Sunday, July 5, 2009 12:02 PM Local Time
After some preflop raising action, the flop came down
between Kevin Tokimesa and his opponent. The two found themselves all in with Tokimesa holding
. Unlucky for him though, his opponent held
.
The turn brought the
, adding some flush outs for Tokimesa. The river hit with the
, giving Tokimesa his flush and cracking his opponent's aces. He is now double with 60,000 chips in the first few minutes of today's starting day.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:59 AM Local Time
A player in late position opened the pot for a 300 chip raise. Howard Lederer reraised from the cut off to 1,000. Both blinds called the three bet cold, as well as the original raiser.
The flop came
. After a check from the small blind, the big blind bet 2,200. The original raiser folded, Lederer called, and the small blind got out of the way.
Heads up to the turn, Lederer and his opponent saw the
hit. The big blind checked and "The Professor" bet 3,500.
Lederer's opponent mucked his hand and Howard raked in the pot as an ESPN camera crew sweated him close by.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:58 AM Local Time
"Floor on Table 151," came the announcement from the green section. There was no hand in progress when the call was made, so we wandered over to see what was shaking.
In between shuffles, the dealer had both ace of spades laying face-up on the felt, one from each the red and black decks. There were no marks on them, but both cards were curled up badly, looking like they had been run through a pasta roller or left laying out in the sun too long. The floor person came back a minute later with two replacement ace of spades.
We've got our eyes on you, Table 151.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:58 AM Local Time
As is typical, not everyone showed up on time. Additional notables in Orange include Isabelle Mercier, Marcel Luske, Brett Jungblut and J.J. Liu.
Jungblut just related a story of a player at his table who was under-the-gun preflop and tried to check the action. "Really?" he said. "$10,000?"
At Orange 70, players are telling each other jokes. We heard one that started "A man walked into a bar with a sheep under his arm..." and decided to go look for action on a different table.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:55 AM Local Time
Fabio Cappola came over to our media desk and let us know how the play is going on his table. "So somebody bets 400 preflop and there's six callers. Then there's an ace and a queen there on the board and queen four wins the hand!"
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:51 AM Local Time
After the button raised to 250, the small blind made the call. Action was now on the big blind, Evelyn Ng, and she reraised to 900. The button was next and four-bet to 3,000 before the small blind folded. Ng then five-bet to 7,900 and the button called.
The flop brought
and Ng fired out a bet of 9,000. Her opponent raised all in and Ng folded, dropping to 12,000 chips.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:50 AM Local Time
Over in the red section, Court Harrington raised to 250 from middle position and got reraised to 900 by the player on his left. Harrington made the call and then check-called for 1,000 more on a flop of
.
When the board paired with the
, Harrington bet 2,700 and got the call. Both players checked the
on the river and Harrington turned over
only to see his opponent table
.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:46 AM Local Time
After a flop of
a player was all in with
against the
of James Vanderhaar.
The board ran out
giving Vanderhaar a full house, eliminating his opponent.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:45 AM Local Time
Terrence Chan is seated at the same table as John Juanda. After watching Juanda chip up to 42,000, Chan did better by making back-to-back flushes to chip up to 46,000. The second flush filled on the turn,
. Chan bet 2,500 and was called by one opponent. When the river paired sevens,
, Chan fired 5,000 and was called again. He showed down
to collect the pot.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:44 AM Local Time
On a flop of
, Rep Porter checked, the next player bet 750, and then Allen Kessler called on the button. Porter folded, leaving the other two heads up to the turn.
The turn brought the
and action checked to Kessler. He fired 1,500 and was called.
The river was the
and a bet of 2,000 was laid out in front of Kessler by his opponent. Kessler made the call and tabled a set of eights with the
. His opponent held
.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:41 AM Local Time
Nothing like chipping up by a third of your stack in the first 30 minutes of play. With 9,000 chips in the pot preflop, John Juanda and one opponent took a flop of
. Juanda's opponent bet 5,000 and Juanda called. Both players checked the
turn. When the river blanked
, Juanda's opponent checked and then called Juanda's bet of 5,400. Juanda showed down the winner,
. His opponent flashed
and mucked.
