It remains unclear when the chips went into the middle, but the former big stack of Ben had been cut well short as he doubled table neighbour Matthew Whitelaw in a rather big pot.
On a board of 10♣7♣3♥Q♠9♦, the A♠K♠ of Ben had missed a turned gutshot and Whitelaw joined the bigger stacks with the A♥A♦.
In a preflop four-bet pot with 15,500 in the middle to the 5♠4♦2♠ flop, there were 8,000 chips out in front of Alvin Pillay. Didier Mery then check-raised to 20,000 and Pillay needed two time bank extensions before folding.
Pillay inquired if his opponent had aces, then kings, then queens.
Mery smiled back and said he wasn't going to reveal it.
Pillay grabbed a T-500 chip as possible bribe and Mery jokingly took two T-5,000 chips out of his stack.
Aidan Jacobs was all-in for 7,600 against a fellow short stack one seat over and at risk holding the 8♠8♥ versus J♦J♣.
The 8♦2♦2♥ flop saw Jacobs vault out of his chair and he then celebrated when the 6♣ turn as well as 7♥ river confirmed another double.
Over on table 16, a bigger pot emerged between Terry Brookes and his table neighbour. By the time the turn showed J♥4♠3♠3♥, there were more than 37,000 in the middle and Terry Brookes pushed all-in for 29,400. His neighbour tanked for a long time and eventually folded.
Brookes flashed pocket kings and then said "the way you played it preflop, I thought you have pocket aces. Do you know how often I have run kings into aces in this tournament?" he mentioned and then referred to a crazy four-way all-in near the end of Day 1a in The Hendon Mob Challenge to Maureen Bloechlinger, who was also involved.
Either way, there was no call and Brookes raked in the pot to leap well above the average.
The Day 1b field is now up to 69 entries of which around 60 players remain. Harold Brooks and Robert Cowley re-entered while Marko Nortje jumped in for the first time. Colin Horgan is now also back in the field, sporting a bright orange The Hendon Mob shirt with two of the three national colours of the Irish flag.
Level: 5
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 600
David Ng raised and Muzamil Gothey three-bet on the button to 3,500 for the big blind to cold-call. Ng then squeezed to 9,500 and forced out both opponents with the big blind laying down 9♦9♥.
One table over, Eduarte Duarte raised to 1,200 and was called by Ashley Hira as well as Bradley Moore. Vishal Ghoorbin in the big blind made it 4,700 to go and received a single caller in Duarte. The K♥8♥2♠ flop saw Ghoorbin lead for 3,500 and Duarte folded.
Aidan Jacobs pushed all-in for 3,000 and received two callers. The two active players checked down the J♦9♥8♠A♦10♠ runout and Jacobs said "don't show me a straight". He was shown A♠6♠ and 6♣6♥ to earn the triple up with A♣A♥ for top set.
Jean Souprayenmestry raised to 1,200 and Huawei Sun called. Janno Cazemier on the button squeezed to 4,000 and both came along to the K♠K♣6♦ flop, which was checked through. Cazemier bet 6,000 on the 3♠ turn when checked to with Souprayenmestry being the only caller.
That led to the 2♠ river on which Souprayenmestry checked. Cazemier moved all-in for around 12,000 and was snap-called to show A♦10♠ for a bluff, Souprayenmestry earned the knockout with Q♠6♠ for a flush.
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