As the cards were revealed, Ollie Simpson realised that he'd need to dunk himself into a tub of Vaseline to squirm his way out of this one, his in dyer shape against .
But despite a blank flop, and equally raggy turn, the river brought a dramatic to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
"It was the getting up out of your chair that did it," observed neighbour Phil Laak. "That added three percent onto your chances."
As a result of his slice of last-second fortune, Simpson has climbed himself up to 7,750.
Ladies and gentlemen, you're gonna need a bigger boat.
A player had limped in middle position and Tony Cousineau raised to 1,000 on the button. The flop came which both players checked before a flurry of activity on the turn saw all the money quickly going in. The other player must have been pretty happy with his but Cousineau had flopped the top boat with which avoided the case six on the river.
Cousineau now on 27,000 here in the Shadow room on the only table remaining up here.
We have to be careful that we don't run out of players today as they continue to fall like lemmings on a tightrope.
The latest to lose his balance was Simon Mairs, pushing all in for around 12 big blinds with before being snap-called by a preflop limper who'd slow-played . No change on the board and Mairs' venture for bracelet gold came to a halt.
He may be small but he's a big presence at a poker table. Freddy Deeb opened to 600 from the cut-off to face a raise to 1,625 from Phil Laak on the button. Deeb counted how much he had (5,175 total) and said "I gamble with you" and moved all-in. Laak though for a while and flashed a king before folding.Deeb flashed a queen and scooped.
Richard Ashby must be a Star Trek fan as he continues to 'cling on' by the skin of teeth. He was previously down to just 800, but despite building up a stack, he's now slipped to 1,750 and was last seen pushing all in from the button. Both the blinds released their hands and Ashby lived to fight another day.
His first recorded win came in a Seven-Card Stud event back in 2001, but since then Ashby has collated a near $1.2 million in live tournament winnings including final table appearances in the Aussie Millions, GUKPT, WSOP and UK Open.
Richard's greatest moment, however, came at this year's World Series when he won his first bracelet, taking down the $1,500 Seven Card-Stud event for $140,467. Two weeks later, he finished second in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for a further $378,027.
Now back on home soil, Ashby will be looking to make up for that near miss and snap up his second bracelet here at the Empire Casino. He's got the talent, but at the moment he doesn't have a stack, and with players like Tony Cousineau starting to pull away from the pack, Ashby will be keen to double up before the upcoming dinner break.
Levi Twinley and Kamal Choraria have been trading blows again. Allen Cunningham was also involved although as he recently joined the table he wouldn't have known the history between the two. The river was already out to give the board a look. Twinley led for 1,750 and without seeing this bet Choraria threw out a bet that was more than 50% bigger than Twinley's. A floor-man ruled that the bet had to be a raise to to 3,500 and this was enough to discourage Cunningham. Twinley called and announced "flush" but soon mucked upon seeing Choraria's for a flopped full-house.
Twinley down to 9,000 but Choraria's up to 35,000.
No relation of Harry, Maria Demetriou is actually the niece of poker player Peter Costa and is keen to carry on the family tradition. She opened to 600 from the button and Nikolay Evdakov made the call out of the big blind.
Both players checked the flop and the turn before Evdakov also checked the river. Demetriou now fired out 1,000 on the river and the Russian made the call only to tap the table when she showed
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