Jason Lester and Mike Matusow were heads-up on the turn with the board reading . There was roughly 15,000 in the middle, and Matusow made a pot-sized shove. Lester tank called, but was in bad shape.
Matusow:
Lester:
Only a jack would eliminated Matusow, and he survived when the hit the river. The Mouth is now up to 57,000 chips, while his good friend Lester dropped to about 33,000.
On a flop of Jake Cody bet out 1,500 from cutoff and was raised to 4,300 by the player on the button. Cody made the call and the two saw a turn. Both players checked the turn and the river came . Cody checked and the button bet out 7,100.
Cody splashed in the call and the button player showed for the runner-runner straight. Cody shook his normally still head and flashed for flopped top set. Cody fell to 9,500 after the hand.
Only a few hands later Cody was down to only 8,000 behind and put out 1,000 preflop. The small blind raised it up to 2,400 and Cody splashed in the last of his chips and got a call from the small blind.
Cody was behind with to the of the big blind, but the flop came down and Cody held on to double up. He is currently sitting with just around 18,500 but still needs to make moves to get to Day 2 with any sort of a stack.
We went over to David Bakes Baker's table and saw that he was in a pot with three other players. The board read , and the big blind checked to Baker, who bet out 2,400. The other two players folded, but the big blind stuck around.
They went heads up to the turn, which was the , and after the big blind checked, Baker fired out 4,300. Again he was called, and the river came out the . The big blind checked for a third time, and Baker took about 20 seconds before he fired out 9,400, which was just under half his stack. The big blind called fairly quickly, and he was given bad news, as Baker flipped up . The big blind mucked, and Baker raked in the pot to bump him up to 55,000.
Right after doubling, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow returned the favor to a player at the table. Matusow flopped a set of tens with on a board, and called an all in after the turned. His opponent held for the nut-straight however, and the river bricked.
Just like that, Matusow is back below 30,000 chips.
Nicolas Levi three-bet shoved for less than 10,000 chips, and was called by Robin Mitchell preflop. Mitchell's had Levi's crushed, and Levi was unable to catch up, eliminating him from the tournament.
We caught up to a hand to find Leo Fernandez checking on a flop, a player in late position then bet and made it 1,500 if Fernandez wanted to see a turn. Instead of simply calling Fernandez opted to raise and made it 5,000 straight. After some careful thinking the player in early position made the call.
A fell out of the deck for the turn and both players checked. The river lead to Fernandez going all in fairly quickly and the player in late position folding.
With each player putting up $10,000 and going after the most prestigious prize in the poker world, you might think that the mood in the room would be tense and serious.
Quite the contrary, at least in the purple section, many of the tables are filled with smiles and laughter and the players seem to be having a really good time. One player who identified himself as "Big Ron" has his table (and the dealer) in stitches with his humorous banter.
We're only 45 minutes away from the end of the day so perhaps everyone is starting to (happily) realize that they've got a good shot of making Day 2 and are just trying to enjoy themselves.