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Laurence Houghton has failed in his mission to capture bracelet gold in this event, although he was rather unlucky to tell the truth.
James Dempsey, who I expect has been opening rather wide, raised preflop to 325, only for Houghton to look down at 
and jam for around 3,500.
Unfortunately for the Mancunian online whiz, the big blind had .
No improvement and Houghton was gone.
Ted Lawson raised to 400 from the button before wily young Englishman Javed Abrahams reraised to 1,200 from the small blind. Lawson quickly called to see a 
flop. Abrahams checked, then called a 1,500 from the former bracelet winner before both players then checked the 
turn and also the 
river.
Lawson declared, "Fives," turning over 
before Abrahams flipped 
for a very slowly played full house to scoop the pot.
Lawson has 8,000 while Abrahams is up to about 17,000
Praz Bansi opened the pot to 350 from early position, and Phil Laak three-bet to 2,050 in the next seat over. When it came back to Bansi, the dealer pulled in the 350 from each player to show the 1,700 necessary to call. But Bansi wasn't calling. Instead, he threw out 5,500 more chips for a total raise to 5,850. Laak instantly announced an all in for right around 15,000, and Bansi frowned and sighed and announced the call with a similar-sized stack.
Showdown
Bansi: 
Laak: 
There wasn't a sweat on the board that ran 
, and the two men get to take their money back. "I thought I was slowrolling you," Laak said. The two men continued to banter for a minute or so after the hand, and it ended with Laak circularly saying, "When I was in your paradigm, it felt like you felt like I had less than ace-queen." And that pretty much sums it up.
Both men are sitting with right around 16,000 in chips, one of them significantly more talkative than the other.
Annette Obrestad limped in from the small blind before Jason Gray raised to 700 from the big blind. Obrestad called and they were off to a flop of 
. Both players checked to see the 
fall on the turn. Both checked again and the hit the river. Obrestad pounced with a bet of 1,250 and Gray folded.
A somber and reflective Priyan de Mel has been eliminated from today's event, riving a flush with the bare ace of clubs but running into a full house.
"That was the card I didn't want to see, but then I convinced myself that he had the king of clubs."
Level: 4
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Phil Ivey has been relocated to upstairs where he's sat next to fellow Full Tilt pro James Dempsey. Whether he knows who he is or not is another matter.
Even at this early stage, Ivey required a rack in transit as he's currently the tournament chip leader with 25,000. And, of course, chip leaders need to be caressed, so Ivey has brought a masseuse to soothe all those aches and pains that come with carrying a big stack.
Jeff Madsen is back in the swing of things after he won a 10,000 chip coinflip holding against an opponent's . The latter even shouted for a jack non-stop as the dealer put out the board, equivalent to an online player pressing the "J" nonstop.
There was however relief for Madsen as the cards came 
and the former WSOP player of the year is back in this contest.
We have nine members of Team Full Tilt with us today, and thus far they've been having a bit of a mixed bag of luck. Of the nine, Tom "Durrrr" Dwan (the newest member of the Team), Andy Bloch, and Chris Ferguson have been eliminated, leaving the other two-thirds of the Team contingent to represent their sponsoring site.
On the good side of things, Phil Ivey leads the pack with his stack of 27,600, and the rest of his Teammates stack up thusly:
Phil Ivey - 27,600
Allen Cunningham - 10,400
John Juanda - 9,100
Howard Lederer - 7,500
Mike Matusow - 7,075
Erik Seidel - 4,025
Chris Ferguson - 0
Andy Bloch - 0
Tom Dwan - 0
Dan Smith raised to 475 from under the gun. McLean Karr was in the next spot and reraised to 1,150. When action got back to Smith he reraised to about 12,000, plenty enough to put Karr all in. Karr mucked his hand and was left with 4,650 chips. Smith moved up to about 15,000.
