ESPN Death Watch

Standing near Atlanta-resident Josh Arieh's table, Chops overhears an ESPN producer tell his cameraman, "Shoot very selectively now.  Only shoot big confrontations or guys on Death Watch, like Josh..."  Arieh has had a rollercoaster day, going down to 3k early, then up to over 20k, and then way down again to under 2k.  Unfortunately, he was unable to run it back up again, and went out around 1am. 

Josh wasn't the only big name to pack it in early, as Ted Forrest, playing with a short-stack for some time, was also eliminated. 

Gus Hansen is still over 20k although he got (presumably) sucked out on by someone overplaying snowmen.  Gus raised pre-flop from mid-position, and was flat-called by the big blind.  ESPN cameras rush over to cover the action.  With a flop of 9s-Jh-6d, Gus bets 1600 and is called.  The turn is an 8.  Gus bets 1625 and is raised to 4000.  Gus folds.  The raiser flips his 8's for the camera ("Look ma, I got trip 8's on the turn and beat Gus Hansen!").  Gus has been recording every play he makes in a voice recorder, and we'd like to hear his take on that hand.

The rich keep getting richer though as we wind down...

Lee Watkinson, even after losing over 5k on an all in call, is still over 120k and has the overall chip lead.  Both Paul Darden and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson are doing well at what SHOULD BE the featured table.  Although as soon as that line was typed, we hear applause from the crowd and find out Ferguson has busted.

So the actual featured table is still Greg Raymer (going on 12 hours now).  After surviving elimination very early on, Greg is playing brilliantly, and has built his stack over 50k.  Layne Flack, battling a severe fever, is rolling over his table and is now stacking over 50k as well.

Two lesser known but notably solid players that we've been following, Andrew Prock (taking notes on each hand he plays) and Patri Friedman (pictured below, right), are sitting with over 60k and 40k, respectively. 

With 71 tables now at 1:30am, play may stop soon.  More to come...

Comments

[iPod]

You guys are doing a bang-up job so far. One criticism get more pictures of Shannon Elizabeth.