Benjamin Gilbert raised to 600 from early position. Dustin Woolf called from the hijack and the big blind called as well. The flop fell and action checked to Gilbert. He fired 1,300 and both his opponents quickly flung their cards into the muck.
Woolf dropped to 31,100 after the hand, while Gilbert moved up to 42,200. Gilbert finished third in Event No. 52, $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em for $205,180, and is looking to make another nice splash here in the Main Event.
Gary "Mclovin" Clarke has had a rather fine start -- he related the tale to the soundtrack of the lady next to him giggling as she was forced to relive the incident that lost her much of her stack.
It turns out that Clarke flopped a set of fours and got into a raising war with the aforementioned lady. Clarke bet 8,000 on the turn and the lady called, and when the river brought three spades, both checked. The unfortunate lady turned over for flopped two pair, and Clarke took the pot to put him up to 50,000.
Alexander Jung enjoyed the following hand as he improved every street, fired three streets of value, ended with the nuts and got paid off!
Jung held and flopped straight and flush draws on the flop which warranted a bet of 550. He then made his straight with the and tossed another 1,250 into the middle. The river was the which improved Jung to a unbeatable nut-flush and he released a bet of 3,775 against his opponent who made the call.
Rayan Nathan hasn't had the best of starts. "I'm down to 21,000. I had trips, but he made a flush. But, at least I have more chips than I started with last year!!"
After some heavy preflop action, David Steicke moved all in for his last 9,950 on a flop of . His opponent asked for a count before making the call.
Steicke tabled for top pair and his opponent revealed for a set of queens.
"What were you waiting for?" barked Steicke after seeing his opponent's holding.
The turn was the which gave Steicke a small sweat, but the miracle didn't arrive as the fell on the river to bring the WSOP to an early end for Steicke.
With the board showing and about 11,000 already in the middle, David "The Dragon" Pham checked, his opponent bet 5,100, and Pham folded, showing his pocket aces as he did.
Did we hear someone just say "a queen and queen only"?
The inimitable -- no, wait, he's highly imitable -- Norman Chad, color commentator for ESPN's poker broadcasts, is making the rounds. He's moving through the tables, chatting with players, and generally cracking wise.
Picking up the hand after all the community cards were dealt, we viewed a board reading . Grant Levy fired 2,350 into his opponent. The player then raised to 8,000 and Levy made the call.
Levy tabled and his opponent mucked. That pot put Levy up to 57,000 just a quarter of the way through the second level.
Catching the action on a flop of , Barny Boatman had the action and fired 700 into the middle from under the gun.
"It's only three chips!" he laughed with his opponent in the small blind, who obliged with a call.
The turn brought the and this time the small blind led out for 1,100. Boatman quickly called to see the fall on the river.
Action checked to Boatman, who tossed out a colorful array of chips worth 2,625. His opponent called and Boatman showed for the nut flush and his opponent sighed at missing an opportunity with his .