Johnny Chan opened to 5,000 in early position, and Jen Harman called from the cutoff. It folded to Joe Hachem in the big blind, who paused a minute before making it 20,000 to go. Chan flatted the three-bet, and Harman folded, dropping under 50,000.
The flop fell . Hachem bet out 28,500, and Chan couldn't call it. Scooping this one, Hachem moved up to 140,000. Chan slid to 130,000, giving Hachem the second spot in the counts.
This crowd may be made up of players from the 'ol' school', but it's the Internet generation's trend of applying preflop pressure which has taken hold of today's final table.
At the moment, most hands are being taken down preflop, usually with a three-bet. On the last hand, Negreanu raised to 4,400 before folding to a reraise of 11,500 from Jennifer Harman, and the hand before that, Joe Hachem raise-folded 5,500 to Johnny Chan's 16,000 three-bet.
Annie Duke open shoved for 14,000. After a moment of thought, Joe Hachem flatted on her left. Everyone else got out of the way, so it was time to flip 'em.
Duke:
Hachem:
The got a cheer from the crowd. Way ahead, Duke took a sip of her tea and a deep breath. The turn and river were no help to Joe, and Duke doubled up to 34,000. Hachem is still plenty healthy with 115,000.
Huck Seed - looking rather more clean cut than when he started the Series - opened to 6,000 from early position and Daniel Negreanu made the call in the big blind.
After both players checked the flop, Negreanu took it down with a bet of 9,200 on the turn.
Johnny Chan raised to 3,800 under the gun, and it folded to Howard Lederer in the cutoff. He moved all in for an additional 25,700. While Chan was thinking, they realized that despite the level up, everyone had contributed a 200 ante instead of 300, and the blinds had remained at 800/1,600. Chan folded, and Lederer joked that everyone owed him a few extra.
The next hand, Jennifer Harman raised, and Lederer moved all in again. She gave it up, and he took down two in row. That puts Lederer up to 46,000.
As we relocate to the main feature table, the whole atmosphere in the Amazon Room has changed with the previously empty rail now packed to the rafters with poker fanatics looking to grab an autograph or, if they're lucky, photo with their favorite poker star.
Lon McEachern and Norman Chad are currently bashing through their introductory lines to my left, so once they're done and dusted, we should be ready to go. As McEachern says himself, "A very special night of poker lies ahead", although I can confirm it's still day time. The secrets of TV revealed!