Andrey Pateychuk raised from the hijack seat to 80,000. Barny Boatman stuck in a reraise from the cutoff seat for 205,000. In the big blind was Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden. He had the stare and the stare meant a reraise was coming. Lodden made it 375,000 to go. Pateychuk folded and then Boatman followed him into the muck.
From the cutoff seat, Kevin MacPhee raised to 80,000. Barny Boatman reraised from the small blind to 210,000. Dimitar Danchev reraised from the big blind to 390,000. MacPhee folded and then Boatman went into the tank. He eventually folded his hand and Danchev won the pot.
Daniel Neilson got his last 1.955 million into the middle with , and he was flipping for a huge pot against Jan Bendik who had the covering stack and .
The flop actually robbed Bendik of one of his outs. Now, he was looking for a two-out jack instead of a three-out queen, and any ace would be fine, too. The turn brought one of those unlikely jacks, though, and the was a great card if you like drama. Bendik had made his straight to pull into a big lead, and Neilson needed the board to pair to stay alive.
River: !
That's quite a board pair. Quads beat a straight any day of the week, and Neilson has skyrocketed up to the top of the leaderboard with about 4 million chips!
Action folded to Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden on the button and he raised to 80,000. Yorane Kerignard made the call from the small blind and then fellow Team Pro Lex Veldhuis had a sweat in the big blind.
Veldhuis looked at his cards and said, "F*** my life." He thought for a few more seconds and tossed his entire stack in, moving all in for 165,000. Lodden reraised to 305,000 and Kerignard folded.
Lodden turned over the and Veldhuis held the .
The flop came down and Veldhuis picked up a gutshot to a straight. The turn was the and now Veldhuis had a flush draw to boot. The river, though, was the and that wasn't what Veldhuis needed. The queens for Lodden held up and Veldhuis headed to the rail.
From under the gun, Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis tossed his last 32,000 chips into the middle. Dimitar Danchev was in the cutoff seat and raised to 90,000. On the button, Patrick Gastaldi reraised to 250,000. Play folded back to Danchev and he announced that he was all in, a total bet worth 1.020 million. Gastaldi thought for a minute and then folded the face up.
Danchev:
Veldhuis:
The board ran out and Veldhuis won the pot with two pair, aces and twos. He was able to turn his 32,000 into 169,000 and more than quintuple his stack. He's still not out of the woods by any means, but at least he's got life.
Well, it was almost inevitable that our two Team PokerStars Pros would tangle up in a big pot at some point. They stayed away from each other for as long as they could, but the deck finally set them up with a big all-in showdown. It was Veldhuis making the first raise to 60,000, and Lodden was the three-bettor to 160,000 total. Veldhuis shoved for 941,000, and Lodded called all in for 905,000, putting another big pot up for grabs and the tournament lives of both players in question.
Showdown
Veldhuis:
Lodden:
The two were flipping for it all, and Lodden shot out to a huge lead on the flop. The turn was the wrong paint card for Veldhuis, and the river failed to bring him any two-out goodness.
The ladies betray the Dutchman, and he's been crippled all the way down to just 36,000.