Matthew Kelly just scooped a big pot eliminating a player and taking a big chunk off Esther Taylor in the process. It was Omaha - the board came out and Kelly showed his hand first: . Taylor showed the amongst her cards as they mucked but no other diamond (obv).
"That Ace of diamonds helps me a lot!" commented Kelly as he waited to see if the all-in player would pip him yet. No - one out, and one down to a shortstack while Kelly is over 100k.
Eric Buchman has doubled up through Carlos Mortensen in a hand of Stud-8. When we arrived at the table, the cards were spread and chips in the middle with Mortensen needing to squeeze out a straight on the river.
Buchman:
Mortensen: -X
It wasn't to be and Mortensen wasn't happy to double up Buchman, who cracked a one liner about Mortensen having plenty of chips to spare.
"What...nobody has a sense of humor anymore?" giggled Buchman as he raked in the chips. He's up to 35,000 with Mortensen back to 55,000.
Phil Ivey was one of two players creeping upward over the 200k mark recently (the other being Jon Turner) until Tom Koral won a 60k pot off him with a ten-high flush in Stud vs. Ivey's nine-high one. He's down to 155k while Koral moves up to 110k.
Insult to injury - Ivey now has to remove his giant headphones as from the money positions onwards no electrical items (ipods, phones) are allowed at the tables.
Esther Taylor has taken a hit in a hand of Omaha-8. She check-raised on a flop of before leading the turn and river. However her opponent raised on the river and Taylor wasn't happy. She was forced to fold and slipped back to 42,000.
Hoyt Corkins hardly got his stack above 20,000 all day but incredibly still managed to squeak into the money. He was the first to visit the cashier in 40th place and will collect $4,393 for his efforts.
Well, that was a frantic fifteen minutes! We've lost seven players very rapidly and hand-for-hand play on the bubble lasted all of one hand. I guess the quickly rising blinds/antes are starting to take their toll. We're now officially in the money with 40 relieved players now set to get down to the serious business of winning a bracelet.
Phil Ivey is surging on this money bubble. He's just taken down another nice pot to leave one unfortunate soul on the verge of elimination on the bubble.
Ivey made a six-high straight and six-low to scoop as his opponent sighed and mucked with . Ivey is now up to a commanding 180,000 chips.