As that last hand was playing out, Praz Bansi noticed one of his mates walking past the table. A quiet Bansi didn't want to interrupt the players in the hand, but he let out a quick, "Hey!" to get his buddy's attention.
"You're out already?" Bansi asked him in a whisper.
The answer made us smirk as the new railbird simply shrugged and said, "Hey, it's six-max."
True enough, and friend-of-Bansi is just one of the 142 players who've already made their exits. You can add Dan Smith's name to that list as well, for that matter, as we've just seen him leaving the casino floor. Oh yeah, and there goes Howard Lederer and Nikolay Evdakov too. The notables are still falling fast here.
We joined this pot as the turn card came out on a board of . The player in the small blind led out with a bet of 1,000, and Phil Hellmuth called from the under-the-gun position (it looks like he was likely the preflop aggressor). On the button, a young man squeezed in a raise to 3,700, drawing a long pause from the initial bettor. After a couple long minutes, he angrily pulled his cards out from the cap chip and sent them spinning muckward. Hellmuth, though, didn't waste much time flicking the calling chips into the pot.
That brought them heads-up to a river, and Hellmuth peeked back at his hole cards before firmly announcing a check. His opponent took pause for a minute and asked Hellmuth how much he had left. "About eight?" Hellmuth nodded. With that, he saw a bet of 5,500 fly in his direction, and The Brat quickly and quietly surrendered his cards. We stood by for about two minutes, waiting for the follow-up conversation, but there was none. A quiter, gentler Hellmuth simply slipped his earphones back into his ears and sat statue-still as the next hand played out.
It's 'never' I'm afraid as Henry Nowakowski has been snipered down by the expert aim of Stuart Rutter. When I joined the action, Nowakowski was all in for 5,700 on a flop, the decision resting on Stuart Rutter who was mumbling way through the possible holdings in true Negreanu style: "You've either got K-J, J-T, or A-rag."
In the end, it was the latter of those three, as Rutter made a power call (suddenly grabbing his chips and firmly sliding them across the felt as if to prevent himself from changing his mind) with and was shown for his troubles.
A turn and river later and it was auf wiedersehen for the German veteran.
We have 19 tables left in play, and there are 114 players remaining in the field. It's taken less than five levels to lose more than half of our runners, and that's a bit quicker than the still-quick pace we'd envisioned. We figured we'd have about 60-70 runners left at the end of Day 1, but it seems we may do a bit better than that if the current pace continues for another five levels. Blinds are up in two minutes.
"Two pounds for peanuts they're charging here!" sighed Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins as he propped up the bar with Lord Dempsey, but I soon found out that's Hawkins' disgruntlement went way beyond the peanut situation.
"I did 23,000 in three consecutive hands," he revealed.
I shall now cease quoting, in order to make the tale easier to regale.
On the first hand, Hawkins called a raise to 450 from the big blind with before hitting a monster flop of . He then check-raised a continuation bet of 800 to 2,200 before calling an 8,050 shove. His opponent had which held up on a turn and river.
The next hand saw James Sudworth open for 450 and Hawkins bump it up to 1,400 in the small blind with Big Slick. Sudworth shoved for 6,000 and Hawkins made the call to find he was coin-flipping against queens. On this occasion, however, his coin was buttered the wrong side as despite a bullet on the flop, a third lady hit the turn to double Sudworth up.
Sudworth was once again the villain as Hawkins finally hit the rail, running pocket jacks into the cowboys of his foe. No further knaves and like a roasted marshmellow over a camp fire, Hawkins was done.
We were counting chips at the center table when a little pot unfolded in front of us. Jeff Lisandro was heads up, and he and his opponent checked through a flop of . On the turn, Lisandro led out with 675 chips, and his opponent quickly matched the bet. The filled out the board, and Lisandro tapped the table. When his opponent checked it back, Lisandro said, "I'm playing the board." The other player's was the winner, then, and Lisandro nodded as he returned his cards to the muck.
"Hey wait. What's the rule there?" he asked. The table looked around at each other, a bit confused. "What's the rule there?" Lisandro repeated. "If I bluff and you call, do you win?" The dealer chuckled and Lisandro let out a big belly laugh, clearly in good spirits. He's got the chips to be chipper too; the un-hatted Aussie is sitting with about 27,000 now.
Crikey, Howard Lederer is seeing more action that a vest-clad Bruce Willis at this moment.
Having got up to 6,000 through a double up, it seems he had lost more than half his stack. There was a raise to 425 before the cutoff reraised to 850 and Lederer pushed all-in for around 2,300 total on the button.
The hijack folded and the cutoff sheepishly called with behind of course to Lederer's . The board came and Lederer definitely, definitely has 6,000 now. That is, until he dives back into the action like the John McClane figure he is turning into.
There are three tables tucked in the far corner of the lower floor, and we decided to park there for a few minutes to see what's what. The first thing we noticed was the conspicuous absence of JP Kelly, the aforementioned Brit with both a WSOP and a WSOPE bracelet to his name. Also of note is the fact that table mate Rui Cao's stack has been boosted up to about 28,000 since our last look-in, though we're not sure if those two stories are directly related or not.
We also see that the Bansi/Hellmuth pairing continues to be a bit of a mismatch in the chip stack department, and there's a general look of disdain on The Brat's face. Bansi is fighting being ~48,000 chips now at his new table, while Helllmuth has been more or less sitting tight with his 8,925 chips. As we were counting Bansi down, we watched him three-bet from 500 to 1,225 from the small blind. The initial raiser came right back over the top with a four-bet to 2,900 total, and Bansi checked his cards several times before letting it go. There'll be a lot more three-betting from Bansi this evening if history is any indication.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. The player in the small blind led out with a bet of 1,000, and Phil Hellmuth called from the under-the-gun position (it looks like he was likely the preflop aggressor). On the button, a young man squeezed in a raise to 3,700, drawing a long pause from the initial bettor. After a couple long minutes, he angrily pulled his cards out from the cap chip and sent them spinning muckward. Hellmuth, though, didn't waste much time flicking the calling chips into the pot.
river, and Hellmuth peeked back at his hole cards before firmly announcing a check. His opponent took pause for a minute and asked Hellmuth how much he had left. "About eight?" Hellmuth nodded. With that, he saw a bet of 5,500 fly in his direction, and The Brat quickly and quietly surrendered his cards. We stood by for about two minutes, waiting for the follow-up conversation, but there was none. A quiter, gentler Hellmuth simply slipped his earphones back into his ears and sat statue-still as the next hand played out.
flop, the decision resting on Stuart Rutter who was mumbling way through the possible holdings in true Negreanu style: "You've either got K-J, J-T, or A-rag."
and was shown 
for his troubles.
turn and 
which held up on a 
turn and 
river.
. On the 
filled out the board, and Lisandro tapped the table. When his opponent checked it back, Lisandro said, "I'm playing the board." The other player's 
was the winner, then, and Lisandro nodded as he returned his cards to the muck.
behind of course to Lederer's 
and Lederer definitely, definitely has 6,000 now. That is, until he dives back into the action like the John McClane figure he is turning into.