On the board of 
, Jason Lester checked to his opponent. The player checked behind in a pot that was worth about 50,000 in chips at the current time. The river completed the board with the 
and Lester checked again. His opponent fired 31,000 and Lester tank-called.
The player only held the 
for king high. Lester tabled the 
for sevens and deuces to win the hand. He's now back up to nearly 200,000 in chips.
![[user4144]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
You likely won't have heard of Vince Burgio, and he won't have made too many people's chip counts, but check out his database entries and you'll see that he boasts a record longer than Mr. Tickle's arms.
With over two million in tournament winnings including a bracelet victory in 1994 and a final table finish in the Main Event of that same year, Burgio has certainly proved an ongoing presence on the scene, and must surely hold the record for consecutive years of cashes having successfully cashed every year since 1987.
Today, however, his Main Event venture has come to an abrupt end, and he'll be returning to his home state of California empty-handed. With the flop reading 
, Burgio found himself all in and in need of divine assistance with 
versus the 
of Evelyn Ng in the big blind.
The hand caused Ng to look up from her iPad, and after a blank 
turn and 
river, she took both the pot and the scalp. Burgio, meanwhile, shook Ng's hand and exited stage left, disappointed to have been unable to add a final chapter to his autobiography Pizza, Pasta and Poker: The Private & Public Life of a Professional Poker Player.
Poker is an easy game when you flop the nuts and your opponent moves all in. It's all going right for David Assouline at the moment as he's sent another opponent to the rail.
Assouline had flopped the straight, holding 
on a flop of 
as his opponent pushed with 
for top pair, top kicker. Assouline obviously called and the turn and river bricked out to leave Assouline now stacking up around 500,000 chips.
A quick looksee over at the two feature tables predictably finds a number of notables. Here's an update on how they are doing.
Among those at the secondary table are Gavin Smith, Dan Harrington, J.P. Kelly, and Jonathan Tamayo. Smith has chipped up a bit today and now sits with 116,000. Harrington has slipped some to 106,000. Tamayo has about 175,000. And Kelly is the big stack over there with 376,000.
At the feature table we find Brett Richey. He's had a good Day 4 thus far, moving up to 237,200. And Johnny Chan is there as well. Chan began the day with more than 630,000, though has lost a few during the first couple of hours and now sits with 501,000.
We arrived to Alexander Kostritsyn's table to see a flop of 
. The player in the hijack checked to Kostritsyn in the button. Kostritsyn bet 15,000 and the hijack raised to 31,400, getting a call from Kostritsyn.
The turn was the 
and Kostritsyn called a bet of 44,700 bringing the 
on the river, which both players checked.
Kostritsyn showed which was better than his opponent's , sending Kostritsyn's chip count to 625,000.
In a battle of the blinds, the player in the small blind raised and Scotty Nguyen reraised from the big. He put in nearly all of his chips, saving about 10% of his stack for a rainy day, apparently. His opponent called and tabled his hand, not realizing Nguyen had chips behind: 
"In not all in, baby!" Scotty replied. He was, however, all in after the flop of 
, turning up pocket queens to put him in good shape to double. The turn 
sealed the deal for the Prince of Poker, and he's found his double up to 140,000.
On the board of 
, all the money went in between Jean-Robert Bellande and Andrew Brown. Bellande held bottom set with the 
. Brown held the 
.
The river was the to give Bellande a full house and double him up to 255,000 in chips. Brown is down to 360,000.
David Benyamine and one opponent reached the river of a 
board. Benyamine, who was the big blind for the hand, acted first and bet 44,400. His opponent then raised just more than the minimum to 100,000 total. Benyamine made an easy call with 
, a full house. His opponent had a total airball with 
, having picked a disastrous time to try to bluff.
Benyamine is up to about 411,000.
With a raise to 6,800 from the button, David Chiu defended in the big blind and then led out with a bet of 9,000 on the flop of 
. His opponent made the call before both players checked down the 
turn and river.
Chiu's opponent showed and we didn't catch what Chiu had, but apparently it wasn't good enough to beat queen-high! Chiu is back to 125,000.
Jason Somerville opened to 6,000 from middle position and was called by the player in the cutoff as well as the player in the big blind.
The flop came down 
and the big blind checked to Somerville who bet 9,000. The cutoff called, but the big blind raised to 41,000. After Somerville called the raise, the player in the cutoff excused himself from action and folded.
The turn was the and the player in the big blind announced he was all in, leading Somerville to fold. Somerville is now down to about 350,000 chips.
