Day 4 of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is in the books and the remaining players likely slept well last night, as they had all made the money shortly after Tuesday’s dinner break. Now is also about the time that the online poker rooms start to dream about their sponsored pros making it to the last few tables, or even the November Nine. One of those poker rooms, UB.com, has three of its pros remaining: Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Brandon Cantu.
Levy began Day 4 with 323,700 chips, putting him in the top 10% of the field. He continued his strong run Tuesday, finishing as one of 22 players with chip stacks in the seven-figures, 1,054,000 to be exact. The UB pro simply had one of those days in which he could do no wrong. Tweeting throughout the competition, he relayed an early hand in which he 5bet pocket aces pre-flop and somehow had his opponent move all-in with just A-2 on a 10-9-2 flop. That took Levy up to 835,000 and put him squarely atop the leaderboard for a while.
He fully acknowledged his good fortune about an hour later, posting on his Twitter account, “As if I wasn’t running good enough today, because of the money bubble, they will be breaking my table full of 3betting online sickos.” Translation: he might have the chance to take advantage of tight players on the bubble.
After the field had made the money, Levy posted another big hand: “Just won a massive pot with K10dd on the K104 2 club and 2 spade board. Guy bet 75k on turn after c/r’ing flop to 67k. I ship, he folds 953k.”
It was just before Day 4 ended that he eclipsed one million chips when his jacks busted a short stack’s K-9. “1st time I’ve ever been above a mill at the WSOP,” he Tweeted.
Baldwin sits in 141st place out of the 574 who have made it to Day 5, with 506,000 chips. Baldwin kept his public communications to a minimum throughout the day, although he did comment on Tournament Director Jack Effel’s decision to break for dinner just four eliminations before the money. It seemed like the majority of players were not happy with it, as many felt that it would be emotionally devastating for four people to go to dinner, fantasizing about making the money, only to have their dreams dashed right after they sat back down at the poker tables. Tweeted Baldwin, “If I were WSOP TD I would have broken for dinner when we did. Tough call but good one.”
Cantu started with 287,000, but had what he called the “most frustrating day of all time,” ending with 196,000 chips. He started out well, flopping Broadway in an early hand and climbing up to 350,000 chips. He made it up to 382,000 by the first break, but it was downhill from there. His frustration came to a head close to the end of play when he saw a heads-up flop of 9-8-J against Hasan Habib. After Cantu bet and Habib called, the turn was a seven, making a straight, heart, and diamond flushes possible. They both checked and saw the deuce of hearts land on the river. Habib led out on that card and Cantu knew he had just gotten rivered. He made the call anyway and when he saw Habib turn over A-J of hearts for the nut flush, Cantu exclaimed, “Goddammit! So unbelievable.” Cantu lost a few more chips from there to end a disappointing day, but he’s still alive, and that’s what matters.
The other UB pro who was in the tournament at the beginning of Day 4 was 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship winner Annie Duke. Starting with 113,800 chips, Duke was never really able to gain any traction and was finally eliminated when her pocket sevens ran into jacks.
Play continues at Noon PT Wednesday with everyone guaranteed at least $24,079.