"Sometimes you eat the bear... and sometimes the bear eats you." — The Big Lebowski
Tournament poker can be a cruel, unruly endeavor. At times, the little bit of luck involved in the game can get the best of you despite how well you may play. Just ask Phil Hellmuth how that goes. Other times, it's just the unfortunate situation of running a very big hand into another very big hand when there's not much that could've be done to avoid it. For Jason Les, he fell victim to the latter after a crazy cooler of a hand against Dzmitry Urbanovich.
The action started with pay folding to JC Alvarado on the button. He raised to 60,000, and then Les opted to three-bet to 180,000. In the big blind was Urbanovich, and he took his time before placing out a four-bet to 399,000. Alvarado quickly ducked out of the way, but then Les went into the tank. After a minute or two, Les announced that he was all in for around 1.9 million total. Urbanovich quickly looked back at his cards, then called, creating a massive pot of over 3.6 million in chips.
When the cards were revealed, Urbanovich tabled the 
to do one better than Les' 
. Following a runout of 
, Urbanovich had won the hand and the counting of the stacks began.
Urbanovich's stack was counted down to 1.793 million — a massive amount for a full double. Les had just over 100,000 more than that and sent over the chips to award the young Polish star his due. Then on the next hand, the rest of his stack was passed Max Altergott's way.
Altergott had opened with a raise and Les went all in. Altergott made the call for the extra bit of chips and displayed the 
. Les had the 
. The board came 
, and Les was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
3,664,000
2,648,000
|
2,648,000 |
|
||
|
2,100,000
160,000
|
160,000 |
|
1,130,000
270,000
|
270,000 |
|
Busted | |
. McDonald check-called a bet of 90,000, and then he checked again on the 
turn. Tollerene checked behind, and the 
landed on the river. McDonald checked once more, and Tollerene bet 160,000. McDonald called, and Tollerene showed the 
hit and again action was checked. The river brought the 
, but that was no good against Luca's 
.
when Vogelsang bet 180,000. Holz made the call, and Vogelsang tabled the 
for top pair. He won the pot, as Holz mucked his hand and dropped some chips.
and O'Dwyer checked. Luca instantly checked behind and both players checked as well on the 
on the turn. 
and Derwich bet out 150,000. Vogelsang made the call, Kurganov almost instantly folded.
completed the board and Derwich checked his option. Vogelsang contemplated what to do for a bit, before reaching for about 900,000 in chips. He firmly pushed that big tower forward and the decision was on Derwich.
