WSOP 2008
HoosierAlum Hysteria!
by Jill on 06.14.08, 6:04 am
Event #22’s $3K HORSE tournament has finally ended and Jens Voertmann is the winner. Voertmann takes home $182,822 and a bracelet for his victory. On the final hand, all the money was in on 3rd street of a Stud high/low hand and although Doug Ganger made two pair, eights and nines on 4th street, Voertmann caught a pair of jacks on 6th and 7th to go with his fives in the hole to make a better two pair. Although Voertmann held the chip lead going into heads-up play, second-place finisher Ganger played agressively and stole the lead away at one point. Voertmann grinded his stack back up during the Stud and Stud high/low rounds to take out Ganger and secure his first major tournament win.
The $2K No-Limit Hold’em challenge has reached the final table and completed play for the evening. Nine players return tomorrow to compete for the $507,563 grand prize and bracelet. Meanwhile, the $2.5K Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha game has twelve players remaining in competition for the bracelet; Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa remains healthy in the slow-moving game as the hours grow longer and more yawns contagiously spread throughout the room. Depa recently knocked out one of the short stacks remaining in the tourney. The action went as follows: Depa raised preflop to 17K, the small blind pushed all-in for a total of 22K and Depa easily called the additional 5K. When they flipped over their cards, Depa held A
J
to the small blind’s AT. The board ran out 832
5
5 and Depa managed to add chips to his growing stack. Allen Cunningham dominated the top of the chip counts in the event, guarding more than twice the chips of the next biggest stack. Depa will have plenty of catching up to do as they grind the end of this tournament!
Table match-ups have been set for Day 2 of the $10K Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em event; plenty of online players advanced to the next round. A sample of the exciting head-to-head action lineups tomorrow:
Emil Patel vs. Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci
Andy Black vs. Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil (pictured at left)
Alex Jacob vs. Jonathan Jaffe
Scott Montgomery vs. Isaac Haxton
Matt “hazards21″ Giannetti vs. Michael Mizrachi
Play for Event #26, the $1.5K Razz tournament, has come to a close this evening, with 106 players remaining of the original field of 453. One of the last hands of the evening came to a dramatic close, as Barry Greenstein knocked out both short-stacked Kenna James and Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich in one hand. Greenstein’s 3-K-A-2-8-9-6 held, and his 31K chip stack placed him amongst the leaders going into Day 2. Other players coming back tomorrow include Brett “Gank” Jungblut, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, and Lacey Jones.
Mackey and Saul Eliminated
by Crystal on 06.13.08, 6:31 am
In event #22, the $3k HORSE event, we’ve had a couple of rather painful casualties. James “mig.com” Mackey (picured left) lost a huge pot during a Stud h/l rotation when he rivered fours full of deuces only to find that his opponent held nines full of eights. The very next hand the game switched to LHE and Mackey raised in middle postion. The same player from the previous hand called the raise from his big blind and they saw the flop come T52. The big blind checked, Mackey bet, and the big blind called. The 6 came on the turn, the big blind checked and again Mackey bet only this time the big blind raised putting Mackey all in. Mackey called off the rest of his chips and tabled the AK for the nut flush draw while his opponent held the T5 for two pair. The river brought the J and Mackey was sent to the rail in 25th place worth $6,284.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured right) described his stack as a yo-yo because every time he would gain chips he would quickly lose them again. After losing a number of big hands, Saul was all in against Marcel Luske during a LHE hand after a flop of T73. Saul said “Well that was a pretty good flop for my hand” as he tabled his TT which was way ahead to Marcel’s 99. Marcel called for an 8 on the turn but instead came the A and then the Q allowing Saul to double up.
After continuing to yo-yo for awhile Saul’s short stack ended up all in and drew to a full house on 7th street, which was incredibly unfortunate as the game being played was razz and Saul was knocked out in 21st place, good enough for $7,998.
Play has been halted for the evening with 16 players remaining. Eric “EFro” Froehlich is still going strong in this event with 118k in chips which puts him in the middle of the field going into day 2.
Over in the Brazillia room, event #24 the $2.5k PL HE/O tournament is also done for the night with only 85 of the original 457 players remaining. Online players didn’t fare quite as well in this tournament today as many have already been eliminated. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi and Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan are two of the players who will return on day two to fight their way into the money. 45 players will cash in this event with 1st place paying out $246,271.
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.
The Worst Hand in Omaha?
by Crystal on 06.13.08, 1:24 am
In Event #24 the $2.5k PL HE/O tournament the action has been pretty lively so far with over half of the 457 player field already out the door. Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured right) seemed a little reluctant to flip over his cards at the showdown of a PLO hand. After the board ran out KJ3Q8 with both Brent and a single opponent checking every street, Brent said “I think I might have the worst hand in Omaha! I’ve got three of them!” as he turned over his AAAJ. Surprisingly in this case the “worst hand” was good enough because his opponent mucked and Brent took the small pot with a pair of aces. After the hand Brent said “Well, at least one of them was suited!”
The players in the PL HE/O tourney are down the hall from the Amazon room in the Brazillia room. WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla called today’s use of the room a “soft opening” because it wasn’t scheduled to be used until tomorrow. He said that the room will be helpful in keeping cash games running even when tournament overflow fills the Amazon room and other adjacent rooms.
Carter “devinr12″ Gill (pictured left) got involved in a large pot during the PLO rotation at his table. After numerous preflop raises, 5 players remained to see the flop with 2 of them already all in. The flop came T82 and Gill, first to act, said “I’m all in, well, I bet the pot.” Gill’s bet was enough to put the remaining two players all in and after agonizing for a bit one called and the other folded. With 3 all ins the board was run out with the 5 and the 2. Gill held the QT84 for two pair tens and eights, the player who called all in on the flop held the KT93 for a pair of tens, one of the preflop all ins held the QJJ7 for jacks and deuces which looked like it might be good until the other preflop all in across the table showed the KK84 for kings and deuces. Gill took the small side pot with his two pair but the kings and deuces hand took main pot. Considering there were straight and flush draws after the flop, it always seems a little absurd when two pair ends up winning a hand of Omaha!
Players down the hall in the Amazon room are breathing a sigh of relief as the bubble of the $3k HORSE tournament, event #22 has now burst. Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul and another player were battling to knock out a player who was all in during a stud h/l hand and when all the cards were dealt out the all in player held only a pair of jacks. Saul had that beaten with pair of kings but lost the hand to the 3rd player’s pair of aces which officially knocked out the all in player. Even though Saul lost around 20k in chips in the hand, he is now guaranteed at least $5,141 and still has a nice sized stack around 84k.
James “mig.com” Mackey has also made the money with around 95k in his stack as well as Eric “EFro” Froehlich who has about 20k.
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.