We haven't heard too much from John Eames today, but the young online pro could certainly make an impact if were to pick up a few chips.
At the moment, he's in three-bet shove mode, and with Sofia Lövgren raising it up to 550 from middle position, Eames opted to move all in from the blind for around 3,500. Lövgren fingered her chips momentarily, but eventually went for the fold.
Level: 6
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
Chance Kornuth has now given up the chip lead thanks to one Yann Dion who has recently been moved to his table.
Kornuth raised from the hijack seat to 425. On the button, Dion reraised to 1,125. Kornuth thought for a bit and then moved all in. Dion quickly called off with the 
. Kornuth was dominated with the 
.
The board ran out 
and Dion earned the double. He was all in for a total of 9,200 and now has 18,700. Kornuth slipped to 16,300.
Just three tables remain upstairs, but despite the presence of Tom Dwan, Huck Seed and Barry Greenstein, there hasn't been too much in the way of hot poker action of late.
This brief lapse does, however, offer me the opportunity to mention Jason Lester. A veteran of the felt, America's Lester has been playing for decades, and will be perhaps be most remembered for his fourth place finish in the 2003 WSOP Main Event when the Moneymaker effect was official born.
But this wasn't a fleeting appearance; Lester boasts no fewer than 24 WSOP cashes over a 20-year career, including a bracelet win in 2006's $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event. He also final tabled the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em last year, taking home a further $110,431 for his sixth place finish.
Very few people in the Empire will recognise Lester, but with over two million in live tournament winnings, he's certainly someone to watch. At the moment, he's on 9,000, and could be a strong contender if he's able to make it through to Day 2.
Sofia Lövgren has just jumped up to around 14,000 after getting lucky to eliminate a player. He had opened from the cutoff to around 600 before the Swede 3-bet to 2,100. The original raiser pushed for just 2,225 more and Lövgren took a minute before calling this shove with 
up against 
but the doorcard was the Motorhead favouirte, the . The board then rattled out a kingless 
to add even more to Lövgren's stack.
Chance Cornuth mixed it up with a short-stacked player to his left, and the latter ended up all in with 
for his last 2,250 chips. Kornuth, to none of his table mates' surprise, tabled the dominating .
It was also no surprise that the appeared right in the window, and the full board ran out 
to give him another knockout and increase his chip lead by that small margin.
Currently leading the way is newly-minted WSOP gold bracelet winner Chance Kornuth. Winning this year's $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the WSOP in Las Vegas netted Kornuth a whopping first-place prize worth $508,090. That was just Kornuth's second WSOP cash. Also on his record are some cashes in smaller events, but nothing that stretches outside of the four-figure zone.
Kornuth has much bigger results online where he plays under the monikers "Chances Cards" and "ChanceCU". His total online earnings total about $1.2 million. One of his premier online wins came just about a week after he scored his bracelet in Vegas. Kornuth won the Mini Series of Poker held on Full Tilt, beating out a field of 5,714 players to pocket $102,600. That's quite the accomplishment for a period not greater than one week. He also won the Super Tuesday on PokerStars for over $68,000 in February and the $250,000-guaranteed rebuy on PokerStars in March of this year for just under $62,000. So yeah, we'd say he's had a pretty sick year so far.
Kornuth dropped out of the University of Colorado after completing three-and-a-half years of college, something you hear a lot about younger poker players these days. As of right now, it seems like the move has paid off for the young star in the early half of his twenties, but only time will tell if he can prove his worth on the felt. He does plan on returning to finish off his education at some point.
Is another gold bracelet waiting in the whim for Kornuth across the pond? Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all the coverage and see if Kornuth can continue to keep himself atop the leaderboard here on Day 1b.
It seemed as though someone had snuck Kryptonite into Tom Dwan's pocket after the break; little seems to be going right for him.
But then, out of the blue, he found and his powers were restored, coming up against 
before excelling on a 
board.
As a result, Dwan has his head back above water with 3,100.
Tom Lloyd opened to 525 from early position, and Vanessa Rousso flatted in the next seat over. A couple seats down from them, a short-stacked opponent moved all in for just about 2,000 total. Lloyd promptly re-shoved, and that took Rousso aback. She chatted with Lloyd for a couple minutes, cut down her stack, and resigned herself to a reluctant call. She was right to be worried.
Showdown
Lloyd: 
Rousso: 
Opponent:
Rousso was gutted when she saw the two aces, and she gave Lloyd the rundown of her thought process to justify her call. The dealer provided no help on a 
board, and Lloyd dragged the big pot to knock off the short stacked gentleman. When Rousso's chips were counted down, she was left with just three lonely low-denomination chips worth a quarter each. "Okay, I want to make WCOOP heads up in an hour, so let's make this quick," she said.
Those 75 chips all went into the next pot when she looked down at a ho-hum {5h] . Another player at the table woke up with 
, though, and Rousso wasn't even drawing live for her survival. A seven on the river was not enough to get over the hump, and Rousso has been sent back to the online tables for the remainder of the evening.
"I hope," Rousso began. "I hope. Wait, there's an insult I'm supposed to say to you. What's that thing that all the online kids say? I hope you... I hope... Oh whatever, I hope you something bad." She wished Lloyd and the rest of the table luck, and she was still mumbling to herself about those pocket queens as she walked out of the room.
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