WSOP 2008
How the West Was Won
by Jill on 06.08.08, 12:49 am
In one corner of the Amazon room, the guns were a-blazing between Tim “tmay420″ West (pictured at right) and John Juanda. As PocketFivesLive reported earlier, West was outchipped by Juanda 8:1 but managed to slowly build his stack. When we met up again with the heads-up match that determines the final seat of tomorrow’s shootout table, West was bullying Juanda through plenty of steals and re-raises. After three hours of heads-up play, the tournament director announced that they would be coloring up and taking a twenty-minute break. On the final hand before the break, West called a preflop bet by Juanda and the board flopped T
J
K. Juanda bet again and met a call from West. The turn card came the 9
. Juanda checked to West, who bet 40K. Juanda folded and his stack slipped to 320K, while West increased his stack to 280K.
After the break, the blinds increased to 5K/10K with an ante of 1K. Only a few hands into the new level, Juanda raised to 25K from the small blind. West went all-in and Juanda called, showing A9. West flipped over the A
T and the flop brought him two tens and he became a huge favorite. The turn was 5 and the river the A, improving his hand to a full house. The next hand was a coinflip all-in for Juanda and West flopped a pair of queens to win him the table. Plenty of PocketFivers were spotted railing West’s big win, including Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who is rumored to have more than a friendly interest in his West’s play. The tournament will continue tomorrow at 2PM PST, when West takes on Sirous Jamshidi, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Thomas Roupe, Phil Tom, and Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert.
Event #10’s $2.5K Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better challenge came to a close this evening when Farzad Rouhani won in a heads-up match against Tom Chambers. Rouhani takes home the bracelet, $232,911, and major bragging rights.
There are still notable online players as far as the eye can see in the Event #13 $2.5K NLHE field. This far-from-comprehensive list of chip counts gives you some idea of the players remaining in the field:
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 50K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 40K
Court Harrington - 35K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 32.5K
Thayer Rasmussen - 30K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 28K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 26K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 23K
Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling - 22K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Forhenbach - 21K
Bryan Micon - 16K
Jason Gray - 14K
Jason “jp osu” Potter - 14K
Carl “colson10″ Olson was recently eliminated when he was short stacked and moved all in under the gun with 66. He was called by the player in the small blind who held KK, the board was no help, and he was eliminated midway through Level 8.
Meanwhile, in Event #14, the $10K stud championship, Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich and Justin Bonomo are holding their own against some stiff competition. Bonomo and his fellow Bodog teammate, David Williams, are seated on either side of the dealer at their table, while Rich is playing with Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, David Grey, and Ming Ly. Jordan’s headphones have come in particularly handy for the event.
Gray Day for Craig as Omaha Field Narrows
by Jill on 06.07.08, 5:44 am
Matt “MattG1983″ Graham added a healthy chunk of chips to his stack when he got involved in a this hand with Brandon Cantu shortly after the redraw for the final two tables of the $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card event. With the blinds at 2.5K/5K, Graham raised in the cut off, Farzad Rouhani called from the small blind and Cantu 3 bet from the big blind. Graham and Rouhani both called and the flop came K83.
Brandon bet, Matt raised, Rouhani folded, and Cantu just called. He then checked when the 3 came on the turn and Graham bet again. Cantu called and the river came 9. Both players checked the river and Graham revealed A285 for a eights and threes with an ace kicker. Brandon revealed a very similar hand, A-2-5-10 with the ace of spades, but with no low possibility on the board, he only had a pair of threes and Graham took down the pot, leaving Cantu with 42K. Matt is now up to 90K.
Craig “MrCasino” Gray, on the other hand, has been headed in the opposite direction after a couple of hands in which his opponents chased down hands, leaving him with around 55K in chips. He was later eliminated in 15th place, marking the second time in three days that he made it to the final two tables of a WSOP event. He will be taking home $8,032 for his efforts.
Meanwhile, in the $1.5k Limit Hold ‘Em event, the field has been narrowed to 181 of the original 881. With the blinds at 300/500, action on the tables has slowed to a snail’s pace as the players wait out the last few minutes of the final level for the evening. Eric “jakz101″ Crain (pictured at right) currently sits atop the unofficial chip count rankings with 38.5K in chips, but P5s member John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien is also sitting pretty (in his P5s t-shirt!) going into Day 2. Coverage of this event will start back up at 3pm PST.
Beyond chip counts, the most exciting news comes from Kyle Rickey, and it’s not about his stack. Rickey has reportedly downed more than two dozen Milwaukee’s Best Lights since 5pm; slurring noisily at his table and drawing plenty of laughs from the other players within the vicinity. In other random news, Dmitri Nobles is back at the WSOP this year, reportedly backed by a furniture store for his event play. No, really.
T_Soprano Whacked; Inside Job by MrCasino
by Jill on 06.07.08, 4:13 am
In Event #10, the $2.5k Omaha 8 / Stud 8 contest whittled down to 20 players. The latest casualty was Brock “t_soprano” Parker, who was short-stacked with 28K and the blinds at 2K/4K. Craig “MrCasino” Gray (pictured at left) found himself at Brock’s table yet again, reunited after a long stint sitting side-by-side last night before the end of Day 1. Brock stated he was in push/fold mode just before he posted the small blind. When the action came back around to him, Brock raised, meeting a call from Craig.
