Level Two Recap
Jul 08, '07
Hour four has come and gone with the completion of the second level of play. Tables are starting to open up in the fary corner of the Amazon room and cash games have been started. It is always an interesting experience for the players in the tournament that have to deal with being seated near the noise and chaos of players risking one tenth of their tournament buy in.
Gavin Griffin has been hard to miss during the 2007
World Series of Poker, his trademark bright pink mohawk has the tendency to stand out in the crowd. Griffin has been sporting the new look in an effort to raise awareness for breast cancer, a cause he is passionate about. Griffin has been drawing attention today not only becuase of his hair, but for his play as well. The player in seat three limped for $200 and Griffin raised to $800 preflop. Griffin recieved two calls and the flop came 6
3
2
. The player in seat three checked and Griffin threw out $1,525. The player in seat three tries to fold out of turn but quickly brings his cards back in. The player in seat nine pushes all in and the player seat three throws his cards away. Griffin instantly makes the call and turns over A
A
. Seat nine showed K
Q
and was far behind. The turn was the 6
and the river brought the 7
, giving Griffin the huge pot and increasing his stack to $44,000. The pot gave Griffin help on his way to catching the two new chip leaders, Chad Brown ($58,000) and Phil Ivey ($54,000).
Whatever method ESPN uses to choose who sits at the featured table, it works. Mike Matusow and T.J. Cloutier are sitting in the one and ten seats at one of the featured tables and the presence of two great poker personalities is attracting attention. Matusow was complaining to a tournament official about having to play such a long day one and his lamenting inspired Cloutier to chime in. "I've never played a 16 hour day one in a tournament ever in my life!" exclaimed Matusow. "If there are going to be two day 2's, why do we have to play so long?" Cloutier added, "Yeah, they did just the opposite for H.O.R.S.E! They thought there was going to be more than 200. Ha! I bet you (Matusow) would have bet there was going to be more than 200, you bet on everything that moves!" In between complaining, the two actually did play some poker as well.
Antonio Tarver, Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, couldn't make it past the first day of this year's main event. Tarver had a relatively rough day, not as rough as his usual day at work, but still. Tarver had his aces cracked earlier in the day and on what would be his last hand, found himself with only $1,600. Two players limped in front of Tarver and he raised to $600. The player in seat four called and Roy Park reraised to $1,600 total from the small blind. The two limpers and Tarver called. The flop came K
K
Q
and Park pushed all in. The action folded to Tarver who put his last $1,000 into the middle. Park showed A
K
and Tarver was way behind with his 6
6
. The turn was the 3
and the river brought the 4
, sending Tarver to the rail.
Jose Canseco, Shannon Elizabeth and Greg Raymer, member of Team Pokerstars
www.pokerstars.com, were all eliminated this round as well. Raymer got his last few chips in the middle with J-10 up against an opponent with pocket sixes. A six hit on the flop and Raymer recieved applause as he exited the tournament area. Elizabeth got all her money in with pocket kings against an opponent with Q-J. A queen and a jack hit on the flop, ending Elizabeth's tournament. A player at an adjacent table cried out, "No! Give her more chips!" Maybe next year bud.
Amnon Filippi is cruising through the day at his table and now has over $30,000. With the board showing K
9
7
the player in seat five at Filippi's table bet out $800. The player in seat seven called and so did Filippi. The turn was the 8
and all players checked. The river was the 3
and the player in seat seven checked. Filippi threw out $2,600 and seat five folded. The player in seat seven went into the tank and Filippi chastised him into calling by saying, "How can you possibly think of folding for $2,600?" Seat seven called and Filippi threw his cards, 3
3
, onto the board. "Set" said Filippi. The player in seat seven mucked his hand. "How many pairs you gonna get today?" asked Kenna James in the six seat. Filippi just laughed and said to himself, "Some people can't sleep at night if they don't see your cards." The very next hand Filippi raised preflop and took the blinds. Filippi turned over 6
6
and said, "See, I'm not stealing." James just shook his head in disbelief.
Notable Chip Counts
| Chad Brown |
58,200 |
| Allen Cunningham |
45,500 |
| Chris "Jesus" Ferguson |
44,000 |
| Steve Dannenmann |
42,000 |
| Gavin Griffin |
40,000 |
| Amir Vahedi |
39,000 |
| Warren Karp |
36,000 |
| Jason Alexander |
34,050 |
| Lee Watkinson |
33,000 |
| Todd Brunson |
32,900 |
| Vanessa Rousso |
31,500 |
| David Sklansky |
31,000 |
| Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken |
31,000 |
| T.J. Cloutier |
28,700 |
| Shannon Shorr |
26,000 |
| Humberto Brenes |
25,000 |
| Amnon Filippi |
24,000 |
| Phil Gordon |
22,350 |
| Katja Thater |
22,000 |
| Andy Bloch |
22,000 |
| Men "The Master" Nguyen |
21,500 |
| Rene Angelil |
20,000 |
| Chris Moneymaker |
20,000 |
| Kristy Gazes |
19,600 |
| Tony Hachem |
19,000 |
| Mike "The Mouth" Matusow |
19,000 |
| Chau Giang |
19,000 |
| Bill Gazes |
18,200 |
| Melissa Hayden |
17,000 |
| Jennifer Tilly |
16,200 |
| Eric Cajelais |
15,900 |
| Rafe Furst |
15,500 |
| JC Alvarado |
15,500 |
| Clonie Gowen |
15,500 |
| Toto Leonidas |
14,000 |
| Greg Raymer |
14,000 |
| Kenna James |
10,800 |
| JC Tran |
6,000 |
| Tex Barch |
4,575 |
Player Tags: T.J. Cloutier, Kenna James, Mike Matusow, Phil Ivey, Gavin Griffin, Greg Raymer, Amnon Filippi, Shannon Elizabeth, Antonio Tarver, Jose Canseco
