Soon after returning from the break, we had an all-in on the feature table, Drew Crawford open shoving the button for what appeared to be around the 350,000 mark. The action ground to a halt on veteran Irving Rice, looking resplendent and colorful in eighties shell suit, who requested a count. Rice teased momentarily as he clasped his fingers around the bottom of a column of chips, but then pulled away. A few moments later, however, he did indeed make the call.
With the cards revealed, Crawford will have been relieved to have two live cards, his behind, but not dominated, against Rice's . As Crawford's fan base swamped the table, the dealer dealt out a flop. "Five!" commanded the rail as the turn came the . "Right, we're half way there," they continued. But despite the last minute excitement, all hopes were dashed as the river came a close-but-no-cigar to send Crawford home.
Robert Scott limped in, as did small blind Dana Kellstrom. Brian Green in the big blind, however, made it another 16,000 to go, and both players called.
They saw a flop which Kellstrom checked. Green bet 18,000 and the action moved over to Scott, who pushed all in. Kellstrom got out of their way, Green called, and they went to showdown.
Green:
Scott:
Turn:
River:
Up-and-Downer of the day Scott doubled to 800,000.
Sam Paolini in early position opened for 40,000, and Dana Kellstrom flatted to see a flop. Paolini led out for 70,000, but Kellstrom put his whole 200,000 stack in the middle, and after a speedy call from Paolini, they were on their backs.
Paolini:
Kellstrom: very ahead with
Turn: - uh oh...
River:
Wow. Paolini made a backdoor flush to pick up an enormous pot - he was propelled into the chip lead on 1,065,000, the first player to break that magical million mark. Kellstrom was relegated to the rail.
Despite Sam Paolini having more chips than Frito-Lays, it's actually Cory Brown who is your current chip leader, predominately due to eliminating Alex Baher on the feature table. All in with , Baher found his foe sitting pretty with , and despite plenty of paint on a flop, it just wasn't to be, the turn and river ending the dream. As a result, Brown has become the first to break the one million mark with 1,200,000.
The flop read and the pot comprised 150,000 in chips when Thomas Joanides moved all in for 180,000. Gabe Costner tanked up for a while before making the call, and they flipped their cards.
Joanides: for a pair of jacks
Costner: for a pair of queens, or a "Siegfried and Roy," as they call it out here
Nothing happened to change matters on the turn or river, and Joanides was bust.
Costner's new stack was a middle-of-the-pack 615,000.
Dash Dudley opened for 36,000 and it folded right around to Thomas McCann in the big blind who went and spoiled the folding party by going all in instead. The all in was for just 69,000 on top of Dudley's opening raise, so he made the call and we had a preflop showdown on our hands.
McCann:
Dudley:
Board:
Yup, Dudley made a straight to put him up to 760,000. McCann couldn't, as it turned out, and he was sent flying towards the payout desk.
The domino affect normally applies to cash games, or the early stages of tournaments, but it was in full flow here as Cory Brown's modest raise to 35,000 was called in no less than five spots. This may have been a family pot, but it was a dysfunctional one by the as Nikunj Gandhi opted to leave the nest by pushing all in for 375,000. Only neighbour Bart Davis seemed tempted, but after he stepped out of the way, the rest of the table followed suit and Gandhi picked up a pretty substantial pot.