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WPT Commerce Day Two |
| by 2006 World Poker Tour Coverage | |
| Friday, 17 February 2006 |
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Chips Flying on Friday Night in L.A. by B.J. Nemeth Saturday, Feb 18, 3:00 am Play will resume tomorrow at 3:30 pm (12 1/2 hours from now) with 97 players still in the hunt for the WPT Final Table and a $2.39 million first prize. Here are the official end-of-day chip counts from Day Two: 1. Fabrice Soulier - $462,000 2. JC Tran - $426,300 3. Luis Sanchez - $383,000 4. Alan Goehring - $368,200 5. Mike Carson - $343,800 6. Can Kim Hua - $329,200 7. Danny Alaei - $317,300 8. Jim Bechtel - $310,000 9. Stephen Giufre - $301,200 10. Jim Miller - $298,000 11. Amir Vahedi - $297,600 12. Chris Bigler - $290,800 13. Jose Tavares - $277,500 14. David Chiu - $265,800 15. Rodeen Talebi - $264,400 16. Edward Moncada - $255,000 17. Ayaz Mahmood - $234,900 18. Orlando Maldonado - $217,300 19. Ben Roberts - $210,200 20. Per Ummer - $209,700 21. Lin Ho - $202,600 22. Luis Velador - $200,000 23. Jeff Rine - $197,000 24. Daniel Fuhs - $194,100 25. Brian McCann - $184,900 26. Chip Jett - $180,400 27. Jason Lester - $175,500 28. Julian Hart - $174,200 29. Matt Matros - $169,800 30. Paul Darden Jr. - $157,500 31. Ugur Marangoz - $151,700 32. Kelly Kim - $150,200 33. Hasan Habib - $147,400 34. Chuck Doumitt - $147,000 35. Michael McClain - $145,300 36. John Gale - $143,700 37. David Plastik - $143,500 38. John Villanueva - $142,500 39. Emil Patel - $141,400 40. Allen Cunningham - $140,000 41. Raed Abukartomy - $138,100 42. Chip Reese - $134,400 43. Yao 'Mike' Shi - $133,200 44. Jon Luu - $133,100 45. Daniel Quach - $132,500 46. Bill Gazes - $131,500 47. Bruce Parker - $124,300 48. Shawn Sheikhan - $124,000 49. Danny Noam - $124,000 50. Todd Bui - $123,800 51. Jon Kelley - $120,200 52. Michael Woo - $115,200 53. Juha Helppi - $115,100 54. Blair Rodman - $113,900 55. Daniel Ahmad - $112,500 56. Mark Gregorich - $107,000 57. Francois Safieddine - $106,800 58. Sean Ly - $105,700 59. Scott Epstein - $104,600 60. Tom Macey - $104,400 61. Steven Chao - $95,000 62. T.J. Cloutier - $89,800 63. Roy Winston - $88,500 64. Pat Kelly - $87,800 65. David Daneshgar - $84,800 66. Kevan Carey - $84,600 67. Gabriel Thaler - $80,000 68. Sean McCabe - $79,700 69. Mikael Thuritz - $77,500 70. Eric Lynes - $75,500 71. Larry Tull - $75,300 72. Mark Weldmann - $72,800 73. Genefredo Legaspi - $72,100 74. David Domstein - $72,000 75. Alex Azadpeyma - $70,700 76. Amir Monsefi - $70,500 77. Brad Berman - $69,600 78. Tor Gammelgard - $69,200 79. Neil Chriss - $64,300 80. Joe Tushnet - $62,700 81. Lee Salem - $58,000 82. Phil Laak - $58,000 83. James Woods - $56,200 84. Billy Duarte - $55,500 85. Adam Spiegelberg - $53,600 86. Amanda Baker - $53,600 87. Dong Bai Xu - $51,200 88. Steven Simmons - $48,200 89. Don O'Dea - $42,400 90. Brian Walters - $41,100 91. Travis Green - $35,500 92. Sean Quinn - $34,800 93. Scotty Nguyen - $30,700 94. Jeffrey Freedman - $29,100 95. Josh Millet - $24,700 96. Anahit Galajian - $21,700 97. Jimmy Manavi - $20,200 Saturday, Feb 18, 2:40 am The players have finally finished play at all of the tables, and a few of us in the media have combined forces to get the official end-of-day chip counts. We're compiling that data now so we can have it ready within another half hour or so. This is much faster than waiting for the casino to release the data. As soon as it's ready, you'll find the chip counts here. We do know that Fabrice Soulier is the chip leader with $462,000. There are 97 players who survived to day three, and their chip counts will be coming soon. Saturday, Feb 18, 2:12 am Antonio Esfandiari is crippled down to $9,000 in chips after he moved all in with pocket sixes and got called by A-K suited. The first four cards were beautiful for Antonio, coming 7-7-5-4. But the river card was a king, putting Antonio in critical situation. Antonio Esfandiari was eliminated a few