We got to Jeff Madsen's table just as he check-called a river bet from Jesus Cortes.
The board read 
and Madsen was in the big blind. Cortes was on the button and mucked when his bet was called.
Madsen has had a great first level.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
62,000
18,000
|
18,000 |
|
||
Level: 12
Blinds: 1,200/2,400
Ante: 0
Daniel Negreanu got moved to a new table after his old one broke, but his opponents aren't getting any weaker. Erik Seidel is very short but the all time money leader in live tournament poker is always someone to be aware off. Seidel has $16,918,173 in live earnings and none other than Negreanu himself currently sits in second place with $16,129,219.
Matt Hawrilenko is one of the other studs at this table as he amassed over $1.6 million in live tournament earnings. His biggest result came in 2009 when he won the $5,000 6-max tournament cashing just over one million dollars. Hawrilenko is mostly known for being a top notch online Limit Hold'em player under the handle HOSS_TBF.
The fourth player we recognized was Matt Graham. Graham is not as well known as his rivals but he should be considering he won two WSOP bracelets. Back in 2008 Graham won the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Shootout cashing $278,180. His biggest result came in the following year when he won the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship for $679,402. Plenty of big names still left in this thing as we are down to 171 players.
Seated at a table with Amnon Filippi we found a new chip leader. Ryan Miller has a massive 94,000 chip stack in front of him and that means he more than doubled up since the start of the day. We will keep track of Miller to see if he can keep this early run going.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
94,000
52,100
|
52,100 |
|
||
Nikolai Yakovenko started the day as the tournament chip leader and he just lost a pot to EPT Dortmund 2009 third place finisher Marc Gork. Gork cashed $388,200 for his biggest tournament result, Yakovenko had his biggest result in 2010 when he finished fourth in WPT Mashantucket for $170,773. These two players are sitting next to each other and Gork just won an important hand for his stack.
Yakovenko raised from the cutoff, Gork called from the button and the player in the small blind called as well. The flop came down 
and Yakovenko bet 1,000 after the small blind checked. Gork raised, the small blind folded, and Yakovenko called.
The turn was the 
and Yakovenko check-folded to Gork's 2,000 chip bet. Gork is climbing on day two while Yakovenko lost some chips early on.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
52,000
-9,600
|
-9,600 |
|
22,000
11,800
|
11,800 |
As we approached Phil Hellmuth's table we noticed that Leif Force had been eliminated from the next table.
Anyway, back to Hellmuth who was in mid position when he three-bet an early position raise. His opponent called to the 
flop where he check-called a 200 c-bet from "The Brat."
The turn fell 
and Hellmuth saw his second bullet, for 400, called as well.
It was the same deal on the 
river and both players revealed their hands.
Hellmuth: 
for the high.
Opponent: 
for the low.
Chop it up, boys.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted | |
|
||
David Chiu is known as a phenomenal mixed game player and has a bracelet in the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split event back in 2005. He will have a lot of work to do today as he just got quartered and is down to 18,000 chips.
Four players saw a 
flop and the first player to act betted out. David Chiu called, his neighbor followed and Bertrand 'Elky' Grospellier folded his cards. The turn was the 
and the first player checked. Chiu now threw out a 2,000 bet and both his opponents called. The river was the and everyone checked.
David Chiu tabled 
, the flop agressor showed 
for a straight to take the high and Chiu chopped the low when the other player tabled his 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
18,000
-1,300
|
-1,300 |
|
||
Things are a little easier for Allen Cunningham and Daniel Negreanu now as Jason Mercier has been eliminated.
Negreanu kindly told us that Mercier made a straight but lost out to his neighbour, who made a flush.
We probably caught the end of the first hand of the day at the tough table with Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu. The latter started talking to himself and ended up making the call he knew he shouldn't make.
The board read 
and Negreanu's opponent had checked to him. The Canadian pro had a bet out and his opponent had put in a raise. "Do you have ace-deuce-four? Yeah. You must have ace-deuce-four. Or maybe even ace-ace-four?", Negreanu seemed to be pretty sure his opponent had him beat, but didn't want to let go of his hand just yet. After tanking and talking some more he reluctantly threw in the call and got showed 
. "I hadn't even thought about that one", Negreanu sighed as he tapped his cards and double checked the board. "Three quarters?", Jason Mercier smiled to Negreanu who laughed and mucked his hand.
The feared table with Allen Cunningham and David 'Bakes' Baker just got broken and Cunningham got moved to this table.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
38,200
-6,800
|
-6,800 |
|
||
We're lucky here on media row as if we look to our left we see two interesting match-ups.
Allen Cunningham is probably not so happy to have David "Bakes" Baker sat next to him, but at least he has him to his right.
Two tables along from there Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier have each other for company.
