WSOP 2008
Below 200 Players
by Court on 11.07.08, 4:11 pm
The field at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals has quickly fallen below the 200 player mark. Shortstack Don “dbase22″ Yucius made it through the first level, but couldn’t hang on much longer. 
Jason “JCarver” Somerville (right), Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker, and Mike “inissint” Glasser have also been eliminated in recent action.
Tables continue to break at a rapid pace and players are being shuffled all around the room as play consolidates. At last check there were 175 players left in the tournament, spread over 20 tables.
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija hasn’t been able to get anything going today, and after hovering around 20k for a while he has been eliminated. After an opening raise from another player Joe “ender555″ Ebanks called and Amit shoved for 20,775. The first player flat called and Ebanks then came over the top all in. 
The other player again called and when the hands were turned up Joe’s pocket kings were up against the AK of Makhija and the other players AJ. The kings held up and while Makhija was sent to the rail Ebanks (left) was able to more than double up.
Sitting in the seat that was to the immediate right of Amit is Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul who has been up and down today. He came into the day with 130k, dropped to 70k early on and has recovered to get back to the around the stack he started the day with. Recently he came over the top of an opening raise of 3,200 with a 10k bet, but when another player moved all in for 55k and the initial raiser called Kevin tossed his hand. The two all ins showed pocket queens and AJ.
Steve “gboro780″ Gross (right) has been active at his table and is still among the larger stacks in the room. On a Q
66
flop Gross called a bet of 3,500. With the 5 turn both players checked and on the 7
river Gross was faced with an 8k bet which he again called. The other player showed the 87 and Steve mucked his hand. In another pot on a board showing AK46 Steve called a 3,100 bet on the turn and when it was checked to him on the Q
river Steve checked behind. The other player mucked his hand before Steve showed, but the dealer still made Gross show his K9 before pushing him the pot.
Folding a set is a hard thing to do, especially on a board that doesn’t run 4 cards to a flush or straight. Mike Matusow folded pocket nines on a QT92 turn to Christain “charder” Harder. The exact betting and stack sizes aren’t known but it looks like the pot was around 50k and it would have cost Matusow around 37k to call Harder’s all in, leaving him with around 30k behind. Instead, Mike folded his nines face up and Harder showed him the KJ for a flopped straight that would have left Mike drawing to 10 outs on the river had he called.
Surviving
by Court on 11.06.08, 9:11 pm
Don “dbase22″ Yucius (left), Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker and Adam “Akatz11″ Katz are all short stacked and hanging on. With the blinds at 300 / 600 and a 75 chip ante all three players have been hovering around 10k giving them only 15 big blinds to work with and faced with much larger stacks all around their respective tables.
Katz is on the immediate left of Adam “Roothlus” Levy who recently had to lay down a hand after committing a lot of chips to the pot. On a flop of T86 Adam called a bet of 5,600 and with the 7 on the turn he called a 10k bet. The river was the A and Levy was then face with an all in bet of over 50k and forced to decide whether to commit his remaining 45k in chips or fold and fight another day. “So sick,” Roothlus mumbled as he tossed his cards in the muck.
A few tables over there is plenty of interesting discussion, with very little of it related to poker. Want to know the record for consecutive pushups? If so hang around table 16 with Daniel Negreanu, Jason “JCarver” Somerville, Chris Ferguson, and Nick Frangos and you can get the answer to that and many other random questions.
Chip Counts:
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 45k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 44k
Mike “inissint” Glasser - 40k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 30k
Don “dbase22″ Yucius - 12k
Adam “Akatz11″ Katz - 10k
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker - 10k
Somerville Cracks Aces
by Court on 11.06.08, 3:25 pm
On a flop of KJ3 Jason “JCarver” Somerville bet 8,500 and his opponent moved all in for around 22k. Jason quickly called her bet and showed his KK for a flopped set while the other player showed the AA for aces that were drawing to two outs on the river. She didn’t hit and Somerville was able to pick up a nice pot early in the second level of play.
Somerville, along with Amit “Amak316″ Makhija are in the midst of their first trip to Foxwoods, while other like Justin “Looshle” Pechie, Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker, and Mike “inissint” Glasser are regular faces at Foxwoods WPT events.
Engel Doubles in Event #43
by Brett on 06.24.08, 6:19 pm
“BodogAri” Engel has doubled his chip stack to nearly 4K — just short of the average — in Level 3 of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event. With the blinds at 75/150, Engel (pictured right) raised to 525 preflop with AK82 and a player in late position called. The flop came J85 and Engel quickly moved his last 1300 chips in and was called. We didn’t catch the hand of the other player, but Ari’s hand held when the Q and J filled the board and Engel was given new life. Eric “Rizen” Lynch is also seated at Engel’s table and has 5,000 chips.
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, kyle “kwob20″ Bowker and Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski were all eliminated in the past hour. Unfortunately for Bogdanski, the new haircut apparently did not do the trick for him today. Gary and his opponent were all-in on a board reading Q-3-2-9 and Bogdanski turned up his A-Q-4-7 and quickly learned he was behind the other player’s A-A-2-5. Another 9 on the river failed to bring a qualifying low for Gary to get half the pot and the other player won with his pair of aces.
More than 200 players have already exited Event #43. Here are some unofficial chip counts coming back from break:
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 9K
Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik - 6.5K
Chris “SKOAL” Falconer - 5.5K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 5.5K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 3K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 3K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 3K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 1.2K
“You Know You Have a Good Table When…”
by Jessica on 06.24.08, 5:06 pm
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured at left) was more than happy with his table draw in the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event. He explained to Pocket Fives that, “you know you have a good table when you raise under the gun with aces, get six callers, and still flop an ace.” Unfortunately for Matt, a run of bad luck sent him packing during the first level of play today. First, he raised with A-A-2-X and another player out flopped him. Then he got it all-in for his remaining chips in a multi-way pot with AJ32 but failed to connect with the board, which came out KT87T and he was eliminated.
Several other players are headed home before the end of Level 2 including Thayer Rasmussen, Barry Greenstein, and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg. Friedberg got it all in in a set under set situation, but it was actually a third player who turned the wheel that eliminated both Jon and the other player.
We also caught up with Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, who has been maintaining his 3K starting stack. He claimed he is trying to play a little tighter today, which may be a good idea considering the relatively small starting stacks. Several players are off to a little faster start including Chris “SKOAL” Falconer who already has 5K and Brett “Gank” Jungblut who has run his chips up to 7.5K.
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker had doubled up early on but just took a hit to his stack. On a board of T74, Bowker bet 1800 and his opponent called for his last 1600. Bowker showed A742 for two pair, which was ahead of the other player’s AKJT. The turn and river brought the 9 and 8, giving his opponent a straight, and Bowker was left with a little over 4K.
We caught Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski arriving late (with a fresh new haircut) but he seems fired up to be playing his best game, saying ” I really feel like if I double up I’m going to win.”