Thursday, June 19, 2008

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2008 WSOP Day 20: Minieri working his magic

Minieri doubles up on chairs at the table while working on building his chip stack as well.

By Sarah Polson

There's one final table today, and so far Dario Minieri is running the show in the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event.

Meanwhile, two more events are working their way to a final table and two more events are just getting started today as the 2008 World Series of Poker continues to power its way through the 55 events it has on tap this year.

Event 31

Final-table play in the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em tournament got under way after 2 p.m. today with six eager players ready to find out which one has what it takes to take home a gold bracelet today.

Leading the way when play started was Minieri, an Italian player known for his Harry Potter-like scarf at the tables. Since play began he's increased his lead and two players have said goodbye.

Stuart Marshak was the first out when he ran into Justin Filtz on Hand 10. Kevin Song had raised it up to $47,000 pre-flop, getting a call from Filtz and Minieri before Marshak moved all-in from the small blind for a total of $159,000.

Song folded, but Filtz reraised, getting Minieri to fold behind him as well. Marshak showed Q J to Filtz's K K, and when the board showed 9 3 Q 2 2, play was down to five.

John O'Shea became the next casualty at the final table. Seth Fischer bumped it up to $55,000 from early position and Song called, as did O'Shea from the big blind. After seeing a flop of 5 A 2, O'Shea checked, but Fisher bet out another $110,000.

Song decided to get out of the way and O'Shea shoved all-in and got an insta-call from Fischer. Fischer flipped up A 9 for a pair of aces and was looking good for the flush draw, while O'Shea turned up 2 4 for a pair of twos and a flush draw that wasn't going to do him any good.

The turn brought an A to give Fischer trips and when a Q fell on the river, that was all she wrote for O'Shea.

Check out all the action in the Event 31 live updates.

Event 32 and Event 33

The $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event began action again today at 2 p.m. There are still plenty of players battling at the felt to get down to a final table today. The $5,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better is also back in action as of about 3 p.m.

You can read about how things are playing out in the Live Tournaments section.

Event 34

The first event to get its start today is the 2008 WSOP $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys. One player who is taking full advantage of the event is Phil Ivey.

David Benyamine was overheard by one of PokerListings' top tournament reporters asking Ivey when play started up in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better event if he was still in the Omaha event as well today.

"Yeah, I got like 80. I left $3,000 for my add-on and just came over here," Ivey replied.

He had gone from $6,000 to $80,000 in the space of 20 minutes in Event 34 before heading over to start up some Stud play.

Benyamine commented that he thought it was funny that Ivey had left $3,000 for the add-on and left the table.

"Well, the add-on will probably leave you with about $80,000 by the dinner break," Annie Duke estimated.

Ivey, on the other hand, figured he could have $55,000 in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the end of today's play if he didn't play another hand today.

Not everyone is faring as well as him, though. Some of the pros who've already hit the bricks in the event include Freddy Deeb, Roy Winston, Dan Shak, Michael Mizrachi, Joe Beevers and Terrence Chan.

Event 35

The $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event is getting set to shuffle up and deal soon. If you want all the latest information, the greatest photos, video, reports and more straight from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, visit the 2008 WSOP Live Tournaments section.

Related Articles:

• 2008 WSOP Day 20: Phan-ing the tournament flames
• Lates, no-shows plague WSOP Day 19
• 2008 WSOP Day 19: Big names upset by online balla

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