It's almost as if Tony Hachem is acting out a Stevie Wonder song in front of us. Having been moved to a new table, Hachem immediately declared that someone had been knocked out while sitting on this chair and quickly changed it for another.
Rumours that he's been avoiding black cats and walking under ladders have yet to be substantiated though.
According to the big screen, the numbers for today's opening flight are officially 327. This puts us (almost) on target for the magical 1,000 entrants, with two more day one flights to come.
Just a reminder that this event is a repechage event. What this means is that players who bust out of either of the first two opening flights are allowed to rebuy back into the tournament in the third opening flight.
What the repechage effectively does is build the prize pool and provide additional value to those who are fortunate enough to make it through either of the first two flights unscathed.
Vanessa Selbst has just ended the run of Kaz Jomeen in a preflop battle. Selbst raised the cutoff to 650 before Jomeen three-bet to 1,700. The blinds folded and Selbst moved all in with Jomeen calling off his last chips.
Jomeen held pocket jacks but Selbst was well in front with her pocket kings.
The board bricked out and Jomeen shook his opponent's hand before departing the Crown Poker Room.
"That's pretty brutal," commented Selbst. "This game is hard. I always have it when I raise," she added.
The action has slowed to a crawl in the Crown Poker Room but we managed to pick up a hand between Karl Krautschneider and an unknown opponent.
The player under the gun limped in, only to see Krautschneider raise to 700 from middle position. An opponent reraised to 2,000, the opponent under the gun folded and Krautschneider called.
The flop was a potentially action-killing . Krautschneider checked, the opponent fired out another 2,000 and Krautschneider thought about it for a minute before letting it go.
Ben "CNT_CRUSHER" Delaney is a man in form. Earlier in the week Delaney rose to become the new #1 ranked online player in the country following a very impressive run that included the rare "triple crown" - three wins on three different online poker sites in the same week. Something that has only ever been achieved by a handful of Australian players.
He's proving that he's not just a computer guy, and he transitions his form onto the live felt. He's now up with the chip leaders with close to 35,000 chips after pushing all in on a flop of . His opponent made the call with as Delaney was drawing with his .
The turn bricked the but Delaney "got there" with the river completing his flush as the "run good" continues for the Crusher!
Brit Christopher Brammer isn't doing very well, he's not in his chair and his chips aren't in front of it either. Using Holmesian powers of deduction , we're surmising that he's out.