Pros are like buses - frequently late and when they do come, they arrive all at once. Add to the list: John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Jared Hamby, Isaac Haxton, Jeff Madsen, Sorel Mizzi, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and... woot woot... Shannon Elizabeth.
On a board of Scott Seiver bet 325 into a pot with 400 chips in the middle. He got called by David Yingling who showed , which was better than Seiver's .
Yingling is now up to 6,400 while Seiver has slipped to 3,300.
We were passing a table when a whirring sound grabbed our attention. As we approached, we noticed that an all-in player - who we later unearthed as Tom Naygrow - had wound up a toy nun and let her run wild across the felt.
His opponent, meanwhile, was mulling over his decision, but quickly made the call with . As Nagrow tabled , he wound up the nun once again and off she went. "OK, Tom, no bad beats," commanded Naygrow as the nun repeated her route.
Flop:
"Oh, Tom," he added, but the turn and river were both safe, the and hitting the felt for a double up to 1,700 and keeping both him and the nun alive.
"Get your chips, Tom" he concluded, still referring to himself in the third person.
We arrived at Court Harrington's table to see him bet 600 from the small blind into a pot of 1,000 on a board reading . When a player in early position called we were treated to a turn of which both players checked.
The river was the and Harrington checked to his opponent who bet 1,100 into the pot with Harrington making a quick call. Harrington mucked when his opponent showed .
When we asked Harrington's opponent to share his name with us he pointed to his shirt, which had his name printed on it and read "Karolis Grybauskas".
Harrington asked, "Does that happen so often that you have to get a shirt with your name printed on it?"
Grybauskas replied, "It's the spelling. It's complicated.
Harrington seemed to agree, saying, "It looks a little complicated for me."
Scott "SC Trojans" Freeman has been eliminated within the opening level. On a board of , Freeman found himself all in for his final 1,250 with , thus allowing the remaining two players, one of whom was former EPT finalist Jon Dull, to battle it out for the side pot.
But the action went no further than the flop, a raising war leading to Dull getting it all in with against an inferior . A harmless turn and river later and Dull found himself among the early chip leaders with 9,200, whilst SC Trojans was wiped from the hard drive.
Isaac Haxton had raised it to 200 from early position and got three callers including Marc Convey in middle position, the player in the cutoff and the player in the big blind.
The flop came and the big blind checked to Haxton who bet 600 into the pot. Convey was the only caller with the big blind and cutoff folding.
On a turn of Haxton went all in for 2,600 and Convey tanked while Haxton took a sip of his beer. Convey eventually folded and told him he could see one card. Convey made his pick and got a peek at Haxton's .
PokerStars.com sponsored pro JP Kelly and online titan Andrew Lichtenberger reached the river of a board where Kelly bet 2,000 into a pot of around 1,500. Lichtenberger made the call, but quickly mucked upon being show for a flopped open-ended straight flush draw which made a straight on the turn. As a result, Lichtenberger is down to 6,100, whilst Kelly has surpassed him with 7,000.
We were a little late getting to this pot, but arrived in time to see John Little bet 1,100 into a flop of . He got called from his opponent and both players checked the on the turn.
When the came on the river Little took some time before deciding to check. His opponent was also slow to act, but eventually bet 1,550 into the pot. Little double-checked his cards, arranged his chips, and eventually made the call.
Little's opponent showed and Little, unable to beat it, mucked his hand. He's still sitting with about 6,000 chips, though.