Melanie Banfield probably thought or hoped that she had two live cards when she got her short stack in the middle with . Instead she found herself dominated by Antoine Saout's . Neither player improved, ending Banfield's Main Event run in the bottom rung of the payouts.
Action folded to Phil Ivey who raised to 14,000 on the button. When the small blind folded, Bernard Perner reraised to 57,000 from the big and Ivey mucked.
Fabrizio La Spada's great fortune was Lee Pope's great misfortune and Pope's last hand of the 2009 Main Event. Pope got his dwindling stack into the middle with a big pair, . La Spada had been dealt the biggest pair, , and made the easy call. When the board ran out , tournament staff escorted Pope to the payouts table to begin the process of collecting his $21,365.
Hac Dang raised it up to 12,500 from the hijack position and then decided to commit to a call when the short-stacked Ari Levy shoved all in from the button for 55,000.
Dang:
Levy:
The board ran out and Dang spiked the only pair to eliminate Levy from the tournament. Dang is up to 520,000 chips.
Action Dan
Steve Pestal was all in before the flop for 83,000, putting his tournament life in the hands of Dan Harrington who had him well covered. Pestal tabled , and Action Dan was poised for the knockout with . The board would run down , locking up the pot and sending Pestal to the rail.
Harrington is up to 410,000 now, and it's worth noting that he's playing in a neck brace today. When asked about it, Harrington said the strain was caused by a combination of playing poker and working on the computer. The good news is Dan is still his same jolly self, if just a bit slower when turning from one side of the table to the other to crack a joke.
Eugene Fouksam raised to 13,000 and got called by David Wickham in the small blind and Jared Bluestein in the big.
Wickham checked dark before a flop of and both Bluestein and Fouksam checked behind. Everyone checked the on the turn and Wickham bet 20,000 at the on the river. Fouksam called and showed , easily beating Wickham's bluff with .
Allen Kennedy is having a nicely-timed rush here as we approach the break.
In the first hand, Kennedy was all in for a little over 90,000 against Mike Terhaar. Kennedy held , and Terhaar . The board came down , and Kennedy survived with about 180,000. Terhaar was crippled in that hand, and busted soon thereafter.
Just a couple of hands later, Kennedy was all in again with and was up against Farshad Fardad's . The flop was and the turn , and Kennedy was down to one more community card. Then came the river -- the -- and Kennedy is up to 390,000 now.