Darko Balaban had gone almost unnoticed throughout the day but has come of nowhere to move up to 50,000 in chips.
A player under the gun raised to 3,200 preflop before another in middle position reraised all in for 13,200. Balaban reraised all in, forcing the under-the-gun player out of the way.
Balaban:
Opponent:
The board ran out ; the player under the gun couldn't believe his bad luck, saying that he had folded !
Michael Pinzone was the latest player to be eliminated by Luke McLean, who now sits on around 120,000 in chips.
McLean raised to 5,000 under the gun and his neighbour called before Pinzone reraised all in over the top, making it another 18,300 to go.
McLean counted the difference out of his stack, then after a minutes' deliberation he committed the chips. The other player got out of the way and the cards were tabled:
McLean:
Pinzone:
The board was spread , sending Pinzone to the rail.
Jason Wicks will be heading back to Sydney and back to work at Star City after moving all in with preflop for his last 25,000 but lost a flip against an opponent's pocket eights.
Barry Woods currently heads our chip counts on 173,500 as we move into the final hour of play, followed closely by JP Kelly (149,000) and Luke McLean (120,000).
However we saw a massive stack of chips with an empty chair behind it - luckily one of our field reporters caught the man as he headed up the escalators.
His name is Semon Deeb and he's now second place in our counts, currently on 152,000 behind Woods.
Deeb doesn't look as if he's in any rush to get back to his table, but we reckon that if you've got such a massive stack, why not take five?
"Carwash" George Cotaidis has just been busted at the hands of Jim Sachinidis after moving the last of his stack into the middle with and found himself in a flip against Sachinidis' .
Neither hand improved on the flop of , but the hit on the turn and held when the bricked out on the river, ending Cotaidis' run and sending Sachinidis' stack up to 39,000.
Jeff Putt opened from the cutoff to 6,000 and Ben Delaney three-bet him out of the big blind to 19,000. Putt thought a moment and called going heads up to the .
Delaney went deep into the tank while playing with his chips. He eventually announced all in and Putt made a reasonably quick call.
Putt:
Delaney:
Putt would be in front but would have to dodge Delaney's outs. The turn was all clear, as was the river to move Putt up to around 100,000 chips.
Delaney was left with just 3,000 chips. A short time later he moved in with and found an opponent with out of the blinds.
A flop would leave Delaney in trouble and when the board blanked out turn and river he hit the rail.
Yep, someone just had their aces cracked. A short stack reraised all in with but found behind him. The intial raiser folded but the short stack exploded out of his seat after the board came out
Bruno Portaro has just managed to get his stack up to 70,000 after bluffing Justin Layden and another opponent out of a pot.
The action folded around to Layden who raised to 5,000 from the button. The small blind called, as did Portaro from the big blind to go three ways into a flop of .
The small blind checked and Portaro moved all in. Layden and the small blind quickly folded and Portaro showed for a baby flush draw.
Layden doesn't look fussed - he's still on 160,000 in chips.