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WSOP Event #24: Humberto’s busy start

Friday, June 12th, 2009

There's never a dull moment watching Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes at the table. If he's not acting up, he's busy with his cards. It's the latter today as he's had a hectic few moments.

Soon after starting day two of the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event with 47,000, he lost a huge pot against Woofae Min to his left. It was a battle of the blinds - K-Q for Brenes, the dominating A-Q for Min. The board ran 8-9-8-10, opening up a J for four more outs for Brenes, but the Q fell on the river.

Humberto Brenes

With that he was down to just 3,300 and on the button. The rest of the table sniffed out his next move (blinds were 600-1,200) and when it folded round to the Costa Rican, he obliged by pushing all in. Perhaps as expected he got called by the small and the big blind, who knew Brenes could have absolutely any two cards in this spot.

The board was checked down... [ad][kc][8s][kd][10c], 7-7 for Min in the small blind, 5-6 suited for John Cavanaugh in the big.... and Q-J for Brenes for a straight and triple up to more than 12,000.

Next Brenes made it 3,000 to go, and Min in the cut-off asked to see the big blind's stack. He then re-raised to 6,500. Everyone got out of the way until it got back to Brenes, who pushed all in. Call!

Min: [9c][9d]
Brenes: [kd][ks]

The board gave Brenes the straight and then the flush - [jd][10s][qs][as][7s].

With that he's back up to 22,000.

Steve Paul Ambrose

An eventful start also today for Team PokerStars Pro Steve Paul-Ambrose. He sat down with just 11,200 - and got it all in on the first hand with A-10, only to walk in to pocket jacks.

"That was fast," he said afterwards. "But this was only my first day two in the WSOP for two years, so at least that's something!"

With that, SPA, who won the PokerStars PCA in 2006 for nearly $1.4 million, was given a card to take to the cash desk to collect his $2,668 in prize money.

Also playing day two of this event today is PokerStars EPT television host Kara Scott. More on her coming soon!

**********

STOP PRESS: Brenes' active start couldn't last. Soon after putting up this post, he got it all in with J-J and begged his opponent to turn over A-K.... which to everyone's amusement, he did.

The board ran [2s][ks][7c][7s][7h] and Brenes' day was done. Some $2,839 has now found its way into his wallet for his efforts here.

Posted in 2009, 2009worldseries, Pokerstars, World Series of Poker, humbertobrenes, stevepaulambrose | Comments Off

WSOP Event #2: Brenes waits… and waits

Friday, May 29th, 2009

There's nothing worse than being card dead, particularly in a tournament such as this. When your stack is trickling away and the blinds are moving north, you're praying for the type of hand that can double you up and get you going once more. When all you are dealt is drivel, it's like the poker gods are sucking the life out of you... painfully and slowly.

Humberto Brenes

Judging by the expressions of Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes, this is exactly what's happening to him on day two of the $40,000 No Limit Hold'em event. He's chewing on his gum faster and harder than ever (there are four packets in front of him), and each time he's dealt two cards, the response seems to be the same.

He looks down at the dealer's offering, the shoulders slump and he glances at the sky in a "not this garbage again" sort of way. The cards go in the muck and he waits patiently to repeat the process again. And it's starting to cost - he's down to little over 150,000, still plenty of play with blinds at 3,000-6,000, but it's a great test of his mental strength.

During all this he had to watch Brian Townsend, sitting to his right, hoovering up chips that sent him over 1,000,000, then got moved to the same table as Chris Moneymaker. Chris, who told us earlier of his improved game, needs to use his new-found patience after dropping 200,000 in the first few levels of play. He's still on over 600,000, so no need to panic.

No need to panic either for Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie. No need to do anything, in fact, because like Friend of PokerStars Bill Chen, he's out. Both fell holding the same hand, pocket tens.

Duthie was particularly unlucky. Starting the day with 188,000, he was in the big blind and when the small blind - Frank Kassela - raised it up, Duthie put out 50,000 more. Kassela insta called. The flop was 2-3-J and Duthie, pushed with 10-10 ("I did not put him on jacks"), and was called by 8-8. But an 8 on the turn ended Duthie's day early.

Meanwhile Greg Raymer was playing a patient game, but has now risen above 400,000 after his A-J overtook Ville Wahlbeck's pocket kings.

Now challenging the chip lead is Team PokerStars Holland Pro Lex Veldhuis, who has broken the one million mark. We'll have more news of his progress soon.

65 players remain in the event, and the money kicks in at 27th place with $71,858.

*******

STOP PRESS: The magic of the blogger works again. No sooner had we put up this post when Humberto Brenes finally found a hand, pushed, and got a caller. His A-K was up against Antonio Esfandiari's A-J - and stayed ahead, putting him on nearly 300,000.

He's a happy Humberto now.

Posted in $40K No Limit, 2009, 2009worldseriesofpoker, Pokerstars, World Series of Poker, humbertobrenes | Comments Off

Brenes outlasts the seniors at Bellagio Five Diamond

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

The Shark was feeling a bit peckish. Then again, Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes is always feeling a little hungry for chips. Put him in water full of players who match his life experience and Brenes' stomach growls even more.

