Play has been moving at a breakneck pace all day, as we started with a field of 349 players and in seven levels that has been whittled down to only 69. However, over the past two levels, play has begun to slow down. Stacks seem to be evening out, with many players hovering around the 100,000 chip mark.
While there are several stacks that have breached the 200,000 mark, this has most certainly been the day of Bret Hruby so far. It will be interesting to see if Hruby can continue his dominance of this field and keep his commanding chip lead, or if the trend of players accumulating huge stacks only to fizzle out early will continue. Today we lost both Rick Romine, the day one chip lead, and Martin Kabrhel, who built an enormous stack early on today, only to be eliminated in 76th place.
Even though play has seemed to slow, we will continue to keep you updated with the most current information.
Bret Hruby began play today with merely 65,000 and is sitting with almost 850,000 chips. To put some perspective on his massive amount of chips, the average stack right now is 150,000. Thank goodness there is an empty seat next to him, because there wouldn't be room for another player. When his table broke awhile ago, two floor men had to help him move his chips because he had so many.
Consistency has been the main thing about Hruby's game we have noticed. He doesn't over extend himself playing too many hands, he simply plays good hands and right decisions. No amount of chips is a guarantee for a bracelet, but if Hruby continues to play as well as he has been then this tournament is going to be a lot tougher than any one imagined.
We are not 100% sure what the action was but we can confirm that Thao Nguyen just knocked out our once dominate chip leader Martin Kabrhel with . Kabrhel had a stack bigger than most now, three hours ago. Kabrhel couldn't change gears and we continued to watch him try and bully people and play marginal hands against smaller stacks, and it eventually got the best of him.
Timothy Ulmer made it 6,500 from early position and was called by Bret Hruby from the cutoff as well as the player in the big blind. The flop fell . The player in the big blind checked and Ulmer continued out for 16,500. Hruby made the call and the big blind folded his hand.
The turn came and this time Ulmer made it 28,000 to go. Once again, Hruby decided to stick around, making the call. The river came and the action checked around.
Bret Hruby flipped up and Ulmer sent his cards into the muck.
On a board of , Jacobo Fernandez and Tore Spannenberg checked from the small and big blind respectively to Martin Kabrhel in the cutoff. After some deliberation, Kabrhel also checked. The hit the river and Fernandez checked to Spannenberg who fired out a bet of 9,000. Kabrhel decided to put in a raise, making it 26,500. Fernandez got out of the way and Spannenberg made the call.
The river came and Spannenberg quickly checked. Kabrhel moved out a large stack of yellow chips, worth 1,000 each, for a total bet of 23,000.Spannenberg went into the tank for about two minutes.
"I call", announced Spannenberg.
"You win", quickly replied Kabrhel, moving his cards to the muck.
Spannenberg flipped over for two pair and was able to win the pot. Kabrhel is now at only a fraction of the monster stack that he once held, sitting with about 92,000.
We found Joshua Schoonover raising preflop to 8,000 only to have the player in the cut off position move all in for 45,500. Schoonover made the call and it was off to a flop, a turn, and a river to decide a winner.
Schoonover:
Cut Off:
The cards fell . Both players had a pair of jacks, but it was the Cut Off's kicker that was best, and he doubled up.
On a board Martin Kabrhel called a bet of 10,000 from Jacobo Fernandez. When the hit on the turn Fernandez again fired out a bet this time 20,000.
With a on the river we saw Fernandez finally slowing down and checking. Kabrhel jumped on this and announced all in, essentially putting Fernandez all in. Fernandez eventually made the call and showed for two pair, which was considerable better than Kabrhel's for a pair of aces.
board. His opponent Timothy Ulmer tanked for around a minute before making the call.
and Ulmer folded. After this hand Ulmer has around 850,000 in chips
. Kabrhel had a stack bigger than most now, three hours ago. Kabrhel couldn't change gears and we continued to watch him try and bully people and play marginal hands against smaller stacks, and it eventually got the best of him.
and the action checked around.
, Jacobo Fernandez and Tore Spannenberg checked from the small and big blind respectively to Martin Kabrhel in the cutoff. After some deliberation, Kabrhel also checked. The 
hit the river and Fernandez checked to Spannenberg who fired out a bet of 9,000. Kabrhel decided to put in a raise, making it 26,500. Fernandez got out of the way and Spannenberg made the call.
and Spannenberg quickly checked. Kabrhel moved out a large stack of yellow chips, worth 1,000 each, for a total bet of 23,000.Spannenberg went into the tank for about two minutes.
board Martin Kabrhel called a bet of 10,000 from Jacobo Fernandez. When the 
on the river we saw Fernandez finally slowing down and checking. Kabrhel jumped on this and announced all in, essentially putting Fernandez all in. Fernandez eventually made the call and showed 
for two pair, which was considerable better than Kabrhel's 
for a pair of aces.