While watching a hand at a different table, we saw Barry Greenstein drift out of the tournament. Victor Ramdin (sitting in the seat to the left of the one formerly occupied by the Bear) charged us a dollar to tell us that Greenstein ran into Tony Vo's .
The board ran out and Greenstein was sent to the rail.
Kyle Zartman raised 5,000 on the button on a board. One of his opponents moved all in, earning a quick fold from the second player to act. It was back to Kyle, who needed to call 9,400 more. He didn't look happy about the spot but made the call anyway. The at-risk player didn't even have to sweat a river, though. As soon as the guy showed for a wheel and the nut flush draw, Zartman tossed his hand into the muck. The meaningless river was the , and Zartman counted out the chips he owed, dropping to under 15,000.
Dan Frank raised to 950 from middle position and the cutoff seat called. Eric Siegel called from the big blind as well and the flop came down .
Siegel checked and Frank checked as well. The cutoff fired 1,325 and Siegel made the call. Frank folded.
The turn was the and Siegel checked. HIs opponent fired 3,475 and Siegel called.
The river completed the board with the and Siegel checked. His opponent checked behind after a moment of thought, then revealed the . Siegel bested him with the and raked in the chips to bump himself up to 37,000.
Jonathan Aguiar got a chunk of his stack in the middle on a flop. His opponent checked the turn, and Aguiar bet 3,850. The other player made a fatal error, moving all in. Aguiar snap-called, tabling for top set. His opponent had flopped two pair and turned a flush draw with . The river was a black eight, and Aguair doubled to 38,000. His opponent was left crippled with 3,500.
Calling the floor has been a running theme throughout the first part of this day. Chau Giang just requested a floor after the dealer at his table called Giang for a string.
"I've been playing poker for thirty years and that's never been called a string," Giang complained. With the hand already concluded, the dealer wasn't sure if Giang really wanted a floor. He replied that he did, so he could know for the future if his action was allowed.
We didn't see the betting motion that was called a string, but the dealer responded that Giang made two betting motions, apparently by backhandedly tossing chips across the betting line with both of his hands but not at the same time.
A floor was called but by the time he arrived at the table, Giang seemed unwilling to press the point.
Jason Young just informed us that he's had a nice little heater to run his stack up to 40,000 chips after being as low as 8,000 at one point. Since, things have gone the other way.
He raised to 725 and got two callers. The three of them took a flop of and Young fired 1,625. Only one player called.
The turn was a and Young fired 2,575. His opponent raised to 6,000 and Young called. The river blanked off and Young check-called 5,000 from his opponent. Young held two pair with , but his opponent had turned a straight with the .
Things don't seem to be going Tom "durrrr" Dwan's way so far today. He called a bet of 5,000 on the turn of a board that came , but folded for another 5,000 after the river. durrr's stack is down to about 17,000.
Losing the hand didn't stop durrrrr from asking his opponent about a recommended New York pizza joint, apparently picking up the thread of an earlier conversation.
Over at Table 54, stacked with Joe Cada, Christian Harder, Phil Collins, Ravi Raghavan, and David Levi, the floor was called over.
We rushed over to see what the fuss was about. Apparently, David Levi's second card was pitched under the rail of the table and couldn't be retrieved. After a few failed attempts at lifting the rail, the floor ruled that the hand would continue and the missing card would serve as the burn card.
The hand resulted in a walk for the big blind and the dealer switched to a new deck.
There are still seven tables of players in the poker room, down from the original fifteen. What's unusual is that a few tables in the front corner of the main tournament room have already been broken. Perhaps the tournament staff are intending to start moving tables en masse from the poker room to the main tournament room.
A few counts taken at random from the poker room include: