In poker, the term "Rock" is usually used as a derogatory term for a player who plays next to no hands. Despite having a similar sounding name, Michael Rocco is anything but a rock.
Since returning from dinner break he has three-bet folded, opened the betting at least twice and looks like he really means to take this tournament by the horns and ride it home to victory.
Rocco had the perfect warm-up to the 2013 WSOP when he won a $500 buy-in event at the Borgata at Atlantic City in mid-March for a career-best $113,050 score. Can he better that impressive total here in Las Vegas?
Tommy Miller i rapidly approaching 500,000 chips thanks to check-raising the flop while out of position. Facing a bet of 13,000, Miller responded with a check-raise to 32,000 to take down the pot.
Miller is seated a couple of seats over from Austria's Thomas Muehloecker, a fellow big stack, which could cause some fireworks here in Event #30.
The action started with a player in the cutoff. He limped in for 6,000. Matt Moore re-raised to 18,000. Michael Rocco in the small blind bumped it up again to 37,000. The player in the cutoff flat called and that put action back onto Moore. He pushed all in. That got Rocco out of the way but the player on the cutoff called.
Moore:
Cutoff Opponent:
The flop came the . The turn the and the river . That gave Moore the Knockout. He moved up to 405,000.
The players may have only just returned from dinner break but that has not stopped Mathew Moore from coming back with all guns blazing.
Moore opened to 13,000 from under the gun and next to act, Michael Rocco, three-bet to 32,500. Rocco's aggressive action saw the rest of the table fold back around to Moore, but Moore was not done. He paused briefly before four-betting to 68,500 in total. Rocco had seen enough and he sent his hand to the muck.
Mazin Khoury opened to 8,000 from the hijack and the only caller was seated right next to him in the cut off. Khoury continued to fire all three streets and his opponent kept on calling. Unfortunately for the cut off, Khoury's hand improved on all streets.
Khoury bet 11,500 on , 28,500 on the turn and 67,000 on the river. His opponent had to muck as Khoury showed for a rivered flush (and straight). Mazin Khoury goes into the dinner break with 508,000.
We did not see the action but we did see Thomas Muehloecker and his big stack go up against an opponent all in preflop. Muehloecker had and his opponent had . There was an ace on the flop and that was all in took for Muehloecker to eliminate his opponent. Muehloecker moved up to over 450,000 after that hand.
The Tournament staff has just made an announcement that the remaining players will be moving tables after the dinner break. When the players return they will move from Purple to Blue. They will stay in the same seats against the same players but will be relocated just down the walkway to the Blue Section.