That's the word that applies to both Greg Raymer and Dario Minieri after they each got involved in the early skirmishes.

Dario, never one to hang around, moved all in on a flop of 4s Ks 5h, a 10,000 re-raise of another player's meagre 2,000 bet. That other player thought for a moment, before calling with pocket sixes - a call that hints at the kind of respect Dario's bets usually command at these events.

As it turns out, this one was a pretty good call. Dario was on a steal -- a semi-bluff at best, with the mighty 5s 3s, or a pretty feeble flush draw, in other words.

Dario Minieri makes a familiar forward motion

This time it failed to hit and the young Italian is down to 2,000 and change. Which, if past history is anything to go by, will have either trebled or vanished by the time I finish writing this next word.

As for Raymer, he was aggressive and unlucky, a combination that usually ends in a hefty stack sliding into the distance. He had Jd-10d and bet 1,000 on a nice looking flop of Jc-5d-3d. But after the 2d turned, Fossilman's adversary came out betting: 1,500 into this growing pot.



Greg Raymer: anguished

Greg called with his made flush, and the river was a harmless 5c. Somehow both players managed to check here, and Raymer's opponent showed Kd-9d, a bigger flush than the former World Champion's.

Crippled, but it probably could have been worse.

Update: Johnny Chan is the likely chip leader after winning a three-way coup with A-K. One opponent was all in pre-flop, the other folded on the turn to a hefty bet from Chan. The Orient Express had hit his ace, but the premature folder was distraught to see a seven appear on the river, which they saw to determine the winner of the main pot. It would have made a set with the pocket sevens he claimed to have folded. As it is, Chan won about 12,000 to more than double his starting stack.