WSOP 2008
Thugmoneymkr Makes Money (Ahem.)
by Jill on 07.01.08, 4:32 am
Play concluded in Event #52, the $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament just before 1AM PST with 228 players remaining in the field. Several PocketFivers will return at 2PM tomorrow to contend for the bracelet and the $625,443 payout; amongst them are Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh, Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, and Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld.
We caught up to Cody (pictured at left) during Level 10; Cody sported one of the biggest stacks at the table with 82K and was drinking Coronas with the biggest stack at the table. His strategy of chumming it up with the big guy seemed to be working as he made a big preflop raise to 3.2K in middle position and induced the table to show some respect and fold around to him.
Cody did, however, tangle in a pot with another PocketFiver, Joe “JonesJ1″ Jones, who sat with a small stack. He joked to PocketFives that it would be pretty embarrassing to have to return for Day 2 with so few chips, but he managed to pick up a hand shortly after and shove his 5,900 chips in the middle before the flop. Cody reraised to 10.6K total, isolating against the blinds that were still in the hand. They folded and Cody flipped over A
9
to Joe’s TT
. The board ran out J
JQ78 and Joe more than doubled to 14K. Cody’s stack sat at a very comfortable 82K, nearly triple the average.
Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld, however, was the standout of the evening and bagged up 180K in chips. He returns tomorrow as the above-and-beyond chipleader. Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan took a hit to his chip stack and will return with 17K, while Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn managed to double up through several uncalled shoves to 18K.
Though we didn’t witness first-hand the miraculous comeback that Kevin Saul reported to us, apparently another PocketFiver, George Butler, had 125 chips going into the dinner break after his pocket queens ran into pocket aces. Butler now has 45K in chips, has made the money, and continues on to play in Day 2. This is the stuff that urban legends are made of, people.
In the Brasilia room, the $1.5K HORSE tournament continues, with 33 players left all vying for a spot at the final table. The large field has been condensed to a shark tank of live players; Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, Joe Hachem, and Chad Brown all contend for the bracelet alongside short-stacked Alex Jacob. Play is expected to continue late into the evening; all players are now guaranteed $5,042.
Event #50, the $10K Pot Limit Omaha tournament has now moved from Brasilia to the Amazon room because ESPN wanted to get down to filming. Play is now down to 16 remaining and all are guaranteed $35,814. Recent eliminations include Dario Alioto (19th), David Williams (26th) and Nikolay Evdakov (28th), who has cashed a record ten times in this year’s WSOP. Apparently, his opponents were not unhappy to see him go; his legendary stalling continued well into this evening’s play.
VanDuyn Not Friendly to Friends
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 9:16 pm
Down to 900 chips in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52, Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) didn’t have any problem doubling up off his roomate Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves.
Granted, looking down at AK will make any friend worth going to war against when you are short in a tournament but nevertheless, VanDuyn seemed to get great pleasure off the situation. VanDuyn was sure to point out his “spikey haired” roommate to P5’s that gave him the courtesy double up. VanDuyn currently has 5k with blinds at 200-400 in level six.
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka continues to chip up after a good start in the first few levels. Jaka recently won a big pot when he re-raised a 600 bet from button to 2400 with pocket eights out of the blind. Jaka’s opponent called and both players checked a 8-5-2 flop. Jaka moved all-in for around 5k when he turned quads and got a call from his opponent who Jaka said claimed to have nines. Jaka didn’t believe the story but was happy to collect the pot and currently sits with 18k.
Here’s a list of notable players left with the average stack at 10k
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh - 21k
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 20.5K
Bryan “shortstackninja” Devonshire - 20K
Nick “fu_15″ Maimone - 19K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 13k
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 10K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 8.5K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 8k
Keven “stammdogg3″ Stammen - 8K
Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 7K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 7k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 6k
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 5.5K
Andrew “GreerNC” Everhard - 3.7K
46 players remain In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event including Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan (270K), David “Raptor517″ Benefield (135K), and Steve Sung (40K).