minutes later. Saturday, Feb 18, 2:03 am Tournament Director Cherri Dokken stops the clock with 15 minutes left, asking the dealers to stop after the current hand. She's going to randomly determine a set number of hands that will be played at each table before the end of the day. Then each table will continue at their own pace until that many hands have been played. Jack McClelland recently implemented this system at the Bellagio's major tournaments, and it seems to be effective. Cherri Dokken announces that there will be ten more hands will be dealt at each table. So play will be ending soon, but at different times at different tables. Saturday, Feb 18, 1:50 am Tournament Director Cherri Dokken informs us that there are 105 players still in action. With 28 minutes left on the tournament clock, it's likely that we'll finish the day with fewer than 100 players. Keep in mind that this is only the second day of a six-day tournament. The final table will take place on Tuesday, with just the final six players. Monday will be the second-to-last day, and for WPT events, that usually means the final three tables (27 players). So we will have Saturday and Sunday to shrink the field down from 100 players to 27. Even though we still have to cross the money bubble, that's really only enough action for one day. So what will happen? They'll probably try to play down to 27 tomorrow, and I think they'll get there. Then they'll play to the final six on Sunday, and that will give the players (and media!) a day off on Monday. This is an advantage for the World Poker Tour, as they can tape the player interviews in the afternoon the day before the final table. (It's sometimes difficult to get poker players to show up for morning interviews the day of the final table, especially if the action went deep into the night.) Tomorrow (Saturday) is the key day. How far we play tomorrow will set the schedule for the rest of the event. Saturday, Feb 18, 1:40 am Max Pescatori raises preflop, and Phil "Unabomber" Laak moves all in from the big blind for $31,000. Pescatori calls with A  J , but Laak dominates him with A Q. The flop comes J 9 9, giving Pescatori the lead as he pairs his jack. But the turn card is the Q, and Laak retakes his dominating position. Pescatori is down to two outs, needing to catch a jack on the river, but the last card is the A, giving both players aces up, but Laak's second pair (queens) is higher. Laak doubles up to about $65,000, while Pescatori is knocked down to about $15,000 in chips. Saturday, Feb 18, 1:35 am The following players have recently been eliminated: Eliminations: Johan Storakers, Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf, Anthony Cousineau, Melissa Hayden, Greg "FBT" Mueller. And here are some updated chip counts, including the big leaders: Alan Goehring - $436,000 J.C. Tran - $410,000 Fabrice Soulier - $405,000 Mike Carson - $333,000 Can Kim Hua - $300,000 Amir Vahedi - $245,000 David Chiu - $207,000 Chip Jett - $180,000 Paul Darden - $175,000 Chris Bigler - $168,000 David Plastik - $155,000 Hasan Habib - $150,000 Allen Cunningham - $135,000 James Woods - $117,000 Sean McCabe - $100,000 Bill Gazes - $90,000 Phil "Unabomber" Laak - $77,000 Donnocha O'Dea - $43,000 Saturday, Feb 18, 1:20 am Anthony Cousineau faced off with Antonio Esfandiari in a battle of the offsuit Big Slicks, with both players all in preflop. Unfortunately for Cousineau, Esfandiari found four diamonds on the board to go with the diamond in his hand, and won with a flush. Cousineau is eliminated from the tournament. Saturday, Feb 18, 1:09 am After a flop of 7 6 5, Melissa Hayden is all in with pocket tens (10 10 ) against David Chiu's pocket eights (8 8) and another player's A Q. Hayden is in the lead, but since Chiu has an open-ended straight draw, she needs to avoid a lot of outs with two cards to come. The turn card is the 4, and Chiu makes an eight-high straight, clinching the hand unless another eight falls on the river to counterfeit him. The last card