Matthew Woodward has chips to burn, but that doesn't mean he's happy to lose pots. He opened preflop for 60,000, then watched as action passed all the way to Roger Hairabedian, who moved in for 255,000. There was such a crowd of people around the table that when Woodward called, we couldn't see his hand. It appeared to be significantly worse than Hairabedian's ; after a board of , it didn't matter. Hairabedian's straight gave him the double-up to 520,000.
Also out is Mr. Vadim Shlez. He open-shoved with , Christopher Rossiter re-shoved with , and the board did absolutely nothing to improve his hand. He left very quickly without a word.
Short stack Gilbert Diaz seemed very keen to get his chips in. With less than 10 big blinds, he shipped it in from the small blind and Tulchinskiy passed on his big blind with a a sigh.
The next hand it folded around to Leonardo Patacconi on the small blind, who pushed with -- and although Diaz must have been delighted to pick up , the deck was not going to be kind and he is busted in 29th place.
Drama on table four, as an unidentified but reasonably sized insect decided to make the felt its home. The dealer attempted to squash it with the button but it escaped into Vadim Shlez' lap for a moment before reappearing near the deck; this time the dealer got it and the bug's corpse ended up in Christopher Rossiter's stack before being flicked towards the press rail in what turned out to be a rather undignified end.
It didn't take long for Christopher Rossiter to get his stack in the middle. He was called by Roger Hairabedian, who showed down the best hand , against Rossiter's . With a ten-high flop, we were primed to finally eliminate one of these tenacious short stacks, but Rossiter turned a jack to take a lead he never relinquished. With a brick on the river, Rossiter doubled to 430,000 and left the media "moat" -- an area inside the main rail but outside the tournament area -- muttering under our breaths. No offense intended to Mr. Rossiter.
We have to admit, we felt a little bad for Bart Spijkers. He called a raise to 54,000 made by Christopher Rossiter, then watched as Dag Mikkelsen shoved for 583,000 and Rossiter over-shoved for 800,000. Spijkers tanked for two minutes then made an agonizing fold. He was absolutely crushed to see Mikkelsen showdown and Rossiter turn over , claiming that he folded pocket jacks. That all changed when the board ran out to make an eight-high straight for Mikkelsen. He's back to more than 1.1 million in chips and Rossiter is the new short stack with about 215,000.
Another double up for Mikhail Tulchinskiy, who got as far the turn of an board before pushing all in. Perhaps Gilbert Diaz thought the four on the turn had improved his hand, somehow failing to notice the two kings on there, as he called with and was way behind Tulchinskiy's . The river was the which changed nothing, and Tulchinskiy enjoyed his second double up of the day.
It looks as though the chips went in preflop, as Sergio Castellucio and his had absolutely zero hope against Patrick Wymann's on the board. A full double up for Wymann and with that, a very unhappy looking Castellucio is down to 250,000.
It's a rule of poker tournament reporting that you always root for the big stack. It's nothing personal; just that if the short stacks win it makes for a longer work day. Thus it is with some selfish disappointment that we report on two recent double-ups. Both times, the short-stacked player got his chips in good.
On Table 4, Vadim Shlez opened from the button for 55,000, a raise that was re-raised all in for 213,000 by the non-bed-headed Roger Hairabedian. Shlez called with and grimaced when he saw Hairabedian's . A queen on the flop pretty much sealed this one for Hairabedian, doubling him up to 450,000.
On Table 2, the short stack was Mikhail Tulchinskiy, and the player trying to knock him out was Pieter De Korver. Tulchinskiy had the best possible hand, ; he was up against De Korver's , a hand that was drawing dead by the turn after Tulchinkiy flopped a third ace and paired the board on the turn.
Tulchinskiy's stack was counted down at 349,000. You can double that now.