It was a stunning exit for Mikeal Blomlie. His stack was rocked to the point that he found himself moving all in preflop with . Kentaro Araki made the call with and flopped a pair of aces, . Those aces held up when the turn and river bricked out, and .
The pace of eliminations has become almost frenetic here in the late stages of Level 16. Gylbert Drolet found himself all in preflop with pocket sevens and called by the of Winfred Yu. Drolet was out the door with an extra $10,450 after the board came to pair kings for Yu.
The action folded around to Casey Kastle in the small blind who decided to finally make a stand as he pushed all in for his last 40,000 chips. Crister Hallbrook made a quick call in the big blind.
Kastle:
Hallbrook:
The board landed and Kastle found a king on the flop to stay alive. He's up to over 80,000 and has a pulse once again.
Michael Lipari was the short stack of the field and finally found a spot to commit his final 15,000 with but Gylbert Drolet raised to isolate to get the pot heads up with his .
The board fell and Lipari exits in 22nd place for a pay day of $10,450.
We caught the action on the river on a board reading where the great Johnny Chan had fired 30,000 into the middle before Inwook Choi declared himself all in.
Chan was in the tank for a very long time, and eventually found a call. However Choi tabled pocket deuces for a full house which were too good for Chan as he tossed his cards into the muck and departed the poker room much to the disappointment of the local contingent.
Meanwhile Choi has stormed out to a tournament-leading 460,000.
There have been a couple of quick double-ups over on Table 3. First Kristoffer Myhre doubled by getting all in preflop with against Chris Chau's . The king on the flop secured the pot for Myhre and took him to 100,000 in chips.
Chau, meanwhile, fell to 16,500. He was all in from the small blind on the next hand with . Big blind Casey Kastle called with two live cards, , but it was Chau who dragged the pot by making trip kings on a board of .
With a raise to 10,500 from middle position by JC Tran and two callers, Hien Tran decided to pop it up an additional 35,000 from the small blind. The table folded back around to Emanuel Bell who was one of the original callers. He stood from his chair, and decided that it was time to make a stand as he shoved his last 20,000 or into the middle.
Tran:
Bell:
The board ran out and Bell busts after an entertaining run in 24th place for a collect of $10,450 in prize money.