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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We passed by a table with three players standing in anticipation and three large stacks of chips pushed towards the middle of the table. The dealer was having some trouble assessing exactly how many chips each player had, but when the accounting was finally settled Ngoc "Jimmy" Tran tabled his and turned back to watch the basketball game, confident that his pocket rockets would hold up.
His opponent's showed the and the respectively, and Tran was in a dominant position.
The final board rolled out and Tran tripled up to build a huge chip stack.
We missed the action ourselves but after spotting J.C. Tran among the field lording over an impressive tower of chips, we inquired as to how he had amassed his fortune.
According to a fellow player, Tran and an opponent got all of their chips in the middle on a flop of . Tran's opponent showed for a flopped set, but found himself on the wrong end of a sick cooler when the tournament veteran flipped up for top set.
The case queen failed to make an appearance on the turn or river and Tran had dispatched his opponent from Day 1 of this $1,500 Triple Chance NLH event.
flop heads up. Lindley check-called Van Zadelhoff's flop bet of 1,600.
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.
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.
for trip nines, crushing the 
, 
and 
of his opponents, said in order of stack size from largest to smallest.
and the river was the 
, both bricking all three opponents and launching Watts to a 60,000 stack.
and the big blind insta-shoved and Smith insta-called.
.
and turned back to watch the basketball game, confident that his pocket rockets would hold up.
and Tran tripled up to build a huge chip stack.
. Tran's opponent showed 
