WSOP 2008
Money Makr
by Brett on 06.13.08, 12:24 am
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh has been on a tear in Level 16 of the $5K NLHE Event. Slaughbaugh began the level with roughly 170K and has since built his stack to 350K, putting him near the top of the leaderboard.
Slaughbaugh (pictured right) first got involved in a pot with Danny Smith. At 3K/6K blinds, Slaughbaugh raised to 17K from the button and got calls from Smith and Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski in the blinds. On a flop of 5
5
3
, Smith and Wroblewski checked to Slaughbaugh, who bet 28K. Smith called and Wroblewski folded. The 6 fell on the turn and again Smith checked to Slaughbaugh, who instantly shoved for 122K. Smith thought for two minutes before calling with 8
8, which was way behind Cody’s QQ. Slaughbaugh faded the two outer as the K came on the turn and he picked up a pot of 360K.
On the very next hand, Slaughbaugh raised to 18K from the cutoff and Wroblewski raised to 42K from the small blind. Scott Seiver then raised enough to put Anna all in, Slaughbuagh folded and Anna called immediately with KK. Seiver flipped up AJ, and then outdrew her when the A spiked on the turn. Wroblewski finished in 39th place, good for $12,712.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) has just crept over the 200K mark after busting Sam El Sayed. El Sayed shoved his last 35K from the cutoff and Freeman, being the wizard he is, figured he was priced in and made the call with K3, which was ahead of Sayed’s QT. The board ran out J52A4 and El Sayed was eliminated.
Alex “AJKHoosier” Kamberis has also just been taken out in 34th place for $16,147, but there are still a handful of notable online stars still left in the field. Here are some recent chip counts:
Scott “gunning4u” Seiver - 700K
Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet - 225K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 220K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 210K
A loud roar came from the ESPN Tournament Arena just before players in the $5K NLHE went on dinner break. A large crowd had gathered to watch Daniel Negeanu win his fourth WSOP bracelet as he defeated Ugur Marangoz heads up in the $2K Limit HE Event. He’s in a $200,000 bracelet race with Phil Ivey for this year’s WSOP, and as he hoisted bracelet #4 into the air, he yelled, “Me 1, Ivey 0!”
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.
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Stack
by Crystal on 06.12.08, 2:48 am
The blinds are steadily rising in Event #21, the $5k NLHE, and a couple of short stacks are sitting a little prettier now. Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski (pictured at left) got all her chips in on a flop of K53 and found that her AK was ahead of her opponent’s KJ. The T on the turn and Q on the river secured Anna’s double up to around 25k. She continued to aggressively build her stack over the course of the last level.
A few tables over, Jason Gray got all his chips in preflop with the AK and was ahead to his opponent’s AQ. Jason’s brother Craig recently busted out of the $3k HORSE event and was there to rail him as they saw the board come T8699, allowing Jason to double his stack to 23k.
Seated with Howard Lederer to his left, Adam “Roothlus” Levy held the attention of his $5K table by recounting Family Guy jokes as Tim “tmay420″ West struggled to take down small pots with his dwindling stack. Meanwhile, West had two friends bust out of the tournament with their equally short stacks, dropping by the table to hear worlds of consolation. These were recent chip stacks at last count:
Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski - 77K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 35K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 30K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 27K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 26K
Alex Jacobs - 26K
Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth - 22K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 13K
Although Craig “MrCasino” Gray was already out of the $3k HORSE Event #22, Stu “The Donator” Paterson was still in and playing aggressively during the O8 rotation. We caught up with the action on a flop of K75 where Stu led the betting and got two callers. When the A came on the turn, the action went the same way once again. Stu bet, the other two called, and then when the J came on the river, the other two once again called Stu’s bet. Stu flipped over the T642 for the 2nd nut low with a busted straight draw, another player flipped up the K543 for a flopped two pair, but the 3rd player held the AQJ9 for a better two pair which ended up splitting the pot with Stu’s low.
During the Limit Hold’em rotation on a table HORSE nearby, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured at right) raised preflop and was called by the big blind. The flop came J88 and the big blind checked to Saul who bet only to have the big blind raise. Saul made the call and they saw the 3 come on the turn. The big blind bet out and Saul quickly raised which prompted the big blind to fold and Saul scooped the pot.
In Event #20, the $2K Limit Hold’em tournament is down to 31 players of the original 480. Recently eliminated in 44th, Brett “Gank” Jungblut takes home $2,368 and the satisfaction of knowing he got it in good. His K-Q was obviously no good to Fu Wong’s 6-2 when a six flopped out to dash his chances of winning the bracelet.
