WSOP 2008
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 Q
J
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.
Slow Day
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 3:05 pm
Today is a decidedly non-hold em kind of day here at the WSOP. Neither of the two new events kicking off this afternoon involve No Limit Hold Em and we will also see Day 2 of the $5K Stud Hi/Lo event starting at 3pm.
Event #34, a $1.5K PLO w/ rebuys, was the first event to get going today when it kicked off just a few ago minutes at 12pm. Players we spotted filing in with their rebuy chips (pictured at left) in tow include Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve Saul, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jamie “TheNew” Robbins and Matt “mattg1983″ Graham. The other new event for today is Event #35, a $1.5K Stud will get underway at 5pm.
Those of you hankering for a hold em fix, never fear. The final table of the $2.5K 6-handed, which features Dario Minieri, Justin “fluffdog” Flitz, and Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer will be underway at 2pm today. Plus, the remaining 166 from yesterday’s $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event will return today at 2pm as well. Michael “wrldsgrtst” Banducci, Scott “ssitron” Sitron, and Court Harrington are among some the chip leaders vying to make the final table tonight.
A Blair Affair
by Brett on 06.14.08, 3:24 pm
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle will enter today’s $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table second in chips and attempt to pick up his first-ever WSOP bracelet. Hinkle (1.03 million, pictured right) trails only Andrew Jeffreys (1.05 million) and will be seated to Jeffreys’ left when play begins at 2:00 PM PT. Blair’s brother Grant has already won the hardware this year by taking down Event #2 ($1,500 NLHE).
Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa will also be seeking his first bracelet when the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha final table begins at 3:00 PT. Depa will have to make his way through a tough group of players including Max Pescatori, Minh Ly and Allen Cunningham. A prize of $246,471 will be awarded to the winner.
Events resuming play today will be the $10,000 NLHE Heads Up and $1,500 Razz. Barry Greenstein is the chip leader of the Razz event, which will start at 3:00 PT. Also among the 100 players still left are Brett “gank” Jungblut, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and Mike “SirWatts” Wattel. Thirty-two of the original 256 players are alive in the $10K Heads Up Event. Here are the matchups of the the remaining P5ers in Round 4:
Emil Patel vs. Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci
Andy Black vs. Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil
Daniel “Ansky” Stern vs. David Williams
Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti vs. Michael Mizrachi
The $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event (#27) has just begun and over 2,600 entrants have made their way into the Amazon Room with more expected. Phil Hellmuth is the defending champion and will certainly be making that fact known to his table –and surrounding tables.
The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys will get underway at 5:00 PM. Stay tuned to PocketFivesLive for coverage on all of the events in what will be a very busy and entertaining day at the Rio!
Gray Done For the Day
by Crystal on 06.14.08, 2:40 am
Craig “MrCasino” Gray’s (pictured at left) stack was dwindling in the $1.5k Razz tourney as antes and bring-ins continued to eat away at his chips. He got all his chips in on 3rd street against one opponent and after the draw was complete the other players 8-7-4-3-A was good enough to best Gray’s T-6-5-4-2, sending him to the rail.
Also in the Razz event, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul’s stack was moving in the opposite direction after he knocked out Michael Binger. They got all the chips in early, and in the end, Saul had a T-8-7-4-2 while Binger held a J-8-3-2-A (the result of being dealt trip 2s during the hand). Binger was eliminated and Saul added a few more chips to his stack which is now around 11k putting him near the top of the current chip count.
After the last painful beat in Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi took in the $2.5K Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha tournament, it wasn’t long before he was knocked out of the tournament by another. In late position, Mizzi bet 6500 and was called by Max Pescatori who was on the button. The flop came 3
QJ. First to act, Mizzi bet 8500 of his short stack and was called; when the 7 came on the turn, he thought for quite awhile. Mizzi raised once again, but Pescatori pushed all-in. Mizzi didn’t hesitate to call with Q-T for top pair, but Pescatori caught the A on the river and improved his A-J to win the pot.
