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We have two new tables in play to begin this level.
One of them contains Andy Bloch, Liz Lieu, Robert Mizrachi, and Anh Van Nguyen.
At the other, we find Dan Heimiller, Eli Elezra, and John Monnette.
We know Mike Matusow is around here somewhere, we just don't know where he's sitting yet as he's yet to join his table. He's still running around tidying up some prop bets.
Looking around the room, we see a surprising number of unfamiliar faces in our field. A lot of people play limit hold'em, and it's hard to gauge the skill level of the unknowns this early, but the overall appearance of the field is a bit softer than we would have anticipated.
Mark Newhouse is noticing this too. Walking past his table, we overheard him talking with another player. "This is normally the tournament I recognize the most people," Newhouse said, "but I see a lot of new faces. Last year, I knew everybody."
Shaun Deeb, Vitaly Lunkin, and Nikolay Evdakov each put four bets in before the 
flop. Deeb and Lunkin checked to Evdakov, who led out. Deeb called, Lunkin raised, Evdakov made it three bets, Deeb folded and Lunkin called. The Russians went heads-up to the turn, which fell the 
. Lunkin check-called a bet from Evdakov, then check-folded when the 
hit the river.
Evdakov took down the pot, increasing his stack to 36,000. Lunkin is down to 27,000 and Deeb is on 35,000.
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 you might sit down across the felt from you. See you there!
Thus far, 150 players have bought in to this event and nine of them (6% of the field) are women. That might seem small, but when it comes to women playing tournament poker, it's a pretty good percentage as we usually top out at around 2-3% of any given field.
So which ladies plunked down the $10K buy-in? Jennifer Harman, Liz Lieu, Maria Ho, Vanessa Rousso, J.J. Liu, and Kathy Liebert to name a few. Annie Duke would probably be here too, but she's still alive in the $1,500 Stud 8 event.
That's two levels in the books, and it's time for the first twenty-minute break of the day.
Back in a flash.
Level: 3
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 0
A couple of loaded tables of late registrants just formed. Table 288 is now home to Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Mikael Thuritz, Todd Brunson, Vladimir Schmelev, George Lind III and Gabe Kaplan. Next door on Table 289 are Howard Lederer, Matt Glantz, Brett Richey, Phil Galfond, Tom Dwan, Erik Sagstrom, Nick Schulman and Joe Cassidy. Oh and it doesn't stop there. On Table 292, Jason Mercier, Jeff Lisandro, Chris Ferguson, and Daniel Negreanu are all settling into their seats. There is one empty chair, however on that table which is waiting to be filled by Phil Hellmuth (who always loves a late entrance).
"C'mon baby, ONE MORE!" shouted Mike Matusow from across the room. With 170 players seated, the Mouth needs only one more player to hit his bet on 171 total entrants.
The clock still tells us (or, more to the pot, tells Mike Matusow) that 170 players have unofficially entered our event. Matusow has the 171 in that aforementioned five-way prop bet, and he is sweating this out hard.
"The Mouth" is currently pacing back and forth from table to table, yelling at anyone who is within earshot. "One more!" he keeps saying. "That number ain't right. It's gonna change. We're gonna have one more."
For now, the number is stuck firmly at 170 (good news for David Benyamine), but we'll have the official number, as well as the prize pool information just as soon as it's official.
