Harrison Gimbel was the latest casualty as the field continues to pare down, and although we missed his path to the rail, he was kind of enough to relay the grisly details via Twitter:
The final board showed and a large pot chock full of baby blue T5000 chips was up for grabs.
Justin Luninpack fired out a bet of 95,000 to try and take it down, and Kunal Patel went into the tank to figure things out. Eventually, after a lengthy period of deliberation, Patel looked Luninpack up and tabled for ace-high and the winner.
Luninpack could only offer a sincere "nice call" to Patel, who just moved into the chip lead by making an excellent lead.
Wade Woelful needed to make a move riding his short stack and seemed like a decent shot to score the double. He moved all in over the top of Anthony Maio's 33,000 open, only to see Katayon Khaterzai reshove to isolate.
Maio obliged and folded away, leaving Khaterzai to show down her . She had Weolful dominated and the lead held up through the board. Woelful hit the rail in 49th place and pocketed $11,323 for a deep WPT Main Event run.
After Matthew Mendez opened for 34,000 and Ronit Chamani called from the hijack, Robert Merulla moved all in for his last 466,000.
Mendez reshoved for his last 575,000 or so and Chamani got out of the way.
Showdown:
Merulla:
Mendez:
The two were flipping for what amounted to the entire tournament for both players, as Merulla would be eliminated with a loss, while Mendez would be crippled if his big cards failed to come.
The final board ran out clean for Merulla, coming to keep the fishhooks out in front, and he pushed to nearly 1 million in chips. Mendez failed to mount the comeback and he hit the rail shortly after this huge hand.
A flop of hit the board and with a huge pot already developed Laz Hernandez heaped a stack forward for a bet of 108,000.
Mike "Mad Dog" Arrington didn't waste much time before announcing himself all in, and the bet turned out to for 366,000 total.
The camera crews on hand to record this World Poker Tour Main Event Championship readied themselves to capture the clash, and Laz went into the tank to figure out where he stood. Soon enough, Laz actually did stand up and he stared his man down while taking a sip of water a comically undersized water bottle. Eventually, despite appearing ready to fold a few times during his tank, Hernandez suddenly announced the call, and Arrington tabled his with confidence after Hernandez' hesitated for so long.
"Gimme a king..." said Hernandez as he rolled over the . "Or a ten."
Hernandez had went for the kill but he brought a blunted blade to battle, and with no pair to speak of he was far behind heading to the turn. Fourth street came to leave Hernandez with one shot to spike a seven-outter, but the came on the river to keep Arrington out in front with top pair.
"Tell 'em he doubled through Laz..." said Hernandez with a smile, seemingly unfazed by the turn of events. Perhaps his unshaken confidence was merely a front after shipping a few stacks across the table, but after watching Laz endure the swings common to big stack bully poker, we expect him to keep shooting from the hip and going with his gut.
Isaac Baron pushed all in before the flop, but Frank Toscano shoved behind him with . Baron held only , and he was unable to catch up. As Toscano had him covered, he's now out of the tournament.
These are the latest eliminations we've recorded, closing out the $9,795 payout tier. You can check the payouts tab to see where each one placed, and from now on busted players will take home at least $11,323.
A pot of 200,000 or more was piled in the middle of the table when Vladislav Mezheritsky slid a single stack of twenty baby blue T5000 chips forward for a half-pot sized bet.
The 100,000 wager was a sizable one for Mezheritsky, as he only had about 155,000 left to his name, but Merulla could afford to make the call with about 400,000 to work with.
Merulla tanked for more than three minutes before making his decision, but when he tossed a single baby blue forward for the call, Mezheritsky immediately table the nuts with . He had turned the wheel straight and Merulla's read proved to be off base, so he slowly cut out the chips he lost and pushed them to the dealer.