Former IRL and CART driver Gualter Salles was down to just one single, solitary, lonely yellow T1,000 chip moments ago. He won the first pot to move back into five figures, and the second double up got him back to 32,000 on the next hand.
On the third of his short-stacked hands, Salles found and calls from two players. Jesse Steinberg and Robert Miller checked it down the whole way with and respectively as the dealer did his work. The board was in Salles' neighborhood as it came out . Suddenly, he has tripled back up to 105,000.
On the very next hand, Steinberg raised under the gun, and Salles shipped it in there again. He turned over the opposite hand this time, ! Steinberg had , and he was racing to try and finally rid the table of the pesky Salles.
But he could not. The board ran , and that's yet another double up for Salles. After being crippled down to a single chip, he has won the last four pots to rebound his stack all the way back to 225,000! That's 43,000 more than he started the day with, if you're scoring at home.
When action folded to Karina Jett in the small blind, she shoved her last 64,000 into the middle with . She must not have realized that Charles "Chuck" Norris, who (if the Internet is to be believed) won the 1983 World Series of Poker despite holding a Get out of Jail Free Monopoloy card and a green #4 UNO card on the final hand. Norris called with and knocked Jett out on a board of .
Robert Mizrachi raised to 14,000, and Aaron Kaiser called from the cutoff. Jason Mercier joined them in the small blind to see a flop. The turn was the , and Mercier bet out 31,000. Mizrachi quickly folded, but Kaiser slowly made the call. The river double-paired the board, and Mercier put out an 88,000 bet. "Call," Kaiser said instantly. "I have ace-high," Mercier said as Kaiser turned over for the second nut flush. He asked if Mercier's ace was the ace of spades, and Jason said it was. He slipped to 410,000 while Kaiser moved up to 415,000.
Shannon Shorr opened with a raise to 15,000 from the cutoff. The button folded, then Lucas Wheeler called from the small blind. Justin Tazelaar then reraised to 57,000 from the big blind.
The action was back on Shorr, who called the reraise. Wheeler then reraised all in for 96,000 total. Both Tazelaar and Shorr called the additional amount.
The flop came . Tazelaar bet 70,000 into the approximately 300,000-chip pot. Shorr called.
The turn was the . This time Tazelaar shoved all in, and Shorr snap-called. Shorr showed for tens full of treys, but Tazelaar tabled for the better boat. Wheeler turned over .
The river was the , and both Shorr and Wheeler are out. Tazelaar is now up to 1.17 million.
Rodney Sherry opened for 14,000 from under-the-gun and Johnny Lodden, to his immediate left, three-bet to 41,000. The rest of the table folded and Sherry made the call.
Both players checked the flop. The turn came the and Sherry checked to Lodden, who bet 64,000. Sherry called and they went to the river, which fell the . Sherry checked, Lodden bet 125,000 and Sherry moved all-in. Lodden slipped into tank mode and after a few moments, made the fold, prompting his tablemate, Will "The Thrill" Failla, to mutter something we'd rather not repeat, insinuating it was obvious Sherry had ace-king.
Sherry did indeed flash ace-king, putting an end to any further shenanigans. He's up to 875,000 while Lodden fell to 560,000.
We came to legendary ring announcer Bruce Buffer's table with four community cards already on board, . He checked, then called a bet of 90,000 from Matthew Brown. At the river , Buffer tanked for quite a while before checking. Brown then moved all in. Again Buffer tanked.
"I'm putting you on ace-ten," he said as he folded. Brown showed for a pair of kings, at which point Buffer claimed to have mucked {ax].
There was at least 250,000 in the pot when we walked up to a flop of . Michael Skender was first to speak, and he pushed out a bet of 75,000. His heads-up opponent was big stack Garrett Adelstein, and he proceeded to raise it up to 175,000 straight. Skender moved all in for something like 700,000 over the top, and that was too expensive for Adelstein to call.
Skender showed his airball , letting out a big, "That's right baby! Ace-high!" After just another moment, he continued the taunting with a nice, "Don't f*** with me!"
Hoyt Corkins was out of position for a flop of . He checked, then called a bet of 23,000 from Nathan Meyvis. Both players checked the turn and river. At showdown, Meyvis produced the smallest possible pair, . Corkins flashed , slapped his cards against each other and then pitched them in to the dealer.
"I thought I had the best hand," said Corkins. He's down to 495,000.
Vitaly Lunkin was just now all in with his tournament life at risk. With the board showing and about 70,000 in the middle, Theo Tran checked, and Lunkin pushed all in for his last 75,000 from the button. Tran thought a moment, then let his hand go.
Lunkin survives with 145,000, while Tran is currently sitting with 211,000.