We didn't catch the hand as the dealer was too quick swiping the cards, but we do know that Stephen Hesse just chipped up to 200,000 after taking down a huge pot and eliminating Jeffrey King.
As players bust, those who remain are being shuffled around to keep tables balanced. Just now the tourney director came to Table 431 to tell chip leader Alex Gomes he was being moved across the room to an empty seat at Table 427. The variety of responses among those who've been playing with Gomes all afternoon were amusing.
"Thank God," said Steven Loube with a grin. Gomes had been sitting to Loube's left. "I already doubled you up once," cracked Gomes as he stood up.
"Noooo...!" said Jonathan Hart from across the table, perhaps referring to the disappearance of an opportunity to double up himself through the chip leader.
"Awww," said Alan DeJesus, currently short-stacked at about 15,000. He then delivered the line that got the most laughs.
Fellow Englishmen Tony Kendall and James Dempsey are having some fun with one another over on Table 430. And with your humble reporter, too.
Just now came a hand in which Dempsey limped from the cutoff, then Kendall raised the pot from the big blind for 19,000. The action back on Dempsey, he hemmed and hawed a little before calling the raise, and Kendall pushed the rest of his chips — about 34,000 — in the middle before the dealer spread the flop.
Those first three community cards came , prompting some laughter from Dempsey. "Now how'd you get that flop?" he said, then after tanking for a minute decided to let his hand go.
"Are you taking notes?" asked Kendall of your reporter. He then turned over two of his cards — — for all to see before pulling in the chips.
"If you want the rest of the hand I can tell you," he said. "But not in front of the table."
"But we can read the update!" someone pointed out, and Kendall laughed, deciding it prudent then to keep the other two cards to himself.
We caught the action on the flop when a raising war broke out between Charles Kassin and David Johnston that resulted in the latter being all in for right around 60,000.
Showdown
Kassin:
Johnston:
"Pair the board twice," Kassin pleaded when he saw Johnston's hand; in other words, he really didn't want to see a low card that didn't pair the board. The dealer obliged on the turn, putting out the , but didn't on the river; however, the that peeled off was just as good as Kassin won the pot and sent Johnston to the rail.