Jason Mercier was under the gun, and he bet into a crowded field on a flop. After getting a few folds, the big blind decided to continue, and Mercier checked back the turn. Both players also checked the , and Mercier's beat out .
Luis Assuncao Garla opened the preflop betting with a raise to 2,000 from under the gun, a bet that was only called by Kevin MacPhee on Garla's direct left.
The duo watched the dealer fan the flop and Garla continued with a 3,500 bet. MacPhee raised it up to 10,200 and Garla sat thinking for close to two minutes before taking back his original bet and replacing it with 25,000 worth of T5,000 chips.
MacPhee let his hand go and Garla is now approaching 150,000 chips.
Liv Boeree opened to 2,100 from the cutoff, the button folded but Raymond Spencer called from the small blind and Alex Bilokur called from the big blind.
The dealer spread the flop and the action checked to Boeree. After a brief pause, Boeree bet 3,500, which folded out Spencer. Bilokur moved all-in and Boeree called.
Bilokur:
Boeree:
Boeree was a substantial favorite to win the hand and double through Bilokur and was still ahead when the landed on the turn. However, the on the river gifted Bilokur a flush, prompting a loud sigh from Boeree who stood from the table and headed for the exits.
Hello and welcome back to PokerNews' coverage of Event #49: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em where 204 players remain in contention for the $719,707 first place prize.
Leading the 204 players back into battle when the tournament resumes at 1:00p.m. local time is the 2005 World Blackjack Champion Ken Einiger who had a great day at the felt on Wednesday where he turned his 15,000 starting stack into a tournament leading 174,000.
Josh Arieh (173,400), Refael Shaoulian (152,600), Robert Prinz (149,400), Tom Bedell (144,600) and Martin Hanowski (142,900) also have monster stacks at the start of play.
Among the returnees are some of the best tournament poker players on the planet. The likes of Vanessa Selbst, Jason Koon, Ravi Raghavan, JC Tran, Shannon Shorr, Andrew Lichtenberger, Jonathan Little, Phil Hellmuth, and Sorel Mizzi are ready to bulldoze their way to victory.
The plan is to play 10 levels, with a 20-minute break after each alternate level. There will be a 60-minute dinner break at the completion of the sixth level of the day.
Only the top 72 players are to receive prize money, which means the money bubble is a little way off, but it will burst at some point and that is always an exciting time!
Make sure you keep your browsers pointing at PokerNews.com from 1:00p.m. on Thursday afternoon as we bring you all of the best action from Event #49.