WSOP 2008
VanDuyn Not Friendly to Friends
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 9:16 pm
Down to 900 chips in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52, Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) didn’t have any problem doubling up off his roomate Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves.
Granted, looking down at AK will make any friend worth going to war against when you are short in a tournament but nevertheless, VanDuyn seemed to get great pleasure off the situation. VanDuyn was sure to point out his “spikey haired” roommate to P5’s that gave him the courtesy double up. VanDuyn currently has 5k with blinds at 200-400 in level six.
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka continues to chip up after a good start in the first few levels. Jaka recently won a big pot when he re-raised a 600 bet from button to 2400 with pocket eights out of the blind. Jaka’s opponent called and both players checked a 8-5-2 flop. Jaka moved all-in for around 5k when he turned quads and got a call from his opponent who Jaka said claimed to have nines. Jaka didn’t believe the story but was happy to collect the pot and currently sits with 18k.
Here’s a list of notable players left with the average stack at 10k
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh - 21k
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 20.5K
Bryan “shortstackninja” Devonshire - 20K
Nick “fu_15″ Maimone - 19K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 13k
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 10K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 8.5K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 8k
Keven “stammdogg3″ Stammen - 8K
Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 7K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 7k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 6k
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 5.5K
Andrew “GreerNC” Everhard - 3.7K
46 players remain In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event including Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan (270K), David “Raptor517″ Benefield (135K), and Steve Sung (40K).
Chad Brown is currently the chip leader in the $1.5K HORSE event with 104 players remaining. Brown is seated at a star-studded table with both Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from picking up chips. Meanwhile, several other players including Doug “Resilient” Smith and Brett “gank” Jungblut.
Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 2:54 am
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured left) continues to yield an above average stack in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. Clements currently sits at 115k and recently just scooped a nice pot that has left John D’Agostino’s head spinning.
D’Agostino raised to 3,600 and Clements called on the button. Both players checked a T
3
9
flop, and the action picked up on the 7 turn. D’Agostino bet 5k and Clements raised to 13k and D’Agostino called. D’Agostino checked the 8 and Clements bet 25k, sending D’Agostino into over a few minutes of deliberation. D’Agostino, who had about 60k behind, eventually found a fold and was visibly unnerved by the sequence of events following the hand.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch has somehow found a way to maintain around a ten big blind stack in a game known for huge swings during the past three hours.
Lynch currently sits at his apex during that stretch at 24k. Lynch got as low as 9k in the previous level.
“I finally got my starting stack back,” he said. ”It only took me nine hours!”
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan has remained a healthy stack over 140k the past few hours although the arrival of overwhelming chip leader Josh Arieh to his table may drastically change that trend.
Arieh currently sits with 380k with blinds at 800-1600 with the average stack at 70k.
Here’s some other notable chip counts
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 150k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 135k
Rolf Slotboom - 45k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 28k
The $1.5K has already lost over half of its 803 person field, but 360 players still remain with a couple of hours left in Day One. One such player is Doug “Resilient” Smith (pictured right), who recently picked up some chips when he eliminated another player in a razz showdown.
Barry Greenstein brought the hand in for 75 with a K up and the player to his left completed the bet to 300 with the 8
showing. Smith then raised to 600 with his A up, and his opponent thought momentarily before 3-betting. Doug capped the betting and the other player called. Doug picked up the 4 on 4th while his opponent showed a K. Doug bet and his opponent called. When both players picked up Qs on 5th street Smith bet again, which was enough to put his opponent all-in. As the other player made the call and they turned their cards face up, Doug informed the other player he wasn’t in that bad of shape against Smith, as Doug had paired his four. The players showed the following hands:
Smith (5)(4)A4Q
Opponent: (6)(4)8KQ
On 6th Doug improved to the better low with the 2 while his opponent was dealt the 9. The 3 on the river sealed the deal for Smith by giving him the wheel, as well as the nearly 5K pot. He was up to 9K at the conclusion of the hand.
While some players, like John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, and David “seal” Eisenstein have been eliminated, several others remain. Here are some unofficial chip counts:
Brett “gank” Jungblut - 11K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 11K
Alex Jacob - 8.5K
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 5K
Shannon Shorr - 4K
Barry Greenstein - 3.5K
Bryan Micon - 2.5K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 2K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg was eliminated in 28th place in the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event when his pocket eights failed to hold against another player’s A-K. He will earn $13,727 for the finish. Andy Black and Men “The Master” Nguyen were also sent to the rail recently. 21 players remain, including David Tran, Tommy Vu, “Jumpin” Joe Pelton, and JC Tran.
The $50K HORSE event is nearing closer to a champion as only three players remain at the final table. Michael De Michele is the current chip leader with over 7 million, but Scotty Nguyen is within striking distance with 5.3 million. Erick Lindgren is the short stack of the trio; he is just shy of the 2 million chip marker.
Daut Busted in 10k PLO
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 1:46 am
Despite rebuilding his short stack to a more respectable level at 28k, Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (pictured right) lost it all back in big confrontation with Clonie Gowen in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50.
