Jon "PearlJammer" Turner raised to 1,400 and the two blinds made the call. The flop came down and action checked over to Turner. He fired 1,900 and his opponents folded.
Turner's built his stack up to 86,000 chips here so far on Day 1.
The tournament is on the slightest of pauses to allow the green (25) chips to be colored off of each of the remaining tables. As soon as that's completed we'll be on to the last level of the day.
After calling a preflop raise, Jimmy Fricke was in position versus one player on the flop of . His opponent bet 4,000 and Fricke made the call.
The turn was the and the player led for 8,000 into Fricke. Fricke folded his hand and slipped to 100,000, but is still one of the bigger stacks in the room.
After a player raised to 2,200 from under the gun, Bob Lauria called from the next seat and then the button called as well. Also making the preflop call was the small blind, bringing four players to the flop.
The flop came down and everyone checked. After the fell on the turn, it seemed like no one wanted the pot as they all checked again. The river card was the and prompted a bet of 5,000 from the small blind. Only Lauria made the call.
The small blind tabled the for two pair, aces and eights, with a jack kicker. Lauria mucked his hand and dropped down to 55,000.
It's been a ponderous day for Joe Hachem. He put 12,000 chips into the pot on a board of only to see his lone opponent move all in for 28,500 total. Hachem thought, and thought, and thought some more. It was a solid two or three minutes in the tank before Hachem reluctantly surrendered his hand.
Hachem's holding on at around 25,000 but hasn't been able to get much going so far.
After the cutoff seat raised to 2,400, Carter Phillips three-bet to 6,900 from the button. Blair Hinkle was in the big blind and asked for a count on Phillips' stack. After getting an approximate number, he folded his hand. The cutoff seat made the call.
The two players took a flop of and the cutoff checked. Phillips stayed on the gas with a bet of 7,800. His opponent made the call.
The turn card was the and again, the cutoff seat tapped the table, moving the action to Phillips. The former EPT Barcelona winner fired 17,100 and this time, his opponent folded, letting Phillips scoop the pot.
David Steicke was once again curious about his progress compared to the rest of the field.
"Anyone over 200 yet?" he inquired. We haven't seen any 200,000-chip stacks yet but with a half hour to go it's time for the final push. The shortest of the short will be looking to double up or go home while the big stacks will be looking to punish the passivity of the players who want to just coast into Day 2 from here.
Now Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, Jason "JP OSU" Potter, Matt "mattg1983" Graham, and James "croll103" Carroll are sitting in a row. Just add sweat pants, and this might as well be the Sunday Million. It's been a good half an hour since that table saw a flop, but they're getting in hands at almost online speed.
One of the four of them raises every hand and everyone insta-mucks as if they've already clicked the "fold" box. And on to the next hand. Occasionally one of the other players at the table works up the courage to raise, and the guys take turns three-betting to make sure no one gets carried away. This is their table. Don't even bother.