WSOP 2008
Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
by Crystal on 07.11.08, 5:17 pm
After a little over an hour into play today at the WSOP Main Event it had been apparent that many of the players have the “go big or go home” mentality as we have heard the “all-in and a call!” shout coming from dealers numerous times all over the room. We’re already down to 408 of the 474 players that started the day.
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen (pictured left) was caught in one of these confrontations, but she wasn’t the one at risk. She and a shorter stacked player got all the chips in preflop with Tracey’s 9
9
ahead of her opponents A3. The flop came T
72 keeping Tracey in the lead but the A on the turn reversed things and the Q on the river changed nothing so Tracey doubled the other player up and dropped to around 380k in chips.
A player at risk during his all in was Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis who got all his chips in before the flop holding the QQ against another players T
T. The board ran out K324J and Steve managed to double his stack up to around 350k.
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen started the day with 576k in chips and seemed to be using his big stack to try and take out some of his weaker opponents. On a flop of T98 Rosen checked to his opponent who bet 40k. Jamie then raised to 100k and his shorter stacked opponent raised all in and Jamie made the call. The all-in player was ahead with the JT for top pair with an open-ended straight draw in the lead against Jamie’s 86 for a flush draw with a lesser-gutshot straight draw. The turn brought the A and the river was the 7 giving both players a straight but the all-in player held the better one and scooped up the pot knocking Jamie down to around 280k.
It didn’t take Jon “PearlJammer” Turner long to increase his 726k stack considerably in the first thirty minutes of play. The chips didn’t come easy however as Turner had to call an 85k river bet with his set of eights on a board with three hearts and a jack to a straight against his opponent Dustin Holmes. Turner’s hand was good, shipping him a pot near 300k. Turner won a few hands after that as well and is now near the one million mark.
Tim “TMay420″ West picked a good spot to get his last few chips in but was unable to outrace Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts. Brent raised to 15K in early position and West moved in for 51K. Roberts made the call with AQ, which was behind Tim’s JJ. The 643 flop added a slew of outs for Roberts, and the 4 left West needing help. The K fell on the river and West was eliminated, earning $27,020 for his performance. Roberts chipped up to 360K.
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter, on the other hand, was able to dodge a bunch of outs to double his stack. David “Bakes” Baker raised to 14K in middle position and Porter moved all in for 46K. Baker made the call, showing JT and Porter flipped over A6. Porter got out of his seat when he saw the flop of KQ7, saying “Well, see you later!” but his hand was able to hold when the 8 and 7 filled the board. Porter is up to over 100K.
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe continued his onslaught by eliminating a player and climbing over the 1 million chip mark. Crowe got his money in on the turn with 99 on a board of 9247 and had his opponent drawing dead. He now has nearly 1.3 million, which is right near the top of the leaderboard.
Here’s a look at some chip counts midway through the first level on Day 4:
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 660K
Keith “damurdera3″ Fererra - 615K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 600K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 540K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 475
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 415K
Mark “AceSpades” Radoja - 400K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 260K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 280K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 180K
Thayer Rasmussen - 153K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 150K
Hunter “The Hunt D” Frey - 105K
Clayton “clayton_27″ Newman - 140K
Six-Handed Players Making Moves
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 7:53 pm
There are many players making moves in event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed event. Glen “choron” Chorny was trying to get his short stack moving in the right direction when he raised to 600 preflop with the blinds at 100/200 until an opponent re-raised to 2.4k. Chorny (pictured left) looked disgusted and after thinking for a minute he mucked his cards, showing the A. His opponent said “That’s why I didn’t want to see the flop” as he flipped over his pocket kings and raked in the pot. Chorny is sitting with half his original stack so we expect to see him making more moves as the blinds increase.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer bet out with the board showing T53 and his opponent raised. After thinking for a minute O’Dwyer reraised enough to put him all in and the other player did indeed make the call with the KT only to find that O’Dwyer held the AA and was ahead in the hand. The turn and river came with the Q and 6 and O’Dwyer added to his stack as the other player exited the tournament.
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert’s luck wasn’t quite as good. We caught up with the action on the river with the board reading T73TK and Wolpert making a bet of 850 into the small pot. He was called by his opponent and Wolpert appeared reluctant to flip over his hand. When he did he showed the AJ for ace high which had been good until the river, as his opponent held the KQ for a pair of kings which was enough to scoop the pot.
Players are just coming back from their second break of the day and the blinds will be 150/300 with a 25 ante when they return. Some unoffical chip counts of notable players left in the field are listed below.
Hevad “RainKhan” Khan - 35k
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 32k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 32k
Alex Jacob - 25k
Shannon Shorr - 19k
Gavin Griffin - 19k
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis -19k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija -17k
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista (pictured right)- 13k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 12k
Anna Wroblewski - 12k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 11k
Players that have been eliminated from the tournament so far include Joe Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Carter “devinr12″ Gill, Rolf Slotboom, Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet, and Issac Haxton.
Ginger Snaps
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 6:30 am
As play went on into the late hours of the night in the $5K Stud Hi/Lo tempers began to flare. As the last hand of the night was dealt out Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (pictured at left) and Max Pescatori began to exchange some less than friendly words. While Pocket Fives was not present when the confrontation began, it appeared as though Rich had called the clock on Pescatori in a prior hand after what Pescatori believed was a very brief period of time.
