WSOP 2008
By the Numbers: 2008 WSOP Main Event
by Jill on 07.07.08, 4:10 am
As the final installment of Day 1 of the Main Event came to a close just before 1AM PST, nearly 1,400 players remain from today’s field of 2,461. After calculations from Rio tournament staff, the net prize pool now stands at $64,333,600 with total registration of 6,844 entrants. This figure is almost 500 more than 2007, and amazingly, more than the first 34 years of the Main Event COMBINED. Pretty amazing stuff. First prize will walk away with the coveted bracelet and a cool $9.1M dollars; all players at the final table will make $900K or more.
Overall, PocketFivers fared well in today’s event and many live on to compete in Days 2A and 2B. Tomorrow, all players will take a rest day as the media will compete in a charity tournament. Before we retire for a day, however, there are plenty of stories remaining before the break.
Playing his entire day at one of the featured side tables with Phil Ivey, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman (pictured at left) recently doubled his stack up when his ace-high flush dominated his opponent’s jack-high flush on a paired board. His A
8 was good enough to propel him up the chip counts.
On the last hand of the evening, Garrett was on the button when the player under the gun bet 1K. Garrett called it down and the big blind followed suit. The flop came A9
2
and the big blind checked. The player under the gun bet 1.5K and both Garrett and the big blind called. The 5 on the turn induced a check from both his opponents and he took the opportunity to bet 3K. Both folded and he showed 22 for the flopped set. He ended the night with 53K in chips and will come back fighting after a restful two days.
Ryan “youngluck” Young also made a run in the last hour of play; PocketFives saw him flop top set and a king-high flush, increasing his stack to 85k near the end of the day.
Some PocketFivers took a hit before the end of the day but will return to play in Day 2. One of our chip leaders, Tom “titantom32″ Braband, took a near-30k hit in the last level of play, but still was sitting comfortable with 90k. Also taking a hit was Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, who was hovering around 45k until he got a bluff snapped off on the river, taking a 10k chunk out of his stack in the last 30 minutes of play. Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez also lost a big pot to an opponent who held pocket eights when the board ran out 4-3-3-8-X. His stack dipped to 12K after peaking at 26K after the dinner break.
Sitting with about 70k near the end of the day, Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier (pictured at right) appeared to be heading to Day 2 with a solid stack. But then came along a hand that he’ll surely be thinking about the rest of the night, a hand Mercier just recently explained to PocketFives. Mercier hit a monster flop when his 64 connected to the Q67 board. Mercier and his opponent got all-in on the flop, resulting in a 90k pot. Mercier just happened to be up against the 85, one of the few hands against which he could in bad shape. The board bricked out for Mercier and improved his opponent and he’s left with 19k nearing the end of Day 1D.
Meanwhile, though Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti sat with only 5K when we last reported on him, he managed to increase his stack through well-picked pots all the way up to 24K. Andreas Hoivold, however, went the opposite way and was sent to the rail despite chipping up early.
Here are some notable unofficial chip counts at the end of the day. Congratulations to all players!
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 90K
Ryan “youngluck” Young - 85K
Scott Pendergrast - 61K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 53K
Bryan Micon - 51K
Bodog Ari Engel - 46K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 41K
James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell - 40K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 35K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 33K
Eric “sheets” Haber - 27K
Ladbrokes pro Azad Pirooti - 24K (pictured at left)
Grant “drossXYU” Hinkle - 13.5K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 12K
Fivers Going Strong Six Handed
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 7:19 pm
P5ers are holding strong as players continue to drop from the $2.5k NLHE six-handed event #31.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier won a huge pot when he got all his chips in preflop against another big stack. The AK that Jason held dominated the AT of his opponent and when the board ran out A
8224 Jason doubled his stack to over 200k.
Not long after that hand a battle of the P5ers nearly took place on Jason’s table. Jason raised in the cutoff and was called by Billy Westom in the small blind. Frank “Round42″ Rusnak who was in the big blind played with his chips contemplating a call but instead decided to re-raise for another 14k on top. An exciting P5 filled hand might have been in store, but Jason and Billy both folded giving Frank the pot.
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen has also been doing well. When the button on his table raised to 3.3k preflop Keven made the call from his sb. The flop came with the 883 and both players checked to see the Q come on the turn. They both checked again and when the 4 dropped on the river Keven bet out 6k and the button called. Keven tabled the QJ for a pair of queens and the button mucked.
There are currently 47 players remaining. Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured left), and Michael “slugo5″ Glasser have been eliminated from today’s event but many players are still active in the field. Unofficial chip counts are listed below.
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 200k
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 160k
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 140k
Billy Westom - 95k
Shannon Shorr - 85k
Todd “tbt4653″ Terry - 70k
Paul “uclabruinz” Smith - 62k
Ian “IanJ300″ Johns - 50k
Been Busts, Hanks Among Leaders
by AdamJ on 06.09.08, 4:17 am
Despit
e another deep run in a WSOP event, Aaron Been is yet to reach his first WSOP final table.
With 20 players left in the 2.5k NL WSOP Event #13, Aaron Been moved all-in during a small blind verse button confrontation after the button raised when everyone folded to him.
With blinds at 6k-12k and a 1k ante, Been went over the top of the button’s 30k raise, prompting a call from his opponent who woke woke up with TT, way ahead of Been’s 55.
Been can find some solace in the fact that he would have busted regardless if the stacks were deeper and it didn’t get all-in preflop after the flop came T59.
With prominent players left in the final two tables in Event #13 like Adam “akat11″ Katz, Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier, and Shawn “buck99″ Buchanon, the roped off area a few feat behind the tables was packed with onlookers.
Not satisfied with his line of sight, Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach’s offer of twenty dollars for a front row seat was snatched up by an older gentleman watching a friend still left in the tournament.
Fohrenbach, who was there to watch Mercier, said it was the first time he’s ever had to offer money for a raibird seat but said it was money well spent.
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks has been chipping up with aggressive plays down to the final two tables.
With 17 players left, Hanks has one of the biggest stacks with 590k.
Just before players left for a break, Hanks reraised a 30k open from the button from his smalll blind, reraising to 160k.
After thinking for a few seconds the button folded and Hanks and his entourage standing nearly two feet away could exhale.