Alex Balandin raised before the flop, and Brandon Cantu three-bet to 9,500 next door. On the button, David Benyamine called, and Alessio Isaia reraised all in for 36,200 from the big blind. Action! Alex Balandin reraised all in over the top, and that folded the two monkeys in the middle to get Isaia heads-up for his tournament life.
Balandin stood pat with , and Isaia's was drawing live. He pulled a off the deck, and his eighty-six earns him the biggest pot we've seen in this event. It's about 94,000 to Isaia's corner, and it knocks Balandin down to 60,000 or so.
The action began when Tom Schneider brought in for 3,000, only to find Dario Alioto move all in in. Jonathan Turner made the call and Schneider mucked. Alioto drew a six to give him which defeated Turner's
Robert Fox opened to 3,500 and was called by Nick Binger. Steve Sung reraised all in for 23,500 and Michael Binger went into the tank before throwing out a reraise. Fox and Nick Binger got out of the way. Sung stood pat and eventually after much deliberation, Binger stood pat as well. Sung flipped over and Binger threw his cards into the muck.
Joseph Cheong was just eliminated in a three-way pot. He only had 500 chips left when he drew two against Eugene Katchalov and another player. Katchalov patted , and Cheong could not beat it as his hand filled out .
From the cutoff seat, Mike Matusow was first into the pot with a raise, and Jason Mercier three-bet shoved for 19,400. In the big blind, Nikolay Evdakov made the call, and Matusow ducked out with a few words under his breath.
Mercier patted with , and Evdakov drew one, showing . Mercier had a sweat, but he faded elimination as Evdakov paired his .
Mercier is back close to 45,000, knocking the Russian down to 64,000 in the process.
On the button, Greg Raymer opened to 2,500, and Steve Billirakis shoved the small remainder of his stack into the middle. Raymer called the shove, and he patted his . Billirakis was drawing live with , but he pulled another to pair and punch his ticket home.
The Devilfish, Dave Ulliott, came into the pot raising to 3,000, and Steve Zolotow reraised all in for his last 17,700. On the button, Calvin Anderson called the shove, and Devilfish called as well to give Zolotow hopes of tripling.
Everyone patted, and Devilfish check-folded to a bet of 25,600. Anderson rolled over , and number two is number one in this pot. Zolotow is gone, and Anderon nearly doubles to about 86,000 with that knockout.
Johnny Chan was sporting a pair of oversized Beats headphones yesterday, and he looked like a total badass. Today, he's gone back to the familiar skimpy yellow pair, and we have to say we're not fans. We're three tables from Chan, and we can pretty clearly hear the high-pitched music blaring forth.
From the adjacent seat, we just saw David Singer make a comment about it, and Chan fiddled with his iPod for a bit before the noise subsided to some extent.
Shaun Deeb is back in the chip lead after busting a player on one of the first hands of the day. Deeb opened to 3,100, and Sebastien Sabic three-bet shoved for about 25,000. Deeb called, and he patted his . Sabic threw away a jack and picked up a pair, showing as he headed out the door.
We certainly don't want to get in any trouble with Jeffrey Lisandro, so we apologize for mis-reporting his chip count as 800. Someone dropped a zero, and Mr. Lisandro actually has 8,000 chips today.
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, and Isaia's 
