In a seven-way limped pot the players saw a flop of . The small blind led out for 500 with Antonio Fazzolari and Ben Delaney the only callers.
The three players saw the fall on the turn and the play checked through to Delaney who fired 1,500. Both opponents made the call.
The river was the and the small blind led out for 2,000. Fazzolari called before Delaney made it 10,000 to play. The small blind folded face up (and copped a one orbit penalty for doing so) as Fazzolari made the call.
Delaney tabled but Fazzolari held for the same straight. Chop it up boys!
Haidaris: heave-ho'ed out of the Main Event
The action started very slowly in today's flight, but since the players recharged their batteries during the first break, we've been rushed off our feet (which is always a good thing).
Amongst some of the most recent eliminations within this level include Ben Invelito, Yvo Molin and Nick Haidaris.
Nathan: no good
The backers for ChipMeUp's Rayan 'rkruok' Nathan will be disappointed to see his name on the casualty list as he was eliminated on the very next hand after Nali Kaselias was sent to the rail.
With the flop reading , Nathan led out for 1,200, only to see Jie Gao raise to 3,400. Nathan moved all in and Gao insta-called.
Nathan:
Gao:
Nathan was ahead with top two pair, but Gao struck gold with the on the turn for the straight! Needing a queen or nine to wrestle back the pot, a repeat spiked on the river and was enough to see Nathan go busto.
We thought we'd jinxed Andrew Jeffreys after he recently copped a bad beat with aces against jacks to lose half his stack, however the justice has been restored after Jeffreys doubled through Aleks Brkovic moments later.
Brkovic opened to 650 from under the gun and found three callers to go to a flop of . Action checked to Brkovic who tossed out 1,350. Jeffreys popped it to 4,400 to force the other players from the pot, before Brkovic moved all in. Jeffreys made the call with his tournament on the line.
Brkovic:
Jeffreys:
The turn was the and river the and Jeffreys doubles back to 26,500 with Brkovic slipping to 22,000.
Kaselias: crunched
2008 PokerNews Cup Champion Nali Kaselias will have to consider entering the "semichage" tomorrow afternoon after being eliminated by Sammy Khouiss.
With the flop reading , Kaselias led out for 3,000, Khouiss raised to 6,000 and Kaselias called.
On the turn of the , all the money ended up in the middle - Kaselias was the shorter of the two stacks with 7,700.
Khouiss:
Kaselias:
Requiring one of the two aces or a ten to make a straight, the river was a meaningless and Kaselias' tournament life came to an end.
Khouiss now moves up to the top of the chip counts with 62,000.
What a week it's been for Andrew Jeffreys! The man knows as "Adgee" is a frequent contributor to ChipMeUp with buying and selling of shares to major online and live tournaments. Many of his shareholders would be thrilled with the success of Jeffreys on the felt this week.
First Jeffreys won the heads-up portion of the PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge. Unfortunately that win didn't bring a trophy, so he backed up two days later to win the $550 Tony G Celebrity Bounty Shootout event which was good for a $20,520 score and the coveted trophy that Jeffreys had been craving for so long.
He's back at work again today with a mission to win his third event of the series and has currently chipped up nicely to 28,000.
Last night, Jeffreys caught up with PokerNews' own Lynn Gilmartin following his big victory.
Aristidou: not so good from the rail
Peter Aristidou has been eliminated from the tournament after moving all in for 18,000 with pocket kings on a flop of , only to be called down by a player holding .
The turn produced a to give the opponent the straight and the river bricked out, sending Aristidou to the rail - which is where he told this very story to this blogger from.
Saidal Wardak's last 5,475 was all in on the turn with pocket eights against an opponent holding a bare flush draw with his , but an ace from space on the river landed to pair up his opponent and send Wardak to the rail.
Lundari: loses some chips
All the money was in the middle between Kristian Lunardi and Julian Powell on a flop of . We caught the action just as the cards were being tabled:
Powell:
Lunardi:
Powell was well ahead with two pair, but Lunardi still had a chance to knock him out with the flush draw.
However the turn and river ran out , seeing Lundari drop to 18,000 while Powell doubled through, now up to 31,000.
According to the big screen, we have 171 entrants for the opening flight of the 2009 PokerNews Cup. With this event being an abbreviated repechage (semichage) event, it's difficult to get a grasp on the significance of the size of this field.
The number is comparable to last year's opening flight which also drew 171 players for an event which drew a field of 410 in total.
With this year's event allowing players who bust today the chance to rebuy back into tomorrow, you may have expected today's flight to be produce a little more than 171 if players were looking to take advantage of the second chance opportunity.
So it should mean that tomorrow's field will be a rather hefty one if we're to exceed last year's numbers.
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. The small blind led out for 500 with Antonio Fazzolari and Ben Delaney the only callers.
fall on the turn and the play checked through to Delaney who fired 1,500. Both opponents made the call.
and the small blind led out for 2,000. Fazzolari called before Delaney made it 10,000 to play. The small blind folded 
face up (and copped a one orbit penalty for doing so) as Fazzolari made the call.
but Fazzolari held 
for the same straight. Chop it up boys!
, Nathan led out for 1,200, only to see Jie Gao raise to 3,400. Nathan moved all in and Gao insta-called.
on the turn for the straight! Needing a queen or nine to wrestle back the pot, a repeat 
. Action checked to Brkovic who tossed out 1,350. Jeffreys popped it to 4,400 to force the other players from the pot, before Brkovic moved all in. Jeffreys made the call with his tournament on the line.
and Jeffreys doubles back to 26,500 with Brkovic slipping to 22,000.
, only to be called down by a player holding 
to give the opponent the straight and the river bricked out, sending Aristidou to the rail - which is where he told this very story to this blogger from.
