Fear the Bear
Barry Greenstein is still hanging in here in event 23 with 41,000, perhaps due to the respect garnered from his fellow players. In the face of a Greenstein all-in, one player in the blind confessed, "I don't wanna be the person to double you up."
Vivek Rajkumar
Every time we lose a player, I hear the ghost of Freddie Mercury chanting that catchy tune, "Another One Bites the Dust," monotomously around my head.
The most recent player to restart the repetetive Queen loop is Vivek Rajkumar. He raised a large segment of his stack from the cutoff with Q-9, but was set all in by Blair Hinkle's pocket sixes.
Rajkumar made the call, and must have felt relieved to be coin-flipping, but to no avail as the A-10-7-4-3 bricked out and sent him home.
Dave Barnes
Dave Barnes has also bitten dust, meaning Mike Ellis and Graham Wheldon are the last remaining Brits.
Ellis has encountered minor fluctuations, but never really neared that 100,000 mark. "I lost a coinflip that would have got me up to a hundred. I would have been able to play then."
Conor "Sealey" Tate has more than doubled up to around 170,000 with aces.
He raised to 11,100 preflop, and Paul Smith to his direct left made it 30,000. A short-stacked Charles Dolan called all in, and Tate reraised all in -- Smith asked for a count, and was told it was around 40,000. Smith called.
Dolan:
Smith:
Tate:
Tate scooped the lot, Dolan was eliminated, and Smith had to pay up, but it turned out the dealer had miscounted the chips. Eventually the floor ruled that Smith had to pay the extra chips regardless -- he looked rather sour as he said, "1,000 more?" holding up a single yellow chip. But then he laughed as he handed it over to Tate.
When Dylan Bircheff responds to the conclusion of a hand, you're never sure whether he has won or lost, or even choppped!
As seems customary with any of his showdowns, Bircheff rises from his seat, walks around and shouts out random motivational phrases to himself.
As the final card is dealt, he positively erupts, shouting, punching the air and generally refusing to confine any tensions he may have.
His recent encounter followed a similar pattern, and again it wasn't until the hand was reported that we actually found out who'd won.
It was Tom Braband who was all in, his A-K looking to hit against Bircheff's nines. However, no ace or king emerged, the third nine on the turn of a 7-5-2-9-8 board giving Bircheff the set, the hand, and a notch on his poker bedpost.