A Few More to Marafioti
The Hansen/Maraifioti match has begun to loosen up a bit, and the two have begun to speak to each other in small, quiet phrases. It's not much, but it's a step up from the yawning silence of the first two levels.
Gus Hansen limped the button on the last hand, and Matt Marafioti took a free 
flop. Marafioti checked, and he called a bet of 8,000 from Hansen. On the 
turn, Marafioti checked, and a puzzled look came across Hansen's face. He began to talk to himself in the third person.
"Can he fire another bullet without looking?" he wondered aloud. "Theoretically, he can..." He couldn't, though. Hansen uncapped his cards and took a peek, then continued out with another bet of 22,000. That sent Marafioti into the tank a bit, and the two men exchanged a few more quiet comments. Eventually, Marafioti snuck in a big check-raise to 160,000, then added, "I looked," as Hansen sat pondering.
It took about five minutes of Hansen talking to himself before he was convinced. "That would make the most sense..." he said a bit louder, repeating it one more time before kicking his cards into the muck.
That's one of the bigger pots we've seen the two men play as they continue to tug-of-war back and forth. Marafioti is up about 485,000 to 315,000 now in their current counts. Again, both men are still hanging onto those reserve stacks for the moment.