Gus Hansen is tied up with a ceremony on the stage, so this break has been a bit extended. Matt Marafioti has just retaken his seat, but he's alone at that end of the table for now.
On the other side of the table, Jake Cody and Anthony Guetti have resumed their match.
We missed the preflop betting but with the blinds at 10,000/20,000, Eric Froehlich and Nikolay Evdakov stared at a board reading . The pot contained between 450,000 and 500,000 chips and Froehlich tapped the table, checking the action to Evdakov.
The Russian announced himself all-in for 226,000 and the man known to the poker world as "E-Fro" called, showing his for two pair, while Evdakov flinched and flipped his for top pair top kicker. Evdakov needed to spike an Ace or a Ten to overcome Froehlich, but the river card came , giving Froehlich a full house and a ticket to the Final Four.
Gus Hansen has begun to open up his raising game, but Matt Marafioti is paying attention, too. In the last hand, Marafioti limped in, and Hansen raised to 90,000 from the big blind. It's the second or third time he's done so recently, and this time, Marafioti played back at him. He reraised to 215,000 total, and Mr. Hansen could not call. He's still just in front in their slow-moving duel, though, sitting with about 1.325 million now.
In the other match, Jake Cody is down around 550,000, leaving the other 1.85 million in Anthony Guetti's stack.
With the blinds at 10,000/20,000, David Paredes min-raised from the button and Timoshenko three-bet to 105,000. Paredes shoved the rest of his chips, which looked to be about 540,000, into the middle of the table and Timoshenko snap-called. The Ukranian showed his found himself dominating the of Paredes. The flop of gave Paredes a slew of additional outs, as he could now catch any six or any diamond to win the hand. The turn card came and Paredes was down to his last card. The on the river was no help and Timoshenko became the first player to reach the Final Four of the $25k Heads-Up World Championship. He is now assured of at least $283,966 for his efforts thus far, while Paredes earned $138,852 for his 8th place finish.
With the board reading , David Paredes pushed all-in and was called relatively quickly by Tiimoshenko. Paredes showed down the and found himself trailing the of Timoshenko. The river card brought the and no improvement, as Paredes shipped all of his chips to the cool and collected Russian. After the hand Paredes exchanged both of his add-on lammers for 800,000 in chips and the match continues.
While we were battling with internet woes, Jake Cody was battling with his own problems. Anthony Guetti has been chipping away at the young Brit, and he had him down on the ropes with less than one bullet left.
In the last hand, Cody got his final 315,500 chips into the pot preflop with , and Guetti was trying to come from behind to advance with . The dealer wouldn't let that happen, though, spreading a board to give Cody the double. He's back to 631,000 now, but he's still at a 3:1 disadvantage in the match.
In one of the most entertaining matches for the ever-present railbirds, Nikolay Evdakov and Eric Froelich have been exchanging huge stacks of chips on nearly every deal. This time there was 160,000 in the pot and the board read . Froehlich led out for 85,000 and Evdakov made the minimum raise to 170,000. Froehlich slid out eight 25,000 chips, three-betting to 370,000.
After counting and recounting his chips, the Russian quietly said "All-In" and Froehlich snap-called, saying "seven" as he showed his . Evdakov winced as he saw the bad news, flipped over his and hoped for a miracle. The on the turn provided some sweat, giving Evdakov two outs to win the hand and the match. The on the turn missed him, however, and Evdakov shipped 696,000 chips to Froehlich while cashing in his first 400,000 add-on.