Meanwhile, plenty of PocketFivers continued to succeed in Event #25, the $10K Heads Up No-Limit Championship. Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski won a huge hand and a massive chip advantage in her match. Her opponent raised pre-flop and Anna smooth called to see the flop come A9A. Anna checked, her opponent bet out and Anna called. The 5 came on the turn and Anna checked, her opponent bet, and she called. When the T came on the river the action went similarly with a check and a bet but Anna spent a much longer time contemplating whether to call or not. She shuffled her chips over and over and counted out her stack a few times before eventually making the call. As soon as she threw her chips into the pot, her opponent shook his head in defeat as Anna flipped up the AJ and scooped a huge pot.
Other PocketFivers remained armed to the teeth in battle; Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci took down a big pot with a jack-high diamond flush, increasing his stack to more than double his opponent’s. He continued to chip away as P5s looked on. Alex Jacob was also close to winning, continuing his aggressive play. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (pictured at right), however, looked quite short with 25K, but managed to represent a couple of flushes and convince his opponent, Jonas Entin, to fold. The pair constantly joked at the table, Entin reporting that they are friends, as Galfond increased his stack to 50K.
Advancing to the next round, Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil defeated his opponent when he turned and rivered two pair. Isaac Haxton defeated his opponent when his AK improved against pocket jacks. Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti also crippled his opponent by flopping a set of fives and then later eliminating him when he turned a pair of twos. On the other side of the coin, Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail was eliminated when his opponent, Thomas Lutz made quad tens on the river.
“Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!
by Jill on 06.06.08, 6:07 am
Event #5 - $1K No-Limit Hold’em w/ Re-buys:
Congratulations to Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci, who won the bracelet and top prize of $636,736 in an excruciatingly long three-way match against Peter Gould Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams. Three-handed play continued for such a long time that the rowdy railbirds took to breathalyzing themselves for entertainment. When Banducci took down the title, with AJ vs. A5, their cheers were heard by anyone within a two-mile radius. It also begged the question: Why there was a breathalyzer at the ESPN final table?!
Event #6 - $1.5K Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Thang Luu took down the Omaha 8 event for a grand total of $243,356. P5er Chris “SKOAL” Falconer finished in 5th for $64,243 and Scott Clements netted the first finish at the final table for a 9th place prize of $22,172. Congratulations to all!
Event #7 - $2K No-Limit Hold’em
Play ended tonight with the elimination of Manny Minaya in 10th place; the final table will resume tomorrow at 3PM PST with a stacked table. Theo Tran, Shannon Shorr, and J.C. Tran will sit at the final table tomorrow with six others, all trying to win $550,601 and the bragging rights of a WSOP bracelet.
Event #8 - $10K World Championship Mixed Event
The mixed event is playing down to the final nine this evening in preparation for a star-studded table tomorrow. James “mig.com” Mackey, Michael DeMichele, Sammy Farha, Jeff Madsen, Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Anthony “tongni” Rivera, and Tom Schneider are currently fighting the good fight to make it into the coveted top nine spots for this World Championship event.
Event #9 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed
The short-handed event ended this evening after ten levels of play. Just before the last level ended, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby managed to double up and stay alive by catching a straight on the river.
Event #10 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better:
As the $2.5k Limit Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better enters the last level of the evening, several P5ers made a strong showing. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson led the pack with 45K in chips; Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich protected a 28K stack. Craig “MrCasino” Gray trailed with 23K, sitting next to Brock “t_soprano” Parker who was running with an average-sized stack of 15K.
Brock and Craig were chipping away at fellow table-mate Allan Kessler’s stack, as he was barely staying alive. In one stud hand, the AA were dealt face-up to Craig, who took down the pot uncontested from Kessler. The next Omaha hand saw Kessler betting out in early position to fight for his dwindling stack. The bet got three callers, including Brock, then a re-raise from Kessler and three subsequent calls. The flop came A89 and Kessler bet out once again, leaving few chips behind. Brock called along with the two others and the turn brought the 7. Kessler bet again,getting a call from Brock and another player, and inducing a fold from the last player to act. The river came 4 and play checked around to Brock, who bet to try and take down the pot uncontested. Kessler tanked for quite, pulled out a pen and notepad, and folded with very few chips behind him. Brock did receive a call from one of the original players and split the pot with the low hand.