WSOP: Different Fates At Event 22

Event 22, $1,500 NLHE Shootout, is a real special tournament in the series offered by the WSOP. It looks like much easier than the other tournaments as it’s quite like a big «sitngoes» competition: you win your first table, and you make the money; you win the second one on Day 2, and you’re on final table.

There was a cap, as usual, of 1,000 players. 100 survived Day 1 and made the money.

Our three team members had different fates today. pokernoob could not do much at his table: no cards, and he never had the possibility of getting some chips to play deepstack. He busted out early, on level 3, just after the first pause, in 7th position.

He was so card-dead that he had to move all-in, with 13BB left on the button, with only BB to speak, after everyone had folded & SB had just busted. The BB called with K-10, and a 10 falls on the board…

nazgul did better right at the beginning of the day. After a split-pot, he has 9k and hits KK in position. A lady near the BB raises pre-flop, he re-raises her, she calls.

Flop is rag, with 2 hearts. He bets 2/3 of the pot, and she flat-calls. On the turn, a Q, and she moves all-in. After having tanked for 2 minutes, he decides to finally call her.

She show A-Qh, but no good card for her on the river, and nazgul doubles up, with still 6 players left at his table. He busts shortly after the 4th player, and here they are, three players! He soon finds Aces in the hole, goes all-in versus a short-stack with 7-7, who unfortunately hits his 7 on the flop.

nazgul is then down to 15k, where as if his Aces would have hold, he would chiplead the table heads-up! But he fights back perfectly and finally wins his seat for Day 2 after a classic AK vs AQh, with no miracle for his opponent! First cash for sure, and a nice Day 2 to come. For more information, check out nazgul's blog entry.

Meanwhile, same scenario at allanon85’s table, where he progressively chipped up to 17k on a quiet table, while 3 players still in the game.

Down to three, the game becomes a lot more aggressive, with typically a raise from button, reraise by SB, and everybody folds. Allanon is very focused and, despite the biggest stack on his right, he still has chances to qualify for Day 2.

He busts the 3rd player with QQ in the hole, going all-in on a flop 8d-5d-4x, called by A-8 offsuit. A queen on the turn, and Allanon goes heads-up for qualification, with almost equal stack to his opponent!

He slowly grinds him: the other guy is not really used to the heads-up type of play, unlike allanon85. The opposition is long but soon allanon85 is railed by his team-mate nazgul and the Team Manager, robbiev.

But he made his opponent double-up, going all-in pre-flop with K8o versus A8h. Heads-up battles can twist very quickly and everything has to be redone from start… He then loses some small pots, before doublig him up again in a classic coin-flip: 88 for allanon85, vs AK at his opponent.

An Ace on the flop, and allanon85 has just 8k left in chips. He pushes preflop the next hand, wins the blinds, and goes all-in on flop the hand after, getting called by top pair. His middle-pair is dead on turn when the other guy hits trips. allanon85 just missed Day 2, too bad, but what a nice battle! For more information, check out allanon85's blog entry.

Many stars, who were not in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.  (or who busted yesterday) were also there, but got eliminated quite early: Ludovic Lacay, Nicolas Lévi (who busted after like 30 minutes), Phil Ivey (whose table was the quickest to find a winner, after Ivey lost a lot of chips, with AJ vs AA on a flop 7-9-10, going thus heads-up with a 10-1 disadvantage versus his opponent, struggling hard but eventually losing in second place), Humberto Brenes (who got busted early as well), André Akkari, Devilfish (early bust too), Bruno Fitoussi, etc.

Tomorrow we have day 2 with 10 tables, 100 players, and a quick-to-be determined final table! We’ll be there to cover it…