Fresh off of a 3rd place finish in the WPT World Championship - where he defended his home tour by nearly winning it's greatest prize - Tony "Bond18" Dunst is joined the party here today.
Dunst notched by far his biggest score on the felt back in April, earning $452,729 while proving that his strategy advice in the Raw Deal feature is backed up by some serious skill.
After stopping by to say hello, Dunst headed over to take a crack at building a stack here in Event #9, so we'll be sure to track his progress throughout the day.
After opening to 450 from early position Faraz Jaka watched Jorge Vergara ship the remainder of his stack forward rather quickly, putting what looked to be about 4,000 at risk.
The action folded back around to Jaka, and the man known as "The Toilet" due to his affinity for suited cards that can make a flush decided to respect the power play by folding.
"Pick one..." offered the Vergara, while sliding his two down cards over to Jaka. "They're both good."
Jaka obliged and slowly squeezed the while showing the table, before moving on the to next hand.
Matt Stout headed over to the PokerNews Live Reporting Desk to take a gander at the Stanley Cup Playoff Game 7 currently underway between the L.A. Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks.
As his visit became an extended one, us swapping hockey stories with the most avid New York Rangers fan this side of Madison Square Garden, it was soon clear that his time in Event #9 had come to an end.
Stout was kind enough to run us through a postmortem of his bustout hand, as his was ran down by in an all-in confrontation before the flop. One player opened for 600, Stout three-bet shoved for his last 2,450, and the raiser looked him up. The first three board cards were bad news for Stout, coming to give his opponent a flush draw, but it was a on the turn which left him drawing thin.
The river came to leave Stout with no pair - and no chips - but he happily headed out to catch the rest of the game, hoping the Kings can mount a comeback to gain entrance to the Stanley Cup Finals - where Stout's beloved Rangers lie in wait.
Rick Fitzgerald made his stand with an all-in three-bet to 2,550, after an opponent opened to 400 in front of him.
That player elected to look Fitzgerald up with , and he found himself flipping a coin when the former turned over .
Without looking at the board, Fitzgerald waited until a runout of was produced, and with that he finally took a look to discover he had dodged the deck.
During the recent break James Woods filled us in on the details of his path to building one of the biggest stacks in the room, with the actor who famously starred in the television series Shark proving that he still has a bit of bite left in him
According to Woods, he tangled with the table's loosest player on two different occasions, bluffing both times to force his opponent to fold, and showing down nine-high and the like each time.
Shortly afterwards, Woods won a big flip when his held up over through five board cards, propelling him to the top of the chip counts as Level 5 begins.
We just caught the tail end of a truly brutal beat, with Tom Braband coming up on the right end of a counterfeit to remember.
When we passed the table Braband had just called an all-in bet of 2,000 while tabling for an overpair to the board. The flop read when the money went in, but Braband was drawing extremely thin when his opponent revealed for a flopped set of treys.
The turn card came to double Braband's arsenal of outs from two to four, as a third nine on the river would leave his opponent's set of threes unplayable.
River:
Just like that the miracle card came, and Braband notched the knockout while building a respectable stack heading into the next break.
Lind is a gregarious fellow prone to backclaps and banter, and his genuine interest in the players he meets during his tournament travels is evident in every exchange. Like Barry Greenstein before him, this WSOP champion has taken to giving a gift to players who bust him from a tournament, and while Lind's calling card is not as flashy as an autographed copy of Ace on the River, it holds a certain meaning nonetheless.
Lind is in the house here today, competing in the WSOP one year after achieving his greatest accomplishment on the felt. We'll be sure to let you know if and when Lind's signature calling card comes out of the wallet to greet a player he busted, or the opponent who sends him to the rail.