Allen Kessler limped into the pot, and Arnaud Mattern raised to 750. He found four callers including Kessler, and off they went to a flop. Mattern continued out with 2,200 chips, only to be check-raised all in for his last ~16,000 by one of the villains in the hand. Mattern quickly put himself at risk with for the set, and he was ahead of his opponent's .
There were a lot of spades for Mattern sweat, but the turn and river bricked off to double him up to about 34,000.
Mattern has just won another small pot with the same pocket tens, climbing further to about 38,000.
"The Big Event" turned out to be a little less big than the staff would have hoped, but the turnout is still respectable. Another 154 players turned up for this Day 1b to bring the total field up to 417.
A big part of the reason for the slightly anemic turnout? A whole slew of massive online tournaments running today. A few players in the field are trying to sneak their way through a few orbits of online play, but the floor staff has just made another announcement.
"You can not play on the poker website," came the call. "You'll have to shut down."
There's not quite $11.5 million in our prize pool here, but we'll have the full numbers and the breakdown for you as soon as we can.
We didn't catch the hand but Jennifer Tilly recently busted from the Big Event. On the flip side, Daniel Alaei has joined the festivities and has take a seat to Barry Greenstein's immediate right.
In a pot of 1,575, three players saw a flop of . Jason Alexander was first to act in the big blind and he led out with a bet of 1,500. An opponent in early position made the call while the third player got out of the way, leading to the on the turn.
Alexander wasted little time in betting 3,000, which his opponent called. When the hit the river, Alexander lowered his bet to 2,000 and received a call.
Alexander:
Opponent:
Big slick worked for "George" and he is up to 37,000.
Arnaud Mattern opened to 700 from the cutoff seat, and the player in the big blind reraised to 1,650. Mattern has some history with this player from the course of this Day 1b, and he called to go heads up to the flop.
It came , and the small blind continued out with an overbet of 5,000 in the form of a single blue chip. Mattern flatted, and both players checked through the turn. On the river, the small blind loaded up 15,000 and flicked it forward. Mattern instantly called.
The small blind knocked the table in acknowledgement that he'd been caught, sheepishly turning up his . Mattern showed down , and kings up earns him another big pot. Mark him down for 67,000 now.
Action folded to the button and he raised to 700. Carter Phillips called from the small blind and the flop came down . Phillips checked and the button bet 700. Phillips called.
The turn brought the and both players checked to see the fall on the river. Phillips bet 1,400 and his opponent made the call.
Phillips tabled the , but was beat by the button's . Phillips lost the pot and slipped to 32,000 in chips.
While there has been plenty of noise from Table 21 throughout the day, it has come in the form of chit chat rather than action. Recently, action folded to Amit Makhija on the button and he raised to 750. Both players called as the flop fell . Check, check, bet 1,000, fold, and fold is how the action went. Makhija took down the tiny pot and is sitting with 37,000, which is behind his neighbor-to-the-left, Daniel Negreanu, who has a stack of 47,000.
On the flop of , Barry Greenstein check-raised his opponent's bet of 2,250 to 5,000. The player called and the turn paired the board with the . Both players checked and the river completed the board with the . Both checked again.
Greenstein tabled the for aces and nines with a five kicker. His opponent double checked his hand and then tossed it into the muck. Greenstein improved to 30,000 in chips.
We walked up to Jason Alexander's table just after the firefight had taken place. There was 5,050 in the pot, Alexander had 8,000 chips in front of him, and Bruce Antman had the all-in button out in front of him. We're not sure whether the money went in preflop or on the flop, but either way it was bad news for Alexander as he showed up against Antman's .
The board ran out , and the queens hold for Antman. The stacks were close so they had to be broken down, and it took several minutes to verify that Alexander had been eliminated. "Can I go home now?" he asked. The dealer dismissed him, and "George" walked out the double doors and out of The Bike.
Antman now appears to be the chip leader with about 83,000 in front of him.