BK-iCed!
by Crystal on 06.12.08, 12:27 am
Andy “BKiCe” Seth was recently eliminated from the $5k NLHE tournament when his squeeze play failed to squeeze the other players out of the pot.
With the blinds at 300/600 and a 75 ante, Gavin Griffin raised to 1,850 3rd to act. Action folded to the cutoff, who called along with the small blind. Seth, who was in the big blind, then made a large reraise all in for an additional 12,150. Griffin called without much thought but the cutoff’s decision seemed a little tougher. After thinking for awhile, the cutoff called and the small blind folded.
When the flop came Q72, Griffin checked and the cutoff asked him how much he had left. The cutoff then bet 17k into the dry side pot and Griffin folded. The cutoff tabled the AQ for top pair top kicker while Seth held the T8, the fruits of a failed squeeze play that didn’t work out in his favor. The J came on the turn giving Seth a few outs but the T on the river sealed his fate and he was eliminated.
Over in Event #22, the $3K HORSE Tournament, Craig “MrCasino” Gray was having a hard time hitting some great draws in a Stud hand. After 3 betting it on 3rd, his opponent bet out most streets with Gray calling. On 6th both players checked with Gray showing J987 and his opponent showing KA62. After their final cards were dealt both players checked again and when Gray’s opponent called out “Ace high,” Gray sadly looked at his hole cards and mucked, knowing he probably could’ve taken the pot with a bet on the river.
At the other end of the HORSE tournament, Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Kevin “BeL0wAB0ve” Saul were seated at the same table. Saul reported that he nearly hit rock-bottom in the tournament with 275 in chips. Parker, bemused, chimed in that he’d doubled Saul up - twice. As the two recounted the story to PocketFives, Saul nearly managed to double again, taking down a Stud pot with an A high flush and racking up the chip count to 5K. Parker was sitting happily with 11K in chips before the table broke up and the pair were reseated. The average chipstack of the tournament sat at 7K with 352 remaining of the original 414 in the field.
Doug “Resilient” Smith reported that he’s been card dead and hit a low of 3.6K chips in the event, but has since managed to painstakingly increase his stack back up to 6.5K. Zak “traction” Gilbert also hovered in the 7K range just before the break.
Meanwhile, in Event #20’s Limit Hold’Em standoff, players reached the money with Daniel Negreanu leading the pack. Also in the money is Brett “Gank” Jungblut, nursing a very short stack and looking to make a move. More than 40 players remain in the event, play will continue down to the final table.
Day Two of the Pot Limit Omaha event concluded tonight with the elimination of Tony Phillips in 10th place, when chip leader Vanessa Selbst had a huge showdown and managed to pull out two pair on the river. Selbst guards more than half the chips in play going into the final table, plus the well-earned respect of the other players struggling to take her down.
Repeat Performance?
by Brett on 06.11.08, 3:32 pm
James “mig.com” Mackey will look to defend his $5K NLHE title when the event kicks off this afternoon. Last year, Mackey (pictured left) weaved his way through 640 players and a final table that included Michael Binger, Tex Barch, Nick Schulman and Mike Gracz to earn $730,740 and become the third-youngest bracelet winner ever. Last year’s final table lasted just 48 hands and two and a half hours — the fastest final table at the World Series since 2003.
So far we’ve seen Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, Court Harrington and Scott “gunning4you” Siever filing into the Amazon Room to take their seats in what is certainly one of the most anticipated events of the series.
Also getting underway today will be the $3K HORSE Event at 5:00 PT. It is the first HORSE event of the year and the entry was upped from the $2,500 buy-in last year.
Concluding play this evening will be the $5K No-Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys Event, which features a loaded final table of Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Jeff Lisandro, Tony G, David Benyamine and Tom Schneider. Only 85 players entered but the first-place prize will be a monstrous $537,857.
The $1.5K PL Omaha Event will also resume today. Forty-six players remain in the field, including P5ers Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan (70K) and Jamie “The New” Robbins (60K), both of whom have healthy stacks.
One-Hundred twenty-five players will continue play in the $2K Limit Event at 3:00 PT and play down to the final nine tonight. Notable players still remaining in that event are Brett “gank” Jungblut, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar and Mike Schneider.
It’s a busy day here at the Rio. Good luck to everyone playing!