2012 World Series of Poker

Event 61: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event
Day: 2c
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k5
Prize
$8,531,853
Event Info
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$62,021,200
Entries
6,598
Level Info
Level
42
Blinds
1,000,000 / 2,000,000
Ante
300,000

Lew Grabs a Few From Mikkelsen

Randy Lew
Randy Lew

Randy Lew opened for 2,300 from the hijack seat and found one caller in Dag Martin Mikkelsen in the big blind.

The flop came {K-Diamonds}{10-Hearts}{J-Diamonds} and both players checked.

The turn brought the {10-Spades} and Mikkelsen check-called a 2,800 bet from Lew.

When the {J-Clubs} completed the board, Mikkelsen checked once more - prompting a 6,800 bet from Lew. Mikkelsen tank-called and Lew flipped over {J-Hearts}{8-Hearts} for jacks-full of tens. Mikkelsen mucked and Lew scooped the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Dag Martin Mikkelsen
Dag Martin Mikkelsen
98,000 -47,000
Randy Lew us
Randy Lew
60,000 -7,000

Nice End to Level for Volpe

In the last hand before the break, Paul Volpe raised from middle position, then the player in the cutoff reraised to 6,100. It folded back to Volpe who made it 19,000 to go, his opponent shoved all in, and Volpe snap-called.

Volpe's opponent showed {Q-Clubs}{Q-Hearts}, but Volpe had the better pair with {K-Clubs}{K-Hearts}. As players filed out of the Amazon room, the community cards came {2-Diamonds}{A-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{5-Hearts}{10-Clubs}, and Volpe's opponent won't be returning from the break. Meanwhile, Volpe cracks a quarter million.

Player Chips Progress
Paul Volpe us
Paul Volpe
WSOP 3X Winner
253,000 79,000

Tags: Paul Volpe

Updated Chip Counts from the Brasilia Gold Section

Player Chips Progress
Jesse Sylvia us
Jesse Sylvia
302,000 7,000
Jake Cody gb
Jake Cody
WSOP 1X Winner
292,000 72,000
Tristan Clemencon fr
Tristan Clemencon
261,000 31,000
Steve Merrifield
Steve Merrifield
215,000 -12,000
Sam Holden gb
Sam Holden
213,000 55,000
Farzad Bonyadi us
Farzad Bonyadi
WSOP 4X Winner
210,000 20,000
Dee Friedman
Dee Friedman
174,000
Anthony Rivera
Anthony Rivera
168,000 88,000
Kory Kilpatrick
Kory Kilpatrick
150,000 10,000
Freddy Deeb lb
Freddy Deeb
WSOP 2X Winner
145,000 100,000
Ari Engel ca
Ari Engel
WSOP 2X Winner
140,000 -50,000
Andrew Moreno us
Andrew Moreno
120,000 2,000
Michael Binger
Michael Binger
116,000 -14,000
Justin Zaki
Justin Zaki
102,000 7,000
Paul Wasicka
Paul Wasicka
95,000 30,000
Tom Koral
Tom Koral
86,000 25,150
Juan Manuel Pastor es
Juan Manuel Pastor
65,000 17,000
Konstantin Puchkov ru
Konstantin Puchkov
WSOP 1X Winner
58,000 -7,000
Kosei Ichinose
Kosei Ichinose
55,000
Kelly Kim us
Kelly Kim
50,000 -55,000
Steve Karp
Steve Karp
49,000 -1,000
Chris Oliver us
Chris Oliver
30,000 -6,000
Gus Hansen dk
Gus Hansen
WSOP 1X Winner
Winamax
25,000 -48,000
John Racener us
John Racener
WSOP 1X Winner
22,000 -18,000
Ryan Young
Ryan Young
20,000 -79,000

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Christophe Close to Two Hundred

Christophe De Meulder opened the action to 2,200 and the player on the button made the call. It was then on the small blind and he three-bet to 8,800. Back on De Meulder and he would four-bet to 15,400. The button was out of the way by this point and the small blind would shove all in for around 40,000. De Meulder call and the two players turned their hands over.

De Meulder: {a-}{a-}
Opponent: {k-}{k-}

It was a good spot for De Meulder and it stayed that way as a board full of bricks sent him the nice pot.

Player Chips Progress
Christophe De Meulder be
Christophe De Meulder
199,900 122,900

Tags: Christophe De Meulder

Benba Gunna Benba

Ben Lamb
Ben Lamb

Ron Pease called a 2,100-chip raise from the cutoff, and 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year and November Niner Ben "Benba" Lamb three-bet to 9,600 from the big blind. Pease four-bet to 22,700, and Lamb five-bet shoved. Pease called.

Pease{9-Hearts}{9-Diamonds}
Lamb{10-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}

The board ran out {3-Spades}{2-Diamonds}{j-Clubs}{7-Clubs}{k-Spades}, Pease was eliminated, and Lamb is now above 200,000 chips.

Player Chips Progress
Ben Lamb us
Ben Lamb
WSOP 2X Winner
225,000 191,000

Tags: Ben LambRon Pease

Le Upping The Agression

Nam Le raised it up to 2,200 in the cutoff, and the button three bet to 6,200 with about 35,000 behind. The blinds got out of the way, and it was back to Le. He announced all in for about 60,000, and his opponent spent about 30 seconds in the tank before kicking his cards in.

