We bumped into Kent Hunter as he was taking a walk around the tables to "cool off". A quick chat and we discovered that Hunter was a little steamed after copping two rough spots in consecutive hands.
In the first hand his was met with a min-raise and after making the call and hitting a queen-high flop, he was forced to fold after meeting more resistance. His opponent flashed pocket aces.
The very next hand Hunter looked down at pocket kings and was looking to reclaim some chips but the flop was not what he wanted to see and he was forced to release as his opponent moved all in.
Hunter is down to 8,400 and has some work ahead of him.
Preflop Jonathan Karamalikis opened to 1,000 with an opponent three-betting to him 2,000 from middle position.
Karamalikis checked the flop and his opponent fired 3,000. Karamalikis made the check-call. The turn was the with Karamalikis once again check-calling a 3,000 chip bet from the opponent. The river was the with Karamalikis firing 7,500 and the opponent calling.
Karamalikis tabled , his opponent had him beat though with for top two pair.
Karamalikis drops to 112,000, still leading the field.
James Bernard is surging up the chip counts after winning back to back hands.
In the first, four players limped into Nali Kaselias in the hijack who raised to 1,200. Bernard called from the button and two other players also opted to take the flop.
On the flop the two unknown players checked to Kaselias who made it 4,000. Bernard called and the other two players folded.
The turn saw Kaselias fire out 8,000 and Bernard moved all in for 8,000 more. Kaselias laid his hand down.
The very next hand an opponent in the hijack shoved all in preflop for 8,000 and Bernard called from the cutoff. The hijack tabled and Bernard rolled over .
The hijack hit the flop on the door card but it was followed by the and that hit Bernard. The hit the turn to improve Bernard to two pair and the river blanked the .
The following hand could be described as a little bizarre as close to 70,000 was in the middle by the end of it, with multiple side pots, and two different winners.
It started preflop with an under-the-gun shove for 7,000 which found no less than three callers including one-time chip leader Andrew Topakas.
They saw a flop of and the three live players checked it around before the hit the turn.
This prompted another all in, this time for 11,500 and incredibly both of the other players made the call.
We were now down to two live players as the fell on the river. Both checked and the cards were revealed. Topakas couldn't beat his opponent's pocket kings as the side pot was shipped when then other all-in player could only muster pocket jacks. Meanwhile the main pot went the way of the UTG-player who more than quadrupled up with his !