After more than a week of poker, a week of features, a week of the tales behind the tales, we have reached the point at which the action is going to move faster than the blog. It’s a fact of life, with Tootie, Blair, and Mrs. Garrett.
With that in mind, here are our biggest stories from the tournament floor.
CHIP AND A CHAIR, LITERALLY
Chip and a chair. It’s what we say to people who have fallen on hard times.When we say it, we generally don’t really believe they can use those chips and chairs for anything other than sitting and busting. For Brazil Team PokerStars Pro, the chip and a chair story could be one for the books.
He was literally down to a single chip. “Just one chip!” he confirmed, “An ante.”
“He double up on me four times,” said seat three’s Jesse Steinberg.
Now, Salles is sitting on 500,000–a near-average stack–and getting a massage.
THE UNEXPECTED EXITS
Listen, when Stephen Bartley or Howard Swains are in a poker tournaments, we expect them to be out pretty quickly. When Jason Mercier or Vanessa Selbst are playing, we expect them to win (because that’s what happened at the NAPT Mohegan Sun High Roller and Main Events respectively.)
We watched Mercier go out a little earlier in this level, the last of his chips going in with A♣ 10♣ . He was up against aces and didn’t catch. With his sunglasses on his head, Mercier said, “Good luck, guys,” and walked glumly from the table.
Selbst, meanwhile, had her kings cracked by a flopped set. “Blah, blah,” was her last public comment before her exit.
LODDEN, THORSON TOGETHER AT LAST
For the first time in history, Johnny Lodden and William Thorson have cashed in the same tournament. That can’t be true, can it? Our sources in Sweden say it is (of course, there was a lot of hurdy-gurdy talk so we can’t be sure).
While they are both still alive here, that’s where their fortunes have diverged, Thorson has around 800,000 and a better than average stack. Meanwhile, Lodden ran into a set of nines in the last hour and saw his stack fall below 100,000. Just before the break, Lodden managed to triple up to around 250,000 with sevens versus Jâ™ 9â™ [ and A♣ J♣ . Mark Tyson, the man with the ace-jack-was begging the dealer to put a jack out there. He meant no offense to Lodden, but confessed, “he’s just too good to have chips.”
NICE GUY, GREG DEBORA
Greg Debora is among our favorite of the the most recent Team Pros, primarily because he generally looks pretty happy. That held true today when he got a double up in the early going. Aces versus kings, in fact.
“That’s nice,” I said.
DeBora considered this a moment, as if reflecting on his actual feelings on that matter, then said, “Yeah, it was nice.”
He still needs to chip up to get to an average stack, but he’s still smiling.
*****
OUT OF CONTEXT QUOTE OF THE HOUR
“I’m just sick and tired of all these stunning women walking around all over the place.”
*****
JOE GIRON PHOTO OF THE HOUR
*****
ATOMIC FIREBALL FACT OF THE HOUR
The PokerStars Blog team has run out of Atomic Fireballs (the official candy of the PokerStars Blog). If you happen to be the Atomic Fireball stock manager of the CVS pharmacy on Valley View and Sahara, please ensure your shelves are full. We will be paying a visit during today’s dinner break.
*****
OBSERVATION OF THE HOUR
Matt Affleck and Tony Dunst – the only two players with chips, and the only two players enjoying themselves at table 352.
*****
QUOTE OF THE HOUR
“I used to find it hard to tell the difference between the England accent and the London accent. Now I can.”
Back to Top
