WSOP 2008
“Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!
by Jill on 06.06.08, 6:07 am
Event #5 - $1K No-Limit Hold’em w/ Re-buys:
Congratulations to Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci, who won the bracelet and top prize of $636,736 in an excruciatingly long three-way match against Peter Gould Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams. Three-handed play continued for such a long time that the rowdy railbirds took to breathalyzing themselves for entertainment. When Banducci took down the title, with A
J
vs. A5, their cheers were heard by anyone within a two-mile radius. It also begged the question: Why there was a breathalyzer at the ESPN final table?!
Event #6 - $1.5K Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Thang Luu took down the Omaha 8 event for a grand total of $243,356. P5er Chris “SKOAL” Falconer finished in 5th for $64,243 and Scott Clements netted the first finish at the final table for a 9th place prize of $22,172. Congratulations to all!
Event #7 - $2K No-Limit Hold’em
Play ended tonight with the elimination of Manny Minaya in 10th place; the final table will resume tomorrow at 3PM PST with a stacked table. Theo Tran, Shannon Shorr, and J.C. Tran will sit at the final table tomorrow with six others, all trying to win $550,601 and the bragging rights of a WSOP bracelet.
Event #8 - $10K World Championship Mixed Event
The mixed event is playing down to the final nine this evening in preparation for a star-studded table tomorrow. James “mig.com” Mackey, Michael DeMichele, Sammy Farha, Jeff Madsen, Gus Hansen, Eli Elezra, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Anthony “tongni” Rivera, and Tom Schneider are currently fighting the good fight to make it into the coveted top nine spots for this World Championship event.
Event #9 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed
The short-handed event ended this evening after ten levels of play. Just before the last level ended, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby managed to double up and stay alive by catching a straight on the river.
Event #10 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better:
As the $2.5k Limit Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better enters the last level of the evening, several P5ers made a strong showing. Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson led the pack with 45K in chips; Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich protected a 28K stack. Craig “MrCasino” Gray trailed with 23K, sitting next to Brock “t_soprano” Parker who was running with an average-sized stack of 15K.
Brock and Craig were chipping away at fellow table-mate Allan Kessler’s stack, as he was barely staying alive. In one stud hand, the AA
were dealt face-up to Craig, who took down the pot uncontested from Kessler. The next Omaha hand saw Kessler betting out in early position to fight for his dwindling stack. The bet got three callers, including Brock, then a re-raise from Kessler and three subsequent calls. The flop came A89 and Kessler bet out once again, leaving few chips behind. Brock called along with the two others and the turn brought the 7
. Kessler bet again,getting a call from Brock and another player, and inducing a fold from the last player to act. The river came 4 and play checked around to Brock, who bet to try and take down the pot uncontested. Kessler tanked for quite, pulled out a pen and notepad, and folded with very few chips behind him. Brock did receive a call from one of the original players and split the pot with the low hand.
Williams Makes Phenomenal Call
by Brett on 06.05.08, 10:26 pm
It isn’t uncommon to hear a loud roar coming from the ESPN Final Table Arena when wandering the Amazon Room. With three online stars still in the $1K NL rebuy and their raucous cohorts on the rail, the howls and applause have been echoing throughout since play began.
The latest came following a hand involving Jeff “Yellowsub86″ Williams (left) and Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci. With the blinds at 10K/20K, Banducci raised to 50K on the button and Williams called in the big blind. Both players checked the T32 flop. The turn brought the 7 and Banducci bet 60K. Williams called and the 4 came on the river. Banducci bet 100K and Williams again made the call and flipped over A9 for Ace-high, which beat Banducci’s Q8. Williams is now up to 1.3 million, second to Peter Gould’s 1.6 million. Banducci and Jon “FatalError” Aguiar are each hovering around 1 million with five remaining.
In the $2K NL, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins (right) recently doubled through Shannon Shorr before the 60-minute dinner break. At 2K/4K, Shorr raised to 10K and Collins came over the top with a 75K all-in bet. Shorr called with TT and led Collins’ AQ until a Q spiked on the turn, sending a 160K pot to Collins.
James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell hasn’t had the same fortune. Campbell took a hit when an opponent apparently hit a two-outer against him. On a board of Q963, the player in seat 5 bet 6K into Campbell, who called. The river brought the 7 and seat 5 bet 18K. Campbell called and was shocked to see his opponent flip over 77 for a set. POKERPRO is still relatively healthy at the break with around 70K.
