We certainly haven't lacked for action in the first level of play this afternoon. The short stacks are getting their chips in and taking their chances. On Table 3, the combatants were Lance Oliver, Thao Thiem and Anasavanh Sittivong. Oliver opened the action from late position with a raise to 13,000. That folded the action to Thiem in the small blind, who reraised to 50,000. Sittivong was in the big blind and moved all in for 55,000 total. Oliver tanked for several minutes before moving all in for a total of 62,000. Thiem had both players covered and called as well.
Oliver:
Sittivong:
Thiem:
Sittivong was the player in the worst position; the remainder of the hand was essentially a flip between Oliver and Thiem. Thiem won that flip on a board of . Even though there was a straight on board, Thiem made a king-high spade flush to take down the pot and knock out Oliver and Sittivong.
Mike Heintschel is the next of the short stacks to fall. He moved all in preflop for 50,000 chips and was called by Matt Hyman. Hyman's was the best preflop hand against Heintschel's . A board of all small cards, , ensured that it was also the best post-flop hand. Hyman won the pot; Heintschel hit the rail.
Big stacks collided on Table 2, and it was Rick Reavis who took the worst of it. He opened from early position with a raise to 15,000. Charles Williams came over the top of that to 45,000, folding everyone else in the hand. With action back to Reavis, he jammed his whole stack in the middle. Williams snap-called, prompting a rather jovial Chris Tryba to loudly announce, "Oops!"
Reavis:
Williams:
Reavis' starting hand looked so good, but he was in danger of losing his whole stack and his seat in the tournament. A board of improved neither player, giving Williams the tournament chip lead and booting Reavis unceremoniously in 15th place.
We're down to 15 players. Taylor Bell started the day in 15th chip position. He moved all in preflop with and was called by Charles Williams, who showed . An ace on the flop left Bell looking for a runner-runner miracle that did not materialize.
"You're a winner and God loves you," shouted Chris Tryba to the departing Bell. Bell responded with a fist-pump salute.
Tournament staff have just informed us that, absent an extremely unlikely and unexpected mutiny from the remaining players, the plan today is to play out the rest of the tournament. What was looking like a short two- to three-hour day is now looking like another 1am finish.
Welcome back to Harrah's Rincon in hilly Valley Center, California. This is Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event. Day 1 saw 106 players hit the tables, with 16 of them surviving a grueling 12 hours of play. Esther Taylor leads all runners to start the day.
The schedule for this three-day event has been turned on its head a bit by the decision to play twelve full levels yesterday. As a result, barring another schedule change, today should be a very short day. We expect it will take two or three hours to reach the final table.
Cards are in the air at 1pm local time, about 40 minutes from now. Stick around!