There wasn't anything John Cernuto could do about a very bad situation. On a flop of , he check-raised all in after David Ulliott bet 48,000. Ulliott quickly called with , middle set. That was bad news for Cernuto, who turned over bottom set and a flush draw with . Cernuto would need running low cards or a non-pairing heart to remain in the tourament. He caught a heart on the turn with the , but Ulliott still had a draw off his own. He binked it when the river came to give him quad queens, drawing a pained "oooooo!" from Cernuto.
Cernuto finished in 12th place and will receive $23,318.
Rob Hollink has spent the past half hour or so making players, railers and bloggers alike salivate - he dropped by Vegas institution Naked Fish's on the way here and picked up some distractingly tasty-looking sushi, which he brought out of a bag and proceeded to scoff.
Even the dealer was kind of jealous.
Said the dealer: "God you're making me hungry."
But perhaps this was all just part of Hollink's tournament strategy.
"I wanted to make the other guys hungry," said Hollink, pointing to the rest of his table.
Leif Force raised from the button and Erik Seidel pushed from the big blind with an air of resignation. Force called with a little, "OK."
Force:
Seidel:
Board:
"A quarter?" said Force - he'd got rather excited when he had a flush draw on the turn but it had not come to pass and Seidel took the high while they chopped the low. The dealer confirmed it, and Seidel moved up to 190,000 while Force dropped to 495,000 and blew a raspberry.
The play is tightening, with most pre-flop raises of the minimum variety. Rob Hollink opened with a raise from the small blind. Big blind Dan Shak re-raised and soon enough all of Hollink's chips were at risk. He showed to Shak's .
"Put a couple of diamonds up there," Shak said. Instead the dealer put up , giving Hollink two pair, kings and fives. He also flopped the nut low draw. The turn and river came and , giving each player a live ace for low but also securing the high half for Hollink.
Perry Green's last final table at the WSOP was back in 1997, when he finished 3rd in a $3,000 pot-limit hold'em event. He has some work to do if he wants to make tonight's final table after recently doubling up Dan Shak.
Green opened to 40,000 pre-flop before Shak, in the small blind, raised pot to 136,000. Green asked how much the raise back to him was, then called to a flop of . Shak immediately moved all in for 168,000 and Green called.
Shak: , a pair of aces and the nut low draw
Green: , the nut flush draw, a straight draw, and the second-nut low draw
Green wasn't able to catch any of his cards on the turn or the river. He was forced to pay a double-up to Shak, who now sits behind 610,000 in chips. Green himself is down to 275,000.
Dan Shak was sitting in the small blind when Chris Bell opened from the cutoff for 60,000. Shak re-raised pot, to a total of 200,000 straight. Bell tanked for more than a minute before finally calling. Shak called "pot" on a flop of . Pot was 420,000, more than Shak had left in his stack. Bell again thought about his decision, but not for as long as he did pre-flop. He eventually folded. Shak flashed for a flopped straight as he collected the pot.
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, he check-raised all in after David Ulliott bet 48,000. Ulliott quickly called with 
, middle set. That was bad news for Cernuto, who turned over bottom set and a flush draw with 
. Cernuto would need running low cards or a non-pairing heart to remain in the tourament. He caught a heart on the turn with the 
, but Ulliott still had a draw off his own. He binked it when the river came 
to give him quad queens, drawing a pained "oooooo!" from Cernuto.
to Shak's 
and 
, a pair of aces and the nut low draw
for two pair, aces and nines
for the low