Losing that last pot crippled Vanessa Selbst to about 50,000 in chips. She put them in on the next hand with . Erik Seidel made an easy call with , then flopped trip aces, , to leave Selbst drawing almost dead. The turn left Selbst without any outs. She's been eliminated from the tournament here in the quarterfinals and will earn $75,000 and a chance to hurry home and late-register for today's online tournaments.
Seidel has moved to the back table to watch an all-in play out between Andrew Robl and David Benyamine.
Erik Seidel doubled with aces to take the lead, but after dropping a few rounds of very expensive blinds, he was down a few chips to Vanessa Selbst. They saw a flop, and Seidel moved all in with for top pair. Selbst needed a seven of a king to win with her . The turn improved Seidel to trips and took away kings from Selbst. That was fortunate for Seidel since the river brought the no-longer-useful . Seidel now has a giant lead.
Vanessa Selbst and Erik Seidel wasted little time getting the chips in the middle a second time. Selbst got her hand caught in the cookie jar a bit when her ran into Seidel's . Seidel's pre-flop nuts turned into the flopped nuts, . Selbst needed running cards to close out the match. The turn gave her an inside straight draw, but that draw didn't materialize on the river.
Vanessa Selbst was showing signs of frustration in her slow battle with Erik Seidel. She was down to 125,000 when she and Seidel raised and reraised their way all in preflop.
Selbst: and at risk
Seidel:
The wasn't of much assistance, but the on the turn added an open-ender to her overcards. With one card to come, Selbst had 14 outs. She stood up to leave. "Too many outs, too many outs," she said. But it was just the right number of outs. The on the river gave her top pair and the chip lead in the match. She's up to 250,000 to Seidel's 150,000.
Neither table has produced a called all-in yet, but blinds are up to 4000-8000; it can't be long. David Benyamine just dragged a sizable pot against Andrew Robl to bring their stacks close to level, although it appears Robl still has a small lead.
Vanessa Selbst's body language right now betrays that she's in a tough spot in a tough match against a tough opponent. Erik Seidel has what looks to be a 3-1 or 4-1 chip lead at the front table. Selbst's shrinking stack is leaving her with fewer and fewer options.
Each of these four players is playing for a first-prize of $750,000. The downside of that -- and it's a big one -- is that they are missing the biggest Sunday Major in the history of online poker. To celebrate five years of the "Sunday Million" tournament on PokerStars, the online poker behemoth guaranteed today's prize pool would be at least $5,000,000. With late registration still open in the tournament, more than 46,000 players already have registered, creating a prize pool of more than $9 million and a first prize that will be significantly bigger than the $750,000 today's NBC Heads-Up winner will receive.
Sitting with the big blind, Vanessa Selbst raised pre-flop and was called by Erik Seidel on the button. Selbst continued for 12,000 on a two-diamond flop, . Seidel raised to 30,000. Selbst paused, broke down her stack, counted her chips and then moved all in. That move gave Seidel pause. He peeked at his cards one time while resting his chin on his hand and then folded.