Food Coma
by Jessica on 07.03.09, 9:30 pm
Maybe it is the lengthy break or the early dinner hour, but so far Level Three play has been laid back and, for lack of a better word, a little lethargic. Some players, like Kevin “kice32″ Iacafano and Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski, even rolled in to the Amazon Room a little late. Sluzinski told us he made the mistake of going somewhere away from the Rio to eat, but considering he only missed ten minutes of play, he is none the worse off for the decision.
Steve “thorladen” Weinstein took advantage of the relaxed pace of play to get up from his seat and walk around to the other side of the table to introduce himself to Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman.
“You aren’t even going to say hi to me?,” Weinstein jokingly asked. Chris looked confused and Steve explained that they’ve played together quite a bit online and then disclosed his screenname.
“Ohh,” said Moorman upon hearing Steve’s handle. Then, it could be just us, but a wave of recognition washed over his face and, perhaps because he was replaying some hands from Levels One and two in his head, Chris added a second, much longer “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh” for emphasis.
While Steve and Chris were exchanging pleasantries, Cody “CalBandGreat” Shedd (pictured right) was back to business over at his table. With the blinds at 150/300 it folded around to Shedd in the small blind and he raised to 1K total. The big blind called and the flop came down T
73
. Cody led out for 1,250 and his opponent called. Both players checked when the K
fell on the turn and when the river fell T Shedd led out for 3.5K. The other player thought briefly and called. Cody showed A
T for trip tens and his opponent mucked his hand. Shedd is now up to 48.5K.
‘GBecks’ Says Good Bye To Main Event
by Rachel on 07.03.09, 8:26 pm
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman’s (pictured at left) bid at consecutive deep runs in the Main Event came to an end during level two. With blinds at 100/200Â Beckman completed from the small blind and the big blind raised to 800. Beckman called and the two saw a flop of K76. From there the action went quickly: Beckman bet 2.8K, his opponent raised and Beckman moved in for 21K. His opponent called:
Beckman: K7
Big Blind: 66
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Beckman needed to pair one of his hole cards or he’s be sent to the rail but the 6 on the turn gave his opponent quads, leaving Garrett dead.
Jeremiah “Believer82″ Vinsant has had a pretty quiet day so far. We stopped by his table several times but him reach a showdown only once before the following hand. We missed the action before the flop but saw Vinsant bet 1.5K on a flop of Q82 after the player in seat one checked. Seat one then raised to 3K and Vinsant made the call. The turn was the A and both players checked. The river was the 6. Seat one checked again and Vinsant bet 6.1K. His opponent made the call and Vinsant tabled AA drawing applause as well as a “nice hand” from the other player before he mucked his cards. After the hand Vinsant was up to about 40K.
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at right) is short on chips but doubled his stack after pushing all in pre-flop. Turner held KK against his opponent’s TT and the board ran 977A4. Jon put on a squeeze play the very last hand before break, chipping up to about 10K. He has 9.3K on break.
A strange hand went down at Table 7 in the Blue Section of the Amazon Room. A player accidentally exposed A-3 when mucking his hand, and when action folded to Isaac Haxton he raised from the small blind. A woman in the big blind called and the two saw a flop of J33. “Well, you can’t have quads,” Haxton joked. He checked and his opponent bet 2K. Isaac played with the chips in his hand for a bit before grabbing his whole stack and stuffing it in the middle. The total bet was 9.6K and his opponent tossed the extra 7.6K in the middle. Cameras rushed the table as Haxton tabled AK, which was well ahead of KT. The 3 on the turn and the Q on the river secured the victory for Isaac and pushed his stack back above 20K.
Nicholas “Grip” Grippo (pictured at left) is a new addition to the Orange Section after his table in the Red Section broke. He checked the turn with the board reading J{856 and the player in seat eight bet 1.6K. Grippo made the call and the river was the 2. Grippo led out for 3.1K this time and his opponent mucked. Grippo has almost exactly as many chips (30K) on dinner break as he had to start the day.
