The remaining players fought through a crowd of spectators lined up to get into the Amazon room as they returned from their half hour break following the completion of level one. The blinds had increased to $100-$200 as the third hour of play got underway.
New Chip Leader
Joe Sebok has emerged as the chip leader in the last hour, having built his stack up to $56,000 as a result of his solid play. With four limpers into the pot, Sebok checked in the big blind. The flop came 10
9
6
and the player in the small blind checked. Sebok bet out $700 and the player in seat four raised to $1,500. The small blind instantly called and Sebok reraised to $5,500. Seat four folded and the small blind called. The turn was the 4
and both players checked. The river brought the A
and the player in the small blind pushed all in for $11,000. Sebok thought for just a moment before making the call. The small blind showed A
J
for top pair with a busted flush draw. Sebok turned over 10
9
for two pair and took down the large pot.
Rollin' On the River
Doug Lee is across the Amazon room but with $50,000 in chips, is right on Sebok's tail. Lee chipped up in the last hour and did so with a little luck. The player second to act raised to $600 and action folded to the blinds. The player in the small blind called and Doug Lee called from the big blind. The flop came 8
5
3
and the small blind checked. Lee bet out $1,500 and the other player in the hand folded. The player in the small blind raised to $4,000 and Lee made the call. The turn was the 4
and the player in the small blind bet out $10,000. Lee waited for a moment before coming back over the top all in. The small blind called and showed 3
3
for bottom set. Lee turned over 8
5
for just top two. Sensing his tournament life was over, Lee looked defeated. The river brought the miracle 5
for Lee, filling his boat and giving him the huge pot. Lee's opponent was eliminated and Lee climbed the leaderboard.
Mercier Builds Her Stack
Isabelle Mercier, member of Team Pokerstars (
www.pokerstars.com), has also enjoyed some good fortune in the early hours and now sits with a healthy chip stack herself. Mercier raised to $600 second to act and was called by both the blinds. The flop was 10
7
2
and all three players checked. The turn was the 10
and the player in the small blind bet out $10,000. The big blind folded and Mercier made the call. The river was the K
and the small blind led out with $2,000. Mercier called again and her opponent said, "ace high." Mercier flipped over K
5
for top two pair and raked in her chips.
Gone Fischin'
In a heads up pot with an unknown player, Scott Fischman made a $12,000 bet on the river with the board showing K
10
3
10
9
. Fischman's opponent called, putting him all in, and was holding A
K
. Fischman showed Q
10
and sent his opponent to the rail while building his stack to $35,000.
No Easy Task
A player by the name of Jason Halbrook is playing in today's event and he's sitting at table 229 with David Oppenheim and J.J. Liu. Sitting at the table with two great poker players is the least of Halbrook's worries today as he has another hurdle to overcome. Halbrook is seated with an aide that views his cards and relays the information to him because Halbrook is blind. With a difficult task ahead of him, we would like to wish Jason the best of luck.
Shallow In Deep
Englishman Dave 'Dubai' Shallow, seated at a table with former World Champion Tom McEvoy and recent bracelet winner Alexander Kravchenko put his tournament life on the line when he got his remaining $3,700 chips in the middle when the flop came 5
6
2
. He got two callers who checked down the 9
turn and 3
river.
Shallow flipped over 2-2 and scooped the pot to bring him back to $15,500 in chips.
'Aces' Gets Cracked
Simon 'Aces' Trumper is somewhat fortunate to be alive in this game. His top full house was bested by quad Jacks. This left him with just one-tenth of his starting stack.
He is fighting back though and looks very focused. He has $3,800
Some Euro Chip Counts
Marc Goodwin is in ebullient form and has $45,000, Donnacha O'Dea looks relaxed with $30,200, and the ever-smiling Praz Banzi has $14,050. Isabel Mercier has been moved to Eoghan O'Dea's table. Eoghan has $19,800 while Ben Grundy has $35,000.
Notable Chip Counts
| Joe Sebok |
56,000 |
| Scotty Nguyen |
46,800 |
| Justin Bonomo |
41,000 |
| Ylon Schwartz |
38,000 |
| Kirk Morrison |
38,000 |
| Scott Fischman |
35,000 |
| Jane Gold |
34,000 |
| Alan Smurfit |
34,000 |
| Kathy Liebert |
32,200 |
| Doug Kim |
32,000 |
| Barry Shulman |
31,000 |
| Alexander Kravchenko |
31,000 |
| Roland De Wolfe |
30,200 |
| Evelyn Ng |
28,500 |
| Hoyt Corkins |
27,000 |
| Berry Johnston |
26,900 |
| Kido Pham |
26,800 |
| Joe Hachem |
26,800 |
| Tony G |
24,000 |
| David 'The Dragon' Pham |
24,000 |
| Jordan Morgan |
23,000 |
| Isabelle Mercier |
22,700 |
| Norm MacDonald |
22,000 |
| 'Miami John' Cernuto |
22,000 |
| Max Pescatori |
22,000 |
| Rhett Butler |
21,500 |
| Paul Wasicka |
21,500 |
| Sammy Farha |
21,000 |
| Robert Cheung |
21,000 |
| Patrik Antonius |
21,000 |
| Erik Seidel |
21,000 |
| Dan Harrington |
21,000 |
| Allyn Jaffrey Shulman |
20,100 |
| Scott Clements |
20,000 |
| Robert Mizrachi |
20,000 |
| J.J. Liu |
20,000 |
| Noah Boeken |
19,000 |
| Sabyl Cohen |
18,900 |
| Steve Sung |
18,400 |
| Bill Chen |
17,500 |
| Tom McEvoy |
17,000 |
| David Singer |
16,000 |
| Jeffrey Lisandro |
15,100 |
| Juha Helppi |
14,600 |
| Mark Seif |
14,500 |
| Captain Tom Franklin |
13,300 |
| Howard Lederer |
13,000 |
| Davidson Matthew |
12,500 |
| Jennifer Harman |
12,000 |
| Annie Duke |
12,000 |
| Young Phan |
11,000 |
| Aaron Kanter |
7,500 |
| Dan Shak |
7,400 |
| David Williams |
6,000 |
10
a player in seat two checked and 1986 champion Berry Johnston checked behind. The player in seat ten went all-in for $23,000 and after just a moments thought the player in seat two called. Johnston went all-in over the top for $10,600 more and the player in seat two looked crushed. After a few moments of deliberation he called and revealed the 9
J
