WSOP 2008
Montgomery Turns The Nuts, Big Names Bust With Big Pairs
by Court on 09.27.08, 10:57 am
As the first level came to a close Soctt “R_A_Y” Montgomery was able to pick up a nice pot to get back over the 20k starting stack. After a player limped from under the gun, Montgomery put in a small raise to 275 chips. The action folded back to the limper who called.
On the A
Q
7 flop it was checked to Montgomery (left). Scott bet a 500 chip and before it had settled onto the felt the other player had his purple 500 chip in the middle to make the call. With the T
turn the action was again checked to Montgomery and this time he bet 1,200 leaving himself exactly 14,000 behind. The call again came quickly from the other player.
The 2 river card brought yet another check from the first player and Scott put out 4 yellow chips for a 4k bet, leaving himself only his two orange 5k chips behind. This time the other player was not so quick in making his decision. After counting chips and arranging stacks for a few moments the player finally splashed the pot with eight of the 500 chips to make the call. Montgomery instantly turned over the KJ for a turned straight to take the pot and build his stack to 21,50 going into the first break of the day.
The tournament field will take a 20 minute break and then return to the tables to play the 100/200 blind level for the next two hours.
Early eliminations include Dan Heimiller, David Benyamine, and Howard Lederer. The three players all busted with big pairs: queens for Heimiller ran into kings with the chips going in on the flop. Benyamine ran kings into aces with the chips going in on a 6 high flop. Lederer’s bust came while he was holding pocket aces, with the players ending up all in on a 9-6-3-7 board against Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman who had a set of sixes.
First Level Action
by Court on 08.25.08, 6:57 pm
The first of 6 levels for day 2 play is now complete. The first level was more than enough to clear all the tables outside the main room, with the Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, Bryan Devonshire, Ray Davis and Can Kim Hua table being the last to break
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld (left) had a great day 1, finishing up with 92,000 chips. He got day 2 off to a solid start as well, busting a short stacked Kenna James on the second hand to push his stack to around 100k. He drifted back down to the low 90’s by the end of the level but is still in great position going into the second level of the day.
For the shorter stacks, a successful first level was likely to include a double up. That was the case for Friedberg, who doubled through Ray Davis when his pocket aces held up. He is still short stacked but is at 13k after the double up. Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby also doubled in the first level, building his stack to around 35k.
Isaac “mr menlo” Baron was able to get up to 90k when his AK won a race against pocket sevens. Devin “TranquilChaso” Porter won a small pot that was 4-way preflop for 1,100 each. After the preflop action it was checked down the rest of the way and a surprised Devin porter picked up the pot with pocket nines.
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery was eliminated in the first level of play, after having something come up that caused him to play hyper aggressively until he was busted from the tournament.
Ari Engel had another player all in, but when the cards were turned up both had pocket kings and the pot ended up being split.
The second level of the day will be played with blinds of 300 / 600 and a 75 chip ante. The pressure on the short stacks continues to increase and larger and larger stacks are emerging around the room.
Winding Down
by Court on 08.24.08, 1:36 am
Day 1A play at the Legends of Poker is winding down. The players have about half an hour left before they will be done for the night. Players from todays flight get tomorrow off while the day 2B group take to the tables and the field will then be combined with all surviving players coming back on Monday.
Jason “JCarver” Somerville jumped up to 70k chips early and has been hanging around that mark for the last few levels. He recently grabbed a few chips from Miami John Cernuto on a board of QQT6A. Jason led at the river for 6,500 and Cernuto folded, saying later he had a queen while Sommerville claimed a straight and flush draw that got there on the river. “I’m just glad he didn’t shove the river” Sommerville said after the hand, saying he would have had to reluctantly fold.
Sommerville wasn’t the only player to get out of the gates quickly only to see progress stall. Louis “Mr Beeks” Werman (left) finished the first level with 50k and is right at the same amount as play winds down for the night. Both he and Sommerville are more than happy to finish the day with solid stacks though.
