Caio Pimenta and Phil Laak had all the money in preflop with Laak the player at risk. Pimenta had the and Laak the .
The board ran out and Laak hit the rail. He's still hanging around the tournament area though, clowning around with the rest of the guys still in the event. Even though this is a $100,000 buy-in, the atmosphere is very laid back.
Bryn Kenney raised to 20,000 from the hijack seat before Sorel Mizzi moved all in from the cutoff for 166,000. Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu was on the button and tanked for a bit. He looked like he was going to raise, then tanked some more, then finally made the call. Kenney folded. "Well, it was worth a shot," said Negreanu, tabling the . Mizzi held the .
The flop came down and Mizzi picked up an open-ended straight draw. The turn brought the and the river completed the board with the . Negreanu made a set of aces and Mizzi just had queen high. Mizzi was out the door while Negreanu moved to about 990,000 and has the clear chip lead.
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We just caught the tail end of this pot, but there was well over 150,000 chips in the middle when we walked up to a board of . Action was on Tobias Reinkemeier, and he fired out a bet of close to 100,000. Kenney snap-called with a sigh, and Reinkemeier tabled .
Kenney flipped up , and his top pair earns him that nice pot. With it comes the chip lead; Kenney is the first player to cross the million-chip mark with about 1.025 million now.
From the button, Jason Mercier raised to 16,000, and Humberto Brenes moved all in for close to 200,000 from the small blind. Antonio Esfandiari gave it a long look before folding his small blind, and action was back on Mercier. "I only saw one," he said, checking the other card. It didn't meet his standards, however, and into the muck went his cards.
At the adjacent table, another shove. Tobias Reinkemeier raised to open the pot, and Mike McDonald three-bet him next door. When it came back to the German, he plunked out a big covering stack of green T25,000 chips. McDonald tapped the felt and surrendered after a short pause.
Back on the other table, Antonio Esfandiari opened the next pot with a raise from the button. In the small blind, Shawn Buchanan stuck his last 51,000 chips in there with , drawing live against Esfandiari's . The board ran out to give Buchanan the double up and a second life in this thing. Esfandiari is now getting awfully short himself with about 140,000 chips left. Buddies Sorel Mizzi and Phil Laak are hanging around the table like vultures, and Laak even bet Esfandiari $5,000 he would be out of chips within a half hour.
Tobias Reinkemeier raised to open the pot before Mike McDonald moved his short stack all in. Reinkemeier quickly called with ace-king, and McDonald's pocket eights could not hold. He's lost his final coin flip of the day, and we'll likely won't see him again for a few months while he finishes up school.
"Well, I need to win a race," Antonio Esfandiari announced, drawing our attention to his all-in confrontation. It was the Magician's looking to out-flip Vivek Rajkumar's , but the dealer was having none of it.
The dropped right on the flop, and the board of will be the last of Esfandiari's day.
"You can all take my 100k and shove it up your asses," he said half-jokingly as he headed to the exit.
Bryn Kenney and Daniel Negreanu have some history between them, they're the two most talkative players at their table, and they're playing pots against each other. It's a fun war to watch, and we pick up the latest battle as Kenney raised to 20,000 from middle position. Around on the button, Negreanu made a verbal declaration of 58,000, and Kenney called his three-bet to see a flop.
It came , and the action went check-check. That happened again on the turn, and the filled out the board on fifth street. "Ninety-eight thousand," Kenney announced his leading bet. Negreanu snap-called, and Kenney said, "I have ace-queen."
"No good!" Negreanu snap-called again.
"What?!" Kenney looked baffled for a second.
Negreanu said, "Take your money back," as he showed his own . Kenney tabled his matching to take half the pot, and the two men exchanged a bit more friendly banter. No chips exchanged, though, and it's on to the next battle.
On the flop of , Sandor Demjan fired 55,000. Bryn Kenney made the call and David Benyamine folded. The turn added the to the board. Demjan fired 80,000 and Kenney called again.
The river then completed the board with the board with the . With two pair now on board, Demjan didn't slow down. Not only did he bet, but he fired all of his chips into the middle. The bet was worth 217,000 and Kenney made the call.
Demjan tabled the for a full house and Kenney mucked.