WSOP 2008
Wolpert and Gray Get Coolered in 10k Heads-Up
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 4:36 pm
Many players have made quick work of their heads-up opponent and the blue section of the Amazon room is already starting to feel a little empty. After Isaac Haxton made quick work Scott Fischman, he decided to stick around and observe the other match taking place on his table (each table has two matches taking place on them). Eventually the tournament director announced to Haxton and the other players whose matches were complete that they needed to clear the tournament area until Round 2 starts at 5pm.
Players still competing in their matches also can’t help but watch the second match taking place at their tables, especially during the downtime while dealers are shuffling. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was spotted peeking over at his neighbor Sammy Farha’s heads-up match on numerous occassions, even when he was involved in a hand himself.
Aside from many of the match-ups being quite compelling with a field ripe with notable pros, most players were watching the other match at their table because the winners from the same table play each other in the next round. For many of the players, especially those with a high stakes background online, concrentating on multiple heads-up matches is standard fare as many of them play multiple heads-up matches simultaneously online.
P5er’s Leo “Superfluos Man” Wolpert (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray must have left the Amazon room feeling like they were set up as their monster hands left them with a nightmare. Wolpert raised the button preflop and Robert Mizrachi called. On a flop of A
3
7
, Mizrachi check called Wolpert’s flop bet. The turn brought the 9 and Mizrachi check-raised Wolpert, who went all-in and was quickly called by Mizrachi, who turned over his 33
making Wolpert’s AK drawing dead.
Gray’s hand ended in similar fashion. Gray’s opponent raised the button and Gray called. On a flop of QJ9, Gray check called his opponents bet of 1300. The 7 dropped on the turn and Grey check raised his opponent bet of 3300, going all-in for another 11,500. Gray’s opponent called revealing JJ, ahead of Gray’s double draw with the Q8. Gray’s big draw bricked out and he was eliminated.
With such a diverse collection of incredible live and online pro’s, there was handful of intriguing match-ups scattered throughout the room like David “Raptor517″ Benefield vs Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis vs Kenny Tran and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi vs J.C. Tran.
Bonomo and Kenny Tran prevailed in their match and Mizzi and Tran continue to battle it out.
It took Eugene Todd and Michael Mizrachi only one hand to end their match although it had little to do with any drama on the felt. Both being good friends, they decided to go all-in blind and Mizrachi’s 8-2 prevailed over Todd’s 4-3.
List of Notable Winners
Alex Jacob, Theo Tran, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
List of Early Exits
Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius, Glen Chorney, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, and James “mig.com” Mackey
Loaded Field in 5k NL WSOP Event #21
by AdamJ on 06.11.08, 5:58 pm
With the second largest NL buy-in aside from the Main Event in the WSOP, tables were stacked with notable NL players from live and online scenes. The 731 player field created a handful of stacked tables throughout the Amazon Room.
P5er Court Harrington was at one of the most eclectic tables of all, sitting alongside Sammy Farha, Ari “BodogAri” Engel, Ray Davis, Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, and Ben “Milkybarkid” Grundy. Harrington has emerged from the tough draw with one of the biggest stacks at his table, doubling his 10k starting stack to over 20k.
Ray Davis busted before the dinner break when he closed the action on the flop after a player bet into the field and Grundy called and Davis called on a J92 flop. When the K dropped on the turn, the flop bettor led big again on the turn, Grundy folded, and Davis tanked for a few minutes.
Shortly after the player mentioned to Davis that he should try to make the first break, Davis called with QQ, ahead of his opponents JT. Davis was sent to the rail when the 3h dropped on the river. P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks drew a tough starting table as he was up against three players with NL championship titles in Gavin Griffin, David Chiu, and Glen Chorny, a trio with 13.5 million in tournament winnings between them.
No table featured more notable players than Cory “ugotpzd” Carroll’s table, featuring Chris “Genius28″ Lee, Brian Devonshire, John Robert Bellande, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, and Richard “Quiet Lion” Brody. Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter drew one of the more interesting tables as well, playing alongside cash-game wizard Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billarakis.