Considering how long it took to get into the money, getting to the final table happened relatively quickly.
18. David Eller
17. Anthony Reategui
16. Prince of Docness
15. Mike Matusow
Matusow found himself extremely short stacked, with his $5,000 small blind being a quarter of his stack. A player in early middle position raised to $20,000 with A A Q 10, Matusow called all-in and the bib blind called with J-J-2-8. The board came down 10 7 4 7 3, with both players checking the whole way down. Matusow revealed A-K-3-x, but te 3 on the river counterfeited his low draw and the other two players chopped the pot, with aces taking the high and 2-8 making an 8-7-4-3-2 low.
14. Todd Brunson
13. Annie Duke
12. Michael Henrich
11. Marcus Golser
10. Bobby Kirkwood
Here is the final table players with their chip counts.
Seat 1 - Reynaud Max - $529,000
Seat 2 - Bart Hanson - $191,000
Seat 3 - John "SirScoopalot" Guth - $387,000
Seat 4 - Randy Jensen - $283,000
Seat 5 - Greg Jamison - $223,000
Seat 6 - Michael Pollowitz - $189,000
Seat 7 - David Flores - $450,000
Seat 8 - Robert Stevanovski - $384,000
Seat 9 - Jim Grove - $163,000
Here are the recent eliminations for the $5,000 World Championship of Omaha eight-or-better. Each of these players received $12,502.
24. Patrick Bueno
23. Patrick Pezzin
22. Vladimer Shchemelev
21. Steve Kopp
20. Allen Kessler
19. Eric Dalby
Mike Matusow doubled up twice during the level much to the enjoyment of Phil Hellmuth and the rest of the rail. On a board of K 7 6 9, Matusow moved all in, telling Hellmuth that it was time to gamble. He was called in two places. When the 7 Matusow jumped up celebrating. He turned over K K 10 10 for a full house and began dancing along the rail.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for all your updates and your final table finishers.
Notable Chip Counts
Todd Brunson
220,000
Annie Duke
75,000
Sat Jun 23 00:29:00 -0700 2007
Burst Your Bubble
It didn't take long to bust the bubble in the $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better World Championship.
Coming back from break, we quickly lost three big name pros. David Benyamine, Huck Seed and Lee Watkinson were unable to cash, leaving just one person to go before the final three tables.
The bubble hand came down when both Randy Jensen and Anthony Reategui called an all in from a short stacked player. Reategui bet the J 10 5 4 5 board and Jensen quickly blew up, exclaiming how sick the situation was and agonizing over his bad luck. He eventually mucked, and Reategui showed J5KK for the Motown Boat. The bubble boy mucked his hand and we were down to the money.
Huck Seed stuck around for a little bit to talk to Joe Hachem and Phil Hellmuth about World Series of Poker history and a couple side bets and last longers still going on. But the action continued at the tables, and we saw three more casualties by the end of the level. Each of these players cashed for $12,502.
27. Soheil Shamseddin
26. Chris Reslock
25. Marc Gardner
The blinds are going up to $3,000/$6,000 making the limits $6,000/$12,000 for the 24 remaining players.
Notable Chip Counts
Annie Duke
155,000
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow
152,000
Todd Brunson
150,000
Allen Kessler
55,000
Fri Jun 22 23:05:00 -0700 2007
Side Bets Everywhere
Players returned from the dinner break no longer hungry, but still a little upset.
It's no secret around the Amazon room that the players in the $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better Championship are unhappy. The high blind structure has created an event of desperation.
The last hour produced many casualties and a few notables hit the rail as well. Falling out of contention during the hour include Gavin Smith and Patrik Antonius.
A couple of short stacks have been hanging on by a thread for awhile as we near the money bubble. Mike Matusow chopped a pot with fellow short stack Huck Seed to stay alive. Then "The Mouth" doubled up with A J 2 3 on a board of K 7 3 10 Q to keep Phil Hellmuth's bet alive.
Phil Hellmuth stands to win a lot of cash should Matusow make the final table or win the event. Hellmuth put up $20,000 against Phil Ivey and will win $120,000 if he final tables and $480,000 should Matusow somehow take down the bracelet.
Matusow himself stands to make some side bet cash if he can keep his stack healthy. He and Scott Clements have a side bet based on all of the Omaha eight-or-better events during the series. Clements won the PLO event, but only eight-or-better counts toward the bet.
Those pros who are alive and well include Annie Duke and Anthony Reategui, who both have a mountain of chips. Former chip leader Allen Kessler has taken a major hit, but is still alive as a short stack. Chris Reslock, Randy Jensen, David Benyamine, Todd Brunson and Lee Watkinson are all still part of the 31 player field vying for the top three tables.
Players are currently on a 15-minute break.
Keep it tuned to CardPlayer.com for all your live updates.
Notable Chip Counts
After taking a short break, 57 players returned to the remaining 7 tables in the $5,000 World Championship of Omaha Eight or Better event. Blinds have increased to $1,500-$3,000, with limits at $3,000-$6,000.
Stacked Tables
Because of table balancing and breaking, a number of stacked tables have emerged. Table 51 played home to David Benyamine, Marc Karam, Mike Matusow and Kirill Gerasimov. At table 56 Gavin Smith, Davood Mehrmand and Todd Brunson were all battling it out as well. With payouts beginning at at 27 players, the money bubble was just on the horizion. Tournament directors broke a table fifteen minutes into the level. This evidenced the fact that the pace of eliminations was ramping up.
