Just before the break, we lost the man who owned this tournament for about the last 24 hours.
Michiel Brummelhuis got the rest of his chips in with after having been whittle down to the short stack. J.C. Alvarado was his would-be knocker-out with in the big blind.
The board ran . With his ace-king kicker holding up, Alvarado took care of Brummelhuis in 21st place.
Under the gun, Keven Stammen opened with a raise. John Kabbaj re-raised to 150,000. Bryn Kenney then moved all in for 278,000 from the big blind. Stammen called all in for his last ~100,000, and Kabbaj called as well to put both opponents at risk!
Showdown
Stammen:
Kabbaj:
Kenney:
The flop ran out ragged to keep Stammen in the lead: . The turn was not so kind though; the struck the board, all but locking up the pot for Kabbaj. Indeed, the blank on the end sealed the fate of both all-in players.
The chip leader just minutes ago, Kenney will take 22nd place by virtue of having more chips than Stammen at the start of the hand. It's irrelevant apart from bragging rights though as both men will pocket $24,066 as their consolation prize.
Kabbaj is running over this field now. He has 1,650,000, a full 20% of the chips in play!
Bryn Kenney started this monstrous pot with a raise to 28,000 from early position. Action came around to the big blind, and John Kabbaj reraised to 83,000. Kenney wasn't going anywhere. He made the third raise to 163,000 and Kabbaj came right back with a fourth raise to 323,000. Kenney then moved all in for more than 800,000! Kabbaj called, putting a pot of more than 1.2 million up for grabs!
Showdown
Kenney:
Kabbaj:
It was a disaster for Kenney, and the board would provide no help. It came , dry like the desert wind. Kenney surrenders his chip lead, plummeting all the way back to 200,000. It works the other way for Kabbaj as he has skyrocketed to a commanding chip lead with 1,250,000, twice as much as his nearest rival!