WSOP 2008
Lieu Doubles, Saul Busts
by Brett on 06.11.08, 9:55 pm
With a below average stack in the middle stages of the 5k NL WSOP Event #21, Liz Lieu (pictured right) caught the break she needed at just the right time.
On a flop of 6
4
7, Gavin Smith led for 700 and Andy Black raised to 2k. Lieu 4-bet all-in for 8200. Smith folded (which he later said was aces) and Black moved all-in, having Lieu outchipped by a few thousand. Black tabled 44
and Lieu showed her double draw with the Q8. The turn was a Q but the river 9 rescued Lieu’s stake in the tournament, increasing her stack to 18k.
There was an incredible amount of live pro’s at Scotty Nguyen’s table, who was playing alongside Kenny Tran, Noah “Exclusive” Boeken, Layne Flack, Huck Seed, and Eric Cajelais.
P5er Andy “BKiCe” Seth drew one of the tougher tables in the field with cash game savants Daniel Alaei, Nick Schulman, and Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Gavin Griffin and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin were also at the table, making for an interesting mix of players. Seth had one of the bigger stacks at the table with 31k at the 150-300-25 level.
Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul sitting alongside his friend Jason “JCarver” Summerville, lost over half his stack when his flopped set lost to a turned straight, losing a big bet on the turn and the river where Saul check-called both streets.
A few hands later with around 3k, Saul moved in under-the-gun at the 150-300-25 level with KT but ran into an opponents AK
and Saul failed to improve.
Undeterred by busting, Saul was back at again in just enough time to join a handful of online players mixing it up in the 3k HORSE, WSOP Event #22 which started at 5pm.
Vying for his fifth WSOP cash this summer, Craig “MrCasino” Gray (pictured left) elected to skip the 5k NL event earlier so he could play the 3k HORSE. “There’s so many NL tournaments and this is just more of an enjoyable experience to me,” Gray said. “It’s like poker’s fun again.”
Fresh of their success in the 10k Mixed Event, Tony “tongni” Rivera and James “mig.com” Mackey are looking for another final table in a mixed games event after they were the last two standing in the 10k Mixed tournament. Ironically enough, both were dropouts from the University of Missouri but didn’t know each other til they met at the final table.
Here’s a list of some of the other notable online players scattered throughout the 408 player 3k HORSE field:
Johnny Bax
Brock “t_soprano”
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn
Shorr Runner-Up in $2K, Rivera Wins $10K Mixed Event
by Jill on 06.07.08, 1:14 am
After two hours of heads-up play in Event #7, Shannon Shorr (pictured at left) couldn’t catch Matt Keikoan, who won the WSOP bracelet for the event and a grand prize of $550,601. Shorr won $349,141 for his second-place finish after 67 presumably card-dead hands of Keikoan slowly chipping away at his stack. Many congratulations to Shannon for his stellar performance and we look forward to watching him in the days to come!
Meawhile, in the $10K World Championship Mixed Event, Tony “tongni” Rivera (pictured at right) took down all the chips in the room to win the bracelet and $483,688. Heads-up against James “mig.com” Mackey for a brief ten-minute match, Rivera’s AK remained strong against Mackey’s all-in preflop A9. Mackey won a palindromic $297,792 for second place. Congratulations to both players!
Parker & Clements Chipping Up
by Jessica on 06.06.08, 11:56 pm
In the $2.5K Stud 8/Omaha 8 event, Brock “t_soprano” Parker (pictured at right) and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements are seated side by side as the final 5 tables approach the money bubble. Clements lost most of his chips in an earlier Omaha hand with John Racener, who scooped the pot and left Clements with 9K, less than five big bets. With the blinds at 1K/2K with a 500 ante, Parker brought in the stud hand hand for a completed bet to 2K with the 6 up. Clements raised with his Q and another player with the K offered to put Clements all in for his remaining 3700 before Parker reminded him he was still in the hand. The player apologized before 3-betting. Parker made the call and Clements moved all-in for his remaining 1700. Both made the call and their cards came as follows:
Clements: Q2TQ
Parker: 6844
Opponent: K5KJ
After 7th street, Parker missed his low, but had 2 pair, 4s and 6s. The other player held kings and jacks with no low, and Clements turned over an ace and 2 deuces for the boat and scooped the pot. He is now up to around 23K.
Despite losing the hand, Parker was still very active throughout the level and sits with a relatively healthy 47K. Craig “mr. casino” Gray also remains in the event, but his mind appeared to be more on a $100 side bet than the event itself. Gavin Smith laid Craig Gray 15-1 that Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler would finish in exactly 43rd place. Poker writer Gary Wise observed Smith’s terrible line on the bet since 40 spots pay and Kessler, who is notorious for tight play around the money bubble, would likely not let himself be eliminated without getting paid. Wise’s suggestion for a better line? 39th place. We’ll see if Wise’s predicition is correct, but in the meantime, Smith will be paying up as 41 players, Kessler included, remain in the event.
Meanwhile, in the $10K Mixed Game Championship, Anthony “tongni” Rivera crippled Michael DeMichele in an unreal race of 2-7 Triple Draw. DeMichele showed down 8-7-5-4-3 to Rivera’s 8-7-5-3-2 and was left with 40K. Shortly afterwards, DeMichele went all-in pre-draw and was eliminated by Rivera. He takes home $139,872 for his valiant efforts.