As they exchanged words the duo, along with two other players, got invovled in a hand. On 4th street a player showing a pair of 9s bet and Pescatori folded his hand with his up cards reading K-Q. Jordan and the two other players got invovled in a betting and raising war through all streets until 7th st was dealt out face down. The player showing a pair of 9s and a possible straight checked, as did Rich, who showed a possible 7-6 low, and the third player, who showed possible low and straight possibilities, bet. The player with the nines then raised and Jordan was left with a tough decision.
As Rich deliberated the decision, Pescatori attempted to call the clock on him, prompting Rich to respond, “are you in the hand?” and remind him that three minutes needs to pass before the clock can be called. Max reminded him that at one point he was involved in the hand and then appealed to the floor person standing nearby who confirmed Jordan’s response that he needed to wait at least a couple of minutes before he could call the clock.
After much thought, Jordan made the call and showed a 7-6-5-3-A low and a busted flush draw. The player with the 9s up turned over a straight to the 10 and the third player showed a straight to the 7 and a 7-6-5-4-2 low for second best all-around. Rich took half of the giant pot and ended the night with 27.5K. Play will resume tomorrow at 3pm.
Other notable chip counts as the day came to a close include:
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 32K
Justin Bonomo - 25K
Thayer “Thay3r” Rasmussen - 16K
Elminations since we last posted on the event include: Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, James “mig.com” Mackey, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Scott Fischman, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements
Minieri and Rusnak Closing in on Final Table
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 12:46 am
A
trio of online players are making a final table run at the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31 with 18 players left. Dario Minieri (pictured right) has position on Scotty Nguyen and has Nguyen outchipped by a small margin at 300k to Nguyen’s 275k.
P5er Frank “Round42″ Rusnak has a little above average stack with 300k as does his table mate Bruno Fitoussi. Sandwiched between Rusnak and Fitoussi is Justin ”Fluffdog” Filtz, who one of the biggest stacks at the table with 493k.
Filtz has been eyeing the bracelet after turning 21 eleven days ago. Although Filtz has some impressive results online, including a 20th place finish in an FTOPS event in March, he considers himself more of a cash game player that specializes in heads-up play.
If Filtz is able to win a heads-up match in this event, he would miss being the youngest bracelet winner by one day at 21 years and 12 days.
Meanwhile the current record holder for youngest bracelet winner, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (pictured at left) is getting low on chips in the $5K Stud8 Championship event. Steve lost a big pot when he paid off Davidson Matthew’s trip queens after his low draw developed into two pairs, fours and eights. James “mig.com” Mackey has also dropped far below his 10K starting stack. With the limits at 250-500 ante 50 and a 75 chip bring-in Billirakis and Mackey have 2.5K and 4K respectively. With the level coming to a close in less than ten minutes, the two will surely be looking for a good spot to try and double up.
One player who successfully doubled up a couple of times is Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich who was as low as 1100 chips just an hour ago. After scooping several pots with two pair when no one else in the hand made a qualifying low, Rich now has 16K. He has been involved in a number of hands and always seems to walk away with at least half the pot every time. Most recently, Rich split a large, multi-player pot with Todd Brunson when he made Qs and 8s on sixth, which was good enough for the high hand while Brunson was the only player to make a qualifying low.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker was recently eliminated from the $10K Limit Hold Em Championship Event in 5th place when his Q8 failed to catch up with Jerrod Ankenman’s A9. He earned $102,460 for the finish.
Parker Taking it to the Limit
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 9:45 pm
Brock “t_soprano” Parker is still at the final table of event #30 the $10k LHE tournament. After coming into the day short stacked, Parker (pictured right) has managed to win some big pots and is currently 4th out of the 6 remaining players in chips. He hasn’t been very active in hands for the past hour or so, obviously trying to pick his spots carefully and get his money in with the best hands he can. Andy Bloch was just eliminated in 7th place ensuring that Parker and the other 5 remainng players are guaranteed to take home at least $102,460
Over in the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament Billy Westom, Shannon Shorr, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen and Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier have been eliminated.
Billy Westom got all his chips in with AT against Bill Chen’s JJ and failed to improve and was knocked out in 40th place good for $8,379.
Shannon Shorr got all his money in with almost the same hand as Westom, the AT and found he was dominated by his opponents AJ. The flop came with both an ace and a jack and Shorr was sent to the rail in 32nd place to claim his $9,775 prize.
Keven Stammen was knocked out in 24th place when his QQ was bested by a player who made a flush with their AK on a T5238 board. Stammen recieves $15,594 for his great run.
Jason Mercier was one of the chip leaders for a good portion of the day but he doubled up Scotty Nguyen when his AT couldn’t catch up to Scotty’s pocket sevens. After the hand, both Mercier and Scotty were left with exactly 160k in chips and got involved in another big pot on the very next hand. Scotty opened with a raise to 11k and Mercier pushed his entire 160k stack into the pot. Scotty called with his TT which dominated Mercier’s 77 and when the board hit neither player, Mercier was eliminated by the prince of poker himself who said “I can’t be pushed around, baby” as Mercier was leaving the table. Mercier’s 22nd place finish was good enough to net him $15,594.
Event #33, the $5k Seven Card Stud H/L World Championship has been underway for almost two hours now and a number of notable players have been spotted in the field including Jordan “octavian_c” Rich, Thayer Rasmussen, Anna Wroblewski, Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, and Barry Greenstein. In a field filled with well known pro players this event is sure to be an exciting one and we will keep you posted as play progresses.