With roughly 2,000,000 chips already in the pot, and a flop showing 4♠9♥6♥, Vasyl Palandiuk manoeuvred his remaining 4,505,000 into the middle from the button, versus Vincent Dynes in the small blind.
Vasyl Palandiuk: J♠J♣
Vincent Dynes: J♥9♦
The 8♥ gave Palandiuk concern, but the 7♠ river was a brick, seeing him scoop in a huge pot.
Victor Ponciano opened under the gun, prompting Vasyl Palandiuk to three-bet to 1,00,000 in the next seat over. The action folded back to Ponciano, who four-bet all in for 4,300,000. Palandiuk quickly called with the covering stack.
Victor Ponciano: A♠Q♦
Vasyl Palandiuk: K♥K♦
Ponciano went looking for an ace, but none were to be found on the 9♦2♥9♥J♥10♦ runout. He headed to the exit as Palandiuk chipped up further, seizing the tournament chip lead with a stack of nearly 18,000,000.
Danny Verheij opened the action with a raise to 400,000 in the hijack. Ali Abdulzahra then three-bet to 1,300,000 in the cutoff, and Luca Bernardi put in a four-bet to 2,500,000 on the button.
Verheij quickly got out of the way, but Abdulzahra called to see the J♥4♠A♥ flop. Abdulzahra checked, Bernardi fired a bet of 1,200,000, and Abdulzahra called.
The 5♣ turn saw Bernardi size up to 2,500,000. Abdulzahra check-called once more, after which he went into the tank on the Q♦ river.
After a while, he decided to move all in. Bernardi snap-called his 4,280,000 remaining chips and tabled A♠A♣ for top set. Abdulzahra could not believe his eyes as he showed J♠J♦ for a lower set.
Ali Abdulzahra - Luca Bernardi
The massive pot was shipped to Bernardi, who doubled up to become the first player to cross the 20-million mark. Abdulzahra, meanwhile, saw his big stack whittled down to just 12 and a half big blinds.
In the 949th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, Chad Holloway, Mike Holtz, and Ben Ludlow do an emergency show to react to the long-awaited video by Doug Polk in which he discusses the raid on his Texas card club. The Lodge. Find out what the large shareholder had to say, his timeline of events, and where things currently stand.
Plus, what did Doug think about the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) theory, some reasons players should remain optimistic for a positive outcome, and why Thursday, April 9, is an important date to remember.
Find out all about those stories and more in this week's episode of the PokerNews Podcast! Oh, and be sure to check out the audio version of the PokerNews Podcast that is available on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
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