David Williams was just now all in for his tourney life. The board showed 
, and Williams held 
for top two pair and the straight draw. His opponent held 
, and there weren't too many cards that could take it away from Williams.
Unfortunately, one of those cards -- the 
-- came on the river, giving his opponent trips, and sending Williams to the rail.
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The Hard Rock is Team PokerNews' home, why not make it yours. And while you're staying there (or if you're in the neighborhood) stop by the poker room Wednesday night and play in the PokerNews half-kill game. The $4/$8 half-kill game starts Wednesday at 8 p.m. We've had some of the DeucesCracked guys stop by as well as Annette Obrestad, so you never know will stop by. See you there!
Sometimes we feel decidedly vulture-like, reporting these events where all but one participant will eventually be described as no longer "alive" in the tourney.
In an event such as this -- where the bustouts are happening at a high clip -- we're perhaps even more mindful of the somber task we have been given.
It is with reverence, then, that we pass along the news that Chris Ferguson, Matt Stout, Gavin Griffin, Isaac Haxton, Andy Bloch, Jonathan Little, and Carlos Mortensen have all left us.
Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break, and so are we.
Level: 7
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 0
Players have returned from the dinner break and the cards are back in the air. We will be playing through Level 10 tonight.
PLO is a game in which there are many so-called "speculative" hands. And hands that inspire speculation.
Over at Table 5, James Akenhead is on the short side, chip-wise, as we begin Level 7. He was just now involved in a hand in which an opponent had raised from late position, he'd reraised from the big blind, and the opponent called, creating a pot of about 2,400.
The flop came 
, and Akenhead led with a bet of 1,300. His opponent considered for a half-minute of so. "Either you got aces or a set of queens," he finally concluded, tossing his 
-X-X face up toward the dealer.
Players at Akenhead's opponent's end of the table began discussing the hand, and it sounded as though they wouldn't have let that one go. Meanwhile, Vivek Rajkumar, Adam Junglen, and Akenhead appeared also to be commenting on the hand to one another.
In any event, Akenhead survives with a short stack of 4,800.
Scotty Nguyen was having a discussion with his tablemates on tipping in Las Vegas. "I tip $500 a day minimum," Nguyen explained to the table.
On the very next hand, Nguyen raised to 1,000 under the gun and received calls from both the button and the small blind.
All three players checked the 
flop and the 
hit the turn. The small blind bet out 2,100, Nguyen called, and the button got out of the way. When the 
came on the river, the small blind bet 3,800.
"Five thousand more, baby," Nguyen said as he slid in his chips. The small blind was clearly frustrated and mucked. "I got you baby, I was slow play baby," Nguyen explained. "I make big, big full house, baby, on the turn."
Nguyen is up to around 35,000.
No, this isn't a post about the Ladies Event. It is reporting the ouster of Men Nyguen.
We caught up to this one with the board showing 
. Nyugen, who won his seventh WSOP bracelet earlier this summer in Event No. 10, the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, pushed the rest of his stack in and was called by Richard Ashby.
Ashby held 
for the straight, and Nguyen tabled 
for two pair, a flush draw, and a shot at a better straight. The dealer burned one and turned over the river card -- the -- and Nguyen is out.
Delivering that river card wasn't the only thing the dealer had done that Nguyen didn't like. Apparently there had been an error of some sort -- either earlier in the hand or previously -- that Nguyen reminded the dealer about before leaving. No eighth bracelet in this one for Nguyen. Meanwhile, Ashby now has 27,000.
Before this summer, John "Tex" Barch was perhaps best known by poker fans for his third-place finish in the 2005 WSOP Main Event. He has had the biggest stack in the room for quite a while now. His stacks topped by an open-mouthed alligator card protector, Barch has about 92,000 chips at the moment. He also has the awe of those playing nearby.
"Gonna have to get me one of those alligators," said a player from the next table over. Barch shrugged and said it hasn't been all that lucky for him.
The player sitting to Barch's left made a comment as well, to which Barch responded "If I were you that's exactly where I'd want to be" -- i.e., sitting to his left so as to be able to act after him.
The soft-spoken player from McKinney, Texas just won his first WSOP bracelet a couple of days ago in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha (Event No. 20). If he continues his run good here and claims a second, that 2005 ME finish will likely become the second thing people remember him for.
