2007 PCA: Level 4

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2007 PCA Level 1
2007 PCA Level 2
2007 PCA Level 3
Moneymaker Millionaire Live Blog

TV Table?

It appears that fates of gone to battle. Only timing and random draws determine who sits where. In level four, the fates are toying with us. Though there is no TV coverage yet, there are two tables here that could be competing for the distinction of "TV Table."

In one corner of the room, Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu sit beside each other (Hachem on Negreanu's left). At the other end of the table, Fabrice Soulier keeps an eye on the two champions.

On the front rail, another table is vying (and perhaps winning) the battle for the most popular table of the room. JohnnyBax, Isabeller Mercier, Humberto Brenes, David Williams, and Tom McEvoy are all battling for the same chips.

Yes! No!

It's not nice to poke fun at poker people. There is also the matter of karma. So, I'm not going to name names. I'm sure it will happen to me soon.

As it happens, there is a fairly well-known pro in the field today who was in a rough position. He had 99 with a spade against his opponent's 66 (also with a spade). His opponent had made a straight on the turn. There were also three spades on board. This pro knew he was in trouble, but still could hope for spades or a nine.

That was nearly true. When a spade fell on the river, said pro jumped into the air and screamed, "Yes!" To his credit, it was not long before he said, "NO!" Indeed, that spade had given him what seemed to be a better flush. Thing is, it had also given his opponent a straight flush.

And so it goes.

Hold_emNL

Tom Dwan, known as Hold_emNL on PokerStars and durrr (I always forget how many r's are involved), has had what I'd call a good afternoon. When I wandered by his table a few minutes ago, his stack sat at 88K, almost 4.5 times what he started with 5.5 hours ago.

"What's up," he said.

"Looks like you are," I replied.

He shrugged. "There's still a 60% chance I bust out today," he said.

The Ed Report

We are now in Level 4 with blinds of 200/400 and an ante of 50 and both Victor Ramdin and Isabelle Mercier have more than doubled up very early on.

Victor had a Fullhouse on a board of Qh-9d-Ac-Ah-Qd holding the A3s. His chip stack is now back to around his starting stack of 20K.

Isabelle doubled when she flopped a fullhouse and got paid off. She is now just under 30K and has just had JohnnyBax sit down to her immediate right to join this already heavyweight table.

Victor Ramdin continues to do well at this level on a board of 6c-2d-8s-Kh and a checked flop, Victor bet 2,100 which was enough to take the pot down.

With players dropping fairly quickly now tables are breaking and Joe Hachem is now sitting to Daniel Negreanu's immediate left. After some raising and re-raising preflop Joe was facing a 10K raise and had the clock called on him. After making a joke that he was not trying to stall for a cash he eventually folded.

JC Tran is out when he called a raise. The flop came 10-7-4 and he pushed
all in for 1,000 more. The initial raiser called with AK and spiked a king
on the turn to send JC out.

Notable departures

John Duthie
J.C. Tran

Notable chip counts at end of level 4.

Victor Ramdin 29K
Fabrice Soulier 38K
Joe Hachem 40K
JohnnyBax 16K
yellowsub86 22K
Isabelle Mercier 11K
Tom McEvoy 27K
David Williams 30K
Daniel Negreanu 40K
Humberto Brenes 24K
Barry Greenstein 43K
Russell Rosenblum 24K
Michael Mizrachi 30K
Elky 24K
KidPokerJD 11K
Frederick Halling 12K
Leif Force 10K
Jon Friedberg 18K
John Pham 11K