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For an event that will draw more than 800 players, the pros have certainly turned out in force. In addition to all of the other players we've already spotted, Joe Hachem, Victor Ramdin, and double-bracelet winner Frank Kassela recently joined the party.
An unknown player opened the pot with a raise to 250, and two players called in the middle before Chris Moneymaker three-bet to 1,100 in the big blind. This time the raiser and the first caller called, while the fourth man ducked out of the way.
The three of them took a flop of 
, and Moneymaker fired out 1,300 more chips. The original raiser was the only caller now, and they went heads up to see the 
on the turn. Moneymaker checked now, and his opponent bet 1,600.
"How did that ace help you?" Moneymaker asked. "Are you just floating?" After another few seconds, he moved all in, and his opponent called all in for 4,600 total, turning up 
. Moneymaker said, "I have one of those two..." and then he rolled over 
for the unexpected set. The 
on the river finished off the hand, and Moneymaker is up to 12,000 after using all of his rebuy lammers already.
We can't say for sure when the money got into the pot, but when we walked up, Matt Graham had turned up in front of him, and he had one of his opponents across the table all in. The other player was in good shape, showing 
. That lead wouldn't last long, however.
The dealer ran out a board of 
, making Graham the Broadway straight and eliminating the other player from the field.
Table mate Gavin Smith couldn't resist the chance to needle Graham: "You thought you were trapping him. You suck," Smith said. After another few moments, he added, "You suck worse than Tremors." The table chuckled at Smith's movie reference.
Graham may suck, but his stack shows 17,000 chips. That part definitely doesn't suck.
Sandra Naujoks opened the pot with an early-position raise, and a player a couple seats over reraised to 700. Naujoks made it 2,175 to go, her opponent moved all in, and Naujoks called off the rest of her first set of chips, leaving herself just the two red rebuy lammers. Cards up lady and gent:
Naujoks: 
Opponent:
The board came 
, and that holds the aces and pulls a stack from Naujoks. She used both of her lammers after the hand, and she's back to 6,000 and out of rebuy chances.
Apparently things did not go very well for Frank Kassela in the early stages of this tournament. When we last passed by his table, he was down from the starting stack of 3,000 to just 275 -- with no rebuy chips left to burn. As we watched, a player opened pre-flop for 250 and was called in multiple spots. Kassela, on the button, just called the 250, leaving himself exactly 25 behind. That last quarter went in on a flop 
. Kasella turned up 
for a pair of sevens; his opponent showed , a pair of queens. The turn 
and river sent Kassela home early.
"Good luck to y'all," said Kassella. "I guess I could have played better."
A player in early position opened to 350, and Gavin Griffin called a few seats over. They were the only two to the flop, and it came . The raiser checked and called a bet of 525 from Griffin, and he check-called another 900 on the 
turn. The 
filled out the board on fifth street, and Griffin made a healthy bet of 3,300. That was finally enough to move his opponent off his hand, and Griffin stacked the pot to move up to 14,000.
That's two levels down, and the clock has been paused for the first twenty-minute break of the day.
We've got at least one or two bracelet ceremonies to take care of as well here in the Pavilion, so we'll be back shortly.
Level: 3
Blinds: 75/150
Ante: 0
T.J. Cloutier has been a presence at the World Series of Poker for a long, long time. He's also looking to be a presence for a long time in today's event. In position, he called a bet on the turn of a 
board. The two were heads-up to the river , where that player tried a bet of 1,200.
"1,200?" Cloutier asked. "I call."
"Ace-high," his opponent said. Cloutier showed down 
for a turned jacks and sixes to take down the pot. Having burned his rebuy chips, he's up to 15,500.
