We had a little wager going on here in media row-- whether it would take three or four hands for Eugene Katchalov to move all-in. The under took it, as on the third hand, he shoved from the small blind for 405,000 and got Shawn Buchanan to release his big blind.
Dan Kelly opened for 100,000 from the button, Eugene Katchalov moved all-in from the small blind and Kelly made the call.
Katchalov
Kelly
Kelly hit top pair when the flop came down , leaving Katchalov drawing only to a six or running straight cards. The on the turn made Kelly two pair. Katchalov needed one of the two remaining sixes on the river, but saw the fall instead. He exited in sixth place while Kelly increased his stack to over 6.1 million.
The table folded around to the blinds, and Dan Kelly raised to 125,000 from the small. In the big, Shawn Buchanan called to see a flop.
It came out , and Kelly continued out with a bet of 150,000. Buchanan called, and both players check-checked through the turn and river. Kelly had to show his airball first, and Buchanan's was good for the pot.
Frank Kassela opened for 125,000 from the button and Dan Kelly reraised to 350,000 out of the big blind. Kassela came back over the top for 650,000 total and Kelly gave up his hand.
The four-bet against Kelly worked again for Kassela and he's up to 3,360,000.
First into the pot, Frank Kassela completed from the small blind, and Jason Somerville checked his option from the big.
The two players checked through the flop of , and Kassela bet 100,000 on the turn. Somerville eventually called, and they both checked again when the filled out the board.
Kassela showed , and top pair was the winner-winner.
Dan Kelly opened for 125,000 from under-the-gun and the action was folded around to Frank Kassela in the big blind. He reraised to 475,000 and perhaps deciding he wasn't in the mood to be pushed around anymore, Kelly moved all-in.
Kassela tanked for a few minutes before open-folding and Kelly took it down.
Under the gun, Dan Kelly raised to 125,000, and Mikael Thuritz (button) and Jason Someville (big blind) both came along with the calls.
Three-handed, the flop rolled out . Somerville and Kelly checked, and Thuritz took his cue to fire 220,000 at the pot. That got rid of Somerville quickly, but Kelly took his pause to consider. He craned his neck to eye up Thuritz's stack, and he stacked out a check-raise to 600,000 and slid forward. Thuritz didn't waste much time announcing an all in for 1,605,000 total, and Kelly snap-called to put him at risk.
Showdown
Kelly:
Thuritz:
The crowd rose to their feet and jockeyed for elbow room along the rail to catch a glimpse of the next two board cards. There was some assorted shouting from the opposing sides of the room, and someone next to us yelled, "100% you got this, Dan!"
Turn: . "Oh my god, it's a seven!" someone else yelled. That card was a beautiful sweat, giving Kelly some more outs to fill his open-ended straight.
River: . That's what the chip leader was looking for, a fifth heart for the knockout flush.
He did what he could to avoid the Dan Kelly freight train, but Mikael Thuritz has met his demise in 5th place. It's certainly not what he was hoping for this afternoon, but he's got more than a quarter-million dollars to try and console him when this eventually sinks in.
Kelly is now up around 7.5 million in chips, and we'll have to wait for him to finish reconstructing his towers before we can grab a more accurate count.
It looks like Frank Kassela and Dan Kelly are going to continue to lock horns. In their latest confrontation, Kelly opened for 125,000 and Kassela called from the small blind. The flop came down and Kassela checked to Kelly, who bet 160,000. Kassela raised to 660,000 and Kelly laid it down.
Kassela is sitting on about 3 million in chips while Kelly has over 7.5 million-- nearly half the chips in play.