A player opened with a raise to 650 from the button, and Scotty Nguyen called from the big blind. The board came , and both checked. The turn was the . Nguyen checked, his opponent bet 1,300, Nguyen check-raised to 3,200, and his opponent called.
The river brought the . This time Nguyen led for 2,500, and his opponent folded. Nguyen now has 18,500.
Maria Ho, Vanessa Rousso, and Jennifer Tilly have all been eliminated.
On her way out, Tilly checked in on Phil Laak to see how he's doing. He's doing fairly well at the moment, at about 30,000 or twice his starting stack.
Tony G was just eliminated when the player sitting to his right turned a set of deuces, after which Tony G found himself all in and failed to hit his draw. "I'm not gonna get any chips from you now," joked Chris Ferguson, who was sitting to Tony G's left.
Jeff Lisandro was eliminated shortly afterwards. He was holding and the final board read . Unfortunately for him, his opponent held . Lisandro's quest for a record fourth WSOP bracelet will continue, then, into the Main Event.
Dennis Phillips had raised from middle position, and when it folded around to Noah Boeken in the small blind. Boeken reraised all in with his last 3,475. Phillips called, showing to Boeken's .
The flop came , putting Phillips ahead. The turn was the , and now Boeken had one card left to hit one of the remaining sixes. But the river was the , and Boeken is out.
Dutch Boyd raised to 500 from the cutoff, and got called by the player in the big blind. The flop came a dazzling . The BB checked, Boyd bet 500, and his opponent called.
The turn was the . The big blind again checked, Boyd bet 1,000, his opponent check-raised all in for 5,900, and Boyd called.
Boyd showed and his opponent . The river was the , and Boyd is back down to 13,000.
After a flop of , two players checked to Antonio Esfandiari who bet 1,400. The first player check-raised, the second folded, and Esfandiari reraised all in for 15,500 total. His opponent -- who had him covered by just 300 chips -- snap-called, showing for the flopped straight. Esfandiari showed pocket jacks.
The board ran out , and Esfandiari was eliminated.
Last-minute registrants are being seated and so we have some more names to pass along.
J.C. Tran, Mike Leah, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Jason Gray, and Stewart Scott were all spotted near the end of Level 2. Here at the start of Level 3 we've now seen Mimi Tran, Matt Woodward, Sorel Mizzi, Jeff Lisandro, Tony G, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and the Mad Genius of Poker, Mike Caro.
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Matt Graham was involved in a couple of wild hands at the end of the previous level, leaving himself very short as Level 3 begins.
On the first, the flop had come , a short-stacked player pushed all in for 1,500, a second player reraised all in for 16,950, and Graham called with almost all of his chips. The first player showed , the second (top set), and Graham . The turn was the and the river the , and Graham was down to just 1,100.
On the next hand, a player under the gun raised to 400, and it folded around to Graham in the big blind who reraised all in. His opponent called, showing against Graham's . The flop was terrible for Graham -- -- and the on the turn didn't help him. But the came on the river meaning he'd made a better full house. Still, Graham returns to the third level with a short stack of less than 3,000.
Players are back in their seats and hands are being dealt. The board is now showing 929 entrants in this event. We should be getting an official number soon.