There must have been numerous cold four bets in the $500 Employees Event by now, but we just witnessed the first cold four-bet in this event.
Marvin Rettenmaier opened the button to 225 after which the small blind bumped the action to 600. Erick Lindgren in the big blind made it 1,175 to go and Rettenmaier folded after much deliberation. The small blind made the call however and the two took a look at . Both players checked and did so again after the dealer put the down as the turn. The river brought both players the and the small blind bet out 1,300. Erick checked his hand again and folded rather quickly.
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Now we can officially of a star-packed field! On table 147 in seat 2 is non other than Michael Phelps. We've seen Phelps competing in poker tournaments more than once, but never in a $5,000 World Series of Poker event. We'll keep a close eye on him!
One of the first big pots we witnessed was between Justin Young and an unknown player. The two battled it out on a four-handed table, and we picked up the action when the two already had a turn in front of them. The board was | , and Young had bet 800. His next door neighbor raised it up to 2,500, and Young made the call. The river was the and Young checked. His opponent leaned over and took a good look at the board again, before checking behind.
Young shrugged and showed his for a missed open-ended straight draw and missed flush draw. The nine-high was not good enough to take down the pot, as his neighbor showed down and picked up one of the first sizable pots we've seen today.
When we reached the table, the board read . Kurt Jewell had 3,300 sitting in front of him, and JJ Liu, who finished runner-up in the 2007 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars, tanked for quite some time before calling.
Jewell ripped over like it was the absolute nuts, prompting Liu to stand up and examine the hand. Finally, after 20 seconds or so, she realized that it was just five-high, and showed for a pair of eights.
It's a field truly stacked with big names. Before we even started, from the comfort of our chair, we saw these guys sitting down. Time for our first round and see who we'll be covering this tournament.