Chad Brown is currently the chip leader in the $1.5K HORSE event with 104 players remaining. Brown is seated at a star-studded table with both Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from picking up chips. Meanwhile, several other players including Doug “Resilient” Smith and Brett “gank” Jungblut.
Slaughbaugh Slaughtering 1.5k NL
by AdamJ on 06.30.08, 6:27 pm
Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh (pictured at left) couldn’t keep the smile off his face when P5’s caught a glance at his chip stack in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52.
With nearly six times the average stack at 22.5k, Slaubaugh caught fire in Level 3.
Slaubaugh won an all-in pot on when his pocket aces dodged a 17-out draw on the turn. Later, it was Slaubaugh who snapped off aces when his opponent flatted his re-raise and check shoved all-in when he flopped a set of queens.
David “Davidp18″ Peters wasn’t nearly as lucky, busting out when his opponent put him all-in after Peters made it 525 on the button with 3k behind. Peters called with A8 but was sent to the rail when his opponents J-7 offsuit turned a jack.
Here’s some chip counts of notable players we spotted with the average stack at 3700.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 7.5k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 6.5k
Shaun “cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 3.5k
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 2.8k
Matt “All in At 420″ Stout - 300
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen is one of a few P5er’s left in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. Rasmussen just doubled up to 190k thanks to wicked draw out when his opponent flopped gin.
With blinds at 1k-2k, Rasmussen re-raised his opponents 7k raise to 31k with about 60k behind. Rasmussen’s opponent called and put Rasmussen all-in on a QQ6 flop. Rasmussen called with AAT2 but was way behind his opponent’s 6675. The turn brought a miracle Q for Rasmussen, who doubled after the 9 peeled on the river.
Here’s a list of other notable players left with the average stack at 95k and less than 80 players left.
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 240k
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 100k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 80k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 25k
Micon Is Gone
by Jessica on 06.30.08, 4:20 am
Bryan Micon (pictured at right) took a big hit in the $1.5K HORSE Event when his low draw didn’t materialize and pretty much everyone at his table and the tables surrounding him knew it. His tablemate, Mike Matusow, finally proclaimed, “Bryan: you are allowed to talk non-stop about anything you want, anything at all, but you are not allowed to talk about that hand anymore.”
Mike continued his table banter with Micon by explaining to him the power of positive thinking. Bryan was down to just 3 chips, 1,100 total, and Matusow was attempting to inspire him to make a comeback.
Micon made his last stand when he raised on 3rd street with a K up in Stud 8. Both Matusow and the player who was the bring in made the call. By 5th street Micon was showing K-10-10 and the third player bet, inducing Matusow to fold. The other player held a pair of aces, but he made aces up on 6th and left Bryan, who had kings and tens, drawing very thin, especially since one of the kings was folded on 3rd. Micon failed to improve and he was eliminated as Level 7 came to a close.
Other players making an exit in the event recently include Barry Greenstein and Kenna James. Here are some chip counts of a few of the players still hanging around in the event:
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire - 15K
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 14K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 13.5K
Shannon Shorr - 8K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 6.5K
Eric “Rizen” Lynch made his exit from the $10K Pot Limit Omaha Championship when, with the blinds at 800/1,600 a player in late position raised and Lynch moved all-in for 11.8K more. The player made the call with 4-5-6-8 and Eric showed AA23. The flop came88-X and, with no help on the turn or river, Lynch was eliminated.
Play has ended for the day and 86 players will be returning tomorrow. Here are some unofficial chip counts we spotted as the level was coming to a close:
Josh Arieh - 368k (chip leader)
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 240k
David Williams - 160k
Michael Mizrachi - 160k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 118k
Noah “Exclusive” Boeken - 95k
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 90k
Nenad Medic - 75k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 75k
John D’Agostino - 48k
Rafi Amit - 34k
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 T39 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.