WSOP 2008
Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 2:54 am
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (pictured left) continues to yield an above average stack in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. Clements currently sits at 115k and recently just scooped a nice pot that has left John D’Agostino’s head spinning.
D’Agostino raised to 3,600 and Clements called on the button. Both players checked a T
3
9
flop, and the action picked up on the 7 turn. D’Agostino bet 5k and Clements raised to 13k and D’Agostino called. D’Agostino checked the 8 and Clements bet 25k, sending D’Agostino into over a few minutes of deliberation. D’Agostino, who had about 60k behind, eventually found a fold and was visibly unnerved by the sequence of events following the hand.
Eric “Rizen” Lynch has somehow found a way to maintain around a ten big blind stack in a game known for huge swings during the past three hours.
Lynch currently sits at his apex during that stretch at 24k. Lynch got as low as 9k in the previous level.
“I finally got my starting stack back,” he said. ”It only took me nine hours!”
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan has remained a healthy stack over 140k the past few hours although the arrival of overwhelming chip leader Josh Arieh to his table may drastically change that trend.
Arieh currently sits with 380k with blinds at 800-1600 with the average stack at 70k.
Here’s some other notable chip counts
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 150k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 135k
Rolf Slotboom - 45k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 28k
The $1.5K has already lost over half of its 803 person field, but 360 players still remain with a couple of hours left in Day One. One such player is Doug “Resilient” Smith (pictured right), who recently picked up some chips when he eliminated another player in a razz showdown.
Barry Greenstein brought the hand in for 75 with a K up and the player to his left completed the bet to 300 with the 8
showing. Smith then raised to 600 with his A up, and his opponent thought momentarily before 3-betting. Doug capped the betting and the other player called. Doug picked up the 4 on 4th while his opponent showed a K. Doug bet and his opponent called. When both players picked up Qs on 5th street Smith bet again, which was enough to put his opponent all-in. As the other player made the call and they turned their cards face up, Doug informed the other player he wasn’t in that bad of shape against Smith, as Doug had paired his four. The players showed the following hands:
Smith (5)(4)A4Q
Opponent: (6)(4)8KQ
On 6th Doug improved to the better low with the 2 while his opponent was dealt the 9. The 3 on the river sealed the deal for Smith by giving him the wheel, as well as the nearly 5K pot. He was up to 9K at the conclusion of the hand.
While some players, like John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, and David “seal” Eisenstein have been eliminated, several others remain. Here are some unofficial chip counts:
Brett “gank” Jungblut - 11K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 11K
Alex Jacob - 8.5K
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 5K
Shannon Shorr - 4K
Barry Greenstein - 3.5K
Bryan Micon - 2.5K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 2K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg was eliminated in 28th place in the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event when his pocket eights failed to hold against another player’s A-K. He will earn $13,727 for the finish. Andy Black and Men “The Master” Nguyen were also sent to the rail recently. 21 players remain, including David Tran, Tommy Vu, “Jumpin” Joe Pelton, and JC Tran.
The $50K HORSE event is nearing closer to a champion as only three players remain at the final table. Michael De Michele is the current chip leader with over 7 million, but Scotty Nguyen is within striking distance with 5.3 million. Erick Lindgren is the short stack of the trio; he is just shy of the 2 million chip marker.
Daut Busted in 10k PLO
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 1:46 am
Despite rebuilding his short stack to a more respectable level at 28k, Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (pictured right) lost it all back in big confrontation with Clonie Gowen in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50.
Gowen raised to 4.5k and Daut reraised to 15k and Gowen called. Gowen checked to Daut on a 873flop, and Daut went all-in for 13k and Gowen called. Daut tabled the AAKQ ahead of Gowen’s 6354 double-draw that he had murked with higher diamonds. Daut lost to Gowen’s straight outs when the board ran Q and the 6.
David “Raptor517″ Benefield lost a near 100k pot, dipping his 175k stack, one of the biggest stacks left, to around 120k. Benefield flopped a set eights to his opponents pockets aces and a nut flush draw and lost when his opponent hit a runner-runner straight.
Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left with the average stack at 60k.
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 130k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 80k
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 40k
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 14k
The $1.5K No Limit Hold Em WSOP Event #49 is losing players at a feverish pace. There are currently 29 players remaining–slightly more than 1% of the intial 2,700 person field. Recent eliminations include Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar in 35th place and Hevad “Rain” Khan. Khan was involved in a 4-way limped pot when the flop came Q98 Khan and another player got it all-in. Khan held KQ while the other player had 67. The 5 brought the other player their straight and Hevad was sent to the rail.
Some notable chip counts of the remaining players include JC Tran (380K), Andy Black (305K), and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (170K).
