A middle-position player opened to 2,200 and was called by Paul Pierce in the hijack and by the player in the cutoff seat.
The flop fell and the middle-position player made a continuation bet of 2,200. Only Pierce called to see the turn. The bet was 9,500 this time and he called again, landing the on the river.
His opponent fired 13,200 and Pierce called, but saw he was beat when his opponent tabled . Pierce showed as he watched the pot head to his opponent.
We found Sebastian Ruthenberg staring intently at his opponent with a large stack of 5,000 chips in front of him -- enough to put his opponent all in. The board read with 40,000 already in the pot.
Ruthenberg's motionless stare earned him a fold from his opponent and has worked his stack up to 230,000.
Marco Traniello got the last of his stack in with on a board against , the coming on the turn and the players shook hands - Traniello still had four outs but none materialised on the river. There's only ten tables remaining in the Pavilion room now, everyone else is in the Amazon.
We weren't able to catch how the betting went, but we know that Steve Schlesinger and another player got all the chips in the middle preflop with Schlesinger at risk holding the against the other player's .
Luckily for Schlesinger, the flop came boosting him into the lead and leaving the player with aces with only a couple of chances at redemption. The turn and river were the and and Schlesinger doubled to around 54,000 while the other player was left with a mere 300 in chips and was eliminated soon afterward.
[user135779]
Simon Borg (during Day 1c): eliminated
It wasn't long after the dinner break that Simon Borg had moved the last of his very short stack into the middle before the flop with , but unfortunately Brendan Taylor woke up with from next door.
Another king on the flop was enough to seal the deal and send Borg to the rail. Taylor is now up to more than 135,000.
The cards are back in the air! The blinds are now 500/1,000 (with an ante of 100) and 1,203 players remain in today's Day 2a flight. This makes the average stack almost 76,800.
It's been an action-packed third level, with plenty of big-name bust-outs happening all over the place. Through the last two hours, we've witnessed the demise of DJ Blanchard, Jimmy Fricke, Gavin Smith and Aussie online phenom Jay "SEABEAST" Kinkade, as well as 2010 WSOP November Niner Soi Nguyen and defending champion, Jonathan Duhamel.
We've also seen the ongoing agony for Phil Hellmuth, who is trying to desperately build up his stack after arriving late today, but the big movers have been Guilhem Delaporte (222,000) and Max Weinberg, who's now on more than 230,000 after having started the day with 31,450. However, Aleksandr Mozhnyakov will be the man to catch after dinner - he currently holds 277,100 in chips.
The players are now on a 90-minute dinner break and the action will be back underway at approximately 8.30pm PST (GMT -7). Let's eat!
The player in the cutoff raised to 2,000 and Brad Garrett reraised to 4,000. The blinds released and the cutoff three bet to 8,000. Garrett called and the flop came . The cutoff bet out 2,000 and Garret made it 15,000. The cutoff called rather quickly considering the size of the raise.
The turn fell and the cutoff shoved for around 20,000. Garrett looked him up and down, folded his cards and said, "Good hand. Perfect play, perfect play," as he tapped the table.
and the middle-position player made a continuation bet of 2,200. Only Pierce called to see the 
turn. The bet was 9,500 this time and he called again, landing the 
on the river.
. Pierce showed 
as he watched the pot head to his opponent.
![[user196975]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
with 40,000 already in the pot.
on a 
board against 
against the other player's 
.
and Schlesinger doubled to around 54,000 while the other player was left with a mere 300 in chips and was eliminated soon afterward.
and the cutoff shoved for around 20,000. Garrett looked him up and down, folded his cards and said, "Good hand. Perfect play, perfect play," as he tapped the table.
