Joe Hachem is hard to find. Though he is a WSOP and WPT champion, he's hard to recognize today. Behind a pair of dark glasses and alternately wearing and not wearing a denim jacket, Hachem blends easily into the crowd. He's also sitting at a table two to the right of JohnnyBax.

The man is hungry. This year, the tournament directors decided on canceling dinner breaks. Most players find this to be a good idea and in the spirit of clock economy. Still, folks need to eat, and Joe Hachem needs a turkey sandwich. That said, he can't leave his table, especially when the following hand comes up. Two players limped in for 200 and the player to Hachem's right made it 1,000 to go. Hachem called, as did the limpers. The flop came down with baby cards and two hearts. The original raiser made it 3,500 to play and Hachem popped it another 5,000. After a bit of thought, his opponent pushed all in for enough to destroy most of Joe's stack. Hachem fell briefly into the tank before calling and turning over pocket queens. His opponent showed K8 suited in hearts. With twelve outs twice, the opponent was only a small dog. Ultimately, Hachem dodged the outs and moved up to around 50,000 in chips. No word on whether his turkey sandwich has arrived.

The Ed Report

From early position David raises to 700. Tom re-raises to 2,200 and is called by David. The flop is 2h-Ah-2c and David checks. Tom fires out 2,500 chips and David folds AJo face up.

In the very next hand with a pot of 1,600 and the flop showing 6d-10h-4s David and Tom are at it again. David bets out 1,100 which is called by Tom. The turn is the 5d and David bets 2,200 and Tom thinks for a while before folding. Tom appears to be taking studious notes on his opponents and did quite a bit of writing after that hand. Tom now sits around 25K and David has 20K.


Tom McEvoy takes a few notes

Victor Ramdin still seems to be suffering. He limps from UTG along with 2 other players including Leif Force who went deep in last years WSOP. The flop comes 9c-6c-3d and all players check. The turn is the Kd and Victor pops 500 chips at the pot which is enough to take it down. With this win he creeps back over the 5K mark. Frederick Halling has recently joined this table.

During the time it takes to wander the room I returned to find David Williams all in for 7K into a 12K pot with the board showing Qc-2d-Kd-6d. His opponent would have to call half his stack away to try and take him out but instead folds 2 black aces. David had clearly taken a hit in the interim period but is back up to around his starting stack now.



Selected end of Level 3 Chips

Victor Ramdin 8K
Fabrice Soulier 60K
Joe Hachem 55K
JohnnyBax 15K
yellowsub86 23K
Isabelle Mercier 11K
Tom McEvoy 32K
David Williams 36K
Daniel Negreanu 37K
Humberto Brenes 25K
Barry Greenstein 40K
Russell Rosenblum 30K
Michael Mizrachi 38K
JC Tran 8K
John Duthie 4K
Elky 20K
KidPokerJD 5.5K
Frederick Halling 10K
Leif Force 18K
Jon Friedberg 25K
Brook Lyter 16K
Eric Bloore 16K


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