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.
TheDonator Not So Charitable, Busts Harman
by Jill on 06.21.08, 2:16 am
Amidst a field of star-studded live pros, Stu “thedonator” Patterson (pictured at right) continued to defend his chipstack in Event #37, the $10K Omaha 8 Championship. In the last level, Stu busted Jennifer Harman when his pocket jacks completed a 5-5-9-5-6 board for a boat. Patterson was maintaining his stack at about 75K with 48 players remaining of the original field of 235. The bubble is set to burst at 27 spots remaining, when each player will be guaranteed more than $22K and racing for the $535,687 grand prize and bracelet.
TWo events have come to a close this evening, crowning two new champions. Event #35, the $1.5K Seven Card Stud tournament, has come to a close with Mike Rocco taking down the final table for WSOP gold and $135,753 in earnings.
Layne Flack, meanwhile, won Event #34’s Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys contest in an aggressive race for the bracelet against heads-up opponent Daniel Makowsky. Flack takes home $577,725 in cash and some wrist candy.
Day 1 of Event #38 continued on with less than a tenth of today’s earlier field remaining; Noah Boeken, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Matt Stout, and Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby continued to perform well as the levels marched on, despite a floor warning against Schleger for disruptive behavior in a table outcry.
“Crzysavage” Beat
by Jessica on 06.20.08, 8:16 pm
Jeff “crzysavage” Gressard (pictured at left) lost a big pot just before players in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event went on break. With the blinds at 100/200, Gressard and two other players saw a flop of AQ4. The big blind check to Gressard, who led out for 1150. The player to his left called and the big blind folded. Gressard bet 2500 when the T came on the turn and he was re-raised all in for 1500 more. Jeff made the call, showing AK but had run into a set of queens and was drawing to one of the four jacks in the deck. The river brought a useless K and Gressard lost a pot worth more than 10K, dropping him to under 4K.
With 243 players still alive and the average stack at 10K, here’s a look at some of the notable chip counts in Event #38:
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 13K
Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista - 10K
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 9K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 8K
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 8K
Andy “BKiCE” Seth - 7K
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 6K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 5.5K
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 5.5K
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 5K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 3.5K
Eugene Todd - 3K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez has been on a downswing in Day 2 of the $10K Omaha Hi/Lo event. He told Pocket Fives he continues to flop big draws that just don’t get there. One such example came when Chris “SKOAL” Falconer raised in middle position and Senovio defended from the big blind. The flop came Q53 and Ramirez checked. Falconer bet and Ramirez called. When an 8 came on the turn, Ramirex check called again. After the river of Q peeled off , both players checked and Falconer turned over A-2-4-8 for a pair of eights and the nut low which was good enough for the scoop against Ramirez’s A-4-5-6.
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham recently got it all-in in the $10K Omaha with A433 in a multi-player pot. With the board reading T623, everyone else folded to a player’s bet on the turn and he showed down T752 for two pair and a flush draw against Graham’s set of threes and a low. It looked as though Matt was going to scoop the pot until the A came on the river, giving the other player the better low and causing them to split the pot. Graham now has 9K and still has some work to do to get back to an average sized stack.
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki (pictured at right) came into Day 2 of the $1.5K NLHE event with 99k but after, “not winning a single hand all day”, he found himself with nearly half the stack he started with. When a player raised on the button, Klodnicki decided to put it all-in with his A-Q from the small blind only to learn he was in bad shape up against his opponent’s pocket queens. The board was no help to Chris and he was left with only 1,200 chips after doubling the other player up. He was subsequently eliminated a few hands later, earning $5,344 for his finish.
Here are some unofficial chip counts of some of the remaining 86 players:
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 200K
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaughbaugh - 151K
Brian “bparis” Paris - 150K
Jose “papadelpoker” De La Guardia - 105K
Bryan Micon - 75K
Isaac Haxton - 52K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 50K
At the final table of the $1.5K PLO w/ rebuys, Tim “tmay420″ West was just eliminated in 8th place earning $72,213. Kyle Kloeckner has lost some pots and now sits in 5th place.