After an all-day break yesterday, we are back to action! I doubt anyone is not familiar with this tournament format, but I'll briefly explain anyway. There were 4 day ones. There are two day twos. Day 1a and 1b combined and made day 2A, and day 1C and 1D combined and made day 2b. After that, everyone alive get together on day3.

Due to the massive amount of players in Day 1C and 1D, Day 2a had less than Half of day 2b, (1200+ 'vs' 2600+). Yesterday that number was cut to 1/3 of it: 469 players will come back to day 3 on Thursday. As usual there is a long list of pros who were eliminated, but I'm not naming many here, so you can read pokernews' chipcounts here and see who busted last night. But, just to name a few eliminations: Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren.

Last night was not a good day to the LPers who played the main event. Apparently everyone who started the day is out (?). Ket was eliminated in the last level when his Kings met Aces after a preflop shove. He explains a bit the situation in the Main Event topic:

last level of day 2 i get kings and open utg to 3600 at 600/1200/200a. i get 3bet to 10k by some old european guy. i ship it in for my remaining meagre 50k. old guy silently eyeballs my chips for a good 30s trying to count how much more it is. then he gives up and gets the dealer to do it, after the dealer gives him the count he starts slowly counting up the exact number of chips to make the call. i tell him, "if youre calling why dont you just say call and u can count the chips later if i win". he ignores me and continues counting up enough chips to exactly call my pf shove. after he finally does he then goes back into the tank for a bit before saying "I HAVE TO CALL" and putting the chips in to call. I turn over kings and he waits yet another 10s for good measure before TURNING OVER ACES. theres a crowd of ppl from other tables and live update reporters gathered around the table at this point and ppl are gasping in shock and disapproval. the dealer quickly puts out a bunch of low cards on the board and as soon as the river bricks the silent slowroller suddenly goes nuts and starts yelling in celebration at the top of his lungs while i just shake my head and stand up to leave. the old guy reaches across the table to shake my hand right after. obviously i refuse. instead i shake the hand of every other player at the table before i leave.

What a retard. thewh00sel was in a similar situation during day 1x. Well, what can we do? I think Ket showed how pissed he was with a class act.

I'm not sure if Raidan is through to day 3 or not. There is a conflict of information on this. WSOP chipcounts says he has 89k chips, while Pokernews.com says he is eliminated. Obviously the only official chipcounts are those from WSOP, but if anyone knows about it, post a comment please!

I can't find any info on Bigred000 (Patrick Stemper). His name is not on any chipcounts list I could find. I guess he busted . JonnyCosmo is out too. Hopefully we are gonna have better results tonight. GL guys!

One guy had a great run yesterday. His name is Brian Schaedlich, a 22 years old elementary school teacher that qualified for the Main Event via a $135 satellite. He now has 801,000 chips, twice the stacksize of the 2nd in chips, and said that at one point people were offering him $5 just to sit in his seat and take a picture with all his chips, hah.

Take a look at the day2a chipleaders:

1.Brian Schaedlich 801,000
2.Hunter Frey 397,000
3.Jeremiah Smith 386,000
4.Patrick Fortin 355,900
5.Kellen Hunter 354,100
6.Brandon Adams 353,600
7.David Rheem 353,000
8.Ronald Adams 333,550
9.Farhad Sinae 328,500
10.Eric Crain 315,000

By: Raidern


Comments (7)

So finally the last day 1 of the Main Event, day 1D has been played. Finally we knew how many total players would be playing the event (6944) and how many would go through (about half of them). Day 1D was the biggest of the 4 day 1's, with 2461 entrants. A devilish total of 666 players will get paid, each getting their share of $64,333,600 total prizemoney. The first prize is a whopping $9,119,517

Being the biggest day so far, there was a lot more to see. After last year's debacle by Fail Hellmuth, when he crashed his car at the parking, this time he again got the attention that turns him on. Arriving in a military jeep and dressed as a general, with a squad of hot UltimateBet-chicks once again. This time it seemed to have helped him, we haven't seen him complaining before walking away, he stayed at his table till the end of the day, finishing with a healthy stack of just under 80k.

