WSOP 2008
Slow Level, Matusow Falls Short
by Court on 10.01.08, 1:04 pm
After a brisk pace of eliminations in the first level brought the field down to just 2 tables, the pace has slowed dramatically, with only one bustout for the whole level. A notable bust it was, in the form of Mike Matusow. Mike moved all in on the flop and was called. At the time Matusow’s jack high was the best hand, but Johnny Lodden had a powerful draw with an open ended straight flush draw. A pair on the turn gave Lodden the lead with Matusow needing a non-spade ten or jack to win the pot and stay alive in the tournament. It didn’t happen and once again Matusow falls just a little short of a WSOP main event title.
Matusow’s (right) elimination from the secondary table leaves 17 players in the field. After a 20 minute break they will be back at the tables to play the 4k / 8k blind level with antes of 1k. The secondary table will be missing the mouth, but still has plenty of interesting characters with Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, Peter “#1Pen” Neff, Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman, Johnny Lodden and Ivan Demidov all at the table. Neff had a card dead level, blinding off about 80k worth of chips and dropping to 250k.
Over at the feature table chip leader John Juanda continues to dominate the show and sucking the chips away from the rest of the players at the table. Daniel Negreanu has dropped to 335k while Justin “Boosted J” Smith is down to 370k, with Soren Kongsgaard also in the low 300’s at the feature table and Brandon Adams is seriously short stacked at 145k. Juanda’s pile of 1.25 million chips is the dominating force going into the third level of play for the day.
Chip Counts:
John Juanda - 1,280,000
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 460,000
Justin “Boosted J” Smith - 370,000
Daniel Negreanu - 335k
Soren Kongsgaard - 303k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 260k
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 150k
Garza Ousted, Moorman Doubles; 45 Left
by Court on 09.30.08, 12:33 pm
Starting the day side by side, that fates of Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman and Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza (left) have went in opposite directions. A short stacked Garza finally moved in over the top of an opening raise from the cutoff. He was called and his K-J was in a race against pocket nines. No help on the board meant Garza went to the exit somewhere around 50th place, well short of the money.
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman could have easily joined him missing out on the money. John Juanda opened for 6,200 and Chris raised to 22k. Juanda leaned over to get a look at what Chris had left before putting a stack of 5k chips out to more than cover what Chris had left. After a minute of thought, Moorman said call and his tournament was in jeopardy. Chris was holding the 7
7
and found himself in an ok spot against the A9 of Juanda. The board ran out T
55
J4 and Moorman was able to double up.
Once the chips were counted Juanda had to send 78,100 over to Moorman (right). In an interesting aside the dealer first told Juanda the amount was 85,100 but an on the ball Juanda asked him to count it again saying he didn’t follow how the dealer got to that amount. Juanda’s counting was correct and he saved 7k by paying attention.
WIth the double up Moorman is now back up to 160k after dropping chips quickly in the first part of the day. Mike Matusow has kept a running commentary going at the table, particularly talking to Juanda. “It’s never good to try to win the tournament on Day 3 Level 2,” Mike informed Juanda. “But you were trying.” Juanda wasn’t too upset with the loss, saying he wasn’t the one that had to sweat it and he was ok with the over 200k he still had left.
Justin “Boosted J” Smith (right) has been a force, jumping to around 350k early in the day and staying in the action once he was moved to the Peter “#1Pen” Neff / Brian “sbrugby” Townsend table. Smith and Townsend have mixed it up a few times so far. In one pot Brian opened for 5,200 and Smith raised to 15,300. Townsend made the call and the dealer rolled out the A62 flop. Brian checked to Smith who bet 17,200. Townsend made the call and the Q brought checked from both players. The river was the 6 and again both players decided to tap the table.
When Brian said “pocket tens” and turned over the TT Smith mucked his hand conceding the pot. In other pots though Smith’s aggression and raises have picked up the chips in the middle and added to his stack.
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman (right) entered into a raising war with Erik Seidel on a flop of T73. Erik started with a bet of 12k, Scott raised to 31k, and Erik slid out a pile of 5k chips to make it 67k. None of the individual raises were huge, but as they kept going back and forth the pot blossomed to significant levels. With the action back on Fischman he decided to move all in for what looked to be about 150k more. Seidel took a while, but ultimately decided to let this one go. The TV crews caught the action and asked to see Fischman’s hand on their portable hole card viewer, but Scott protested saying that Erik didn’t have to show his hand so he shouldn’t have to either. The TV crew acquiesced, allowing Fischman to muck his hand without showing it to the camera.
Tim “Tmay420″ West was also able to dip into Seidel’s stack. West opened the pot for 6,300 and Erik raised to 22k. Tim then moved in and Erik called with pocket tens. West had kings and they help up to double Tim up to around 90k.
The action has thinned the field to only 45 remaining players, leaving everyone one table shy of being in the money. The top 36 get paid, and the money bubble is the next order of business at the World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair.
Chippers
by Court on 09.29.08, 2:03 pm
The World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair, ended up with a total of 362 entrants. Of that number only a few over 100 remain and the number is falling like prices at Wal-Mart. The folks over at ESPN couldn’t be happier so far, with Daniel Negreanu finishing as the day 1 chip leader and them quickly zooming up to 300k today to take a sizeable chip lead.
Well, maybe ESPN could dream for a better scenario, with big names like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein being eliminated today, and defending champion Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad falling out yesterday, but all in all if Daniel makes the final table the ratings will soar no matter who else is there with him.
