We caught up with the action on a board, where a player in the big blind checked and his lone opponent, Chino Rheem, fired a 3,500 bet. The big quickly called.
The river brought the and the big checked again. Rheem quickly fired a 9,000 bet into the pot and his opponent called.
"Two pair," Rheem said, tabling the .
His opponent shook his head and mucked his hand.
Rheem is among the chip leaders so far with 50,000.
Phil Hellmuth is no longer with us in the Amazon Room. We found his empty seat and his tablemates filled us in on the action. Hellmuth was short stacked with only a few big blinds and moved all in preflop holding . He was called by another player, who busted just after he did, holding .
The board ran and Hellmuth's opponent made a straight.
We caught up with action four-handed on a flop where the small blind led out for 1,700. Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy called from the big blind while a player in early position and the button both got out of the way.
Both remaining players checked the turn with the small blind checking the river as well. Now it was Levy’s turn to bet and he made it 2,600. The small blind immediately called and Levy flipped over for eights up. The small blind said “No good” and Levy said “What?!?” before small blind turned over for nines up.
Levy’s stack took a hit and afterwards he said “I knew I should have just checked back” in reference to his river bet that he regretted.
Yevgeniy Timonshenko opened to 900 from under-the-gun and found a lone caller in the big blind.
The flop came and the big checked, prompting an 1,150 c-bet from Timoshenko. His opponent called.
The turn brought a and the big checked again. Not slowing down, Timoshenko fired for 2,750. His opponent deliberated, but then, as if suddenly convincing himself, quickly chucked in a call.
The completed the board and the big checked a final time. Timoshenko took his time, but cut out a bet to just under 6,000 and casually slid it into the middle. His opponent didn't spend too much time throwing his hand away.
We caught Tom Dwan moving all in from late position for just over 5,500. The player on the button called and the small blind hemmed and hawed before releasing his hand. The big blind folded and the hands were tabled.
Dwan:
Button:
The board ran and Dwan was eliminated. No worries for Dwan though, he's already registered for the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event. He'll be playing in his third event on the day.
We saw Phil Hellmuth raise in early position to 900 with the button calling. The small blind raised it up, however, to 4,100 total. Hellmuth murmured to himself, “It’s not just you and I” before he folded.
The button followed suit with a fold as well which prompted Hellmuth to continue, “You laid it down?!? If I knew you would lay it down, I stay. I think he has , I had two tens.”
We’ll never know for sure if Hellmuth was right about the big slick since the small blind only showed one of his cards, the before he mucked.
Action began with 2010 November-Nine'er Matthew Jarvis opening for 700 from the hi-jack position. Ronnie Bardah, who also made a deep run in last year's Main Event (24th) flatted from the cutoff and the big came along as well.
The flop came and the big checked, prompting an 1,100 c-bet from Jarvis. Bardah again called and the big folded.
Both players checked the turn, however, when the completed the board, Jarvis fired 2,550 and Bardah called.
Bardah:
Jarvis:
Chop pot!
We will continue to keep an eye on these two and see if they can have a repeat performance of last year's Main Event and make a run at another WSOP gold bracelet.
Jarvis will be going for his second bracelet as he just recently won Event #40: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed a few days prior, which was good for a cool $808,538.