Players are enthusiatically taking their last 20 minute break of the night. What will they do during this time? Popular opinion suggests that they will use the restroom, grab a bite to eat, tell bad beat stories, and perhaps make a phone call.
Level: 9
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 0
Had a hand right before -- and during -- the break we wanted to share.
With the board reading 
and about 18,000 in the middle already, a player had bet all in with his last 16,000, sending Michael Binger into deep, deep contemplation.
And when we say deep, we ain't kidding. This was the sort of serious study that resembled that which was probably required for that Ph.D. in theoretical physics Binger earned from Stanford University. The hand began about five minutes before the break began, and we were 10 minutes into the break before Binger finally made his decision. No shinola.
"Feel free to call the clock," Binger said along the way, but his amiable opponent refused to do so. Binger estimated out loud his opponent's possible hands. "8-9-10-J with hearts?" he said. He noted what to all watching had become obvious -- he thought it was a very close call.
"Wanna chop it?" he asked, and they both laughed.
Finally he delivered a summary of the work he had done. "Even though against your range I have a slight chip equity," he said, "I like having this many chips." He pointed to his stack of roughly 34,000.
At last he folded, and after all that his opponent was willing to show his 
.
"Oh man, I shoulda called," grinned Binger.
Onto to Level 9.
A short-stacked Nam Le was just now all in before the flop with 
against an opponent who held 
.
The flop came 
, and Le already stood up at the sight of the five, giving his opponent a set. The turn was the 
, though, causing tablemates to point at the board and stopping Le for a moment as he'd made a Broadway straight.
But the river brought the 
, giving Le's opponent a full house and eliminating Le.
Tom "Durrrr" Dwan's tactics of running back and forth between tournaments has come to an end. He can now spend his time in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship as he has been eliminated from this event.
Likewise, Phil Ivey has been sent packing after spending much of the evening in other events.
One of our big stacks currently belongs to Luc Greenwood, sitting to the right of T.J. Cloutier at the moment. Cloutier also has recently chipped up to challenge the chip leaders. Greenwood is from Canada, and he and Cloutier have been talking about the relative merits of Toronto and Montreal.
Cloutier knows something about Canada -- and about those two cities -- as once upon a time he played for both cities' teams in the Canadian Football League. He's also been back to Toronto since his tenure on the gridiron. As he just explained to Greenwood, he went back there a few years ago for a small role in an episode of the ESPN mini-series "Tilt" which was filmed in Toronto.
Greenwood looks to have about 64,000 at present, while his neighbor Cloutier has recently overtaken him to move to 73,000.
Over at Table 3, Seat 5 raised 9,600 preflop and JC Tran made the call.
The flop came down 
and Seat 5 immediately bet 21,600. Tran pushed all in for a total of 22,100 and Seat 5 called.
Seat 5: 
Tran: 
Tran was in big trouble against top set but changed that all around when he hit the 
on the turn. Suddenly he just needed to avoid the board pairing.
The dealer burned and flipped the 
on the river, giving Tran a double up to around 64,000.
Erik Seidel was all in for his last 14,000 on a flop of 
against an opponent in Seat 6. "I guess I'm in bad shape again," Seidel stated after his opponent called. On the contrary, he was in the lead.
Seidel: 
Seat 6: 
The turn was the and the river the , giving Seidel two pair with a queen kicker. It was good enough to win and he doubled to 30,000.
Chip Jett got all in preflop with 
and was called by Seat 9 who held 
.
The board ran out 
and Jett was eliminated by Seat 9's two pair.
Level: 10
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 0
