Good game, Kathy Liebert. Liebert, sitting in the cutoff position, took a raised flop of against the button player. She bet 1,300; her opponent raised to 3,000. Liebert moved all in but before her stack could be counted down she had been called. Liebert showed for top pair; her opponent showed for middle set. The turn briefly kept Liebert's flickering tournament hopes alive, but she headed for the door when the river blanked . She is out.
Philippe Rouas and several of his Poker Battle Warriors -- ten of them in total -- came out this afternoon to fight for a coveted WPT title. Of those ten, Nenad Medic, Chad Brown, Noah Schwartz, Eric Mizrachi and Rouas himself are still alive and well in the tournament. The fallen warriors include Scotty Nguyen, David 'Chino' Rheem, Glen Chorny and brothers Michael and Robert Mizrachi.
Eddy Sabat is well-acquainted with the Commerce Casino. It's where he spends most of his time when he's not winning tournaments on the international poker circuit. He opened a recent pot to 600 from early position. Action folded to Maria Ho in late position, who reraised to 2,000. Sabat was the only caller.
The flop came down . Sabat checked to Ho, who quickly fired out a bet that Sabat wanted no part of. He mucked his hand. "No, no!" cried Ho, turning over pocket aces. A good dodge for Sabat.
Four players limped into a pot at John Racener's table -- Phil Hellmuth and two others. Action checked to the cutoff after the dealer spread a flop of . She made it 800 to go, bringing a check-raise from Racener to 2,600. Hellmuth disgustedly slammed his cards into the muck. The other player folded as well, bringing action back to the cutoff. She had Racener covered and moved all in.
Racener made an easy call with the second nuts, , putting himself all in. He had a good sweat coming when his opponent turned over a flush draw, . The turn and river came and , both safe cards for Racener. He doubled to 14,500.
There were 10,000 chips in the pot on a board of . The small blind led out for 5,000, leaving himself 13,000 behind. Kevin Saul gave things some thought before pushing all in for 20,000. He dragged the pot with a smile after the small blind folded.
"Did you have a heart?" Saul inquired of his opponent.
The tournament clock has been paused while the remaining 549 players (and us) go on a 75-minute dinner break. We'll be back at 8:00 p.m. local time to finish out the last two levels of Day 1.
With thousands of dollars in the balance, the usual "ballas" are interested in anything but poker. Phil Ivey is sweating a college basketball game between Oklahoma and Texas; Mike Matusow is thinking ahead to the dinner break.
"I'm gonna go run on the break," said Matusow. "Run for thirty minutes. Get my brain moving." He also suggested some other activities that he would get up to before running (if you're really curious, ask Mike. He'll be happy to share.)
While we were out listening to the players, we also saw Chad Brown flop a set in a five-way limped pot. There were three hearts on the board, , so when action checked to Brown he bet 500. One player called, who then led into Brown for 500 on the turn. Brown raised to 1,500 and was called. Both players checked the river. Brown's set of sevens, , were good against his opponent's . As a result, Brown is up to about 12,000 in chips.