Leveling Out
by Court on 10.25.09, 7:40 pm
The chip lead that Jason “StatusUp” Lavallee built during yeesterday’s play is a thing of the past. The second level of play today saw the chip counts balance out as the big stacks doubled up the little stacks and lost smaller pots that didn’t go to all in showdowns.
Aaron “aejones” Jones (right) had an up and down level, getting off to a rough start when he got involved with Freddy Deeb who now holds a slight chip lead. Deeb had raised to 95k with the blinds at 20k / 40k and Jones called from the big blind. On the Q
4
3 flop Jones check called a 130k bet from Deeb and both players then checked the 2 turn. The river was the 6 and Jones cut out 325k worth of chips. Freddy thought for a minute then asked Jones what he had left. After some ciphering Aaron said he had around a million or just a little over left and then a brief bit later Deeb announced all in. Jones then went into the tank but in the end folded his hand preserving the million chips he had left.
Jones got down to around 600k and moved all in over the top of a 130k opening raise from Shawn Cunix. Freddy Deeb contemplated a call but gave up on the hand and sent the action back to Cunix who called as soon as the action was on him “That was quick,” Jones commented as Cunix rolled over his AK after making the call. Jones had pocket jacks and a T6
6
3Q board left the pair intact and Jones doubled back to around 1.3 million.
A shortstacked Chris Bjorin doubled through Jones during the level when his AJ came from behind to make a straight and overcome the AQ of Jones. Even with up and down swings during the level Jones was able to finish up in the middle of the pack with around 1.7 million chips by the time the 20k / 40k level ended. Next up is the 30k / 60k level and Jones is only just a little more than a million off the current chip leader Freddy Deeb who has 2.8 million.
Jason “StatusUp” Lavallee (left) spread some of his 4 million chips around during the level and dropped down to fourth place of the ten remaining players as his stack fell to below 2.5 million. Deeb has 2.8 million, Shawn Cunix 2.7 million and Tommy Vedes 2.5 million while Jason Burt is in the mix as well with around 2.4 million.
Vedes was able to pick up some chips while making a dent in Lavallee’s stack in a hand where Tommy raised to 115k and Lavallee 3-bet to 320k from the small blind. Vedes looked like he wanted to put in another raise, counting out over 600k worth of chips on the side but after a few moments of arranging and rearranging piles of chips Vedes just put in the 205k to make the call. The flop came 952 and both players checked. With the K on the turn Jason again sent the action over to Vedes who this time bet 320k. Lavallee made the call and the river came the 2. After Jason checked a third time Vedes quickly checked behind and showed his K8 which led Lavallee to muck his hand sending the chips to Vedes in the 1 seat.
That pot and a handful of others cost Lavallee enough chips throughout the level to bring him back even with the pack and really level the field as the playdown from 10 to 6 stalls out. With the blinds jumping to 30k / 60k the shorter stacks are going to feel the pressure and even the mass of medium stacks are now in a range where they could easily find themselves in a situation where they are all in with each other.
An interesting hand happened during the level between Freddy Deeb and Richard Sciuto. Richard raised to 160k preflop with only 299k left behind. Freddy called and after both players checked the flop Deeb again checked on the turn. Sciuto bet 175k leaving himself only 124k behind, just 3 big blinds. Freddy moved all in and after a some thought Sciuto tossed his hand away. He later won an all in that tripled him from 100k up to 300k when his QQ held up against the KJ of Vedes.
