Tan Xiang raised to 1,600 from early position before action folded around to Jason Mercier in the big blind. He three-bet to 4,350. Xiang made the call and the two of them saw the flop come down .
Mercier fired out 6,150. Xiang moved all in and Mercier said, "All right, I call," before tabling the . Xiang had flopped a flush with the .
The turn was the and the river the . Neither were the help that Mercier needed and he was crushed all the way down to just 700 chips.
On the next hand, action folded to the player on the button and he limped in for 600. Mercier completed from the small blind and left himself with one T25 chip. The big blind checked to see the flop. All three players checked and the turn brought the . Mercier tossed in his last 25, the big blind called and then the button moved all in about about 5,000. The button's shove knocked out the big blind from the hand and the cards were revealed. Both Mercier and the button held . The river completed the board with the to put a straight on the board and Mercier moved back up to a little over 1,000.
On the next hand, Mercier was all in with the against the for Keith Hawkins. The board ran out and that was the end of the line for Mercier.
The last member of Team Full Tilt playing today, Chris Ferguson, has just been eliminated after pushing all-in with but finding Martin Hansen holding a dominating which held on the board.
It's not often you overlook a man with nipple-length hair and a cowboy hat, but Chris Ferguson has been as quiet as a nun in a library today, and barely made a mark on any of our reports.
At the moment, Ferguson is the only player with less than his starting stack, the carrot-chopping, ballroom-dancing high stakes pro currently nurturing a mere 2,450 in chips.
But despite his lack of current stature, you simply can't rule him out. With over eight million dollars in live tournament winnings, he currently sits in 19th in the all-time money list and is regarded as a legend of the game.
In his illustrious poker career, he's won no fewer than five bracelets, including his Main Event win in 2000 when he defeated TJ Cloutier heads-up for the $1,500,000 first prize.
However, despite all his success, Ferguson has never got his hands on a WSOPE bracelet. He's made two finals before, but never struck gold, and he'd love for this year to be his first.
All the talk is surrounding Matthew Jarvis. The rest of the table are eager to find out how he is preparing for the Main Event final table in November. Jarvis admitted he is still debating on whether or not to get a coach but did say he was planning to watch a lot of training videos.
Jarvis also mentioned playing an interesting cash game £10/£25 the other night with fellow November Niner Michael Mizrachi as well as Sam Trickett and Sorel Mizzi. Where's the value there though?
Chris "Jesus" Ferguson is down to just about 5,000 chips and looks to be the big name we've got on death watch. Ferguson sits with about 12.5 big blinds and at a table full of big stacks. We just watched him shove a couple of hands preflop to stay above water and pick up the blinds plus antes. It looks like it shove-or-fold mode right now for Ferguson as we go deeper into the night.
We've been searching for someone to mount a challenge on chip leader Martin Hansen's monstrous stack, and although he's still a boulder-throw behind, Kevin Williams appears to be the most likely contender with circa 40,000.
"I three-bet with ace-king," he revealed, "and this German guy just flat-called for most of his stack. I then set him in on a queen high flop and he called. I flinched at first, but he showed ace-jack, and I thought, 'Oh, I can beat that,' which I did."
An online cash pro from Brighton, Kevin is eager to make his mark on the live tournament scene, and this could be his time.
The JP Kelly, Anton Wigg, Matt Jarvis table has just been broken up leaving us with 4 tables remaining. Kelly has moved to the left of chip leader Martin Hansen while Wigg has joined the Kevin Williams/Mehdi Senhaji table. Jarvis has been moved to the table featuring Dean Sanders.
We haven't touched much on Matthew Jarvis, but it's about damn time we did. He may only be sitting with just about average chips, but Jarvis could be in for some big things if you can continue this run.
Jarvis has been made a Red Pro after his great run in the World Series of Poker Main Event that has yet to come to an end, more of just being put on hold for the time being. He's one of the famed members of the November Nine that will recommence to finish things out in the beginning of November. Jarvis sits in fifth position on the list of the final nine, but right now that's all in the back of his mind as he strives towards a bracelet in this event.
Normally, Day 1s don't mean too much, but the rate at which these players are dropping, this one may mean a lot. It's almost as if you make it to Day 2 with solid chip position, you're locking up a spot in the money.
James Akenhead and Antoine Saout made splashes in both the WSOP Main Event and at the WSOP Europe last year. Before them, Ivan Demidov did the same sort of thing the year before. Will this year be the time for Jarvis to make some noise in both events? He's still in, alive and well with 36 players left in this day and it looks like we're going to finish before ten levels are complete when we make it to the final three tables of action.
Will Jarvis be there to bag and tag? Stick with us on PokerNews to find out!
.
. Xiang had flopped a flush with the 
.
and the river the 
. Neither were the help that Mercier needed and he was crushed all the way down to just 700 chips.
flop. All three players checked and the turn brought the 
. Mercier tossed in his last 25, the big blind called and then the button moved all in about about 5,000. The button's shove knocked out the big blind from the hand and the cards were revealed. Both Mercier and the button held 
. The river completed the board with the 
to put a straight on the board and Mercier moved back up to a little over 1,000.
against the 
for Keith Hawkins. The board ran out 
and that was the end of the line for Mercier.![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
which held on the 
board.
