When we reached David Fox's table, there were over 30,000 chips in the middle and the board read . One player was already all in for a small main pot, but the majority of the chips were sitting in the side pot.
Fox led for 18,000 and his opponent tank-folded. Fox opened for top-top and the all-in opponent went to sweat his cards for the first time. The first card he peeled over was the and the table erupted in cheer. He pinched the corner of his second card and flipped it over in a flash.
The did not give him two pair or better, and all of the chips were pushed towards Fox who now sits with 75,000.
Not sure if Edward Pham, who had been Papola's neighbor to his right, was the one to have taken the last of his chips, but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests the possibility. Pham now sits with a smile and a significantly larger stack of 135,000 -- among the largest in the room as we near the end of Level 12.
Five players saw a flop of including Russell Crane. A player in the small blind checked to Crane who fired 8,100. Action folded back to the player in the small blind who opted to call. Both players checked the on the turn and after the fell on the river Crane's opponent led for 29,000 - about a pot-size bet.
Crane went into the tank for a very long time before finally calling. His opponent rolled over for a full house.
"That's a good hand," Crane joked.
The monster pot was shipped away from Crane, but he is still healthy with 60,000 chips.
We missed the action, but when we reached Andy Santiago's table he was shipping 33,000 chips to an opponent on his left and his cards were already in the muck. Santiago's opponent had laying in front of him and the board read , giving him a full house.
We couldn't find former Alberto Chocron anywhere and we finally found out why; he was eliminated by Patrick "Cake" Houchins. We don't know the details of the hand, but what we do know is Houchins is our chip leader with 210,000.
Mike Leah just won himself a cautiously-played three-way hand that saw a lot of action before the flop, then a lot of checking afterwards.
By the river the board showed . The player in the blinds showed one card, the , then mucked when Leah turned over . The third player, Travell Thomas, grumbled "I knew I should have bet that flop" before folding.
Leah scoops a few chips there to move back to around 55,000. Meanwhile Thomas now sits with just under 40,000.