WSOP 2008
BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
by Jill on 07.06.08, 2:00 am
Level 4 of Day 1C saw a rash of eliminations starting with Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire (pictured at right). Devonshire had been towards the top of the leaderboard for the majority of the day, but lost a monster pot for his entire stack when he and another player got all-in with the same nut straight, but his opponent had the freeroll to hit the spade flush. The spade came on the river, Bryan was eliminated, and Day 1C found itself a brand new chipleader. Unfortunately, no one found REAL ULTIMATE POWER as a result.
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins was also eliminated this level when he and Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin got involved in a three-way hand. With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Eric raised to 800 under the gun and Collins reraised to 2.4K. The player in the small blind and Baldwin both made the call. The flop came down 9
82
and both the small blind and Eric checked to Phil. Collins thought for at least a minute before moving all-in for nearly 15K. The player in the small blind tanked briefly before moving all-in behind Phil and Eric quickly folded. Collins showed A
Q and needed some help against the other player’s JJ. The turn and river came 42 and Phil gave us a friendly, “See you next year!” as he headed for the door.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija, who had been shortstacked for much of the level was also eliminated when his two pair failed to hold against his opponent’s straight draw.
Meanwhile, Ladbrokes team pro John Kalmar (pictured at left) has been struck by lightning. With a board that read AJ23 and a more-than-14K pot in the middle, John’s opponent bet 10K and he went in behind for his entire 37K stack. After calling over the floor to determine if he could expose one of his cards to Kalmar, his opponent tanked for a long time before the clock was called. Finally, he made the the call and John flipped over pocket twos against his opponent’s A3. When the 3 came on the river, John was sent to the rail on a stretcher.
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline has apparently developed quite the table image at his table. A player in early position raised to 900 and three other players called behind him. Kline then moved all-in from the small blind for 8,650. The initial raiser seemed quite frustrated with Kline’s move and accidentally revealed the K
as he tossed his cards in the muck. Everyone else folded as well and the man claimed he folded AK.
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (pictured at right)reported during Level 4 that he considered one of his recent plays an emotional victory; he finally won a race. Gary told PocketFives that he held A-Q and bet 900 preflop, only to be met with a 4,400 raise from one opponent. He managed to flop an ace and get his chips in good, winning the pot and chipping up to 24K before the last level of the evening. He and Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti have both been checking PocketFivesLive for action updates on their iPhones, especially now that David “davidp18″ Peters is also at their table. We’re wondering what the over/under is until they realize that Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings has also sat down to the table.
Meanwhile, Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen hovered around the 20K mark and saw a flop with four-way action. The board came KJA and all players checked. The T came on the turn and Hung raised to 1K. Two players called and the 8 came out on the river. Again, Hung bet 1K to induce a fold from one other player, but one opponent called him, flipping over K-Q to Hung’s QQ. They chopped the pot and Hung added a few chips to his stack.
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania added 10K to his stack after picking up a pot at the end of Level 4. With 5K in the middle preflop, Charania called a bet of 1.5K on a board of KT2. The K came on the turn and Charania called a bet of 2K. On the river, Charania’s opponent check-called a bet of 4K and Charania showed K8. The other player mucked. He is now at 88K, and at the opposite end of the table from Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal. “I don’t want to double him up,” Charania said of the short-stacked Agarwal as they both went on a 20-minute break.
Also afraid of doubling others up at his table was Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell, who sat at an intimidating table with Michael Binger and David Singer. He reported to PocketFives that he managed to chip up to 45K with pocket aces versus K-J on a jack-high flop. He lamented that he hadn’t gotten the full value for his aces, however, because he put his opponent on a set. Because of the recent addition of Michael Binger to the table, he said he planned on blinding off to the end of the day. We can’t blame you, Justin!
We caught Ezra Galston taking a small hit to his stack on the last hand before break. On a board of A435Q, Galston was facing a bet of 2.7K from an opponent. He contemplated for three minutes before making the call and mucked his cards when his opponent showed AJ. Galston is now at 19.5K.
Here are some notable unofficial chipstacks at the end of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 130K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 88K
Darren Elias - 86K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 67K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 49.5K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 45K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 37K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 34K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 32K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 30K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 27.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 27.5K
Jason “mkind0516″ Laso - 27K
David “Davidp18″ Peters - 26K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 26K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 24K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 24K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 23K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 22K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 21K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 20K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16.5K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 14K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 13.5K
Main Event Day 1c!
by Brett on 07.05.08, 2:45 pm
The insanity begins today. More than 2,000 players have registered for Day 1c already with two hours of registration still open. There’s a possibility more players will participate today than the first two days combined, making for what should be a hectic and exciting day at the Rio.
Some players in attendance already are Darren Elias, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins, Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal and Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell, who is seated at at table with bracelet winner David Singer. We’re expecting a massive crowd of P5ers today, so be sure to check in frequently for updates!
