WSOP 2008
Porter Picks Up Pot with Pocket Rockets
by Jessica on 07.10.08, 4:42 am
Say that five times fast. We dare you.
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter (pictured at left) made a lot of headway adding to his chip stack in the final level. With the blinds 600/1200 ante 200 Devin raised in middle position and the player in the big blind called. The flop came A
JJ
and both players checked. When the 4 fell on the turn the player in the big blind bet out 7.5K and Devin made the call. The board double paired when the 4
came on the river and the big blind checked. Porter bet out 15K and the other player thought for a minute before making the call. Devin turned over AA
for the flopped boat and the other player tossed his cards in the muck.
A little while later, Porter picked up another substantial pot on the last hand of the night to increase his stack to 182K. Porter, Nenad Medic and another player saw a flop of 742 and Porter bet 6.5K. Medic folded and the other player called. The J fell on the turn and both players checked. The 8 came on the turn and the other player checked to porter, who bet 14K. The other player called with a pocket pair of threes and Porter showed A4. We here at PocketFives Live are guessing Devin is feelin oooohhhhkaaaay going into Day 3.
When PocketFives caught up to Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson’s (pictured right) table, he bet out in position several consecutive hands to take down small preflop pots. When we talked with Darren, it seemed this strategy had been working quite well for him as he was staying strong at 190K. However, the rest of his table seemed to be tilting before the end of the night as tempers flared and patience waned. In one particularly inflammatory hand, Darren called a small preflop bet from a player in early position and smartly laid it down to a reraise behind. Long story short, the floor was called because of dealer errors, the clock was called erroneously, and Darren laughed as he watched his table unravel. We’re pretty sure he will look forward to his new table draw for tomorrow!
At a few tables over, Mike “RunScreamin” Herder managed to take down a couple of uncontested preflop pots as the rest of his table was dormant, waiting for the clock to run out on Day 2B. Mike was excited to continue on to Day 3 and will return with a very substantial 208K in chips.
Russell “rdrcrsn” Carson fought the short stack struggle for about an hour after losing the bulk of his chips on a double-draw gone bad a few hours before the end of the day. Carson eventually busted out when he re-reraised a 4k open from the button out of the blind for his last 18k. Carson’s opponent called with JJ, ahead of Carson’s AK. Carson was looking good after the turn when the board read T-Q-3-K but a nine on the river made his opponent a straight and sent Carson to the rail. Joining him on the rail as play ended for the day were Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin and David “hosnimbarak” Tazbaz who got it all-in with pocket kings on a flop of Q-8-3 with his opponent holding pocket queens.
Here are some unofficial chip counts we caught as play was wrapping up for the evening:
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 246K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 237K
Brandon Schaefer - 230K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 213K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 208K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 200K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 184K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 171K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert -170K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 155K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 153K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 150K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 140K
Thayer Rasmussen - 140K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 133K
Darren Elias - 132K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 130K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 125K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 120K
Allen “abari” Bari - 118K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 102K
Spencer “spankybabes” Lawrence - 102K
Mike “yngmanN4quiki” Postle - 101K
David “Bakes” Baker - 100K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 90K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 87K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 85K
Brian “snagglepuss” Powell - 75K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 73K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 70K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 67K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 66K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 65K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 41K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 35K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 26K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 23K
King is Dead
by Brett on 07.10.08, 3:26 am
Carter “ckingusc” King (pictured left) has been hanging on by a thread all day; in fact, the patience he’s continually exhibited has been admirable. However, this patience was wearing thin as his stack was shrinking - when PocketFives caught up to Carter halfway through the last level of the evening, he had less than 15K in front of him. Finally, he saw his chance to make a move and from the button, he shoved all in when it folded to him. After thinking awhile, a player in early position called his all-in and the dealer waved his paddle in the air. When both players flipped their cards, it was a classic coin flip situation: Carter held QJ versus his opponent’s TT. The board ran out K386 and Carter was feeling pretty good, but while the J on the river gave Carter a better pair, it gave his opponent the flush and he was sent to the rail.
Todd “koolkeith13″ Lewis also recently busted when he lost an 80K pot when he got it in with A-K while his opponent held A-9. A nine on the turn spelled disaster for Lewis and he was eliminated with an hour left in play.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy had some good news to share with his friend Ray Henson, who was sitting a few tables over. Levy had much to be happy about after he won a three-way all-in preflop hand where his kings held up against pocket queens and pocket jacks. Levy started the hand with about 75k and after his flopped set of kings held, his stack catapulted to over 200k. Henson has been enjoying some good fortune as well as his 20k stack at the start of the day has ballooned over 230k.
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy increased his stack to 250K following a blind vs. blind confrontation. The player in the small blind raised to 3,600 and Josephy (pictured right) raised enough to put the player all in (nearly 30K). The player called instantly with pocket kings and Cliff flipped over pocket nines. As the dealer prepared to reveal the flop, Josephy yelled “king!” and naturally the dealer dealt the 9 on the flop, putting him in the lead. His hand held and he climbed back toward the top of the leaderboard.
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson’s stack took a big hit in a blind vs blind battle. In a limped pot, Carson and his opponent played for stacks on an A-4-5 flop. Carson’s opponent flopped aces and fours and managed to dodge Carson’s gut-shot straight draw and flush draw, scooping a 90k pot, leaving Carson with 18k.
