From early position, Nick Schulman raised to 2,500. Dag Palovic called from middle position and McLean Karr called on the button. Greg Mueller also made the call and he was in the big blind to close out the action and bring the players to a flop.
The first three community cards came down the . Mueller, Schulman and Palovic all checked to Karr. He fired 3,900 and was called by only Palovic.
The turn brought the and both players checked to see the fall on the river. Palovic checked and Karr fired out 4,400. Palovic called right away, but mucked his hand when Karr tabled the for two pair.
Karr moved up to 185,000 on the hand while Palovic dropped back to 39,000.
With the board reading , Nick Schulman fired out a bet of 4,500. His only opponent was Greg Mueller and he made the call to see the pair the board on the river. Schulman took a moment before firing out 8,500. Mueller took his own moment and then fired back with a raise. He made it 25,600 to go and this sent Schulman into the tank for quite some time. After several minutes passed, Schulman folded and Mueller won the pot. It was a nice boost to Mueller's stack, who improved to 70,000 after the hand. Schulman slipped back a tiny bit, but still has 169,000 chips.
2010 Aussie Million Champion Tyron Krost has doubled up to around the 80,000 mark. I didn't see when the chips went in (although I assume preflop), but Krost held in the small blind against the of button Adam Fletcher on a board.
There are a few, actually quite a few, players in this field who once they get a stack will try and run over the table. We've already heard what Mr. Ivey's up to but another player not to rest on his laurels is Viktor Blom. He's up to 250,000 after cold-four betting two opponent's off a hand.
Charles "Mr Maccau" Chua opened to 2,500 from UTG before Steven van Zedelhoff three-bet to 6,500 from the button. Blom spent a good two minutes staring down the Dutchman before making it 14,800. Chua tank-folded (nines he later said) and Van Zedelhoff folded much quicker. Blom smiled and flashed .
Ludovic Lacay is generally a maelstrom of action, but right now he's a little frustrated. He just lost a 65,000 chip pot doubling up Praz Bansi, the latter holding but getting there against his opponent's on a .
Lacay has taken a lot of knocks and rebuilt several times over the last day or so, can he do it again? He's got 41,000.
Priyan de Mel shoved for just 7,000 or so from the button and was looked up by Charles Chua in the small blind. A glimmer of hope for de Mel on the flop, but a crash back down to earth on the river, and the two-time GUKPT winner hit the rail.
It's a testament to the structure that we're seeing players five- and six-bet, but, then again, I suppose it helps when they've got big hands.
On this occasion, it was Thorsten Schafer who lit the fuse, raising it up to 2,300 from early-to-middle position. The cut-off called, but November Niner John Dolan was less inviting and duly bumped it up to 7,400 from the small blind.
Back round to Schafer who, after a brief pause, put in a four-bet to 18,800. Dolan wasn't about to lie down though, as he five-bet to 32,000 after the other player had ducked out of the way!
A showdown finally arrived when Shafer announced all-in, and Dolan called quicker than a cheetah on Concord with . Schafer grimaced as he tabled .
The flop shone little hope for the underdog, but a backdoor gutshot straight draw emerged on the turn. Then, straight from the Poker Gods, down came the to steal a shared victory from the jaws of defeat and reward Schafer with an unlikely chopped pot.