We caught up with the action as a short stacked Scotty Nguyen was involved in hand against two opponents, one of which who identified themselves only as "John". While we are not positive who "John" is exactly, he was sporting a gaudy, gold bracelet adorned with the words "2009 WPO," meaning this player has captured 1st place in one of that year's World Poker Open tournaments.
The Prince of Poker was all-in by fifth street and his opponents began checking it down in an attempt to eliminate the dangerous tournament legend. When seventh street was dealt, however, "John" decided to fire out a bet of 400 and opponent # 1 mucked his hand.
Nguyen was overheard asking one of the massage girls for some assistance, saying "Gimme some money baby" during the hand and his casual demeanor suggested he thought he was ahead the whole time. Indeeed, Nguyen flipped up and an unknown third card for trip queens.
The winner of the 2008 $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E World Championship will have to wait for another day to add bracelet number six to his collection, as "John" tabled for a winning full house. In a display of sportsmanship, "John" let Scotty know that he needed to catch the four on seventh street to catch up, as he was behind the whole way with his trip jacks. Nguyen took the beat in stride and sauntered out of the Pavilion Room in style, his trademark gold jewelery flashing as he made his way to the rail.
Team PokerStars Pro David Williams is famous for a lot of things. He first came on the scene back in 2004 when he finished runner-up to Greg Raymer in the World Series of Poker Main Event for $3.5 million. In 2006, Williams won his first WSOP gold bracelet in the $1,500 7-Card Stud event and then in 2010 he won the World Poker Tour World Championship for over $1.5 million. In total, Williams has over $8 million in career tournament earnings.
Right now he's over playing Event #16: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No-Limit) on his birthday and our very own Lynn Gilmartin caught up with him to chat about it. Check out what he had to say and don't forget to follow along with all of our tournament coverage live from the WSOP on our live reporting page.
Picking up the action on fifth street, Ming Reslock bet and Michele Limongi called. Both players checked sixth street and then Reslock fired a bet on seventh. Limongi called.
Reslock tabled the from her down cards and Limongi mucked.
The players have returned from their 90-minute dinner break and the Pavilion Room is now filled with the sound of chip shuffling as the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E event resumes.
With registration closed after Level 4, the prize pool and payouts have been announced for Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. The total prize pool is worth $1,300,050 with first place taking home $289,283. A field of 963 players came out this year, which well over the 828 runners this event got last year.
The top 96 will be paid out and just squeaking into the money will earn a player $2,899. Here's a look at the final table payouts.
Matt Savage has been eliminated from the tournament after a series of hands in Stud-8 and Hold'em. Here they are.
Stud-8:
Matt Savage: - -
Scotty Nguyen: - -
Matt Savage was all in on fourth street. He made an eight low to chop with Scotty Nguyen who made two pair, tens and sixes. Savage was left with 850 and Nguyen with 6,000.
Hold'em:
The game changed for the next hand and Savage was all in preflop with the to an opponent's The board ran out and Savage doubled up.
On the very next hand, Savage was all in on the turn with the board reading . He held the for top pair and a straight draw and was up against the for his opponent Tuan Le. The river was the and although it gave Savage two pair, it landed Le with a straight to the queen. Le won the pot and sent Savage out the door.