WSOP 2008
Jeff Hakim Reigns Supreme
by Brett on 07.08.08, 11:12 pm
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim says he’s comfortable gambling with a big stack here on Day 2a. That became clear during a hand just before dinner break. On a flop of 8
52
, a player in early position bet 6.4K and another player moved all in for 24.8K. Hakim (pictured right) made the call and the original bettor folded:
Hakim: JT
Opponent: AQ
Hakim’s fate looked bleak until the J
fell on the turn and 2 on the river. Hakim increased his stack to 185.5K. Also at his table is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, who is holding 100K.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams’ hot streak continued when he and another player got it all-in on the turn for a 120K pot with the board reading 943 9 with Williams holding pocket queens to his opponent’s pocket threes. Jeff appeared to be on the way out the door, but a miracle Q on the river pushed the pot to Jeff and increased his chip stack to 20 times what he had two levels ago. Since then Jeff has taken a few hits and has 87.5K going into dinner break.
Doug “resilient” Smith took some time to fill PocketFives Live in on how he managed to double his already large stack. With the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 Doug (pictured left) raised in early position with A-K off suit and another big stack made the call. The flop came A-K-8 and Smith led out for 3.3K. His opponent made the minimum raise to 6.6K, and Doug reraised to 20K total. The other player then moved all-in and Smith made the call. His opponent held K-8 for a lesser two pair and the A on the turn left his opponent drawing dead. After the hand Doug was up to 168K and he has been building his stack even more since then. He has 185K as play ended before the dinner break.
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann was sitting with close to 130K earlier in the day but has taken a hit in the past level. Heitmann and another player built a 30K pot preflop, with the other player all in holding TT to Heitmann’s 9
9. The pocket tens held as the board showed KJ3K6 and Heitmann’s stack dipped to 81K.
Right before the dinner break, the player in the hijack seat at Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach’s table raised to 2.5k and Richard made the call from the big blind. The flop came AJ5 and Richard checked over to the other player who bet 4k. Richard fiddled with his chips for a bit before raising to 10k. The other player called the raise and they saw the turn bring the T. Richard wasted no time in betting out with 15k and the other player gave up his hand which allowed Richard to add a few chips to his stack.
With the average stack at 96K, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts as players went on their 90 minute dinner break:
Derek “arodss3″ Buanomo - 215K (pictured right)
Michael “DblupM0J” Johnson - 190K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 188K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 185.5K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 185K
Jason Gray - 180K
Joe “JOEYTHEB” Brooks - 170K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 131K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 123K
Kush Patel - 122K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 121K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 118K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 110K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 106K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 101K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 100K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 97K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 87.5K
Dani “Anksy451″ Stern - 80K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 77K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 71K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 70.8K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 63K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 58.5K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 50K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 47K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 45K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 36K
Jordan Morgan - 31K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 28.5K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 22K
Barry Greenstein - 19.5K
Shaun Deeb - 18K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 17K
2008 WSOP Main Event, Day 1A Concludes
by Jill on 07.04.08, 4:48 am
Play concluded for Day 1A of the Main Event just after 1AM PST. Nearly half of the day’s entrants were eliminated in the 10K championship; 657 of 1,297 remain for Day 2 play. Day 1b will commence tomorrow at 12pm PST at the Rio, but before we get ahead of ourselves, here is a wrap-up of Level 5, which brought quite a bit of excitement for PocketFives players.
After patiently waiting the entire level, Jeff “yellowsub” Williams (pictured at right) finally got his last 5K all in from the big blind after the player on the button raised to 1.2K. He was in great shape with A-K versus his opponent’s A-5. The flop came Q-7-2. When a queen came on the turn, Jeff looked nervous, fearing a chop, but an ace on the river sealed the deal and he doubled up to 10.5K in chips.
Another big double-up came for Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, who had been sitting on a short stack for quite awhile. He got involved in a hand with one other player and Richard’s AQ bested his opponent’s AT on a A9792 board. He doubled up to 28K.
PocketFives also caught up with Joe “latestlines2″ Ward who was in the small blind and engaged in a hand with one other opponent. The board ran out 4-A-K-9-T and Joe’s A-6 held up to increase his stack to 56K. Shortly afterward, Joe also got involved in a hand when the board ran out J6J96. He bet out on the river and was called; both players showed A-Q for the chop, but they each picked up the blinds, antes, and a couple of limpers’ chips, so Joe increased his stack to 68K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein (pictured at left), on the other hand, was feeling a little suppressed as he explained that his table was extremely nitty, yet the table next to theirs kept the camera crews running over every other hand with their all in action. Nitty or not, Josh’s stack stayed strong at 43K and he will continue on to Day 2 after attending a wedding in Chicago during his break.
