WSOP 2008
OMGClay Wins!
by Jill on 06.17.08, 4:46 am
After more than 100 hands of heads-up play in the Event #28 $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has brought down the house, winning $817,781 and the WSOP bracelet. Congratulations, Phil, on the huge win!
Play is over this evening for Event #29, the $3K No-Limit Hold’em tournament as we are down to the final table. Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured at left) sat atop the chip count at the end of the day with more than 1M in chips; Tony “Bond18″ Dunst contended with 342K and returns to play tomorrow. Vengrin’s ascent to chip leader occurred tonight when an under-the-gun player raised to 45K and Vengrin, in the small blind, raised to 100K.
The other player announced he was all in and Vengrin tanked before calling with pocket tens. His tens held up against his opponent’s A-K and Vengrin took down the huge pot. He returns tomorrow to battle it out for the for the $434,789 prize and fabled golden bracelet. The final table race will commence at 2PM PST tomorrow.
Event #27 has also concluded, crowning Vitaliy Lunkin the champion of the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament. A first-time bracelet winner, Lunkin won $628,417 and the WSOP bracelet after a relatively short hour-long heads-up match with Brett Kimes. Many congratulations to Lunkin on his win!
Apparently, the drinks that Scotty Nguyen bought for his table did him some good as Event #31, the $2.5K No-Limit Hold’em 6-handed tournament came to a close this evening. According to our sources here at PocketFives, while Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Nguyen were joking around at the table and drinking their Michelobs, a flop came 8-8-4. Both players were still in the hand and Nguyen ripped a $100 bill in half, giving one half to Hanks. Nguyen teased Hanks, “If you call me here, I’ll give you the other half, baby!” Well, call Hanks did and when Nguyen flipped over 8-T for trips, Hanks couldn’t catch up and mucked the hand, losing his entire stack. Here’s to hoping Hanks can find some strong scotch tape! Play continues at 2PM PST tomorrow afternoon.
Meanwhile, Event #30’s $10K Limit Hold’em World Championship marched on in the Brasilia room, now down to the final two tables after the elimination of Todd “DanDruff” Witteles (pictured at right) in 19th place. Witteles lost a huge pot to Michael Mizrachi when his K-K lost to a flush. Witteles was finished off when his J
6
was behind his opponent’s A
K on an ace-high flop and he couldn’t catch up. Brock “t_soprano” Parker and Eric “EFro” Froehlich remained strong in the event, both with chip stacks in the mid-300s. Play is expected to continue into the wee hours of the morning as all players aim for the final table.
Shorr Doubles, Dario Ascending
by AdamJ on 06.17.08, 1:22 am
The drinks arrived at Eric “Peachy K33N” Liu’s side and the high stakes cash game specialist asked Shannon Shorr (pictured left) to pay for the tip.
Shorr gave a grin and obliged, tipping the waitress for Liu’s double shot order of rum and coke.
After drawing out on Liu’s KK
with AQ minutes earlier in an all-in preflop hand where Shorr’s stack rose from 20k to over 40k, the couple bucks for drinks seemed like a bargain to Shorr.
John Racener was also at the table with a 19k stack, making it one of the more star-studded 6-max tables left in the 2.5k 6-max WSOP Event #31.
P5er Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks was exchanging smiles sitting directly to left of Scotty Nguyen, whose affable personality was generally dictating the conversation. Hanks had much to smile about with the biggest stack at his table at 57k.
Here are some other notable chip stacks with 120 of 1,012 left with the average stack at 42k.
Dario Minieri - 88k
Dave Ulliott - 60k
Kenna James - 48k
Mark Vos - 44k
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Visant - 30k
Brandon Cantu - 26k
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 13k
Event #28, the $5K Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys tournament, was down to three-handed play, with Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond sporting a 2:1 chip advantage over both of the other two players. Galfond has managed to capture 3.3M in chips, while David Benyamine and Adam Hourani both hold 1.6M. The tournament is currently paused for dinner break; it will resume at 10PM PST. Galfond continued to play aggressively before the break, raising every button and slowly chipping away at each of his opponents’ stacks.
Meanwhile, Event #29’s $3K No-Limit Hold’em was reduced to two tables with the quick elimination of seven more players. Climbing the chip counts was Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (pictured at right), who managed to stop the chip acquisition of Carter “ckingusc” King for good. King’s pocket tens ran into Dunst’s A-Q and couldn’t hold on a K7Q89 board. Dunst eliminated King in 20th Place for a payout of $11,264. Other PocketFivers still holding on in the event included Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin, who increased his stack to 350K, while Matt “All In At 420″ Stout trended downward to 175K.
