WSOP 2008
Crowe Pecking Away
by AdamJ on 07.11.08, 5:40 am
Day Three has come to a close here at the Rio, with 474 players remaining in the race for the bracelet. All remaining players are guaranteed $25,090 with each lusting after the $9.1M prize. Because hand-for-hand play continued for quite awhile this evening, the tournament ended in an interesting fashion: staff held a draw to determine the number of hands remaining. Mike Matusow was given the opportunity to draw the number, and eight hands it was before play concluded after 2am in the Amazon Room. Day Four will begin at 1PM PST tomorrow.
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe came through a table stacked with online pros on Day 3 of Main Event and emerged as one of the top stacks at day’s end.
Crowe wielded one of the top stacks at his table throughout the night and picked it up late, elevating his stack to 950k, well over the 288k average.
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens overcame a tough table that featured Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (270k) and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna (61k). He improved his 38k starting stack to become one of the chip leaders at his table with 560k.
Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at right) maintained the 450k stack he acquired earlier in the day and will hit Day 4 with 480k. It’s been an incredible run for Levy, who got down below 20k on Day 2. Levy clipped a two-outer when he was all-in preflop against Brad Booth when he hit a set on the river to best Booth’s flopped pair with overcards.
Peter “number1pen” Neff ran on a heater the last level of the night; at one point, Neff picked up pocket fives and flopped a set to eliminate his opponent, who held K-T. His P5s held strong and he went on to end the evening with 600K in chips.
Here are some chip counts at the end of the day, despite the tournament staff’s insistence that the media not mingle amongst the tables any longer for fear of getting run over by ESPN camera crews.
Congratulations to all for their deep run and good luck tomorrow!
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 960K
Chris “Panamatony” Barrile - 873K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 600K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 558k
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 520K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 510K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 480K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 400K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 400K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 360K
Edward “zaner1″ Zing - 330K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 305K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 300K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 275K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 254K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 175K
Bruce “Cornellxc11″ Hyde - 102K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 90K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 89.5K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 75K
Recent eliminations include the following:
581st - Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
556th - Zelong “freeman” Dong
545th - Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson
519th - Doug “Resilient” Smith
Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
by Jill on 07.11.08, 4:25 am
Now that play has reached the money, the all-in paddles are once again flying through the air as players are putting all their chips on the line. Though many PocketFives players continue to protect their stacks, plenty are also making decisions for their entire stack and getting sent to the rail. Now that players have made the money, they are dropping at a rate of nearly 1.5 players per minute; exactly 100 players were eliminated in the last level’s hour.
One recent elimination was Jason Gray (pictured at left), whose A-Q couldn’t catch up to the pocket kings of his opponent. Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson’s solid run throughout the 2008 WSOP officially came end minutes ago as well. Nelson busted out in a blind versus blind battle when the action folded around to him in the small blind. Short-stacked with 65K in the 2K-4K-500 level, Nelson looked at the K
and moved all-in. Cort “thecorster” Kibler-Melby woke up with 6
6
in the big blind and called with a 400K-plus stack. Nelson held the 5 as a kicker and was eliminated when he didn’t improve. This is Nelson’s third cash this series. He also had two deep finishes prior to the Main Event with a 16th and 17th place finish.
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez was also one of many players who busted shortly after the bubble burst when he raised under the gun to 11K with the blinds at 2K/4K ante 500. The player in the hijack reraised the minimum, making it 22K total. The player in the cut off called the 22K and Senovio pushed all-in for his remaining 20.5K. The reraiser made the call and the other player, who was also shortstacked with less than 100K thought for a minute before eventually folding. Ramirez showed KK and the other player turned over AJ
. The flop came down JT6 giving his opponent two more outs. The A on the turn left Senovio drawing very slim and the 2 on the river saw him eliminated shortly after the last level of the night began. He receives 622nd place for his efforts.
On the flip side of the coin are the players that continue to chip up and increase their stacks. Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen (pictured at right) continues to play aggressive poker at his table when a player in middle positoin raised to 11K, the player in the hijack called, and Rosen reraised out of the blinds for 31K total. The initial raiser folded and the other player made the call. The cards on the flop ran out T98 and Jamie led for 26K, which the other player called. Both checked the 5 on the turn and checked again when the 9 hit on the river. Rosen announced, “I have a ten”, as he flipped over 5T and the other player mucked. After the hand, Rosen was up to 460K.
