Mukul Pahuja was moved from his table in the Gold section to find a new home as the first tables are breaking over there. Michael Lech has taken over from Darius Tamulevicius, and Thomas Muehloecker arrived at his table that also features Alex Rocha as well.
Meanwhile, Allyn Shulman has now taken over from Barry, and Ylon Schwartz almost doubled the starting stack in the two levels thus far.
Felipe Ramos is now in charge of the stack that can be also handled by Jason Mercier and his wife Natasha. The action was steady when we visited Ramos at his table, but the funny Brazilian is always entertaining, no matter the circumstances. While we were there, Ramos shared some thoughts about other tournaments at the World Series of Poker.
"After busting the $111,000 and $10,000, this is fun," he said about the Tag Team event with a smile, before confirming that we'll see him in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, too. "If there is one tournament I want to win, it's the Players Championship," he said.
"Somebody asked me before the One Drop about which tournament would I rather win — One Drop or Players Championship. I said the Players. That's why I busted the One Drop," he laughed. "It was stupid, I should've been greedy and say I want to win the One Drop and then say it again. Makes sense, right?"
After a limp, Amal Bounahra raised to 500 from the button and the initial raiser from Team Boyadijan called. The flop came and the action checked to Bounahra, who bet 550. "Put a jack on the turn," her opponent said and called. After the turn, Bounahra's second bet of 1,000 was check-called with a similar remark and the river completed the board.
Now the opponent of Bounahra min-bet for 100 and was called. The opponent flashed and Bouhnara had that beat with .
Thomas Muehloecker, one of the elite European high rollers, raised to 250 from the cutoff. His opponent from three seats over defended his big blind, and the two saw a flop .
Muehloecker pulled out a 200 continuation bet after his rival had checked, and after another call the landed on the turn. No bets were made this time.
The river was the and the big blind checked once again. Muehloecker set the price high, putting 1,000 in front of him. His opponent wasn't willing to pay and the pot went the Austrian's way without any hole cards exposed.
As confirmed by Dylan Linde and Aaron Hendrix, the all-star team of Andy Frankenberger - Phil Hellmuth - Brandon Cantu - Mike Matusow has been eliminated. Frankenberger was the one in action and got it in with pocket aces against an opponent that flopped a straight with eight-seven.
Neither Hellmuth, Cantu or Matusow even got to play as their team has been eliminated in Level 2 already.
Joueur
Jetons
Progression
Andy Frankenberger - Phil Hellmuth - Brandon Cantu - Mike Matusow
One year ago, this very event saw a 863-entry strong field and the Event #10: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em is on the best way to beat that number this year.
Less than midway through Level 2, the screens already show 730 entries, and that number is likely to grow over the next hours.
Michael Lech is busy elsewhere, and in the meanwhile his teammate Darius Tamulevicius scored a knockout to double their stack. On a flop of , Tamulevicius faced a check-raise and shoved all in with . His opponent called with for the flush draw and gutshot.
Both the turn and river were blanks and Team Lech doubled up.
Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy has kicked off his Tag Team campaign well. Gathy has already more than doubled the starting stack. He's sitting on healthy 10,500 at the end of the first level.
That's a good news not only for the Belgian but also for Heidi May, his Australian teammate.