As the clock wound down on the last level of the day play was paused and a card was drawn that let everyone know how many hands they had left for the day. Each table played out their last 5 hands before finishing up for the day. Just before the pause to see [...]

The Bellagio schedule has become something of a standard in the poker world.  Tournaments at the Bellagio start at noon and the players play only 5 levels with 15 minute breaks in between.  There is no dinner break and play finishes up before 9pm.  Players like the shorter days and earlier finishes and until the [...]

The deep starting stacks give a lot of play, but the 4th level of the day is the 200/400 blind level with a 50 ante and pots start getting big. Players that have not been able to get much going throughout the day see their stacks fall into the range where getting it in [...]

Being on the good end of kings versus aces is an unexpected gift. For Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter (right) an aces over kings hand was enough to push his stack to over 100k and eliminate Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh. In a pot that Jon “PearlJammer” Turner opened and another player raised, Slaubaugh put in another [...]

There are about 10 empty table in the Fontana Lounge, and they have been empty since the start of the day. At the same time, there are six full tables in the main poker room. The open tables in the Fontana Lounge are being held open for satellites for players still trying to [...]