Five-time bracelet winner Allen Cunningham is playing under the lights in the Brasilia room on the third feature table.
Before play even started, the tournament staff announced the field would be playing into the money today. That means players are positioning themselves to reach that milestone by finding spots to gather chips and introducing some creative play to build their stack.
Cunningham wasted no time making his move. He started the day with 131,000 and had 630,000 heading into the first break of the day.
PokerNews caught up with Cunningham to talk about the heater that put him near the top of the chip counts.
Cunningham: It was a good five hands. I started with 130k and five hands later I had 550k.
The very first hand of the day, I won a nice 30,000 pot in the big blind. On the second hand, I had aces versus someone's ace-king and broke her for another 100,000-plus. The third hand, I think I stole the big blind. The next hand, I flopped fives full of deuces. My opponent made four deuces on the turn and I rivered quad fives. He was one of the guys at the table who covered me.
PokerNews: Have you adjusted your play now that you have more chips?
Cunningham: Honestly, I'm a little bit chip drunk right now. I'm not even sure how to play. I have to regroup and create a new game plan.
PokerNews: How is the play at your table?
Cunningham: It's hard to say because I've knocked out a few players and we've lost another few. The table dynamic keeps changing because we keep getting new players. So it's been hard to get a read.
Yesterday, though, I had a tough table and was able to climb from 25,000 to 130,000. So, I don't mind if it's a tough table or a soft one. I'm just taking it one hand at a time. If you're winning, you're always happy with your table. So of course, I'm really happy right now.
Cunningham, wearing a Superman shirt, probably feels a bit like a super hero right now.