Jeff Russell raised to 4,000 from middle position and Chris Moneymaker reraised to 9,000 from the hijack. Action folded back to Russell who shoved for approximately 65,000 total. Moneymaker thought for a moment, but eventually folded to the pressure.
"What does two-ninety put me at, what place", Ken Moore asked. "Ummm, probably first", this reporter muttered. Moore has two final tables to his credit on the HPO Season 3 Regional tour.
Brandon Wetzel limped from under the gun and Andrew Jeffrey raised to 3,200 from the hijack. The small blind moved all in for 14,300 total and Wetzel went into the tank. After some thought, Wetzel shoved his entire stack of 39,200 into the middle.
Jeffrey contemplated what was essentially his entire stack and seemed to almost muck before pulling his cards back and eventually he made the call.
Wetzel:
Jeffrey:
Opponent:
The flop bamboozled Jeffrey and neither player would catch up to Wetzel as the board completed with , sending Jeffrey and an opponent to the rail, though after a countdown, Jeffrey had just less than 1,000 remaining.
Chris Moneymaker and Steven Williams were nice enough to reconstruct a hand for us that vaulted Moneymaker close to the 200k mark. Moneymaker raised preflop and Williams made the call. After the two-club flop, Moneymaker continued for 2,300. Williams called and an off-suit seven came on the turn. Moneymaker check-called a bet of 7,000 and the fell on the river.
Moneymaker again check-called, this time for 14,000. Moneymaker tabled and his second pair bested the pocket fives of Williams.