 100K without having to show a hand down. Sitron is up to 225K despite sitting at a tough table that includes Morgan Machina, Ray Henson and Fabrice Soulier.
The $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Championship is also taking place there. Sixty-four of the world’s best players are still battling for the crown. Thayer Rasmussen is still representing the online community with 30K — slightly below the average stack.
Over at the ESPN Feature Table, play continues 3-handed at the final table of the $2.5K 6-handed NLHE event. Dario Minieri has relinquished the chip lead to Seth Fischer, but all three players are relatively even stacked.
Minieri took a huge hit when he and Justin “fluffdog” Filtz (pictured right) got it all in on a flop of AT2 with Justin holding 35 to Dario’s QJ. Filtz appeared to be in bad shape until a 4
on the turn made him the wheel. The 4 fell on the river and he doubled up to over 1.5 million chips.
Let the Belittling Begin
by Brett on 06.18.08, 8:36 pm
Fabrice Soulier, Morgan Machina and Phil Hellmuth have all been moved to Scott “ssitron” Sitron’s table in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event — all of whom made the final table of the same event last year. Hellmuth (pictured left) is the defending champion and earned $637,254; Machina took fourth for $161,425 and Soulier seventh for $64,570. The table banter picked up right as soon as Phil sat down:
Hellmuth: “Me, Fabrice and Morgan are all back here again and you know why? Because we play good.”
Ray Henson (also seated at the table): “Why am I here, Phil?”
Hellmuth: “You probably sucked out.”
Sitron has remained quiet, picking up a few small pots here and there and is now sitting with 215K with the average stack at around 90K. He recently knocked Lisa Rosenbloom out of the tournament when she moved in for her last 14K with QJ and was unable to improve against Sitron’s AK. Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci and Court Harrington are seated side-by-side at a nearby table. Banducci has 100K and Harrington is still hovering around 60K with 75 players still in fighting for the first place prize of $573,734.
The antics continued at Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond’s table after players returned from the most recent break in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys. The table still includes Galfond, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, and Jamie Gold. Gold and Galfond recently tangled in a hand. Both players checked the flop of 5-5-3 with two clubs and checked again then the T came on the turn. After the 2 came on the river, Galfond checked and Gold made a pot sized bet of 4,050. He then became unusually engrossed in his Card Player magazine while Galfond contemplated his options. At one point Gold even turned to his right and started showing one of the articles to Clements and the two hovered over the magazine together.
Galfond eventually made the call and showed the king high flush and Jamie quickly mucked. He then began to mock Galfond for taking so long to make the call with the second nut flush. He added “I know we haven’t played together a lot, but it is me. I mean, come on, that is a pretty easy call.” Gold was left with less than 2K in chips.
Here are some other unofficial chip counts from the event:
Tim “tmay420″ West - 48K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 35K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 28K
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams - 20K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 19K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 19K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 16.5K
Jamie “TheNew” Robbins - 15K
In the $2.5K 6-handed NLHE event, the final table has been cut in half and Dario Minieri, Scott “grtwhitehoop” Fischer and Justin “fluffdog” Filtz remain. Minieri is still the chip leader, but Filtz made up some ground recently after Dario doubled him up.
Minieri Steamrolling on Final Table Bubble
by AdamJ on 06.18.08, 3:29 am
Nearly ten feet away from about a dozen fans watching his every move, Dario Minieri’s aggressiveness had the floor staff searching for chip racks.
With chips stacked six racks high and a colony of chips left on the felt in front of him, Minieri (pictured right) has seen his chip stack go from 300k to 1.8 million in the last two rounds of the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31.
Minieri has been raising nearly every pot and his fearlessness has got him busting opponents with hands as weak as middle pair that were good.
Minieri’s aggressiveness has even made Scotty Nguyen merely an onlooker sitting to Minieri’s right. Despite not playing many hands, Nguyen’s mouth was as active as always, reporting to the players at the other table about Dario’s demolition derby.
