Ace-five certainly seems to be the hand of the hour. Hai Bo Chu made it work against Jamie Pickering's , picking up a huge pot on a board of by rivering the wheel. He's up to 185,000, while Pickering is down to 260,000.
Things aren't going Assadourian's way.
Eric Assadourian called the clock on himself and may have pressured himself into the wrong decision. He was the preflop raiser in a hand with Martin Rowe, making it 11,000 to go. Rowe called out of the big blind to a flop of . Both players checked, bringing a turn card of . Rowe checked again, then called when Assadourian bet 12,000.
On the river , Rowe instantly moved all in for 55,000. Assadourian went deep into the tank for several minutes, finally instructing TD Danny McDonagh to clock him. McDonagh gave Assadourian seventy seconds to make a decision. Assadourian opted to call, and was shown Rowe's for the nuts.
Rowe's up to 156,000, while Assadourian has moved into short-stack territory with 75,000.
Zhi Hong Ma is another player refusing to go gently into that good night (much to the disappointment of the rest of the field and all of media row). He raised all in to 40,000 from the small blind after Phil Willcocks opened for 10,000 and Stewart Davidson reraised to 30,000. Only Davidson made the call, tabling against Ma's . Kings held on a board of , allowing Ma to double up to about 100,000.
Despite that setback, Davidson still has roughly 250,000.
Gary Diamond has fallen just short of the money. He put his tournament life on the line with and was called by Phil Willcocks, who showed for a race. It was a queen on the river that did in Diamond. The victory restored some of Willcocks' previous stack, bringing him back up to 325,000.
Jason Pritchard felt stuck pretty good on a flop against Ray Sukkar. Pritchard had and wound up calling Sukkar's all in. Sukkar showed and won the pot with running fives on the turn and river. Sukkar is up to 140,000, while Pritchard slipped to 130,000.
Wooka Kim
Wooka Kim had waited until her stack had dwindled down to roughly 15,000 before she decided to make a move with . She found herself in a race against Anthony Rafter with .
The board was a baby leaving Rafter's hand in front and bringing an end to the tournament for fan-favorite Wooka Kim.
For the second time in this very strange tournament, someone has folded kings preflop. The culprit this time is David Kim. He popped it to 30,000 preflop after Marlon Goonawardana had opened for 10,000. Marlon thought things over for a while, then put in a third raise to 80,000.
Kim went into the tank, talking to himself and to Goonawardana as he did so. "I've been told I'm never supposed to fold this hand preflop," said Kim. He asked Goonawardana if he would show his hand if Kim folded.
Goonawardana did not agree to do so, instead asking Kim if he really wanted to bubble. Time was eventually called, and with thirty seconds left on the clock, Kim open-mucked .
Cards are back in the air. The clock shows thirty minutes remaining in the level. Starting Level 16 tonight is almost a foregone conclusion at this point.