by Simon Young

David Tran began the day as chip leader and, despite getting involved in a flurry of action early in the first session, he has sat back more in the last two-hour level. In fact, I think I saw him involved in no more than five hands.

"I just have to be patient," he said, "and wait for the right hand. But it is going okay for now."

David Tran: biding his time
With 6,690,000 in chips, he is in the comfort zone at the moment, but blinds are about to go up to 50,000-100,000 with a 10,000 running ante.

That may speed some of the action up for those on the shorter stacks. But for now David, from California, and another PokerStars player at his table, Tuan Lam (6,100,000) will play the same game.


PokerStars chat: Jason Welch, left, and Tuan Lam
Not so PokerStars player Jason Welch - he busted almost as soon as they returned from the break. He was down to his last 1,585,000 and you sensed it was all going in the middle very soon. Sure enough he pushed with A-3 only to come up against the pocket jacks of Steven Garfinkle in the small blind. The board of K-5-2-2-10 failed to help and Welch took home $333,490.

His table - as well as Tran and Lam - includes Scotty Nguyen, the only surviving former World Champion (1998), and Brit Jon Kalmar, who has put on a surge, busting two players in the past 45 minutes.

Aggression is the key - Scotty Nguyen took a nice pot off Kalmar with 9 high and a missed flush draw, while David Tran took down a pot off Welch by betting 350,000 on a J-5-5 flop.

It's all very much cat and mouse, but with the prize money now approaching $350,000, no one wants to make a mistake.