On Tuesday night, 78 players took to the felts on Day 7 as part of ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Danish poker pro Theo Jorgensen led the way with a stack of 9.3 million and was the only player above nine million.
The stacked feature table included John Racener, new World Poker Tour (WPT) “Raw Deal” host Tony “Bond18” Dunst, and former Bodog pro Jean-Robert Bellande. The latter was the first casualty of Day 7. Nursing a short stack to start the day, Bellande moved his chips into the middle of the table with Q-10 of diamonds, but could not draw out on pocket jacks.
Out in the field, Eduardo Parras knocked out two opponents after his pocket aces held against Q-J of hearts and pocket kings. Then, two UB.com pros trended in opposite directions, as Adam “Roothlus” Levy knocked out a player when his pocket kings withstood A-K. Elsewhere, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin’s stack was shaved to 30 big blinds after losing a major pot with pocket tens against Jorgensen’s pocket kings. Jorgensen, who once defeated Gus Hansen in a Dane-on-Dane boxing match, moved to 10.9 million in chips.
Dunst committed his last 15 big blinds with pocket queens against Hasan Habib’s A-K. The king-high flop gave Habib a better pair, but Dunst spiked a queen on the river to survive. The new WPT personality commented, “That’s just ridiculous.” Out in the field, a pot worth 8.6 million was up for grabs as Joseph “subiime” Cheong was all-in with A-K against the pocket jacks of Soi Nguyen. The two members of the 2010 WSOP November Nine watched as the board ran out K-5-8-2-6, giving Cheong a pair of kings.
Pascal LeFrancois eliminated Baldwin with pocket nines against the K-8 of “basebaldy.” LeFrancois flopped a set and Baldwin was out in 59th place. Then, LeFrancois was at it again, this time eliminating Full Tilt Poker pro David Benyamine with A-Q of hearts against Benyamine’s Q-10 of spades. LeFrancois flopped the nuts and Benyamine was drawing dead to the river. In the final hand of the first one-hour episode, Racener took down a pot at the feature table worth 4.3 million to become the WSOP Main Event’s new chip leader at 10.2 million.
The second episode began with LeFrancois doubling up through Jonathan Driscoll to claim the third largest stack in the field. Then, Peter Jetten made a poorly timed move and doubled up a player when his lowly 9-5 could not suck out on A-Q. Jetten was down to a little more than an ante and ultimately met his demise at the hands of November Niner John Dolan.
Bluefire Poker instructor Jason Senti doubled up with A-Q against an opponent’s K-Q to keep his bracelet hopes alive. Similarly, Jonathan Duhamel doubled up in a race with A-K against the pocket sixes of Rob Pisano. Duhamel spiked a six-outer on the river to stay alive.
At the feature table, William Thorson was active early and often, raising to 130,000 with A-5 of spades in a hand against Matt Affleck, who called with K-10. The flop came A-8-6 and Affleck check-called a bet of 160,000. The turn was the eight of spades, giving Thorson a flush draw, and he called a bet of 360,000 from Affleck. The river filled Thorson’s flush and Affleck continued firing with king-high, this time laying out 800,000. Thorson raised to two million and Affleck looked him up. Affleck, who made a deep run in last year’s Main Event, dropped one-third of his stack.
Senti doubled up once more after flopping quad kings. Then, Dunst called all-in pre-flop with A-Q against Thorson, who held A-K. The youngster could not draw out and hit the rail in 50th place. Thorson moved to 13 million in chips as Tuesday’s WSOP coverage came to a close.
You can catch the 2010 WSOP Main Event every Tuesday on ESPN at 9:00pm ET.
