There isn't a lot of colorful dress going on in the Pavilion, but one player has decided to show up wearing a complete Batman outfit. He's got the hat, cape and chest piece. From the look on his face, though, his suit has not given him the power to win chips this afternoon.
Robert Williamson III's normally vocal on arrival, but today he was visually loud as he entered the Pavillion Room with four voluptuous women in tow.
These fine members of the female species were representing a brand of beer (which I'm not sure I can name - let's call it 'Duff Beer'), and have been lurking on an otherwise empty rail while causing a distraction to many hot-blooded males in the room.
At one stage, Williamson tried to get the players on his table to wear a T-shirt of that particular brand and managed to find two victims, who then spread their arms as the ladies pulled the shirt over their heads. I think it was at this point that Williamson nicked their blinds.
Some dreadful misfortune for Tracey Nguyen, as she got her whole stack in with 
against 
on a 
flop with two diamonds on it. Not so bad, you might think - but a third diamond dropped on the turn, and the fourth diamond on the river sealed the dreadful deal. Nguyen dropped right down to just 3,400. Ouch.
The players have the first two hours of their Main Event behind them, and they've been sent off for a twenty-minute break.
It was a fine start to the day for Minh Ly, doubling up in set-over-set fashion within just a few minutes of the starting gun. John Duthie has been the most active player in the field as far as we can tell, and he was up there around 55,000 for a while before sliding back down to his starting stack as the level wound down. Kevin Saul and Alex Keating all did good work to see their stacks pushed up around the 50,000-chip mark. Former PokerNews reporter Anthony Yeh also finds himself comfortably above his starting stack.
Things were not so friendly for two of the notable women in our field. Liv Boeree is somewhere around 5,000 as she leaves for the break, and Annette Obrestad has about twice that, but she's still not faring too well. Fortunately, the blinds are still small, and both of those ladies will have some time to try and turn things around in the next level. Dan Shak runs bad, and Arnaud Mattern has a broken foot, and their stacks of about 7,000 apiece are further adding to their discomfort as well.
We'll be back in just a few minutes with Level 2.
This break is going to be extended just a few minutes for two bracelet ceremonies up on the Pavilion stage.
Jack Effel introduced Marcel Vonk to the crowd, champion of the final $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event. We were treated to the Dutch national anthem as Vonk was given his gold bracelet and his Diamond Total Rewards card. Vonk is a physicist, and he says he'd rather win the Nobel Prize than a bracelet... but it's close.
Second to the stage was Dan Kelly, the champion of Event #52, the big $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event. That was good for a payday of well over $1 million for the 21-year-old, and he's already got himself a gold bracelet at that tender age too -- and in possibly the toughest event of the summer, no less. Kelly's bracelet hoisting cued the American national anthem, and we're just a few moments from getting the cards back in the air with Level 2 now.
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
We found John Eames in the small blind position checking the turn of a 
board. His one opponent bet 1,500, which, after a period of tanking, Eames called.
They saw a 
river and Eames checked again. This time his opponent bet 3,500, driving Eames into the tank for an inordinately long time. Eventually Eames called, but promptly mucked to his opponent's tabled .
Eames dropped to 20,000 or so.
James "Flushy" Dempsey got his opponent all in after a flop of 
. The unknown player flopped top two with 
, but he soon found out that he was drawing to two outs when Flushy turned up his coolering 
for middle set.
The turn 
was not an ace, and neither was the 
river, and we're minus one player here on Day 1b. Dempsey is up to 52,000 as he stacks that pot.
With the board reading 
, Shawn Moore and his opponent got all the chips in the middle.
His opponent opened 
for an ace-king high flush, but Moore showed him the nuts; 
.
The 
on the river was irrelevant, and Moore doubled to 16,500 chips.
We caught up to the action on this table on a flop of 
and saw Matt Stout check-call a bet of 1,300 from Alex Keating.
The turn was the 
and both players checked to see a river of 
and checked once more.
Keating said tens were good and that he wanted to "bet so bad on the river" before he checked. Stout could do better than tens, showing to win the pot and is now up to 30,800, while Keating is down to 41,750.
