Alexander Kravchenko raised to 15,000 from early position, and it folded around to Todd Bui in the big blind. The short stack pondered for a moment before announcing all in. Kravchenko had to call 46,000 more, and he paid the price for a chance to get the first knockout at the table. Bui drew one, and Kravchenko traded in a face up. Bui was drawing to a .
"Ooh, I have a little better draw," he said when he saw Kravchenko's . "Oh I made it!" Bui said quickly and turned over a . Kravchenko was drawing dead, and after flipping over a , he paid off Bui to double him to 135,000. Kravchenko took over Bui's roll as the table short stack with 48,000.
Alexander Kravchenko may be short stacked at the moment, but he still deserves the respect of his teammates for earning a seat at the table. Kravchenko, a member of Team Russia, is the first Team PokerStars Pro to make a final table at the 2010 WSOP.
In his second consecutive pot of opening to 15,000, Nick Binger didn't pick up the blinds and antes but rather was met with a 107,000-chip re-raise from Mike Wattel in the big blind.
Taking a few moments to deliberate, Binger made the call and drew one to his .
Wattel stood pat on his for his tournament life.
Unfortunately for Binger he drew the to slip to 180,000 as Wattel raked in the double up to send him to 215,000 in chips.
James Bord open-shoved from the cutoff. Alex Kravchenko quickly folded his button, and Mike Wattel gave up his small blind. Not so fast for big blind Yan Chen. He asked for a count and learned it would be 106,500 for him to call. Chen considered it for three minutes before deciding to fold.
Mike Wattel opened to 13,000 from middle position and Todd Bui called out of the small blind.
Wattel stood pat as Bui drew one and fired out with a bet of 25,000. Wattel quickly made the call by splashing the pot with five 5,000-denomination chips.
"Ten-six!" stated Bui only to have Wattel table his {9x] to rake in the pot and climb to 265,000.
"Wrong four-sider" added Bui as he slipped to 75,000 in chips.
Yan Chen raised to 12,000, and Nick Binger called in the cutoff. Each player exchanged one card. Chen peaked at his and checked. Binger bet 16,000, and Chen called with an . Binger nodded and mucked his cards.
The stands are slowly filling in a little. Who is here, you ask? James Bord and Derric Haynie each have a few fans. Nick Binger's brother Michael and friend Rick Fuller are sweating him, and he's gone over to chat with them every few hands. Liv Boeree and Shaun Deeb were here to lend their support earlier but went back to Day 2 of the $1,000 no limit. Dan Shak didn't make it all the way to the actual rail, but he yelled "Go Nick Binger!" from about 10 yards away.
Russian pro Kirill Gerasimov is also in the stands to cheer on Alexander Kravchenko.