John “JRD312″ Dolan spent level two holding steady at his starting stack. He was working his way up towards 40K when the following hand set him back a little. We missed the preflop and flop action, but caught up with Dolan as he bet out 1.5K from the big blind into a 2.5K pot with the board reading 9533. The other player in the hand called from middle position. The river was the A and John bet out 3.5K. His opponent min-raised him to 7K total and John went in the tank. He tossed his chips in the pot and was unsurprised when his opponent showed JT for a jack-high flush, which was good enough to get Dolan to muck his hand.
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As his opponent raked the pot, Dolan talked over the hand with his tablemate David Grey. “I just had to see it,” John said. “Does that make sense?” When no one at the table responded he added, “I had one, too. Does that make more sense?” By “one” Dolan meant a flush. He said he flopped a double gutter too, which would mean he held 67. When we checked in on him before dinner break, he was sitting on 30.1K.
The players are now on an early dinner break and will return to play two more levels (or four more hours) just after 6 p.m. Here are some other chip counts at the break:
Corey “comandr_cool” Burbick - 81.8K
Jonas Klausen - 75K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 68.5
Lana Meyer - 60K
Jamie “TheNew” Robbins - 56K
Kevin “stamdogg” Stammen - 55K
Stephane “Foutight” Bisson -50K
Darren Elias - 49K
David “Doc Sands” Sands - 45K
Cody “CalBandGreat” Shedd - 44K
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker - 42K
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 41K
Ryan “gutshtallin” Welch - 41K
Jesse “thor” Haabak - 40.5K
Mike “gags30″ Gagliano - 40K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 40K
Steve “thorladen” Weinstein - 39K
Steve “stevejpa” Paul Ambrose - 37.5K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 36K
Brian Townsend - 36K
Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby - 36K
Billy “Patrolman35″ Kopp - 36K
Jordan “scarface_79″ Smith -35K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 35K
Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken - 35K
Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier - 34K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 34K
Karec “K-Rock2525″ Terrell - 32K
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich- 32K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 31.5K
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 31.1K
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 31K
Brent “BHanks11″ Hanks - 31K
John “JRD312″ Dolan - 30.1K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacafano - 30K
Anthony “D1rty1v3r” Nardi - 30K
Scott “stpauli111″ Hall - 30K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 29K
Scott “stsitron” Sitron - 27K
Matt “mattster24″ Sterling 27K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 25.3K
Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo - 25K
Joel “Gittindrunk” Shultuf - 25K
Jay “SEABEAST” Kinkade - 24K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 22.5K
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton - 20K
Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke - 20K
Jason “JP_OSU” Potter - 19K
Jason Gray - 18K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 17.8K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 16.9K
Ryan “gotskillz” Fisler - 16K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 14.8K
Michael “mossified84″ Skomac - 14K
Matt “mcmatto” Affleck - 12K
Isaac “MrMenlo” Baron - 11.5K
Ravi “govshark2″ Raghaven - 10K
Zac “Zacpacker” Fellows - 4.5K
WSOP 2009 Main Event Day 1A Gallery
by Rich on 07.03.09, 7:10 pm
Mighty Thor Doubles Up
by Brett on 07.03.09, 7:00 pm
Steve “thorladen” Weinstein (pictured left) lost over the course of the first two levels, but a big pot and a little luck changed that for him. There was 1,750 in the pot and three players who saw the flop fall 642. The small blind and a player in early position checked to Weinstein in middle position who bet out 1K. The small blind check-raised to 3K total and the other player folded. Now, we have to admit we aren’t 100% positive how the action went because we could not hear what Weinstein said, but he appeared to either reraise to 10K total, leaving around 7K behind, or he moved all-in and just placed his big denomination chips in the pot. Either way, the action ended with Weinstein and the other player getting it all-in on the flop with the small blind holding 24 for bottom two pair and Steve holding 55. The turn brough the J and the river came 5 to give Weinstein a rivered set of fives and the pot. Presto! Double up for Steve. He now has 36K.
