2011 World Series of Poker

Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Day: 2
Event Info

2011 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
j7
Prize
$599,153
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$3,375,000
Entries
2,500
Level Info
Level
27
Blinds
25,000 / 50,000
Ante
5,000

Michael Meredith Making Moves

We don't know the exact way things unfolded preflop, but we know that Joey Weissman managed to get all of his chips in the pot before the pot, and was against Michael Meredith for his tournament life.

Weissman: {k-Hearts}{5-Clubs}
Meredith: {A-Hearts}{8-Clubs}

Players stood up and watched as the dealer put five cards out in the middle. They came out {j-Clubs}{3-Spades}{8-Hearts}{a-Diamonds}{3-Diamonds} giving Meredith a pair of aces and Weissman king high. Meredith won the hand and now sits around 247,000.

Player Chips Progress
Michael Meredith
Michael Meredith
247,000 215,100
Joey Weissman us
Joey Weissman
WSOP 1X Winner
Busted

Tags: Michael Meredith

Power Play by Mozhnyakov

Level 19 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante

Aleksandr Mozhnyakov made it 16,000 from the button, but that did not deter the player on the button, Bret Hruby in the small blind, and the player in the big blind from seeing the flop.

Four players were present for a flop of {J-Spades}{10-Clubs}{6-Hearts} and the action checked all around. The {K-Spades} fell on the turn and Hruby and the big blind checked. Mozhnyakov decided to bet 35,000 and was called by both the player on the button and Hruby.

The {Q-Spades} appeared on the river and Hruby checked once again. This time Mozhnyakov decided to move all in for 269,500. Both the player on the button and Hruby thought for a while before releasing their hands. Aleksandr Mozhnyakov was able to scoop the pot and is now sitting with 445,000 in chips.

Tags: Aleksandr MozhnyakovBret Hruby

Johansson's Aces Send One Home

From middle position, a player moved all in for 76,000. Action folded around to Karl Johansson on the button who reraised all in over the top. The blinds let go of their hands and the cards were tabled.

Johansson: {A-Diamonds}{A-Spades}
Opponent: {5-Hearts}{5-Spades}

The board ran out {3-Diamonds}{3-Spades}{10-Spades}{2-Diamonds}{2-Spades} and Johansson was able to send a player packing and pad his stack in the process.

Player Chips Progress
Karl Johansson
Karl Johansson
240,000 161,800

Tags: Karl Johansson

2011 WSOP Rookie: Mickey Petersen

Level 19 : 4,000/8,000, 1,000 ante
Mickey Petersen
Mickey Petersen

Prior to the World Series of Poker, PokerNew selected a few players who would be making their first splash at the WSOP in 2011. Mickey Petersen was one of those few selected and he's had some nice results already this WSOP with two cashes. This is his third and he's looking very solid with 315,000 in chips. Here's his Rookie Roundup article we did back in May in order to help you to better get to know Petersen.

Petersen is another young superstar on the verge of a huge breakout in live poker. Mainly an online grinder, Petersen will be venturing to Las Vegas for the first time this summer to take his talents to the World Series of Poker. If he’s able to put up just a few big results this summer, similar to the big splashes he so often makes online, Petersen will be all anyone is talking about when the 2011 World Series of Poker is in the books.

Known mostly as ”mement_mori” online, Petersen currently sits fifth on the PocketFives.com[/I] Rankings. He’s a common fixture at the top of that leaderboard, having won over $4.1 million on the virtual felt, a monthly points leaderboard title, and eight triple crowns. Beyond that, Petersen was signed to CardRunners last August and has won two Full Tilt Online Poker Series events. This young Dane is also not so bad live, having won over $185,000.

His best result live came from a fourth-place finish in the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo in 2010. That finish netted Petersen €73,400. His next largest score came in November 2009. He placed 12th in the €6,000 No-Limit Hold'em Lido International Dutch Open at the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam for €28,728.

Online, Petersen has a laundry list of five-figure cashes. His largest online score was won in May 2010. Petersen placed second in the 2011 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker $2,100 No-Limit Hold'em Big Antes event for $161,660. The two FTOPS jerseys he won came in April 2010 in Event #22 for $86,716 and August 2010 in Event #27 for $37,344. His online résumé also includes plenty of other big wins in some of the toughest tournaments on the Internet.

Heading into the WSOP, Petersen’s game seems to be right on point. He’s coming off several solid finishes in the recent SCOOP that he felt gave him a great chance at winning the leaderboard. Summing it up, Petersen said in his blog, “SCOOP was pretty weird for me in the sense that I ran extremely well to get to a lot of final tables and then ran pretty mediocre once I got there. That also meant that I barely missed out on the $35k package you get for winning the leaderboard, a win in any of those events would had been enough.”

Petersen didn’t just go deep in no-limit hold’em events, he also ran well in some other variants to show he’s got what it takes to hold his own in multiple games. That is something that’s one of the keys for putting up big numbers at the WSOP. Certainly Petersen’s strong point is no-limit hold’em, but he has the capability to get plenty of good things going in other events, so be sure to look out for him across the entire schedule.

