Henrik Hecklen just doubled up against Karl Tretter to get back to 55,000 in chips. It wasn't easy, though, as no player had a pair until the river, and even then, Hecklen had to sweat it.
Hecklen had the best hand with ace-king high going to the river, but on seventh street, Tretter added a pair of fives. Hecklen was able to turn over a six and make a pair of sixes in order to stay alive.
Not too long after Phil Hellmuth referred to "ace burgers" against Todd Brunson, there was a hand that ended on third street that also brought about some good table talk.
James Obst completed with an eight showing, and then action folded to Hellmuth with a ten showing. He raised, then play folded back to Obst.
"Give it up, kid," said Hellmuth to Obst. "You got the dead eights."
Obst folded with a smile and showed a second eight from his hole cards, revealing that he was indeed laying down a pair of eights.
"Wow!" exclaimed Hellmuth, as he turned up two black nines from his hole cards. "That's a good fold."
The table laughed a little bit as Hellmuth continued.
"I didn't know you played that good," the 13-time gold bracelet winner said, commenting Obst's play. "No one else has made that fold to me, especially Todd," he added, citing Todd Brunson.
"But Todd... he's a genius," continued Hellmuth. "He just turns his hands into miracles!"
Everyone loves a good Phil Hellmuth show, and there's certainly no shortage of that here in Event #61: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship with 11 players left.
There was just a recent hand where Hellmuth had completed on third before Todd Brunson raised. Action folded back to Hellmuth, and he gave it up. Brunson had a king showing and Hellmuth told him, "Go ahead, show the jack-ten underneath, Todd." Brunson did show, but it was a jack-nine buried in the hole.
"I just hope when I have the ace burgers that you don't get there with the king-jack-ten!" let out Hellmuth. "You're the only guy to beat me in hands today, Todd."
Ben Yu just knocked out Russian pro Nikolay Losev. Yu explained to us he started with rolled up queens and Losev held 
. Neither player improved their hand and that means Losev hit the rail in 12th place.
Yu was briefly up to over 400,000 but he lost a pot to Jesse Martin to put him on 380,000 with 11 players remaining.
As if things weren't going well enough for Brunson he just managed to make a full house against James Obst. The chip lead Brunson has managed to gather is beyond impressive and he currently has a third of all the chips in play with 13 players remaining.
On fifth street Obst bet, Brunson raised and Obst called. On sixth Brunson paired his board and bet, Obst called. On seventh Brunson bet again and Obst tanked for a bit before calling.
Brunson: 
/ 
/
Obst: / 
/
Brunson showed 
for a full house and he took down this big pot.
James Obst's been having a nice summer here in Las Vegas at the table and for now it looks like he's headed for the final table in this event. Obst's stack keeps increasing and he just took some chips off Matt Grapenthien.
On fourth we picked up the action when Grapenthien bet and Obst called. On fifth Grapenthien bet, Obst raised and his opponent called. Sixth street kept Obst betting and Grapenthien called. When Obst bet again on seventh Grapenthien folded.
Grapenthien: / 
/
Obst: / 
/
On third street Richard Ashby completed and the action folded to Steve Landfish who called from the bring in. On fourth Ashby bet and Landfish called. On fifth Ashby hit a pair of aces and bet again, Landfish raised and Ashby folded.
Landfish: / 
Ashby: / 
— fold
Landfish showed his 
and with three of a kind he won the pot.
Level: 19
Limits: 8,000/16,000
Ante: 2,000
Play will resume in 20 minutes.
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