Messrs Barry Greenstein, Luca Pagano and Andreas Hoivold are all sharing a table, along with six frankly unhappy looking random gentlemen. Good luck, everyone!
2001 WSOP Main Event Champion Carlos Mortensen raised to 550 from middle position, and the player on the button made the call. The flop came , and Mortensen continued by again betting 550. His opponent called. The turn was the . This time Mortensen checked, his opponent bet 2,000, Mortensen check-raised to 4,000, and the button called.
The river was the . Mortensen fired out 5,000, and his opponent let it go. Mortensen is off to a good start, chipping up to 39,000 here in the early going.
Some excellent fortune for Jeremiah Smith as he found his opponent limp-reraising him when Smith himself was looking down at . The chips went in, his opponent tabled the inevitable , and, "Way to start the day," commented a cheerful Smith as he doubled up to 63,000.
Another early exit to report. Just had a player decide pocket queens were good enough to commit all those chips -- 300 big blinds -- before the flop, and Angelo Ricci was willing to compete with him with his pocket aces.
Ricci's aces held, and another one is out before his seat even got warm. Ricci is up to 62,000.
Eddy Sabat raised to 300 from middle position, and it folded around to Owen Crowe who called from the big blind. The flop came . Crowe checked, Sabat made a small bet of 125, Crowe check-raised to 325, and Sabat called. Both then checked the turn.
The river was the , and both checked again. Both players showed aces, but Sabat had a deuce to go with his and the pair was good enough to take the small pot. Sabat has 32,000.
Chris Moneymaker just brought up an interesting question to the tournament floor staff regarding the Jack's Links Four-of-a-kind Jacks promotion.
Their tabled was just dealt of flop of three jacks and wondered if a fourth jack was dealt on board whether they would all be eligible to win the Jack's Links prize pack.
"Well, only the player with four of a kind jacks would receive the prize..." came the response.
"But we'd all have four of a kind," chirped Moneymaker, obviously a fan of the Jack's Links product.
"Well...yes...you are right," was the reply from the floor staff, "Those players with live cards would be eligible for the prize."
We believe that the table may have now agreed to check down any board which contains four jacks.
Our field today includes no fewer than three distinct Brunsons -- daddy Brunson Doyle, mid-sized Brunson Todd and baby Brunson, Pam. We wonder how many last-longers are floating around that particular family today...