Gowen raised to 4.5k and Daut reraised to 15k and Gowen called. Gowen checked to Daut on a 873flop, and Daut went all-in for 13k and Gowen called. Daut tabled the AAKQ ahead of Gowen’s 6354 double-draw that he had murked with higher diamonds. Daut lost to Gowen’s straight outs when the board ran Q and the 6.
David “Raptor517″ Benefield lost a near 100k pot, dipping his 175k stack, one of the biggest stacks left, to around 120k. Benefield flopped a set eights to his opponents pockets aces and a nut flush draw and lost when his opponent hit a runner-runner straight.
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left with the average stack at 60k.
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 130k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 80k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 40k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 14k
The $1.5K No Limit Hold Em WSOP Event #49 is losing players at a feverish pace. There are currently 29 players remaining–slightly more than 1% of the intial 2,700 person field. Recent eliminations include Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar in 35th place and Hevad “Rain” Khan. Khan was involved in a 4-way limped pot when the flop came Q98 Khan and another player got it all-in. Khan held KQ while the other player had 67. The 5 brought the other player their straight and Hevad was sent to the rail.
Some notable chip counts of the remaining players include JC Tran (380K), Andy Black (305K), and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (170K).
Ware on a Tear
by Jessica on 06.27.08, 1:39 am
The current chipleader in the $5K short-handed No Limit Hold Em Event is Steven “CornellFiji” Ware (pictured at left). In addition to being an online cash game player, Ware was also one of the people who uncovered the “nionio” scandal at Ultimate Bet. He is currently, in his words, “getting crushed by the deck” and has virtually doubled his already large stack in the span of one level.
One hand that helped propel him past the 200K mark occurred when, on a flop of 974, Ware’s opponent bet out 10K. Ware then asked how much the other player had, and when he learned it was around 50K more, he raised to 30K. The other player quickly moved all-in and Ware made the call with QT. He then learned he was in bad shape against his opponent’s A5, but the board came J8 to give Ware a straight. After the hand, he was up to 225K and is the chip leader by a substantial margin.
One player who has been headed in the opposite direction is Jason “JCarver” Somerville. When we last reported on Jason, he was sitting with a hefty 63K stack, but he has since dropped to under 10K. Jason explained he didn’t get involved in any huge altercations with other players, but kept taking, “lots and lots of little stabbings–like Caesar”. His downswing started when he took a 15K hit when he got it all in with pocket jacks against a short stack’s pocket queens. Since then, he has continued to lose chips and is now sitting with less than ten big blinds once players return from break.
Some players who have been eliminated in the past two levels include Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert, Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, and Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan. One hundred-sixty eight of the initial 805 players remain and it was recently announced that 78 of them will be making the money. Here are some updated chip counts of a few of the players remaining in the field:
Shannon Shorr - 78K
Alex Jacob - 68K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 58K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 45K
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 35K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 33K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 30K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 30K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 27K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 26.5K
Sitron’s Good With the Ladies
by Jessica on 06.18.08, 4:57 am
The last time we talked at length about Scott “ssitron” Sitron he had just folded pocket queens after four players moved all in ahead of him only to find out they were way the best hand. Scott may not have cashed in that event, but in today’s $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event he soared past the money bubble and appears to be in great shape going into Day 2.
Scott’s day got off to a quick start when he eliminated a player early in the day after his pocket queens held against his opponent’s A-K. Sitron saw the hand as a good omen and told Pocket Fives, “there is no folding pocket queens this time”. Ever since then, Sitron has been steadily building his stack and as play was winding down he ran into yet another altercation with the ladies.
With the blinds at 600/1200 with a 100 ante, Clayton “Clayton_27″ Newman raised to 3.2K in middle position and Sitron then re-raised to 8.3K total. The big blind shoved for around 11K, Newman folded, and Sitron quickly called with his AA and the big blind showed…pocket queens. The ladies were kind to Sitron once again and his aces held, sending his stack up over the 100K mark. Scott will start Day 2 with 115K while the average chip stack is 41.5K.
Though Clayton Newman may have conceded that hand with Scott Sitron, the architectural battle between he and Court Harrington (pictured at left) continued. As Court continued to build his chip stack to 94K, he elected to simply add depth and breadth to his tower of chips while Newman earned points for effort and creativity as he completely rearranged his chip stack approximately every fifteen minutes. Unfortunately for Newman, he has dropped a bit since we last checked in with him and has around 60K in chips to put to use tomorrow.
After dropping as low as 11K after the dinner break Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan has rebounded quite nicely and now sits at 75K. Andrew “tiltedjacks” Lee managed to nurse his small 10K stack past the money bubble, but busted quickly after the bubble burst when his 44 failed to crack his opponent’s KK.
Right as play was wrapping up in the $1.5K event, the $2.5K 6-handed set its final table when Scotty Nguyen (pictured at left) was eliminated by Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer in 7th place. It folded around to Fischer in the small blind who then raised enough to put a short-stacked Nguyen all in for his remaining 160K with the blinds at 5K/10K and a 2K ante. Scotty made the call with TT and Fischer showed 79. The flop came Q65. The J on the turn was no help to Fischer, but the 4 on the river made his flush and sent Scotty on his way.
Tomorrow, Fischer and Justin “fluffdog” Flitz and will join chip leader Dario Minieri at the final table where they will play down to a champion.