Lex Veldhuis has had a fine start -- we arrived just in time to see him flip over pocket kings on the river of a queen-high board and rake in the mammoth pot that had accumulated during the hand.
He's up to an early chip-leading 48,000, at the expense of the hapless young qualifier to his right, who looks as though he might cry.
Frenchman Anthony Roux has picked up several thousand chips early on, the board was reading . Roux flipping which had pipped his opponent's , despite some confusion from the dealer.
A fine start for Robert Mizrachi as he raised under the gun and got called by the button and both blinds to see a flop.
It checked all around, and the saw a turn. Julian Thew in the small blind bet 500, but only the gent in the big blind was deterred, and both Mizrachi and the gentleman on the button called.
They saw a river and now Thew checked. Mizrachi turned the aggression back on and bet 2,600; both players folded, and Mizrachi was above his starting stack.
The final board read with the pot standing at around 9,000 chips. Lex Veldhuis fired a bet of 6,875. His opponent in the hand raised to 17,875. Veldhuis made the call and tabled pocket eights -- . His opponent flashed two fours from his hand, having flopped a smaller set. Veldhuis is now up to 60,000 chips.
Winner of the past WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Atlantic City, Samuel Chartier, raised to 250. Alex Kravchenko was next to act and called. The cutoff, small blind and big blind also called.
The five players saw the flop come down . Action checked to Kravchenko and he fired 700 into the pot. One by one, each player folded and Kravchenko added a nice little pot to his stack here in the early goings.
We have only Maceiras left in today's field after the untimely exit of Juan Maceiras.
The gent next to him tried to explain in very broken English what happened, but bloggers are woefully not trained in pidgin. It seems as though the gentleman in seat 1 had been playing literally every hand and Maceiras attempted to play back at him -- but mistimed a move against the seat 1 player who also found folding difficult, and he is done.
It now falls to his sister Maria to defend the Maceiras family name.
Ok he doesn't, but he's playing as though he needs to win it all today. Veldhuis has a whooping 90,000 already.
He eliminated one of the players on his table after it all went in on the turn of a board. Veldhuis held the rather nutty against his foe's .
The Dutchman easily managed to avoid the on the river when the came instead and now has a stack big enough that he can go and chill on the beach for the rest of the day. But he probably won't.