Fifty-six players returned to Leicester Square for Day 2 of Event #2, 2,500 H.O.R.S.E., at the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe. Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth started Day 2 atop the leader board, and one of the Phils remained in the tournament when play halted late in the evening. The marathon Day 2 lasted over 14 hours and saw numerous top names head to the rail as the field thinned to 11.

The stacked field on Day 2 created even more interesting table draws, including this table of doom. At Table 5, Joe Beevers and David Williams were moved onto a table that already contained tough opponents Woody Deck, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Robert Williamson III and 2008 WSOP Main Event
final-table player Kelly Kim.

Among the early eliminations was Barry Greenstein, who busted to John Phan early in a hold’em round when Phan’s A-9 outflopped Greenstein’s A-10 as a nine landed on the board. Greenstein was soon joined on the rail by Bruno Fitoussi, Markus Golser, Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Cantu, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Max Pescatori showed his toughness early in the day when he bounced John Phan and Kelly Kim in short order. In Omaha hi/lo, Phan got the last of his chips in on a flop of

, and Pescatori and Raul Paez both called. Pescatori fired on both the

turn and the

river, and Paez called on every street with

for the low half of the pot. Pescatori dragged the high half with

for kings and fives as Phan was busted. Shortly after Phan was finished, Kelly Kim headed to the rail in razz when his 10-8-6-5-4 was no good to Pescatori’s 8-6-4-3-2.

Pescatori couldn’t sustain his early surge, however and ended up the bubble boy at the hands of Sherkhan Farnood. In stud hi/lo, Phil Ivey raised on third street with the

in the door. Farnood called with the

up, and Pescatori called with the

showing.

Ivey picked up the

on fourth street and checked to Farnood, who drew the

and bet. Pescatori called with

, and Ivey called as well. Ivey showed a Broadway draw on fifth street as his board read

, and he checked to Farnood again. Farnood bet out again, showing

, and Pescatori raised with a board of

. Ivey folded, and Pescatori and Farnood headed to sixth street. Farnood picked up the

and bet out again. Pescatori called all in when he picked up the

, and the hands were revealed:

Farnood:

for a 7-low and a straight to the eight
Pescatori:

for a smooth 7-low and no chance at high

Farnood needed to catch perfect to crack Pescatori’s low and send him packing, and the

he picked up on seventh street was good enough to eliminate the Italian Pirate just outside the money.

David Williams became the first player to cash when he busted in 16th place (4,812). Marc Goodwin, who nursed a short stack for much of Day 2 before finishing in 15th place, quickly followed. Daniel Negreanu headed to the rail in 14th (5,500) when he and Phil Ivey went to war on a flop of

in an Omaha hi/lo hand. Negreanu tabled

for bottom set and a nut low draw, and Ivey showed

for a flopped straight and an emergency low draw. The

on the turn was no help to either player, and the

on the river meant that Negreanu’s low cards were all counterfeited and Ivey’s straight was enough to drag the high-only pot and send Negreanu home early. Isaac Haxton was another late elimination as he busted in 13th place just before the end of Day 2.

Phil Hellmuth came into Day 2 as one of the chip leaders, but his famous temper showed itself more than once as his stack dwindled. After doubling up Mark Gregorich twice in consecutive hands in a razz orbit, Hellmuth’s once-massive chip stack began to shrink. Finally, finding himself with a short stack and receiving a warning for abusive behavior to the dealer, Hellmuth got all his chips in preflop against Sherkhan Farnood. Farnood’s

was a coin flip against Hellmuth’s

. The flop set things up for a Day 3 appearance by Hellmuth, coming down

. The

was irrelevant, but the

on the river made a set for Farnood and sent an irate Hellmuth home in 12th place (6,188). The 11-time WSOP bracelet winner’s shot at his first non-hold’em gold fell just short of the final table.

As Hellmuth departed, the final 11 chip stacks looked like this:

Howard Lederer 208,500
Sherkhan Farnood 141,500
Yuval Bronshtein 133,500
Phil Ivey 114,000
Jeff Duvall 112,100
Spencer Lawrence 88,500
Jeff Lisandro 84,000
Mark Gregorich 82,500
Ivo Donev 79,500
Kristian Eriksson 43,000
Raul Paez 17,500

Join PokerNews tomorrow at 2:30 local time as the remaining players work their way down to a final table and a WSOP bracelet.

Andy Garza 169,200
Donny Carlton 148,100
Jonathan Jaffe 134,700
Anil Jivani 130,200
George Lind 125,300

Michael Banducci 117,000
Adrian Dresel-Velasquez 116,000
Scott Sitron 114,000
Jose Luis Velador 110,500
Steven Weusten 104,000

The busted-out list was packed with notable names, including Juha Helppi, Mark Seif, David Williams, Allen Cunningham, recent bracelet winner Kenny Tran, Humberto Brenes, Chris Ferguson, Lee Watkinson, Vanessa Rousso and Jennifer Tilly. In fact, play started so fast that in just 180 minutes of play, almost half the starting field had been eliminated.

