Sammy Smith has a huge smile on his face and a spot up close to chip leader Michael Mizrachi after a massive hand here at Seneca Niagara.
The details are a bit sketchy, but the gist of it is that Smith flopped two pair, his opponent hit his gutshot straight draw on the turn, Smith rivered a full house and a boatload of chips went his way.
The pace has slowed here late in the evening. Slow enough that Nachman Berlin just fell asleep at the table. Berlin, who's grinding a 65,000-chip stack, had to be shaken by the dealer to wake up when action had folded to him. "Biggest grind of my life," Berlin said as the table got a good laugh.
DeepStacks Pro Adam Levy is out and Jonathan Dimmig is healthy again after a pre-flop raising war that ended with Levy shoving and Dimmig making a relatively easy call with .
"I don't think I'm getting out of this one," Levy said, holding and very little hope as the board ran out to end his Western New York Poker Championship run.
Mike Matusow had been running well against his buddy Michael Mizrachi today. But "The Grinder" just had the last laugh over at Table 24.
Three players went to a flop. The player in the big blind checked, Matusow bet 6,600, Mizrachi called, and the blind blind folded. On the turn, Matusow checked and Mizrachi fired 15K. Matusow paused before announcing he was all in, and Mizrachi snap-called:
Mizrachi:
Matusow:
Mizrachi led with his two pair, and the on the river sealed the deal for "The Grinder," who now boasts a stack of close to 400,000. Matusow's exit leaves Mizrachi, Adam "Roothlus" Levy and Karina Jett as the only Team DeepStacks Pros still alive. Jett just doubled to 25,000 over at the feature table.
Team DeepStacks Pro Karina Jett was crippled on the last hand before the break. A player in middle position raised to 3,200, the button called, and Jett shoved for around 45,000 from the small blind. Action folded back to the original raiser, who called all in for around 34,000 total. The button folded, and the cards were revealed.
Jett:
Opponent:
An ace in the window left Jett drawing to the last king in the deck as her neighbor on the button told her he folded the .The board bricked out for Jett, and she left for her break with just 11K. That'll be 5.5 big blinds when she returns for Level 12.
Deepstacks Pro Adam Levy just found a way to double up, despite getting it in bad.
We caught the action on the flop with Levy making it 4,700 and one-time chip leader Jonathan Dimmig making the call. The turn came the and after Dimmig checked, Levy led out again, making it 7,800.
Dimmig check-raised it up to 17k and Levy shoved for a little over 40,000. Dimmig snap called and was way ahead of Levy's holding .
However, the miracle came down on the river, giving Levy a better two pair, sparing his tournament life and doubling him up to 100k.
Rich Belsky said earlier today he didn't want to be seated anywhere near Michael Mizrachi on Day 1. Now we know why.
Belsky told us that he called Mizrachi's 3,000 chip raise preflop and the two saw a ten-high flop with two hearts. The action went quickly from there. Belsky ended up all in for around 40,000 total with for top pair, and Mizrachi had a flush draw with a gutshot straight draw. A heart on the turn sent a dagger through Belsky's tournament life, putting an end to his rollercoaster day.
Mizrachi, meanwhile, is above 300,000. Food for thought: The average stack at the six-handed final table on Sunday will be just over 900,000.