The first casualty of the Hearts Bracket is one of the bracket's two female players. On a flop of , Michael Mizrachi opened with a bet. His opponent Vanessa Rousso then raised, prompting Mizrachi to move all in. Rousso tanked for about a minute before calling with . Mizrachi showed a better hand, . A perfunctory turn and river made Rousso first to the rail.
Gavin Smith drew "Gustav" Hansen in the first round (as Smith insists on calling him). Smith is being railed by four close friends, all of whom are drinking alcohol. Hansen has only a bottle of water at the table.
David Williams started his match against Emmitt Smith in an Emmitt Smith Dallas Cowboys jersey. He just removed it, revealing a t-shit with Charlie Sheen's face and one word: "WINNING".
The back of the t-shirt reads, "I've got tiger blood, man."
A call just went out over the PA system from players in the Hearts Bracket to come to the stage. Cards should be in the air in about 10 minutes or so.
Hearts Bracket
Kara Scott v. Andrew Robl
David Williams v. Emmitt Smith
Gavin Smith v. Gus Hansen
James Bord v. Frank Kassela
Phil Laak v. Daniel Negreanu
Michael Mizrachi v. Vanessa Rousso
Don Cheadle v. Tom Dwan
Phil Hellmuth v. David Benyamine
Please note that we're having some technical difficulties with the internet connection in the Caesars poker room. Until those difficulties are resolved we won't be able to upload any photos of the Hearts Bracket.
The clubs bracket jumped out of the gate once Scotty Nguyen finally arrived. He was back out the door a few minutes later, falling prey to Barry Greenstein's flopped two pair and turned boat. Annette Obrestad was the next quick casualty when her flush draw missed against 2010 WSOP Heads-Up Champion Ayaz Mahmood.
After some friendly banter for the cameras, Liv Boeree defeated Jason Alexander on the feature table. Not long after, Olivier "LivB" Busquet skewered Dwyte Pilgrim, making the dream Liv B v. Liv B. match a reality. Jason Mercier busted Ted Forrest, and Antonio Esfandiari went runner-runner on Nicolas Chouity to flatten his jacks with a wheel.
Esfandiari hugged the dealer and left, taking all of the momentum with him out of the room. Andy Bloch and John Juanda traded chips back and forth in what felt like a dozen all ins, while Jonathan Duhamel and Melburn Whitmire had us wondering if someone should check for a pulse. But eventually Bloch put together two all-in wins in a row to oust Juanda, and Duhamel found the sweet spot in the deck available only to former Main Event winners. With quads, a flopped flush, and a flopped set, he finally busted the second of two qualifiers to hit the rail.
Here are the club bracket match-ups for Saturday's round of 32:
Olivier Busquet v. Liv Boeree
Jason Mercier v. Andy Bloch
Barry Greenstein v. Ayaz Mahmood
Jonathan Duhamel v. Antonio Esfandiari
Action will resume with the hearts bracket at 6:45 pst.
If we tell you the board was , and that one player in the Duhamel-Whitmire match had and the other had , which hand would you say Jonathan Duhamel had?
The chips were in pre-flop. Duhamel's fours held up. He'll be back for Round 2 tomorrow. The Clubs Bracket matches are finally over.
The Duhamel-Whitmire match, now dragging into its 14th hour, saw a rare all-in pre-flop situation. Jonathan Duhamel's flopped fantastic against Melvin Whitmire's , . Whitmire was left with the incredibly unlikely running straight flush draw.
Duhamel runs better than that, of course, so it didn't come. Duhamel is now on the cusp of victory.
After enough back-and-forth to fill an entire episode, Andy Bloch has finally finished John Juanda. Bloch moved in with , and Juanda called all in with .
The flop gave Bloch top pair. Juanda wasn't out yet, as the on the turn gave him five outs. But the river paired the board, and with kings and eights, Bloch moves on to play Jason Mercier tomorrow. We'll see if Bloch's "run like a human being" can stand Mercier's heat.
Somehow, Jonathan Duhamel and Melburn Whitmire are still going. There has only been one all in on their table so far.