After a little over an hour into play today at the WSOP Main Event it had been apparent that many of the players have the “go big or go home” mentality as we have heard the “all-in and a call!” shout coming from dealers numerous times all over the room. We’re already down to 408 of the 474 players that started the day.

Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen (pictured left) was caught in one of these confrontations, but she wasn’t the one at risk. She and a shorter stacked player got all the chips in preflop with Tracey’s 99 ahead of her opponents A3. The flop came T72 keeping Tracey in the lead but the A on the turn reversed things and the Q on the river changed nothing so Tracey doubled the other player up and dropped to around 380k in chips.

A player at risk during his all in was Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis who got all his chips in before the flop holding the QQ against another players TT. The board ran out K324J and Steve managed to double his stack up to around 350k.

Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen started the day with 576k in chips and seemed to be using his big stack to try and take out some of his weaker opponents. On a flop of T98 Rosen checked to his opponent who bet 40k. Jamie then raised to 100k and his shorter stacked opponent raised all in and Jamie made the call. The all-in player was ahead with the JT for top pair with an open-ended straight draw in the lead against Jamie’s 86 for a flush draw with a lesser-gutshot straight draw. The turn brought the A and the river was the 7 giving both players a straight but the all-in player held the better one and scooped up the pot knocking Jamie down to around 280k.

It didn’t take Jon “PearlJammer” Turner long to increase his 726k stack considerably in the first thirty minutes of play. The chips didn’t come easy however as Turner had to call an 85k river bet with his set of eights on a board with three hearts and a jack to a straight against his opponent Dustin Holmes. Turner’s hand was good, shipping him a pot near 300k. Turner won a few hands after that as well and is now near the one million mark.

Tim “TMay420″ West picked a good spot to get his last few chips in but was unable to outrace Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts. Brent raised to 15K in early position and West moved in for 51K. Roberts made the call with AQ, which was behind Tim’s JJ. The 643 flop added a slew of outs for Roberts, and the 4 left West needing help. The K fell on the river and West was eliminated, earning $27,020 for his performance. Roberts chipped up to 360K.

Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter, on the other hand, was able to dodge a bunch of outs to double his stack. David “Bakes” Baker raised to 14K in middle position and Porter moved all in for 46K. Baker made the call, showing JT and Porter flipped over A6. Porter got out of his seat when he saw the flop of KQ7, saying “Well, see you later!” but his hand was able to hold when the 8 and 7 filled the board. Porter is up to over 100K.

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe continued his onslaught by eliminating a player and climbing over the 1 million chip mark. Crowe got his money in on the turn with 99 on a board of 9247 and had his opponent drawing dead. He now has nearly 1.3 million, which is right near the top of the leaderboard.

Here’s a look at some chip counts midway through the first level on Day 4:

Peter “number1pen” Neff - 660K
Keith “damurdera3″ Fererra - 615K
Paul “ComeOnPhish” Lieu - 600K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 540K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 475
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 415K
Mark “AceSpades” Radoja - 400K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 260K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 280K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 180K
Thayer Rasmussen - 153K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 150K
Hunter “The Hunt D” Frey - 105K
Clayton “clayton_27″ Newman - 140K

• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up

Adam “Roothlus” Levy’s (pictured left) resurrection from a short stack last night to 230k at the start of Day 3 of the Main Event has continued escalate. Levy scooped a 280k in the last level in a cutoff vs blind battle when Levy raised in late position and got reraised by his opponent out of the blind. Levy put in another raise, resulting in the massive all-in pot with his AK trailing his opponents pocket jacks. Levy clipped a pair and currently sits with 400k.

Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen has also been on an enormous tear today, starting with the second hand of the day.  A player opened for 4K and Jensen raised to 14K out of the big blind with A-K with the king of clubs.  The flop came out {ac]72 and Matt led for 20K.  The other player raised to 55K and Jensen moved all-in.  The other player then folded and Matt picked up a nice sized pot. 

Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert has been treading water all day but has managed to keep his 160k starting stack intact. Increasing that stack will be much more difficult after Wolpert drew an extremely tough table with Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (300k) and “Bodog” Ari Engel (130k).

Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury continues to ride the roller coaster he boarded last night as his stack continues to fluctuate in six-figure swings. Steury started the Day 3 with 121k after getting up to 250k late in Day 2. Steury ran his starting stack up to 250k again but got back down to 185k after losing a big pot post-flop with pocket jacks.

Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez continues to build a big stack and recently just busted a player in an all-in preflop confrontation. Ramirez re-raised a 10k open to 25k out of the blind with blinds at 1k-2k-300. Ramirez’s opponent went all-in for an additional 40k and Ramirez called with his AK way ahead of his opponents A-10. The board ran true for Ramirez, who has 225k.

Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania was fighting the deck most of the day and eventually hit the exit when his kings ran into pocket aces on a ten high flop. Charania started the day with 65k and was able to get up to 125k before his bustout.  Others eliminated recently include Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson, Mike “RunScreamin” Herder, Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano, Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert, and Darren Elias.

• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)

First and foremost, we here would like to profusely apologize to Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg (pictured at left).  Earlier today we reported that Christian had been eliminated during Level 7 of play.  Well, the details of Fockenberg’s demise have been greatly exaggerated and he is, in fact, alive and well with a hearty 79K.  With so many tables being broken and players being moved around sometimes the breaking order changes on us and mistakes are made.  Such was the case with Christian, so don’t worry friends and family of Fockenberg–he is just fine.

Now that we have reported on someone we lost, now it is time to tell you about someone we found amongst the 612 players remaining in the Day 2A field.  Hunter “The_Hunt_D” Frey, who is one of our chip leaders with 384K.  When we found Hunter, he kindly recalled the hand that launched him to the top of the leaderboard.  Frey was involved in an 8-way limped pot with the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 holding 2-3 when the flop came A-3-3 with two diamonds.  One of the other players led out for 6K and another player called before Hunter raised to 17.5K.  Both players made the call and the turn came Q.  The initial better then shoved all-in for his remaining 90K and the third player in the hand thought for some time before folding.  Frey told us he tanked on the decision before making the call.  The other player showed A-K, the river was no help to him, and Hunter shot up to 400K.

We have also lost our “Table of Doom” that featured Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, and Peter “number1pen” Neff.  Their table was recently broken, but not before Stern reraised one of the other players preflop inducing him to fold.  Before he threw his hand away he turned up K6 and joked, “I ought to show since the table is about to break.”

While that table may have disappeared, we may have another table of doom brewing over in the Blue section.  Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a fairly easy day when he played on Day 1B and seemed to flop sets at will during the early levels and he was hoping Day 2 would be in the same vein.  However, every time his table loses a player, they bring over yet another known pro to add to the already stacked table.  First it was the big stacked Jason Gray (pictured at right) and when we last checked on the table Brandon Adams, who started today 2nd in chips, was unpacking several racks of chips.  Mike also told us there are some other online players at the table as well.

Tim “tmay420″ West continued to sit at a table with Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano and remained steady throughout the last level, hovering around the 100K mark and taking relatively few risks.  When we caught up with Tim’s table, he was raising a min-betting opponent preflop to 6K more with 8K already in the pot.  After awhile in the tank, his opponent folded and he took the pot down to increase his stack to 105K.  Eric “jakz101″ Crain sat nearby, expressing frustration when his flopped straight flush draw bricked out and he lost a 100K pot.  Eric still has 210K in front of him and is confident he will reclaim his lost chips.

When PocketFives caught up to Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson (pictured at left), his strategy seemed to be similar - he reported that he got pocket kings twice in the last level and each time bet out to see what risks he faced.  In one situation, he said that he raised 5K under the gun with kings and was called by four other players preflop.  When the dealer spiked an ace, players checked around.  Hodson said he bet at the turn to see where he was, and was insta-raised by another player.  He folded and said though he’s gotten no value out of his kings, he minimized his loss and is happy with his 72K chipstack.  At a table full of recreational players, he said his strategy for the rest of the night was to play extremely tight through Level 9 and turn up the heat in the last level of the evening.

