Amit Zulkowitz is currently sitting behind a huge stack of 2,200,000. We didn't catch all the action that saw him amass such a gargantuan stack, but we do know that he and one opponent got all the chips in on a flop, with both players having stacks of around 1,000,000. Zulkowitz held and his opponent held . A hit the turn and a landed on the river, with Zulkowitz's flush managing to trump his opponent's set.
If you're part of poker's newer generation, you might not recognize the name Perry Green, but you should. The man is literally a living poker legend with World Series of Poker cashes dating back to 1976.
In fact, Green has three gold bracelets to his name:
1976 $1,000 Limit Ace to Five Draw for $68,300
1977 $5,000 Limit Ace to Five Draw for $10,000
1979 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em-Non Pro for $76,500
In addition, Green finished runner-up to the legendary Stuey Ungar in the 1981 WSOP Main Event, which earned him a cool $150,000. All told, Green has 23 WSOP cashes totaling $592,709, with his most recent cash coming in this year's Seniors Event where he took 217th place for $2,786.
One last interesting fact, this marks the first time Green has cashed in the Main Event since 1991 when he placed fifth for $69,000 and his fourth Main Event cash overall.
An interesting hand just developed between Erik Hellman of Sweden and Tom Tran of Las Vegas.
It began as a five-way limped pot, with Hellman in the small blind and Tran in middle position. The flop came , and Hellman led out with a bet of 25,000. A player sitting under the gun called, then Tran raised to 75,000, forcing everyone but Hellman to fold.
The turn was the . This time Hellman checked, Tran bet 125,000, and Hellman paused just a short while before calling. The river then brought the , putting a fourth spade on the board. Hellman checked once more, and Tran unhesitatingly carved out a bet of about 180,000, pushing it forward.
Hellman studied Tran's bet for a moment, then folded his face up. "I got lucky," said Tran, who then showed his hand quickly — two red cards, the and what looked like the .
"Wow," said Hellman, impressed with the bold bet. "You should go to Sweden sometime," he added with a grin, alluding to the Swedes' reputation for aggressive, daring play. "It would suit you."
Action started with Nghi Van Tran raising to 22,000 in middle position. He got a call from Stephane Bisson in the cutoff, and it got to Matt Marafioti in the small blind. He shoved all in for 249,000, and it was back to Van Tran. He asked for a count, then folded after about 90 seconds of thinking. Bisson folded fairly quickly, and Marafioti rolled over .
We caught up after cries of "All in and a call" from the Orange section of the Amazon room. Joshua Evans was all in and holding but was crushed by the of Julio de la Rosa.
The flop came down and de la Rosa was able to drill a set of kings. He slammed the table and proceeded to shout "Deuce! Deuce!"
Instead, the rolled off on fourth street, giving Evans a set as well and the faintest glimmer of hope for staying alive in the Main Event.
"Deuce!" continued de la Rosa. The deck obliged and the came on the river, eliminating Evans and bringing de la Rosa's stack up to 740,000.
Benjamin Alcober, who was the first player to reach a million chips on Day 3, has been eliminated from the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event by Nicholas Abourisk.
All the money went in preflop, and Alcober's led Abourisk's , but the flop fell . Alcober couldn't find a king on the turn () or the river (), and was eliminated from the tournament.
The Main Event is a long rollercoaster filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Griffin Benger can attest to that, as he has just been eliminated in brutal fashion.
When we got to the table, all the chips were already in the middle. Benger commited the rest of his 350,000 stack with , and was up against the of Bryan Vanrijsbergen. Benger hit the flop, which came down . He was well out in front, but that all changed when the hit the turn. Benger walked away from the table, hands on his head, as he knew his main event was done. The meaningless river was the , and Benger headed to the rail.
After he left, another player said that he folded the . Yup, that's your classic one outer elimination. Vanrijsbergen is up to 1.55 million after that hand.