WSOP 2008
Kind of Jason’s Day
by Brett on 07.05.08, 7:07 pm
We missed Jason “mkind0516″ Laso early on in the day, but he caught our attention during a hand in the past hour. With blinds at 100/200, player in middle position raised 600 and it folded around to Laso (pictured left) in the small blind, who raised to 2K. The original raiser called and saw a flop of J
6
3. Laso checked and the player bet 2.5K. Laso then check-raised to 6.5K and the player called. The 7
fell on the turn and Laso’s opponent checked out of turn, giving Laso free information. He decided to move all in for 9,875 and his opponent folded. Jason is currently at 30K.
Over in the blue section we heard a dealer yell “three players all in!” which was the first we’d heard of today. It turned out to be Scott “stsitron” Sitron’s table and Scott had all of his chips in the middle. A large crowd gathered only to find out that all three had the same hand. On a J
KTQ2 board, everyone had an ace for broadway and the pot was chopped up. Sitron is sitting with 14.6K.
With 30 minutes remaining in Level 2, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts of some notable P5ers:
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 53K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 52K
Keven “stammdogg” Stammen - 42K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 40K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 36K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 35K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 34K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 30K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 29.5K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 27.5K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 27K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 26.5K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 24K
Jon Wein - 24K
Justin Bonomo - 23K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 23K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 23K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 22K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 22K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 21K
Joseph “WSOPJoe” May - 21K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 20.5K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 20.5K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 19.5K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 17.5K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 17.5K
Court Harrington - 17.5K
Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith - 13.5K
Ezra Galston - 12.5K
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne - 12.5K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 12K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 11.5K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 11.5K
Robby “PlayaPlz” Lipkin - 10K
Derek “blackpipe” Blenman - 9.5K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 9.5K
Randy “Randers” Haddox - 3K
Sitron Takes 2nd
by Crystal on 07.03.08, 4:18 am
Scott “ssitron” Sitron came into the heads-up match against David Daneshgar with nearly a 2 to 1 chip advantage but his aggressive opponent was able to knock Sitron down and eventually out in only 50 hands.
Daneshgar caught some very big hands during the heads-up match including aces (twice) and kings but Sitron was able to avoid most of Daneshgar’s monster hands. In one crucial hand Sitron raised to 320k and Daneshgar re-raised to 895k total. Sitron made the call and they saw the flop come A62. Daneshgar led out with a bet of 610k and Sitron called. When the 6 fell on the turn Daneshgar checked over to Sitron who bet 800k and Daneshgar instantly pushed all in prompting Sitron to fold, giving Daneshgar the chip lead.
Sitron was able to take a few small pots after that hand to try to start building his stack back up, but then on one hand where Daneshgar raised to 400k, Sitron pushed all-in for 2.9 million and Daneshgar very quickly called with his TT. Sitron was in need of some help with his A8 but the board ran out 6649J and Daneshgar eliminated Sitron in 2nd place.
After coming to the final table 8th out of 9 in chips Sitron made an amazing run and played some great cards and nets a hefty $385,974. Congrats Scott!
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham is still battling at the final table of the LHE shootout and we’re all thinking that it might be a very long night. The blinds are still relatively small in relation to the chip stacks so no one has been eliminated yet although Danny Wong is down to around 75k of the 300k everyone started with. Graham has around 200k and Spencer “spankybabes” Lawrence is sitting close to the starting stack with around 270k. Not too much action going on yet but as the blinds continue to rise we expect play to speed up.
So Close He Can Taste It!
by Brett on 07.03.08, 2:29 am
Scott “ssitron” Sitron eliminated Dan Heimeller in third place of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event and is now heads up against David Daneshgar. With the blinds at 50K/100K, Sitron (pictured left) raised to 225K from the button and Heimiller re-raised all in for a total of 1.6 million from the big blind. Sitron made the call with AT and had Heimillers A3 in trouble. Sitron made a pair of tens on the flop and held on to take the pot and advance to the final two. Heimiller, like Sitron, is a regular in the high-stakes MTT’s online and plays under the handle “Lenny.”
Sitron currently has a 5-3 chip advantage on Daneshgar, but Daneshgar has been the more aggressive player thus far and is progressively chipping up against the online star.
The $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout final table began a little after 10:00 PT and the final nine players have a long night of poker ahead of them. Matt “mattg1983″ Graham and Spencer “spankybabes ” Lawrence are seated next to each other, with Danny Wong and Jean-Robert Bellande sitting directly to Lawrence’s right. Play has started slow as expected but Graham and Lawrence have already tangled in a pot. With blinds at 2k/4K, Graham raised under the gun and got two callers, including Lawrence. The flop brought T96 and Lawrence check-raised a bet by Graham, who called. Lawrence then bet in the dark on the turn and Graham folded when the J peeled off.
Graham slid to 240K (with starting stack at 300K) until he took a sizable pot from John Kranyak. Kranyak raised preflop and Graham made the call to see a flop of AK4. Kranyak bet and Graham made the call, which was the same action when the 4 fell on the turn. The K came on the river and this time Kranyak check-called Graham, who showed AQ and Kranyak mucked. Matt is now just shy of his original starting stack.