On the next hand, a player in middle position raised to 2,200, and Le was next to act. He kept the pressure going with a three bet to 6,200, and it folded back around to the original raiser. Again, Le saw no further action, as his opponent folded.

After taking down those two pots, Le is up to 72,000.

Player Chips Progress
Nam Le
Nam Le
72,000 12,000

Tags: Nam Le

Amit Winning Some Chips

When we arrived at Amit Makhija's table there was already a {5-Clubs}{q-Clubs}{5-Hearts}{10-Spades}{9-Hearts} board on the felt and a sizable pot building with Makhija going up against one opponent. Makhija was on the button and bet 25,000 when his opponent checked. The player thought for a long time before making the call, which prompted Makhija to table {9-Spades}{9-Diamonds}. His opponent showed a {5-Diamonds} and slid his cards into the muck as Makhija scooped up the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Amit Makhija
Amit Makhija
125,000 43,000

Tags: Amit Makhija

Updated Chip Counts from the Amazon Purple Section

Player Chips Progress
Luke Brereton
Luke Brereton
367,000 22,000
Jeremy Allen us
Jeremy Allen
305,000 -31,000
Paul McTaggart
Paul McTaggart
282,000 -2,000
Daniel Eichhorn
Daniel Eichhorn
228,000 25,000
Antoine Guyetant
Antoine Guyetant
212,000 6,000
James Keys
James Keys
193,000 31,000
Ravi Raghavan us
Ravi Raghavan
188,000 63,000
Sumit Kumar
Sumit Kumar
176,500 -15,500
Paul Volpe us
Paul Volpe
WSOP 3X Winner
174,000 -38,000
Viktor Blom se
Viktor Blom
172,000 -14,000
Joshua Levkov
Joshua Levkov
168,000 -4,500
Bryan Paris
Bryan Paris
150,000 9,000
Josh Arieh us
Josh Arieh
WSOP 6X Winner
135,000
James Sykes
James Sykes
123,200 200
Vivek Rajkumar in
Vivek Rajkumar
120,000 16,000
Daniel Delorenzogalvan
Daniel Delorenzogalvan
110,200 39,200
Michael Schneider
Michael Schneider
100,000
Brent Zimmerman
Brent Zimmerman
95,000 6,600
Jonathan Hilton
Jonathan Hilton
94,100 -40,900
Timothy Adams
Timothy Adams
91,000 39,400
Gregory Heimann
Gregory Heimann
83,000
Christian Harder
Christian Harder
74,000 -13,000
Ronnie Bardah us
Ronnie Bardah
WSOP 1X Winner
72,000 -47,000
Sorel Mizzi ca
Sorel Mizzi
63,000 -26,000
Brad Booth ca
Brad Booth
56,000 3,000

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The Magician Making Chips Disappear

Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari

Antonio Esfandiari is of course fresh off his win in the $1,000,000 Big One For One Drop, and it looks like he's keeping that momentum going through the Main Event. We just caught him winning a big pot that has propelled him up to 250,000.

Action folded around to Antonio Esfandiari raising it up to 2,200 in the cutoff, and the player on the button was the only caller. The flop came down {10-Diamonds}{j-Clubs}{7-Clubs}, and Esfandiari fired out 3,400. His opponent tossed in the call, and the turn brought the {4-Hearts}. Esfandiari kept the aggression up, as he led out for 8,600. His opponent tanked for about 30 seconds before tossing in the call.

The river brought the {3-Hearts}, and after about 20 seconds of thought, Esfandiari announced all in. There was about 40,000 in the pot, and his opponent had about 50,000 left behind, so it was an overbet to the pot. This sent his opponent deep into the tank. He counted out his entire chip stack, then slid his chips forward after about three minutes of thought.

Esfandiari tabled {7-Diamonds}{7-Hearts} for a flopped set, and his opponent mucked his cards, and slid his chips over to the Magician.

Player Chips Progress
Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
WSOP 3X Winner
250,000 89,000

Tags: Antonio Esfandiari

Cheong Strong

Joseph Cheong Can't Go Wrong
Joseph Cheong Can't Go Wrong

We caught up with the action on a board of {10-Hearts}{6-Clubs}{3-Clubs}{3-Hearts} board to see Joseph Cheong bet 4,300. His opponent put out a raise that made it 13,100 to go. Cheong called and the two were off to the river.

The {2-Clubs} spike the river and Cheong checked. His opponent bet 29,000 and Cheong went into the tank. Cheong thought for about three minutes before his opponent called the clock and the floor came over. The floorman informed Cheong that he had sixty seconds left to act on his hand and Cheong stills at motionless.

About thirty seconds into the time, Cheong quickly announced that he was all in, which in fact was all in for his opponent who had about 60,000 behind. Cheong's opponent called.

"Nut flush," said Cheong, showing {A-Clubs}{5-Clubs}. His opponent tabled {J-Clubs}{9-Clubs} and made a quick exit out of the Amazon room.

"Sorry," Cheong continued. "I really didn't know if I should shove or just call there."

Regardless of the time it took, Cheong is now sitting in a remarkably high position with 262,000 in chips.

Player Chips Progress
Joseph Cheong us
Joseph Cheong
WSOP 1X Winner
226,000 71,000

Tags: Joseph Cheong