Ernst Schmejkal moved all in and after some deliberation Vanessa Rousso made the call for her last 407,000.
Schmejkal:
Rousso:
The flop kept Rousso in the lead with her ace-high, but when the landed on the turn, Schmejkal completed his flush.
The meaningless landed on the river to send Rousso to the rail in equal 5th place for a $92,580 payday as Schmejkal progresses through to the final four.
Following that last elimination we are down to the semi finals.
Just two matches remain with play kicking off at 7:30 pm PST, with PokerNews providing continuous live updates as we play down to a firstly a final two and then a champion.
Here are your matchups for the next round:
Jason Somerville vs. Ayaz Mahmood
Ernst Schmejkal vs. Alexander Kostritsyn
Cards are in the air! Both semifinal matches are being played at the main feature table (one on each end). For the semifinals, players will start with 1,920,000 chips. Levels will last 40 minutes for this round and for the final.
Here in the semis, blinds will increase as follows: 8,000-16,000, 10,000-20,000, 12,000-24,000, 15,000-30,000, 20,000-40,000, 25,000-50,000, 30,000-60,000, 40,000-80,000, 50,000-100,000, 60,000-120,000, 80,000-160,000, 100,000-200,000.
Losers here will each earn $214,289. Winning a semifinal match guarantees a player a $386,636 payday, and if that player wins the final, too, he'll get $625,682.
Ernst Schmejkal jumped out to a slight lead in the early going in his match versus Alexander Kostritsyn, pushing over 2 million to Kostritsyn's 1.8 million. Then came the first significant hand of the match.
The hand began with Kostritsyn raising to 40,000 from the small blind/button, and Schmejkal making the call. The flop came . Schmejkal checked, Kostritsyn bet 46,000, and Schmejkal called.
The turn brought the . Schmejkal checked, Kostritsyn bet 112,000, and this time Schmejkal promptly check-raised to 280,000 total. Kostritsyn asked how much more it was to call, then did so.
The river was the . Schmejkal, sitting silently with one hand over his mouth, reached with the other to set out a big bet of 550,000. Kostritsyn looked as though he was going for chips to call, but then pushed his cards dealerward.
Kostritsyn slips to about 1.3 million, with Schmejkal up over 2.5 million.
Well, that was a stark contrast to Ernst Schmejkal's last match with Vanessa Rousso which took nearly four hours, as his semifinal contest with Alexander Kostritsyn has ended within just 30 minutes.
In the final hand, Kostritsyn opened with a raise to 40,000, Schmejkal reraised to 116,000 total, and Kostritsyn called. The flop came . Schmejkal bet 80,000, and Kostritsyn made the call.
The turn was the . This time Schmejkal checked, and Kostritsyn pushed out a bet of 210,000. Schmejkal then check-raised to 450,000 total, sending Kostritsyn into the tank. After a couple of minutes the Russian made a decision -- he was reraising to 750,000 total, leaving himself just 450,000 behind.
Schmejkal didn't waste much time reraising all in, and Kostritsyn called. Kostritsyn shook his head with a look of disappointment as he saw the cards being tabled.
Kostritsyn
Schmejkal
The river was the , making Schmejkal's hand a full house, and Kostritsyn is out. Schmejkal moves onto the finals!