We've hit a flurry of activity here in the back of the Orange Section of the Amazon Room. Vadim Shlez is the latest casualty -- even more stunning because he had a quarter million chips an hour ago. Shlez was all in preflop with pocket eights against Michael Noda's . As we've seen what seems to be more times than one would expect today, an ace flopped and held through the river.
Steve "PiKappRaider" Burkholder was all in preflop for around 160,000 chips total against Jason "JCarver" Somerville. Burkholder held , but was crushed by Somerville's .
The flop landed a queen for Burkholder when it came . The turn did all that it could to carve out Burkholder's heart when the hit the felt. The river was the , eliminated Burkholder and pumping Somerville up to 500,000.
55. Patrick Bruel
56. Stephen Sion
57. Johnny Lodden
58. Jim McCintic
59. Praz Bansi
60. Christian De Leon Angeles
61. Kathy Liebert
62. James Sudworth
63. Nick Binger
David Tighe raised all in for 52,000 and then Giorgio Miconi called all in for slightly less, 50,000. Everyone else folded. Tighe held and Miconi held a slight edge with .
The board ran out and Miconi doubled up to 110,000. Tighe was left severely crippled with only 2,000 chips.
Our Dutch colleagues will be pleased to see that we are making our first mention of Johannes Van Til in today's coverage. They will be disappointed to learn that it will be the last mention as well.
Van Til was all in with against about the worst hand he could see -- Michael Katz's . We're not sure if the chips went in preflop or after a flop of , but it doesn't much matter. The board came running diamonds, and , to improve each player to a flush. Katz's flush was the nut flush.
When the stacks were counted down, Van Til was busto. Katz is up to 270,000.
Shane Schleger got 55,000 chips in the midddle preflop against Nicholas Sliwinski. Schleger had the short straw with but two live cards against Sliwinski's . Neither player hit the flop or the turn, but Schleger caught one of his six outs by pairing tens with the river. He doubled up to 115,000.
"Couldn't you have had a different suit?" Ian Frazer asked Jorg Peisert. The board was showing and two hands were open -- Frazer's , the third-nut flush, and Peisert's , the nut flush. The river sent Frazer to the payout table.
After the hand, Shane Schleger started chatting with Peiert. "How can you be German and not be a red pro?" Schleger asked. "Aren't all the Germans red pros?"
Jason "JCarver" Somerville raised to 12,000 in preflop action before Thomas Applegate called from the button. Somerville was in the cutoff seat. Steve "PiKappRaider" Burkholder also called out of the big blind. The flop came down and Burkholder checked. Somerville fired 18,500 and then Applegate announced a raise. After he did so, Burkholder folded. Applegate then made the raise to 45,000. Somerville wasted little time in folding as well, giving Applegate the pot.
Joe McGowan was all in preflop against Vadim Shlez for 65,000 chips. McGowan held and Shlez held . The board ran out and McGowan successfully doubled to 135,000 chips. Shlez dropped to 170,000.
Coming into today, Tim Horan led the field with 149,000 chips. Although he's still got right around the same amount of chips, Horan's stack is still right on pace with the average chip stack in the room and he's been playing quite well all day long. He almost eclipsed to 200,000 mark at one point, but wasn't quite able to make it. Despite not being able to shoot up over 200,000 chips yet, Horan has maintained his stack extremely well, never dropping below 120,000 chips. Here's an interview done with Horan from a few hours ago where he talks a little bit about his run in the tournament thus far.