Five players made it as far as the flop, and Christopher Chau opened the betting from the small blind. The bet was 350. Annette Obrestad called in the big blind, Daniel Tafur and John Kabbaj both passed, and recent EPT winner Toby Lewis called in late position. Thus three players saw the turn.
Turn:
This time Chau bet out 1,100. Obrestad called again, but this time Lewis paused only very briefly before announcing that he was going to raise the pot - an additional 5,225. Chau dwelled long and hard before giving it up and the action moved to Obrestad. She spent a minute or two peering at either the board or the pot (it's hard to tell with the sunglasses) and then called all in.
Lewis: for a set of queens and a gutshot straight draw
Obrestad: for the nut flush and a variety of straight draws
River: , bringing in none of those draws
The pot duly went to Lewis, putting him back up a shade over his starting stack - 16,000 with no lammers behind. Obrestad was left with only her three lammers, one of which was quickly exchanged for actual chips from the dealer. That's 12,000 total for the inaugural WSOP Main Event winner.
Yes, back went a stack to Erik Cajelais, a lot of which had come from him originally, courtesy of Erik Seidel. The majority of the chips went in on the turn - the table was paused as some dealer counting was necessary at this point, which drew our attention - and here was the board: .
There had presumably been action on the flop (ten-high) as Cajelais held while Seidel had - now on the turn it was the set and bigger flush draw vs. the made straight...
The river: a useless club for Seidel becasue that made the nuts - straight flush to the Ten - for Cajelais who scooped in his new 18,400 stack.
Sharron Shorr limped from UTG and collectors four players along the way all keen to see the flop. Checks all the way round to the turn where Antti Pietarinen took a stab at the pot with a 400 bet from the SB. Only Shorr made the call to see the river where he called a 600 bet. It was a good call too as his bettered his opponent’s . Shorr’s back up to 14,500.
When the betting goes bananas preflop, Aces are often part of a hand which wants it all in and heads up without having to break into another rebuy lammer anyway if it doesn't work out postflop. Occasionally they're up against the same hand with some other potential (there's always other potential in Omaha), like when Richard Ashby's took on Brian Powell's earlier on. This brought no favouring suit which would have been interesting, killing most excitement with the flop and chopping the pot thereafter.
Elsewhere Willie Tann found it incredible that Mr. Kristoffersen opposite him kept, apparently, picking up the Aces - as he got it in preflop vs. Nikolay Evdakov (who didn't have Aces) and doubled up, Tann repeated: "Every time I see your hand, it's Aces! Aces, Aces, Aces!" before finishing with a definitive, "Aces, huh," as Kristoffersen stacked his (smallish) double through.
When we arrived, John Racener was raking in a huge pot and his table neighbour Kevin MacPhee was eyeing him up challengingly, as if he might try to fight him for the chips should he only meet his gaze. Nevertheless Racener did not look up from the chips and they all made it into his stack without incident.
The board had read and there were two more tens face up on the table; we assume that these constituted half of Racener's hand.
However it played out, Racener upped his stack to 21,000 total (13,000 and two lammers) while MacPhee was reduced to 11,500 total (3,500 and two lammers). The dealer shuffled the cards for the next hand while MacPhee sighed and employed the services of a passing masseuse. Very wise.
Thomas Bichon limped from UTG creating a limp-fest that ended with six players seeing a flop. No-one had enough of it to bet as they all checked to the turn. Bichon led for 450 and only Karl Mahrenholz found a call from the button. The river came and Bichon led for 800. The Brit took his time but made the call.
“Blockers?” asked the Frenchman.
“What? These blockers?” responded Mahrenholz and tabled for the bottom end of the straight and the pot as Bichon mucked.
Erik Cajelais just reached the felt and threw over his last 8k's worth of tokens after a big preflop hand. Erik Seidel made it 225 in early position and received a handful of callers before small blind Cajelais raised to 1,525. Back to Seidel who calmly made it 3,000. There was some thinking done by button caller Paul Zimbler, who weighed up his smallish stack of chips currently in play, but he eventually decided against moving in and passed, leaving Cajelais the player with this instalment of Tournament Life on the line.
Seidel:
Cajelais:
The board ran out all black, with three spades making both players flushes () but the nut flush for Seidel upped his stack over 21k.
Over at the back of the mezzanine level, we found this summer's $1,500 Seven Card Stud bracelet winner Richard Ashby and 2008 WSOPE £5,000 PLO (that's this event, two years ago!) champion Theo Jorgensen looking down at a flop. All the chips were going in, and the players were turning over their cards.
Ashby: for trips
Jorgensen: for a full house
Ouch.
There was no help for Ashby from the turn or river, and Jorgensen collected the whole, enormous pot. Jorgensen seems to have cashed in all his lammers right off the bat, and is now in possession of almost 30,000 in very usable tournament chips.
Ashby meanwhile let out a sigh and tossed one of his two remaining red lammers to the dealer for a fresh shot at this tournament.
Team Full Tilt members John Juanda and Phil Ivey made it to a flop with 525 in the middle. Both players checked before Ivey led for 500 on the turn to face a raise to 2,000 from Juanda. Call. The river came and Ivey had seen enough and check-folded to a 3,000 bet. Ivey’s down to 11,600 but Juanda is up to 22,000.
button in Safari
flop, and Christopher Chau opened the betting from the small blind. The bet was 350. Annette Obrestad called in the big blind, Daniel Tafur and John Kabbaj both passed, and recent EPT winner Toby Lewis called in late position. Thus three players saw the turn.
for a set of queens and a gutshot straight draw
for the nut flush and a variety of straight draws
, bringing in none of those draws
.
while Seidel had 
- now on the turn it was the set and bigger flush draw vs. the made straight...
flop. Checks all the way round to the 
river where he called a 600 bet. It was a good call too as his 
bettered his opponent’s 
. Shorr’s back up to 14,500.
flop and chopping the pot thereafter.
flop. No-one had enough of it to bet as they all checked to the 
and Bichon led for 800. The Brit took his time but made the call.
for the bottom end of the straight and the pot as Bichon mucked.
flop. All the chips were going in, and the players were turning over their cards.
for trips
