We played 10 levels of poker today in Event 52, the $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em event. The final tally of players was 854, with all sort of notables turning out.
By the end of the night, only roughly 153 of them had survived. Several players were fighting for the overnight chip lead, but it seemed that Tim Horan, with about 150,000 chips, may have edged out Anthony Spinella's 145,000 by eliminating a player on one of the last hands of the night. Horan's pocket kings held against the all-in player's ace-king to give Horan the boost to the top.
Still in the hunt is a name that we've heard bandied about a lot at this 2009 WSOP: Jeffrey Lisandro. Lisandro's count was about 114,000 chips. He was joined by Blake Cahail at 125,000 and several other six figure stacks.
Play resumed at 2pm tomorrow as the tournament tries to play down to the final 9. PokerNews will have all the action. See you then!
Michael Mizrachi was down to one last card in this tournament, but he found the card he needed. After J.J. Liu opened for 2,500 and was called by a player in late position, Mizrachi moved all in for 12,500. Liu called the raise; the third player called all in for roughly the same amount, leading to a three-way showdown.
Liu:
Mizrachi:
Opponent:
Liu looked good on a flop and even better on the turn. But this is a game with five community cards, not four, and it was the fifth that changed things around. The hit the river to give Mizrachi a pair of kings. He dragged the whole pot to climb to 40,000. Liu is down to 90,000, and the third player is out.
We saw none of the action. We only saw open cards -- Maria Mayrinck's had fallen to an opponent's on a board of X [we missed the last board card]. As the stacks were counted down, it was clear that Mayrinck's opponent had her covered.
Uttering a sentiment that thousands of poker players before her have felt, Mayrinck said "I feel like such a failure," before retiring to the rail.
It was an open-raise to 2,800 in front of Antonio Esfandiari before he reraised to 10,000. A player behind Esfandiari moved in for 10,000 more on top. After the open-raiser folded, Esfandiari called with . He was up against , but paired his king on a flop of and never looked back. With two more blanks on the board, Esfandiari took down the pot to eliminate an opponent and increase his chip count to 70,000.
With 54 minutes left on the clock, the field has been trimmed down to 189 players. 81 of those players will be paid, with 81st earning $5,892 and 1st place taking him just more than half a million dollars.
Andy Black will not be among those 81. He just exited the Amazon Room via a back door -- but not before stopping to tell Noah Schwartz his bad beat story that we reported below.
Hold'em is such an ugly game at times. You do everything right, get your chips in about as good as you can, and then the board goes and mucks it all up.
Andy Black knows. He opened preflop for 2,200, then watched as the next player to act made it 6,000 to go and the next player after that moved all in for 27,600. Black moved his whole stack of 42,000 in, isolating the all-in player.
"I think I'm in trouble," said the player as he opened . Black showed and had to be pleased with a dry flop of . The all-in player was already out of his chair as the came down, but paused briefly when he realized he had life.
"One jack one time?" he asked. The table groaned on Black's behalf when the river fell to make a Broadway straight for the all in player.
Black was stoic in defeat. He paid off the required chips and then offered a quiet and terse, "Well done." Black's stack is at 14,000.
Clonie Gowen seems to be still building off of her double up from Chris Ferguson earlier.
As we approached her table she was all in for 20,600 (with about 20,000 in the pot). The board read . Her lone opponent folded and she now moves above the 40,000 mark.