Nik Persaud just got a dig in at ex-Eastenders star Michael Greco, courtesy of Antonio Esfandiari's masseuse. While Greco sat silent as a rock, Persaud asked her, "Do you recognise that guy?" pointing at him.
"No. Should I?" she replied with brutal honesty.
"How old are you?" responded Persaud.
"Twenty-two. Is that why I don't know who he is?"
"Very likely," laughed Persaud while the barest hint of a grudging smile crossed Greco's behatted face.
Daniel Negreanu is now on 21,750 after a half hour of persevering in his quest to climb back from his early setback. His most recent pot came via James Keys, who bet a flop; Negreanu called. On the turn - - Keys check-called Negreanu's 1,600 bet, but relinquished his hand and the pot when Negreanu bet the river.
He may have seen his stack decimated earlier on in the level when he ran jacks into the kings (at the hands of Vaklinov, rather than Ray Dehkharghani as earlier reported), but he is now back up to 21,350 after doubling through Barry Greenstein.
I was in the middle of prising all the exciting details out of him but was interrupted by a blonde lady who wanted a photo taken with him (I thought she was requested me at first, but no. Woe).
I got as far as "I had deuces..." Smells like a flopped set to me.
The Empire is especially tricky to spot hands, because instead of being able to stand right in the nucleus of the cardroom and race over to the table when you spot action, you can only really watch one or two tables max simultaneously here. However, if there's one table that fills the raise-fold-fold-fold void, it's Table Esfandiari. I believe the game they are currently playing originates from 'Lodden Says'...
"How many times," began Esfandiari with a mischievous smile, "do you think the Obamas have had sex since he coming into power?"
The decision now rests on the masseuse, and the others have to guess her answer - closest wins.
"They've been married for ages, that's gotta affect things," continued Esfandiari debating his decision. "But how much spare time do they get these days," added the masseuse.
They later moved on to an easier question: "How many females in here do you think would sleep with Nik Persaud?"
While looking for Nam Le stories for our Shoutboxers, I found him raising it up to 800 preflop (from a comfy 38,000+ stack) which merely set the wheels of Josh Arieh in motion, as it turned out.
After no fewer than five calls of Nam Le's raise, the final being big blind Arieh, the flop came down and first to act, Arieh threw in 2,200 pretty quickly. Tim Kahlmeyer passed, Le passed, but Michael Martin made the call, as did button David Gant.
The turn brought the and another bet from Arieh - this time 5,500. This was a sizeable bet, and one which gave Martin a good dwell before he passed, as well as Gant. Same result though, and Arieh took the pot down, showing the table the for good measure.
In the closing seconds it was allowed (i.e. deep into the last break) two big names pushed it as close to not being allowed to play as they possibly could - Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. Maybe they overslept, maybe they had a bet on who could be the last entrant - whatever the reason they've only just started playing and are presumably three hours more well rested than their opponents.
With a standard bet, Devilfish snapped up the pot on a . "Come back," he pleaded as he showed .
"Good check," prodded Kenna James.
"Go back to your book," replied Devilfish with a smirk.
"That wasn't my best bet," he confessed. "Did you have a straight draw?" he asked Stephan Kjaerstad. Kjaerstad shook his head. "OK, I check, bring the cards back. It was a wasted top set."
Devilfish currently on his starting stack of 30,000.
Steven Fung - 34,000
Patrik Selin - 37,000
Michael Martin - 31,200
Josh Arieh - 37,500
David Gant - 16,200
William Thorson - OUT
John Juanda - 36,100
Scotty Nguyen - 33,000
Eric Liu - 38,000
Jesper Hougaard - 30,000