We saw Matt Brady kneeling on his chair and looking a bit puzzled, so we hustled over to his table to see what was going on. When we arrived, the board was out on the table, and there was some good natured banter going back and forth. "Uh oh," someone at the table said when he saw us approach. "They're gonna write about you in the blog now."
Brady took a step out of the tank to smirk and say, "It's just what I've always wanted. I flew all the way down here just so this goofball could put my name in the blog." Congratulations, Matt. You've made it.
In any event, there was just less than 20,000 in the middle already, and Brady's opponent had shoved for his last 10,900 on the river. "You're supposed to have kings here," he finally verbalized his read. "But things are not always what they seem," he said a bit more quietly, more to himself. After a long few minutes, Brady surrendered his cards into the muck.
Mr. Opponent flashed , and Brady seemed satisfied by the winning straight. "Barrel, barrel, barrel, and just get there," he said, still smirking. That clues us into how the pre-river betting action went, and it's taken a chunk out of Brady's stack, knocking him back down to about 31,000 again.
At the ungodly hour of 10:00 this morning, we wandered into the Kennel Club to see a final table under way. It was the $1,000 buy-in Event #9, and the only player we recognized at the table was Lee Childs, the 2007 WSOP Main Event finalist.
Childs ended up finishing in sixth place in that prelim before taking his seat in the Day 1a flight. He was relieved of his first bullet in short order, and it looks like the second go-round hasn't gone well either. Returning from the break, we just saw Childs giving handshakes and well wishes to his friends still left in the tournament, then heading out toward the exit. It appears his long day has come to an end.
Huy Nguyen opened to 900 in middle position and Ebony Kenney re-raised to about 5,400 from the hijack, leaving about 200 behind. Action folded to Nguyen and he-raised, leading Kenney to call all in.
Nguyen:
Kenney:
Kenney found absolutely no help from the board as it ran out to give Nguyen the pot.
A player in middle position opened the pot with a raise to 1,500 and was called by three others, including Chad Batista from the small blind
The action was checked to the original raiser on the flop and he bet 2,500. Two players, including Batista, called to see the turn. They all proceeded to check, delivering the on the river. Batista bet a sneaky 2,300, getting through the player in the big blind. The raiser, though, took about 45 seconds before tossing in the chips to call.
Batista mucked, while the player in the middle seat showed to win the pot.
"Almost folded," he said.
"Yeah, was hoping. I put up a valiant effort to win the pot," said a smiling Batista.