We came upon a huge PLO hand brewing between Jason Mercier and Ralph Perry. They'd reached a flop and there was already a big pot developed with Perry having fired a bet into it. Mercier had raised all in with his entire stack, and after tanking quite some time Perry decided to call, thus building a total pot of more than 300,000.
Mercier had for top two pair while Perry had for aces. The turn was the and river the , and Mercier had suddenly scored a big double as they near the end of Level 2. Meanwhile, Perry will be going to the dinner break with less than 30,000.
A couple more players have late registered to join the tournament here at the start of Level 3, pushing the overall total number of entrants up to 115. Again, players can register as late as the start of Level 6 (i.e., before play begins tomorrow for Day 2).
We arrived at the table in time to see Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan Duhamel looking down at a flop of . Selbst was in the small blind and fired out 2,000. Duhamel cut out a raise to what looked to be 10,600 after Selbst's original bet was pulled in .
The two headed to the turn and saw the hit the felt. Selbst checked and Duhamel fired 14,500. Selbst thought for about 45 seconds before moving out a raise to 68,700. Duhamel did not waste much time before quietly announcing that he was all in.
"Shit," sighed Selbst. Almost immediately after the word left her mouth she moved out a call.
Duhamel:
Selbst:
Both players had a straight but Duhamel's was higher with a straight to the eight. The river paired the board with the and Duhamel ended the hand with a winning sevens full of fives. Selbst was forced to ship a vast majority of her stack over to Duhamel and now sits on just 44,000 in chips. Duhamel, however, has soared to one of the top stacks in the room with about 290,000 in chips.
Selbst took to Twitter immediately after the hand:
The flop read when we came upon David Williams and George Danzer playing a heads up pot. Williams checked and Danzer fired out 2,800 into the middle of the table. Williams flat called and the came on the turn. Williams check-called again, this time to the tune of 5,800.
The river brought the and the action quickly went check-check.
"Nuts!" said Williams as he showed for the nut flush. Danzer threw his hand away and Williams dragged in the pot. Williams is now sitting on about 122,000 in chips.
Keeping up with the tradition of arriving late for tournaments, Phil Hellmuth has finally been spotted taking his seat in the tournament area. He will join the likes of Todd Brunson and Paul Volpe at table #371.