Down in the ESPN mothership, we found actor Kevin Pollak raise the action to 9,000. He received one call from Lance Keating in the small blind and the two were heads up to see a flop of .
Keating checked to the raiser and Pollak tossed out a continuation bet of 11,000. Keating called and the fell on fourth street. Keating checked once again and Pollak fired another bullet. This time the magic number was 16,000.
Keating folded his hand and Pollak showed to the table for top two pair. Pollak has been slowly grinding up his stack since he's been at the feature table, and due to the several small pots that he has been able to take down, he's currently sitting on a stack of 288,000.
We caught up with the action on the turn with a board reading .
Daniel Negreanu was heads-up against another player and fired a bet from the big blind. His opponent then moved all in from late position and Negreanu called off his remaining stack to put himself at risk.
Negreanu: for a flopped straight.
Opponent: for a pair of queens.
As it turned out, Negreanu wasn't really at "risk" at all as he had his opponent drawing dead. A meaningless landed on the river and Negreanu doubled through back to 150,000.
Daniel Rudd has just overtaken and Ben Alcober and AJ Jejelowo for the chip lead for the time being.
We caught up to the action on the river, but Rudd was kind enough to fill us in on the details. He opened to 8,500 in early position and was called by two players before a third player re-raised to 24,500 from the small blind. Rudd called, as did the other two players, landing an flop.
The three-bettor bet 67,000, Rudd called, and the other two opponents folded. The turn fell the where the bet was 101,000 to Rudd. He called, landing the on the river. This time, Rudd's opponent fired 167,000. Wasting little time, Rudd re-raised all in for an additional 97,000. After a few moments his opponent called and Rudd tabled . His opponent tabled a weaker ace, , shipping the nearly seven-figure pot Rudd's way.
Action folded around to Nicholas Carrillo who raised to 10,000 from the button. Justin Oliver moved all in for 47,000 from the next seat over. Carrillo called and the hands were tabled.
Carrillo:
Oliver:
Carrillo retained his lead on the flop but fell behind when Oliver paired up on the turn. The board completed with the on the river and Oliver was able to score a double up.
Brian Meinders opened for 10,000 from early position and he was called by the player in the cutoff seat. Directly behind him, Shaun Deeb paused and then pushed out a raise to 33,500. Everyone folded rather quickly and Deeb scooped the pot.
"Show one time," a tablemate said to Deeb.
"I had it," Deeb replied. He then threw his hand into the muck face down.
A short while ago a player here in the Purple section won a big hand and responded with one of those action-stopping shouts that sometimes will occur. "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" he cried, and a brief silence followed.
Robert Croak, the Silly Bandz creator and High Stakes Poker participant, decided to fill the silence with a question.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?"
Everyone laughed at Croak's shouted question. Alas for the businessman, we're now talking about his elimination from the 2012 WSOP Main Event, his last chips having been taken recently by Antonio Esfandiari. At least Croak left us smiling.
Ali Eslami was on the button and the player in the cutoff opened for 9,500. Eslami re-raised to 21,500 and his opponent went silent.
As the player in the cutoff was thinking a floor supervisor informed to other players to bag up their chips in preparation for a move to the Amazon Room.
The player in the cutoff folded and asked Eslami if he would show. "Come on, we're moving anyways," the opponent prodded.
Eslami thought for a moment, turned up and started to bag his chips.
After a series of bets and raises, Lee Childs six-bet shoved for effectively 275,000. Alicia Spencer called all in with kings, and was dominated by Childs' aces.
Spencer found no help, and has been eliminated from the 2012 Main Event.
Vanessa Selbst raised to 8,000 from early position and it folded around to the blinds who both opted to call.
The flop brought and all three players checked. The trio did the same on the of fourth street, and the dropped down to finish the board.
The small blind bet 11,500 and was quickly called by the big blind. Selbst tanked for over a minute before flat calling as well. The small blind showed for ace-high and the blind blind flipped up for a pair of tens.
Selbst, however, tabled the winning hand with for a pair of tens with a jack kicker. In raking that pot, Selbst's stack is now sitting at 535,000.
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fell on fourth street. Keating checked once again and Pollak fired another bullet. This time the magic number was 16,000.
to the table for top two pair. Pollak has been slowly grinding up his stack since he's been at the feature table, and due to the several small pots that he has been able to take down, he's currently sitting on a stack of 288,000.
for a flopped straight.
for a pair of queens.
flop.
where the bet was 101,000 to Rudd. He called, landing the 
on the river. This time, Rudd's opponent fired 167,000. Wasting little time, Rudd re-raised all in for an additional 97,000. After a few moments his opponent called and Rudd tabled 
. His opponent tabled a weaker ace, 
, shipping the nearly seven-figure pot Rudd's way.
turn. The board completed with the 
of fourth street, and the 