When we arrived at the table, Casey Stewart had committed the last 7,900 of his chips, on a board that read . His opponent tanked for about a minute before he chucked in the call, and when the cards were on their backs, Stewart saw he was well out in front.
Stewart:
Opponent:
Stewart faded the queen and the ten on the river, which was the . After that hand, Stewart is back up to just over starting stack.
Recent ring winner Valentin Vornicu ran over his starting table, on his way to over 80,000 when his table broke. Since then, it has been a roller coaster for Vornicu, who is seeing alot of action today.
Vornicu put his chips right to work, building up a giant pot early with table mate Paul Hendee, who was dubbed the "White Dwyte" earlier when Dwyte Pilgram was at the table. The board read , and Vornicu and Hendee got in a raising war. When we arrived, Vornicu had a raise of 11,000 in front of him, but Hendee had already raised it up himself to 22,000. Hendee then began needling Vornicu.
"Come on man." "You know you are folding." "This isn't your table this is ours." "Hurry up man make your move I've already made mine." These were just a few of the gems that Hendee said during the minute long tank. Eventually, Vornicu released his hand.
Just now, we saw Vornicu in another big confrontation, this time with another player at the table. There was 6,000 in the middle when we saw the flop come down . Vornicu bet out 1,200, and his opponent moved all in for about 8,000 total. Vornicu tanked for a couple minutes, and Hendee got back involved, calling the clock on Vornicu. The floor came over to administer the clock, but it only took about five seconds for Vornicu to make the call.
Vornicu:
Opponent:
Vornicu was looking to fade a flush, but it wouldn't matter as the on the turn filled him up. The meaningless river was the , and Vornicu collected the chips to get back up to 80,000.
Registration will remain open today until the end of Level 12, which isn't until after dinner. However, the number on the board has not changed save for one entry every hour or so, meaning that 134 looks to be a fairly accurate number on the entrants for this tournament. Last year's event got 332 players, so this field is looking to be smaller, but given that tomorrow is Saturday, the numbers should be up for tomorrow's Day 1b.
The players have returned to their seats, and cards are in the air again. After two more hours of play, the remaining players will take off for their dinner break.
We came to the table to see that recently ring winner Nancy Birnbaum had committed the rest of her short stack preflop, and had found two callers. Those players checked down a board of , and when one player tabled , Birnbaum mucked her hand and headed for the exits.
In addition, we have also lost Kathy Liebert from the field.
Dwyte Pilgrim got his start on the WSOP-Circuit, winning three rings, including this Championship event in 2009. However, he will have to wait until tomorrow to go for his 4th ring again. He has been eliminated from Day 1a.