WSOP 2008
Gomes, Johnson Go 1 and 2 in $2K Event
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 12:24 am
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson’s (pictured at left) tournament run also came to an end when he finished 2nd in the $2K No Limit Hold Em event. Johnson and fellow Pocket Fiver Alexandre “allingomes” Gomes battled back and forth in their heads up match before Gomes gained the upper hand when he cracked Johnson’s pocket aces with A
T
after the board ran out KT3
TJ.
A few hands later, Marco moved in for the remainder of his chips with QJ and Alexandre quickly made the call with AK. After a flop of 4
32 and an ace on the turn, Johnson was drawing dead to a 5 for a chop. When the river came 4, Gomes scooped the pot and the victory, sending his large Brasilian contingent into a roar of applause. Gomes earned $770,540 for his finish and Johnson took home $491,273 for 2nd.
Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane’s run in the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event has come to an end. Gerry was in the big blind when he and another player got it all-in on a board of 543K. Kane flopped two pair with his 34, but he needed to fill up in order to best the other player’s 67 for a flopped straight. The 2 on the river was no help to Kane and he was eliminated in 45th place, earning $10,759. Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was also eliminated recently. He finished in 72nd place, good enough for $7,420.
The $50K HORSE event lost a couple of players before pausing the tournament to take a dinner break. Huck Seed was eliminated in 7th place and Barry Greenstein was out shortly afterwards in 6th when his pair of aces in Stud 8 were no match for Scotty Nguyen’s full house. Shortly after pocketing his $355,200 prize, Barry registered for his third tournament of the day and is now playing in the $1.5K HORSE event.
A handful of P5er’s are left in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. With a small 381 player field, not many tables featured players that were known from either live or online poker. However, Tim “TMay420″ West had a below average stack of 23k at a table full of live pro’s with Tony Cousineau, Tony G, Dan Shak, and Joe “The Elegance” Beevers from the Hendon Mob.
Jason “JP OSU” Potter just bricked out on a massive multiway 90k pot when his freeroll with pocket aces and a nut flush draw didn’t come to fruition. Potter’s 34k stack is below the 48k average. Ryan “Daut44″ Daut also just lost a big pot when his opponent rivered a nut flush and Daut led for 8k on the river and called another 12k more when he got raised. Daut had 44k earlier in the level and currently has 14k.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch is nursing an extreme short stack at 13k with blinds at 400-800 but remains optimistic at a table that includes Noah “Exclusive” Boeken’s massive 105k stack and Chris Moneymaker.
“It can change in a hurry,” Lynch said. “It will in one way or another shortly.”
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left:
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanon - 120k
David “Raptor57″ Benefield - 110k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 64k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 55k
Dario Minieri - 43k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 19k
To Reload or Not to Reload?
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 3:39 pm
The $10k World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha got started at noon today here in the Amazon room with around 240 entrants when play began. The field has since grown to more than 320 players and registration will stay open until the end of level two. We’ve already spotted some P5ers in this smaller field including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Stu “The Donator” Patterson, and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
While in most of the other WSOP events this year the starting stack has been double the buy-in for the event, players begin this tournament with 10k in tournament chips plus a red reload chip (pictured left) that is good for another 10k chips whenever the player chooses to use it. Players can elect to use it right at the beginning, to make their starting stack 20k while others may wait until they need the extra chips. At the end of level three, the extra 10k will be added to any player’s stack that hasn’t already used their reload chip.
The final tables of both the $50k HORSE event #45 and the $2k NLHE event #48 will start this afternoon. The HORSE final table is fileld with big name pros including P5’s own Barry Greenstein who comes into the final table with the 3rd largest chip stack as he tries to win his 2nd bracelet this year and his 4th overall bracelet.
The $2k NLHE final table will be led by chip leader Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson who has more than 2.1 million. The final table will begin play at 3 pm where Marco hopes his amazing run in this event will lead straight to his first WSOP bracelet.
Crain Wrecks
by Jessica on 06.29.08, 6:47 am
After losing chips in several confrontations with Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, Eric “jakz101″ Crain was left shortstacked with only around 175K with the blinds at 12K/24K ante 3K. The player to Eric’s right was eliminated on the previous hand, resulting in a dead small blind and Eric in the big blind. Knowing his opponents would likely take advantage of the opportunity to pick on the short stack, Eric attempted to remind his tablemates how much fun he’s been and how much they would miss him if he was eliminated. At one point, Eric jokingly said, “why’s everybody always picking on me? I’m looking at you there in the 2 seat.” The man in the 2 seat? None other than Eric’s newfound nemesis, Marco Johnson.
Johnson opted to fold, but the player on the button raised to 65K and Eric moved all in for his remaining 175K. The other player thought briefly before making the call with A3 and Crain was in better shape than he expected with his 55. However, after the flop came A-Q-Q, Eric was drawing thin and when the turn and river were no help to him, he was eliminated in 13th place, earning $35,843.