is the 9, giving Chiu the unnecessary six-card straight. Melissa Hayden is eliminated from the tournament, while David Chiu moves up to $217,000 in chips. Saturday, Feb 18, 12:55 am James Woods has been losing chips all evening, but he's beginning a comeback (or is it the deadman's bounce?) as he just doubled up with A-K against another player's A-2 suited. This brings Woods back to average -- about $115,000 in chips. Saturday, Feb 18, 12:38 am The players take a ten-minute break before the blinds increase to $1,000-$2,000 with a $300 ante. There are 120 players remaining, with an average chip stack of about $115,000. Alan Goehring is still the chip leader with $411,000 in chips. Shortly before the break, Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf doubled up to over $60,000 when he moved all in with K-Q offsuit from the big blind. The player in seat 7 had raised from the cutoff position, and called with 9-7 suited. Woolf flopped a pair of kings, and the other player never caught up. Saturday, Feb 18, 12:10 am There are now 130 players remaining in the tournament, and the average chip stack is a little over $106,000. Here are some updated chip counts: Alan Goehring - $405,000 Fabrice Soulier - $380,000 Mike Carson - $365,000 Kenny Tran - $265,000 Bruce Parker - $250,000 Can Kim Hua - $214,000 Daniel Alaei - $188,000 Jeff Rine - $188,000 Jim Miller - $185,000 Paul Darden - $182,000 Chip Jett - $177,000 Jason Lester - $173,000 David Plastik - $162,000 Chip Reese - $156,000 Amir Vahedi - $155,000 John Gale - $146,000 Blair Rodman - $145,000 Chris Bigler - $142,000 Antonio Esfandiari - $140,000 Bill Gazes - $140,000 Shawn Sheikhan - $135,000 David Chiu - $132,000 Allen Cunningham - $102,000 Amanda Baker - $100,000 Greg "FBT" Mueller - $100,000 Sean McCabe - $98,000 Mark Gregorich - $95,000 Hasan Habib - $87,000 Gabe Thaler - $77,000 Bradley Berman - $72,000 Matt Matros - $70,000 Juha Helppi - $68,000 Max Pescatori - $65,000 Francois Safieddine - $65,000 Melissa Hayden - $57,000 T.J. Cloutier - $54,000 James Woods - $49,000 Donnocha O'Dea - $41,000 Anthony Cousineau - $40,000 Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf - $37,000 Phil "Unabomber" Laak - $32,000 Eric Firestone - $14,000 Scotty Nguyen - $14,000 Friday, Feb 17, 11:20 pm Eli Elezra, who was the early chip leader for most of day one, has been eliminated. There are approximately 144 players remaining at the final 16 tables, and the average chip stack is roughly $96,000 in chips. Friday, Feb 17, 10:59 pm The players take a ten-minute break before the blinds increase to $800-$1,600, with a $200 ante. The following players were eliminated during the last level: Peter Costa, Scott Lazar, Minneapolis Jim Meehan, Chris McCormick, and Miami John Cernuto. James Woods took some hits to his chip stack this level. First, he held A-K against someone's pocket kings. The ace on the flop was heaven, but the king on the turn was hell -- top two pair is no good against a set. About fifteen minutes later, Woods got a shorter stack all in after a flop of 6s 4c 2d. Woods was ahead with pocket eights against the other players A-Q offsuit, but a queen fell on the river to crack Woods' eights. But Woods still has about $100,000 in chips, so he's slightly above average. Friday, Feb 17, 9:48 pm WPT Chairman of the Board Lyle Berman was just eliminated when his flush draw failed to hit against another player's pocket kings. Jean Robert Bellande was also recently sent to the rail. Friday, Feb 17, 9:27 pm The level comes to an end, and the blinds increase to $600-$1,200, with a $200 ante. Since it was less than half a level since the dinner break, play will continue without taking another break now. Erick Lindgren moved all in with 4 3 after a flop of Q 5 4x (pair of fours, flush draw), and he was called by Nam Le with Q-J (pair of queens). But the last two cards were blanks, and Lindgren was eliminated. Other recent eliminations include: Chris Karagulleyan, Keith Sexton, Joe Cassidy, Don Zewin, and