Graham 3-Handed in 1.5k Shootout
by AdamJ on 07.02.08, 11:00 pm
Only two tables remain in Round 2 of the $1.5K Limit Hold Em Shootout WSOP Event #53, but there is no shortage of drama courtesy at a 3-handed table featuring Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured right). When we last reported on Matt, he was hovering around the 100K mark, but since then he and the other two players at the table have been on quite a roller coaster ride.
With the elimination of Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo and another player, Graham began 3-handed play with 70K, but his chip stack dwindled down to 21K as a result of several hands where the other players managed to outdraw Matt and take down the pot. One such example occurred when, with the blinds at 2K/4K Matt raised out of the small blind and the player in the big blind made the call. The flop came JT5 and Matt led out at the pot. The other player then raised and Graham made the call. Graham checked the 9 on the turn, his opponent bet, and he made the call. Both players checked when the K hit on the river and Matt turned over AJ to the other player’s J9.
Graham took another big hit when his opponent raised preflop, Matt reraised, and the other player put in a 3rd raise, which Matt called. Graham check-called the flop and turn as the board ran out 8-6-2-7 and both players checked when a king came on the river. Graham was visibly frustrated when his opponent revealed 67 for two pair and flashed his opponent his pocket nines before he threw them in the muck.
At one point, Graham and another player were so short-stacked at the 3K/5K blinds that they found themself in a 3-way all in with the overwhelming chip leader. Matt had not looked at his cards and was happy to learn his J6 was live against the shorter stack’s 28 and the chip leader’s A2. The flop came all diamonds, leaving Graham drawing very slim against a flopped flush and the nut flush draw. However, running jacks on the turn and river shipped the 11K side pot Matt’s way.
However, Graham did not realize he had the other player covered and called for the floor to hurry over so he could leave. We pointed out to Matt that he actually still had chips, but at that point, the dealer had pushed the other chips back to the chip leader. Several media people who were intently watching the table pointed out their mistake and Graham was given his 11K side pot. Since then, he has managed to work his way back from the brink of elimination and we will keep you posted on his progress.
Scott “ssitron” Sitron just showed the table he’s not afraid fire off most of his stack with nothing despite there being hundreds of thousands of dollars and a WSOP bracelet on the line.
Thanks to Sitron’s moxy, he continues to extend his chip lead in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52.
Sitron called a 150k raise from Farzhad Rouhani out of the big blind taking the flop in position against Rouhani, who raised when it folded to him in the small blind. Sitron called Rouhani’s 230k bet on a A67 flop. Rouhani checked the 5 turn and Sitron bet 350k and Rouhani called. Rouhani checked a 3 river and Sitron went all-in for 1.3 million, a bet costing Rouhani his last 700k. Rouhani folded and Sitron showed a busted gutterball with the T9.
Here’s the current chip counts
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 2.9 million
Dan Heimiller - 1.5 million
Farzhad Rouhani - 1.3 million
Corwin Cole - 1.1 million
David Daneshgar - 1 million
‘SirWatts’ Runs Out of Power
by Jessica on 07.02.08, 7:32 pm
Play in the $1.5K Limit Hold Em Shootout event resumed at 2pm and numerous players have been eliminated, including Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Ben “bfineman” Fineman.
Another player who saw his day come to a close was Mike “SirWatts” Watson, who shared a table with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, and Kenna James. Watson took a big hit to his stack when he and Graham got involved in the following hand:
With the blinds at 1K/2K, Graham raised in middle position and Watson 3-bet out of the small blind. Matt made the call and after they saw the flop of QJ9. Watson bet and Graham called. Mike bet again when the J came on the turn and Graham quickly called again. When the Q came on the river, Watson bet one more time and Graham raised. Mike thought briefly before making the call and mucked his cards after Matt showed QT.
After that hand Watson was left with only 10K, which had dwindled down to 6.5K by the time Tamayo and Watson got involved in a blind versus blind confrontation that found Mike all-in and in bad shape with A8 against Jonathan’s AQ. The board ran out T75A9 and Watson was eliminated.
A short-stacked Jordan “scarface79″ Smith also saw his tournament come to an end when he and another player got it all-in on a T96 flop with Smith holding 89 to the other player’s AT. The turn and river came K2 and Jordan was sent to the rail.
Robbie “PlayaPlz” Lipkin (pictured at left) managed to get down to 3-handed play at his table, but after losing several chips when he rivered a set to his opponent’s straight, he found himself with less than 10K left. He raised out of the small blind and the player in the big blind made the call. The two then proceeded to get it all in after the flop came A74. Lipkin showed 9T while the other player held A-6. The pair of aces held and Robbie headed home.
Scott “ssitron” Sitron couldn’t have asked for a better start to his first WSOP final table. Sitron doubled up his 504k when he raised to 60k with QQ and Voitta Rintala went all-in for 544k behind him on the third hand. Sitron immediately called and his queens held up after the board ran out 42JJA. Sitron started the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em final table with the shortest stack and was relieved to get doubled up early. “It was so nice to get that double-up right away,” Sitron said. “Now i can play poker.” Sitron admitted to have a lot of jitters at the onset of the final table but added that after a few orbits it became rather normal and felt like any other tournament.
Sitron currently sits with 1.25 million, trailing only chip leader Matt Matros’ 1.4 million. David Daneshgar is the short stack at 430k with eight players left.
Meanwhile, Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert is holding his own in the Ante Up for Africa event with 13K in chips and the rapidly increasing blinds at 800/1,600.