We were over at Aage Ravn's table and noticed that a big pot was building. We caught the action on the river with a board showing and Ravn in the hand against Ilir Belluli.
Belluli led out on the river for 40,000 and this is when Ravn jammed his 172,800-chip stack in. Bulluli made the call and mucked his when Ravn turned over his , a turned set enough to strom the chip leader counts to sit as the king of the castle.
Another enormous chip stack has emerged and we caught a recent hand which showed how has been getting it done. His name is Paul Wilde and he three-bet Maria Ho's preflop 2,500-chip open to 12,500. Ho made the call and a flop was dealt.
Ho checked the flop and then Wilde bet 40,000. This bet was far more than was in the pot and prompted Ho to think heavily about the large bet. Eventually Ho got rid of her hand. Wilde then tabled his for a flopped set of aces. He then went on to say that he didn't like all those spades. "You saved me a lot of chips with that bet," said Ho.
Jason Koon was sat to the left of Phil Ivey, which makes for an interesting dynamic moving forward. Koon just used that position to maneuver Ivey off a hand.
Ivey raised from the highjack and was called by Koon and a player in the big blind en route to a flop. Ivey continued with the aggressive line as he fired 5,000. Koon was the only caller to the turn where he faced a checked. He quickly bet 12,000 and Ivey gave up and folded.
Gus Hansen opened the action to 2,800 from early position and the player in the small blind then three-bet to 6,000. It was then back on Hansen and he threw in the four-bet to 13,200. His opponent wasn't done here though and quickly shoved his stack with the fifth bet. Hansen let go of the hand, leaving himself with just 24,000 behind.
Willie Haughey became an overnight name all throughout the poker world when he announced to PokerNews he was the buyer of Peter Eastgate's bracelet back in 2010. You can read all about that here.
Haughey is still in the tournament today, and with 61,000 chips he still got a good shot a nice run. The Scot told us about running into a Royal Flush but losing only 20,000 chips in the proces. Just now we saw him raise to 2,700 and getting called by the player to his left. From the button someone three-bet to 6,900 and when both blinds folded Haughey quickly made it 17,000. Both his opponents folded and Haughey took down the pot.
We caught the action from a flop showing with Leo Boxell in the hand against one opponent. Boxell checked in front of his opponent, who then led for 10,500. This is when Boxell moved all in for around 85,000. When his opponent folded, Boxell showed for top pair and a flush draw. His opponent then said, "Had to see where i was at," while showing the . Guess he found that once Boxell shoved his stack, his jack was no good.
An under-the-gun player opened for 2,500 and received calls from the next two players to act, Grant Levy and James Dempsey. When the flop came down , the UTG player bet another 2,500, which Levy called. With action on Dempsey, he though a moment and then put out a raise to 12,500. The bet proved too much for his opponents, and Dempsey added a bit to his stack.
Pretty impressive for the man who was down to 6,000 at the dinner break on Day 1.
"I busted the Great Dane," Tony G told us with his chest puffed out wide. "Gus always wants to move in, and I trapped him!"
Aage Ravn opened with a raise to 2,500 from middle position, and Tony G looked down at in the small blind. He decided to flat, and that sent the action over to Hansen's big blind. He had , and the squeeze was on. He made it 10,000 total, Ravn folded, Tony G reraised all in, and Hansen called off the rest of his short stack.
The board ran out blank for Gus, and his Main Event has ended almost before it began.