It's not quite the final, but it sure feels like it - all 10 players have squashed around the main feature table and cards are in the air. The railers now get seats. There is some serious tension in the air.
There has been some discussion of perhaps turning this into a four day tournament - it's 9pm and we still have 11 players, meaning that we could be in for a really long night. If we make our final in the next hour or so, we'll play on; if it looks like it's going to take much longer than that then players and TDs will reassess.
Curiousness at the outer table and it folded around to David Wilkinson in the small blind, who limped. Billy Griner in the big blind raised to 175,000 and, thinking that Wilkinson had folded as he couldn't see any cards, turned his hand over - .
Problem with this was, Wilkinson still had cards - they were just under his hand.
The floor was called, and it was ruled that rather than the 175,000 that Griner had actually raised, the bet would only be a minimum raise to 60,000. Wilkinson was permitted to act, and Griner would be issued with a one round penalty at the end of the hand.
Wilkinson called, and they checked down the board. Wilkinson mucked at the end of the hand, and once Griner had raked in the pot he headed off to spend a round at the rail. Most unusual.
William Kakon raised and it folded around to Jeff Cohen who took his time but eventually made the call.
They saw a flop, which Cohen checked. Back to Kakon, who announced all in for 310,00 - although seeing as it was largely in yellow 1,000-denomination chips, it looked like a lot more to the untrained eye. Either way, Cohen insta-folded, and both players were at 600,000 after the hand - although they were moving in opposite directions.
When we arrived at the table the board read . William Kakon and Jeff Cohen were head's-up and they both checked.
The turn card was a and once more, both players checked. The river brought a to the table, and Kakon fired a 130,000-chip bet. Cohen snapped and tabled .
Kakon punched the table and slipped to 400,000 chips. Cohen is now up to 800,000.