His time finally came. Sergio Aido had tried to spin his stack back up, but he came unstuck just now in a hand against Tay Nguyen. Having lost most of chips versus Nguyen not long ago, it was the American who took the rest in the end.
Aido shoved 275,000 with on the button, which was nine big blinds. Nguyen found pocket in the big blind and made the call. The runout favored the pocket pair and Aido had to settle for ninth. Meanwhile, the pot put Nguyen up near the top of the counts.
Eric Blair opened to 85,000 from under the gun and James Mackey ripped in the last of his 715,000 on the button. The blinds folded and Blair quickly called as he tabled the superior hand.
Eric Blair:
James Mackey:
The flop came and Blair was still comfortably in the lead. However, the on the turn gave Mackey a straight and Blair couldn't believe it. There was still one card to come and it was the as Blair improved to a full house to eliminate Mackey in eighth place.
The final seven players will now redraw for seats at the unofficial final table. With one more elimination, play will halt for the day and the final six players will return for the official final table tomorrow.
The final table has been good so far to Kacper Pyzara. First he won some chips in a hand against Jean-Robert Bellande and then he won some against Andrew Graham.
He opened middle position and Graham defended his big blind. The flop came and Graham check-called his 80,000 continuation. The turn went check-check and on the river Graham led 275,000, which Pyzara called.
Kacper Pyzara:
Andrew Graham:
Pyzara's top two pair was good enough against Graham's busted flush draw and Pyzara took the chip lead.
Andrew Graham opened to 80,000 from early position and Kacper Pyzara three-bet to 205,000 on the button. The action folded back to Graham who made the call to see a flop of . Graham check-called a bet of 175,000 from Pyzara and the landed on the turn.
Graham checked again and Pyzara tossed in another bet of 275,000. Graham tanked for a bit before making the call. The completed the board and Graham thought for a minute before shoving all in for 815,000. Pyzara asked for a count and then went into the tank himself.
After a couple of minutes, Jean-Robert Bellande called the clock and Pyzara was given 30 seconds to act. The clock hit zero and Pyzara's hand was declared dead, sending the pot to Graham.
Kacper Pyzara opened the hijack to 105,000. It folded round to Andrew Graham in the big blind and he three-bet to 350,000 and Pyzara called.
The flop was a low and Graham opted to lead for 200,000. Pyzara moved all in over the top and he had Graham covered. It was a snap-call and they turned their cards on their backs.
Andrew Graham:
Kacper Pyzara:
Pyzara was a long way behind and he couldn't find help on the turn or river. Pyzara is now the shortest stack at the table with less than 20 big blinds.
Jean-Robert Bellande raised it up to 110,000 from early position and the action folded to Arthur Morris in the big blind. Morris shipped all in for 1,030,000 and Bellande announced a call.
Jean-Robert Bellande:
Arthur Morris:
Morris was in rough shape heading to the flop, holding two undercards to Bellande's pocket pair. The flop came providing no help to Morris. The on the turn meant Morris was drawing dead to the on the river.
While Morris headed to the payout desk to collect his seventh-place prize, and the remaining six players all bagged up their chips to finish the final table tomorrow. A full recap and chip counts will be posted shortly.
The final six players have bagged up their chips after just seven levels in Event #58: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed. The chipleader heading into the official final table will be none other than Jean-Robert Bellande who made sure everyone knew that he bagged a whopping 5,050,000 chips.
The man they call "JRB" entertained the railbirds throughout the latter half of the day, popping bottles of wine at the table, cracking jokes, and jamming to his music. All the while, he was slowly gathering chips and throwing knockout punches to many of his opponents. Heading to the final day of the tournament, Bellande holds around 33% of the chips in play as he searches for his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
While Bellande has over $2.2 million in career tournament earnings, he has yet to find himself at the top of the podium in a WSOP event. He has finished in second place twice and will be looking to improve on that tomorrow. There will be some stiff competition, however, as the other five players at the table all have the same goal in mind.
Dean Lyall finished the day in second place with 2,700,000 chips while Kacper Pyzara made a late rally to round out the top three with 2,605,000 chips. Andrew Graham came into the day as the chipleader and had a rollercoaster of a day, still managing to put 2,430,000 in the bag. Tay Nguyen (1,485,000) and Eric Blair (1,310,000) round out the final six players and will have their work cut out for them when the action resumes.
Final Table Seating Draw
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Eric Blair
United States
1,310,000
22
2
Andrew Graham
United States
2,430,000
41
3
Tay Nguyen
United States
1,485,000
25
4
Kacper Pyzara
Poland
2,605,000
43
5
Jean-Robert Bellande
United States
5,050,000
84
6
Dean Lyall
United Kingdom
2,700,000
45
There were 27 players that returned for the start of Day 3, but that number quickly dwindled as the short stacks fell early and often. On the verge of merging down to the final three tables, former WSOP Main Event champion Greg Merson was eliminated in 19th place for $21,018. It was a quick jump from three to two tables as Bellande made short work of his tablemates, amassing a stack upwards of 3,000,000 chips which was easily at the top of the leaderboard.
When the final 12 players assembled at two tables, Jimmy Guerrero (12th Place - $34,545) was the first to fall when he ran his pocket fives into the pocket aces of Lyall. The next to make his way to the payout desk was Dave Stefanski (11th Place - $34,545) who was unable to improve his king-queen against Pyzara's pocket jacks.
Arsenii Karmatakii (10th Place - $45,764) was left on the short stack and got the rest of his chips in the middle against Sergio Aido. Aido held the dominating hand, and although both players made a pair of aces on the flop, the Spaniard's kicker held on to eliminate Karmatakii. Aido (9th Place - $45,764) lost a huge flip moments later and left himself with just one big blind. He tripled up, then doubled up, but it wasn’t enough as he shoved with jack-nine and was called by Nguyen's pocket eights.
James Mackey (8th Place - $61,931) just missed out on the unofficial final table in what was a rollercoaster of a hand. He shoved all in on the button with king-ten and was snap-called by Eric Blair holding pocket kings. Mackey turned a straight but Blair countered with a full house on the river. That left the final seven players to meet up at the final table. Chips moved back and forth but it was Bellande who took the lead on dinner break. It took a whole level until the final bustout of the day occurred when Arthur Morris (7th Place - $61,931) ripped his 20 big-blind stack in with nine-seven. He was called by Bellande's pocket tens and the board provided no help for Morris.
There is still plenty of money up for grabs with the top five finishers each earning a six-figure payday. The winner will be taking home $616,302 along with that coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
Final Table Payouts
Place
Prize (USD)
1st
$616,302
2nd
$380,595
3rd
$254,684
4th
$173,598
5th
$120,669
6th
$85,570
The action will resume at 2pm tomorrow on the feature table inside the Brasilia Room. The blinds will kick off on level 28 at 30,000/60,000 and a 10,000 ante. There will be a live stream available with a 30-minute delay on Twitch. Tune in to the PokerNews coverage again to find out who will be crowned the champion and take home their first-ever WSOP title.