WSOP 2008
“Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
by Brett on 06.26.08, 11:29 pm
A large crowd gathered around Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman’s table in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Freeman (pictured right), who was sitting with over 330K chips, got it all in preflop with Jeff “yellowsub” Williams and Albert Iverson, one of the tournament chip leaders. The hands:
Freeman: K
K
Albert Iverson: AK
Williams: J
J
Players from every table (including the Stud Hi-Lo tournament going on in the same room) came over to watch the pocket kings of Freeman hold as he jumped out of his seat and got a fist pound from Eric Froelich. Even Men “The Master” Nguyen walked over and asked us “How you get it in with ace-king?” Williams was eliminated in 34th place and earned $14,904.
Freeman is the first player to hit the 750K mark in the tournament and is the chip leader by over 200K. Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen has also made his way back to 350K by outracing Nicolas Levi. Rosen’s QQ was able to hold against Levi’s AK and Levi was eliminated.
Also holding strong with 27 players remaining are Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (260K) and Eric “E-Fro” Froelich (175K). Eliminated in the past hour were Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen, Randy “Randers” Haddox and Justin “looshle” Pechie.
The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Low that we mentioned is now in Level 4. Bryan Micon, Chris “SKOAL” Falconer, Bryan Devonshire and Brett “Gank” Jungblut are among the early chip leaders.
Rosen Rises in Event #44
by Brett on 06.26.08, 9:11 pm
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, who built up an impressive stack yesterday, has just doubled up to join the chip leaders of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Sitting on the button with blinds at 1500/3000, Rosen re-raised a player in middle position preflop with J5 and the player called. On a flop of J43, Rosen was check-raised all in by his opponent and he called instantly. Jamie was in excellent shape to pick up one of the biggest pots of the tournament as his opponent revealed his 77. The 5 on the turn and 4 on the river helped earn Rosen a pot worth more than 350,000.
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka was just seen smiling as he raked in a monster pot to join Rosen at the top of the leaderboard. Jaka got involved in a three-way preflop all in against AK and 65, having both players covered, and his AT got the best of it in the end as the board came T9335. He is now up to 340,000 chips.
Justin “looshle” Pechie and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams have also increased their stacks in the past level. Williams raised to 7,200 under-the-gun and was re-reaised all in by a player in late position for 26,000 more. Williams called with AJ after working through the math and pumped his first when his opponent showed A6. Both players missed the board completely but Williams’ ace-jack high was best and he chipped up to 105,000.
Pechie got his QQ in preflop and was able to hold as he flopped top set and is now at 150,000.
Michael “mossified84″ Skomack and Mike “SirWatts” Watson were eliminated in the past hour.
Here’s a look at some other chip counts as we’re now down to 72 players left in Event #44:
Eric “E-Fro” Froelich - 120K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 116K (pictured right)
Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen - 115K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 87K
Stu “thedonator” Patterson - 80K
Randy “Randers” Haddox - 49K
Mellow Yellow(sub)?
by Brett on 06.26.08, 6:51 pm
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams made a move early on in the restart of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. With the blinds at 800/1600, a short-stack moved all in for 9K and Williams made the call with TT, which held against his opponent’s A6 when the board revealed K96QK. After the hand, Jeff received a celebration warning from the dealer for doing an Icky Shuffle-type dance in his seat, and he responded with “Sorry, I’m just doing it for the reporters.” Williams then chipped up again two hands later when he re-shoved a player’s raise and induced a fold and is now up to 33K.
Jordan “scarface79″ Smith was one of the first eliminations of the day. Conor Tate raised to 4,100 from the cutoff and Smith re-raised his last 27,000 in from the big blind. Tate deliberated and finally made the call with KQ and had Smith looking for help with KJ. The 75552 board was no help to Jordan and he was eliminated.
Craig “MrCasino” Gray followed in Smith’s footsteps shortly after. A player in early position raised to 4,500 and Gray (pictured right) re-raised to 15,500 on the button, leaving a little more than 20,000 behind. The original raiser called and immediately shoved his remaining chips in on a Q93 flop. Gray made the call, saying “What did I do to myself,” and saw the bad news when his TT was behind the other player’s AQ. The board bricked for Gray and he was sent to the rail.
Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen took a massive hit to his stack at the 1K/2K level. Stammen raised to 5,100 from under the gun with QQ and a player in late position moved all-in for close to 50K. Action folded back to Stammen, who snap-called and found pleasant news when his opponent flipped up 66. The AT9 flop was kind to Keven, but the 6 on the river was a crushing blow and left Stammen with 25K. “It’s been like this all series,” Stammen said to us as he calmly walked back to his seat.
With 90 players remaining, here’s a look at the unofficial chip counts of some other notable players:
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 215K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 130K
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 115K
Justin “Looshle” Pechie - 100K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 90K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 80K
Randy “Randers’ Haddox - 80K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 50K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 40K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 40K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 15K
Online Players Looking to Run Deep
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 5:46 pm
After tournament registration closed for the $5k NLHE six-handed event, 805 players had entered the tournament, beating last years total by 77 entries. Even with 10k starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, the play has been fast and furious. There are so many notable online players in the field that we can’t even begin to list them all. One of our reporters counted more than 50 notable online players in the field at the start of the tournament so we wouldn’t be surprised if numerous P5ers ran deep in today’s event.
We caught up with Matt “mattg1983″ Graham in a hand with the board reading 632. It appeared that Matt had bet out on the flop only to be raised another 2.3k by his opponent. Matt was obviously stressed about his decision and then decided to fold his pocket tens face-up. Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Hevad “RainKhan” Khan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Shane “Shaniac” Schleger (pictured right), and Alex Jacob are all doing well and have built their stacks up during the first two levels.
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams was seen walking through the field of six-handed players a little before 2 pm, but he isn’t playing in today’s event because he is in day 2 of the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tourney. He is seated at table #13 along with Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured left). Another table with a few notable players is #15 with Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich all seated together. 81 of the 115 players that started today will make the money so short stacked players are going to have to make moves soon as the bubble isn’t too far away.
Mackey Riding High
by Crystal on 06.26.08, 3:21 pm
After day 1 of the massive $50k HORSE event, James “mig.com” Mackey (pictured right) is the chip leader going into day two with 214k. In a field filled with big name pros, online players are definitely making their presence known such as recent bracelet winner Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond who starts today with 161k. Other players still in the hunt include Brian “tsarrast” Rast (132k), Tom “durrrr” Dwan (109k), Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo (80k), and Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko (41k). Well known pros David Williams and Phil Hellmuth weren’t able to make it past day 1 and were among the few players eliminated last night. Play resumes at 2 pm today and we’re sure to see eliminations start coming at faster rate as the blinds and antes continue to rise.
Also restarting this afternoon is event #44, the $1k NLHE w/Rebuys tournament. Day 2 will begin with 115 players including Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks and Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka who are near the top of the chip counts with 154k and 116k. Stu “TheDonator” Patterson had a good first day as he comes into day 2 with 95k and Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen will start the day with 80k.
Just getting started in the Amazon room is event #46 the $5k NLHE six-handed event with over 550 players registered so far. These short handed events have tended to play out fast and furious at this year’s WSOP and we expect this event to be no different. We’ve already spotted numerous P5ers in the field such as Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, and Ryan “Daut44″ Daut. We’ll keep you updated on their progress as the day moves forward.