We found Brian Hastings firing out a hefty bet on the end with the board having come , and his lone opponent made the call. Hastings couldn't beat his opponent's for a straight.
On the next hand, Hastings called a raise, and by the turn the board had come . Hastings bet 3,500 and was called by an out-of-position opponent, and both players checked the river. In this case, Hastings' for top pair on the flop was the winner.
Duncan McLellan bet 2,100 on the river of a board reading . It wasn’t a huge pot, suggesting there hadn’t been a lot of action leading up to the river. McLellan tends to have an aggressive image and his opponent no doubt took that into consideration when, after some thought, he made the call.
Perhaps McLellan feared he was beaten as he said, “Is that a call?” and turned over . His opponent had made the call with , however, and McLellan took the pot.
Dutch pro Steven van Zadelhoff, who has cashed the World Series of Poker Main Event twice before and also once in London during the WSOP Europe Main Event, just managed to find himself a double-up.
The player in the small blind raised to 1,350 and Van Zadelhoff three-bet to 3,200 from the big blind. The big blind applied some more pressure making it 9,300 to go and that was the sign for the Dutch pro to move all in for 21,425.
Van Zadelhoff:
Opponent:
The board ran out and Van Zadelhoff's queens held to win him the pot.
Jonathan Taylor raised to 1,100 in early position, Larry Karambis called on the button, and Anthony Newman defended his big blind. The flop fell , Newman checked, and Taylor continued for 2,100. Karambis raised to 7,200, Newman moved all in for 34,575, and Taylor instantly mucked.
"Well," Karambis said, reaching for chips. "I don't have hearts."
He called, showing for middle set, and Newman was drawing very slim with for bottom set.
The spiked onto the felt on the turn, however, giving Newman quads, and a bricked off on the river.
"There's been a cooler every other hand," Taylor told our reporter as Newman pulled in the pot.
Newman more that doubled to 73,000 chips, while Karambis slipped to 55,000.
A player bet 6,700 into Ajaykumar Karanam with the board reading , and Karanam cut out chips to call, staring at his opponent to see if he reacted. After a bit of thought, Karanam dropped the chips into the middle, and his opponent instantly flipped over for ace-jack high. Karanam was a bit better with , and he took the pot. He's certainly among the early leaders here in Brasilia.
At another table in the Red section, Tony Gregg is sitting with a below-average stack.