With the board showing and about 100,000 in the middle, Vanessa Rousso bet 50,000, and Ernst Schmejkal called. The river brought the and another 50,000 bet from Rousso. Schmejkal thought a moment, then tossed two green (25,000) chips out for the call.
Rousso tabled , while Schmejkal showed . Schmejkal's hand was best, and he took the pot.
Rousso still holds the advantage, however, with 1.265 million to Schmejkal's 655,000.
In one of the last hands of the previous level (5,000/10,000 blinds), Ernst Schmejkal opened with a raise to 22,000, and Vanessa Rousso called. The flop came . Rousso checked, Schmejkal bet 21,000, and Rousso called. Both then checked the turn.
The river was the . Rousso checked, and Schmejkal took his time before betting 60,000. Rousso called, tabling for the bottom end of the straight. Schmejkal had , though, and took the pot.
Schmejkal chips back to 820,000, still behind Rousso's 1.1 million.
The original plan was to start the semifinals at 7 p.m. local time -- a little under three hours from now -- although it sounds like they'll bump that up to 6 p.m. should our remaining two matches end relatively soon.
Ayaz Mahmood opened to 72,000 from the button only to have Faraz Jaka move all in for 216,000 from the big. Mahmood made the call and we were off to a showdown.
Jaka:
Mahmood:
The board ran out a rather undramatic to see Jaka eliminated in equal 5th place for a $92,580 payday as Mahmood progresses to the final four.
Ayaz Mahmood will now face off with Jason Somerville in the semi finals; which has just been moved forward to 6:00 pm PST, depending on the duration of the final match.
Team PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso and her opponent, Ernst Schmejkal of Germany, have both been relatively patient thus far, with Rousso having steadily chipped up now to just over 1.2 million to Schmejkal's 710,000.
Rousso, a.k.a. "Lady Maverick" on PokerStars, and Schmejkal -- a.k.a. "Trader" online -- have been mostly quiet at the table thus far. And with the bleachers surrounding the feature table also being only sparsely filled, it is a solemn-seeming scene, with only the soft sound of chip-riffling by both players filling the space.