Level: 9
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
Level: 9
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
We started with 2,521 players, and eight levels later, there are 470 left. That means there have been an average of 256 eliminations per level. That works out to 4.3 busts per minute, as in one player has hit the rail every 14 seconds. Ouch.
A player in early position opened to 2,100, and next to act, Liv Boeree moved all in over top for around 20,000. It folded around to Gregg Merkow in the small blind, who called all in for 12,000. The original raiser folded, and it was time to flip 'em. Boeree held , which doesn't play too well against the Merkow's holding of [ahqj]. The board was no help to Liv, who dropped to 8,000. Merkow doubled to 25,000.
The just broke the last tables in the first half of the Pavilion room. Now, rather than start breaking any in the only remaining section, they are removing one player at a time from each table to make them all nine-handed. The players are quite happy about the news, and the added elbow room. The smell of some of their neighbors has gotten a little pungent after a long, stressful day of poker.
There was already 14,000 in the middle when we caught Tom Dwan heads up on the turn of a board. From the big blind, durrrr bet 6,600, and his opponent moved all in. Dwan called the rest and turned over for top and bottom pair. His opponent needed to hit a club to double with or a five to chop with a straight on the board. The on the river was neither, and Dwan eliminated his opponent and moved up to 55,000. Is it too early to start the next round of durrrr bracelet watch?
Here is a look at some of the biggest stacks in the room, though no one comes close to current leader Darren Spurlock:
Darren Spurlock - 168,000
Carter Phillips - 93,000
Jon Christensen - 92,000
Danny Johnson - 85,000
And these guys all have chip counts reading 0:
Nichoel Peppe
Lee Childs
Shane Schleger
Anh Van Nguyen
Davidi Kitai
Stephen "Stevie444" Chidwick checked a flop in the small blind, and his lone opponent on the button bet 1,325. Chidwick check-raised him to 3,750, and the button three-bet to 6,250. Chidwick shipped in his sizable stack, and the other player called all in. Stevie444 showed for bottom set, and he needed to avoid a club that would turn his opponent's -high into the nut flush. The on the turn was a good color for Chidwick, as was the on the river. He sent the button packing and moved up to 55,000.
Attention players feverishly refreshing our coverage on your iPhones/iPads while you play in the $10k H.O.R.S.E. Championship. You can all relax. durrrr bracelet watch (which was pretty premature anyway) lasted under an hour. Tom Dwan went from a big stack to out in three easy steps:
1) Alex Barlow raised to 1,900 on the button. Dwan raised his small blind to 5,600 and Barlow four-bet to 11,800. Dwan shoved, and Barlow snapped with . When you have a decent pocket pair and Tom Dwan five-bet shoves on you from the blinds, you're supposed to be way good. But in this case, Barlow was way behind Dwan's . The flop had Barlow hoping for a heart to save him, but he didn't need it after the came on the turn. The river was the , and Barlow doubled to 66,000. Dwan fell to 36,000.
2) Jason Gray got it all in with against Dwan's . A short stack was also all in for 7,000 with . The board came out , and Jason Gray took the 75,500-chip pot. Dwan, on the other hand, was crippled to 2,000.
3) Dwan got his last chips in with but couldn't hold against . Now he can run back to the $10k H.O.R.S.E. and work on making his bracelet bettors sweat over there.
Level: 10
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
Team PokerStars Pro: Argentina member Veronica Dabul needed help from the deck to bust an all-in opponent who held . Dabul's connected with the flop and got another boost on the turn. The river was meaningless, and Dabul earned a knock out and moved up to 36,000.