Doug “Resilient” Smith was among the short stacks moving up as he turned his earlier 60K into 85K. When PocketFives reminded him that’s what his nickname was for, he jokingly asked his tablemates, “Can you even spell resilient?” He singled one of his opponents out, teasing, “Just getting you back, man. ” His opponent retorted, “Well, yeah, you’re just that Bill Murray look-alike guy, right? I didn’t even know you played poker.”
Jokes aside, here are some of the more recent unofficial chip counts:
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 780K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 720K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 550K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 505K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 420K
Thayer Rasmussen - 400K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 400K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 385K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 328K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 280K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 250K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 230K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 205K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 230K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 175K
Hevad Khan - 170K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 150K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 140K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 135K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 123K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 115K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 110K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 105K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 100K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 80K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 30K
Recent Eliminations:
Jason Gray
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
by Jill on 07.11.08, 2:38 am
As hand-for-hand play continued well past the end of Level 14, players were either anxiously awaiting the money bubble or falling asleep at their tables. Play was frenetic as camera crews ran up and down the aisles, trying to capture players’ best and worst moments. However, cheers recently erupted in the Amazon room, signifying that 666 remain and everyone has made the money and are now guaranteed $21,230. Congratulations to all! As soon as hand-for-hand completes, players will take a 30-minute break to color up and take a breather.
Some players, like Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez (pictured at right) were trying to take advantage of the bubble to semi-bluff players off their chips and getting burned in the process. Senovio reported that he managed to lose 100K in chips over the last two levels, but spoke to his daughters for good luck once again at dinner and hopes it would charm his play going into the bubble.
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu decided to put his big stack to use bullying other players at the table while hand-for-hand play was underway. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 it folded around to Lieu who raised to 10K from the hijack. The player on the button then reraised to 35K and Paul eyed his stack before making the call. The flop was A76 and Paul led for 20K. The other player thought for moment before making the call. As soon as the 2 hit on the turn, Lieu grabbed a stack of orange 5K chips large enough to put his opponent all-in. The other player thought briefly before announcing, “Well, you better get a camera over here.” Another player asked if he was calling and he paused before verbally announcing his call. The player then turned over AA while Lieu showed 28. Paul needed a diamond on the river, but instead he got the 6 and he paid off the other player’s remaining 64.4K.
Other players were making extremely solid moves and chipping up. Jeff “jpapola” Papola has been on a rush approaching the money bubble, doubling up twice. He went from 50K to 100K when his A-J held up against K-J and later went from 100k to 230k when his kings held up against A-Q. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen also chipped up when he won a 400k pot off of Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey (pictured at left) when his A-K beat Frey’s jacks in an all-in preflop hand. The hand left Rasmussen with 420k and Frey with 60k.
Other players were making strong plays and getting completely flattened. As we reported earlier, the table where Jeremiah Smith sits with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner was incredibly dangerous. Jeremiah built his stack up to more than 1.2M in the last level and was apparently still on his heater.
One of his latest victims is David “davidp18″ Peters (pictured at left), who has been struck by lightning. After Peters opened under-the-gun to 8k, tournament chip leader and former poker reporter Jeremiah Smith put him all-in for his last 160k after he stuck out two orange 100K stacks. Peters called with the QQ and was way ahead of Smith’s 96. Or at least he thought. Smith apologized in advance and jokingly referred to it as a standard race situation before the flop dropped. Smith’s optimism was understood when the flop came T87, flopping Smith a straight with a flush draw. Peter’s dire situation caught a ray of hope when the T peeled on the turn but the A on the river capped off what has been a Jamie Gold-like run of cards for Smith, who was awestruck in the aftermath of an incredible scene which captured in its entirety by the ESPN crew.
Here are some more unofficial chip counts at the bubble:
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 600K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 530K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 500K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 485K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 480K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 440K
Thayer Rasmussen - 420K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 370K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 330K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 260K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 260K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 245K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 235K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 217K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 193K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 145K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 145K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack - 140K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” - 110K
Jason Gray - 100K
Ben “astrolux85″ Roberts - 95K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 80K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 80K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 63K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 62K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 46K
Olly Olly Oxen Free!
by Jill on 07.11.08, 12:51 am
Plenty of media encircled Jeremiah Smith’s table as he was racking up a ridiculous stack as we quickly approach the money bubble on Day 3; when we first caught up with the former Poker Wire writer, he had built a fortress of more than 800K chips (that we could count). Greg “FBT” Mueller sauntered over to the table, took one look at Jeremiah’s stack, licked his lips and laughed. However, near the middle of the last level, PocketFives witnessed another run of cards for Jeremiah; he picked up aces twice and kings once in three consecutive hands, winning huge pots every time. PocketFives guesses his chip count now hovers just below the million mark.
