Antoine Saout opened for 110,000 from middle position, Ludovic Lacay reraised to 325,000 and Saout made the call.
Saout checked the flop over to Lacay, who bet 425,000. Saout made the call. Both players checked the on the turn. Saout checked again when the hit the river. Lacay bet 550,000 and Saout looked him up.
"Nothing," said Lacay, who insta-mucked. Saout showed and picked up the pot, taking his stack up to 5,800,000. Lacay slipped to 5,500,000.
Jesse Haabak open-raised to 110,000 from the button, and it folded to Hamid Nourafchan who reraised all in from the big blind. Haabak called with his remaining chips, thereby committing a total of 1.62 million to the hand.
Nourafchan showed , and Haabak . The board ran out , and Haabak's nines were good. He's up close to 3.3 million now, while Nourafchan is suddenly on life support with just 65,000.
Antonio Esfandiari continues his solid run after just busting another opponent at his table. This time, it was Andreas Flakstad that was the casualty.
Flakstad had all of his 850,000 or so in the middle preflop holding pocket tens -- . Esfandiari held . The board ran out and that would be the end of Flakstad's tournament.
On the turn of a board reading , Ben Lamb checked to Reed Hensel who bet. Lamb then raised all in and Hensel made the call for his last 1.2 million total.
Lamb held against Hensel's .
The turn brought the , adding a flush draw to Lamb's hand. The river completed that flush draw when the fell, eliminating Hensel from the tournament.
There really wasn't much Clayton Newman could have done differently in his final hand of the 2009 Main Event. He opened for 80,000 from middle position. Action folded to George Caragiorgas int he blinds, who re-raised to 280,000. Newman quickly moved all in for about 1 million and Caragiorgas just as quickly called.
Newman:
Caragiorgas:
Caragiorgas got out of his chair at the end of the table and moved to stand behind the 5-seat, to better see the board. Newman remained seated until the dealer produced a . It was at that point that he stood up and grabbed his bag.
The turn came . "A nice legit sweat," remarkd Newman, referring to his potential to hit a spade flush. "What do you know." No flush this time; the river sent Newman around the table to shake everyone's hands before exiting the Amazon Room.
From the button, Tom Schneider opened with a raise to 110,000. In the small blind, Dennis Phillips announced a reraise, and he made it 310,000 to play. From the big blind, chip leader Darvin Moon four-bet it up to 675,000, drawing a quick fold from Schneider. Phillips wasn't so quick to act though, and he would think things over for several minutes. After cutting down and counting his own stack, he elected to make the call.
Heads up then, the flop brought . Phillips slowly checked, and without missing a beat, Moon continued out with a bet of 750,000. Phillips would go for a long soak in the tank this time, clearly agonizing over a difficult decision. There were periods of complete stillness alternated with periods of chit-chat, though the conversation was too soft to hear from the table. Phillips finally asked if Moon would show, and the reply was affirmative. "Really, so you'll show if I fold?" Moon nodded again.
Finally, and reluctantly, Phillips open-mucked . True to his word, Moon showed up , drawing a big slap on the felt from Phillips. The two men shook hands and exchanged further pleasantries as the dealer pulled in the cards and pushed the pot to Moon.
It was a good flat-call preflop and a good laydown thereafter that will keep Phillips alive though he's been dropped down close to 1,000,000.