11 players remain and Johnson continues to hold the chip lead as play continues. They will still need to lose two more players tonight before play concludes.
Play has concluded for the day in the $50K HORSE event and the final table is set. Erick Lindgren is currently the chip leader with Scotty Nguyen hot on his heels. Barry Greenstein, Huck Seed, and Lyle Berman will also be duking it out for the coveted bracelet tomorrow starting at 3pm.
CrazyMarco Running CrazyHot
by AdamJ on 06.29.08, 5:33 am
With 18 players left in the $2K No Limit Hold Em Event, the players redrew for new tables and one was heavily loaded with Pocket Fivers. Table #1 boasts Dan “Wretchy” Martin, Eric “jakz101″ Crain, and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (pictured at right). While a short stacked Martin has generally stayed out of the way of the other two players, Crain and Johnson have tangled in several situations and Johnson appears to be coming out on top every time.
A few hands after the new tables were seated, Crain raised to 60K with the blinds at 10K/20K ante 3K and Marco moved all-in from the button for just over 400K. Eric laid his hand down without much thought. An orbit later, Eric again raised to 60K and, once again, Johnson moved all-in behind him. This time around, Crain tanked for several minutes debating with himself whether or not to call Marco’s 508K bet. He tried to induce a reaction from Johnson by asking, “do you have two tens?” Marco remained perfectly still until Crain decided to fold. As Johnson was scooping his chips, Eric joked, “ok Marco, you can breath now.”
Their interactions were far from over when Eric raised to 70K and, rather than moving all-in, Marco reraised to 200K from the small blind. Crain quickly made the call and the two saw a flop of T54. Marco quickly moved all-in and, once again, forced Eric to fold. After the hand, Crain was down to 290K.
Eric Crain was not Marco’s only victim this level though. Johnson raised to 51K on the button and the player in the small blind reraised to 156K total. Marco moved all-in an the other player quickly made the call with AK. Marco showed QJ and both hit the flop of AKJ hard. Marco picked up even more outs with the Q on the turn and a J on the river gave Johnson a boat and sent the other player to the rail. When the jack came, Marco noticeably jumped in his seat when he realized he had won the hand. One of the other players jokingly remarked, “don’t act surprised Marco…you knew you were going to get there somehow.” After that hand, Marco increased his chip count to 1.55 million.
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson busted out in a battle of the blinds when his opponent made it 50k from the small blind and Nelson moved all-in for 120k out of the big blind. Nelson hit a big flop when it came 867 but failed to improve going out in 17th place.
Dan “Wretchy” Martin was the next to exit when he reraised a middle position 52k raise for an additional 205k from late position. Martin’s opponent called with AK, ahead of Martin’s J9. Martin turned an open-end straight draw but didn’t improve, bowing out in 16th place.
Katz and Cahail Bust Out
by AdamJ on 06.29.08, 4:18 am
Shortly after Adam “akat11″ Katz managed to double up, he found himself hitting the rail in the 2k NL WSOP Event #48. Katz was eliminated in 25th place when he ran his pocket jacks into another player’s pocket kings. He earned $20,241 for his efforts and we are hoping Erin the Lucky Masseuse pocketed another hefty tip despite Adam failing to make the final table.
Right on Katz’s heels was Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, whose J-9 didn’t improve against his opponent’s pocket fours and he was eliminated in 23rd place.
18 players remain including Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (570K), Eric “jakz101″ Crain (500K), Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson (270K), and Dan “Wretchy” Martin (200K) (pictured below)
.
The $50K HORSE Event is down to just 11 players after the elimination of Phil Ivey in 12th place. Erick Lindgren has a commanding chip lead with 2.5 million chips. The next closest competitor is Scotty Nguyen with 1.9 million. Barry Greenstein continues to hold on with 825K.
Day 1 of the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #49 concluded minutes ago as the 2,718 player field whittled down to 215 players, reaching the money bubble earlier with 270 players left.
P5er Alex “42oneverloses” Case continued to shoot up the ranks and will start Day 2 with one of the top stacks at 93k.
This is Case’s first WSOP tournament and is the biggest buy-in tournament he’s ever played in. Early on Case said he was quite nervous, especially after he got down to 1800. After shoving his way up to 5k, Case hasn’t looked back as his stack has ascended to the top.
“I’m having a great time,” Case said. “Feels good to run like this, especially in a tournament that’s like 3 times as big as anyone i’ve played in.”
Indeed.
Greg “FBT” Mueller’s stack hasn’t dipped a bit and remains as one of the top stacks at 95k. Mueller’s stack has been near the top since players returned from dinner break.
P5er “shortyjacksn” cashed with a 258th place finish, earning $2,783.
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks.
J.C. Tran - 112k
David Pham - 85k
Andy Black - 47k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 42k
Joe Pelton - 45k
Minh “TheMaster” Nguyen - 35k
Kristy Gazes - 29k
Eugene Todd - 24k