WSOP 2008
Babes in Pokerland
by Crystal on 06.08.08, 4:04 pm
The Amazon room has quite a different feel to it today; It looks prettier, smells better, and many of the female masseuses have magically transformed into men. This is all because today kicked off the $1k Ladies NLHE tournament. The room is filled with notable female players such as Katja Thater, Susie Isaacs, Shirley Williams, Vanessa Rousso, Clonie Gowen, Jennifer Tilly, Camryn Manheim, Cheryl Hines, Kathy Najimy, and P5’s own reporter Jess Welman (pictured at right). We wish Jess the best of luck and know that today’s event will be exciting to watch!
Speaking of watching, the rails around each section of the room are filled with boyfriends and husbands watching their significant others battle it out on the felt. We can only hope that the men don’t intervene as we’re sure the ladies will do just fine on their own!
With 1,190 entries after the first hour of play they’re 96 entries short of a tie with last year’s total registration, but entries will be accepted until the end of the 2nd hour of play so we could see an even larger field this year.
In about an hour, three other events will resume play:
- The final table of the $5k Shootout where Tim “TMay420″ West and Leo “Mr Superfluous” Wolpert will be looking to claim the top prize of $477,990;
- The final two tables of the $1.5k LHE event where John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien is still in contention with Erik Lindgren, who is looking to claim bracelet #2 at this years WSOP;
- Day 2 of the $2.5k NLHE event where there are numerous P5ers still in the hunt, including Theo Tran, Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Aaron Been, Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling, Frank “Round42″ Rusnak, Craig “MrCasino” Gray, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Bryan Micon, and Carter “ckingusc” King.
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 A
Q
trailed Rouso’s A
K.
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 K
J4 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.
A Trifecta of Updates
by Jessica on 06.02.08, 10:22 pm
With three different events running simultaneously, we have updates from all corners of the Amazon Room.
Event #2 -
Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck’s (pictured at left) day has ended in Event #2. She struggled with a short stack throughout Day 2 and finally found a spot to get her chips in. At 800/1,600, a player in middle position raised to 4,500 and Mayrinck shoved her last 9K into the pot. The original raiser called with 99 and had her 77 in big trouble. The board revealed QQ6K9 and Maridu exited the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event — but with some extra cash in her pocket.
Event #3 -
Tables were quickly busted as the number of players dropped under 200 in the 1.5K PL Hold Em. 180 players remain and several P5ers have been eliminated in Levels 5 and 6. Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams, and James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell have all been eliminated. Adam “adam_mc” McGregor also saw an end to his tournament day when his AK couldn’t hold up against his opponent’s AQ.
Event #4 -
To try to type up a list of all of the stacked tables in this event would take us the rest of the afternoon, so you are going to have to take our word that this is a very tough field. Some noteworthy side by side combinations spotted around the room are Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Isaac Haxton and Alex “AJKHoosier” Kamberis, and the PokerStars Pro trio of Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, and Dario Minieri.
In addition to those three, Eric “Rizen” Lynch is also seated at that table. Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek was briefly at the table as well, but he was eliminated early in the tournament when the following hand transpired at the NL portion of the 25/50 blind level: A player in early position raised to 150 and Vanessa Rousso and another player called. Casey then reraised to 750 on the button with A K and Rousso and another player made the call. The flop came J 7 3 and Jarzabek led out for 1,700. One of his oppponent’s flat called, Vanessa reraised to 4,000, and Casey moved all-in. Rousso showed a set of 7s to Jarzabek’s nut flush, but a 3 fell on the turn, giving her a full house and eliminating Casey from play.
Noteworthy Tables
by Jessica on 05.31.08, 4:29 pm
Event #2 is underway. Players began with 3k in starting chips with the hour-long blinds starting at 25/50. When tournament play began, the Amazon room was overflowing with players, so much so that some have been relocated to other parts of the Rio for the early levels of play.
Many familiar faces stood out from the crowd and the random table draw produced a few stacked tables. Bill Edler, Tom Schneider, and Hevad Khan began the day at the same table until Khan busted midway through Level 1. Several other tables included two or more noteworthy players. Poker Stars pros Vanessa Rousso and Steven-Paul Ambrose are seated at the same table and it looks like Adam “adam_mc” McGregor and Brock “t_soprano” Parker will be spending the first part of their tournament day side by side. Table Red 31 features an impressive line-up as well, including Men Nguyen, Sabyl Cohen, and Phil Ivey.
Level 2 is now underway with the blinds at 50/100.