Registration closed at the end of the 30-minute dinner break, and the final few players are filing into the Pavilion Room. One of those players is 13-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who just strode in decked in all black as usual.
Along with his all-time record of 13 bracelets, Hellmuth has over $17.8 million in career earnings. In 1988 he won his first live tournament, taking down a $200 Pot of Gold event in Reno, and a year later he won the Main Event. In 2012, Hellmuth added numbed 12 in Event #18: $2,500 Seven Card Razz, and then he locked up number 13 in Cannes, winning the WSOPE Main Event.
We'll certainly keep our eyes on Mr. Hellmuth as he eyes number 14, and tries to extend his lead against Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and the rest of the multiple bracelet winners.
Before the break we witnessed a pretty big hand between two players we know pretty well. We picked up the action when the board was already totally out and Eugene had checked: | | . David "Bakes" Baker had bet out 2,150 and after giving it some thoughts Katchalov made the call. As soon as Katchalov put the 2,150 in the middle, "Bakes" showed his . That was more than enough and Katchalov quickly mucked.
Davidi Kitai, as far as we know the only Belgian player in the field today, just bet 2,800 on a | board. Kitai was seated in the big blind and saw his opponent on the button make the call. Kitai checked when the dealer put the down as the river. His opponent checked behind. Kitai turned his over and that was enough to let his opponent muck. Kitai is now up a little over the starting stack.
The players in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event are going for a dinner break right now. Going out for a big meal is not within the possibilities for most players though, in half an hour we kick off Level 5.
On we saw Cliff Jospehy move all-in from the big blind. One of the players in late position already had 2,300 in front of him and made the call when the player under-the-gun had folded. Jospehy was allin for, what looked like, about 7,000 and was in trouble with his . His opponent had and that hand was good enough to win him the pot. The on the turn and on the river were to no avail for Jospehy and he made his way to the exit.