WSOP 2008
Saddling Up for HORSE
by Jill on 06.29.08, 10:11 pm
Event #51, the $1.5K HORSE tournament is well under way with a strong online presence. Play continued to spread across multiple sections of the Amazon room as well as the Brasilia room. PocketFives spotted Shannon Shorr, Brett “Gank” Jungblut, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Justin Bonomo, and Eric “jakz101″ Crain amongst the field.
David “seal” Eisenstein and Bryan Micon (pictured at right) were seated next to each other, but there was a mix-up about where Micon was supposed to sit. The dealer called the floor staff over to help resolve the situation, and the woman who came knew not what she was getting herself into. “Who are you, now?” she asked Micon. “Who am I?” he replied. “I’m Bryan Micon. I’m very, very, very famous.” The table laughed before Micon assumed the correct seat and play began.
Meanwhile, we spotted Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Alex Jacob, and Stu “thedonator” Paterson, all of whom busted out earlier from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament. We caught Stu yawning a number of times, so it looks like they have a long night ahead of them in this big field.
When PocketFives caught up with play in Event #49, Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane (pictured at left in his Scottish gear) continued to use his lucky kilt to accumulate chips; his stack was up to 110K and growing as he was taking down small pots. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was short-stacked with 20K and recently moved to Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar’s table, where he had worked his stack up to a respectable 95K. Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, however, was looking healthy and happy with a stack of 170K.
In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got involved in an interesting hand. We caught up with the action on the turn with the board reading 6
52
K. Sorel checked over to his opponent who bet 9.1K. Sorel tanked for a couple of minutes before tossing out two pink 5K chips to make the call. The river brought the K
and Sorel again checked over to the other player who bet 13K.
Sorel went into the tank yet again and after a few minutes had passed another player called the clock. Sorel had 60 seconds to make a decision and as the floor counted 3…2…1… Sorel mucked his hand, conceding the pot. His opponent showed two of his hole cards, the 75 which, by themselves, would have been good for two pair - kings and fives. Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break and some unoffical chip counts are listed below.
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 48k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 46k
Rolf Slotboom - 46k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 40k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 36k
Thayer Rasmussen - 33k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 20k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 18k
Rizen Out
by Jill on 06.28.08, 10:52 pm
Since we last updated on Event #49, the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament, more than 600 additional players have been eliminated. The number of players remaining is 572 and the average stack is 14.2K; players left for dinner break just before 7pm PST.
One of the latest casualties of the maniacal field included Eric “Rizen” Lynch (pictured at left), who sat comfortably with 14K in the blue section of the Amazon room. Before the flop came, he raised 1.2K from under the gun and got one caller - the player immediately to his left. The flop came 35K and Eric bet 2K, only to be repopped for 6K. Eric moved all in and was called by his opponent. The turn was the T and his opponent flipped over AQ to Eric’s pocket sixes. The 2
on the river couldn’t help Eric, who was drawing dead, and he was sent to the rail after giving a very gracious “Nice hand” compliment to his opponent.
Other players were also frustrated by the deck before the break. Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar engaged in a hand with one other opponent when he raised to 1.2K preflop in early position and was called by a limper. The flop came 4T3 and his opponent checked, only to have Vivek bet out 1.9K. The other player smooth-called Vivek’s bet and the 6 came on the turn. Both players checked down the turn and the Q came on the river. Vivek’s opponent led out with 5K and Vivek tanked, sarcastically telling his opponent, “Obviously I hit that. Why such a big bet?” He finally folded and let the table peek his Q as he mucked his cards.
On the flip side of the coin, William “gptbigguy” Looper (pictured at right) experienced quite a bit of good fortune in the last couple of levels, chipping all the way up to 31K. When PocketFives asked him what his strategy had been, he answered: “Getting lucky. Getting really lucky.” He wouldn’t even report hands to the media crew in fear that we would post them, but so far his luck is holding!
David “seal” Eisenstein also got lucky in a hand this afternoon. He reported that he’d been all in on a previous hand and his opponent hit two pair on the flop, then rivered a full house. His stack took a huge hit and was down 15K, but not out. We caught up with David as he was all in for 2K with Q-8; an eight on the river saved him from elimination and he doubled up. The next hand, he urged us to stick around - he went all in with pocket fives and took down the pot uncontested before showing his cards and making the table laugh.
Here are some unofficial chip counts at the break:
William “gptbigguy” Looper - 31K
Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas - 27K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 16K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 13.5K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 10.5K
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 10K
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 10K
“shortyjacksn” - 7K
Seat Open!
by Crystal on 06.28.08, 6:16 pm
Because play ended last night in the $2k NLHE event #48 right after the bubble burst, the “all-in fest” that usually occurs immediately following was saved for today. Less than 30 minutes after play began two tables had already been broken and David “ComptonMasta” Barter and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin are amongst the early casualties.
Bryan “Devo” Devonshire was also eliminated when his pocket fives ran into pocket jacks and failed to improve.
60 players have been eliminated in the first 75 minutes of play today and the other short stacks will obviously be looking to make moves soon so the high number of eliminations is likely to continue through the early part of the afternoon.
In the $1.5k NLHE event that started at noon today Justin Bonomo (pictured right) has jumped out as one of the early chip leaders with 14k while Theo Tran, Jeff ”yellowsub” Williams and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul have already been eliminated.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch was guarding a short stack when PocketFives caught up to his table on a T-7-4 flop. Eric moved all in with Q-8 after the flop and managed to double against pocket jacks when he spiked a queen on the turn. Another player at his table asked, “Is there a bounty on you or something?” before Eric laughed and collected the pot. Other players faring less profitably include Dave “davyg” Gyarmti, who had accumulated up to 5.2K in chips until his pocket kings were cracked by pocket nines. He was down to 1.8K at the break.
Other PocketFives members spotted in the event include David “seal” Eisenstein, Scott “thebasher007″ Stubbs, Nick “FU_15″ Maimone, William “gptbigguy” Looper, Joseph “Dyzalot” Morneau, Micah “mordan” Hendrix, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Steve “willywoo” Nolan, Matt “All In At 420″ Stout, Eric “erbloore” Bloore, and Matt “SamENole” Smith. Some chip counts for other players are listed below.
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 3.5K (pictured left)
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 4K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 5.2K
Chris “big huni” Hunichen - 4K
Andriy “tormos” Pavlyuk - 6K
Shawn “raptorfan” Morris - 4.5K