We just witnessed our first preflop four-bet here at this unofficial almost-final table.
Dan Steinberg opened to 42,000 and a couple seats to his left Ronald Lee made it 110,000 to go. Back to Steinberg, who tanked briefly before making it what looked like 262,000 from a distance. Now it was Lee's turn to tank, but not for too long - he folded, and Steinberg took the pot to applause from his rail.
...is now!
Most of the players actually wanted to keep going, but the TV crew need to eat too, so off we go.
Back in an hour and a half.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,856,000
189,000
|
189,000 |
|
1,580,000
284,000
|
284,000 |
|
1,400,000
308,000
|
308,000 |
|
1,370,000
170,000
|
170,000 |
|
||
|
1,310,000
172,000
|
172,000 |
|
||
|
1,151,000
75,000
|
75,000 |
|
510,000
86,000
|
86,000 |
|
||
|
481,000
212,000
|
212,000 |
|
438,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
|
276,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
We're almost back, and chip leader Dan Fleyshman wandered over to the bloggers' desk to look at the chip counts.
"Four guys under 25 big blinds?" he mused. Then, with confidence: "We'll be done this level."
"Well, this table could use a sheriff..." commented another member of the media as Fleyshman headed back to his seat.
Level: 22
Blinds: 10,000/20,000
Ante: 3,000
Everyone's got their bellies full of delicious pub food and crepes from the creperie upstairs. They're back in their seats, they're wide-eyed and chatty, and it's time to get down to business.
The blinds are up, and we're one knockout away from the final table of the WSOPE Main Event.
Shuffle up and deal!
First hand back, and we've already seen more action than most of the last level put together.
Fabrizio Baldassari opened for 55,000 in the cutoff and Dan Steinberg called in the small blind to see an 
flop, which he checked. Baldassari bet another 108,000, and Steinberg called.
The turn was the 
and this time Steinberg bet out to the tune of 210,000. For a moment we thought that Baldassari was interested - but he was actually just showing his cards to the hole card cameras before folding.
Steinberg took the pot, and is now roughly tying for second place with Ronald Lee, on around 1.58 million.
Daniel Steinberg opened the pot to (what looked like) 51,000 from the button, and big blind Ronald Lee called to see a flop.
It came 
, and Lee check-called a bet of 40,000. Both players check-checked the 
turn, and the 
cued Lee into action. He took the betting lead with a wager of 106,000, and Steinberg took his pause. After a moment, he slid his glasses off and glared at Lee for several agonizing seconds, trying to get a read.
Eventually, Steinberg thought better of it and returned his cards to the muck.
Roland de Wolfe raised to 52,000 under the gun, but got zero action. He waved what looked like pocket queens at the table, by way of a warning.
