2008 World Series of Poker

Event 2 - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 3
Event Info

2008 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
104
Prize
$831,462
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$5,363,085
Entries
3,929
Level Info
Level
29
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000

Level: 29

Blinds: 80,000/160,000

Ante: 20,000

Updated Chip Counts

Heads Up Play
Heads Up Play
James Akenhead - 6,735,000
Grant Hinkle - 5,050,000

James Akenhead has taken the chip lead and at the start of this level, each player will have 42 and 32 big blinds respectively. We'll see how this affects their strategies. Despite the rising blinds and antes, there is still plenty of room left for post-flop play, and given the way this tournament has gone up to this point, we may see the action in round 29 resemble that of round 28.

Where Do We Go From Here?

After an hour and fifteen minutes of heads up play, we're not much closer to deciding the outcome of this tournament. In that time, we have played 39 hands. Only eight of them have seen a river. Two hands were ended on the turn, and four hands were won with a bet on the flop. The rest were taken down preflop.

Neither player seems willing to take much risk, although James Akenhead has definitely been applying more pressure on Grant Hinkle than the other way around. The crowd is starting to lose interest, with several spectators yawning and rubbing their eyes.

Interestingly, we are off the structure chart that Harrah's provided to all players at the start of the tournament. That chart (optimistically?) had only 28 levels. We are now starting Level 29, blinds of 80,000 / 160,000 with an ante of 20,000.

Hand #141 - James Akenhead

James Akenhead has the button in seat 9 and he raises to 350,000. Grant Hinkle calls from the big blind and they see the {6-Spades} {4-Diamonds} {2-Spades} flop. Hinkle checks and Akenhead bets 500,000. Hinkle makes the call. The turn brings the {6-Diamonds}. Hinkle checks again, and Akenhead checks behind. The river card is the {7-Clubs}. Hinkle checks and Akenhead bets 1,000,000. Hinkle calls. Akenhead shows {7-?} {4-?} and wins the pot with two pair.