Steve Austin 149,000 (no, not the wrestling-guy Stone Cold Steve Austin )
Mohamad Kowssarie 146,000
David Stucke 140,525
Sami Rustom 140,450
Dylan Linde 138,425
Nikolay Losev 127,225
Victor Ramdin 124,600
Samir Shakhtoor 122,875
Christian Choi 122,225
Charles Dolan 121,625

By: Pindarots


Comments (8)

As expected, the weekend days of the main event are those with the biggest turnouts. The 3rd day of the main event, aka day 1c, had 1928 registered players. So with this number we have a total of 4383, 1975 short of last years attendence. Day 1d will probably be the day with the biggest crowd, so its very likely that we will see an increase of numbers of players in comparison to last years main event.

David Singer, Evelyn Ng, Brad Booth, Nenad Medic and Jeff Madsen were among those who survived day 1 and will come back to day 2b. Internet guys Sorel Mizzi (imperium) and Brian Townsend (sbrugby) also made it to the 2nd day.

The lpers: milkman, thewh00sel, Rekrul, Elky and Raszi are those I know played 1c. I know Rekrul, Elky and Raszi survived. thewh00sel was eliminated (his opponent slowrolled a royal straight flush, ouch), I have no info on Milkman.

Rekrul 40k chips
Elky 50k
Raszi 55k
milkman (Chris Steinbacher) ?

If you know about anyone, let us know.

I read somewhere Myth played yesterday too, but I'm not sure, can anyone confirm that, and also if he is through to day 2? Thanks!

Sooo, that's it. Good Luck for everyone playing day 1d! GL emilytt, rainkhan, frinkx and nolan!

Check the chipleaders of day 1c:

Henning Granstad - 242,950
Curt Kohlberg - 173,050
David Baker - 163,450
Howard Berchowitz - 160,075
Arnaud Mattern - 157,650
Diren Yildiz - 136,075
Josh Schiffman - 133,000
Evan Woodington - 127,125
Michael Souza - 126,100
Serj Markarian - 126,000

by: Raidern


Comments (6)

So, another part of day 1 has been played. It's one of the least fun days to go through for the blogs, especially since there is so many not-interesting stories around them, or bustouts of any semi-famous face in the pokerworld. There's like too damn much to cover, so I guess I'll try to keep it a bit short. Unfortunately, there were less people interested in playing than yesterday, 1158 players in total (1297 yesterday), of which a bit more than half of them got through to the next lvl. The number of players bought in at that time was 5481 (so day 1A through D registered at that moment), but that number will rise a bit the next 2 days.

I guess ESPN will have an easy job finding some nutcake celeb to follow (like Ray Romano last year), or some Dimitri Nobles-like story. These are the days when they search for some story, to make some guy a hero because he acts like crazy, or is just having a good time. One of the most successful donkeys in history, Jamie Gold, fortunately won't be back in day 2. The other former main event winners playing today, we saw Greg Raymer go out fairly quickly, Robert Varkonyi did a little better and is still in with 17.7k chips. Other than that, we saw a lot of pro's, but even more donkeys and unknowns at the tables. Lots of pro's got busted (like Negreanu, Humbertooooo, Forrest, etc), and a few made it through (Seidel, Antonius, Liebert, and so on). One of the (more interesting) stories from last year, the blind Hal Lubarsky (see picture below, the guy standing behind him looks at his cards and tells him what he has and what the board is, the rest is up to Hal), is still in with a nice stack of 70.7k.

The blind Hal Lubarsky with sidekick in action

Ben Sarnoff 177500
Brian Schaedlich 160725
Robert Mizrachi 142400
Nicholas Caltabiano 127700
Liya Gerasimova 111050
Rob Eckstut 110275
Alex Balandin 109925
Coco Valerice 106727
Michael Watson 104425
Gilles Smadja 101450

By: Pindarots


Comments (3)

Hey, main event finally started. 1297 players registered for day 1A and 636 are still alive for day 2. Obviously a lot more registered for days b, c and d. If you didn't know already, this event has 7 play-days (1a-d, 2ab, 3-7) that are gonna be played in 12 days. Its a huge tournament with a huge history. I actually think its great when you realize you are playing with a man like Doyle Brunson that played with legends of the game like Stuey Ungar and Chip Reese. Awesome.

Some LPers played yesterday, some others decided to play on another day, like rainkhan (1d), thewh00sel (1c), milkman (1c) and many others. Please if you are playing the ME let a msg here or here so we can rail you guys.

Ket , mig, twistedecho, p00ruser, bigred0000 , peachy/n0rthface, raidan , jonnycosmo are the guys that I know have played day 1a. Red names were eliminated, and Green names are still alive.