John Esposito. Here are some updated chip counts: Alan Goehring - $300,000 David Chiu - $200,000 Daniel Alaei - $185,000 Jim Miller - $175,000 Hasan Habib - $143,000 Chris Bigler - $135,000 James Woods - $135,000 Bill Gazes - $131,000 Chip Reese - $112,000 Jason Lester - $100,000 Antonio Esfandiari - $98,000 Amanda Baker - $92,000 Jeff Rine - $85,000 Can Kim Hua - $75,000 David Plastik - $75,000 Minneapolis Jim Meehan - $70,000 Allen Cunningham - $68,000 Scotty Nguyen - $65,000 Phil "Unabomber" Laak - $53,000 T.J. Cloutier - $43,000 Juha Helppi - $38,000 Max Pescatori - $35,000 Melissa Hayden - $34,000 Lyle Berman - $33,000 Jean Robert Bellande - $9,000 Friday, Feb 17, 9:10 pm Phil "Unabomber" Laak is short-stacked and all in preflop with A-K. Fortunately, he's up against another player's A-5, and the better hand wins to double up Laak's stack to about $75,000. Friday, Feb 17, 8:58 pm Gabe Kaplan was just eliminated by Gabe Thaler. Normally, this would point out the irony of a Gabe vs. Gabe confrontation, except with today's alphabetical table draw, it's not such a rare occurrence. Friday, Feb 17, 8:51 pm James Woods was holding pocket aces, and wasn't pleased to see the top card on the board (a queen) pair on the river. His opponent bet $30,000 into a huge pot, and his hand was shaking, clearly indicating a big hand. But the pot was so large that Woods felt committed to call, and he showed his pocket aces. His opponent had flopped a set and rivered four of a kind. So Woods' aces weren't just cracked -- they were drawn and quartered. Friday, Feb 17, 8:46 pm The players have returned from dinner to continue playing for another 40 minutes or so at the current level. Friday, Feb 17, 8:00 pm The players leave in the middle of the level for a 45-minute dinner break. That isn't much time for nearly 200 players to eat. Many of the players have counteracted this by ordering food tableside while they play. The following players bit the dust during the last level: Dutch Boyd, Harley Hall, Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, Eric Mizrachi, Mike Wattel, Young Phan, Glyn Banks, Chris Bjorin, and Minh Ly. Here are some updated chip counts: James Woods - $232,000 Jim Miller - $155,000 Paul Darden - $130,000 Bill Gazes - $130,000 Mike Carson - $125,000 Greg "FBT" Mueller - $120,000 John Gale - $110,000 David Plastik - $96,000 Sean McCabe - $92,000 Antonio Esfandiari - $90,000 Mark Gregorich - $80,000 Jeff Rine - $72,000 Minneapolis Jim Meehan - $71,000 Allen Cunningham - $70,000 Phil "Unabomber" Laak - $46,000 Mike Carson - $44,000 Melissa Hayden - $35,000 Erick Lindgren - $30,000 Donnocha O'Dea - $25,000 Minh "PokerHost" Nguyen - $11,000 Friday, Feb 17, 7:01 pm The players take a ten-minute break before the blinds increase to $500-$1,000, with a $100 ante. There are approximately 223 players remaining at the final 26 tables. Here are some of the recent eliminations: William Rockwell, Mike Laing, David Grey, John Stolzmann, Captain Tom Franklin, Mike Matusow, Stan Goldstein, and Jim "KrazyKanuck" Worth. Here are some updated chip counts from the last level: David Chiu - $230,000 Alan Goehring - $196,000 Jim Miller - $168,000 Bill Gazes - $135,000 Hasan Habib - $130,000 Chip Reese - $120,000 Matt Matros - $116,000 Antonio Esfandiari - $115,000 Paul Darden - $115,000 Kenny Tran - $107,000 James Woods - $105,000 Mike Carson - $100,000 Eli Elezra - $90,000 David Plastik - $88,000 Amir Vahedi - $72,500 Fabrice Soulier - $72,000 Johan Storakers - $72,000 Sean McCabe - $70,500 Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf - $70,000 Lyle Berman - $68,000 Melissa Hayden - $65,000 Anthony Cousineau - $60,000 Minh "PokerHost" Nguyen - $49,000 Barry Greenstein - $41,000 Harley Hall - $38,000 Erick Lindgren - $36,000 Erik Seidel - $32,000 Mark Gregorich - $27,000 Dutch Boyd - $26,000 Joe Cassidy - $22,000 Peter Costa - $18,000 Max Pescatori - $17,000 Minh Ly - $16,000 Phil "Unabomber" Laak - $12,500 Friday, Feb 17, 6:45 pm After a raised flop of