WSOP 2008
Negreanu To The Top, Junglen Chipping Up
by Court on 09.28.08, 2:32 pm
There are a few players that always draw the cameras. At a poker tournament when you see an exceptionally large crowd around a table you can pretty much count on either Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu being at the table. While Phil almost demands the attention, Daniel gets his spotlight in a different manner.
An always friendly, always talkative Negreanu draws the cameras with his personable attitude. Recently Daniel made some predictions that proved true in short order. A player on his left had been aggressive, especially against Daniel. In an away from the table TV interview Negreanu mentioned he was letting the guy run him over and setting him up to get all his chips when the right situation came up. Well, it didn’t take long. Jason “JCarver” Somerville opened from the cutoff and Daniel called from the button. Our aggressive hero that Daniel had targeted was true to form and put in a raise from the big blind. Somerville tossed his hand and Negreanu again just called. On an 8 high board with 2 spades our aggressive friend led out for 4,500 and Daniel again just called. With the J
on the turn it took some chip stacking and arranging,but after a few moments the ultimate in aggression had been reached with an all in move.
Daniel matched about as quickly as possible putting in a large stack of the 5k chips to more than cover the other players 20k all in bet. Negreanu turned over pocket jacks for top set. Mr. Aggressive didn’t turn over his hand for a while, saying “I’m drawing dead” and flashing his T-3 offsuit. He did trip his threes on the river, but it was a wasted effort as Negreanu’s full house took the pot and eliminated the aggressive donator to Daniel’s stack.
A few hands later Daniel flopped a set of sixes, and though he wasn’t able to get all of his opponent’s chips in that hand he was able to pick up enough to close in on the 100k mark and take the chip lead in day 1B play.
At the table beside Negreanu a frustrated Alex Jacob has seen his stack diminish down to around 7k while Adam Junglen (left) has pushed back up to around the 30k mark. Junglen picked up a nice pot from Jacob with a river bet and then won another good sized pot. On a board of T
9
3
K4 Junglen bet 4k on the river and after a brief moment his opponent in the hand called. Adam turned over his KT and reached out to grab back the 5k chip he had used to make his last bet. Realizing his opponent had not yet showed his hand and could possible have a winner Junglen pulled back before grabbing chips from the middle.
His hand was good though, and seconds later he was raking in and stacking up the chips. After the hand he was up to around 30k. Jacob was also involved in a pot, but his resulted in a surrender of a few chips instead of gaining them. On an A94 board Alex bet 1,300 and the player to his left moved all in for just over 6k. Jacob had him covered, but not by more than a couple thousand. After thinking for a couple minutes Alex tossed his hand in, resigned to continuing the fight with his short stack.
Here are some other chip counts from players located in the dungeon area:
Barry Greenstein - 46k
Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza - 40k
Adam Junglen - 30k
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 23k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 18k
Alex Jacob - 7k
Missing in action from the dungeon area is Josh “JJProdigy” Fields. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (right) has also busted from the tournament in early day 1B play.
Mizzi Moving Up
by AdamJ on 07.05.08, 10:17 pm
Many PocketFivers are moving up the chip counts on Day 1C of the WSOP Main Event and look to be in position to make a strong run into the night. They all hope to accumulate a big stack for Day 2.
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi’s (pictured at right) stack just took a boost, thanks to scooping two straight solid pots. In Level 3 with blinds at 150-300, Mizzi’s opponent raised to 700 and Mizzi called. His opponent bet 1,200 on a A56 flop and Mizzi raised to 3,200; his opponent called. The turn was the 9 and Mizzi’s opponent checked. Mizzi bet 4,650 and his opponent called. The river was the 2 and action checked to Mizzi, who bet his opponent all-in for his remaining 12k. He called. Mizzi dragged the pot with the T8 for a turned flush.
The next hand, Mizzi called a 900 preflop raise from middle position and took the flop in position yet again. Mizzi’s opponent bet 1,650 on an AJ8 flop and Mizzi called. The turn was the 2 and his opponent bet 5,200; Mizzi called. The river was the 3 and both players checked with Mizzi’s AQ besting his opponents A9. Mizzi’s stack ballooned to 67K after dragging both pots.
Although he got about a two-minute stare down from his opponent on the river, Jason “JCarver” Somerville (pictured at left) was able to win a 20K pot on the river without a showdown. In a limped pot, Somerville’s opponent bet 1K on a T46 flop and Somerville raised to 3,100 and his opponent called. The turn was the 2 and his opponent checked. Somerville bet 5,575 and got called. The river was the A and Somerville put his opponent all-in for his last 10k. Somerville was sitting directly to the left of his opponent, and he put Somerville through the ringer, staring right at him for a few minutes before finally folding. Somerville later told P5’s he turned the nuts with what has become one of his most profitable/favorite hands lately with the 53. Somerville has won an additional 15k since that last pot and currently sits with 57k.
We caught up with Andy “BKice” Seth sitting at his table with 19K, but he told us he had gotten as high as 30K earlier in the day before he took a big hit. He got involved in a hand holding 67 and the flop came out K-10-7 with two spades. A short stack moved all-in for 1.8K into the 2.1K pot and Andy just called. Another player then reraised all-in for 9K more. Seth made the call and learned he was in worse shape than he expected against J9. The flush hit on the river and Seth was knocked back down under his starting stack.
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins also lost a piece of his chip stack recently, but it could have been much worse. On a flop of 865 the player to Phil’s right bet out 3K and Collins made the call. As soon as the J peeled off on the turn, the other player loudly announced his bet of 10K and Phil threw his hands up and flashed his hole cards to his opponent in the process. Phil asked the player if he had pocket jacks and thought momentarily before folding his pocket queens face up. Turns out Collins made a good read–his opponent showed the table his pocket kings as he scooped the pot.
Ladbrokes pros Jon Kalmar and Steve Davis continued their chip races in the last level. As we reported earlier, both cracked the 30K mark before the end of the first level. Now at the end of Level 3, Davis continued to accumulate chips and was up to 41K. Jonas Danielsson, also a Ladbrokes pro, was down to 18K at the break.
Here’s a look at some other notable chip counts:
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 97K
Darren Elias - 77K
David “Bakes” Baker - 67K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 65K
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 54K
Tom “werpennstate23″ Cummings - 52K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 51K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 41K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 38K
Ezra Galston - 37K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 35K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 35K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 34K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 32K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 31K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 31K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 30.5K
Steve Paul Ambrose - 30K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 27.5K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 26K
Patrik “Hoffs28″ Hoffman - 25.5K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 23.5K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 23.5K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 22K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 22K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 21.5K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 20K
Court Harrington - 19.5K
Andy “BKiCe” Seth - 19K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 19K
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne - 18.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 17K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 15K
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 14.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 12K
Aditya “Intervention” Argawal - 8.5K
Jon Wein - 6.5K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 6K
Here were a few departures over the last level:
Derek “blackpipe” Blenman
Joseph “WSOPJoe” May
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo
Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured at right)
Randy “randers” Haddox