From the cutoff seat, Chance Kornuth opened to 62,000, and Kyle Bowker three-bet to 150,000 from the button. When it came back to Kornuth, he took his pause to consider his options. The decision was made; Kornuth announced an all-in four-bet for about 1.8 million, and Bowker instantly called with the covering stack (after doubling through Kornuth once already).
Showdown
Bowker:
Kornuth: (gulp!)
There was no sweat at all as the board ran friendly for Bowker: . With that, our start-of-day chip leader has become the 18th place finisher at EPT London. He'll take home the £21,000 prize, though that looks as if it's little consolation for the man who was the monster stack for nearly a full day.
On the flip side, Kyle Bowker now holds a commanding lead with about 4.4 million chips stacked in front of him.
Over at table 3 again and this time it is Per Ummer who opened on the button for 81,000. Per had an effective stack of ~2.7 million. Thomas Bichon made the call in the big blind. Thomas had an effective stack of ~1.5 million.
Flop:
Both players checked.
Turn:
Again neither player showed any interest and both made the check.
River:
This time there was interest as Bichon made a bet of 85,000. Ummer immediately raised to 200,000 and Bichon instantly mucked his hand.
Joe Hachem is in short stack territory as he sits on en effective stack of ~ 400,000.
John Juanda opened to 81,000 under the gun. Rumit Somaiya made the three-bet in the next seat - making it 225,000. Hachem immediately knew he had a decision to make for his tournament life and went into the tank.
After a few minutes he decided that he wanted to stick around a little longer and mucked. Juanda's cards followed and Somaiya added 128,000 to his stack.
John O'Shea raised to 65,000 under the gun and to his immediate left Tom Marchese re-popped to 160,000. It folded around to Kyle Bowker in the big blind, who rather intriguingly flat-called. O'Shea thought about it for a long time before also making the call.
The flop came down and Bowker bet out 150,000. O'Shea quickly folded and didn;t look happy at all - that preflop call left with just 400,000 or so to his name. Marchese, in much better shape chip-wise than O'Shea, called.
They went heads up to a turn and this time Bowker checked. Marchese bet a hefty 290,000, and Bowker called.
The pot was pretty big by this point, but it wasn't going to get any bigger. Bowker checked again on the river and this time Marchese checked behind before revealing . Bowker showed him that had been behind all the way, and although he retained the chip lead, his count dropped to around 3.8 million. Marchese moved on up to 2.55 million.
Just 16 players remain now, meaning that they can be squeezed on to two tables. They're taking a quick break but here are the players remaining:
Table 1:
Seat 1: Tom Marchese
Seat 2: Steven Levy
Seat 3: Matt Perrins
Seat 4: Robert Nulli
Seat 5: Kyle Bowker
Seat 6: Fernando Brito
Seat 7: David Vamplew
Seat 8: Kayvan Payman
Table 3:
Seat 1: Artur Wasek
Seat 2: Rumit Somaiya
Seat 3: Per Ummer
Seat 4: Jannick Wrang
Seat 5: Thomas Bichon
Seat 6: Joe Hachem
Seat 7: John Juanda
Seat 8: John Hall
David Vamplew opened up the action from the cut-off, making it 60,000 to play. Matt Perrin moved all-in from the big blind and Vamplew asked for a count.
The Dealer announced 696,000 and after some consideration Vamplew made the call.
Vamplew:
Perrin:
Flop:
Turn:
River:
Perrin survives to fight another hand as the two of them split the pot and the consolation prize of the blinds.
Jannick Wrang raised from the cutoff, before going all in to a reraise from John Juanda in the big blind. It took less than a second for Juanda to call.
Wrang:
Juanda:
It's my favourite hand," explained Juanda. And he probably liked it even more after the board had been dealt.
Board:
With that, Wrang's run ended. Before we could count Juanda's new stack, though, something else happened...
The next hand, Joe Hachem open-shoved for around 300,000 from the button, and John Juanda called instantly from the small blind.
Hachem:
Juanda:
Board:
In the end, the 2005 World Champion went with a whimper rather than a bang. Mr. Hachem will not be joining Gavin Griffin and Roland de Wolfe in the super-exclusive club of triple crown winners this time around, as he is busto in 15th place.
We had enough time to count Juanda's stack after that second elimination though - he's now at 2.95 million.