Still alive, and still on the march toward bracelet number 12, is Phil Hellmuth, who finished the day with 31,600 in chips – and his record 65th WSOP cash. He will be joined on Day 2 by other top pros including Beth Shak, Young Phan, Michael Katz, Neil “BadBeat” Channing and Fabrice Soulier.

Phil Hellmuth had two hands go his way which gave the “Poker Brat” little to complain about. In the first hand, Hellmuth went all in preflop with pocket kings against an opponent’s Big Slick. Immediately, an ace hit on the flop and Hellmuth stood up and clenched his fists tightly near his chest and shouted “God!” But before he could say anything more, the dealer delivered a king on the turn. The table erupted and Hellmuth said, “Well I hit my one-outer, but you’ve still got two.” But the river blanked and the other player was sent to the rail.

In the other hand, with the board showing , the small blind led out for 1,300, Hellmuth raised to 5,700 from the big blind and the small blind moved all in. Hellmuth tanked for awhile, thinking out loud, even pulling aside a field reporter to whisper, “I’m out with a full house here!” He finally called, showing for deuces full of eights. The small blind mucked, saying he had an overpair. “Where’s Roland de Wolfe?” asked Hellmuth, on his feet and scanning the room. “God, I almost folded there!” he told de Wolfe.

For his part, Roland de Wolfe would remember this event as the attack of the pocket eights. In two hands, de Wolfe saw his chips disappear to the dreaded pocket pair. First, in a three-way with A-K against another A-K and 8-8, the eight hit a set on the flop and the rest of the board blanked, leaving de Wolfe with just 3,200. In his last hand, de Wolfe shoved all in with A-10 and couldn’t hit anything on the board, losing again to the pair of pocket eights held by his opponent.

The top 198 players finished in the money just before Day 1 broke. Unlucky number 199 was Leroy Le. As play went hand-for-hand, Le moved all in for 6,500 from the button with a respectable suited A-10, but was up against his opponent’s pocket queens. No help on the board meant Le was out and everyone still in was in the money.

Michael Banducci, who finished the day sixth in chips, has already had a memorable World Seried with his first bracelet and over $600,000 in winnings; still, he has the distinction of having made a royal flush in a live tournament to add to his 2008 accomplishments.

Small pairs were very good to Beth Shak. Earlier in the day she had cracked aces when her pocket ducks hit a set on the flop. Then, short-stacked later in the day, she pushed her remaining 8,000 all in with pocket threes against Big Slick and – though starting ominously with a gutshot straight draw for her opponent – the board ran out a safe J-10-5-7-4. She’ll start Day 2 with a below-average 17,700 in chips.

Andy Garza had his pocket tens hold up late in the day against an opponent’s A-Q. Despite a queen on the flop which took the lead away, Garza spiked a 10 on the turn and propelled himself to the top of the leader board where he’ll start Day 2.

Join PokerNews.com and its live reporting team for full coverage of this event’s Day 2 beginning at 2:00 pm Pacific Time.

pokernews.com

Seat 1: Andy Bloch (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 370,000
Seat 2: Rob Hollink (Groningen, Netherlands) — 893,000
Seat 3: Tommy Hang (Seattle, Washington) — 578,000
Seat 4: Cy Jassinowsky (Johannesburg, South Africa) — 231,000
Seat 5: Jerrod Ankenman (Avon, Connecticut) — 441,000
Seat 6: Chris Vitch (San Diego, California) — 201,000
Seat 7: Brock Parker (Silver Spring, Maryland) — 166,000
Seat 8: J.C. Tran (Sacramento, California) — 247,000
Seat 9: Aaron Katz (Seattle, Washington) — 1,232,000

Day 2 began with 97 players, fewer than half the starting field, and would play down to the final nine. Along the way 70 players finished out of the money, including Huck Seed, Howard Lederer, Todd Brunson, John Hennigan, Erick Lindgren and Greg Mueller. A surprising elimination, just short of cashing, was Day 1 fourth-place finisher Justin Bonomo.

Sometimes it’s good to be lucky, but for J.C. Tran, sometimes it’s good to be oblivious. J.C. Tran was involved in a three-way hand which had been bet and called down all the way to the turn. When the fourth spade spiked on the river, Tran called an all-in bet and took down the hand with a set of sevens since his opponent had no spade. When some at the table asked Tran why he wasn’t worried about the fourth spade he said, it was easy – he didn’t realize the river had made a four-flush!

