Thus Day One of the PNC Main Event comes to a close.
129 players have been whittled down to a mere 33 in just eight hours of play, and it looks as though it might be a short day tomorrow. Mark Vos currently leads by an astounding 2-to-1 ratio over anyone else, while Marcel Luske and Franciscus Dekkers take second and third places respectively in the counts for the time being. Notable players who fell by the wayside today and will presumably be spending tomorrow skiing instead include Tony G, Erich Kollmann, Markus Golser, David Saab, Noah Boeken and, on the very last hand of the night, John Duthie.
Join us tomorrow from 2pm GMT+1 when we will be playing down to our final table.
Wow, when they called last five hands, no one could have been aware of the volcanic eruption that was bubbling underneath the surface of Table 1, Liv Boeree jumping aboard a roller coaster of emotions as she doubled up an opponent, trebled through, and then got knocked out in the space of just three hands. Brace yourselves, this is going to be an epic to challenge Lord of the Rings...
Emotion #1 - Severe Disgruntlement
I joined the action with a stoic Boeree frozen before a bet of 15,000 and a flop, the rest of the table gradually becoming restless as Vladislav Bakalov continued to dwell. Eventually, John Duthie called the clock, and a minute warning was given.
Just as I was about to join in with the countdown, the word "Ten" was enough to trigger Bakalov to announce "All in," a nonchalant wave of the hand signaling the move.
The previously statuesque Boeree broke from her poker face, lifted her shades and asked with a sigh, "How much?" 23,300 was the answer.
"I said I'm not coming back with a small stack," declared Boeree as she made the call, turning over . The news wasn't good though, as her foe revealed , an overpair which proceeded to hold up on the turn and river.
Emotion #2 - Bittersweet Sense of Victory
On the very next hand, Boeree pushed her remaining 10,000 across the line with , but found herself in a spot of bother against Franciscus Dekkers' and the of Stefan Duxner.
A board later and Duxner had been eliminated, but Boeree had trebled through. "Grr!" she growled. "I wanted to go out, I'm meant to be flying tomorrow morning."
Emotion #3 - Devastation
Again, Liv Boeree was all in, this time with a hand stronger than anyone would have imagined -- . A limper was a non-believer though, and despite saying, "I should probably fold here," called with , perhaps thinking Boeree would be pushing with any two cards.
However, poker is a twisted game, and after the board, Boeree finally got her wish, although I feel at this point she would have been quite content to come back with a stack of 50,000 plus.
Allan Laursen moved all in from the button for 14,000, and in the big blind Dennis Uhrenholt called all in.
Uhrenholt:
Laursen:
Board: a two-pair-tastic
Uhrenholt was back in the game with 20,000, while Laursen was down to a mere 3,700. He doubled up the next hand though when his came good against Joseph Buhmann's on the board to hang in there by the skin of his teeth.
Marcel Luske is on fire. Just a few hands after knocking out Marc Jacquetin, he got involved in a raising war with Dennis Uhrenholt, which ended up with Luske all in and Uhrenholt with just 8,000 chips behind.
Uhrenholt:
Luske:
Board: BANG
Luske doubles up to 90,000, and Uhrenholt is desperate.
Trevor Neufeld has suffered a massive disaster, going from 70,000 chips to sweet nothing in just two awful hands.
With Jasper Wetemans all in with , it couldn't have looked better for Neufeld -- he was holding pocket aces. But a board later and a total lack of diamonds in Neufeld's hand meant that Wetemans doubled up and Neufeld was down to 30,000.
The very next hand, he found pocket kings and got his whole stack in against Mark Vos' -- and bang, out came the ace to send the unfortunate Neufeld to the rail. Smacked in the face by the deck, indeed.