Phil Hellmuth is still hanging on with around 10k, demanding constant attention from the cameras. At one point a short stacked Phil decided to miss his blinds to go visit Daniel at the feature table, just in case there was a camera in the building not focused on Hellmuth’s antics. His ongoing conversation across the room with Mike Matusow has a few of the other players a bit on edge, but most everyone seems to be ignoring him, while David “DevilFish” Ulliot makes regular witty remarks about the attention loving star. Phil has mentioned no less than 6 times in the last hour how many bracelets he has won.
Still battling with the short stack, Tim “Tmay420″ West (right) commented that “10 big blinds is all I need.” Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar is at the same table with Tim, and though not nearly as short he would also like to add chips to get to a more comfortable level. With about 43k in front of him Aguiar moved all in after a player had opened for 2,800 and another player had raised to 7,500. His all in moment added over 11k to his stack and put him around 55k.
Aguiar (left) was also part of a mild controversy that was more a discussion of rules than a complaint. Sitting in the 9 seat Aguiar had not acted on his hand when the 1, 2, and 3 seats all folded out of turn, leaving Aguiar with a hand and only the blinds remaining. Jonathan put in a raise to 2,100 and picked up the blinds, showing the 65. Another player at the table mentioned after the hand that after more than 2 players act out of turn that a player in Aguiars situation should have his hand ruled dead for not stopping the action.
Many of the European players at the table seemed to agree this was a rule, and it may well be but in three years of covering and playing in major live tournaments I have never seen a hand ruled dead because other players acted out of turn. The question is, should the burden be on the player to stop the out of turn action or should it fall on each player to know when it is and is not his or her turn and on the dealer to catch any out of turn action?
Here is a quick update around the room of how some of the boys are doing. Blinds are 400 / 800 with a 100 ante to give a frame of reference.
Daniel Negreanu (right) - 300k
Justin “Boosted J” Smith - 160k
Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery - 150k
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 130k
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 122k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 111k
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 110k
Jamie Rosen - 55k
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 47k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 55k
Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen - 40k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 13k
VanDuyn Not Friendly to Friends
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 9:16 pm
Down to 900 chips in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52, Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) didn’t have any problem doubling up off his roomate Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves.
Granted, looking down at AK will make any friend worth going to war against when you are short in a tournament but nevertheless, VanDuyn seemed to get great pleasure off the situation. VanDuyn was sure to point out his “spikey haired” roommate to P5’s that gave him the courtesy double up. VanDuyn currently has 5k with blinds at 200-400 in level six.
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka continues to chip up after a good start in the first few levels. Jaka recently won a big pot when he re-raised a 600 bet from button to 2400 with pocket eights out of the blind. Jaka’s opponent called and both players checked a 8-5-2 flop. Jaka moved all-in for around 5k when he turned quads and got a call from his opponent who Jaka said claimed to have nines. Jaka didn’t believe the story but was happy to collect the pot and currently sits with 18k.
Here’s a list of notable players left with the average stack at 10k
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh - 21k
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 20.5K
Bryan “shortstackninja” Devonshire - 20K
Nick “fu_15″ Maimone - 19K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 13k
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 10K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 8.5K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 8k
Keven “stammdogg3″ Stammen - 8K
Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 7K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 7k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 6k
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 5.5K
Andrew “GreerNC” Everhard - 3.7K
46 players remain In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event including Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan (270K), David “Raptor517″ Benefield (135K), and Steve Sung (40K).
Chad Brown is currently the chip leader in the $1.5K HORSE event with 104 players remaining. Brown is seated at a star-studded table with both Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from picking up chips. Meanwhile, several other players including Doug “Resilient” Smith and Brett “gank” Jungblut.
Micon Is Gone
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 4:20 am
Bryan Micon (pictured at right) took a big hit in the $1.5K HORSE Event when his low draw didn’t materialize and pretty much everyone at his table and the tables surrounding him knew it. His tablemate, Mike Matusow, finally proclaimed, “Bryan: you are allowed to talk non-stop about anything you want, anything at all, but you are not allowed to talk about that hand anymore.”
Mike continued his table banter with Micon by explaining to him the power of positive thinking. Bryan was down to just 3 chips, 1,100 total, and Matusow was attempting to inspire him to make a comeback.
Micon made his last stand when he raised on 3rd street with a K up in Stud 8. Both Matusow and the player who was the bring in made the call. By 5th street Micon was showing K-10-10 and the third player bet, inducing Matusow to fold. The other player held a pair of aces, but he made aces up on 6th and left Bryan, who had kings and tens, drawing very thin, especially since one of the kings was folded on 3rd. Micon failed to improve and he was eliminated as Level 7 came to a close.
Other players making an exit in the event recently include Barry Greenstein and Kenna James. Here are some chip counts of a few of the players still hanging around in the event:
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 15K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 14K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 13.5K
Shannon Shorr - 8K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 6.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch made his exit from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha Championship when, with the blinds at 800/1,600 a player in late position raised and Lynch moved all-in for 11.8K more. The player made the call with 4-5-6-8 and Eric showed AA23. The flop came88-X and, with no help on the turn or river, Lynch was eliminated.
Play has ended for the day and 86 players will be returning tomorrow. Here are some unofficial chip counts we spotted as the level was coming to a close:
Josh Arieh - 368k (chip leader)
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 240k
David Williams - 160k
Michael Mizrachi - 160k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 118k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 95k
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 90k
Nenad Medic - 75k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 75k
John D’Agostino - 48k
Rafi Amit - 34k