As the film crews hovered around Justin Bonomo and the rest of his table, Bonomo gave them exactly what they were looking for. A double up.
Bonomo's all in was for 52,100 and he had tabled the nuts with on an board. Richard Turner, Bonomo's heads-up opponent, matched the wager after rivering a straight with off-suit.
A sizeable pot worht about 75,000 had accumulated in the middle between Eric Hicks and Alexandru Papazian. The board read and Hicks checked. Papazian moved all in for 45,200 and after just a moment, Hicks made the call.
"Good call," said Papazian who tabled the for just a pair of eights. Hicks turned over the and collected the pot.
"You guys can't bust me or Ray (Romano) or we won't go to the feature table," Kevin Pollak joked before the dinner break and indeed that didn't happen, so their table was moved over to the main ESPN stage. The secondary table features Phil Laak, Farah Galfond, Brian Altman and Aram Zobian while the third feature table includes Scotty Nguyen and Cary Katz.
Earlier, John Hesp lost out with pocket aces against the jacks of an opponent when a jack flopped giving his opponent a set. That lost the Brit 35,000 and a short while ago Hesp opened and Jim Schweitzer three-bet to 7,000.
Hesp called and the flop came ace-high and Hesp bet. Schweitzer raised and Hesp moved all in. Schweitzer called and showed for a flopped set, with Hesp turning over for top pair top kicker. There was no miracle runout and last year's final tablist and fan favourite was eliminated.
PokerNews caught up with Hesp as he patiently posed with several of his fans for selfies on the rail.
"[The reception] has been incredible," said Hesp. "Everything has just been so lovely and fun. I'm just so so grateful that these people are enjoying my style of play, and everything else in that regard.
"The game of poker should be fun; those couple of hands earlier weren't fun, but it happens. I'm a realist and I accept that to get to the final table, it's going to be happening the opposite way to other people. And it did to me today.
"Right now I need to go and chill out for five minutes. I've got some buddies who will be wanting to know what happened.
"Hopefully I'll be here for another year, if I live long enough(!) The adrenaline doesn't last long, but it's great to be here!!"
Darren Elias and Ben Yu have been seated at the same table since the start of the day and they were bound to find themselves in a pot together at some point. On a flop reading , Yu checked from the big blind and Elias tossed in a bet of 5,200 from late position. Yu called and the landed on the turn.
Yu checked again and Elias continued to bet, this time for 14,000. Yu called again and checked on the river as well. Elias pushed in a bet of 36,000 and Yu paid him off. Elias flipped over and Yu was unable to beat it as he sent his cards to the muck.
Eric Hicks has been among the leaders for the last couple of levels and has just recently crossed the 500,000 chip mark. The first to do so.
Hicks has been getting a lot of camera time lately and it has been rightfully earned. A colorful and talkative character rocking his bright red WSOP hoodie and a flashy USA hat.
While standing around him, Hicks informed PokerNews of how he came to be in the Main Event. While bored on Sunday, Hicks contemplated leaving so he could go to work on Monday. Hicks fired up the WSOP.com online poker client and noticed a $200 Main Event Scramble with guaranteed $10,000 seats to the Main Event.
Fast forward some hours later, Hicks was an overwhelming chipleader, riding around the Rio drinking with his friends and hopping bars with his tablet perched up on the front basket of the scooter while the other players in the online satellite scratched and clawed to win their way in.
Hicks easily won the seat and here he is, chipleading the WSOP Main Event on Day 2.
Art Papazyan was moved from the orange section in the Amazon room to the purple section and found himself all in within a couple of hands.
The board was already and Jason Lester had 37,000 in the middle. Papazyan was all in for 92,000 and it was Lester's turn to act. He went into the tank for a couple of minutes and he looked like he had a tough decision. He ended up calling and the hands went on their backs.
Art Papazyan:
Jason Lester:
The river card was the and with that Papazyan got eliminated from the Main Event.
Over on the secondary feature, Farah Galfond faced a raise to 2,700 by Jeffrey Tanouye, who she had doubled earlier, and three-bet to 8,000 out of the small blind with 11,600 behind. Tanouye moved all in and Galfond called it off.
Farah Galfond:
Jeffrey Tanouye:
The board ran out and Galfond was eliminated. Brian Altman continues to be the chip leader over on the secondary feature table towards the end of the penultimate level on Day 2a.
Kevin Patel raised to 3,500 and Kelly Minkin three-bet to 11,000. Patel called and the flop came . Patel check-called a bet of 10,000 and the turn was the .
Patel checked and Minkin bet again, this time for 24,000. Patel called.
The river was the . Patel checked and Minkin bet 39,000. Patel called. MInkin showed and took down the pot.
On the very next hand Minkin raised to 3,200 from the cutoff and the blinds both folded. The small blind check-called a bet of 5,000 on the flop, but check-folded to a bet of 12,000 on the turn. Minkin showed again.