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.
Eye On the Prize
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 10:47 pm
As the $1.5K Razz event got underway all of the players had their eye on the money–literally. Several players sitting near Phil Ivey (pictured at right) and couldn’t help but notice the indiscreet pile of $100 bills sitting at his feet. Phil seemed unconcerned about the safety of his money and more about the Razz, which makes sense considering how much he has riding on his various bracelet bets.
Elsewhere in the Razz event, several players found themselves seated at the same table with other familiar faces. Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan is seated directly to the right of Jon “PearlJammer” Turner and the two have been making conversation even when they were involved in hands with each other. At first, Doug “Resilient” Smith did not recognize Larry “larrygold” Goldstein, but once he realized what his online poker name is Smith realized they had actually played HORSE together on several occassions.
Other notable players in the 456 player field include Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich, Scott “scottyno” Novak, Matt “Mattg1983″ Graham, and Senovio “Dorsal Fin” Ramirez.
Both Ramirez and Smith busted from the $2K event earlier today, which is now down to 47 players, including Blair Hinkle, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Nick “gbmantis” Niegarth, and Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck.
Mayrinck was down to 5K in chips as they headed into bubble play, but she continued to work her way up the chip counts, doubling up several times in the process. Her latest victim before the break was Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar. With the blinds at 2K/4K Mayrinck raised in the cutoff and Rajkumar shoved all-in from the big blind. Maridu called and showed KK to Vivek’s AQ. The kings held and Rajkumar was left with 40K. He moved all-in a few hands later with Q-9 and was eliminated in 52nd place.
Other eliminations since the bubble burst include Court Harrington (87th) and Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling (49th).
Brock Solid
by Jessica on 06.13.08, 7:58 pm
The money bubble burst in the $2K and the remaining 88 players can breathe a sigh of relief as they head into break. Several players took advantage of the money bubble to build their chip stacks. When we last reported on Brock “t_soprano” Parker (he had 70K, but he has now cracked the 100K mark. He picked up numerous pots as they played down to the (he jokingly claimed 12 in a row at one point) and only had to show his cards in one circumstance when he held A-K to his opponent’s 9-10.
Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck doubled up right before break when she cracked her opponent’s AA with her KQ. The flop came Q-X-X with two clubs and Mayrinck managed to turn the flush and fade a fourth club on the river to double up.
Other P5ers still in the event include Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Court Harrington, Tom “titantom32″ Braband, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, and Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle.
Also in the Brasilia Room for Day 2 play is the $2.5K PL HE/O Event. Shawn Buchanan, Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, and Rolf Slotboom remain in contention for the bracelet.
Round Two of the $10K HU event is just now getting underway, as is the $1.5K Razz events. We will have updates on both of those for you shortly.
Harrington on Helium
by AdamJ on 06.13.08, 6:48 pm
Court Harrington’s chances to cash in the 2K NL WSOP Event #23 looked bleak when he started the day with 10k in the 800-1600-200 level and over 30 left before the bubble bursts.
After a flurry of preflop all-ins and double ups, Harrington (pictured left) is up to 44k, ten people out of the money with 109 left.
Harrington’s first double up came after he isoloated a 6k all-in stack that moved in under the gun by going all-in from middle position for 12k, and his AT busted his opponents A5 when the flop came ten high.
A few rounds later, he moved all-in from the button for 18k after an early position player raised to 4500 and a late position player called. After much deliberation, the initial raiser called and Harrington’s AJ was in a flip against 66.
The contest wasn’t closely contested for long when the flop came QTK and he flopped broadway with a royal flush draw for backup that wasn’t needed Harrington’s opponent was drawing dead on the turn.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker’s chip stack skyrocketed at a table with familiar foes Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby and Nick “gbmantis” Niegarth.
Parker recently doubled up off of Niegarth halfway into the 800-1600-200 level and has 70k, leaving Niegarth with 54k. Hamby has 49k and is in the unenviably position of being a few seats to the right of his online buddies.
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan got elimated early in the round when his AK lost an all-in hand preflop to QT when a Q dropped on the river.
Here are some other key chip stacks left
Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 80k
Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski - 25k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 65k
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.