by Simon Young

Post bubble madness, and the Amazon Room has a more calm feeling to it, despite players busting out at an alarming rate once again. But you can always rely on a certain gentleman with a moustache to raise the decibel level again.

"Come on - rooooaaaaarr. Hunger, hunger, hunger," shouted Team PokerStars' Humberto Brenes. Up he stood, out came the two little sharks protecting his cards (one of which has eyes that glow red at the push of a button) and he waved them menacingly in the direction of his opponent.

Humberto Brenes: Up and at them
His table (and about 50 more in the nearest vicinity) have heard it all before. When Humberto (now on 150,000) raises up a pot, he means business, and his shark sidekicks mean to make sure he gets it.

Unfortunately, on this occasion he did not get the action he craved. His opponent, who had raised to 13,000 only for Humberto to re-pop to 64,000, folded. Humberto cried in sort of triumph as he turned over K-K. "See," he said, "I only go in with the best hands."

His table mates raised their eyebrows, not because of his animated outbursts - they quite like that (unless they are on the receiving end) - but because of his cards.

"He's now showed down A-A, A-K and K-K in the last five minutes," sighed one.


John Duthie: chalking up another $5,000
Our other remaining Team PokerStars player John Duthie, founder of the PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour, which kicks off again in Barcelona, Spain, next month, is going along in much quieter fashion. He started today with 278,400, but was down to something like 140,000 when I caught up with him.

"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster today," he said forlornly. "But at least I'm still in."

At that very moment, the tournament director announced we were down to 549 players, and everyone remaining had moved up to $25,101 in cash.

"Well, you're still in - and you've just earnt another $5,000, John," I said.

A smile broke out. "That's rather nice," he said, and he turned back to face his table, and another hand.