[user75032]
A dejected Phil Hellmuth (foreground), moments after his stunning loss to Bertrand Grospellier (background, right)
A murmur rose through the gallery as Bertrand Grospellier and Phil Hellmuth got all of their chips in the middle preflop just five hands into their quarterfinal match! Grospellier had the slight chip edge and the preflop nuts, . Hellmuth could only shrug and look disappointed at being dealt an awful cooler when he turned over .
"Could you guys play longer? We've got a show to make!" asked NBC poker analyst Ali Nejad.
"I'll try to hit a queen and keep it going longer," replied Hellmuth.
Try as Hellmuth might to repeat the famous suck-out that Tom "durrrr" Dwan performed against him last year, it wasn't going to happen. The board ran out to send Hellmuth to the rail. Grospellier is through to the semifinals in another lightning-fast quarterfinal match.
[user75032]
We had a longer break than normal due to the speed with which the first two matches of the day ended, but cards are finally in the air. New Godaddy.com Girl Vanessa Rousso is at the feature table for her match against Daniel Negreanu, who said he "couldn't find the right heels" for his Vanessa Rousso costume. Phil Hellmuth and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier are at the back table.
[user75032]
We're still waiting on the players for the next round of quarterfinal matches, so the start time has been pushed back to 1pm (which is earlier than the original 1:30pm, but much later than the pie-in-the-sky dream of 12:15pm).
[user75032]
So much for a drawn-out quarterfinals on the red side of the bracket. Sam Farha and Huck Seed needed just more than fifteen minutes to knock off their opponents. They will meet in the semifinals later this afternoon.
Because of the rapid eliminations of David Williams and David Oppenheim, the entire schedule for the day has been accelerated. The black side quarterfinals, originally scheduled for 1:30pm local time, have been moved up to 12:15pm (assuming that the players can be brought to the set in time). That's in about half an hour.
We'll update the blog with further details on the schedule as they are made known to us by the producers of the tournament.
[user38449]
David Oppenheim - quarterfinalist
Moments after Sammy Farha and David Williams' match ended, Huck Seed and David Oppenheim got it all in on the secondary feature table. As it turned out, they'd be flipping for a spot in the final four.
Huck opened the pot with a raise from the button, David reraised, Huck moved all in and David made the call:
Seed:
Oppenheim:
Not far away, Farha sniffed out an opportunity to gamble and offered Oppenheim some kind of insurance bet on the hand.
"I'll bet $10,000 on his hand," Oppenheim said.
Sammy tried to finagle himself a better price, but Oppenheim wouldn't budge.
"If we could have security remove Mr. Farha," joked Oppenheim.
After the failed wager attempt, attention returned to the matter at hand. Seconds before the dealer spread the flop, Oppenheim shouted, "One time!" but his cry fell on deaf ears, as the flop came down . The turn delivered the fatal blow when the rolled off the deck giving Seed a set, leaving Oppenheim drawing dead.
Seed, meanwhile, is off to prep for his upcoming final four match against Sammy Farha, scheduled to begin around 4:45 p.m.
[user75032]
David Williams - eliminated
David Williams flopped a monster against Sam Farha just as the first level of play was concluding, yet somehow he's the one going home early. The board developed with light betting before the river. At the river, Farha was first to act and led out for 15,000. Williams raised that bet to 35,000. Farha, never known for being a passive player, responded by pushing all in and the equally-aggressive Williams called! Williams showed that he had flopped a full house with , but Farha rivered a better full house with .
A stunned Williams could only stand over the table with his hands on his hips, wondering how things had gone so wrong. He will collect $75,000 in prize money, while Farha prepares for the semifinals later today.
[user75032]
Today players start with 160,000 chips. The blind structure is marginally better than it's been the past two day; starting blinds are 1,000 and 2,000. Levels remain fifteen minutes long.
[user75032]
Dapper Dans
Cards are in the air. It is indeed Hearts and Diamonds first up. Sam Farha and David Williams are on the feature table and seem to be competing with each other for the award for Most Distinctive Wardrobe. Huck Seed and David Oppenheim are more subdued at the back table.
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Hellmuth could only shrug and look disappointed at being dealt an awful cooler when he turned over 
.
to send Hellmuth to the rail. Grospellier is through to the semifinals in another lightning-fast quarterfinal match.
. The turn delivered the fatal blow when the 
rolled off the deck giving Seed a set, leaving Oppenheim drawing dead. 
, but Farha rivered a better full house with 
. 