WSOP 2008
Wrapping Up
by Court on 04.20.08, 11:24 pm
The second flight of day 1 players are in the closing stages of their first day of play. With 430 players left in the field and less than a half hour of play day 2 play should begin with over 400 players. As the clock winds down a little more play will be paused and then each table will play a set number of hands and be done for the day.
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (right) has been limping along with between 5k and 6k for the last hour or so and will need to finish strong today or get out of the gates quick tomorrow before the blinds eat him up. Jimmy recently turned 21 and has been taking advantage of his legal age by playing in the live cash games here at the Bellagio and then entering into the $25k event.
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby was up around the 100k mark late in the day, but recently lost about 25k chips to Thomas Wahlroos when he called bets on the turn and river but then mucked his hand when Wahlroos showed pocket kings for an overpair to the board.
Amit “Amak316″ Makhija, Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, and Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich are all seated up on the elevated table on the stage. All remaining players will be at new seats tomorrow with the combined field being redrawn for seats.
Saul Busts, Friedberg Loses a Big One
by Court on 04.20.08, 9:34 pm
The largest denomination chip in play on the day 1s here are the Bellagio are the blue 10k chips. There are also grey and pink 5k chips and with the 50k starting stacks there are plenty of both of the large denomination chips moving around the room.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (left) spent the last couple of hours without either in his stack, working with only the brown 1k chips and the orange 500 chips along with the smaller denominations. With the blinds at 200 / 400 and a 50 ante a player opened for 1,200 and another player called. Kevin also matched the bet from the big blind and the flop came 6
5
3. Kevin checked and one of the other players put out a bet of 2,500. Saul gathered his chips and pushed them all into the middle, a bet of somewhere around 12k. The other player snap called and showed the 78 for about every draw you could think of while Kevin was hoping to fade a lot of cards to have his 95 hold up.
The A
was one of the blanks Saul needed but the 6 on the river completed the flush draw and busted Saul midway though day 1B.
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (right) came up on the bad end of a flush too, only moments after Saul’s elimination. As I walked up a player had the 52 exposed in front of him with a board showing a club flush on the river while Friedberg was counting out chips to send over.
The total pot ended up being around 60k, but after the hand Jon still had 40k chips left. The “what could have been” look was clear on Jon’s face for a brief moment, but by the time the cards were shuffled and the next hands was dealt he was right back into his normal game face.
Hitting Sets, Hanging On, Chipping Up
by Court on 04.20.08, 8:21 pm
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich (left) got off to a rough start when he had set under set early in the first level and dropped from the 50k starting stack down to 30k. A few levels later he had notched a few more sets, and chipped up to just over 70k. A lot of those chips came from David “Bakes” Baker. Jordan was able to fill up with his pocket threes when a trey hit on the river. The board had paired sevens and Rich’s full house won the pot. Jordan said Baker didn’t show his hand but he was fairly certain he had a 7.
Some of Baker’s chips weren’t enough though. Jordan was in a 3-way pot with Baker and another player on a flop of K-T-7 and when an 8 hit on the turn he had made another set. The set of eights was one step above Baker’s flopped set of sevens and when all was said and done all the chips were in the middle and Baker saw his tournament ended in just 2 big hands.
Glen “Choron” Chorny (right) is fresh off a life changing victory in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Players always want more though and dual titles in the two major poker tours would be an accomplishment difficult for anyone to match. Chorny has some work to do to be a contender here though. After three levels of play on day 1 he is down to around 15k and one of the shorter stacks in the field. It is early though and a few big hands could put him right back in contention.
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman is playing his usual steady style and has chipped up to almost 60k after three levels. Werman doesn’t play all the events, but he is a regular for the big tourneys here at the Bellagio and seems very comfortable in this setting.
Tom “durrrr” Dwan (left) lost a bet and is wearing a fruit basket hat, but is all smiles for now even with the goofy hat. Dwan was able to eliminate Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo when he ran down Bonomo’s queens. Durrrr is up to 140k after a few nice pots and is trailing only Rhynie Campbell in the Day 1B chip counts.
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan has also worked his way towards the top of the chip counts and was pushing the 100k mark at last check.