WSOPC Las Vegas

Thursday, May 1, 2008

WSOPC Las Vegas Day 2 Recap

In what is being seen by many industry observers as a hat tip to nostalgia by the boys and girls who've moved the final table of the WSOP Main Event to November, the final table for this year's WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas will actually be run the day after the second-last day of the tournament.

Snarkiness and hateration aside, the final table of the WSOP Circuit event in Las Vegas is shaping up to be a compelling affair, despite its not being given the same amount of gestation period as its $10,000 summertime counterpart up Flamingo at the Rio (find your own way to the WSOP Main Event here). By the end of the second day of play in the tournament room at Caesars Palace only nine players remained, with four of them easily recognizable to the knowledgeable poker fan and a fifth a poker young gun playing the J.C. Alvarado mode by going deep in a number of springtime tournaments.

Day 2 at Caesars began with 54 of the original 334 entrants (read about Day 1's action here) still in the hunt for that $499,162 first prize. Leading the field into the hump day was young Max Reele, who along with a tournament-best $263,200 possessed the kind of name that would make Philip Marlowe jealous. Unfortunately, dude lacked not only a fedora but a penchant for longevity and would find himself the victim of a premature bustification in 26th worth a measly $9,661.

El Fuego!

Also in contention on Day 2 were such decorated pros as Doug Lee, Mark Newhouse, Nenad Medic, Alan "BodogAri" Engel, Ralph Perry, Justin Bonomo, the Wongs (Danny and Steve), Jimmy Tran, J.C. Alvarado, Bill Edler, Alan Smurfit, Allen Cunningham and Alex Kravchenko, with the remainder of the field made up of one-timers, also-rans, nearly-wases and a bunch of talented players whose acquaintance PokerListings.com hasn't yet had the honor of making. Also some people we know but you don't know.

So, first things first on the Big Stories of the Day list was a hand between dueling PokerListings faves Steve Wong (!) and Bill "The Stunning One" Edler. Edler and Wong saw a flop come T 9 6 and after some action that we missed because we were schmoozing with the cocktail waitress, the turn card came the J and both players checked. The river card was the 5 and Edler bet out.

Wong put him all-in for about 2.5 times his wager and Edler tanked, eventually making the call with K Q for the king-high straight. Wong tabled the 8 7 for the straight flush and busted Mr. Bill, who headed to the rail a mite discouraged with the hand.

Stunned!

Midway through the day's second level came the inevitable bursting of the money bubble, and going out proverbially penniless in 37th place was seemingly perennial bubble boy David Levi. Levi got all-in grand with pocket kings against Clint Roberts' A-Q, but the flop brought a queen and the turn another lady, giving Roberts trips and Levi the boot. Thus the rest of the field was guaranteed $6,441 for their time.

Peter Feldman would see his kings cracked by Ralph Perry's Q-10 to headline the first elimination bracket, a group of lonely souls that also included Sabyl Cohen and PL.com blogger J.C. "El Fuego" Alvarado.

Still the Bellagio King.

Meanwhile, the next payout level would not only include the aforementioned Max Reele, but also Tony Cousineau and the Wongs, who continued the tradition they started at last week's WPT Championship by busting out back-to-back, with Steve Wong leading after losing a race with jacks against Allen Cunningham's K-Q and Danny Wong in hot pursuit, vanquished by Jason Risenberg. All of those eliminated above would take home $9,661 for their time.

Players went to dinner 10 eliminations from the final table, and when they returned it was ZeeJustin again mopping the floors with a couple of eliminations. This time, the young pro managed to bust Nenad Medic and Clint Roberts in the same hand when his sixes held up against Medic's A-K and Roberts' 5 4. Bonomo made a run at the chip lead but faltered a bit later and wound up closing the day out near the bottom of the final-table chip counts. We still pick him to win it all.

For serious.

Prize for the weirdest elimination of the day goes to Lee Rubin, who in another one of the PokerListings.com Worst-Played Hands of All Time raised to $32,000 (about 2.5xBB) in mid position with 8 5 and then called off his last $76,000 when Blair Hinkle put him all-in with K Q. The board changed nothing and Rubin, who must have had a late dinner reservation or an early flight, was out in 12th place. He took $19,322 with him on his mysterious way.

Not likely to be distracted by Cleopatra.

Jason Risenberg and Than Nguyen would be eliminated in 11th and 10th respectively, clearing the way for a final table that features Ben Fineman as prohibitive chip leader, with the rest of the final table hovering between a quarter and a half his stack. Full Tilt pros Allen Cunningham and Doug Lee join Ralph Perry and Justin Bonomo in headlining the affair, with Blair Hinkle our young gun to watch as he continues his strong showing earlier in the year at the LAPC and Bay 101 WPT events.

Action will resume at 2 p.m. PDT on Thursday from the poker room at Caesars Palace. If the final table is anything like last year's, there will be half-naked gladiators and a woman dressed like Cleopatra to provide unintentional comedy on the scale of this. There will also be poker, and in between mocking Cleopatra, PokerListings.com will be providing the most awesomest coverage you ever did see. Even Caesar would approve.

Check the full results to this point here. Check out the Live Tournament section for updates here. And check out your final table seating positions and chip counts below:

Seat 1	Motoyuki Mabuchi	$142,000
Seat 2	Kelly Samson	$385,000
Seat 3	Ben Fineman	$828,000
Seat 4	Ralph Perry	$319,000
Seat 5	Thomas Hover	$407,000
Seat 6	Blair Hinkle	$382,000
Seat 7	Justin Bonomo	$272,000
Seat 8	Allen Cunninghams	$296,000
Seat 9	Doug Lee	$324,000