We join the action at his table with him once again involved in a sizable pot. On the river, there is 35,000 in the center of the table, and the board reads . Action is checked to Pantling, and he puts out a bet of 17,000. His opponent goes into the tank for several minutes, counting and re-counting his stack, looking frustrated.
Finally, he says, "I call." Pantling tables for the straight. His opponent holds his cards while he studies the board. After several seconds, he slams both cards down onto the felt and says, "Nice hand."
Pantling rakes in another nice pot, and he has moved up to 315,000. He now holds more than 10% of the total chips in play.
With the elimination of Jan Yu, there are just two ladies left in our field.
PokerStars qualifier Penny Parker has been looking sharp today, and she is sitting with 61,000 chips. Australia's Wei Yuen is the other woman left, and she is still healthy with a stack of 42,000.
Grant Levy thought about his options on a board of . With the pot over 20,000, Levy decided it was best to check. Nathanael Seet took his time before betting out 18,500.
"Oh, you're the best," said Levy as he sat and contemplated what to do. Lee Nelson stopped by and caught this hand.
After a few minutes of thought, Levy looked over the shoulder of Nelson, at the tournament clock, to gauge what stage of the tournament he was in. He then made the call.
"Eights are good," said Seet. With that said, Levy confidently turned over . Seet held only ace high with the . After that pot, Levy is now up to 105,000.
We picked up the action in a hand between Yasuki Shino and Tony Hachem on the turn with the board showing , and about 21,000 chips already in the middle of the table.
Action was on Shino, and he moved all in for his last 8,100. Hachem went into the tank before a clock was called to keep the pace of the tournament going. Hachem eventually said, "I'm going to call," though he seemed to hate his decision.
Shino tabled , and Hachem showed down , the leading hand. "Good call, Hach-ey baby!" he shouted. The he turned his attention to the dealer. "Deuce... deuce," he pleads.
As if he were picking cards out of the deck, the hit on the turn, giving Hachem the pot and sending Shino out with just a few tables remaining.
Meanwhile, Joe's brother, Tony, is moving up in the world. He now sits on about 80,000 in chips.
Jon-Pierre Narbey called an all-in bet from Jan Yu holding pocket sevens. Yu held . The board ran out and left Yu with only enough chips to pay one more ante as well as her small blind, which was to occur the next hand.
On the next hand, Yu was eliminated by Narbey when his top pair held up. It's always difficult to get something going when you have been forced all-in in one of the blinds.
Bryan Huang called a bet on the turn from Chris Tau. The board read and the river brought the . Tau led again, this time for 4,000. Huang quickly made a raise to 29,000. This sent Tau into the tank.
A few minutes passed before Tau finally made the call, committing about half of his remaining stack. Huang quickly turned up a flush with the . All Tau could do was shake his head and muck.
Huang is now up to 130,000, while Tau dropped to 28,000.
Before the flop, Guobing Yu moved all in for 27,900 holding . Action folded to Grant Levy, and he re-raised, moving all in himself, and having Yu slightly covered. Nobody else wanted to tangle, and Levy tabled his . "Gotta win the races," he said.
The board ran out , failing to improve Yu and knocking him out of the tournament. Levy, meanwhile, has improved to about 70,000.
Many players have questioned the tournament staff on who can call time if a player is taking too long in a hand. Almost every hand is a long, drawn out ordeal and it seems to be annoying some players that would like to see more hands to play. The tournament staff just made an announcement to inform the players that anyone at the table can call the clock during a hand that they believe has gone on for too long. The staff also mentioned that the players should play a little faster.
At any rate, we've gotten down to under 50 players. We are getting closer to the money, so this could very well be the reason why play is slowing so much.
Graeme "Kiwi G" Putt raised to 7,000 from late position. Luke Stanford, who has been quietly chipping up at the "table of death", reraised to 18,000 from the button. The small blind folded, but the big blind called off his remaining 9,300 and was all-in. After tanking for a minute, Putt folded.
Stanford held pocket sevens, , and had his opponent's dominated. "I'd rather be up against two nines," mentioned the big blind.
The board ran out and Stanford's sevens were good to the end. He is now up to 80,000 chips and quietly climbing the leaderboard.