The pace of this tournament has moved rather quickly so far today with already five eliminations into the 3rd level of play. Dan Shak was overheard to comment that "This thing is playing like a Turbo!"
The tables will remain eight-handed thoughout with play scheduled to continue until a final table is reached.
Erik Seidel has moved across to the feature table to take Jamie Pickering's vacated chair, while Jeff Lisandro was recently moved over to seat 7 on table 29.
Dan Shak approached the PokerNews desk and stated, "Did my table get easier? I'm a favourite for sure!" with a hint of sarcasm, as he now has Seidel, Phil Ivey, JC Tran, Bill Jordanou and John Juanda seated with him.
Phil Ivey moved his short stack into the middle preflop with and John Juanda made the call with .
The board ran out and just like that, Ivey's stay in the Crown Poker Room is over. He's now headed back to the Bacarrat tables, much to the disappointment of the fans on the rail.
Patrik Antonius opened with a preflop raise to 6,500 from middle position. Masa Kagawa was the lone caller from the cutoff position.
The flop landed and both players checked. The turn was the and Antonius led out for 11,000. Kagawa made the call. The river brought the , and Antonius casually splashed 24,000 into the middle. Kagawa once again made the call.
Antonius flipped for top pair, top kicker for the best hand and Kagawa mucked. Antonius is now looking dangerous with over 200,000 chips.
John Hennigan raised to 5,500 from the cutoff and Tony Bloom reraised to 20,000 from the small blind. Michael Sampoerna then came over the top for an additional 30,000 in the big blind. Hennigan folded and Bloom made the call.
Bloom:
Sampoerna:
The first four cards arrived , with Bloom freerolling to a spade to win the hand. However, the river was the and both players made a broadway straight. Chop it up!
Nam Le raised to 6,500 and David Steicke reraised to 31,500 from the big blind. Le only had a few thousand more than that amount, and decided to commit them into the middle as Steicke made the call.
Steicke:
Le:
Steicke was dominated and didn't improve as the board fell . Le doubled to 74,000 and Steicke slips to 135,000.
Tony G was the first to act and he opened to 10,000. It slowly folded around to Nam Le on the button, who raised to 30,000 which effectively put Guoga all in.
Guoga:
Le:
The board ran out and Guoga doubled to 45,000 as Le slipped back to 42,000 in chips.
Bill Jordanou limped from under the gun and Erik Seidel popped it to 11,000. John Juanda flat-called on the button, as did Jordanou.
The flop came down and Jordanou checked to Seidel, who fired 20,000. Juanda called, but the heat had become too much for Jordanou.
The turn was the and Seidel checked to Juanda, who slid 23,000 into the middle. Seidel gave it up and Juanda won a nice sized pot. He's up to 170,000 chips.