WSOP 2008
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 K
Q6
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.
To Reload or Not to Reload?
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 3:39 pm
The $10k World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha got started at noon today here in the Amazon room with around 240 entrants when play began. The field has since grown to more than 320 players and registration will stay open until the end of level two. We’ve already spotted some P5ers in this smaller field including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
While in most of the other WSOP events this year the starting stack has been double the buy-in for the event, players begin this tournament with 10k in tournament chips plus a red reload chip (pictured left) that is good for another 10k chips whenever the player chooses to use it. Players can elect to use it right at the beginning, to make their starting stack 20k while others may wait until they need the extra chips. At the end of level three, the extra 10k will be added to any player’s stack that hasn’t already used their reload chip.
The final tables of both the $50k HORSE event #45 and the $2k NLHE event #48 will start this afternoon. The HORSE final table is fileld with big name pros including P5’s own Barry Greenstein who comes into the final table with the 3rd largest chip stack as he tries to win his 2nd bracelet this year and his 4th overall bracelet.
The $2k NLHE final table will be led by chip leader Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson who has more than 2.1 million. The final table will begin play at 3 pm where Marco hopes his amazing run in this event will lead straight to his first WSOP bracelet.
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 KK
54 caught a king on the turn to best Brian Rast’s A
A22 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
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Stack
by Crystal on 06.12.08, 2:48 am
The blinds are steadily rising in Event #21, the $5k NLHE, and a couple of short stacks are sitting a little prettier now. Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski (pictured at left) got all her chips in on a flop of K53 and found that her AK was ahead of her opponent’s KJ. The T on the turn and Q on the river secured Anna’s double up to around 25k. She continued to aggressively build her stack over the course of the last level.
A few tables over, Jason Gray got all his chips in preflop with the AK and was ahead to his opponent’s AQ. Jason’s brother Craig recently busted out of the $3k HORSE event and was there to rail him as they saw the board come T8699, allowing Jason to double his stack to 23k.
Seated with Howard Lederer to his left, Adam “Roothlus” Levy held the attention of his $5K table by recounting Family Guy jokes as Tim “tmay420″ West struggled to take down small pots with his dwindling stack. Meanwhile, West had two friends bust out of the tournament with their equally short stacks, dropping by the table to hear worlds of consolation. These were recent chip stacks at last count:
Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski - 77K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 35K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 30K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 27K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 26K
Alex Jacobs - 26K
Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth - 22K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 13K
Although Craig “MrCasino” Gray was already out of the $3k HORSE Event #22, Stu “The Donator” Paterson was still in and playing aggressively during the O8 rotation. We caught up with the action on a flop of K75 where Stu led the betting and got two callers. When the A came on the turn, the action went the same way once again. Stu bet, the other two called, and then when the J came on the river, the other two once again called Stu’s bet. Stu flipped over the T642 for the 2nd nut low with a busted straight draw, another player flipped up the K543 for a flopped two pair, but the 3rd player held the AQJ9 for a better two pair which ended up splitting the pot with Stu’s low.
During the Limit Hold’em rotation on a table HORSE nearby, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at right) raised preflop and was called by the big blind. The flop came J88 and the big blind checked to Saul who bet only to have the big blind raise. Saul made the call and they saw the 3 come on the turn. The big blind bet out and Saul quickly raised which prompted the big blind to fold and Saul scooped the pot.
In Event #20, the $2K Limit Hold’em tournament is down to 31 players of the original 480. Recently eliminated in 44th, Brett “Gank” Jungblut takes home $2,368 and the satisfaction of knowing he got it in good. His K-Q was obviously no good to Fu Wong’s 6-2 when a six flopped out to dash his chances of winning the bracelet.