World Series of Poker Euro Update: Day 40Field Slimmed Drastically on Day 2A Of The Main Event |
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Returning from day 1a and 1b, 1,251 players continued their quest to become the 2008 World Series of Poker main event champion. Around 263 of them were Europeans. In comparison to the other half of the day 1’s who will fight it out tomorrow, today’s lot was quite small. By the end of play, the number of contestants was sliced down again to 469, with Europeans in the minority.
Finn Patrik Antonius did not make much headway throughout day 2a. One hand he succeeded in was when he raised to 1,600 from middle position, and the next player to act reraised to a total of 4,500. The action folded back to Antonius who moved all in for 9,000. His opponent made the call and turned over 8
8
, the underdog to Antonius’ J
J. The board ran K
6664, and Antonius finished the hand with 25,000. But at this stage, the chip leaders were well over the 100,000 mark, including Swede Stefan Mattsson who had 169,500.
Other notables who were up and down throughout the day were Norwegian Thor Hansen, Finn Voito Rintala, and last year’s fourth place main event finisher Alexander Kravchenko from Russia.
Kravchenko raised to 3,000 from late position and the player in seat 9 made the call from the button. The flop came down Q29 and both players checked. The turn was the 10 and both players played it passive again. The river brought the Q, inducing a check from both players one last time. Seat 9 showed 88 and Kravchenko mucked. His stack was around 125,000.
With a board of AQJ10, the player in seat 1 bet 12,000. Kravchenko took several minutes before finally just calling. The 6 fell on the river and seat 1 moved the rest of his stack in. Kravchenko made the call and soon after saw he had been rivered. Seat 1 showed KJ for a turned straight that became a flush on the river. Kravchenko flashed A-K for the same straight before mucking. Kravchenko was down to around 55,000 after the hand.
Dane Rasmus Nielsen did well mid-session. The short-stacked button, who had pushed all-in on the previous hand and doubled up through Nielsen, went all-in again in the next hand. Nielsen, who was on the small blind went head to head with the big blind for the pot, when the big blind moved all in for 31,700. Nielsen, with over 110,000 in chips, made the call. The big blind showed A10, while Nielsen held AQ. The button possessed JJ. The flop came K96 to provide further outs to Nielsen, who spiked the Q on the turn to take the lead. He clinched the victory with the J on the river for the flush, which ironically gave the button a set of jacks and the big blind a straight.
Dutchman Noah Boeken was also getting there slowly but surely. The player on the button raised to 3,000 Boeken called from the small blind. The flop came 986 and both players checked. The turn was the 6 and again both players checked. The river was the 7 and both players checked again. Boeken showed 77 for a full house and raked the pot. He had 56,000 after the hand.
There was a mass exodus from the English side in the form of Peter Gould, Julian Gardner, Victoria Coren, Harry Demetriou, Mickey Wernick, John Shipley, and Joe Beevers. Their World Series dreams were over for another year.
Other notable Euro eliminations were: Ciaran O’Leary (Ireland), Dario Alioto (Italy), Trond Erik Eidsvig (Norway), Philip Hilm (Denmark), Thomas Wahlroos (Finland), and Jens Voertmann (Germany).
The survivors from days 1c and 1d will take their seats at 8pm this evening to play day 2b. Tomorrow should see some interesting results with a field of more than double today’s in dire need of thinning down. 2,678 players will face the chopping block as the main event heats up.
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