Recent eliminations include Adam “akat11″ Katz, whose pocket queens couldn’t catch his opponents pocket kings, and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, whose all-in preflop K-J couldn’t best his opponent’s K-Q. Also suspiciously missing from their seats? JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu, about whom we haven’t heard any news.
Congrats to all players who played valiantly through Day 1a! Though official chip counts will be released later this evening, here are estimates at the end of Level 5:
Michael “dblupM0j” Johnson - 114K
Mark “pokerbok” Vos - 106K
Jeremiah Smith - 99K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 70K
Jason Gray - 69.4K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 57.4K
Joe “latestlines2″ Ward - 68K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 55K
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 54K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 50K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 50K
Peter “number1pen” Neff- 49K
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein - 43K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 37.6
Kevin “Kice32″ Iacofano - 37.5K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 35.8K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 32K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 26K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 21K
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 21K
Barry Greenstein - 21K
Treacherous Tables in Rebuy
by AdamJ on 06.26.08, 1:16 am
Many online players seemed a bit disgusted with their tables after players returned from an hour and a half dinner break in the 1k rebuy WSOP Event #44.
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach lamented having to play at his table, playing with Jason “JCarver” Somerville and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams to his left.
Somerville was hating life even more as he said Williams, who was sitting two players his left, was “abusing” him. The two had a playful deamenor with each other as they made cracks on each other as P5’s was watching the action.
Somerville even tried to bribe P5’s to write something bad about Williams, even offering up a green 25 chip as compensation. P5’s scoffed at the offer, electing to wait for higher compensation!
Fohrenbach’s frustration didn’t get much sympathy from Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who walked over and talked about his table which included Shaun Deeb (21k), Theo Tran (75k), Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (45k), and Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (13k).
This table was one of the more social tables, talking about many random poker stories capped off by who has broken more laptops.
After much discussion, Deeb mentioned that nobody has broken more than Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, who has a tally Deeb confidently described as “double digits” piled up in his garage.
Joshua “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) was battling a short stack of 10k at one of the more interesting tables left, playing alongside Mark Seif (98k), Minh “The Master” Nguyen, David Daneshgar (9k), and Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant (25k).
Although VanDuyn’s situation seemed dire with about a third of the 30k average stack, it was much worse until he tripled up his 3k stack off of Vinsant when his kings held up against Vinsant’s AJ. Perhaps VanDuyn will need to borrow another colorful hat like the pink one he borrowed from JJ Lieu earlier in the day to improve his fortune.
Here’s a list of notable chip stacks during the 400-800-100 level with 198 of 879 left.
Jason Mercier - 73k
Eric “E-fro” Froehlich - 64k
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 49k
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 30k
Brett “bhanks11″ Hanks - 26k
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 21k
Stu “TheDonator” Paterson - 20k
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 20k
Matt “All in At 420 Stout” - 18k
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 9k
“The Toilet” Makes Flush
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 10:28 pm
On a board reading J825 Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka (pictured at left) bet out 5.5K into an already large pot and Thomas Wahlroos thought for some time before moving all-in for less than 10K total. Jaka almost beat Wahlroos into the pot and turned over 24 while Wahlroos held pocket tens. The 9 gave Jaka his flush and shipped the huge pot this way, sending his chip stack up over 20K.
A table in the middle of the blue section might just put the other stacked tables we mentioned in our previous post to shame. At one point the table boasted Chris “moorman1″ Moorman, Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan, Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich, Shaun Deeb, and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Buchanan has since busted out, but while he was still around Freeman and Froehlich tangled in the following hand:
On a board of AAA Froehlich checked and Freeman bet out 1,625 into a 2.5K pot. Eric quickly raised to 3K and Scott thought for some time before laying the hand down.
Another table vying for “Most Stacked” boasts a lineup of Jeff “yellowsub” Williams, Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, Jason “JCarver” Somerville, Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach, and Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark. While Jason Carver was explaining the concept of “happiness EV” to Williams after he apparently sucked out on him in a hand, Clark and Fohrenbach went heads up to a flop in a raised pot.
