By the looks of it, David Williams has come in gunning in today's tournament. We caught a hand with Williams heads up against an opponent. There was 7,000 already in the pot when the flop came .
After his opponent checked, Williams snap-shoved all in. His opponent thought about it for a second, quickly glanced at his chips, then folded. Williams didn't show the winner as he collected a nice pot in during the first level.
After making a deep run through Event #16 ($10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em) earlier in this 2013 World Series of Poker, where he finished in 2nd place to Mark Radoja, Don Nguyen is here today trying his hand in yet another big buy-in event.
Unfortunately for Nguyen, he was unable to recapture the magic of his heads-up run in a recent hand, dropping nearly half of his starting stack in the process.
We caught the action on the flop, with the board reading , and Ron Minnis with a bet of 700 in front of him. Nguyen thought things over for a moment, before calling to see the arrive on the turn. Minnis immediately led out again, this time for 1,000, and again Nguyen called.
On the river, Minnis rolled a bet of 4,000 into the pot, and Nguyen went into the tank, counting his stack and looking across the table with a quizzical expression.
"You can fold," said Minnis, leaning back in his chair. "You're making my heart pump over here."
With this apparent tell motivating him, Nguyen elected to look Minnis up, but he quickly mucked when he saw the for a full house on the river.
In the first level, after an under-the-gun raise to 200, Allen Bari called on the button. Tony Cousineau called from the small blind, then the big blind called as well.
The flop came down , and action checked to Bari. He bet 450, and only the big blind made the call. The turn was the , and the big blind checked. Bari bet 1,600, and his opponent folded.
Moments after winning a big pot against Don Nguyen, Ron Minnis has just given all of those chips back and them some, with French pro Manuel Bevand the recpient after a fortunate river card.
The action started on the turn, with the board showing . Minnis checked to Bevand, and then called the Frenchman's bet of 1,500 to see the drop on the river.
Minnis then led out for 3,000, and Bevand slowly cut out enough chips for a raise, before pushing a stack of 9,700 forward. Minnis snap-called and rolled over for trip sixes on the flop that had materialized into a straight.
Bevand revealed the , however, and his trip sixes had transformed into an unbearable full house.
Still believing he had a lock on the hand, Minnis had to stand and peer across the table before discovering the bad news.
"You've got six-four?", he asked, "Damn, that really cut me back down."
Faced with a bet of 2,000 on the flop, Antonio Esfandiari made the call to see the land on the turn. Esfandiari's opponent checked, and Esfandiari checked behind after a minute of thought.
On the river, the completed the board. The first player checked the newly-provided pair of fours on the board, and Esfandiari bet 3,200. His opponent quickly called.
Esfandiari rolled over the , but his opponent's proved better. Esfandiari lost the pot and dropped back to 10,000 in chips.
With the Brasilia Room filled to the brim with several of poker's young guns, two of the game's founding fathers are duking it out at the same table.
World Series of Poker icon T.J. Cloutier and Full Tilt Poker computer programmer Steve Brecher recently played a small pot, with Brecher raising preflop and taking it down with a c-bet, but their conversation understandably focused on the age discrepancy between themselves and the field.
"I bet big and pushed him off, so I showed the deuce-seven offsuit for no pair," said Cloutier, speaking of a prior incident in which a younger player dared to disrespect the living legend. "Told him, 'Listen here whippersnapper, I've forgotten more about poker than you'll ever know...' After that the kid never said another word."