We walked up to a flop just in time to catch a player betting 1,500 in position into a pot of about 2,000. Chris Bell check-called while a third player dropped out, and it was heads-up to the turn. Check-check, and the completed the board on the river. Bell led out with a small bet now, making it 2,500 to call. His opponent spent a long while in the tank before surrendering the chips.
Bell tabled for the trips-turned-flush, and that pot moves him up to about 18,500 as he tries to recover from a rocky start.
An under-the-gun player raised to 1,000 and found a call from another player in early position. Marco Traniello, who was short stacked with 4,375, then moved all in from middle position and was quickly called by the button. The other two players folded as the ESPN cameras swarmed the table to catch Traniello's all-in moment.
Showdown
Traniello:
Button:
As one might expect, it was a flip. Traniello sat motionless and stoic as the board ran out a harmless . While he did double, Traniello is still fairly short with 11,300.
On a flop, Pieter de Korver called a bet of 2,500 out of position. The turn was the and this time he let his opponent fire 5,000 before moving all in for about 17,000 total. His opponent made the call and the hands were turned up.
De Korver:
Opponent:
De Korver would need to hit a club or a ten in order to stay alive but found neither with the . That ended his day and he will have to wait until next year for another shot at glory.
Despite Ryan Laplante being reduced to less than 27,000 in chips, he's all smiles after making a massive laydown against Jim Kendrick.
The action folded to Ryan Laplante who raised 675 before the flop; Kendrick called from late position, then called Laplante's bet of 675 after the flop of . On the turn of the , Laplante opened for 2,100, but Kendrick raised, making it 5,100 to go.
Laplante thought hard about it and after 90 seconds, returned fire with a re-raise worth 16,750. Kendrick flat-called, then after Laplante checked his option on the river of the , Kendrick shoved and Laplante frowned as he reluctantly open-folded .
That frown was instantly turned upside down as Kendrick tapped the tabled showed .
"YES!" Laplante gasped, throwing his hands in the air and leaning back in sheer relief. As we left, he was still trying to catch his breath - well played, Mr. Laplante, well played!
Robert Mizrachi reraised preflop to 1,150 on the button and the original raiser called. The flop came and Mizrachi bet 1,500 when it was checked to him. His opponent called and the turn came . Both players checked and the river came . The original raiser bet 3,600 and Mizrachi called after a few moments. The other player tabled for a rivered straight and Mizrachi mucked his hand.
They've been chatting away all day over at Michael "Squeaky" Winnett's table, currently due to break within the next half-hour. Winnett has been the primary talker this afternoon and early evening, but others, including Leo Wolpert, Ali Eslami, and Grayson Ramage, have joined in from time to time as well.
Just now they were variously trying out faux-sounding foreign words, and the conversation got involved enough for the dealer to pipe up.
"I know you guys aren't really saying anything," he said. "But it is English only at the table."
That got a laugh from the table, which soon moved on to a new topic. Besides trading stories and new vocabulary ideas, the group has been mostly trading chips back and forth all day, too, with Winnett, Wolpert, and Ramage still hovering at or below the starting stack. Meanwhile, Eslami (who joined the table more recently), has been nursing a short stack of about 5,000 of late.
We're moving through the decades as we bring you interesting stats from the 42-year history of the World Series of Poker; as such, it is time to look back on the 1990's, the same decade most the fresh 21-year old players were born in:
Okay, Okay. So it's getting over used. But Samantha Cohen self-proclaimed her table the "Table of Death" and she might have a point.
Seated to her direct left is none other than Daniel Cates. That same table also includes Mark Schmid and Yevgeniy Timoshenko. For Day 1 of the Main Event, that is easily the most impressive grouping we've seen so far on Day 1C.
"My strategy is just to fold my way to Day 2," she joked.
and Verbakel had 
.
and Verbakel miraculously doubled up to 3,700 with quad tens besting queens full.
flop just in time to catch a player betting 1,500 in position into a pot of about 2,000. Chris Bell check-called while a third player dropped out, and it was heads-up to the 
turn. Check-check, and the 
completed the board on the river. Bell led out with a small bet now, making it 2,500 to call. His opponent spent a long while in the tank before surrendering the chips.
flop, Pieter de Korver called a bet of 2,500 out of position. The turn was the 
and this time he let his opponent fire 5,000 before moving all in for about 17,000 total. His opponent made the call and the hands were turned up.
. That ended his day and he will have to wait until next year for another shot at glory.
. On the turn of the 
. The original raiser bet 3,600 and Mizrachi called after a few moments. The other player tabled 
for a rivered straight and Mizrachi mucked his hand.