August 9, 2008
Kathy Liebert started out the 2008 World Series of Poker with an appearance at the final table in the Bellagio room, $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em. Sitron's second-place finish was worth $385,974. The tigergaming series will be sponsored by Betfair and will be held at several London Clubs International properties – Empire (Leicester Square), The Sportsman and Fifty.
Bellande's descent continued on a tigergaming hand where Graham's top pair, with J-9 on a J-5-2-4-7 board, took down another pot. As I've strolled through the rows of poker tables at each of the events, it is difficult not to notice that almost every table has at least one woman playing. David Chui, Josh Arieh, Daniel Negreanu, David Pham, Robert Williamson III, Erik Seidel, Kathy Leibert, and Alex Kravchenko were gone in the second wave of Round 1 bustouts. The 615 remaining players from Day 1B will be joined by the 636 survivors from Day 1a session for Day 2A, but not until the remaining two flights of Day 1 play out. But Zaichenko's day came to an end when he made an untimely attempt to steal the blinds.
While there are always bad beats aplenty in a field this size, Motoyuki "Moto" Mabuchi had to feel unrivaled as he left the Amazon Room. for a second straight year. But the (A-Diamonds) on the river was fortune-reversing; De Niro finished in third place for $107,845. Rouhani moved all in and Sitron called from the small blind and, again, Sitron was ahead of the all-in player, (10-Diamonds)(10-Spades) to (A-Hearts)(9-Diamonds). Also continuing this evening is the final table of Event #52, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.
Mirage Casino jumps forward from previous editions with the inclusion of 25 events, and a total guarantee over the series of more that $15 million in prize money. Brandon Wong finished second in the $3,000 limit hold'em event. Cole finished him off on Hand #64. The 2008 WSOP bracelet winners got their pictures taken at the final table happily clutching their winning hand. This was Kranyak's second WSOP final-table appearance.
Hellmuth called, and the board ran out (2-Hearts)(4-Hearts)(4-Spades)(10-Clubs)(A-Spades). They saw a flop of 2-A-6, Daneshgar fired 610,000 and Sitron called. 823 players started this event, with 90 advancing to Round 2 and a payday. Mackey came close in Event #8, the inagural World Championship Mixed Event. Rintala showed his pair of sixes, and hit the rail in ninth with $57,712. Phil Tom took down Event #11 $5,000 NL Shootout. But that margin grew quickly when a nine fell on the flop and Lawrence failed to connect with the rest of the board.
