Poker Articles

A total of 1,478 survivors from Days 1A and 1B of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event convened in the Amazon Room for Day 2A. In the end, only 607 remained. Near the top of the pack holding the fourth largest stack was a familiar name: Brandon b7zzy Demes, the Day 1B chip leader. Demes sits with a mountain of 369,000 chips entering Day 3 on Friday, when he’ll join players from Day 2B. Philippines poker player Andrew Gaw leads the way after Day 2A with 386,000, with Eric Cloutier hot on his heels at 383,000. If you’re wondering how PocketFivers are faring, visit PocketFivesLive.com. It’s your one-stop shop for WSOP coverage of online poker players.

Demes is one of 11 Day 2A players that crossed the 300,00 chip mark. Others include Gaw (386,800), Cloutier (383,500), Ed Perry (370,000), Miika Puumalainen (361,200), Jamie Brown (360,400), Jerry Wong (348,100), Samer Rahman (334,700), Brian Hansen (333,500), Kyle Wilson (306,000), and Rick Barabino (301,100). Demes won the PokerStars Sunday 500 to open the 2009 calendar year, boosting his online poker bankroll by over $90,000. Now, he’s in prime position to make a run at the $8.5 million first place prize that will be awarded to the champion of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

Also near the top of field is Carter cswidler Swidler (pictured at left), who will come armed to Friday’s play with a stack of 257,000. In May, the Canadian PocketFiver finished as the runner-up in the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt Poker for $31,000. Swidler took third in the same event in January and has piled up $126,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings in 2009. Trailing him on the WSOP Main Event leaderboard is Billy Patrolman35 Kopp, who sits at #80 worldwide in the Rankings. Kopp holds nearly 249,000 chips.

Jimmy gobboboy Fricke (pictured at right), a recent guest on the PocketFives.com Podcast, suffered a setback midway through the day when his pocket kings were cracked by A-10. Fricke’s opponent was all-in for 11,000 and spiked two aces on the flop for trips. The hand sunk the PocketFiver to 95,000 chips. However, he rebounded in strong fashion, knocking a player out with pocket eights against pocket sevens after calling an all-in bet of 25,000 pre-flop. Both players picked up straight draws after a 10-9-6 flop, but the turn and river blanked out. The winning hand pushed Fricke to 120,000 in chips; the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event runner-up ended at 138,000.

At one point in the day, Nick fu_15 Maimone (pictured at left) was nearly vanquished from the Main Event and held a stack of just 20,000. However, quad fours followed by a set of deuces helped push him to an end-of-day total of 186,000. All-in for his last 30,000, he hit a full house with A-J on a board of J-J-7-2-A. Maimone sits at 59th in the Rankings on the strength of a win in the Wednesday Quarter Million on PokerStars in April for $47,000 and a runner-up showing in the site’s $100 rebuy four days later for $48,000. He took down the $100 rebuy on Stars in January for $71,000.

PocketFivers who saw their WSOP Main Event runs end on Tuesday included Michael Gags30 Gagliano, Craig MrCasino Gray, Clark snake8484 Hamagami, Amanda MandyB Baker, Tim tmay420 West, Jeff yellowsub Williams, Steve MrTimCaum O’Dwyer, Phil USCPhildo Collins, Barry barryg1 Greenstein, and Jude j_thaddeus Ainsworth. PocketFivers remaining include (all chip counts are approximate):

Carter cswidler Swidler – 257,000
Billy Patrolman35 Kopp – 248,000
Karec K-Rock2525 Terrell – 242,000
Nick gbmantis Niergarth – 233,000
James jdawg217 Navolanic – 193,000
Nick fu_15 Maimone – 186,000
Kirk idareyouAA Banks – 184,000
Owen ocrowe Crowe – 178,000
Mike Sexton – 169,000
Daniel amichaiKK Makowsky – 166,000
Ludovic Cutsss Lacay – 165,000
David doubledave22 D’Alesandro – 159,000
Olivier livb112 Busquet – 149,000
Chris PiMaster Viox – 142,000
Jimmy gobboboy Fricke – 138,000
Jordan scarface_79 Smith – 134,000
Corey comandr_cool Burbick – 120,000
Jesse thor Haabak – 104,000
Jeff HB_HITMAN Anderson – 103.000
Matt mcmatto Affleck – 110,000
Frank Frank1The1Tank Calo – 97,000
Ashley actyper Cheung – 96,000
Jeremy Believer82 Vinsant – 95,000
Cody CalBandGreat Shedd – 77,000
Kush KUSH Patel – 74,000
Chirs MacDad22 McFarland –71,000
Wes JohnGalt Mobley – 63,000
David Doc Sands Sands – 65,000
Stephane Foutight Bisson – 60,000
Paul ComeOnPhish Lieu – 59,000
Keven stamdogg Stammen – 59,000
Markus LURPED Gonsalves – 49,000
Aurangzeb Ozzy87 Sheikh – 45,000

Visit PocketFivesLive.com for the latest WSOP coverage of online poker players. Day 2B kicks off on Wednesday at Noon PT from the Rio. Thursday marks the media team poker charity event and a well-deserved off day for WSOP staff.