WSOP 2008
Radditz, Fineman Among Chip Leaders of Event 48
by Brett on 06.27.08, 7:17 pm
Danny “MrRadditz” Radditz and Ben “bfineman” Fineman are two of the early chip leaders of today’s $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Radditz (pictured right) began the day in the Brasilia Room, where he chipped up to 21,125 chips before being moved to the blue section of the Amazon Room. “Hopefully I’m a luckbox over here, too!” he said as he began re-stacking his chips. Radditz is in great spirts, chatting away with the players at his table and even Mike Matusow, who is nearby.
Fineman has built his stack to over 25K early on after being seated at a tough table early that included Kevin “WiCane” Pionkowsi. Also toward the top of the Event 48 leaderboard early are Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, who busted out in 12th place this morning in the $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em with Rebuys event, Blair Rodman and Matt “AllInAt420″ Stout.
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was one of many early exits in Day 1, getting his chips in with 6
7 on a 8
74
board, but couldn’t catch up to the pocket jacks of Liv Boeree. There are worse ways to go out, Scott.
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul also met his demise early. Saul doubled his stack to 8K before the first 20-minute break, but in Level 3 he squeezed over a raiser and flat caller preflop with AK and found himself up against the A
A of another player and failed to improve.
The ESPN Final Table Arena has been echoing with hoots and howls as several players have their friends on hand to watch the action in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Five of the original nine have been already eliminated, including the chip leader coming in, Jesse Chinni. Chinni got all of his chips in with AK against the AA of Rene Mouritsen and was unable to hit a miracle. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman has been quiet early but still has nearly 500K chips at 12K/24K — plenty enough to maneuver with.
Feelin’ Good
by Crystal on 06.27.08, 3:16 pm
James Brown’s “I Feel Good” was playing over the loudspeakers in the Amazon room before play began in today’s $2k NLHE event #48. Players seemed anxious to get started today in what will likely be another exciting and fast moving tournament.
The tournament clock is already showing 2,159 entrants into this event which has surpassed last years total number of entrants into this event (2,038) and will likely increase even more before late registration ends. There are a large number of notable online players hitting the felt once again today and we’re looking forward to seeing them build some monster stacks as the day progresses.
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left) and the other eight players at the final table of event #44, the $1k NLHE w/rebuys, will begin play at 2 pm today with Freeman looking to regain the chip lead he lost yesterday.
Also starting at 2 pm today is day 2 of the $5k NLHE six-handed event #46 where players such as Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Shannon Shorr, Glen “choron” Chorny, Jason “tresfull21″ Mercier, and Jason Gray will be trying to run deep and make the money. 96 players will begin play today but only 78 will make the money.
Lots of action here at the Rio today and we’ll keep you informed about everything going on as the day progresses!
Rosen Busts in Final Table Bubble Cooler
by AdamJ on 06.27.08, 6:32 am
Jamie “Chronic420″ Rosen (pictured right) seemed to be on a path destined for a deep final table finish as he went to ten-handed play with one of the top stacks at little over one million after being in the top 3 stacks most of the day.
He’d been running good and playing well and was sitting to the left of chip leader Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, who had 1.4 million.
Life was good for Rosen until he got dealt a hand he wouldn’t have even played had he not been in the blind and had it been raised.
Unfortunately for Rosen, in one of the few limped pots of the night, he saw a multiway flop out of the blind and hit what seemed to be a dream flop when his 43 connected to the 733 board.
Rosen led out for 42k and got raised to 100k by Phung Ngo and Jesse Chinni called. When it got back to Rosen, he moved all-in for around 700k more and Chinni called, tabling 77.
The board bricked out for Rosen and unlike a handful of players that would have bemoaned their fate numerous times in disgust, Rosen was rather unemotional in a very trying time. Rosen’s 10th place finish earned him 39k.
Before Rosen’s unlikely bustout, Freeman’s fall from grace had been the story of ten-handed play as his stack went from 1.4 million to 675k as play heads to the final table.
