We’re in the money! Assistant tournament director Jack Effel just announced the good new to 873 joyful players.

Prior to the final non-cash bust-outs, players were reacting – with varying degrees of skills – to the situation. Paul Wolfe, sitting on stack of roughly 75k (not exactly an intimidating sight) raised liberally, taking a couple of pots without content.

At table 56, a young man sat with all of 6k. He calculated that he could make it through ten hands of play, so he set about folding, hoping to hear that enough people busted for him to make the money.

“What are you looking at your cards,” Wolfe asked him. “You’d fold Aces there.” Wolfe was right. The player had almost nothing to gain by playing a hand, and he could fold his way into a 16,000 pay day.

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Layne Flack lasted about four minutes past the last break. There was an early position raise and a call to Layne who called. The flop came 8-6-2. The initial raiser moved in; the second player called. Layne called as well. His opponents showed KK and QQ; Layned flipped up 88, for top set.

He was poised to take a massive 240k pot. Instead, a Queen on the turn sent him to the rail.

There are still roughly 1,000 people in the Main Event, and most are sitting stonily, desperately trying to stay alert so that they don’t make big mistakes. There isn’t a whole lot of talking.

That is not the case at table 147, where Layne Flack and a dopey Frenchman have the players talking like the participants in a drunken 1/2 game. Layne has gotten everyone’s histories: “He qualified on a $63 satellite;” “He got in on frequent player points.”

After raising in early position, one of the short stacks re-raised, and Layne folded, offering, “The man’s wife is here. I don’t want to embarrass him.”

Everyone’s chatting, having a good time, and Layne is raising about three times around and calling in position. He seems to be using the conversation to his advantage.

When a new player came to the table, he joined in the chat, saying, “I don’t like having you to my left!” The first time this player raised, Layne called behind him and took the pot when checked to on the flop.

Allen Cunningham sits with about 180k in chips. He’s in second chip position at his table, but there’s little doubt who the best player at table 135 is. Soon after positioning myself at the table, the player in seat 1 got up, walked over to me, and said, “This just in, Allen Cunningham has X-ray vision.”

“He take a tough pot from you?” I asked.

“No,” the man said, “he’s just totally controlling the table.”

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We’re getting to the point where many of the short stacks are going to be fearing for their tournament lives. (About 300 more busts and the payouts begin.) Paul Sexton, who recently built his stack to 180k, talked about what he expects to see in the next couple of hours.

“The pros, guys like Allen Cunningham, who know how to play the big stack, are going to be taking pot. When you get near the bubble, you can minimum raise and take every pot for an hour.”

Sexton is at a table with no big names; he recognizes no one. There’s only one other significant stack on the table. You can expect him to try and pick up a lot of blinds and antes with continual steals.

There are still many of Full Tilt pros in the Main Event, but with the exception of Allen Cunningham (170k), no one is in strong chip position. Richard Brodie, Chris Ferguson and MarkVos have roughly 70k. Phil Ivey is under 30k. Aaron Bartley and Layne Flack are both around 50k. But at this point no one is panicking. With blinds of 600 and 1200 with a 200 ante, most of these players have well over 30 big blinds and have time to choose their spots carefully. Everyone seems to playing very paiently.

At the tables, stacks continue to consolidate. There are a dozen players with more than 300k and a couple of 500k. Around the room, spectacular pots are being played. As I walked by his table, Daniel Negreanu was shaking his head in disgust while staring at a board of 7-3-3-4-8, with 3 clubs. On the river he had bet 40k and was check-raised for another 40k. Eventually, he called. Negreanu had the straight with 5-6; his opponent had a pair of 10s. One set-over-set confrontation resulted in a 200k pot.

Many of the shorter stacks are playing conservatively, hoping to stay alive and make the money. Only another 400 people need to bust before that initial payouts start.

Things are getting interesting here. Every pot is important. Great hands of poker lie ahead.

I caught up with Paul Wolfe at the dinner break. After getting extremely lucky to double up and stay alive, Paul has managed to build his stack. He told me about his day:

JG: How did you accumulate chips?

PW: Playing bad and catching. [laughs] Three times I raised and got re-raised with hands I couldn’t call with – A-7, A-9. Then there was a raise on the button; I re-raised with A-K and he laid it down. Another time I re-raised a late position raise with A-4, and I took that down. Then there was a raise and a call. I re-raised with A-K and took that down. Then I had A-9, raised and was called by a blind. The flop was King-high. He checked, and I bet out and he folded.

That’s it. I haven’t shown down a hand in four hours of play. I’ve played a total of one flop.

JG: How’s your table.

PW: It’s good. Josh Arieh’s at my table. He good, but other than that I love my table. We had a girl call a guy down with Ten-Four. She thought she had Ace-Ten. There was an Ace on the flop. What a look on her face when she saw the four – total shock.

JG: How are you planning on playing the coming levels?

PW: If I don’t have to show a hand, that would be great. I haven’t had a pocket pair since the first level of the day. Hopefully my cards will pick up.

JG: Best of luck.

PW: Thanks.

Most of the remaining players have been at the table long enough now to get pretty tense. Pacing between the tables, you can’t help but hear comments that speak to the highly charged atmosphere.

Here are some overheards from Day 2b, Level 2:

From a man who had moved in and was waiting for an opponent to make a decision: “I don’t know what you’re looking at… I don’t like guys looking at me.”

Other man at the table: “Not your type?”

Floor man to table of angry players: “After this hand were going to have a little poker 101 lesson.”

Man who had taken a midly bad beat to get knocked out: “Great call. Really great call.”

Tilter: “It’s like f***ing Groundhog Day. Every touranment.I semi-bluffed, I get re-raised. I pick up Aces, someone has a set. Groudhog Day all over f***ing again.”

Many poker players cultivate an icy image at the table. They want to appear formidable and intimidating. Not Paul Wolfe. Paul is always affable and chatty. Even though he started the day very short, with just over 15k in chips, he talked with his tablemates, with me, and the railbirds.

When I started sweating Paul, I stood on one side of the table, while behind him, the busty Milwaukee’s Best Light Girls watched the action. He asked if we’d change spots, so that the girls would be in his direct line of vision. I offered to unbutton my shirt a little, but he shook his head, saying “that would be disgusting.” I didn’t argue.

A few hands later, Wolfe folded as the big stack to his right re-raised his open-raise. Paul showed 9s and said, “now you owe me a show.”

The big stack, an obese man wearing a flowered shirt and a pink sun hat, then did a little funky dance in his chair. Paul again shook his head. “Not that. That’s gross.”

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If you’ve read any of the popular poker literature, you’ve no doubt heard about the importance of playing only your best hands. You know, A-K, high pairs – the Group 1 hands. You’ve read about the “gap concept,” and know that if there’s an open-raise you should be very careful about playing the likes of A-J, K-J or other easily dominated hands.

Phil Gordon, in his Little Green Book, covers these concepts in depth, and Chris Ferguson discusses these matters in his lectures.

But here’s the thing: after watching Gordon, Ferguson, Cunningham, and many others play for weeks on end, you come to understand that these are guidelines that the pros feel free deviate from.

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