However, he’s not the only huge stack at the table; eight out of nine players seated at the felt were well above the average stack of 186K. Seated immediately to his right is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at left), who built a smaller castle of chips and was double the average with 350K. He reported to PocketFives that he also won a big pot earlier this level in the following hand: A player on the button raised 7.5K preflop and Jon reraised him to 26K, which he called. The board came a rainbow A-K-8 and Jon led out for 29K. His opponent called, the dealer turned a ten, and Jon bet out 49K. After taking what Jon said was forever to tank, the player reluctantly folded and the chips were shipped his way.
Also at the table sat Ryan “Daut44″ Daut, who was involved in a huge hand when another player at his table raised, only to have Ryan re-raise. The other player made the call and they saw the flop come QT7. Both players got all their chips in the middle and Ryan’s AA had been out-flopped by his opponents TT. The K came on the turn, giving Ryan a few more outs, but the K on the river couldn’t improve his aces and he was sent to the rail just short of the money. Adam “Roothlus” Levy ran over to the table and was disappointed to see that Ryan had been eliminated. Levy is doing well and is currently sitting on a stack of 440k. Also recently moved to the table? David “davidp18″ Peters.
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at right) didn’t take very long to get involved in a huge pot after the dinner break. With blinds at 1.5K/3K/400, a player opened for 9K and Agarwal re-raised to 30.2K. Kush Patel re-reraised all-in directly behind for an additional 85Kgoogle.com. Having Patel covered by 70K, Agarwal called after the action folded back to him but was in bad shape when Patel showed KK to his AK. Patel was looking good when the board read QTTQ but was sent to the rail when the A dropped on the river. Agarwal’s stack shot up to 310k after the hand.
Agarwal and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna were talking about Agarwal’s call afterward and mentioned that it would be a good spot to re-raise Agarwal all-in from Patel’s perspective since Agarwal re-raised someone who had been very active preflop and that his hand would look very strong. Agarwal also mentioned that he was getting extremely compelling odds to chase down queens as well as possibly being up against the same hand. Either way, Agarwal was extremely happy with the result.
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson had been sitting near 100k in chips for a good portion of the day. He had finally chipped up to a close-to-average stack of 160k when the following hand took place. After preflop betting, all the chips of a shorter-stacked player went in the middle with Johnson attempting to knock him out. Unfortunately for Johnson, his KK was up against the other players AA. The flop made the other player’s hand even stronger when it came down AT5 leaving Johnson drawing to runner runner outs. One of those possible cards came in the form of the K on the turn, but the 8 on the river wasn’t the second card he needed and his stack dropped back to 110k. He seemed rather disappointed but is still alive as bubble play approaches.
Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) found himself the benefactor of a generously large pot when, with the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 he raised to 8K on the button and the big blind called. When the flop came out 7-7-5, the big blind checked and Neff bet 11K. The big blind then quickly moved all-in for 130K total. Peter obliged the other player by making the call with A7 and the other player turned over 35. After the player was eliminated, Peter added the pot to his stack, which has now increased to 395K.
UPDATE: Play has now gone hand-for-hand in the Amazon Room as only 674 players remain. The money bubble will burst shortly, as 666 players cash. Stay tuned!
In our attempt to try and take over the world in total chip count domination, here are the recent unofficial counts from PocketFives writers’ tired eyes:
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 620K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 510K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 500K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 480K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 440K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 420K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 440K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 430K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 395K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 350K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 320K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 310K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 254K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 250K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 230K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 230K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 242K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 200K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 195K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 194K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 190K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 190K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 170K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 170K
Jason Gray - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Bruce “cornellxc11″ Hyde - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 110K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 110K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 102K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 90K
Jeff Papola - 90K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 85K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 67K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 60K
Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
by Crystal on 07.10.08, 10:32 pm
733 players are now on their 90 minute dinner break and the tension in the air has been continuously rising as we get closer and closer to the money bubble of 666 players. The staff here at the Rio is somewhat going to be restricting media access to the tables as hand for hand play approaches so we’ll do our best after the break to catch as much as we can.