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 AT after the board ran out KT3TJ.
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 432 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
Mueller Makes a Massive Call
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 8:42 pm
It seems everywhere you turn some player is making a bad call to put their tournament life at stake. This definitely wasn’t the case for Greg “FBT” Mueller (pictured at left). We caught up with the action on the flop with the board reading T72. A short stacked player was already all in and Greg and another player were tangled up in a side pot. Both players on the side had large stacks that were similar in size and when the other player pushed all in Greg went into the tank.
He talked out his entire thought process over a period of time that lasted nearly ten minutes. “You must have aces or kings” he said… followed by “Would you make that move with nines or eights? You could be on a flush draw.” Jon Friedberg got up from the table and whispered to a PocketFives reporter that he was sure Greg had the best hand and the other player probably had A-K or maybe the flush draw. Greg apologized to the table for taking so long to make a decision, but no one seemed upset. Eventually Greg said “I really think I have the best hand. I call.” His opponent said “Nice call” as he flipped over the 99 for a pair of nines and Greg proudly flipped over his KT for a pair of tens. The all in player showed KQ and Greg was set to win the entire pot. The turn came with the 5 and the river was the Q which gave the short stacked all in player the main pot of around 40k, but Greg’s tens took the side pot which totaled nearly 250k.
Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane has also been accumulating chips. He busted a player with his pocket queens and then on a hand not long afterwards the cutoff raised to 9k and Gerry re-raised to 23k from the small blind. The cutoff made the call and the flop came 532. Gerry pushed all in and his opponent folded and Gerry’s stack grew to around 115k.
With 90 players remaining Jon Friedberg has around 180k, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar has almost 100k, and Hevad “RainKhan” Khan has a little less than 50k.
The $1.5k HORSE event #51 got started at 5 pm tonight and with the smaller buy-in we’re sure we’ll see a large number of online players dipping their toes into this mixed game event even if they aren’t as experienced at all of the games. This is sure to make for some exciting action and we’ll keep you posted as the tournament progresses.
The $50k HORSE final table is still progressing. Barry Greenstein is currently the short stack with 1.3 million while Scotty Nguyen is the current chip leader with 4.4 million.
42o Might Never Lose, but JTo Sometimes Does
by Crystal on 06.29.08, 6:09 pm
Alex “42oneverloses” Case got involved in a huge hand against one opponent only 20 minutes after play started in Day 2 of the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em Event #49.
With the blinds at 800/1,600/200 Case (pictured at left) raised to 4.8K preflop and was called by the big blind. The flop came AK5 and the big blind checked over to Case, who bet 7.2K. The big blind raised to 25K total and after thinking for a little while, Case pushed all in for a total of 88.4K. The big blind, whose stack was very similar in size, tanked but eventually made the call with the A5 for two pair. Case held JT for a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. Both those draws were demolished when the 5 fell on the turn, giving the big blind the full house and a lock on the hand. The meaningless 8 came on the river and the huge pot was shipped away from Case, leaving him with 6.5K in chips.
The very next hand, Case open-shoved only to have Andy Black immediately re-raise to 14K. All the other players folded and Black tabled the AA against Case’s 89. The board ran out T43Q4 and Case was sent to the ever-growing payout line.
Moving the opposite way in chip counts was Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, who sat short-stacked with 16.4K. He was playing aggressively to try and accumulate chips; in one hand, he moved all in preflop from middle position and managed to get everyone to fold. His count went up to 21K. He moved through the blinds, and late action prevented him from playing. However, when he was in the cutoff position, action folded around to him and he pushed all in. His opponent in the big blind also pushed all in to isolate and had Vivek covered. Vivek flipped over 59 to his opponent’s A-T. The board ran out K76K5; the five on the river managed to keep Vivek alive and elevate his stack to 37K. The other player was quite visibly upset, but Vivek took the opportunity to really tune into the table as his opponents’ concentration waned. Later, Vivek called down an all in with pocket fives, but couldn’t get any help from the board against his opponent’s pocket tens. His stack took a turn for the worse, but he managed to double back up moments later to 28K.
Another PocketFiver was doing quite well in the first level of Day 2; Gerry “thegatherer” Kane reported that he was extremely short-stacked going into the day - he only held 18K to start. However, he managed to double up on the first hand, getting it all in with A-Q against pocket nines in the big blind. The dealer spiked a queen for Gerry and he instantly doubled up to 38K. He thanked the lucky Scottish kilt he’s wearing at the table and wanted to send a shout-out to all poker players in his homeland! Later, we caught up again with Gerry as he knocked another player out of the running - his stack was up to 53K and looking strong.