Tony 'bond18' Dunst was towards the bottom of the chip counts at the start of today's session with 32,900, but has eliminated another opponent in a recent hand to move up to 175,000.
Dunst min-raised under the gun preflop to 4,000 before the opponent on the button reraised all in. Dunst made the call.
Dunst:
Opponent:
The flop came down kept Dunst ahead, but the opponent picked up more outs when the appeared on the turn. Needing a non-club queen to chop, the river was a meaningless and Dunst's hand held up, sending the opponent packing.
Jarred "FlopNutsOnYou" Graham opened to 5,000 before Jason Brown made it 20,000 to go. Graham shoved all in for his last 44,000 and Brown made the call.
Graham:
Brown:
The board fell and Brown's pair holds up to send the Sydney Champs winner to the rail as Brown moves up to over 205,000 chips.
Peter Mordaunt hasn't wasted any time getting busy at his new table as he seems to have decided it's time to gamble.
He observed him shove all in on multiple occasions for all of his 70,000-chip stack before Ali Ghezelbash woke up with pocket kings in the small blind and made the call. Mordaunt had the but another king on the flop was enough to double Ghezelbash.
However that didn't stop Mordaunt as he again kept shoving and again found a caller. This time Mordaunt's ran into an opponent's but Mordaunt hit the board as it arrived to give Mordaunt the double up. After all that Mordaunt is back to 60,000 chips.
Daniel Neilson has moved up the chip counts once again after eliminating Ben 'CNT_CRUSHER' Delaney in dramatic fashion.
With all the money in the middle before the flop, Neilson held against Delaney's and it was off to the races.
The flop of put Delaney in the lead and he had Neilson in deep, deep trouble when the appeared on the turn, leaving him just one out in the form of the ...
... which miraculously appeared on the river!
Delaney's stack was shipped over and he was shipped out as Neilson turned to Tony Dunst and said, "I like running good."
76 players remain as we tick over the halfway mark of this level and there have been a venerable cornucopia of big name bust-outs.
Grant Levy was responsible for the elimination of Leo Boxell after Levy's caught a flush against Boxell's on a board of ; Levy is now up to 120,000 in chips.
John Delassandri has also been eliminated after his pocket nines ran into Joe Cabret's pocket jacks and didn't improve on a board; Cabret moves on up to 72,000.
William Skountzos, Angela 'LaLa' Connell and Michael 'TheBigSiCko' Guzzardi have also been amongst the eliminations during this level.
Damien Griggs opened from late position to 5,100 and found two callers to see a flop.
The action checked to Griggs who fired 11,100. Michael Mifsud made the call in the small blind and the two went heads up to the turn which was the .
Mifsud checked to Griggs who fired 32,100. Again Mifsud made the call as a big pot was brewing before the landed on the river. Both players checked it down.
Griggs tabled for trip jacks which was good as Mifsud flashed . Mifsud is down to 76,000 with Griggs now behind a commanding stack worth 212,000 chips.
Security guards were almost called in to break up the commotion and are now watching over table 32 after the biggest pot of the tournament played out between Jonathon 'xMONSTERxDONGx' Karamalikis and Minh Nguyen.
Karamalikis raised from early position preflop to 4,500, another opponent called and Nguyen reraised to 16,000. Karamalikis then made it 38,000 to go as the other opponent got out of the way.
Nguyen proceeded to move all in for 170,300. Karamalikis snap-called.
Karamalikis:
Nguyen:
Players from other tables jumped out of their seats and ran over to catch the action. The flop of was of no help to either player but Karamalikis stayed out in front.
Nguyen was left with a two-outer when the turn produced the - the crowd edged around and held their breath as the dealer burned and turned ...
... but the cries of horror went up when the spiked on the river. Karamalikis' expletives were so painfully loud the whole of the poker room almost fell silent.
More and more people rushed over to find out what was going on as Nguyen sat in his seat and kept his eyes down, not even looking up at the stacks of chips being cut down for him.
Karamalikis stormed off to get some much-needed space - he's now on just 78,000 as Nguyen moves up to be our new chipleader on 350,000.