Lee Nelson has been eliminated from the tournament. He was trying to work some short-stack magic for most of the last twenty minutes. His final hand, he opened to 30,000 from the button. Action passed to Hyoung Jin Nam in the big blind, who re-raised to 80,000. Nelson had about 160,000 behind his initial raise, which all went into the middle. Nam quickly called and it was off to the races.
Nelson:
Nam:
The crowd cheered as an ace hit the flop, . There was a shudder of fear that rippled through the crowd when the dealer burned and turned a three-pips-down card on the turn, but it was just the , not one of the remaining eights. The river came to send Nelson out the door, where he collected $21,714.
The table folded around to Lee Nelson in the small blind who popped it up to 30,000. Van Marcus thought for a moment before casually tossing out calling chips.
The flop came down and Nelson immediately moved all in at the pot, sending Marcus into the tank. He asked for a count and it was determined as 156,000 to make the call. Marcus has been playing very snug, so his deep thought indicated a possible strong hand, but he also continues to tread carefully here today. He decided to avoid a big clash with Nelson and let his hand go.
Lee Nelson has become quite active in the last ten minutes, opening several pots with pre-flop raises and calling other raises, but it hasn't generated much difference in his chip stack. Sitting in the big blind, he called a raise to 25,000 made by chip leader Michael Chang. Both players checked the flop. Nelson checked again when the hit the turn, then folded after Chang bet 40,000.
Van Marcus may need to start opening up his range. He raised to 30,000 from under the gun and got no action. As the dealer pushed Marcus the pot, he surrendered his cards face-up. They were two black aces.
That's the second time Marcus has been dealt aces today, and he got no action either time. He has otherwise been unusually quiet at this final table.
Manish Sansi has been short for a while, tempting his fate with open-shoves that haven't been called. He open-shoved again, and this time local favorite Ramil Tandoc moved all in behind him. The partisan crowd was excited to see that Tandoc was in the lead.
Sansi:
Tandoc:
The flop came down , bringing a roar of delight from the Filipinos in the crowd. TD Danny McDonagh reminded the gallery that yesterday, Van Marcus faced the same situation and made runner-runner quads to avoid a crippling blow to his stack. History would not repeat itself; the on the turn made an unbeatable full house for Tandoc. When the hit the river, Sansi was officially eliminated in seventh place, winning $16,285 in the process.
The first three hands after the break were all won with a single preflop raise. On the fourth hand, Tae Jun Noh raised to 25,000 from the button. He did not win the pot, however. Lee Nelson reraised all in from the small blind. That was the winning bet when everyone else folded.
Here are the updated chip counts at the first break of the day:
Michael Chang - 707,000
Hyoung Jin Nam - 667,000
Tae Jun Noh - 544,000
Van Marcus - 365,000
Lee Nelson - 177,000
Ramil Tandoc - 172,000
Manish Sansi - 142,000