Cary Katz was all in and at risk with on a flop of . Philipp Gruissem held , and made a flush when the turn produced the . Katz could still fill up with an ace or six on the river, but the was no help.
Katz was eliminated, while Gruissem is up to 400,000 chips.
Katz quickly re-entered, and drew the same exact same.
Vladimir Troyanovsky opened to 8,500 in the cutoff seat, Vanessa Selbst called on his direct left, and Vivek Rajkumar defended his big blind. The flop fell , Rajkumar checked, and Troyanovsky fired 11,000. Only Selbst called.
The turn was the , both players checked, and the river was the . The two knuckled again.
Troyanovsky rolled over , and Selbst scrunched her face before mucking.
It's usually bad karma not to chop when action folds to the blinds in a cash game, but that's not an option in a tournament like this. As such, we witness a blind-versus-blind battle that just saw a 500,000 chip pot pushed Timothy Adams' way.
It began when action folded to Mike "Timex" McDonald in the small blind and he opened for 11,500. Adams responded with a three-bet to 26,500 from the big blind, McDonald four-bet to 55,500, and Adams shoved all in for 252,000. McDonald, who only had 267,000, made the call to put Adams at risk.
Showdown
McDonald:
Adams:
McDonald got it in good, but Adams managed to pull ahead in this race when the flop came down . Neither the turn nor river helped McDonald and he was left with just 15,000 after the hand.
Philipp Gruissem opened to 9,000 in middle position, and Bill Perkins three-bet to 24,000 on the button. The action folded back to Gruissem, who unhappily folded as well.
After Timothy Adams had opened from the button, a short-stacked JC Alvarado moved all in from the big blind for 50,500. Adams made the call and the cards were turned up:
Showdown
Adams:
Alvarado:
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Alvarado was a 81.12% favorite to win the hand. The flop saw his chances increase to 92.02%, while the turn made it 95.45%; in fact, the only cards Adams could win with was one of the two remaining threes. The dealer burned one last time and put out the , which actually improved Alvarado to a flush.
Meanwhile, Philipp Gruissem has opted to fire a second bullet and is now seated between Adams and Alvarado.
Shortly after doubling, Jeff Gross lost a flip and is now eliminated.
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier opened to 8,000 on the button, and Gross three-bet jammed for around 100,000 from the small blind. Mercier called, and the hands were opened:
Mercier:
Gross:
The eights held as the board ran out , and Gross was eliminated.