WSOP 2008
Gbmantis Preys on TheWacoKidd; Seiver Scores
by Jill on 06.14.08, 12:06 am
After the dinner break concluded, play resumed in the Brazillia room with several PocketFivers still in play in the $2K No-Limit Hold’em event. At Table #61, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (pictured at left) sat short-stacked, his chip count about 35K. Aggressively pursuing more from the cutoff with the blinds at 3K/6K, he moved all in and took down a preflop pot to improve his stack to 52K.
The next hand, however, Nick “gbmantis” Niergarth on the button eyed Hamby’s stack when Hamby moved all in once again. Niergarth moved all in to isolate Hamby from the early limper, who easily made the fold. When the two flipped their cards, Hamby held Q
Q
to Niergarth’s A-J. The board ran out A
JK7J, improving Niergarth’s hand and knocking an upset Hamby out of the tournament.
Scott “gunning4u” Seiver was just crowned the champion of Event #21, the $5k No-Limit Hold’Em tournament. Seiver came into the final table as the massive chip leader holding more than 2.5 million in chips, while second place held a little over 1 million.
Seiver dominated both the final table and an action packed heads-up match that lasted only a little over an hour. In the final hand, Seiver called Dave Seidman’s preflop raise and they saw the flop come 9
73. Seiver bet out, Seidman raised and Seiver then pushed all in. Seidman made the call with his A7 to find that he was behind to Seiver’s K9. The meaningless 5 on the turn and 3 on the river secured Seiver’s victory. He wins the gold bracelet and $755,891.
Josephy, Clements Eliminated
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 5:48 pm
By the fifth level of play in the $10K heads-up only a handful of matches continued play. On one side of the Amazon Room, Cliff “Johnnybax” Josephy (pictured at right) was tangling with European pro Johannes Strassmann while Josephy provided some live action PokerXFactor-style commentary for both his opponent and the crowd on the rail. Bax’s analysis of heads up play was cut short when he moved all in on the button for just shy of 10K with the blinds at 500/1K and Strassmann made the call with 66. Josephy held KQ and failed to improve, eliminating him after nearly two hours of play.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also fought a lengthy battle with his opponent before suffering a pretty brutal beat to knock him out of the event. The two players got it all in pre-flop with Clements holding KK to his opponent’s AJ. Clements looked in good shape to double up and take a substantial chip lead after the flop and turn, with his opponent drawing dead to an ace. However, the A peeled off on the river and the other player advanced to Round Two.
More Eliminations:
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Taylor Caby, last year’s champ Daniel Schreiber, Sorel Mizzi, and Daniel Alaei
Headed to Round 2:
Cole “cts” South, Dario Minieri, and JC Tran
Day Two of play in the $2K NLHE is underway and several players have already hit the rail as well as doubled up. Court Harrington was the benefactor of an early Day 2 double up and now sits at 23K.
The final table of the $5K NLHE also began at 2pm and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman has already been eliminated in 9th place on the second hand of the day when his AK was no match for Scott Seiver’s QQ. He will take home $69,714.
Mano a Mano
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 3:03 pm
In a matter of minutes the $10K NLHE Heads-Up Championship will be underway. Registration was capped at 256 players who will be vying for the bracelet. Players will be starting with 20K in chips with the 20-minute blind levels beginning at 100/200.
In a couple of hours, the final table of the $5K NLHE event will kick off as nine players, including Scott “gunning4you” Seiver and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman will be vying for the bracelet and the $755,891 first place prize.
The Cooler
by Brett on 06.13.08, 5:08 am
It was cold.
With the blinds at 6K/12K and 13 players remaining in the $5K NLHE Event, Anders Henriksson raised to 33K from early position and Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet reraised to 100K, with 200K behind in his stack. Action folded back to Henriksson, who shoved for a total of 229K and Van Fleet quickly called, only to find that his QQ was way behind the KK of Henriksson. The board ran out 742K and, of course, Q on the river to leave everyone wondering what could have been.
Van Fleet was left with 68K, but then doubled up on the very next hand. He shoved in early position with A2 and was called by Adam Geyer with 44. Van Fleet hit the A on the flop and managed to dodge a two-outer to stay alive.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) lost a crucial race in what has been a rough hour for the remaining online stars. Freeman raised to 31K from under the gun and Chuck Sklar moved all in from the small blind for 140K more. Scott quickly called with AK and was unhappy to see Sklar’s 33. Freeman shook his head as the board revealed QT867 and he was left with around 350K.
Scott “gunning4u” Seiver is still the commanding chip leader with 1.4 million. He took out the last player, Humberto Brenes, whom spectators were sad to see go.
Speaking of which, P5er Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin was eliminated in 15th place for $25,767 and Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh was out in 19th place for $19,583. Both are still hanging around to watch.
Be sure to stick around tonight as we cover Event #21, as well as the $3K Horse Event, all the way to the final table.
Home Run for Baldwin
by Brett on 06.13.08, 2:33 am
It might translate better to a single and a three-base error in baseball terminology, but Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is pleased with the result regardless. Here’s how the enormous pot in the $5K NLHE Event went down: A player under the gun raised to 24K at 4K/8K blinds and Baldwin (pictured left) shoved in middle position for 170K. Thanhdat Tran then pushed his last 70K into the middle and it folded around to Ben Sprengers in the small blind, who called and had all players covered. The under-the-gun player folded and all hands were revealed:
Baldwin - 75
Tran - QQ
Sprengers - JJ
The 742 flop gave a little hope to Balwin’s seemingly irreparable hand, and then the remaining players at every table gathered to watch the 7 peel off on the turn to put Baldwin in the lead. The meaningless 8 came on the river and a pot of 440K was sent to Baldwin, who is now up to over 500K after eliminating Jorryt Van Hoof a few hands later.
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet (pictured right) and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman have also been doing work as the field has thinned down to 23. Van Fleet took a huge pot off of Eli Elezra to build his stack to over 400K. On a flop of J65, Elezra checked to Van Fleet, who bet 26K. Elezra then raised to 57K and Van Fleet called. Eli led out for 50K when the 7 appeared on the turn and Van Fleet called. The river brought the T and Elezra asked for a count of Van Fleet’s chips. Jon counted out 84K and Elezra checked after a minute of thought. Van Fleet then moved all in and four minutes passed while Elezra figured out his next play. Eventually he called the clock on himself, which got a laugh from several onlookers, and Eli folded as the tournament director got down to four seconds left on the clock.
Freeman recently eliminated Mark Radoja when his AQ out flopped the QQ of Radoja, sending him home in 25th.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy was knocked out of the event in 24th place and now the remaining 23 players are set to play down to the final nine tonight in anticipation of tomorrow’s final table. The winner will pick up a hefty $755,891.
In an unrelated story, we just caught Men “The Master” Nguyen buying five bags of beef jerky in the Poker Cafe. We’ll keep you updated on his condition.