The board read and a sizable pot was already sitting in the middle when we found Vasile Fabian and Joseph Cheong heads up. Fabian was first to act and led at the middle for 500,000. Cheong replied by shipping all in over the top for 1.185 million. Fabian called and the cards were tabled.
Cheong:
Fabian:
The board finished with the , securing Cheong a double up with his flopped set of eights. Fabian's stack was knocked down to 500,000 while Cheong now sits right around three million.
Jason Helder put out a raise to 85,000 and action trickled around to Sebastian Tejada on the button. He moved all in over the top for his last 220,000. Action came to Kong Li in the big blind who flatted the three-bet. Helder folded and the hands were turned over.
Tejada:
Li:
The board came down , allowing Li to score the elimination with his set of aces. Tejada's elimination prompted a total redraw to the final two tables. A seating chart and full chip counts will be posted momentarily.
We arrived in time to see Rodeen Talebi all in and at risk for 820,000 before the flop against Sebastian Tejada.
Talebi:
Tejada:
The board fell down , ensuring that Talebi's pocket kings would hold as the best hand. He scored the double up and now has about 1.7 million in chips. Tejada, on other hand, has dropped to 210,000.
It was folded to Sean Hansen in the small blind and he moved all in with . It was bad timing as Khoa Nguyen and his big stack woke up with in the big blind. The board would not improve Hansen's hand and he was eliminated in 20th place, collecting $19,051 for his play.
Nguyen continues to surge as he now has 4.3 million in chips.
Bryan Campanello and Khoa Nguyen would square off in an all in pre-flop confrontation with Campanello holding and Nguyen . Campanello would be eliminated in 21st place when the board ran out . The bracelet winner quietly said "nice hand" as Nguyen shook his hand.
Nguyen moved to 3.75 million chips with that knock out.
Action folded around to Jonathan Gaviao who opened to 80,000 from late position. Vasile Fabian flatted from the small blind only to have a short-stacked Cory Van Kleeck three-bet ship all in from the big blind. Gaviao re-shipped over the top and Fabian snap-called.
Van Kleeck:
Gaviao:
Fabian:
Fabian was in a dominating position with his pocket aces heading to the community cards with both Van Kleeck and Gaviao at risk. The flop came down , giving both Gaviao and Van Kleeck open-ended straight draws. The dropped down on the turn, leaving the two one card away from elimination.
The river, however, was a miracle for Gaviao with the , giving him a winning straight to score the elimination and score a full double. With this win, his stack is up to 2.42 million. Fabian's stack dropped to 2.2 million and Van Kleeck was eliminated in 22nd place.
Sebastian Tejada was all in and at risk for his last 570,000 with and was racing against the of John Niccoli. The first card in the window was the but the next card was the to give Tejada a set of queens. That would be more than enough to give him the double up to 1.25 million and Niccoli would drop to 600,000.