WSOP 2008
Wolpert and Gray Get Coolered in 10k Heads-Up
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 4:36 pm
Many players have made quick work of their heads-up opponent and the blue section of the Amazon room is already starting to feel a little empty. After Isaac Haxton made quick work Scott Fischman, he decided to stick around and observe the other match taking place on his table (each table has two matches taking place on them). Eventually the tournament director announced to Haxton and the other players whose matches were complete that they needed to clear the tournament area until Round 2 starts at 5pm.
Players still competing in their matches also can’t help but watch the second match taking place at their tables, especially during the downtime while dealers are shuffling. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was spotted peeking over at his neighbor Sammy Farha’s heads-up match on numerous occassions, even when he was involved in a hand himself.
Aside from many of the match-ups being quite compelling with a field ripe with notable pros, most players were watching the other match at their table because the winners from the same table play each other in the next round. For many of the players, especially those with a high stakes background online, concrentating on multiple heads-up matches is standard fare as many of them play multiple heads-up matches simultaneously online.
P5er’s Leo “Superfluos Man” Wolpert (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray must have left the Amazon room feeling like they were set up as their monster hands left them with a nightmare. Wolpert raised the button preflop and Robert Mizrachi called. On a flop of A
3
7
, Mizrachi check called Wolpert’s flop bet. The turn brought the 9 and Mizrachi check-raised Wolpert, who went all-in and was quickly called by Mizrachi, who turned over his 33
making Wolpert’s AK drawing dead.
Gray’s hand ended in similar fashion. Gray’s opponent raised the button and Gray called. On a flop of QJ9, Gray check called his opponents bet of 1300. The 7 dropped on the turn and Grey check raised his opponent bet of 3300, going all-in for another 11,500. Gray’s opponent called revealing JJ, ahead of Gray’s double draw with the Q8. Gray’s big draw bricked out and he was eliminated.
With such a diverse collection of incredible live and online pro’s, there was handful of intriguing match-ups scattered throughout the room like David “Raptor517″ Benefield vs Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis vs Kenny Tran and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi vs J.C. Tran.
Bonomo and Kenny Tran prevailed in their match and Mizzi and Tran continue to battle it out.
It took Eugene Todd and Michael Mizrachi only one hand to end their match although it had little to do with any drama on the felt. Both being good friends, they decided to go all-in blind and Mizrachi’s 8-2 prevailed over Todd’s 4-3.
List of Notable Winners
Alex Jacob, Theo Tran, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
List of Early Exits
Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius, Glen Chorney, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, and James “mig.com” Mackey
Mizzi Accumulates Big Stack at Manic Table
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 6:04 pm
The level of energy jolting through the Amazon room was palpable as players frantically pushed their chips to amass a large stack before the close of the rebuy in the WSOP Event #5.
For many poker players, a rebuy tournament is as welcomed of an event as Christmas is to kids.
No table exemplified that mentality more than Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi’s table, which featured Mark Vos and Steve Sung, all of whom weren’t pinching their pennies.
At the end of the rebuy period, Mizzi was in for 4k and said that Sung was in for 25k and Vos about 8 to 10k.
As a result, this table had an incredible amount of chips on it, led by Mizzi and Vos who had stacks over 40k.
Often there was a negotiation before many hands at this table as Vos, Mizzi, and Sung would put in 4k and run the board without betting.
Many players had extra stacks of non-tournament chips on the table that they would use to purchase more tournament chips as needed, Bellagio chips accepted along with Rio chips.
From looking throughout the room it seemed as if there was a contest going on among players as to who could sit with the most amount of money on the table.
Not surprisingly, Phil Ivey’s stack of 100k worth of Bellagio’s chips was the unofficial winner although Kenny Tran’s cupholder full of white Bellagio 1k chips won the award for best presentation.
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz got caught up in the action as well but decided to call it a day after he busted before the rebuy period after being in for 14k.
