2008 World Series of Poker

39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event
Event Info

2008 World Series of Poker

Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Entries
6,844
Players Left
9
Next Payout
Place 9
$900,670
Level Info
Level
33
Blinds
120,000 / 240,000
Ante
30,000

Blanda's Back in Business

Under the gun, Greg Duros raises to 16,000 and in the big blind, Bill Blanda reraises to 89,000. Duros is all in and Blanda calls.

Blanda: {K-Spades}{8-Spades}
Duros: {Q-Spades}{Q-Hearts}

The board comes {2-Hearts}{2-Spades}{J-Hearts}{K-Clubs}{7-Clubs} and the turned king is good for Blanda.

"Fat boy's back in business, baby!" shouts Blanda.

As he's raking the pot in, he repeats a mantra from yesterday's play: "They should make convicts play this game for punishment."

Blanda now has 200,000 and Duros is down to 140,000.

Raja Kattamuri Breaks a Million

Raja Kattamuri opened for 16,000 from the cutoff, Phidias Georgio reraised to 50,500 from the big blind, Kattamuri three-bet to 150,000, Georgio moved all in and Kattamuri called all in for 492,000, creating a million-chip pot as the hole cards were turned over.

Georgio {K-Hearts} {K-Spades}

Kattamuri {A-Clubs} {A-Spades}

The board ran out {10-Diamonds} {9-Spades} {4-Hearts} {Q-Clubs} {9-Hearts} and Kattamuri raked in the pot, increasing his stack to 1,065,000. Georgio was left with only 110,000.

"Four days of play for this!" cried a clearly disappointed Georgio.

"Nice hand" he added a few moments later as he composed himself.

"Sorry if I scared you!" he said to his massage therapist, who tried to coax the cooler out of his shoulders.

Tags: Phidias GeorgioRaja Kattamuri

A Blanda Taste

Blanda Nearly Out
Blanda Nearly Out
Atlantic City regular Bill Blanda and two-time bracelet winner Pat Poels are all in on a turn of {2-Spades}{J-Diamonds}{J-Hearts}{K-Clubs}, in a 211,500 pot.

Blanda: {A-Hearts}{K-Spades}
Poels: {A-Clubs}{A-Diamonds}

The river is {7-Diamonds} and Poels is up to 415,000. Blanda is down to his last 77,000.

Hunter Becomes the Hunted

At this stage of the tournament, it can be really tough to get away from a hand without a massive stack. On a flop of {A-Hearts} {J-Hearts} {5-Hearts}, Justin Wald and Hunter Frey got it all in, with Frey the one at risk of elimination. He flopped top two with {A-Spades} {J-Spades}, but Wald had flopped a set of jacks. The board bricked out {8-Diamonds} {7-Hearts}; Wald's set was the boss hand.

After eliminating Frey and increasing his stack to about 420,000, Wald gave a very demonstrative (but completely silent) fist pump.

Call Brings Matros Chips

Matt Matros
Matt Matros
Just had a big exchange of chips happen between Matt Matros and Brian Hansen. Matros raised to 15,000 from late position, and Hansen called from the big blind. The flop came {J-Clubs}{6-Diamonds}{8-Spades}. Hansen checked, Matros bet 21,000, then Hansen check-raised to 58,000. Matros called.

The turn was the {2-Spades}. Hansen checked. This time Matros bet 85,000. Hansen again check-raised him, this time to 190,000. Again, Matros made the call.

The river was the {5-Hearts}. Hansen fired out 210,000. Matros thought a bit, then called. Hansen showed {A-Hearts}{8-Diamonds} for second pair. Matros turned over {A-Clubs}{J-Diamonds} for top pair, slapping his hands together once as he saw the big pot was his.

Matros is up to 1.2 million now, and Hansen has slipped to 400,000.

Tags: Brian HansenMatt Matros

Bax Busted

Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy open-shoves for 60,500 and Dag Martin Mikkelsen calls from the big blind.

Josephy: {K-Clubs}{J-Clubs}
Mikkelsen: {A-Hearts}{K-Spades}

Board: {10-Spades}{Q-Hearts}{2-Clubs}{3-Spades}{7-Spades}.

Josephy is out and Mikkelsen is up to 394,000.

Recent Eliminations

The pace of bustouts hasn't slowed at all here in the Amazon Room. Two more players were recently eliminated, each time getting all their chips in before the flop.

First, Israel Hodara raised to 20,000 preflop and found one caller before Tom Cope reraised to 60,000. Hodara made it all of his chips to go, a total of 91,000. Only Cope made the call, and it was an easy one with pocket kings. He was well ahead of Hodara's pocket sevens. The cowboys held up on a board of {A-Spades} {J-Hearts} {3-Spades} {5-Spades} {Q-Clubs} to knock Hodara out of the tournament and increase Cope's stack to 385,000.

Shortly thereafter, on Blue #33, Mark Velloney and Diren Yildiz got it all in preflop. Yildiz held a slight edge with {4-Clubs} {4-Diamonds} against Velloney's {A-Spades} {K-Hearts}. That turned into a huge edge when the flop came {10-Clubs} {8-Diamonds} {4-Hearts}. Velloney couldn't come up with a runner-runner winner when the board finished out {A-Hearts} {J-Spades}. He was eliminated, while Yildiz climbed to 410,000.

Hellmuth Blows Up

Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth
We have limited access to the feature but managed to just catch the end of a classic Phil Hellmuth tantrum. The board read {9-Hearts}{6-Diamonds}{J-Hearts}{8-Diamonds}{2-Spades} and Hellmuth's opponent flipped over {Q-Clubs}{10-Clubs} for the nut straight to take down a healthy pot as Hellmuth mucked his hand.

Hellmuth flipped out, berating his opponent for overplaying his hand before doing a lap of the studio area in disgust.

We'll have an updated chip count for you from this table as soon as we can.

Tags: Phil Hellmuth