Such was the scene at Event #11 of the Bellagio Five Diamond seniors event. One hundred sixty-eight players put down $1,500 apiece to fight for the no-limit hold'em title. It was a feeding frenzy for the godfather of Costa Rican poker. Brenes confessed he was aching for a win. It had been two years since he'd nabbed a first place spot. With the blood in the water, Brenes went to work and emerged with the victory.

Brenes' work began early in event, increasing his stack by 50% on the second hand of the tournament. It allowed him to play some big-stack poker and relax for most of the first day. By the time the blinds had climbed to 500/1000/100, Brenes came in for 4,000 with Ad-Ac. His opponent, a conservative player, called with position. The flop came down Jd-7s-6d.

Brenes said later that, given he was holding the Ace of diamonds, he felt safe in going for a check-raise. It didn't work. His opponent checked behind and they saw the 7d. This time, Brenes put out a 10,000 bet. It was soon clear, Brenes' timing was off. His opponent moved all-in. It was 25,000 more for Brenes to call. The Team PokerStars Pro went into the tank. If he were to lose the hand, he would be down to 8,000 chips. Win and it's smooth sailing. Brenes made the call and felt his stomach turn. His opponent turned up Kd-Qd for the flush.

Brenes had eleven outs with one card to come. He got one of them, the 7c, and scooped the monster. The voracious chip eater dribbled a few luck crumbs on his shirt and smiled. Brenes reached the six-handed final table in second place with 182.000 chips out of 750,000 in play.

The Costa Rican had a great start at the final table, eliminating the first player with J-J against 4-4. Brenes retook the chip lead and held it until he got heads up with his old buddy Chris Bjorin. It took two and half hours to play out the heads up battle.

The ultimate hand played like this: Brenes had the button and completed with Qd-9d. Bjorin raised with Qs-Jc and Brenes called.The flop showed Jd-10t-6d. No question, this hand was about to be the last one. The chips were in with all due speed. The board ran out 3c-5d to give Brenes the flush and the win.

Humberto Brenes

Brenes pocketed $78,220 for his efforts and won his first bracelet at the Bellagio.

Congratulations, Humberto.

Posted in Humberto Brenes, Pokerstars, humbertobrenes | Comments Off

2008 World Series: Humberto answers the ‘what ifs’

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

It wasn’t easy at the time to judge whether reading a magazine article entitled “Five biggest ‘what if’s’ in poker” was good timing or bad timing for the player about to lose most of his stack to Team PokerStars Pro Humberto Brenes. He was swinging back in his chair, wearing a pressed shirt and tie for the classic look, crossed with headphones and shades for the modern look. Now that it was crunch time he’d left the magazine for a second and pondered the call...

At the start of play in the re-buy event two rooms split the field. Of the two the Brazilian Room was the quieter but had urgency to it, thanks to the efforts of tournament staff of shepherding everyone across the hall and into the same tournament area.

The process was copied for everyone. Under the command of suited tournament officials see-thru bags were distributed to players - chaotic scenes which evidently were choreographed well as a seamless migration took place - instructions of “Don’t carry the bags yourself” and “don’t seal the bags” being good advice.

One player who’d just made this trip was the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson, now with flashes of the familiar logo on his chest and sleeve. I’ve watched William play countless tournaments and his demeanour is always the same - an expression towards his opponent that asks “why did you do that?” as if privately he’s in search of every poker answer there is.

I didn’t want to sweat William too long so moved around a little. But in the time it took for me to scout out the rest of the room William had gone. Busted. A disappointing first day results-wise but at least an easy one to blame on the wicked kind of east to west jetlag.

Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso arrived at her new table shortly afterward, hers being the latest to be airlifted into place along with a bag of chips worth 14k. I chatted with her at the break and she explained the frustrations of being out sick for a few days but is back ready to record a second cash of the Series. It’s shaping up nicely as far as re-buys are concerned...

“I had four re-buys... that’s good for me!” She said, evidently in the right kind of chipper mood that helps the fighting spirit to prosper. After all there's a prize pool in excess of $3,240,000 at stake.

Back to the “what ifs” though. Humberto got the call and showed a full house - aces over jacks - for a pot that takes him up to 20k. His opponent took it as well as he could, talking to himself - an internal monologue that may or may not have blocked the screaming noise inside his head - before he picked up his magazine. He tried reading but looked distracted, probably reading the same sentence again and again.

But for Humberto it’s a great start. No noise from him just a smile shared with team mate Noah Boeken sitting opposite.

“Humberto, if you bust out you can play the HORSE” Noah joked. “Give me your chips, you go play the HORSE.”

‘What if’, indeed.

Posted in 2008 World Series, 2008 World Series, Humberto Brenes, Pokerstars, humbertobrenes | Comments Off

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Archive for the ‘humbertobrenes’ Category

WSOP Event #24: Humberto’s busy start

WSOP Event #2: Brenes waits… and waits

Brenes outlasts the seniors at Bellagio Five Diamond

2008 World Series: Humberto answers the ‘what ifs’