After a lengthy period of every pot being taken down by a simple preflop raise, it folded around to Isaac Settle in the small blind who just completed. Cory Brown checked his big blind, and they saw a flop.
The flop came down and Settle bet out 65,000. Brown made the call.
Settle bet out another 75,000 on the turn and a further 75,000 on the . Brown called both streets and turned over for a pair of queens. Settle however flipped for an open-ended straight draw on the flop that had morphed into a flush by the river, and took the pot.
Settle was up to around a million in chips after that.
After over 30 minutes of play, our first big pot finally arrived with Dash Dudley raising to 110,000 from the hijack and Gabe Costner making the call in the big blind.
The flop came , and with his hands clenched in front of his jaw in true Phil Hellmuth style, Costner checked. Dash was less hospitable, however, and made a continuation bet of 140,000, which Costner called.
On the turn, both players checked, leading to a river where Costner turned aggressor by sliding 350,000 across the felt. As Dudley mulled over his options, Costner remained as cool as the other side of the pillow and it was tough to know if he wanted a call or not. In the end, we found our answer as Dudley matched the bet, only to be shown for "the second nut flush", as the announcer correctly observed.
Deepak Bhatti, our short stack at the start of the day, had been blinded and anted down to just 280,000 when he open-shoved from the hijack.
Cutoff and button folded swiftly, but small blind and chip leader Aadam Daya thought about it for a long time. Eventually, though, he passed. Big blind Isaac Settle also gave it the tank treatment, but he folded too and Bhatti stayed precariously in the game.
There are plenty of interested parties here, but the gent with the most vocal rail, at least, is Nick Mitchell. Mitchell just turned 21, and this is his first ever WSOP event. Not a bad result for him however it turns out.
"Nick Mitchell, you wanna beer?" came the cry from the corner. Mitchell sniggered a little, but declined.
Then next hand, "Nick Mitchell on the but-ton!" The rail wasn't treated to any Mitchell action that time, though.
A couple hands later, and Mitchell raised to 110,000 in the hijack. Small blind Richard Rice eyed him up amusedly, but eventually folded; big blind Aadam Daya folded too and the blinds and antes went to Mitchell uncontested.
"Card rack!" cried a member of Mitchell's beered-up rail.
Cory Brown may have decided that Aadam Daya was stepping out of line, as within one orbit, Daya made his third raise (this time to 100,000) and Brown called. On the flop, Daya checked, Brown bet 200,000, and Daya relinquished his hand.
Despite his chip lead, Daya might rue having Brown to his left.
As expected, it's been a cagey start with no flops seen. Bart Davis, Nicholas Mitchell and Richard Rice (all in) have all taken it turns to snap up the blinds, but the main aggressor seems to be chip leader Aadam Daya who is hs either decided to come out firing, or is simply finding hands.