Chris Moneymaker's first Main Event cash since winning it in 2003 won't be anywhere close to what he might have been hoping for at the start of the day. Moneymaker was seen shaking hands at his table, with the ESPN camera crew also swarming the table at the same time. Unfortunately for Moneymaker, he fell at the hand of Ron West who was kind enough to relay what had happened:
Moneymaker had raised from the middle position with and West called on the button with .
The flop came with two clubs, Moneymaker check-shoved for around 250,000 when West had continued with a bet of 37,000 and West called.
No further help came on the board for Moneymaker and the former Champion was sent to the payout desk.
Level 17 has completed with just 688 players remaining and 598 hopefuls already headed to the payout desk in the first two levels of the day. When they return to action, they will resume in Level 18 with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and a 12,000 big blind ante.
Here’s a look at some recent highlights from the tables:
A player in middle position raised to 20,000 and action folded around to Michael Soccio in the big blind. He three-bet to 57,000 and his opponent four-bet to put Soccio to a decision for his total stack of 543,000.
Soccio went into the tank for over two minutes, talking himself through his thought process. At one point, his voice was audible enough to hear him say that his opponent's line made no sense. Eventually, he made the call.
Michael Soccio:
Opponent:
The two players both found themselves in identical situations before the flop which came .
Soccio became animated about his newly found nine outs to a double, exclaiming and predicting that another club would come.
The turn came .
"C'mon, Marcio!" Soccio said to the dealer who was unable to keep a poker face, cracking a smile as Soccio's excitement grew.
The river fell to complete Soccio's wish, fill up his flush, and secure his double up.
"That's my dude right there!" Soccio exclaimed. "That's my dude!"
His chips were then totaled to the aforementioned figure of 543,000 and his opponent paid him, bringing him north of seven figures just before the second break of the day.
In the last hand before the break, Fabrizio Gonzalez opened to 22,000 in the cutoff and Henrik Hecklen defended his big blind. The flop came and Hecklen check-called a bet of 15,000 from Gonzalez.
The turn brought the and both players checked to the on the river. Hecklen led out this time for 35,000 and Gonzalez called after a brief pause. Hecklen turned over and Gonzalez mucked his cards.