On an flop, Randy Dorfman got his last ~8,000 into the middle with . It's hard to fault him for going with top pair considering his chip situation, but Yannick Autaa's was far superior.
Dorfman couldn't find any of his five outs on the turn or river, and he has been eliminated.
From under the gun, Yann Brossolo raised to 3,500. Mendel Benoit called from the big blind and the flop came down . Both players checked and the turn brought the . Both players checked again.
The river was the and Benoit checked one more time. Brossolo wasn't going to check anymore and fired 5,500. That was good enough to win the pot as Benoit folded his hand.
The action has finally begun to slow down now as we're well under 50 players remaining. In fact, it looks as if they've just broken another table, dropping us to an even 36 players left. We'll play on for another six levels or until we reach the final table, whichever comes first. Our hunch tells us we may get to the final table during the last level of the night.
In any event, one man not slowing down is John Eames. He's on a charge toward the top of the counts, and we just watched him drag another nice pot. We didn't see the preflop action, but he and Gianluca Cedolia got about 30,000 into the middle before the dealer put out . Out of position, Eames led out with 17,000 there, and Cedolia tanked and folded.
We've got Eames at about 132,000 now, in contention for the chip lead.
We arrived at the table with around 12,000 chips in the middle and the flop reading between three players. The three players were Salman Behbehani, Carlo Savinelli and Erik Cajelais. It appeared that Savinelli had raised preflop from under the gun plus one, Cajelais called from middle position and Behbehani called from the big blind.
On the flop, Behbehani checked and Savinelli bet 5,200. Cajelais made the call and Behbehani also came along to the turn.
Fourth street was the and Behbehani checked again. Savinelli kept his foot on the gas and fired 9,300. Cajelais made the call and then Behbehani came along again.
The river card was the to pair the board. It also brought in a backdoor flush draw. After Behbehani checked for a third time, Savinelli fired another barrel worth 22,000. Cajelais snap-mucked his hand and then Behbehani followed him into the muck a few second later.
Savinelli showed just the and Behbehani said, "So you had the flush."
Roberto Romanelli opened with a raise to 3,300 and then Mendel Benoit reraised to 8,100. Action folded to Simone Goria and he moved all in for around 20,000. After play folded back around to Benoit, he made the call holding the . Goria held the .
The flop gave Benoit the lead when the fell. The turn and river ended the hand and finished off Goria.
We've got four levels in the books, and the 35 surviving players have been sent off for a one-hour dinner break. We'll be back at 7:30 P.M. local time, after a nice stroll along the Med.
Roberto Romanello raised in early position, and Chuc Hoang three-bet him. Romanello responded with a shove, and Hoang called off the rest of his stack to put himself all in.
Showdown
Romanello:
Hoang:
The flop missed Romanello's overcards, but it did give him another four outs as it came to give him the gutterball. The turn was the , a miss, but the river was just the card Romanello was looking for. The dropped off the deck, giving him top pair and the knockout as he works his stack into the top five. We've got him on about 131,000 now, a good increase from his average chip stack at dinnertime.