Both Michael “Benvo123″ Benvonuti and Daniel “voff” Deveau took also big hits this past hour. Benvenuti got all-in on the flop with a set versus a flopped flush which knocked him down under 30K. Deveau got it all-in preflop with aces versus his opponent’s pocket jacks and looked to be in good shape to pick up a big pot, but a jack on the river shipped it the other direction and he was left with 50K.
With an hour left in the final level of the night, here are some unofficial chip counts of P5ers still alive:
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 250K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 212K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 190K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 190K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 180K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 180K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 180K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 166K
Brandon Schaefer - 165K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 150K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 136K
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 136K
David “Bakes” Baker - 120K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 120K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 120K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 120K
Allen “abari” Bari - 111K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert -110K
Thayer Rasmussen - 109K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 107K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 100K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 100K
Dylan “ImALucSac” Linde - 100K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 100K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 90K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 88K
“BodogAri” Engel - 85K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 77K
Brian “snagglepuss” Powell - 75K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 75K
Darren Elias - 65K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 60K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 55K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 50K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 50K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 45K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 40K
Michael “martine23″ Martin - 38K
Hevad Khan - 37K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 29K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 28K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 20K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 19K
Main Event Madness!
by Jill on 07.06.08, 12:41 am
Now back from dinner break and midway through Level 4, play continued in the Amazon room with the blinds at 150/300 and an ante of 25. And then there was madness.
One of the chip leaders at the end of last level, Brian “tsarrast” Rast (pictured at left), has been experiencing a rough go for the last hour, as he’s been victim of several three-bets. When we caught up to Brian’s table, his stack had taken a slide from 97K to 83K and he was once again engaged in a pot. He made a preflop raise on the button for 900 and the small blind called him. The big blind, however, reraised and Brian exclaimed, “I’ve only played three hands so far this level. When am I going to get some respect for that?”
In a principled play, he pushed a stack of orange chips in the middle of the table, taking a stand. After the small blind folded, the short-stacked big blind mused, “Well, I haven’t been pushing you around. I’m not gonna lay this down.” Brian then guessed correctly: his opponent held pocket kings to his pocket queens. The flop ran out J-4-4-5-A and Brian shipped the chips his way. He was down to a still-very-respectable 70K stack after the hand.
Moving the opposite way of Brian was Russell “rdcrsn” Carson. When we caught up with Russell’s table, it looked like he had switched up gears to more aggressive play and was taking down small preflop pots. His stack had made small gains, increasing from 19K to 25K in the first half of the level.
Jason “JCarver” Somerville just sent a player to the rail about 30 minutes after players got back from the dinner break. Somerville raised to 1,350 from late position and got re-raised to 3,550 by a player to his left on the button. Somerville called and checked to his opponent on a T83 flop, and his opponent went all-in for 10K. Somerville called and promptly flipped over the nuts with TT, crushing his opponent’s pocket aces. The board ran true for Somerville who was up to 70k.
Court Harrington (pictured at right) moved all-in on a 7-7-5 board with two clubs holding pocket queens while his opponent held A-7. The turn and river were no help for Harrington and he was eliminated midway through Level 4. Others joining him on the rail include Robby “PlayaPlz” Lipkin and Andy “BKice” Seth.
Jon Wein, Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby were all seated at the same table when Level 4 began, but Wein was recently eliminated while holding a straight flush. Well, that’s what he wanted us to report. He actually got his remaining 12K in on a flop of 862 with TT against KQ. His opponent hit the Q on the river to cut Wein down to 2K. He called off those chips on the next hand with Q4 in the big blind and was unable to draw out on the small blind’s A9 when the board ran out Q9898. He’s on his way to the bar with Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson, who was on the rail watching.
Armstrong was able to chip up to 31K shortly before Wein’s exit. He raised to 1,050 at 150/300 from early position and the small blind called. On a board of J53, the small blind checked and Armstrong bet 2K. His opponent called and both players checked the Q on the turn. The 5 fell on the river and the small blind check-called a bet of 3,200 by Armstong, who showed AJ and took down the pot when his opponent flashed 77.
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne took a big hit shortly after dinner when he flat called a player’s raise preflop with pocket tens and the flop came ten high. He smooth called the initial raiser’s bet on the flop and when a K came on the turn his opponent bet again and Payne raised enough to put him all-in. The other player quickly made the call with pocket kings and Jerry was knocked down to 10K. He has been working his way back since then though and the following hand added even more to his stack:
With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Payne raised to 800 from the hijack and the player in the cutoff called behind him. Both players checked the flop of 886 and Jerry checked again when the 5 hit on the turn. His opponent bet out 1K and Jerry quickly raised to 3.5K total. The other player made the call and the two saw the river of the A. Jerry moved all-in for his remaining 5K and the other player turned over his JT for a busted flush draw and folded. Any guesses what Jerry showed the table? Presto! Pocket fives…
Here are some chip counts at the middle of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 107K
Darren Elias - 83K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 78K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 66k
Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 55k
Jon Kalmar - 50k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 45K
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 45k
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 45k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 33K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 31K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 31K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 30K
Michael Benvenuti - 30K
Ezra Galston - 28K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 25K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 21.5K
Patrick Hoffman - 21K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 21k
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 20.5K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 20K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 18K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 16.5K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 15.5K
Aditya Agarwal - 14.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 10.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 7k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 5.5K