Michael Traylor can forget those dreams of back-to-back Main Event final tables. The last check on his stack finds him at, well, zero, and about 60,000 extra chips in the stack of his neighbor Ari Engel.
We inquired, and Engel was more than happy to tell us the story -- or what he remembered of the story. "I had ace-king and he had pocket tens. All in preflop." Fair enough, Ari. We asked him what card he paired so that we could report a few more details at least, but the question was more of a stumper than we'd anticipated. Neither Engel nor any of his table mates could recall which card he paired, but it doesn't really matter if we're honest. The long and short of it is that Traylor lost his race with tens, ending his day and his shot at a second consecutive WSOPC Main Event final table.
Engel is sitting with well over 125,000 chips now.
Matt Brady opened the pot to 3,200 from late position, and he found a call from the gentleman in the big blind who matched the bet to see a flop.
It came out , and both men checked. The turned, and Brady put out a bet of 3,000. His opponent proceeded to check-raise to 14,300, sending Brady deep into the tank as he contemplated the decision for about half his stack. After a couple long minutes, he moved all in for another 13,000 or so, and his opponent instantly called to put Brady on the ropes. And the news was not good:
Brady:
Opponent:
Looking for a ten but finding none on the river, Matt Brady has been put out of his misery here today. He's running pretty bad these days, and he knows it. "I never, ever flop a queen there unless he has one too," he said on his way out the door.
Michael Traylor finished in 3rd place at the last Circuit Main Event at the Lake Tahoe stop, and he's doing just fine here on Day 1 of his shot at back-to-back final tables. During the break, we caught a ride up the escalator with Traylor.
"It's about to get real interesting in there," he said. "I just got moved to Bodog's (Ari Engel's) left."
Sure enough, we rushed back into the room just as the dealer was dealing the first hand, Traylor in the big blind. A player in early position raised, and Dave Inselberg called from the button. Traylor came along for cheap from his blind, and it was three ways to the flop. All three men checked through the to see the land on fourth street. Traylor led out with a bet of 7,000 chips now, enough to quickly fold the initial raiser. Inselberg wasn't so quickly pacified, however. "Mehhh, big blind special," he said with a bit of a cynical mood to it. After another minute or so, he looked at his cards again, exposed enough for his neighbor Engel to see what he was about to muck.
"Nit alert!" Engel said, grinning. Inselberg completed his fold, and Traylor dragged the pot to move up to about 61,000.
Three levels of after-dinner poker have come and gone, and the players are taking their penultimate break of the night. When we return, we'll play four more levels with one more break in the middle.
Jason Young's bet of 3,800 was called by an opponent. The hit the turn and Young fired 7,300, quickly getting a call from his opponent. The river brought the and Young bet once again, this time 9,700. His opponent was none too happy about it. "Oh this is so sick, you've got to be kidding me."
It took Young's opponent all but five seconds to call and flip over . Young tapped the table and mucked his cards, dropping to about 58,000.
We just wandered past Matt Glantz's table to see him sitting with heaps of chips, about 195,000 of them. The last time we eyed up his stack, it was about half of that, so we gave him a shoulder tap to find out what was what.
"Matt, did you just win a huge pot? Or have you just been chipping up?"
"No. You guys have just been doing a bad job," he said with a smirk. "I mean, not really. I did just beat a guy in a pot for like 50K. But I'm just running hot right now, hitting a lot of hands. Let me put it this way. I just open-folded king-jack because all I've been getting is aces and kings."
Aces and kings are good from what we little understand of the game of poker, and they've served Glantz's stack well enough to put him into the chip lead with about half of the field left.
Matt Brady and the aforementioned Mr. Hug have tangled up in scores of pots, the majority of them being pushed to The Hugginator from what we could see. Brady was beginning to look a bit frustrated, but things have improved in the last minute or so.
Mr. Hug opened the pot with a raise, and Matt Brady got it all in for around 12,000 with pocket kings. Hug had two queens in the hole, and he made the call to put Brady five cards from a double up. The board ran clean, too, coming out ten-high with no silly suitedness to factor in. Kings hold for Brady, and he finds himself back over his starting stack with just about 25,000 chips now.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and both men checked. The 
turned, and Brady put out a bet of 3,000. His opponent proceeded to check-raise to 14,300, sending Brady deep into the tank as he contemplated the decision for about half his stack. After a couple long minutes, he moved all in for another 13,000 or so, and his opponent instantly called to put Brady on the ropes. And the news was not good:
river, Matt Brady has been put out of his misery here today. He's running pretty bad these days, and he knows it. "I never, ever flop a queen there unless he has one too," he said on his way out the door.
to see the 
land on fourth street. Traylor led out with a bet of 7,000 chips now, enough to quickly fold the initial raiser. Inselberg wasn't so quickly pacified, however. "Mehhh, big blind special," he said with a bit of a cynical mood to it. After another minute or so, he looked at his cards again, exposed enough for his neighbor Engel to see what he was about to muck.
hit the turn and Young fired 7,300, quickly getting a call from his opponent. The river brought the 