Froehlich and Parker Leading in LHE
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 10:34 pm
In the Brazillia room, the $3k NLHE tournament isn’t the only event running right now. Day 2 of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) is also taking place there today and while yesterday’s action seemed rather slow because of the large starting stacks and fixed limit structure, the play today has sped up immensely with only 42 of the original 218 remaining.
Eric “EFro” Froehlich is sitting pretty at the top of the chip counts after some big hands. Howard Lederer put in a raise preflop and both Froehlich (pictured right) and another player called to see the flop come AK5. Action checked to Lederer who bet and both Froehlich and the other player called. When the J dropped on the turn action checked to Lederer who again bet but this time Froehlich raised. The player in the middle and Lederer both made the call and the Q fell on the river. Froehlich bet out, the player in the middle folded and Lederer reluctantly called to see Froehlich’s QT that had turned a broadway straight. Lederer mucked and Froehlich won a large pot. Froehlich is currently the chip leader with 350k.
Brock “t_soprano” Parker has also been doing well in this tournament today, despite being at the same table as “EFro’s” massive stack. Preflop Parker (pictured left) made it 2 bets to go, the player to his left upped it to 3 bets and the big blind capped it at 4 bets. All 3 players called to see the flop come J94. The big blind bet out and both Parker and the other player called. When the 3 came on the turn the big blind checked, Brock bet, and the other two players both smooth called. The river brought the 2, completing a possible flush draw and the big blind again checked it to Parker who bet. The player in the middle folded and after thinking for a long while the big blind eventually called and when Brock flipped up the QJ the big blind mucked his hand and Parker scooped a large pot.
Brock then finished off Howard Lederer by using his AQ to best Lederer’s KJ on a board of 6548A sending Lederer to the rail and increasing Brock’s stack to a healthy 190k. He has since chipped up to 230k and is in 2nd place behind Froehlich.
Other notable players still in the field of the LHE tourney include Justin Bonomo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles while Matt “mattster24″ Sterling and Joe Sebok were recently eliminated.
Over at the ESPN Featured Table in the Amazon room, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is dominating the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament. Johnny Chan lost a huge pot to David Benyamine to put Benyamine in 2nd place and drop Chan down to 3rd and then promptly lost another big hand to Galfond to extend Galfond’s lead and to make Chan the short stack.
Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th, and 6th place and the chip counts for the 5 remaining players are:
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond - 3,156,000
David Benyamine - 1,545,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 720,000
Adam Hourani - 615,000
Johnny Chan - 330,000
Galfond Loses the Chip Lead… OMG!
by Crystal on 06.16.08, 8:26 pm
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is now 2nd in chips with around 1.5 million at the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney. Johnny Chan just stole the lead away when he busted Brian Rast in 9th place and now sits with over 2 million in chips. Phil Hellmuth is currently the short stack with around 150k even after he doubled up earlier when his KK54 caught a king on the turn to best Brian Rast’s AA22 after all the money was in preflop.
Galfond (pictured left) is definitely not letting these big name live pros intimidate him. In one hand Daniel Negreanu raised to 50k preflop with the blinds at 10k/20k and Galfond called from the big blind. The flop came out with the J63 and Galfond checked it over to Negreanu who bet 75k. Galfond calmly sat and contemplated before raising to 225k prompting Negreanu to muck his hand almost instantly.
In the Brazillia room event #29, the $3k NLHE has been filled with agressive play ever since the bubble burst which has lead to a number of players being eliminated. Jason “JCarver” Somerville was eliminated in 61st place when his QT couldn’t best another player’s AQ all in on a queen high flop. Soon after Somerville was knocked out Steven O’Dwyer got all his chips in the middle with pocket fours in a race against the AK of his only caller. The ace came on the flop and O’Dwyer couldn’t get back ahead and was busted in 60th place.
Stu “The Donator” Patterson went on a chip stack rollercoaster ride when he lost a large portion of his chips in a hand where his AQ couldn’t catch up to an opponents AK. He was then crippled down to almost nothing on a subsequent hand. Afterwards he was able to post the ante and nothing else and he actually won the table’s antes with his 92 when four diamonds came on the board making him a flush and no other player held a diamond in their hand. Still incredibly short stacked he got his money in with 97 and was happy to see he was live against his opponents AJ. The board ran out 6423A and Patterson was eliminated in 57th place.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch got all his chips in preflop with his JT dominating his opponents J9, but unfortunately for Lynch a 9 came on the flop and he couldn’t recover and was sent to the rail in 46th place.
Somerville, O’Dwyer and Patterson will all receive $6,126 for their 2 day run in this tournament and Lynch will receive $6,718.