Jonas Mackoff moved all in from middle position for his final 380,000. Action folded to Kevin Calenzo in the big blind who immediately realized he had a big decision to make. Calenzo counted out his chips a couple of times, stacked out the necessary chips to call and thought some more. Eventually, he came out of the tank and called to put Mackoff at risk.
Mackoff:
Calenzo:
The flop was and allowed Mackoff to breathe a sigh of relief, but for only a minute. The turn was the and he was back on the ropes. The river couldn't put him back in the lead and Calenzo successfully busted our first player of the day.
Jeff Madsen was on the button and opened the pot with a raise to 52,000. Rellie Sigua was the only caller out of the big blind.
The flop was . Sigua checked and Madsen moved his opponent all in for his last 300,000 or so. Sigua snap-called and quickly tabled . Madsen turned over and was clearly in bad shape. "No diamonds," Sigua pleaded to the dealer.
The turn brought the and you could just feel it in the air that it was Madsen's pot to win. The river was the , which lead to an eruption from the entire table, the rail and some nearby tables that were leaning over to catch the action.
While we were still reeling from the Jeff Madsen Rellie Sigua hand, there was another big hand developing on the other table between Igor Grinevski and Brandon Riha. We caught he action on the turn, with the board reading . Grinevski led out for 70,000, and Riha made the call. The hit the river, and Grinevski moved all in for about 300,000 relatively quickly. It took even less time for Riha to make the call, and he tabled . Grinevski said "nice call" and showed for a lesser kicker. Riha scooped the pot, upping him back to over 800,000.
On a board, Jeff Fielder checked to Brandon Riha and he fired out 67,000. Fielder thought for a bit and pushed in the call.
The river was the and Fielder checked again. This time Riha bet 188,000 and put Fielder to the test. After a few minutes, Fielder reluctantly called and Riha immediately tabled . Fielder mucked and is down to under 30 big blinds.
It was a battle of the blinds with Kevin Calenzo in the small blind and Nicholas Wilbur in the big blind. Preflop, Calenzo completed and Wilbur checked his option.
The flop was and while we don't know the flop action, the turn and river were exciting enough to make this a potentially-big turning point in the tournament. The dealer placed the down on the turn and Calenzo checked. Wilbur fired out 100,000 before Calenzo clicked it back to 200,000. Wilbur made the call.
The river was the and Calenzo led for 251,000. After some thought, Wilbur stuck in the chips as he seemed to almost know he was beat. Sure enough, Calenzo tabled for a flush. Wilbur showed a flush himself as he tossed in his cards to the muck.
We missed the exact action, but we know that Dutch Boyd, who was under the gun, got all his chips in the middle preflop against Joe Kuether, who was in the small blind. The cards were flipped and Boyd was well out in front.
Boyd:
Kuether:
The board was all safe for Boyd, coming , and Boyd collected the pot, pushing him to just under one million. The hand was a small bit of revenge for Boyd, who lost a giant pot to Kuether on the last hand of the night last night when his top pair of aces lost to the flush draw and lower pair of Kuether when he hit his flush on the river. Kuether is still plenty healthy despite the hit, sitting on 1.4 million.
Joseph Gray had about a little over 100,000 in front of the betting line from middle position before Jeff Madsen upped the action to 225,000 on the button. Gray thought for a bit and made the call.
The flop was and Gray moved all in for his final 150,000 or so. Madsen quickly called.
Gray:
Madsen:
The turn and river bricked out for Gray. He asked for a count of Madsen's stack to make sure he was covered but it was clear that Gray was our 12th-place finisher.
We are now just one elimination away from combining tables.