by Simon Young

PokerStars player Roy Winston is sending a powerful message to the rest of his table - he's sitting there with the nuts. But in this case it's not the best hand, but the bag of nuts he's feasting on which is so large it would keep 100 squirrels quite happy for a week.

Roy Winston: with Lee Watkinson on his right
Roy, from New York, is on a table with two other PokerStars players, Rep Porter from the US and and Nicolas Atlan from France. There would have been one more had qualifier Francis Cagney from California not just busted out - unluckily when his kings were cracked.


Francis Cagney: kings cracked and out
He got all in pre flop and found himself up against the A-10 clubs of Norway's Erik-Bjorn Glenne, who won the PokerStars EPT Barcelona event last season. The flop brought the dreaded ace, and with no help on the turn or the river, Cagney was out in 82nd place, taking home $82,476 for his tremendous efforts this week.

Of our three players here, Porter has most chips with 2.4 million, Atlan 2.2 million and Winston 1.5. When Atlan recently joined the table, Porter was quick to try and impose his authority. Atlan raised to 150,000 and Porter called. The flop came 2-6-9 rainbow and Porter checked, allowing Atlan to come in with another 150,000. Again, Porter called. The turn was a king, and both players checked, but when a nine came on the river, Porter bet 200,000. After a bit of a dwell, and a stare down, Atlan folded.


Rep Porter: eyes on the big prize
One of our players who will not be back tomorrow is Josh Evans from Dallas, Texas, who walked his A-6 in A-10 - and got no help on the K-J-8-J-9 board.

At this stage there were 72 players left in the Main Event. After a level break, blinds moved up to 15,000-30,000. They will play a total of five levels today, or down to 36 players, whichever comes sooner.

As an interesting aside, someone with probably more time on their hands than is necessary, has worked out that if the remaining players all agreed to chop now they would each receive just over $525,000 - more or less the same as ninth place would otherwise get.