Up on the televised feature table stage, we've just lost Tom Dwan. From what we could see, the money went in on the flop against Daniel Cates. Dwan held the and Cates the .
The turn brought the and river the to eliminate Dwan from the tournament.
We picked up the action on the flop, four-handed to the . The blinds checked to Tony Bloom and he made what looked like a continuation bet of 6,500. Mikhail Smirnov called next door, Gus Hansen flatted in the small blind, and Sam Trickett folded in the big.
That left three players to see the turn, and now it checked through to Smirnov. He flung out a bet of 18,000, Hansen called, Bloom folded, and it was heads up to the river. Check-check this time.
"That might be me," Hansen said sheepishly as he tabled a . Smirnov let out a sigh of disgust, and Hansen's was indeed the best hand. That pot moves the Dane up close to 200,000 as he takes a chunk out of Smirnov's stack.
From the hijack seat, Joe Hachem raised to 2,500. Tobias Reinkemeier three-bet to 7,000 on the button and then Jonathan Karamalikis four-bet to 17,500 from the small blind. Action folded back to Reinkemeier and he five-bet to 29,000. Karamalikis had 64,500 behind and folded to Reinkemeier's five-bet.
Thanks for following along with our coverage of the 2012 Aussie Millions on PokerNews. Be sure to check out our friends at the PartyPoker blog as well for great posts by Mike Sexton, Tony G, Kara Scott, and Dragan Galic.
Mikhail Smirnov was the preflop three-bettor in the small blind, and he and three others went to the flop after committing 10,500 chips apiece. The dealer gave them , and Gus Hansen led out with 14,000 from his under-the-gun seat. Jason Mercier folded in position, Smirnov check-called, and Masa Kagawa check-raised all in for 28,500 total. Hansen raised it back up to 44,000 total, and Smirnov tanked and called again.
The turn brought the and another bet from Hansen — 45,500 this time. It was a full 30 seconds before Smirnov folded, and Kagawa and Hansen showed up their hands. "I hope you don't have much," Hansen said as he tabled for one pair. He was ahead, but Kagawa's had plenty of outs to try and chase down.
The river was a blank , though, and that's the end of the road for Kagawa. With his chips, Hansen moves his way up into the chip lead with 278,000 — there or thereabouts.
Joe Hachem check-called a bet of 4,000 on the flop from Jonathan Karamalikis before the landed on the turn. Hachem check-called again, this time for 7,500. After the landed on the river, Hachem checked and Karamalikis bet 14,000. Hachem called.
Action folded to Jonathan Karamalikis in the small blind and he raised to 2,500 in attack of Daniel Negreanu's big blind. Negreanu defended with a call and the flop came down . Karamalikis bet 3,000 and Negreanu called to see the turn.
The landed on the turn and Karamalikis fired 5,500. Negreanu raised all in for 20,500 and Karamalikis snap-mucked his hand.
With this tournament being played with no antes, just blinds and also the fact that it's pot limit preflop and no limit after the flop, the players have had some adjusting to do. A lot of them have been chatting with one another that the structure is a bit different and weird given that you aren't able to shove preflop in a lot of spots you normally would. For one, there are no antes added to the pot to increase your stack and two, it's pot limit so you can't always shove. Some of the players find this a little bit annoying given that the event's structure is a bit fast-paced like a turbo, but some of the strategy behind playing a turbo event successfully is negated by the pot-limit structure preflop and no antes.