"Ship it," we heard an overly excited Mikel Habb bellow, a celebration that caught the attention of the entire room. We made our way over to discover that he had just eliminated an opponent after spiking the river.
We're not sure of the action, but it appeared the chips went in on the river with the board reading . Habb had the out in front of him for a rivered set, which had cracked the set of his opponent. Habb, who finished 23rd in the WSOP APAC Main Event back in October, continued to celebrate while Chris Moorman, who was also seated at the table, told us, "He got all my chips as well."
Jorn Walthaus's stack has risen to 47,000 after he rivered in a flush in a hand against heavyweights Dermot Blain and Matt Ashton.
All three were still involved once the hand had reached the river of a board. Action checked to Walthaus on the button and he bet 4,500. Ashton tank-folded from the big blind and Blain called from early position but folded upon seeing his Dutch opponent's .
It took us a while to spot Ben Wilinofsky in the crowd today. We knew he was here as we saw him just before play started. There was also the quandary of who the player covering most of his face with a head scarf was. Then it clicked and we had the answer to both questions.
The man and the scarf have left the scene though after Wilinofsky put his tournament on the line with an open-ended straight draw. Carter Swidler was his opponent and went nowhere with his pocket aces. They held up and his stack rose to 42,000.
With 2,800 in the pot and a flop of , reigning Aussie Millions champ Ami Barer, who has been fairly active this level, bet 875 from middle position and received a call from Ben Wilinofsky, who is disguising himself with some headwear. Both players then checked the turn as well as the river.
Barer flashed , and while we didn't catch a glimpse of his kicker it must have been low as Wilinofsky tabled the and was pushed the pot.
Sam Trickett is busy testing his poker brain against the best in the world over in the AU$100k Challenge and his best friend Chris Sly is going along nicely in the Main Event.
The Brit, already with a couple of cashes at this year's festival, has risen to 37,000 after winning a pot off defending champion, Ami Barer.
He raised to 500 and was called in one spot before Barer squeezed to 2,125 from the small blind. Sly was the only caller and two went heads up to an flop that was checked. On the turn, Barer check-folded to a 2,300 bet.
Mikal Blomlie got off to a rough start here on Day 1a as he quickly dropped below the starting stack. Fortunately for him, he just won a decent pot to get up to 26,000.
We happened upon the pot when there was 8,000 or so in the middle and a board reading . A player in early position led out for a hefty bet of 5,000, and Blomlie made a relatively quick call. The bettor hesitantly tabled the for two pair, but he seemed to know it was no good even before Blomlie showed the winning .