With 23 players remaining in the tournament, we're just 5 eliminations away from the money. As expected, play has tightened up quite a bit as many of the players hope to fold their way into the money.
Five limpers saw a flop of and Sol Bergren leads at the pot for 4,000. Anna Wroblewski makes the call and the turn brings the . Bergren bets another 8,000 and Wroblewski shoves the rest of her chips in the middle. Bergren makes the call and the cards are shown.
Bergren:
Wroblewski:
Bergren held the lead with trip kings but the on the river gives Wroblewski the flush, leaving Bergren crippled.
The very next hand Wroblewski raises it up pre-flop once again and is re-raised by Billy "The Croc" Argyros as well as Sol Bergren. With both short stacks committed to their hands, the money goes in with Wroblewski in great shape:
Argyros:
Bergren:
Wroblewski:
The board bricks out and Wroblewski claims two victims as "The Croc" and Bergren are both eliminated from today's event!
Martin Cardno has been eliminated in unfortunate circumstances. With all of his chips in the middle holding A-K, Cardno was in great shape against the A-Q of Sam Youssef. However when a couple more ladies landed on the board, Cardno was unlucky to be sent to the rail.
After eight levels of play, we've lost 161 of the original 189 runners, leaving us with just 28 players. Alex Keating is currently at the top of our leaderboard with 72,000 in chips, followed closely behind by Richard Holmes who comes in with 67,000.
Notably, Australian pro Mel Judah was eliminated by Sam Youssef just before the dinner break when his aces got cracked by Youssef's pocket eights in a three-way all in confrontation. Youssef spiked a third eight on the river to send Judah to the rail.
The players have been released for dinner until approximately 8:30 p.m. local time. Stay with us - we'll be in the money shortly after the break!
On a board showing , Sherif Derias bet the pot (approximately 5,000) and David Gorr made the call. Another jack fell off on the turn () and Sherif moved all in for a total of 10,000. Gorr made the call and turned over for trip jacks; Sherif tabled for aces up. Derias needed an ace on the river to stay alive, but the last card off the deck was the and Derias was eliminated from the competition.
In a battle of the blinds Michael Tomeny and Phillip Peters saw a flop of . Tomeny from the small blind bet out for the last of his chips and Peters made the call.
Tomeny:
Peters:
The turn was the and river and Michael Tomeny was headed to the rail.
Julian Powell had all of his money in the middle with an open-ended straight-flush draw against Alex Keating who held trip nines. Powell missed on the river and after some mutterings about the quality of his opponents he exited the poker room.