Antonio Esfandiari came into today with high hopes as the chip leader, but he had a disastrous that has mercifully come to an end. He lost most of his chips in an earlier pot where his ace high flush draw was ahead of Steve Brecher's king high straight draw, but a king on the turn shipped the pot to Brecher. Unfortunately, we did not catch Esfandiari's bustout, but the seat that he was in is now vacant with no chips in front of it. He has been eliminated.
We caught up with the action with the hand already over. Mackey had the in front of him and was all in for a bit over 40,000. Mackey's opponent had already mucked on a board reading .
Mackey won the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event back in 2007 when he was just 21 years old, becoming the third youngest player to ever win a WSOP bracelet. We will keep an eye on him as he looks to add to his already-impressive poker resume.
John Juanda was part of the last table to be broken, and he took the seat to the right of Terrence Chan and our chip leader Bryan Pellegrino. Juanda got a warm welcome to the table, as he doubled up just a few hands into his stay at table 436.
We missed the exact action, but we know that Juanda got all his money in preflop holding against Pellegrino, who was holding . The board was all safe for Juanda, coming down , and Juanda jumped up to over 70,000. Meanwhile, Pellegrino loses the chip lead, but is still plenty healthy with 130,000.
Just a short time ago, Terrence Chan was our chip leader with about 150,000. He is now down to 28,000.
That's poker folks.
Action began with Chan in the hijack position. He raised to 4,000 and his lone opponent in the big blind 3-bet to around 11,000. Chan responded by re-popping it again to a bit over 30,000 and his opponent quickly went all in. Chan called and hands were revealed.
Chan:
Opponent:
Ouch.
No miracle came for Chan as the board ran out .
Chan didn't waste too much time before tweeting about his misfortune.
tchanpoker Terrence Chan28k, AQ<AA. I'm positive I've run into aces more than any player in the 2012 WSOP. FuuuuckMay 31 2012
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In a blind vs. blind match up, Steve Brecher opened to 4,800 from the small and Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari defended from the big.
The flop came and Brecher check-raised a 4,400 bet from Esfandiari to 12,500.
Esfandiari took a moment, then re-popped it to 32,500. Brecher announced he was all in for about 46,000 total and Esfandiari said, "Deal it!" while pushing his stack into the middle.
Esfandiari: for the nut-flush draw.
Brecher: for an open-ended straight draw.
Esfandiari was ahead with ace-high but would need to fade many outs.
The turn put Brecher into the lead with a pair of queens and the river bricked out for Esfandiari, which allowed Brecher to scoop the huge pot.
Esfandiari is down to his last 20,000 while Brecher is sitting on a very healthy stack of 100,000.
in front of him and was all in for a bit over 40,000. Mackey's opponent had already mucked on a board reading 
.
. The board was all safe for Juanda, coming down 
.
for the nut-flush draw.
for an open-ended straight draw.
turn put Brecher into the lead with a pair of queens and the