With only 80,000 left in his stack, pocket tens must have looked like a great hand to Dennis Wong. But Feming Chan had been dealt pocket queens and made an easy call of Wong's all in. A board of 
was no relief for Wong's lesser pair. His elimination cleared the way for a consolidation fo the field to its final four tables.
Two players were all in, Hugo Perez held 
and Ryan Snickles had him dominated with 
. Salvation came for Perez again, but two streets earlier this time.
The flop came 
, pairing Perez's 9. The turn and river brought running 2's giving Perez the full house. He doubles up to 253,000 and Snickles is left with 205,000
Matthew Schulte flopped what surely must have looked like a monster. Schulte held 
on a flop of 
, giving Schulte two overcards and two big draws. He bet 24,000 into a pot of 60,000, then moved all in after Craig Bergeron raised. Bergeron called with a draw of his own -- 
. That hand cut Schulte's outs almost in half. He still had plenty of ways to improve, but the board bricked out for him 
and to end his tournament in 22nd place.
Bergeron is up to 580,000.
This is what we see.
There is no better spot to go all in in this tournament than preflop. And that's exactly what Russell Thomas and Eric Bolinder did. Thomas showed 
and Bolinder revealed for a coin flip.
The flop came 
. Bolinder hit his ace but, as the title revealed, Thomas hit a set of 7's. The turn and river ran dry for Bolinder and he was eliminated in 23rd place. Thomas' stack is now at 590,000.
Steven Tabb, sitting in the big blind, re-raised all in over the top of an open-raise by Russell Thomas. Thomas called with 
and found himself up against Tabb's .
Whoops.
Never fear. This is hold'em, where any two cards can win. Sure enough, the board came 
to pair up Tabb, but not Thomas. Thomas let out an expletive as Tabb's railbirds gave him some good-natured ribbing.
"Well played Tabb! Finally found the 9-5!"
Tabb is up to 234,000. Thomas has slipped back to 410,000.
Players are on a break, the last one of the night.
Level: 19
Blinds: 5,000/10,000
Ante: 1,000
Players are in their seats, ready to begin the last two levels of the night. 21 remain. When I told AlCantHang after the first level of the day that the over/under for players left at the end of the night was 10, he laughed at me. Who's laughing now?
Carter Phillips had the chip lead for a few moments there coming out of the dinner break, but he's taken a significant step backwards at the hand of Mikhail Lakhitov. Lakhitov opened for 22,000 and was called by Kevin Iacofano before Phillips, sitting with the button, re-raised to 69,000. When action came back to Lakhitov he moved all in for 284,000 total, folding Iacofano. Phillips made the call with 
. Lakhitov tabled pocket jacks.
Both players hit the flop, but Lakhitov hit it hardest -- 
made two pair for Phillips and quads for Lakhitov. Phillips was drawing dead by the turn . His stack fell back to about 375,000, while Lakhitov is up to roughly the same amount.
