Day 5 of the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker took center stage on Tuesday night on ESPN. With 282 players remaining when the first of two 60-minute episodes began, Paul paulgees81 Volpe was the chip leader. The feature table was home to none other than PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu (pictured), leading ESPN poker announcer Norman Chad to quip, "There's nothing wrong with someone named Daniel winning the Main Event."Chance Chances Cards Kornuth, also seated at the feature table, put a player with A-5 all-in pre-flop and held Q-3 of diamonds. Kornuth hit a lady on the flop to drag a pot worth 720,000 in chips.
Then, controversial poker pro Matt Marafioti, who was seated at the ESPN feature table last week, called a player's all-in on a 9-10-5 two-club board with A-K of clubs for the nut flush draw. He was up against A-Q and spiked his flush on the river to nearly double up. Marafioti then rehashed the hand with a watchful Volpe. The run-good didn't last forever, though, as the Canuck was eliminated near the end of ESPN's coverage after running A-K into aces.
Then, Russia's Kirill Rabtsou, armed with aces, slowly turned over his cards after calling an all-in against France's Gwen Grandmougin, who had jacks. Rabtsou pronounced that he had "offsuit aces" and, after Rabtsou doubled up, Kornuth called the slowroll "mean."
Elsewhere in the Amazon Room, Rob Salaburu held A-10 of clubs and had players with kings and nines covered after all of the money went in before the flop. Sure enough, the flop had two clubs and the river brought a third to give Salaburu, a member of the Texas poker community, the double TKO and overall chip lead.
Then, two bracelet winners, John Juanda and J.P. MavFish Kelly, hit the skids. Nearly following them out the door was Jason JCarver Somerville (pictured), who after sitting down at the feature table, 4bet all-in pre-flop with queens only to run into aces. Somerville wound up hitting one of the two remaining queens in the deck on the river to double up and stay alive in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.The very next hand shown at the same table, Andrew luckychewy Lichtenberger 3bet all-in on a board of K-2-7-Q with K-Q for top two pair. WSOP Circuit ring winner A.J. Jejelowo called with pocket sevens for a set and a jack on the river sent "Chewy" home.
Meanwhile, Canada's Henry Van Tran, who refused to show his hole cards to ESPN's cameras during last week's coverage and received a one-round penalty after asking Tournament Director Jack Effel if he understood English, called all-in with second pair on a board of 4-Q-8-10. An opponent had bet 351,000 into a 100,000-chip pot with just K-J for a straight draw. However, his foe hit Broadway on the river and Van Tran was "dunzo."
Freddy Deeb moved all-in pre-flop with K-Q against France's Gaelle Baumann (pictured), who had A-Q. Deeb picked up a flush draw on the turn, but the river was a blank and he was cast away from the 2012 WSOP Main Event.In the final hand of the first one-hour episode, 888 Poker pro Jesse Sylvia 6bet all-in pre-flop for an amazing 100 big blinds with just A-3 of hearts in a battle of the blinds. Jejelowo called with queens and Sylvia hit an ace on the flop to pull ahead for good. Sylvia doubled up and Jejelowo dropped half of his stack.
After a commercial break and short video package to start the second one-hour episode on Tuesday night, Negreanu moved all-in with 7-6 on a board of Q-7-10-7 and doubled up after an opponent whiffed on a straight draw. Elsewhere, Norway's Elisabeth Hille busted a player with A-K after picking up pocket aces.
Canada's Gavin Smith insta-called all-in with pocket kings on a flop of 9-4-9 with two diamonds and was up against Somerville, who had J-10 of the suit. Two red cards came on the turn and river, but neither was a diamond, giving Smith a much needed double up.
Hille, now a Norway poker community staple, continued to hit the deck hard, busting a player after cracking kings with tens to become the overall chip leader in the Main Event. Hot on her heels was Volpe, who sent high-roller Dan Shak home and stacked 3.9 million in chips.
Negreanu's stack then fell to a dozen big blinds after calling a bet of 210,000 from Kyle kwob20 Bowker (pictured) with pocket fours on a board of 3-6-7-2-6. Bowker showed ducks for a turned full house and crippled Negreanu. "Kid Poker" was eliminated shortly thereafter at the hands of the tightest player at the feature table, comedian Kevin Pollak.Greg Merson, who won a bracelet in a $10,000 Six-Max event this year, called all-in pre-flop holding pocket fours, hit a set on the turn, and busted a player to climb the leaderboard. A few minutes later, he called a 5bet all-in with A-J of spades against a player with jacks on a flop of 3-J-Q with two spades. Merson missed his draw on the turn and river and fell to a scant three big blinds. Three!
Next week, more Day 5 action will air on ESPN on Tuesday at 8:00pm ET. Hille will be your chip leader when the network's coverage resumes.
