Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Almost simultaneously at Table 22 and 31 we had an unusual scenario repeat itself. In both cases a player holding pocket aces made a reraise that they thought was big enough to set their opponent all in. In both cases, they were wrong--the other player had more chips than the raise was for. And in both cases the player with pocket aces tabled their hand before their opponent acted. And so, facing a raise and exposed pocket aces, their opponents both folded. The moral of the story--when you get pocket aces, relax. Survey the situation calmly. And don't expose your cards and let your victim wriggle off the hook.

A player from under the gun made it 1,125 to go preflop and action folded around to the small blind who moved all in for 3,000. Svetlana called and the under the gun player moved all in, having her covered. Svetlana called, showed pocket tens and was a favorite up against her opponent's pocket eights. The player in the small blind held A-J. Svetlana was in great shape, until the   spiked on the river, eliminating her from the field.

Players have certainly not slowed down their action since the start of this level. We had lost 1,400 players when this level started, and in the last hour alone we've lost more than 200. The number of pros in the field has narrowed as well, opening up the gates for many unknown players looking to win their first WSOP bracelet.

After have a big stack early J.C. Tran slipped back to just short of 2,000 before he doubled up. The player under the gun raised to 900 and Tran called from the big blind. The flop came       and Tran moved in for his last 575. He found that his     was up against his opponent's    , but after the   turned Tran spiked the   on the river to stave off elimination and double up to 4,200.

The players have left for a 20-minute break.

Tony Cosineau raised a player who had made it 450 to go preflop. Tony made it 1,200 and his opponent moved all in for his remaining 10,000. Tony looked up and replied, "Well, the good news is that I was really looking forward to playing in the 10k Omaha H/L event, so I'm gonna gamble with A-K." Tony called, was up against pocket queens, and lost. Good luck in the Championship event, Tony.

JC Alvarado decided to call after two players were all in preflop. JC held A-Q, another player held A-K, and the remaining player held pocket tens. The tens held up, and JC was stuck with just 50 in chips. On the next hand, JC was all in with A-10, which made Broadway, and was good enough to net him 200 chips. After the hand, JC yelled as loud as he could with excitement, then immediately apologized, saying, "Sorry about that, I've always wanted to yell like that during an event but was waiting for a pot so small that I wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings." Immediately after the hand, JC went all in in the dark and was called by one player. His opponent showed A-8 and JC held 10-3. JC spiked a 10 on the flop, which held up. On the hand immediately after, JC doubled up again and is now up to 1,700. "Now I've got enough chips to play like a nit again," he cracked.

We just learned that there are 940 players left. Out of 2,447. Almost two-thirds of the field has been eliminated before the end of the fourth level. I said it before, I'll say it again--like, wow.

Today's event had 2,447 entrants with the top 198 places being paid. 198th place will receive $3,006 with first place taking home a total of $610,304. Though the field may have started with 2,447 players, we are a far cry from that number now, as only 1,310 players remain after the first three levels.

We have an unofficial total of 2,447 players in today's event. At the start of Level Four we were down to 1,460. That's close to a thousand bustouts before the antes kick in. So, like, wow.