Mike Matusow limped under the gun, and action folded to the button, who raised to 4,100. The small blind flatted, and David Ulliott shipped his stack in from the big blind. Matusow reshoved, and the blinds got out of the way. Time for showdown.
Devilfish:
Matusow:
The board fell , and Matusow rivered a boat to send Devilfish back to the watery depths. The Mouth, on the other hand, is accumulating talking chips and up to 90,000.
Back from dinner, and time to get things going. One in two of these guys will make the money, and then it's only a short (ok, not so short) hop from there to the final table.
We arrived to see a flop out and Jason Mercier (hijack) betting out 9,200 which was, if not exactly pot, then fairly near it. The player in the cutoff folded, but "Miami" John Cernuto on the button made it another 13,200 to go, with just 10,000 behind. After just the briefest of dwells, Mercier folded.
Cernuto upped his stack to 55,000. Mercier was in absolutely no trouble after that, on 130,000.
Matt Glantz raised to 5,000 in early position, and on the button, Benny Spindler called. From the big blind, Mike Matusow raised the pot, 21,000. Glantz called quickly, but Spindler took his time to fold. "Good luck, Mikey," Glantz said. "One of us is going to have a lot of chips."
The flop came down , and Matusow moved his whole stack out in front of him. It was 52,000 for Glantz to call, and he did so without hesitation. "I hope you don't have diamonds," Matusow said they tabled the cards.
Matusow: for aces with backdoor draws
Glantz: for second pair and straight draws
The on the turn was exactly what Glantz needed, giving him the lead with a jack-high straight. The river didn't change anything, and Matusow's aces were no good. Glantz wasn't as sure as Mike that he had him covered, but after everything was counted, Matusow was left with nothing.
"I had you on the ten, jack, queen," Matusow said.
"That would have worked too," responded Glantz. He's up to 175,000.
We arrived just in time to see Joe Serock double up to around 64,000. We didn't catch the action, or indeed his opponent's cards, but Serock was all smiles as his flush on a board was good to take the pot.
The board read when Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis got the last of his chips in. He was up against Justin "Boosted J" Smith.
Veldhuis: for two pair, aces and fours, king kicker
Smith: for two pair, aces and fours, ten kicker - but also a flush draw and an inside straight draw
River: a harmless
Veldhuis doubled to a somewhat more manageable but still below-average 64,000. Smith remained a little above average on 95,000.