Donnie Peters
The Mad Genius
The board was with three players in the hand and the pot sitting at 5,075. Mike Caro was first to act out of the small blind and he fired 2,800. The next player was in the cutoff and he called. The third player was on the button and took some time, but eventually made the call.
"Straight," announced Caro.
"I have a flush," said the cutoff seat and tabled .
The button then showed only the and mucked. Caro didn't show his straight and mucked as well. He is down to 20,175.
With the board , Aurangzeb "Ozzy87" Sheikh had bet from late position, a player behind him in the cutoff raised, and Sheikh had called.
The river then brought the . Sheikh checked, his opponent bet 4,000, Sheikh check-raised to 11,000, and his opponent contemplated a while before letting it go, showing for the king-high flush as he did.
Greg Raymer
Another World Champion having a rough time of it today is 2004 World Champion Greg Raymer.
We just caught him in action on a flop of . Raymer's bet of 500 was called in two spots, and the hit the turn. Raymer followed up with a bet of 1,800 and found one customer before the hit the river. Raymer fired a third barrel worth 3,500 and his opponent made the call with , which was good as Raymer mucked.
Donnie Peters
The Mouth getting some quality TV time
Although we don't have great access to the main feature table, the announcer is providing great coverage of each hand and every action. It's too bad there's been little doses of it thus far.
Most recently, a player limped in from early position and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow raised to 700. The limper was the only caller. The flop came down and both players checked.
The turn brought the and the first player checked. Matusow bet 1,000 and was called. The river was the and the first player led out for 1,000. Matusow made the call, tabling , and his opponent mucked. After it was announced that Matusow's hand was good, the crowd erupted in the loudest cheer we've heard come from the feature table thus far.
Owen Crowe limped from UTG, middle position raised to 550, Eddie Sabat called behind and Crowe also came along as well.
The flop was and the middle position player fired out, Sabat folded and Crowe called. The turn was the and again Crowe check-called a bet, this time of 1,625.
On the river, Crowe faced another bet and this time folded to the 3,000 put in front of him.
His opponent said enigmatically, "I didn't have a queen..."
Raymond Davis
Just saw an interesting hand between Hoyt Corkins and Raymond Davis, sitting to Corkins' left.
After the turn was dealt, the community cards were . Corkins had bet, and Davis had reraised all in. Corkins went into the tank. After a while Corkins emerged to ask Davis if he would show his hand if Corkins folded. "For ten dollars," answered Davis. "How about five?" asked Corkins. Davis agreed.
Corkins folded his queen-eight face up, and Davis obliged by showing his ace-queen. Davis scooped the pot, and pocketed the fiver from Corkins as well.
Didn't make money today
Various ESPN bods had been lurking around table 1 for some time despite the no sweating rule, and eventually their vulture-like patience was rewarded by a short-stacked Chris Moneymaker getting his last 8,000 or so in preflop against one Joe Villacci.
Moneymaker:
Villacci:
Greg Raymer appeared to sweat (no sweating!) his fellow former world champion, with the words, "Feel the love!" There's an image for you.
Board:
Thus we lose Moneymaker, and a clearly delighted Villacci was up to 45,000.
A total of 1,116 players came out for yesterday's Day 1a to kick off this year's Main Event. At day's end, Eric Cloutier had the most chips with 150,750, followed by Redmond Lee with 134,275, and Jean Docquier with 122,755.
If you missed any of the action, check out yesterday's live blog as well as this video summary of Friday's play:
With the board reading , an early position player fired out a bet of 3,100 and Barry Greenstein popped it up to 8,100. His opponent called and Greenstein tabled for a rivered set of jacks to scoop a nice pot.
Greenstein is nearly back to where he started with 28,500 chips.