Here are some unofficial chip counts from midway through Level 9 of play:
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 384K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 210K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 200K
Jason Gray - 190K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 184K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 180K
Derek “arods33″ Buanomo - 172K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 160K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 155K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 142.5K
Peter “number1pen” - 122K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 122K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 118K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 99K
Dani “Ansky451″ Stern - 90K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 90K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 87.5K
Christian “Deckzor” Fockenberg - 79K
Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson - 79K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 75K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 65K
Kevin “ImaLuckSac” Macphee - 49K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 45K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 44K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 43K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 42K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 39K

Recent eliminations include Shaun Deeb, TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka, Steve “McNallyville” McNally, and Barry Greenstein.

• July 8, 2008 -- Cox Loses Prop Bet, Then His Stack
• July 9, 2008 -- Hustle and Heartbreak
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern

Greg “okstate345″ Cox recently played in a $50 Heads Up sit-n-go tournament online and lost, and since a prop bet was part of the deal between he and the other player, Greg showed up today in a purple bathrobe, pink swim goggles and a blue wide-brimmed sun hat. In one hand where Greg had only 7k left in chips there was a raise and re-raise in front of him and he held pocket queens on the button. Greg decided to fold and was relieved to see the re-raiser show pocket aces. “He’s been a nit so far” Greg said in reference to the player with aces. Another gentleman at the table thought that “nit” was an insult and was shocked Greg said it but after a humorous conversation at the table they decided that “nit” actually wasn’t meant to be an insult in this case and Greg was off the hook.

His stack dwindled down to around 5k and when the player under the gun limped, Greg pushed all in. Everyone else folded but the under the gun player made the call with his 88 to find he was way behind Greg’s TT. The flop came Q76 and Greg’s opponent was drawing slim. The 4 on the turn gave him a few more options and the 5 fell on the river giving the other player an eight-high straight and sending Greg to the rail with a disgusted look on his face.

We caught up to Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein in the Blue section who had just called a bet of 2,500 on flop of J24.  He and one other player both checked the J turn to see the 5 river.  His opponent checked to him, and Josh bet out 7,025. After tanking awhile, his opponent made the call and Josh flipped over AJ to take down the pot and increase his stack to 74K.

As tables are broken in the Red section, more and more players are being moved into the orange and blue sections of the Amazon Room, resulting in some stacked tables.  We stumbled upon table Orange 12, which boasts a line-up of Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen, and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki.  The three players have been very active at their tables and we caught both Rosen and Ansky busting out players and increasing their chip counts in the process.
 
First, Rosen raised to 1,250 in early position with the blinds at 250/500 ante 50 and a player in middle position made the call.  After the flop came A92 Jamie bet 2,250 and the other player quickly called.  Rosen checked when the Q came on the turn and the other player bet 5K.  Rosen quickly check-raised to 15K total and the other player moved all-in for less than 5K on top of the 15K.  Jamie called and turned over AK and the other player revealed 9T.  The J on the river was no help to his opponent and Rosen scooped a pot that pushed him up to a 140K chip stack.
 
A few hands later a shortstacked player raised on the button and Dani Stern reraised out of the big blind.  The other player appeared to just call his raise, leaving only 5K behind.  He then announced “all-in in the dark” and Stern reminded him that he was not the first to act in the hand.  The flop came J73 and Dani appeared to take a quick peek at his hand to check for a club before throwing out a 5K chip.  The other player called with AK while Dani held QQ.  The turn and river came 6T and the other player was eliminated.  Stern now sits with 75K.

Oh, and if the table wasn’t crowded enough as it was, the seat of the player Rosen busted has just been filled by Peter “number1pen” Neff.
 