At the dinner break, the final table was three-handed with the following chip counts:
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 1.896M
Matt Glantz - 1.015M
James “mig.com” Mackey - 926K
“Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!
by Jill on 06.06.08, 6:07 am
Event #5 - $1K No-Limit Hold’em w/ Re-buys:
Congratulations to Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci, who won the bracelet and top prize of $636,736 in an excruciatingly long three-way match against Peter Gould Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams. Three-handed play continued for such a long time that the rowdy railbirds took to breathalyzing themselves for entertainment. When Banducci took down the title, with AJ vs. A5, their cheers were heard by anyone within a two-mile radius. It also begged the question: Why there was a breathalyzer at the ESPN final table?!
Event #6 - $1.5K Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Thang Luu took down the Omaha 8 event for a grand total of $243,356. P5er Chris “SKOAL” Falconer finished in 5th for $64,243 and Scott Clements netted the first finish at the final table for a 9th place prize of $22,172. Congratulations to all!
Event #7 - $2K No-Limit Hold’em
Play ended tonight with the elimination of Manny Minaya in 10th place; the final table will resume tomorrow at 3PM PST with a stacked table. Theo Tran, Shannon Shorr, and J.C. Tran will sit at the final table tomorrow with six others, all trying to win $550,601 and the bragging rights of a WSOP bracelet.
Event #8 - $10K World Championship Mixed Event
The mixed event is playing down to the final nine this evening in preparation for a star-studded table tomorrow. James “mig.com” Mackey, Michael DeMichele, Sammy Farha, Jeff Madsen, Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Anthony “tongni” Rivera, and Tom Schneider are currently fighting the good fight to make it into the coveted top nine spots for this World Championship event.
Event #9 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed
The short-handed event ended this evening after ten levels of play. Just before the last level ended, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby managed to double up and stay alive by catching a straight on the river.
Event #10 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better:
As the $2.5k Limit Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better enters the last level of the evening, several P5ers made a strong showing. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson led the pack with 45K in chips; Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich protected a 28K stack. Craig “MrCasino” Gray trailed with 23K, sitting next to Brock “t_soprano” Parker who was running with an average-sized stack of 15K.
Brock and Craig were chipping away at fellow table-mate Allan Kessler’s stack, as he was barely staying alive. In one stud hand, the AA were dealt face-up to Craig, who took down the pot uncontested from Kessler. The next Omaha hand saw Kessler betting out in early position to fight for his dwindling stack. The bet got three callers, including Brock, then a re-raise from Kessler and three subsequent calls. The flop came A89 and Kessler bet out once again, leaving few chips behind. Brock called along with the two others and the turn brought the 7. Kessler bet again,getting a call from Brock and another player, and inducing a fold from the last player to act. The river came 4 and play checked around to Brock, who bet to try and take down the pot uncontested. Kessler tanked for quite, pulled out a pen and notepad, and folded with very few chips behind him. Brock did receive a call from one of the original players and split the pot with the low hand.
Dwan, Rivera Chip Leaders in 10k Mixed
by AdamJ on 06.06.08, 1:31 am
The young guns of high stakes poker are faring well in the 10k mixed event despite lacking years of experience compared to their live game pro counterparts.
Among the young pro’s doing well are Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Tony “tongni” Rivera, (pictured right) who were the top stacks after the dinner break with 33 players left.
Dwan, a 21-year-old online phenom, is the chip leader with 220k. Dwan specializes in nosebleed NL and PLO cash games at the highest stakes. Rivera, with 188k, is a 22-year-old who’s best known for limit hold-em, playing live 400-800 as well as high stakes mixed games.
Both are seated at a table stacked with live mixed game pro’s like Sammy Farha, who plays the 3k-6k mixed game in the Bellagio, as well as last year’s WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Mike Sexton, and Marcel Luske. Vanessa Rousso and Adam Friedman are also seated at the table.
Another table included Gus Hansen, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, Ralph Perry, Brandon Adams, Lee Watkinson, Chad Brown, and James “mig.com” Mackey.
Mackey, winner of a 5k NL event last summer as a 21-year-old, had a solid stack of 135k in the 1k-2k NL round.
During the 1k-2k NL level, Farha faced elimination when he was all-in preflop for 63k and his AQ trailed Rouso’s AK.
After a queen dropped on the turn and prevailed by the river, Rousso, stunned by the turn of events, proclaimed how unlucky she is for the next few minutes.
A few minutes later Farha was all-in again when he raised Schneider’s flop bet with an all-in move.
While Schneider was thinking, Hansen came over to watch the hand and proclaimed Farha as one of the most dangerous NL and PLO players, emphasizing “after Durrrr” of course in the pecking order.
Farha seemed amused by the compliment and raked the pot after Schneider folded.
Dwan and Farha were very active in the NL round as expected and played many pots against each other, resulting in some interesting hands.
Dwan opened from middle position for 5300 and Farha defended his big blind, calling 3200 more. Both players checked the KJ4 flop and the 3 turn Farha bet 12k and Dwan called. When the 7 dropped on the river, Farha checked and Dwan made an odd underbet of 4400. Farha called and mucked after Dwan tabled the 88 for a flush.