Play has ground down quite a bit now -- and since so many pots are chopped the going feels even slower. We watched Mike Matusow bet the turn of a board that read . His lone opponent check-called to see the river fall . Again Matusow's opponent checked and then called a bet.
"Ace-ten," said Matusow, showing down . His opponent turned up to chop the pot.
"Put all your money in just to get it back chasing a four?" Matusow asked incredulously. He then added in a much softer voice, "No wonder you have no shot in this tournament."
A three-way pot with two short stacks produced zero eliminations. Bill Coren was all in preflop and David Rabbi was all in after the flop against Max Pescatori. Pescatori and Rabbi each flopped wheels: for Pescatori, for Rabbi.
Coren, the shortest of the stacks in the hand, flopped two pair with . He called for a four and got one with the turn. The river completed the board, leaving the dealer the unenviable task of separating the pots.
Rabbi got three-quarters of the side pot with his wheel low and straight six. That left Pescatori with one-quarter of the side pot. The high half of the main pot was awarded to Coren; Rabbi and Pescatori each got one-quarter of the main pot for their wheel lows.
Cards are back in the air. 38 players remain. Given that the next 20-minute break will fall at 2:33am local time, these should be the last two levels of the night.
Before the break, Mike Matusow was practically beside himself.
"Look at this flop," he said to the table at showdown. Matusow tabled in a pot played four-ways to the river. The board showed . After the flop, Matusow had outs to the nut flush, the nut straight and the nut low. He wound up with just the nut low after the turn and river. Sirous Jamshidi got the high half with a seven straight, .
Two bustouts for Mel Randolph -- not only does he have his arm in a cast (not a result of this tournament!), he's just lost the last of his chips to David Pacheco.
We didn't see Randolph's hand, but Pacheco was holding X for quads on a board.
Wow! There were five bets back and forth between Max Pescatori and CK Hua on the flop. Pescatori just check-called a bet from Hua on the turn, and both players checked the river.
Pescatori turned over and Hua mucked.
"You check with that hand?" said Hua incredulously. Well, it's late.