The flop came QT7. First to act, Brock raised with little left behind. Craig put him all-in and the two showed down their hands:
Brock: TJKA
Craig: JATQ
Brock failed to improve when the turn and river brought no help; event staff informed him he won 21st place for $6,247. Craig’s stack improved to a well-above-average 141K after the hit.
The field in Event #12, a $1.5K Limit Hold Em event, has already dwindled from its initial 881 players down to 300 midway through Level 7. We spotted a few P5ers still in the event. Here are their chip counts as well as some other notable players still in the event:
John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien - 17K
Marcel Luske - 15K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 15K
Eric “Jakz101″ Crain - 14K
Tom Schneider - 12K
We here at PocketFivesLive would like to bestow the spirit award to John O’Brien, who is not only sporting his P5s tshirt, but also recently took down a huge hand with pocket fives to send him over the 15K mark. P5s FTW!
Recent eliminations in the event include Shaun Deeb, Daniel Negreanu, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles.
Sterling Silvers; Porter Final Tables
by Jessica on 06.07.08, 2:59 am
Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling (pictured at right) put up a valiant and impressive effort in the $5K NLHE Shootout event, but bubbled the money after an epic, four hour heads up battle. Matt and his opponent traded chips back and forth, rarely ever seeing a hand go to showdown. The momentum swung in Matt’s direction when he doubled up with AK to his opponent’s 99 and gave him a 3-1 chip advantage. However, Sterling had several hands where he ended up with the 2nd best and eventually the 3-1 chip advantage was reversed. On the final hand of play, his opponent raised on the button and Matt reraised all in with A2. His opponent called, showing KK. Sterling picked up a gut shot wheel draw on the turn, but the river was no help to him and he was eliminated from the event in 37th place.
A few tables away from the heads-up battle, Brock “t_soprano” Parker was getting short stacked in the $2.5K Omaha 8/Stud 8 event. After getting as low as 18K with the betting amounts at 2.5K/5K with a 500 ante, Brock got it all-in on 6th street in a multi-way pot against Michael Mizrachi and Jeffrey Lisandro. The players showed the following hands:
Parker: JK86
Lisandro: 8A8J
Mizrachi: 4Q4Q
Mizrachi checked on 7th and Lisandro bet, causing Mizrachi to fold. He turned up three small hearts showing A4568 for a flush and corresponding low. Brock held a slightly better A-3-5-6-8 low and took half of the 60K pot. He continued to chip up and now has around 62K in chips. Craig Gray and Matt “MattG1983″ Graham remain in the field of 29 while Scott Clements was eliminated in 39th place, earning $4,016.
In the $1.5K NLHE six-handed event, we caught up with the players as Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter raised preflop and then called down Dave Zand’s short-stack all-in push from the big blind. Porter’s AT met no resistance from Zand’s QT and Zand was eliminated in seventh place. Porter advances to the final table, which commences tomorrow at 2PM PST. He joins John Conkright, Michiel Brummelhuis, Rep Porter, Nathan Templeton, and Anatoly Shilyuk in their quest for this event’s wrist bling.
Parker & Clements Chipping Up
by Jessica on 06.06.08, 11:56 pm
In the $2.5K Stud 8/Omaha 8 event, Brock “t_soprano” Parker (pictured at right) and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements are seated side by side as the final 5 tables approach the money bubble. Clements lost most of his chips in an earlier Omaha hand with John Racener, who scooped the pot and left Clements with 9K, less than five big bets. With the blinds at 1K/2K with a 500 ante, Parker brought in the stud hand hand for a completed bet to 2K with the 6 up. Clements raised with his Q and another player with the K offered to put Clements all in for his remaining 3700 before Parker reminded him he was still in the hand. The player apologized before 3-betting. Parker made the call and Clements moved all-in for his remaining 1700. Both made the call and their cards came as follows:
Clements: Q2TQ
Parker: 6844
Opponent: K5KJ
After 7th street, Parker missed his low, but had 2 pair, 4s and 6s. The other player held kings and jacks with no low, and Clements turned over an ace and 2 deuces for the boat and scooped the pot. He is now up to around 23K.
Despite losing the hand, Parker was still very active throughout the level and sits with a relatively healthy 47K. Craig “mr. casino” Gray also remains in the event, but his mind appeared to be more on a $100 side bet than the event itself. Gavin Smith laid Craig Gray 15-1 that Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler would finish in exactly 43rd place. Poker writer Gary Wise observed Smith’s terrible line on the bet since 40 spots pay and Kessler, who is notorious for tight play around the money bubble, would likely not let himself be eliminated without getting paid. Wise’s suggestion for a better line? 39th place. We’ll see if Wise’s predicition is correct, but in the meantime, Smith will be paying up as 41 players, Kessler included, remain in the event.
Meanwhile, in the $10K Mixed Game Championship, Anthony “tongni” Rivera crippled Michael DeMichele in an unreal race of 2-7 Triple Draw. DeMichele showed down 8-7-5-4-3 to Rivera’s 8-7-5-3-2 and was left with 40K. Shortly afterwards, DeMichele went all-in pre-draw and was eliminated by Rivera. He takes home $139,872 for his valiant efforts.
At the dinner break, the final table was three-handed with the following chip counts:
Tony “tongni” Rivera - 1.896M
Matt Glantz - 1.015M
James “mig.com” Mackey - 926K