WIth the closing minutes of tonight's NBA Finals game a good portion of the field are straining their necks to follow the game. It seems they stand to win or lose a lot more than this tournament's buy in depending on the outcome.
Players are back from their 90 minute dinner break. Hopefully, they're feed and ready for action. There are four more levels in the day before the surviving players bag their chips for the night.
We missed the preflop action but caught this hand as Beth Shak and two opponents were all in after a flop of .
Showdown:
Shak:
UTG:
Button:
Shak had hit gin on the flop with her top set of tens and her opponents needed help to catch up. That help arrived on the turn, at least for the player under-the-gun, as the dealer revealed the for a better set. Shak was now trailing in the hand and hoped to catch the case ten on the river for a miracle.
River:
The miracle had been delivered, but not for Shak, as the player holding the button went runner-runner to make a Broadway straight. Both Shak and the player with a set of queens were dispatched from the tournament, while the player with the straight was left with a mountain of new chips.
Nenad Medic raised under the gun to 500 and the player to his left, Steve Watts, called. A third player in middle position moved all in for 2,950 before a fourth player moved all in for less. The small blind, who had not previously acted, flatted before Medic got out of the way and Watts called.
The flop was four ways, but just two with action left. The first player bet 2,000 of his 10,000 chip stack and Watts moved him all in. The call was made and now three players were at risk.
Watts, who held the biggest stack of the four players, had for trip nines, crushing the , and of his opponents, said in order of stack size from largest to smallest.
The turn was the and the river was the , both bricking all three opponents and launching Watts to a 60,000 stack.
When many stare into the eyes of Christina Lindley, their hearts and souls melt. But not Steven Van Zadelhoff. He starred her down and upped the action.
Under the gun, Lindley raised to 500 and Van Zadelhoff three bet from the cutoff to 1,375. Lindley called and they saw the flop heads up. Lindley check-called Van Zadelhoff's flop bet of 1,600.
The turn was the and again Lindley checked. However, this time, Van Zadelhoff wanted to show he meant business. While the pot was only about 6,000, he decided to move all in which actually put Lindley's 10,000 chip stack at risk. After some deliberation, Lindley laid it down.
Van Zadelhoff has chipped up to 28,000 while Lindley sits with about 9,500, still a healthy stack.
After a player in the cutoff motioned to raise, Noah Schwartz told him flatly "don't do it." This attempt at intimidation failed, however, and the cutoff followed through with his plan, raising to 475. When the action got around around to Schwartz, instantly moved all-in for 3,150 and said "I told you not to do it!"
The table talk may have provoked the cutoff, because he made the call with a weak and Schwartz tabled his to take a dominating position as we went to the flop.
The dealer spread the first three cards across the table and when Schwartz saw the flop of , the pain on his face was apparent. His opponent had failed to heed the preflop advice and now Schwartz needed to spike a king to survive.
Turn:
River:
With that, Schwartz had absorbed a suckout and was sent packing.