WSOP 2008
SirWatts’ Tourney Future Bright
by Jill on 07.05.08, 1:37 am
Nearing the end of Level 4 this evening, play condensed further in the Amazon Room, yet the crowd of spectators remained ever large. Plenty of action for PocketFivers occurred in this last level. We caught up with Stu “thedonator” Paterson (pictured at left) who still contended with a small stack, hovering just over 13K. With a couple other players, he limped into a flop of 6
59
and bet out 1.4K after seeing the board. Another player in later position raised to 3.5K total; one other player called and Stu folded. It seemed he was looking for a good spot to double up at what seemed to be a tight table.
At a nearby table, Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold and Marco “KILL-BILL” Liesy protected their pre-dinner stacks, increasing their value by a few thousand chips each. While watching their table, which was right on a very spectator-filled rail, we saw Marco take down a small pot against one other player with K-Q. He chipped up to 26K while Todd accumulated to 41K.
PokerRoad’s own Haralabos Voulgaris has been increasing his chip stack as well; when we caught up to his table in the Green section, he was in the big blind and a few other players had entered play. The flop came 5J
9 and players checked the flop. The A
came on the turn, and one of his opponents bet out 1K. Haralabos called and the 9 came on the river. Both players checked and he flipped A8 to ship the chips his way.
In the Blue section of the Amazon room, many player have relocated and redrawn for seats, but Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski (pictured at right) informed PocketFives that no one’s left his table all day. “We’ve all become friends,” he said. “We’re just going to fold to the end of the day.” Except he did report to P5s that he managed to recently double up to 17K, so we’re not entirely sure his motives are all friendly!
At the table behind Jeff sat Mike “SirWatts” Watson who accumulated a huge chipstack - he was up to 102K in the last level. We’re not entirely sure how he keeps attracting chips to his stack since action is always calm when we watch; perhaps there are magnets under the table?
At the next table over, Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim reported that he just wants to keep up with SirWatts — He’s convinced that’s his best strategy. In an effort to do this, in one hand, Jeff bet out in the cutoff for 750 before the flop with a chipstack of 52K. The player on the button raised it to 2,400 and pushed everyone else out of the pot. Jeff counted each chipstack and estimated that he had a 5:3 chip advantage over the other player, so he reraised him to 7,450. In what became a betting war, his opponent made it 14K total, 6,600 more. Jeff thought a moment longer before pushing all his chips in the middle. His opponent, clearly agitated, thought long and hard before folding. Jeff slid his cards to the dealer and chipped up to 63K.
Some unofficial chip counts at the end of Level 4:
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 102K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 63K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 41K
Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor - 40K
Shaun Deeb - 34K
Greg “okstate345″ Cox - 31K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 31K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 28K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 26K
Marco “KILL-BILL” Liesy - 26K
Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson - 24K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 18K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 17K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 12.5K
Theo “pittrounder” Tran - 5.5K
Post-Dinner Coma?
by Crystal on 07.05.08, 12:25 am
It seems that with their stomach’s full the players have become a bit less active than earlier. Blair Rodman has been seen raising a few hands preflop and winning the blinds and antes. Occasionally there is a re-raise, but no big pots have happened at his table quite yet. Blair (pictured right) currently has around 17k.
One table over Stu “The Donator” Paterson is nursing a short stack of only 9k and has also been seen stealing some blinds and antes. Stu is obviously looking for a chance to double up but seems a bit frustrated that he hasn’t been able to do so lately. In one hand, with the blinds at 150/300 Stu raised to 900 preflop and was called by both the button and the big blind. The flop came KQ6 and the big blind bet out 2.6k. Stu sighed and tossed his hand into the muck to wait for a better spot.
Doing a little better is Tom “sbrounder” West who has chipped up to around 40k, twice the starting stack.
Play seems to be going a little slower at the moment but with many short stacks looking to build before the end of the day we will inevitably see some big moves before the night is over.
Saddling Up for HORSE
by Jill on 06.29.08, 10:11 pm
Event #51, the $1.5K HORSE tournament is well under way with a strong online presence. Play continued to spread across multiple sections of the Amazon room as well as the Brasilia room. PocketFives spotted Shannon Shorr, Brett “Gank” Jungblut, Matt “SamENole” Smith, Justin Bonomo, and Eric “jakz101″ Crain amongst the field.
David “seal” Eisenstein and Bryan Micon (pictured at right) were seated next to each other, but there was a mix-up about where Micon was supposed to sit. The dealer called the floor staff over to help resolve the situation, and the woman who came knew not what she was getting herself into. “Who are you, now?” she asked Micon. “Who am I?” he replied. “I’m Bryan Micon. I’m very, very, very famous.” The table laughed before Micon assumed the correct seat and play began.
