Daniel Negreanu limped in on the button, only for the big blind to announce, "I'll make it two bets," and then raise.
"I've been playing poker a long time and I've never heard that," said Negreanu. "I'm gonna start using that."
He folded.
Next hand, Negreanu raised from the cutoff and both blinds called to see a flop. The action checked around to Negreanu, who announced, "One bet," to some chuckling around the table. The small blind folded, but the big blind raised. Negreanu called, and they went heads up to the turn.
The check-raiser bet out on both the turn and river; Negreanu called both times and it went to showdown - but the big blind turned over and Negreanu mucked.
Tournament poker can be a long slog, even for those accustomed to spending all day and night just playing cards.
What are some of these folks doing to amuse themselves?
Andy Bloch - playing Scrabble on his ipad.
Brock Parker - playing some sort of curious game on his phone.
David Williams - watching a movie on his phone, although we can't work out which one - "I didn't see any shooting," was all that our man on the floor could tell us.
Poker players are highly self-conscious when it comes to massages, and despite the lack of a face-to-face encounter and the possibility that big hands equates to a good, firm grip, still consider a massage from a male to be a definite no-no.
Chad Brown, however, has no such qualms and duly requested a manssage when the masseur crossed his path. But, on second glance, I couldn't help but notice that located on the seat behind him was wife Vanessa Rousso, perhaps hinting that this was more a strategic decision than anything else. A wise move indeed.
Either way, the manssage appears to be working, as Brown has increased his stack to almost thrice his starting stack with an impressive 12,500. As for Rousso, she's not doing too bad herself, her stack climbing gradually since an explosive start and now up to the 13,500 mark.
Chris Ferguson got his last in with and found himself up against . The board ran out , securing Ferguson a double up to the grand sum of, um, just 900 chips.
So it was that Ferguson was still extremely short when he got his chips in again, this time with , and soon discovered that he was in some serious trouble from the start. His opponent was holding the dominating which made a flush to boot, and Ferguson was duly eliminated from the tournament.
Phil Ivey - despite being absent for much of the day owing to being in three tournaments at once, he's amassed an impressive 25,000 stack. That looks to be the chip lead at this early stage.
Eric 'EFro' Froehlich check-called a bet on a flop, but turned aggressor on the turn with a check-raise, before leading out on the river. His opponent called, but Froehlich had got there on the end, his for the nut flush more than enough to pick up the pot. He now has over the 10,000 mark.
Sharing a table with both Eric Froehlich and Barry Greenstein is JC Tran (or Justin, as the official list called him). Tran just called a bet on a flop, but folded to action on the turn. Nevertheless, he's still in solid shape with circa 8,000 in chips.
Phil Hellmuth bet out on a flop and then called the raise from Martin Kabrhel. Hellmuth further bet out again on the turn and also on the river; Kabrhel called on both streets.
So, to showdown.
Hellmuth: for a pair pf kings, to drop him down to 5,600
Kabrhel: for a rivered pair of aces, to bump him up to 4,700
Hellmuth bit his lip for just the briefest of moments before letting his feelings show.
"HOW BAD ARE YOU?" he said to Kabrhel, loudly enough for most of the Amazon Room to hear.
"I'm sorry, I'm a beginner," lied Kabrhel, well-known on the European circuit as king of the EPT side events. "I'm just learning the game."
A few minutes later and a steaming Hellmuth open-folded aces to Kabrhel on a board to further reduce his stack.
Every time I walk passed Phil Ivey's table, his stack seems to have increased by another column. On this occasion, however, it took a slight hit as he was raised preflop, check-called the flop and turn of board, and then check-folded the river. Nevertheless, he still has over 25,000 and remains one of the chip leaders.
![[user46392]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop. The action checked around to Negreanu, who announced, "One bet," to some chuckling around the table. The small blind folded, but the big blind raised. Negreanu called, and they went heads up to the turn.
turn and 
river; Negreanu called both times and it went to showdown - but the big blind turned over 
and Negreanu mucked.
and found himself up against 
. The board ran out 
, securing Ferguson a double up to the grand sum of, um, just 900 chips.
, and soon discovered that he was in some serious trouble from the start. His opponent was holding the dominating 
which made a flush to boot, and Ferguson was duly eliminated from the tournament.
flop, but turned aggressor on the 
turn with a check-raise, before leading out on the 
river. His opponent called, but Froehlich had got there on the end, his 
for the nut flush more than enough to pick up the pot. He now has over the 10,000 mark.
turn. Nevertheless, he's still in solid shape with circa 8,000 in chips.
for a rivered pair of aces, to bump him up to 4,700
board to further reduce his stack.
river. Nevertheless, he still has over 25,000 and remains one of the chip leaders.