WSOP 2008
He’s a Shaniac!
by Jill on 06.21.08, 5:07 am
The pace in the Amazon room slowed to a crawl as 64 players remained in Event #38, the $2K Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament. Hand-for-hand play endured for 45 minutes of the last level as players eyed the guaranteed payout of $3,744. When the bubble still hadn’t burst at the end of Level 10, groans were heard everywhere. Tournament directors instructed the players that they would play through the bubble tonight before taking a quick ten-minute break to ease the burden of the news.
Unfortunately, several PocketFivers suffered at the whims of the bubble; Noah “Exclusive” Boeken was eliminated when his 5
5
were dominated by his opponent’s pocket nines. Other recent eliminations include Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Shaun Deeb, Shannon Shorr, Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, and Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, who was spotted talking with friends on the rail.
Building a stack, however, was Shane “shaniac” Schleger (pictured at right) who had 48K in chips. When P5s caught up with Shane’s table, he was raising to 3.4K preflop in early position and bullied his whole table into a fold. He remained aggressive as the last level of the day concluded, making sure that he stayed above the average stack of 36K.
After the ten-minute break, Shane managed to catch a couple of monster hands perfect for chipping up: in the first hand, Shane reraised preflop against one other opponent who folded queens; he showed pocket aces. The next hand, the same opponent raised and Shane re-raised once again. This time there was no fold and Shane called his opponent’s potted all-in. Shane held pocket queens to his opponent’s A
K and he managed to catch a club flush on the river. The Shaniac was living large with 85K at the conclusion of play tonight after the bubble finally burst and the players were sent home. Play resumes at 2PM PST tomorrow afternoon.
Stu “thedonator” Patterson battled on in Event #37, the $10K Omaha 8 tournament. The field narrowed to 30 remaining players with average stacks of 142K as we caught up with Stu’s table showing the 37
T4 on the board. Stu bet 8K after the turn and was called. The Q dropped on the river and Stu bet again, receiving a call. He showed down pocket aces for the win and was up to 112K in chips. Shortly after, Stu re-raised a limper and min-raiser to 25K preflop. The limper dropped out but the min-raiser called and the board came 4AK. Stu bet 8K, met a reraise and called. The 2 hit the river; when his opponent bet out, Stu folded and his stack dropped to 80K. At the next table over, Mike Matusow was making train noises for no apparent reason.
The field has since narrowed to 27 players who are all guaranteed $22,090 for making it this far. Players drew for new seats and have since returned from a short break; play will certainly continue late into the evening as all contenders compete for the $535,687 first-place finish and bracelet.
Across the Brasilia room at the Event #36 $10K, the final table for Event #36 has been set and play ended for the evening. Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh is the acting chip leader with 1.59M after busting Bryan Micon (pictured at left), who walks away with $28,391 for his deep run. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe also earned his seat at the final table when he eliminated Tom “titantom32″ Braband. Braband’s pocket nines were dominated by Crowe’s AQ on a Q-Q-4 flop; he busted in 12th Place for $36,741. Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter will sit at the final table as the 200K short stack. Play also resumes tomorrow at 2PM PST.
Slaubaugh Not Afraid to Gamble
by AdamJ on 06.21.08, 3:54 am
Down to the final two tables in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #36, Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh (pictured left) came across a tournament defining moment on the final hand before the break.
Facing a 70k bet from his opponent in the big blind on a 965 flop in a hand Slaubaugh raised to 35k preflop, Slaubaugh faced a dilemma that a lot of players would probably be split on holding 77.
With about 350k behind on an incredibly drawy board for his pair, Slaubaugh could either play a big pot for his tournament or fold and try to chip up without being all-in when he was likely a small favorite at best if called.
After tanking for about a minute, Slaubaugh made it 270k, effectively putting his opponent all-in, having him covered by 10k.
Slaubaugh’s opponent went all-in and flipped up the AJ, putting Slaubaugh in a coin-flip for his tournament.
After the 4 and the T peeled off, Slaubaugh effectively doubled up, moving his chip stack to 787k.
Minutes earlier at another table, Tom “titantom32″ Braband bricked out on a gamble that would have placed him with one of the bigger stacks in the tournament when his open-end straight draw missed, leaving him with a short stack of 130k instead of 710k.
Such are the breaks that often determine a player’s fate deep in tournaments.
Danny Wong continues to steamroll the field and is the chipleader with 1.1 million. After opening a pot from early position to 35k, Wong faced an all-in from his opponent for an additional 112k.
Wong called and his T9 ran down his opponents 77 when he clipped a ten on the turn.
Duncan “pumper” Bell, winner of the 2.5k NL WSOP Event #13, was eliminated when his pocket eights ran into pocket tens, finishing in 20th place.
Here’s a list of notable chip counts with 15 players left.
Bryan Micon - 230k
Aaron Kanter - 350k
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 160k
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 130k
Braband Wakes Up with Aces
by AdamJ on 06.21.08, 1:13 am
On the final hand before players went on a 25 minute break in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #36, Tom “titantom32″ Braband didn’t need to do much thinking when a player moved all-in for 70k and he looked down at AA.
Braband’s aces held up against his opponents queens capping off what he coined as a “rollercoaster” day thus far as he talked with Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaubaugh during the break right outside the Amazon Room.
Slaubaugh was also the beneficiary of an all-in preflop confrontation when he busted an opponents AK with his 77 when his opponent moved all-in preflop for 67k.
Braband’s stack is at 350k with Slaubaugh just beneath him at 300k with the average stack at 230k with 32 players left.
Danny Wong is the chip boss with 720k in a field with a handful of notable live and online players left including Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (pictured left), who has a slightly above average stack at 285k.
Here’s a list of notable chip stacks.
Bryan Micon - 310k
Duncan “pumper” Bell - 200k
Brian “bparis” Paris - 200k
Can Kim Hua - 115k
Back from the Break
by Jill on 06.21.08, 12:14 am
The $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em event recently returned from break, bellies full and a little less ancy than when PocketFives last caught up with them calling the floor at every move. Several P5ers continued to look healthy as the field narrowed down even further, edging toward the final table for the evening.
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaubaugh continued to dominate his table; last we watched the tournament, Slaubaugh had over 300K in chips. Now, however, Slaubaugh is up to 460K after taking down a big pot and eliminating one of the players at his table. Engaged in a big hand preflop, Cody made it 21K. His opponent went all-in for 30K total. Slaubaugh insta-called and turned over aces against A-9. His opponent couldn’t catch up and Slaubaugh took down the pot.
Tom “titantom32″ Braband (pictured at right) chipped up after the dinner break, increasing his stack from 172K to over 200K. Both Owen “ocrowe” Crowe and Bryan Micon were hovering around 220K and were looking quite comfortable. Bryan “bparis” Paris, however, looked like he’d lost about half the stack he had before the break and was down to 80K.
Event#38, the $2K Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament, has returned from dinner break with the following stacks. PocketFives will continue to follow these players as they finish out Day 1:
Roy Winston - 45K
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 42K
Jason Lester - 28K
Amnon Filippi - 26K
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 20K
Matthew Hilger - 20K
Clonie Gowen - 18K
Chad Brown - 18K
Chris Bell - 14K
Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski - 11.5K
Vanessa Rousso - 3.5K
Eli Elezra - 3K