Ylon Schwartz raised to 400 under the gun and found three callers, a player in middle position and the two blinds. Action checked to Schwartz on the flop and he continuation bet 800. It was enough to clear the field as one by one his opponents folded.
It wasn't an overly exciting hand, but it gave us the opportunity to report on Mr. Schwartz.
Tom Schneider was all in preflop for 3,400 (one rebuy chip behind) and was up against the cutoff, who was all in for less, and the button.
Schneider:
Button:
Cutoff:
All three players held quality hands, but it was the cutoff who hit the flop. The turn and river meant the cutoff tripled while Schneider took down the small side pot worth 1,450.
The massage therapists, of which there are many, work hard throughout the summer. They tend to like the bigger buy-in events, such as our tournament, because many of the pros are big-time spenders when it comes to getting a lengthy rub down.
We did a quick look around the room and noticed three pros enjoying the services of the massage therapists: John Racener, Richard Ashby, and David "Devilfish" Ulliott.
Joseph Cheong just cashed in his two add-on chips as he was down to the felt with his first bullet. Cheong got himself all in on the turn of a board, and two other opponents continued on in side action.
At showdown, Player 1 showed to get three quarters, Player 2 showed for one quater, and Cheong mucked for zero quarters. He's got 10,000 chips left now.
We happened upon the table as the dealer was pushing a massive 25,000 pot to an unknown player in Seat 9. It soon became apparent that the unfortunate victim in the hand was none other than 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Greg Raymer. We didn't see Fossilman's hand, but his opponent was showing on a board reading . Raymer was left with just 7,000 after the hand.
Meanwhile, Daniel Negreanu was eliminated from the tournament. The dealer swiped away the board before we could piece together what happened, but we do know that Negreanu's demise came at the hands of Marco Traniello.
Four players paid 975 each to see a flop of . The player in the under-the-gun position was first to act and bet pot, which was 4,125. One player dropped, and action was on Max Stern. He eyed up the stacks of his two opponents before raising pot. The cutoff quickly folded while UTG made the call.
UTG:
Stern:
The turn gave Stern a low and assured him at least half the pot; however, in order to scoop he needed to improve his high hand on the river. Unfortunately for Stern, the blanked and he had to settle for a chop. He didn't seem to disappointed though, probably because he is currently sitting on a stack of 28,000.
We're having a hard time finding any notable action at that Table of Doom, so we'll give you just a small one.
James Akenhead was the preflop raiser, making it 400 to go. He found calls from Bruno Fitoussi, Dan Heimiller, and David Sklansky to go four way to the flop. It came , and action checked to Heimller. From the button, he bet 1,675, drawing folds in turn from the other three. As Fitoussi folded last, he flashed the , and Heimiller pulls that little pot to push back to 13,000.