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (pictured right) started the day with a healthy 220k in chips but during the level before the dinner break he was caught up in a couple crazy hands. After building his stack up to nearly 350k, Crowe and two other players saw a flop of Q43. The big blind bet out 17.9k and the player in the middle and Crowe made the call. The K fell on the turn and both the other players checked to Crowe who pushed a large stack of orange 5k chips into the middle, 80k total. The big blind folded and after a lot of thought the other player made the call. The 7 fell on the river and both players checked. Crowe’s opponent flipped over the K9 for the 2nd nut flush and Crowe was livid. He couldn’t believe that the other player had made his flush and checked it. The other player requested to see Crowe’s cards and so the dealer flipped over his KQ. The ESPN cameras caught all the action but Crowe was visibly not enjoying being filmed and was steaming after the hand.
It didn’t take too long to get a few of his chips back. We caught up with the action with the board reading 8639J and Crowe bet 23k which another player called. Crowe tabled the T7 for a turned straight that only improved on the river and scooped up to pot. A little later Crowe got into a hand with Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert but they weren’t too eager to create much action. They both checked the KT5 flop, the K on the turn, and the 3 on the river. Crowe showed the J5 for kings and fives which was the best hand as Leo mucked and Crowe climbed back up to around 320k.
We caught up with David “Bakes” Baker (pictured left) as he and another opponent were heads up in a raised pot on a flop of QJ8. Baker’s opponent bet 15K and David thought briefly before raising enough to put him all-in. The other player tanked for some time and tried to pry information from David asking him questions and announcing, “I know you’re only on a draw.” He eventually made the call for his remaining 38.7K with AQ. David turned over the KK and the turn came the 3, leaving the other player with one less out since David picked up the flush draw. The Q fell on the river and the other player doubled through Baker leaving him with right around 150K going into dinner break.
Today, Table 12 in the Blue section of the Amazon room may qualify as one of the sickest lineups we’ve seen so far in the entire 2008 World Series. Tim “tmay420″ West, Garrett “GBecks” Beckman, Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson, Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby and Allen Cunningham are lined up in a row. When we last caught up to their table, Darren gave us -the look-; he was feeling frustrated as his stack dropped from 190K earlier today to a much less comfortable 85K. When we asked what happened, Tim chuckled and Garrett groaned.
Darren reported that he picked up aces two levels ago. On a flop of Q-7-8 with an already-sizeable pot in the middle, Darren put his one remaining opponent all-in. Darren’s pocket aces dominated… that is, until a 3 on the turn and a jack spiked on the river gave his opponent’s Q-J two pair. Darren quartered his stack, falling below 50K in chips. However, Garrett chimed in at this point in the story, noting that he’d later doubled Darren up when his J-T connected to a jack-high flop with all clubs on the board. Darren’s pocket aces held and he edged his stack upwards. He left for dinner break with a stack of 85K to Garrett’s 150K. Tim reported that he was trying to stay out of it; he said, “It sucks when I have no other choice but to bust my close friends!” He guarded a 97K stack while Cort had 200K.
Josh “Squintngo” Goldstein, however, didn’t have such an exciting table draw. He lamented to PocketFives that he’s been bored the last few levels. Regardless, he was taking the opportunity to rake in a few small preflop pots; he increased his stack to 127K before the break.
On a side note, Mike Matusow was just spotted running “laps” outside near the poker kitchen during the break. By laps, we actually mean 20 ft smallish circles… perhaps trying to work off nervous energy? Maybe he just didn’t get all his running in today and is trying to make up for it. Regardless, it gave us here at P5s a chuckle.
In case you’re hungry, here’s a heaping pile of chip counts for you to munch on during the break! (The average stack based on the tournament clock is currently almost 187k)
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 580K (pictured right)
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 430K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 400K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 390K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 340K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 310K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 290K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 285K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 280K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 276K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 270K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 265K
Allen “abari” Bari - 255K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 205K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 200K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward- 190k
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 185K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 182K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 180K
Thayer Rasmussen - 170K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 165K
Jason Gray - 155K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 150K
David “Bakes” Baker - 150K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 140K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 130K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 127K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 120K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 120K
Kush Patel - 115K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 110K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 109K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 100K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 97K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 95K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 85K
Jeff Papola - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 70K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 70K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 68K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 50K
Recent eliminations include Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Jason “strassa2″ Strasser, Cody “shankingyou” Shedd, Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa, and Brandon Shaefer.