WSOP 2008
Omaha Stakes Rise
by Jill on 06.29.08, 7:34 pm
Nearly 100 players have already been eliminated in the $10K Pot Limit Omaha World Championship, Event #50, despite the reload chip requiring mandatory usage after Level 3. Registration topped at 381; 288 players remain in the tournament.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was one of the recent chip leaders in the last few levels, but his stack kept shrinking with some sick hands. In one recent example, we caught up with the action as Scott bet out 2.8K after the turn on a board of 3
3
JA. Another player moved all in and Scott called. Scott exclaimed, “Don’t tell me you have quads!” just before his opponent flipped over two threes for the nuts. Scott’s pocket aces made a boat, but nothing could catch him up on the river and he was down to about 30K.
Recent eliminations include Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Vanessa Selbst; Jamie “TheNew” Robbins (pictured at right) and Stu “thedonator” Paterson were also suspiciously missing from their old tables, replaced by other players. Here are some unofficial chip counts of notable players who remained in the event:
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 94K
Dario Minieri - 40K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 36K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 34K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 28K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 16K
Alex Jacobs - 14K
Tom McEvoy - 14K
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 11K
Meanwhile, the final table of Event #45, the $50K HORSE World Championship has begun after the unveiling of the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. The house is standing-room only in the Amazon Room and spectators fill the gallery with applause after every hand. Michael DeMichele managed to win several of the last few pots and is on an upswing in the Razz rotation; Patrick Bueno has already busted in 9th place and Erick Lindgren retains his chip lead. More on this exciting conclusion as it develops!
Italian Pirate Wins a Ton of Booty
by Jessica on 06.15.08, 3:09 pm
Max Pescatori took home the $2.5K PL HE/O bracelet last night, defeating Kyle “RedEye33″ Kloeckner in heads up play and winning $246,741in the process. Kloeckner earned $152,410 for his efforts. Other notable finishes at the table include Allen Cunningham, who placed 4th for $76,205, and Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa, who came in 6th for $48,876.
The $10K HU Championship event is down to the final four and today Vanessa Selbst, Kenny Tran, Alec Torelli, and Jonathan Jaffe will play down to a winner. Selbst (pictured left) is two wins away from picking up her second bracelet in as many events and amazingly took third in the heads-up event last year. The semifinal round will begin at 2:00 PT and the winners will then play a best-of-3 championship match.
Barry Greenstein will enter the $1,500 Razz final table as 2nd in chips with 243,000 as play begins at 3:00 PT. Brandon “BrandonPL” Leeds is third with 206,000.
Several online players are still among the field of 224 in Event #27 ($1,500 No-Limit Hold’em). Court Harrington (79.4K), Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan (65.6), Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen (61.5K), Billy Westom (32.4K) and Jason Gray (29.9) are still heathy and look to play into the evening as the field dwindles down to nine.
Cole “cts” South, Brian “tsarrast” Rast and Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis are all still playing for the enormous $817,781 first-place price in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys event. The tournament is filled with heavy-hitters, including chip leaders David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren and John Juanda.
And, finally, the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em and $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship will get underway today. The $3K NLHE just got kicked off at noon with more than 600 players in their seats. The Limit event will begin at 5:00 PT.
Good luck to all playing today!
Gavin Fun
by Jessica on 06.14.08, 6:08 pm
Round 4 of the $10K Heads Up event has been running less than an hour, but already players are making quick work of their opponents. Recent bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst was the first to advance to the Sweet 16 and shortly on her heels was Gavin Griffin (pictured at right), who won his match after the following hand transpired:
With starting stacks of 160K and the blinds at 1K/2K, Griffin raised to 5K total and Alex Kostritsyn made the call. The flop came 4
3
2 and Kostritsyn checked. Griffin bet out 8K and Alex raised 10.5K on top. Griffin thought for a moment before raising again for 30K more. Kostritsyn then moved all-in for another 35K or so and Griffin called with AJ to his KK. The turn came T and the river was a king, but the K, which gave Griffin the winning flush.
The 2,706 person field of the $1.5K NLHE Event #27 has been narrowed to 1,970 already and several players are starting to build their stacks. Here are some chip counts we spotted heading into the break:
13K - Craig “MrCasino” Gray
7.5K - Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul
7K - Court Harrington
6.6K - Scott “ssitron” Sitron
6K - Mike “wiscomurray” Murray
4.7K - Michael “moneymike10″ Prepelica
Other players, like Joe Sebok, made an early exit in the event. Joe was eliminated in Level 1 of play when he got it all-in preflop with A-K to Roy Winston’s pocket queens. The board came out 9 high and Winston was the benefactor of an early double up. In addition to Sebok, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Nick “fu_15″ Maimone, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Shane “shaniac” Schleger also made early exits.
Robbins Takes 8th in PLO
by Jessica on 06.12.08, 7:34 pm
While the $2k may be the largest event in the Amazon Room today, there are several others running at the same time. Both the $2K Limit Hold Em and the $1.5K PLO are playing out their final tables today and should have bracelet winners determined within a few hours. In the $2K LHE event, Daniel Negreanu is towards the top of the chip counts with 8 players remaining.
The $1.5K PLO is already down to four players and Vanessa Selbst has a substantial chip lead over the rest of the field. In fact, she currently holds more chips than the remaining players’ chip stacks combined total. Pocket Fives’ Jamie “The New” Robbins (pictured at left) was eliminated in 8th place and will be taking home $28,490.
The $5K NLHE event has only been playing for around two hours, but several notable players have already been eliminated including Jason Gray, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Ben Grundy, Gavin Smith, and Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Amit “amak316″ Makhija appeared to be in good shape after winning a big pot when he eliminated Gavin Smith with pocket queens to Smith’s K-J. However, a few hands later, he got it all-in with pocket tens against the pocket aces of Adam Geyer after the flop came 744. The turn and river were no help and he was eliminated.
Less than 90 players remain including Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, who recently doubled up to 60K through Blake Caihil.
The $3K HORSE event has also begun play for Day 2 and the new table draw has been less than kind to Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at right), who is sandwiched in between Todd Brunson and Marcel Luske. Saul remains in good spirits though and joked with us about what a soft table he ended up at. The stiff competition doesn’t seem to be deterring him though—he is currently 2nd in chips with 51K. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, James “mig.com” Mackey, and Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich are also still in the event.
The New Omaha Champ?
by Brett on 06.11.08, 8:28 pm
Jamie “The New” Robbins has been adding chips to his already-sizeable stack in today’s $1.5K Pot-Limit Omaha, and has just eliminated Chau Giang in 34th place to increase his total to over 110K. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K, Robbins (pictured right) raised to 7K preflop with 9876 and Giang and another player called. On a flop of K88, Robbins bet 23K and Chiang moved in for 30K more. Robbins tanked and eventually made the call after nearly three minutes to find that he was in excellent shape against Giang’s AKQT. Robbins’ hand held and he found himself among the chip leaders.
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan is sitting with over 90K after busting a short stack at his table. Morgan limped in early position, the small blind completd and the big blind raised to 12K with 6K behind. Morgan re-raised 20K more, the small blind folded and big blind pushed his remaining chips in the pot. Morgan held T-T-8-7 and his opponent had A-K-Q-6 (double suited). The board ran out J-T-7-J-5, giving Morgan a full house and increasing his stack to around 95K.
Vanessa Selbst (300K), Eugene Todd (90K), Nam Le (45K) and Carter “devinr12″ Gill (40K) are some of the other notable players left in the dwindling 31-person field. Play will conclude today when the final nine are decided. A bracelet and first-place prize of $227,965 will be awarded tomorrow.