Phil Hellmuth had a difficult hour of play here today, having slipped down to 1,750 when the following hand took place.
The table had folded to Hellmuth who raised to 350 from the button. The small blind folded, then the BB pushed all in. Hellmuth instantly called, turning over 
, but his opponent had him in bad shape with 
.
The board came 
, and Hellmuth's brief sojourn here at Event No. 3 had ended.
Cory Dowd just hit a little bit of a rush over on Table 37 in the Pavilion. On the first hand of his two-hand rush, a player moved all in for 1,100 before Dowd was to act on the flop of 
. Dowd made the call and then the other opponent left to act folded his hand. Dowd held the 
and was up against the all-in player's 
. The turn and river blanked off with the and 
to give Dowd the pot and elimination.
Two hands later, a player in middle position raised to 150 before the cutoff seat flat-called. Dowd was in the big blind and reraised to 500. The original raiser folded and then the cutoff hemmed and hawed over his decision. After a minute or so, he tossed in the call, leaving himself with only 400 chips remaining.
The flop came down 
and Dowd bet 400 in order to put his opponent all in. The player mulled over the decision again, looking like he just didn't want to go bust. He did toss the chips in though and actually held the best hand with his pocket deuces. Dowd held the 
for a boatload of outs, any ace, king, ten or nine would do it.
The turn gave Dowd more outs when the 
his and now any card above an eight would give him the pot. The river was the 
and did it for Dowd, counterfeiting the all-in player's hand and giving Dowd a better two pair with an ace kicker.
After those two hands, Dowd is now up to 14,500 chips.
Alex Kravchenko was just now all in for his last 1,500 with 
against Tracey Nguyen’s . The flop came 
, giving Nguyen a lesser pair. The 
turn brought her a flush draw, which came in with the river, knocking out Kravchencko.
Nguyen is up to 6,500.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Well, it's not that bad, but Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron has taken a bit of a hit.
The flop read 
when we caught up with the action; the action comprised one Steve Gordon in mid position going all in for a roughly pot-sized 2,000. Isaac Baron, his sole opponent in the hand, made some brief mental calculations, and then called.
Baron: 
Gordon: just pipping him with
Turn: 
River:
Baron dropped to a still respectable 6,000, while Gordon is now his chip equal on also 6,000.
Team PokerStars Pro Pat Pezzin has come close to a WSOP bracelet before, making three final tables including a runner-up finish in the 2009 WSOP Limit Hold'em Championship event ($10,000 buy-in). He's also had a fine month of May, having several cashes and deep finishes in the recently completed PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker.
No such good fortune for Pezzin today, however. Indeed, on his last hand of the afternoon it couldn't get much worse.
Pezzin opened for 550 in early position and must have been delighted when another player reraised to 1,450. Pezzin made it all in for 3,700, his opponent snap-called, and they flipped the cards.
Reraiser/Snap-Caller: 
Pezzin: had every right to feel confident with
Board:
Quad tens was not what Pezzin wanted to see, and he departed the tournament without delay.
Random player, to tablemate Theo Tran:
"I can't give you any information, you're too good."
No sooner than we had reported him doubling up than Erick Lindgren succumbed.
Back down to 750, he open-shoved with and was called by the gentleman in the cutoff holding 
. The cutoff improved to a flush on the 
board, and Lindgren signed an autograph for him before telling tablemate Tim Phan, "Gotta go," and heading in the general direction of away.
Erick Lindgren, reduced to just 600 chips, open-shoved and picked up a caller on the button.
Lindgren: 
Button Gentleman: 
Board: 
Lindgren doubled up, and his short-stacked grinding odyssey continues.
Level 4 has begun, and registration has been closed for an hour, meaning we can safely report the total entrants for this first of six $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em events in this summer's Series has come to 4,345. That would mean (if our math is correct) that we had 1,744 come out today for Day 1b, joining the 2,601 from yesterday.
Right now the board is showing a rounded-off-looking-number of 1,200 of our Day 1b entrants are still remaining.
Incidentally, one of those 1,200 -- just arrived near the end of Level 3 -- is 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, frequent conqueror of these low buy-in NLHE events. We'd heard something about a lime-green colored experiment in fashion for the Poker Brat recently, but today he's returned to his more familiar "man in black" look.
Level: 4
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
