Action folded to Laurent Polito in the small blind and he raised to 16,000 against Andrew Lichtenberger's big blind. Lichtenberger fired back with a retaliatory three-bet to 48,000. Polito reraised to 125,000 and then Lichtenberger shoved in. Polito gave it up and Lichtenberger climbed to over 600,000 in chips.
From under the gun, Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel raised to 16,000. Joao Vieira reraised from the cutoff seat to 41,000 and then Alex Bilokur, the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller champion, reraised all in for 213,000 from the small blind.
Action moved back to Duhamel and he folded. Vieira took a few moments, then made the call with the . Bilokur had the .
The flop came out and Vieira picked up top pair to maintain the lead. Bilokur got help in the form of a flush draw and landed that flush after the landed on the turn. The river completed the board with the and Bilokur doubled up.
Bertrand Grospellier is starting to put together a run here late in this tournament, he's just knocked out another player. Andrey Lobzhanidze had moved all in with but ran into the Frenchman's when the board came .
We're down to 15 players and "Elky" is among the chip leaders.
Joao Vieira raised to 24,000 in the small blind before JC Alvarado made it 56,000 in the big blind. Vieira moved all in and Alvarado instantly called.
Vieira:
Alvarado:
The flop was , Vieira flopped a gutshot but Alvarado picked up a flush draw, the turn changed nothing but the brought some audible groans from some of the other players.
"Does that qualify as 'so sick' Elky?" asked the saddened Mexican.
Kurganov held the , but was in a tough spot against the for Grospellier. After the flop came down , Kurganov was in need of runner-runner to stay alive.
The turn brought the and the river the , eliminating Kurganov from the tournament.