I'm not sure because I didn't see any picture, but the livereporting says Blake Cahail (he is in the house with the LPers) was dressed as a wizard (?), they even posted something like "call Harry Potter", talking about him. It seems like it was a bet between him and Blair Hinkle (also 'in the house', mig's roommate I think), that that if one of them won a bracelet, the other would have to play the Main Event in a costume. I think that's one of the bets you make when you expect you'll never need to pay haha

About LP guys, Ket and Bigred0000 are doing good, both have around 70k chips. Blair Hinkle is also well, with 50k chips. Cosmo has around 20k chips, raidan is around 60k chips, so we have some members with a nice stack.

I don't know who is playing today (day 1b), if you know let me know, make a post. Good luck to everyone!

These are the top10 chipleader of day 1a

Mark Garner 194,900
Brandon Adams 176,450
Kellen Hunter 155,200
Stefan Mattsson 154,275
Patrick Fortin 145,275
Jeff Frerichs 138,025
Soren Peterson 135,475
Adam Hudson 127,750
Wayne Brown 124,575
Todd Rebello 123,925

By: Raidern


Comments (7)

Hand No. 133 - Peter Jetten has the button, and he limps in. Marty Smyth raises the pot, and Jetten comes along. The flop shows up . Smyth bets the pot, 600,000. Jetten announces, "I raise the pot." Before he even has the chips out of his stack, Smyth moves all in, and Jetten quickly calls. When the stacks are counted down, it's Peter Jetten who is covered, and he is all in at risk of elimination. With a mountain of chips in the middle of the table, the hands are turned up: Jetten: Smyth: The showdown bring the entire crowd to their feet and cues a rowdy chorus of cheers from the two opposing sections of fans. Jetten and Smyth have both flopped their straight, but Smyth is freerolling with a redraw to a straight flush! The suspense in the air is tangible, and the cheering becomes a wave of noise that engulfs the whole room. The Irish side of the room cheers, "Club, club, club!..." while the Canadians across the stage simultaneously chant, "Brick, brick, brick!" With everyone still on their feet and the noise almost overwhelming, the dealer burns and turns fourth street: The Canadian section erupts even louder when they see that brick peel off. Their guy has to fade just one more card to chop the pot and go back to square one. The crowd leans forward on their feet as the dealer knocks the table, burns and turns the final card: ! A huge roar follows from the entire room. Marty Smyth nails an incredibly profitable club on the river, making him the winning flush and earning him the title and the bracelet! We truly could not imagine a more thrilling finish to our event!

1.Marty Smyth $859,549
2.Peter Jetten $528,256
3.Michael Mizrachi $331,279
4.Billy Argyros $268,605
5.Richard Harroch $214,884
6.Kido Pham $170,116
7.Tom Hanlon $134,302
8.Brandon Moran $107,442
9.Greg Hurst $80,581

By: Raidern


Comments (3)

Event #51 of World Series of Poker 2008 was yet another chance for Phil Hellmuth to break his ownworld record and getting even further away from other players competing for owning the most WSOP gold bracelets. The $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. format, with 803 entrants was on the menu, Hellmuth starting with the 2nd biggest stack:

Final table:

Seat Name
Chip Count
1. James Schaaf $392,000
2. Matt Grapenthien $46,000
3. Sam Silverman $310,000
4. Phil Hellmuth $400,000
5. Jason Dollinger $346,000
6. Tommy Hang $680,000
7. Victor Ramdin $78,000
8. Esther Rossi $166,000

With 4 players left it looked quite promising for Hellmuth, especially after he eliminated Rossi in 4th: Hellmuth raised and shortstacked Rossi announced an all-in! Hellmuth's 'reading abilities' were correct this time and his was marginally ahead ( but still ahead ) against from Rossi! Hellmuth holds and we are left with final 3!
Hellmuth was feeling more comfortable than ever, but... not today Phil! Omaha/8, Phil calls a preflop all-in while being covered with against .
Board rolls out -- and Hellmuth makes quite a silent exit, taking home $93,168.
Tommy Hang and James Schaaf both had around 1,200,000 chips when heads-up started, but it was James Schaaf who's taking home a gold bracelet! Final blow came in a Stud/8 format, when Hang's trip 7s were dominated against trip 8's from Schaaf, which meant James Schaaf wins his first bracelet!

