No Limit Hold'em can be a cruel game at times. Marc MacDonnell just experienced first hand how cruel it can be, when he got into one of those situations you just can't get away from. In a hand with Luiz Duarte, all the money flew into the middle on a flop, creating one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far.
Marc MacDonnell:
Luiz Duarte:
With the flopped second nut flush, MacDonnell ran into Duarte's nut flush and was drawing dead, abruptly ending his tournament life in 44th place (€20,920).
Erwann Pecheux moved all in for his remaining 216,000 from the cutoff and the button and small blind folded. Senh Ung was in the big blind and counted out his stack before committing his stack of around 140,000 into the middle.
Pecheux showed and Ung .
The flop came and Ung was eliminated by the Frenchman.
Mike McDonald. Patrick Leonard. Charlie Carrel. Joe Serock, Connor Drinan. Felipe Ramos. Georgios Zisimopoulos. If this was the final table of the High Roller, nobody would bat an eye. But as faith would have it, they are all at the same table with 48 (!) players left. Add the unpredictable Romanian Sebastian Veghinas to it, and you've got one of the spiciest tables left in the room.
All the players have to fight for it, and it showed when Team PokerStars Pro Felipe Ramos opened to 25,000 from the cutoff. Georgios Zisimopoulos three-bet to 68,000 from the cutoff, and Mike McDonald four-bet to 150,000 on the button. Patrick Leonard tanked for a while before releasing his small blind, Felipe Ramos tanked and released as well, and Zisimopoulos also substracted a minute from his timebank before folding.
McDonald won the hand, but the war between these guys is far from over.
Oleksii Khoroshenin open-shoved from middle position for 121,000. It folded to Gregory Goldberg in the cutoff who counted out the exact chips for a call. The button and blinds all folded and the cards were turned over.
Khoroshenin held and was flipping against the of Goldberg. The flop of was good for the Ukrainian, but the on the turn was a whole lot better, and the river card of the was irrelevant.
We only saw the action on the river with the board reading Benjamin Pollak had bet 100,000 and Robin Ylitalo had raised all in for 237,000.
Pollak took his time with his decision, and eventually tablemate Kyle Keranen called the clock. The tournament official came over and consulted with the dealer, who explained that he didn't think that Pollak had had enough time.
"Thank you," said Pollak, still contemplating his decision having counted out the chips required for the call.
It was decided that Pollak would have thirty seconds more, and then the clock would be called. Midway through that clock however, Pollak called.
Ylitalo showed for the nut flush and Pollak was forced to turn over for top pair.
Mike McDonald raised to 26,000 from under the gun. Connor Drinan three-bet to 76.000 from the small blind. McDonald moved all in, and Drinan snap-called for 429,000 total.
Mike McDonald:
Connor Drinan:
It was a massive setup for McDonald, and the rundown of didn't help the situation at hand. McDonald was forced to ship a third of his stack to Drinan.