With about 20,000 in the pot, on a board reading , Ben Heath shoved his stack in the middle, putting Jean Ferreira to the test for his tournament life.
Ferreira had about 31,000 behind and decided to call.
Heath:
Ferreira:
Ferreira needed some help with third pair and couldn't get there when the hit the river, sending him to the rail.
Action folded to Martin Finger on the button and he raised to 3,000, which Anthony Diotte called from the small blind. The latter proceeded to check-call a bet of 3,000 and then both players checked the turn.
When the completed the board on the river, Diotte led out for 9,500 and that did the trick as Finger wasted little time in releasing his hand.
We found Davidi Kitai heavily pondering whether to call a final bet from a small blind opponent on a board of . There was already about 50,000 in the middle and Kitai's opponent had fired 17,000 on the end.
"I have a big, big ace," Kitai said. "Will you show me if I fold?"
His opponent was unresponsive. Finally, someone else called a clock on Kitai. He seemed truly pained and ultimately let the clock run out.
"Show?" he asked.
"He folded?" the small blind said.
When he got confirmation, the small blind showed , and everyone at the table expressed amazement, saying they were sure he had it.
Jason Wheeler bet 4,600 from under the gun on a flop of . One opponent folded but Bryn Kenney was stickier in the big blind. The two high rollers exchanged some banter as they both checked a , and Kenney bet 14,000 when the hit. Wheeler thought a bit but folded.
Action folded to Tito Ortiz in late position and he decided to limp in.
Serge Pouliot was in the cutoff and raised to 4,000. Ortiz paused for a moment and eventually called.
The flop came . Ortiz checked and Pouliot bet 3,800. Ortiz called.
The turn was the . Ortiz checked again, and this time Pouilot bet 11,600. Ortiz thought about it but opted to fold.
As Pouliot was raking in the pot he said to Ortiz, "I'll show you because you're a frightening man" and tabled . Ortiz laughed and said, "I had the jack".
As we arrived, Ben Heath already had his 105,300-stack in the middle. Heath sat in the cutoff and his opponent was Dmitry Ponomarev in the hijack who had committed 27,000 to the pot already. Later we learned, that Heath had cold four-bet shoved. Ponomarev tanked for quite some time before he eventually committed.