"When a tournament poker palyer dies, they should donate their brain," said Mike Matusow shortly after arriving in the $2,500 Big Bet Mix field.
"I mean, you have to be mentally deranged to play tournament poker," he continued. "Who in God's name — no offence Jon [Turner] — would ever want to do that?!"
"I'm out of position," said Matusow, facing a raise in the big blind, "so I'm supposed to call and I will draw one."
He drew one and his opponent also drew one.
"I'm going to bet the pot." Matusow bet 550 and his opponent mucked. Matusow showed and took down the small pot.
With a board of and bets of 550 from each player out in front from earlier streets, Daniel Negreanu was facing off against Ian O'Hara
On the river, Negreanu had made a bet of 300 and O'Hara made a big raise to 2,150.
"Boom or bust," Negreanu said. "If I thought you were a bad poker player I would throw this hand away. But I think you're a good poker player so I'm going to pay you off."
Eventually, Negreanu called.
"Boom," O'Hara said, showing for a straight. It was good as Negreanu mucked and dropped the decently sized pot.
"Jason Mercier," Daniel Negreanu said. "Good to see you."
"Yeah, I busted the 5K," Mercier said. "I had 110 bigs."
"How many runners do you think this will get?" Negreanu asked. "I set the line at 168."
"I hope they close registration now," Mercier said, to which Negreanu and James Chen at the next table over both laughed. "No, I think it'll get more than that."