In Level 26 with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and an ante of 3,000, Daniel "leinad" Buzgon three-bet shoved for 391,000 in the cutoff over a middle-position open from "xxx6395200xxx", who called to put the BorgataPoker.com Ambassador at risk for his tournament life.
Daniel "leinad" Buzgon:
"xxx6395200xxx":
Unfortunately for Buzgon, he had run a big ace into an even bigger one. Even more unfortunately for him, no help came on the runout and he was eliminated in 8th place as a result.
In Level 26 with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and an ante of 3,000, Ryan "simlSgg" Hagerty opened to 48,000 in the hijack and saw "SaltSea" three-bet shove for 83,000 in the small blind. Katie "KatieStone" Stone folded her big blind to send action back to Hagerty, who wasted no time calling.
"SaltSea":
Ryan "simlSgg" Hagerty:
"SaltSea" was unable to find another trey on the runout and was eliminated in 11th place. Moments later, Stone herself was also eliminated by Hagerty in 10th, and nine remained as hand-for-hand play began.
Once hand-for-hand play began, "Cholie" was moved to balance tables and called off their remaining 235,000 in the big blind after Hagerty put them all in from the small blind.
"Cholie":
Ryan "simlSgg" Hagerty:
The flop came to all but ensure a double for "Cholie" until the unimaginable happened in running to give Hagerty trips and eliminate "Cholie" in ninth place just moments after they found their new seat at the table.
With the trio of eliminations, eight players now remain and the final table has officially been reached. Updated chip counts have been provided for all eight who remain.
To give you an idea of the kind of big money payouts players will be looking at in this series, we figured we would post the results from the last series in December. Just like this series, the events lasted for a full week, with a few notables earning titles, including Jake "FerociousPanda" Toole, Alex "JinYang" Butcher, Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski, and Ryan "TheSims" Hohner.
In Level 25 with blinds of 10,000/20,000 and an ante of 2,500, three immediate eliminations have occurred since the bursting of the bubble. Just 11 players now remain.
Hand #1: In Level 24 with blinds of 8,000/16,000 and an ante of 2,000, action folded to Daniel "leinad" Buzgon in the small blind and he jammed for just under half a million effective. "xxx6395200" was in the big blind and called.
Daniel "leinad" Buzgon:
"xxx6395200":
The board ran out to give "xxx6395200xxx" quads en route to an easy double. Buzgon then doubled through "xxx6395200xxx" on the following hand to get a little bit of breathing room, while "Wacek18" found themselves at risk for their tournament life on the adjacent table.
Hand #2: "Wacek18" open-jammed under the gun for 82,000 and received a call from "King_Icon" in the cutoff. All remaining players folded.
"Wacek18":
"King_Icon":
After holding the chip lead through a solid portion of the late registration period, "Wacek18" needed to hit a three outer to stay alive and avoid becoming the bubble finisher in the tournament. Instead, they watched the board appear 100% in their opponent's favor, coming to officially burst the bubble with "Wacek18" finishing in 15th place.
In Level 23 with blinds of 7,000/14,000 and an ante of 1,750, the bubble continues with 15 players still remaining. Here's a look at the shortest stacks in the field.
In Level 22 with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and an ante of 1,250, Stephanie "Stephhub0331" Hubbard scored a double just after break and then got all in preflop in the big blind against Katie "Katiestone" Stone, who was in the hijack.
Hubbard found herself on the wrong side of the coin flip as the board ran out to earn Stone the pot and the knockout with her pair of tens. At the same time as her elimination, Ted "roystalin" Ely was also eliminated, and the pair of eliminations brings the field down to 15 and one away from reaching the money.
Two tables now remain, and hand-for-hand play is in effect until one more elimination occurs.
Level 21 is now over and the tournament has reached another five-minute break after moving into Level 22 (6,000/12,000/1,250). The recent eliminations of Jon "Jetsfan411" Borenstein, RiverMan, and JayOnRiver has brought the field down to 17, just three eliminations away from reaching the money.
Ross "thehebrewhammer" finds himself as the new chip leader, and the pair of BorgataPoker.com Ambassadors in Daniel "leinad" Buzgon and Katie "KatieStone" Stone follow behind to round out the top three. Complete chip counts from all 17 remaining players have been provided below.
In Level 20 with blinds of 4,000/8,000 and an ante of 1,000, Katie "KatieStone" Stone was down to her last 38,000 and shoved from middle position. She received a call from Daniel "leinad' Buzgon in the hijack and then action folded around to Stephanie "Stephhub0331" Hubbard in the big blind, who re-jammed for 98,000. Buzgon called that shove as well and all three players' hands were shown.
Katie "KatieStone" Stone:
Stephanie "Stephhub0331" Hubbard:
Daniel "leinad" Buzgon:
Hubbard had the best hand to begin with but Stone pulled ahead on the flop . The situation remained unchanged through the turn and river and Stone earned the triple while Hubbard won the side pot.
Moments later, Stone was once again involved in a hand with Eric "alwaysliquid" Vanauken, where Vanauken shoved all in preflop for 36,000 in early position and received a call from Stone, who was in the big blind.
Eric "alwaysliquid" Vanauken:
Katie "KatieStone" Stone:
Once again, Stone connected with the flop and stayed in front through the turn and river to score another pot and bring herself up to 172,000, eliminating Vanauken along the way.
A handful of eliminations on either side of Vanauken now has the field down to 20.
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