Who the F@$* is Jerry Yang???

The guy who has gone from 8th place to having half the chips in play (while knocking out three players) by the end of the second hour of play, that's who!

Does this mean he's a great player? Um...I'll let you decide.

Wang, who has played poker for just two years and won a $225 satellite for his seat in this event, started the day firing at almost half of the pots with completely random raises (2.5x the BB to 10.5x the BB) and had doubled his stack without showing a hand. After putting Lee Childs all in on a 7-2-4 flop (two clubs), Lee folds QQ face up and Jerry rakes a pot putting him in the top three.

Then Jerry picks on chip leader Philip Hilm. Jerry raises to 2.5 million pre-flop (blinds are 120k-240k with a 30k ante) and Phil calls out of the BB. Flop comes A-10-8. Phil checks. Jerry pushes out 3 million. Phil calls...trapping??? Turn comes out (I forget). Phil checks again. Jerry pushes all in and get Phil off his hand. Jerry takes the chip lead and is close to 24 million.

Very next hand...

Jerry raises to 1 million pre-flop and Phil calls in the SB. The flop comes Kd-Jd-5c. Phil checks. Jerry pushes 3 million (could be 5...not writing things down) and Phil comes over the top all in!!! Jerry makes the call and turns over AKo for top pair and Phil shows 8d5d for bottom pair and the flush draw. The board bricks out and our opening chip leader has just busted out in 9th place while Jerry is up to 44 million, more than twice the 2nd place stack.

A few hands later, Jerry is in the SB and raises to 1 million. Lee Watkinson in the BB goes all in for 9.715 all day (I remember this because they took FOREVER to agree on a total count). Jerry calls of another 8.715 million with A9o!!! Ya know what's sick? Lee flips over A7o and is in sad shape. The board misses everyone and Jerry's 9 plays. Wow!

Fast forward 6-7 hands. Jerry's at 55 million. Second place is only 20 million. Action folds around to Lee Childs in the SB who raises 3x the BB to 720k. Jerry, in the BB, moves all in. Lee, still showing the effects of laying down the ladies to Jerry over an hour ago talks himself into a call saying, "7th's not bad...I call" and puts his last 7 million or so in the pot with KhJc and Jerry sheepishly turns over Js8s. The flop comes 4d-4c-6c. Lee is still way ahead...until the 8c peels off the turn. Lee looks like some just shot his puppy but has a shot as he need a K or a club on the river. That...um...didn't happen as the 9d floats down the river and we have just lost our third player in the first two hours of play. Jerry's run has already been compared to jamie Gold's dominance at last year's final table where he knocked out 7 of the 8 other players in route to the bracelet. At the beginning of the PPV, Phil Gordon was commenting that with all the chips in play and how bunched the field was, he didn't expcet the first bust out to take place until the 3rd or even the 4th hour and has set the over/under for the last hand to take place at 5am PST, 17 hours after the first hand was dealt. Ummm....way to go Phil???

Break's over. More updates during the next break!