After the action folded around to Athanasios Polychronopoulos in the small blind, he waited for 30 seconds or so before making his move. That move happened to be a limp into the pot, and Mike Leah exercised his big blind option by tapping the table, with his check preceded by a half minute of thought as well.
The flop came down and Polychronopoulos froze at the sight, waiting good and long before flicking out a 7,000 c-bet. Leah looked over at Polychronopoulos and stared him down, covering his own mouth with his hoodie and reflecting on the things one reflects over when faced with a bet of one big blind. Finally, he tossed out the requisite calling chips to see the fall on the turn.
Polychronopoulos studied the baby card board and stared into the ether, waiting for more than a minute before moving a 16,000 wager into the middle. Leah responded with his own tank job, sitting still as a stone and moving his gaze back and forth from the board to his opponent's eyes. Finally, he flatted and fifth street fell .
More than 35 seconds passed before a 35,000 bet was made, with Polychronopoulos firing his third barrel at Leah. Another minute or two later, the hand finally ended with a crying call by Leah, who even waited a while to muck his cards after Polychronopoulos tabled for a runner-runner flush catch.
Mark Herm open shoved for his last 100,000 or so, and next to act Ray Qartomy peeked down at the prettiest sight in poker: in the hole.
With bullets in the hole and a big enough stack to isolate, Qartomy shoved for 325,000 and folded the rest of the table, finding himself well out in front of Herm's .
The flop came to give Herm a glimmer of hope, and he made two pair on the turn, but unfortunately for him improving his hand actually left him drawing dead. The completed the board on the river to send Herm out, while Qartomy chipped up in style.
All the chips went into the middle on a flop with Allard Broedelet holding and David Farah holding . Broedelet was holding his breath as his tournament life was on the line, but he was able to exhale when the turn came the . A quiet fist pump and then another fist pump as the river of meant the pot was going to be pushed his way.
Broedelet is perhaps best known for being the chip leader of Event One of the Borgata Winter Poker Open before the event was suspended due to the counterfeit chip scandal. It'd be quite the story if he could make a deep run here.
We get there and the action is on the river with 70,000 already in the pot and the board showing . Eugene Todd has checked and Jesse Sylvia, as is his custom, is being very deliberate before taking any action. He makes a bet finally of 53,000. Todd is a bit quicker, but still thinks for awhile before making the call. He mucks when he sees Sylvia's .
Day 3 of the Season XII WPT World Championship is set to begin in a few minutes, and the players are starting to file into the Poker Room at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The overall chip leader is Eric Afriat, who enters the day with 1,003,000, which is nearly double that of the player sitting in second, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, who sits with 592,500. Rounding out the top five are Anthony Gregg (567,000), Scott Seiver (539,500), and Ryan D'Angelo (519,500).
In addition to those five there are still plenty that return looking to etch their name on the WPT Champions Cup including Jason Koon, Jonathan Tamayo, Justin Young, Byron Kaverman, Eugene Todd, Jeff Maddsen, Matt Stout, Jordan Cristos, Loni Harwood, Jeff Gross, Erich Buchman, Matt Waxman, Jesse Sylvia, and Phil Hellmuth who will come in with the 3rd smallest stack of the day at 54,000.
The cards are about to be in the air, so be sure to stay tuned for all of your live updates straight from the tournament floor here on PokerNews!