Aaron Donovan raised from early position to 1,700 and Zheng Tang called from middle position. In the next seat was Paul Pierce. From the hijack seat, Pierce also made the call while everyone else folded. The flop came down and Donovan fired 3,500. Tang folded and Pierce made the call.
The turn brought the and Donovan fired again, doubling his bet to 7,000 this time. Pierce thought things over for a minute and then raised to 15,000. Donovan folded after a few seconds and Pierce won the hand.
First into the pot from the cutoff seat, Rob Hollink opened to 1,300, and the small blind three-bet to 3,400. Hollink shoved for 14,475, and his opponent tanked and called with some reluctance.
Showdown
Hollink:
Opponent:
The board ran out well for Hollink, coming , and his quads double him up to about 31,000.
With the board already reading , Johnny Chan had bet 10,000 leaving himself only 475 chips behind. The player on the button went deep into the tank. The call would be nearly half of his remaining chips and he didn't seem very confidant in his hand. He eventually tossed in three orange T5000 chips, technically not an official raise, but good enough as Chan tossed in his last few chips and both hands were tabled.
Chan:
Opponent:
Chan's two pair was way in the lead but things were paused as an ESPN TV crew made its way over to the table. One of the other players at the table joked, "You're not on a flush draw" to which Chan replied, "I'm on a king-jack draw!"
With the cameras finally in place the dealer put out the river card, the and Chan doubled up to around 29,500. As he scooped up the pot he said "winner winner chicken dinner" with a big smile on his face.
Although Phil Hellmuth is known for making late entrances here at the WSOP, we imagined he'd show up right on time to try to grind up his small stack of 11,800. As the first level of play today was ticking down Hellmuth's seat remained surprisingly vacant. We did a little investigating on Twitter and found these posts by Mike Matusow:
"@phil_hellmuth is such a idiot hes getting blinded off has 5k left has his phoneoff and a do not disturb on his phone at hotel" and "sorry @phil_hellmuth that your wsop comes to a end this way i even got them to ring inside your room with a do not disturb on it" (post edited for spelling)
Hellmuth then tweeted not long later, "Security broke into my room, I'm like, 'What's going on?!?' SGuard says, 'You're playing in the World Series of Poker today.'" followed by "I jump out of bed, dress, and run down to my car. Didn't know you could drive 75 on side roads!! I Thought I played Day 2 Tuesday..."
Matusow somehow was able to convince the security guards at Hellmuth's hotel to break into his room to save him from completely blinding out of the tournament. Hellmuth arrived right as the first level of play was ending and his stack, which has been blinding down for the past two hours is already down to 7,675. He'll obviously have a lot of work to do if he wants to make it to Day 3.
Filippo Candio sent another player to the exit just before the break, and we caught up with the pot on the flop.
It was , and the gentleman in Seat 5 had gotten his last ~24,000 into the middle with . Candio was already fist-pumping and celebrating as he made the call with his way out in front. Mr. All-in needed runner-runner help, and the turn was a start. The river came the case , though, and Candio's quads will do just fine.
That's another knockout for the Italian, and he's worked his stack up to about 110,000 at the break.
![[user68268]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and Donovan fired 3,500. Tang folded and Pierce made the call.
and Donovan fired again, doubling his bet to 7,000 this time. Pierce thought things over for a minute and then raised to 15,000. Donovan folded after a few seconds and Pierce won the hand.
, and his quads double him up to about 31,000.
and Chan doubled up to around 29,500. As he scooped up the pot he said "winner winner chicken dinner" with a big smile on his face.
, and the gentleman in Seat 5 had gotten his last ~24,000 into the middle with 
, though, and Candio's quads will do just fine.
