Alex Rivera opened for 4,000 from middle position and picked up three callers, including Hend Matthews playing from the big blind. The flop came and all four players checked. The turn brought the , and when it checked to Rivera he fired 11,000. It folded back to Matthews who quickly called.
The river was the . Matthews checked, and Rivera pushed out 26,000. Matthews reached for her chips then stopped to lean forward.
"Is that the last of your grays?" she asked of Rivera, who affirmed he had no more 5,000 chips left. Matthews thought a short while longer then called.
"I have a seven," said Rivera, flashing a , and Matthews tabled her for a better pair to claim the pot.
We just finished talking about Hend Matthews, but she has some competition for the chip lead. Not of the tournament. At her table. Matthews is one of our big stacks at 234,000, but the only person in the room who has her covered, Xiaofeng Hu, is sitting three seats to her right. Hu is sitting on 248,000, and is the chip leader of the tournament. These big stacks could be colliding very soon.
Matt Glantz just open-pushed his short stack from late position and got a single caller from the blinds by an opponent who had but 10,000 and was thus covered by Glantz.
Glantz had and his opponent , and after the board came Glantz's opponent survived. Meanwhile he now sits with just over 16,000 — about 10 big blinds.
Robert Hwang just scored a big double-knockout over on Table 74. It was a three-way all-in situation in which Hwang held and had both of his opponents covered, with their hands being and .
The flop came , the nine in the window giving Hwang a set. The turn belatedly brought the for his opponents, which paired them both but left them drawing dead.
We've lost a couple more notables as we approach the halfway point of Level 15. Both Nick Frangos and Micah Raskin have joined the parade of players who have hit the rail thus far today.
Robert Panitch hasn't really been on our radar today, though we did see him slowly chipping up throughout the day. Well on our latest run through of the tables, we saw that Panitch had about 20 stacks of chips in front of him, including nearly two full stacks of grey T5,000 chips. After counting up the whole thing, we pegged Panitch at around 315,000, which is good enough to have a comfortable chip lead at the moment.
There was a mountain of chips in the middle already when we came to the table, with the flop reading . Patrick Houchins was facing a huge decision as we arrived. He had bet out 21,000, but Miguel Borrero had already responded by shoving all in for his last 83,000.
Houchins spent a good amount of time in the tank, before saying "I can catch up to an overpair. I can't catch up to a set though." Eventually, he kicked his hand in, and Borrero ackowledged the tough fold by tabling his hand, . Houchins said with a grin "I thought that's what you had. Nice hand."
After that pot, Houchins dropped to 125,000, while Borrero, jumped up to 132,000.
We mentioned earlier a hand in which Jeffrey Gurfinkel found himself all in before the flop with against an opponent's , then flopped a heart flush to survive. Well, his stack remains below average, but his run-good most definitely continues as evidenced by a recent hand in which he felted two opponents.
Gurfinkel had while his two opponents held and , with Alex Rivera having the latter hand. The flop came to pair Rivera's queen, then the landed on the river to give Gurfinkel a set but also give the third player a Broadway straight.
The river then brought the . All three players had led at some point in the post-flop proceedings, but it was Gurfinkel's full house that won the hand and the pot.
"Way to get there, Jeff," called a player from the next table.
and all four players checked. The turn brought the 
, and when it checked to Rivera he fired 11,000. It folded back to Matthews who quickly called.
. Matthews checked, and Rivera pushed out 26,000. Matthews reached for her chips then stopped to lean forward.
, and Matthews tabled her 
for a better pair to claim the pot.
and his opponent 
, and after the board came 
Glantz's opponent survived. Meanwhile he now sits with just over 16,000 — about 10 big blinds.
and had both of his opponents covered, with their hands being 
and 
.
, the nine in the window giving Hwang a set. The turn belatedly brought the 
for his opponents, which paired them both but left them drawing dead.
, then flopped a heart flush to survive. Well, his stack remains below average, but his run-good most definitely continues as evidenced by a recent hand in which he felted two opponents.
while his two opponents held 
and 
to pair Rivera's queen, then the