On the flop, Jonathan Little and another player checked to Kevin Saul. Saul bet 4,000 and Little check-raised to 14,000. The next player folded and then Saul made the call.
The turn was the and Little moved all in for 30,300. Saul went into the tank before saying, "This is where I usually make the optimistic play and put my opponent on a hand I can beat."
Saul then thought for a little bit longer. "If I show will you show?" he asked, which drew a very small smile from Little's lips. "I've already decided I'm folded, but I just want to know if you will show if I show." Little said no.
Saul showed the as he folded and finished, "Just wanted you to see I wasn't bluffing the flop."
It looks more like an EPT event than a WSOP event in here right now. Our field is quite an international one, and it happens to be littered with Team PokerStars Pros, as well. We have four of them left, and they're all huddled around one table.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is planted in the seven seat, and he's followed by Eugene Katchalov and Liv Boeree. Over on the other side of the dealer, the one seat holds Humberto Brenes, and he's still awfully energetic for it being so far past his bed time.
Boeree is doing the best of that bunch with about 140,000 chips in front of her.
Erick Lindgren is down to 34,000 chips after losing an all-in confrontation holding pocket queens versus his opponents pocket jacks. A jack hit the flop and 23,400 of the Lindgren stack hit the other side of the table. Lindgren took the beat well and now has 34,000 chips.
Phil Ivey jumped in this event at the last possible second. He was blinded off some until he busted from Event 15: $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better in seventh place for $34,595 and headed over to Brasilia Room. We just caught him losing a pot to Kevin MacPhee that saw him slip back some to 57,000 in chips.
With the board paired on the board, Ivey checked and MacPhee fired 15,500. Ivey tanked for a bit while shuffling his chips over and over. Ivey wound up folding his hand in the end and MacPhee won the pot to push over 130,000 in chips.
Once more, we're short on the betting action, but we'll tell you what we know. When we walked up to the near Table 1, there was a flop out on board. Andrew Lichtenberger was the one out of position in this three-way pot, and he check-raised Guillaume Darcourt and another player. Both opponents promptly got all their chips in, and now it was Lichtenberger facing the decision.
After some time, he mumbled about not being able to fold now, then slid his chips into the middle as well.
Mr. Opponent turned up for top two, but he was already well behind Darcourt's . Lichtenberger had his gamble on, and his was drawing live for the double knockout.
The turn was the blank , but the river was just what Dr. Lichtenberger ordered.
"Chewster!" Antonio Esfandiari piped up as the river card hit. He then turned his attention to us: "Make sure you put in the updates that he check-raised the flop with eight-high against top two and a set," he instructed. "Eight-high."
Eight-high gets there for "LuckyChewy1", and his flush earns him a big pot and a big boost up to about 130,000 in chips.
Mickey Petersen has just had his aces cracked and the end result was an exit from the tournament. He started the ball rolling with a raise to 2,500 in early position. Phil Ivey folded, David Benyamine called before Alexander Venovski three-bet to 9,000. Back to the impassive Petersen and he four-bet pot, Benyamine quickly folded, Venovski moved all-in and Petersen called.
Venovski
Petersen
So Petersen was in great shape to double up. The flop contained more diamonds that a Britney Spears thong - .
"You haven't got a diamond have you?" Asked Petersen.
Venovski did have a diamond but in the end it was not a diamond that Venovski needed to win the pot. The turn card brought the and the river made a straight for Venovski and Petersen was out.
This hand occurred during the last level with the blinds at 500/1,000. Action folded to Pierre Neuville on the button and he raised to 2,600. In the big blind was Chris Moore and he reraised to 6,900. Neuville made the call and the flop came down . Moore bet 7,000 and Neuville called.
The landed on the turn and Moore fired 12,000. Neuville quickly folded and Moore won the pot.
Moore is a player that tends to fly under the radar as he blends in very well into the field. He has over $2.1 million in live tournament earnings and is coming off of an eighth-place finish in Event 12: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em for $56,380. Last year, Moore ran extremely deep in the World Series of Poker Main Event before finishing in 21st place for over $300,000. He has numerous other large scores on his record and we've highlighted some of them below.
2007 $10,000 Wynn Classic: 3rd - $192,060
2008 $10,000 Wynn Classic: 1st - $692,286
2009 $9,900 L.A. Poker Classic Heads-Up Championship: 2nd - $190,000
2009 World Poker Tour $9,500 Bay 101 Shooting Stars: 3rd - $291,500
2009 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em: 4th - $82,322
2010 $10,000 L.A. Poker Classic Heads-Up Championship: 1st - $147,200
Steve Landfish checked the flop before Andrew Lichtenberger fired 6,000. 2011 World Series of Poker November Niner Matt Giannetti raised to 17,100 and then action fell back on Landfish. He reraised and made it 45,000 to go. Lichtenberger and Giannetti both folded and Landfish won the pot.
Last year, Landfish had two really big results at the WSOP. First, he placed second in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for $204,924. Then, he took fourth in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship for $125,120. This year he's already locked up an in-the-money finish in Event 12: $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em for $10,966.
We didn't see the action until all the chips got in, but we found a three-way pot on a flop. When we walked up, Mike McDonald had 6,300 chips out in front of him and so did his neighbor. Jason Senti had raised a mess of orange and yellow chips, and the resulting action saw all three players get it all in.
Senti:
Opponent:
McDonald:
Senti and Mr. Opponent had the same hand, but the opponent had a straight flush draw, one out to the clean win. McDonald had high hopes too, and his club draw gave him a shot at dragging the biggest pot of the day.
The turn was the blank , though, and the river blanked off with the as well. Senti and Mr. Opponent chop it up, and the resulting loss takes McDonald all the way down to about 27,000.