The action has trickled to a crawl in this event but we've just witnessed the first split pot of the night between Haibo Chu and Grant Trask.
The action folded around to Chu who raised to 4,700 from the hijack position before Trask and Matthew Konnecke called from the small and big blinds respectively to go three ways into a flop of . Trask and Konnecke checked their option before Chu led out for 7,800. Trask then check-raised all-in for 23,600, forcing Konnecke out of the way before Chu called.
Chu:
Trask:
A repeat on the turn gave both players two pair and the river saw both players chop it up. In related news, we're still at 27 players. Stay tuned.
Harry Demetriou has moved back up to 150,000 after eliminating Jay Sanchez in brutal fashion.
The action folded around to Sanchez who raised to 4,200 from the cutoff. Demetriou called from the big blind before checking his option on the flop of , which saw Sanchez lead out for 8,000.
Demetriou check-potted to 33,200, Sanchez moved all-in for a total of 45,500 and Demetriou called, tabling for a flush draw against the of Sanchez.
Sanchez stayed out in front on the turn of the , but the dealer produced the on the river, giving Demetriou the flush and Sanchez his cue to exit, stage right.
Haibo Chu is now the clear chip leader, moving up to more than 230,000 in chips after a massive double-KO hand played out on the feature table.
Trask raised to 4,000 from early position and the action folded around to Chu who potted it from the small blind. Daniel Ospina called from the big blind, as did Trask before Chu led out for 40,000 on a flop of .
Ospina moved all-in for just 1,400 and Trask called all-in for around 20,000. Chu wasn't going anywhere.
Trask:
Chu:
Ospina:
"Put an ace out there," Chu said. Bling blang blow! Down came the on the turn. It was enough to take down the pot, as the river completed the board and that signalled the simultaneous end of Trask and Ospina. You gotta love this game!
The rate of attrition is starting to pick up again and we're now down to just 18 players after the eliminations of Samuel Ngai and Dave Heskin.
Heskin was eliminated at the hands of Aarno Kiveliou before Ngai called an all-in preflop with against Vince Moro's , only to be crippled down to 26,000 after the board of was spread, giving Moro the flush. Ngai was sent to the rail only moments later.
Meanwhile, Joel Gaffney has caught a timely double-up through Peter Karam when they got their money in on a flop of ; though Karam was ahead with , Gaffney completed his straight with after the turn and river ran out , . Anton Wigg delivered the finishing blow, but the dealer had already mucked the hands before we got a chance to see what they were. No matter - you could clearly tell that Karam wasn't happy with what had transpired.
We're now playing hand-for-hand after the confirmation of Ciaran Begley-Carter in 18th place, courtesy of Sean Dunwoodie.
The action folded around to Dunwoodie who raised to 7,000 from the button before the flop before Begley-Carter reraised to 19,700 all-in. Dunwoodie snap-called, tabling against Begley-Carter's (two diamonds).
As Dunwoodie recalled to us, "I hit three clubs on the flop ... that was it. All over." Well, not quite - we're still one away from the money.
The action has been very, very slow down here in the Crown Poker Room, but the rail is building up to almost two-deep, which is a good sign that poker fans are looking for a little more action these days apart from the Cadillac of poker that is No Limit Hold'em.
However, not even PLO is immune from the dreaded "raise-pre-flop-fold-all-round " routine and that's what's been happening so far, save a flop here and there.
We did however witness the double-up of Aarno Kivelio, who managed to score his much-needed chips off Antoine Bechara after his held up on a board against Bechara's . Kivelio is back up to more than 40,000 in chips.
As an added "incentive" to get things moving (hopefully) a little quicker, the decision has been made to play through until the bubble bursts before the players take their next 10-minute break of the night.
![[user135779]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Trask and Konnecke checked their option before Chu led out for 7,800. Trask then check-raised all-in for 23,600, forcing Konnecke out of the way before Chu called.
on the turn gave both players two pair and the river 
saw both players chop it up. In related news, we're still at 27 players. Stay tuned.
, which saw Sanchez lead out for 8,000.
for a flush draw against the 
of Sanchez.
, but the dealer produced the 
on the river, giving Demetriou the flush and Sanchez his cue to exit, stage right.
completed the board and that signalled the simultaneous end of Trask and Ospina. You gotta love this game!
against Vince Moro's 
was spread, giving Moro the flush. Ngai was sent to the rail only moments later.
against Begley-Carter's 
(two diamonds).
