Abraham Korotki won a pot without a large celebration - this time when he called a 91,000 river bet from Jesse Sylvia on the river. The cards in the middle of the table were and Sylvia was caught with his hand in the cookie jar as he only had for fourth pair. Korotki's hand was better than that... by far... as he had for a straight.
Sylvia looked at Korotki and told him "nice hand" and then sighed while counting down how many chips he had left.
Phil Hellmuth has made a lucrative living with his play on the felt, but its his act away from the table that has made him poker's most recognizable name.
Ranting, raving, and hectoring his way through a glorious career on the felt, Hellmuth has claimed top honors in the ongoing chase for WSOP bracelet glory, adding an astounding 13 of those ducats to his world-class résumé. There's one item missing from that résumé though... a World Poker Tour title.
The "Poker Brat" certainly knows what a win in this WPT World Championship would mean for his legacy, and during the last level of play he let the whole room know it too.
First, during a hand against Jordan Cristos, we watched Hellmuth check-call a bet of 13,000 on the flop. When the arrived to pair the board on the turn, Hellmuth sprung to life, firing out for 17,000 and launching into his trademark table talk.
"A four's not really in my range here..." he told Cristos from across the table. "But you already know that about me."
Cristos took the hint and laid his hand down without responding, and Hellmuth piped up again, telling Cristos "just two eights kid. That's all."
Later on, Hellmuth limped into the pot holding what he claimed to be , before an amateur player decided to test the Brat with a raise to 25,000. Hellmuth flatted to see the flop, and he led out for 17,000 trying to bully his less experienced opponent. That man was not impressed, however, and he made it 55,000 to play, prompting yet another Hellmuthian performance after he elected to fold.
"I mean, I invented that move, limping in with king-queen..." he told the table. "That's why I'm Phil Hellmuth."
The lecture continued as Hellmuth telling the man, "You're trying to give me your money there... not sure why you don't want to make money, but that's fine."
You can't make this stuff up folks... trust us. One can only hope Hellmuth's short-stack grind continues, because win or lose, the show never ends.
On the last hand before the break, we get to the table with a 121,000 chip wager in front of George Kelly and Bobby Oboodi all in for 212,000 total. The board shows . Kelly thinks for nearly a minute before deciding to make the call with for top pair. Oboodi is ahead with and bottom two pair.
The turn is the adding a few more outs for Kelly to win the pot as a Ten would give him a straight.
The river is the , however, and Oboodi doubles up to approximately 460,000 in chips while Kelly slips to just 115,000.
Shortly before the break, Scott Seiver opened the action to 14,000 and Vimy Ha three-bet it to 43,000. It was folded back to Seiver who moved all in.
Ha thought about it for a while and made the call with . He was behind, however, as Seiver held . The board would run out and Ha is eliminated just about 10 spots shy of the money.
Orson Young was all in and at risk for around 200,000 on a flop of according to one of our colleagues, and he had two pair with . Loni Harwood was drawing to a flush holding , and the turn was a spade - the .
Young needed to fill up on the river to stay alive, but he failed to when the bricked off on the river.
Harwood, a "One's to Watch" this season, is up to 605,000 chips.
In a blind-vs-blind confrontation, Curt Kohlberg would get the last of his chips in with and was at risk against Jeff Madsen who held .
The board would run out to give Kohlberg the big double up and a visibly frustrated Madsen would fold his next hand and walk off to collect his thoughts.