Just as Ben Roberts arrives to push the star factor of table 21A into the stratosphere, we lose one of our leading characters -- Daniel Negreanu, who is moved to the next table over, directly to the left of the big-stacked Thomas Fougeron.
We have 12 tables and 118 players left, with an average chip count of 18,500.
This, despite being on what is unquestionably the toughest table in the room, with a wall of five tough players side-by-side: de Wolfe, Lieu, Negreanu, Ben Roberts, and Mel Judah.
Phillips is on 66,000.
115 players remain, with just under two hours of play left on Day 1B.
Liz Lieu
A high-quality table, attracting enough spectators to make it difficult for us to report on.
Seat one, we have Trevor Reardon.
Seat five, Roland de Wolfe.
Seat six, Liz Lieu.
Seat seven, Daniel Negreanu.
Seat nine, Mel Judah.
New arrival Mel Judah went straight into the action, tangling with Liz Lieu.
With 12,000 in the middle, Liz Lieu moves all in for 9,500 on a board of .
Day 1A survivor Liam Flood walks up behind me and says, "Put down your notepad, he's never calling that." After a longish dwell up, Judah folds, and in his best schoolmaster voice Flood tells me: "See, I told you so." Lieu is up to 21,000 and Judah down to 17,000.
Steve Brecher
Brecher raised 1,300 from early position and an opponent who was similarly short-stacked moved all in for 5,000, which just had Brecher covered. Brecher showed:
While his opponent showed:
Brecher was looking good to double up, until the arrived on the river to send Brecher to the rail.
Noah Boeken
Noah Boeken is in real trouble, after making a call that he will have 20 minutes to ponder over during the upcoming break.
On a board of:
Boeken bet 4,000 into a 13,000 pot. His opponent moved all in for 13,000 and Boeken went into the tank. He reluctantly called after a long dwell and his opponent turned over the nut flush with . Boeken flashed his hand, , and is now down to 2,000 in chips.