2012 World Series of Poker

Event 9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry
Day: 1b
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Ashkan Razavi
Winning Hand
k10
Prize
$781,398
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$4,595,400
Entries
3,404
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
10,000

Mortensen Maintains

Carlos Mortensen
Carlos Mortensen

Its hard not to be drawn to table #40 where Maria Ho, Faraz Jaka, and Carlos Mortensen are all seated. "Let me tell you, one of us is going to win this" said Maria Ho once she took her seat at this table of power houses.

It was inevitable that eventually these three would play a hand against one another, and the most recent interaction did not disappoint. With a {3-Spades}{9-Spades}{k-Hearts}{q-Hearts}{6-Diamonds} board spread across the table we found heads up action commencing between Carlos Mortensen and Faraz Jaka. We don't know how the action went before the river, but what we do know is there was around 3,200 already in the pot when Mortensen pushed out a 3,000 bet.

Possessing a stack of around 6,500 this call would be for about half Jaka's chips. Knowing this, Jaka took his time pondering what the best move was. Jaka spent the first minute of being in the tank in silent contemplation. The second minute, he engaged Mortensen, asking "got anything Carlos?" Mortensen stood quite stoic with a slight smirk on his face, while Jaka playfully asked more telling questions about the contents of Mortensen's hand. The third minute of thinking was again silent, and eventually lead to Jaka depositing a call into the pot.

Mortensen flipped over {3-Clubs}{3-Hearts} for a set of threes which was good enough as Jaka threw his cards away face down.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Carlos Mortensen es
Carlos Mortensen
18,000
12,400
12,400
WSOP 2X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
3,500
-8,000
-8,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Jaka Coaching

Tags: Carlos MortensenFaraz Jaka

Schleger Doubles

Shane "shaniac" Schleger has just made a much needed double-up and we were there to catch all the action. Well, most of it. By the time we arrived at the table there was a flop showing {5-Clubs}{9-Clubs}{q-Clubs} and Schleger was involved in the hand against one opponent.

Schleger's opponent was first to act and threw out 1,050. It didn't take Schleger long to move all in. This didn't seem to please Schleger's opponent as he immediately asked for a count.

It was 1,675 to the player and he let out a deep sigh and splashed the call into the pot.

"A set," Schleger said as he turned over {5-Spades}{5-Hearts}.

The player was not happy when he saw the fives, saying "So I'm drawing dead," as he flung {q-Hearts}{j-Diamonds} onto the felt. He wasn't exactly drawing dead, but the {6-Hearts} on the turn and the {k-Clubs} on the river brought no help for the player and Schleger took down the nice pot.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Shane Schleger us
Shane Schleger
5,000
2,800
2,800

Tags: Shane Schleger

Angel-ic Queens

Level 4 : 75/150, 0 ante

We caught up to find the board reading {Q-Clubs}{7-Diamonds}{8-Spades}{5-Spades}. An early position player checked and Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen bet 200. The player on the button opted to move all in for 1,600 total and the early position player folded.

Guillen quickly plopped a stack of chips in the middle, tabling his own {Q-Hearts}{Q-Spades} for top set, which was ahead of his opponent's {9-Diamonds}{9-Hearts}. Fifth street brought the {J-Diamonds} and Guillen was able to reduce today's field by one.

Guillen is now sitting on a stack of about 13,200.

Tags: Angel Guillen

Chips Have Been Accounted For

Here is a quick chip count for a few notables here in the Brasilia Room.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Tony Dunst us
Tony Dunst
25,000
9,000
9,000
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Angel Guillen mx
Angel Guillen
13,500
7,250
7,250
Profile photo of Lars Bonding dk
Lars Bonding
13,000
Profile photo of Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
11,500
2,300
2,300
WSOP 1X Winner
Jaka Coaching
Profile photo of Maria Ho us
Maria Ho
10,500
1,800
1,800
Profile photo of David Sands us
David Sands
10,400
Profile photo of Dennis Phillips us
Dennis Phillips
10,200
5,700
5,700
Profile photo of Yevgeniy Timoshenko ua
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
8,800
4,300
4,300
Profile photo of Hirren Patel
Hirren Patel
8,700
4,200
4,200
Profile photo of Kathy Liebert us
Kathy Liebert
7,800
3,300
3,300
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of Scott Clements us
Scott Clements
7,400
2,900
2,900
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Dwyte Pilgrim us
Dwyte Pilgrim
7,200
-1,300
-1,300
Profile photo of Shannon Shorr us
Shannon Shorr
7,000
WSOP 2X Winner
Profile photo of Liv Boeree gb
Liv Boeree
5,800
1,300
1,300
Profile photo of Carlos Mortensen es
Carlos Mortensen
5,600
-900
-900
WSOP 2X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
Profile photo of Dutch Boyd us
Dutch Boyd
5,200
WSOP 3X Winner
Profile photo of Brock Parker us
Brock Parker
5,000
500
500
Profile photo of Dominik Nitsche de
Dominik Nitsche
4,700
200
200
WSOP 4X Winner
Profile photo of Randy Lew us
Randy Lew
3,600
-900
-900
Profile photo of Jeff Madsen us
Jeff Madsen
2,900
WSOP 4X Winner
Profile photo of Isaac Haxton us
Isaac Haxton
2,900
-1,600
-1,600
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of JJ Liu tw
JJ Liu
2,625
-1,875
-1,875
Profile photo of Andre Akkari br
Andre Akkari
2,200
-3,000
-3,000
Profile photo of Darvin Moon us
Darvin Moon
1,700
-11,300
-11,300
Profile photo of Gavin Smith us
Gavin Smith
1,700

