From the cutoff seat, Kyle Bowker raised to 1,300. Team PokerStars Pro and winner of the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Main Event Daniel Negreanu made the call on the button, and everyone else folded.
The flop came down , and Bowker checked. Negreanu bet 1,600, and Bowker folded.
"You b**tard!" yelled Negreanu to Bowker with a big smile on his face. Negreanu then showed the for trip deuces. "Where the hell did you go!?!?" he joked a bit more while collecting his chips.
At the age of 73 years young, T.J. Cloutier has been playing poker since before many of the players in this field were even born, and despite the rapid evolution on game theory inspired by the online generation, Cloutier can still tangle when it comes to tournament poker.
We caught up with Cloutier, the holder of six gold WSOP bracelets and two runner-up finishes in the Main Event (1985 & 2000), as he did battle with a player more than 45 years his junior.
On the flop of , the youngster led out for 3,300 and watched as the wizened veteran raised it up to 9,300, all the while dangling his tipping dollars above his stack.
Cloutier's opponent eventually called the raise, bringing the to the board on the turn. The young player, shrouded in the hooded sweatshirt that is now a symbol for his generation of poker players as much as the lit cigarette was to Cloutier's, elected to slow down this time and he tapped the table for a check.
A bet of 12,000 later by Cloutier and the hand was over, but not before the legend of poker rolled over the for a little psychological reinforcement. As the old pro knows better than most, it's always best to leave them thinking you're raises are backed by strength. Makes stealing from them later on that much easier.
A conversation had been brewing on the table with Gavin Smith, Blake Purvis and Mark Herm about drinking. After some back and forth, Smith and Purvis invited Herm to come out drinking with them all night, asking if Herm thought he could last with them.
"Back in my day, I could probably out drink you," said Herm.
"Your day?!?! When the f*** was your day??!?!" ripped back Smith. "You're a 20-something year old kid and you're talking about your f***ing day?!?!?"
Athanasios Polychronopoulos and Faraz Jaka stood up from their table and started stretching. The two seemed to catch eyes and then began doing jumping jacks to get the blood flowing. Also standing at the same table, Terrence Chan jumped in, but it got even better. On the adjacent table was Gavin Smith. He saw the three doing jumping jacks, popped out of his chair and started doing jumping jacks of his own. The four continued for about 10 seconds before the first three stopped. Smith went on for a few more, and then got his needle in after he "outlasted" them.
"I'd outlast all of you f***ers!" yelled Smith after finishing his jumping jacks a few moments after the other three had already finished.
Gavin Smith just keeps dropping one-liner bombs after bombs. This recent one came after Matt Marafioti, who is wearing all white, stood up a few tables over.
"Hey Marafioti!" yelled Smith. "Does your sister not need her pants today?"
Then, Andrew Robl stood up a few moments later and Smith caught him in eyesight.
"Hey Andrew Robl! I wanna fight you now!" yelled Smith. "I just lost a pot, I'm ready!"
We just watched Ben Lamb's last hand of the night, and it wasn't particularly pretty.
The drama began before the flop, after Lamb raised to 1,350 from the cutoff. Russian pro Andrey Gully opted for a three-bet, and he made it 3,200 to play. Lamb decided to ship the rest of his stack, which was on the short side anyway, into the middle, and Gully snap-called.
Showdown:
Lamb:
Gully:
Lamb was behind but live, and it would be up to the board cards to decide each player's fate.
Flop:
Lamb took the lead with his two pair, and Gully was now left searching the deck for a ten or running pair cards to catch up.
Turn:
The perfect card for Gully dropped in, and the on the river sealed the win. Lamb hit the rail short of a cash after eight long levels of shorthanded play, while Gully improved his position as this Day 1 nears its conclusion.
On the board, one player checked, and then Dan O'Brien fired a bet of 3,400. A third player behind O'Brien called, then the first player folded.
The river was the , and O'Brien led for 9,600. After a few moments in the tank, his opponent folded, and O'Brien won the pot. He moved to about 112,000 in chips.