Mike “SirWatts” Watson finished up last night as one of the chips leaders of Day 1b with 104,425. Here’s a look at the official chip counts of some others that made it through to Day 2:
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 82,000
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 78,675
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 62,750
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 41,275
Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson - 28,350
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 27,350
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 26,300
Greg “okstate345″ Cox - 20,925
Shaun Deeb - 16,550
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 15,250
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 10,700
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 10,250
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 8,225
Rough Day at the Office
by Jessica on 06.20.08, 7:01 pm
Several notable online players returned for Day 2 of the $1.5K NLHE event only to make an early exit shortly after play began. One such player was Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (pictured at right) who found himself in a race situation pre-flop with pocket jacks versus another player’s A-Q. The A-Q ended up victorious and Phil busted in 131st place. Here is a list of notable players who were recently eliminated:
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 163rd for $3,340
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 140th for $3,340
Phil “USCPhildo” COllins - 131st for $3,340
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 130th for $3,340
Dag Martin “dmikkel” Mikkelson - 128th for $3,340
Justin “jurollo” Rollo - 117th for $4,008
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 114th for $4,008
Jordan “scarface79″ Smith - 112th for $4,008
While those players are now free to roam the halls, as we saw Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad doing earlier today, several other players remain in contention for the bracelet and are continuing to build their already large chip stacks. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe is still the chip leader with 170K, but Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodniki (100K) and Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh (95K) are towards the top of the leaderboard as well.
Over in the Amazon Room, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at left) was among the casualties in Level 3 of today’s $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. First, Saul lost the majority of his stack to Dario Minieri. With the blinds at 75/150, Minieri raised to 700 in a limped pot from middle position and Saul re-raised to 2200 on the button. Action folded around to Minieri, who asked Saul, “You always think I have nothing?,” before moving in for his last 4000. Saul made the call with JJ, which was way behind the QQ of Dario. The board ran out AK66A and Minieri added “This is the same hand I won my bracelet with” as he raked in a pot worth over 9K.
Saul was left with close to 800 chips following the hand and got the rest of it in two hands later. He raised to 450 preflop and got calls from Eli Elezra and another player. Saul pushed in his last 350 on a flop of 983 and both players called. By the river, he was holding his cards directly above the muck, waiting for Elezra to turn over his straight, and Saul was eliminated.
Others exiting Event #38 during the past level were Jon “FieryJustice” Little, Chris “moorman1″ Moorman and Justin Bonomo.
Gary vs. Gray
by Brett on 06.20.08, 1:31 am
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski took the tournament chip lead from Craig “MrCasino” Gray in Level 8 of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, and minutes later watched Gray take a seat next to him after his table broke. Bogdanski (pictured left with Gray) is sitting with 65K and Gray, who seems refreshed after taking a few days off, has 56K with the blinds at 400/800. The two didn’t know either previously but have quickly bonded.
Also working with a lot of chips is Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh, who had close to 50K before he lost a pot to Alex Jacob. Jacob raised to 2,025 in the cutoff and Slaughbaugh called in the big blind. Both players checked the flop of 864 and Slaughbaugh led for 2,900 when the Q fell on the turn. Jacob raised to 6,300 Slaughbaugh called. The K came on the river and Slaughbaugh check-called a 6,300 bet from Jacob, who showed QQ for the flush. Slaughbaugh mucked, leaving him with 35K.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman had the benefit of good timing when he picked up AA and got all of his 5.6K in preflop. The aces held and he doubled up to a little over 12K.
PocketFives caught up with Phil “USCPhildo” Collins on a board of TQJ9Q, engaged in heads-up play with Duncan Bell. Phil explained that he flat-called Duncan’s raise preflop, then both players checked on the turn. On the river, however, Duncan bet out 4K and Phil moved all in. After a long time in the tank, Duncan folded and Phil flipped over the best hand in poker — POCKET FIVES! He joked to the PocketFives staff that he felt compelled to play the hand. Why? Because he loves us. After winning the big pot, Phil’s stack was up to 44K and he grinned mischeviously.
With 300 players remaining and the average stack at 24K, here some other chip counts of notable P5ers in Event #36:
Shannon Shorr - 55K
Dan “voff” Deveau - 47K
Bryan Micon - 43K
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 33K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 29K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 22K
Justin “jurollo” Rollo - 21K
Dimitri “Skanky980″ Valouev - 20K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 19K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 19K
Carol “colson10″ Olson - 15K
Aaron “ndgrinder59″ Steury - 15K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 14K
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 12K
How To Remedy Boredom at the Poker Table
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 5:22 pm
It seems some of the players in today’s #1.5k NLHE event may already be a little bored. We spotted Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray watching soccer on Adam’s phone. Adam said that the other day he got so bored during a tournament that he watched three episodes of South Park on his phone.
Phil “USCphildo” Collins fills his downtime at the poker table by text messaging the P5s cell phone. One text we received today said, “I seriously wonder if some of these ppl have ever played poker before. LOL at these $1,500 fields. I could probably train a monkey to play better.” We wish Phil much luck in his future monkey training efforts and we have to wonder how much more painful it would be if a monkey, rather than a human, was to suck out on the river. The world may never know.
The 48 players remaining in event #34, the $1.5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament have started play over in the Brazilia room and while some P5ers such as Tim “Tmay420″ West have a good sized stack (168k) and should more easily be able to make it into the money, others like Jamie “TheNew” Robbins are short stacked (23k) and will need to make a move early in play today to avoid being sent to the rail. 36 players will cash in this tournament so hand for hand play is definitely not far away.