June 4, 2008 marked the sixth day of action this year’s WSOP Vegas, where we saw the conclusion of events three and four, the second day of events five and six and the start up of events seven and eight. Having already covered the event 3 final table and event 4 final table we’ll start this report at day two of event 5.

WSOP Event #5 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/ Rebuys Day 2

106 players returned to the Rio today to play down to the final nine, but first the money bubble would break when the 73rd player was eliminated. At this time the 72 remaining players would be guaranteed at least a $8,103 and would be one step closer to the $636,736 top place prize money.

The most surprising story of the day was Phil Ivey who came into the day as the chip leader, but ran into some bad luck in the tournament’s opening few rounds to drop down to a stack size just above the tournament average. Ivey would then play two consecutive pots against an amateur player from Texas named Jon Van Fleet where his bad luck would turn much worst. The first of these hands Ivey got his money all in ahead with QQ against Jon Van Fleet’s AJ, but an ace on the turn would leave Ivey crippled. Ivey was finished off in a rare and shocking early day exit when he bet all in holding Ace King on a flop of A 3 4 rainbow only to see Van Fleet table pocket aces.

After an hour an a half of play the money bubble burst when Jason Gray ran 99 against one over card. That over card was a king and it paired on the turn making Gray the bubble boy. The following noteworthy players would follow being eliminated in the lower ends of the prize money: Alex Jacob, Chad Brown, Jeff Madsen, Marco Johnson, Steven Merrifield, Mark Vos, Bill Baxter, Sorel Mizzi, and Matthew LaGarde.

And…

Here are those who finished 27th through 10th along with their payouts.

27th John Juanda – $16,496
26th William Cole – $16,496
25th Amit Makhija – $16,496
24th Nenad Medic – $16,496
23rd John Hoang – $16,496
22nd Daniel Negreanu – $16,496
21st Jon van Fleet – $16,496
20th Robert Cheung – $16,496
19th Dan Adams – $16,496
18th Chris Moore – $21,705
17th Craig Gray – $21,705
16th Nam Le – $21,705
15th Clonie Gowen – $28,940
14th Ray Coburn – $28,940
13th Alan Sass – $28,940
12th Adam Levy – $36,176
11th Randy Haddox – $36,176

Just after 11 PM Vegas time the tournament was down to ten, leaving players hopeful there would be a long enough break to get a good nights sleep before the final table started the following day at 3PM. They would get that wish when Phi Nguyen unsuccessfully raced Ace King against Michael Banducci QQ.

Here are the chip counts heading into tomorrows final table:

Michael Banducci 1,655,000
Alan Jaffray 1,222,000
Gould Peter 702,000
Jeff Williams 683,000
Lyric Duveyoung 659,000
Jamie Rosen 475,000
Jonathan Aguiar 361,000
Michael Binger 186,000
Steve Gross 112,000

WSOP Event #6 $1,500 Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better Day 2

205 day one survivors of the events original 833 entrants returned to the Rio today to play down to the final nine. The top 81 players would be paid with prize money starting at $2,728 with the winner vying for the eventual $243,356 top place prize money which included the coveted gold bracelet.

Some of the noteworthy pros hitting the rail before the money bubble where Scott Clements, Jimmy Fricke, and James Van Alstyne.

Play tightened th money bubble approached and it was eventually Nick Polydoros who had to play the roll of bubble boy. He got himself all in from the big blind with Ks Kc 5d 6c against Spencer Lawrence’s Ac 4s Ts Td. The board rank Qd, 7s, 3s 9s 7c. He was dead to a flush on the on the turn finishing in 82nd place.

Rolf “Ace Speaks” Slotboom headed to the rail quickly after the money bubble had burst finishing in 80th place. He was followed by noteworthy pros Paul Wolfe (66th), Robert Mizrachi (61st), Perry Friedman (46th), Allen Kessler (45th), and Linda Johnson (25th).
The final woman in the field Shirley Graham was eliminated in 14th place and received $11,143.