Jh-6h-2h, Mike Carson bets $15,000, which is enough to put Mike Matusow all in. Matusow calls with pocket tens (10d-10h), but he's in trouble against Carson's Ah-Jc (pair of jacks, nut flush draw). The last two cards come 4-2, and Mike Matusow now has his weekend free here in Los Angeles. Earlier, Erik Seidel doubled through Erick Lindgren when his Ah-Kd held off Lindgren's dominated Ah-Jh on a board of 2d-2h-2s-8d-9h. That evened out their chip stacks, with about $32,000 for Seidel and $36,000 for Lindgren. Stan Goldstein was all in by the turn with the board showing 10c-8d-4h-3d. He had Ac-8h (pair of eights), but was called by another player with Jd-10d (pair of tens, flush draw). The river card was the 4d, and Goldstein was eliminated by the jack-high flush. Friday, Feb 17, 6:10 pm There are approximately 275 players remaining at the final 31 tables (nine players per table), so we've lost nearly two-thirds of the 692 players who started yesterday afternoon. Recent eliminations include Jennifer Harman, An "The Boss" Tran and "Boston" Rob Mariano (from "Survivor"). There are fewer "celebrities" in the field at this point, but James Woods has doubled up again in the last fifteen minutes and is up over $120,000 in chips. Friday, Feb 17, 5:58 pm T.J. Cloutier is all in preflop with pocket sevens, but he is in serious trouble when he is called by two players -- one with A-Q, the other with pocket nines. The flop comes K 8 7, and everyone rechecks their cards -- but nobody has any clubs. Cloutier's set of sevens is in the lead, but the turn card is the 6, putting a flush draw on the board (which would make it a three-way chopped pot), and giving the player with pocket nines an open-ended straight draw. Cloutier had to dodge a lot of outs to win the hand -- and the last card was an offsuit 2. T.J. Cloutier had just been knocked down to about $15,000 a few minutes before, but he has now tripled back up to about $50,000 in chips. Friday, Feb 17, 5:45 pm James Woods doubled up a few minutes ago. After a flop of A-J-x, he bet $6,000, and the other player moved all in for $27,000. Woods had A-10 (pair of aces), but figured he had the best hand here, and called. Woods had the right read -- the other guy showed pocket queens. The last two cards were blanks, and James Woods doubled up to about $64,000. At the same table, Alan Goehring continues his hot roll by hitting a gut-shot straight on the river with 6-5 offsuit. The other player moved all in, only to see the tournament chip leader show him the nuts on a board of 8-4-x-x-7. Alan Goehring now has about $227,000 in chips. That was the last hand before the table broke, so the "Alan/Allen" table (also featuring Allen Cunningham) is no more. Friday, Feb 17, 5:20 pm Unfortunately for Shannon Elizabeth, traffic works both ways. She was here less than five minutes before she was sent home by Bill Gazes. (Her short stack had been moved to the "B" table, with Gazes and Barry Greenstein.) Gus Hansen busted out of the tournament shortly before the break. Amber "Survivor" Brkich is also out, and was commiserating with Shannon Elizabeth on the rail. Other players eliminated today: Men "The Master" Nguyen, Tim Phan, Olga Varkonyi, Tony Grand, Davood Mehrmand, David Singer, and Dan Schmeich. Here are a few updated chip counts: Alan Goehring - $188,000 Bill Gazes - $157,000 Fred Goldberg - $90,000 Mike Carson - $60,000 Bradley Berman - $55,000 Barry Greenstein - $54,000 Chris Grigorian - $52,000 James Woods - $40,000 Scotty Nguyen - $29,000 Chris Bjorin - $27,000 Allen Cunningham - $26,500 Friday, Feb 17, 5:13 pm The players take a ten-minute break before the blinds increase to $400-$800, with a $100 ante. Friday, Feb 17, 4:58 pm Shannon Elizabeth was a no-show at the start of play, but she's finally taken her seat, ready to play. It's a Friday afternoon in Los Angeles -- what are the odds that traffic was a factor? Here's a summary of some of the early eliminations: Haralabos Voulgaris, Jerry Buss, Morgan Machina, David