WSOP 2008
Beep, Beep: Who’s Got The Keys for the Deeb?
by Crystal on 07.05.08, 2:43 am
First things first: Shaun Deeb lost his phone at the break and needs a ride home. Internet? Are you listening? Shaun asks that someone get ahold of Augie, so he can get home.
Table #5 in the Orange section of the Amazon room is quite entertaining to watch, primarily because of the presence of 3 PocketFivers, Stuart “zpaceman” Taylor, Steve “gboro780″ Gross (pictured at right), and Greg “okstate345″ Cox. When one of our reporters was standing near the table, Greg said that he didn’t know who Stuart was until Steve told him that his screenname was “zpaceman.” “You’re ‘zpaceman’? No way! I’ve read your blogs!” Greg said.
Ironically, Greg and Stuart had been playfully ribbing each other before Greg knew who Stuart was. In one hand, Stuart raised and was re-raised by another player at the table. Stuart agonized for a bit before folding his A-Q face up. Stuart said, “That guy hasn’t three-bet me all day. If it was him (pointing to Greg), I’m going to four-bet him!” The table chuckled and Greg said that he folded A-J in the hand. Stuart claims he thought the player who re-raised had A-K. “I only folded because it was off-suit,” Stuart said with a smile. Meanwhile, Steve Zolotow, also at the table gave all the players a ribbing and proceeded to discuss the merits of being on FullTilt’s bankroll. Must Be Nice.
Tom “SBRounder” West was continuing to do well. Before his table in the Orange section broke, he knocked out a short-stacked player. Tom held the A
Q to the all-in player’s 3
3
. The board ran out 776J2 to give Tom a flush and knock out the short stack. The next hand, Tom raised preflop and everyone folded. He showed pocket aces just before the table was given new seat assignments. Tom is obviously hoping his good luck continues at his new table in the Blue section!
After waiting patiently over the last couple of levels with a very short stack, Stu “thedonator” Paterson shoved all-in preflop against another very short-stacked big blind. Stu flipped over pocket aces to the big blind’s K
6 and the board ran out QJ7TK. Stu did manage to take down the miniscule pot, but is still looking to make some moves and chip up.
Another PocketFiver chipping up in the last level was Bobby “Gettin Deep” Hodson, who took down a nice-sized pot with A-K suited and flopped top pair. His hand managed to hold and his stack increased to 20.5K.
Not having quite as much luck during the 4th level was Blair Rodman. On a flop of 5-6-7 (with two clubs) Blair bet 800 and was called by his opponent. The Q fell on the turn and Blair bet 2K, but the other player then raised to 6K. Blair shoved the rest of his stack in and was called by the other player who held pocket aces. Blair showed the KQ for a pair of queens and a flush draw, but the river was a brick and Blair was sent to the rail.
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.
Luck of the Draw
by Jessica on 07.04.08, 6:39 pm
With a much smaller crop of internet players playing on Day 1B, it was somewhat surprising for Tom “sbrounder” West to arrive almost an hour late to the tournament and discover Shaun Deeb (pictured at right) sitting on his left. However, the two joked to each other that in some ways, it seemed kind of inevitable. The two have been bantering back and forth ever since Tom’s arrival. For a while, they were joined by railbird and aspiring poker commentator Carter “ckingusc” King. King provided PocketFives with his own comments and insights when the two got involved in small pots together and keeping Shaun entertained when he was not involved in a hand. At one point, King even heckled Deeb until he persuaded his friend to order a drink for him and save him a trip to the bar. We think Carter has gone off to find more patriotic ways to spend his 4th of July, but if we spot him wandering around the Amazon Room again, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
We checked back in on Shaun and Tom after the break and found both sitting with their 20K starting stacks engaged in conversation. Deeb claims West has raised every single pot since coming back from break, but the hand we stuck around for Tom conspicuously folded.
Nick “gbmantis” Niergarthrecently lost a big pot when he and another player got it all in on a flop of K-8-5 with two spades with Nick holding top set of kings to the other player’s 67 for the open-ended straight flush draw. Nick led out at the flop, the other player raised, Nick moved all-in, and the other player made the call. A 4 fell on the turn and Niergarth’s chips fell from almost 20K to just over 8K. He has since worked his way back up to 10.5K, but he still has a lot of ground to make up.
Here are some chip counts we spotted an hour into Level 2:
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 34K
Todd “DanDruff” Witteles - 31.5K
Paul “Come On Phish” Lieu - 31K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 30K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 25.5K
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 25K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 24.5K
Blair Rodman - 23K
Todd “nsxt2″ Arnold - 23K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 21K
Matt “SamENole” Smith - 18K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 16K
Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman - 13.5K
Theo “pitrounder” Tran - 12K
Tim “EightLarge” Vansant - 11.5K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 9K
Brian “Wing-n-prayer” Reingold - 5.5K
Micah “mordan” Hendrix - 4K
Shorr Thing
by Brett on 06.25.08, 3:03 pm
Shannon Shorr returns as one of the chip leaders in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event when action begins at 2:00 PT this afternoon. Shorr (pictured left) topped off his Day 1 by eliminating Layne Flack to increase his stack to 86K. Dan “Stainley88″ Adams (35,400), Stewart “StuMan123″ Yancik (19,900), Tom “SBRounder” West (19,900) and Chris “SKOAL” Falconer (12,200) are some of the others seeking a final table appearance for a shot at the $216,249 first-place prize.
Getting underway at noon is the second $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event of this World Series. Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci won the first for $636,736, defeating Jeff “yellowsub” Williams heads up for the bracelet. Jason Gray, Andy “BKiCE” Seth, Dan “Wretchy” Martin, Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau and Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka are some of the faces we’ve seen so far as players are making their way into the Amazon Room.
The Big Daddy of all the events will kick off at 5:00 PT. The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship will have an extra added bonus this year, as the winner will recieve the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy in remembrance of the tournament’s inagural champion. Freddy Deeb will look to defend his championship.
Good luck to all playing in what should be an exciting day at the Rio!
Three down at $1.5K Shootout Final Table
by Brett on 06.10.08, 9:15 pm
Play slowed to a crawl for awhile in Event #17 after some early fireworks, but action has picked back up now in Round 4. Early on, Casey “ccmuney” Coleman took a huge hit during the first level of the day when his top-pair top-kicker was rivered by Sergey Rybachenko’s straight. Coleman was left with 115K at the 5K/10K level after the hand and later got his money in with AQ against the 88 of Mike Schwartz. Coleman was unable to catch up and exited in tenth place for $7,507.
Alex Triner was then taken out in ninth place by Ryan Young when his pocket jacks ran into pocket queens, but play basically came to a halt for two rounds after his elimination. Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti was able to chip back up to his orginal starting stack (players started with 1 million) by three-betting chip leader Sergey Ryabachenko a few times, but that was the extent of the action. John “Ihave3pair” Strzemp was even seen taking shots of tequila in between hands.
Then Tom “SBRounder” West, short stacked for most of the day, shoved his last 400K into the pot with AQ right into the AK of Ryan Young and the board came up empty for West, who earned $12,421 for his eighth-place finish.
Just minutes later, Kyle “kwob20″ Bowker (pictured right) doubled his short stack back to around 650K when he reshoved Matthew Giannetti’s button raise with KJ and outflipped Giannetti’s A6 on a board of QT697. Bowker, as well as Giannetti and Strzemp, are the remaining P5ers at the table.