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Poker players either hit the deck, or are hit by the deck. Unfortunately for Noah Boeken, it was the former as he was ultimately unable to recover from his previous encounters, his final chips going in with 
on a 
flop.
There were two other players in the hand, one of whom was Barry Greenstein, but it was the unknown player who picked up both the pot and the scalp, 
beating Greenstein's 
after the 
turn and 
river were both checked down.
Alas, Boeken is Noah more.
Although registration has been closed for some time, one Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. has just taken his seat across in what we are now referring to as the VIP section - the orange section across the way where all the late registrations were seated. He's sharing a table with Victor Ramdin and Barbara Enright, among others.
Just now we witnessed him raising to 300, only for another player to stick in 400 - more than a call, abut not enough for a raise.
"Are you trying to raise or call?" Hellmuth enquired. His opponent merely shrugged, although it was clearly intended to be, and ultimately deemed, a raise.
"Are you playing games with me?" Hellmuth continued. "Do you know what, I'm going to fold this to one bet so it gets out on the internet, helps my image."
Happy to oblige, Mr. Hellmuth. He showed 
.
We found European circuit fixture Malte Strothmann calling a bet from another player on an 
flop, and then another on the 
turn. The same thing happened on the 
river, and the bettor revealed 
for a set of aces.
"Now I look smart, right?" said Strothmann's opponent in what was clearly intended to be a pointed manner. Strothmann didn't seem too bothered, though - he giggled and mucked, and was left with 4,800.
Well, he's actually got less than peanuts, as 2008 Champion Jimmy Shultz is now out. I didn't catch the hand myself, but as he left, a rather dejected expression on his face, he muttered something about "ace-king losing to a rivered flush".
Several big stacks are starting to emerge, but two notable players that have surpassed the 10,000 mark are PokerStars.com husband and wife combo Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso. They have 10,100 and 10,700 respectively.
Joep van den Bijgaart was down to just 400 chips when we strolled by his table, and just a tiny amount of tableside patience on our part was rewarded when the very next hand, he raised in early position. The gentleman on the button reraised, the blinds folded, van den Bijgaart called all in, and they were on their backs.
"You might have the best hand," said the player on the button, turning over 
.
"No, I don't think so," said the still cheerful van den Bijgaart, and revealed 
.
Board: a flush-tastic 
Van den Bijgaart doubled up, but is still in some trouble on 1,025.
2009 WSOPE Champion Barry Shulman has been eliminated from today's event. Jeff Shulman, however, is still in, and our reporter observed that Shulman senior passed a banknote to Shulman junior on departure, so likely a lost wager rubbing salt in already open wounds.
The more technically-minded of you will be interested to know that Phil Ivey - regarded by many as the best poker player in the world - chooses what many, presumably other, people regard as the best headphones in the world.
Eschewing the trend for Monster Beats and Bose, Ivey instead has gone for Sony Pro MDR-7506 professional studio headphones to stream what we imagine is soothing whale song or classical opera directly into his brain while he plays. And he's going to need it - he attempted to play three tournaments simultaneously today, and has managed to bust out of two of them.
From being short stacked earlier on, Ted Forrest is now up there with the notable chip leaders with 9,500, despite his stack being predominantly made up of small denomination chips.
On the other side of the dealer, fellow pro Chris Ferguson is struggling somewhat with 4,200.
The player on the button raised and Isaac Haxton called in the big blind to see an 
flop. He checked, his opponent bet, and Haxton called. All good.
So imagine everyone's surprise when, just as the dealer was dropping the 
on the turn, Haxton cried, "Hold on, I raised!"
The rest of the table assured him that he had only put 150 in, which only constituted a call.
"That good, huh?" asked his opponent, and open-folded. Haxton showed him 
.