Freeman got crossed up on a 98855 board in a pot raised by his opponent under the gun. Freeman called all three streets in position when his opponent bet 40k-100k-210k in succession. Freeman’s opponent won revealing KK and Freeman claimed to have just been nipped with pocket queens but didn’t show.
Freeman lost a hand later when a short stack moved all-in from early position for 113k and he called with 88, ahead of his opponents AT. Freeman’s opponent turned broadway, capping off what had been a rough stretch of hands for Freeman where he didn’t drag one significant pot.
Here’s a list of chip counts of the final nine left.
Jesse Chinni - 2.16 million
Rene Mouritsen - 1 million
Albert Iversen - 912k
Max Greenwood - 728k
Scott Freeman - 675k
Phung Ngo - 556k
Alex Bolotin - 308k
Curtis Kohlberg - 209k
Aliaksandr Dzianisau - 186k
Day 2 of the $50K HORSE, WSOP Event #45 is in the books and a little over half the field has been eliminated. Sixty-seven of the the original 148 players will return tomorrow to continue playing down to the prestigious bracelet. Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein is towards the top of the leaderboard with over 400K in chips. Greenstein made a remarkable comeback today after sitting on a short stack for a portion of Day 1. Yesterday’s chip leader, James “mig.com” Mackey left today with less chips than he started with. He ended play this evening with right around 180K after starting off with 214K at the beginning of play today.
Other players climbing up the leaderboard include Justin Bonomo (325K), Daniel Negreanu (310K), and Tom “durrrr” Dwan (240K). Meanwhile, some of the players who will not be returning for Day 3 include Patrik Antonius, Nick Schulman, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, and last year’s winner Freddy Deeb.
Rosen Claims Chip Lead Near Final Table
by AdamJ on 06.27.08, 3:10 am
Jamie “Chronic420″ Rosen (pictured right) took a page from Doyle Brunson’s book and it paid off.
He may have gotten lucky to reap the benefits but with the way Rosen has been running in the 1k NL rebuy WSOP Event #44, its hard to blame him.
After everyone folded to Rosen in the small blind, Rosen put his opponent all-in in the big blind for his 90k stack with blinds at 4k-8k-1k. Rosen said the big blind was extremely tight and was surprised when he snap called with A5, ahead of Rosen’s T2.
Rosen wasn’t trailing for long when he had his opponent drawing dead by the flop when it came all diamonds.
To quote one of the most common phrases thrown around from online players this summer, “It must be nice.”
Rosen is the current chip leader with 930k but most contend with Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman’s 720k stack at his table as well as Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich, who has 440k.
If not for a bad beat about earlier, Froehlich’s stack would likely be near the chip leaders.
Froehlich’s opponent raised to 24k and Froehlich re-reraised to 75k, only to have his opponent put Froehlich all-in for his last 300k. Froehlich called and tabled the AK, dominating his opponents AJ. To Froehlich’s dismay they chopped the pot when the board double paired, sending Froehlich from one of the chip leaders if he holds to an average stack.
Here’s some chip counts of other notable players left with the average stack at 390k.
Jesse Chinni - 875k
Alex Bolotin - 200k
Joe Tehan - 175k
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 140k
After patiently nursing a short stack for much of the evening, Jason Gray has been steadily building his chips since returning from dinner break from the 5k 6-max WSOP Event #46.
With the blinds at 500/1,000 with a 100 ante, Jason open raised to 2.5K on the button and the player in the small blind quickly reraised to 7.5K total. Gray thought briefly before putting in a third raise to 21.5K. His opponent then moved all-in for around 15K more. Jason, who had 30K to start the hand, made the call and was happy to see he was in better shape than he expected when he revealed A9 and the other player held A-8. The flop came 974 and, after the J hit on the turn, Jason made his flush and had the other player drawing dead. Jason had the other player covered and after the hand he was sitting in good shape with 60K.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer also got it all-in with a bigger ace than his opponent, but he was eliminated when the other player’s A-10 caught up to O’Dwyer’s A-J. There are still a number of notable players remaining in the field though. Here are our most recent unofficial chip counts:
Steven “CornellFiji” Ware - 280K
Shannon Shorr - 80K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 40K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 40K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 38K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 37K
Ryan “daut44″ Daut - 34K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 32K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 21K
A few online players played in the 1.5k Stud Hi-Lo WSOP Event #47. With only a 544 player field and the small buy-in, the tournament provided a good opportunity for a deep run.
