On the board of 
, an opponent bet 1,600 in Bernard Lee. Lee took his time while some ESPN cameras rolled on the action. He then popped the bet up to 4,600, a raise of 3,000 more. HIs opponent tanked and folded. Lee showed the 
for a turned two pair to move his stack up to 123,000 in chips.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
We didn't quite catch the hand, but it must have been a biggie - Melissa Hayden, on a roughly average 70,000 last we saw her, has mysteriously disappeared and her seat been occupied by another player.
With Jesus departing, David Benyamine is one of the few notable players left in the Pavillion room, but remains in good shape chip wise. At the moment, his interest seems to be more centered around a hot piece of crumpet that is avidly railing him from the rail (and understandably so), but he he did retake his seat temporarily to try and eliminate neighbor Eric Lavesque.
All in for just 3,500 from the small blind, Lavesque was called by Benyamine in the big blind before cards were revealed: the Frenchman behind, but live with 
versus 
.
The 
flop look ominous for Lavesque, as did the 
turn, but a last-ditch 
river saved his bacon.
"I'm not supposed to lose today I think," added Lavesque in victory.
But this was just a minor chink in the armor for Benyamine. He's still all smiles and boasting a stack of 153,000.
There was already 27,000 in the pot when we arrived at Jon Turner's table, his opponent leading out for 12,000 on the 
flop. Turner made a min-raise to 24,000, his opponent tanking for so long the clock was called. He ultimately folded, and Turner showed a bluff with 
.
"PearlJammer" is back up to 82,000.
Level: 9
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
It took us a little while to get through Level 8 as it was interrupted by a ninety-minute dinner break, but we got there.
As always, we took in a lot of all in situations, with many well-known players getting knocked out. Those who weren't lucky enough to be invited back for Day 3 include Layne Flack, Dan Kelly, Chris Ferguson, Roy Winston, Jon Little, Marco Traniello, Freddy Deeb, George Lind, Darvin Moon, JC Tran, Gavin Griffin, Alexander Kravchenko and Shane Schleger.
Of course, the biggest elimination of the evening was that of ten-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. His pocket sevens failed to best another player's pocket jacks and Brunson left the Amazon Room with a standing ovation from those still inside.
Gabriel Walls started the day off on top of the chip counts, but fell by 94,000 just before the end of the level and is now sitting with 316,000. That leaves David Assouline playing the title role in this game of king of the castle with 320,000 chips - not too bad considering he missed the first half of the level thinking the color up was dinner break.
Other players making moves include Vanessa Selbst who now has 240,000, Vincent Jacques with 222,000, JJ Liu with 190,000 and Phil Galfond with 173,000.
We've got one more hour of poker left to play before the entire field converges for Day 3 on Monday.
Three players limped in and a late position player raised to 4,500. Andrew Brown three-bet to 13,000 from the big blind and got folds around the table.
Brown showed and raked in the pot. He's up to 130,000.
Bryan "The Icon" Micon was heads up with an opponent at his table with the board reading 
. Micon led for 4,200 and his opponent called.
Micon opened 
for a pair of tens, his opponent mucked and The Icon is now up to 48,000 chips.
Before the dinner break, there was a big pot developing on Orange 322. The player in the 3-seat got up and walked away from the table before the action had come to him. The dealer declared that player's hand dead and mucked it.
Since that hand, the player has not been back to his seat. He didn't return for the rest of the time before the break and has not been back in the 52 minutes that have elapse since play resumed. His stack is being blinded off and currently is down to about 20,000.
Hank Azaria opened for 2,100 from early position and Jon Turner made the call from the button. Both players checked the 
flop. The turn came the 
, and Azaria led out for 5,000. Turner tossed in a call and they went to the river, which fell the 
. Azaria doubled his turn bet, making it 10,000 to go and Turner paid him off.
Azaria showed 
for aces up and Turner frustratedly mucked. He's still hovering around 55,000 in chips.
