Event #58: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

A player in middle position raised to 700 and both the button and Jimmy Fricke in the big blind called. The flop came    , Fricke checked, and the preflop raiser bet 1,250. The button folded but Fricke called. The turn brought the   inducing a check from both players and the river was the  . Fricke took the lead betting out 4,000 and his opponent thought for a minute before flashing the   and tossing his hand into the muck.

Fricke didn't reveal his hand but scooped up the pot. His stack has been stuck just over 20,000 since the dinner break but we wouldn't be surprised to see him make some big moves before the end of the night.

Jimmy Fricke

23,000

0

Mike Caro, one of the elder statesmen poker strategy writers, earned the nickname "Crazy" Mike Caro decades ago. These days Caro is a bit more subdued and today he is a bit more subdued than normal. We've caught him napping in between a few hands and he's not conversing with the players at his table.

Maybe he's developing a new book of tells based upon projecting disinterest in what's going on around you.

We caught the action with the button having 2,300 in front of him and a player in middle position raising to 4,750 with Brad Garrett still to act sitting behind the raise. He flatted, as did the button.

The     flop was seen three ways and the player first to act bet 6,000. Garrett called, as did the player on the button.

The turn was the   and the first opponent thought for awhile before finally checking. Garrett and the player in position both quickly checked. The river was the   and once again all three players checked. Garrett tabled    which was good enough to win him the over 30,000-chip pot.

Garrett sits with 67,000 now and while we all knew that he was funny, we are quickly learning that we should take his poker skills very seriously.

Bjorn Verbakel was very short stacked and tossed his 1,500ish stack in preflop. He got a call from a player who held     and Verbakel had    .

The board ran           and Verbakel miraculously doubled up to 3,700 with quad tens besting queens full.

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.

Marco Traniello

11,300

-3,700

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!

James Kendrick	68,500	38,500
Ryan Laplante	26,900	-6,100

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.

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.

We're not sure how he got that way, but we discovered former WSOP bracelet winner and recent World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational champ Davidi Kitai sitting on a short stack of just 2,525. As we were watching, action folded around to the player in the small blind and he bet enough to put Kitai, who was in the big, all in. Kitai peeked down at his cards and snap-called.

Showdown
Kitia:   
Small Blind:   

Kitai was in a dominating spot and primed to double; however, the     flop did deliver his opponent an open-ended straight draw. That draw was quickly debunked as the   hit the river and gave Kitai Broadway; however, his opponent replaced the old straight draw with a new flush draw. Luckily for Kitai, the   blanked on the river and he doubled, though he is still short with just 6,000.

Davidi Kitai

6,000

-16,000