Zohair Karim raised it up to 22,000 in middle position, and it folded around to Giang Hoang in the small blind. He moved all in for his last 90,000, and Jeff Tims committed the rest of his minute stack in the big blind. Karim toss the call in, and said, "I need a suckout!"
Karim:
Hoang:
Tims:
Karim was surprised to see that he was actually ahead, and the flop hit Karim, coming . Hoang was drawing to runner runner, while Tims could still pair one of his cards to win, but the turn was the , and the river the .
The double elimination got us to our final 18,while Karim is our chip leader with 1.3 million.
On the first hand after the two table redraw, Jason Mercier opened to 20,000 in early position. Larry Quang was next to act, and he shoved all in for his last 120,000. It folded back around to Mericer, and he snap called.
Mercier:
Quang:
Quang got a sweat on the flop when it came down . He could not catch a ten for a straight, but it wasn't meant to be, as the board completed and . After collecting that KO, Mericer is now up to 900,000.
The play always slows down at some point in these tournaments as the stacks grow to a good average, and it appears that the time is now in this tournament. With 17 players left, we have only seen one showdown so far, and that hand was checked down to the river. The average stack is 50 big blinds, so the players seem content to sit tight and wait for big hands at this moment.
While flops are still few and far between and a showdown with more than the minimum in the pot is even more rare, preflop raising is going to the next level. Jason Mercier raised to 24,000 from middle position and Michael Rocco directly on his left raised to 72,000. That was followed by a 4-bet to 160,000 by Martin Hanowski directly to Rocco's left and that was good enough to win the pot.
Ian Simpson started the action by raising to 26,000 from the hijack. Phillippe Vert called from the cutoff, and it was on Niall Farrell on the button. He peaked down at his cards, then thought for about 45 seconds before cutting out a three bet of 72,000, and dropping it in. Simpson folded after just a few moments of thought, and it was back to Vert. He moved all in for 422,000 total, and Farrell rechecked his hole cards, then announced call.
Vert:
Farrell:
Vert spiked his aces down on the felt while Farrell could only let out a big sigh. It went from bad to worse for Farrell when the flop came down . Farrell would now need runner runner to win the hand but the on the turn ended it. The meaningless river was the , and Vert took the double up to 865,000.
The Rio is buzzing with the $111,111 One Drop High Rollers event, and the crew takes a look at some of the big names in the field. They also do a little fantasy draft for the tournament with the Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, Ty Stewart.
Will Jaffe raised it up to 26,000 from early position, and it folded to Nam Le a couple seats over. He quietly announced all in, and it folded back to Jaffe. He got a rough estimate of Le's stack, then kicked his hand in, giving the pot to Le.
. Hoang was drawing to runner runner, while Tims could still pair one of his cards to win, but the turn was the 
, and the river the 
.
. He could not catch a ten for a straight, but it wasn't meant to be, as the board completed 
and 
. After collecting that KO, Mericer is now up to 900,000.
. Farrell would now need runner runner to win the hand but the 
on the turn ended it. The meaningless river was the 
, and Vert took the double up to 865,000.