WSOP 2008
Nothing But Net
by Jessica on 06.11.08, 12:22 am
Over the past half an hour, progressively less poker is being played here in the Amazon room as more and more players become caught up in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. All of the televisions in the Amazon Room are either being used as tournament clocks or to broadcast the game. We have had to be careful where we stand as many players, who likely have interest in the game past simple team spirit, have been verbally abusing anyone who gets in their way.
Over at the 2-7 single draw event, Mike Matusow berated the tournament director for accidentally standing in front of the television. Many of the remaining players are craning their necks to try to catch the remaining minutes of the game. The media has dubbed the space between the tables and television in this area a “no fly zone” and are doing their best to avoid walking through there at all costs. One player who doesn’t seem particularly upset about being seated with the back to the television is Tom “durrrr” Dwan (pictured at left), who is listening to music on his headphones and continuing to build his already large chip stack. Even though the money bubble is still a few players away, Dwan appeared to be doing a nice job of maintaining aggression as the NBA money bubble was determined in the final minutes of the 4th.
In other news, the $1.5K Ladies Event has crowned Svetlana Gromenkova as the winner of the event after she defeated Anh Le heads up. On the final hand Svetlana and Anh got it all in pre-flop with pocket kings and A-5 respectively. The flop provided Le with a gut shot straight draw, but the turn and river were no help and she was eliminated in second place.
At the final table of the $2K Omaha Hi/Lo Event #15, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements’ stack looked dangerously low as the table is down to seven players after the elimination of Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke and Allan Enciso. Clements trailed the pack with 120K after losing a pot to Jim Pechac who flipped over a pair of eights on the river, not expecting to win. When we caught up with the table, the current chipleader, Ted Forrest, was bullying with his big stack and preventing much action from occurring. In order to win another bracelet, Clements must make a move - and fast. In the meantime, the players have taken a 90-minute dinner break and will be back with a vengeance at 10:30PM PST as they race for the bracelet.
In the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em event, the field narrowed to three as Rory Monahan was eliminated in 4th for $82,582. The players have returned from dinner break and we will continue to update their progress.
Shootout–Take Two
by Jessica on 06.10.08, 2:10 am
Play is finally underway for Round Two of the $1.5K NLHE Shootout event after the final, marathon heads up session of Round One came to a close. The original plan was to break for one hour after the last table was completed, but when that table ran so late, they shortened the break to around 15 minutes before resuming play. Unfortunately for Brian “Like7″ Lamanna, no one told him about the changes, so he did not arrive to the event until the first level was nearly over. Brian has some ground to make up and has 20K of his 30K starting stack left with the blinds at 400/800 and a 100 ante.
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn (pictured at left) exited the tournament shortly before Lamanna arrived and 13 other players have headed home for the night as well. Most of the tables are still relatively full, but play will not end until each of the ten tables has played down to a single winner. Here are the chip counts of several P5ers and notable online players remaining in the field:
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 55K
Matthew “Hazards21″ Gianetti - 50K
Casey “ccmuney” Coleman - 37K
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 35K
David “nutsr84444″ Redlin - 35K
Tom “SBRounder” West - 29K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 20K
Across the room, the $10K Stud Championship event crowned Eric Brooks their winner and he will be taking home $415,856 for his efforts.
The other events still taking place as the night progresses are the $1K ladies event, which is one player away from setting the final table, the $5K 2-7 Single Draw with rebuys, and the $2K Omaha Hi/Lo Split event.
Original Hanksta
by Brett on 06.09.08, 3:25 pm
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks earned a trip to his first ever major live final table early this morning when the $2.5K NLHE Event reached its final nine players. Hanks (pictured right) will sit down with 755K in chips (5/9) with the blinds at 12K/24K and a 3K ante when play kicks off at 2:00 PT. First place is a colossal $666,777.
Adam “akat11″ Katz was the unfortunate 10th place finisher in the tournament, earning $38,235 — most of which will probably go to his masseuse Erin, who spent almost all of the first two days keeping Adam relaxed. Katz was knocked out by chip leader Duncan Bell, whose A
3 on a board of A
Q3
K
had Adam’s K-Q drawing thin when all of their chips got in on the turn.
Also resuming play today will be the $1K ladies event, where P5ers Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck (25K) and Amanda Leatherman (11.5K) hope to make a move with 61 players still alive. The $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event will also pick up where it left of from yesterday. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (30K), Mark “Omaholic” Roland (28K), Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury (24K) and Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (19K) are some the 169 players remaining in the field.
The $1.5K NLHE event has just kicked off at noon with dozens of online stars hoping to follow in the footsteps of NLHE bracelet winner Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci and — hopefully after today — Brent Hanks.
Good luck to all P5ers today!
Katz Lands on His Feet
by Jessica on 06.09.08, 5:26 am
Aaron “akat11″ Katz has been on quite a roller coaster ride the past two levels. He lost a large pot earlier when the blinds were 8K/16K when two shorter stacks moved all-in in front of him for approximately 120K each and he called with TT. The other players showed 55 and KQ and the board ran out K834Q, leaving Katz with less than 200K in chips.
A few rounds later at the same blind level, Katz raised to 40K in late position and the player in the small blind reraised 225K more. Adam paused for a moment (but Erin kept right on massaging) before moving all in for just a few thousand more. The other player called and showed AJ and Katz flipped up AA. The board was no help to his opponent and Katz now has 450K. Shawn Buchanan, Brent Hanks, and Jason Mercier also remain in the field.
Here are some brief updates from the other events that went on today:
Event #12 - $1.5K Limit Hold Em
Play is currently heads up between Zac Fellows and Jimmy Schultz. The winner of this heads up showdown will be taking home $257K while second place will net $165K.
Event #14 - $10K 7 Card Stud Championship
14 players remain and play will continue until they are down to the final table of eight. Several known live cash game players including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel remain. The chip leader is currently David Oppenheim, who has 535K in chips.
Event #15 - $1K Ladies Event
Val “Runnerspleas” Palermo made the money in the ladies event, but failed to make Day 2 when she got it all in preflop with AK vs AQ and lost when a queen came on the turn. We here at P5s Live (and by we, we mean Jess, who went out of the ladies event exactly the same way earlier today) feel her pain, but congratulate her on her deep run in the event. Some familiar faces among the 62 ladies returning to play tomorrow are Amanda Leatherman, Linda Johnson, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, and Aimee “Allinat420Girl” Logue.