It’s a distinction no one wants, and in Event #30, it fell to Tim Kasparoff – bubble boy. Kasparoff had gone all in after Tommy Hang had called from middle position and the two went heads up. This was a classic race situation with Kasparoff holding the under pair, eights, to the overcards of Hang, A-10. The ten on the turn put Hang squarely ahead and left Kasparoff dead to an eight. Sadly for him, no eight on the river meant no cash, and Kasparoff was out in 28th place. Alex Kravchenko was the immediate beneficiary, able to say he cashed in this event, if only in 27th place, for $20,492.

In one of many battles of the heavyweights, a short-stacked Dewey Tomko went all in against Hoyt Corkins. Corkins tabled while Tomko showed the powerhouse . The flop was decisive, , but Tomko had a glimmer of hope after an eight came on the turn. The seven on the river, though, sent Tomko to the rail in 23rd place.

Corkins’ surge was short-lived as he went all in against Aaron Katz with against Katz’ . Katz found a dream board of four diamonds to eliminate Corkins in 21st place. Todd Witteles was out soon after. His stack depleted at the hands of Michael Mizrachi, he went in against Chris Vitch for his remaining chips. After an A-J-8 flop, Vitch four-bet to put Witteles all in. Vitch was ahead with A-K to Witteles’ J-6. Witteles never improved and departed in 19th place. Tompkins, Corkins and Witteles each took home $20,492.

Michael Mizrachi had more than his fair share of bad luck in back-to-back-to back hands. First, his flopped set was toppled by the turned straight of Jerrod Ankenman. Then his A-K went up against the pocket kings of Cy Jassinowsky and lost. In this final hand, he and Chris Vitch had three-bet before the Q-5-2 flop, then checked. When the four turned, Mizrachi check-raised and Vitch re-reraised. Mizrachi moved all in and was quickly called. Mizrachi knew he was in trouble, “You have a set of queens, right?” Vitch nodded, showing the ladies, and Mizrachi just shook his head as he turned over pocket fours for the lower set. No four on the river and he was out in 15th place with $30,738.

Eric Buchman started the day third in chips but was out just before the final table. After reraising Adam Katz preflop, Buchman got what he thought was a great flop – – which gave him a set of tens. After a series of bets, raises, and reraises – and some brief confusion about the size of Katz’ last bet – Katz announced he was betting blind on the turn to put Buchanan all in. Buchanan called and they turned over their hands, and Buchman saw that Katz was on the flush draw, which hit with the . Buchanan needed the board to pair on the river, but it blanked and he was out in tenth place with $35,861.

Join PokerNews.com for live reporting of the final table, beginning at 3pm Pacific Time on Tuesday.

pokernews.com

The Asian Poker Tour — not to be confused with the PokerStars-sponsored Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), which markets to the same region — has set up four major Pacific Rim events to date, with future tourneys in Seoul, Macau and Singapore joining the upcoming one in
Manila. The Manila event, to be held at the Dusit Thanai Manila Hotel, offers a $2,500 buy-in and includes an impressive lineup of players looking for a final tuneup before the heart of the WSOP season. The field will have a 400-player cap.

Among the players already listed as participating are Brandon Cantu, Tex Barch, Marsha Waggoner, Steve Sung, Nam Le, Quinn Do, Brad Daugherty, Roy Winston, Layne Flack, Evelyn Ng, Michael Gracz, Michael O’Malley, Monsour Matloubi, Huck Seed, Paul Darden, Chip Jett, Karina Jett and Isaac Galazan. The APT has also retained renowned tournament director (and PokerNews contributing writer) Matt Savage.

Several online poker rooms, including PartyPoker and the iPoker network, are running satellites to APT Manila and the three other APT events. More information on APT Manila and the Asian Poker Tour is available at www.asianpt.com.

pokernews.com

Clonie Gowen’s Day 2 was short and less than sweet. Gowen pushed all in preflop with
and ran into pocket kings. No ace appeared on the board, and she was eliminated early. Joe Hachem went to the rail early when he got into a big hand with Peter Ling. Hachem raised from the button, and Ling defended his big blind. The board came down 7-3-3 with two spades, and Ling bet out. Hachem raised, Ling moved all in over the top, and Hachem called with 5-3 for trips. Ling revealed , but caught a runner-runner four-flush to eliminate the world champ. Other early eliminations included JJ Liu, Ari ‘BodogAri’ Engel and Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt.

Team Full Tilt had a rough run in the middle of Day 2, with several of their players hitting the rail in a short span. Howard Lederer came to the Aussie Millions and immediately won over a million dollars by capturing the top prize in the $100,000-buyin Event #9 earlier in the series. Lederer’s luck ran out when Raymond Rahme outflopped him with A-9 to Lederer’s A-K to eliminate poker’s ‘Professor’. John Juanda was the next Full Tilt pro to bust when he ran pocket fives into Kofi Farye’s pocket tens and failed to improve.