Juanda is up to 42,000 in the early going.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:40 AM Local Time
A player limped in from middle position and Yan Chen pumped it up to 600 from high jack. The small blind then reraised to 1,800. The limper folded and Yan made the call.
The flop came
. The small blind led out for 2,200 and Chen raised to 5,500. His opponent folded his hand, giving Chen the pot.
Yen Chen has already made two final tables this year and is off to a good start in the Main Event with a stack of 41,000 within the first half hour of play.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:36 AM Local Time
Populating the blue section of the Amazon Room:
Howard Lederer
Ylon Schwartz
Captain Tom Franklin
Miami John Cernuto
Tom McEvoy
David Chicotsky
Steve Diano
John Caldwell
Todd Witteles
Justin Bonomo
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:33 AM Local Time
Things are pretty quiet pro-wise in the green section of the Amazon Room. We have Robert Mizrachi sitting at a table full of unknowns, as is the case with Shawn Buchanan, Bill Chen, and Kirill Gerasimov. The players at Table 155 have both Blair Rodman and Al "Sugar Bear" Barbieri to deal with.
That's about it for this side of the room.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:33 AM Local Time
We're happy to report that "Miami" John Cernuto has returned to the World Series of Poker and is playing in the Main Event today. As many of you may remember, Cernuto collapsed during Day 2 of the $2,500 Razz event and was hospitalized due to internal bleeding.
Cernuto looks much better and appears to be back to his old self-- laughing, cracking jokes for the ESPN cameras currently circling his table, and chatting to his opponents.
Good to have you back, Miami John.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:32 AM Local Time
Dennis Phillips made it 250 to go from the hijack and got called by the big blind, who then led out for 525 on a flop of
.
Phillips made the call, and called an additional 1,525 when the turn brought the
. Both players checked the
on the river, and Phillips mucked after his opponent showed
for second pair.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:31 AM Local Time
Our first scan of the Orange section has turned up the following notable players:
John Juanda
Terrence Chan
Marc Naalden
The Indian
The Devil
Gavin Griffin
Liz Lieu
Eric Lynch
Alex Jacob
Christina Lindley
Lee Watkinson
Amnon Filippi
Bob Lauria
Tom Koral
Cory Zeidman
Antonio "the Magic Man" Tarver
Kevin Saul
Matt Matros
Jonathan Little
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:25 AM Local Time
The red section of the Amazon Room is split between tournament tables and cash games, but there's still a lot of talent jammed into the area.
Notable names include Aleksandr Bolotin, Dan Harrington, Matt Hawrilenko, Jeff Lisandro, John Monnette, Scotty Nguyen, David Sklansky, Matt Savage, Matt Graham, and Maridu Mayrinck.
Also in the seated in the red section is last year's third-place Main Event finisher, Dennis Phillips. Like at last year's November Nine final table, Phillips is accompanied by an entourage of supporters in white shirts and red St. Louis Cardinals baseball caps.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:25 AM Local Time
You can all relax now, Main Event players. One poor soul is already out.
On a flop of
, one player bet, a second player moved all in, a third player flat-called the all in and the original bettor flashed
and folded.
"All in and call on Table 9!"
A murmur went through the crowd as they heard that death knell for the first time today. Media and ESPN cameras circled the table. The tournament clock showed 1:53 remaining in the level, meaning only seven minutes had ticked away.
One player had
for middle set. The other had
for bottom set.
The turn was the
, the river was the
and the player with the tens doubled up to 60,000 while the player with the fives walked away from the table completely gobsmacked at what had just happened to him.
$10,000 up in smoke in only 7 minutes... only at the World Series of Poker.
Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:23 AM Local Time
Bad news for followers of Daniel Negreanu on Twitter. Kid Poker is on the featured table today and won't be tweeting during play. He's got a good view from the five seat, staring across the felt at Jeff Bryan who is in seat nine.
Over on the other side of the stage, Tony Cousineau is one of the eight playing on the secondary featured table to start the day. The four seat is still unoccupied, and rumor has it Caesar Phil Hellmuth will be taking that seat after his late-arrival charades, probably joining us after the first level.