WSOP 2008
Closing In
by Court on 10.01.08, 6:02 pm
The World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair is getting down to the nitty gritty. The players are back from their dinner break and heading for the final table. Two players in the post dinner action have already seen there hopes dashed as there chip stacks dwindled to naught.
Talel Shakerchi and Soren Kongsgaard, both playing at the feature table, have been eliminated. Shakerchi was the first to go, out in 13th place for the £45,250 payout. Soren Kongsgaard’s 12th place finish jumps him up a pay level to £54,300. Both players were eliminated by Stanislav Alekhin, who is now well over 1 million chips and trails only John Juanda in the chip counts. Soren’s elimination was fairly standard when he moved in with his short stack he was called by Alekhin who was holding AK and had Soren’s A
7 dominated.
One more elimination and the field will be combined to one 10 handed table. One more elimination after that and the final table for the 2008 WSOPE will be set. There are some very interesting players left in the tournament, with the most impressive story being if Ivan Demidov who is very close to making both the final table of the WSOP in Vegas and the WSOP Europe in London both in the same year. If the November Niner hangs on here he will have a place in poker history for years to come.
Peter “#1Pen” Neff and Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman (left) are both still in the mix as well. Neff is one of the shorter stacks, but is being patient and picking his spots while Fischman has been active in a lot of small pots in after dinner break play.
Boosted Busted, Townsend Gone Too
by Court on 10.01.08, 3:02 pm
The third level of the day started as slowly as the second had been with all the players tightening up as a final table appearance came closer and closer to reality. With John Juanda holding a large chip lead the shorter stacks started to feel the pressure from the 4k / 8k blinds, with the 1k ante eating away at their stacks every hand. As the level wound down the two late arrivals from today made an early exit as Justin “Boosted J” Smtih and Brian “sbrugby” Townsend both saw their tournaments come to an end.
On a 7-6-3 rainbow flop Smith had flopped top set with his sevens and when the money went in he was somehow behind, with Negreanu having flopped a straight with his 5
4. The board did not pair and Smith was sent to the sidelines with a major cooler story to tell from his time at the World Series of Poker Europe, along with the 16th place pay of £36,200.
After tangling with Chris Elliott the defeated body language of Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman made it clear he was down in chips without even looking at his stack. Elliott showed Scott aces after Fischman folded to a river bet leaving himself with less than 200k. He was able to add to his stack and shorten the field near the end of the level though when Townsend moved all in and Scott called with pocket tens. The pair held up against Brian’s A-8. Townsend becomes the 15th place finisher, making a pay jump to £45,250.
By the time the level closed out Philippe Rouas had also been sidelined, finishing in 14th for the same payout as Townsend. The final 13 players are on dinner break for two hours and will come back to play down to the final 9.
Soren Kongsgaard will be the shortest stack after the break, coming back with only 127k and facing blinds of 5k / 10k with a 1k ante. Peter “#1Pen” Neff (left) is the next shortest stack with 231k giving him a little more time than Kongsgaard, but still a long way off where the chip leaders are.
At the dinner break here are the table breakdowns with the chip counts for each player.
Feature Table:
Talal Shakerchi - 425k
Bengt Sonnert - 630k
Toni Hiltunen - 288k
Daniel Negreanu - 835k
Soren Kongsgaard - 127k
John Juanda - 1.5 million
Stanislav Alekhin - 590k
Secondary Table:
Ivan Demidov - 725k
Chris Elliott - 710k
Johnny Lodden - 305k
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 445k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 231k
Robin Keston - 387k
Slow Level, Matusow Falls Short
by Court on 10.01.08, 1:04 pm
After a brisk pace of eliminations in the first level brought the field down to just 2 tables, the pace has slowed dramatically, with only one bustout for the whole level. A notable bust it was, in the form of Mike Matusow. Mike moved all in on the flop and was called. At the time Matusow’s jack high was the best hand, but Johnny Lodden had a powerful draw with an open ended straight flush draw. A pair on the turn gave Lodden the lead with Matusow needing a non-spade ten or jack to win the pot and stay alive in the tournament. It didn’t happen and once again Matusow falls just a little short of a WSOP main event title.
Matusow’s (right) elimination from the secondary table leaves 17 players in the field. After a 20 minute break they will be back at the tables to play the 4k / 8k blind level with antes of 1k. The secondary table will be missing the mouth, but still has plenty of interesting characters with Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, Peter “#1Pen” Neff, Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman, Johnny Lodden and Ivan Demidov all at the table. Neff had a card dead level, blinding off about 80k worth of chips and dropping to 250k.
Over at the feature table chip leader John Juanda continues to dominate the show and sucking the chips away from the rest of the players at the table. Daniel Negreanu has dropped to 335k while Justin “Boosted J” Smith is down to 370k, with Soren Kongsgaard also in the low 300’s at the feature table and Brandon Adams is seriously short stacked at 145k. Juanda’s pile of 1.25 million chips is the dominating force going into the third level of play for the day.
Chip Counts:
John Juanda - 1,280,000
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 460,000
Justin “Boosted J” Smith - 370,000
Daniel Negreanu - 335k
Soren Kongsgaard - 303k
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 260k
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 150k