Final results:

1. James Schaaf $256,412
2. Tommy Hang $158,933
3. Phil Hellmuth $93,168
4. Esther Rossi $68,505
5. Jason Dollinger $54,804
6. Sam Silverman $42,966
7. Annand "Victor" Ramdin $32,992
8. Matt Grapenthien $27,511
9. Edward Brogdon $22,031

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We are coming closer and closer to the Main Event of World Series of Poker, and still nothing changed: poker professionals are dominating this years field.
And it was same way this time: JC Tran took down event #49 of WSOP 2008, another $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Final table at start:

Seat 1: Christoph Köhnen (Moers, Germany) - 293,000
Seat 2: Joe Pelton (Irvine, California) - 1,093,000
Seat 3: Jesper Hoog (Stockholm, Sweden) - 320,000
Seat 4: John Conroy (Dublin, Ireland) - 501,000
Seat 5: Robert Kalb (Offenbach, Germany) - 456,000
Seat 6: JC Tran (Sacramento, California) - 1,438,000
Seat 7: Chad Siu (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) - 185,000
Seat 8: Peter Nguyen (Tustin, California) - 870,000
Seat 9: Rasmus Nielsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) - 2,998,000

Rasmus Nielsen had more then a 2:1 chip advantage over JC Tran as the heads-up battle started. However, Tran quickly gained the lead when his two pairs were enough to cripple floped top pair from Nielsen. Then shorty after he scooped two more big pots ( 1.6 and 1.5 million ) and never again let Nielsen regain the lead!

Final blow: Tran raises preflop and Nielsen calls. Flop brings , Nielsen goes for check-call. Turn brings , Nielsen checks, but this time after Tran's bet he moves all-in. Tran calls with against ! River is the and Tran wins his first WSOP bracelet and $631,170!

Final results:

1. J.C. Tran $631,053
2. Rasmus Nielsen $389,557
3. John Conroy $278,255
4. Peter Nguyen $233,734
5. Joe Pelton $191,069
6. Chad Siu $150,258
7. Jesper Hoog $113,157
8. Robert Kalb $85,332

By: Defrag


Comments (0)

First of all I might say that I'm brazilian and I'm really happy writing this up

1.Alexandre Gomes $770,540
2.Marco Johnson $491,273
3.Ryan D'Angelo $326,812
4.Robert Brewer $274,101
5.Alan Cutler $223,497
6.Kirill Gerasimov $177,111
7.Sverre Sundbo $134,942
8.Gabriel Costner $103,315
9.Dan Rome $71,687

Comments (5)

Figure yourself in this situation: you're at the WSOP for a couple of days, you planned to play a few events and after that you're done and should go home. But than a friend mails you, saying you HAVE TO play the next event, it's really you're kind of thing, he expects you to do well etc. What would you do? Well, this situation was the one Ryan Hughes was facing before the start of event 47. He was supposed to go home, but being a Stud-8 fan as he was, he decided to stay for just one more tournament and play it, before going home. And guess what? He won it! Actually the story gets even crazier when you see the guy's history, the same thing happened to him last year, he wasn't supposed to play the $2000 Stud-8 tournament that time either, but yet he won it. This year it's the $1500 Stud-8 bracelet, making him the first ever player to win 2 stud-8 bracelets ever in WSOP-history!

This glorious day for him all started with 13 players, of which only 9 would make the final table. There was really everything to play for, the nr 13 only got $8,168, where the winner would get close to 200k and a shiny bracelet. He started the final table as chipleader, the best known competitor was without a doubt David Sklansky, who started as one of the shortstacks:

Seat 1: Tim D’Alessandro - 140,000
Seat 2: Jonas Klausen - 338,000
Seat 3: David Sklasnsky - 66,000
Seat 4: Josh Feldman - 200,000
Seat 5: Ryan Hughes - 400,000
Seat 6: Ron Long - 224,000
Seat 7: Alessio Isaia - 220,000
Seat 8: Thomas Hunt - 31,000

Sklansky was the first to bust out, and when we got to the heads-up, Ryan Hughes started with a huge chiplead: 1.3mln against 300k chips. It looked very good for Hughes, and in the end his full house against the kings of Ron Long was enough for his second bracelet and a place in the recordbooks of the WSOP, and there was $183,368 waiting for him. Not bad for an event he wasn't even supposed to play!

1. Ryan Hughes $183,368
2. Ron Long $113,240
3. Thomas Hunt $68,686
4. Alessio Isaia $50,122
5. Jonas Klausen $39,355
6. Joshua Feldman $30,444
7. Tim D'Alessandro $23,019
8. David Sklansky $19,306

By: Pindarots


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