In a recent hand we found Jamie Gold checking from early position on a flop. A player in middle position then checked while the cut-off player bet 600, the button called, and Jamie Gold opted to raise, making it 2,600. The middle position player folded, the cut-off called, and the button folded after some deliberation.
With the being struck down on fourth street both players checked. The on the river however brought a different story. Jamie Gold held 6,000 worth of chips in his hand sitting quietly thinking what he wanted to do, when all of a sudden his opponent said "one more" as in Gold should bet one more 1,000 chip. Instead Gold took one away and bet 5,000. His opponent laughed, saying he would have definitely called 7,000. The cut-off then went into the tank for a good minute before depositing his cards in the muck.
Gold told the player he made a good fold, and after further discussion Gold claimed to of had for a full house, but his opponent wasn't buying it and was regretting not calling.
Greg Mueller is back above the starting stack after seeing a flop of with the big blind. After a check Mueller bet 1,200 and got a call. The turn came and both players checked. The river fell , the big blind checked and Mueller bet 1,600. The big blind folded and Mueller is at 32,000.
We found Allen Blanton in the Orange section sporting one of the best hats we've seen this year. All sorts of characters find their way to the Main Event and Blanton is no exception. His hat reads "I spend my money on Booze, gambling, and women. The rest I WASTE."
Blanton is playing in his first ever WSOP event. He's 58 years old and said in a syrupy thick Kentucky drawl, "I've got some medical problems so I'm not sure how much time I've got left."
Blanton has been watching in on ESPN for years. "I've been watching it so long I figured I want some of those millions. I've been playing (poker) for 42 years."
As we were talking to him he limped into a pot from early position and the player on his left raised to 650. Action folded all the way back around to Blanton and he said, "Well there son, you tryin' to get me off my hand? I guess I'll play the next one."
Blanton folded and is enjoying his WSOP experience. "I'm enjoying this thing, it's really fun. I wasn't a while ago because I was down."
When asked if he'd been to the Pavilion room yet he said, "No not yet, but I figure I'll get lost in there."
Age Spets appears to be missing from table 352 but there is a David Williams there with a stack of 93,000 so we're guessing he took most of the Norwegian's chips.
Slight problem for us today given that we already have Team PokerStars Pro David Williams in the chip counts, "he's always stealing my cashes," lamented new David Williams. However with that in mind, we're going to refer to new David Williams as Dave Williams for our chip counts and simplicity.
Another level down here on Day 1d means we’re on another 20-minute break. The past two hours of action saw some notables hit the rail including Prahlad Friedman, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Steve Zolotow, James Mackey, Frank Kassela, William Reynolds, Paul Magriel, and Michael Chow.
While some players failed to survive Level 2, others thrived. For instance, Casey McCarrel got in a preflop raising war with an unknown opponent before all the money wound up in the pot. McCarrel, who held , was in bad shape against his opponent’s , but that all changed as the board ran out . McCarrel’s flopped full house allowed him to take down the pot and he vaulted toward the top of the chip counts with 71,000!
Others who managed to have a decent level were Joe Tehan (86,000), Andrew Chen (97,000), Alan Sternberg (88,000), and Jeff Madsen (50,050).
Action will resume in 20 minutes, so be sure to check back then for all the action and eliminations from Day 1d of the 2011 WSOP Main Event.
We've just spotted another notable in the Orange section of the Amazon Room, and it's a name you might have seen on TV. It's his backstory that's most noteworthy, however.
Mike Kosowski spent his working career as a Detective Sergeant with the New York Police Department, and he was one of the first responders to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. As it was for so many of his colleagues, that day would prove to be the worst of his life. The South tower essentially collapsed right on top of Kosowski, and he suffered through five herniated discs as he pulled himself from the rubble and limped to the relative safety of a nearby building.
"Talk about lucky," Kosowski said. "I was one of the luckiest guys in the world to survive that day."
If not for that day, though, Kosowski would likely not be sitting here playing the World Series of Poker Main Event.
The injuries he endured ended his career in law enforcement a couple years later, and Kosowski needed to find something to occupy his free time. Online poker filled the void nicely, and he spent his days grinding away on the virtual felt. One average day, Kosowski ended up entering a 16,000-player freeroll for a chance at a seat in a televised poker show. To make a long story short, a couple months down a long qualifying road, he was in Los Angeles sitting across the felt from Daniel Negreanu with a chance to win seven figures on the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge.
He did it. Kosowski capped off a true feel-good story as he overcame Negreanu's challenge to collect the million-dollar paycheck and pad his early retirement.
Kosowski has put $10,000 of those winnings to use today, sitting at Table 310 in our Orange section. It's going quite well so far, too, as he sits among the big stacks with 75,000 chips at the moment.
Kosowski is very much interested in his family following along back home, and we'd like to give a shout-out to his wife Fran, children Mike and Rachele, and the family dog, Joe DiMaggio.
flop. A player in middle position then checked while the cut-off player bet 600, the button called, and Jamie Gold opted to raise, making it 2,600. The middle position player folded, the cut-off called, and the button folded after some deliberation.
being struck down on fourth street both players checked. The 
on the river however brought a different story. Jamie Gold held 6,000 worth of chips in his hand sitting quietly thinking what he wanted to do, when all of a sudden his opponent said "one more" as in Gold should bet one more 1,000 chip. Instead Gold took one away and bet 5,000. His opponent laughed, saying he would have definitely called 7,000. The cut-off then went into the tank for a good minute before depositing his cards in the muck.
with the big blind. After a check Mueller bet 1,200 and got a call. The turn came 
and both players checked. The river fell 
, the big blind checked and Mueller bet 1,600. The big blind folded and Mueller is at 32,000.
, was in bad shape against his opponent’s 
. McCarrel’s flopped full house allowed him to take down the pot and he vaulted toward the top of the chip counts with 71,000!
