The huge confrontation between Joao Neto and Derek Lerner that we've been anticipating for hours finally occurred. We didn't see the hand, but we did see the result -- a visibly steamed Lerner berating Neto.
"King-six? What were you thinking?"
Neto replied in Portuguese.
"I can't understand your language," said Lerner. He's down to 195,000 while Neto now has 540,000.
49 players remain. Andre Akkari's seat is the short stack with 15,500.
Leo Fernandez got a much needed boost to his stack when his ace-queen held against a shorter stack's ace-jack. Fernandez eliminated his opponent and climbed to about 120,000 in chips.
Joao Neto and Derek Lerner's table continues to provide the most action and the most entertainment. Mst recently Lerner tangled with Roberto Brenes. Pre-flop, Brenes opened for 7,500 from the cutoff. Lerner, in the small blind, three-bet to 18,000. Brenes pondered and counted down his stack several times while his proud papa, Humberto, wandered down from the feature table to watch. Roberto then put in the fourth bet, making it 37,500 to go.
"It's OK Humberto. You don't have to watch," Lerner said. "I'm probably folding. He did the same thing last time. I three-bet him and he four-bet me."
"My boy has big balls!" Humberto replied.
"He has a hand," said Lerner. Then to himself, he added, "What am I doing? He never opens without two queens." Lerner folded his hand, allowing Roberto to drag the pot.
A short stack moved in against Derek Lerner's big blind for about 30,000. Lerner called with , a dominating favorite versus his opponent's . An uncomfortable board unfolded, but by the river Lerner's ace-queen was still best. He raked in the pot to climb to about 300,000.
"I never win that hand online," he said afterwards.
In other Lerner news, brother Aaron has been eliminated.
Trouble is coming to Joao Neto's table. We see it on the horizon. Neto and Derek Lerner continue to play pot after pot together, despite the fact that both have massive stacks relative to the rest of the table and the field. The two were in the blinds and checked a all the way to the river after Lerner made it 6,500 pre-flop. At the river, Neto's over-bet of 20,000 took down the pot.
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, a dominating favorite versus his opponent's 
. An uncomfortable board unfolded, but by the river 
Lerner's ace-queen was still best. He raked in the pot to climb to about 300,000.
