Chris Moorman was just spotted in the narrow corridor that separates the cardroom from the casino. A quick prod and slant of the head and he unearthed his exit details upon me.
"[Richard] Kellett raised to 600 under the gun, I called, Charder [Christian Harder] called, and Andy Black made it 3,600, a big raise. Kellett folded, so I made it 9,000. He pushed all in and I had like 29,000 behind, so called. I hit a king too, but he rivered the ace."
"I have to call," he continued. "There was this hand earlier on where he flatted a raise, and then peeled a three-bet from [David] Pham. On a Q-2-4 flop, Pham bet 1,300, Black made it 3,100, Pham raised to 8,700 and Black put him all in. Pham had 15,000 behind and folded what he said was kings. Black turned over A-9."
Four players made it to the turn of a board, and the action checked around to Vicky Coren who bet 1,200. Ashton Griffin on the button was the only caller.
They saw a river and Coren now bet 3,500. Griffin folded, and the pot was hers. Ms. Coren is now up to 47,000.
Somehow 9,000 chips had made their way into the pot before the turn of the board, so it was a little surprising to see the action tail off into Dario Minieri checking from the small blind position and Sandra Naujoks checking behind on the button.
Nevertheless they saw an river and this time Minieri bet out a measly 500. Naujoks called, but mucked when Minieri turned over . Curious.
Max Pesatori: 26,300 and whistling to himself while reading La Gazzette dello Sport
James Akenhead: 53,300
Ben Grundy: 48,000
Vanessa Rousso: 20,000
Todd Brunson: 35,825
Phil Ivey: recovered to 29,000
Thor Drexel: 39,000
Christian Harder: 11,000
Andy Black: 87,000
Richard Kellett: 20,500
Erik Seidel: 15,000
David Pham: 14,500
Beth Shak: 31,000
Nikolay Evdakov: 30,500
Andy Bloch: 28,500
Joe Beevers: 60,000
Nick Schulman: 39,300
Over on one of two feature tables, Ludovic Lacay found himself all in against Mike Matusow with versus . With a pause between each street, the dealer dealt out a ... "Don't give me a set!" to send the Frenchman home to, coincidentally, Toulouse.
Three players in the hijack, cutoff and button saw a flop. The action checked to Mike "The Mouth" Matusow on the button who bet 2,500 or so. Hijack Peter Gould called, cutoff Andy Bloch passed, and they were heads up to the turn.
Gould now turned on the aggression, betting out 4,000 on the turn and 6,000 on the river. Matusow called both times, but was most unhappy when Gould announced, "The nuts," and duly flipped over . Matusow mucked and started smashing his chips around in a frustrated manner.