With about 2,700 in the middle, the flop read with plenty of big names still holding cards. Matt Stout was first up and he checked to Brian Powell. He also checked and action moved to Eric Baldwin. "Basebaldy" checked to move the action to Tommy Vedes and he also checked. Last to act was Liv Boeree and she fired 1,600. Stout folded before Powell called. Baldwin check-raised to 5,500 and then Vedes folded. Boeree also folded, but Powell stuck around with a call.
Action was now heads up and then turn brought the . Powell checked and Baldwin fired 7,300. After a minute of tanking, Powell made the call.
The river completed the board with the . Powell checked and then Baldwin checked behind.
"Just a nine," said Powell and Baldwin nodded his head to acknowledge that it was good. Powell then tabled the and Baldwin mucked.
"Nice hand," said Baldwin, complimenting Powell and making some pretty nice calls with just a pair of nines.
Powell increased his stack to 47,000 while Baldwin saw his drop to 26,000.
News soon simmered around the room of Tom Dwan's exit, so I quickly scurried over to the crime scene to extract the details. Antonio Esfandiari was on hand to act as star witness:
"He had sevens, the Fish had kings, and it all went in on a 5-6-8 flop."
"Who was 'the Fish'," I inquired.
"Ah, that would be me."
It would be somewhat impolite of me to refer to him as 'the Fish', so...
... Mr. Fish now has around 60,000 after eliminating durrrr.
As we lose one nosebleed player in durrrr, we gain another in Omaha specialist Richard Ashby who snaps up the very same seat.
Ashby's delayed presence is due to a deep run in last night's WCOOP event, but it's not over, the final is at 10pm today and Ashby has arrived with laptop in tow in case he evades an early exit.
If ever there were a time where a player might gamble for a big stack early doors, then this may be it.
From the hijack seat, Todd Terry raised to 500. The cutoff seat called and 2009 EPT Warsaw champion Christophe Benzimra called on the button. Jason Wheeler was in the big blind and three-bet to 2,250. Terry thought for a good minute or so and then called. The cutoff and Benzimra both folded.
The flop came down and Wheeler fired out 3,500. Terry took his time and broke down his own stack two or three times before moving all in. Wheeler first asked for a count and the all-in bet was worth 17,300. He then asked the dealer to pull in the 3,500s from each player. Once the dealer grabbed the 3,500s, Wheeler saw the amount he needed to call and announced a call.
Terry tabled the for an open-ended straight draw, a backdoor flush draw and two overcards while Wheeler had flopped the second nut with the . Quite the flop for a squeeze play for Wheeler as he was looking to send Terry to the rail pending the turn and river.
The turn brought the and nailed Terry with a higher straight. The river then completed the board with the and Terry officially doubled through. He now has over 40,000 in chips.
Mats Gavatin sparked a fourway flop, raising to 525. He bet 1,450 on the flop and only John Tabatabai in the big blind came along for the turn. Tabatabai checked the , and Gavatin bet 3,125. Tabatabai studied his opponent and the board, eventually calling. The river was the . One final check and one final bet - 7,500. Tabatabai did some more searching staring, silently contemplating before once again calling. Gavatin showed for the flopped set, and took the pot.
Tabatabai was the runner-up in this event its inaugural year to Annette Obrestad, and there's only one way he can improve on his performance.
There's a lot of sparring going on between Ludovic Lacay and McLean Karr going on at the moment. Lacay called a check-raise from 1,250 to 4,150 from Karr on a flop.
Karr fired 5,275 on the turn and again Lacay called to see the river. This time Karr checked and Lacay set him all-in, Karr eventually folding. There's a little bit of needle here, play is going to heat up soon.
Neil Channing will be taking precisely 39,875 into the second break of the day after a fruitful last level. On the last hand of the 90 minutes, Channing found himself check-calling a bet of 500 from Peter Jetten on the turn of a board. On the river, however, Channing turned aggressor by leading out for 1,100. Jetten made the call with a grimace, before being shown the bad news: .
"I also had kings earlier," revealed Channing. "I called a raise to 600 from Daniel Negreanu and was squeezed by the big blind to 3,000. He gave up on the 9-8-6 two hearts flop allowing me to take it down with a bet of 5,500 the off-suit 3 turn."