On the paired flop, Lee Goldman checked and Bill Chen bet. Jared Bleznick called and then Jason Mercier raised. Goldman folded and Chen reraised. Bleznick folded and then Mercier reraised. Chen called.
Before the turn came out, Chen checked in the dark. The dealer landed the on the turn and Mercier bet. Chen called.
The river was the and Chen checked. Mercier fired one more bet, but this time Chen couldn't make the call and tossed his hand into the muck.
Despite losing this pot, Chen has 189,000 and is up on the day thus far, having won some nice pots prior. Mercier is also up and sitting on 164,000.
Daniel Negreanu brought it in with a and watched as Brett Richey completed, David "ODB" Baker called, and Stephen Chidwick raised. Negreanu got out of the way, Richey three-bet, and both Baker and Chidwick made the call.
On the turn, Richey bet and both his opponents called. The same action was repeated on fifth street, except for Chidwick opted to fold. Richey bet yet again on sixth, Baker called, and then both men checked seventh.
Richey
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Baker
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Chidwick
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Richey rolled over a 10-5-4-3-A and indicated he had caught another five on seventh, to which Baker simply rapped the table and sent his cards to the muck.
From under the gun, Tom Chambers raised to 900. His raise was called by John Esposito in the hijack seat, Brian Hastings in the cutoff seat, Doyle Brunson on the button and finally David "Bakes" Baker from the big blind.
The group of five saw a flop come down and Baker was first up. He checked, as did Chambers. Esposito fired in a bet of 2,500 and Hastings folded. Brunson called before the other two got out of the way.
Down to two players, the turn was the . Esposito led for 3,500 and Brunson made the call. The river was the and Esposito checked. Brunson also checked.
Esposito showed the for trip threes with a ten kicker.
"What's he got?" asked Brunson, leaning a little bit over the table to get a better look at Esposito's hand. The dealer slid the hand to the middle of the table so Brunson could see better. Brunson then showed the for a full house, threes full of deuces. He won the pot and moved to 170,000 in chips. Esposito dropped back to 143,000.
David 'ODB' Baker just won another pot after taking one down earlier in Razz against Brett Richey. This time David Benyamine was Baker's opponent when he raised to 700 pre flop. Baker called from the button and the flop came down .
Benyamine fired out 1,100 and Baker made the call. The turn, the , was checked by both players. On the river the popped up and Benyamine bet 1,400. Baker tanked for a while before making the call, and his opponent announced he had queens. Baker turned over and raked in the pot.
Prior to play, PokerNews' very own Lynn Gilmartin caught up with some of the players in the field to see how they were feeling while she introduced the event. Check it out.
In the last hand before the break, which was the last hand of Level 1, Rami Boukai raised to 1,000 from the cutoff and received calls from Michael Glick and Hasan Habib on the button and big blind respectively.
The flop saw Boukai bet 1,800 after Habib checked, and two calls ensued. When the turned, Habib checked, Boukai tossed out 5,000, and Glick made the call. Habib got out of the way and it was heads-up to the river.
This time Boukai opted to slow down with a check, which opened the door for Glick to fire out a bet of 14,000. Boukai quickly reached for chips as if he was going to call, but must have thought better of it as he tossed his cards into the middle instead.
Action folded to Stephen Chidwick on the button and he raised. Daniel Negreanu reraised from the small blind and Chidwick called.
The flop came down and Negreanu bet. Chidwick made the call to see the land on the turn. Negreanu kept on the gas and bet again. Chidwick folded and Negreanu won the pot.
As we mentioned in the opening post, this event originated way back in 2006 when it was played as H.O.R.S.E. That year, 143 players created a prize pool of $6,864,000 and attracted one of the toughest fields in poker history.
While the winner of that event, David "Chip" Reese, is no longer with us, many of the players who notched cashes that year are in today's field including Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein, just to name a few.