Humberto Brenes is armed with 150,300 chips thanks to his holding against .
We arrived at the table to see Brenes and his all-in opponent watching the dealer put the board into view, Brenes with his trademark toy shark out in front of him. Although the flop flirted with improving Brenes' opponent to a flush, it ultimately did not and Brenes won another pot.
Andy Bloch opened to 4,800 on one of the last hands of Level 15, and the player on the button reraised to 10,000. Bloch jammed, and his opponent called.
Bloch:
Opponent:
The flop was innocent enough for Bloch, with the giving both players backdoor flush draws but keeping Bloch's ace-queen high ahead. The turn was a , and the sweat was on as Bloch needed to dodge a spade. A river gave him no such luck, and his dominating hand was suddenly nothing but ticket to the payout desk.
Nghi Tran is up to 530,000 chips and is bulldozing his opponents at his table.
We caught up with a hand where Tran had led from the big blind for 12,000 on a flop and Liv Boeree called. The turn brought the into play and Tran instantly bet 61,000, sending Boeree into the tank. Eventually, Boeree folded and Tran scooped the pot.
The very next hand, the action folded to Tran in the small blind and he moved all in on his opponent, who folded. Tran showed .
A few hands later and Tran was all-in again! This time Rahul Byrraju bet big on the turn of a board, a bet of around 70,000 but then folded when Tran put him all in.
"I'd pay $50 to see that hand," remarked one of Tran's opponents. Tran declined to show his holding.
We didn't catch the preflop build-up, but we found Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy heads up and out of position in the blinds against a player in the cutoff. Josephy bet 3,500 on the flop, and his opponent raised to 8,000. Josephy reraised to 13,500, and his opponent moved all in. Josephy snap-called.
Josephy:
Opponent:
The online legend had trip nines, but he wasn't out of the woods by any means against the nut flush draw. The turn was a , and the river was a , and Josephy doubled up.
Bryn Kenney has 152,000 chips, more than plenty at the current blind level. Although he's cruising, Kenney is contemplating buying into the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament that is taking place right now.
The main thing holding Kenney back is the fact the players in this tournament are playing a total of 11-levels today and that would men Kenney missing out on playing four levels in the PLO tournament.
One player at Kenney's table questioned why he would play two tournaments at once and Kenney said that you never know what is going to happen in a poker tournament so always have to be on the look out for something to play. He also commented that the $10,000 PLO event is one of the best tournaments on the 2013 WSOP schedule.
Here are a few counts from the tables nearest media row.
Table 437 has the potential for some fireworks because it is the current home to Triple Crown-chasing duo Roberto Romanello and Andrey Pateychuk. Neither player is afraid of committing their entire stacks and both are well-chipped up right now.
Bryan Piccioli, who won his first World Series of Poker bracelet at the recent WSOP Asia-Pacific, opened to 5,200 from UTG+1. His potential opponents folded around to Czech pro Vojtech Ruzicka in the cutoff and Ruzicka called. The button and blinds got out of the way, which left Piccioli and Ruzicka to duke it out heads up.
The first three cards onto the felt read and Picciloi greeted them with an 8,600 bet. Ruzicka nonchalantly tossed in chips to call. The turn paired the board and it didn't slow Picciloi down. Instead, Picciloi increased his bet size to 12,800. Again, Ruzicka called.
The river was the and no Piccioli checked. Ruzicka moved all-in, placing two 5,000 chips in front of him and Picciloi snap-folded.
We found Brian Yoon counting his stack after getting it all in preflop and doubling up in the small blind. He had , while his opponent on the button had , and the board had come .