[user75032]
Amir Vahedi
Amir Vahedi was seen putting in a call of roughly 11,000 total chips preflop at Table 25. The aggressor was seated immediately to his right -- Mickey Mouse Mills, named presumably for the fact that he always plays with a Mickey Mouse figurine on the table. Mills moved all in on a flop of . Without asking for a count, Vahedi called.
Mills:
Vahedi:
The turn and river blanked out and , making Mills the winner. There was some confusion over the exact amount of his stack, but eventually the dealer determined that 45,100 was the correct amount. Once Vahedi paid it out, he was left with 13,000.
[user75032]
Cards are in the air. K.J. Nam remains the chip leader with 185,000 chips. Antonio Esfandiari is on the same table, yet has managed to accumulate a sizable stack (165,000) of his own.
[user75032]
Gavin Griffin
We walked up to Phil Ivey's table just as it was breaking. Ivey started the day well above average in chips, with 74,275. His stack looked to be at roughly the same mark. Maybe Ivey will have better luck at his new table.
Gavin Griffin also hasn't gotten much going today. He started the day with just less than 15,000 chips and was just all in on a board of . His opponent didn't call; we couldn't tell if that was a good thing for Griffin or a bad thing. Regardless, his stack remains well below par at about 17,000.
[user75032]
Table 30 has turned into quite an interesting table to watch, with more-established pros Phil Hellmuth and David Chiu at opposite ends of the table, and young guns Eddy Sabat and Hevad Khan in between them on either side. Chiu got the best of Sabat in a recent hand. Hellmuth started things off by making a minimum-raise to 800 from under the gun. Sabat called before Chiu raised from late position to 3,200, folding all players back to Hellmuth.
Hellmuth absent-mindedly riffled chips while he considered his action but ultimately decided to look for a better spot. Sabat took his chances against Chiu and called to a flop of . He then checked to Chiu, who fired out 5,100. Sabat had roughly 18,000 in his stack; he mucked after a minute's thought.
[user75032]
Greg Mueller
Greg "FBT" Mueller wasn't scared away by Tad Jurgens' raise out of the small blind. Mueller opened for 1,600 preflop from the button, then called Jurgens' reraise to 7,000. On a flop of , Jurgens led out for just more than pot, 7,700 total. Mueller checked how many chips Jurgens had behind that bet (about 30,000) then raised to 20,000. Jurgens tanked for roughly four minutes before surrendering his hand.
[user38449]
A little bit of good fortune to start the day has afforded Eddy Sabat a lot of extra breathing room as we dive into Day 2 action.
Phil Laak opened the pot with a raise to 1,200 from early position and Allen Cunningham made the call. When the action got around to Sabat, he reraised to 7,000 leaving himself less than 2,000 behind. Laak folded and when the action returned to Cunningham, he put Eddy all in. A call was made and the hands turned over:
Sabat:
Cunningham:
The board ran out and Sabat was able to spike a third seven on the flop and dodge a Cunningham backdoor straight draw to win the hand, doubling him through to about 25,000 in chips.
[user75032]
Vanessa Rousso
We were standing over Vanessa Rousso's table watching her play a flop of against Kevin Schaffel while Mike "the Mouth" Matusow held forth his thoughts on the NBC Heads-Up Championship, taking place in about two weeks. He started by asking Steve Billirakis if Billirakis had been invited to play (the event is by invitation only). Billirakis said no.
"Yeah, you gotta win and you gotta have personality," said Matusow. "I have a lifetime invitation."
"Is that because of the winning or the personality?" joked Will Failla.
"Both," Matusow replied without taking the bait. Talk turned to the Commerce Heads-Up Championship that was won earlier in the week by Vivek Rajkumar. Billirakis pointed out the confusing double-elimination bracket board that was right behind Matusow's seat.
"That's the only thing I don't like about NBC," said Matusow after glancing at the board. "It's great exposure, but it's only single eliminaton. I'd like it better if it were double."
A double dose of the Mouth would certainly make for entertaining television.
For what it's worth, Schaffel folded his hand to Rousso's flop raise and the table moved on to its next hand and next topic of discussion. Rousso obligingly showed .
[user75032]
As per his custom, Phil Hellmuth showed up late -- although only by about fifteen minutes. His stack of 27,125 can't stand to be blinded off for long.
Amir Vahedi, however, started the day with more than 80,000 chips and drew Daniel Negreanu's table. Vahedi hasn't shown up yet.
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Without asking for a count, Vahedi called.
and 
, making Mills the winner. There was some confusion over the exact amount of his stack, but eventually the dealer determined that 45,100 was the correct amount. Once Vahedi paid it out, he was left with 13,000.
. His opponent didn't call; we couldn't tell if that was a good thing for Griffin or a bad thing. Regardless, his stack remains well below par at about 17,000.
, Jurgens led out for just more than pot, 7,700 total. Mueller checked how many chips Jurgens had behind that bet (about 30,000) then raised to 20,000. Jurgens tanked for roughly four minutes before surrendering his hand.
and Sabat was able to spike a third seven on the flop and dodge a Cunningham backdoor straight draw to win the hand, doubling him through to about 25,000 in chips.
against Kevin Schaffel while Mike "the Mouth" Matusow held forth his thoughts on the NBC Heads-Up Championship, taking place in about two weeks. He started by asking Steve Billirakis if Billirakis had been invited to play (the event is by invitation only). Billirakis said no.
.
