Jason Wheeler raised to 1,700 from the button, the small blind folded, but the big blind sat pondering his options.
He pondered them for more than two minutes before Wheeler called the clock on his opponent. The floor came to the table and as the countdown from 10 seconds began, the big blind folded and Wheeler picked up the pot.
We caught a hand that had finished seconds before we arrived that resulted in Faraz Jaka tripling up to 21,000.
Jaka had been all-in with pocket tens against aces and an unknown hand and proceeded to flop a set. That set held and Jaka's stack went from being short to being average.
Dennis Phillips got his last 6,000 in and a player in the blind made the call. Phillips showed and was behind the of his opponent. The board ran out and Phillips was eliminated.
Ever the gentleman, Phillips shared with us his demise on the way out. He said that he played in four of six hands he was dealt at that table. In back-to-back hands, he couldn't catch up to pocket pairs with king-jack suited and ace-king. Additionally, he couldn't find help for his ace-queen and folded to a post-flop shove. Then, the bust out hand as reported above.
Dann Williams, known as "s4ooter" in British online poker circles, has busted out of this $1,000 event ever-so-close to the money and took to Twitter to inform his legion of friends.
We mentioned earlier that a large pot could be brewing between Arnaud Mattern and Sunny Chattha and although it hasn't quite happened yet, it is surely only a matter of time before it does.
Chattha raised from under the gun to 1,700 and Mattern was next to act. Mattern reraised to 4,000 and Chattha let his hand go.
A couple of hands later Chattha had the button and raised to 1,700 when first to act. Mattern put out a slightly larger three-bet of a shade over 5,000 and again Chattha relinquished his hand.
The cards are back in the air and there they will remain for the final two hour-long levels of the first day of play. Currently, there are 261 players in the hunt for the $306,634 first place prize, which makes reaching the money places — set at 198 — quite likely before play ends. Stay tuned.