High stakes tournament veteran Mark Gregrorich ended up being the event 6 bubble boy. The tournament’s day ended after 6AM and players will be returning on short rest to play the final table tomorrow at 4PM.

Final table chip counts:

Thang Luu 560,000
Greg Jamison 333,000
Chris Falconer 331,000
Scott Clements 315,000
Spencer Lawrence 226,000
Mark Wilds 226,000
George Guzman 196,000
Craig Sabel 160,000
James Pritchard 155,000

WSOP Event #7 $2000 Buy-in No Limit Texas Hold’em Day 1 Recap

Event #7, the $2000 buy in NLHE event kicked off today with 1592 players in the field competing for the title, bracelet and cash. Through day one Theo Tran is the chip leader with 145, 800 in chips..

Theo Tran is a Las Vegas resident and pro of several years who has $1.5 million in tournament cashes so far in his career, the most recent coming in event #2 in this years World Series where his 4th place finish was good for $327, 148. He certainly has kept the early WSOP success alive through day one and is one of a trio of players with the Tran surname who are doing well early on.

One of the other Tran’s doing well in Event 6 is Jimmy Tran, who caused a bit of a stir with what might be called a unsportsmanlike actions when this hand went down: On fourth street with a board showing Qs 5s 4h Th Jimmy Tran checks and his opponent makes a 10,000 bet, only to be check raised all in by Tran. His opponent puts in his last 14, 000 and shows 77. Tran sighs and says, “Pocket sevens? You’re killing me,” as he turns over KQ for the best hand. The river bricked off a 2 and Tran knocked out his opponent and built his stack to 95, 000.

Back to “Theo” Tran

One of the hands that built Theo Tran’s chip leading stack he found himself lucky enough to flop two pair while pitted against a super aggressive opponent. On a flop of Th 7s 5h the unknown opponent bet out 4000 under the gun, which was raised to 9500 by Tran. The original bettor moves all in for 19, 000 and is insta-called by Tran who shows top two pair with T7 of diamonds. His opponent shows 87 for second pair is drawing to a running miracle. The board rattled off a J turn and a K river and Theo was up to 131, 000 having knocked out yet another opponent.

When the day finished there were 3 Trans in the top eight chip count standings:

Theo Tran 145,800
Nick Romano 126,500
Scott Montgomery 117,100
John Myung 106,800
Rocco Pace 106,000
Thong Tran 105,800
Pawel Andrzejewski 98,100
JC Tran 93,200

We’ll see if the ‘Tran Show’ continues tomorrow when play resumes.

WSOP Event #8 $10,00 Buy-in Mixed Event Championship Day 1 Recap

Those drawn to playing in today’s World Championship Mixed Event were mostly professionals, many of whom were craving more big buy in mixed events over the last couple years. The WSOP listened this season and introduced the $10, 000 buy in Event #8, and it is certainly one of the most interesting on the schedule. Well rounded players who are adept at more than just the usual fare of poker games will certainly have a big edge.

192 players started day 1 but only 94 remained when the dust settled in the early hours of the morning. Tom “Schneids” Schneider was at the top of the leader board with a stack of 140,000 and the 2007 WSOP player of the year was exhibiting the same top form which garnered him the honors last year. Other notable deep stacks were Jeff Madsen , Gus Hansen and Johnny Chan in the top 4, with Greg “FBT” Mueller and Phil Ivey in the top ten as well.

So what exactly is involved in the Championship Mixed event?
Well, Eight different games are played on a rotating basis, in this order:
1) Deuce-to-seven triple draw;
2) Fixed-limit hold’em;
3) Omaha-8 (hi/lo split);
4) Razz;
5) Seven-card stud;
6) Seven-card stud (hi/lo split, 8 or better);
7) No-limit hold’em;
8) Pot-limit Omaha.

