A hand that unfolded on Table 629 would be suitable for a TV show.
Three-way to the flop, Xiaoyong Liao shoved 44,500 from the big blind. Under the gun, Men Nguyen tanked for quite some time and Matt Stout eventually called the clock on him. Nguyen released his hand during the silent 30-second countdown, but Michael Haag was next to act and he called instantly.
Haag flopped a top pair with and was ahead against . Liao had, however, still a decent chance to emerge victorious. And the on the turn pushed him out front as he made a flush. But it wasn't locked just yet as Haag now had two pair, drawing to a full house. Just like in Hollywood movies, the dealer turned over the on the river to improve Haag's hand to a boat. Liao's tournament was over.
Haag's "wow" was right on the spot. He notified his opponents that they're now playing for second place.
There was more to the story as Haag had won the previous hand a similar way.
That time he held ace-jack and faced ace-queen. After flopping a jack on the flop, Haag's hopes were narrowed again on the queen turn, but the river brought another jack.
Four levels are in the past, now the players have another 20 minutes to take a deep breath and maybe catch some tan. We'll be back when the cards are in the air.
The tournament clock shows about 137,000 as the current average stack with 96 players left. That information is quite irrelevant at Justin Bonomo's table, where the average stack means nothing. There are five players with nearly 1.4 million in chips between them.
The only player below the actual average was Chicago's Mike Holm but that's not true anymore. Holm opened for 5,500 and Justin Bonomo woke up with a three-bet to 20,000. Holm immediately said the two magic words "all in" and Bonomo had no reason to delay his call, holding .
Holm had and needed a tremendous help from the dealer. The flop was a solid teaser as Holm was now drawing his gut-shot to a straight.
The turn was made things even more interesting as the hit the felt. Any ten, jack or queen would cause a change in the events as it would make Holm's double up instead of Bonomo claiming another notch on his gun-stock.
And indeed, the landed on the river to save Holm's tournament life. He doubled for 90,700 and praised the dealer: "Excellent dealing," he said before adding: "Stupid. It's stupid. I'm supposed to be the tight old guy."
Bonomo took the bad beat very professionally, with a smile and the classic phrase "nice hand".
Now there is no one on that table who would be worried about that number revealing average chip count.
On the table, we could see the flop and Jeremy Joseph, in the big blind, and Dan Sindelar, on the button, in the hand. Joseph check-called the 6,200 bet of Sindelar.
The turn came with the and both players checked.
The river completed the board with the and they both checked again. Joseph showed the and Sindelar mucked.
The following players have been knocked out of contention, each taking home $2,911. Notables busting recently include Rajaee Wazwaz, Matt Waxman, and Faraz Jaka.