WSOP 2008
Marco Busto, TV Play
by Court on 09.27.08, 1:59 pm
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (left) seems to have joined Jason “JP_OSU” Potter on the rail. Johnson’s seat is empty, with no chips on the table in front of it, and his location at one of the featured tables makes it very unlikely he has been moved. Most likely explanation - he has been eliminated from the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair.
While Marco was getting rid of his chips, Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman was helping other people get rid of theirs, though Moorman did give over 10k back in the last hand before his whole table was relocated to be one of the feature tables. Moorman had chipped up to almost 80k after winning a nice pot off of Max Pescatori. On a K
J
4
7 board Max check called a bet of 3,200 from Chris. Max again check called on the 6 river for 6,600. Moorman, shaking throughout the hand as he put each bet out, steadied up a bit as he turned over his AA
. Max mucked his hand and Chris raked in the pot.
Not too many hands later the floor came over to move Moorman’s table to the feature table area. In the last hand before the move, Moorman wound up in a pot with Mike Bebber. Everyone else at the table, with the exception of Ted Lawson had already left the area before the Moorman / Bebber hand got interesting.
On a flop of T83 Moorman (right) flat called a bet of 2,500 from Bebber. With the TV cameras watching closely for whatever reason, the dealer put out the 8 as the turn card. Bebber led for 3,500 and Moorman, again with shaky hands, raised to 9,500. Bebber didn’t take long to announce raise and put in the additional 6k to make the call and then saying all in as he pushed his stack of around 20k remaining chips towards the middle.
Moorman folded, but since the action on the hand had been taped for possible use on TV, the producer requested both players show their hand to his portable hole card viewer. The idea is to show the cards to the reader without exposing them to the table, but either Moorman and Bebber did not understand or didn’t really care since the rest of the table was already gone. Moorman showed his Q-7 for nothing but queen high, while Bebber had the best hand but also thought he was bluffing at the pot with his A7. Moorman still has over 60k after losing the pot.
Chip Counts Around the Casino:
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 63k
Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery - 27k
Ben Grundy - 27k
Isaac Haxton - 27k
Scott Fischman - 27k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 20k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 19k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 16k
Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron - 14k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 7,200
Home Court Advantage
by Court on 09.27.08, 12:43 pm
The early goings of the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair.com, have been smooth sailing for two local Brits. Ben Grundy recently eliminated Jason “JP_OSU” Potter (left) and is well above the starting stack while Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman is off to a great start and among the early chip leaders with over 50k.
On an AT8 flop Ben bet 3k and Potter moved in over the top for just over 10k. Grundy made the call and Potter was drawing thin with his AJ trailing Ben’s AQ. Two low hearts filled out the board, marking the end of the road for Potter who, as always, took his defeat graciously and made his exit from the Empire Casino. After adding Potter’s chips to his stack Grundy is around 27k.
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman (right) came out of the gates quickly, busting Howard Lederer early on and continuing to chip up since. Grundy’s original table was located behind the bar under the steps (yeah, they pretty much have tables everywhere but in the bathrooms here at the Empire) but the table was one of the first to break and Grundy is now in the downstairs poker area referred to as the Dungeon by most in and around the tournament, seated at a table with Max Pescatori to his right and Ted Lawson on his left. At last count Moorman had over 55k chips and was one of the chip leaders.
An ever aggressive Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson has been involved in a lot of pots, but so far hasn’t gained much traction. He has dropped a few thousand off of his starting stack and had about 16k at last check. Peter “#1Pen” Neff is in the same situation with just over 15k chips.
Chips Moving Around Early at WSOPE
by Court on 09.27.08, 9:40 am
The action in the first level of many deep stacked, big buy in tournaments in slow. So far the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair, has not been a slow starting main event. There have been plenty of chips moving around and large pots, even a few bustouts.
Players start the tournament with 20k in chips and the first blind level is 50/100. In the very first few minutes of the tournament Peter “#1Pen” Neff (right) and Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar both lost small pots. Amit “Amak316″ Makhija, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, and Isaac “mr. menlo” Baron were all involved in larger pots.
Neff called a 300 raise from and under the gun Andy Bloch. On the A76 flop both players checked and with the 2 on the turn Neff called a 300 bet from Bloch. The river was the 6 and Bloch led for 500. Neff called and Andy turned over his AT. Peter mucked his hand sending the 2k pot to Bloch in the first few minutes of action.
Aguiar is at a table with Isaac Haxton. For the first few minutes of play, Isaac, Jonathan and Barney Boatman were the only players at the table. As the late arrivers were coming in to fill the table Jonathan found himself in a pot with Boatman. On the river with a board of 7542K Aguiar led for 1k and Boatman raised to 2,600. Jonathan tossed his hand in surrendering the pot.
After flopping a set on a KJ6 board Makhija (left) was able to get action from his opponent to build up a nice pot. The other player check called a 1,600 bet on the T turn and then again check called for 4,500 on the 8 river. A calm Makhija raked in the 15,000 chip pot after showing his 66 to add to his stack early on and close in on the the 30k mark. At the table behind Makhija, Marco Johnson was able to pick up a small pot with a 1,050 chip bet on a K-7-6-2 board.
Isaac Baron decided to surrender his hand on the river of an A83T4 board when he was check raised. The pot had about 6k in it and Isaac bet 2,700 when it was checked to him. The other player then raised to 11k and after brief thought Isaac tossed his hand in.
Dropping Fast
by Court on 08.27.08, 7:28 pm
In the first 2 hours of play the field of 27 has been reduced to only 15. Amit “Amak316″ Makhija finished the first level with a commanding chip lead of over 2 million chips. He has more than double his next closest competitor, Trong Nguyen. A few players come in just above 1 million along with Trong, including Kyle Wilson and Layne Flack. Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark is also near the top of the chip counts and right around the 1 million chip mark.
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (left) was one of the casualties in the early going, dropping in 20th place when his A6 from the small blind ran into the pocket aces of Trong Nguyen in the big blind. The 20th place finish brings 21,125 for Johnson.