The short stacks are making their moves. It worked out for Scotty Nguyen but hasn't worked out for many of the others. Joe Cabret is another player to fall tantalizingly short today. He moved in preflop with and was called by John Overbeek, who tabled . Neither player connected with a board of . Overbeek's ace high took down the pot and sent Cabret crashing out of the tournament.
Jarred Solomon is trying to be the first player to repeat as a 2009 Aussie Millions champion. He raised to 36,500 from the small blind after action folded to him. That put the pressure squarely on Matthew Vengrin, who was in the big blind and short-stacked. He called all in with and was up against the of Solomon. Solomon never improved on his starting hand, finishing with a king-high on a board of . As a result, Vengrin doubled up to 48,000. Solomon still has a healthy 228,000.
Antonis "Toothpick Tony" Kambouris has lots of fans around the Crown Poker Room. He now has a few more chips to go along with them. Toothpick Tony opened the action preflop to 8,000, then called a raise to 35,000 by late-position player Antonio Casale. The flop came down . Kambouris was first to act, and after a few moments of deliberation announced he was all in for 153,800, a significant overbet. Casale tanked for more than a minute before releasing his hand.
Lots of chips are changing hands here in the early going. Andy Church found a much-needed double-up courtesy of Sam Khouiss. Church was a 2-to-1 underdog preflop (when all the chips went in), tabling to Khouiss' pocket queens. The dreaded ace came on a flop of . That left Khouiss looking for the case queen. He didn't get it.
Church is up to 74,000 in chips. Khouiss has fewer chips than that -- only about 62,000.
David Kruger was all in for his tournament life with against Joe Cassidy's .
The race was on and it went Cassidy's way on a board of . Kruger spiked an ace on the river, but it was too late as Cassidy had made his set on the turn to take the pot and eliminate Kruger.
On a flop of Naohiko Yamazaki led out for 45,000 before Martin Comer moved all in covering his opponent. Yamazaki made the call with for top pair, top kicker, but he'd run into the set of Comer with .
The turn was the and river the and Yamazaki departs as Comer moves up to a healthy 535,000 chips.
Dean McIver has eliminated the short-stacked Michael King from the Main Event.
The chips were in preflop as King's was dominated by McIver's . Ironically, King would need a king but it wasn't to be as the board fell to send King to the rail. McIver is now up to 140,000 chips.
Popular player Antonis "Toothpick Tony" Kambouris has taken a sizable hit to his stack. Kambouris in the small blind and John Paul Kelly in late position both called a preflop raise from Tom Pongrass. They took a flop that saw Kambouris check to Pongrass, who fired out a bet of 20,000, Kelly called, and then Kambouris moved all in. Pongrass' snap-call all in obviously tipped off Kelly, who folded his hand and the players tabled their cards.
Pongrass with for top set.
Kambouris with for bottom set.
Kambouris would be drawing to the case to win the hand, but the turn and river were not the card he needed, so Kambouris drops to 70,000. Pongrass dragged a 320,000 pot.
The action was opened with 6,300 raise by Leonid Cai with Joe Hachem making the call on the button. Ashifamin Walji then moved all in for 25,400 from the button. Cai folded, but Hachem made the call.
Hachem:
Walji:
The board fell to improve Walji to a set for the double-up. He's up to 60,000 with Hachem now on the short stack with 40,000 chips.
Rajkumar Ramakrishnan has eliminated Ti Tran. Tran holding had the misfortune to run into Ramakrishnan's in a preflop confrontation for all of Tran's 70,000-chip stack.
The board was no help to Tran and he hits the rail before the money. Ramakrishnan hits 400,000 in chips.