We noticed the far corner of the room was unusually quiet, so we made our way through the crowd of spectators to go figure out what the problem was. Humberto Brenes' chair was missing an Humberto, and table mate Darus Suharto told us the tale of his demise.
Humberto and his opponent saw a flop come down with two clubs. All of the money went in, Humberto tabling against his opponent's . A third club on the turn put Humberto in immediate danger, and he could not find another club to re-improve to his flush.
On a flop of , all the chips of Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier went into the middle. Daniel Negreanu looked him up with , and ElkY's would need to fade a lot of outs to survive.
The turn card was the , ending the drama right there as ElkY had no re-draw. With a handshake and a, "Good luck," the gregarious French pro made his way out the door.
Negreanu is now in quite good shape with about 170,000.
Bernard Lee opened the pot with a raise to 3,200 and Amnon Filippi called. The two players checked all the way as the board ran out . After Lee checked the river, Filippi said, "I mean, I guess I check."
Filippi was upset that his pocket fives got counterfeited and allowed Lee's to rake in the pot. As the pot was pushed to Lee, Filippi began cursing and complaining about the nine that hhit the river to counterfeit his hand. He's sitting on 200,000 while Lee is on 40,000.
Kevin Saul opened to 3,000 in early position, and the big blind came along as the lone caller.
Heads up, the flop brought , and both men checked. They would do the same when the turned on fourth street, and the filled out the board. The big blind finally stuck out a bet of 4,000, but Saul came right over the top with a covering raise to 25,000. His opponent thought it over for a minute or two before committing the rest of his stack with an all-in call.
Saul tabled for two pair, and it was the winner. The rest of his opponent's chips were pushed to his corner, and he's now sitting pretty with right at 200,000.
A player in early position opened the pot with a raise, and Poorya Nazari reraised from the small blind. Another raise followed, and all of Nazari's ~50,000 chips went into the middle before the flop. He tabled pocket jacks, and he quickly saw the bad news that he had run smack into pocket aces.
The board bricked off for the defending champion, and he has been eliminated here on Day 2. There'll be no repeat this year.
Daniel Negreanu is having his way so far at the PCA, and it may have more to do with his mindset away from the table than his actual card playing. After his Day 1a flight, Gloria caught up with Kid Poker to chat about his new year of poker. Check it out:
Freddy Deeb was down as low as 2,500 chips, but was able to battle back to over 14,000 before this hand happened.
Deeb opened with a raise from early position and then Chad Brown reraised from the button. Deeb moved all in and Brown made the call. Deeb was all in for 14,200 total.
Deeb held aces up against Brown's . The board ran out and Deeb climbed out of the gutter even further, moving to around 30,000 chips.
Wayne Bentley recently scooped a 50,000-chip pot after betting the river for 10,000 on a board of and getting called. He showed for the winning hand and is now on 220,000 chips.
A player under the gun raised to 2,700 and then Jason Potter called from the cutoff seat. The small blind reraised to 19,200. The original raiser folded and then Potter tank-shoved for 36,000 total. The small blind called with two kings. Potter held .
One player opened to 2,300 and then the cutoff seat reraised to 8,000. From the buttom Amit Makhija moved all in for 30,200. The first raiser folded, but the cutoff called.
Makhija held and his opponent . The board ran out and Makhija doubled to 68,000.