We missed the hand but Chris Moneymaker has busted his first bullet. The HPO ambassador received kudos from fellow players today for his friendly demeanor at the tables and has just taken his seat for a second shot at moving on to tomorrow. Here are a few chip counts from around the room:
We got to the table and there was 3,300 in chips sitting in front of four different players pre-flop. The dealer pulled in the chips and fanned out a flop of . "I check," said the player first to act, sounded slightly disgusted. The remaining three players also checked.
The turn was the and the first three players checked to John Houck who quickly announced that he was all in for his last 14,000. His opponents folded quickly and he scooped the pot, doubling up while doing so.
It was folded to Chris Moneymaker who was in middle position and he opened to 800. He would find one caller, from the player on the button, and the two would see a flop of . Moneymaker threw out a T1,000 chip while announcing a bet of 800 and his opponent quickly folded. Moneymaker has been hovering at or near the starting stack for most of the day and was up to 18,500 at the completion of that hand.
Players are on a 15-minute break. They will return and play two more levels before taking a 60-minute dinner break. There are currently 178 entrants. Registration and reentry is open through the end of the dinner break.
We just saw Scott Schwalich exiting the tournament room and telling a friend that he was heading home. There are currently 171 entrants in the field thus far.
Two all in and calls at adjacent tables just took place. At the first table, Andrew Jeffrey moved all in for his last 7,625 after a middle position player opened for 1,100 and was called by the player on the hijack. The original raiser called and the other player folded. Jeffrey held and would double up against the of his opponent.
Barbra Walston took a chunk of chips off of Gary Chan when she would get it all in on a flop of with an open-ended straight flush draw with her . Chan was ahead with for a set of eights. The turn gave Walston the flush as it was the and the board did not pair on the river to give her the pot.