In a rather remarkable hand, Patrick Eskandar raised it up to 235,000 with Mads Wissing making the call from the big blind. They saw a flop of and both players checked. The turn was the and Wissing checked to Eskandar who made it 275,000. Wissing made the call and the hit the river.
On the double-paired board, Wissing then decided to lead out with a bet of 600,000. Eskandar sighed and flashed , for the flopped nut flush, and folded. Wissing then revealed to show he was playing the board!
Great move by Wissing to turn nothing into a very nice pot as he chips up to 3.5 million. Eskandar is down to 3.87 million.
Jonathan Driscoll was all in for 1.5 million preflop with , and he was in bad shape when Brandon Steven found to call with.
The flop was great if you're a fan of big sweats as it came . Steven picked up his set, but Driscoll was now drawing live to diamonds and the winning flush. The turn took the one diamond out away from the at-risk player, but it was no problem. Down to his last card, Driscoll found the on the river to fill in that flush and earn him the rallying double-up. He's got about 3.1 million now, while Steven has fallen to 2.45 million.
Shortly after that hand with John Dolan in which Michael Skender lost a large chunk of his stack, he was involved in another big hand versus Gianni Direnzo.
The table had folded around to Direnzo who open-shoved from the small blind. Skender was covered, and made the call, showing to Direnzo's .
The board ran out , allowing Skender to survive with a chop.
"I'm not going home!" grinned Skender afterwards. He remains short with about 800,000.
Hasan Habib moved his last 460,000 all in from under the gun and William Thorson made the call.
With the action on Damien Luis in the small blind, he moved all in for roughly 1,100,000 and Thorson made the call too.
Habib:
Luis:
Thorson:
With Thorson having both players covered, the flop of gave Habib the lead and left the two active players needed to spike their respective two and three-outers to stay alive and send both to the rail.
The turn of the changed little, and when the landed on the river, Habib tripled through to 1,570,000 as Thorson made a small profit while Luis hit the rail.
For something different, Patrick Eskandar decided to limp in from the hijack position but Jonathan Duhamel wasn't going to let him through cheap as he made it 465,000 to play on the button. The blinds folded and Eskandar made the call.
The flop landed and Eskandar led at the pot for 675,000. Duhamel raised it to 1.55 million and Eskander made the call as a big pot developed.
The turn was the and Eskandar checked it over to Duhamel who bet 2.375 million. Eskandar deliberated for several minutes over the decision but eventually let his hand go. Duhamel raked in a nice pot as he now finds himself with 13.2 million. Eskandar is back down to 4.4 million.
Michael Skender opened with a raise to 235,000 from under the gun, then John Dolan reraised all in for 1,335,000 from middle position. It folded back around to Skender who made the call.
Skender showed and Dolan . The flop favored Dolan, coming . The turn was the and the river the , giving Dolan a second pair and securing him the pot. Dolan is up to 2.75 million after that hand.
"Whoohoo, I'm still in the tournament!" said Skender afterwards, demonstrating his perspective on the matter. He's still in all right, but down to 750,000.
Jerry Payne open-shoved for 1.05 million before the flop with , and Theo Jorgensen (now not so big-stacked anymore) made the call to put him to the test with .
The board was just fine with Jorgensen, coming . His trip fives eliminate Payne from the tournament in 42nd place, gone before his after-dinner mint had time to wear off.
Cuong Nguyen has made himself the biggest blip on our radar courtesy of that chip-leading pot as the rest of the room meandered off for dinner break.
We've learned a good bit of information about Nguyen from his friends on the rail, and foremost, they tell us he much prefers to use the name "Soi Nguyen". So get the old name out of your head; he's Soi from now on.
Nguyen is a 37-year-old amateur from Orange County, California. By day, he works for a medical supplies distributor, and he is friends with a few of the notable pros in Southern California. If you can believe it, though, he's played less than a handful of tournaments in his brief poker career. This is the first WSOP event he's ever played, and -- well, you could say it's going rather decently thus far.
Soi Nguyen is our chip leader with 42 players left.
Preflop, Johnny Lodden raised it up to 255,000 with Michiel Sijpkens making the call in the big blind to see the flop.
Sijpkens checked it to Lodden who fired 375,000. Sijpkens made the call and the hit the turn. Again Sijpkens checked it over to Lodden who made it 850,000 to go. Sijpkens called again before the river brought the . Both players checked and Sijpkens opened for the best hand.
Sijpkens is up to 5.8 million with Lodden back to 2.1 million.
![[user67765]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and both players checked. The turn was the 
and Wissing checked to Eskandar who made it 275,000. Wissing made the call and the 
hit the river.
, for the flopped nut flush, and folded. Wissing then revealed 
to show he was playing the board!
, and he was in bad shape when Brandon Steven found 
. Steven picked up his set, but Driscoll was now drawing live to diamonds and the winning flush. The turn 
took the one diamond out away from the at-risk player, but it was no problem. Down to his last card, Driscoll found the 
on the river to fill in that flush and earn him the rallying double-up. He's got about 3.1 million now, while Steven has fallen to 2.45 million.
to Direnzo's 
.
, allowing Skender to survive with a chop.
changed little, and when the 
and Dolan 
. The turn was the 
and the river the 
, and Theo Jorgensen (now not so big-stacked anymore) made the call to put him to the test with 
.
flop was checked through to see the 
to best Luis' 
hit the turn. Again Sijpkens checked it over to Lodden who made it 850,000 to go. Sijpkens called again before the river brought the