When we returned from our dinner break, we noticed that the one and only Phil Hellmuth had late registered for the tournament, and he literally wasted no time in getting his money in. When we got to the table, Hellmuth had pushed all 7,300 of his chips in preflop, and Scott Clements slammed down a call, saying "Your ahead right now."
Hellmuth:
Clements:
Clements had a ton of draw possibilities, but the flop was pretty ugly for his hand, coming . The turn and river came and , and Hellmuth cruised to an early and surprising double up, while Clements dropped to 4,500.
Our Dutch colleague, Remko Rinkema is playing the event today, and we've admittedly been ignoring him a bit. This particular blogger has immensely strong cooler powers, so we chose to watch from afar for the first few levels. Rinkema was down to just 1,400 chips during the last game, but he's found the first double-back.
A player in early position opened to 400, and another player flatted before Rinkema three-bet shoved with his short stack. The initial raiser called, the monkey in the middle ducked out, and Rinkema was heads-up for his tournament life.
Showdown
Rinkema:
Opponent:
The board ran out pretty ugly, and a naked king on the turn was all Rinkema needed to drag the pot. He's back to 3,000 and back in the game here before the dinner break.
As we expected, there is plenty of action around the tables when the pot-limit omaha and no-limit holdem sections come into play. In a recent hand, we saw four players, including David Benyamine and Eric Froehlich, take a flop of . Benyamine checked in the small blind, and Froehlich bet out 750. It folded back to Benyamine, who check raised all in for 2,100 total. Froehlich made the call, and jokingly almost threw his hand into the air when he saw he was behind.
Benyamine:
Froehlich:
The turn came the and the river came the , and Benyamine doubled up to 5,300, while Froehlich dropped to around 7,800.
Jon Turner was all in for 8,400 on a , and another player was all in for less. A third player in the hand looked both opponents up, and he had the covering stack and the draw with . Turner showed for top set, and the short stack's was drawing dead to one out.
Turner didn't like his hand either, and he made a tongue-in-cheek offer of $5,000 to buy his opponent's hand. He said he knew it was coming, and table mate Mike Matusow called him crazy. "It's not coming," Matusow predicted.
Turn:
Or, well, maybe it is coming. The flush was the hand to beat now, and Turner needed to pair the board (not the ten) to stay alive. The river was the though, and two players fall to the rail.
Once again, the numbers are up for this event compared to last year. Registration is still open, and we've already ticked up to 463 runners in the fray. Even better, you've still got nearly an hour to register if you've got $2,500 burning a hole in your pocket.
en Safari
. The turn and river came 
and 
, and Hellmuth cruised to an early and surprising double up, while Clements dropped to 4,500.
. Benyamine checked in the small blind, and Froehlich bet out 750. It folded back to Benyamine, who check raised all in for 2,100 total. Froehlich made the call, and jokingly almost threw his hand into the air when he saw he was behind.
and the river came the 
, and Benyamine doubled up to 5,300, while Froehlich dropped to around 7,800.
, and another player was all in for less. A third player in the hand looked both opponents up, and he had the covering stack and the draw with 
. Turner showed 
for top set, and the short stack's 
though, and two players fall to the rail.
