News From Afar
There are three tables tucked in the far corner of the lower floor, and we decided to park there for a few minutes to see what's what. The first thing we noticed was the conspicuous absence of JP Kelly, the aforementioned Brit with both a WSOP and a WSOPE bracelet to his name. Also of note is the fact that table mate Rui Cao's stack has been boosted up to about 28,000 since our last look-in, though we're not sure if those two stories are directly related or not.
We also see that the Bansi/Hellmuth pairing continues to be a bit of a mismatch in the chip stack department, and there's a general look of disdain on The Brat's face. Bansi is fighting being ~48,000 chips now at his new table, while Helllmuth has been more or less sitting tight with his 8,925 chips. As we were counting Bansi down, we watched him three-bet from 500 to 1,225 from the small blind. The initial raiser came right back over the top with a four-bet to 2,900 total, and Bansi checked his cards several times before letting it go. There'll be a lot more three-betting from Bansi this evening if history is any indication.