Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 15.1 million
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 5.04 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 6.96 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 20.11 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 9.805 million
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam - 21.285 million
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm - 23.27 million
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar - 17.9 million
Seat 9 - Hevad 'Rain' Khan - 7.945 million
The first ten hands of any final table are always stressful. Players are nervous and they don't want to be the first player to bust out. Jerry Yang became the aggressor early on. He won the first two pots and five out of the first nine.
On Hand #9, Jerry Yang was the first player to move all in. He pushed Lee Childs off a pot, who folded pocket Queens (and showed). Yang won the largest pot so far at the final table, worth over 11.63 million.
There were not any hands that went to the river. Only one hand went as deep as the turn. The were five total flops and five of the hands were won by pre-flop raisers.
Phil Hilm is still the chipleader with 23.3 million, but Jerry Yang jumped up to third place in chips. He's up to 20 million.
Hand #10 - Raymond Rahme has the button in seat 1, Lee Watkinson raises from early position to 750,000, and Lee Childs calls from the big blind. The flop comes , Childs checks, Watkinson bets 1.5 million, and Childs folds. Lee Watkinson takes the pot.
Hand #9 - Hevad 'Rain' Khan has the button in seat 9, Lee Childs raises under the gun to 720,000, Jerry Yang reraises from early position to 2.5 million, and Childs calls. There is already 5.63 million in the pot.
The flop comes , Childs bets 3 million, and Yang immediately moves all in. Childs stands up and turns around with his back to the table while he thinks. He clearly wasn't expecting Yang to push.
Jerry Yang has about 770,000 more in chips than Childs, so Childs would be calling with his tournament life at stake. Childs sits back down to the table as he thinks for about three minutes.
Childs eventually folds, showing pocket queens. Jerry Yang takes the pot worth 11.63 million.
Hand #8 - Jon Kalmar has the button in seat 8, Jerry Yang raises from middle position to 800,000, and Raymond Rahme calls from the big blind. The flop comes , Rahme checks, Yang bets 1 million, and Rahme folds. Yang takes the pot.
Hand #7 - Philip Hilm has the button in seat 7, Lee Watkinson raises from late position to 600,000, Hilm reraises from the button to 2 million, and Watkinson folds. Hilm shows A-K offsuit as he takes the pot.
Hand #6 - Tuan Lam has the button in seat 6, Hevad 'Rain' Khan raises under the gun to 600,000, Jerry Yang calls from late position, and Jon Kalmar calls from the big blind. The flop comes , and all three players check. The turn card is the , Kalmar checks, Khan checks, Yang bets 1 million, and the other two players fold. Jerry Yang takes the pot.
In three out of the first six hands, the player from first position, otherwise known as "under the gun," opened up for a raise. That's somewhat unusual since no limit hold'em is a game of position. In these three situations, the under-the-gun raiser won the pot twice.
Are the players getting monster hands in early position or are they shifting gears and playing aggressively? It's hard to tell without seeing the hole cards. But we'll keep an eye on any future UTG raises.