"The Natural" Takes One Out

Roy "The Natural" Gardner

After Seat 5 opened for 1,100, Roy "The Natural" Gardner made it 3k to play from seat 6. Action folded around to seat 1, who moved all-in. Seat 5 folded and Roy quickly called. Apparently Seat 1 was not aware that Roy had three-bet before his all-in. In any case, seat 1 turned over pocket Tens and Roy had him crushed with pocket Aces.

The dealer quickly rolled out the board of Q J 8 K 7 and Roy took the pot, busting seat 1 and chipping up to almost 50K. (The player in seat 5 jumped out of his chair when the river card hit, saying he folded 87 suited, which would have taken the pot with two pair.)

On my latest pass through the Poker Room, I spotted some more players:
Joe Simmons (WPT final table here in January '07)
Vinny Pahuja ($860K+ career in tournament earnings)
David Inselberg
and
MJ Bernstein, fresh from his win of the $270 NLHE event at Mohegan Sun, was just arriving to begin play during level 5. Shortly after he took his seat, he was in the big blind in a hand against the player in seat 8. On the river with a board of Q 7 4 5 K, MJ checked, seat 8 bet 6k, and MJ asked how much he had left. After getting the count, MJ raised to 16k straight. Seat 8 mucked and MJ pulled the pot.