Devin “tranquilchaos” Porter doubled up in the $1.5K short handed-event on the last hand before the dinner break. With the blinds at 200/400 ante 50 a player raised under the gun to 1100 and Porter moved all-in from the cut off for an additional 5K. The initial raiser tanked for a minute or two before calling with AJ. Devin was in good shape with AK and doubled up to 13K going into the break when the board came A62T2. Other chip counts from the $1.5K NL include:
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 49K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman - 21K
Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley - 19.7K
Danny “BigDShaggyJ” Johnson - 18K
Jared “The WacoKidd” Hamby - 16K
1K Rebuy Down to 6
by Jessica on 06.05.08, 7:29 pm
The final table of the $1K rebuy got underway a little while ago and two players were recently eliminated when the following hand transpired:
With the blinds 8K/16K ante 2K the action folded around to Steve “gboro780″ Gross who moved all-in for 104K. Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen moved all-in behind him for 421K and Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams (pictured at left) thought for some time before folding. Lyric Duveyoung then moved all-in for 600K and Williams let out a noticable sigh of relief at his decision to fold. Groso held KT, Rosen had AQ, and Duveyoung showed QQ. The board came out T9395 and Duveyoung eliminated the two smaller stacks, increasing his chip stack to 1.15 million. A few hands later, Jeff Williams eliminated Michael Binger in 7th place.
In the 2K NLHE event several Pocket Fivers were sent to the rail recently, including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Zak “traaction” Gilbert, and Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert. Phil “USCphildo” Collins has also had a rough go of it lately. Collins built his stack up to 125K before running kings into aces. He now has 44K.
The final table of Event #8, the $1500 O8 event is underway. Stay tuned for updates on Chris “SKOAL” Falconer and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.
14 Remain in $1K Rebuy, P5s Posse Rails
by Jill on 06.05.08, 2:55 am
Online poker pros made a stellar showing going into the final two tables of the WSOP Event #5 $1K NLHE with rebuys. After Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu went out in 22nd, Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at left) tangled with Jon “apestyles” van Fleet and Randy Haddox. With pocket ladies, Levy caught the Q on the flop to make a set and eliminate van Fleet from the running.
Redrawing for tables after Dan Adams’ elimination in 19th place, the tables were stacked heavy with the online crowd. The loitering railbird crowd (pictured at right) included Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks, Antuan “bigboybunk” Bunkley, and other P5ers, supporting the final two-table lineup:
Table 1
Craig “MrCasino” Gray
Jamie Rosen
Peter Gould
Clonie Gowen
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar
Ray “Exitonly” Coburn
Steve “gboro” Gross
Chris Moore
Alan Jaffray
Table 2
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams
Michael Binger
Adam “Roothlus” Levy
Randy “Randers” Haddox
Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci
Nam Le
Lyric Duveyoung
Phi Nguyen
Alan Sass
ESPN’s camera crew dominated the scene, capturing Craig Gray’s 17th place finish for $ 21,705 when he couldn’t catch his flush. Levy and Aguiar also stacked short, compared to Jeff Williams’ sizeable stack. Interestingly enough, we caught up with Men “The Master” Nguyen on the rail. He explained that another of the tables’ players, Phil Nguyen, is a long-time student of his. Jokingly, Men said, “It’s a Nguyen-Nguyen situation here.”
WSOP Event #6 - $1.5k Omaha Update:
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements continued to dominate his table this level. With the blinds at $1.5k/$3k, the player 3rd to act raised and Scott re-raised from the small blind. The big blind folded and the initial raiser called. The flop came 554 and Scott bet out. The other player called and they saw the 2 on the turn. Scott bet again and the other player called. The Q came on the river and the betting went the same way as before. Scott tabled the AJ32 for the wheel which was good enough to scoop the entire pot.
In another hand, the player under the gun raised. Scott, next to act, re-raised and was called. The flop came K42 and the player under the gun bet out, only to be raised once again by the BigRiskky. Scott’s opponent once again re-raised, forcing Scott to cap the betting. Both players checked the 5 on the turn and the 2 on the river. Scott’s opponent showed fives and deuces, while Scott tabled AAQT for aces and deuces, good enough to scoop yet another pot. Scott’s stack neared the 100k mark.
Meanwhile, Ethan “smokinggroove” Werner (pictured at left) sat with a strong 61K chipstack after the last break, but managed to run into a streak of bad luck. He was finally eliminated by Richard Ashby, moneying deep into the Omaha tournament. Forty players remain in the event and P5er Chris “SKOAL” Falconer’s stack stayed resolute at 46K just before the 20-minute break.
Bubble Bursts in Event #5; Mizzi, Eaton, Gray Exit Shortly After
by Brett on 06.04.08, 8:00 pm
More than a dozen online stars have cashed in the $1K rebuy, but a handful found themselves short and in desperation mode as soon as the money bubble collapsed. Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton, Jason Gray and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi busted within 20 minutes of making the money and earned just over $8K.
Mizzi (pictured left) had nearly 60K while play was hand-for-hand but was crippled when his KJ failed to improve against A4 on the board of 4AT66 after all the money got in on the turn. Mizzi’s hard luck continued minutes later when he shoved his last 7.7K with KK and was outdrawn by Bill Baxter’s K8 when Baxter flopped a flush.
The 68 players still in the tournament are currently on a 20-minute break with the next blinds level at 1500/3000 and the average stack 146,716.
Here are the unofficial chip counts of the P5ers in the field:
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet - 220K
Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams - 180K
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 180K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 176K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 142K
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 75K
Dan “Stainley88″ Adams - 72K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 70K
Justin “jurollo” Rollo - 70K
Carl “colson10″ Colson - 60K