Online nosebleed cash regulars Di "Urindanger" Dang and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond are sitting at the six and one seats respectively at their table here early on Day 1. For those of you who miss online poker dearly, this familiar sight might bring back fond memories of being an online railbird to these two phenoms. It's basically just like it was before Black Friday...except they're in person and not at a computer (R.I.P. U.S. internet poker)
We got to Alexander Kostritsyn's table just in time to see him go all in for his last 3,200 on a flop of . An opponent had called and Kostritsyn's tournament life was at risk.
Kostritsyn:
Opponent:
Kostritsyn had a pair of jacks, but he was behind with his inferior kicked. In addition, he held a diamond flush draw. Unfortunately for him, the turn and river provided no relief and he was sent to the rail here in Level 4.
Joe Hachem has just taken his seat, saying on his twitter that he thought the event started at 5 pm. He was planning on coming on time to register for that, until he got a text from a friend saying the tournament started at noon. Hachem rushed over here, and barely snuck in as registration closes at the end of the level. Hachem has already caught one big break today. Could he catch a few more and make a deep run here? We will keep you posted throughout the day.
Eric Baldwin never really got anything going today, as he cashed in his lammers pretty early, and was grinding a short stack for a while. We just went back over to his table, and his seat is now empty, meaning that he has been eliminated from the event.
There's another familiar face in this star-studded field today - that of inaugural WSOP 10-Game Mixed Event champion Chris Lee, who after having received his bracelet at this afternoon's ceremony, has stormed up to the top of our chip counts with more than 47,000 in chips!
18 players returned to the Rio for Day 3 of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, and only 16 of them made the money. The two players who didn't make it, Jon Turner and Justin Smith, immediately bought in for this event, and have been seated at the same table. The two can share stories of their near miss as they try to build up to make another deep run.
With about 1,000 in the pot and a flop of , Eric Froehlich check-called a bet of 650 from his opponent on the button. He then checked the turn, allowing the button to fire out again, this time to the tune of 1,700. Froehlich though for a moment before check-raising to 7,300.
The button hit the tank for a few minutes before conceding the hand.
Justin Smith put out a bet of of 700 on the turn with the board reading , got a call from a player in middle position and a tank from Matt Jarvis in the small blind. Young, Chris DeMaci and another player at his table were busy talking about high-stakes putt-putt golf games when Jarvis check raised to 3,250 from the small blind. Young made the call and continued the conversation.
The river came and Jarvis put Young all in for his last 3,400 (He had a re-buy chip behind also). Young almost seemed surprised when it happened as he looked at his hand and folded to fall down to 8,400. Jarvis on the other hand is tearing it up and is up to 22,000 after falling to around 5,000 early on.
All the money was in the middle on a flop that read between Men "The Master" Nguyen and his opponent on the button and we got there just in time to see the cards being tabled:
Button:
Nguyen:
Neither the turn of the or the river were of any help and Nguyen was sent to the rail. He wasn't too upset about it though, because as he was packing up to leave, Daniel Negreanu ripped out a hilarious joke from one of his Twitter followers, which sent the rail into hysterics:
"A guy goes to his grandma in the living room and says, 'Grandma, have you seen my pills marked LSD?' - to which she replies, 'No, but did you see the dragon in the kitchen?'"
Thank you very much, we're here until July 19, try the veal.
A player on the button raised to 450 and was quickly called by the small blind. Jason Mercier was in the big blind and looked as if he wanted to raise. He took a moment, gathered some chips, and made it 1,800 to go. The button got out of the way, but the small blind reraised pot. The small blind only had a total of 7,450, so Mercier put in the raise. The small blind called off and the cards were turned up.
Mercier:
Small Blinds:
Mercier had run his kings into aces and knew his chances weren't great, especially after the flop. The turn left him drawing to one of the remaining kings, but the river was not one of them. Mercier was left with just 1,200 and a single rebuy chip.
. An opponent had called and Kostritsyn's tournament life was at risk.
turn and 
river provided no relief and he was sent to the rail here in Level 4.
![[user135779]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
turn, allowing the button to fire out again, this time to the tune of 1,700. Froehlich though for a moment before check-raising to 7,300.
, got a call from a player in middle position and a tank from Matt Jarvis in the small blind. Young, Chris DeMaci and another player at his table were busy talking about high-stakes putt-putt golf games when Jarvis check raised to 3,250 from the small blind. Young made the call and continued the conversation.
or the river 
flop. The 
turn left him drawing to one of the remaining kings, but the