Benyamine, Brandon Adams, and Men "The Master" Nguyen. Friday, Feb 17, 4:45 pm Jason Lester doubled up and eliminated a player (nearly even chip stacks) when his pocket jacks held up against A-K offsuit. Morgan Machina stopped by Jennifer Harman's table on his way out to let her know that his A-K was cracked by A-J. A dreaded jack reared its head on the board, and Machina is off to make plans for the weekend. There's been some chip movement among the chip leaders, as the rich get richer. Here are some of the chip counts from the last walk around the room: Alan Goehring - $164,000 Bill Gazes - $143,000 Eli Elezra - $113,000 Melissa Hayden - $99,000 Raul Paez - $99,000 Jeff Rine - $97,000 David Plastik - $82,000 Erick Lindgren - $80,000 John Gale - $64,000 James Woods - $49,000 Minh Ly - $47,000 Jennifer Harman - $42,000 Minneapolis Jim Meehan - $38,425 Jean Robert Bellande - $33,000 Allen Cunningham - $32,000 Erik Seidel - $25,000 Aaron Kanter - $21,000 Mike Matusow - $13,000 Juha Helppi - $9,000 Erick Lindgren was doing better, but called a $10,000 bet on the river on a board of A-Q-9-9-x, only to lose to A-Q. Lindgren mucked his cards. And for those of you who have never seen the chip stacks of Minneapolis Jim Meehan, his chips are about as spread out as they can be. Even when he's on a short stack, his chips take up a lot of room, but that makes it very easy for those of us in the media to get a very accurate chip count for him. Friday, Feb 17, 4:23 pm Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss has just been eliminated. He had the bad luck to be seated out of position next to Jennifer Harman, and she started the day with twice as many chips. While that's fun for social purposes, it can be detrimental to your chip stack. Friday, Feb 17, 4:10 pm Haralabos Voulgaris, who finished second to Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi last year in this event, is out of the tournament. He started the day short-stacked with just $13,350 in chips. David Benyamine has also been eliminated in the early action. Friday, Feb 17, 3:40 pm It didn't take long to realize that strange things were afoot at the Circle K Commerce Casino. There were nine Davids seated at the same table. There was also a table for people named James, Mike, and Eric. Hmmm. It appears that the "random" table redraw was done alphabetically by first name. Eli Elezra missed out -- if it were done by last name, he'd likely be seated next to Shannon Elizabeth. We've seen this occasionally in the past, but this is the first time we've seen it by first name rather than last name. Most recently, there was a last name table redraw last week at the European Poker Tour event in Deauville, France. Another interesting note -- the player listed as the chip leader in last night's "official" counts (Michael Carroll) doesn't have anywhere close to $154,000 in chips. It's closer to $54,000, so we suspect that the stray "1" was just a typo. (But what a thrilling typo for Mr. Carroll!) So the real chip leader going into Day Two was really Alan Goehring with $128,375, followed by Bill Gazes with $123,750. Interestingly, Goehring was the chip leader at the end of Day Two last year, but failed to convert it to a final table. We'll see how he handles his chip lead this year. The 379 surviving players are still opening their chip bags, and there are rumors around the room that there will be a quick redraw to correct the alphabetical situation. But Tournament Director Cherri Dokken doesn't want to delay any longer. It's time to shuffle up and deal! Play is starting in Level 7, with blinds at $300-$600, with a $75 ante. Here's a quick reminder of the top ten players from yesterday: 1. Alan Goehring - $128,375 2. Bill Gazes - $123,750 3. Ali Eslami - $122,300 4. Brian McCann - $119,875 5. Hasan Habib - $113,550 6. Abraham Bergis - $105,450 7. Jon Luu - $102,200 8. Jeff Rine - $100,375 9. Albert Alshamn - $99,900 10. Eli Elezra - $96,300 |
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