While the chip stack of Humberto Brenes has been more-or-less constant today, his seating situation has been unenviable, to say the least.
Brenes began the day with position on his son Roberto, and both of the Breneses had to deal with Angel Guillen at their table. Roberto was moved early on, and now dad and Guillen have had their table broken. We missed where Guillen disappeared to because we were following Brenes across the room with our eyes. He stopped over here at a table near us, and he's just sat down on the direct left of another Team PokerStars Pro, Argentina's Leo Fernandez.
After a player in middle position opened with a raise to 400 and the small blind called, Leandro Csome reraised to 1,700 from the big blind. The original raiser and the small blind both called to see the flop. The small blind checked and Csome fired 1,600. The middle-position player called and the small blind folded.
The turn was the and paired the board. Both players checked to see the fall on the river. Csome bet 2,000 and his opponent made the call.
Csome tabled the and his opponent slid his hand into the muck.
Last season, Csome took fifth in the LAPT São Paulo Main Event for R$117,190. We'll see if he can find another final table this year after getting off to a nice start.
After one player checked the flop, Team PokerStars Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo fired 800. Her opponent fired back with a check-raise to 2,125 and then de Melo asked to see the player's stack. She then reraised all in and her opponent snap-called.
De Melo showed the ., but was no good against her opponent's .
The turn was the and river the . De Melo sent over the chips, paying off her opponent's all-in bet worth 7,750 and was knocked back to 6,300.
Four players limped into the last pot, the small blind completed, and the big blind knocked the table for a free, six-way flop.
It came out , and the table checked all the way around to Fox, who was on the button. He bet 800 into the pot of 1,200, and now only one opponent called to proceed. The turn came the , and Fox put out another 1,700. His opponent check-raised to 4,000, though, and Fox didn't waste too much time matching the bet.
The blank was the last card off the deck, and the check-raiser checked once again. Fox took pause to study the scenario, then made a 4,000-chip bet of his own. His opponent folded without incident, and the WSOPE Main Event champion has rebounded back up above starting stack.
Registration was closed around 2:00 PM, and we're still waiting for a tally from the tournament staff. The number on the board has been stuck at 363 for quite a while now, though, so we'll call that our unofficial field size for the time being.
We'll give you the official number and the prize pool as soon as it's made available to us.
From the under-the-gun position, Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero raised to 500. He was called by three players; one in middle position, one on the button and the big blind.
The flop produced the and action checked to Barbero. He bet 1,000 and only the button made the call to see the fall on the turn. Barbero checked, as did his opponent.
The completed the board on the river and Barbero checked. His opponent bet 2,100 and Barbero went into the tank for a few long minutes. After about the third minute of his tank, his opponent requested that the clock be placed on Barbero. It was and he had 60 seconds to make a decision before his hand was declared dead.
After about 45 seconds, Barbero called, but mucked when he saw his opponent table the for top pair of kings.
Angel Guillen was the preflop raiser, and he continued out with another 950 chips on the . It was three-way action with an opponent on either side of Guillen, and they both matched his bet to see the turn card.
It was the , and now the table checked to the gentleman with position in the hijack seat. He made a bet of 1,900, enough to fold the third player in the hand and send the decision back to Guillen. "Un azul?" he asked of his opponent, making sure he had just one blue T5,000 chip left. That was indeed the case as the gentleman was sitting with 6,050 after making his bet. Guillen promptly called, and the landed on the river. When Guillen checked again, his opponent put about half his remaining chips into the pot with a final bet of 3,000.
Guillen spent a long while in the tank, considering the call for a significant chunk of his own stack. After a couple long minutes, though, he surrendered with a bit of frustration showing on his face.
Mr. Opponent took the opportunity to keep things friendly. He flashed his , showing Guillen his good fold and turning his frown back into a more neutral expression.