Eight full levels have been and gone, and it's time to get rid of the piddling 25-denomination chips. When that's done in 15 minutes' time we'll be playing one last level before bed.
We just walked up to the tail end of a ~90,000-chip pot, but Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick was kind enough to fill us in (despite coming out on the bad end).
The flop was , and Chidwick and his opponent each threw about 40,000 chips at the pot. Chidwick had no pair but his was working on a monster draw against his opponent's ace-queen.
The turn and river were a brick apiece for Chidwick, and he could not get his hands on that big pot. He's back down to about 25,500, but he doesn't seem too fazed. "That's all right," he said cheerily. "I'm still gonna win it."
With around 14,000 in the pot by the flop, Jeff Sarwer checked but then when his opponent bet 6,400, Sarwer raised to 17,500. His opponent's decision was not made any easier by Men Nguyen, who was having a conversation with a young gentleman whose name we learned during the course of said conversation was Matt, and who rivaled Nguyen in volume. Sarwer gave them some looks as he tried to concentrate. Nevertheless his opponent eventually folded, and Sarwer was up to 80,000.
With the board reading , Neil Channing (small blind) bet out 4,400 and Nacho Barbero (big blind) dwelled up for some time while a railer shouted at his friend on the button, which probably didn't help.
Channing probably didn't help either. "What can you possibly have that can possibly be winning?" he said. "Just fold."
Barbero eventually called - and then mucked when Channing turned over for a straight. With that, Channing moved up to a very hefty 160,000. Barbero sank to 28,500, below his starting stack.