Every time we pass by Kurt Jewell's table, he's raking in a pot. Most recently, we saw a board reading with around 9,500 in the middle. Jewell had fired out 5,550 after his opponent checked, with the latter making the call.
Jewell confidently revealed and his opponent slung his two cards to the muck. With that, Jewell is up to 80,000.
At the beginning of the day, we had a gentleman jokingly tell us he was ready for his interview. We politely replied that we'd rather wait until he won the tournament. Well, that same gentleman, named Jim Baker of Jacksonville, Illinois, is well on his way to securing that interview as he is sitting with a big stack of 85,000.
It looks to be among the biggest in the room, if not the biggest.
We just talked to Eric Crain and told us he was eliminated. We asked if he was going to play the evening session but he wasn't sure. He was burning the midnight oil last night in a juicy 13-hour HORSE cash game.
On a board reading and about 3,000 in the pot, the player in the small blind bet only to have Dennis Phillips raise to 3,350 from the big. A player in middle position got out of the way, the small blind called and the was put out on the river.
After the small blind checked, Phillips grabbed his stack, about 7,000, and spiked it into the pot. The small blind thought for a few moments before tossing in a call, only to muck when the former November Niner rolled over for top-two pair.
With about 10,000 in the pot and a board reading , Kurt Jewell bet 3,800 from the under-the-gun position into his sole opponent, who made the call. When the appeared on the river, Jewell came out with a healthy bet of 10,000, which his opponent also called. The Harrah's Tunica Main Event champ rolled over for a straight, which was good enough to win as his opponent simply mucked.
We didn't catch the action on the hand but we found Joe Hebda facing a large bet on the river. He leaned back in his chair and said, "I'm 95% sure have ace king."
The board showed and Hebda elected to call. His opponent tabled for the runner-runner straight instead of the runner-runner two pair. Hebda nodded an mucked his hand.
While we're live blogging the Main Event here at Harrah's St. Louis, we can't help but notice Event #10 $1,090 No Limit Hold'em, which is taking place right in front of our work area. That event started yesterday with 229 players, creating a prize pool of $222, 130, but recommenced with jut 22 players.
Now, that field has been reduced to the final table which includes such players as Amanda Musumeci, AP Phahurat and Kyle Cartwright. The latter of the three is going for his fourth WSOP Circuit gold ring, his last coming at this stop last year when he won the Main Event!