Jim Willerson opened to 12,000 from under the gun and it folded around to the player in the hijack who three-bet to 25,000. Action came back to Willerson and he four-bet shipped for 59,500 total, sending his opponent into the tank. After over a minute, his opponent slid out a call.
Willerson:
Opponent:
The board fell , giving Willerson's opponent the nut straight for the knockout. The World Series of Poker bracelet winner made a quick exit from the tournament room.
Those were the words yelled from a player two tables over from the media desk. We walked over to see the cause of the commotion.
The board showed . Sitting in front of our upset player was . In front of his opponent... . The upset player wasn't eliminated but the loss crippled him down to less than 20,000 in chips.
Darren Rabinowitz raised to 8,000 from middle position and it folded to Jacob Bazeley who three-bet shipped for 42,000 from the cutoff. Action came back to Rabinowitz and he called.
Rabinowitz:
Bazeley:
Bazeley was behind and needed to improve but found no help through the runout. Rabinowitz scored the elimination and brought his stack to about 110,000.
Jacob Bazeley was standing up ready to go as his was in bad shape... until the dealer put a straight out on the board to create a three way chopped pot. "Nice try boys," Bazeley joked.
He would put his remaining 11,500 in the next hand and score a triple up when his hit a set to best and . He was up to 42,500 after scooping that pot.
We missed the action, but came upon the table to see Brandon Steven scooping double up chips. Steven's held through a run out and he's now sporting a sizable stack of approximately 165,000.
We didn't catch the action but we saw Frank Rusnak shipping a double up to another player after his was outdrawn by his opponent's on a board of . That hit sent Rusnak down to 145,000 in chips — still in good shape, but definitely a blow at this point of the day.