On a board reading with roughly 24,000 in the middle, Sam Grafton bet out 12,100 from the button following a check from Doug Polk in the small blind.
Both of them continued to talk as Polk listed possible hand combinations that both players could have.
Eventually Polk called and Grafton tabled his for top pair.
"Quite good. Quite good," stated Polk before mucking.
"Hey, PokerNews. Could you title this 'Doug Polk pays off another river'!" stated Grafton as he looked in the direction of our PokerNews reporter.
"Yeah, and then in parenthesis after it put, 'when will he learn'," added Polk.
"Look, ESPN are worried. They want to speed up this level. They're saying, if Doug sees another few rivers, he may be out!" laughed Grafton as he gestured toward the ESPN camera crew standing nearby.
Naoya Kihara is building a big stack. He just took down a pot on the river when he bet 12,600 into a 20,000 pot with the board reading . His opponent folded and Kihara added a little more to his stack.
Since Qui Nguyen took down the 2016 WSOP Main Event for over $8 million at the Rio here in Las Vegas, he's something of a celebrity ,as you can imagine. We caught up with him on the rail as he ran the gauntlet of the corridors outside the Amazon, packed with fans asking for selfies. He told us all about his exit.
"In the final hand, I raised [James Akenhead] up with king-queen off-suit. He was in the big blind and called me with . The flop came , so he checked. I bet 2,700 and he raised to around 7,000. I snap-called. On the turn, the came and he made it 16,000. I only had around 30,000 so I shipped all in. He called. Jack of spades on the river!"
Nguyen laughs, but his WSOP Main Event defense is over. He admits that poker can be cruel, but knows how much variance exists in any tournament win.
"Poker is cruel, but only sometimes. Even if you play well, if you don't get any luck, there's nothing you can do. Everyone needs the luck to win. Even me."
Nguyen is modest about his own victory last year. He's also enjoyed meeting the many hundreds of fans he has here in Las Vegas who were cheering him on.
"It was great when I came back here. I'm very professional; everyone wants to shake my hand and take their picture with me. It's cool. After winning here at the Rio, I didn't go out much. I enjoyed the moment with my friends and family, but I couldn't wait to get back to playing poker."
Nguyen's plans post-WSOP in 2016 always included helping the Vietnamese people from his homeland and some Vietnamese people's battle to escape poverty.
"I'm going back home and my plan is to help the people. Some have no house and no food. I wanted to donate some money to help other people. There are a lot of people who struggle in life and I want to help. I'm just so lucky compared to other people, so I want to help those out there who are struggling. I'm very happy, but everyone should be happy."
Nguyen says Las Vegas itself is a treasured part of his life now. He lives in Sin City and won't be swapping that for anywhere else in the world right now. He may just travel a bit more in his next year as a former rather than reigning WSOP champion.
"I always play here. I might travel a little more this year. I've never been to Macau or China so I might travel there. In December with the World Series out there, I may go there. I love to travel in the United States and I live in Vegas. It's so great for poker. I'm a gambling guy, so I love this city. But just remember, don't gamble too much!"
Davide Suriano raised to 2,000 from middle position and Travis Lutes called on the button. The blinds folded and they were heads up. The flop came and both players checked. On the turn, Suriano bet 3,000. Lutes called and the river was the , pairing the board. Suriano bet 10,000 this time, and Lutes quickly tossed in two orange chips to call.
Suriano:
Lutes:
Both players had two pair, but Lutes had a better two pair with jacks and threes to take the pot.
The player under the gun raised to 1,800, Josh Arieh called from middle position, Pratyush Buddiga called from the hijack, and the big blind also called.
The four players saw a flop of and the big blind checked. The preflop raiser checked as well and Arieh bet 3,700. Buddiga called, the big blind called, and after a few moments of thought, the preflop raiser called as well.
The turn brought the and all four players checked.
The river was the and action checked to Buddiga who bet 13,000. The bet represented about half of the big blind's remaining chips and he went into the tank briefly before he folded. The preflop raiser folded, Arieh folded also, and Buddiga took the chips.
A player in middle position raised to 1,900, Timothy Adams reraised all in for 18,900 from the small blind, and the initial raiser called with , trailing Adams' .
The board came down , giving Adams aces and fives to double through his opponent.
Greg Raymer got all in on the flop heads up. He had a set of fours versus the club flush draw of his opponent. The turn brought the flush, but the river paired the board and Raymer earned the knockout.
He is now up more than 80,000 from his Day 2 starting stack.
Raymer won the Main Event in 2004 for $5,000,000 and has added another million in earnings since then with 35 WSOP cashes.
The board read and it was just the small blind and Christoph Vogelsang in the big blind remaining in the hand. The small blind checked and Vogelsang bet 4,500. The small blind made the call and the landed on the river.
The small blind checked again and Vogelsang bet 21,500. His opponent let out a little huff and tossed his cards to the muck as he was shaking his head.
Level 7 has come to an end and the players of Day 2ab have been sent into their second 20-minute break of the day. Three levels remain and the 90-minute dinner break will take place after the end of Level 9.