James Routos and two other players got it all in preflop. One player turned over 
. The other player turned over 
.
"Set of eights," Routos announced, tabling 
.
Routos' most likely path to victory was actually a flush after the first four cards came 
, leaving the player with ace-king likely to bust both opponents, as he had the most chips. The dealer burned and turned the 
for the river, and Routos' prophecy had been fulfilled.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
70,000 |
Level: 12
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 200
Here are some stacks of players we took note of on a quick walk through the room.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
63,500 | |
|
|
38,000 | |
|
|
37,000 | |
|
31,500 | |
|
||
|
27,000 | |
|
||
|
25,300 | |
|
24,000 | |
|
|
10,000 | |
Action folded to the small blind, who shoved all in for 41,000 into Simon Taberham's 1,200 big blind.
"Are you late for dinner or something?" Taberham asked. It seemed the player was making it a habit of shoving for a ton of big blinds on the regular. We went to check on another table, and when we turned back around, Taberham had made the call.
Taberham: 
Opponent: 
The board ran out 
, and Taberham had the winner with a pair of kings.
"What's he have?" the small blind asked. The dealer informed him that a pair of kings was the winning hand. "Nice call," the small blind said.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
116,000 |
We are now playing Level 8 in Event 17 ($100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry).
The re-entry period ended after Level 6, so from here on out play is for all the marbles.
Blinds currently sit at 300-600 with a 75 ante, and the room looks to be full of tables so an estimate of 400+ players left in contention would appear to be accurate.
If enough hands are dealt out over the course of a long tournament series, strange sights will inevitably be seen.
Ari Engel has likely played more than a million hands in his long poker career - between his countless online sessions while earning over $2 million on the virtual tournament felt, and a seven-year live career spent travelling the global circuit - but his latest hand here today ranks as one of the best.
Literally.
Engel just doubled up in Event 17 ($100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry), turning his last 16,000 into nearly double the starting stack while making the prettiest sight in all of poker.
After the dealer fanned a flop of 
neatly across the felt, Sonny Chau decided to set the short-stacked Engel all-in holding 
. Chau figured to be in decent enough spot with top-top, but when Engel snapped and showed down the 
, even Chau had to pay his respect in the presence of royalty.
"Did you see that?," he asked as we hovered around the coronation. "The royal flush..."
We sure did see that Sonny, and it was something to see no doubt. Judging by the awe in your voice as you ran down the hand, we suspect that despite the dent to your chip stack, there's a small part of you that's glad you saw it too.
Event 17 is the $100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry Saturday Series. The tournament cost $400 per entry and with the Winter Poker Open's turnout numbers so far, we expect the $100k guaranteed prize pool to be generated rather easily. Expect several top pros to use this event as a tune-up for the upcoming World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event, while also trying to make a five-figure score to pad their bankroll.
Players will start the tournament with 20,000 in chips, and levels will last 30 minutes throughout. It's scheduled to play down to a winner today, and with the size of the fields we've seen in some of these events, that really means tomorrow morning.
Event 17: $100,000 Guarantee Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry
Day 1 Started
