The action folded around to Septi "The Tank" Popescu who called from the small blind. Chris Lee checked his option from the big blind, then Popescu drew two cards while Lee drew three. Popescu bet, Lee called and then each player drew one card before Popescu check-called Lee's bet after the second draw.
On the third and final draw, Popescu took one more card, but Lee stood pat. Popescu checked, but quickly folded after Lee bet out again.
The game is 2-7 Triple Draw now, and just after we walked down from writing the draw, we saw Shaun Deeb stacking another pot. He's skyrocketed up to 412,000 now, trending nearly +100,000 chips here in the early going.
Scott Bohlman brought in with a showing and the action folded to Weiland who completed. Powell raised and Jason Stern reraised, but Bohlman folded before Weiland four-bet it.
Powell and Stern called, but after Stern paired his sixes on fourth street, he got out of the way after Powell raised all-in after Weiland opened. Powell called, but couldn't even get close to Weiland's .
Powell is now $8,197 richer as a result of his 19th place finish. From here, everyone remaining in the field is guaranteed a five-figure sum!
We picked up the action on fourth street as Shaun Deeb was check-calling a bet, heads-up with David Benefield.
Deeb: (x-x) / / (x)
Benefield: (x-x) / / (x)
After doing so on fourth street, Deeb check-called another bet on fifth. On sixth, both men checked, and Deeb checked one last time on seventh. Benefield made the big bet of 12,000, and Deeb snuck in a check-raise to 24,000. Benefield sunk a little bit, and he made the crying call.
Deeb rolled over for the seven-low, and it was good. He's up early here, stretching his chip lead as he stacks up about 365,000.
It's Day 19 of the 2011 WSOP, and it's Day 3 of our Event #29. It's the first-ever 10-Game Mix event, and the $2,500 price tag attracted a robust field of 431 players to the tables on Thursday. Eighteen levels into the event, the field is thinning at 19, and Shaun Deeb sits perched atop the pack with nearly twice the average chips. There has been a bit of a running joke about Deeb this summer, who's been the Day 1 chip leader in more events than anyone else. He's racked up four cashes thus far. They've all been small, though, and Deeb's career record is still conspicuously missing a WSOP final table.
Today could well be the day he erases that mark, but there's still plenty of work to be done to pick through this small and skilled surviving field. Among the others still in contention are Jason Stern, David Benefield, Tad Jurgens, Roland Isra, Daniel Makowsky, John D'Agostino, Matt Vengrin, and Brian Powell. The latter was a big stack heading into Day 2, but he comes into Day 3 dangerously short with just a couple big bets.
We're set for a 4:00 restart time, and that means a later-than-normal night. Still, we've got ten levels to try and play this thing out, and crowning a champion in the next 12 hours is within the realm of possibility. We'll have to wait and see, though; the restart is just about 30 minutes away.