A short-stacked Brandon Shack-Harris opened for 325 from middle position only to have Jordan Kilner, who was seated to his immediate left, three-bet to 700. Action folded back to Shack-Harris, who called off for 575 total.
Shack-Harris:
Kilner:
Shack-Harris was in need of some help, but the flop was dry as could be. Shack-Harris needed running cards to stay alive, but the turn took away any chance of that happening.
"Good luck," Shack-Harris offered even before the river made his elimination official.
Meanwhile, Daniel Negreanu, who is also contending for the 2014 WSOP POY title, has entered the tournament. He has a chance to catch Shack-Harris, though the current leader, George Danzer, is still alive here in Event #3.
Daniel Negreanu registered this event late, and he didn't stay long.
Negreanu grew short and opened a pot for 300. After two others limped, Scott Davies raised the size of the pot to 1,500. Negreanu committed for 1,600 total, the player on the button called, and Davies called the additional 100.
The flop saw Davies bet, and his opponent on the button folded. Davies tabled for flopped quads, which of course had Negreanu's drawing dead.
Brandon Shack-Harris, Daniel Negreanu, and Richard Ashby had all been eliminated from this tournament, which left George Danzer with a freeroll to extend his 2014 World Series of Poker Player of the Year lead. Unfortunately for the German, any chance of that happening just came to an end courtesy of Michael Wang.
We missed the hand, but Danzer was kind enough to provide us some details after the fact. According to him, it was a "classic PLO" hand. A raising war left him with a pot-sized bet behind, and he got it in on a flop against Wang.
Wang:
Danzer:
Danzer had two pair with his double-suited hand, which matched two of the same suit on the flop. On the other hand, Wang just had the aces... that is until a on the turn gave him two pair to counterfeit Danzer. The river was a blank, and that was all she wrote for Danzer in Event #3.
With around 1,600 in the pot and a board reading , Zane Ly checked and Antonio Esfandiari tossed out a bet of 800. Ly made the call and Esfandiari tabled the .
"Just sevens?" Ly asked. "I have two pair."
Ly then rolled over the for the win. Esfandiari seemed unfazed and quickly returned to a game of "What Johnny Lodden Thinks" with Kahle Burns and Scott Davies.
We missed the elimination of Phil Hellmuth, but you know him, he has to tell somebody about it. Fortunately he chose us.
Hellmuth stopped by the desk to inform us that he and another player each got 1,750 in preflop and saw a flop of . Hellmuth shoved the rest of his stack and his opponent snap-called with for just a pair of kings, which were behind the aces of Hellmuth.
The 13-time bracelet winner got it in good, but he lost the lead when a on the turn gave his opponent two pair. A on the river failed to help Hellmuth, and he is now 0-3 at the 2013 WSOP APAC.
"I'm gonna win the next one," Hellmuth said with confidence before extolling his PLO tournament game.
After finishing 22nd in the first event of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific, George Danzer overtook Brandon Shack-Harris as the WSOP Player of the Year leader. Shack-Harris also finished in the money in that event, but he only managed a min-cash and is currently 1.7 points behind Danzer.
Daniel Negreanu currently sits fourth with 519.08 points, but he hasn't been able to put anything together through three events so far. Fortunately for him, there's still seven events to go, plus some bigger buy-ins that the reigning Player of the Year could make some noise in.
Last year, Negreanu became the first player to win the WSOP Player of the Year award twice, and he could make it a three-time accomplishment if he goes back to back this year.
Other notables who have made the trip Down Under that could factor into the race are Richard Ashby (413.55 points), Ismael Bojang (354.53 points), Phil Hellmuth (330.1 points), and Jeff Madsen (228.1 points).
Bruno Politano, who made this year's WSOP November Nine, has also made the trip and he has the potential to make things very interesting if he's able to put together a couple of results here in Melbourne. You see, the winner of the WSOP Main Event will earn 500 Player of the Year points, so if somehow Politano were to rack up 300 or so at this festival, the race could really come down to the wire.
The winner will receive a $10,000 seat into the 2015 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, and that's a prize that could potentially be worth millions of dollars.
Scott Davies opened for 400 from middle position and was met by an all-in three-bet to 625 from the player in the hijack. The small blind called, and without the option to reraise, Davies put in the additional 225 to see a flop of .
The player in the small blind checked and then folded when Davies bet 1,400.
Davies:
Hijack:
Davies had flopped the nuts, but his opponent held a flush draw. Unfortunately for him, there weren't many clubs left in the deck. The turn was safe for Davies, and so was the river. With that, Davies scored the knockout and chipped up to 13,000.
We just saw Heinz Kamutzki walking by towards the exit and quickly asked him what happened. "Two pair against two pair. Not interesting at all anyways," he said. What we do take out of those words is the fact that the German has been eliminated.
flop was dry as could be. Shack-Harris needed running cards to stay alive, but the 
turn took away any chance of that happening.
river made his elimination official.
flop saw Davies bet, and his opponent on the button folded. Davies tabled 
flop against Wang.
.
. Hellmuth shoved the rest of his stack and his opponent snap-called with 
for just a pair of kings, which were behind the 
aces of Hellmuth.
.
