WSOP 2008
In the Limelight
by Brett on 07.04.08, 5:24 pm
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert has been able to block out the glitz and glamour of sitting at a table with Humberto Brenes and found some glory early on Day 1b. Seated directly to Humberto’s left and with cameras hovering around him constantly, Gilbert (pictured left) has built his stack to over 33K after picking up a decent pot in the past level. Gilbert limped in early position and three players saw a flop of 7
3
2
. The big blind bet 300, Gilbert called and two players folded. The 2 came on the turn and the big blind check-called a bet of 700 from Gilbert. When the Q
appeared on the turn, the big blind bet 1,800 and Gilbert raised to 4,000. The other player folded, showing a rivered two pair with Q7 and Gilbert flashed 77 for a flopped set.
We caught back up with Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer as he was facing another big reraise at his table. With 2K already in the pot, O’Dwyer had bet out 1.3K from under the gun on a flop of K97 and the other player had raised to 4K. Steve thought for minute before moving all-in for around 17K total. The other player looked noticeably frustrated, but eventually made the call with AA. O’Dwyer turned over 77. The other player was left drawing dead to an ace after the 3 came on the turn, but hit the A on the river to take down the pot and eliminate Steve in the process.
Micah “mordan” Hendrix (pictured right) informed us he sustained a big hit to his stack when he made a pot-sized raise on the button after two players limped in in front of him. The big blind and one of the limpers made the call and the three saw a flop of K-Q-10. The big blind bet out 375, the other player folded, and Micah raised to 1.2K. The big blind reraised to 5.6K and Hendrix thought before making the call. Both checked after a 2 came on the turn and the big blind checked again when an 8 came on the river. Micah bet 6.7K and his opponent moved all-in for 4K more. Micah told us he figured he was beat, but was pot committed to make the call with J9. His read was right, as his opponent held A-J. After the hand, Hendrix was left with 3.5K.
The players have just gone on their first break and the blind levels will increase to 100/200 when they return at 2:34 PT. Here’s a list of some unofficial chip counts as Level 1 came to a close:
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 35K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 33K
Theo “pitrounder” Tran - 27K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 25K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 23K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 23K
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 22.5K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 22K
Blair Rodman - 21.5K
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 20.5K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 20.5K
Shaun Deeb - 20K
Tom “sbrounder” West - 19K
Todd “DanDruff” Witteles - 19K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 18K
Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth - 17K
Tim “EightLarge” Vansant - 15K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 8.5K
Galfond Loses the Chip Lead… OMG!
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 8:26 pm
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is now 2nd in chips with around 1.5 million at the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney. Johnny Chan just stole the lead away when he busted Brian Rast in 9th place and now sits with over 2 million in chips. Phil Hellmuth is currently the short stack with around 150k even after he doubled up earlier when his KK54 caught a king on the turn to best Brian Rast’s AA22 after all the money was in preflop.
Galfond (pictured left) is definitely not letting these big name live pros intimidate him. In one hand Daniel Negreanu raised to 50k preflop with the blinds at 10k/20k and Galfond called from the big blind. The flop came out with the J63 and Galfond checked it over to Negreanu who bet 75k. Galfond calmly sat and contemplated before raising to 225k prompting Negreanu to muck his hand almost instantly.
In the Brazillia room event #29, the $3k NLHE has been filled with agressive play ever since the bubble burst which has lead to a number of players being eliminated. Jason “JCarver” Somerville was eliminated in 61st place when his QT couldn’t best another player’s AQ all in on a queen high flop. Soon after Somerville was knocked out Steven O’Dwyer got all his chips in the middle with pocket fours in a race against the AK of his only caller. The ace came on the flop and O’Dwyer couldn’t get back ahead and was busted in 60th place.
Stu “The Donator” Patterson went on a chip stack rollercoaster ride when he lost a large portion of his chips in a hand where his AQ couldn’t catch up to an opponents AK. He was then crippled down to almost nothing on a subsequent hand. Afterwards he was able to post the ante and nothing else and he actually won the table’s antes with his 92 when four diamonds came on the board making him a flush and no other player held a diamond in their hand. Still incredibly short stacked he got his money in with 97 and was happy to see he was live against his opponents AJ. The board ran out 6423A and Patterson was eliminated in 57th place.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch got all his chips in preflop with his JT dominating his opponents J9, but unfortunately for Lynch a 9 came on the flop and he couldn’t recover and was sent to the rail in 46th place.
Somerville, O’Dwyer and Patterson will all receive $6,126 for their 2 day run in this tournament and Lynch will receive $6,718.
Pop Goes the Bubble
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 6:06 pm
The bubble in event #29 has burst and numerous P5ers and notable online players are in the money in this $3k NLHE tournament. Play started today with 81 players, only 9 away from the money so there was a lot of tension leading up to hand for hand play as players like Stu “The Donator” Patterson (pictured left) would raise and then have to fold to a reraise to try and keep their stack at a safe level.
During hand for hand play a short stacked player got all his chips in the middle with pocket tens only to find out he was behind the pocket jacks of his opponent. Behind, that is, until the flop came with the other two tens in the deck to give him quads and double him up.
The eventual bubble hand came when Roberto Romanelo’s pocket queens ran into Alex Zaslavsky’s pocket aces and he failed to improve going out in 73rd place.
As a result of Romanelo’s departure, many notable players are now in the money and their approximate chip counts are listed below.
Stu “The Donator” Patterson - 55k
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 34k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 20k
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 17k
Ryan Young - 130k
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 125k
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 40k
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 90k
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 75k
Carter King - 35k
Steven O’Dwyer - 50k