Dan Fleyshman opened to 30,000 in early position, and he found calls from Brian Powell (cutoff) and Marc Inizan (button). The three men took a flop of , and Fleyshman continued out with a bet of 55,000. Powell called and Inizan ducked out, and it was heads up the rest of the way.
The landed on fourth street, and Fleyshman doesn't have a "slow down" button. He fired out another 100,000 chips, and Powell considered for maybe ninety seconds before making the call again.
That brought them to the river, and Fleyshman leaned forward to stare at Powell's stack. He asked him how much he was playing (about 325,000 behind) before making one final bet of 110,000. That would send Powell deep into the think tank as he prodded Fleyshman for information. The two men bantered back and forth for a couple long minutes, with occasional nervous smiles flashing across each of their faces at different stages along the way. Powell couldn't get Fleyshman to answer the "What do you have?" question, so he called to find out for sure.
Fleyshman tabled , and Powell flung his second-best hand high into the air and into the muck. That second big hit knocks Powell all the way back to just 210,000, while Fleyshman has taken over the chip lead with about 1.8 million.
Marc Inizan had already shoved from the big blind and failed to get a call from original raiser Andrew Pantling. So it was that he shoved again next hand, this time from the small blind to a 27,000 raise from Dan Steinberg in the cutoff and we think a call from Brian Powell on the button (even TD Jack Effel is banned from the feature table enclosure, making it very difficult indeed to work out exactly what's going on).
However it went down, Steinberg got out of the way and Inizan and Powell's cards were soon on their backs.
Powell:
Inizan:
Board: BAM!
The Frenchman smacked the flop hard, and doubled up for the second time today, to around 530,000. Powell was left with a similar amount.
Here's a look at some of the recent action from the secondary table upstairs.
Hand #1 -
From under the gun, Hoyt Corkins raised to 32,000. David Peters called from the cutoff seat and the flop came down . Corkins checked and Peters fired 44,000. Corkins folded.
Hand #2 -
From under the gun, Fabrizio Baldassari raised to 32,000. Roland de Wolfe called in the small blind after he checked on how much Baldassari had behind. The flop came down and de Wolfe checked. Baldassari checked behind.
The turn brought the , putting a pair of ducks on board. De Wolfe fired out 45,000 and Baldassari folded.
Hand #3 -
From the hijack seat, Barny Boatman raised to 31,000. Fabrizio Baldassari called from the big blind and the flop came down . Baldassari didn't waste any time and just fired out 46,000. Boatman folded.
Despite being desperately short stacked, Arnaud Mattern has displayed the patience of a chess master today, and has duly been rewarded for his efforts.
With the action folding around to him in the cut-off, Mattern looked down at and moved all in for 106,000. After requesting a count, Clint Coffee made the call in the small blind with .
The dealer then rolled out the three community cards: . The devil in me prayed for the , but the was even better for the former EPT winner. He even received a celebratory pat on the back from his masseuse, perhaps signifying that the Frenchman is a good tipper!
An academic river later and the pot made its way over to Mattern, whilst a disappointed Coffee was left to count his now 330,000 stack.
We may never know the rest of the Viktor Blom story.
With the action folded around to the blinds, Brian Powell raised to 36,000, and Viktor Blom moved all in for about 210,000 total. Powell quickly called, and the young Swede was at risk for his tournament life for the first time today. It was a flip:
Powell:
Blom:
A crowd of people gathered around the table to watch the result of this showdown, many of them certain they were staring at the mythical "Isildur1".
The dealer burned a card and ran the flop: . Neither player, nor anyone in attendance, really reacted to the flop that pulled Powell into a big lead, Blom now drawing dead to an eight.
The turn was a miss for him, however, and the river was certainly no eight either. Unable to win his final race of the day, Blom has been eliminated after a days-long run at or near the top of the leaderboard.
For purely speculative reasons, everyone here was rooting for Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom to both make the final table here today. Ivey beat him out the door, and Blom has managed to make it all the way to 16th place before making his exit. It's his first live cash result on record. And if it's true what they say, the £33,000 he'll collect today will only pay for a few big blinds upon his return to the nosebleeds. If it's true...
Blom was whisked away to the interview booth where, true to form, he declined to speak. The production crew insisted, but Blom fought back, essentially telling them he 'didn't want to talk about it.' The crew asked him to simply say that on camera, as any tidbit of an interview would be viral gold. Blom simply walked off, though, relegated to the rail with 15 players left.
So here we are at the second break of Day 4, and the slow descent to a final table seems to be panning out nicely.
Things haven't panned out so nicely this level for Phil Ivey though - he four-bet all in with and found himself up against overnight chip leader Ronald Lee's . Ivey rivered a ten, but it was already too late as Lee had turned a king, and Mr. Ivey busted out in 19th place. At least he can get some sleep now after staying up literally all night playing the WCOOP.
After the elimination of Ivey, we were left with just 18 players, who were condensed on to two tables. A particularly poor level was had by Anthony Newman, whose jacks failed to hold against James Bord's and he followed Ivey to the rail in 18th place. Also not enjoying himself was Bojan Gledovic - the Day 2 chip leader got it in with pocket fours but smacked into Dan Fleyshman's pocket kings to send him home in 17th.
There isn't much in it right now between Fleyshman, Lee and Bord - they seem to be our chip leaders on around 1.5 million apiece. But with the average stack still at 55 BBs when we get back, there is still plenty of play left in this yet and it really is anyone's game.
In what started off as a repeat of the last hand, Roland De Wolfe opened for 29,000 (this time the cut-off), and button Hoyt Corkins once again three-bet his neighbour to 75,000.
On this occasion, however, another player joined the party, Fabrizio Baldassari moving all in one seat down for a total of 215,000.
De Wolfe folded, and although everyone expected Corkins to make the call, he sized up his stack and released his hand.
A wide-eyed De Wolfe gave Corkins a glance before offering an 'Oh, so that's how it is,' grin.
Corkins wasn't grinning; he's down to 375,000 after showing the timing of a broken Rolex.
, and Fleyshman continued out with a bet of 55,000. Powell called and Inizan ducked out, and it was heads up the rest of the way.
landed on fourth street, and Fleyshman doesn't have a "slow down" button. He fired out another 100,000 chips, and Powell considered for maybe ninety seconds before making the call again.
river, and Fleyshman leaned forward to stare at Powell's stack. He asked him how much he was playing (about 325,000 behind) before making one final bet of 110,000. That would send Powell deep into the think tank as he prodded Fleyshman for information. The two men bantered back and forth for a couple long minutes, with occasional nervous smiles flashing across each of their faces at different stages along the way. Powell couldn't get Fleyshman to answer the "What do you have?" question, so he called to find out for sure.
, and Powell flung his second-best hand high into the air and into the muck. That second big hit knocks Powell all the way back to just 210,000, while Fleyshman has taken over the chip lead with about 1.8 million.
. Corkins checked and Peters fired 44,000. Corkins folded.
, putting a pair of ducks on board. De Wolfe fired out 45,000 and Baldassari folded.
and moved all in for 106,000. After requesting a count, Clint Coffee made the call in the small blind with 
, but the 
was even better for the former EPT winner. He even received a celebratory pat on the back from his masseuse, perhaps signifying that the Frenchman is a good tipper!
river later and the pot made its way over to Mattern, whilst a disappointed Coffee was left to count his now 330,000 stack.
. Neither player, nor anyone in attendance, really reacted to the flop that pulled Powell into a big lead, Blom now drawing dead to an eight.
and found himself up against overnight chip leader Ronald Lee's 