Corey “comandr_cool” Burbick may not be saying much at his table, but he is certainly remaining active. We caught a hand in progress involving Corey early in Level Two. With the board reading 4337 Burbick bet 2.5K (about 2/3 the size of the pot) from middle position and the player on the button called. The river was the 5 and Corey bet out 5K. His opponent clarified the amount, thought briefly, and decided to call. Burbick showed Q9 for a flush and we think the other player flashed 6-7 for a straight. After the hand, Burbick was up to 47K.
Ryan “gutshtallin” Welch (pictured right) didn’t lose a big pot during the past level but he chopped one that surely felt almost as bad. With the blinds at 100/200 Welch raised to 600 preflop and another player bumped it up to 1.8K. Welch reraised to 4.5K and his opponent five-bet all in for 22.5K. Welch snap called. “Aces,” he said as he tabled his hand. The other player turned over AK and Ryan was in a great spot to increase his stack.
The 532 flop gave Welch a flush draw and a stranglehold on the hand. The 3 on the turn changed nothing but an onlooker at the table felt it necessary to give everyone the obvious situation: “He can still hit a four for a chop!” Sure enough the dealer rolled over the 4 on the river and the pot was split in half. A flustered Welch walked over to Billy “Patrolman35″ Kopp’s table to explain what had just happened. Welch still has around the starting stack midway through level two.
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi added a nice pot to his stack during the past hour. On a 998 flop a player checked to Mizzi, who bet 2K, and the other player called. The Q hit the turn and again Mizzi’s opponent check-called a bet, this time worth 5K. The river brought the A and his opponent checked for a third time. Mizzi sat still in his seat for nearly two minutes before deciding to check back. The other player showed KK and Mizzi revealed his Q9 for a full house, which was easily good enough to collect the 17K pot.
Craig “MrCasino” Gray (pictured left) raised to 550 pre-flop over at another table and got one caller. The flop was 863. The player in seat three led out for 1.8K. Gray smiled at the player and said something like, “If you’ve got that hand and I’ve got this hand then…” and made the call. The turn was the 7. The other player bet 3.8K this time and Gray called again. The river was the 6 and both players checked. Seat three showed AA and Gray mucked.
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin called a raise of 525 before the flop and the player in seat one re-raised to 1,850. It folded back to Vengrin, who made the call. The flop was A62. Vengrin check-called a bet of 2.3K. The turn was the 2. Vengrin checked again and seat one bet 3.7K. Vengrin asked the man to move his arms so he could see his stack, which looked to have about 26K in it. After a little more thought Vengrin mucked his hand.
Ludovic “Cutsss” Lacay has been the captain so far at Table 43 in the Amazon Room and Aaron “ndgrinder59″ Steury picked the wrong spot to play back at him. Steury raised to 600 on the button and the Frenchman reraised to 1.8K from the big blind. Steury called and saw a flop of K64. Lacay led out for 2.8K, Steury raised to 7.2K and Lacay put in another raise to 22K. Steury quickly folded and left himself with 20.7K and has since slipped to 15.7K.
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker also took a dent to her stack. When we walked up to the table, action had been checked to Baker on the turn with the board reading A86T. Baker bet 5K into the 8K pot and seat three called. The river was the 9. It was again checked to Baker who bet 7K, leaving 11K or so in her stack. The other player made the call and Baker showed 9T for a rivered two pair. Her opponent showed A-K before mucking.
Isaac “MrMenlo” Baron (9.5K) and Ravi “govshark2″ Raghaven (9K) have both taken big hits early on. We’re not sure what happen to Raghaven but learned that Baron’s straight was beaten by a full house on the river.
Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers, however, was eliminated from the Main Event. Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich told us that Sowers moved all in for his last 3K or so after a new player to the table raised to 600 before the flop. Sowers held A-10 but wasn’t able to find an ace to overcome the pocket tens of his opponent.
