WSOP 2008
Wolpert’s Bracelet Run Sunk by River
by AdamJ on 06.09.08, 12:59 am
A self admitted broke college student and teacher’s assistant just a few years ago, P5er Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert’s student loans shouldn’t be much of a concern anymore.
Wolpert, whose previous biggest score was from an online rebuy tournament for 31k, took third in the 5k NL Shootout WSOP Event #11 for 187k.
Wolpert took down quite a bit more however since the players agreed to a 3-way chop for 300k apiece, playing for the remainding purse and the WSOP bracelet.
If not for a river card that poker players have nightmares about, Wolpert may have taken home even more money and a bracelet.
With blinds at 25k-50k with a 5k ante, Wolpert moved all-in from the sb for 425k with K
3
. Greg “FBT” Mueller, called with K
2 in the big blind.
When both players tabled their cards, a Harrah’s tournament official and announcer said this hand will most likely end in a chop to the small crowd of about 30 people watching inside the dimly lit ESPN arena.
After a A
Q85 board, the harrah’s official announced that unless one of the players paired their cards the pot would be split.
When the 2 dropped on the river, Mueller’s fans roared and Wolpert was off to an exit interview.
Winning the Shootout Event has been proclaimed as even more of a feat than winning other bracelet events by some pro’s like Daniel Negreanu because the winner had to come through winner’s of previous tables and succeed at multiple stages of full-ring, short-handed and heads-up play.
In typical Wolpert fashion, he downplayed the notion that a good showing in this event was more impressive and said it was more of a gamble fest with the shallow structure.
Despite coming so close to the coveted bracelet, Wolpert didn’t seem very upset about the river card that kept him from having a shot at winning it.
“The money means more to me than a bracelet,” he said. “Since i’m a professional poker player, the money is paramount to me.”
Phil Tom, the eventual winner who defeated Greg “FBT” Mueller, confirmed to being the father of Scott Tom to a media member.
Scott Tom was a former Absolute Poker executive who came under fire for the superuser account “PotRipper”.
Seek and Destroy
by Jessica on 06.08.08, 11:26 pm
The $2.5K NLHE is losing players left and right and many of them have been at the hands of P5ers. Aaron Been (pictured at left) kicked off the festivities when he opened for 15K with the blinds at 3K/6K with a 500 ante. The player in the cut off called and then a player in the blinds moved all in. Been made the call with AJ to his oppononent’s K9 and an A on the turn sent the other player to the rail.
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks eliminated a player when they moved all in from the hijack position for 38.5K on top of the blind. Brent thought for some time before asking his opponent if he is pushing with any two cards. He followed up his question by noting that, “he could beat any two” before throwing in his chips and looking away at the same time. When he finally brought himself to look back, Brent found himself in a race situation with KQ to the other player’s 88. The board came out KT9J4, the other player was eliminated, and Hanks is up to 200K going into dinner break.
Adam “akat11″ Katz (pictured at right), who was recently seated next to Hanks’ got involved in an even bigger hand a few minutes later. The player under the gun raised to 30K and another player in middle position moved all-in for 130K. Katz then moved all-in over the top of the second player, inducing the initial raiser to fold. Katz showed AK against the other player’s QQ for a classic race situation. Katz looked to be in bad shape after the flop came QJ3, but the turn and river came 46, bringing Katz the nut flush. That monster pot sent Katz up to 375K.
After the hand, the other players at the table gave Katz some lighthearted ribbing for moving all-in behind the player, who apparently had been playing an extremely tight game. Adam summed up the situation best when he stated, “akat11 runs good”.
O’Brien Feels the Chill
by Crystal on 06.08.08, 9:19 pm
No one likes a cold deck and John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien certainly didn’t like one as the $1.5k LHE event was nearing the final table. We reported earlier a couple of big hands that hurt his stack and when O’Brien returned from the break the coolers continued. In one hand O’Brien’s pocket tens ran into another players pocket queens knocking his chip stack down pretty low. He then got all his chips in on the turn of a board showing 9444 while holding the AK only to find he was drawing dead to his opponents AA. He gracefully shook the hands of his tablemates and left saying that he was very happy with how well he did and he’ll be back tomorrow to play in the $1.5k Shootout which he cashed in last year.
The $5k Shootout final table is now down to 4 players all thanks to Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert. Thomas Roupe bet his last 31k and Wolpert raised over the top to isolate. Leo was way ahead holding the AK to Roupe’s T7. The board ran out 94259 and Roupe was eliminated in 6th place. Only 5 hands later, Tim “tmay420″ West put all his chips in preflop with the 99 only to find he was dominated by Wolpert’s KK. The board of 742JT was no help to West and he was eliminated in 5th place. West will take home $63,450 for his efforts today. Wolpert is now up to 2.4 million in chips and is the current chip leader.
Across the room, the $2k O8 event #16 began a little while ago and while the action has been rather slow (as is in the beginning of most limit tournaments) we’re keeping our eyes on some P5ers in the field including Chris “SKOAL” Falconer, Jeff “gnsd22″ Higgins, Senovio “Dorsal Fin” Ramirez, and Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury.
Bubble Bursts in $2.5K NLHE Event
by Jill on 06.08.08, 7:03 pm
After a nerve-wracking half-hour, the bubble has finally burst in the $2.5K NLHE event, leaving several PocketFivers in the money and scrambling for chips. Prior to the money, PocketFives caught up with Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling, looking extremely short with about 30K in chips. Faced by a preflop re-raise of 20K, Sterling folded his cards and donated his chips to the opponent in the small blind. The next hand, Aaron Been (pictured at left), also at the table, took down the pot with a preflop raise from the cutoff.
Sterling experienced several more tense moments when shoving all-in. The players remaining dwindled to 100 when Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, to Sterling’s left, bubbled and the tournament went hand-for-hand in a JJ vs 88 race. Ferguson’s pocket eights couldn’t hold up and shortly afterwards, the tournament director announced that the tournament had reached the money. Cheers were still dying down when Sterling shoved in his remaining chips on the next hand. His micro-stack couldn’t hold up and he was eliminated in 99th place.
PocketFivers remaining in play include Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman. Other chip counts include:
Aaron Been - 130K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 90K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 50K
The tournament plays down to the final table tonight and we wish all the PocketFivers the best of luck!
Meanwhile, the $5K No-Limit Hold’em Shootout is underway and Tim “tmay420″ West doubled up through Greg Mueller to 850K in chips. Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert has taken down a few sizable pots to increase his stack to 1.2M chips.
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.