Michael Chrisanthopoulos has had a fair bit of success today. Catching the right cards at the right times doesn't hurt. He looked down at after a short stack moved all in for 2,200. Chrisanthopoulous made an easy call and found himself in great shape against his opponent's . A board of improved neither player; Chrisanthopoulous dragged the pot and eliminated his opponent. He is up to 20,000 in chips.
Sam Youssef
Sam Youssef has brought the full bag of tricks out today and is putting on a show for his fans.
His latest bit of magic involved making a standard raise with his preflop and getting a call from an opponent in late position holding .
Before the flop had been revealed, Youssef announced that he was all in. The flop came .
"I got top set, I call," said his opponent in a flash of premature glory.
The turn spiked a set for Youssef with the , leaving his opponent drawing to a lone case nine to win the hand. He didn't hit, and Sam Youssef continues his run, now sitting at around 14,500.
For such a big field, today's tournament has moved surprisingly quickly. We're down under the 100 mark, with now only 98 players remaining.
With 12 levels of play scheduled, there have been rumous that play will continue right through until the end of level 12 without a break for dinner. Some hungry stomachs may not agree with this decision, but it will mean that play will wrap up for the day at a somewhat respectable hour of the evening. We hope to have an official word on this shortly.
Lauren McIver has just found a much needed double up. She moved all in for 2,300 over the top of an opening raiser and caller. One opponent made the pot committed call with as McIver showed .
The board ran out to give McIver two pair and more than a double up to 6,500.
Mick Stanton stands over the table, awaiting the board.
Sam Youssef must have been beside himself after opening a pot to 1,700. Why, you ask? Because of the action that came after his raise. One player moved all in for 2,200, and then Mick Stanton moved all in for about 3,000, after which Michael Turner moved all in for a total of 35,000! The action came back to Youssef, who flashed his cards to Emad Tahtouh before making an unhappy fold. That left three players in the hand. The first showed , with Stanton showing , and Turner holding .
"If I lose this hand, you're swimming with the fishes," Stanton jokingly warned the dealer. Stanton did not lose the hand as the board ran out , allowing his aces to hold up. He now has about 10,000 chips. Turner still has roughly 30,000.
Fireworks are a plenty at table 30. Recently we reported on Sam Youssef's escape act, as well as Dennis Huntly's miracle river full house, both of which took place there.
The table is also loaded with big name players including Mick "The Hoon" Stanton, Mel Judah, Emad Tahtouh, and the aforementioned Sam Youssef and Dennis Huntly.
The only question is which of those guys will be left at the end of Day 1A. Stay tuned.
Things continue to go well for David Griffiths in today's Day 1a flight. He called a raise to 1,500 from the small blind and took a flop of . He checked to the raiser, who made a bet of 1,500. Griffiths check-raised to 4,000 but his opponent was undeterred, moving his whole stack of 10,500 into the middle. Griffiths had to call 6,500 to win 17,500. It wasn't exactly the best price, but with chips to burn, Griffiths did indeed make the call, tabling for the nut flush draw. He was well behind his opponent's set of sixes, . The turn was a blank, the , but the river made Griffiths a club flush without filling up his opponent.
Antonis Kambouris was recently crippled and then eliminated from today's event. He had moved all in preflop from under the gun with , but ran into an opponent's . The board bricked out to leave Kambouris with only 650 in chips.
The next hand he was all in from the big blind with just but ran into an opponent's pocket kings. The board didn't produce any miracles as it fell to send Kambouris and his toothpick to the exit.