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.
CrazyMarco, Roothlus Chip Up
by Jill on 06.28.08, 12:30 am
Players recently returned from their dinner break in the $2K No-Limit Hold’em event, ready for action. The original field of 2,317 has been reduced to 480 in the last level, condensing play to one section of the Amazon Room. The average chip stack sat at 18K.
Several PocketFivers made moves to chip up, including Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, who has built a fortress of chips and is near the top of the official chip counts with 73K. Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at left) also made small moves to increase his stack. In one example of position play that we witnessed, Levy min-raised on the button and got two callers. After the flop, he bet out to take down the pot uncontested. As we watched, his strategy of taking down small and medium-sized pots was working - he moved up to 27K in chips.
Meanwhile, PocketFives caught up to Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade’s table as he went all in for 13K on a board of 9
K
2 against one other player. His opponent, sporting an Intellipoker patch, asked him, “What? Do you have a king? A flush draw? You can’t have a flush draw!” before folding his hand. Tristan looked up and grinned as he took down the pot. Carter “ckingusc” King sat across from Tristan at the table, nursing a short stack of 10K. He accosted two PocketFives staff members in his quest to find out who Tristan was. He succeeded as Tristan finally introduced himself and crisis was averted. Settle down, boys - we’re covering you both.
Other recent drama included the elimination of Stu “thedonator” Patterson, who sat in the big blind with 7K in chips behind. He jammed all his chips in the middle and was instantly called by the small blind. When Stu flipped over A
J, he sighed and found he was behind the other player’s A-K. The board was no help and Stu made his way to the rail.
Brett “gank’ Jungblutt was recently eliminated from the $1.5K Stud Hi/Lo event in 54th place. His finish was enough to garner him $2,450. Craig “MrCasino” Gray is one of 38 players remaining in the event. When we last saw him, he was scooping a pot and increasing his chip stack to 40K.
Meanwhile, the $50K HORSE event continues on with Day 3 of play and Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein is still towards the top of the leaderboard. Several notable young players saw their bracelet dreams come to an end today including Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Steve Sung, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
Theo Tran Rides Rush into Round 3
by AdamJ on 06.13.08, 9:38 pm
The
o Tran’s wave of success in the 2008 WSOP has continued in the 10k Heads-Up NL WSOP Event #25.
Tran has three finishes in the top 25, finishing as high as fourth place twice. Drawing Andy Bloch in second round, Tran had a difficult draw to advance but overcame it when his A3 best Bloch’s 44
on a 9542J board.
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, perhaps one of the favorites in the field with his online heads-up resume, played an interesting match with Steve Sung.
In the 400-800 level, Galfond raised to 2k on the button and Sung called. On a 3Q5 flop, Sung check called Galfond’s 2600 bet. Both players checked the 3 turn and the river brought the 6. Sung bet 3k and Galfond raised to 9k. After thinking for a few minutes, both players still sitting with deep stacks, Sung called the raise and mucked when Galfond showed QJ.
After the hand Galfond had about a 3-to-2 lead and the match continues.
Here’s a list of interesting 2nd round outcomes
Carlos Mortensen def. David Singer
David Williams def. Andrew Rosskamm
Michael Mizrachi def. Tex Barch
Clonie Gowen def. John Gordon
Alex Jacob def. Markus Lehmann
Brandon Adams def. Dario Minieri
Isaac Haxton def. Nathan Doudney
Blake Cahail Defeats Steve Fiorentini
Daniel “Ansky” Stern Defeats Thomas Bentham
Mizzi Accumulates Big Stack at Manic Table
by AdamJ on 06.03.08, 6:04 pm
The level of energy jolting through the Amazon room was palpable as players frantically pushed their chips to amass a large stack before the close of the rebuy in the WSOP Event #5.
For many poker players, a rebuy tournament is as welcomed of an event as Christmas is to kids.
No table exemplified that mentality more than Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi’s table, which featured Mark Vos and Steve Sung, all of whom weren’t pinching their pennies.
At the end of the rebuy period, Mizzi was in for 4k and said that Sung was in for 25k and Vos about 8 to 10k.
As a result, this table had an incredible amount of chips on it, led by Mizzi and Vos who had stacks over 40k.
Often there was a negotiation before many hands at this table as Vos, Mizzi, and Sung would put in 4k and run the board without betting.
Many players had extra stacks of non-tournament chips on the table that they would use to purchase more tournament chips as needed, Bellagio chips accepted along with Rio chips.
From looking throughout the room it seemed as if there was a contest going on among players as to who could sit with the most amount of money on the table.
Not surprisingly, Phil Ivey’s stack of 100k worth of Bellagio’s chips was the unofficial winner although Kenny Tran’s cupholder full of white Bellagio 1k chips won the award for best presentation.
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz got caught up in the action as well but decided to call it a day after he busted before the rebuy period after being in for 14k.
Since Schwartz was also in the money of 1.5k PLHE event which started after the rebuy period closed and would be shortstacked in the rebuy if rebought again, he decided it wasn’t worth it to try to multi-table both tournaments.
The online community had a strong presence as predicted in this event, as many players have a lot of experience playing many rebuy tournaments online.
One table included Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson.
During the 50-100 level after five limpers, Johnson raised to 500 and Kamberis and another player called.
On a 427 flop, Johnson bet 800 and Kamberis called. Both players checked the K turn, and when the 9 dropped on the river, Johnson bet 1800 and Kamberis called, beating Johnson QQ with 97 for two pair.
Not all tables where chaotic however. The table that featured Jennifer Tilly, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Bill Gazes and Robert Mizrachi didn’t have many chips on it and both Tilly and Beckman hadn’t rebought since the optional initial add-on.