Beating The Big Fields

Level 4 : 75/150, 0 ante

Paul Gibbons is one player who has shown some form coming into the 2012 WSOP. Gibbons won an event at the Chicago Poker Classic, beating out a field of 2,621 entries to win almost $100,000. Clearly he knows what it takes to overcome a huge field and that experience is sure to help him today. Gibbons hasn't had a great start, currently sitting with 3,000 in chips, but there is plenty of time to bounce back. Readers may be familiar with Gibbons through an interview PokerNews' Chad Holloway conducted with him a few months ago.

Tags: Paul Gibbons

One for The Mouth

We found three-time WSOP bracelet winner Mike "The Mouth" Matusow nursing a short stack over in the Pavilion room. A player opened to 250 and received a call from the button. Matusow decided to tag along from the big blind and the three players saw a flop of {6-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds}{Q-Spades}.

Matusow checked and the original raiser continued for 325. The button folded and Matusow quickly called. Fourth street came the {7-Hearts} and Matusow checked once again. His opponent opted to check this time around as well, and the two both saw the {9-Hearts} strike the river.

Matusow fired out a relatively small bet of 250, and a perplexed look washed over the face of his opponent. After about twenty seconds, his opponent picked up his cards and flung them to the center of the table, awarding Matusow the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Mike Matusow us
Mike Matusow
2,500
-2,000
-2,000
WSOP 4X Winner

Tags: Mike Matusow

Level: 4

Blinds: 75/150

Ante: 0

One Of These Could Win

From left: Faraz Jaka, Maria Ho and Carlos Mortensen
From left: Faraz Jaka, Maria Ho and Carlos Mortensen

"Hello Carlos! Let me tell you, one of us is going to win this," said Maria Ho as she just arrived in the seat right next to Carlos Mortensen.

She could very well be correct, but maybe at this point she didn't notice that Faraz Jaka was seated two spots to her right . Ho certainly has been sent to a tough table and her addition makes it even tougher.

Let us tell you that these three players have over $15 million in tournament winnings. Just over $10 million of that is from Mortensen alone. With 47 WSOP cashes between them, this is one table to be reckoned with.

We may not need to go into more detail, but these players deserve at least a small career rundown, so here we go:

Faraz Jaka's biggest score came in 2009 when he picked up just shy of $800,000 for his runner-up finish in a WPT event. Jaka also won another $755,000 when he finished 3rd in the PCA Main Event in January. Don't forget that Jaka has also had some huge scores at the WSOP, with his biggest being his 3rd place finish in the $5,000 Six-Max event for more than $400,000 in 2009.

For those keeping score, Mortensen's biggest, ahem, score was in 2007 when he took down the $25,000 WPT Championship for almost $4 million. You may also remember that he won the WSOP Main Event in 2001 for a huge seven-figures.

Ho's scores may not be as grandiose as Mortensen's and Jaka's but she has slowly been building an excellent poker resume and is a force to be reckoned with in the poker world. Ho's biggest score was at the WSOP last year when she got oh so close to winning a bracelet. She ended up finishing in 2nd place in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem event, picking up more than $500,000 in the process.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
9,200
4,700
4,700
WSOP 1X Winner
Jaka Coaching
Profile photo of Maria Ho us
Maria Ho
8,700
4,200
4,200
Profile photo of Carlos Mortensen es
Carlos Mortensen
6,500
2,000
2,000
WSOP 2X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer

Tags: Carlos MortensenFaraz JakaMaria Ho

Mercier Wins a Race

While strolling through the Pavilion, we came across Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier who had all of his chips in the middle holding {A-Clubs}{K-Clubs}. His opponent held {8-Spades}{8-Clubs} and we were off to the races.

Mercier took the lead on the {Q-Hearts}{4-Spades}{A-Spades} flop and retained it through the {4-Clubs} turn and the {A-Hearts} river. His trip aces were enough to score a double up, boosting his stack to 8,250.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
8,250
3,750
3,750

Tags: Jason Mercier