We came to Pat Dillon's table with a flop showing and Dillon in the hand against Yann Dion. Dillon led for 8,500 on the flop and Dion made the call.
The on the turn saw Dillon continue his aggression, this time leading out for 21,000. His opponent thought for some time and made the call.
The river and Dillon would again bet, this time making it 35,000. Dion then thought for almost a minute before flinging in the call.
"You're good," said Dillon as he unenthusiastically tabled his for a stone cold bluff. Dillion was then surprised to see his opponent held , with Dion making a great call to see his stack rise up the chip counts.
Jason Koon and Phil Ivey have been sitting next to each other for the better part of day 2, but so far we are still waiting for their first big clash. Just now we were hoping to see some fireworks when there was a raise from early position and three players called among which Koon and Ivey from the cut-off and button.
The flop came down and all players checked. On the turn, the , the same thing happened and the river was the . It got checked all the way around to Jason Koon who bet 26,500 from the button. Everyone folded to Ivey who tanked for a bit and flicked into the pot. Koon tabled and Ivey mucked his cards.
It wasn't the firework we were hoping for, but it's a start. Ivey and Koon could still play the first million chip pot even though both players have found a good way of accumulating chips without risking too much.
Things have been going rather well for the 2006 champion of this event since we last checked on him. It wasn't that long ago — this level, in fact — that we counted Lee Nelson down at about 170,000. He's got well over twice that now.
We walked up to Nelson's table in time to see him open the hijack to 6,500, and the player to his left made the call in position to go heads up to the flop. It came , and Nelson checked it over. His opponent stole Nelson's idea and made a repeat bet of 6,500 which was quickly called, and the paired the board on the turn. Now Nelson led back out into the pot with 13,000 of his own chips, and his opponent shot a glance before uncapping his cards and mucking them.
There are now almost 400,000 chips in front of Mr. Nelson, and he's in the middle of quite a nice looking massage right now.
Tom "durrrr" Dwan doesn't seem like the type of man to call a clock on another player, but it just happened. Granted, Tom Grigg was literally in the tank for ten minutes, so it was justified, but it was a first for us.
It happened on a board with about 160,000 in the pot. After the river card was put out, Dwan moved all in for 101,500 and put Grigg, who had around 115,000 behind, to the test. "Oh, this is so sick," Grigg said at the beginning of the hand.
Fast forward about 90 seconds and Grigg says, "I've got one of these bad boys," while pointing to one of the kings. All the while Dwan imitates a statue and remains motionless, without so much as a blink. Grigg is obviously fishing for a reaction, but he was obviously barking up the wrong tree.
A couple of minutes later, approaching about minute seven in the tank, Grigg asks, "Will you show me if I fold?" Again, Dwan, who has in earbuds, remains motionless and looks exactly as he did at the beginning of the hand.
"Mr. Dwan?" Grigg pleads one last time. Nothing.
"He's donked every street," Grigg says in frustration to his friends. In a last ditch attempt to get a reaction from Dwan, Grigg waves in durrrr's line of sight, which actually a reaction . . . a clock being called. About midway through the clock, and after being in the tank for more than ten minutes, Griggs finally let his hand go.
Dwan silently slid his cards to the muck, blinking furiously to rewet his dry eyes, while Griggs simply said, "He would have shown a bluff."
The shortest stack in the room got his last 15,500 chips into the pot from early position, and David Steicke made the call all the way around the table in the blinds. The at-risk player turned up for his tournament life. Steicke was ahead with , and he was a favorite to notch the knockout.
The board rolled out , and that's all she wrote for the shorty.
The under the gun player limped and the rest of the table got out of the way before the Kenna James called in the small. The big blind tapped the table and the flop was dealt. All parties checked as the turn was dealt. This time James led for 9,500 and the big blind got out of the way, while the under the gun player called.
The on the river prompted James to bet, this time making it 17,000. James' opponent sent his cards into the muck and James took down the pot. After he won the pot James got out of his seat and walked to the table next to his. The table in question had gathered quite the crowd as a hand involving Tom Dwan and Tom Grigg had been going on for ten minutes. "Thought i better join the herd," James said to our PokerNews reporters as they gathered all the action. Stay tuned for that exciting hand in just a few moments.
The number on the big board has ticked its way down to 100 as we speak, and we're really bearing down on the bubble quickly here. The final 72 players will earn paychecks here this week.
The irony is not lost on us that Tony G was just knocked out by a player that won a package to play here on Party Poker.
Diego Zeiter opened to 6,000 and Tong G defended his big blind to see a flop. Tony G check-raised all-in and was called. He tabled the drawing and failed to catch up versus his opponent's .