With two players to act behind him on the board of , Olivier Busquet fired a bet of 600. The first player called and the second one folded. Busquet simply mucked his hand without showing. His opponent had to show to win and tabled the for top pair.
"Floor! Clock!" was the call from Roger Hairabedian's table and that got our attention. When we moved over to check out what was happening, we saw that there was a board of in the middle of the table and someone's chips pushed across the betting line for an all-in move. Those chips belonged to Hairabedian and he sat motionless while his opponent was in the tank.
According to the dealer, the player had thought for about three minutes before the clock was finally called on him. The floor issued the start of the clock and then about 30 seconds later, the player folded to Hairabedian's shove of about 2,000. Hairabedian collected the chips and went on to the next hand.
A woman checked the flop to Australian player and 23rd finisher in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Andrew Hinrichsen. He bet 250 and his opponent made the call.
The turn card was the and both players checked to see the land on the river. The woman fired 400 and Hinrichsen called.
After calling a bet of 300 from his opponent on the board, the river landed with the and Farzad Bonyadi was faced with another bet of 300. This time he didn't call, though. Bonyadi put in a raise to 1,000. After a minute of thought, his opponent called.
Bonyadi tabled the for two pair. His opponent held the and lost the pot.
Remember when we said that this was expected to be the largest World Series of Poker Europe field ever? Well, it's well on pace for that. The board reads that today's flight already has 370 entrants with 351 remaining. If you simply double that, the record field of 608 will be crushed. Generally in tournaments, Day 1b is greater than Day 1a in two-starting-flight events. That should be the case here as well, which means this one will surely be the record setter.
Two 2011 World Series of Poker November Niners have joined the field today in Phil Collins and Matt Giannetti. Tom Dwan has also graced us with his presence and is seated at the same table as Jonathan Aguiar to start his tournament. Jean-Robert Bellande came in raising on the first hand he played, but folded to a three-bet and went back to filling out his waiver form.