Fred Koubi has been playing lots of pots on the secondary table, and it's been a mixed bag. In one three-way pot, he bet the flop and also the turn. Each time Ylon Schwartz checked and then called. When the river fell , Schwartz checked a third time.
"I can't bet," said Koubi. "If you don't have it, you can't call. If you do have it you might check it." Koubi checked behind and tabled a set of queens, . It turned out that Schwartz did indeed "have it"; he turned up a Broadway straight, .
A few hands later, Koubi was one of four players in for one small bet. Three continued for another small bet on a , and all checked the turn. At the river , action checked to last-to-act Dan Heimiller, who threw out a bet. Koubi was the only player to call.
Heimiller showed one card, the , and then paused. Then he mucked the rest of his hand. Koubi tabled a flush, , to claim the pot.
Mike Puskarich raised on the button, and Jeff Madsen called from the small blind. The flop fell , and Madsen bet out. Puskarich raised, and Madsen three-bet for most of his stack. He didn't have to worry, however, Puskarich folded, leaving himself about 45,000.
The next hand, Puskarich got all of those chips in preflop against his nemesis. It was Puskarich's against Madsen's . The flop brought the cases aces, , and gave Madsen a low draw. The on the turn was a perfect card for him and a deadly one for Puskarich. The river was a blank, and Madsen scooped the pot with a low and aces full of fives. Puskarich hung on all the way to 17th place since being short-stacked yesterday afternoon, but his ride ends here. Madsen's is just starting. He's over the 200k mark now.
After Puskarich was eliminated, Chris Viox was moved to the feature table to balance each one at eight players.
Ylon Schwartz and Fred Koubi saw a flop out of the blinds. Schwartz bet, and Koubi called. They switched it up after the on the turn, when Schwartz checked, then called when Koubi bet. Both players checked the turn, and Ylon tabled for queens and jacks. Koubi looked sadly at his kings and mucked.
After a breakneck first two levels that saw the eliminations of nine players, including David Bach, Shawn Buchanan, and Huck Seed, the remaining 17 have 20-minutes to take a breather.
Huck Seed doubled through Jeff Madsen when they were both seated together at their first table of the day. Stuck with each other again after the redraw, they continued to challenge each other in big pots. The last one spelled doom for Huck Seed, who was ousted by Madsen in 18th place. He can now mosey on over to the 2-7 Triple Draw event that is just starting.
After snatching Huck's chips, Madsen is up to 125,000.
Scott Eptsein raised preflop, and only small bind Michael Chow went with him to a flop. It came out , and Chow fired a bet. Epstein flat called to see the on the turn. Chow bet again, and this time, Epstein raised. Chow moved all in for his last 23,000. Epstein called the extra 3,000, and they were on their backs.
Showdown
Epstein:
Chow:
Chow was in the lead with aces and jacks, but Epstein had a low draw for half the pot. The floated out on the river, bricking for Epstein. Chow doubled to 116,000, leaving Epstein with 150,000.