Different players have different goals for day 1 play. Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar mentioned he was just below the starting stack, and when jokingly asked if that was the goal for day 1 he replied that the trick is to lose half your starting stack and then get most of it back right near the end of the day so you feel like you are on a rush going into day 2.
Other chip counts:
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld - 95k
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery (right) - 75k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 68k
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 58k
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 50k
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 42k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 39k
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 38k
Alec Torelli - 33k
Isaac “mr menlo” Baron - 30k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 28k
Jason Gray - 24k
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin - 24k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 18k
Bryan Devonshire - 18k
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija - 16k
Baron Back, Baker Baked
by Court on 08.23.08, 11:56 pm
Isaac “mr menlo” Baron (right) was down to 11k chips early in the day, but at last check he was at a much healthier 40k. While Baron was able to recover from his short stack status, David “Bakes” Baker went the other way down the road and has been eliminated from the tournament.
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery is in the middle of living every poker players dream. He is a member of the “November Nine” and is at the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. While the WSOP ME is on hiatus Montgomery is keeping the hot streak going here at the Bike. He has 70k in chips late in the 4th level of play and what better practice for the biggest final table ever than making another WPT televised final table in the interim. He has a few days to go before thinking about that, but he is positioning himself well in the early going.
At the Bike when you are at a table and get hungry all you have to do is ask for service and choose from a multi-page menu of international choices. There is no official dinner break here, but as play works later into the day more and more food trays are littering the walkways as the orders keep flowing in. The drink orders are also flowing, with Coronas and glasses of wine being ordered all around.
Chip leader Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld is pushing the century mark in chips after calling down Vinny Vinh on every street with pocket eights. He had an overpair on the flop but with a nine and ten hitting the board on the turn and river he kept calling, including the 7k river bet. Zeidenfelds instincts were spot on, and Vinny had to take a walk to cool off after mucking his hand and watching Alvin rake in the pot.
So Long, Farewell
by Jessica on 07.16.08, 1:10 am
With 54 events in the books and the final table set, our summer here at the Rio has come to an end. Along the way numerous Pocket Fivers found themselves in the money, at final tables, and winning bracelets and we send our warmest congratulations to everyone. In the end, Pocket Fivers racked up approximately $20 million in cashes and took down several bracelets in the process.
It remains to be seen how much Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery will add to this tally with his Main Event finish. Montgomery and the eight other players at the final table will return on November 9th to play down to two players. On November 10th the final two will return for heads-up play and the event will air on November 11th on ESPN.
Here are the official chip counts of the November Nine:
Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery - 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate - 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz - 12,525,000
Darus Suharto - 12,520,000
David Rheem - 10,230,000
Craig Marquis - 10,210,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000
Pocket Fiver, Scott Montgomery, will be coming into the event 3rd in chips. Montgomery is no stranger to high profile final tables. He placed 5th in last year’s LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino at a loaded final table featuring the event’s winner Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Nam Le.
Another online pro to watch out for at this final table is Craig Marquis, known to many online as CMarq. A high stakes online cash game player, Marquis’ railbirds as they played down to the final table included Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Brian “snagglepuss” Powell.
Arguably the most well-known player at the final table is David “Chino” Rheem. This will be his third WSOP final table. Rheem took 2nd in a No Limit Hold Em event at the 2006 WSOP and also finished 5th in the $5K Mixed Limit Hold Em event earlier this summer.
As we have said before, it has been our pleasure reporting for Pocket Fives this summer. We hope you have enjoyed reading as much as we have enjoyed writing. Don’t forget to watch the final table coverage of several P5ers beginning July 22nd (next Tuesday) at 8pm. The first event they will be broadcasting is the $10K World Championship of Pot Limit Hold Em featuring our own Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Amit “amak316″ Makhija. Coverage will continue on ESPN weekly through November 11th.