Giant Confrontation Before Break; Cantu Crushing
On the first hand after redrawing to three tables, Phil Hellmuth opened to 5,000 from under the gun and was called by JC Alvarado from the cutoff. Brandon Cantu made it 20,000 to go from the big blind and Hellmuth folded.
Alvarado got the rest of his stack in and Cantu called, putting Alvarado at risk.
Alvarado: 
Cantu: 
The two players were racing for Alvarado's stack of roughly 160,000. The board fell 
and Cantu's set of tens put the nail in the coffin for Alvarado's tournament life. Cantu now has a massive chip lead over the field with roughly 750,000 in chips.
"I do NOT want to draw Brandon in the first round!" remarked Hellmuth after the hand, referring to the heads up matches that will come when the field reaches 16 players.
When the players return from break play will be hand for hand.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
777,000
227,000
|
227,000 |
|
||
|
Busted | |