Just when everyone's thoughts were turning gently to the buffet, a HUGE hand went down between Oyvind Riisem and Theo Jorgensen, big stackers both of them. Jorgensen raised on the cutoff to 7,500 and found Riisem reraising from the small blind. He made it 21,200 and after a pause, Jorgensen called.
Flop: Riisem checked, and Jorgensen bet 30k. Riisem then moved all in -- that's for a tidy stack of nearly 180,000...and he was insta-called by Jorgensen. The rest of the table fell quiet as...
Riisem showed: .
Jorgensen showed: .
Turn: "Ooooh," went the table.
River:
"Unf***believable," sighed Jorgensen as he paid off Oyvind Riisem to the tune of most of his stack, creating a new vier for the chip lead. "Holy moly," said a less potty-mouthed Annie Duke (who like at least half of the spectators muttered "split pot" on the river before looking closely at Riisem's hand).
Italian Marcello Marigliano has survived an all-in and is now on 77,000, pushing from the big blind after Jon Turner's 6.5k raise had been called by John Tabatabai and Jamie Gold. All three players quickly folded.
The aces made another guest appearance as Shaun Needham got his stack in preflop holding the , called by . It looks like he's topped six figures and seems pretty happy about it.
Those still struggling with short stacks include the tenacious Jeff Buffenbarger, who accepts defeat and victory with the same almost giggly enthusiasm. His table is still dominated by the stack of Dominic Kay, whom he teased for choice of card protector: "How can he raise so much and have a plastic bottle cap as a card protector?"
Tino Lechich is scooping pot after pot and has gotten himself up to a healthy 180,000 after arriving at his current table as a short stack.
"I can't believe you are all calling me with nothing," he says after his opponents are showing down weak hand after weak hand, as he takes his winnings.
After outdrawing Jon Turner earlier on, John Tabatabai has been on fire and has just increased his stack even more. This time, a crowd of cameras lured me over to his table, and when I arrived, I saw John all in against Dominic Kay with the flop reading and the pot already infested with red 5k chips.
Not afraid to deal out a little persuasive natter, John was standing over his seat, hands in pockets and attempting (or, seemingly so) to get his grimacing opponent to fold.
"Aces right?" inquires John.
"Why?" asks Dominic.
"Just asking."
"Well, you're obviously not worried about that hand then."
"I'm just worried about you outdrawing me," replies John.
Dominic dips into the think tank a little longer, the young "heart-on-sleeve" lad visibly tormented by the decision that could potentially put him under 100k for the first time for a long time.
"If you have 5-6, then God knows why you're still in the pot," analyses Dominic in true Negreanu say-what's-on-your-mind style.
"This is sick, sooooo sick," he continues.
"You should fold," announces John.
"You're very confident," observes Dominic.
"Well, I'm ahead," replies John. "Your instincts have been right throughout the whole tourney."
"Will you show if you fold?" asks Dominic inquisitively.
"As the good gentleman over here said, you should never show."
"So you're 100 percent not showing?"
"Well, never say never, we'll see what happens."
Then, out of the blue, Dominic folded face-up, and with that the script of "War and Peace" was complete and everyone could carry on with their lives.
John didn't show, simply mucked his hands and scooped in his chips. Dominic, meanwhile, has dropped down to 180k and wears a face like a smacked bottom.