Phil Ivey has bought in and he has chips on the table being blinded away but he has yet to arrive. The first report was he was going to be an hour late. An hour passed and we moved into level two but still no Mr Ivey.
Then a floor man told me that he was to arrive in a few minutes but after a few minutes passed I was told he's actually still on the beach. Can't blame him really as the beaches are very nice here with lots of nice things to look at like .....erm...... yachts!
Video game superstar, Fata1ity, had just seen 'Game Over' flash before his eyes. A player raised from first position to 400, another player called before Fata1ity reraised to 1,450. The first position player then raised again, to a total of 10,000. The other player folded before Fata1ity threw in his last 5,000 chip.
Fata1ity flipped over but was in bad shape against his opponent's .
David "Chino" Rheem has been a bit on the active side here in the early going, and his chip stack has been suffering for it. We picked up the action in another pot involving Rheem.
Prior to the flop, a player in middle position opened the betting with a raise to 400. The player next to act called, as did Chino from the small blind.
The flop revealed . Chino checked to the raiser, who bet 1,600. The next player called, and action was back to Rheem, who check-raised to 4,500 total. The raiser called, while the third player in the hand surrendered his cards.
Heads up then, the turn brought the . Both men checked.
The river was the . Chino again took control of the betting, flicking out a single peach T5,000 chip. His opponent fingered his stack for a few minutes before re-checking his hole cards one more time and sliding them into the muck.
Chino Rheem raked in a nice little pot without a showdown, and he was back in business. That win was good enough to work him back to his start-of-the-day count, now sitting with 20,600 chips.
All around the room players are fanning themselves with all sorts of makeshift fans ranging from paper plates to hats, as the poker room is quite hot and humid. Pictured here, Evelyn Ng has taken the creative approach and is fanning herself with her passport. Sorry, Evy -- your fanboy has prior obligations.
A player under the gun and Antonio Esfandiari, two seats along, both saw a raised pot with a flop of .
It was checked to Esfandiari who bet 600, a bet that his opponent called before the turn came . Esfandiari bet 1,600 this time and found a caller once more before the river came .
3,500 was the bet size from Esfandiari after it was checked once more to him and he took the pot with .