The board came out 643 and Richard checked. Clark bet out 4K and Fohrenbach called. Both checked the Q on the turn and when the T hit on the river Richard checked once again. When Zachary bet 1,700 on the river, Richard laughed and uttered “wow…I can level myself ten different ways here”. He eventually made the call with pocket nines and Clark turned over 2-10. After the hand, Williams played the role of announcer when he stated, “CrazyZachary just took you straight to valuetown.”
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured at right) has been fighting a short stack for much of the day and he has decided to take drastic measures in an effort to reverse his bad luck. He borrowed JJ Lieu’s feathery hat for a hand in which he and Kathy Leibert got it all-in preflop. Josh held A-Q while Leibert had pocket jacks. The flop came 865 and Josh looked to be in bad shape as Kathy held the J. However, the board ran out 4-7 with no hearts and the two split the pot to keep VanDuyn alive.
Josh wore the hat the remainder of the time he and JJ were at the same table and the two even joked about some sort of compensation for Lieu should the hat propel Josh to the final table. However, once their table broke, Josh returned the hat. Perhaps its good luck had worn off.
Dan “wretchy” Martin was recently eliminated when he and two other players saw a flop of 875. After the flop, Dan checked from the small blind and the player in the big blind checked as well. The third player then bet 1.7K, Dan called, and the big blind raised to 5,225. The other player folded and Martin thought some time before moving all-in for 10,225 more. The other player made the call, showing 89 to Dan’s 79. The turn and river were no help for Martin and he was eliminated.
Other players who saw their tournaments come to an end this level include Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, and JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado.
Here are some updated and unofficial chip counts heading into dinner break:
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 70K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 40K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 35K
Richard Fohrenbach - 35K
Eric Froehlich - 32K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 30K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 20.5K
Jason Somerville - 20K
Matt “AllInat420″ Stout - 20K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 18K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 16K
John “apestyles” Van Fleet - 16K
“Bodog”Ari Engel - 14K
Adam “akat11″ - 11.5K
Jeremy “ChainsawJr” Menard - 10K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 6K
Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
by Jessica on 06.25.08, 9:12 pm
All of the remaining 420 players for the $1K No Limit Hold Em with rebuys have been condensed into the same section, which is resulting in several loaded tables. Shortly after Scott “gunning4you” Seiver busted, his seat was filled by Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich. Rich has Adam “Roothlus” Levy to his right and Adam has Scott “BigRiskky” Clements on his right, creating a murderer’s row of skilled players. Several other tables feature a combination of prominent players. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson have been seated at the same table all day. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman and Chris “moorman1″ Moorman are seated together, as are Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Adam “akat11″ Katz, and Ben “bfineman” Fineman. Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach are passing the time at their table discussing the merits of Cake Poker.
One player who has been moved to about six different tables today is Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured at left). After he was seated at his most recent table, he got involved in the following hand, which resulted in a noticable hit to his chip stack:
On a flop of KQ5 Matt bet out 850 and one other player made the call. After the 4 peeled off on the turn, his opponent checked, Matt bet out 1,625, and his opponent didn’t think too long before making the call. When the 2 hit on the river the other player led out for 3.5K and Matt announced “I just call.” The player showed QJ for the rivered flush and Matt flashed his set of fives before tossing them in the muck. He still had 15K as Level 5 was winding down.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija also took a hit to his stack when his opponent bet out 1.1K on a flop of 633 and Amit check-raised to 3K total. The other player made the call and they both saw the turn–J. Amit led out for 5.3K and his opponent called. Once the T came on the river, Amit elected to check and his opponent checked behind. Makhija held A-5 while his opponent had A-6 for two pair. He was left with 25K after the hand.
As the field has been cut in half, several players have been eliminated including Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu.
Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured at right) - 42K
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 20K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 18.5K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 15K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 14K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 13K
Isaac Haxton - 12K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 11K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 9K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 8.5K
Jason Gray - 8K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 4K
One of everyone’s favorite events, the $50K Horse is underway with over 120 players vying to take home the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy in addition to the bracelet. It was announced at the beginning of the event that the trophy will travel around from winner to winner, similar to the way the Stanley Cup does. Some of the players we spotted in the field include Justin Bonomo, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Dario Minieri.
In the Brasilia Room, the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event is down to its final 26 players. Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik was eliminated in 52nd place for $3,341 and Tom “SBRounder” West took 41st for $3,636. Shannon Shorr and Dan “Stainley88″ Adams are still alive but both working with short stacks.