Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day 4 of the WPT at The Bellagio


One of the less documented reasons to play at the WPT at The Bellagio is for the chance to expand your waistline as well as your bank balance. Every day, players fight for a year’s supply of almonds, the tasty snack that is subject to identity confusion because although it is botanically a fruit, it is usually packed off as nuts.

Tuesday’s lucky winner was Gus Hansen and yesterday saw Steve Wong embrace the wasabi & soy sauce flavour treats simply for being ‘fan of the day’. As his tournament is already spent, presumably he will be standing in the peanut gallery again today, cheering on his friend, Tommy Le who, with 1,095,000 chips, is 11th of 17.

Hansen, full time poker-pro and part time almond handler, saw a slight dip in his fortunes and has surrendered the tree-top to Amir Vahedi, who takes a 978,000 lead into Day 5. Hansen would have been closer to his rival had he not doubled up Michael Gracz ten minutes before close of play. The former called an all in when the board showed 5-6-7-8-9 and was left seeking comfort food when he saw his opponent’s J-10.

Play resumes after lunch and the players will be looking to book a seat at a table for 6 for the final action tomorrow. Who will have the biggest appetite for the $3,389,140 main course? Stay with us to find out.

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