Poker Articles

A short-stacked Alex Kravchenko moved all in pre-flop and Khan (pictured at right) re-raised from the small blind to isolate. Once the big blind folded, Khan showed pocket threes and found himself in a race situation against Alex's K-J. Alex was all in for just over 2.6 million and paired his jack on a Q-J-9 flop. With no improvement to Khan's hand on the turn or river, Kravchenko doubled up to just under 6 million chips, while RaiNKhaN’s stack took a big hit and he was left with 7 million.

He battled back up to almost 9.5 million chips before running into a hand with chip leader and eventual Main Event champ Jerry Yang. After Yang had opened to 1.5 million, Khan made it 6 million to go, committing almost two-thirds of his stack. After some thought, Yang called and Khan announced he was all in before the flop came out, committing his final chips. With a K-4-2 flop and a 3,440,000 bet into him, Yang called, showing pocket jacks. Khan flipped over A-Q. The turn and river were both threes, sending Khan to the rail $956,243 richer.

Yang proved to be the nemesis of Childs (pictured at right) as well. In a battle of the blinds, Childs raised to 720,000 from the small blind and Yang moved all in, putting Childs to the decision for his last five million chips. Childs made the call with K-J and was thrilled to see he was up against Yang’s J-8. Childs looked to be in position to double up after a 6-4-4 flop, but an 8 on the turn paired Yang’s hole card and left Childs needing help. A river 9 sealed the deal and Childs was eliminated in seventh place for $705,229.

TheWacoKidd, who cashed for $82,476 and 88th place, commented on his WSOP Main Event run: “It was a fun experience to play in the biggest tournament in the world for five days, getting to meet so many interesting people from all walks of life and from all over the globe. However, it was a very disappointing finish to get so deep and come up short, although the cash put me in the black for the World Series, so I guess I can't complain too much.”

John “texduke” Armbrust (pictured at right) finished 18th for a healthy payday of $381,302. Armbrust talks about his strategy: “I played a lot of ‘small-ball’ poker. After ending Level 1 with 18,500 in chips, I managed to build my stack higher during each of the next 17 straight levels. I never was all in for my tournament life until Friday night, when it was down to 150 players. From then on, it was a game of patience, waiting for a great time to attack.”

PocketFivers had a solid showing in the Main Event. A total of 44 PocketFivers cashed in the featured event with 11 cashing for six figures, as well as two making the final table. SCTrojans and texduke finished 19th and 18th, respectively, combining for over $700,000 in winnings. The former won three Triple Crowns in two weeks in May, making for a particularly profitable summer.

Throughout the WSOP, many P5ers have seen multiple cash-outs. Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis (pictured at right), currently the youngest winner of a WSOP bracelet, cashed five times at the WSOP for over $593,000. A little over a week before Billirakis won the first event of this year’s WSOP, he won the PokerStars $100,000 Guaranteed for $57,000. Triple Crown winner Eric “Rizen” Lynch also managed to cash five times this year, his biggest cash of $119,000 coming from a second place finish in Event 23’s $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha. Finishing above Rizen and taking first in Event 23, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was in the money four times at the WSOP for a total of $320,000.

Supplying PocketFivesLive.com with great text updates during the events, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at right) made four cashes. The Triple Crown winner showed consistent play, winning a total of $91,000, while making money online as well. Turner won the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand for $29,000 in mid-May and three days later had a strong fourth place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance for over $15,000. Another PocketFives Triple Crown winner and five-time casher this year was Carl “colson10” Olson. Olson took a total of $87,000 home from the WSOP, including a nice finish in the Main Event for $40,000. 

Fresh off a first place finish in the PokerStars Super Tuesday for $89,000, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin cashed three times at the WSOP and took over $66,000. A three-time Triple Crown winner, Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman (pictured at right) went deep in the Main Event, finishing 19th for over $330,000. Freeman has been successful with the ability to play both live and online. In the month of June, he was able to final table over 25 different online tournaments, including four wins and a $13,000 cash in the PokerStars $100,000 Guaranteed Rebuy.

The PocketFives.com clan is growing and has shattered last year’s WSOP totals. This year, its members took home six bracelets and $14.8 million, almost doubling last year’s totals (three bracelets and $7.8 million). Congratulations to all P5ers cashing in this year's WSOP.