WSOP 2008
Main Event Madness!
by Jill on 07.06.08, 12:41 am
Now back from dinner break and midway through Level 4, play continued in the Amazon room with the blinds at 150/300 and an ante of 25. And then there was madness.
One of the chip leaders at the end of last level, Brian “tsarrast” Rast (pictured at left), has been experiencing a rough go for the last hour, as he’s been victim of several three-bets. When we caught up to Brian’s table, his stack had taken a slide from 97K to 83K and he was once again engaged in a pot. He made a preflop raise on the button for 900 and the small blind called him. The big blind, however, reraised and Brian exclaimed, “I’ve only played three hands so far this level. When am I going to get some respect for that?”
In a principled play, he pushed a stack of orange chips in the middle of the table, taking a stand. After the small blind folded, the short-stacked big blind mused, “Well, I haven’t been pushing you around. I’m not gonna lay this down.” Brian then guessed correctly: his opponent held pocket kings to his pocket queens. The flop ran out J-4-4-5-A and Brian shipped the chips his way. He was down to a still-very-respectable 70K stack after the hand.
Moving the opposite way of Brian was Russell “rdcrsn” Carson. When we caught up with Russell’s table, it looked like he had switched up gears to more aggressive play and was taking down small preflop pots. His stack had made small gains, increasing from 19K to 25K in the first half of the level.
Jason “JCarver” Somerville just sent a player to the rail about 30 minutes after players got back from the dinner break. Somerville raised to 1,350 from late position and got re-raised to 3,550 by a player to his left on the button. Somerville called and checked to his opponent on a T
8
3
flop, and his opponent went all-in for 10K. Somerville called and promptly flipped over the nuts with T
T, crushing his opponent’s pocket aces. The board ran true for Somerville who was up to 70k.
Court Harrington (pictured at right) moved all-in on a 7-7-5 board with two clubs holding pocket queens while his opponent held A-7. The turn and river were no help for Harrington and he was eliminated midway through Level 4. Others joining him on the rail include Robby “PlayaPlz” Lipkin and Andy “BKice” Seth.
Jon Wein, Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby were all seated at the same table when Level 4 began, but Wein was recently eliminated while holding a straight flush. Well, that’s what he wanted us to report. He actually got his remaining 12K in on a flop of 862 with TT against KQ. His opponent hit the Q on the river to cut Wein down to 2K. He called off those chips on the next hand with Q4 in the big blind and was unable to draw out on the small blind’s A9 when the board ran out Q9898. He’s on his way to the bar with Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson, who was on the rail watching.
Armstrong was able to chip up to 31K shortly before Wein’s exit. He raised to 1,050 at 150/300 from early position and the small blind called. On a board of J53, the small blind checked and Armstrong bet 2K. His opponent called and both players checked the Q on the turn. The 5 fell on the river and the small blind check-called a bet of 3,200 by Armstong, who showed AJ and took down the pot when his opponent flashed 77.
Jerry “sandler1860″ Payne took a big hit shortly after dinner when he flat called a player’s raise preflop with pocket tens and the flop came ten high. He smooth called the initial raiser’s bet on the flop and when a K came on the turn his opponent bet again and Payne raised enough to put him all-in. The other player quickly made the call with pocket kings and Jerry was knocked down to 10K. He has been working his way back since then though and the following hand added even more to his stack:
With the blinds at 150/300 ante 25, Payne raised to 800 from the hijack and the player in the cutoff called behind him. Both players checked the flop of 886 and Jerry checked again when the 5 hit on the turn. His opponent bet out 1K and Jerry quickly raised to 3.5K total. The other player made the call and the two saw the river of the A. Jerry moved all-in for his remaining 5K and the other player turned over his JT for a busted flush draw and folded. Any guesses what Jerry showed the table? Presto! Pocket fives…
Here are some chip counts at the middle of Level 4:
David “Bakes” Baker - 107K
Darren Elias - 83K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 78K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 66k
Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 55k
Jon Kalmar - 50k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 45K
Brian “sbrugby” Townsend - 45k
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 45k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 33K
Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong - 31K
Felipe “Improved” Montenegro - 31K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 30K
Michael Benvenuti - 30K
Ezra Galston - 28K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 25K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 22K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 21.5K
Patrick Hoffman - 21K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 21k
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 20.5K
David “davidp18″ Peters - 20K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 18K
Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski - 17K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 16.5K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 16K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 15.5K
Aditya Agarwal - 14.5K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 10.5K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 7k
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 5.5K
Top of the Chip Counts or Bust!
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 10:11 pm
With nearly 2/3 of the field already eliminated from event #46, the $5k NLHE six-handed tournament, we’ve seen a lot of action packed hands with both good and bad outcomes for some notable players.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured right) got all his chips in on a flop of 864 and thought his KK was good until his opponent flipped up the 66 for a set. The turn and river didn’t bring any kings and Levy was sent to the rail.
Kings didn’t treat Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi very well either, but only because he wasn’t the one holding them. Sorel was all in preflop holding 77 to his opponents KK and when the board ran out 4223A Sorel’s day came to an end.
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan had been building his stack up as the day progressed and we caught him in a hand with the board reading KJJT5. Ryan (pictured left) bet 2.8k into the 5k pot on the river and his opponent raised enough to put Ryan all in. Ryan said “I have a boat, I call,” but before he could flip over his cards his opponent showed the KJ for a flopped full house. Ryan showed his TT for a turned smaller full house and quietly left the table.
