A Rousing Game of Lodden Thinks
During $100,000 Super High Roller earlier in the series, our Live Reporting Team came across Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Ivey engaged in a game of "Johnny Lodden Thinks" where Team PokerStars Pro Isaac Haxton was the thinker.
Today, Esfandiari and Ivey are seated at adjacent tables with Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier at Ivey's table and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler at Esfandiari's. With the two in such close proximity, it seems that the game goes on. According to Kessler's Twitter, the two were playing for $10,000 a point. The following question was proposed to Grospellier, the thinker:
"What do you think Allen Kessler's lifetime slot winnings are?"
For those of you who don't know, Kessler considers himself a professional slot player and has won several jackpots in his life.
Grospellier wrote down his answer and passed it to Kessler. The bidding then began.
"Five-thousand," remarked Antonio.
"Ten," shot back Ivey.
"Twenty," said Esfandiari.
The action went back and forth increasing by increments of $10,000. All the while, between bids, one of the most illustrious $10,000 buy-in poker tournaments of the year was also happening. During the bidding we saw a hand between none other than Esfandiari and Kessler where the two took a flop of 
. Kessler check-called 250 to see the 
hit the turn. He check-called once again, this time for an amount of 600. The 
hit the river and Esfandiari bet 1,700.
"Should have check-raised the turn," lamented Kessler as he threw away his cards, awarding Esfandiari the pot.
"Alright," Esfandiari shouted across the room to Ivey. "Two-hundred thousand. And that's a crying two-hundred. I'm not happy about it."
"Two-ten," stoically replied Ivey.
The bidding continued to increase by 10k increments until:
"Okay," said Esfandiari. "Two ninety-five. And I'm SOBBING."
"Crying 210 all of the way up to 295?" replied Ivey.
"Funny how that works, huh?"
The bidding didn't stop there. It continued to grow up as Esfandiari announced "Three seventy-five".
"Aye, aye, aye" lamented Ivey as he leaned back in his chair.
"Buy?" asked Esfandiari.
"Ah! You thought I said buy! You see, that's a tell right there," replied Ivey.
The bidding finally ended when Ivey bid $415,000 and Esfandiari bought. Kessler revealed that ElkY wrote "$500,000" and the point went to Ivey. Esfandiari then announced that they were 1-1 on the day.
As this hilarious action continues between the two poker superstars we'll be sure to keep you posted.