Toby Lewis is a hard player to shake off a hand, and Jim Collopy is a player who hates to give up on a hand too. Something had to give when they clashed, and Collopy had to empty the clip to get the thing won to move up to 31,000 chips.
We got there on the flop but it looked as if Collopy had three-bet an opening raise from Lewis in the cut-off whilst sat in the small blind. The American, now residing in Melbourne, bet 1,575, 3,375, and 8,875 on the board. Lewis called the flop and turn bets quickly, but took a lot longer to fold on the river after Collopy had taken equally as long to make his bet. Lewis dropped to 22,000 chips.
Van Marcus was under the gun when he opened the action to 800 from under the gun. Marcus received calls from three players as the flop was dealt. Marcus continued leading into the pot on the flop, throwing out 3,000 which was almost half his stack. The player directly to Marcus' left then shoved his stack in and the rest of the table got out of the way. Marcus made the call and the two players turned their hands over.
Marcus:
Opponent:
Marcus was in trouble and when the turn and river bricked out, it was all over for him as he headed to the exit.
Phil Willcocks made a name for himself by finishing on the final table of a couple of events in Melbourne last year, and he's going along okay with around 12,000 chips today. He's sat at the same table with Chris Moorman (35,000) and just forced him off a hand before he either needled the Brit, or made a really silly comment.
After Moorman had folded from the button to a Willcocks big blind three-bet, he mentioned the spelling on the Brit's cap. Moorman has a hat on with the Nintendo character Luigi on one side and the words Moorman No 1 on the other. Willcocks mentioned that it was spelled wrong before Moorman told him it was his surname. Willcocks either thought it was a Morman religious cap or was on the wind-up.
There are currently 373 players registered in this tournament. That number equals the field of last year's $1,100 short handed event. With another hour of registration left, it can be assumed that this year's tournament is set to feature more entrants. Here is a look at how some of the current players are doing.
Jamie Rosen is cruising with around 35,000 and looks like he's having a lot of fun, even when he's losing pots.
He raised to 400 from UTG and was called in two spots en route to a flop. He continued for 800 and was only called by his neighbour. Both players checked the turn to head to the river. Rosen checked again and mucked before his opponent could make a bet. This prompted laughter from Rosen and a couple of other table mates.
Vitaly Lunkin explained to us in broken English how he had his aces cracked to bust. His opponent held king-jack and found a king on the flop and a jack on the river to make two-pair. The Russian two-time bracelet winner said hid opponent made a bad turn call but played his hand very well on the river to get the rest of his chips.