When Paul Lee bet 1M on the river on a board of , Carlos Mortensen sighed and looked at his chips. He wanted to call and gave Lee a look that said he knew he was bluffing. Alas, Mortensen didn't have a hand to call with and mucked.
"Felt like a bluff to me," mentioned WPT announcer Linda Johnson. "We'll have to see that hand on TV."
Hand #17 - Mike Wattel has the button in seat 4, Mortensen raises from the cutoff to 300,000, Lee reraises from the small blind to 700,000, and Mortensen calls. The flop comes , and both players check. The turn card is the , and they check again. The river card is the , Lee bets 1 million, and after about three minutes, Mortensen folds. Lee takes the pot.
Paul Lee has loosened up a bit and saw two consecutive flops. He lost about 1 M in a pot against Carlos Mortensen and then lost another 300K to Laliberte on the next hand. He still has a shade over 10 million, but the pack is closing in.
Hand #15 - Guy Laliberte has the button in seat 2, Lee raises under the gun to 300,000, and Laliberte calls from the button. The flop comes . Lee checks, Laliberte bets 600,000, and Lee folds. Laliberte takes the pot.
Hand #16 - Carlos Mortensen has the button in seat 3, and Wattel moves all in from the small blind. Lee folds his big blind, and Wattel takes the blinds and antes.
Hand #14 - Kirk Morrison has the button in seat 1, Lee raises to 400,000, and Mortensen calls from the big blind. The flop comes , Mortensen checks, Lee bets 600,000, and Mortensen calls. The turn card is the , and both players check. The river card is the . Mortensen bets 2 million, and Lee folds. Mortensen takes the pot.
Mike Wattel lost about 1.1M in the hand against Guy Laliberte, who won the biggest pot so far in the tournament. Wattel slipped to last place in chips with around 1.7M while Laliberte is now 3rd in chips behind Paul Lee and Carlos Mortensen.
Hand #13 - Tim Phan has the button in seat 6, Wattel raises to 550,000, and Laliberte calls from the big blind. The flop comes . Laliberte checks, Wattel bets 600,000, Laliberte raises to 1.6 million, and Wattel thinks for about two minutes before folding. Laliberte takes the first big pot of the day, worth 2.47 million.
After seeing only one flop in the first 12 hands, the audience is starting to lose their enthusiam after watching everyone fold to the first pre-flop raiser.
"Are all of you waiting for aces or what?" shouted Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow from the stands.
At that point, TD Jack McClelland requested that a cocktail waitress come to the stage, hoping that some booze will loosen up the players.
Hand #9 - Guy Laliberte has the button in seat 2, Mortensen limps from the small blind for 120,000, and Wattel checks his option. The flop comes , Mortensen bets 200,000, and Wattel folds. Mortensen takes the pot.
Hand #10 - Carlos Mortensen has the button in seat 3, and Phan raises under the gun to 360,000, winning the blinds and antes.