Tony Bloom opened to 800 and JP Kelly flat-called behind before a young player reraised to 2,800 out of the blinds. Bloom folded and Kelly made it 7,200 before snap-calling a 30,000 push with his 
. His opponent showed 
and despite flopping a gutshot and turning a flush draw, the two-time bracelet winner's queens held for a 60,000 chip pot.
Kelly has 95,000 and is up with the chip leaders.
Short-stacked James Akenhead has just been knocked out by Ludovic Lacay. The super-aggressive Frenchman had 3-bet with 
against Akenhead, thinking the latter had 12,000 instead of 6,000 and was then forced to call a shove. He managed however to hit against Akenhead's 
to eliminate the former WSOP and WSOPE Main Event finalist.
Old foes clashed as Daniel Negreanu and Praz Bansi locked horns on an 
board. Bansi proceeded to call bets of 2,200, 5,100 and 9,000 before being shown 
and mucking his cards.
Negreanu seems to be picking up pace with around 60-65,000, whilst Bansi, who claimed to have called with "just top pair", has slipped to 34,000.
Freddy Deeb doesn't look like he's stopped talking for most of the second half of this level. Included in his reminiscences, queries and miscellaneous table talk was this advice to Simon Higgins (who's got a reasonable stack and just won another pot): "Just go to the dinner break now. Make sure and eat a big steak. You might fall asleep later. I'll buy you a steak upstairs. With a pint of beer. And a big piece of cheesecake."
His encouragement of the post-dinner slump is to be admired for its direct approach.
Chris Moorman just took down a small pot on a 
board with a 1,550 against two other players, including Chance Kornuth. He flashed 
.
Moorman is up to about 40,000 but laughingly admitted he was just happy that he turned up on time.
Phil Ivey's table just broke, and he joined table Mortensen/Elezra/Shak over there in the corner. We tend to follow Ivey around, so we dropped by to see how he was liking his new digs.
As we walked up, there was a commotion brewing, and the floor was called. Here's the deal. There was a board of 
in the middle of the table, and the pot was heads up at this point. Gabriel Alarie had checked, and Noel Furlong bet 12,000, just a bit less than the pot. That's where the confusion started. Alarie said either "fold" or "call" depending on whose ears you trust, and he opened up his 
. Furlong, whose hand was clearly beaten, insisted that he heard Alarie announce a fold, open-mucking his big slick. Eli Elezra and Furlong were getting a bit heated as Elezra argued that Alarie clearly said call. A couple other players at the table nodded in agreement, but there was no unanimous verdict.
Floor!
This one required the big boss, T.D. Jack Effel, and it took a minute for him to pick his way through the thick mass of spectators and into the ropes. When he arrived, he reconstructed the action, listened to both sides of the story, and made what we think is a pretty logical ruling.
The relevant factors:
- Furlong had committed 12,000 chips to the pot on the river.
- Alarie had exposed his hand, which did not necessarily make it dead.
- There was no indication that Alarie intended to fold.
Effel therefore ruled that Alarie would have another chance to make his action, though it was pretty apparent what his decision was going to be. He splashed in the call, Furlong mucked, and Alarie dragged the pot.
Furlong's argument was that Alarie had never put his chips in the pot. "I have 12,000 in the pot. Right there. When a player calls, he puts his chips in the pot," Furlong argued in his light Irish brogue.
A few of the other players at the table tried to politely give him the "well nowadays" routine, but Furlong was too steamed to pay much attention. He's dropped to 29,000 now, and it's back to battle with his starting stack.
Players are now on a 90 minute dinner break (the same length as one of the WSOPE levels), and the chips are on pause during this time. Back 8:40pm local time!
Level: 5
Blinds: 200/400
Ante: 50
Everywhere players are hustling back to their chairs to start Level Five, hopefully refreshed after the dinner break and not drowsy and full of barbecue like some players we could name but won't in the interests of fairness. Two more levels left to play today, and then the start days have finished.
Andrew Feldman opened the pot with a raise, and Eric Baldwin put him all in across the table. Feldman made the call with ace-queen for his last ~12,000, and Baldwin was racing for the knockout with two sevens.
Baldwin asked Feldman if he wanted to run it twice, and Feldman chuckled nervously.
A third seven on the flop was all she wrote for the Brit, unable to win his final race of the day. He's out just after dinner, and Baldwin has climbed up over 40,000.
