Posted by Andrew Feldman
8:06 p.m. ET: While Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, J.C. Tran and Peter Eastgate occupied the feature table, the cameras on the outside tables have been busy. After two levels of play on Monday, we're down to 116 players. We lost 31 during the past level, and I guess that's a sign of a slower pace. There were only 23 eliminated with 20 minutes left in the level, but the all-in fever kicked in to eliminate the final eight.
Neil Stoddart
Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier was eliminated during the second level of play on Monday.
During this past level, there were two significant eliminations: Blair Hinkle and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. Hinkle reraised all-in for more than $900,000 preflop with A-J and was instantly called by his opponent's A-K. The board provided no help for Hinkle, and while that hand didn't end his tournament, he was done just a few hands later. His opponent has since eliminated a few more players and has a ton of chips, but he refuses to color them up. While I don't know this player's name, he is a little bit superstitious and told the floor person that unless anyone at the table feels his chips are getting in the way, he'd prefer not to color them up because he hasn't done that all tournament.
Grospellier's tournament was ended when he lost with A-K to pocket kings after losing a massive pot with A-K on a king-high board. It was a three-way pot in which one of his opponents checked his full house (fives full of threes) on the river. At that point, Grospellier just looked to want to get it in, found a spot and was eliminated when he couldn't spike an ace. He put his hands on his head, speaking inaudibly, and left the Amazon Room before the tournament staff could even announce his elimination.
This level also marked the end for Theo Tran. But the good news is that we finally saw some good poker. On a board of A-9-A-X, Noah Boeken folded A-K face up in a $2 million chip pot. With cameras all around him, his opponent flipped over 9-9 to confirm the pro had the right read. It was a very impressive play on a day when we've seen too many preflop all-in hands.
Antonio Esfandiari, Tom Schneider, Kenny Tran, Joe Sebok and Blair Rodman are all still fighting for their tournament lives on the outside table. Phil Ivey has been an observer to some horrific beats at the secondary feature table and David Benyamine has been steady all day.
Blinds as the players return will be $12,000/$24,000 with a $3,000 ante. Still plenty of play considering the average stack is somewhere near $1.7 million. One more level until the dinner break and finally, the prize money is starting to increase. Here is the current payout table for the rest of the day:
64th-72nd ($90,344)
73rd-81st ($68,979)
82nd-90th ($57,991)
91st-99th ($47,003)
100th-162nd ($40,288)
Small blinds: A player was late to return during the start of the third level. … The room itself is much quieter since there are less players shuffling chips. … There's rumors that one of the players has two bodyguards. I'm looking into that story. … Matt Affleck, one of the chip leaders the past two days, has taken a big hit and is now around $1.3 million. … Hey look, Humberto Brenes. And no "charks." … The player who really needed to pull up his pants was just eliminated. Thank you. … Joe Sebok has been on death watch the past two levels. Even by the floor staff. … Congrats to the "Tao of Pokerati" team for winning the team portion of the Dream Team Poker event.
Poker
