Maurice Hawkins was in the small blind and limped in. The big blind raised to 450 and Hawkins three-bet to 1,100. The big blind then moved all in for what appeared to be roughly 4,500 and Hawkins snap-called.
Hawkins tabled and the big blind showed .
The board ran out and Hawkins eliminated his opponent and continued to chip up.
After the hand, Hawkins exclaimed, "I don't have to do anything, these guys are just giving me chips. I just have to say call and hold." He was referencing how easy the chips came to him while referring to another player on the table who has played a lot of hands and has had to make plays postflop in order to get his chips.
Qui Nguyen, the latest winner of the WSOP Main Event, was a late entry this afternoon. We passed him a little bit ago as his table was commenting on the whereabouts of his raccoon hat, made famous as it sat atop Nguyen's head throughout his Main Event run and into the November Nine final table.
Nguyen was donning a new cap this year, disappointing others at his table. As we strolled by just now, Nguyen's seat was empty and according to his former tablemates, Nguyen moved all in on a jack-high flop with jack-ten. His opponent had made the call with queen-ten, as Nguyen was rather short-stacked his opponent went runner-runner to backdoor a flush and eliminate the defending champ from play.
First off, Allen Kessler was noted as being down to roughly 1,000 in chips and at last check had upped his stack to 15,200. He had apparently gotten it in with versus pocket kings and flopped a straight, then in the latest of his double-ups, he got it in with versus after making a two pair and rivering a full house. "The Chainsaw" is out in full force.
Meanwhile two giant names in the poker world have taken their seats. Jason Mercier and JC Tran have seven WSOP Bracelets between them and both are recognized as two of the toughest tournament players on the planet. Keep an eye out for them throughout the day.
You might think that we are about to write about multiple players joining in, with a combined 14 WSOP bracelets, but you would be wrong. I am speaking of the one and only Phil Hellmuth. The winningest no-limit hold'em player in WSOP history is here to battle it out and try to add bracelet number 15 to his collection.