Hellmuth Wears Short Shorts...
The shorts are pretty average in length, actually, but seeing Phil Hellmuth's lanky frame in something beside his usual black pair of jeans is still very surprising. Hellmuth is back to rail the event, which he took to doing last night after busting from the limit hold'em event. He apparently has a bet with Ivey as to results of Mike Matusow in the event and is therefore sweating Matusow.
At the end of the level, only six tables and fifty players remained as the players went on their dinner break. Make sure to check back around 11 p.m. for more updates and the Pro Blog of Allen Kessler here at Cardplayer.com.
Notable Chip Counts
Mike Matusow has been very quiet so far today. Omaha Eight-or-better is regarded his strongest game, and he has been focused. Well nothing like a player on a tear to open Matusow up a bit. Matusow has been seated next to Doc Kegal the player who calls himself the "Prince of Docness." Kegal has been playing and making a lot of hands building his stack above $130,000. Matusow is amazed not only that he's cleaning up, but of the consistent quality of his starting hands. Matusow was caught making a questionable play, leading the betting the whole way with a board of 10 9 8 6 3. Matusow called out 5-4 low and a pair of Queens. Kegal showed Aces with the A-3 for his busted low draw. Matusow received some ribbing for his play from David Benyamine as he scooped the low. Matusow acknowledged that he doesn't play every hand perfect.
Robert Williamson III has been eliminated and has gone to sweat his friends playing in the H.O.R.S.E Mega Satellite in the restart area.
Markus Golser won a significant pot when his opponent accidentally picked up two pink chips worth $5,000 along with four orange $1,000 and threw them into the middle of the table when raising on the turn. She immediately tried to grab them back and the floor was called and ruled that the raise stood. Golser called. He also called the $4,000 bet on the river and scooped the pot.
David Benyamine got back in the game with a flurry of all-ins and double ups and now has $45,000 in chips.
Patrik Antonius is among the chip leaders with around $85,000 in chips and looked at ease with himself, chomping down on a banana.
There are currently 72 players left at 8 tables. Pro Blogger Allen Kessler has climbed his among the chip leaders. Follow his progress here at CardPlayer.com
Notable Chip Counts
Doc "Prince of Docness" Kegal
130,000
Allen Kessler
85,000
Patrick Antonius
81,000
Gavin Smith
48,500
Chris Reslock
43,000
Erik Seidel
42,000
David Benyamine
42,000
Ron "Grumpy" Ware
34,400
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow
32,000
Mel Judah
30,000
Mike DeMichele
29,100
Lee Watkinson
27,500
John Phan
27,500
Huckleberry Seed
25,000
Annie Duke
25,000
Scotty Nguyen
22,000
John D'Agostino
21,000
Tony "G" Guoga
17,300
Scott Clements
16,000
Robert Williamson III
15,000
Jennifer Harman
14,800
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
14,800
Rafi Amit
14,100
Thor Hansen
14,000
Tex Barch
13,700
Andy Bloch
13,000
Layne Flack
11,700
Nick Schulman
11,400
Fri Jun 22 17:29:00 -0700 2007
8 Down to 3
The number of bracelets at Linda Johnson's table just took a hit. Johnson (1) finally succumbed to her short stack as did Scotty Nguyen (4). The two of them accounted for 5 of the 8 World Series bracelets at their table. Scott Clements (2) and Anthony Reategui (1) have the others. Reategui and Clements got involved in a pot with the player in Seat 1 at their table. After the river the board read 9 62 8 5. Reategui showed 7 5 for the straight and the high, while Clements and Seat 1 split the low each with A-3.
Nick Schulman was also the vicitm of a "quartering" when he was all in with A 7 6 2, against his opponent's A 3 2 2. The board came down 7 6 4 5Q, and Schulman split the low while surrendering the high.
Hasan Habib and Jennifer Harman were a few of the latest casualties in the last few levels. 104 players are now returning from the color-up break.
A few players have fallen in the first hour of play today. The field is currently down to 135 players on 15 tables.
Hasan Habib has been mixing it up with the player in Seat 1 at his table. Habib folded to him on the river, surrendering sizable pot. On the very next hand Habib calls him down to the river this time with a board of A J 3 3 5. Seat 1 shows A A for the full house, but Habib shows 8-4 for a rivered low, and they chop the pot.
Brett Jungblut found himself all in against Barry Greenstein with a wheel, however Barry caught halfway up on the river, making a flush to take half of the pot away from Jungblut. Greenstein is pulling double duty today, playing in both this event and the pot limit holdem event that began at 12:00pm today.
Chris Ferguson was pulling double duty as well, but had one of those jobs taken away. Busting out of this event, he simply moved a few tables over from 46 to 31, and sat back down in the holdem event.
The European contingent has been severely diminished since yesterday but David Benyamine, Thor Hansen, John Shipley ($4,120 in chips) and Patrik Antonius remain.
The World Championship of Omaha Eight or Better is restarting at 3pm today. Their are 147 players remaining and the top 27 will finish in the money. We will continue to follow the progress of Linda Johnson in our Pro Blogs.
A
Q
10
7