On the more positive side of things, Glen “choron” Chorny had been looking for an opportunity to double and he got all his chips in with KQ against an opponent holding an ace and an unknown card. The flop came with a king to put Chorny in the lead and it was enough to double his small stack.
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut had been sitting on a short stack as well and was facing a 1.5k bet from another player on a flop of T62. Daut thought for a little while before pushing his last 3.5k into the pot and the other player made the call. Daut showed AA to his opponents JT and when the turn and river brought the 2 and 2 Daut doubled almost back to his starting stack.
There are 287 players remaining in the field and they are now on a 90 minute dinner break. Only 78 will make the money with the 1st place finisher taking home an impressive $911,830 and the gold bracelet.
Day 2 action of the $50k HORSE tournament has been going on for a few hours now and Tom “durrrr” Dwan (pictured right) is sitting near the top of the chip counts with 280k. James “mig.com” Mackey and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond are both doing well with 195k and 170k. After starting the day with 41k, Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko has chipped up to 111k while Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo hasn’t been able to make much progress and currently has 74k. Brian “tsarrast” Rast’s stack has been slipping all day as he has fallen to only 17k of the 132k he started the day with and he will be looking to make a move soon.
Mackey Riding High
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 3:21 pm
After day 1 of the massive $50k HORSE event, James “mig.com” Mackey (pictured right) is the chip leader going into day two with 214k. In a field filled with big name pros, online players are definitely making their presence known such as recent bracelet winner Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond who starts today with 161k. Other players still in the hunt include Brian “tsarrast” Rast (132k), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (109k), Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo (80k), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (41k). Well known pros David Williams and Phil Hellmuth weren’t able to make it past day 1 and were among the few players eliminated last night. Play resumes at 2 pm today and we’re sure to see eliminations start coming at faster rate as the blinds and antes continue to rise.
Also restarting this afternoon is event #44, the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tournament. Day 2 will begin with 115 players including Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka who are near the top of the chip counts with 154k and 116k. Stu “TheDonator” Patterson had a good first day as he comes into day 2 with 95k and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen will start the day with 80k.
Just getting started in the Amazon room is event #46 the $5k NLHE six-handed event with over 550 players registered so far. These short handed events have tended to play out fast and furious at this year’s WSOP and we expect this event to be no different. We’ve already spotted numerous P5ers in the field such as Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, and Ryan “Daut44″ Daut. We’ll keep you updated on their progress as the day moves forward.
Online Kids Get on Their HORSE
by AdamJ on 06.26.08, 6:01 am
Despite a hefty 50k buy-in, a handful of online kids are making a run at perhaps the most prestigious bracelet in the WSOP in the 50k HORSE Championship WSOP Event #45.
Although the majority of online players in this tournament are those with a high stakes cash game background, a few players more known for their NL tournament games are playing like James “mig.com” Mackey, Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo and Dario Minieri.
The 148 player field is stacked with incredible tables as expected. No table featured a better lineup of elite players than the one that included two of the biggest winners online in 
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (pictured left) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan with two of the biggest live game winners in Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Dwan, Galfond, and Ivey play each other often in nosebleed NL and PLO game online as well.
Mackey has faired very well at his table that includes a tough cast of characters in David Oppenheim, Andy Bloch, Lyle Berman, Jennifer Harman, David Singer, and online cash game player Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Mackey’s stack has been over the average for most of the tournament and is at 209k as play nears to an end.
Here’s a list of notable online players chip stacks with the average at 105k.
Phil Galfond - 185k
Patrik Antonius - 180k
Dario Minieri - 140k
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 100k
Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo - 81k
Nick Schulman - 70k
Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 55k
Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
by Jill on 06.16.08, 5:48 am
Event #27’s $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em race for the bracelet has concluded for the evening with 18 players remaining in the field. Barry “BarryGS” Schultz sits near the top of the chip count with over 850K, now representing PocketFives in his logo t-shirt.
We caught up with Barry as he was raising preflop from the hijack to 48K with the blinds at 10K/20K. He took down the pot uncontested and did the same thing for the next two consecutive hands. He recounted a story from earlier in the tournament about a hand he played with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Apparently, Barry made his move on the button by pushing all in to Scott’s preflop raise. Barry held 97. Scott, trying to edge out a Scandinavian player at the table, called the raise and flipped over A-J offsuit.
In the only hand Barry has played for his tournament life, he managed to hit a 9 on the river to save his stack and suck out. He recounted how tilted Scott got at the bad beat; apparently Scott raised all in for the next seven hands, despite being deep-stacked even after the beat. The field lost two more players after Barry told his story; play is now down to the final two tables and will resume tomorrow at 2PM PST while players compete for the bracelet and $628,290.
Daniel Negreanu (pictured at right) had much to smile about in the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys as his stack went from 100k to over 1M in twenty minutes. Play was down to the final two tables. Negreanu went over the one million mark when he busted David Williams’ 500k chip stack in the following hand:
On a flop of 732, Williams bet out 40k and Negreanu called. The T dropped on the turn and Williams bet and got raised by Negreanu. Williams reraised all-in, prompting a snap call from Negreanu. Williams tabled the T987, drawing dead to Negreanu’s AT{7s]7 full house.
Negreanu jokingly said he’s hoping to get at least ninth place so he can break even from the 85k he’s invested in the tournament. Many big names remain in the final 14 including Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Alexander Kostritsyn.