While every other table in the Amazon Room is playing with blinds of 50 and 100, the players at Blue #1 (Jamie Gold's table) are playing with blinds of 25 and 50. Neither the dealer nor any of the players at the table seem to have noticed or cared. We'll keep an eye on it to see how long it takes before someone mentions it to the dealer.
Gold has played almost every hand so far. One of his opponents just asked him where his banner is (banners of past champions are hung around the Amazon Room). He replied, "It's two over from the question mark. There's the question mark for this year, Jerry Yang for last year, then me."
David Levi sat down in his seat, folded one hand, said hello to Kenna James, and then played his next hand.
James Namken and Levi went to the flop and watched the dealer spread the across the felt. Levi checked and Namken bet out 500. Levi raised it up to 1,500 and Namken called.
The turn was the and both players checked. The river was the and Levi bet out 2,000. His opponent verbally made the call.
Levi showed for a full house and his opponent shipped over the 2,000 that he owed.
Erick Lindgren is at the ESPN TV table and his good friend Daniel Negreanu is playing at the feature table just outside the Milwaukee's Best Light Lounge. Also playing today are Haralabos Voulgaris and David Bach.
Andy Black limped in from under the gun and another player in early position limped along. The action folded to the small blind, who raised it up to 350. The big blind and the two limpers made the call.
The four players took a flop of and it was checked around. The turn was the and the small blind fired out a bet of 2,100. Black was the lone caller as the other two players stepped aside.
The river was the and the small blind checked to Black who fired out 5,000. The small blind called and tabled . Black cringed and tossed his cards into the muck, as he gets off to a rocky start.
Australian boxer Jeff "The Marrickville Mauler" Fenech, who won three World Championship titles in the 1980s, is in the field today. 21 of his 28 career wins came by knockout, and he's no doubt looking to repeat that performance today, albeit by raking in chips rather than delivering punches.
Though he works primarily as a trainer these days, the 43-year-old Fenech recently came out of retirement to fight 49-year-old former rival Azumah Nelson in a "grudge match" last month in Australia, which he won.
By the turn of , Dustin Sitar was all in against a late-position opponent. His opponent called and Sitar had his opponent covered by 150 chips.
Sitar held and his opponent held . The turn of the and river of failed to bring the miracle one-outer for Sitar's opponent and Sitar doubled up to 38,000 chips.
Forty-five minutes into Level 1, a new dealer pushed into Blue #1. The players in the blinds had posted 25 and 50, prompting the dealer to ask them to post 50 and 100. Imagine nine players looking somewhat stunned, then all simultaneously turning to look at the tournament clock to confirm that yes, the blinds have been 50 and 100 for the whole level.
"Whoops," said Jamie Gold. "We've been playing our own game over here."