WSOP 2008
Minieri Steamrolling on Final Table Bubble
by AdamJ on 06.18.08, 3:29 am
Nearly ten feet away from about a dozen fans watching his every move, Dario Minieri’s aggressiveness had the floor staff searching for chip racks.
With chips stacked six racks high and a colony of chips left on the felt in front of him, Minieri (pictured right) has seen his chip stack go from 300k to 1.8 million in the last two rounds of the 2.5k 6-max NL WSOP Event #31.
Minieri has been raising nearly every pot and his fearlessness has got him busting opponents with hands as weak as middle pair that were good.
Minieri’s aggressiveness has even made Scotty Nguyen merely an onlooker sitting to Minieri’s right. Despite not playing many hands, Nguyen’s mouth was as active as always, reporting to the players at the other table about Dario’s demolition derby.
“The young gun is taking em’ all down baby,” said Nguyen in his standard high pitch tone.
Play is down to one seven-handed table, breaking when one more opponent busts. Minieri has roughly a third of the chips in play.
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak busted out right before the consolidation when his 3-bet all-in preflop with A
K
was called by 88 and Rusnak failed to improve taking home 38k.
Rusnak’s stack had been on a nosedive prior to his elimination, going from 650 to 200k after he lost two preflop all-in hands with his pocket tens to pocket kings and his pocket jacks losing to Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer’s utg shove with pocket queens.
Justin “Fluffdog” Filtz (500k), Seth “grtwhitehoop” Fischer (320k), and Scotty Nguyen (400k) will also be battling Minieri’s stack to make the final table.
The $10K Limit Hold-em has come to an end and Rob Hollink of the Netherlands is the world champion. He defeated Jerrod Ankenman, co-author of the Mathematics of Poker, after a lengthy heads up match and will be taking home $496,931 in addition to the bracelet.
Shortly after Hollink was awarded his bracelet, John Phan was given a bracelet of his own for taking down the $3K No Limit Hold Em event. This was definitely the hot ticket tonight at the Rio as a crowd of people, including Joe Sebok and Jason “jp osu” Potter, gathered around Phan and his heads up opponent, Johnny Neckar.
The crowd reached its peak when it was announced by the tournament director that the two players had both agreed to move all-in dark on the next hand. The dealer then dealt out the flop, turn, and river and the two players took turns revealing their hole cards. This continued for a couple of hands, including one in which Phan doubled up when his 7 high was good against Neckar’s 2-4, before the two returned to a more conventional game of poker. Only a few minutes later the duo got it all in pre-flop with Phan holding A9 and Neckar holding Q
J. An ace on the river sealed the deal for Phan and he was awarded the bracelet and first prize of $434,789.
Business as Usual for Riskky
by Brett on 06.17.08, 6:27 pm
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements has a knack for building a large stack early in tournaments. The two-time bracelet winner is already near the top of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em leaderboard as it approaches Level 4. Just before the 30-minute break before Level 2, Clements (pictured right) got involved in a three-way pot with JT and led out for 175 on a 983 flop. Both players called and then checked to Clements when the A hit on the turn. Clements bet 300 and only the player on the button called. The lovely 7 fell on the river and Clements counted out 900 chips and induced a call by the button, who let his frustration be known when he saw Scott’s straight.
Clements then built his stack to 9K when his QQ held against the TT of an opponent when they got it all in preflop. Clements made a full house on the turn to leave the player drawing dead.
Theo “pittrounder” Tran (9K), Court Harrington (7.5K), Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (6.5K), Cal Spears (5K) and Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski (5K) have also been chipping up early in Event #32.
The final table of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em event included a trio of P5ers, but one has just been taken out in eighth place. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst shoved his last 130K at the 10K/20K blind level and got a call from Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured left), who flipped up 8
9 and found that he was a huge underdog to the KK of Dunst. The T87 flop gave Vengrin some hope, and the J on the turn gave him the lead as Dunst was left hoping for a diamond on the river. The T eliminated Tony, who earned $54,344. Vengrin, however, is now the overwhelming chip leader with 1.4 million. Johnny Neckar is second with 700K. P5er Thuy “ShesNoGood” Doan is holding stong with 420K, good for fourth at the table.
The $10,000 Limit Championship got underway at 3:00 PT. Brock “t_soprano” Parker entered the day as the short stack but has picked up few small pots early. We’ll keep track of his progress throughout the day.
Mineri Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.17.08, 4:20 pm
Day 2 of event #31, the $2.5k NLHE six-handed tournament, is set to restart at 2:30 pm today with Dario Mineri (pictured left) 2nd in chips with over 191k. Only 73 out of the original 1012 players are left and they will play down to the final 9 tonight before play concludes for the evening. Other players still in the hunt include Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (78k), Billy Westom (70k), and Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (46k). Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant was eliminated last night in 80th place for a payday of $4,189.
Also starting at 2 pm is the final table event #29 the $3k NLHE with Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin coming in as the chip leader with over 1 million in chips. Tony “Bond18″ Dunst is also at the final table with 333k which is good enough for 8th out of the 9 remaining players but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him build that stack up and finish even higher once play begins.
In the Amazon room event #32 has just taken an unscheduled 30 minute break to accomodate for the estimated 400 people that are still trying to register for the event. This seems to be the first time the WSOP has had any trouble with registrations this year. We’ve heard from one of the players who registered late for the event that the computer system was registering players as alternates rather than at empty tables and then the entire system actually crashed. We imagine this may be the cause of the backup in registrations today but if we find out otherwise we’ll let you know.
Before the break began, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan was short stacked after losing a few hands but was then able to double up back to around 2.5k when he turned a king high flush against his opponents top pair. Other P5ers spotted in the field include Court Harrington, Adam “adam_mc” McGregor, and Phil “USCphildo” Collins.
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 J6 was behind his opponent’s AK 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.
Stout All Out At 420, DanDruff Doubles
by Jill on 06.17.08, 2:36 am
Event #29 has almost narrowed down to the final table with the recent elimination of Matt “All In At 420″ Stout. (pictured at right) Stout’s pocket threes couldn’t hold up to David Phan’s pocket sevens and fell further behind when Phan flopped a set. Stout went out in 13th place for a $19,761 payout, his hopes for a bracelet dashed.
Also left in the event, Tony “Bond18″ Dunst and Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin were seated at the same table as Phan. Dunst, however, had a change of luck. His earlier stack of nearly 300K was chopped in half when he took a big hit in a hand where his opponent turned a 5 and made a set of fives. Dunst was down to 170K and looking weary.
Nearby in the Brasilia room, Event #30, the $10K Limit Hold’em World Championship, resumed after a break with the blinds at 3K/6K. All players seemed on edge, looking for the right spots to get all their chips in the middle and improve their equity. While a crowd of spectators looked on, Todd “DanDruff” Witteles, Brock “t_soprano” Parker, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich sat at the same table.
When we caught up to the play, which is down to the final three tables, Witteles (pictured at left) made a raise on the turn for 24K. The board read Q52Q. His opponent called him down and the dealer rivered the 3. His opponent checked; Witteles bet out. After spending plenty of time to think, his opponent called and Witteles flipped over A-Q for trip ladies. His opponent shook his head and shipped the chips his way; Witteles is up to 135K, which was below the average size of 165K.
Play in the $10K should continue to the final table this evening; stay tuned as we update on the P5s horses still left in this race!