WSOP 2008
Vengrin vs. Paris
by Crystal on 07.07.08, 12:17 am
Bryan “bparis” Paris and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured at right) recently got into a hand together. With the blinds at 150/300 Bryan raised to 900 and Matt called from the button. The flop came A
22
and both players checked. The turn brought the 8
and both players again checked. The K fell on the river and Bryan checked for a third time but Matt was tired of checking and threw out 1.5k. Bryan shuffed a few chips in his hand and reluctantly made the call. Matt showed the AJ
for aces and deuces and Bryan tossed his cards into the muck.
Mark Newhouse might be a little upset after a hand where the board was showing K86. The two other players in the hand checked to Mark who bet 2k. One called, then the second raised to 9.5k and Mark re-raised all in. The first player folded, and the other, with less chips than Mark, made the call.
Newhouse showed AA, but his opponent held 86 for two pair. The turn was the 4 and the river the 6 and Newhouse has been knocked back to 9k.
It seems that players have again fallen into their post-dinner comas as we aren’t seeing quite as much action as of late but here are a few post-dinner chip counts if you’re still hungry!
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 72K (pictured left)
Gus Hansen - 48k
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 47k
Thayer “THAY3R” Nelson - 47k
Ryan “youngluc” Young - 41K
Jeremy “Chipsteela” Menard - 40k
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 46k
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 36k
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 35k
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 34k
David “ComptonMasta” Barter - 27k
Nathan “darkcheck” Tuthill - 19k
Russell “rcrane082985″ Crane - 16k
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 8k
Seat Open!
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 6:16 pm
Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.
Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.
60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.
In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop. Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn. Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot. Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines. He was down to 1.8K at the break.
Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K
Busting Before the Bubble
by Crystal on 06.25.08, 2:48 am
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin was recently eliminated from the PLO8 tournament about 20 players short of making the money. Vengrin (pictured left) had been nursing a short stack for some time now. We’ve seen players often stack their chips in a pyramid shape, but Vengrin had so few in front of him that his pyramid of chips were stacked only 1 chip high.
With the blinds at 500/1k a player in late postion raised to 2.5k and was called by the button, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams who was in the sb, and Vengrin who was in the big blind. Vengrin seemed reluctant to call preflop but getting very good odds he elected to toss in the extra 1.5k in chips to see the flop which came K42. Adams checked and Vengrin threw in his last 4.7k in chips. The original raiser made the call and both the button and Adams folded. Vengrin said “I have a set” as he tabled his 9644 and his opponent flipped over his AK72 and commented, “well I need a king or a little card.” Unfortunately for Vengrin the K fell on the turn leaving him drawing to the one remaining 4 in the deck to make quads but the river was the 5 and he was sent to the rail.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was also knocked out just short of the money when his flopped set of aces were rivered by another player who made a flush along with the nut low.
82 players remain and the tension in the blue section of the Amazon room has risen as players try to fight (or slide) their way into the money. Play has slowed as the bubble approaches but with short stacks at many tables the bubble is likely not far away.
In the green section of the Amazon room John Phan has just captured WSOP gold for the 2nd time in less than a week as he captured the win in event #40, the 2-7 Triple Draw event. More than six hours passed between when the 4th place finisher was knocked out and when Phan finally claimed the bracelet and the $151,896 first prize.
P5er Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo is now heads up with Frank Gary in event #41’s final table and after just doubling Gary up the two are nearly even in chips, Tamayo having the slight advantage. This heads up match is sure to be exciting and we’ll keep you updated as it progresses.
Bad Moon Rizen
by Jill on 06.25.08, 1:48 am
The 105 remaining players in the $1.5K Pot Limit Omaha 8 tournament just left for a 20-minute break, but beforehand, we saw some major moving and shaking from PocketFivers. At one table sat Dan “Stainley88″ Adams and Matt “plattsburg” Vengrin side-by-side. Dan guarded a very respectable 29K stack, while Matt was running on fumes with 7K.
A few tables over, Eric “Rizen” Lynch (pictured at right) and Shannon Shorr sat across the table from each other. When PocketFives caught up to the action, Eric was all in under the gun with 8K on a A53 flop. One player called him down and the turn and river came 23. Eric flipped over AQAK for the nut boat - aces full of threes. His opponent couldn’t catch up and Eric managed to more than double his stack to more than 16K.
The very next hand, Shannon Shorr raised to 2,200 from middle position. Eric, in the big blind, jibed him: “You don’t even allow me to protect my blinds!” Taking down the pot uncontested, Shannon added a few more chips to his towering 45K stack.
From the small blind on the next hand, however, Eric raised to 4K preflop and was called by the player on the button. The flop came TAK and Eric bet the pot. His opponent called and the 6 came on the turn. After checking down, a queen came on the river and his opponent celebrated — though Eric held AAJ8 and dominated his opponent prior to the river, his opponent also held the jack and their shared Broadway straight chopped the pot. Despite the disappointment, Eric seemed quite happy to have doubled up going into the break.
Meanwhile, Chris “SKOAL” Falconer reported to PocketFives that he had previously been quartered down on a few hands to a low chip count of 3,800 in the last level. However, after two very profitable hands later from a player he’d nicknamed “The Pampered Chef,” he was up to 15.5K at the break.
Shorr Silences Minneapolis Meehan
by Crystal on 06.25.08, 12:47 am
As the PLO8 field continues to drop, some of the players have been rather annoyed with the antics of Minneapolis Jim Meehan. He has been seen standing up and walking around and talking (rather loudly) to just about anyone who will listen. At one point security was almost brought in when Meehan put a cigarette in his mouth and lit a lighter, looking like he was going to light the cigarette. He smiled and laughed and sat back down without lighting the cigarette as on-lookers rolled their eyes.
Meehan also seems to be in need of a good pair of women’s jeans. He asked a P5s reporter where she got her jeans and when he was told it wasn’t anywhere near Las Vegas he said “Well that’s too far to drive! I’m 0 for 2 today. The other girl I asked got her jeans somewhere far away too. I just want to drive to a place that’s like 1.6 miles away!” While we’re not sure why Meehan is looking for women’s jeans, it made for some interesting conversation. After a tournament director asked him to speak more quietly, Meehan said he would be quiet for one hour but that won’t be necessary now that Shannon Shorr has knocked Meehan out. Shorr (pictured left) flopped a set which held against Meehan’s nut low draw that never materialized and Meehan was sent to the rail.
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams (pictured right) put another player at risk for all his chips preflop with Adams holding the KK42 against the all in player’s AA-X-X. The other cards, which pocket fives couldn’t catch, were far less important than the aces as the all in player made quads on the board of AQ5AT to double up.
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin was also spotted trying to knock a player out holding the 6532 against the all in player’s AT85. The board ran out T7437 and Venegrin took the high with his spade flush while the other player’s A-5 was good enough for a 7543A low to take the other half of the pot.
There are currently 126 players remaining but only the top 72 will make the money. Other players still in contention are Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Matt “SamENole” Smith, and Chris “SKOAL” Falconer.