Jason Cohen and Somar Al-Darwich were heads up on a flop of , and after a series of bets, Cohen was all in for 634,000. Al-Darwich called.
Cohen:
Al-Darwich:
Al-Darwich flopped a set of eights, but Cohen held a straight flush draw.
"Anyone fold a diamond?" Al-Darwich asked his tablemates, who remained silent. "Prettiest card in the deck. Ace of spades."
The turn card was one of the prettiest cards in the deck for Cohen, because the gave him an unbeatable straight flush. Stunned, Al-Darwich threw his hands on his head and walked away from the table as the meaningless completed the board. Cohen doubled to 1.46 million chips, while Al-Darwich fell to 1.278 million.
Shawn Sheikhan — who finished 11th in the WSOP Main Event in 2005 — just open-raised all in from late position for his last 340,000 or so, and the action folded to 2012 WSOP Main Event ninth-place finisher Steve Gee in the small blind.
Gee checked his cards, then pushed all in himself with a stack that appeared roughly similar to Sheikhan's, and the big blind stepped aside.
Gee:
Sheikhan:
The flop came to swing the advantage Gee's way, and after the turn and river, his pair of aces earned him the pot. The stacks were counted to make sure, and indeed Gee had Sheikhan covered and the latter quickly departed.
Noah Schwartz raised to 35,000 from the cutoff, and Robert Sichelstiel called from the big blind. The flop came , and Sichelstiel check-called 29,000. The turn paired the board with the , and Sichelstiel again check-called, this time for 52,000. A river double-paired the board, and Sichelstiel checked a final time. Schwartz came out with 129,000 this time, and Sichelstiel quickly called.
Schwartz showed for the second nut full.
"I knew something was up," Sichelstiel said, flashing the for nines full of eights. "I should have known."
"You had nines full," Schwartz said simply. "I would have raised with your hand."
Nikolai Sears opened to 35,000 from under the gun, as the action folded around to Max Steinberg on the small blind. He called, as did Bob Bright on the big blind.
The flop came down and the option fell on Sears. He threw out a continuation bet of 56,000 and was called by both opponents. The brought checks all round, before the completed the board.
Steinberg paused for a moment, before sliding out a bet of 165,000. Bright thought about his decision, before making the call. Sears mucked his hand.
Steinberg then rolled over his for quad sevens, much to the surprise of Bright and the rest of the table.
“How does it feel to start off with quads?” said Danard Petit from the one seat.
“Pretty good,” joked Sears, answering for Steinberg.
Welcome to Day 5 of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event, a day which promises to bring even more intensity and excitement as the marathon march toward this year's final table continues.
Jon Lane returns as the start-of-day chip leader with 2,839,000, one of a small group bagging more than 2 million last night that included Sami Rustom, Grayson Ramage, Victor Cianelli, Seaver Kyaw, Yann Dion, and Kevin Williams. Meanwhile Brett Richey, David Benefield, Mark Newhouse, Jackie Glazier, Ashley Mason, Yevgiviy Timoshenko, and Rep Porter are among the many strong players who did well on Day 4 to end with healthy stacks around twice the current average of just under 800,000.
Two former WSOP Main Event winners remain in the hunt, with last year's champion Greg Merson returning to a stack of 635,000 and 2001 WSOP ME winner Carlos Mortensen coming back to about half that. 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Annette Obrestad will be returning as well to a big stack of 1,186,000 as she furthers her effort to become the only player besides Phil Hellmuth to win both the WSOP and WSOPE Main Events.
In addition to Merson, other "Octo-Niners" from the 2012 WSOP ME final table made runs into the money this time around, with both Russell Thomas (306th) and Robert Salaburu (355th) cashing yesterday, and last year's ninth-place finisher Steve Gee coming back today to a stack of 466,000. Meanwhile two players found their way into the money for a record-tying fourth straight year, with Christian Harder going out in 608th and Ronnie Bardah returning today to above average chips.
Last year Day 5 saw the field shrink to less than 100 players as the end-of-day chip leader (Kyle Keranen) neared the 7 million-chip mark. Today should follow a similar path as the field gets smaller, the stacks get bigger, and players' dreams of making it to the final table edge closer to reality.
Play resumes at 12 p.m. Pacific time, and we'll be here once again at PokerNews to bring you start-to-finish coverage from the WSOP Main Event. While waiting for cards to go back in the air, take a look as Kristy Arnett brings a recap of yesterday's action and a preview of what's to come: