WSOP 2008
Mueller Makes a Massive Call
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 8:42 pm
It seems everywhere you turn some player is making a bad call to put their tournament life at stake. This definitely wasn’t the case for Greg “FBT” Mueller (pictured at left). We caught up with the action on the flop with the board reading T
72
. A short stacked player was already all in and Greg and another player were tangled up in a side pot. Both players on the side had large stacks that were similar in size and when the other player pushed all in Greg went into the tank.
He talked out his entire thought process over a period of time that lasted nearly ten minutes. “You must have aces or kings” he said… followed by “Would you make that move with nines or eights? You could be on a flush draw.” Jon Friedberg got up from the table and whispered to a PocketFives reporter that he was sure Greg had the best hand and the other player probably had A-K or maybe the flush draw. Greg apologized to the table for taking so long to make a decision, but no one seemed upset. Eventually Greg said “I really think I have the best hand. I call.” His opponent said “Nice call” as he flipped over the 99
for a pair of nines and Greg proudly flipped over his KT
for a pair of tens. The all in player showed KQ and Greg was set to win the entire pot. The turn came with the 5 and the river was the Q which gave the short stacked all in player the main pot of around 40k, but Greg’s tens took the side pot which totaled nearly 250k.
Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane has also been accumulating chips. He busted a player with his pocket queens and then on a hand not long afterwards the cutoff raised to 9k and Gerry re-raised to 23k from the small blind. The cutoff made the call and the flop came 532. Gerry pushed all in and his opponent folded and Gerry’s stack grew to around 115k.
With 90 players remaining Jon Friedberg has around 180k, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar has almost 100k, and Hevad “RainKhan” Khan has a little less than 50k.
The $1.5k HORSE event #51 got started at 5 pm tonight and with the smaller buy-in we’re sure we’ll see a large number of online players dipping their toes into this mixed game event even if they aren’t as experienced at all of the games. This is sure to make for some exciting action and we’ll keep you posted as the tournament progresses.
The $50k HORSE final table is still progressing. Barry Greenstein is currently the short stack with 1.3 million while Scotty Nguyen is the current chip leader with 4.4 million.
Clements Takes an Early Lead
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 4:49 pm
In the $10k PLO event #50, a number of players have already built their stacks up while a few have already been eliminated from the tournament. Eric “EFro” Froehlich was knocked out when his opponent flopped top two pair and all Eric had was a pair of aces in his hand. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements‘ stack is heading in the opposite direction. Clements (pictured right) is the current chip leader with 32k and has not used his reload chip yet. Barry Greenstein was one of the chip leaders in the PLO event until a massive hand took his entire stack away. Greenstein flopped a set of kings on a KQT board and the Q came on the turn giving him the best full house possible. Unfortunately for Greenstein, his opponent held the other two queens for quads and scooped up a 50k pot to knock Greenstein out of the tournament. He’ll now have a little over an hour to prepare for the final table of the $50k HORSE event that kicks off at 3pm.
Day 2 of the $1.5k NLHE event #49 is set to kick off at 2 pm with a number of notable online players still in the field.
After starting with a massive field of 2,018, only 215 players survived the day to return on day 2. The bubble burst last night at 270 players and all the players returning today are guaranteed at least $2,968 while the 1st place finisher will take home $631,170 along with the gold bracelet. Some notable players hitting the felt again today include Greg “FBT” Mueller (131.7k), Alex “42oneverloses” Case (97.3k), Hevad “RainKhan” Khan (58.8k), and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar (20.7).
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.
Online Players Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 5:46 pm
After tournament registration closed for the $5k NLHE six-handed event, 805 players had entered the tournament, beating last years total by 77 entries. Even with 10k starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, the play has been fast and furious. There are so many notable online players in the field that we can’t even begin to list them all. One of our reporters counted more than 50 notable online players in the field at the start of the tournament so we wouldn’t be surprised if numerous P5ers ran deep in today’s event.
We caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham in a hand with the board reading 632. It appeared that Matt had bet out on the flop only to be raised another 2.3k by his opponent. Matt was obviously stressed about his decision and then decided to fold his pocket tens face-up. Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Hevad “RainKhan” Khan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger (pictured right), and Alex Jacob are all doing well and have built their stacks up during the first two levels.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was seen walking through the field of six-handed players a little before 2 pm, but he isn’t playing in today’s event because he is in day 2 of the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tourney. He is seated at table #13 along with Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left). Another table with a few notable players is #15 with Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich all seated together. 81 of the 115 players that started today will make the money so short stacked players are going to have to make moves soon as the bubble isn’t too far away.
Go Big or Go Home
by Crystal on 06.19.08, 4:15 pm
We’re only a little more than an hour into the $1.5k NLHE event #36 and while the total number of entrants on the tournament clock screen continues to rise as a result of late entries, the room is filled with dealers calling out the words no player ever wants to hear in reference to them… “Seat open!”
It seems that in these $1.5k events some players choose to gamble a little more to try to build their stack early. While loose/agressive play can definitely get you a big stack early and make swimming through these huge fields a little easier, it can also lead to an early end to your tournament life and it seems we’ve already lost a couple P5ers in the mayhem.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul has already busted out and Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer’s seat next to Hevad “RainKhan” Khan was empty when PocketFives wandered by. Billy Westom (pictured at left) also made an early exit when his AJ ran into JT on a JT4 flop.
We’ve spotted a lot more players out in the field including Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Craig “MrCasino” Gray, Simon “PokerBrat13″ Charette, Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, and Keven “stamdogg” Stammen.
As of now the number of entrants is 2,436 but with almost an hour until registration ends it will inevitably rise even higher as time passes.