Schneider Surges Early

A hooded and very serious Tom Schneider has wasted little time building an early stack, winning two of three hands, allowing him to climb all the way to 11,500 barely a quarter of the way through Level 2.

In the first hand, four players saw a flop of {J-Clubs}

, the small blind bet 600, Schneider called from under the gun and the other two players folded. The small blind checked the {2-Clubs}

turn, but called Schneider's 1,100 bet. The small blind check-called again after the river {K-Hearts}

, this time to a bet of 1,500 from Schneider. Schneider showed A-10 for the nut straight -- the small blind showed A-Q -- and Schneider raked a big pot, moving all the way to 9,000.

Schneider then took a hit and dropped to 6,000 when his {10-Clubs}

failed to hold against an opponent's {A-Spades}

. In this hand the board ran out {6-Spades}

, completing the opponent's flush.

Hand three that we have details on involving Schneider saw him open the action to 350, then be reraised all in to 1,100 by a short-stacked big blind. The big blind had {A-Hearts}