The last time we walked by Justin Smith, he had just been a victim of the Aces vs Kings cooler, and had dropped down to 11,000. Well he was able to build that back up a bit, but has just lost a pot that has seen his stack fall to...10,500. When we arrived, Smith was heads up with another player on a . His opponent had bet out 3,000, and Smith was shuffling some chips together, but he was not thinking about just calling. Smith stacked most of his chips together, and slid them into the middle. His opponent thought for a few moments before calling the rest of his stack off, about 8,000 more. The cards were flipped, and Smith would have to draw out.
Smith:
Opponent:
Smith had the nut flush draw, but his opponent had already made a lower flush. The gave him no help, and the wasn't much help either. Smith shipped the chips over, then immediately went back to typing on his phone, as is his usual post big hand tradition.
A more serious than usual Jean-Robert Bellande is very deep into Twitter on his IPad and his headphones are securely on his head. Even during a hand, Bellande will barely look up and he seems almost focused to the point of being anxious. Maybe it's because Bellande has been seen playing most of the events at this year's WSOP and has only two min-cahses to show for it. Everyone knows Bellande's stories of being broke and constantly deep into backer's funds etc. so this is his last chance of the series to make up for it all and get the deep run he has been searching for. The poker pro and former Survivor contestant made a deep run in last year's main when he finished 78th, and now with a double stack early, he clearly on a mission to not let this one get away from him. He lost the following hand but still has quite a few chips behind
Bellande opened from early position for 700 and got calls from both the small and big blinds. The flop came down and both players checked to Bellande who bet 1,700. The small blind called and the big blind folded.
The turn came and both players checked. The river came the and the small blind bet out 5,000. Bellande looked up for the first time all hand and gave an intense glare to his opponent. Eventually Bellande made the call and the small blind flipped over . Bellande seemed unable to let go of his cards and gave a disappointing head shake before finally tossing them to the muck. He still has around 55,000 which is a huge stack at the moment. All eyes will be on Bellande to see if he can go deep again and redeem himself for his so far abysmal 2011 WSOP.
We came to the table and saw what looked like Al ‘Sugar Bear’ Barbieri in the cutoff calling a three-bet to 2,200 from the button preflop. On the flop, Barbieri checked and then rested his eyes as he looked quite tired. His young counterpart announced, “Two point six”. Barbieri quickly tossed in the 2,600 for the call as the players saw a roll off on the turn.
Barbieri checked again and the button said “Five point five” this time. Barbieri threw in the chips like lightning and the on the river completed the board. Barbieri checked one last time and his opponent proclaimed, “All in” as he slid his stack of around 20,000 into the middle. Barbieri went into the tank and looked back at his cards several times before he finally flicked them in. The pot brought him down to right around the starting stack.
Ben Lamb's stack has been growing quite a bit over the past hour or so. We missed all the fun so we checked Lamb's twitter page and found out that he has already "...been all in twice. Both times bluffing, both times they folded" which helped him get up to 37,000.
Not long later he tweeted, "Over 60k these guys aren't too good..." followed by a post explaining how he won a pot holding on a board to boost his stack up to 73,000.
After we started researching all these hands for this post Lamb won another pot with a straight to boost his stack above the 80,000 mark.
He even tweeted a picture of his chip stack and we're sure he'll be utilizing that stack in his quest to claim this year's "Player of the Year" award. Lamb was at the top of the leaderboard until Phil Hellmuth took 2nd in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship Tournament to take the lead. Hellmuth currently has 710.25 points while Lamb has 659.05.
We caught up with the action on a flop, where Noah Schwartz check-called a 2,500 bet from his lone opponent.
Schwartz proceeded to check-call a 3,500 bet from his opponent on the turn and a 5,000 bet from his opponent on the river. His opponent revealed for sevens-full. Schwartz revealed a and mucked his hand.
Action at Table 295 folded around to the button who made it 700, Vivek Rajkumar in the big blind called and saw a flop. It was here that Rajkumar checked, and his opponent quickly bet out 1,100. Rajkumar took his time to figure out what it was he wanted to do, in the end he decided raise. Rajkumar made it 3,400 to go and his opponent instantly folded in slight disgust. Rajkumar now sits around 50,000 in chips.
Registration for Day 1b of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event has come to a close, and the official number of entrants is 985 - only 88 more players than Day 1a, and 504 players less than Day 1b of the 2010 Main Event.
Combined, Days 1a and 1b have attracted 1,882 players (732 less than last year), so we're expecting the numbers on Day 1c and Day 1d to be even bigger than previously projected.
Maxim Lykov raised to 700 from early position and it folded around to the player in the small blind who stacked up and threw out a three-bet, making it to 2,200 total. Lykov made the call and the flop came . Lykov's opponent continued out with a bet of 2,200 and Lykov called.
The turn was the and once again Lykov's opponent bet out 2,200. Lykov called once again and the river brought the . For a third time his opponent bet 2,200. Lykov seemed to have enough of this number, and decided to raise it to 5,600. Lykov's opponent shook his head and dropped in a call. Lykov tabled and his opponent sent his cards sailing toward the muck. This hand brought Lykov up to 48,000 in chips.
Shortly after it was reported to us that Lykov was able to scoop another sizable pot. The details of this hand have been lost to the annuls of history, but we can confirm that Lykov is sitting on a stack of 73,000.
We missed the details of the hand, but Dario Minieri was able to double up against an opponent. Minieri's was able to make a straight and he's now sitting on 60,000 chips.