“The young gun is taking em’ all down baby,” said Nguyen in his standard high pitch tone.
Play is down to one seven-handed table, breaking when one more opponent busts. Minieri has roughly a third of the chips in play.
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak busted out right before the consolidation when his 3-bet all-in preflop with AK was called by 88 and Rusnak failed to improve taking home 38k.
Rusnak’s stack had been on a nosedive prior to his elimination, going from 650 to 200k after he lost two preflop all-in hands with his pocket tens to pocket kings and his pocket jacks losing to Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer’s utg shove with pocket queens.
Justin “Fluffdog” Filtz (500k), Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer (320k), and Scotty Nguyen (400k) will also be battling Minieri’s stack to make the final table.
The $10K Limit Hold-em has come to an end and Rob Hollink of the Netherlands is the world champion. He defeated Jerrod Ankenman, co-author of the Mathematics of Poker, after a lengthy heads up match and will be taking home $496,931 in addition to the bracelet.
Shortly after Hollink was awarded his bracelet, John Phan was given a bracelet of his own for taking down the $3K No Limit Hold Em event. This was definitely the hot ticket tonight at the Rio as a crowd of people, including Joe Sebok and Jason “jp osu” Potter, gathered around Phan and his heads up opponent, Johnny Neckar.
The crowd reached its peak when it was announced by the tournament director that the two players had both agreed to move all-in dark on the next hand. The dealer then dealt out the flop, turn, and river and the two players took turns revealing their hole cards. This continued for a couple of hands, including one in which Phan doubled up when his 7 high was good against Neckar’s 2-4, before the two returned to a more conventional game of poker. Only a few minutes later the duo got it all in pre-flop with Phan holding A9 and Neckar holding QJ. An ace on the river sealed the deal for Phan and he was awarded the bracelet and first prize of $434,789.
Minieri and Rusnak Closing in on Final Table
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 12:46 am
A
trio of online players are making a final table run at the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31 with 18 players left. Dario Minieri (pictured right) has position on Scotty Nguyen and has Nguyen outchipped by a small margin at 300k to Nguyen’s 275k.
P5er Frank “Round42″ Rusnak has a little above average stack with 300k as does his table mate Bruno Fitoussi. Sandwiched between Rusnak and Fitoussi is Justin ”Fluffdog” Filtz, who one of the biggest stacks at the table with 493k.
Filtz has been eyeing the bracelet after turning 21 eleven days ago. Although Filtz has some impressive results online, including a 20th place finish in an FTOPS event in March, he considers himself more of a cash game player that specializes in heads-up play.
If Filtz is able to win a heads-up match in this event, he would miss being the youngest bracelet winner by one day at 21 years and 12 days.
Meanwhile the current record holder for youngest bracelet winner, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (pictured at left) is getting low on chips in the $5K Stud8 Championship event. Steve lost a big pot when he paid off Davidson Matthew’s trip queens after his low draw developed into two pairs, fours and eights. James “mig.com” Mackey has also dropped far below his 10K starting stack. With the limits at 250-500 ante 50 and a 75 chip bring-in Billirakis and Mackey have 2.5K and 4K respectively. With the level coming to a close in less than ten minutes, the two will surely be looking for a good spot to try and double up.
One player who successfully doubled up a couple of times is Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich who was as low as 1100 chips just an hour ago. After scooping several pots with two pair when no one else in the hand made a qualifying low, Rich now has 16K. He has been involved in a number of hands and always seems to walk away with at least half the pot every time. Most recently, Rich split a large, multi-player pot with Todd Brunson when he made Qs and 8s on sixth, which was good enough for the high hand while Brunson was the only player to make a qualifying low.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker was recently eliminated from the $10K Limit Hold Em Championship Event in 5th place when his Q8 failed to catch up with Jerrod Ankenman’s A9. He earned $102,460 for the finish.