On the flop of 
, Johnny Chan bet 4,500 and was called in two spots. The turn brought the 
and Chan checked. His two opponents also checked behind him.
The river completed the board with the 
. Chan fired a bet of 7,700. The first player called and then the next player called before Chan tabled the 
for trip eights. His opponents both mucked and Chan moved to a whopping, field-leading 425,000 in chips.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
A three-way preflop all in on Table 279!
Vitaly Lunkin: 
John Lactaoen: 
Brandon Hall: 
Lunkin had both players covered, and he was looking to hold his aces for the double knockout. He could not, however.
The board ran out 
, and that's just what John Lactaoen was looking for. Three queens are good, and Lactaoen has tripled up as the shortest of the three stacks in the hand. Lunkin won the side pot to keep himself around 145,000, and he's eliminated Brandon Hall in the process.
Like fairground fortune tellers, I'm always making predictions that fall short, and after 'bigging up' Yevgeniy Timoshenko in my last post, he did, of course, decimate his stack within moments of my posting.
On a three-handed flop of 
, Timoshenko bet 10,000 into a pot of 18,000, only to be raised to 40,000. After another played had folded, Timoshenko moved all in and was subsequently called by his shorter-stacked opponent for a total of 130,000.
Despite defeat lurking ominously, Timoshenko actually had the goods, his 
in dominating shape against 
and just looking to evade one of two outs. Oh, there's always the remote possibility of a cheeky backdoor flush, and that's precisely what occurred as the turn and river came 
and 
respectively to deal Timoshenko the lowest of blows.
As a result, Timoshenko's stack has now plummeted all the way back down to 86,000 after being on the verge of taking this tournament by storm. Right, off I go to place the curse on another unwitting victim...
There was about 20,000 in the pot and a board reading 
when Mark Gregorich bet 15,000 from the small blind. The big blind called and showed 
for a flush, but Gregorich turned over 
for a full house.
Gregorich took down the pot and increased his stack to 135,000.
Greg DeBora and Alexander Fitzgerald got all the chips in the middle with the board reading 
. The hands were opened, and looked like this:
Showdown
DeBora:
Fitzgerald:
Fitzgerald needed a king to complete his gutterball, but neither the 
on the turn nor the 
river would suffice. DeBora won the hand, doubling to 180,000 chips.
Mori Eskandani just had a short-stacked opponent all in before the flop. The producer of "Poker After Dark," "High Stakes Poker," and other poker TV shows held 
and was racing against his opponent's .
The flop brought a queen -- 
-- and Eskandani was out in front. The turn was the 
and the river the , and another player is out.
Eskandani has 140,000 now.
Robert Mizrachi, who held , had his opponent, who held , all in and covered. The board ran out 
and Mizrachi sent another player to the exit while increasing his stack to 266,000.
With a raise from early position to 2,500, play folded around to Phil Laak in the small blind who moved all in for an additional 8,200. His opponent made the call.
Laak:
Opponent:
"Well, I would like an ace," sighed Laak, but he got better than that as the board ran out 
to make the nut flush for the double up. He's up to 23,300.
Darryll Fish was down to his last 5k when he shipped under the gun with 
. Another player looked him up with , but at least the Fish was live. The board ran out , and DFish's pair of fours were good enough to double him to 15,800.
Of all the tables in all the Rio, lovebirds Lex Veldhuis and Evelyn Ng have to be seated at adjacent ones.
OK, if the poker gods had really wanted to make things interesting they could have seated them at the same table, but also might have been rather cruel. As it is, Ng and Veldhuis can now make eyes at each other across the orange section if they so wish without any of the stress of having actually to get involved in a pot together or some such.
