Dave Stann raised from early position to 1,050, and both Jamie Rosen and Matt Marafioti called from the small and big blind, respectively. The ESPN cameras were rolling as the dealer burned a card.
The three men took a flop of , and the blinds checked to the raiser. Stann continued out with 2,025 and Rosen quickly folded. Marafioti fumbled with his chips, though, rocking back and forth from a rather aggressive massage that he's in the middle of. Finally, he collected 7,650 chips and slid them into the pot on a check-raise. Stann didn't like it, throwing his arms up into the air. With a heavy sigh, he shuffled a handful of chips and rhetorically asked, "Right here? You wanna do it right here?"
After another few seconds, though, "Hollywood" Dave folded and the camera crew dispersed.
Facing a raise to 1,025, Jonathan Tamayo three-bet to 3,000 from the big blind.
His opponent jammed all in for roughly 20,000 and Tamayo made the call.
Tamayo:
Opponent:
The flop left Tamayo in trouble needing one of his two remaining kings or a combination of backdoor straight or flush cards.
Fortunately for Tamayo, the dealer delivered the on the turn to complete one of his backdoor draws, and when the landed on the river, Tamayo eliminated his opponent while climbing to 63,500 in chips.
A player opened for 1,300 from under the gun -- a bit more than a 3x raise -- and Johnny Chan called from the button. Then the player in the big blind reraised to 5,000, and both the original raiser and Chan called.
The flop came . It checked to Chan who bet 5,000, and only the player in the big blind called. The turn brought the . This time Chan's opponent took the initiative, betting 11,000. Chan thought about it, then called.
The river was the . Chan's opponent checked, and Chan didn't hesitate before setting out a stack of about 17,000 -- enough to put his opponent all in. His opponent folded, saying he had hearts.
The 1987 and 1988 WSOP Main Event winner continues his good start to the 2010 ME. He has about 172,000 as we draw near the end of Level 5.
David "Devilfish" Ulliott raised from late position to 1,200 and found three callers including David Sklansky in the small blind to see a flop of .
Action checked to Ulliott who fired 3,000. The cutoff folded as did Sklansky but the big blind made the call.
The turn was the and the big blind checked to Ulliott fired another 3,000 with his opponent making the call as the completed the board. Again it was checked to Ulliott who bet 10,000, but his opponent gave it up.
Ulliott claimed he had a queen-high flush as his opponent said he folded a king.
"Good fold, good fold," chirped Ulliott as he moved up to 53,000.
For some of these players Level 5 started on Monday, for others Wednesday, but it concluded only moments ago for all of them. The words "All in and a call!" rang through the Amazon and Pavillion rooms every few minutes as short stacks attempted to get something going here on Day 2A of the Main Event.
Two short-stacks enjoying early double-ups were Dennis Phillips and Howard "Tahoe" Andrew, the latter doubling through Sam Farha. Rather than shoving for her last 5,500 over her opponent's three-bet, Tiffany Michelle mistakenly flat-called, but found a seven from heaven on the flop, making her a set and snapping off her opponent's pocket aces to double her back to her 30,000 starting stack.
This hour's most notable elimination was Hall of Famer Mike Sexton. Sexton looked good to triple up when he got his stack in with pocket kings against pocket queens and pocket nines, however, a nine hit the flop, leading his lucky opponent to launch into an obnoxious celebration.
We've only played but an hour, but the players have just been sent on their first break. We'll see you in twenty minutes.
Right before the break, Jonathan Karamalakis raised to 900, and from middle position, Peter Jetten reraised to 2,400. The small blind made it 10,500 total, and after Karamalakis folded, Jetten called all in for 10,050 total. Jetten had the best of it with , while his unhappy opponent showed . The board ran out , and Jetten doubled to 21,500.
He tweeted that ESPN's cameras had come to the table just before the hand, and he fortuitously picked up aces against kings, so the "whole table thinks it was rigged."