Antuan Bunkley wasted no time this afternoon in filming his right hand side neighbour Daniel Negreanu, and seems to be enjoying the banter on their table as Level one progresses in episodes, rather than a straight 40-minute chunk.
Double through for Chen-Yu Hung just now, courtesy of Megan Moore. Moore (sb) and Hung (bb) called a button raise to see a flop of . Moore checked, Hung moved all in for 109,000 and the button folded. Moore made the call, tabling for a flush draw, but Hung's was bigger - the . In the end it was the king-high alone that won the pot for Hung.
Play resumes (but may be paused again this level) as the tournament staff sort out the payouts which are still coming in very fast - every 30 seconds or so another shout of "Payout! Table xyz!" rings out and it's better to be safe that all players have been paid in the correct order.
Organising fields of this size at the multi-bustout stage of the tournaments can sometimes involve logistical hiccups. Dealers in the Amazon Orange area are standing up, awaiting instructions to continue Level 1. The clock is paused.
According to Rene Nezhoda and those seated at his table, Nezhoda was sitting in late position and smooth called with . The flop came and it was checked around.
The turn was the and the big blind bet 30,000. Nezhoda made the call.
The river came the and the big blind moved all in. Nezhoda snap-called. The big blind showed and Nezhoda showed him the bad news with .
Ricardo Barros is one of many players not to emerge from Level 1 with chips still at the felt. His last hand was , all in preflop as a short stack with <5bb. His eliminator: Shirey Szalay who made the call with , staying ahead with her pair through the river.
On a board of a player in middle position bet 120,000 into a pot of already 250,000 and Wim Ben Verhaegen reraised all in from the small blind putting the player in middle position all in, but he snapped called.
Wim Ben Verhaegen:
Opponent:
Verhaegen now in a good spot early in today's event with 860,000 chips.
Short stacks are taking the plunge all over the Amazon Room at the moment - so fast is the rate of elimination that play has been briefly paused to make sure all payouts can be dealt with.
Just before this pause, a remarkable hand brought Walter Marinko back from the brink of the felt and brought a beat for Chad Layne at the same time. Preflop, button Layne opened to 35,000 and small blind Allan Cheng moved all in for 135,000. Big Blind Walter Marinko then moved all-in too - but for just 40,000. Layne thought for a while and threw in a call.
"Good call," said Cheng, as he turned over , as Layne had called with . Meanwhile Marinko said, "I went all in blind!" He turned over and looked very surprised indeed.
The flop and turn ran out with Cheng alternately calling for a three and saying he could now go and register another event. The river answered his prayer: .
"Holy cow," said Marinko, and mentioned that one had to gamble in tournaments.
"I wouldn't call your hand gambling," said Cheng, "I would call mine gambling!"