Break Time
The players are on a 20-minute break. The large number of green T25 chips in play will be colored up and taken out of play.
The players are on a 20-minute break. The large number of green T25 chips in play will be colored up and taken out of play.
Level: 3
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
It’s been a great start for Brandon Schaefer today as he's up to 66,700 chips already. We touched a little on Schaefer’s story yesterday but it’s worth going back there.
Schaefer burst onto the live poker scene way back in 2005 when his first live cash was winning a major. He won EPT Deauville for $186,582 and then went on to finish 2nd at the EPT Grand Final in the same season for another $465,853. From there he became a well known and liked figure in the poker community.
A couple of years back Schaefer decided to readdress the balance in his life and wanted something more. He decided to follow his brother into the US Army and train to become a Helicopter pilot. He started basic training last September and followed that up with several different courses like survival school. He’s now lean and fit and ready to start Flight school on June 15th.
Schaefer decided to play one event at the World Series of Poker in his two-week vacation period for “Old time’s sake,” and he’s very glad he did. It would be a great farewell story if he managed to win the gold tomorrow.
John "@johneamespoker" Eames: "Back to 40k after getting two easy streets of value. 9 left, blinds 400-800."
Ben "@TFPbenji" Jenkins: "Weak start. 35k at first break 6/7 I think. Predictably everyone's playing pretty good, except Tom Schneider who punted hard to cada."
Keith "@keiththecamel" Hawkins: "The Ivey problem lasted less than a lvl. He was in pissagainstawall mode. Calling allin pre for 50bbs with AJ. He didn't have the best hand!"
Followed by:
"If only I had enough money to do that! Played one pot and lost it. Got about 35k going back to 400-800/100."
Players are being faced with tough decisions all over the room, here are a few we've noticed in the past ten minutes.
Joe Cada's stacks sits at around 90,000 after he got the better of David Randall in a pre flop raising war.
Randall opened to 5,200 from under the gun and the action folded all the way around to Cada in the small blind who three-bet to 5,400.
Randall tried to out-muscle the former World Series of Poker Main Event champ by putting in a four-bet to 13,200. Cada calmly asked how much his opponent had, and when he found out in was about 70,000 total he five-bet to 22,200. It got the job done as Randall folded.
Bracelet winner Blair Hinkle opened a hand from the cut-off to make it 1,700. Noah Sandler in the big blind was next to act and he moved all in. Hinkle made the call pretty quickly and cards were tabled.
Hinkle:
Sandler:
A flop fell out of the deck, which gave Sandler all kinds of potential outs to steal the hand away from Hinkle. A on the turn quickly brought the winning hand to Sandler. Nothing could come on the river to put the hand back in Hinkle's favor, but the landed none the less.
A couple of hands later we noticed Hinkle leaving the tournament area going to collect his money as he was just eliminated.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Laurel Whitworth | Busted | |
Derrick Yamada | Busted | |
Ray Qartomy | Busted |
Brandon Schaefer is up to around 76,000 after he made a great river call versus Mustafa Khan.
Khan was in the big blind and led for 10,000 on the river of a board.
Schaefer called with for ace-high, beating Khan's for nine-high.
The pressure is building on the players' stacks now and we're starting to see more eliminations. Andrew Rosskamm, Todd Wright and Kory Kilpatrick were the last three to go.
Kilpatrick got his last 10,000 or so in when the action folded to him on the button. Matthew Iles was in the small blind and re-raised to isolate. It worked as Robert Deppe folded from the big blind.
Kilpatrick:
Iles:
The board ran . Not a bad flop for Iles!
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Kory Kilpatrick | Busted | |
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Todd Wright | Busted | |
Andrew Rosskamm | Busted |