Jason Riesenberg just had a couple of tough hands in which he doubled up two different shorter-stacked opponents.
In the first hand, Riesenberg checked a flop, and Nathan Hays bet 100,000. Riesenberg check-raised all in, and Hays put in his last 150,000 chips to call.
Hays showed for the overpair, and Riesenberg for sevens. The turn was the and the river the , and Hays doubled up to 520,000.
In the second hand, Kyle Carlston got all of his 240,000 chips in preflop, and Riesenberg called. Carlston showed , while Riesenberg had . The board ran out , and this time Carlston doubled up to 500,000.
After that sequence, Riesenberg has tumbled to 230,000.
Over on the ESPN feature table, Mike Matusow opened with a raise to 27,000 from the cutoff and the action folded to Phi Nguyen in the small blind who announced a reraise to 72,000. The big blind folded before Matusow instantly moved all in for 363,000 in total. Nguyen went into the tank before eventually declaring a call.
Matusow:
Nguyen:
The flop came bringing no help to Matusow but he gave a positive call of “We got this” to his fans in the crowd. The then fell on the turn to give Matusow a pair of queens as he jumped up and down on the stage to the roaring delight of the audience. The river was the and Matusow exclaims, “How do y’all like it now, boys?” as he doubles up to about 740,000 chips.
To start his Day 5, Jeremiah Smith flopped bottom set against Helge Pedersen. Bad news for Smith: Pedersen started his Day 5 by flopping top set against Smith. Somehow, the players resisted getting all of the money in until the river, with the board showing . Smith tabled and saw the pot pushed to Pedersen when Pedersen showed .
Smith's stack has dropped below par, to about 700,000. Pedersen's double up puts him at 500,000.
Action folded around to Chris Zapf in the small blind and he moved all in for just under 200,000. His big blind opponent, Joshua Norris, had fewer chips and called all in. The players showed:
Zapf:
Norris:
Norris had a slight mathematical lead in the hand but it quickly evaporated when the flop came . The turn fell the with the river behind it. Zapf's two pair was best and Norris headed for the payout table. Zapf stacked up to just shy of 300,000 on the hand.
Keith Hawkins picked up a much-needed double-up when his all-in reraise with was called by Jeff Kimber, who held . Hawkins spiked a king on the flop, and locked up the hand when a blank, the fell on the turn. The river completed the board.
Hawkins now has about 750,000 chips, while Kimber slips to about 600,000.
Alex Outhred is off to a nice start today after taking down a few early pots – the latest against PokerNews’ own Tiffany Michelle.
Michelle had raised under the gun, making it 37,000 to go, with Outhred making the call in the hijack position. They saw a flop of and Michelle fired out 40,000. Outhred made the call. The turn was the and both players checked.
The river was the and Michelle check-called the 50,000-chip bet from Outhred, who flipped over , which was good as Michelle mucked her cards.
Outhred jumps to 1.65 million while Michelle is back to about 800,000.
Garrett Beckman limped in for 10,000 from UTG, Allen Carter raised to 35,000 from early position, Reagan Silber reraised to 105,000 from middle position, Alexander Kostritsyn made it 285,000 to go from the small blind, Beckman folded, and Carter moved all in for 311,000, sending Silber into the tank. After a bit of thought, Silber moved all in over the top, having Kostritsyn covered.
Now it was Kostritsyn's turn to tank. The young Russian ultimately mucked face-up, saving his remaining 930,000. And the cards were turned on their backs...
Carter
Silber
The board ran out and Silber's aces held up to eliminate Carter. Silber is now up to 1,815,000.
All the money went in after the flop, with Johnson to Beckman's . It wasn't the higher flush draw that locked up the hand for Johnson. Instead, the sealed the deal and doubled Johnson to around 480,000.