Dario Minieri's reputation as one of the most hyper aggressive players in the world precedes him, and he knows how to use this to his advantage. This was on display in a recent pot, where the board read . There was about 4,500 in the middle, and Minieri fired out an overbet of 5,500 into the pot. This was for about 80% of his opponent's stack, and his opponent tanked for quite some time before calling. Minieri rolled over for the second nuts, and his opponent quickly mucked.
After winning that hand, Minieri has chips to play with, sitting on 35,000.
We've just had an interesting and funny twist of fate shortly after returning from the break. Chino Rheem's table was broken seconds after we returned, and on his way to his new table, he said hello to some of the players at the table in front of us, including Erick Lindgren. These two know plenty about each other, as they just went heads up in the WPT Championship just two weeks ago. But that isn't the twist.
As he left, Rheem told Lindgren "I get to play with your lovely wife." Sure enough, he happened to take the seat directly to the left of Erica Schoenberg, who happens to be the better half of Lindgren. Upon hearing this, Lindgren shouted to his wife "Avenge me honey!" At the moment, that will be tough to do, as Schoenberg is grinding a medium stack of 13,000, while Rheem is one of our chip leaders with 42,000, but things can change in a heartbeat at the poker table!
Simon Charette won this event last year, though it was a $3,000 buy-in as opposed to the $2,500 discounted rate of this year, and he has flown a bit under the radar so far today. In fact, we literally spotted him just before dinner, and he has worked up a nice stack in his title defense, sitting on about 33,000.
Last year's main event runner up Jesse Silvia was in the middle of a three way pot when we got to the table. The flop read , and Silvia checked to the big blind, who fired out 1,325. The cutoff called, and it was back to Silvia. He tanked for about a minute before cutting out raising chips, and eventually raised it up to 4,625. The big blind tanked for about two minutes before he begrudgingly folded, and the cutoff folded in half a second.
Silvia is one of our big stacks as we approach dinner with 36,000.
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. There was about 4,500 in the middle, and Minieri fired out an overbet of 5,500 into the pot. This was for about 80% of his opponent's stack, and his opponent tanked for quite some time before calling. Minieri rolled over 
for the second nuts, and his opponent quickly mucked.
David Randall bet out 8,000 into a very large pot. His opponent tanked for over 3 minutes before releasing his hand.
, and Silvia checked to the big blind, who fired out 1,325. The cutoff called, and it was back to Silvia. He tanked for about a minute before cutting out raising chips, and eventually raised it up to 4,625. The big blind tanked for about two minutes before he begrudgingly folded, and the cutoff folded in half a second.