Among those still in contention with 280 players left are Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (875), Craig “MrCasino” Gray (6.5k), and Brian “Devo” Devonshire (9k) with the average stack at 6k.
Freeman Chip Leader in $1K Rebuy
by AdamJ on 06.27.08, 12:38 am
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman’s meotoric rise through the 1k NL rebuy WSOP Event #44 continues to shoot skyward as his 860k stack is tops with 25 players left. Freeman had one third of the average stack late in Day 1 before going on a rush to end the day.
Not too far behind Freeman is Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, whose 550k is in the top three stacks. Rosen’s life will be much easier after they just went down to three tables as he no longer has to deal with Freeman, who got the better of him earlier:
Rosen raised 64 preflop and Freeman called. Rosen bet 15k on a 9-9-7 flop and Freeman called. He then bet 30k on the turn when the 8 peeled and Freeman called. Both players checked the king on the river and Freeman won with A-Q high.
“This table is going to be a lot easier without Scott,” Rosen said. “He soul read me earlier.”
Although Rosen won’t have to contend with the overwhelming chip leader in Freeman, he will have to bang heads with two tough tournament players in Joe Tehan and Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, (pictured right) 
whose 300k stack is to his immediate left. Tehan’s 260k stack is right at the average stack with blinds at 3k-6k-500.
Randy “Randers” Haddox was recently eliminated as was Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, who was busted by Mark Seif when his straight and flush draw failed to improve against Seif’s top pair of aces.
Despite almost having the market cornered on orange 5k chips, Freeman’s table is perhaps the toughest one left with Mark Seif (400k), Alex Bolotin (150k) and Alan Sass (100k) — although Bolotin and Sass are short.
With his back nearly five feet in front of the rail, Freeman’s online posse was able to converse with him about his position in the tournament.
When Freeman was asked by a crew that included Adam “akat11″ Katz and Adam “Roothlus” Levy if he was ”pooping” on the table to get his stack, Freeman said quite the contrary.
“I’m running good,” Freeman said. “I’m real good at getting kings to ace-king.”
J.C. Tran (210k) and Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich (330k) highlight the third table.
The $5K Short Handed NLHE Event is back from break and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar essentially doubled his stack shortly after play resumed. With the blinds at 300/600 ante 75 Vivek raised to 1,600 and the player in the big blind reraised to 4,200. Rajkumar told Pocket Fives that he and the player had been butting heads ever since they were moved to the same table.
Vivek made the call and the duo saw a flop of AT3. The player in the big blind bet out 5K and Rajkumar called. After the 7 came on the turn, his opponent led out again, this time for 8.5K and Vivek called once again. The river was the 5 and the big blind thought some time before moving all-in for 21.3K. Vivek just barely had the other player covered and began to contemplate making the call.
After his opponent said, “I told you we’d play a big pot together,” Vivek thought some more and announced, “man, I just got these chips too.”
Another minute or two passed and the other player asked Rajkumar, “do you have K-10 or something?”
“Pretty much,” Vivek responded. Then, Jason “JCarver” Somerville, who was playing at the next table over, craned his neck to see what was going on and Vivek called out, “Jason–every hand”, referring to the number of big decisions he had been put to the past couple of levels.
After 4-5 minutes passed, the other player called the clock on Vivek and, as time wound down, Rajkumar asked if the other player would show if he folded. His opponent said nothing and the floor person began to count down the final ten seconds. With two seconds remaining, Vivek announced “call” and turned over J-10. The other player said “good”, mucked his hand, and walked away from the table and Rajkumar increased his stack to 75K.
Here are some updated chip counts coming back from the dinner break:
Jason Somerville (pictured at right) - 63K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 58K
Shannon Shorr - 36K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 32K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 30K
Jason Gray - 28K
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis - 21.5K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 20K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 16K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 12.5K
Thayer Rasmussen - 11.5K