$5,200 Mar del Plata Main Event Day 1b | 2009 PokerStars.net LAPT Mar del Plata

Level: 10

Blinds: 600/1,200

Ante: 100

04-17-2009 22:24 UTC-4

46 Players Remaining

[user24788]

Level 10 is underway. They will be playing approximately two more levels this evening.

04-17-2009 22:36 UTC-4

Marcelo Giorgetta Eliminates David Schechter

[user37786]

This is how one looks after winning a huge pot

In perhaps the biggest pot of the tournament so far, Marcelo Giorgetta won a huge confrontation with David Schechter. With the board reading {9-Spades}

, the two players exchanged raises until Schechter stacked up his chips and pushed them in the middle. Giorgetta almost instantly did the same, and when Schechter turned over {7-Spades}

for two pair (the nines on the board counterfeited him) Giorgetta laid his {J-Spades}

on the felt.

His straight held up when the river brought the {A-Spades}

and as Schechter shook hands with his tablemates Giorgetta rocketed up to near the top of the leaderboard. He has about 105,000.

Tags: David Schechter Marcelo Giorgetta

04-17-2009 22:50 UTC-4

The Dreaded Slowdown

[user24788]

It appears that the action is slowing down as play reaches midnight. There are 45 players remaining on Day 1b. A similar thing happened on Day 1a around the same time.

04-17-2009 22:59 UTC-4

It's a festive Friday night in Mar del Plata. The casino is a little more crowded tonight since the weekend has officially begun.

Over in the casino, there was some sort of ruckus and a couple of gamblers got into a heated disagreement. The majority of railbirds cleared out of the tournament area and rushed over to the roulette tables to sweat the potential fistfight. The fracas was quickly broken up and the railbirds returned to the tournament.

A second chance tournament has been running all evening and that action is down to the final table. Team PokerStars Pro Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck went deep and cashed but she busted out when she ran into quads. Former Brazilian model Vanessa Machado advanced to the final table as one of the chipleaders and a large crowd gathered around her table.

Although Joe Hachem busted a little while ago, he's been sitting at an empty table while he's getting his back worked on by a masseuse.

04-17-2009 23:16 UTC-4

Derek Lerner Chipping Up

[user37786]

Derek Lerner (on right) commisserating with David Schechter

Derek Lerner just saw his stack grow to around 35,000 when he won a race with pocket jacks against {K-Spades}

. That race got a little close after the {8-Diamonds}

flop and the {4-Spades}

on the turn, but when the {7-Hearts}

fell on the river Lerner added substantially to his stack as we play into the night.

04-17-2009 23:22 UTC-4

Alex Gomes Eliminated

[user24788]

Alex Gomes lost most of his chips to David Normoyle. Action folded to Normoyle on the button. He raised to 3,100. Gomes was in the big blind and asked the dealer for Normoyle's chip count. After several minutes of fumbling around and counting and re-counting, the dealer revealed that Normoyle had 35,000. Gomes pushed all in. Normoyle quickly called.

Normoyle: {A-?}

Gomes:

Gomes trailed and he failed to improve. His stack was crippled and he was left with 4,000 or so in chips.

On the very next hand, action folded to Gomes on the button. He shoved without looking at his cards. Leo Fernandez called from the big blind.

Fernandez: {10-Clubs}

Gomes:

The board ran out {K-Diamonds}

. Fernandez won the pot and Gomes was eliminated on the last hand before the break.

Tags: Alex Gomes Leo Fernandez

04-17-2009 23:22 UTC-4

On Break

[user37786]

The players are out on a ten-minute break, we're going to play for approximately the first 57 minutes of level eleven to bring us in line with how long we played on Day 1a.

Level: 11

Blinds: 800/1,600

Ante: 150

04-17-2009 23:29 UTC-4