Phil Ivey’s day ended when he got it all in with Richard Teatum on a board of . Teatum led out, and Ivey raised. Teatum went all in over the top with , and Ivey called with . No ace appeared for Ivey, and he was eliminated. More notable Day 2 exits included Michael Binger, cricket star Shane Warne, Jon ‘Pearljammer’ Turner, Tony G and Allen Cunningham.

Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow played tight all day until he made a key double-up late in the action. After complaining earlier about his lack of quality cards, Matusow doubled up with pocket aces against pocket queens to finish the day with a decent chip stack. Matthew LaGarde finished the day with the chip lead among the final 98 players, in sight of the money bubble of 80, as the top ten chip counts looked like this:

Matthew LaGarde – 490,000
Alexander Kostritsyn – 445,000
Dale Townsend – 420,000
Dusan Stoevski – 410,000
Kevin ‘BeLOWaBOVe’ Saul – 400,000
Con Angelakis – 376,000
Erik Seidel – 330,000
Adriano Cendron – 280,000
Jason Potter – 279,600
Andy Black – 271,000

Other notable survivors of Day 2 included Kenna James, Erick Lindgren, Max Pescatori and Jeff Lisandro.

pokernews.com

Plenty of Australian poker stars were in the field, including ‘Aussie’ Sarah Bilney, Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, and Graeme ‘Kiwi G’ Putt, who made the final table of Event #3, the mixed Stud tournament. Grant Levy, the winner of the APPT Grand Final Event in Sydney, made his first appearance of the 2008 Aussie Millions, as did PokerNews’ own Tony ‘G’ Guoga.

The rebuy period was typically fast and wild with Fricke taking advantage of the loose action with an early double-up. Anna Wroblewski needed all the rebuys she could find when she ran into several rough hands early. “I’ve lost with A-Q four times, and A-K twice!” exclaimed Anna. By the end of the rebuy period, the prize pool for the $1,000 buy-in tournament had swelled to $526,000, with a first-place prize of $168,320.

After the rebuy period ended, play returned to a more normal pace, and players began heading to the rail in fairly short order. Among the early eliminations were Kenna James, Nelson, Gary Benson and Karib Karib. 52 players remained at the dinner break, with Brandon Schaefer, Bilney and Sol Bergren busting soon after dinner.

Field’s exit came in the early evening, just short of the money bubble. Wroblewski raised from early position and found callers in Michael Russell and David Steicke. Field re-raised, and Wroblewski and Russell got out of the way as Steicke called for the rest of his chips with . Field tabled , and lost the race when the board came down .

APPT Macau High Rollers tournament winner Eric Assadourian was the bubble boy when he got his last few chips in with against Emmanuel Seal’s pocket fours. Assadourian became an extreme short stack in the tournament after running into Michael Russell’s pocket aces, and went to the rail when Seal’s fours held up to burst the bubble, leaving the final 18 players in the money. 14 of those players made it to the end of day, including Wroblewski and Kevin Saul, but the chip lead belonged to Tony Dunst when the action concluded. Dunst picked up a big pot on the last hand of the day to send Daniel Zink to the rail and take the chip lead. The final chip counts looked like this as players bagged up their stacks for the night, with these 14 players fighting for the winner’s share of the purse when action resumes on Wednesday:

Tony Dunst – 138,200
Dane Lomas – 110,700
Kevin Saul – 83,300
Julian Powell – 75,000
David Bach – 63,800
Emmanuel Seal – 48,700
Robert Wang – 48,200
David Steicke – 47,300
Michael Pedley – 44,200
Anna Wroblewski – 39,700
Erich Kollmann – 30,600
Larry Karambis – 27,200
Rayan Nathan – 17,500
Christine Klecz – 13,100

pokernews.com

The 2008 COPC features five events and a total prize pool projected to exceed $1.3 million, with the $5,000-buyin Main Event (which starts on March 6) unique in that it’s a heads-up format, limited to 128 players, unlike the large-field freezeouts that mark most other poker gatherings. The complete schedule of events is as follows; all are no-limit hold’em variants:

Date Event

3-5 $500 Freezeout Charity Event
3-6 $5,000 Main Event (Day 1) —
Heads-Up, 128-player max
3-7 $1,500 Short-Handed (6-player tables)
3-8 $1,000 Freezeout
3-9 $500 Freezeout

The first day’s charity event is capped at 250 players, with a portion of the proceeds donated to breast-cancer research. The main event is expected to be filmed for later broadcast, and the last COPC drew a good selection of well-known players, including Antonio Esfandiari, Andy Bloch, Nenad Medic, Huck Seed, and Canadian stars Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller and Brad ‘Yukon’ Booth.

pokernews.com