There was a raise to 1,800 and Todd Saffron looked down at two nines and bumped it to 3,700. The original raiser called and ripped it in for 25,000 on a flop.
Saffron called with the mortal nuts and it turned out the raiser had overplayed big slick. Two bricks on the turn and river gave Saffron the checkmark, and the chip lead.
Toronto, Canada's Fabio Buomaguro had not played poker for two years before registering today.
He hasn't forgotten how to play, but the details of his meteoric rise to 80,000 and into the chip lead over the past level seemed to escape him for a moment.
He tried floating some fabulous fabrication that involved queens over jacks and set over set, but it all seemed less than plausible. Then, he suddenly recalled catching a four on the river to turn into a straight in a big pot.
If Buomaguro's story sounds too good to be true, that's probably because it is.
Peter Raimondi led, Jason Nablo three-bet and Mike Crystal shoved in with the shorter stack. By the time the rest of the preflop action was over, everybody was all in and the hands were turned on their backs.
Nablo:
Raimondi:
Crystal:
It was a classic three-way all in match up and although he was ahead, Nablo started calling for an ace before the flop. He continued doing so through the turn, and karma finally caught up with him on the river.
Raimondi scooped with the set and both Crystal and Nablo were sent packing.
"What am I gonna do, call for no ten and then a ten comes," Nablo said on the way out the door. "I guess that's what happened anyway, but that's the way you gotta do it."
They're down to 40 from 159 entries and playing at four ten-handed tables.
Should they lose 21 more players over the next couple of levels, leaving 12 percent of the field remaining, play will be stopped and the 19 left will bag and tag headed to Day 2 tomorrow.
If not, they will play down to ten minutes left in Level 14 and draw to determine a number of hands left to play.
Rochester, NY's Steve Braverman has taken hold of the chip lead as we move into the late levels.
He made a straight in a massive pot moments ago to climb within 10,000 of 200,000 and now sits on top of a pack of players above the 100,000 mark.
Braverman claimed to have turned that straight, although it came four cards to Broadway on the river and he pushed in over a bet, forcing a fold before mucking.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
into a straight in a big pot.
flop. He continued doing so through the 
turn, and karma finally caught up with him on the 
river.
