June 20th marked the twenty second day of action at the 2008 World Series of Poker is Las Vegas and it was a fun one. The most noteworthy news story of the nigh was Layne Flack winning his sixth career WSOP bracelet (details) but old school 7 Card-Stud veteran Michael Rocco winning a bracelet (details) was just as exciting as he put on a public display of just how much that bracelet meant to him. This report will cover the rest of the day’s action.

Event #36 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Day 2

Day 2 of the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em (Event #36) tournament began today at 2:00 PM with 187 players remaining out of the initial 1,913 entrants. Today play will continue till a final table is reached, where tomorrow they’ll compete for the bracelet and $610,304 top place prize.

High profile players in todays field included J.C. Tran, Shannon Shorr, Bryan Micon, Freddy Deeb, Erick Lindgren, Nam Le, Beth Shak, Johnny Chan, Nenad Medic, Kathy Liebert, Justin Bonomo, Mark Seif, Jennifer Tilly, John Phan, Michael Mizrachi, and many more.

When the day started Owen Crowe had a solid chip lead with 170,000 over second place in chips Danny Wong. Top 10 players and chip counts entering Day 2:

Owen Crowe 170,000
Danny Wong 114,500
Leonid Yanovski 106,500
Jim Mackowiak 103,400
RW Best 103,200
Richard Deeb 99,600
Duncan Bell 99,300
Chris Klodnicki 99,200
Bryan Paris 94,900
Cody Slaubaugh 92,700

Key hands of the day:

J.C. Tran was eliminated when he raised preflop to 8,500 and Lasse Peterson made it 25,000 to go. Tran moved all in with his remaining chips and Peterson called. Tran showed A-K and Peterson showed A-Q. Tran had Peterson completely dominated, but the board drew a queen and Tran was eliminated.

A player from early position raised to 20,000 preflop and Richard Deeb moved all in for his remaining stack of 75,000. Jesper Hougaard called and the early position raiser folded. Deeb showed pocket eights and Hougaard held Ace Queen off suit. Hougaard was able to win the race by flopping a queen and eliminating Deeb.

NeverWinPoker’s Bryan Micon was eliminated by Cody Slaubaugh. Slaubaugh raised to 44,000 and Micon re-raised all in for his remaining 203,000. The players showed:

Slaubaugh: 8h-9d
Micon: Kd-Qc

The board ran in favor of Slaubaugh with an eight hitting, (10d-3d-8c-4d-2s). Micon was sent home in 15th place and made $28,391.

When getting close to the final nine players Bryan Paris got involved with a big hand with Justin Wald. Wald raised to 45,000 in early position and Paris pushed all in for 334,000 from the cutoff. Wald called the players revealed their hands”

Wald: 9x-9x
Paris: As-Qs

The board ran Js-Kc-9c-Ad-7d and even though Paris hit an ace it still didn’t help since Wald flopped a set of nines. Paris finishes in 11th place and walks away with $36,741.

The final table was set after Jesper Hougaar called Jeremy Schofer’s all in bet on a flop of 6d-5d-9d. Hougaar showed Ad-9h and Schofer showed Qd-9c and the rivers were blanks for Schofer and he was eliminated in 10th place as the final table bubble boy. Schofer took home $36,741 for his efforts.

The players that will join us tomorrow at 2:00 PM to play for the gold bracelet and the first place prize of $610,304 will be:

Jesper Hougaard 1,582,000
Cody Slaubaugh 1,419,000
Danny Wong 1,105,000
Rick Solis 900,000
Justin Wald 873,000
Owen Crowe 674,000
Doug Middleton 356,000
John Shipley 269,000
Aaron Kanter 165,000

Event 37 - $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low World Championship Day 2

Day 2 of the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low tournament started at 2PM with the 123 remaining out of the event’s 235 entrants. The goal of the day was to play down to tomorrow’s final table where players will compete for the eventual first place prize of $535,687 and the World Championship bracelet. When the wee hours of the morning were reached the eighteen players decided to stop play and return tomorrow for the final “two tables”.

Shamseddin came into Day 2 with the chip lead of 115,000 with James DiGiorgio creeping up with 92,800. Top 10 players and chip counts entering Day 2:

Soheil Shamseddin 115,000
James DiGiorgio 92,800
Erick Lindgren 91,700
Chau Giang 84,700
Bruno Fitoussi 84,600
Annie Duke 83,700
DR Kegel 82,000
Brad Booth 79,900
Hieu ‘Tony’ Ma 79,400
Meng La 76,800

Key hands of the day:

Chris Ferguson put his short stack all in pre-flop against Bruno Fitoussi and Yueqi Zhu.

The board ran: Ah-Jh-9s-7c-Kc
Ferguson showed: 6d-8d-2d-3s, which completely missed the board
Zhu showed: Ad-Kh-Qh-3h and his top two was enough to scoop the chips and send Ferguson home.

Erick Lindgren put all his chips in on a flop of 2s-5s-Qc against Yueqi Zhu and William McMahon. The turn was a 2h and river brought a As, on the river McMahon bet and Zhu folded. McMahon showed Ac-3d-7h-4c for a wheel which was nut low and good enough for the high. Lindgren was eliminated out of the money.

Doyle Brunson and Thang Nguyen share bubble boy status when they were both eliminated at the same time. Brunson was all in against James Grove on the turn. Doyle was only dodging a six outer and it came on the river to eliminate him. Meanwhile, at another table Thang Nguyen was eliminated by Ram Vaswani. Both eliminations happened at the same time and the players decided to give credit to both the players as the bubble boys. The 27 players cheered when it was announced they were in the money.

