Phil Ivey opened for a raise from the button and Eli Elezra three-bet from the small blind. Ivey called and they saw a flop. Elezra led out and Ivey called. The turn was the and Elezra fired again. Ivey came along and they saw the hit the river. Elezra led a third time, Ivey raised, and Elezra declined to call the additional bet, sending his cards into the muck.
Ivey has a just-above-average stack of 230,000 while Elezra is down to 120,000.
In the space of two hands, Mike Matusow went from in the tournament to on the rail. In the first hand, Morrison started with split 8s against Matusow's three diamonds. Matusow had a flush in five, but Morrison filled up on sixth street to put a big hurt on the Mouth and cripple him to 17,500.
The very next hand, Matusow got all in on third street with three spades. Although he made aces and fours by the river, George Lind had already made a flush on sixth street. That was all she wrote for Matusow.
Eugene"MyRabbiFoo" Katchalov made it 6,500 to go from the cutoff, Mike Gorodinsky three-bet to 16,100 and Katchalov called. Both players checked the flop. The turn was the and Katchalov bet 32,000. Gorodinsky called. The river fell the and Katchalov fired out 68,000. Gorodinsky moved all-in and Katchalov called.
Cue the sad trombone... they chopped the pot. Katchalov showed and Gorodinsky , both players turning a nine-high straight. Waaah, waaah, waaaaaaaa...
"I know you," said Phil Hellmuth as Alexander Kostritsyn joined the table. "You play fast."
Hellmuth didn't really need that knowledge to double up, however. He was on the button when Kostritsyn raised pre-flop to 6,100. Hellmuth and David Oppenheim both called to a flop of . Oppenheim checked to Kostritsyn, who continued for 11,100. Hellmuth raised to 45,000, then called all in after Oppenheim folded and Kostritsyn re-potted. Hellmuth showed the nuts, . He actually improved to a bigger full house after a turn of and river of .
The double-up pushed Hellmuth up to about 200,000 in chips. Kostritsyn is down to 550,000.
Cole South raised under the gun. Nick Schulman called on the button, and Steve Zolotow called from the small blind. The action went check, check, check on the flop, and check, check, check again after the on the turn. The river was the , and someone had to stab at it. Zolotow bet 13,000, and South called while Schulman folded. South tabled for aces up, and Zolotow said he was mucking queens.
Noah Boeken started with buried kings in stud. He found a customer in Eli Elezra who called bets on every street all the way to the river, where Boeken caught a third king. Elezra called one more bet to see the bad news.
Stud Hi/Lo:
At a different table, Chau Giang was all in on third street with / . Tuan Le started / and promptly caught a third king on fourth street. Giang picked up a low draw by fifth street but it never filled. As a result he's out of the tournament.
Josh Arieh raised to 7,000 from the cutoff, and David Bach quickly potted on the button. Arieh called to see the flop. Arieh potted, which was enough to put Bach all in. And all in he called.
Bach showed and Arieh , neither exactly monsters. The board dropped running , and Bach doubled thanks to his mighty ten kicker. He's on 80,000 now, and Arieh fell to around 330,000. "Didn't want to see a flop with that hand, huh?" a peeved Arieh asked Bach. "Wanted to win it with your ten-high?"
Michael Binger opened for a raise from early position, Alexander Kostritsyn three-bet from the button and Binger called. The flop came down and Binger check-raised Kostritsyn. Kostritsyn reraised and the rest of Binger's stack ended up in the middle.
Binger
Kostritsyn
The turn was the but Binger hit the on the river to double his stack to 61,000 as the players headed off for their final break of the evening.
On the last hand before the break, Patrik Antonius' last 8,500 chips were into the pot on third street. Antonius had three callers. By the river, Phil Ivey made a six-high straight and a six low. Both were far better than Antonius' jacks with no low. Antonius is out.