On the river of a board, Ylon Schwartz raised a 5,000 bet to 12,000 but he was called pretty quickly by his opponent. The former November Niner flipped over for a flopped flush but his opponent turned over for the nut flush to scoop the pot.
Schwartz however had already won some pots today and is still up on his starting stack overall.
Janet Callaway opened to 1,600 in late position, and Steven "PiKappRaider" Burkholder moved all in on the button. Callaway quickly called, having Burkholder crushed.
Callaway:
Burkholder:
The board ran , and Burkholder was eliminated from the tournament.
An interesting hand just now over at Alexandros Karnaos' table. Three players, including Karnaos in the small blind, had built a small pot prior to the arrival of the flop. Karnaos checked, Dwayne Stacey bet 2,500, and both Caywood Vanstratum (button) and Karnaos called.
The turn was the , and Karnaos checked again. Stacey bet 6,000 this time, Vanstratum called, and Karnaos got out.
The river was the , and this time Stacey checked. Vanstratum sat still for a few seconds, then shook his head. "I have no idea where I am in this hand," he said. "I check."
"Full house," said Vanstratum, showing . "Ah, you rivered me," said Vanstratum, tabling his . The table marveled a little at Stacey's hand. "I sure folded a lot better than that before the river!" said Karnaos with a smile.
Vanstratum and Stacey continued to discuss the hand afterwards, with both suggesting they would've have folded had the other at any point shoved the river. In any case, Stacey bumped up to 90,000, Vanstratum slipped to 65,000, and Karnaos maintains his big stack of 135,000.
With a board already in the middle of the table Tony Hachem and another player were battling it out. With over 15,000 worth of chips already in the middle Hachem's opponent bet out 9,000. Hachem then moved all in and was snap called.
Hachem:
Opponent:
After seeing what he was up against Hachem fairly calmly stated "it is what it is" acknowledging to the table that he was in bad shape. There were still a handful of cards Hachem could hit to stay a live; any heart, any ten, and any jack would steal back the hand in Hachem's favor.
Lady luck must have bet on Hachem to go deep this year, because a rang off the deck for the river giving Hachem a winning flush to counter his opponent's pair of queens. Hachem then very graciously went over to his opponent who was now eliminated, and shook his hand and sympathized with his opponent's misfortune. Hachem now sits with almost 100,000 in chips
We walked on over to the corner of the orange section and saw one player stacking a ton of chips. And we mean a ton. That player is Francesco Nguyen, and he is sitting on about 230,000 in chips, which by our count is the first stack over 200,000 today. We will be sure to keep an eye on how his progress is going.
Shawn Cunix raised to 1,225 in the hijack and the cutoff, Ryan D’Angelo (button) and Jean-Robert Bellande (small blind) all called. On the flop, it was checked to D’Angelo who bet 2,500 and only Bellande called. When the hit the turn, Bellande held out a 5,000 chip as he contemplated his bet but it didn’t matter what amount he was planning to put as D’Angelo quickly folded.
With the board reading and about 22,000 in the pot, we caught up to see Joe Hachem make it 12,750. Matt Matros had Hachem covered, and decided to move his stack all in. Hachem tanked for a bit before finally mucking his hand and looking visibly upset at the outcome.
We have a pretty stacked table here in the Pavilion Room - to say the least.
Sitting at table 13 are Garry Gates, wife of Patrik Antonius Maya Geller, PokerStars pros Maxim Lykov and Dario Minieri and last but not least - former NFL player Winfred Tubbs.
With so many notables sitting with a few feet of each other, we'll be sure to update you on the action.
Karl Mahrenholz has been eliminated, he was all in preflop with against for a 25,000 chip pot and although the Englishman managed to hit both his hole cards on the flop, a jack also appeared at some point to make broadway for his opponent.