Xiang Tan and Stephen Chidwick have been doing a fair bit of battling all day long. This latest battle saw a big, 80,000-plus pot go down and Tan doubling up through Chidwick.
Action folded to Tan in the small blind and he limped in. Chidwick checked his option in the big blind and the two players saw the flop come down . Both players checked to see the fall on the turn. What looked like it was a pretty meaningless pot, suddenly escalating into an extremely blog-worthy hand.
Tan led the turn for 5,000 and Chidwick raised to 11,500. Tan moved all in for 40,100 and Chidwick quickly made the call, only to see that his was behind the of Tan.
Chidwick still had outs to a bigger flush on the river, but the couldn't do it for him and he was forced to send over the chips. Tan increased to about 85,000 while Chidwick dropped to 83,000.
JP Kelly mastered the feat of deafeating 607 others players in last year's installment of this £1,000 event. For his win, Kelly was awarded with £136,803 and a second gold bracelet of the year. Earlier that year, Kelly won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em at the Series out in Vegas for $194,434, making him the second player behind Jesper Hougaard to win both a WSOP bracelet and a WSOP Europe bracelet in the same year. You can read about Kelly's win in this event last year on PokerNewshere.
Right now, Kelly is still in contention with only four tables remaining in his back-to-back quest for glory. It would be quite an astonishing feat if he could pull it off and a story for the ages. We're keeping a close eye on him and he is sitting towards the top of the board right now after eliminating November Niner Matthew Jarvis a few moments ago.
Kelly has a total of nine World Series cashes, but only one came from the WSOP Europe in Kelly's home country. It's good that his only cash here was a win, but that leaves plenty for Kelly to match this time around. Anything less than a win will just be less than what he did last year. Along with his win in Vegas in 2009, Kelly was able to make the money in this year's Main Event, finishing in 111th place for over $57,000. Furthermore, Kelly has three EPT Main Event cashes and three Aussie Millions cashes, two of which came from the past two years of the Main Event.
Will we see a back-to-back win for Kelly? You're only chance of knowing will be to stick here on PokerNews for all the live coverage from the floor. We'll be tracking him hard so stay tuned!
After a preflop raise, Tim Blake moved all-in for 27,000 and then Ramey Shaio pushed all-in behind. The original raiser showed and Blake flipped , dominated by Shaio's .
Board: meant Blake was down to 14,500 while Shaio doubled to 30,000.
Xiang Tan got involved in a hand with Stephen Chidwick, which saw the pot grow to about 16,000 chips by the river and the final board reading . Tan checked to Chidwick, who fired 9,500. After a couple minutes in the tank, Tan pushed forward the chips to make the call. Chidwick tabled the for top two pair and Tan mucked.
Chidwick has increased to 110,000 in chips thanks to that pot of Tan. Dropping to 60,000 was the result of this one for Tan.
We picked up the action on the flop, but our trusty bloggers' intuition tells us that JP Kelly raised before the flop from early position and Adam Fradgley made the call from the big blind to continue on.
The dealer put out , and Fradgley tapped the table. Kelly followed up his raise with a bet of 3,700, and Fradgley didn't waste much time calling. On the turn, though, Fradgley took the betting lead with 4,500 chips. Kelly was the caller this time.
The river double paired the board with the , and Fradgley took his pause. It sort of appeared as if he didn't know exactly what to do, and he eventually announced a big all-in overbet for his last ~42,000. Kelly smirked. He tossed over the decision for quite a while, mumbling, "What could you possibly have?" among other things. Whatever it was, Kelly didn't want to play for that much, and he released his cards back to the dealer.
. Both players checked to see the 
fall on the turn. What looked like it was a pretty meaningless pot, suddenly escalating into an extremely blog-worthy hand.
was behind the 
of Tan.
couldn't do it for him and he was forced to send over the chips. Tan increased to about 85,000 while Chidwick dropped to 83,000.
into 
all-in preflop on a 
.
and Blake flipped 
, dominated by Shaio's 
.
meant Blake was down to 14,500 while Shaio doubled to 30,000.
. Tan checked to Chidwick, who fired 9,500. After a couple minutes in the tank, Tan pushed forward the chips to make the call. Chidwick tabled the 
for top two pair and Tan mucked.
turn, though, Fradgley took the betting lead with 4,500 chips. Kelly was the caller this time.
, and Fradgley took his pause. It sort of appeared as if he didn't know exactly what to do, and he eventually announced a big all-in overbet for his last ~42,000. Kelly smirked. He tossed over the decision for quite a while, mumbling, "What could you possibly have?" among other things. Whatever it was, Kelly didn't want to play for that much, and he released his cards back to the dealer.
. He dodged the flop, but an ace on the turn landed to send Kessler to the rail.
to his opponent's 