Brunson: Ah-5h-Ac-9s
Grove: As-Ks-Js-3c
Board: Jc-10h-10c-5d-Qc

At this point in the event there are three tables remaining with several big names. Here are the tables:

Table 31

Seat 1: David Chiu
Seat 2: Danny Dang
Seat 3: Dustin Sitar
Seat 4: Mike Matusow
Seat 5: Stuart Paterson
Seat 6: Empty
Seat 7: William McMahon
Seat 8: Danny Smith
Seat 9: Toto Leonidas

Table 32

Seat 1: Ray Dehkharghani
Seat 2: Brad Booth
Seat 3: David Benyamine
Seat 4: Hieu ‘Tony’ Ma
Seat 5: Greg Jamison
Seat 6: Eugene Katchalov
Seat 7: James Grove
Seat 8: Ram Vaswani
Seat 9: James Van Alstyne

Table 36

Seat 1: Berry Johnston
Seat 2: Patrick Rao
Seat 3: Shun Uchida
Seat 4: Empty
Seat 5: Bruno Fitoussi
Seat 6: Brent Carter
Seat 7: Pat Pezzin
Seat 8: Jason Gray
Seat 9: Chau Giang

On a board of Js-8s-Jh-9c-10c Matusow and William McMahon had action on the river card and with McHahon saying, “Good catch, I call.:

Matusow turned over: Jc-10s-Ks-10c and rivered jacks full of tens.
McMahon showed: Jd-9s-Kh-5s and flopped jacks full of nines.

McMahon commented after the hand, “I guess that’s the difference between professionals and amateurs huh Mike?”

Brad Booth was eliminated in 23rd place after him and William McMahon were all in against David Chiu. McMahon made a full house, which scooped the pot and sent Brad Booth home without winning a cool million dollars. Although, he did earn $22,090 for his outing.

The final two tables were set after Patrick Rao fell in 19th place after he got involved in a three way pot with Jason Gray and Chau Giang where Giang took the high half and Gray won the low half, and Rao missed a piece of the pot. He was then left with roughly 15,000 chips and put it all in on the next hand against Berry Johnston.

Johnston: As-2h-5c-9d-9s
Rao: 2d-7s-Qs-4d

The board ran: As-2h-5c-9d-9s and gave Jonston the nut low with a bike, which was also good enough for the high and eliminated Rao and day 2 came to an end.

The players that will join us tomorrow at 3:00 PM to play for the gold bracelet and the first place prize of $535,687 will be:

Table 14
1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000

Table 15
1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu “Tony” Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000

Event #38 - $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Day 1

The $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em tournament kicked off today at 12:00 PM in the Amazon Room at the Rio. This tournament last year was won by Greg Hopkins, after he battled through a 599 player field and won his first bracelet along with a first place prize of $269,274. This year is quite similar as there are 605 entrants and a total prize pool of $1,101,100.

Several high profile professional players entered this event inluding Vanessa Rousso, David Pham, Andy Black, Justin Bonomo, Bill Chen, Gavin Griffen, Allen Cunningham, Marcel Luske, Tom Schneider, and many more.

Key hands of the day:

Mark Seif put a bluff in on a board of Jc-Qh-6c-Js-8h with Kc-10c, a busted club draw and straight draw. His opponent quickly called with Q-J and Seif was sent home early.

Jennifer Tilly moved all in with Ad-3d preflop and received a call from Lex Veldhuis who held Ac-Kd. The board ran As-8h-2c-5c-9s and she hit the rail quite early in the event.

The blinds just went to round 4 and Devilfish and Michael Mizrachi saw a flop together after Devilfish raised to 650 preflop. The board came Qc-10h-6h and Mizrachi pused all in for 750 and made the Devilfish fold pocket nines face up. The Grinder then showed Kh-Jd for an open-ended straight draw.

Recent bracelet winner Dario Minieri hit the rail after he raised with pocket eights and Sean Burstein re-raised from the button. Minieri put the rest of his chips in and was against pocket nines. Minieri couldn’t hit a eight and walked away empty handed.

Eli Elezra was sitting around 17,000 in chips and ended up pushing all in when Sean Burstein bet 4,700 on a flop of 9d-8s-2s. Burstein called and the players showed their monsters:

Elezra: Ad-Js
Burstein: Kd-Qd

The turn was a brick, but the river brought a queen which sent Elezra to the rail.

Peter Tran is Event #38’s bubble boy after Derek Dempsey finished him off. Tran pushed all in from the small blind and Dempsey called from the big blind and the players revealed:

Dempsey: Ad-Ah
Tran: 8c-6h

The board ran: Js-4d-10c-4h-9c and Tran couldn’t dodge or crack aces and the remaining players cheered when it was announced the bubble was broken.

The day has ended with Michael Binger with the chip lead and will be ready for the action on day 2, which will begin at 2:00 PM tomorrow with 64 players remaining.

Top 10 players and chip stacks going into Day 2:

Michael Binger 146100
Davidi Kitai 97600
Ayaz Mahmood 97600
David Chicotsky 94100
Ben Roberts 81900
Chris Bell 80200
Shane Schleger 79400
George Shahrezay 76500
Lee Watkinson 74500
Eric Lupovich 73500

This concludes our June 20, 2008 WSOP report, joins again tomorrow for more coverage in our Poker News section.