We're just realizing that we haven't seen Scott Clements all day long. He had 27,000 chips in his bag overnight, and he must have shown up at some point. But he's not here now, and we'll presume he's busto until we learn otherwise.
We were just about to check on Garry Gates when we bumped into him a few feet away from his table. He was smirking, but we know that frown-smirk when we see it. He had just been eliminated.
Gates proceeded to tell us about his demise, the result of a blind-versus-blind battle with Johnny Kincaid. Gates opened to 3,500 in the small, and Kincaid flatted to see the flop. Kincaid flatted another bet of 5,200 there, and Gates fired another 13,000 on the turn. Now Kincaid put in a raise to 33,000 to force his opponent's move. Gates had started the hand with just less than 80,000, and his was good enough to call it off for his tournament life.
It was no good. Kincaid had out-flopped him with , and Gates could not fill up on the river to stay alive.
We caught this hand unfolding after a flop of and Chris Bell bet 3,300 from the big blind. Johnny Kincaid was in the cutoff and raised to 10,500. Bell took a few moments to think and then moved all in for around 38,000.
Kincaid went deep into the tank and took more than a few minutes to make his decision. He finally said, "I can't lay this down, you're going to have to show me a set," as he table pocket kings.
Bell turned up and needed help to keep his tournament alive. He whiffed when the board completed and made his way out of the tournament area.
Doug Hutcheson was down to 31,100 when he three-bet shoved in late position. The small blind cold-called, the initial raise folded, and Hutcheson was heads up for his tournament life. And he was dominated.
Showdown
Hutcheson:
Opponent:
The flop was about as blank as it gets, but the turn was just what Dr. Hutcheson ordered. The river came the , and Mr. Opponent has been parted with all but a few thousand of his chips. Hutcheson finds the come-from-behind double, and he's back close to 70,000 after a rough start to his Day 2.
Joe Cappuccio and Austen Johnson were in this Main Event ten minutes ago. But for the last ten minutes, they've both been standing near Ryan Eriquezzo's table looking a little glum and talking quietly through some hands.
A quick check on their former seats finds them absent of chips, and we think it's safe to assume Cappuccio and Johnson have been eliminated.
We wish we had more details on how the hand played out. But we can tell you Chris Trautwein doubled up on a board of . His opponent looked to be good when he tabled for the nut flush and a seemingly unbeatable hand. Then Trautwein turned up for the straight flush.
Charles "Woody" Moore was up in the mix of the chip leaders until this monster of a pot broke out. Chris Conrad was the initial raiser, and there were several callers along the way before the action came around to Moore. He looked down at two kings and stuck in a big squeeze of a reraise. Conrad moved all in for 116,900 total to fold the rest of the table out of the way. When Moore called, though, Conrad tabled his superior .
Moore could not catch up on the board, and he's been parted with a big chunk of his stack. Conrad is the big beneficiary as he chips up close to 250,000, while Moore is left with about 70,000 with which to mount a comeback.
It's nice to be able to lose a chip-leading pot and still have an average stack.