Action was picked up on the river in a massive pot between Tim Garles and Vid Zagar.
The board read K♥J♥3♠5♣10♦ and Zagar had checked over to Garles who moved all in for 2,500,000 total. After some time, Zagar called and the cards were on their backs.
Vid Zagar: K♠Q♠
Tim Garles: A♥7♥
Zagar screamed "yes!" as his pair of kings was good for the pot and the player who already had pulled the $100k bounty continued his journey in the tournament.
As part of PokerNews’ continuing Industry Insiders series, we caught up with Golden Nugget’s poker shift manager Mike Godfrey, who this summer is serving as Tournament Manager and Administrator for Grand Poker Series under Andy Rich, who we previously featured in his own Industry Insiders profile here.
Godfrey, 38, graduated from UNLV with a degree in American History and is a proud husband as well as a father of two children.
“I have worked in the poker industry for 13+ years and have been playing since I moved into town when I was 21,” Godfrey told PokerNews. “I was hired as a dealer for my first job at the Joker’s Wild Casino. I quickly moved on to the Mirage where I learned that I would work more hours if I learned to be a supervisor and in return was mentored by one of the all-time greatest in Mark Gershof.”
From there he was hired as a tournament manager at the Golden Nugget in November 2014.
“I was lucky to be hired by the Golden Nugget as a tournament manager and from there I took over the graveyard shift and am lucky enough to still be manning that post for seven years. My mentor, Mark Getshof, knew the acting manager at the time and put in a good word for me. It must have been an incredible one because I was hired on the spot and have pushed myself every day to be worthy of that recommendation still.”
When he started, Godfrey oversaw little nightly tournament 5-6 days a week. The priority was simple – turn a two-table tournament into a six-table tournament. Within three months, he did exactly that and their daily events soon became a popular attraction.
“After working my first Grand Poker Series with Andy Rich at the helm of operations we learned that the mission became even larger — turn GPS into a tournament destination for pokers players of all buy in ranges and demographics,” Godfrey shared. “I was turned into a shift manager on graveyard where we were struggling, and the goal became to change the direction of how late night poker was handled at the Golden Nugget. With the help of my team of dealers we have made that shift into a thriving place for poker."
He added: “The theme for the goals across the goal was simple – build. Make things better, keep things fun, and make the world of poker great for everybody involved.”
Tim Garles raised to 200,000 from early position and Nikolaos Angelou three-bet to 450,000. Andreas Chalkiadakis moved all in for 775,000, Forrest Raleigh moved all in having all players covered, Garles folded and Angelou called to put himself at risk for 1,900,000.
Andreas Chalkiadakis: A♣Q♣
Nikolaos Angelou: Q♠Q♥
Forrest Raleigh: J♦J♥
The flop of 6♣10♣3♣ saw Chalkiadakis excitedly walked over to his rail as he had flopped a flush leaving both of his opponents drawing very thin. The turn peeled off a J♠ leaving Angelou drawing dead to the main pot and only one out to survive while Raleigh found a myriad of outs to scoop both. The river 3♠ was one of those outs and Raleigh knocked out two players in one hand with his rivered full house.
Christopher Maguire opened to 650,000 from the hijack, leaving 100,000 behind. Kurt Randinger put him all in from the big blind and Maguire put in his last few chips.
Christopher Maguire: Q♦10♠
Kurt Radinger: A♥9♥
Maguire failed to connect on the 8♥7♥4♠A♠2♦ runout and was eliminated.
Felipe Olivieri raised to 200,000 in first position which saw Nektarios Vasilakis call in the big blind.
The flop rolled out Q♥9♠4♠ and Vasilakis checked over to Olivieri who bet 250,000 and Vasilakis called.
The turn came out the J♦ and Vasilakis checked over to Olivieri a second time which saw another bet, this time to the tune of 1,200,000 and Vasilakis responded by moving all in for 1,900,000 and Olivieri called.
Felipe Olivieri: Q♣J♠
Nektarios Vasilakis: 10♣9♣
The river 4♦ did not improve Vasilakis and he exited the tournament area.
Action was picked up with cards on their backs with Yuan Yu all in for his remaining 1,300,000 from the cutoff and Eduardo Amaral Silva having moved all in from the button and everyone else folded.
Yuan Yu: 9x9x
Eduardo Amaral Silva: AxKx
The board ran out KxQx9x8xJx and the nines found a set on the flop to improve while Yu exited the tournament area.
