A cry of, "YESSS!!!" across the floor alerted us to the fact that Bruce Atkinson had just doubled up with against Kevin Eyster's on a ten-high board. Eyster was giggling as he paid up, even though it meant that he dropped to 485,000.
Atkinson, who came fifth in the rather diminutive WPT London a few weeks back for £93,316, doubled to 500,000.
We didn't see how the money got in, but we'd guess that David Steicke raised from the button, then got the rest of his chips into the middle preflop against the small blind.
However the betting transpired, Steicke's was in a world of hurt against his opponent's .
Board:
That's all she wrote for the Aussie, eliminated with about 80 players left.
Chance Kornuth opened preflop to 14,500 and Phil Ivey called on the button, Robert Nulli called also from the big blind.
The flop came and Nulli bet 21,000, Kornuth folded and Ivey made the call.
The turn was the and Nulli now fired 36,000 and Ivey mucked, the delighted Italian showed and began speaking to Ivey in partial English/partial Italian.
Ivey, "I don't understand what you're saying."
Nulli tried to point us his bluff, but Ivey didn't seem that impressed.
We're officially out of ladies here in the Main Event, just as the Ladies-Only event kicks off on the other side of the room.
Vanessa Peng did awfully well to get this far, but her run at the final table has come up short here on Day 3. She's had to deal with Claudio Cecchi next to her all day, and the two of them tangled up in a big pot that left Peng all in preflop with . Cecchi had that soundly beaten, tabling to put her in a bad way.
The dealer wouldn't give Peng anything to sweat, either, running out the board to eliminate her from the tournament.
Yuriten Bokkel was eliminated into the break, losing with to Alex Kravchenko's after a board.
Meanwhile Marty Smyth, who finished 10th here last year, was just eliminated also, pushing into Jamie Brown's without managing to find a cowboy to rescue him.
Salvatore Bonavena got his last 65,000 chips into the middle with , a copy hand against Mikulik Taras' . The flop was in Bonavena's neighborhood, though, coming out and drawing a curious shrug from the Italian. He was freerolling for the double up, and the was just what he needed. The filled out the board, and Bonavena seemed almost apologetic as he collected the chips to cripple Taras.
On the very next hand...
Salvatore Bonavena got his 143,000 new chips all into the pot once again, this time with against an opponent with .
Board:
Bonavena does it again, doubling through for the second consecutive hand. He's back to 290,000 now, from just 65,000 two hands ago.