Having shadowed the comparatively short-stacked Hellmuth since he was in even worse shape, it appears that almost every small pot since that bad start for him has gone his way. There has been some caginess on Ram Vaswani's side too - with a couple of pots being raised preflop but then checked to showdown.
Will Fallia, playing down the other end of the table from Hellmuth and Vaswani against Yevgeniy Timoshenko leaned over to tell Hellmuth conspiratorially, "Tight is right!" He barely acknowledged this, looking totally intent on his comeback which seems to be slowly but surely working at the moment.
Chris Ferguson was sat at this table and was recently eliminated and now the other match at this table has finished too.
We don't have the details of how it ended but the unlucky player was Jussi Nevanlinna who lost to Mori Eskandani. Nevanlinna did hit running cards to take down his first match so I guess Karma is restored somewhat.
Strolling by the Table Of Many Railers, we discovered that Ram Vaswani has taken a huge early lead over Phil Hellmuth.
It seems that it was three-bet preflop, and there was at least one raise on the flop before they both checked the on the turn. Come the river, Vaswani made a relatively small value bet, which Hellmuth tank-called before mucking to Vaswani's . That pot dropped Hellmuth right down to 18,000, and after immediately losing another couple small pots, he's down to just 15,000 to Vaswani's 105,000.
Erik Sagstrom raised from the button and Phil Ivey reraised from the big blind. Sagstrom called and the flop came down . Ivey fired out 5,200 and Sagstrom folded his hand, allowing Ivey to take the pot and move to 70,000. Sagstrom dropped to 50,000.
On the flop of , Talal Shakerchi fired 3,000 into Tom Dwan. Dwan made the call and the popped out on the turn.
Shakerchi fired 5,500 and again, Dwan made the call. The river then completed the board with the and Shakerchi checked. Dwan thought and thought. He even counted out chips as if he was going to bet, but just couldn't seem to pull the trigger and checked behind.
Shakerchi showed the and Dwan mucked, dropping to 35,000.
A few hands later, Dwan was forced to fold by Shakerchi and is now down to 27,000. Shakerchi has the lead with 93,000.
Andrew Robl is up against Roberto Romanello and he just took the Welshman to value town. Robl made it 1,200 to go pre-flop then bet 1,500, 4,200 and 11,700 through the streets. The final board read and Romanello called all the way, the last call being a tank-call.
Robl tabled for two-pair and the pot as Romanello folded.
Those who have dropped like flies include Greg Mueller and Ole-Kristain [Removed:332] - meaning that the proverbial fly swatters who now have the rest of the night off before coming back for Round 3 tomorrow are Ludovic Lacay and Shawn Buchanan.
Seeing his opponent Ilari Sahamies sit down opposite him, Mike Matusow announced, "Ziigmund! I take you to school, Ziigmund!"
However at the moment he seems more keen to give his neighbour Huck Seed some advice. Seed passed on the river of one hand conceding a few chips to Joel Nordkvist after a bit of a dwell and Matusow gave him this piece of succinct (and rhyming and therefore memorable) advice: "Take long, think wrong..."
The next hand didn't go Seed's way either as his bet out of 3,400 called by button Nordkvist on a flop. He proceeded to check and call (quickly) the 5,100 on the turn, and check again on the river. Nordkvist, unfazed, bet 12,200 which prompted another fold and slight dip in chips for Seed.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop before they both checked the 
on the turn. Come the 
river, Vaswani made a relatively small value bet, which Hellmuth tank-called before mucking to Vaswani's 
. Ivey fired out 5,200 and Sagstrom folded his hand, allowing Ivey to take the pot and move to 70,000. Sagstrom dropped to 50,000.
, Talal Shakerchi fired 3,000 into Tom Dwan. Dwan made the call and the 
popped out on the turn.
and Shakerchi checked. Dwan thought and thought. He even counted out chips as if he was going to bet, but just couldn't seem to pull the trigger and checked behind.
and Dwan mucked, dropping to 35,000.
and Romanello called all the way, the last call being a tank-call.
for two-pair and the pot as Romanello folded.
and Sagstrom checked. Ivey checked behind.
and Sagstrom fired 2,400. Ivey made the call, bringing them to the 
on the river. Sagstrom fired 5,500 and Ivey called.
, but lost to Ivey's 
.
river. Nordkvist, unfazed, bet 12,200 which prompted another fold and slight dip in chips for Seed.