Theo Tran has his foot on the gas. He raised to 35,000 preflop and was called by Chris Ferguson from the small blind and Mariano Cefalu from the big blind. All three players checked a flop of and a turn of . The river came . Ferguson and Cefalu checked to Tran, who bet 52,000. Ferguson called, only to muck his hand when Tran showed for a diamond flush.
James Akenhead raises the pot, making it 80,000 to go. It folds around to the small blind, Theo Tran, who makes the call. The big blind is not so passive. Scott Montgomery reraises big, and Akenhead folds. Not to be outdone, Tran reraises all in.
Montgomery makes the quick call, and turns over rockets, . Theo Tran shows down , and is a big underdog.
The flop comes down perfect for Tran, , as he rallies to make the flush, leaving his opponent drawing to runner-runner. The turn and river blank off, and Montgomery is eliminated.
Theo Tran is now our new chip leader at 1,345,000.
From early position, David Bach raised to 12,000. Marvia Bulkholder reraised all in for 96,000. Aaron Coulthard came over the top to 190,000. Bach got out of the way and the players tabled their hands. Bulkholder was in bad shape with against Coulthard's . The board ran out jack-high, eliminating Bulkholder.
After checking the tapes, it was ruled that the stack of Thomas Fuller was 292,000 prior to the mix up. His chips were given back and he was satisfied with the ruling. Due to the impromptu break just given, it was also declared that the upcoming break would be shortened down to ten minutes.
The tournament clock has stopped with just 9:11 to play in level 18. Apparently there is an issue in which two players' chips were mixed up when one player, who had just won the pot, began stacking the player to his left's chips while he was away. The player came back to find his stack depleted and needless to say, a floor was called. Tournament officials tried to recreate the action but were unable to come to a decision. As such, they opted to stop play, and send all players on an unscheduled break so they could check the surveillance tapes.
In two back-to-back hands, Chris Ferguson has picked up over 100,000 in chips by reraising preflop. In both instances, the raise come from late position and Ferguson put in substantial reraises to win the pots uncontested. He now sits with 506,000.
Cesar Flores was getting short. He put his meager stack in the middle holding and was called by Pia Jeppesen's .
"Time to pull a Jesus," Flores joked, referring to the remarkable turnaround in Chris Ferguson's fortunes. Wouldn't you know, Flores flopped a straight when the board came .
With a stack of only 75,000, he's not out of the woods yet.
Chris Ferguson raised to 36,000 from middle position. Action folded around to Evan McNiff in the big blind and he reraised all in. Ferguson called for his remaining 210,000. Ferguson was out in front with against the of McNiff. Not only did McNiff miss the board, Ferguson hit a on the turn to seal the deal. "Jesus" is now well above average with 430,000.