At this stage of the tournament, anything less than 100,000 chips is starting to verge into the territory of the short stacks. Most players are choosing to reraise all in preflop in those situations.
That's exactly what Brett Daphne did to Stuart [Removed:293]'s opening raise just as we were coming into the break. [Removed:293] called with . Daphne had two live, suited, semi-connected cards, . The flop gave [Removed:293] a pair of aces and left Daphne trying to draw at a three-card gutshot straight, or running cards. The turn was a blank, the , but the river fell an improbable to make a straight for Daphne and preserve his tournament. [Removed:293] let out a pretty emphatic four-letter expletive after the hand.
Sorel Mizzi has moved over 400,000 in chips after two recent pots. In the first one, Mizzi holding busted Michelangelo Calandrella holding . All the chips went in preflop and the board gave Mizzi a set and sent Calandrella to the rail.
In the other clash, Mizzi went head-to-head with Shout Box favorite David Docherty. Docherty opened to 6,200 preflop and was raised by Mizzi in the cutoff to 18,200. Docherty made the call and the players took a flop. On the flop Docherty check-called a 21,700 chip bet from Mizzi. The turn brought the , which saw Mizzi fire out 44,800. After pondering the decision for a while Docherty folded.
Docherty is down to 230,000. Mizzi is on the up at 400,000.
Just before the break, Hoi Cheung was all in preflop with against the of Harris Pavlou. The board fell and Cheung found a fortunate ace to double through.
Both players were very close in chips and after they were cut down, it was determined that Pavlou was left with only 300 in chips.
Scotty Nguyen opened the betting, but folding saved his tournament. He put in the first raise before Andy Church moved all in on the second raise and Michael Tureniec put in the third raise. Nguyen decided to get out of the way, leaving Church and Tureniec to fight it out.
Church:
Tureniec:
The dealer spread out a flop of that improved neither player. The turn gave Church a bit more of a sweat. He needed to dodge the three remaining aces and four tens on the river, but couldn't do it. The river fell to give Tureniec the nut Broadway straight. Church's chips moved into Tureniec's stack, and Church moved out of the tournament area.
After the hand was over, Scotty Nguyen mentioned that he had folded pocket nines. His nines would have flopped a set, but would also have finished in third place behind the straights of the other two players.
The action folded around to Daren Yoon on the button, who moved all in for 40,000. Jonathan Plens made the call in the big blind with and had Yoon in trouble with a dominated .
Yoon spiked a ten on the flop but the fell on the turn and Plens regained the lead. The river was the to send Yoon to the rail within sight of a cash finish.