"It's easy to crack aces," commented a member of the Portuguese media while Jeffrey Hakim was handing almost his whole stack over to Juan Maceiras.
Hakim had raised and Maceiras shoved. Another player, who is on our list as Narendra Banwari but introduced himself last night on the Tube home as "Nick", tanked for some time but folded. On their backs, and it was to be a very painful experience for Mr. Hakim.
Hakim:
Maceiras:
Board:
Maceiras is now very definitely back in the game with 105,000. Hakim was down to just 5,000 or so and looked rather unwell. We hung around the table in case he got his last in the next hand, but he just folded his button with a dejected air. He's going to have to get it in soon though.
Cort Kibler opened to 2,700 before Scott Montgomery reraised to 7,000. In the smmal blind, Dominkik Nitsche decided this would be a perfect spot to 4-bet, making it 20,700 with around 25,000 behind. Kibler folded and Montgomery tanked, was Nitsche tanking advantage of Montgomery's aggressive reputation or did Nitsche really have a hand?
The former Main Event finalist did not seem too sure himself, but ended up folding with a certain amount of reluctance.
Paul Kristoffersson must not recognize the guy sitting to his left.
We watched him and Phil Ivey take a heads-up flop in a battle of the blinds. It came , and Kristoffersson check-called a bet of 4,300. On the turn, the drew checks from both players, and the landed on the river. Kristoffersson led out with a big bet of 14,300 into a pot of about that much, and Ivey shot him a dark stare. He'd make Kristoffersson squirm for a couple minutes before finally shaking his head and releasing his cards.
On the next hand, Kristoffersson opened with a big raise to 8,000 from the button, and Ivey went right ahead and three-bet to 23,000 straight. Kristoffersson counted down his remaining stack before waving the white flag, and Ivey gets slightly the better of that two-hand exchange.
Jose Nadal opened preflop to 2,600 before he was reraised to 7,800 by the player in middle position. Ran Azor then pushed all-in for around 40,000 and it was passed across to Masaaki Kagawa in the big blind who looked around at the differing raises on the table before finally announcing "I call!"
Nadal folded quickly but the 3-bettor looked glum, eventually folding face up and was disgusted to see Kagawa show . Azor flipped and couldn't catch on the board.
Joshua Tekesky opened the pot with a raise, and we joined the action as Rifat Palevic was three-betting to 9,100. A few seats over, Claire Renaut four-bet to 23,000, only to see Tekesky shove all in for 116,100 total.
Palevic would take several long minutes to think silently, and a couple of us bloggers watching the hand were speculating that he must have something like pocket queens. In any event, his two cards eventually and reluctantly went into the muck, and the action was back on Renaut.
"This is a nightmare," she said, as the television crew rolled tape. She continued to mumble for a few minutes, cutting out the calling chips to assess the potential damage to her stack. After another long while, she double-checked her cards and released them into the muck.
She claimed to have folded pocket queens herself, and Palevic lamented that he'd folded kings.
"You did not fold kings there!" McLean Karr said from the two seat. "That's not even a good bluff. Folded kings...."
Renaut seemed certain that Tekesky had ace-king, and she pried unsuccessfully for more information. It was a remarkable hand either way.
We found Justin Young all in with and ahead of Kevin Eyster's . However, Young didn't look happy and was already standing and collecting his belongings before the flop, and come the spiky on the turn he was halfway across the room. The river did nothing for him, and there followed a brief argument among the rest of the table as to whether he had actually seen the six that did him in before he left. The consensus was yes, probably.
Freddy Deeb, the shortest man in the room this morning in more than one respect, has now in fact dwindled to nothing. Returning today with just 6,400 and thus officially the shortest player here, he has since vanished completely from his seat. We didn't see what happened, but we are jumping right to conclusions and declaring that he busted from the tournament rather than, say, spontaneously combusted or something.
There's shouting from the dealers in the first ten minutes of play from all over the room, turning it almost into a (albeit not very good) chorus round. To be honest, we're not going to ask them to do "Row, row, row your boat..." later.
Almira Skripchenko was eliminated early on while Allen Kessler survived an early coinflip with against Quinn Do's on a board to double to about 55,000.
Neil Channing has also started quickly, "I pushed in consecutive hands, I'm one of those online kids now. Having and had nothing to do with it."
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
against the Roger Hairabedian's 
on a 
{h} board to double his stack to about 60,000.
, and Kristoffersson check-called a bet of 4,300. On the turn, the 
drew checks from both players, and the 
landed on the river. Kristoffersson led out with a big bet of 14,300 into a pot of about that much, and Ivey shot him a dark stare. He'd make Kristoffersson squirm for a couple minutes before finally shaking his head and releasing his cards.
face up and was disgusted to see Kagawa show 
. Azor flipped 
and couldn't catch on the 
board.
and ahead of Kevin Eyster's 
flop, and come the spiky 
river did nothing for him, and there followed a brief argument among the rest of the table as to whether he had actually seen the six that did him in before he left. The consensus was yes, probably.
board to double to about 55,000.
had nothing to do with it."