Leo Fernandez
There's so much aggression being showcased on Dario Minieri's table, that sometimes slow-playing your big pair is a highly effective strategy. This was the approach successfully employed by Stuart Marshak, who limped under the gun with queens only to be met by a raise to 30,000 from Minieri, followed by a reraise of 113,000 by Fernandez.
Back round to Marshak who quickly slid his remaining 108,000 over the line, Minieri folding quicker than a cheetah on Concorde.
"Who started this?" asked Nguyen chuckling.
"This idiot," confessed Fernandez.
On their backs and Fernandez was in trouble, his suited and booted, but in need of improving to topple the ladies of Marhsak. The board provided no such luck, Marshak earning himself a most timely of double-ups and climbing to well over 200,000 in chips.
Alon Shahar raised to 18,000 in early position, only for Terry Boyd to go all in for 63,500 from the small blind. After some brief consideration, Shahar slid his cards out from under a card protector which closely resembles a grape, and let the hand go.
As if to make up for it, though, he won the next two hands in a row. First he made it 18,000 UTG and it folded around to Cory Albertson on the big blind who thought about it for a little while, but then folded. As he was folding, Albertson took delivery of a glass of orange juice from one of the waiters. "Keeps my hair orange," he toasted me.
The following hand, Todd Terry raised Shahar's big blind from the button. Shahar called. They both checked the flop, and saw the turn, at which point Shahar bet out 20,000. Terry called. The river came down the and now Shahar bet out 60,000. With an enormous sigh, Terry went into the tank. After some time contemplating the felt with his hand to his temples, Terry folded, leaving himself with 120,000.
According to our field reporters, Dario Minieri has continually bullied his table throughout today, and has no intentions of letting up. On the Italian's last encounter, however, it appeared as though he'd met his match with chip leader Kevin Song.
With Song raising it up to 17,000 from the cutoff, Minieri made it 35,000 from the small, Song called and the two players saw a flop.
Minieri bet 72,000, Song called and out came the turn, the . This time Minieri checked, as did Song.
On the river, both players checked again, Dario announcing, "Ace high," but it wasn't good enough, Song taking it down with .
Cory Albertson
With Cory Albertson one of the shorter stacks, it wasn't surprising to see him push all in from the button for his remaining 90,000. Seated in the big bind, Brendan Keenan decided to give him a spin with and made the call. Albertson flipped .
Flop =
"Paint!" demanded Albertson, although I thought he should have been more specific.
Nevertheless, the dealer duly obliged, giving him a on the turn followed by a non-six river.
Albertson is up to 200,000; Keenan is down to 210,000.