We took a walk through the white section and noticed one player with a mountain of chips. And we mean a mountain. This early in the tournament, we are hard pressed to find many players with one 20 stack of yellow T1000 chips. Well Jeff Watterworth has two, and a boat load of other chips. He is sitting at 75,000, which by our count, is easily leading the tournament at the moment. We will be sure to keep an eye on him throughout the night.
In a blind vs. blind confrontation, the player in the small raised to 650 and Justin "Boosted J" Smith called.
The flop came and Smith's opponent verbally announced, "Nine-hundred," and chucked a 1,000 chip into the middle. Smith deliberated and then cut out a raise to 2,100 and slid it into the middle. His opponent quickly mucked.
Smith is back up to 10,500 after being down to under 3,000 at one point.
Matt Woodward and two other players limped in and watched the big blind raise to 1,250. The first limper tanked but eventually decided to call, Woodward came along and the other player folded.
Flop:
The preflop raiser continued with a bet of 2,350 and Woodward took a long time to make his decision, before deciding on a raise to 5,500. The third player in the hand got out of the way and the big blind shoved all-in for 14,425. Woodward snap-called and showed his , which had his opponent's bluff drawing very thin.
The turn and river came and respectively, sending the big blind to the rail and boosting Woodward's stack to 38,000.
While that hand with Soi Nguyen was going on, we started to hear a big commotion going on at the table next door. That was because not one, not two, not three, but four players had shoved all in preflop. When the hands were flipped up, it was easy to see why. One player had , one had , one had , and the last player, Jay Tallman, who had them all covered, had ! Not only that, but another player at the table claimed she folded pocket jacks!!
As exciting as the preflop action was, the board itself provided no real drama, coming out , and Tallman scored the triple knockout to boost his stack to 20,000.
We came to Soi Nguyen's table as he was contemplating a raise from his opponent preflop. Nguyen had made it 2,175, and his opponent made it 4,800. Nguyen tanked for a couple minutes before making the call. The flop came out , and his opponent checked to Nguyen, who bet 6,800. His opponent moved all in for 7,000 more, and Nguyen went deep into the tank. About three minutes later, he folded, telling the player that he had Ace-King. The table started to beg him to show, joking that the hand wouldn't go on the internet if he didn't! Finally, after a few more seconds of convincing, the player showed , making Nguyen's fold that much more impressive. Nguyen is still sitting fine, with around 12,000.
A player opened to 600 from the button and Neil Channing decided to three-bet to 1,325. The big folded and the player on the button tanked for a while before eventually moving his stack into the middle. Channing snap-folded and his opponent revealed the and tossed his cards into the muck. Channing nodded his head in acknowledgement and said, "Nice hand."
Channing is doing well for himself so far. He is up to 22,000.
With the knockouts coming frequently around the Pavilion Room, we caught Matthew Wilkins dispatching a player from today's field with his . His opponent held and was in trouble heading to the flop, which fell .
When the turn came the other player pounded the table in frustration and left the room in a hurry. Wlikins had made a full house and, after the meaningless on the river, his opponent's stack was shipped his way.
The prize pool information has just been posted, and here are some of the highlights. 216 players will be paid, with the first payout being $3,018. First place is a whopping $540,136, and the top 5 players will all get a six-figure pay day, while the top 45 will all get five figures.
and Smith's opponent verbally announced, "Nine-hundred," and chucked a 1,000 chip into the middle. Smith deliberated and then cut out a raise to 2,100 and slid it into the middle. His opponent quickly mucked.
, which had his opponent's 
bluff drawing very thin.
and 
respectively, sending the big blind to the rail and boosting Woodward's stack to 38,000.
! Not only that, but another player at the table claimed she folded pocket jacks!!
, and Tallman scored the triple knockout to boost his stack to 20,000.
, and his opponent checked to Nguyen, who bet 6,800. His opponent moved all in for 7,000 more, and Nguyen went deep into the tank. About three minutes later, he folded, telling the player that he had Ace-King. The table started to beg him to show, joking that the hand wouldn't go on the internet if he didn't! Finally, after a few more seconds of convincing, the player showed 
, making Nguyen's fold that much more impressive. Nguyen is still sitting fine, with around 12,000.
.
on the river, his opponent's stack was shipped his way.