Keven Stammen jammed 150,000 over a Calvin Anderson raise, and Anderson looked him up with the .
Stemmen's won the flip going away, making the nuts on an run out.
The double brought the defending champ up to his peak stack size in this tournament. For the second year in a row he registered just before the start of play on Day 2, and this time around has enjoyed nursing a few early double ups into a deep run, despite being relatively short the whole way.
He's still well below average, but continues to ladder, keeping the dream alive.
Calvin Anderson raised before the flop from the hijack seat, and Duke Lee moved all in from the small blind for about 330,000. Anderson called right away, having his opponent covered by just 20,000.
Anderson had the , but he was behind Lee's .
The board ran out to give Anderson a full house to best Lee's kings.
With that, Lee was out, but he bagged up a big stack in the $1,500 Monster Stack at the World Series of Poker across town, so he's now off to continue his summer of poker just a few miles down the road.
The two players at the top of the chip counts just tangled in a massive pot that ultimately extended Aaron Mermelstein's lead, and sent Calvin Anderson reeling.
There was close to 600,000 in the pot on a board to the river, and Mermelstein led 450,000 from the small blind. Talking to himself about the flush draw getting there, Anderson made the huge call under the gun plus one, and was right, Mermelstein did not have the spades.
Instead, he had the for the turned straight, and after Anderson's card hit the muck, the almost 1.5 million chip pot was pushed to Mermelstein.
Bryan Piccioli jammed the small blind and John Creed called off in the big blind for less than 200,000.
Creed was ahead with the over Piccioli's and the flop almost locked up the double up. Instead, the turn gave Piccioli outs and the river made him trips.
Creed was bounced 19th and the rest redrew for seats at the final two tables.
Calvin Anderson made it 44,000 on the button and Michael Tureniec called from the small blind.
Philip Randazzo shoved for 225,000 from the big blind and only Anderson called.
Randazzo:
Anderson:
Anderson had Randazzo crushed and just about flopped him dead when it came . The turn gave him an out to quads, but the was not the and Randazzo exited 21st.
After three long days of play it's down to just 21 hopefuls in the Hollywood Poker Open Championship event with Aaron Mermelstein leading the way. There were 655 entries in this event, and the field is littered with top pros chasing down the trophy and the $332,338 first-place prize.
Defending champion Keven Stammen's among the contenders on Day 3, but he'll be facing an uphill battle with just 225,000 chips in the 10,000/20,000 a2,000 level.
Top pros that are in the hunt include Austrian Thomas Muehloecker (1,402,000), Dane Michael Tureniec (1,136,000), Belgian Pierre Neuville (464,000) and American pros Calvin Anderson (1,112,000) and Dan O'Brien (389,000).
All remaining players are guaranteed $9,748, and a spot at the final table is worth $29,541. The action resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time and play will continue until there's a winner.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
.
won the flip going away, making the nuts on an 
run out.
, but he was behind Lee's 
.
to give Anderson a full house to best Lee's kings.
for the turned straight, and after Anderson's card hit the muck, the almost 1.5 million chip pot was pushed to Mermelstein.
over Piccioli's 
flop almost locked up the double up. Instead, the 
turn gave Piccioli outs and the 
river made him trips.
. 
and Bjerno was knocked out in 20th place, while Mermelstein's now holding an even bigger chip lead over the rest of the field.
. The 
turn gave him an out to quads, but the 