Since Schwartz was also in the money of 1.5k PLHE event which started after the rebuy period closed and would be shortstacked in the rebuy if rebought again, he decided it wasn’t worth it to try to multi-table both tournaments.
The online community had a strong presence as predicted in this event, as many players have a lot of experience playing many rebuy tournaments online.
One table included Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson.
During the 50-100 level after five limpers, Johnson raised to 500 and Kamberis and another player called.
On a 427 flop, Johnson bet 800 and Kamberis called. Both players checked the K turn, and when the 9 dropped on the river, Johnson bet 1800 and Kamberis called, beating Johnson QQ with 97 for two pair.
Not all tables where chaotic however. The table that featured Jennifer Tilly, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Bill Gazes and Robert Mizrachi didn’t have many chips on it and both Tilly and Beckman hadn’t rebought since the optional initial add-on.
Down to 10
by Court on 04.24.08, 7:30 pm
After 2 quick eliminations play slowed with 15 players remaining. The stall was ended when Nick Binger (right) was eliminated by Gus Hansen. Binger was all in preflop with AQ against Hansen’s suited A3 and by the time the river was out Gus had made a flush to bust Binger in 15th place for $131,910.
After Binger’s elimination the next few bust outs came quickly with David Tran and Robert Mizrachi also being knocked out. Hansen did the dirty work against Tran, picking up pocket aces and having them hold up against Tran’s flopped pair to send David home in 14th place.
Mike Gracz was able to bust a shortstacked Mizrachi when Robert moved in and Gracz called. Gracz had pocket jacks and they held strong against Mizrachi’s A8. The victory for Gracz was short lived though. Not too long later he was all in against Gus Hansen with a flop set against the Danes flush draw. Blank on the turn but the T on the river completed the club flush for Gus and busted Gracz in 11th place.
In between the Mizrachi and Gracz eliminations Bryan Devonshire (left) was busted in 12th place. Bryan was all in with AQ against David Chiu with pocket queens. Unlike Gus, the strategy of getting it in behind and getting there didn’t work out for Bryan and his 12th place finish brought the same payday of $131,910 that went to all finishers between 11th and 15th.
The remaining 10 players, including Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll are all now at the same table and playing down to the final 6.
Carroll Bluffs, Chiu Gets Lucky
by Court on 04.24.08, 4:27 pm
Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll (right) was able to grab a pot off of Tommy Le with a river bet on a board of KQ98T. Cory had checked his option from the big blind after Le completed from the small blind (blinds 15k / 30k). On the flop Le had check called a 45k bet from Carroll and both players checked the turn. With the river Le again checked and Cory bet 240k. The time on the clock ran out and players were on break, but Le stayed in thought for a long time before finally folding, showing a king as he did so. Cory showed the 75 as he stacked chips before heading out for break.
The chip lead has been held by Amir Vahedi so far today, but Gus Hansen was only 2 cards away from climbing back to the top of the chips. On a J64 flop David Chiu bet 171k into a pot that Gus had raised preflop and both David Tran and Chiu had both called. Gus said he was going to raise half of Chiu’s remaining stack and after giving it a rough count he decided that 355k was close enough.
Chiu (left) then moved all in and Gus called. Hansen showed the AJ and the look on Chiu’s face was a clear indicator he was in bad shape. His KJ was left drawing to three outs but the turn was reminiscent of what Gus did to eliminate Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby earlier in the tournament. The K peeled off and Gus was then the one drawing to 3 outs. His ace didn’t come in and he saw a pot of around 2 million chips heading the other direction.
Early eliminations included Jeff Shulman in 17th place and Andy Black in 16th. Black took a particularly bad beat at the hands of Robert Mizrachi. They were all in preflop with Black’s aces against Mizrachi’s J-9. The turn gave Mizrachi a gutshot draw to a straight but also gave Black the heart flush draw killing one of Robert’s outs. The 8 hit on the river making the straight for Robert and drawing a groan from many of the onlookers.