Whenever two players find aces in the hole while their stacks are short or shrinking, the money usually moves into the middle quite quickly. So when Amanda Musumeci and Bob Hwang both woke up with ace-high hands, an all-in confrontation seemed all but preordained.
Sure enough, Hwang open-jammed for his last 585,000 or so holding , and when the action folded around to her in the big blind, Musumeci snapped the bet off with her .
The final board ran out clean for Musumeci's queen kicker, coming to send Hwang to the rail for a $3,385 haul, while sending Musumeci's stack up over the 1.75 million mark.
Vincent Conte was flipping with for all the marbles, after getting his last 400,00 or so into the middle with against James Kinney's
The flop came to keep his sevens in front, and Conte was still good through the turn when it came .
River:
An expletive was let loose by Conte as he saw the river card bring its bad news, and soon he was headed away from the tournament area, the $4,475 payday for finishing in 7th place no consolation for his tournament ending so suddenly.
Sonny Kim was riding a short stack with 405,000 left and the blinds at 25,000-50,000, so he happily shipped his chips with the hoping be flipping at the very worst.
Instead, he was called by Amanda Musumeci and her , with the leaving him all but dead in the flash of a flop. The turn card came to leave Kim drawing dead, and the river was the just so he can say somebody had to hit quads to take him down.
Kim pocketed $5,565 for the deep run here today, while Musumeci climbed to about 2.3 million with the knockout.
James Kinney's continued heater just cost Charles Katz the last of his 375,000 chip stack.
Katz was all in before the flop with his , but Kinney could afford the loose call with his , so he took a shot to jump up the pay ladder by stepping on another man's neck.
Flop:
The sight of a queen on the flop prompted Katz to stand in anticipation of imminent defeat, and when the turn card came his premonition was proven to be accurate. Katz was drawing dead and the meaningless came on the river, pairing him just to rub in the badness of the beat.
Despite falling short of his goal, Katz received $6,770 for his deep run here today. Kinney, meanwhile, continued to roll through the final table, busting yet another player to extend his enormous chip lead.
With just four players left vying for this Event 13 title - and the $30,988 payday awaiting tonight's winner - here are the current standings in terms of chip count:
After coming to the table with less than five big blinds to his name, Josh Baer managed to jump up six rungs on the payout ladder, finishing in 4th place for a $6,770 payday.
Baer committed his last 675,000 or so before the flop with , and J.J. Tozzi snap-called with his - a virtual monster in a four-handed game against an open-shove from the table short stack.
The final board ran out , and despite a deuce being delivered on the flop, the man known as "JerseyJosh" online was unable to overcome Tozzi's overpair. Tozzi pushed above the 3 million chip plateau with the win.
Amanda Musumeci was all in for her last 1.2 million or so with , but she was dominated by James Kinney's .
"Nice hand..." said Musumeci, her words an offering to the poker gods in return for a miracle.
The flop of left Musumeci drawing rather thin, but the on the turn was her gin card. When no king came on the river (), Musumeci moved to 2.7 million or so, while Kinney dropped down to the low stack with just under 1.8 million.