Tuesday, June 17, 2008

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WSOP Day 18: Limit Hold'em fireworks on tap

Benyamine: Can he overtake Galfond and Rast to win Event 28?

By Miguel Strother

All eyes are back on the felt now that the buzz of the U.S. Open Championship Golf Tournament has died down, with Tiger Woods finally putting away Rocco Mediate to take the title.

With that out of the way, it's already looking like it's going to be a heck of a day for cards at the Rio.

Event 27

Deb Blair was eliminated in 15th place just before the first break of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event, and she walks with $29,180.

Blair called all-in from the small blind after Richard Alm raised from late position. Philip Yeh also called in the big blind to create a large three-way pot.

The flop came A68. With Blair all-in, Yeh checked and Alm bet $100,000. Yeh called.

Both players then checked on the 6 turn. On the 4 river, Yeh bet $300,000, which was called by Alm, who showed AQ. Yeh turned over AK, and Blair showed K-3. Blair was eliminated, Alm fell to 600,000 in chips, and Yeh is now the chip leader with over 1.5 million.

Event 28

Play restarts in the $5k Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys at 3 p.m. and will go through the night until a winner is declared. The seating assignments for the loaded final table are as follows:

John Juanda (Las Vegas) -- 694,800
Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, Calif.) -- 119,000
David Benyamine (Las Vegas) -- 1,041,000
Kirill Gerasimov (Moscow) -- 558,000
Phil Galfond (Madison, Wis.) -- 1,393,000
Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas) -- 460,000
Brian Rast (Las Vegas) -- 1,176,000
Adam Hourani (East Lansing, Mich.) -- 300,000
Johnny Chan (Las Vegas) -- 624,000

The 'muth: I can dodge short stacks, baby!

Event 29

Amir Vahedi went all-in early from the button to start things off in the second day of the $3k No-Limit Hold'em event, and the small blind made the call. Vahedi flipped over 63 and his opponent showed A6. The board came109338 to double up Vahedi, who currently sits at about 20,000 in chips.

The money bubble burst when Roberto Romanelo was eliminated after going all-in pre-flop with pocket queens against Alex Zaslavsky and his monster AA . When the flop hit 46A, it was all but over for Romanelo.

All other players remaining will collect on their $3k investment.

Event 30

There are some interesting seating assignments in the opening round of Day 2 in the $10k Limit Hold'em World Championships. Nick Schulman ($13,000) and Huck Seed ($47,200) are sitting together at Table 43. Michael Mizrachi ($74,400) and Justin Bonomo ($94,000) are together at table 44, while Erick Lindgren ($55,100) and Howard Lederer ($49,500) are at table 49.

Lindgren vs. Lederer: Will carnage ensue?

It will be worth paying attention to see if these players avoid each other or if the matchups produce some early day fireworks.

Event 31

The $2,500 No-Limit Six-Handed kicked off today at noon with 1,013 entries and $2,329,900 in the prize pool.

Jeff Williams is currently at or near the chip lead after eliminating Shaun Deeb with A6 on a 562A7 board.

Ted Forrest, Jennifer Tilly and Humberto Brenes are among the notable pros who've already had their names scratched off the list for the $528,874 first-place prize.

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