Four players, including Phil Ivey, saw a flop of for the price of 1,600 chips. Everybody checked and the turn brought the . A gentlemen in early position fired 5,000, one player folded, another player called and then Ivey cooly tossed out four blue T5,000 chips, raising to 20,000. The original bettor tanked for no less than two minutes, called off almost half of his stack and the remaining player folded.
The river was the and Ivey's opponent instantly moved all in. Ivey called even quicker, tabling for a full house. His opponent unhappily flashed for a worse full house and hit the rail.
Look out Daniel Negreanu, Ivey has 90,000 chips now and is among the chip leaders.
We caught up with the action on a board. Arnaud Mattern had already acted, and his opponent called 11,600 from the French Pro.
When the hit the turn, Mattern went all in for roughly 33,000. His opponent called immediately, tabling . Mattern was drawing with , but failed to get there when the hit the river, ending his tournament.
We didn't catch the action but made our way to the table just in time to see Jeff Madsen double. He had laying in front of him on a board while his opponent held . Your guess is as good as ours as to when the money went it, but either way Madsen is back up to 30,000.
With about 10,000 in the pot and a board reading , Hoyt Corkins checked to his opponent on the button, who bet 4,200. Corkins then showed some true grit and check-raised to 11,000, leaving himself only 19,000 behind. The button tanked for a few minutes before folding his hand. Corkins is up to around 45,000.
Mike "goleafsgoeh" Leah was faced with a 16,000-chip bet with the board reading and about 19,000 in the middle.
Leah tanked for a very long time and even took his sunglasses off to the astonishment of the whole table. Finally, after counting down his whole stack, he cut out enough chips to make the call and flipped them into the pot.
His opponent sheepishly turned over for a rivered flush and Leah flashed for a flopped set of queens before mucking.
Leah is now down around the starting stack with 34,000 chips to his name.
We wrote a post not too long ago about a Bernard Lee double, and he recently did it again! In the hand, a player raised to 2,000, Lee called, another player reraised to 7,500, the initial raiser folded, and Lee again called.
The two saw the flop fall and Lee led out for 8,500 only to have his opponent raise to 18,000. After a call, the dealer burned and turned a . This time Lee checked, his opponent moved all in, and Lee snap-called with for top two pair. His opponent revealed pocket tens and couldn't hit the river as a peeled off. Lee took down the monster pot and increased his stack to nearly 165,000!
We caught the action on a board which Dmitry Stelmak had checked. Ronnie Bardah bet 9,000 and was stunned to see Stelmak pop it to 23,500.
Bardah asked, "Do you really have ace-jack? Or are you just turning your hand into a bluff?"
Not only did Stelmak not answer, he called the clock while Bardah thought it over. As the time ran down Bardah called, but saw the bad news as Stelmak tabled .
Stelmak: Up to roughly 80,000
Bardah: Down to about 40,000
Way back at the 1997 World Series of Poker, the poker world watched as Stu Ungar made an unfathomable return to the poker world. The winner of the 1980 and 1981 WSOP Main Events had battled back from drugs and alcohol to claim his record third WSOP title. The media quickly dubbed him the "Comeback Kid" and the rest is history.
While Ungar's win was truly incredible, it happened to overshadow the fact that another man by the name of John Strzemp came awfully close to being crowned World Champion. Strzemp, a highly successful casino executive, played Ungar heads-up in the Las Vegas heat for the $1,000,000 first-place prize (Yes, that year's final table was played outdoors). Strzemp played well, but try as he might, it was ultimately Ungar's day.
Strzemp will have another shot at glory as he is playing in today's PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure Main Event. He may be an old While of the old school, Strzemp has the experience to make something happen. He has nine WSOP cashes to his credit, his most recent coming this past year in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event, for a total of $685,653.