The resurrection of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson continues. James Akenhead raised preflop. Ferguson reraised. Akenhead shoved all in and Jesus made the call. It was a race, Ferguson's pocket sixes against Akenhead's . A board of gave Ferguson a full house and another double-up.
After the hand, a spectator asked, "Chris, are you having fun?" Ferguson smiled and gave two thumbs up.
James Akenhead opens up the action with a raise from early position to 25,000. Chris Ferguson reraises all in for a total of 58,000, and Akenhead is the only caller. Miraculously, Jesus flips over , and his opponent shows down .
The dealer spreads out the board: , and Ferguson's aces hold and double him up to 138,000.
Just a few rounds ago, Ferguson was dreadfully low, and had to post the 1,000 ante and the 8,000 big blind. This left him him with just 7,500 chips in his stack. He ended up folding 7-2 when the pot was raised and reraised in front of him. The following hand, he posted the 1,000 ante again, along with the small blind of 4,000 before tripling up and beginning his run back to a playable stack.
This is the time of night that everyone at the WSOP dreads. Players are exhausted from concentrating all day; media and staff become antsy as the action slows to a crawl. With each bust-out becoming more and more significant, players are much more deliberate in their actions, even as they wish their opponents would play more recklessly.
We have been told that the tournament will play down to the final table no matter how long it takes, with a ten-hour break before play resumes later today.
Lars Bonding open-shoved for 126,000. Evan McNiff called from the big blind. It was a classic race, with McNiff's ahead of Bonding's . The first card off the deck was the , but the rest of the flop came to make a set for McNiff. The board blanked the rest of the way to send Bonding to the cage to collect $12,871.
From under the gun, Grant Hinkle makes a raise to 25,000. The player behind him, Chris Poma, reraises all in, and the player next to act, Brian Haas puts all his chips in as well. Hinkle has , and he makes the call, covering both players. Poma tables , and Haas is looking to triple up with .
The board runs off , and Hinkle takes out two. He is now up to 270,000.
Anthony Meeker moved all in preflop for 55,000 with . Perry Friedman called with . Neither player improved on the flop. The turn made a pair of jacks for Friedman but also gave Meeker a flush draw. The flush filled when the river came .
Friedman drops to 420,000. Meeker is up to 120,000.
After a few reraises preflop, Todd Holley was all in against Melvin Jones. The players showed:
Jones:
Holley:
The board filled out giving Holley top two pair but Jones the nut straight. Holley headed for the payout table while Jones stacked his chips, which now approach 590,000.
From under the gun, Chris Ferguson picked up and moved all in with his 28,000-chip short stack. To his left, Michael Ium reraised to 100,000 and successfully isolated Ferguson to get heads-up. Ium showed down . The board ragged off , and Ferguson is headed in the right direction. He is up to 75,000, after having a paltry 19,000 just before the break.