Meanwhile, we spotted Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Alex Jacob, and Stu “thedonator” Paterson, all of whom busted out earlier from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament. We caught Stu yawning a number of times, so it looks like they have a long night ahead of them in this big field.
When PocketFives caught up with play in Event #49, Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane (pictured at left in his Scottish gear) continued to use his lucky kilt to accumulate chips; his stack was up to 110K and growing as he was taking down small pots. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was short-stacked with 20K and recently moved to Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar’s table, where he had worked his stack up to a respectable 95K. Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, however, was looking healthy and happy with a stack of 170K.
In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi got involved in an interesting hand. We caught up with the action on the turn with the board reading 652K. Sorel checked over to his opponent who bet 9.1K. Sorel tanked for a couple of minutes before tossing out two pink 5K chips to make the call. The river brought the K and Sorel again checked over to the other player who bet 13K.
Sorel went into the tank yet again and after a few minutes had passed another player called the clock. Sorel had 60 seconds to make a decision and as the floor counted 3…2…1… Sorel mucked his hand, conceding the pot. His opponent showed two of his hole cards, the 75 which, by themselves, would have been good for two pair - kings and fives. Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break and some unoffical chip counts are listed below.
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 48k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 46k
Rolf Slotboom - 46k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 40k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 36k
Thayer Rasmussen - 33k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 20k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 18k
Omaha Stakes Rise
by Jill on 06.29.08, 7:34 pm
Nearly 100 players have already been eliminated in the $10K Pot Limit Omaha World Championship, Event #50, despite the reload chip requiring mandatory usage after Level 3. Registration topped at 381; 288 players remain in the tournament.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was one of the recent chip leaders in the last few levels, but his stack kept shrinking with some sick hands. In one recent example, we caught up with the action as Scott bet out 2.8K after the turn on a board of 33JA. Another player moved all in and Scott called. Scott exclaimed, “Don’t tell me you have quads!” just before his opponent flipped over two threes for the nuts. Scott’s pocket aces made a boat, but nothing could catch him up on the river and he was down to about 30K.
Recent eliminations include Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Vanessa Selbst; Jamie “TheNew” Robbins (pictured at right) and Stu “thedonator” Paterson were also suspiciously missing from their old tables, replaced by other players. Here are some unofficial chip counts of notable players who remained in the event:
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 94K
Dario Minieri - 40K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 36K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 34K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 28K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 16K
Alex Jacobs - 14K
Tom McEvoy - 14K
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 11K
Meanwhile, the final table of Event #45, the $50K HORSE World Championship has begun after the unveiling of the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. The house is standing-room only in the Amazon Room and spectators fill the gallery with applause after every hand. Michael DeMichele managed to win several of the last few pots and is on an upswing in the Razz rotation; Patrick Bueno has already busted in 9th place and Erick Lindgren retains his chip lead. More on this exciting conclusion as it develops!
You Have to Win a Race
by Crystal on 06.23.08, 12:14 am
Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker’s chip stack had been slowly dwinding in the $1.5k NLHE tournament until he decided to put it all in with pocket sixes. A player sitting across from him made the call with his AK and when the flop came with a king Bowker fell behind in the hand and was unable to catch back up. Even though the shirt Kyle (pictured left) is wearing today says “Nice Hand Sir. And by hand I mean catch and by sir I mean moron” he graciously accepted the loss and was consoled by a friend who said “What can you do? You have to win a race. Good game man” as Kyle headed to the cashier to collect his winnings.
Another player got all his chips in needing some serious help to stay alive. David “DavidP18″ Peters and a shorter stack both got all their chips in against another player who had them both covered.
Peters: A9
Short stack: 33
Other player: AA
Peters and the other short stack were both in serious trouble against the aces and when the board ran out Q2287 they were both sent to the rail.
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Stu “thedonator” Paterson have been early movers in today’s $1,500 Mixed Hold’em event. Sowers has just increased his chip count to over 8K by crippling Bryan Micon in Limit Hold’em. Sowers (pictured right) raised from middle position and Micon called from the big blind. On the flop of Q84, Micon check-raised Sowers and Sowers made the call. The turn was the Q and Micon bet and Sowers called. The 9 fell on the river and again Sowers called a bet from Micon, who showed A8 but was rivered by the A9 of Sowers. Micon was eliminated shortly after.
Paterson showed why he’s considered one of the online greats at the other end of the room during No-limit. In a three-way pot, Paterson and another player checked a A53 flop to the original preflop raiser, who bet 1K and both players called. The 3 came on the turn and again it was checked over the the raiser, who bet 1500 and only Paterson called. The river was the 7 and Paterson quickly check-called a bet of 3K and showed TT, which beat KQ. Paterson is among the chip leaders with 15K.