Just before the dinner break, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott was crippled after being on the bad end of an aces-versus-kings cooler, and now his Main Event has come to an end courtesy of WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Idema.
We missed the hand as it happened, but we learned after the fact that Ulliott had gotten his remaining chips in on the turn holding top pair, but he was drawing dead as Idema, who was receiving a massage, had a flush.
The meaningless river was put out to make it official, and then the Devilfish took the long walk out of the Brasilia Room as his 2014 WSOP came to an end.
After the player in the cutoff seat opened with a raise to 650, Mike Ziemba reraised to 1,800 on the button. Then, the player in the big blind reraised to 8,700. After the original raiser folded, Ziemba did a little bit of thinking. Then, he announced that he was all in.
"What took you so long?" said the player in the big blind. "I call."
Ziemba rolled over the , and his opponent had the .
The flop came down and left the all-in player — who was at risk for around 20,000 total — drawing to just one out as the queen of diamonds would give Ziemba a flush. The turn was the , and then the completed the board on the river. With that, Ziemba busted the player and moved to approximately 69,000 in chips.
Ziemba, who is a former SuperNova Elite on PokerStars that had his livelihood stripped from him due to Black Friday, now spends most of his time grinding online from his home in Las Vegas. In January, PokerNews' Rich Ryan spent some time with Ziemba to discuss how the online grinder had his life affected by that terrible day in April a few years ago that rocked the poker industry and how he has worked to get things back in order.
Since online poker has become legal again in Nevada, Ziemba has begun his climb back up poker's obstacle-laden mountain, regarded as one of the top players in the newly-regulated virtual realm. While cash games are his primary focus, he's here in the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event taking a shot that has the potential to truly change his life.
2005 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe Hachem opted to late register here on Day 1c of the 2014 WSOP Main Event, and fate has him seated near Steve Dannenmann. The two have a lot of history. Hachem talks about that and a lot more in the latest PokerNews Impromptu.
Eyes lit up and fans started smiling as two tall gentleman made their way through the Amazon Room to their designated tables.
These tall gentlemen are none other than Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan who, unfortunately for the crowd, got seated at two tables far removed from where spectators can follow the action.
Hellmuth was the first to reach his table, and the player to his left immediately broke out in a full-throated, "Oh my god!"
"Did you just show up?" the player asked, and Hellmuth kindly smiled and nodded.
The players at the table were awestruck, but it won't take long for them to tangle with the 13-time bracelet winner as if he's just another player.
A very jovial Tom Dwan sat down at an adjacent table and he started chatting with his good friend Jon Aguiar right away. Aguiar got a hold of Dwan's chip bag and joked that it might be worth something on eBay if Dwan were to sign it. Dwan jokingly declined but it seems like the superstar's in a good mood with about three and a half hours of play left on Day 1c.
Andy Frankenberger had 3,500 in front of him on a flop of , heads-up against Calvin Anderson on his right. Anderson thought for a bit and cut his stack a couple of times before winging a call into the middle.
The two saw a turn, which they both checked. On the river, Anderson came out betting with 8,700, and Frankenberger needed a bit of thought before calling. Anderson quickly flipped for a turned set, which didn't thrill Frankenberger.
Gus Hansen had tweeted a few hours earlier that he was on his way to play the Main Event. He's now here and is sitting a few seats to the left of Michael Mizrachi in the back of the Gold section in the Amazon Room.
Brian Kim raised to 750 from under the gun, the player on his direct left called, and so did a player in middle position. The flop fell , Kim led out for 750, and only the player in middle position called.
The turn was the , both players checked, and the completed the board. Kim fired out 3,175, and his opponent folded.