Cary Marshall opened to 3,000 from UTG+1 and Andrew Rothfolk called from the next seat over. A third player tagged along and the three saw the flop come . All three checked and the hit the turn. Marshall checked again and Rothfolk led for 4,200. The third player called and Marshall stuck around as well.
The completed the board and all three checked once more. Marshall rolled over for rivered queens and his two opponents threw their hands at the muck, awarding Marshall the pot.
While Rothfolk lost this hand, he has still managed to have a choke hold on the day and has built his stack up to about 210,000 total.
On the last hand before the break, Aaron Massey took down a massive pot that has boosted his stack up to 118,000. The details of the hand were recounted to us by Massey himself and tablemate Allen Kessler.
A short-stacked player shipped all in before the flop with for roughly 16,000. Another player flat called with and action folded to Massey who announced that he was all in over the top for about 50,000 to go. The player with ace-jack called and Massey rolled up to find that he was ahead.
The nines were able to hold and Massey was able to score a huge more-than-double up.
We caught up to the table to find a short-stacked player all in and at risk with before the flop. Mark Maletic had the player covered and called the all in of about 14,000 with . The board ran out and Maletic was able to score a knockout and boost his stack to about 142,000.
Allen Kessler has been relatively quiet today but all of that changed in the last couple of hands.
We weren't on hand when the chips started coming his way, but he was kind enough to recount the action to us. He first doubled up when he moved all in with against an opponent's . Kessler flopped two eights and was able to score his first double.
The next came a few hands later at the hands of Aaron Massey. The flop was and Kessler shipped all in holding for an open-ended straight draw with backdoor spades. Massey called with for two pair but Kessler made his straight and doubled up.
The man they call "Chainsaw" is now sitting on about 65,000 while Massey has fallen to 77,000.