Mike Watson was one of the shorter stacks after just a few orbits but he just managed to win another big pot. Watson is now among the bigger stacks and he turned things around nicely in a short period of time.
Watson raised under the gun to 1,000 and Jesse Sylvia made the call from the cutoff. The flop brought out and Watson decided to check. Sylvia fired out 1,400 and Watson called.
On the turn the hit and Watson check-called 3,600. The river brought the and this time Watson check-called 10,800. Sylvia showed and mucked when Watsons showed his .
Jesse Sylvia can relax a little as he just managed to chip up nicely in his first level of play. Sylvia raised to 1,000 from middle position and Vanessa Selbst three-bet from the cutoff to 2,600. Andreas Eiler called from the big blind and Sylvia called as well.
The flop brought and all three players checked. On the turn the hit and Sylvia picked up the pot with a 5,700-chip bet.
In a button versus small blind confrontation it was Mike Watson who risked all his chips. Watson was seated in the small blind and turned over for his tournament life. His opponent, Vanessa Selbst, showed and Watson was in great shape.
Elio Fox raised from the hijack to 1,200 and both Grant Levy and Antonio Esfandiari called. The flop brought out and Esfandiari was the only one to call Fox's 1,800-chip bet.
The turn brought the and this time Esfandiari check-folded to Fox's 4,600-chip bet.
Antonio Esfandiari is keeping the "Lodden Thinks" game going at his table. This time, he asked our reporter to think of the number of contacts that Edward Kim had in his phone. The question was prompted before Kim busted out, but the table and Esfandiari didn't get around to bidding until after he was eliminated.
Our reporter locked in his number, and the bidding went on. After a few minutes, Esfandiari asked for the number.
"1,141," responded our reporter, showing him the paper he wrote it down on to verify.
""Thank you!" responded Esfandiari with a big smile across his face.
Esfandiari had won the bet as the table bought under 200. The table was very much surprised with how high our reporter guessed, but the reporter explained his thought process. First, Kim had his iPhone squarely on the table in view. Most iPhones nowadays are synced up with people's Facebook accounts, other social media sites and emails. Then there's the regular phone numbers in the phone. Our reporter himself has 1,235 contacts in his phone, so the number really isn't as absurd as the table thought.
"Dinner's on me," Esfandiari said to our reporter with a big smile as some more money was shipped his way.
The tournament just got a whole lot tougher because Erik Seidel sat down. Seidel took Edward Kim's former seat to balance both tables and make the each eight handed.
We missed the action before the river but with 7,000 chips in the pot the board read . Antonio Esfandiari bet 3,700 from middle position and Edward Kim raised it up to 15,000. Esfandiari proceeded to move all in and Kim went into the tank for a very long time.
A couple of minutes went by but eventually Kim made the call. He showed for a full house but that wasn't enough against Esfandiari's for a rivered full house. Kim was the first player to leave the tournament but Esfandiari called him back.
"Hey Ed! I don't want to be the barrer of bad news, but you owe $200 for Lodden Thinks," Esfandiari said as Kim apologized and paid up to settle the prop bet. This was all in good spirits and Esfandiari was of course in the best mood of all.