Mike Matusow called out, "Justin, how many chips you got left in this thing?" Justin Smith just got done playing a five-hour heads-up match over in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, which he won to move on. Smith registered for this event as well and just let himself get blinded off while he played in the other room. Matusow went to check on Smith and saw that he had 1,200 chips left.
"About as much as I got," said Matusow. He then looked around the table and said, "Don't worry, you got this idiot, this idiot and that idiot at your table, you're fine," while he pointed to a few players at Smith's current table. One of those players was Adam Friedman, who spoke up.
"We can playing anything you want, Mike. Deuce-to-seven, stud, anything," said Friedman. Matusow just laughed and wandered back to his own table before Friedman called out, "I'll give you eight cards in stud!"
The clock has been paused for another 20-minute break. The green T25 chips will be raced off during this break and when we return, the last two levels of the evening will be played out.
Archie Karas just won a pot worth 8,000 chips from Jacobo Fernandez to move himself up to 18,000. He held numero uno and Fernandez mucked his hand, dropping back to 8,000 chips.
Robert Mizrachi, who recently busted from the $50,000 Player's Championship, wandered over towards the 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball tournament area and asked tournament director Jack Effel is it was too late to register for this event. Both Effel and Mizrachi got a good laugh from it before Mizrachi returned to watch his brother play at the final table a few yards away.
Mickey Appleman raised before Richard Tothcalled. Both players drew two cards and Appleman bet. Toth raised and Appleman called.
Appleman drew one and Toth stood pat. Appleman check-called a bet from Toth before drawing one more on the last round. Toth stood pat again. Both players then checked.
Toth tabled the and Appleman mucked. He dropped to 18,000 while Toth boosted himself to 6,300.
Maria Ho, Sigi Stockinger and one other player just played a nice pot over on one of the tables in the tournament area after Ho had raised preflop, Stockinger called, the other player reraised to get himself all and both Ho and Stockinger called. On the first draw, all three players drew two cards. Ho bet and was called by Stockinger. On the next draw, each player drew one card. Ho bet again and was called by Stockinger again.
On the final draw, Ho drew one, Stockinger stood pat and the all-in player drew one. Ho checked, Stockinger bet, Ho called.
Stockinger held the and beat the all-in player who held the . Ho mucked her hand and didn't show. She dropped to 12,250, Stockinger boosted himself to 16,250 and the other player was eliminated.
While watching John "Tex" Barch double up, Allen Kessler came darting over to make sure we got what was going on at Table 334. There was a dispute betweel Raphael Zimmerman and the other players at the table on whether or not there was another round of draws left. Zimmerman was heads up with an opponent and believed that he still had one draw. Zimmerman's opponent thought the hand was over and had tabled the . Zimmerman made a solid case to the floor staff and his argument was granted a look on the surveillance tape to get the correct ruling.
Knowing that this could take a while, the players at the table began to complain and wanted the clock paused because they would lose some very valuable time and hands due to the process involved. At the current time, Zimmerman couldn't beat his opponent's hand so the staff and players decided to give Zimmerman his next draw. If he failed to beat his opponent's hand, it wouldn't matter whether there was no draws left or one and they could move on. Instead, Zimmerman pulled a to make the and now was ahead. Therefore, going to the cameras was a must. After arguing about that for a little bit, David Baker suggested that the pot at hand be put to the side and the next hand continued on. Zimmerman and his opponent had enough chips that it was suggested they may not go broke in the next few hands so they could continue to play without the controversial pot awarded yet. Zimmerman objected to this and the wait for the ruling was on.
After several minutes of standing around and talking about what all the commotion was about, the ruling finally came back. It was ruled that Zimmerman was indeed correct that there was one more draw to be had and his wound up winning the pot with his seventy-six. The other player let Zimmerman have it a bit after the hand, claiming that he cried and complained and should just keep quiet.
Zimmerman won the pot and now has 25,000 chips as action resumed back to normal.
and Appleman mucked. He dropped to 18,000 while Toth boosted himself to 6,300.
. Ho mucked her hand and didn't show. She dropped to 12,250, Stockinger boosted himself to 16,250 and the other player was eliminated.