Nicolas Babel opened with a raise from under the gun, and it folded around to Joseph Cheong who reraised to 420,000 from the button. The blinds got out, and Babel called.
The flop came . Babel checked, Cheong bet 680,000, Babel check-raised all in for 3.19 million total, and Cheong called.
Babel showed , but was needing help to survive against Cheong's . The turn was the and the river the , and Babel is out in 38th place ($206,395).
Jonathan Driscoll (~2.4 million), Brandon Steven (2.695 million), and Jakob Toestesen (~2.5 million) went ahead and just got it all in there with Steven having both players covered. "I've got an all in and two calls," the dealer announced loudly.
Showdown
Driscoll:
Steven:
Toestesen:
The flop was pretty sick for one of our three combatants. It came to flush the board and paint Steven's world red. He let out a beastly cheer and screamed, "Was that a sick flop or what?!?" A couple of the players didn't take too kindly to his celebration, and they rather impolitely reminded him that there were still two cards to come. "Don't celebrate too early," someone said.
For a good sweat, the paired the board on fourth street, and Driscoll picked up three outs to the win. The river was a blank, though, and Steven has claimed his two victims. Toestesen gets the lower payout spot by virtue of his shorter stack, so he's out in 40th place. Driscoll is out 39th, and the last thing we heard him say as he left was, "You should gloat a little more after you win," in the direction of Steven.
The man in question is now up to 7.8 million after that double kill.
Michal Wywrot raised to 235,000 from early position with Patrick Eskandar and Johnny Lodden making the call.
They took a flop of and action checked around to see the hit the turn. Lodden led out from the big blind with a bet of 340,000 which forced Wywrot to fold but Eskandar made the call.
The river brought the and Lodden fired again for 600,000 and Eskandar eventually gave it up.
Lodden is up to 2.6 million with Eskandar down under 3 million.
Michael Skender has chipped back up over 2 million after a sequence of a couple of hands that went well for him.
In the first, Skender shoved his last 695,000 and was called by John Dolan. Skender had and was hoping to fade Dolan's . A king flopped, and Dolan couldn't catch up. Dolan slipped to 1.91 million after that one.
The next one saw Skender three-bet Direnzo out of a hand preflop, thereby moving up to 2.1 million.
Gabe Costner opened the pot to 240,000 from the cutoff seat, and Joseph Cheong reraised to 720,000 two seats over. In the big blind, Benjamin Statz decided another raise was in order, and he shoved all in for 3.95 million. Costner re-shoved for 5.8 million, and Cheong got the hint and folded his . It was Statz at risk as the cards were turned up:
Costner:
Statz:
Statz had to be thrilled to see two of Costner's outs folded to make him a significant favorite to double up. He was safe in the dealer's hands. The board ran , and Statz has found that double. He's all the way up to 8.9 million while Costner takes the hit down to a lowly 1.6 million.
William Thorson limped in from the hi-jack only to be faced with a 375,000-chip raise from Matt Affleck from out of the small blind.
Thorson made the call, and when greeted with a 475,000-chip bet on the flop, he called that too.
The turn landed the and Affleck continued his aggression; making it 900,000 total with Thorson once again calling.
With the river falling the , Affleck sat deep in the tank before sliding out a bet of 1,400,000. Thorson made the call, but mucked at the sight of Affleck's for a flush, along with the pot to climb to 9,400,000 as Thorson himself slips to 9,340,000 in chips.
In the hijack seat, Jason Senti opened the pot to 240,000. Edward Ochana called from the big blind, and he checked to the raiser on the flop. Senti continued out with a bet of 310,000. Ochana called there, and he called another 735,000 on the turn. That led them to the river and Senti did not slow down. The bet was 1.29 million, and Ochana made the call to see the showdown.
Senti had gotten there. His straightened out on the river, and that pot boosts his stack to a very nice 8.8 million. Ochana is down to 1.975 million.
We're down to 40 players now. We've performed a quick scan of the record books, and it appears that among this group are included five players with World Series bracelets.
Theo Jorgensen of Denmark has a WSOPE bracelet, having won the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in the fall of 2008.
Pascal LeFrancois earned his first WSOP bracelet earlier this summer, winning Event #8, a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event.
Michael Mizrachi also picked up his first bracelet this year, of course, winning Event #2, the $50,000 Players Championship.
Hasan Habib won a bracelet in 2004 in a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low split event.
And it looks as though Scott Clements is the only multi-bracelet holder among the final 40 with two. Clements won his first bracelet in 2006 in the $3,000 Omaha Hi-low split event. And in 2007 he took down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event.