Some other players we’ve lost early in Day 1A include Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong and Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh. Here are some chips counts we gathered just moments ago:
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 76K
Darren Elias - 65K (pictured right)
Corey “comandr_cool” Burbick - 47K
Felipe “Mojave14″ Ramos - 46.3K
Lana Maier - 46K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 38.2K
Steve “thorladen” Weinstein - 36K
Cody “CalBandGreat” Shedd - 33K
John “JRD312″ Dolan - 31K
Joel “Gittindrunk” Shultuf - 30.2K
Nick “Grip” Grippo - 30K
Mike “Gags30″ Gagliano - 30K
Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn - 29K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 29K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacafano - 28K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 24.5K
Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman - 23.5K
Jeff “HB_HITMAN” Anderson - 20.5K
Isaac Haxton - 17.5K
Jay “SEABEAST” Kinkade - 13.5K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 11K
Sowers Puts Opponent’s Claim To The Test
by Rachel on 07.03.09, 5:44 pm
The day 1A players have gone on their first 20-minute break of the day here at the Rio. They will play the next two-hour level with the blinds at 100/200 then take their dinner break because there will only be four levels played today.
Tournament director Jack Effel informed is that there are close to 1,100 players registered for Day 1A. Last year’s Day 1a drew 1,297 players. We’re still expecting a bigger overall number than last year over the first four days.
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich, who has taken his seat at the same table as Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (pictured at left), pulled us over to his table to see the end of an interesting hand between Sowers and another player at the table.
The board read KT9J6. Rich told us that the player to Sowers’ right checked on the river, telling Sowers that he wasn’t going to call anymore than 6K. Sowers had then put out a bet of 6.1K. After some thought the other player called anyway. Sowers quickly flashed his cards toward the player, but we weren’t able to see them. However, we did see the other player table QJ to take the pot. We stopped back by Sowers’ table just before the players left for their first break of the day and he looked to be down to about 10K.
Brent “BHanks11″ Hanks checked on a flop of K63. The player in seat two bet 800 and it folded back around to Hanks who made the call. The turn was the T and both players checked to see the 7 on the river. Hanks bet 1.3K and the other player called. Hanks showed AA to take the pot.
The board read A856 when we caught Scott “stpauli111″ Hall in a hand for the first time today. The player in seat nine bet 1.5K on the turn and Hall made the call. The river was the T and both players checked. Hall turned over AT and scooped the pot.
Cody “CalBandGreat” Shedd picked up a nice pot shortly before the level ended. We missed the preflop action, but Cody was kind enough to fill us in. A player in middle position raised to 300 and Shedd 3-bet to 925 total. The player on the button flat called and the initial raiser called as well. The flop came down 998 and the initial raiser checked. Cody bet out 2,250, the player on the button called, and the third player folded. After the 6 fell on the turn Shedd bet out 3,250 and the other player called. The river was the 8, double pairing the board, and Cody checked to his opponent who fired out a 5K bet. It didn’t take too long before Cody called, tabling 57 for a turned straight and his opponent showed KK for two pair.
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman took his break 22 minutes early, telling us “I want to keep my mind fresh.” He spent most of Level 1 folding but still has 28.7K going into the second level. Beckman took 31st in the Main Event last year for $193,000, falling to Dennis Phillips’ flush on the ESPN featured table.
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Other chip counts from the early going:
Jonas Klausen - 66K
Darren Elias - 57K
David “Doc Sands” Sands (pictured at right) - 45K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 41K
Cody “calbandgreat” Shedd - 40K
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 38K
Matt “mattster24″ Sterling - 36K
Russell “rcrane082985″ Crane - 31.4K
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 31K
Billy “Patrolman35″ Kopp - 30.8K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacafano - 30.5K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 30.5K
Stephane “FouTight” Bisson - 29K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 28.7K
Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek - 27.5K
Anthony “D1rty1v3r” Nardi - 26.5K
Matt “claw1980″ Holtzclaw - 25.7K
Jason “JP OSU” Potter - 25.6K
Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier - 25.3K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 25K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 24.3K
Jon “sketchy1″ Eaton 20.8K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 19K
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 15K
