We just had to say goodbye to one of the most well respected and well rounded poker players left in the tournament, Chris Bjorin.
The Swedish long time pro already had a second place finish in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud hi/lo event earlier this series for $124,838, and his total live tournament earnings exceed $5.2 million. Just to point out how consistent Bjorin has been, since 1991 he's only had three years in which he cashed for less than $100,000. But now he's gone, and this is how it went down.
Before fourth street Bjorin got his final 6,900 chips into the pot against Omar Mehmood, who was also in dire need of a double up. Their hands ran out like this.
Chris Bjorin
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Omar Mehmood
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Bjorin came up short and will add another $4,763 to his impressive list of results.
Action folded to Francesco Barbaro in the cutoff and he raised, which Donnacha O'Dea, the father of last year's November Niner Eoghan O'Dea, three-bet from the cutoff. Barbaro made the call and then led out on the flop. O'Dea called and it was off to the turn.
Barbaro proceeded to bet his last 1,900 and O'Dea made the call.
Showdown
Barbaro:
O'Dea:
The on the river gave both a pair of kings, but Barbaro's kicker was no good. He finished in 44th place for $4,763.
We caught the action on the turn when Barry Greenstein checked and his opponent bet. Greenstein responded with a check-raise and then called a three-bet before checking the river. His opponent bet and Greenstein check-raised all in for 1,900 more. A call was made and Greenstein rolled over for the stone-cold nuts.
Meanwhile, Jeff Lisandro was eliminated from the tournament and made his way to the payout desk in 48th place.
After another hand was completed on the bubble it was time for Matt Glantz to test his luck. He was in the big blind during Pot Limit Omaha with just 500 chips, and he got no love from his table mates. Two of them limped after which Gavin Griffin completed from the small blind. Glantz was all in and had to beat three players.
The flop came down and all players checked. The turn was the and Griffin bet 2,500 after which only Francesco Barbaro called. On the river the popped up and both players checked.
Glantz got to see from Barbaro, and that did it. He did show his , but that wasn't enough to stay alive. We are in the money, but not with Matt Glantz.
"Just bad luck," Glantz sighed as he walked away without a payout slip.
Matt Glantz was extremely short stacked headed into hand-for-hand play. In the last hand, he was down to 1,100 and had to put 700 that in for an ante. He folded, which leads us to believe he is hoping to squeak into the money. Needless to say, it's going to take a miracle.
We didn't catch the hand but we do know that the 2007 World Series of Poker Player of the Year, Tom Schneider, was eliminated in Razz after making an 8-7 low. Unfortunately for him, Matt Hawrilenko made an 8-6 low and sent him home two spots shy of the money.