The tables were only 8 players each because of the inclusion of stud. The first twenty minutes of each level will be spent playing games 1-3 on the list above, with the game changing every eight hands. The second twenty minutes will be for games 4-6, and the final 20 minutes will be used for variants 7-8. At the start of each new level the overall process starts anew.

The sheer talent in this event is kind of mind blowing, every table has half a dozen well known professionals and interesting characters and there was no shortage of sub plots through day one. Like David Benyamine playing a hand of Razz blind:

With a K bringing it in Benyamine decides to raise his 5 up without looking at his down cards. He gets called by another K while the bring-in folds. On fourth street Benyamine is dealt a T while his opponent gets a 5. Benyamine checks, opponent bets and Benyamine check raises, the opponent calls. Fifth street shows a 7 for Benyamine and a deuce for his opponent. Benyamine bets and is raised, and finally has to peek at his cards which are pocket Queens. Benyamine shows and laughs only to bafflingly muck his hand.

The format and sheer number of games certainly left others playing far from optimal strategy and it was inexperience in 2-7 triple draw that saw Jan von Halle eliminated when after only the second betting round he tabled a 3-4-5-6-7 straight thinking he had not only the winning hand but that it was showdown. Seeing this savy Johnny Chan put him all in and was called by von Halle who was confused to see the pot shipped to Chan and asked why he was eliminated. He clearly didn’t realize that straights count against you in 2-7 triple draw (where the nuts is 2-3-4-5-7) and was eliminated because of his mistake. Chan took the pot with an eight low.

While all of this was going down Tom “durrr’ Dwan was battling Gus Hansen on several occasions. In one Stud-8 hand between Dwan, Hansen and George Danzer we saw up cards showing:

Dwan: Tc Ts 3h 2h
Danzer: As 6d 3s Jd
Hansen: 7s 7h Jh 6s

Dwan bet out every street and was called by both Danzer and Hansen the whole way, with Danzer slowly and methodically thinking out each call, and Hansen being the typical player he is casually tossing in chips. It worked out for the Great Dane when he rivered two pair of Jacks and Sevens, to beat Dwans rivered Tens and twos.

When Dwan and Hansen later tangled again it was during a hand of Pot Limit Omaha:

After a third player raised the pot and Hansen called, Dwan thought for a while and then moved all in for 8,650 more. The original raiser made it 21,000 to go and Hansen called again. Three players took the flop, Dwan was all in.

Flop: 6c 5h 4c

The third player in the hand checked to Gus who moved all in; the player called.

Dwan: Tc 8d 7h 5d
Hansen: Kh Ks 7c 6h
Third player: As Ah Ts 2c

Dwan flopped the nuts and everyone at the table was baffled when they saw what he had shoved in with. The dealer then ran the turn and river, first the 3c and then the Ad. Hansen was able to use his 6-7-x-x for a seven-high straight to win the side pot, while Dwan collected the main pot with an eight-high straight.

Then this interesting commentary occurred:

Hansen: “Durrrr, I know you’re the world’s best PLO player but… honestly, what is the point of pushing there?”

Dwan: “Because I know you’re not folding now, but you’ll fold most flops and he (the other player) will shove most flops.”

Hansen: “Let me tell you, this guy has no fold option whatsoever.”

Third player: “What the heck were you doing?”

Dwan: “I think my equity is good there.”

Hansen: “Really?!?! You call that equity?”

Dwan: “Yeah, I think I even shove there online. If it’s a PLO tournament online I shove.”

Gus and the rest of the table looked confused as Dwan stacked his chips.

Dwan: “There’s also only 16 minutes left in the day. That was a factor also. I don’t want to come back tomorrow with only 7,000 chips.”

Hansen looked more puzzled than tilted and the calm Dane was left trying to figure out if the play was brilliant or crazy.

Tomorrow the action continues and the field will be trimmed to eight, with the final table going the following day. The action and story lines should continue as the blinds increase and more big names clash.