Those pots that fold by fifth street may not seem like much, but win enough of those and you can steadily chip up -- especially the three-handed pots. Hasan Habib completed an and found two callers. Habib drew another heart on fourth street, bet, and was called by both opponents. When he hit a third heart on fifth street, both opponents folded to his bet.
Ray Dehkharghani completed the bring-in, and Brett Richey raised it up, getting just the one caller.
Dehkharghani: (X-X) / / (X)
Richey: (X-X) / / (X)
Dehkharghani led out on fourth street with his king-jack. Richey called, and then took the betting lead on fifth and sixth streets, with Dehkharghani doing the calling. On seventh, Richey bet again, Dehkharghani raised it up, and Richey put in the extra bet.
In the end, Dehkharghani showed , running down his winning straight on the last card. He's right at 200,000 chips now, leaving Richey with an agonizing 16,000. After the hand, Richey lamented that he was now at least 0-for-10 in hands against that particular foe.
Brett Richey's not out of life yet. He just doubled through Vassilios Lazarou by making two pair, queens and threes. Lazarou didn't have a better hand and was bounced out of the tournament a few hands later.
Todd Brunson is the next to go. He made his stand and finished with two pair, nines and sixes. Steven Landfish was one pip better, with tens and threes. He stacked up Brunson's chips (once combined with his own they were 120,000 total) while Brunson stalked out the door.
Chad Brown has just delivered the final blow to Shawn Sheikhan. The Sheik was all in on sixth street, with Brown holding queens and tens. Sheikhan had a pair of aces and failed to improve with his last card, spelling the end of his day.
Brown, meanwhile, has been on a tear over the last couple levels. He's all the way up to 175,000 now.
Just before the level change, Johnny Chan was all in for his tournament life with just a pair of threes. Michael Ungurean would be his executioner on his final hand, running out a board of for the victorious two pair.
While this $10,000 Stud World Championship grinds inexorably on towards its final eight players (we're about to collapse to five tables now), there's another tournament going on a few tables away. The $1,000 "Stimulus Special" started last Friday, attracting 6,000-odd players. Today was supposed to be "Final Table Day", but because there were so many players they had to suspend play last night with 50 remaining.
Those 50 came back today and have played down to 12 left. They're also in Amazon Orange, with a huge crush of railbirds pressing around the last two tables, whooping and hollering at every all in. It's a surprising amount of pandemonium. No word on whether that tournament will go all the way tonight (unlikely) or adjourn for the evening once they reach the final 9.
You can follow all the coverage of that tournament by opening another tab and selecting Event 4 from the Event drop-down box on the right side of the screen.
David Oppenheim limped into the pot for 1,000, and Ville Wahlbeck completed it to 3,000. Oppenheim was the lone caller.
Oppenheim: (X-X) / / (X)
Wahlbeck: (X-X) / / (X)
Oppenheim checked fourth street, calling when Wahlbeck bet. On fifth street, Wahlbeck checked his king-high, and Oppenheim did the betting. Same action on sixth street, with Wahlbeck check-calling a bet. On seventh street, Wahlbeck again passed, Oppenheim bet, and Wahlbeck surprisingly put in a raise to 12,000. Oppenheim called the extra bet.
Wahlbeck showed down , and his aces up were good enough to win this sizable pot. He has worked up to 140,000, crippling our Day 1 chip leader all the way down to just 24,000.
Oppenheim would end up on the rail just a few hands later.
A three-way pot to fifth street contested among John Cernuto, Nick Frangos and Brett Richey went well for only Cernuto. His raise on fifth with (X-X) / , after Richey bet out (X-X) / and folded Frangos, was enough to fold Richey and take down the pot.