One player whose table in the Red section has yet to break is Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson.  He informed Pocketfives that he had been getting maximum value out of all of his hands and had worked his starting Day 2 stack of 28K all the way up to 60K.  However, he ran into a hand where he got it all in preflop with A-K into his opponent’s pocket aces.  The board bricked out and he was knocked down to just below where he started and has 26K.

Now for the good stuff! Chip counts galore!

Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 145K
Paul “ComeonPhish” Lieu - 130K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 120K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 107K
Jason Gray - 90K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 82K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 73K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 72K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 69K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 66K
Jordan Morgan - 58K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 56K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 55K
Paul “beanie” Nobles - 55K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 53K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 51K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 48K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 40K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 38K
Steve “McNallyville” McNally - 35K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 35K
Terry “Asiandude77″ Eichens - 31K
Faraz “The Toliet-0″ Jaka - 29K
Carter “notashark” Gill - 28K
Aaron Been - 27K
Shaun Deeb - 25K
Rami “arbianight” Boukai - 25K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 24K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 15K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 10K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 7K
Barry Greenstein - 5K

Players eliminated since our last post include Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, and Matt “SamENole” Smith.

• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 9, 2008 -- Justin Time for a Double Up
• July 8, 2008 -- Bottom Set Not Eneff for Stern
• July 15, 2008 -- P5ers Collide, Klodnicki Sent Home in 12th

One of the many promotional aspects of this WSOP are large ping pong paddle-esque signs bearing the All-In energy drink logo distributed around each of the tables.  Whenever a player’s all-in is called by another person, the dealer at the table raises his All-In pong paddle skyward and calls out so that the media and interested bystanders can come over and see the action.

As we neared the dinner break, it seemed like the paddles were flying fast and furious and several P5ers were caught in the crossfire including Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, Matt “AllInAt420″ Stout, Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich, Larry “larrygold” Goldstein, Mike “michnak” Michnik, Zac “iLLNuGWichee” Fronterhouse, and Anthony “D1rtyR1v3r” Nardi.

Nardi called the all-in of his opponent on a board reading A-9-9-2 and threw his hands in the air in frustration when his opponent turned over 2-2 while Nardi held A-Q.  He got no help from the K on the river and headed for the rail.

One player who has been heading nowhere but up is Jon “Pearljammer” Turner (pictured at left).  He doubled up early on when he held pocket queens and flopped quads and got paid off by a player holding pocket kings.  With the blinds at 150/300 Jon raised to 750 in middle position and the player in the big blind called.  The flop came out K97 and both players checked.  They checked again when the 7 peeled off on the turn.  The big blind fired out 1.5K when the 2 hit on the river and Turner thought for a minute before making the call.  His opponent tossed her hand in the muck before Jon could reveal his KJ.

Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen (pictured at right) has accumulated one of the top stacks in the tournament with a little over 70k. Rosen recently got involved in an interesting hand where he bet 1500 in a raised pot on a J86 flop and his opponent check called out of the blind. The turn was the K and both players checked. The river brought the J and Rosen’s opponent bet 2k and Rosen called. Both players chopped, Rosen showing QQ and his opponent the KJ.
 
Here are some chip counts headed into dinner break:
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 52K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 43K
Tim “TMay420″ West - 41K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 40K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 35K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 29K
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 25K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 25K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 24K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 23K
Shannon Shorr - 21K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 20.5K
Jason Gray - 20K
Aaron Been - 20K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 19K
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 16.5K
Barry Greenstein - 15K
TJ “Doubles00ted” Slifka - 13.5K
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 13.5K
Steven “CornellFiji” Ware - 13K
Joe Sebok - 12K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 8.5K
Dan “wretchy” Martin - 9.5K
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul - 6.5K

We’ll be back with the action at the conclusion of the 90 minute dinner break.
  

• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
• July 12, 2008 -- Looking Back in the Rearviewmirror
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?