This is Petersen’s first time in Las Vegas and at the WSOP. He mentioned in his blog that he rented an apartment with a couple of friends for the entire Series, so we can expect to see plenty of this young superstar. “This is my first trip to Vegas, so I am pretty excited about seeing all my friends, experiencing the culture and of course winning my first bracelet,” Petersen said.

If Petersen happens to get his hands on his first gold bracelet, you can bet your house that PokerNews will be on hand to catch all the action as the Official Live Reporting Team for the 2011 WSOP.

Tags: Mickey Petersen

Level: 19

Blinds: 4,000/8,000

Ante: 1,000

Merrifield Makes a Full House

Level 18 : 3,000/6,000, 500 ante

A player raised to 17,000 from the cutoff and Steven Merrifield made it 41,500 from the small blind. The cutoff made the call and we saw a flop of {2-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}{2-Spades}.

Merrifield led out for 51,000 and the player in the cutoff moved all in for 156,000. Merrifield made the call and the cards were turned over.

Merrifield: {6-Spades}{5-Spades}
Opponent: {J-Spades}{J-Diamonds}

Merrifield was significantly behind and needed to catch a miracle to scoop this pot. The {K-Hearts} on the turn dashed his hopes even further, as now he needed one of the two remaining fives to win. Fortunately for him, the {5-Hearts} struck the river, giving Merrifield fives full of deuces. The player in the cutoff was astounded at the river, but can at least find some solace in the $9,450 he will take home in prize money.

Merrifield is now sitting at roughly 485,000 in chips.

Tags: Steven Merrifield

Bonding Gets the Call He Wanted

We found Lars Bonding moving all in on a {8-Spades}{7-Clubs}{2-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}{3-Clubs} board for about 146,000. With about 60,000 already in the pot this was a large bet. His opponent was extremely perplexed and spent well over two minutes trying to figure out what kind of hand Bonding was capable of doing this with. In the end Bonding's opponent called.

Bonding said "queens" and flipped over {Q-Hearts}{10-Hearts}, this seemingly was enough to win the pot, because Bonding's opponent mucked.

Player Chips Progress
Lars Bonding dk
Lars Bonding
360,000 80,000

Tags: Lars Bonding

Bullock Busts One

The action folded around to the player in the cutoff who stacked all of his chips neatly and pushed them across the felt into the middle of the table. To his immediate left, Joel Bullock glanced down at his cards and casually dropped in a stack of orange 5,000-denomination chips to make the call.

Bullock: {A-Clubs}{J-Clubs}
Opponent: {A-Diamonds}{8-Diamonds}

The flop fell {4-Clubs}{5-Spades}{9-Clubs}, keeping Bullock in the lead and giving him a draw to the nut flush as well. The board paired when the {9-Spades} came on the turn, and Bullock's opponent's fate was sealed when the {6-Clubs} struck the river. Bullock was able to grab a decent sized pot and send a player to the rail in the process.

Player Chips Progress
Joel Bullock
Joel Bullock
220,000 166,500

Tags: Joel Bullock

Bonded to the Bracelet Chase

Level 18 : 3,000/6,000, 500 ante
Lars Bonding
Lars Bonding

Lars Bonding has never tasted World Series of Poker gold, but that could all change here in Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em if he can maneuver his way through another 50 or so players. Bonding has had a few close calls to winning a bracelet over his career and would like nothing more than to finally wrap one around his wrist and etch his name in the WSOP history books.

Bonding has 11 WSOP cashes to his name, making this number 12. Back in 2005, Bonding placed second to Farzad Bonyadi in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Rebuy event. He scored over $317,000 for that finish and it is still the largest cash on his record. He had another close call in 2007 when he took sixth in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for nearly $75,000.

Already this year, Bonding has two wins under his belt. He won a $500 Wynn Classic event in March for just shy of $85,000 and then won the Station Casinos Championship Tournament in May for $60,000. Already this WSOP, Bonding placed tenth in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for over $20,000 in prize money.

Checking Bonding's stats, his results seem to come in bunches. Seeing that he's already ran deep in an event earlier this Series, we may be witnessing another final table for this guy coming tomorrow in this event. One thing is for certain, when Bonding gets chips, he knows how to use them. Right now, he's sitting with around 300,000 and in the top five left in the room.

Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews in order to follow Bonding's coverage as he makes a run for the gold.

Tags: Lars Bonding

Jensen Makes Easy Call

After the action folding around to the button Frederik Jensen made a bet of 12,000, the small blind then moved all in and was instantly called by an excited Jensen.

Jensen: {K-}{k-}
Opponent: {K-}{j-}

The cards came out {9-}{a-}{8-}{4-}{A-} and Jensen who has been under the radar this whole tournament won another pot to put him among the chip leaders.

Player Chips Progress
Frederik Jensen dk
Frederik Jensen
555,000 477,400

Tags: Frederik Jensen