Lesser known for his table talk than his more strident countrymen like Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, personable WSOP Champ, is surprisingly loquacious. That is, he's not giving lessons, just shooting the breeze, talking hands, chatting with neighbours or detailing his own play. If playing with some superstars of the game resembles having the radio tuned to Ego FM, Raymer is like some kind of chat show.
Just now talking to Erick Lindgren, he said, "I'm a simple, nice, polite desk worker. You're the slick gambler that knows every angle..." before getting involved in a pot which ended up with all of his opponent's chips in the centre. Raymer bet every street, with Lindgren calling until the river when the board was: . Now Raymer tossed in three red 5k chips which put Lindgren all in- he called and they both showed suited J-K.
Raymer got the extra 100 when the pot was split, saying, "Yessssss!" It's not the size of the victory sometimes which makes it sweet...
Dirty stacker
I thought they'd outlawed these in Europe, but it would appear that the 'dirty stack' is making a comeback, Marco Traniello's giant column of sporadically arranged chips enough to send even the most cucumber cool of bloggers into a whirl of despair.
However, no chip stack gets passed the eyes of a Beagle, and after 5 minutes of study, I concluded that Traniello had 17,500, maybe, or it could have been 25,000. No hang, on it was 75,000. Bah humbug, back in a moment. For the time being, let's settle for 21,100.
"sbrugby"
Brian Townsend was in good shape, all-in pre-flop with the against Vicky Coren's ... until the flop came down , making Coren two pair. The turn was the , the river was the , and Townsend hit the rail just as the second level of the day came to a close.
Sarah Taylor = Busted
Sarah Taylor first caught our attention early on Day 1a. She busted WSOPE bracelet winner Thomas Bihl on the third hand of the main event with quad sixes. She was among the chipleaders for the majority of Day 1a.
Sadly, Taylor busted out when her Jacks could not survive against a brutal river suckout.
Janne Lamsa
Janne Lamsa has capitalised on his day 1a chip stack and has comfortably taken the chip lead here today. He is sitting on about 180k right now and looks like he doesn't have a care in the world.