Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin was recently eliminated from the PLO8 tournament about 20 players short of making the money. Vengrin (pictured left) had been nursing a short stack for some time now. We’ve seen players often stack their chips in a pyramid shape, but Vengrin had so few in front of him that his pyramid of chips were stacked only 1 chip high.

With the blinds at 500/1k a player in late postion raised to 2.5k and was called by the button, Dan “Stainley88″ Adams who was in the sb, and Vengrin who was in the big blind. Vengrin seemed reluctant to call preflop but getting very good odds he elected to toss in the extra 1.5k in chips to see the flop which came K42. Adams checked and Vengrin threw in his last 4.7k in chips. The original raiser made the call and both the button and Adams folded. Vengrin said “I have a set” as he tabled his 9644 and his opponent flipped over his AK72 and commented, “well I need a king or a little card.” Unfortunately for Vengrin the K fell on the turn leaving him drawing to the one remaining 4 in the deck to make quads but the river was the 5 and he was sent to the rail.

Eric “Rizen” Lynch was also knocked out just short of the money when his flopped set of aces were rivered by another player who made a flush along with the nut low.

82 players remain and the tension in the blue section of the Amazon room has risen as players try to fight (or slide) their way into the money. Play has slowed as the bubble approaches but with short stacks at many tables the bubble is likely not far away.

In the green section of the Amazon room John Phan has just captured WSOP gold for the 2nd time in less than a week as he captured the win in event #40, the 2-7 Triple Draw event. More than six hours passed between when the 4th place finisher was knocked out and when Phan finally claimed the bracelet and the $151,896 first prize.

P5er Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo is now heads up with Frank Gary in event #41’s final table and after just doubling Gary up the two are nearly even in chips, Tamayo having the slight advantage. This heads up match is sure to be exciting and we’ll keep you updated as it progresses.

• June 25, 2008 -- Bad Moon Rizen
• June 25, 2008 -- Shorr Silences Minneapolis Meehan
• June 25, 2008 -- Tamayo Runner-Up, SKOAL Survives Bubble Burst
• June 28, 2008 -- Seat Open!

The final table of the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em has only been underway 15 minutes, but Mike “inissint” Glasser is already making moves up the chip counts.  The blinds increased to 20K/40K with a 5K ante and David Woo raised to 100K from middle position.  Glasser then moved all-in from the cut of for his remaining 460K and Woo was forced to fold.  That increased Mike’s chip count to 660K.

Just a few hands later, Woo eliminated Mike Paras in 9th place when the two got it all-in on a flop of J52 with Woo holding 22 to Paras’ AJ.  Paras picked up some outs when the J came on the turn, but when the 9 came on the river Woo took down the hand and Paras was sent to the rail.  After the hand, Woo, who has been extremely active at the table so far, had approximately 1.5 million in chips.

Glasser currently sits at 7th on the chip counts.  The top four chip leaders are all right around the 1.5 million marker while the other four all hover between 600K-700K.

Day Two of the 2-7 Triple Draw is underway and the remaining 30 players will be playing down to the final six tonight.  Shun Uchida is currently leading the field, but John Phan (pictured at left), Steve Sung, Greg Raymer, Robert Mizrachi, and several others remain in contention for the bracelet.

• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Makes Final Table
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Busts in 8th
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Not So “inissint”
• June 23, 2008 -- Beckman Eliminated

Early this morning the final table for the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em Event #39 was set and Mike “inissint” Glasser is among the last nine players standing.  Glasser is the short stack coming into Day 3 of play with 495K and the blinds at 15K/30K and a 4K ante.  We will keep you posted on his progress when the event resumes play at 2pm this afternoon.

The only new event kicking off today is the $1K Seniors No Limit Hold Em Event.  The 2,200 player field, comprised entirely of players over the age of 50, began play at 12pm.  In an unexpected change, the seniors event began play with 3K starting stacks.  This is unusual because typically starting chip counts are double the amount of the buy-in for the event. 

Some of the players vying for the bracelet in the Seniors Event include Poker Stars Pros Tom McEvoy and Humberto Brenes, Eskimo Clark, and ESPN announcer Lon McEachern.

Both the $2.5K 2-7 Triple Draw event and the $1.5K Mixed Limit Hold Em event will begin Day 2 of play today.  Those events will be starting at 2pm and 3pm respectively.

• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Busts in 8th
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser on the Move
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Not So “inissint”
• June 23, 2008 -- Beckman Eliminated

For those vying for that ever elusive WSOP bracelet, the 2.5k 2-7 triple draw WSOP Event #40 offers a rare opportunity to capture WSOP hardware in a field with just over 200 players, a far cry from the 2,700 players that entered yesterday’s 1.5k NL tournament.

Only a smattering of online players arose for the noon tournament, including Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Isaac “luvthewnba” Haxton and Jonathan “Fiery Justice” Little (pictured left).

It’s likely that those that didn’t make Day 2 of the 1.5k NL that starts today at 2pm will elect to play the 1.5k Mixed Hold-em which starts at 5pm.

As expected, this field featured many live pro’s like Daniel Negreanu, Chad Brown, Greg Raymer, Jeff Madsen, Jeff Lisandro, Alex Jacob, Nam Le, John D’Agostino, David Singer, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Gavin Smith to name a few.

• June 3, 2008 -- Stacked 5k Mixed field, Sowers Bad Beats Dicken
• July 12, 2008 -- Looking Back in the Rearviewmirror
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?

• June 25, 2008 -- Busting Before the Bubble
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser on the Move
• June 23, 2008 -- Glasser Makes Final Table
• June 22, 2008 -- Sparse Online Turnout in Triple Draw