39th Annual World Series of Poker Main Event Day 2a | 2008 World Series of Poker

07-08-2008 20:31 UTC-8

Under Scrutiny

Walter Hall, studying Jeremiah Smith (foreground, right)

Jeremiah Smith limped from early position, then Walter Hall raised to 7,000 from the cutoff. Smith called.

The flop came {10-Hearts}

. Smith checked, and Hall bet 6,000. Smith then reraised to 16,000. Hall made the call.

The turn was the {6-Hearts}

. Smith overbet 85,000, sending Hall deep into the tank. As Barry Greenstein is at this table (currently with about 16,500, by the way), the ESPN camera crew is hovering, perhaps adding an extra layer of pressure to the proceedings.

Hall took several minutes counting out his chips. He then sat and stared in Smith's direction for several more (see photo). Finally he folded, showing {J-Clubs}

as he did.

Smith is now up to 246,000. Hall has about 80,000.

Tags: Jeremiah Smith Walter Hall

07-08-2008 20:30 UTC-8

Goossens Gone

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John Goossens and Pat Pezzin took a flop of {K-Spades}

and both liked what they saw as all the chips were pushed into the middle.

Goossens showed {A-Spades}

but Pezzin had spiked a set with his {8-Clubs}

.

The turn was the {6-Clubs}

and river the {K-Hearts}

to send Goossens to the rail as Pezzin moves to 53,000.

Tags: John Goossens Pat Pezzin

07-08-2008 20:27 UTC-8

Dicken Keeps Making Hands

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Darrell Dicken is playing lots of hands since we came back from dinner. He took a small hit before getting involved in a hand against Wayne Brown (the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for crippling Dicken many hours ago). With the board showing {Q-Diamonds}

, Brown checked and called when Dicken bet 4,000. Both players checked the {3-Hearts}

turn. Brown checked again on the {6-Diamonds}

river and decided to look Dicken up when he bet 12,000.

Dicken tabled {10-Diamonds}

for a flush. That was a winner and allowed Dicken to climb to 67,000.

07-08-2008 20:21 UTC-8

McGowan Dodges Bullets

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Joe McGowan, last seen ordering an arsenic cocktail following a hand in which he lost to a one-outer, has apparently kept his wits intact.

Just now McGowan was involved in another hand in which he raised to 3,000 preflop, was reraised to 13,000 and called. The flop came {5-Diamonds}

. McGowan checked, and his opponent bet 25,000. McGowan thought a moment, then folded his pocket queens face up.

His opponent showed aces.

Tags: Joe McGowan

07-08-2008 20:21 UTC-8

Nasty River

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We approached the table and the turn had already been dealt showing a {9-Hearts}

board. The two players heads-up are Peter Gould and Matt Kennedy.

The next thing, Kennedy is making a call for his whole stack with {A-Diamonds}

. Gould turns over {J-Clubs}

for the nut flush.

The river comes {Q-Spades}

!! This makes a full house for Kennedy, much to disliking of Gould. He counts what he owes out and then half throws the chips across the table.

Gould is down to 52,000 now, whereas Kennedy is up to 159,000.

Tags: Peter Gould

07-08-2008 20:18 UTC-8

Klecz Holds To Double Up

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On a flop of {5-Spades}

, Christiane Klecz and her opponent committed their chips into the middle. Klecz held the lead with {10-Diamonds}

, but would need to dodge a lot of cards with her opponent holding {A-Clubs}

for the nut-flush draw plus overcards.

The turn was the {6-Hearts}

and river the {9-Hearts}

and Klecz holds to double to over 60,000 chips.

Tags: Christiane Klecz

07-08-2008 20:17 UTC-8

E-Dog Down

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There will be no more bracelets for Erick Lindgren this year. He was taken out of the Main Event on back-to-back hands by Brian Brubaker.

On the first hand, both players got all of the chips in the middle preflop, Brubaker holding {K-Diamonds}

against Lindgren's {J-Diamonds}

. Neither player improved, but Lindgren had Brubaker covered and retained a few chips.

On the very next hand, Lindgren looked down at {A-Spades}

and pushed his last few chips into the middle. Brubaker was the only caller and was ahead against with {7-Spades}

. The board ran out ten high to send Lindgren to the rail. He departed the Amazon Room through the side exit, by the press box.

07-08-2008 20:16 UTC-8

Phi Nguyen, With the Double KO

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It was a classic three-way preflop all-in situation -- one player with {K-Spades}

, another with {J-Spades}

and Phi Nguyen sandwiched in the middle with {Q-Diamonds}

. Nguyen flopped huge when it came down {Q-Hearts}

, and he made a full house on the turn when the {5-Diamonds}

fell. The river was the {9-Clubs}

and Nguyen eliminated both of his opponents, increasing his stack to 123,000.

Tags: Phi Nguyen

07-08-2008 20:15 UTC-8

Dario Dominated

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Dario Alioto has just doubled up an opponent with all the chips in preflop. Alioto held {A-Hearts}

but was dominated by the {A-Spades}

of his opponent.

The board ran out {J-Spades}

and Alioto slips to 23,000.

Tags: Dario Alioto

07-08-2008 20:14 UTC-8

Ray Wants to See Another Day

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Ray Romano is currently playing over on the ESPN feature table. He was sitting at about 18,500 when we returned from the dinner break.

Just now Romano pushed all in, eliciting some response from the crowd. The table folded, though, denying them the excitement of a showdown.

Romano held up a single ace and showed it to the crowd, who laughed in response. "C'mon!" he said, suggesting he wanted some action on that hand. "I don't wanna go home!"

Tags: Ray Romano