Bill Perkins opened to $8,000 under the gun and got two calls before Brandon Steven made it $37,000 to go from the $2,400 straddle. Perkins four-bet to $83,000, driving out the squeezed players, and Steven called. He checked the , and Perkins put him all in for $214,000. After about a minute, Steven dropped in some chips.
Steven:
Perkins:
The players ran it twice, and neither nor allowed the queens to catch up. Perkins is still ahead, but only slightly with $326,000, while Steven has shot up to $613,000.
Antonio Esfandiari raised to $8,000 from the cutoff, and Jean-Robert Bellande defended from the $2,400 straddle. Bellande check-called $11,000 on the flop, and $21,000 on the turn. He checked the river, and Bellande thought things over after seeing Esfandiari bet $50,000.
"Alright Antonio, you're just better than I am, that's all there is to it," Bellande said, mucking what he later said was a ten.
"You can turn one over," Esfandiari said. Bellande asked him to repeat it, and he did.
Bellande turned both over: .
"You said it twice," he pointed out, which got plenty of laughter.
Even Esfandiari had to admit it was a good ploy and said he couldn't be mad. He did, however, get Bellande to admit it wasn't an original trick - JRB admitted someone had pulled it on him years ago.
Catching up on the river, an board was on the felt between Al DeCarolis and Rick Salomon. DeCarolis checked and called off his last $290,000 or so. DeCarolis showed but that wasn't near enough to beat Salomon's , and Salomon collected a pot of more than $800,000, pushing his stack into seven figures, while DeCarolis headed for the hills.
Expect Salomon to get even more loose and aggressive, if that's possible, now that he has a huge stack.
Rick Salomon opened to $6,000 and got two calls before John Morgan made it $15,000. Salomon popped to $41,000, Everyone else got out of the way, and Morgan quickly jammed for $581,000. Salomon chuckled and said he was going to fold kings for the first time in his life.
Morgan showed him and took the pot.
"He had aces 20 times last night and he did the same move every time!" Salomon exclaimed.
For his part, Morgan expressed disbelief that the ultra-loose Salomon dumped kings.
Rick Salomon raised to $3,000 under the gun, and Bill Perkins made it $15,000 to go. Salomon wanted to see the flop, which came . He check-called a further $15,000, and the turn was a . Another check from Salomon, followed by $25,000 from Perkins. Salomon again called, seeing a fall. He checked, and Perkins bet $50,000. Salomon tossed in two $25,000 cranberries, accompanied by an orange $100,000 chip.
Perkins called, and Salomon showed for trips, raking in a pot of more than $414,000.
"I gave it all back to ya, Rick," Perkins lamented.
Jean-Robert Bellande opened for $17,000 and got calls from Al DeCarolis (button) and Brandon Steven (small blind). Everyone checked the flop, and the board was when it got checked to DeCarolis again. He bet $40,000, getting a fold from Steven. Bellande loaded up his big chips and put out enough to make DeCarolis risk his stack if he wanted to continue, a raise of roughly $130,000.
DeCarolis snap-called with the , and he initially said he wanted to run it once against Bellande's . Bellande convinced him to run it twice, but the and were both bricks, and DeCarolis scooped a pot of just under $400,000. Bellande is now stuck a bit with a stack of $900,000.
Action exploded on a flop of , with John Morgan firing $12,000 and getting raised to $35,000 by Rick Salomon. Bill Perkins cold three-bet to $100,000, and Rick Salomon jammed for $220,000 effective after Morgan mucked. Perkins quickly called it off with , top two, and he was ahead of Salomon's .
The players ran the last two streets twice. Perkins hit a boat on the run out, and he faded the queens as finished out the second board, allowing him to scoop the $482,000 pot. Salomon is sitting with about $125,000 now.
After two days of high-stakes action, the third and final day of Super High Roller Cash Game at ARIA is set to start just after 2:30 p.m. Once again, expect plenty of money to be changing hands with even bigger blinds today. Rather than the $400/$800 with a $200 ante, the players have reportedly switched to a three-blind system of $300/$600/$1,200, which should mean larger opening raises.
This time around, the line-up is decided more amateur-leaning after a day with a table full of former and current online destroyers like Doug Polk, Andrew Robl, Scott Seiver, and Daniel Colman.
Jean-Robert Bellande has returned after an absentee day. He found himself in a hole on Day 1 and will be looking to rebound. On his left will be Minnesota business magnate and One Drop participant John Morgan. Seat 3 will house this year's One Drop runner-up, Bill Klein. More amateurs - Al DeCarolis and Rick Salomon, respectively - will be in Seats 4 and 5. High-stakes regular Brandon Steven will be in Seat 6, followed by hedge fund manager Bill Perkins. Finally, a true legend of the game will round out the starting line-up - Bobby Baldwin, whose credentials include being a former Main Event champion.