That Shove-y Feeling
From the button, Jason Mercier raised to 16,000, and Humberto Brenes moved all in for close to 200,000 from the small blind. Antonio Esfandiari gave it a long look before folding his small blind, and action was back on Mercier. "I only saw one," he said, checking the other card. It didn't meet his standards, however, and into the muck went his cards.
At the adjacent table, another shove. Tobias Reinkemeier raised to open the pot, and Mike McDonald three-bet him next door. When it came back to the German, he plunked out a big covering stack of green T25,000 chips. McDonald tapped the felt and surrendered after a short pause.
Back on the other table, Antonio Esfandiari opened the next pot with a raise from the button. In the small blind, Shawn Buchanan stuck his last 51,000 chips in there with , drawing live against Esfandiari's . The board ran out to give Buchanan the double up and a second life in this thing. Esfandiari is now getting awfully short himself with about 140,000 chips left. Buddies Sorel Mizzi and Phil Laak are hanging around the table like vultures, and Laak even bet Esfandiari $5,000 he would be out of chips within a half hour.